The Buzz 6/23/22
City Pool Problem The city’s Roger Scott Pool opened on Tuesday, June 7, and family memberships have been sold for the daily open sessions—$125 city residents, $185 outside of the city. But there’s a problem. City Councilwoman Jennifer Brahier has found that very few families can use the pool during weekdays.
“It has been two weeks of pretty much misery for the public trying to get in those pools,” Brahier told Inweekly. “The first notice I got was from a grandfather who had purchased family passes for each of his three daughters’ families. None of those families have been able to get into Roger Scott Pool yet, and they’ve tried numerous times. When he went and spoke to them, they said, ‘Well, you can only get in when day campers are not here, when there’s room beyond the day campers.’”
Brahier said that families have told her that they arrived at 9:05 a.m.—five minutes after the pool opened—and found a sign that said it was at capacity.
“When people took pictures and sent them to me and counted the number of people within the pools, it was 20 people,” she said. “So then when you ask the attendant, ‘Why? There’s only 20 people here.’ They were told, ‘Well, we’re saving everything for the day camps.’ Literally, saving everything for the day camps. So the public has been not having any access to these pools.”
Brahier said that most of the day camps are ones run by YMCA, which has the contract to operate the pools. She said she had met with city staff and received mixed messages. She toured the Roger Scott Pool with the city’s interim parks and recreation director.
She shared with Inweekly what they saw. “There’s a third pool there. This is the third season that it hadn’t been opened. It was full of water and debris and just partitioned off with a sign that it’s under construction when there’s actually no construction taking place. The bathrooms are completely boarded up and separated off with no working bathroom. They put a toilet trailer out in the grass outside the area and then fenced it off, so you can go to the toilet trailer. I mean, total disrepair, honestly.”
Brahier pointed out the city’s webpage says that there are lockers and showers and bathrooms and three pools—”and these things, which are just fictitious at this point.”
“There’s nothing in the budget to fix the bathroom. There’s nothing in the budget to fix the extra pool. There’s nothing in the budget to paint the flaking paint, which I actually see as somewhat dangerous around the pool as well,” she said. “To me, there was no concern about this city amenity for the citizens. I mean, just a lack of respect, honestly.”
ECUA Recycling Down Due to repairs at the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority’s Materials Recycling Facility, recycling for Pensacola Sanitation customers is temporarily on hold.
ECUA blamed the MRF’s shutdown on the failure of the second of two aging conveyor belts that have been slated for replacement in this fiscal year. The ECUA Board approved the $82,000 purchase of two new replacement belts at its February 2022 meeting. But the belts have been caught up in supply chain delays, according to ECUA officials.
The city’s Sanitation Services Department uses ECUA’s recycling facility to process recyclable materials from its customers, and ECUA is not accepting recyclables as repairs are completed to the facility. Tan recycling cans will still be collected, but materials will not be recycled. In the meantime, customers are urged to maintain positive recycling habits. ECUA is working as quickly as possible to bring the facility back into operation.
ECUA said its maintenance crews would take advantage of the downtime to make repairs and perform maintenance work on equipment that generally requires a facility shutdown, as well as prepare for the installation of the new belts, to ensure the restoration of MRF operations as quickly as possible.
The most current delivery date information for the belts is early August. ECUA estimated MRF operations would resume in mid-August. Like the city, ECUA will continue normal recycling collection, which is a free opt-in service with residential sanitation accounts, and urges its customers to keep up a positive recycling habit.
Remembering Carla Williams Pensacola State College President Ed Meadows recently announced an endowed scholarship being established at the college in honor of the late Carla Williams, who was murdered earlier this month.
“Carla was an employee of the college beginning as an assistant coach for 24 years, but before that, she was a player at Pensacola State, and a player at FSU, and Vicki Carson’s assistant coach for 10 years,” Dr. Meadows shared. “And when Vicki retired, she actually had a shot at becoming the head coach, but she wanted to go full time into the classroom. And the amazing thing about Carla was that she was not just a faculty member, but she continued to interact with our athletes for the next 14 years as a mentor and as a tutor.” He continued, “She was just a wonderful individual, and we are really going to miss her, but we have honored her by establishing an endowed scholarship. Our alumni association has a matching scholarship program. I spoke with her sister, Pam, and we are going to work with the family on how and who would be the recipients of this scholarship in remembrance of Carla.”
