PERDIDO: PRIVATE OR PUBLIC?

Mike McCormick told Inweekly that he is a firm believer in customary use, a concept that allows the public to use privately owned parts of beaches, which is generally viewed as being below the mean high-water line or wet sand. He began to scour surveys done on the Perdido for any

"I pulled up this survey that was done in 2021, and it showed on the diagram a 75-foot easement on the Gulf side," McCormack shared. "That piqued my curiosity because it not only showed it on the diagram but also in some of the texts con-

He continued, "I started looking for that, and I dug for a while, any place and every place I could to try and find it in the county records and was working with county staff on how to provide lifeguards on Perdido Key after two drownings over Easter weekend. The sticking point was the beaches were thought to be privately owned.

Krupnick said one possible option is for the public to be granted access up to 75 feet from the mean high-water line. That will upset some property owners who already deal with overflow traffic on their property.

Perdido Key offers only four public access locations, and each is only a lot wide. The locations usually fill up quickly, and the shortage of parking spots causes people to flow into private property.

"Spillover from public access to private property is something private property owners have been concerned about for years," Krupnick said.

Inweekly spoke with Escambia County Property Appraiser Chris Jones about the 75-foot public easement. Jones had instructed his staff to research the deeds. He will make a decision once the research is completed on whether the easement exists and should be shown on the county maps.

For nearly two decades, locals and visitors wanting to enjoy the surf and sand on Perdido Key have been confronted with signs declaring the beaches behind the condos as private, limiting their beach access to the state and federal parks and about 50 feet of countyowned beachfront.

That may change, according to County Commissioner Jeff Bergosh. The commissioner has located the original deeds when the federal government sold the surplus property with easements for public access to the beach.

County Property Attorney Steve West confirmed the language in an email to Bergosh. He wrote, "Attached is the first of several emails transmitting the original 1957 deeds to the properties along the Gulf of Mexico in Gulf Beach Subdivision. The deeds are in order (Lots 1 through 64), and each has the same language that the southerly 75 feet is subject to a perpetual easement for beach and public use generally."

The commissioner talked about the discovery at his Coffee with the Commissioner on Wednesday, April 12.

"When I grew up in this town in the mid-80s, my dad and I would go out to Perdido Key, and we parked at the Junior Food store," Bergosh said. "We would walk up and down this beach and fish. We'd grab our folding chairs and fishing poles and fish up and down this beach. There were no trespassing signs, and no one ever kicked us off."

He continued, "I talked to people who grew up here in the '60s and '70s, same thing. So this latest phenomenon of these no trespassing signs and kicking people off the beach, I don't know where that came from; it's very unfortunate."

The commissioner credited Michael McCormick for the discovery. McCormick's public record request triggered the deed research. Bergosh had been working on how to get more lifeguards on the Perdido Key beaches in light of the recent drownings.

"We're going to talk about some initiatives I'm going to bring forward such as additional flags and signage and potentially a way to add lifeguards in exchange for maybe public access," Bergosh shared. "Perdido Key is an unusual anomaly. They have private beaches; they have the signs—'Don't come on our private beach,' but then they have people from out of town who are drowning. So perhaps there's a way to fund lifeguards in exchange for public access."

He continued, "The number one thing we do is safety, right? I don't want people visiting Perdido Key, going in the water that looks calm and dying. If we can find a way to put a silver lining on this and put some lifeguards out there in exchange for about the first 20 feet, we should try to do it."

Mike McCormick's request changed those potential negotiations significantly. Bergosh believes the request was divine intervention.

"The very next day (after the radio interview), Michael McCormick makes that request, and we find out what we don't need to ask them for 20 feet. We got 75 feet," Bergosh shared with Inweekly. "To me, that was a God thing. So far as I'm concerned, he works in mysterious ways."

At the Coffee with the Commissioner, Tim Day, the deputy director for natural resources, said, "We received a public records request from Michael McCormick. He had seen a survey that listed a 75-foot easement. And with a relatively short period of time, a little research finally took us all the way back to the original deeds for sales within the Gulf Beach subdivision. It's the only one we've verified so far. Generally, that area is from the Perdido Sky (condominium) back to Perdido Key State Park."

