Latest / Rick Outzen: (we don’t) color on the dog / Rick's Blog Live - Full Show 10-21-26
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- rick's blog live 10 21 26: Hi, I'm Rick Altson. This is Rick's Blog Live. Thank you for watching. We're two weeks after the storm. We're still recovering. A lot of numbers, a lot of things we're trying to work our way through. This show is we're going to have two people that are in the middle of this recovery. We're going to have Eric Gilmore, Escambia County Public Safety Director, and the city manager of Milton, Ed Spears. They'll give us some insights on what's going on with recovery. But also let's talk about this week's issue. It is this is our election guide. We have got who's on the ballot, how do you early vote? Because you can still vote, right? You can vote right now, any at one of ten locations. also the interviews that we had on this show for city council, we're gonna have that we have those interviews in this issue also. So there's a lot to look to. and I tell you what, I'm excited about this show. We got Lance Scott, Port of Pensacola, Rick Metzger, the new president CEO of Sacred Heart. And we got Therese McKenzie, past chair of Foo Foo Fest. So why don't we just go get it? Ascension Sacred Heart has a new boss, president and CEO, Rick Metzger, and we've got him with us today. Rick, thank you for your witness. We have something in common. When I was 19, I was an orderly in King's Daughters Hospital in Graywell, Mississippi. You started as an orderly in OR, became a registered nurse. How has that shaped how you are as in charge of a hospital? Well, when you look back gosh, I'm I'm getting old, Rick. When I look back on my career That's why I wear a hat 'cause I I got this keep cut down the shine. Understatements. Wish I had one on too. No, so y you know, when I look back at my journey, it's really been a blessing all the experiences I've gotten to have. It did s I did start in a very large level, one trauma center, much like Sacred Heart, Pensacola. up in Huntsville. And it did sh it does shape you. You get to have experiences, you know, whether it's walking walking through a very difficult time with a patient or you know, all the all the the incredible business opportunities you have working in a in a a very busy hospital, those kinds of things, it really does shape you. But but I see I see life through a clinical lens that I think a lot of administrators may not have. And I think it it helps me to communicate with my staff, communicate with my physicians. And have discussions and conversations with them maybe in a little different way than a lot of administrators can. And so I I hope what they see in in me is is a person that they can quickly develop trust with. And 'cause trust is such a big part of what we do in running hospital. Well it a hospital is like a miniature city, isn't it? I mean it it it's you have your own power, you have it it it's it it's you know a it's it's just such an operation that has to operate no matter what's going on in the world. Y'all have to be open. That's right. And we just saw that right through the hurricane. Right. We had a little discussion around that and and it is we you know, people look at look to us and depend on us to be there no matter what. And we were. Sacred Heart Pensacola was there through the storm and taking care of patients and doing what we do best. Gosh, how much has the hospital has grown so much? I know you were with Ascension Providence. this is a homecoming coming back to Ascension. Why come back and and what's changed since you left? Well, you know, one one of the reasons I spent most of my career in North Alabama at Huntsville Hospital. It's a very large community hospital, but I always had a curiosity about faith based hospitals. And that's what really kind of drew me to Ascension in the first place and and you know, had great experiences through Ascension. They really they really sew into their their leaders and had We we we call it formation, Catholic formation and learning about Catholic healthcare and and it really just drew me in. And so, you know, we you know, our our hospital, you know, was purchased by the University of South Alabama f you know, about three years ago. And but I had that draw to come back to the to really serve the mission that Ascension serves. And one of the great things about working for a faith based organization, you can bring your whole self. Right. And so, you know, my faith and as with everyone's faith, whatever that is for them, is v is very meaningful to me and to be able to exercise that at your place of work is very important to me. Yeah, Ascension Sacred Heart is the major provider of charity care in Northwest Florida, particularly in Scambia County. Almost half of all charity care is done by Ascension Sacred Heart, which is goes back to just what you said, Rick. but the issue has always been and we still have an access issue for people. I I n I know that's probably gonna that's one of your goals to really work on. What what are your some ideas? Yeah, so when you kind of look at the healthcare needs of Scambia and Santa Rosa County, they're you know, one thing Ascension has Ascension Sacred Hearts has done a great job of is build our freestanding emergency departments. We have four of them. one in pace, one in Nine Mile, one in Navarre, and and then gosh, it's slipping my mind, but one more. And and what that's done, I've already seen stories like I I stay connected through social media with Ascension and Sacred Heart. I've heard amazing stories of how meaningful our freestanding emergency rooms have been to those outlying communities. 