Dr. Meadows recommended that those interested in contributing to the Carla Williams Scholarship Fund contact Mikenzie Francis, the Pensacola State College Foundation’s donor relations manager, at (850) 484-1788.
Poll Workers
After the 2020 election, poll workers around the country were attacked on social media by those seeking to overturn the results. Fortunately, Escambia County didn’t suffer such vitriol.
“We’ve been blessed over the years to have a good, stable cadre of election workers, of folks that are repeat customers, if you will,” Supervisor of Elections David Stafford told Inweekly. “The biggest challenge, as you can imagine, was 2020, when people literally had to put their health right at risk to come out and help their fellow citizens exercise one of their most important constitutional rights. And so I’ll be forever grateful for those folks that did do that.”
He added, “Obviously, we’re always having to backfill people as they move, retire, pass away or just get tired of it. We’re always looking for new folks.”
Stafford wants to understand the difference between an election or poll worker and a poll watcher. He said, “A poll watcher is a function of political parties and political candidates. And that’s fine; they’re part of the process, but one does not equal the other.”
He continued, “If you want to be a poll worker and come help your fellow citizens vote and help carry out the process, then, by all means, come our way. But if you’re interested in the latter, contact political parties or candidates if you want to be a poll watcher. We regulate them, but we don’t appoint them, and they certainly fulfill a different role.”
To be a poll worker, visit escambiavotes.com.
Health Scholarships Community Health Northwest Florida is offering scholarships to create the next generation of health care workers.
“We’ve launched this year a scholarship program through Pensacola State College, where we are looking for high school students, your C-average kid, somebody who has an interest in health care and just needs a little support,” Community Health CEO Chandra Smiley told Inweekly publisher Rick Outzen on WCOA. “And it’s more than just let me help fund the scholarship; we also want to give them a job at the end of their journey and come and work with us and stay in the community and serve the community.”
She added, “The overall goal is really to foster and grow our own talent and keep them here to work and help serve.”
Community Health has reached out to Pensacola High School and targeted students in the ZIP codes where most of its patients live and where health disparities reside. She said, “For applications, you can go through the Pensacola State College. Any students who may be a good fit, they bring them over for an interview, and then we take off from there. We’re looking at medical assistants and LPNs. Probably next semester, we’d be looking at dental assistants and maybe some pharmacy techs.”
Patriot Arrives The Port of Pensacola welcomed New York Yacht Club American Magic back for training, marking the team’s third winter training on the Gulf Coast. On Saturday, June 11, the team’s racing yacht, Patriot, arrived.
American Magic will spend the summer building out the team’s base in advance of winter training. The team will spend all winter in Pensacola training before relocating to Barcelona for the final push into the 37th America’s Cup.
In 2018, American Magic was the first America’s Cup team to train in Florida since 1970. The Mule, a 38-foot test boat, first took to the Gulf waters in 2018 and then in 2019 on DEFIANT, the team’s AC75—a 75-foot monohull.
“We are so grateful for the support we’ve seen from the Pensacola community since our very first visit here,” said Skipper Terry Hutchinson. “The team is excited to return and continue training on Pensacola Bay, which has proven to be an ideal training venue for foiling monohulls. We look forward to continuing a long-term relationship with the Pensacola community, which has truly embraced American Magic from day one.”
Tippin Park Re-Do The city canceled a public input meeting regarding improvements to the Tippin Park Community Center slated for Saturday, June 11, after an anonymous flyer circulated through the neighborhood expressing several concerns about the center. The flyer claimed the center would be used to feed the homeless and asked residents to ask the mayor where the homeless would sleep after being fed.
Concerns over building the center in Tippin Park’s “only public green space” and daily security for the playground were also raised.
During his Monday, June 13, presser, Mayor Grover Robinson said the neighborhood meeting had been canceled due to concerns from nearby residents over “some projections of what some people were saying it ought to be.”