McCormack emailed his commissioner, Jeff Bergosh, for help. "I explained to him what I found, my logic at that particular moment and that the 75-foot easement had me totally intrigued. And next thing I know, Jeff is reaching out to me to let me know that they've pulled up the deeds on 64 lots. Every last one of them has the stipulation that the southerly 75 feet being dedicated for a public beach in perpetuity."

Not everyone is pleased with the discovery, and they advise caution before pitching tents on the beaches behind the Perdido condos.

Tony Hobbs and his wife own four condominiums at Indigo and have owned properties on Perdido Key since 1987. Hobbs said the possibility exists that the deeds discovered by McCormick hold weight, but he advised that proper research be conducted before jumping to conclusions.

Hobbs questioned how Theo Baars Sr. partially constructed the Gulf Beach Hotel in the early 1920s in an area the deed indicates to be public beach. Beach Colony Resort is now located on the property. Hobbs said Baars privately held the property long before the surplus federal land sale in 1957. Baars claimed the property by buying warrants the government issued to individuals or the families of individuals who fought in the SpanishAmerican War.

"Of course, none of this necessarily means that previous deeds did not contain easements for the public, but I do know that the Gulf Beach subdivision ended at Perdido Skye," Hobbs said.

Hobbs criticized Bergosh for being overly aggressive in disseminating information on his blog and in comments to the media about the deeds for the 64 properties.

"My wife and I paid $32,000 in property taxes last year for our four condos, so we don't appreciate having Jeff Bergosh throw sand in our face," he said.

Perdido Key Association President Charles Krupnick said property owners are in wait-andsee mode. The 64 lots are a relatively small portion of the beach, but if other deeds surface, the number of property owners potentially impacted will increase dramatically.

"It's quite possible all of them are affected," Krupnick said. "We're waiting for that shoe to drop, I suppose."

BOMBSHELL?

For Commissioner Bergosh, this may be the biggest political bombshell since he helped Inweekly expose the Newpoint Charter school scandal in 2015, which stretched to several Florida school districts and led to the conviction of the Newpoint founder and his key supplier.

Bergosh believes the move to declare the Perdido Key beaches private began in 1999 as more condo complexes sprung up on Perdido Key, and the effort gained momentum after Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

"Then the 'keep out' signs started going up, and this phenomenon gained steam after 2010 such that by 2015, nearly every condo complex out in Perdido had multiple signs up and down the beach, some down to the water," Bergosh wrote on his blog. "Ropes and chains even connected some. These condos even hired off-duty law enforcement to protect what they thought was their private property."

The commissioner has tried to pin down when the county appeared to forget about the 75-foot easement. He knows that county staff was aware of it in 2001 after a two-year dispute over the construction of the Windemere Condominium.

The developer wanted to transfer the dwelling unit capacity from several adjacent parcels to build a 19-story Gulf-front condo. The settlement agreement referred to the 75-foot public easement. The Perdido Key Association and others challenged the development, arguing the property footprint that was "too big" because it included the "southerly 75foot easement on the parcel that was for perpetual public beach access by the public." The protestors lost their case on appeal, but neither the developer nor the county challenged the easement.

Bergosh told Inweekly, "The interesting thing about that settlement agreement is it specifies, as part of the development order of settlement order, that they're to establish a plan indicating the 75-foot (public easement), but where was the follow-up?"

The commissioner will continue to press to find out how the withholding of public beach access started. "How was it perpetrated on the people and the citizens and visitors, and how was it perpetuated for all these years?" {in} as a place of hope and healing to honor the lives of those taken through an act of violence, providing a place of solitude and reflection for their loved ones.

The memorial was created through the collaborative efforts of the City of Pensacola and former Mayor Grover C. Robinson IV, Lavon Brown and members of Parents Against Injustice and Negligence (P.A.I.N.), Joe DeReuil Associates, David Del Gallo Construction Group and Christina Talbert of Graceful Ground and Garden.

