OPERATION BROWNSVILLE 2.0

By Tom St. Myer

An operation launched by a sheriff to improve Brownsville is nothing new. Former Escambia County Sheriff Ron McNesby and County Administrator George Touart created "Operation Brownsville" 16 years ago to clean up yards, lock up drug dealers and prostitutes, and rid the area of the homeless population in response to a shooting at a convenience store on West Cervantes Street.

The daily newspaper reported the number of arrests, traffic stops and warrants served on nearly a daily basis. The sheriff's office mobile command center was parked near the Brownsville Assembly of God, and the ESCO helicopters flew over the area regularly. Unfortunately, the improvements made during the 30-day initiative proved unsustainable, and McNesby lost his reelection bid in the 2008 GOP primary to challenger David Morgan.

Fast forward to March 2023, and Sheriff Chip Simmons is launching another "Operation Brownsville." The sheriff announced the twomonth community investment in Brownsville during a gun violence roundtable on Tuesday, April 4, at the Brownsville Community Center.

The roundtable included a who's who of elected officials with Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves, State Rep. Michelle Salzman, County Commissioners Robert Bender and Lumon May, Judge Gary Bergosh, City Council President Delarian Wiggins and Escambia School Board member David Williams, plus Pensacola Police Chief Eric Randall.

When he launched the roundtables in October, Sheriff Simmons originally planned to only feature elected officials, followed by business owners and religious leaders in the subsequent meetings. Input from the Brownsville Community Center crowd after the initial roundtable convinced him to continue with political leaders through the subsequent sessions and birthed the idea for a resource guide that spurred his Operation Brownsville initiative.

The operation includes cleaning up roadways, bringing a driver's license bus to Browns- ville to help residents obtain licenses, Florida Power & Light repairing old and installing new outdoor lighting, and increasing the presence of emergency response services, code enforcement and animal control in the community.

"It's not the end-all—we understand that— but it's something, and it's more than we've ever done before that I'm aware of," Simmons said, "and it's something that we can take what works and move it somewhere else."

Focus On 32505

Brownsville is in the 32505 ZIP code. The 32505 population is nearly 30,000, and the median household income is a mere $38,863, almost $20,000 below the Escambia County average, according to the U.S. Census. Blacks and Hispanics account for slightly over 50% of the population. A significant percentage lives in rundown houses and apartments located in blighted, crime-infested neighborhoods void of retail stores and restaurants.

Crime is trending down throughout Escambia County, but the crime rate in the 32505 ZIP code is still three times higher than the national average, according to research by the security alarm company ADT.

"We wanted to pick an area where we thought we could make a difference," Simmons said. "There are some challenges in the Brownsville area."

To clean up Brownsville is a Herculean task. The operation will include a calendar with initiatives that residents can follow on the ECSO website. One initiative will be distributing rack cards to residents with a QR code to access an online database with 1,400 resources, according to United Way of Northwest Florida President/CEO Laura Gilliam.

Resource topics available through the database include mental health, alcohol and substance abuse, and childcare. Gilliam said, "The information you're going to be able to access through this rack card, through that code, will have you getting to the most updated information we have about resources in the community."

County Commissioner Lumon May said other initiatives to benefit the Brownsville community include improving the sewer system and building a library in the near future. He said investing in the youth, creating job opportunities and providing a clean, safe environment are keys to success.

Commissioner May said he understands if the community questions whether the operation will succeed based on past failures to clean up Brownsville. But he is optimistic this program will positively impact the community and be sustainable.

"It's not about providing a handout in Brownsville; it's about providing a hand up," the District 3 commissioner said. "I'm excited about the summer employment program. I'm excited about getting a library here. I'm excited about cleaning it up. That's what every neighborhood wants."

He continued, "Once you clean it up, the property value appreciates and becomes more valuable, and the quality of life becomes more valuable. We have to give children hope, a better quality of life and an opportunity to believe in themselves."

