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I have established this blog as a means of transparency to the public, outreach to the community, and information dissemination to all who choose to look. Feedback is welcome, but because public participation is equally encouraged, appropriate language and decorum is mandatory.

Thursday, June 23, 2022

D2 Park Problems Persist: Lawnmower Man, Machete Man, and "Poop-Pyramids" on the Beach Path?

Campers who are apparently homeless are creating a nuissance to nearby residents according to a citizen email received by all commissioners yesterday.

UPDATE --5:30 PM Thursday June 23rd--ECSO have sent their neighborhood services team out to this park today and have worked to help find temporary housing for the mother and her children that had been camping in this park.  Staff from parks report the area was cleaned up and cleared out today--the grass and overgrowth was cut back and appropriate additional signage was placed at this park this morning.  Kudos to ECSO and the parks and recreation department for the quick action.

ORIGINAL POST, below.....

Board members received an alarming email yesterday alleging some pretty serious issues at a county-owned property at the end of Fairfield Drive where that road dead ends into Bayou Grande in District 2.

Addressed to the D2 commissioner, the rest of the board was copied on this complaint.

The email listed some pretty significant issues--to include an allegation that folks are camped out on the water and defecating in the sand and then covering up the excrement with dirt, making "poop-pyramids."  There is also mention of a "Lawnmower Man" (not Jeff Fahey)who roams this area cutting down shoreline growth so he can camp on the shoreline.  Apparently there used to be an individual nicknamed "machete-man" who has been spotted down in this area brandishing a machete.  I think machete man moved along. (And no, thankfully it was not Danny Trejo)

It appears as if the issue has risen to the level of the Sheriff's Office and now multiple county officials are aware of it.  I will speak with staff on the matter, as I now been told one group that is "camping" at this park are actually a mom and her two teen children who are homeless.  Apparently they are desperately seeking assistance--but there are no resources available for these folks even though there's supposed to be a well-funded task force addressing this chronic issue.  The email asserts that this family does not want help?  Anyway-- I'll be looking into that and asking questions when we have our upcoming joint city/county meeting on the homelessness issue.

This picture of a purported homeless encampment in D2's South Fairfield park was sent to all commissioners and staff yesterday.


From the email:

"I sent the email below last week and have not heard back. Many residents in the Beach Haven Subdivision are waiting to hear back from me as to your response to this growing problem.

 The email sent June 17, 2022 :

 Doug Underhill,

 I haven't spoken to you in a few years, but found you very helpful when I needed help in my neighborhood some time ago.

 Our neighborhood needs help. We have a park at the end of South Fairfield Dr. in Beach Haven, which is on the water at Bayou Grande.

 Here are just a snippet of the things we neighbors have dealt with from people at the park. Mind you, I feel if this happened in your neighborhood or Chief Simmons' neighborhood, it would be taken care of by now. And this all happens after the park closes. Fights, drug deals, prostitution (my husband had to get people off the beach having oral sex out in the open in front of our grandkids), meth induced women passed out on my lawn, drunk men passed out on my dock, loud music after 10:00 pm, small things like extension cords and crab traps stolen, witnessing THIS WEEK, a woman living in a tent with kids defecating along the pathways. By the way, this woman thinks it is okay because "I cover them with sand." Take a walk through there and you'll see piles of her poop pyramids. 

 I have called the Sheriff several times this week. Every officer gives me a different answer. I have had the Sheriff at my door step to talk about the issue. Last night I called because the park closed after dusk and the woman camping (as she calls it) was still there day after day. She has left her kids there while she is gone and I told her it is not safe there. "Well why don't you call the Sheriff on the guy with the machete?" Oh my gosh, this is what I'm talking about. It is not safe for her kids. Her response, "I have protection in my tent." Also, her response to me was, "Your Sheriff can't do anything to me and the County can't do anything to me. I don't care if I break the rules, lots of people break the rules." I offered to help her and she told me it was none of my business. I told her there are safe places for her that the County provides where her kids will have access to a toilet. I believe she is from Alabama because of her license plate. Listen, she is not some cracked out mom from what I can tell. But she is refusing help, using the park as her toilet and doesn't care about the laws or the respect of the County property. 

