Daily Outtakes: Baptist, Bay Center, Attack on Unhoused -

I'm your huckleberry

Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves held his regular press conference yesterday, addressing several ongoing city projects and responding to a disturbing incident involving teenagers attacking an unhoused individual.

City-County Recap

Mayor Reeves described Monday’s meeting with county officials as “productive,” discussing both the Baptist Hospital demolition and future plans for the Pensacola Bay Center.

Baptist Legacy Demolition: Mayor Reeves confirmed that the city’s selection committee has ranked L.M. Sessler Excavating & Wrecking, Inc. as the number one company to handle the old Baptist Hospital demolition project. While the exact bid amount wasn’t disclosed due to a pending bid protest and ongoing negotiations, the mayor assured the public that the price falls within the proposed $15.9 million budget.

“Their price is within the proposed $15.9 million budget, but we’re not going to disclose that exact number,” Reeves explained, noting that bid protests are “very common and customary” in the procurement process.

The mayor highlighted that Sessler was the only firm that included a budget for road repair as part of their proposal. Another key factor in their selection was their plan to not crush concrete on the hospital campus, instead opting to load it off or crush it elsewhere – a decision that would significantly reduce noise and dust for surrounding neighborhoods.

Mayor Reeves was pleased with the discussion on the county’s contribution toward the project. He acknowledged that while all government entities face financial constraints, the opportunity presented by the hospital site is unique: “Cities and counties don’t come across acreage like this for residential to help potentially solve the largest national issue facing our country.” He expressed that county officials seemed supportive and would continue discussing potential funding partnerships.

For the Bay Center, the mayor mentioned plans for the county to form a “nimble” subcommittee—composed of representatives from the county, city, DIB, and the Florida Department of Transportation—to hear from a potential master planner. He emphasized that any development of the Bay Center area should be a collaborative effort:

“This is not successful if it’s just a city or just a mayor idea. It’s successful if it’s all of our idea.”

Disturbing Attack on Unhoused

Mayor Reeves addressed a “shameful video” circulating on social media showing teenagers attacking an unhoused person near the Graffiti Bridge. The incident occurred around midnight Friday into Saturday morning, with police being notified the following day around noon.

PPD spokesman Mike Wood described the video as “nothing short of shocking” and confirmed that despite the victim declining to press charges, the department has decided to pursue the case in collaboration with the state attorney’s office. The suspects are reportedly underage, and charges are expected soon.

Mayor Reeves expressed his dismay at the incident:

“It was certainly painful to watch. And again, that’s why we aren’t stopping this conversation at whether this particular victim felt the need to press charges or not, that we say that this is something that’s not going to be tolerated.”

Other City Updates

The mayor also provided updates on several other ongoing projects:

Progress on Portland Loo public restroom installations at MLK Plaza and the skate park, with ECUA partnering to help reduce costs
March red light camera violations totaled 2,824, a 21% increase from February
A permitting process round table meeting is scheduled for April 16th from 9-11 AM
The deadline for nonprofits to submit proposals for pallet shelters has been extended to May 15th
FDOT will host a public meeting about the Bayfront Parkway multi-use path on April 22nd

Your comments are welcomed, but there are some rules to follow:

(1) Be Nice. No comments that slander another, no racism, no sexism, no personal attacks.

(2) No Harrassing Comments.

(3) No Libel. That’s saying something is not true about someone. Don’t do it.

(4) Keep it clean. Nothing vulgar, obscene, or sexually related. No profanity or obvious substitutions.

(5) I reserve the right to remove any comments that violate our rules or are inappropriate. I am not responsible for what is posted. Comments may not appear right away until they are approved by a moderator.

(6) Limit your comments to the subject in this story only, and limit comments to 1,500 characters or less. Do not post copyrighted material. Comments will not be added to stories that are over five days old.

(7) No posts may advertise a commercial business, political candidate, or political group. Links in a comment aren’t allowed.

8) Commenting too many times may result in your comments not being allowed. Readers will begin to ignore your views.

9) Email me if you believe a comment violates any of these rules, and it will be deleted.

Daily Outtakes: Baptist, Bay Center, Attack on Unhoused

City-County Recap

Disturbing Attack on Unhoused

Other City Updates

Rules for Comments

Archives

Walker Holmes Books

Inweekly Newsletter

Links