“The neighborhood meetings that we have are there for the neighborhoods to tell us what they want,” Robinson said, stressing that the city was looking to the surrounding community to inform its plans for the center. “The community center really needs to be designed and programmed to do what the community wants.”
He scoffed at the notion that it would be a feeding center. The mayor said, “We don’t do that at any of our community centers.”
A date for a re-scheduled input meeting has yet to be determined. The city intends to start the conversation fresh when the meeting is rescheduled. Mayor Robinson said, “We’re going to circle back around and pick a date, and we want to come back to the community. It’s a blank slate; they should tell us what they want.”
Marine Challenges Gaetz Businessman and combat veteran Mark Lombardo has committed to spending up to $1 million to defeat Congressman Matt Gaetz in the GOP primary.
According to his press release, Lombardo flew CH-46 helicopters in Vietnam. He is a former FedEx executive and pilot who helped get the company off the ground in the early days. For 40 years, he worked closely with CEO Fred Smith to establish FedEx as an iconic American company.
Lombardo is the son of Lt. Colonel Sam Lombardo (Ret.), a World War II veteran who was well known in the Panhandle for his heroism fighting in the Battle of the Bulge and in Germany as an infantry officer. Before his passing in 2021, Lt. Col. Lombardo was honored by the NFL at Super Bowl LIV (54).
“The people of Northwest Florida need a congressman who will put them first. Matt Gaetz is a professional politician who has dishonored his constituents with unnecessary drama, childish gimmicks and is reportedly entangled in a federal investigation for sex-trafficking a 17-year-old girl to the Bahamas,” said Lombardo. “Displaying the highest level of arrogance imaginable, he hired pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s attorneys and used the money from his hard-working America-first donors to pay the bill. His actions are disgraceful and do not reflect or represent the conservative values of Northwest Florida.”
He continued, “I’m America-first without the drama and gimmicks. Washington is broken because of people like Matt Gaetz. If you want to change Washington, send a Marine. I’ll get the job done.”
In his last congressional campaign in 2020, Gaetz raised $4,797,649. According to opensecrets.org, the congressman has $1.5 million cash on hand in his campaign account.
Admiral’s Visit Earlier this month, Vice Adm. Ricky Williamson, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Fleet Readiness and Logistics (OPNAV N4), met with base officials at NAS Pensacola to review the installation’s capabilities and future projects necessary to continue their support to the fleet.
“Our shore enterprise enables fleet readiness, which has a tremendous impact on our aviation, surface and sub-surface combatants,” Williamson said in a press release. “The hard work and dedication of the installation teams enable our warfighting units to be able to man, train and equip our forces, which allow us to ensure persistent logistics in unpredictable operational environments.”
At OPNAV N4, Williamson serves as the resource sponsor for operational logistics and supply chain support. His staff also supervises requirements for depot maintenance, ship support, fleet training and training ranges and is the primary resource sponsor for shore capabilities.
The admiral saw how Hurricane Sally damaged unaccompanied housing and held conversations detailing energy infrastructure, water utilities, base buffering initiatives, transportation programs and waterway management.
“Shore installations provide maintenance, training and logistics to the Fleet. Our effective shore-based management strategies provide the backbone for the U.S. Navy to meet our national defense mission,” Rear Adm. Wesley McCall, Commander, Navy Region Southeast, said. “Having him here in person gave us the ability to articulate our challenges and opportunities to better serve the Fleet.”
Transportation Survey Annually, the Florida-Alabama Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) reviews the transportation priorities for the urbanized areas of Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida and Orange Beach and the community of Lillian in Alabama. Prioritizing these projects maximizes available resources on an annual basis when determining how to meet the greatest needs of the region.
To view a detailed list of the Project Priorities and interactive map, visit ecrc.org/flalpriorities.
These priorities are submitted to the Florida Department of Transportation and the Alabama Department of Transportation for potential funding in the next five years. Projects are selected for funding based upon local priority, funding availability and project timing. There are several funding categories for transportation projects, and each category must be prioritized.
To ensure transportation needs are being met, the TPO needs your input.
Access the FL-AL TPO Project Priorities Survey at ecrc.org/flalprioritiessurvey. The survey period is open through July 31.