 So this woman is correct, "Your Sheriff can't do anything to me." When I called last night, dispatch had a deputy call me. His response when I asked him to have someone go down and get her out of the park, "We'll try, there are only so many of us." And this morning she is still there. It is so disappointing. So I feel like the Sheriffs just give me BS to get me off the phone and never show up at the park to engage with her. I've called several times this week.

 Go to the end of Rentz Street and you'll see several people living there. At night the "F" word echoes through the air. The park was good for a while, but now it is escalating.

 This is exhausting. Several of us work to keep the park clean. I know you can't police the park 24/7. I know your resources are limited, but you told me when I talked to you about the park a few years ago, that I have the right to call every time. It worked for a while. Now, there are zero results. And you'll love this. I Sheriff came to my house and she said, "The County Commissioner has told us we cannot tell homeless people to move off County property if they have no where to go." What?! But she did get the guy with the lawn mower to leave. Then last

night the dispatcher told me that I am correct. The woman in the tent is not at a "safe" haven for the homeless and there are places for her, but she is not covered at Fairfield Park.  

 Here is the trashy mess at the end of Rentz. And there is a guy with a lawn mower on his boat and he clears the land. It is nuts.

The neighbors are going to try and get the media involved. The City of Pensacola got the homeless out from under the freeway, why can't Escambia County clean up this park?  I have told the neighbors via the Nextdoor site that I would be reaching out to you. They are fed up and I am fed up. It's exhausting. 

June 22, 2022,

 Doug,

 So the folks living at the park are still there over a week later. My biggest issue is their use of the surrounding trails as their toilets. There are piles of waste covered up with sand. Since it seems there is no way to get a machete wielding man out of the public park and the woman with three kids (toddler, a 14 year old and another younger teen) sleeping by the water moved to a safer place, then I am asking the County to provide and maintain a portalet and extra garbage cans to that park entrance. This situation has created a health and safety issue. I reported my concern to the Code Enforcement, as well as Parks and Recreation. Code Enforcement wrote back that they do not handle homeless. I haven't heard back from Parks and Recreation.

 Thank you,"

 


23 comments:

Anonymous said...

So is the county opening free camping on the waterfront..

Cool.

Publish that on visit pensacola.

Give money to a non profit, with no need for a license and throw a big BBQ.

Hell let them cook a little meth.. set up a still.. an autonomous anarchy camp.
If you build it they will come.

In fact it will be so crowded, and since law enforcement has been told.. hands off..

It will wild.

Then the tax paying residents who pay for these services can just stay home and let the lawlessness and filth take over.

/s

Que... bleeding ❤️




Melissa Pino said...

Commissioner Bergosh, what you are doing is called "blowing up a spot." I wish I had time at the moment to detail all of the ways that this blog post is not only needlessly incendiary but dangerous, it's a day late and a dollar short disservice to those of us who have been working tirelessly for the better part of a week to try to get her assistance.

Guess what? Our efforts had already paid off by the time this matter finally got some, any heopful attention from an elected official. I believe she'll be moving to a safe place. Far away from expository blog posts by elected officials and people out on boats--how nice for them!--exposing the situation of a mother trying to keep her family together in a runaway freight train of lack of affordable housing, with no end in site, while they are all being subjected to 107 degree heat index.

Next time I really hope you will think before you expose a mother and her three kids to this kind of danger.

Jeff Bergosh said...

UPDATE --5:30 PM Thursday June 23rd--ECSO reports that have sent their neighborhood services team out to this park today and have worked to help find temporary housing for the mother and her children that had been camping in this park. Staff from parks report the area was cleaned up and cleared out today--the grass and overgrowth was cut back and appropriate additional signage was placed at this park this morning. Kudos to ECSO and the parks and recreation department of Escambia County for the quick action. Special thanks to the other entities that arranged for housing arrangments for this family.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for moving mountains.
Got er done.

Mel Pino said...

With zero help from anyone on the BOCC, the City Council, the Mayor's office, or the bullshit task force.

For days on end homeless advocates have been telling policy makers, elected officials, that this family was literally going to burn up. Yeah, we get Doug didn't do anything about it. No shit.

I and many other people have not been sleeping at night worried that one of the kids was going to die of heat exhaustion while they were sleeping.

IT'S TIME THAT THE BOCC TAKE THE BULL BY THE HORNS AND TAKE CONTROL OF THIS FROM THE MAYOR'S OFFICE, AND SUPPORT THE CITY COUNCIL IN THEIR PLAN.