'Cause what we're seeing really across the country in a lot of ways is a collapse of rural health care. Right. And so we're having to reach out into those rural communities and one big mechanism is through our freestanding emergency rooms to bring the care to the patients and really provide that access, that truly life-saving access to those patients in those communities. What what's the f top of your list right now? You you're getting to know your staff. What's next? well I think one thing we have to address in healthcare is our mental health crisis that we're faced with in this country. I was very passionate about that in my last role. what we see you know just sometimes getting into emergency rooms can be difficult. And we all emergency rooms across our country are dealing with a lot of mental health crisis type patients. And I think we've got to work to advocate for resources from from government and other other other people on create on creating avenues to to take care of our mental health patients before it becomes a crisis. So so I think that's something I want to lean into and see where we're at in in this community and really push that through some of the Florida legislator opport legislative opportunities that I have. Yeah, we're we're coming up on the break, but w but I've I read your press the press release that was put out. Steve did a great job with that need some what's something in the press release that wasn't in the press release that you'd like people to know about? wow. So this is really a dream come true for me and my family to move here. We fell in love with the Gulf Coast like so many people do through vacations and those kinds of things, have a lot of ties here. My best friend from high school, has lived in the Navarre area for years. And we we decided a long time ago that we wanted to live in this community. And so I think I think for me it's really just that personal you know love for this community that I've developed over really the past thirty years or so that that really is a dream come true for us. So this is this is not just a a job for me. we're looking forward to becoming deeply rooted in this community. We've already purchased a home. here in this community and moving fast on those types of things because I think it's important for for the person that's leading the largest healthcare provider in the community to be a part of the community. And so for me that's that's really meaningful. So what is it about Pensacola that that pulled you and your wife here? I I would just say broadly everything, but that's not to like. So I I like to fish. We fish a lot. My family fishes, my son, my daughter, my wife, we do that together. all that Pensacola has to offer culturally, the everything the Blue Angels, the the Wahoos, the Ice Flyers. I'm a big hockey fan, so we're looking forward to getting into all those things. great. Well Rick, thank you so much for coming on. I look forward to working with you more. Sigurd Hearts a big part of our family and and I we've had two of our children were well one of them was that we've moved around a little bit but Sigurd Heart's been a part of our family. So thank you for coming on. Well go ahead and take a break. I'm Rick Alison. This is Rick's Blogged Live. Stay with us. I learned during my military service to train every day to fight and fight to win. If you've been injured in an accident, you already know one thing for sure. The insurance companies are gonna fight you for every dollar you deserve. At Michelson Booth, we settle most of the cases we handle. 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It's an advertising venue that really reaches our target audience and customers. It's not a week that goes by that we don't see somebody out in the community that says, hey, I saw your show on Blab TV. It was great. My name is Bill Sadler and I am Blab TV. Gilmarine, your one-stop shop for all your boating needs. We offer a vast selection of parts, accessories, and electronics. Discover our range of used boats in every size, shape, and brand, all ready to get you on the water today. And we provide expert advice and top-notch customer service to ensure you have the best boating experience. We service all outboard, inboards, stern drives, jet drives, and personal watercraft. Our certified staff will get you back on the water. Visit Gilmore at thirty five forty one West Fairfield Drive, Pensacola. Welcome back. I'm Rick Altson. This is Rick's Blog Live. The Port of Pensacola is a hot commodity. people are talking about it not only here, but all over the world for a lot of different reasons. We've got with us Admiral Lance Scott, director of the port. Lance, thank you for coming. Yeah, thanks for having me, Rick. Big event on Monday Sale GP, the professional sailing league. Has officially launched their training base here as part of American Magic. this is the mayor today at his press conference just talked about that this is a golden opportunity for our community. Correct, correct. I mean the the chance to showcase Pensacola not only as a world-class sailing area with the bay, but just the hospitality and the opportunity here, and then I think as the mayor described. as you bring in those teams, which this is gonna run through February with different camps in like seven to ten day blocks depending on two teams at a pop. but those folks are gonna experience Pensacola and then go back and talk about what a great time they had here. What has American Magic been like as a tenant? You know, they've opened up their their performance center, which is part of this training. what what are they like to work with? Fantastic. They are cooperative and that's the beauty I think of the Port of Pensacola. All the tenants understand the symbiotic relationship and we all work together in a hybrid model, right? Where we're doing cargo, we're doing maintenance repair overhaul and and we're doing sailing and soon to be shipbuilding. and so Tyson and his team really understand that and everyone leans in to everybody else's benefit as needed and they they get that from a space perspective and everything else. Well you look at gosh, twenty years ago, you know you know, when d the port was considered a drain on the city's economy. There were those that argued that. There were tons of different studies going back to the nineteen nineties of well, do we convert this to condos? Do we you know, do we give up yeah, we're never gonna be able to do containers and that's what all the shipping was done, we we'll never be able to compete. and It even was studied as late as the twenty tens when Mayor Ashton Hayward. This has evolved though now where I believe people admire the type of port that we have. Yeah, I I would hope so. I I'm certainly proud of what we are and where we're going. and I think really back to twenty nineteen, the Moffat Nickel study that was done with the port vision plan, which we're operating on now. And so that term hybrid port. first and foremost we're one of sixteen Florida deep water seaports, which is just a crucial you know, economic driver. But each port has its own different constraints, geography, you name it. And and so you've gotta find that niche that makes the sense that will work. And I and as I talk about I'm a downtown resident of District Six as the port of Pensacola, right? And so we view that with a responsibility to ensure that we're nested correctly, you know, to the benefit. Our