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October 16, 2014 YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER 75¢

Mailing Statement on Opinion Page

THREE SECTIONS, 20 PAGES

VOL. 13, NO. 42OCTOBER 16, 2014

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Student contracts Enterovirus D68

Flood relief could be coming to Holley by the Sea

Holley by the Sea residents will have the chance to make the county aware of any flood issues in their neighbor-hood, which could lead to drainage projects in their neighborhood.

The county sent out a press release last week urging residents in Holley by the Sea to complete a questionnaire as part of a watershed study of the neighborhood.

The questionnaire is linked to a broader picture of developing a storm-water master plan for the county, ac-cording to County Commissioner

Lane Lynchard (Gulf Breeze). The county started undertaking the task to develop an updated stormwater master plan about a year ago.

“Last October we had been ex-periencing flooding in certain areas in Holley by the Sea and certain ar-eas in Navarre and, some in the Gulf Breeze area. (At the time) the last time a stormwater master plan was de-veloped for the county was a decade ago,” Lynchard said.

Upon seeing the outdated plan, the county proposed updating it by eye-ing areas in the county that were flood prone and needed immediate atten-

File Photo |Gulf Breeze News

Holley by the Sea residents have always been prone to flooding. This Gulf Breeze News File Photo shows an instance in August 2013 when a rain storm flooded one of the entrances into the subdivision.

BY MAT PELLEGRINOGulf Breeze News

news@gulfbreezenews.com

SRSO awaiting autopsy resultsReport: Toddler crawled through dog door before drowning in pool

BY MAT PELLEGRINOGulf Breeze News

news@gulfbreezenews.com

Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit detectives are awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine what caused the death of a 1 ½-year- old boy back on October 7.

SRSO Public Information Officer Richard Aloy released more information to the media last Thursday about what is being deemed as an accidental drowning of the toddler at the 1700 block of Briza Del Mar Drive in Navarre.

Aloy stated that the toddler allegedly crawled through a dog door located in the rear of the home. The child ultimate-ly fell into the pool located in the back-yard of the home. Aloy did not specify whether the child was being watched, or who was in the home with the boy prior to the drowning.

SRC deputies were originally called to the home around 10 a.m. on October 7 for what was being described as an acci-dental drowning. The child was sent via Lifeguard Ambulance to an area hospital when EMS arrived on scene.

Aloy said the results of an autopsy can take “some time” to get back. He also stated that the Medical Examiner’s Office would be making the final deter-mination of the toddler’s cause of death.

No one has been charged in the in-fant’s drowning.

See Lynchard Page 3A »

Santa Rosa County Department of Health officials confirmed last week that an 8-year-old Escambia County boy who attends a Santa Rosa County school was infected with Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68).

A letter went home with children last Friday alerting parents of the issue.

The student, whose name is not being released to the media, con-tracted the virus, but has since re-covered. According to the letter released by health department offi-cials, the student is no longer con-tagious.

The school district was not able to release what school the student attended.

Infants and children are more like-ly to contract the respiratory disease which carries cold and flu-like symp-

toms. Severe symptoms include wheezing and difficulty breathing.

According to recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention, from mid-Au-gust to October 10, 2014, a total of 691 people in 46 states and the Dis-trict of Columbia have been con-firmed to have respiratory illness caused by EV-D68.

According to the CDC website, the U.S. is experiencing an outbreak of EV-D68.

Florida’s first case of EV-D68 for 2014 was recorded on October 6. Children with asthma have a higher risk of having severe symptoms as-sociated with EV-D68.

Like Respiratory Syncytial Vi-rus (RSV) and the flu, EV-D68 is highly contagious and could spread through droplets in coughs or sneez-es or when someone touches a con-taminated surface like a countertop

BY MAT PELLEGRINOGulf Breeze News

news@gulfbreezenews.com

See Child Page 2A »

The Club II for sale?BY MAT PELLEGRINO

Gulf Breeze Newsnews@gulfbreezenews.com

Photo Special to Gulf Breeze News

This was one of several photos posted on http://marketing.remaxdesigncenter.com/11/78111/2312035/index.html indicating the fitness facility The Club II was for sale. The Broker responsible for the listing denied the facility itself was for sale (despite the listing on the website), and claimed only the out parcel was, which was listed on the website for $5.95 million. The webpage also had photos of the interior of The Club II, despite denial from the owner of the facility that the building itself was for sale. See Websites Page 3A »

A fitness facility that faced foreclosure in 2011 and under-went new management with the hopes of resurrecting their image has put a part of its property up for sale.

The Club II quietly put up an out parcel for sale roughly a month ago for $5.95 million through Re/Max Commercial As-sociates based out of Ft. Lauder-dale, according to a listing broker with Re/Max. The sale was post-ed on a Re/Max website. Minutes before Gulf Breeze News went to press, the listing status changed on the on the web page to “for sale” to “off the market”.

