Mayor Ashton Hayward isn’t starting off the second half of 2015 much better than the first half.
The most talked about new projects for downtown Pensacola are the University of West Florida Center for Entrepreneurship and the conference center that the Studers want to build at the Community Maritime Park.
Last week, Mayor Hayward was excited about the projects when he was interviewed by Pensacola Today. He said in the article that the Studers’ leases for Parcels 3, 6 and 9 at the CMP were being reviewed by the city attorney, and he wanted them on the council’s July agenda for approval.
Hayward said, “Hopefully on July 7, we can make a decision and start moving this forward. The Studer Community Institute is ready to go and UWF is ready to go.â€
Unfortunately the mayor’s office isn’t ready to go. The leases are not on the council agenda that was released yesterday afternoon (July 7). Unless the mayor calls a special meeting, the leases will not go before the city council until August. Since the Studers are willing to begin paying lease fees immediately, the CMPA loses a month of lease payments.
Another missed deadline for the mayor’s office.
Sigh.