mission is to Definitely grow economic and long-term social benefit for the city of Pensacola and the region. And I think we're really marching on that on all avenues. So we do the public facing, Portside Pickle, the ferry system. Right. And then we've got advanced manufacturing with American Magic and Soon to Be Bird On. And we do traditional cargo with CMEX and and G Vernova running their wind energy components through, and then we've got maintenance repair and overhaul. So it just You I I joke that ship has sailed in terms of hey, do we get the port out and do that? we're here to stay. You know, it's it's the bird on is is something that's developed over this past year, is could create as many as two thousand jobs. Right. the how do you see that fitting into the ecosystem of the port? Yeah, I think the key has been what we call the northeast quadrant discussed this morning, right? Some environmental stuff that was really remnants of how core the little And for our for our for our viewers we're talking about between where you see the the buildings where American Magic and the fish house. That's that that's the that's that cadrant. There's sixteen acres there. that, you know, has been looking for a new tenant, right? And so Birdon I I was introduced to them last summer. in July of twenty five and this really ties back to the whole national maritime strategy, right? Re restoring America's maritime dominance and part of that is this shipbuilding aspect in increasing our industrial base as a nation, right? focused on navy but also commercial, but really for us and Verdon it's that navy shipbuilding capacity that they can bring to really all four coasts as we like to call it, the Gulf, the East, the West and and the the Great Lakes. And so they to me are gonna fit in fine. w I'm I recognize normally I get asked, well what about noise? What about parking? What about track. And so you know, I think the the key for the public is number one, we acknowledge that. Number two, we're certainly focused on it and there are there are things in motion. Birdon's already done a nose noise study, excuse me. which has really driven the facility layout plan on how how do we mitigate noise. 'Cause there is some, but based on the data they've got, which we're now independently reviewing, right, just to just to ensure that's on that it makes sense for us as well and that we can talk about it to the public on what this really means. There there seems to be no really negligible increase in the activity there, right? So that's one. Parking has been a discussion and a strategy plan of do we go vertical with a parking garage eventually in Comedencia, or it'll be a hybrid model with commuters, that kind of thing. Right. And then we talk about two thousand jobs. Not all of them will be at the port. and then they will be in shift work with facilities. There's discussion about traffic study. It's already ongoing from the F dot side of it, right? So I I just I always wanna reassure people that we're not waving ferry dust over things that I view as Those are challenges, but those are planning factors that you gotta take into account. Well and and what I think what's what is I think are a big asset in this is is the state and federal government are partners in this deal. Yes. So they want to see this happen. And as you mentioned before, we are part of a series of shipbuilding facilities along the Gulf Coast from Panama City you know, all the way to Pascagoula. Right. And and so it's there's The state has a stake in what we're doing and the federal government does, which I think makes a difference. Let's talk about we and we're coming down the i this it always goes by way too fast, Lance, but we're looking at the mayor's has been talking talking about the the importance of an inland port. You and I walked the the property on Monday and just seeing all the GE Vernova sales that go part of the windmills is taking up a lot of property. To me it seems like The inland port's a must have now. Well, I I view it as a must have for the growth right spectrum. Right. So as Burdon comes in and really you know, Birdon brings that industry, American Magic's doing it to a smaller scale with a couple of their their clients, but the inland port allows us to move cargo, including traffic, right up up the road, so to speak, the railroad. 'Cause it's all about the gateway and intermodal system and that's why we bring water, highway, rail, and then the airport. Right. that's how we would manage that. And you can actually put other facilities on the inland port too. So it's storage, which increases flexibility on our port for jobs. More jobs. More jobs. More jobs at the end of the port for sure. Right. and then, you know, it allows me to potentially diversify with different cargo or different uses on a port without, you know, cutting into a revenue that's that is as is now but for me personally, and really for us as a business model, we need to grow that. We need to grow that volume and back to being responsible on how we move that cargo. That GE cargo doesn't have to sit at the port, right? The components come in on the ships about every four to five weeks and then they're they're trucked up to Scenic to the to the plant. Right. And then they're put together and then they're stored until they go out to the Midwest or southwest wherever the the wind farms are at. And so that doesn't have to sit at the port, it doesn't need the water access, right? All right. I got one question before you leave. You should you're supposed to be retired. how how's this retirement working for you? Well, my wife keeps telling me I failed at miserably. but it it has been truly a joy. you know, I view it. What what better opportunity than to be a resident? I'm a colour resident, and have the chance to shape the future. and so I enjoy that. It's a great staff, it's a great team. I'm a U.S. Merchant Marine Academy graduate, so I'm back to my maritime roofs. This was my goal post Navy. and I just didn't realize it was gonna happen this fast. But you know, I believe it's happened for a reason, and I am having fun. Well great. Lance, thank you so much for coming in. Appreciate time. We're gonna go ahead and take a break, we'll pay a few bills, we'll be right back. We're Rick's blogged live and I'm Rick Altson. I think it's all about local and I'm a big believer in local. So I think anytime you can carry a message out locally it's important. 