The “parcel,” located at 1230 Crane Cove Boulevard, was listed on the website http://marketing.remaxdesigncenter.com/11/78111/2312035/index.html at an asking price of nearly $6 million.

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Safety was the theme of the transportation quarterly report to the Santa Rosa County School Board last week. Durham School Bus Transportation, the contrac-tor handling all buses and bus drivers for the district, told school board members that safety is al-ways first priority for the com-pany, and presented some third party inspection results to prove it. “We always emphasize being safe and on time getting students to school,” Durham’s Santa Rosa County director James Bagby said.

Some drivers who have been pushing for a union have been making claims on social media sites as well as at picket sites this month about buses being not maintained effectively, and claiming bad tires and brakes. Bagby included inspection sta-tistics on those issues during his presentation to show this was not true.

He pointed out that Durham hires an outside third party evalu-ator to do the inspection of their buses, so no one can claim in-spection statistics were rigged by the company.

“This inspection company does not want a bad reputation, and has nothing to gain by not telling the truth on an inspec-

tion report,” he said. “And we received a 100 percent passing report.”

His report showed that the buses are required by law to be inspected once every 28 days, but he said Durham starts that inspection schedule from 24-27 days each round. There are 247 school buses in Santa Rosa County, with 214 on routes every day and the rest of those being “extra” buses.

In the last inspection report done by ATS, an outside evalua-tor, each of the 247 buses had a 60 point inspection done and the school district had a zero percent failure. “With a 60 point inspec-tion sheet to be filled out on each bus, that gave us 14,820 chances for a failure – and we had none, “Bagby reported.

The report showed 1,482 tires inspected, with six tires per bus. Of all those inspected, there were five with minimum tread and one failed on sufficient amount of tread.

School board chair Diane Scott asked if all drivers still do a daily inspection on their buses, and Bagby said yes they do. “we now have an electronic wand called Zonar that is to be used in several points on the bus and will electronically show if the re-quired inspection has been done before the bus goes on the road every day,” he said.

Bagby said Durham worked

to minimize route miles and bus fuel this year. “For the 2013-24 school year the buses were going 20,726 miles per day in the dis-trict,” he said.

“For this school year they are covering 18,850 miles a day. That is a savings in fuel costs to the district of 230 less gallons a day, adding up to an annual fuel cost of $147,735. Since the school district pays for the fuel, that is a significant cost savings to you.”

He also said over the summer they took a look at routes and bus passenger load, and cut routes by seven. “We started the year with 189 routes, but we now have 192 since we added a couple routes back,” he said. The reason those were added back was passenger load.

“We book 90 students per bus for high school routes, but we never have 90 students on a high school bus,” Bagby said. “Capac-ity on the newer Durham buses is 71. But high school students have activities after school, ride with friends or family, and drive often so we never have 90 per bus.”

School Board member Diane Coleman said that was a concern she was hearing about in some areas of the district was crowded high school routes. “I know you plan with capacity for three to a seat, but most high school stu-dents are as large as as adults. I have taken some long bus rides before on field trips, and three

adults to a seat is not easy, espe-cially if a student is on a bus for an hour and half hanging off a seat,” she said.

Bagby said when they get a complaint about overcrowding on a bus, they send someone from their office out to the route to count bus riders. “Our count usu-ally has come back being some-where from 40 – 47 students, and most complaints have come from the Pace High area. And even though that is not over capacity, that is why we added three more routes, and all in the Pace area,” Bagby said.

School board members ques-tioned the air conditioning issues this year with the buses. Bagby said even though some board members and parents would not want to hear the answer, air con-ditioning is not on the Florida Dept. of Education’s 60 point safety inspection sheet, and safe-ty has to be the first priority for Durham.

“Air conditioning is not a safe-ty issue, it is a comfort issue. But we did get a new air conditioning machine to help fix those issues, and we now as of this week have all air conditioners on the buses fixed. But air conditioning is al-ways a problem, and I am sure there will be more problems be-fore the end of the school year.

Bagby said that 100 percent of Durham’s buses have air condi-tioning.

By Pam BrannonGulf Breeze News

news@gulfbreezenews.com

Durham reports to school board

tion. “(Developing a stormwater

master plan) is a huge under-taking,” Lynchard said. “The first area of the county that we chose to designate for the study was Holley by the Sea,” Lynchard said. “At the time (we were discussing updating the master plan) we were hav-ing problems with flooding (in Holley by the Sea).”

The questionnaire was post-ed on the county’s website last week asking residents of the flood prone neighborhood if they have experienced any

flooding issues in or around their home.

The ques-tionnaire asks residents:

Have you ever experi-enced flooding

at your home or business?How many times has flood-

ing occurred at your home or business?