Public Forum

A crowd of about 100 attended the April 4 roundtable including about 20 teenagers who accompanied Rodney Jones, executive director of Healthy Opportunities & Options Promoting Success (HOOPS) program. Washington High School senior Ava Roberts spoke during the public forum. Roberts complimented Escambia County Public Schools for its investment in students, but she encouraged educators to improve communications with absentee parents.

"I have multiple friends whose parents are not involved, and you can see them suffer," she said. "It's not just a school thing; it's not just a police thing; it's a parent thing. I think our children need guidance."

Schools in the 32505 ZIP code include C.A. Weis, Montclair and Oakcrest elementary schools. Montclair and Oakcrest each graded out as D schools in 2021-22, and C.A. Weis earned a C.

C.A. Weis holds an advantage over its counterparts. Community Health of Northwest Florida partnered seven years ago with Escambia

County Public Schools, Children's Home Society and the University of West Florida to transition Weis into a Community Partnership School.

Montclair Principal Shona Person said 40 of her 385 students are homeless, meaning 10.3% of them lack a regular and adequate nighttime residence. Oakcrest faces the same issues. Its staff hands out weekend bags of food and hygiene products to 75 of its 474 students (15.8%).

Principal Person advocates for establishing boarding schools in 32505 or, at least, opening a youth community center to ensure children receive care, supervision and encouragement every minute possible.

Jones criticized youth agencies that received funding from the Escambia Children's Trust for not attending the roundtable. The Trust board awarded over $5.1 million in funding to 19 local children's services agencies in February.

"I'm disappointed none of the agencies showed up with their kids," Jones said. "I guess they think this is not relevant anymore. Violence still perpetuates in our community. It's still the same. So you think what they say isn't relevant?"

LuTimothy May, the pastor of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, encouraged Simmons to open the roundtable to others in the community. He said the key to addressing gun violence is to focus on the mental health of the community.

"We have a morality issue," Rev. May said. "We've been desensitized to the sociological component of just respecting each other as human beings. We talk about guns, but guns aren't the problem. It's the person holding the gun."

Operation Brownsville concludes June 23 with a movie night hosted by the Sheriff's Office, but Commissioner Lumon May said improving conditions in Brownsville is a project that started long before and will continue long after these next two months.

"We're here to improve the quality of life of the residents," he said. "We're here for residents who want to live here. Brownsville is the western gate to Pensacola, it's the western gate to downtown and it was one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in all of Escambia County." {in}

NARCAN OVER-THE-COUNTER On March 29, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan nasal spray for over-the-counter (OTC) use—the first naloxone product approved for use without a prescription. Naloxone is a medication that rapidly reverses the effects of opioid overdose and is the standard treatment for opioid overdose.

Dr. Darrell Miller, who heads the Community Health Northwest Florida pharmacy program, explained, "Narcan is an opioid antagonist, and all that means is it binds up opioid receptors and can reverse and block the effects of an opioid overdose. In a nutshell, that's how it works to help a patient that's in crisis."

It may take several months before the Narcan nasal spray is available over the counter at Community Health and other local pharmacies. Dr. Miller told Inweekly, "Manufacturers have to relabel and repackage it and set up the distribution model. I think it's going to be a matter of months, not years, before it's readily available for our citizens all the way across the country."

He added, "I'm anticipating it's probably going to be three or four months before the over-counter production will be available in our pharmacies."

ADVOCACY TRIP Last week, Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves visited with lawmakers and state officials in Tallahassee to discuss potential funding to make Pensacola the permanent site for American Magic and create a national sailing training center at the port.

"We have great advocates over here from our state representatives and, of course, Senator Broxson," Reeves shared in a phone call from the state capital. "But we can't just sit on our hands and hope. There are a lot of people with their hands out (in Tallahassee) and a lot of good advocacy happening. I just don't think that there's a replacement for the mayor of the city saying, 'Hey, this is important to us.'"

