In This Week’s Issue
Aug. 13 Issue: A Songwriter’s Slow Burn, a Blindsided Board and a $41 Million Sale
The Aug. 13 issue of Inweekly is on stands now and at inweekly.net. Here’s why you’ll want to grab a copy.
Cover Feature
Let It Simmer: Katie Dineen’s Slow-Cooked Sophomore Album
Pensacola singer-songwriter Katie Dineen makes music you can garden to—literally. She calls her whimsical, earthy sound “indie garden rock,” and her new album, Simmer, was recorded live to tape at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, Miss., with a handwritten, gold-pen liner and an album cover born from a surprise birthday photo of a pot of curry.
“I really wanted to steep in this and be slow about it and create something that just felt really nourishing.”
Savannah Evanoff’s cover story traces how Dineen moved from a rushed debut to an album built on patience, “dad fad” tunings and the humanness of one-take recordings—including a song inspired by hearing a humpback whale sing on a snorkeling trip.
Outtakes
Blindsided at the Bay Center
Escambia County Administrator Wes Moreno had one job at last week’s Board of County Commissioners meeting: build consensus on the Pensacola Bay Center’s future. Instead, he blindsided his own commissioners—springing a draft interlocal agreement with the City of Pensacola that Commissioner Steven Barry says he never approved, while Commissioner Lumon May learned about it only that morning, from Mayor D.C. Reeves himself.
“That’s not a planning problem anymore. It’s a leadership problem, and it sits on Wes Moreno’s desk.”
I lay out why this latest misstep may be the most avoidable one yet.
Winners & Losers
A Hero Pilot, a Habitual Scrapyard Fire and a $400M Deal
Winners this week include:
- Emily Shelton, the 21-year-old flight instructor who safely landed a disabled plane on Interstate 10 and received the Sheriff’s Medal for it
- Angeleah Malone and Vianca Potts, honored with the Red Cross Lifesaving Award for saving a choking toddler at a Corry Station child care center
- Chad Henderson, whose Pensacola-based Catalyst just formed a $400 million healthcare real estate joint venture with Nuveen Real Estate
Losers include EMR Southern Recycling, which just had its sixth fire in two years.
Buzz
$41 Million Sale, Seven Years in the Making
One Energy Place—the former Gulf Power/FPL headquarters on Pensacola Bay—has sold for $41 million after a confidential, seven-year effort by its listing broker. Michael Carro of SVN Southland Commercial joined “Rick’s Blog Live” to walk through how the 250,000-square-foot tower was kept secret even from his own office and his wife, why banks balked at financing a vacant building despite downtown’s 4% office vacancy rate, and why he thinks it could be fully leased within six months.
Also in Buzz: two nonprofits, First Tee Gulf Coast and WEAC, have fired back in court at Clerk Pam Childers over $7,000 in county grant funding she’s refused to disburse. Their attorney’s new filing accuses Childers of issuing “blanket denials” and discouraging commissioners from submitting further funding recommendations—conduct he argues would amount to tortious interference in another context.
News
City Hall Picks a Fight With Youth Sports Leagues
Mayor D.C. Reeves isn’t happy about it, either. Tom St. Myer’s story details the new financial-scrutiny standards the Pensacola Parks and Recreation Board slapped on nonprofit youth leagues after a City Council dust-up over the East Pensacola Student Athlete Program’s paperwork.
“We should not be grilling them and criticizing them over $2,000, $1,500 items … It is embarrassing.”
East Pensacola’s Lawanna Hamilton called the scrutiny a “slap in the face” and questioned why youth sports leagues are being singled out while other youth nonprofits aren’t held to the same standard.
Calendar
Plenty to Do This Week
Pick up a copy on stands now, or read it all at inweekly.net.