Are you aware of any water quality problems associated with stormwater runoff in your area?

Does road flooding occur in your area?

The county contracted with Baskerville-Donovan, Inc. to complete the three-phase study this spring. Residents in Hol-ley by the Sea will have until November 15 to complete the questionnaire.

The watershed study will give Baskerville-Donovan and the county an overview of drainage issues in the subdivi-sion. From those studies, the county will be able to identify projects that could help allevi-ate flooding issues within the low-lying neighborhood. The study is expected to be com-plete by 2015.

“There are hundreds of basins

in the county, basically a series of bowls…(Holley by the Sea) is the first series of bowls we are studying,” Lynchard said. “One of the tasks we charged (Baskerville-Donovan) with is going out and soliciting public input.”

The input Baskerville-Dono-van and the county receives will go into developing projects as the county continues to under-take the task of updating their stormwater master plan.

“It is not specifically related to any HMGP projects, but the goal is by the end of this we will have a set of projects that work together,” Lynchard said.

Lynchard said that Holley by the Sea did experience flooding back in April.

County commissioner Jim Melvin did not return several media requests about the initia-tive as of press time.

Holley by the Sea residents can acquire the questionnaire at www.baskervilledonovan.com/holley-by-the-sea-drainage-improvements-questionnaire. After filling out the form, resi-dents can mail the form to the address provided on the ques-tionnaire. For more informa-tion call (850) 316-8987 or email HBTS@baskervilledon-ovan.com.

» Continued from Page 1A

lynchard: study will be the first of many

lynchard

websites advertise facility amenitiesThat website, as well as sev-

eral other Real Estate websites, listed the property and building itself for sale, not the out parcel. But according to J.M. Padron, the listing broker responsible for the sale at Re/Max, the property owner is only selling the out par-cel. Padron refused to comment any more on the transaction, and why the entire facility was listed for sale on Re/Max’s website and other real Estate websites on the internet. Padron would not go into any more detail about the sale, and asked Gulf Breeze News to sign a confidentiality agreement before answering any more questions.

Facility owner Dr. Paul Hen-ning spoke with Gulf Breeze News denying that the facility itself was for sale, stating that his facility is doing “fine” fi-nancially.

“We are just selling the front parcel where the soccer fields are,” Henning said.

When asked why several websites advertised the facility itself and the amenities inside, Henning said that it was to en-tice people to contact the Real Estate agent to ask about the parcel.

The piece of property has an estimated market value of $6.78 million according to the real es-tate flyer that was created for the sale on the Re/Max website. The flyer shows photos of the facility’s exterior, along with the facility’s interior amenities (including the equipment inside the facility). The flyer does not indicate that any parcel on the property is for sale, only refer-encing the building itself.

The websites listing the site for sale reference the facility’s pool, clay tennis courts and other amenities, and also mention the adjacent parcel Padron and Hen-ning claim is for sale, saying it is a corner lot with 300 feet on Crane Cove Blvd. The Re/Max website advertising the sale, shows one photo of the soccer

fields Henning claims are for sale (as part of the parcel).

The website lists the Club II facility as having a gross in-come of $802,720.24 with op-erating expenses of $487,658. The vacant parcel is listed as valued having a market value of $849,479.40.

“(The photos) are there to en-tice people to look at the front parcel,” Henning said. “Inter-ested buyers want to see what is adjacent to the structure.”

Henning told Gulf Breeze News that Breeze 8 Cinema also has a parcel for sale adja-cent to his soccer fields along Highway 98. The Santa Rosa Property Appraiser website shows that parcel sold in 2014 for $61,000.

The owner said the asking price for the parcels is not $5.95 million, despite what’s adver-tised on several websites. He told Gulf Breeze News that peo-ple interested in the site would have to contact the Real Estate agent for the actual price.

The Real Estate websites ad-vertising the sale also reference a 300 ft. commercial corner site on the property, “in addition” to the facility itself.

“Nowadays, you have to show what’s adjacent to the property (to sell),” Henning said. “We’ll see how it plays out.”

Originally opening up under the name The Club in 1999, the facility faced financial hard-ships and was threatened with foreclosure in 2011. Upon hear-ing about the troubled facil-ity, the property was purchased Henning and his wife Katie in early 2012. They later renamed the facility The Club II.

The facility’s Facebook page was still up and running as of press time, but its website was no longer active.

The facility houses Gulf Breeze’s only heated Olympic-sized pool, along with a number of soccer fields and tennis courts.

Gulf Breeze High School’s swim team uses the pool facili-ties for training and meets.

YMCAs in Crestview, Fort Walton Beach and Destin an-nounced they were closing last week, limiting access to swim teams in their areas.

» Continued from Page 1A