Ed Spears oversaw the construction of the Community Maritime Park and Blue Wahoos Stadium while working for the City of Pensacola. He is now Milton‘s city manager.
- “There are a lot of great opportunities in Milton,” he said. “It’s a diamond in the rough, and we’re busy polishing it every day, letting people know it’s a great place to live, work, and play.”
He continued, “There’s so many projects, new construction businesses going in. When we eclipsed 10,000 in population for the first time in 2020, that put us on the radar for a lot of national site selectors. And we’re seeing the fruits of that now, where national companies are coming into Milton. They’re filling up our shopping centers, they’re doing new buildings, and it’s really making a big difference.”
Spears talked about working under and with strong leaders in Pensacola.
“(City Manager) Tom Bonfield and Kevin Cowper (Community Development) and Marianne Ustick (Employee Services) were the three who brought me to Pensacola when I was in Richmond, Virginia,” he said.
“They laid so much of the foundation for the revitalization and the renaissance that we’re living in today over in Pensacola with the changes to the code and the land development ordinances so that the flexibility was there, the creativity was there to let the private industry do what they do best and kind of get out of the way, cut all that red tape.”
- He added, “And then you add people like Quint Studer, who’s been an amazing friend and mentor, and down the line – Dr. Kavanaugh with UWF, Dr. Saunders with UWF, Admiral Fetterman and his wife Nancy. Amazing, amazing leaders who came forward. They held the course, they had a vision, and they made it a reality.”
The City of Milton needs a new sewage treatment plan. Spears said, “We can build a new wastewater treatment plant. We’re doing the exact same project the Pensacola did. Our wastewater treatment plant is on a body of water in harm’s way from a hurricane, discharging into the river, whereas they (ECUA) discharged right into Pensacola Bay. We want to move it inland and upland. It’s the exact same project, and we can do it. At the same time, we can revitalize our downtown.”
Right man. Right time.