Everyone agrees the Bayview Community Center should be replaced. However, we at Inweekly believe that more input from the public and the Pensacola City Council is needed before the City of Pensacola embarks on what will be the city’s legacy park project for the next decade.
The $9.6 million price tag requires more analysis and dialogue. Based on the current Local Option Sales Tax Capital Plan, the Bayview Community Center will be the only community center built over the next 11 years. It is the largest single project in the plan and the most expensive center ever built by the City of Pensacola.
Shouldn’t the Council want to be sure this is the facility that the public wants?
Small Advisory Committee
The Sanders Beach community center had an 11-member advisory committee of professionals, city staff and citizens that worked on the design.
The Bayview center had a five-person committee that included one city staff person (Kim Carmody, Superintendent of Recreation), a general contractor (Steven Shelley, East Hill Building and Design), two UWF staff members (Bill Healey, University of West Florida Director of Recreation and Sports Services, and Juliette Moore, UWF Anthropology Department office manager), and Pablo Mirabal, whose company, FMC Management Services, recently relocated to downtown Pensacola.
Hardly, a cross-section of Pensacola. Shouldn’t have the surrounding neighborhood associations had representatives on the advisory committee?
Limited Public Input, No Alternatives Offered
During its design phase in 2005, the architect held a series of public meetings on the possible features of the Sanders Beach center.
A draft of the final design was presented at public meeting. Then the revised plan was presented at the City Council’s Neighborhoods Services Committee. The public commented on the plan at the public meeting and committee meeting. The plan was presented to the city council the following month, and the public was allowed to comment again. The council made sure the design stayed within its budget of about $5 million.
Caldwell Associates held one meeting on the Bayview Center in May 2017.
The Bayview Center final design increased the budget from $6 million to $8.25 million. The design was emailed to the Council after 5 p.m. on the eve of its final budget hearing in September 2017. The mayor’s office presented no alternatives to get the project within its approved budget. The design was approved without debate. The public was not given notice that it was on the agenda, except for a post on this blog hours before the meeting.
More Transparency, Input Required
A legacy project deserves more transparency and public discussion, especially when the cost increases will eat up 90-percent of the LOST funds allocated for improvements to athletic facilities and parks through December 2029 and tie the hands of future mayors and councils as they have to deal with the needs of a growing city.
Such projects should not be rushed. We agree with mayoral candidate Drew Buchanan who said, “In the private sector, if there were cost overruns like this and a project’s cost nearly doubled, questions would be asked and people would be held accountable.”
Our polling shows that less than half of Pensacola voters support spending $9.6 million on the Bayview center.
Mayor Hayward and the Pensacola City Council need to be sure they get this project right. There are no mulligans.
It’s our hope that Mayor Hayward will listen to Buchanan and the public. He should not push to have this item added on tonight’s agenda. Instead, he should host a series of town hall meetings to gather more public input, modify the design to get it within its budget, and rebid the project.
