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LETTERS

Teacher doesn’t need to apologize

Dear Editor:

In regards to the “Backpack Apology Sought” article in the Oct. 8 Ormond Beach Observer: Kudos to the gym teacher for doing what was right. No apologies are needed unless it is from the mother of the student trying to start controversy. Anyone questioning “all lives matter” in any form, whether it be verbal or written, truly has to be racist. I can’t imagine what would happen if a student came in with a back pack saying “white or yellow lives matter!”

The truth is that all lives do matter and most people do not look at the world in black, white or yellow. You are what you are, and very good people are on all sides. There are only a few who want to keep the controversy going.

The sad thing is that the education system seems to like the controversy and is promoting it. It has to end in the school systems and at home.

Please ... Let’s everyone get along, and the world will be a much better place.

TERRY YORK Ormond Beach

Taking the bait

Dear Editor:

The city of Ormond Beach just approved a $47,000 design for a new bait house expected to cost another $865,000. Zone 2 Commissioner Kent called it a “once in a generation opportunity.”

Citizens have asked for a new medical emergency center on the beachside to replace the hospital on A1A that was abandoned, then razed by Advent. Property crime in the city is far higher than the national average, with unfilled vacancies in the Police Department. Infrastructure leaks have become an epidemic while the city allocates millions in resources to buy Medjool palm trees, a church, a floating boat dock, a relocated police station, and now a bigger and better bait shop next to the floating boat dock.

Mayor Partington stated he would like to get input on conceptual plans for the new facility from the public, Ormond MainStreet, and the past Downtown Steering Committee. As he did in the 2018 election, Granada Pier Bait and Tackle owner-operator Ike Leary has already given his input: 2020 campaign contributions of $500 each to Mayor Partington and Commissioner Kent and $250 each to Commissioners Dwight Selby and Rob Littleton.

MICHAEL YOUNG

Ormond Beach

Letter writer got it right: Start fresh

Dear Editor:

In last week’s edition of the Observer Lori Bennett was right on!

If you didn’t read it please do. If you did, read it again and remember this as you go to the polls in November.

And that goes for the County Council also. Let’s start fresh all the way around.

SYLVIA MEINCKE

Ormond Beach

Send letters to jarleene@ormondbeachobserver.com. The editor may make changes for clarity and length. Include first and last name and city of residence.

COPS CORNER

OCT. 2 UNDERDRESSED BURGLAR

7:06 a.m. — 100 block of North Yonge Street Unarmed burglary. While responding to call about a burglary in a local restaurant, police were given a heads up that there was a suspicious person nearby. The reporting officer went to investigate and found an empty car. After a few minutes, a 51-year-old Palm Coast man, clad in only an undershirt and underwear, appeared and asked the officer to jump the battery on his car, according to the police report.

Another officer found a pair of shorts across the street and asked the man if they were his. The man said they weren’t, but put them on anyway. He told police he had been hanging out with a woman and his car ended up breaking down at that location.

Inside the burglarized restaurant, police discovered tables had been moved and smeared with ketchup. There was also ketchup on the floor and several ceramic table settings were destroyed.

Police also found a T-shirt containing a logo with the man’s place of employment at the restaurant, as well as a pair of flip flops, which officers believed could fit the man’s feet, but he refused to try them on.

He was taken to jail. Civil service. What happens if a valet accidentally gives your car to someone else?

That’s what one 61-year-old Daytona Beach woman found out when it happened to her at a local restaurant. She and another restaurant patron owned the same model vehicle and were at the restaurant at the same time. The patron drove off with the woman’s car without noticing it wasn’t hers, according to the police report.

The valet service arranged a ride home for the woman. Later that morning, the patron responded to the police and drove back to the restaurant to pick up her own car and drop off the other woman’s car.