Grover purposely engineered the Bridge camp for his own politics. City Council voted the best possible plan. Grover is cockblocking it every way he can for his developers connected to his task force (John Johson--again, check that guy's books--and Connie Bookman), and is literally keeping Bright Bridges from opening beds to situations like this so he can funnel money to the "homeless advocates" who are either witting or unwitting shills for development.

Jeff, if you think that the BOCC can keep its head in the sand on this issue while Downtown Devlopers and the Supreme ClownCon master continue to push people into the County, you're mistaken.

It's time for the BOCC to have a meeting with City Council SO THEY CAN HEAR AND UNDERSTAND THAT CITY COUNCIL DID NOT BACK THE TASK FORCE BULLSHIT.

*That's* why a meeting would be productive. You guys just meld in your mind all of the city government together. The BOCC and the City Council do not need Grover's permission to meet.

The charter giving the strong mayor all that power is bad enough as it is. Why wield more power than they have?

Melissa Pino said...

So sad that our law enforcement has to deal with this issue because our policy makers want to keep their heads in the sand.

AGAIN: our local elected officials have put our Sheriff's department in the place of being mental health workers, psychiatric evaluators, substance abuse counselors, and every other thing they should NOT have to deal with because our elected officials are clutching their sacks on the homeless issue and afraid to touch the third rail.

If I didn't care about people, if I didn't care about life, if I didn't about a local government who apparently doesn't give a crap about people in need, this would be fun.

Just sit back and watch. Because it's early June. Word up: Wait until September, and good luck.

Melissa Pino said...

It's 9:30 am late June (sorry, time flies when you're having fun), and it's 95 degrees out with a heat index of 104.

How many families who can't afford rent in this town slept in their cars last night? On the railroad tracks? On some patch of County land hoping to not get evicted?

How many of them are contemplating turning their kids over to child services to get them out of this sweltering heat?

Here's a question I *can* answer: how many heat exhausted people slept at Bright Bridges last night?

Answer: zero. Because the City is holding them up for a surprise 50K fire door to stall their opening.

Anonymous said...

Let her move in with u Melissa

Anonymous said...

Anybody know what year air conditioning was invented? I have been pushing a lawn mower and I am over 60 and chubby. It didn't kill me.
Simple, you don't work, you don't eat. If you can't afford kids, don't have them.

Melissa Pino said...

Anonymous 10:13, if we weren't working on our rental with the water off, I would have considered in this particular situation getting them into air conditioning there until we could get her the services she needs. And if it would have continued another day, I might have stopped work on the house to give them some respite for a couple of days, as I was staring at the ceiling at night hoping one of those kids wasn't dead in the morning from the heat. Despite the fact that we no longer foster dogs, I let a dog inside last night who was overheated and in bad shape, letting her cool off until I could find her owner. Then another neighborhood dog got out who is friends with Amos and was overheated by the time he got to our house, so I let him in too while we called his owner.

If you saw a dog in danger of dying from heat, would you try to help it? How about kids in danger of dying of heat? Don't care? Let em burn up?

Anonymous 5:07, congratulations on spitting into the wind. Most households are two paychecks away from homelessness. My wish for you is that karma catches up with you sooner rather than later.

Anonymous said...

Karma has already caught up with me, that is why I am doing so well.

The law of three, whatever you put out into the world will be returned unto you. That tongue in cheek remark sounds like a back handed curse.

People slept without air conditioning for centuries.

People should be taught to be self reliant and make decisions to make the kind of life they want for themselves.

Anonymous said...

Modern air conditioning was patented in 1906. US808897A

Prior to that, ice making was invented in Apalachicola 1841.

The term "virtue signaling" was coined in 2015 although some claim it was in use prior. It is a form of political posturing and grandstanding for attention.


Matthew 6:2







Anonymous said...

People should pay cash for a house and not go into debt, then they wouldn't be more than 2 paychecks into homelessness. If all they were can afford is a travel trailer, the buy that. Never rent, it is throwing money away.

People have made poor decisions that put them in the situations they are in.

It is going to get worse and people need to prepare. 7

Be debt free. Stock up. Get your tubes tied. No pets. No children.

Plant fruit trees, save seeds, grow a garden. Learn food preservation, arm yourself.

May not be what people want to hear but it is time to grow up.

Learn from nature.












Anonymous said...