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Welcome back. I'm Rick Altson. This is Rick's Blog Live. We had a hurricane just a week or so ago. And it is the damage is is uneven around the community. One area that got particularly hit hard was the city of Milton, and we've got city manager Ed Spears. Ed, thank you for coming. Thanks for having me, Rick. So where does Milton stand today a a week after the storm? So we are still under our emergency declaration right now. we've assessed the entire city. About sixty percent of all structures within the city limits, about six square miles. sixty percent of our structures sustain some type of damage. About five percent of those are gonna be uninhabitable when we get to the finish line here. but you and I both experienced Hurricane Ivan together. It's very reminiscent of that. As you drive around, there's not a single property that doesn't have something that you see, a tree down, a fence down, a sign that's torn up, or damage to the structure itself. it it it it was an unusual storm. It was it was different in a lot of ways. I've I've we're gonna have Eric Gilmore on a little bit later in the show, but it was a different kind of storm and in a lot of ways Milton got hit harder than than Gulf Breeze or or the the coast. Absolutely. And and you don't expect that being inland, about twenty miles from the coast and being on the west side of the storm. Right. Right. That that's not how these hurricanes typically behave. And If you look at all the destruction, all the damage in the city of Milton, everything's facing south to southwest. It's when it turned the corner and came back at us. And you know, I don't a sting jet from right. It's a whole new term. I know, I've never heard of it. So I I you know, it's a lot of tornado damage, if you ask my uneducated right opinion of it. just the the the swaths, the the tracks that we see of damage. And then you look over and there's trees over here and trees over there that weren't damaged. There's clear paths that you can see of the the devastation. But it is absolutely everywhere. Do you have an early estimate on w on the c on the let's say the public sector damage? we do. we're looking at about thirty, thirty-five million dollars in the city. That's twenty-five million of that is the debris collection. Right, right. which we began Tuesday last week. We were one of the first communities to start debris collection. This morning we eclipsed 100,000 cubic yards of vegetative debris that we have collected to date. And that's one-fourth of the estimate. Our estimate is in our six square miles, there is some four hundred thousand cubic yards of of vegetative debris, about thirty-five thousand cubic yards of construction debris, stuff that is blown off of structures in the city. So we're collecting that as as quickly and safely as we can. and that's a message I clearly want to to state to the public. Please, please be very careful around the b debris piles, the debris collection equipment. It's dangerous out there right now. Right. What about the private sector? Have you seen what kind of estimates you've seen on on on private properties? You know, the the countywide assessment where you could go the property appraiser and put that number in, it was over two hundred and fifty million dollars. I think it's gonna be more concentrated in the city of Milton because simply it's it's every building. There's something to it. The the roof's peeled back. facades that are laying on the ground. Right. The photos and we we're sharing them with the with the viewers. The the photos are horrific. this was your first time to go through as a city manager. How was that? You know, I I've been in local government for thirty years and it it's been an honor to s to serve the various communities that I have served. But this is the first time in the in the number one chair. Right. And you know my wife basketball coach. Right. She tells you, even though they're side by side, they're miles apart, chair one to chair two. Right. it's miles apart from my other positions. I I tell you the thing you hope as a leader that your team's prepared and that they're going to execute when it comes time. And I've just been astounded by the City of Milton team and what they've been able to accomplish in in the number of days that that we've put the city back together and and what where we are now compared to what we woke up to on October 10th. It's amazing. Like nothing else does when you go through this. With Gulf Breeze, we had Ivan, we had Dennis, we had parts of Katrina when I was on the city council in Gulf Breeze, and it tests you in a lot of different ways. You know, you you look at this and you pretty much you work ground zero. how is how is the water and the power and and the other utilities, how are they doing it in Melbourne? there's still some structures that we simply can't get power to because the electric service to that that structure has been ripped apart. Right. And until you know a licensed electrician can get there and and repair that building, we can't turn the power back on. But the water system is complete and functioning. We passed our water test I think it was Thursday after the storm. so everything is is back to potable water now. Our gas utility is back up and running. but that's another thing you you think, well the gas is underground. Well the trees are ripping everything in and then when everyone turns on their generator one time, you know, you don't expect that kind of demand. Right. And and that pulls the pressure down immensely. But working with our community partners with Florida Power and Light, you know, they were they were there when the sun came up that morning with our teams out on the street assessing damage, clearing the road, and you know, our team really executed the plan and that that's part of it as well as knowing your role and staying in your lane. My role was in the EOC in City Hall. And so when people would say, Have you seen the No, I haven't. I have to get those reports from the field and rely on the experts who are out there to to direct the the EOC activities. And so you're you're sitting kind of in this cave, you know it's bad, you can see what you can see outside the windows, but the full extent of it you just don't realize and but you're getting those reports back from your team in the field. Yeah, when you when you look at and we there was a rush on the state's part to try to get Santa Rosa kids back into the schools. I've heard the schools in Milton took took it pretty bad. What what what's your y'all's assessment? And you know, the the aerials that we've seen of Milton High School, the gym