During his two-day trip, the mayor met with the Department of Economic Opportunity on American Magic, the Department of Children and Families opioid programs and Florida Housing Finance on the Live Local Act that Gov. DeSantis recently signed into law to create more

We're going for a Triumph grant and for a grant from the Job Growth fund for about $15 million in total," Reeves shared. "If we can get both of those across the finish line, we'll be a long way toward making this the permanent home for American Magic."

The mayor admitted that every city would be going for the affordable housing dollars, but he hopes that Pensacola may have an edge. "We not only have residents, but we've got tens of thousands of sailors coming through here. The fact that is our real world in Pensacola could help us be more impactful because

NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

UWF

Women's Basketball Coach Stephanie Yelton attended the 2023 NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four in Dallas with her family. She talked with Inweekly publisher Rick Outzen on WCOA about the "electrifying atmosphere" of the event that drew a record number of television viewers.

"It was a phenomenal show of women's basketball," Coach Yelton said. "You had superstar players performing at their best, and you had two of the best coaches in the country going against each other. It was certainly an amazing spectacle in Dallas."

Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark broke the NCAA record for the most points covered in a single NCAA tournament, surpassing Sheryl Swoope's 20-year record. "She's one of the best to ever come through. "I've seen her play on TV, but to see her play in per person, Caitlin Murray is phenomenal. And if you ever get a chance to catch her—she's coming back to Iowa for another season—you should take that."

Yelton became the winningest women's basketball in UWF history this season. Did she get caught up in the coaching strategies of Dawn Staley, Kim Mulkey, Lisa Bluder and Kenny Brooks?

"As a spectator, I was thinking, man, how wonderful would it be to be that coach on that sideline with that caliber of a team at that moment? Even as a coach in the stands, you get emotional about the games."

Coach Yelton added, "This is a phenomenal time in women's basketball; our growth and exposure are at an all-time high. These women can really play the game, and these coaches can really coach the game. It's an awesome time to be in women's athletics."

BRUCE BEACH CLEARED The City of Pensacola has received results from additional stormwater bacteria testing related to Bruce Beach water quality, which show no elevated bacteria levels. This is positive news for the quality of area waterways, including Bruce Beach.

Initial sampling and testing of stormwater systems in the Bruce Beach area were conducted in September 2022 by the City of Pensacola, ECUA and FDEP. That testing showed elevated levels of bacteria in several locations as well as high levels in the stormwater system along Spring Street just south of Garden Street. Subsequent inspections by City Public Works and ECUA identified a damaged sanitary sewer line in the intersection of Spring Street and Garden Street, which was repaired in October 2022.

Those repairs have successfully eliminated cross-contamination between ECUA's line and the City of Pensacola's stormwater system. Follow-up testing and sampling completed after ECUA's repairs have found no elevated bacteria levels. Both the city's stormwater system and ECUA's sanitary sewer system are now functioning as designed.

MARKET SLOWING Real estate broker Larry Kuhn reports that the local housing market has slowed. In March, 806 homes were sold in Pen -

TRUIST WOULD LIKE TO CONGRATULATE ALL OF THE INWEEKLY 2023 POWER LIST MEMBERS sacola, compared to 940 in March 2022. The average days on the market have increased from 18 a year ago to 44 last month. However, the average sales price did increase by $4,000, from $361,000 to $365,000.

In East Hill, sales are only slightly off, dropping from 49 in March 2022 to 45 last month. The average days on the market almost doubled, from 16 to 31. However, the average sales price increased by $56,000, from $361,000 in March 2022 to $417,000 last month.

"While most experts believe that the Federal Reserve is finished with rate hikes (which we also hope is the case), we anticipate that there will be fluctuations in the housing market, with strong and slow months depending on the current 30-year mortgage rate," said Kuhn.

He said, "As long as the number of available homes remains below 3,500 in our market, we anticipate that prices will remain stable."

FLYING TO VEGAS Pensacola International Airport Director Matt Coughlin told Inweekly that he doesn't expect any more new flights added this summer, except for the seasonal routes.