Thank you for letting the dogs in but not the kids Melissa.

Anonymous said...

IKR 220. We noticed that also.

Melissa Pino said...

Anon 2:20, the dogs were in our residence for approximately 2 hours a piece. We have running water in our residence. Currently, we have the water (and thus toilets) turned off in our rental, and it's a work site inside. As I said, if the Sheriff's Department wouldn't have stepped in to help with all other resources exhausted, and no other local policy makers willing to help, I had already talked with my husband about getting them next door and putting a halt to renovations. Thank God our neighborhood specialist at ECSO and a private donor who was instrumental in assisting, because the morning after they were rescued from their conditions was one of the hottest of the heat waves, if not the hottest.

Anon 2:50 pm, the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians made ice and learned how to store it in the desert. This did not preclude people in ancient Egypt and Mesopatamia dying from heat stroke.

I believe you're speaking of John Gorrie, who patented the first ice-making machine. And inventoin which did not preclude people from dying of heatstroke in the 1830s.

Melissa Pino said...

A ps, not to the above anonymous Trolls for Inhumanity, but to anyone who cares about human life,

The heat wave of 1936 that coincided with the Great Depression killed 5000 people in the United States and over 500 people in Canada.

While home air conditioning wasn't readily available and affordable until the late 1940s early 50s, there were certainly electric fans. Last time I checked, there aren't any outlets on the Beach Haven littoral.

Anonymous said...

MP, have you ever been told to stop digging and to put the shovel down? You're not helping yourself.

Melissa Pino said...

Anon 7:08,

Hole digger, She Crazy, monsters under the bed, woke liberal, Yankee, Midwest hick, drunk, drug addict, stoner, psychotic, BPD with opposition disorder, dog neglecter, code violator, ANTIFA, out and out terrorist, liar, hypocrite, prostitute to developers, paid political operative, let my legal bills go unpaid, let other people pay my legal bills, ran a multi-state pedophile ring on the East Coast, didn't really go to Harvard, might not have even gone to college at all, claimed I was a English professor when I wasn't, organized a conspiracy to try to keep an economics professor from getting tenure, have blown up every town I've ever lived in, secretly pro clear cutting, ruiner of neighborhoods, pet of the BOCC, puppet master of the BOCC, overeducated, undereducated, was a fricking WAITRESS for God's sake, unhappily married with my husband cheating on me, having an affair with Commissioner Bergosh, trying to have an affair with Robert Bender, having an affair with Kevin, holding Kevin hostage against his will, hopelessly smitten with Doug Underhill, woman left at the altar of the Mall Ball, set up a conspiracy to put Doug's son in jail, hopeless attention whore, not as powerful as I imagine, holds four commissioners squarely in my pocket, staff all hate me, being investigated by FDLE and the SAO, set up Pensacola Beach to be overdeveloped, orchestrated the fake candidate in the D2 commissioner race, stalker threatening bodily harm, drug addict, have no family that loves me, Saul Alinksy radical, saboteur of County and federal property, self wounding, orange complected from liver failure, pale and obviously never goes in the sun, trembling in her house, driving all over the County like a madwoman, Soros plant, fake past republican, fake current NPA, past democrat, losing friends left and right, circles closing around me, and on top of everything else I dropped out of the D2 race and still have the audacity to show myself in public.

Pretty sure that's most of it. I don't think ECW has circulated yet that I've never yet been able to master a two-minute egg, but I might have missed it.

I am 7:08 said...

MP, I was just implying you might not want to mention rescuing a few dogs from the heat while leaving the children outside.

Melissa Pino said...

Anon 10:44, the overheated dogs showed up on the evening that our hero neighborhood specialist from ECSO had already rescued the woman and her children from the heat that afternoon. (Thank you, thank you, thank you.)

Navy Point is a pretty cool and caring place, and not only do many of us help look after each other and our fur babies in moments of need, multiple neighbors here were also crucial to finding the family help and providing material support. We're so glad we live in a neighborhood where there are so many people who get it. There's a deep respect for life of all kinds here.



Anonymous said...

Pro life.

Anonymous said...

Well funded task force? The task force is advisory and controls zero dollars. You know who does control funds? The BCC! When are y’all going to move forward on your $4M ARPA and your CDBG funds that have been allocated for homeless? When will you have a joint meeting with the City? Quit blaming everyone and step up.