Inweekly covered Brown's loss of her son Labar to gun violence and P.A.I.N. a decade ago (Inweekly, "A Mother's Pain," 1/3/13).

D.R. HORTON WINS OLF 8 On Thursday, April 6, the Escambia County Commission voted unanimously for staff to negotiate with homebuilder D.R. Horton to purchase the OLF 8 property on Nine Mile Road for $42 million.

"They agreed to abide by the master plan substantially, which is important to us because that was a hard-fought compromise that we all made," District 1 Commissioner Jeff Bergosh told Inweekly. "They're willing to work with us on the economic development component, including selling back to us, subject to negotiation, 100-150 acres, maybe even 200 acres, so we could still get a Triumph Grant and do job creation. It gets us closer to a win-win where everyone gets something."

Last December, Triumph Gulf Coast approved funding up to $14.2 million to build a road and other infrastructure at OLF 8. The county agreed to create 338 high-paying jobs on the site. To receive the grant, the county must own the land serviced by the infrastructure.

"If we can close the sale, it could be a $27 million profit over and above what we still have into that property, which we could put to work throughout the county addressing some of these on that search committee, and we'll be having a meeting in the middle of this month. It was great working with Scott, and I wish him nothing but success in the future. I just look forward to keeping the momentum going in the right direction."

MORE FOOD TRUCKS Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves wants the city to allow food truck courts in zoned commercial areas. "As a business owner that partnered with a food truck in my previous life, I haven't found one resident who doesn't want to have a good culinary scene here," the mayor told Inweekly. "It doesn't matter what your price point is; everybody wants a good experience. And in entrepreneurship, food trucks are a way to help cultivate that."

Reeves pointed out that neighboring municipalities have ordinances on the books that allow food truck courts. "This would allow us to have three or four food trucks at one place and make sure that the checks and controls are in place— that it's quality; it's got a permanent restroom, not a portlet. If someone is going do it, it's there to stay, not just on a vacant piece of property somewhere with no investment at all."

THANKS, MANNY Once again, Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. has tried to correct a misfire of the state's no-hurt-feelings policy with his book-of-the-month selections.

Each month, Commissioner Diaz highlights five recommended books—one per selected grade range. In his April press release, the education commissioner said, "This month, we're highlighting Civil Rights icons Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges while also emphasizing the importance of perseverance and resiliency."

Last month, a parent whose child attends North Shore Elementary in St. Petersburg, Fla. ob - jected to the Disney movie "Ruby Bridges" being shown to second graders at the school. The 1998 film tells the tale of a 6-year-old who integrated New Orleans schools in the 1960s and has been a staple of Pinellas County Black History Month

In a formal challenge, the mother wrote that the use of racial slurs and scenes of white people threatening Ruby as she entered a school might result in students learning that white people hate Black people. The Pinellas County School District removed the movie until a review committee could assess it. It was reinstated in early April, days before Diaz announced his book selections.

The commissioner's choices for April include "Ten Red Apples" by Pat Hutchins, "I Am Ruby Bridges" by Ruby Bridges, "The Life of Rosa Parks" by Kathleen Connors, "Fish in a Tree" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt and "Soul Surfer" by Bethany Hamilton. The selections and guiding questions for educators and parents can be found each month on the Commissioner's Book of the Month page of the FDOE website.

None of the trustees attended the meeting. Ultimately, the full Senate would need to confirm them.

BANKS INDICTED Matthew Banks, 40, of Pensacola, was indicted by an Escambia County grand jury charging him with Racketeering (Count 1), Aggravated White Collar Crime (Count 2), Organized Fraud (Count 3) and Tampering with Evidence (Count 4).

Counts one-three, if convicted, are punishable as a felony in the first degree and punishable with imprisonment for up to 30 years. Count four is a third-degree felony and, upon conviction, is punishable with imprisonment of up to five years. The indictment was announced today by Ginger Bowden Madden, State Attorney for the First Judicial Circuit of Florida.

The indictment alleges that between May 15, 2019, and Dec. 1, 2022, Matthew Banks personally and through his business, Banks Construction, LLC, engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity and stole over $5,000,000 in funds, materials and services from more than 150 victims.