"Some of the struggles the airlines are facing right now are literally airplanes and air crews, and they're trying to get back up to speed," Coughlin said. "We expect to regain most of our summer route—nonstops in particular, such as Southwest with Kansas City. We're pretty much at a steady state when it comes to the number of destinations. I think in the fall and the winter, looking for next summer, we might start seeing an increase in nonstops again."

He said a direct flight to Las Vegas is on the airport's wish list. "Yes, we're working on that one. That's actually one of our 20 top destinations but the one that we don't serve nonstop. We're always pushing for Vegas."

REMEMBER WAMMA? Endeavor has acquired World Wrestling Entertainment in a deal valuing WWE at $9.3 billion. WWE will combine with Ultimate Fighting Championship, a mixed martial arts league that Endeavor took control of in 2016, to create a global fighting juggernaut worth north of $20 billion.

In 2007, Pensacola almost became the epicenter for mixed martial arts when Fred Levin came up with the idea to create the World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts (WAMMA) to serve as the sanctioning body for the sport that would unify the champions of ProElite, EliteXC, HD -

Net Fights, Ultimate Fighting Championship, WEC, IFL, King of the Cage and BoDog Fights into one ranking system.

Besides Levin, who was the Boxing Writers Association's 1995 Manager of the Year, the organizers included pro wrestler Bill Goldberg, MMA superstar Don Frye, former Buffalo Bills head coach Kay Stephenson and Dr. James Andrews of the Andrews Institute. Ashton Hayward was WAMMA's vice president of marketing & business development.

Unfortunately, WAMMA didn't work out, but they did throw a spectacular kick-off party in New York City.

LEXINGTON TERRACE PARK UPGRADE

On March 30, Escambia County Commissioner Mike Kohler met with District 2 residents to discuss possible improvements to Lexington Terrace Park.

The park needs some love," Kohler told Inweekly. "We had a pavilion that was falling apart. The community center had termite damage, and the basketball courts were down. It just needs a makeover."

The county has budgeted about $200,000 for improvements, and work on many of the prob - lems mentioned by the commissioner has started. Kohler sought more input on the next phase.

"It's a multi-use park. Would you rather have a multi-use field? Would you rather have pickleball or BMX?" the commissioner shared. "There was a lot of good conversation, but at the end, everyone, I think, felt like they had a voice and were happy. We agreed to go back and come up with a few different designs and then come back in about four to six weeks, have another meeting and see what everyone thinks."

He added, "If we were going to do a BMX, that's not funded. So I'm going to have to figure out how we'll do that down the road."

ELECTRICITY RATES TO DROP Last week, the Florida Public Service Commission approved a reduction of $494 million in 2023 fuel costs for Florida Power & Light Company (FPL). Of this amount, an approximate $379 million reduction will be applied from MayDecember 2023. The remaining $115 million will be included in FPL's 2024 fuel cost recovery factors.

Beginning in May, FPL residential bills will reflect the reduced fuel charge. For Northwest Florida, the current monthly 1,000 kWh resi - dential bill of $163.30 will change to $158.86, a decrease of $4.44, or approximately 2.7%.

Utilities do not earn a profit on fuel charges. The fuel and capacity cost component of customers' bills is set for each calendar year, but mid-course corrections are used when a utility's costs increase or decrease significantly in the interim. Under Commission rules, a utility must notify the PSC when it expects an underor over-recovery greater than 10%.

MOMS FOR LIBERTY CHAPTER Former state representative candidate and wife of Santa Rosa County Commissioner James Calkins, Mariya Calkins, is the chairman of the newly formed Santa Rosa chapter of Moms for Liberty.

According to the press release, Moms for Liberty has 275 local chapters in 45 states. The Santa Rosa chapter held its first meeting last Thursday, March 30.

"Our priority is our children and the future of our country, said Mariya in the release. "When one moment you make peanut butter and jelly for your children and the next moment the FBI calls you and asks you intimidating questions, you know that the taxpaid Department of Justice is being weaponized against outspoken parents."

