Jacksonville firefighters rescue two injured in downtown accident

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var addthis_config = { services_exclude: 'facebook,print,twitter,email', ui_open_windows: true, }; var addthis_share = { templates: { twitter: '{Jacksonville firefighters rescue two injured in downtown accident} - {{url}} via @jaxdotcom', }, url_transforms: { shorten: { twitter: 'bitly' } }, shorteners: { bitly : { login: 'jaxdotcom', apiKey: 'R_0aacfeacd69fcce282ac89b35fb3af1b' } } } Jacksonville firefighters rescue two injured in downtown accident
By Dan Scanlan Thu, Oct 2, 2014 @ 9:52 am | updated Thu, Oct 2, 2014 @ 10:37 am
Image provided by Jacksonville Association of Firefighters PhotosImage provided by Jacksonville Association of Firefighters More Law & Disorder News
Jacksonville firefighters worked a car crash Thursday morning at 1217 N. Pearl St. that left two people trapped, according to the Jacksonville Firefighters Union.
Police and firefighters were called to the scene at 9:25 a.m. to find a Nissan sedan lying on its side on the sidewalk. A series of dramatic photographs provided by the union shows six firefighters tending to the injured passengers near Florida State College of Jacksonville after the crash. Firefighters stabilized the wreck with wooden chocks to keep it from rolling over as they worked to extricate the victims. The next photos show the roof removed and firefighters tending to the injured
Two adults were transported to UF Health Jacksonville with no major injuries, according to the fire department.

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Northeast Florida youth groups, residents able to borrow lifesaving AED tool

An electric shock from an automated external defibrillator could have restarted Andrew Cohn’s heart, which stopped after the 15-year-old collided with another player at a 2010 baseball game.
He died of sudden cardiac arrest.
His parents, Harold and Becky Cohn of St. Marys, Ga., only found out later that a defibrillator — commonly called an AED — had been nearby. But it was locked up inside a school adjacent to the ball field.
That prompted them to expand the mission of the AED Alliance, which they had founded to help make the devices more accessible to the public. Their new initiative, the Borrow an AED Program, comes to Northeast Florida Thursday.
Thirteen of the devices will be distributed to health care-related agencies in five counties, where they can be borrowed for free by youth sports teams, church or Scouting groups and anyone else with CPR certification.
“An AED was locked up in the school next to where Andrew died. We don’t want to come across as bitter, but they need to be mobilized,” said Harold Cohn.
“Our ultimate goal is to gain traction with this ... to place at least one in the 3,140 counties nationwide,” he said. “We are willing to take the lead.”
An AED analyzes heart rhythm and prompts a user to deliver a shock when necessary, in conjunction with CPR. The device provides clear audio and visual cues telling users what to do and coaches them through CPR, according to the alliance website.
The Jacksonville Sports Medicine Program coordinated the new Northeast Florida AEDs, which were funded by the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation and the Jaguars Foundation.
The devices will be available for borrowing from Heartland rehabilitation centers on Amelia Island and in Jacksonville’s Northside and Middleburg; Preferred Physical Therapy in Orange Park; Baker County EMS; and Cora Rehabilitation, Progressive Step Physical Therapy, Select Physical Therapy and Atlantic Coast Physical Therapy, all in Jacksonville.
Another four devices have already been picked up by St. Johns County Fire Rescue.
Selecting the appropriate locations was key, said Robert Sefcik, executive director of Jacksonville Sports Medicine, who is also chairman of the Florida High School Athletic Association Sports Medicine Advisory Committee and an American Heart Association CPR instructor.
“We were looking for facilities that understand the importance of AEDs and also are closely tied to recreational and competitive young athletes,” he said.
Certified athletic trainers employed by the physical therapy facilities “routinely provide sideline medical services at youth sporting events,” he said. “They are very aware that having AEDs available at these events could mean the difference between life or death should someone suffer a sudden cardiac arrest.”
“These partners will help us get the word out to the community so athletic associations and other organizations serving young athletes will know the AEDs are available and so they will be used,” Sefcik said.
The borrow program has also been established in the Cohns’ home county, Camden, in Georgia, and in communities in California, Pennsylvania and Arizona, Harold Cohn said. The Cohns hope more government agencies, private organizations and nonprofits across the country will follow suit, he said.
Beth Reese Cravey: (904) 359-4109
AED ALLIANCE
To donate or get more information, contact Harold and Becky Cohn at the AED Alliance, 124 Point Peter Place, St. Marys, GA. 31558 or go to aedpetitionnow.com.