is totally destroyed and unusable. There are some other areas of of that school that were damaged. we have five schools in the city limit between elementary, middle, and the high school itself. it wasn't up to us to determine when. Right. We just had to assist so that it could be open. And we focused last Thursday and Friday on clearing the perimeters of the school, the the rights of way around the schools to be free of debris. And then over the weekend we had our debris hauler clear every bus stop, about 110 bus stops in the city limits. Now a lot of neighbors got mad. They're like they were in my neighborhood, they picked up this corner and then they left. That's the bus stop. we're coming back, I promise you, there's about three debris passes that are gonna take place in the city of Milton. We haven't forgotten anybody. We're gonna get there, but we started those big streets and then we worked Well had to get the neighborhood. It hit these kids needed to safely get into a school that was safe and a safe path to it. Ed, thank you so much for coming on. Always always. Yeah. It is we're still recovering. And we we're gonna have Eric Gilmore on just a few minutes, public safety director for Escambia County. It's good to have Ed here. We'll take a break. We'll be right back. At A1 Automotive, we do it all. All kinds of repairs for all kinds of vehicles. We do AC repairs, we do suspensions, we do pre-purchase inspections. We'll diagnose your problem and get it fixed. Free brake inspection. We can provide financing for any work we do. Veteran-owned, military, and first responders discounts. A1 Automotive, 403 Beverly Parkway, Pensacola. I'm Emily Echeveria. I'm the Marketing Communications Director for Council on Aging of West Florida and the host of Coming of Age. In the past, Council on Aging has relied heavily on print and radio, but in the age of social media algorithms and smart devices, we know how highly prioritized and sought-after video content has become. Our audience really responds to video content, and yours will too, especially the high quality of video that Blab produces. I'm Emily Echeveria and I am Blab TV. Many who consider facial plastic surgery are concerned their results will look unnatural. But with over 20 years of serving the Pensacola community, his thousands of satisfied patients have made Dr. Derek Jones a trusted reconstructive and facial plastic surgeon known for industry-leading results that look natural. Call 850-484-FACE to schedule a consultation at one of our locations in Pensacola and Golf Brays. I'm Dr. Derek Jones. Trust your face to a facial plastic surgeon. I had a client who unfortunately was in a car wreck, real bad rear-end accident on 110. And I said, well, you know, also be sure to take pictures of the tag of the car, right? because some people say they don't have insurance, but we can we can run a a search and find out whether they do. Some people have changed insurances. It's not necessarily about I want to make the claim, right? It's if I have a claim, I need to preserve the evidence. And I can help people, I can walk them through that. Welcome back. I'm Rick Altson. This is Rick's Blog Live. We have been covering the the recovery from the hurricane. There's a lot going on in the community. And and just go to the county's website, go to the City of Pensacola's website, or go to the blog, and we try to get you the latest information on what's happening in the community. The person who led Escambia County through the emergency management emergency that we had is Eric Gilmore, public safety director, and we've got Eric with us now. Eric, thank you. Thanks for having me. So where are we now? Where is the scambia county in in the world? recovery. Collective sigh of relief. where we're at in recovery is at this time we're still waiting on our presidential, our major declaration from the president, the IAPA. so we're waiting on that. We hope to hear something this week that we'll get IAPA. we're of course doing debris cleanup. If you can't notice that, the drew the trucks are all out there, debris on the side. so we're in cleanup and we're in we're in a long term recovery now. So we've done our response. we've done all the life safety, we've done the short term recovery where we've got people the immediate needs without the the the without the water that they didn't have or the power they didn't have. So now we're at the end of that, they've got water and power. I still think there's some residents out there that cannot receive power because the weatherhead's pulled down and they need a licensed electrician to help out, but they're working on that. but collectively we're past that and now we're waiting on that meeting winter insurance. getting your s your property fixed, getting your everything's picked up and trying to get us back to normal as we can and waiting on the IAPA is waiting, you know, if your insurance doesn't fully cover your your losses, getting FEMA here with IA w help bridge that gap with some SBA laws or some other governmental assistance. So we're waiting on that right now. So what we're waiting on. Well last a f week ago Friday we were able to get the yeah we w the governor a made the request for the emergency declaration. So that was a big first step that helped us a lot. You know, for our for our viewers, this is y'all began preparing way before Friday when this storm hit. Walk just a little bit I as as y'all began to understand it was coming to Northwest Florida. We still didn't know quite where, but but how the levels of activation that y'all go through. No, absolutely that's a good question. So we actually started Monday of that week. Monday was just a team and public safety team surround each other. We sit down in a room, I lead it with my fire chief, EMS chief and our buddy and we talk through a scenario. We talk about and of course we have Scotland Wilson. Right. It was which is great. We have a media audience on staff, so she can absolutely kinda give us the guidance or where we're going. then by Tuesday we that Monday we had fi we had planned our upstaffing, our potential needs, and then had a discussion about who we need to bring in Tuesday. for the next level discussion. So Travis brought the operational pieces for all the outside agencies at law enforcement, hospitals, ECUA utilities and everything to come in a room and let's all talk collectively together and get on a conference call with Mobile Weather to see what they're saying and then have Scotland break it down. And then Wednesday we brought all