Tuesday on the Wake Up Call: School Board Member Kevin Adams

Today on the wake-up call live on WPNN 103.7 –We welcomed to the show School Board Member Kevin Adams to talk about school related topics of interest—then we went through a list of local, national and international stories of interest- discussing multiple topics from around the country that traditional media outlets just won’t cover.

We are live each weekday morning from 6:00AM-8:00AM on WPNN-Pensacola's Information Station, where local, conservative morning-drive talk radio is ALIVE and Well and where we give you the most powerful 2 hour(s) in local morning drive talk radio.

Pensacola's only conservative, local morning drive talk show giving you information, weather, traffic, humor, and educated, intelligent discourse with no PC filters....The Wakeup Call with Jeff Bergosh on WPNN FM 103.7: Radio UNRESTRAINED!

- you can listen to this morning’s show here

 

78th Coffee with the Commissioner: Great Conversations about Schools and Improving Student Outcomes

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78th Coffee with the Commissioner this Wednesday--Talking Public Schools and the County with Kevin Adams

Join us this Wednesday, December 14th at 6:30 AM, for our 78th Coffee with the Commissioner event. We will hear updates on County Operations from County Administrator Wes Moreno, we will have Public Safety Updates from Director Eric Gilmore, and our special guest for the balance of the morning will be School Board Immediate past Chairman and District One representative Kevin Adams. We will discuss a lot of issues that the school board is working currently, including school choice, zoning, the issues at Warrington Middle School, enrollment challenges, community issues that drive low performance, teacher retention, the importance of parents and families to great school performance, generational poverty and it's impacts on education, and how the county and the school board can work together to improve the community and the schools. It will be a really good discussion that I am looking forward to having

We will start at 6:30 live on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CommissionerBergosh/ ----and as is always the case--residents are encouraged to participate and send questions to via the comment feature during the livestream or by sending questions in advance to district1@myescambia.com or by calling the D1 office at 850-595-4910.

Two Big Coffee with the Commissioner Events Coming--#77 and #78

The next two coffee with the commissioner events are all lined up.  Our 77th coffee with the commissioner will happen one week from today on Wednesday, November 16th from 6:30-7:30 AM featuring our County Administrator Wes Moreno, Public Safety Director Eric Gilmore, and four special guests Chandra Smiley – Community Health, Marie Mott – FL Dept of Health, Dr. Mark Stavros – Florida West Hospital and Christine Jandora – from Sacred Heart Hospital--who together will go through our soon to be implemented and recently funded CORE program to curb opioid overdoses in the community and to help prevent addiction and treat those in crisis due to dependency on narcotics locally.  Should be a great discussion.

Then next month, on Wednesday December 14th from 6:30-7:30,  we will have our 78th coffee live on Zoom, and my special guest will be School Board Chairman Kevin Adams.  He and I will discuss the state of education locally, the Warrington Middle School issues, books in the libraries causing controversy, school closures, and a host of other issues.  That is a conversation I'll be looking forward to!  

We will start at 6:30 live on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CommissionerBergosh/ on both those dates--and as is always the case--residents are encouraged to participate and send questions to via the comment feature during the livestream or by sending questions in advance to district1@myescambia.com or by calling the D1 office at 850-595-4910.

Doug's Map Fails: It Was a Disaster

Doug's Underhill's redistricting proposal map he presented last night had numerous, fatal flaws.  It died shortly after it was presented--receiving zero support for obvious reasons...

At last night's second joint County Commission/School Board Meeting-- Commissioner Doug Underhill brought a rendition of what he thought the new district lines should look like between District 1 and District 2 in Escambia County.

It received no play whatsoever among those of us who were there and serious about the work at hand.

Doug's map was ill-conceived--- and a total and complete, unmitigated disaster....

His map (above) had so many flaws that were readily apparent--I'm astonished he even brought if forward.  It was not unlike a rocket exploding on the launch pad.

As I discussed with him just a few of the glaring problems (minute 46:27  of this video)  I noticed upon just receiving it 5 minutes before he pitched it to the dais members---he didn't acknowledge any of the serious shortcomings of his proposal.  Instead-- he simply doubled down on it, with a steaming, rancid helping of gibberish and gobldygook about "equities" being lost and neighborhoods being separated----while ignoring the fact his map kept Myrtle Grove carved up like a jigsaw puzzle---not fixing the precinct 99 issue as every other map presented has.

Just a few of the MAJOR flaws with the Underhill map that quickly relegated it to the trash recepticle.