GUNS DEATHS

A recent analysis of the latest annual mortality statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by the Pew Research Center found the number of children and teens killed by gunfire in the United States increased 50% between 2019 and 2021.

In 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic, there were 1,732 gun deaths among U.S. children and teens under 18. By 2021, that figure had increased to 2,590. The gun death rate among children and teens—a measure that adjusts for changes in the nation's population—rose from 2.4 fatalities per 100,000 minor residents in 2019 to 3.5 per 100,000 two years later, a 46% increase.

Both the number and rate of children and teens killed by gunfire in 2021 were higher than at any point since at least 1999, the earliest year for which information about those younger than 18 is available in the CDC's mortality database.

Homicide was the largest single category of gun deaths among children and teens in 2021, accounting for 60% of that year. It was followed by suicide at 32% and accidents at 5%. Black children and teens were roughly five times as likely as their White counterparts to die from gunfire in 2021.

New College Appointees Skip Out

The Senate Education Postsecondary Committee on Wednesday, April 5, confirmed the seven new members to the New College Board of Trustees. In January, Gov. Ron DeSantis made six appointments to align the school with his political agenda, including Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at The Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, and Matthew Spalding, a professor at Hillsdale College.

Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book, DPlantation, told The News Service of Florida that she had numerous questions that she would have wanted to ask the trustees, particularly related to Rufo. She said, "He certainly has very, very concerning views on the LGBT community, critical race theory, all of the things that we've talked a lot about."

"Today, the Defendant, in this case, has been charged and will be brought to justice for exploiting innocent victims who were trying to improve their lives for his personal gain," said Madden. "We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to hold him accountable for taking advantage of people by stealing their money and robbing them of trust in businesses. This arrest proves he is not representative of our many reputable contractors."

An indictment is merely an allegation by a grand jury that a defendant has violated Florida criminal law and is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

Bank's brother-in-law Jesse LaCoste was arrested on larceny, his fifth arrest this year. The contractor was charged with first-degree grand larceny and larceny for failure to provide a refund. LaCoste has made the trifecta for arrests with two in Escambia County, one in Santa Rosa and two in Okaloosa.

Family Resource Guide

The Escambia Children's Trust published its first Family Resource Guide. The guide is a 68-page directory that includes hundreds of resource listings organized alphabetically in English and Spanish by topic areas, such as abuse, family support and youth development.

"This is a first-of-its-kind resource directory explicitly targeting children and families residing in Escambia County," said Trust Executive Director Tammy Greer. "The guide will help parents, families, counselors, child-serving organizations and so many others identify important benefits and services available to children and their loved ones in our community. I hope you'll find this guide useful when making decisions for your children and planning for the future."

The guide is available to view on the Escambia Children's Trust website. It will be distributed through a wide variety of channels. If your organization would like printed copies of the guide, please email info@escambiachildrenstrust.org. Up to 200 physical copies can be picked up, via prior arrangement, at the Escambia Children's Trust offices. borough says he is leaving Pensacola, where he owns an $8 million home, and moving his family to New York. The alt-weekly asked Fred Levin about Scarborough's work at the firm. Levin said, "He never really practiced law. He was supposed to be a rainmaker, but it never rained."

On The Air

The Pensacola Blue Wahoos have announced their broadcast schedule for the 2023 season, including new opportunities for fans to follow the team all season long.

In a multi-year partnership between Minor League Baseball and Bally's Corporation, Bally's has become the first-ever National Media Rightsholder and Exclusive Fantasy & Gaming Partner of MiLB. This wide-ranging multimedia partnership provides Bally's Corporation with live broadcast and exclusive free-to-play gaming content rights across its digital platforms and strategic partner channels, which, when coupled with Bally's innovative social and interactive features, will provide MiLB fans with a unique in-stadium and at-home experience.

Bally Live™, Bally's new, over-the-top, proprietary platform, will allow fans to watch Blue Wahoos video broadcasts for free. With the Bally Live™ app, MiLB fans attending games in person and those choosing to join from outside simultaneously can watch the game and use the app's chat and watch party features. These unique and immersive tools are geared to drive greater interest in the game, both in and out of the ballpark.