our partners in, operational and non-operational and our Red Cross and everybody who's in in our long term recovery groups. To all had that big discussion, that meet would do a state meeting on the state webinar and with mobile weather. And then by Thursday we had locked in who's gonna be there, who's gonna do what, identified every all the trigger points that we were gonna have. Cause it was still playing around with is it gonna go east of us, is it gonna go west of us? And of course we'd like to hear we're gonna be on the west side of the storm, but I don't know if we're gonna want that anymore. Exactly. That's changed. I mean that's changed now. It really has. So a storm's a storm now. We're gonna treat a storm like a storm and west side, east side, it doesn't matter. We're gonna but we planned for a category three during the from Monday through Wednesday and then shoring everything up Thursday and then Thursday afternoon getting a final briefing from Mobile Weather and National Weather Service about this is where you're gonna see it. we had everything locked in, trigger points, all our partners and they knew so we was at level three activation, which is always monitoring. We're always at a level three. we dropped to a level two Thursday. Thursday morning we're at level two with those necessary resources. The lower the number, the more it's death yeah, exactly. You're going down. Right. And then Friday morning was level one. That means when we're at level one activation, we are twenty four hour operation, alpha Bravo, twelve hours chest, seven A to seven P, seven P to seven A. So that's how that's how we scaled it up d throughout the week in anticipation of the storm coming in. Yeah, for for viewers if you haven't s the inside the O C there's it's the media's in a little bitty room but The everyone else is in a huge room that at times feels like it's as big as the floor of the base center. It's not quite. and you have all these stations where you've got hospitals, schools, business, utilities where so you can go to a desk and it and each desk should have own phones everybody that's that they're w talking to. Like the hospital should have everybody there. And for y'all it's it gives you that ability. That when the storm is coming in, you can try to get updates, not a lot you can do. But then after the storm, that's that immediate that immediate assessment that has to happen. That's gotta be a little bit chaotic, isn't it? It's just a little bit. Okay. So every agency uploads their agency information into there and puts it on the dashboard for the operational pieces of the EOC to look at. So they've got it all over the That's exactly right. So we can look at it real quick, real time, see what's going on, what's up, what's down. but what what's what's really chaotic is when you're running the event and so the storm had passed through by eight thirty that afternoon. We had emergency services out doing their thing, doing rescues and on the backlog number one calls. so my s myself and fire chief Adam Harrison went out to evaluate and look see what we really have going on out there to to try to guide the crews on what they need to be doing. when we came back and this n you know the crews are doing, they're stood up, they're running great. everything's flicking along and you know it's it's like one these bad scenarios or bad things, bad exercises where they keep adding injects to you. Right. They said, by the way, we just dropped water at all three of our hospitals and he like so now we gotta all right, let's fix that. So how do we go from there? So but having all those pieces in that room allows us real time We knew the all three hospitals all three hospitals representatives there. Right. We heard from all three of them. We had ECUA in the room. Right. So we're going over ECUA. Hey guys, what's going on? So have this crucial to have those elements there. So when we have something in the community like that, we can just walk across the room versus having to get somebody on a phone or something like that and get real time information going and how to fix it. So well and I think the other thing that was helpful through the process is I think b the city having its own emergency management added was a great compliment. So having Both really good real time press releases, emails going out from both agencies, both parts helped. the press conferences in in everybody I'm I am not a happy camper at press conferences. often you'd be there because because my job is to get information and under your leadership this time there wasn't there wasn't any foo foo type stupid announcement that everything's fine. We we got everyone c could answer questions. We got a real idea what was going on. I think cat country being there in the EOC, they were able to get it broadcast. That made a huge difference. but if we were getting good information and being able to relate back to you, say, hey wait, what do you you know, I remember you and I sitting down and we're talking that wait, I think we got a real issue with the with having traffic lights out and people not understanding it's a four way stop. Absolutely. and then 'cause that's the the the the back and forth. We hear stuff too that we can bring. Right. And then I think probably the biggest takeaway, and you and I've talked about it too before we even did this interview was we gotta have internet at the table. Cell companies do 'cause if we got too many things in our homes that depend on Wi Fi. We do. so, you know, as I talked before that say you're absolutely right. We had to r we're reevaluating what really need so to us prior to utilities were water and power, right? Right. So now we're sitting there looking at everything that the internet's hooked to, to even the life saving devices. some people sitting home with our freighters and stuff like that. so having that a not only that, that's how people get their streaming services or they get their TV or their notes. Right, that's how they get their news. Exactly. So right as we speak today, I've got those companies coming into D O C. I my emergency manager Travis Tompkins trying to short us things up. So we have a representative sitting there so we can see real time how quickly they're gonna get up and what's delaying them and have those those conversations as well. So we yeah, so we're we're always learning something. We we don't get it right every time. And and but when we learn something we do try to evaluate how we could do it better and make it better for next time. So all right, we we d we last