Through a public records request we got the accounting for the BP grant for the renovation of the Veterans Memorial Park on Bayfront Parkway. As of August 8, the city had only spent $45,000 of the $215,000 that it has received from a $360,000 BP tourism grant. That money has been spent for lighting at the park.
The grant was to go to the foundation set up two decades ago to maintain the park. When questions arose about the finances of the Veterans Memorial Park Foundation, Mayor Ashton Hayward intervened and worked out an agreement to turn over the grant to a new foundation that he was starting. That foundation has, reportedly, yet to get its 501(3)(c) status and does not have an agreement with the city to manage the park.
In November 2012, when he announced the formation of a steering committee to set up the new foundation, there was a photo op of the mayor and City Administrator Bill Reynolds holding a large ceremonial check.
“Veterans Memorial Park should be first-class,” Hayward said. “It should be a beacon for freedom and a monument to those American ideals for which our veterans have fought and died. This committee will help us to ensure that we can properly manage Veterans Memorial Park and grow and improve the park over the coming years.”
In February, Reynolds got press coverage when he told the steering committee that the first $90,000 of a BP grant had been received at Pensacola City Hall. According to the PNJ article on the meeting, the city had “already spurring repairs at the facility.”
Reynolds told the committee and the media that his priority fixing the lights on The Wall South monument to Vietnam War veterans. “We have begun the engineering process for the lights at the park, and we are having conversations to post haste get those lights fixed,” Reynolds said.
According to the invoices, it looks like “post haste” meant July.