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Jacksonville corrections pension plan gets 'F' grade; Fernandina also scraping bottom

Jacksonville’s Police and Fire Pension Fund has drawn all the hue and cry in the city’s latest stab at pension reform, but according to the LeRoy Collins Institute, the city’s pension plan for correction officers is the one getting an “F” grade.
The think tank, located on the Florida State University campus, handed out a “D” for the financial health of the Police and Fire Pension Fund and a “C” to the city’s general employee pension plan.
Elsewhere in Northeast Florida, Fernandina Beach got “F” grades for its pension plans.
St. Augustine and Palatka stood out with “A” ratings for their police pension plans.
The recently released report card by the the institute took stock of 151 municipal pension plans across the state, updating a previous assessment done in 2011.
The report concluded that overall, the financial health of pension plans has gotten worse, with a bigger share of them falling into the “D” and “F” categories.
“Many cities are in urgent need of reform that will help reverse this decline in healthy pension funds and get more plans headed toward the honor roll,” said David Matkin, assistant professor at University of Albany-SUNY, who wrote the report.
Chris Hand, chief of staff for Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown, said Brown intends to propose reforms to the pension plans for corrections officers and general employees. But he said the first order of business will be the Police and Fire Pension Fund because the city will contribute $153 million to it this year.
The financial impact on the city’s general fund — which pays for daily city services, including public safety, libraries and parks — is less for the other pension plans. The city will fork over $21.5 million from the general fund for the general employees pension plan and $17.6 milion for the correction officers plan.
Fernandina Beach City Manager Joe Gerrity said his city will evaluate changes to its pension plans. “We’re very concerned about them,” he said. “We’re moving forward with at least doing a study, and I’m sure there will be some reforms coming out of that study.”
Fernandina Beach’s general employee pension plan has banked enough to cover 57 percent of its future pension obligations, and the funding level for its police and firefighter plan is at 55 percent, according to a report compiled by the Florida Department of Management Services.
In addition to funding levels, the LeRoy Collins Institute also measured the impact of pensions on city budgets, the rate of investment returns assumed by the pension plans, and how much employees contributed to their pension plans.
For instance, the Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension Fund and the city’s Correction Officers Pension Plan both fare poorly in terms of funding future pension obligations, with funding ratios of 43 percent and 45 percent respectively. But the institute report gave them credit because those enrolled in the programs contribute more than 5 percent of their salaries, which is the benchmark used by the study. Jacksonville Police and firefighters contribute 7 percent of salaries, while corrections officer contribute 8 percent.
The Police and Fire Pension Fund got up to a “D” rating because it adopted conservative assumptions for what its investments will earn. The study gives credit to pension plans that assume investment returns will be 7.75 percent or less. The Police and Fire Pension Fund projects 7 percent returns.
The LeRoy Collins report used data from the Florida Department of Management Services, which shows Jacksonville assumes 8.25 percent investment returns for the correction officers and general employees pension plans.
But the city has since scaled back that expectation and is banking now on 7.75 percent returns.
The Police and Fire Pension Fund is an independent city agency overseen by a five-member board.
The general employee and correction officer plans are run by the city’s retirement system administrative officer and have advisory boards.
The LeRoy Collins report does not assess pension plans covering county employees because they are part of the Florida Retirement System.
David Bauerlein: (904) 359-4581
Making the pension grade
The LeRoy Collins Institute handed out grades for the fiscal soundness of municipal pension plans statewide. The chart also shows the percentage of future pension obligations that pension plans can pay for over a multi-year period. The unfunded liability is the amount the cities owe their pension plans to fulfill that obligation. The figures are a financial snapshot and will change over time based on investments returns earned by pension plans.
Pension plan Grade Funding level for future obligations Unfunded liability
Atlantic Beach general employees C 74 percent $4.3 million
Atlantic Beach police D 65 percent $3.7 million
Fernandina Beach general employees F 57 percent $9.6 million
Fernandina Beach police/firefighters F 55 percent $11.8 million
Jacksonville corrections officers F 45 percent $150.1 million
Jacksonville general employees C 62 percent $947.3 million
Jacksonville police/firefighters D 43 percent $1.65 billion
Neptune Beach police/firefighters C 75 percent $2 million
Orange Park firefighters D 77 percent $1.3 million
Orange Park general employees D 54 percent $3.5 million
Orange Park police D 73 percent $3.7 million
Palatka firefighters D 71 percent $2.4 million
Palatka general employees D 72 percent $5.9 million
Palatka police A 90 percent $966,000
St. Augustine general employees B 74 percent $8.9 million
St. Augustine police A 95 percent $681,000
Sources: LeRoy Collins Institute, Florida Department of Management Services, city of Jacksonville. JEA, the city-owned utility, shoulders part of the pension cost for the Jacksonville General Employees Pension Plan.