question I think in looking at this is is I think and and this is really not a question, this is a compliment. You've done a really good job Over the last few years where we've had a lot of near misses and we didn't have we hadn't had a hurricane since Sally until this this month. But you have always sent teams out and y'all learn you you trained your staff on other people's disasters. That's absolutely right. we scot we hired Scotland, Isaiah, even Thomas, with several other people and even Travis needed some a more real field experience. Those guys during the last two years, they went to Hurricane Milton, Hurricane Helene. and Travis went to State DOC with me doing logistics in the in. Travis and I was in LaFette County and did your radio interview. but yeah, our our team has gotten out there and the administration's allowed them to get out there and it they see what's going on. They can actually take what tan they can put their hands and arms around it and bring it back versus a theory of what I'm telling you on how this is going to I've seen this before. Yeah, I've seen this before so much. No, I've been in it and now I know. And that makes a world of difference. Really does. And it helps out so we're good. Thank you for all you did. All your team did. Yeah. We're gonna go ahead and take a break. Gosh, you're just if you have any information you need to know anything about recovery, what's going on, check with the city and the county, their websites or the blog. We'll do the best to help you. We'll take a break, we'll be right back. Hi, I'm Emily Echeveria, Marketing Communications Director for Council on Aging of West Florida, where we're dedicated to helping seniors and their families live healthier, happier, and more connected lives. That's why I'm proud to host Coming of Age, an engaging show highlighting local experts, community partners, and ambassadors of the programs and services making a difference locally. Watch Coming of Age Wednesdays, 3.30 on Blab TV and anytime on YouTube. And remember, enjoy life. You've earned it. I learned during my military service that she trained every day to fight and fight to win. If you've been injured in an accident, you already know one thing for sure. The insurance companies are gonna fight you for every dollar you deserve. At Michelson Booth, we settle most of the cases we handle. But if the insurance companies choose to fight, well, we're okay with that too. 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We service all outboard, inboards, stern drives, jet drives, and personal watercraft. Our certified staff will get you back on the water. Visit Gil Marine at 3541 West Fairfield Drive, Pensacola. Welcome back. I'm Rick Alton. This is Rick's Blog Live. We're coming to the up on the end of October. This it's FooFoo Fest time. And we've got with us past chair, Therese McKinsey. Therese, thank you so much for coming up. thank you. Yeah. Tell me a you know, for listeners who don't know, what is FooFoo? So Foo Foo is a annual festival. This is our thirteenth year that we're doing it, and it's a celebration of arts, culture, and entertainment. every year we give out grants as the event organizer. Fufu Fest is presented by Ace every year, which is a local nonprofit organization. And we receive funding from the county, the state, and also from the city of Pensacola. And we group give out grants every year to different organizations to put on a special event during Fufu Festival. So that's what makes Fufu Festival unique, that it's typically different every year in different events, right? So it's always twelve days during the first two weekends of usually end of October. Going into November. And we're able to wrap in the Great Gulf Coast Arts Festival as well as the Blue Angels Fall, their their last show of the year all kind of get wrapped up into it. the different nonprofits in the community put in requests for inf you know for money or programs they'd like to put on. but I think the thing I wanted to ask you is you could get involved in a lot of things, and you are involved in a lot of things. Why did you want to get involved in Fufu? What what attracted you? well I joined the ACE Board and was pretty shortly thereafter asked to join the Fufu Fest Committee. It's part of the ACE Board. And seeing the impact that it has on the community, not only in terms of bringing tourism to the county, obviously great economic impact for for the community, but also seeing Just local people out there and enjoying these events and seeing behind the scenes all the hard work from all our fabulous nonprofit or arts nonprofit profit organizations and all the work that they pour into it and then actually getting to see it from start to finish and then going and attending these events. It's just really special. And it really is a c a celebration of the community's art. Exactly. We have so much to offer in Pensacola and it's a time for Pizza Cola to essentially show off. Show everybody what we've got. It really is. It and you know, it it's ACE is an offshoot of the old Northwest Florida Arts Council. and David Baer was one of the founders of Ace to put that together, Arts, Culture, and Entertainment. the you've been involved for a while. You you're you've you were past you were the chairman last last year when I interviewed you. What over the years, what's what are one or two events that you're really proud of that y'all sponsored? I really I've always enjoyed night moves. I thought that was really special. when they did it it's a little different this year but when they've done it down at Maritime Park in the past, just being on the bay. that's a beautiful venue, just being there seeing all the people, so I've really enjoyed those. And you know, I know it's always a fan favorite, but friends of downtown where they're with their visual arts display that's open to the public. That's always that's always a that's always a favorite. Yeah, they've done you know, we've they did the parasols which became such a huge deal. They did the balloons or the bubbles. and they've always done something s really strong visually. UWF painted the trees blue was a painting the trees. Yeah, it and then the year that they filmed on at night, filmed on top of the Artel Gallery where you got to see the hi yeah, you got to see the history of Pensacola in a vignette, and people speak out and be different characters. So it it really And there's plenty for kids. It's just such a multidimensional, multimedia type event, isn't it? Well that's what we try to do every year, to