---It left District 1 an astonishing 5,584 citizens short of the ideal district size of 64,381

---It left District 1 even 2,365 citizens short of the required 5% statutory minimum deviation below the ideal size

---It boots a duly-elected ECUA Board member out of her seat for which she won election less than one year ago (which would have, for more than the next three years,  served to disenfranchise voters who put this official into office)

---In a complete and total snub to the District 1 School Board Member, Kevin Adams, the Underhill plan would have knocked three schools (Bailey Middle, Helen Caro Elementary, and Blue Angels Elementary) out of District 1 against the wishes of this sitting school board member.

I could go on but why?  It was a drammatic fail, it was a feckless attempt at actual gerrymandering, and it died upon arrival at last night's meeting.  DOA.

But at least he showed up with something.  It just wasn't anything useful to the task at hand.  At all. 

Very Preliminary Cost Estimate for Beulah Pedestrian Bridge Comes in at $3 Million

A Pedestrian Overpass project has been imagined for the Beulah area---if state funding could be acquired to construct it.  Initial estimate is high at $3 Million

As has been discussed previously on this blog and in the press, there is an effort underway to acquire the funding necessary to construct a pedestrian overpass over 9-Mile Road in Beulah.

State Representative Michelle Salzman has indicated she will seek state funding in the upcoming legislative session for construction of this bridge in District 1.

This effort is supported by Salzman, myself, and District 1 School Board Member Kevin Adams.

If the funding is acquired and this can be built--it will be a tremendous safety enhancement for the students who attend Beulah Middle School (South side of 9-Mile Road) and live north of 9-Mile road.

It will also compliment an aggressive sidewalk construction program I will be initiating over the next 36 months to enhance the walkability and safety of the growing Beulah community.

I requested a "placeholder" estimate from our traffic and engineering departments and have now received a very preliminary estimate of $3 Million Dollars--broken down as follows in the email received:

"Commissioner Bergosh-

Received the attached estimate for the most recent pedestrian bridge completed by FDOT in Panhandle (Panama City).  This bridge was bid last year from my understanding, therefore, we should estimate the following factors:

 

Estimated cost of Bridge:                                                 $3.1 M

Year 2022 Cost Increases (30%):                                    $0.93M

Programmed project in 5^th year inflation (30%):                $0.93M

                                                                                                $5.0M

 

This cost includes the design, construction, and construction inspection services.  This is just an estimated cost not to include any right-of-way acquisition if needed." 

On WCOA's "Real News" Discussing Pedestrian Safety in Beulah

Three locally-elected officials are working on a project to construct a pedestrian overpass over Hwy 90 in Beulah--which could look similar to this one, above, from North Carolina...

I was a guest on WCOA's "Real News" with Rick Outzen yesterday discussing the concept of a pedestrian overpass over Hwy 90/9-Mile Road in Beulah.  The initiative to fund, design and build this overpass will be a collaboration among/between the State, the County Commission, and the School Board.

Because of Hurricane Ida and the closure of the County--we had to cancel our planned press conference that was supposed to take place at 4:30 yesterday.

Meanwhile, we had a good discussion on this topic and I appreciated the opportunity to be on the show.

Check out our discussion here

Joint District 1 Press Conference on Pedestrian Safety Improvements in Beulah Happening Monday

Multi-Agency District 1 Town Hall Monday, September 30th 6:00-8:00 PM

A District 1 Multi-Agency Town Hall will be hosted by Commissioner Jeff Bergosh on Monday, September 30, 2019. This meeting will be held at Jim Bailey Middle School, from 6 to 8 p.m. 

The elected representatives who will be 
participating are:

Jeff Bergosh, Escambia Board of County Commissioners, District 1
Alex Andrade, State Representative, District 2
Vicki Campbell, ECUA representative, District 1
Kevin Adams, Escambia County School Board, District 1

Specific topics of discussion will include:

---Sorrento Road Improvement

---Blue Angel 4-Lane project status

---Traffic

---Storm-water management

---Water front access/amenities for residents

---Appointed Superintendent update

---New Pleasant Grove Elementary - Sorrento Rd.

---Future new elementary school Beulah and update on additional District 1 school construction projects.

---Security, and Hazardous Pathways to Schools.

---Upcoming legislative session & educational issues

---Smart Growth

---Septic to Sewer Conversion

---Identify Solutions for Growth in Sanitation

---Continued Implementation of Customer Friendly Technology

Citizens are encouraged to attend the Town Hall to become informed about relevant issues in their community and to ask questions of their representatives