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Billy Graham grandson launches planning for evangelistic festival in Jacksonville, 'one of Granddaddy's favorite cities'

Evangelist Billy Graham lives in Carolina Panthers territory, but one of his two favorite caps is a tattered one with a Jacksonville Jaguars logo that he received 14 years ago.
He also loves Jacksonville’s Mayo Clinic, which he has visited multiple times for medical treatment. So when the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association stages the Greater Jacksonville Festival of Hope in 2015, Graham, almost 96 and in failing health, will be there in spirit.
“This is one of Granddaddy’s favorite cities,” said grandson Will Graham, in town Thursday to launch local planning for the May 29-31 event. “We’ve always joked that when the angels finally decide to call him home, he’ll say, no, I want to go to Mayo Clinic one more time.”
Hundreds of members of Northeast Florida’s faith community gathered at the Jacksonville Marriott to hear from Will Graham and association staffers, as well as Mayor Alvin Brown and members of the local event planning committee.
Headlining the festival will be Billy Graham’s son and Will Graham’s father, Franklin, who runs the association as well as Samaritan’s Purse, an outreach organization. Franklin Graham conducts festivals across the world, preaching to millions of people in cities from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Tupelo, Miss., since 1989.
The Jacksonville event will be free and open to the public, sponsored by the association with the support of area churches and other community organizations.
Thousands of people are expected to attend.
Will Graham said the festival at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena will be an opportunity for the area faith community to come together and expand its ranks.
“We have the greatest joy of telling others about Christ. We get to be part of it,” he said.
Brown said Jacksonville’s strong faith contingent “can reach the community in ways no other institution can do.”
“We are living in a challenged world. If ever we needed the Lord, it’s now,” he said. “We really need to have a revival.”
Ginger Soud, leader of the festival’s local executive team, said the event would use multiple platforms to reach all ages, including social media and streaming the services, concerts and other related activities online.
“There are many people today needing hope,” she said. “We will be reaching the world with the Gospel from Jacksonville, Florida.”
The association issues video messages from Billy Graham on his birthday, which is Nov. 7. The topic for his 96th birthday message will be heaven, Will Graham said.
“He’s got good days and he’s got bad days,” he said. “He’s really looking forward to heaven ... It looks very sweet to him.”
Beth Reese Cravey: (904) 359-4109
GREATER JACKSONVILLE FESTIVAL OF HOPE
To donate, volunteer or get more information, contact the Greater Jacksonville Festival of Hope, 9424 Baymeadows Road, Suite 110, Jacksonville, FL 32256; (904) 619-2220; jacksonvillefestival@bgea.org; or go to jacksonvillefestival.org.

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