bring something in that will, you know, tailor to all sorts of interests and likes. So I mean it's family oriented events this year. Ballet Pensacola is doing Carnival of the Animals. So it's going to be an original ballet and they're partnering with the Humane Society, so there's going to be puppies at the ballet. Who doesn't want to go to a LA and see Puppet? Right, right. My son is looking forward to that one. We're going to that one. Yeah, where during Foo Foo, we're our office is the headquarters for the street teams where they meet every day and go out and and get it. So it's fun to be and see their excitement, see people's excitement about the events. you're stepping down as chair. what's your advice for the new chair? Ooh. Just keep on trucking. No, we have so much fun. It's a very small committee. there are seven of us that are on the committee and we are a very close group and everybody works really, really hard. Every single person that's involved with ACE and also with the Fifty F S committee is one hundred percent from volunteers. Right. But it's a passion project for all of us and we really love what we do and it shows. It really does. And and and you're looking at the the grant process is very structured. It's it's done on a point system. It's done all in the transparent and in the public eye. Is that's done, there and there's always I've always been encouraged because y'all have always looked to try to do something new, maybe help a a new organization that's trying to do something, try to guide them. 'Cause it's that variety that makes it special, don't you think? Exactly. And that is what we're trying to do too. And every year after the festival we have a meeting with the committee and we sit down and we go over everything. What worked, what didn't work, what can we fix in terms of maybe the grant application process, even the scorecard, how can we improve year to year? Now, besides the puppies, what else are you looking forward to out of this year's festival? Motion City's soundtrack is coming to the Handlebar, which is part of Night Moves. So Night Moves is a little different this year than it has been for the past two years. So rather than doing a one day festival at Maritime Park, it's going to be spread out during the duration of Foo Foo Festival. So there's different artists at different venues throughout the festival. Sort of like songwriters festival, how they try to do that. Yeah. So it's going to be I think they have some events at the Handlebar, Odd Colony, and also for the first time ever, we're gonna have a Foo Food Fest event at the beach. There's going to be a show out at Laguna, so we're really excited about that one. Yeah, you look at this as thirteen years. It started is is trying to even explain what foo foo was in the beginning, and now you look at you're at thirteen. where do you where do you go from here? I don't know. That's sort of the beauty of it, isn't it? Yeah that's well, I'm still the president of Ace, so I'm doing that for a year. And then I'll see what happens after that. Yeah, it's it i it's a fascinating festival that really celebrates Pensacola. And I and I don't know of anyone who's doing anything close to this anywhere around us. Yeah. Well, because it's unlike any other festivals because it is different every year. Yeah. And we've got just the the wealth of cultural organizations that we have to be able to a PLT, a ballet company, a symphony, you know, to have someone like Robert Goodspeed with the handlebar being able to put on a festival like Nightm you know, you know Nightmares. So it it's just all those things clicking and and and working are just really great. So Yeah, the Pensacola Museum of Art has a grant this year too. Yeah. So and the about the opera The Symphony, and then also Mess Hall got a grant this year. So they have an event. And then obviously Light Spill is the FunSoy Downtown Visual Public Art Display this year. So it's going to be mirrored spheres cascading down the side of Artel Gallery. I call them disco balls because that's what I think they look like. Another great selfie moment for sure. Therese, thank you so much. coming out. I appreciate it. Thanks for all your volunteering for the community. We'll go ahead and take a break. I'm Rick Outson. We're Rick's blog live. We'll be right back. I'm Dr. Derek Jones, a double board certified ENT and facial plastic surgeon. And I'm Andrea Housen, Practice Coordinator for Dr. Jones. Join us every third Tuesday at 8 p.m. as we explore today's most popular facial rejuvenation and cosmetic procedures. We'll discuss both surgical and non-surgical options, answer common questions, and help you understand what treatments may be right for you. You'll see real results from patients. Plus, we'll keep you updated on our offices and where you can meet us in the community. The most important thing for any client once they first call us is let's get you into the treatment that you need. Right. Let's get you better. Right. Let's make let's help you come back stronger and let's take all these other details of how you're gonna deal with the rental car, how you're gonna deal with the insurance agent. Let's take that off your plate. Yeah, right. 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Our walls are covered head to toe in all the classics, from taffy to gummies, and lollipops to gumballs. And don't forget our ice cream. With endless toppings and dipped cones, we've got what you're craving. Let us take you back to a time when every problem could be solved with candy. At Baba Swit Spa. What a show. We've covered a lot. Public safety, what's happening in the city of Milton, what's happening in Scambia County. We had the new CEO and president of Sacr Ascension Sacred Heart, Rick Metzger. what a what a f what a great leader he's gonna be in healthcare in this community. We had Admiral Lance Scott, the director of the Port of Pensacola. So much is going on at the port. It's great to have him. And then Therese McKenzie, who's the past chair of Fufu Fest. that's coming up starting October 29th. and of course the you're right now, which we didn't touch on today, but you've got the Interstate Fair going on. So please, there's so much going on in the community. We need our yards clean, we need our streets safe, but there's so much that we can do to distract us during the next few weeks and months as we go through this. Thank you for watching the show. We'll be back next week. And you can follow me on rixblog.biz at any time. But thank you for watching the show today.