She continued, "As one Nation under God, we must stand strong against tyranny with a firm reliance on divine providence, just like our Founding Fathers did. We are God-loving Americans who invest our time and service into the future of our country. Our ultimate focus is God– Family–Country."

Calkins lost the GOP primary to replace State Rep. Jayer Williamson to Dr. Joel Rudman, 62%-38%.

Calkins said her group would not shy away from government intimidation tactics as they engage elected officials on key issues that impact the everyday lives of families. She plans to work to empower parents and hold elected leaders accountable while also focusing on what she considers the nation's founding principles of our nation—limited government, personal responsibility and individual liberty.

BLUE ANGEL PARKING The City of Pensacola has unveiled new pay machine designs to showcase the local area and make ParkPensacola pay machines easier to find, encouraging downtown visitors to use city-owned parking. The new pay machine wraps feature images of Pensacola's U.S. Navy Blue Angels, and they were produced at no additional charge to the city by parking partner Flowbird.

"City parking is a publicly owned asset," Pensacola Parking Manager Lissa Dees said. "We use parking dollars to cover the costs of striping, lights and safety, but we are also constantly looking for ways to be good community partners—whether it's keeping parking fees low, providing free handicapped parking in all citymanaged spots, having parking ambassadors on the streets to assist visitors or simply showing our local pride through our pay machine designs."

City pay machines are solar-powered and can be identified by teal blue ParkPensacola signage.

Downtown visitors have several payment options for city public parking—pay machines, textto-pay or PARKPensacola app.

When you start your parking session via the app, text or pay station, your first half hour is free.

Parking is also free in any on-street parking space for people displaying a handicapped placard. The rate is 50 cents per hour in city-owned spaces and lots after your free 30 minutes. The city will not boot your car.

UWF COLLEGE OF BUSINESS The University of West Florida College of Business has earned re-accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, known as AACSB International.

AACSB International is the largest and most-recognized global accrediting body for business schools that offer undergraduate and graduate degrees. First accredited in 1994, UWF's College of Business maintains AACSB accreditation by demonstrating an ongoing commitment to the highest standards of excellence for curriculum, faculty, learner success and strategic program management. Less than 5% of business schools worldwide have earned AACSB accreditation.

"There is no better affirmation of the quality of the education provided by a College of Business anywhere in the world than AACSB accreditation," said Richard Fountain, dean of the College of Business. "Every accredited institution goes through a continuous improvement review every five years. While it is a rigorous process, it provides reassurance that the faculty and staff of the College of Business meet these exacting standards. Congratulations to our faculty and staff, as well as our students past, present and future, for this significant accomplishment."

UWF's College of Business prepares students for successful careers by providing highimpact, student-focused courses, relevant and innovative research and real-world experiences. The college is consistently ranked and awarded for its programs. The college's online MBA program and online Master of Accountancy program recently received recognition from U.S. News and World Report. Supply chain logistics students are among the all-time leaders in the Annual Operation Simulation Case Competition in Denver, Colo.

UWF has won the competition twice and placed in the top three on multiple occasions. The college houses five centers that offer programs for the community, including the Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz Center for Leadership, the Center for Entrepreneurship, the Center for Supply Chain Management Excellence, the Florida Small Business Development Center at UWF and the Louis A. Maygarden Center for Financial Literacy.

To learn more about the UWF College of Business, visit uwf.edu/cob {in}

At FPL, when we think of POWER, we think of providing our customers with clean, reliable energy they can count on today and for generations to come.

POWER also comes in the form of SERVANT leadership. We are honored to have our leaders, J.T. Young, Rick Byars, and Raymond Palmer recognized for their service to our community, our customers and to our Northwest Florida FPL team.

Congratulations to all those recognized on the 2023 POWER list. Thank you for your service in making Pensacola a great place to live, work and raise a family.