OCT. 8 A PIRATE’S LIFE FOR ME

1:30 p.m. — 1400 block of West Granada Boulevard Drunk person. A 60-year-old Ormond Beach man told police repeatedly that he was a “pirate” as he laid on top of a bicycle near a local grocery store.

The reporting officer noted that he looked like he had just fallen, but that the man said he was “relaxing and did not fall,” according to the police report. He told police he had previously drink a fifth of rum two or three hours ago.

Because the man had no one to pick him up, he was taken to a local hospital.

OCTOBER 15, 2020 Classifieds 15 Real Estate 13 YOUR NEIGHBORS

And the Emmy goes to ...

Ormond Beach resident wins sports Emmy

Photo by Jarleene Almenas Patrick Thornton, of Ormond Beach, was one of 10 CBS audio engineers who won an Emmy for their work during the 2019 Masters tournament.

JARLEENE ALMENAS

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Ormond Beach resident Patrick Thornton is responsible for everything spectators hear in their living rooms when watching sports on TV.

The crowd noise. The announcers. The music.

Thornton, an audio engineer for CBS, mixes all of that together from a semi-truck audio studio off the field, all the while handling communications from camera operators, directors and producers. He knows what wire belongs to what microphone, and while it can get hectic due to the multitasking, Thornton loves his job.

“I always joke and say that audio is like the central nervous system, because everything comes through audio, one way or another,” Thornton said.

On Aug. 11, the winners were announced for the 41st-annual Sports Emmy awards, and Thornton was one of 10 audio engineers recognized with the award for their work during the 2019 Masters Tournament. The Emmy for “Outstanding Technical Team Remote” is not Thornton’s first. He’s been nominated nine times since 2008, and won an Emmy as part of a larger group within CBS in the 1990s.

But, it is the first Emmy he’s won specifically for the job he performs during games, and that, Thornton said, is what makes it so satisfying.

“It’s a technical achievement award for what we do on that golf course,” Thornton said. “It’s almost magic. What you see here at home, it takes an awful lot to get there.”

SOUND BEGINNINGS

Thornton began his career in 1983 with Turner Broadcasting. He worked in shipping and receiving at the time, allowing him to meet just about everyone in the company, including founder Ted Turner. Within six months, Thornton decided that the best place to be in the company was the remote TV truck.

Not many want to get into audio engineering because of the amount of work involved, Thornton said, but as someone who loved both sports and music, it was a “no brainer” for him.

Around 1985, he started working in the industry. In the mornings, he went to college for his electrical engineering technology degree. In the afternoon, he worked games.

He’s now dedicated 35 years to audio engineering.

For the last seven years, Thornton has lived in Ormond Beach. Charles Rembaum, a friend of Thornton, said when he found out Thornton had won an Emmy, he was shocked. He joked that he couldn’t believe it until he saw the award. He wanted Thornton to be recognized because it’s not every day a local wins an Emmy.

“To me, that’s very, very impressive, especially in a small town,” Rembaum said.

A TECHNICAL FEAT

The Masters poses an added technical challenge for all the audio engineers working the famous golf tournament, Thornton said. Sounds from the field come via telephone lines, an old school method, and engineers like Thornton need convert the sig-

Courtesy photo A look at what Patrick Thornton sees while working a Masters tournament, this one from 2016.

nals into a digital format before transferring them to one of four trucks for mixing.

Working the Masters is an entire operation that takes about 400 crew members and 10 days to set up prior to the tournament, including camera operators and other staff, Thornton said.

The bigger the games, the more stress that is involved, he added. It’s why for him, the games that are most fun to work are college basketball and college football. There’s something about covering a University of Tennessee football game and hearing 100,000 people sing “Rocky Top,” Thornton said.

“That’s the kind of stuff that’s really fun about it,” he said. “You have an opportunity to be in places no one gets to be, or people would pay to be there and I’m getting paid to be there.

“I always joke and say that audio is like the central nervous system, because everything comes through audio, one way or another.”

PATRICK THORNTON, audio engineer for CBS