Under the terms of the agreement, WFGX MyTV 35 will air 25 home games in local markets this season, providing fans an opportunity to watch the Blue Wahoos through their existing television package.

For the first time in 2023, existing MLB.tv subscribers can also watch the Blue Wahoos on any device. Fans who select the Miami Marlins as their favorite team will receive access to live Blue Wahoos broadcasts, as well as broadcasts from the Triple-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, High-A Beloit Sky Carp and Class-A Jupiter Hammerheads.

Fans also can tune in to the Blue Wahoos Baseball Network audio broadcast, available for free on bluewahoos.com and the MiLB First Pitch app. Broadcaster Erik Bremer will cover all 138 home and road games in his second season as the "Voice of the Blue Wahoos," bringing fans every moment of exciting baseball action.

BUZZ HISTORY •20 Years, April 2003: The public corruption trial of ex-Escambia County Commission Chairman W.D. Childers provides some comedic moments. The first time state prosecutor John Simon asked a witness to identify the defendant, Childers jumped up and waved his arms in the air like he was attending a Brownsville revival. When Willie Junior was testifying against Childers, he was asked if he laid awake at night worrying about his safety. Junior replied, "No, sometimes I would think about it standing up."

•15 Years, April 2008: The Village Voice questions MSNBC political commentator Joe Scarborough's hate of the Clintons, deep ties to the Republican party and anti-abortion groups, and his media ethics for its story "Bruise Brother." Scar-

•10 Years, April 2013: The Escambia County Commission decides to extend the search for a county administrator and create a five-person search committee to review applications to replace Interim Administrator George Touart. Commissioners briefly discussed dropping "interim" from Touart's title, but Commissioners Steven Barry, Lumon May and Grover Robinson all spoke against suspending the administrator search and keeping Touart permanently. Besides extending the search for 90 days, the commission voted to increase the salary ceiling from $150,000 to $165,000. Touart declined any notion of a raise for the remainder of his time with the county.

•Five Years, April 2018: Escambia Board of County Commissioners wants to once again sit down with the Escambia County Sheriff's Office and work out a budget deal to fund a pay plan for deputies. The groups have been at loggerheads for nearly a year. A mediation agreement reached last month fell apart when the two parties could not agree on the language of the interlocal agreement to implement it. Last Thursday, the commission came out of its closed-door executive session and announced it would like to reopen the mediation.

•Meeting Schedule

Monday, April 24:

• 9:30 a.m. Santa Rosa County Commission Committee Meeting, Santa Rosa County Administrative Center Board Room, 6495 Caroline St., Milton

• 3:30 p.m. Pensacola City Council Agenda Review, Urban Core Redevelopment Board, Council Chambers, Pensacola City Hall, 222 W. Main St.

4 p.m. West Florida Public Library Board of Governance Meeting, Century Branch Library, 7991 N. Century Blvd., Century.

Tuesday, April 25:

• 1:30 p.m. Environmental Enforcement Special Magistrate, Escambia County Central Office Complex, 3363 W. Park Place.

• 5:30 p.m. Gulf Breeze Board of Adjustments, Gulf Breeze City Hall, 1070 Shoreline Drive, Gulf Breeze. 5:30 p.m. Community Improvement Board, Milton City Hall, 6738 Dixon St., Milton

Wednesday, April 26:

• 9 a.m. Gulf Breeze Police Pension Board, Gulf Breeze City Hall, 1070 Shoreline Drive, Gulf Breeze.

• 1 p.m. Development Review Committee, Escambia County Central Office Complex, 3363 W. Park Place.

1 p.m. Santa Rosa Island Authority Board Meeting, Santa Rosa Island Authority Office, 1 Via De Luna Drive, Pensacola Beach.

Thursday, April 27:

• 9:30 a.m. Santa Rosa County Commission Meeting, Santa Rosa County Administrative Center Board Room, 6495 Caroline St., Milton

• 5:30 p.m. Pensacola City Council Meeting, Pensacola City Hall, 222 W. Main St. {in}