Mayor: “Public Safety is a Two-Way Street”

City Hall

At his Wednesday morning press conference, Mayor D.C. Reeves opened with condolences for three recent community losses—former ECUA board member Dale Perkins, former Councilman Mike DeSorbo, and former Cobb Center director Myra Williams—before turning to the shooting Sunday night at Vibes and Smoothies on North 9th Avenue.

Reeves said Pensacola Police have logged 32 responses to the club since March, including an Aug. 29 incident in which a man wanted on a felony child?neglect warrant ran from officers into the business, where the owner let him hide until he surrendered. Reeves compared the situation directly to the Club Climax nuisance case the city resolved in 2023.

“Public safety is not just an obligation of our officers, of our administration, of Chief Winstrom. There is a business ownership obligation to public safety as well.”

Reeves said Chief Eric Winstrom’s department is handling the response for now and that the city has “some legal avenues” in reserve if the owner doesn’t cooperate, but stressed no formal request from PPD to step in has come yet.

Civic Dialogues keeps climbing. Reeves said the city’s online engagement platform has logged 34,859 votes or comments on 685 ideas as of Wednesday morning. The site, civicdialogues.org/pensacola, stays open through Oct. 12.

Two big construction projects are finally moving. Loftus Marine was awarded the bid for the 17th Avenue boat ramp rebuild, with work starting the week of Sept. 21—a new ramp and dock, repaved parking lot, and a boardwalk routing pedestrians safely under the Graffiti Bridge trestle instead of across the tracks.

Separately, the first phase of the long-delayed Hollis T. Williams stormwater and greenway project—stretching from East Gonzales north to East Jordan—goes to council for a bid award, with elevated trails, landscaping, upgraded ballfields, and a stormwater component.

Homeless shelter funding gets reshuffled. With the vendor that supplied Pallet shelters going out of business, Reeves said the city already has all 27 units it ordered in hand—14 originally planned for Opsahl and 13 for REAP will now largely consolidate at REAP, while Opsahl still gets the larger shower/bathroom trailer. About $400,000 in leftover ARPA funds needs a new use before year’s end; Reeves said his preference is to route it through the Continuum of Care, possibly to help seed a low-barrier shelter.