Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves told me this afternoon that his legal staff is in communication with county staff regarding the offer the Board of County Commissioners approved yesterday. He wants to work with the county and honor his agreement with Commissioner Lumon May that services, including health care, are provided to the neighborhood abandoned by Baptist Hospital two years ago.
“This is an absolute ‘the devil’s in the details’ situation,” said the mayor. “Yes, we’re open to it, but it’s going to be more about performance than it’s going to be about $510K versus $509K type of thing.”
The Vote
In a unanimous 5-0 vote, the Escambia County Commission approved allocating $510,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds toward rehabilitating buildings at the former Baptist Hospital site, but not for demolition as initially proposed.
Commissioner Lumon May negotiated an alternative approach with Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves that would preserve at least two buildings as part of what Baptist Hospital officials have called its “legacy campus.” The county would receive one building to serve as a community center, and the city would ensure a second building would be dedicated to health care services.
Concerns
Mayor Reeves is interested in the county committing funds to renovate the building it receives and seeing the construction work completed in a short time period, which is what he means by “performance.”
- “Lumon May and I are arm in arm over this,” the mayor said, noting that they see the overall project as an investment for today (the community center and healthcare) and tomorrow (affordable housing and other developments). “If this perceived investment of today—this community center and this healthcare—doesn’t happen quickly, then why are we doing it?”
Whatever the final written agreement states, Mayor Reeves will still have to convince the Pensacola City Council. He will have to sell them on giving the county building valued at around $800K for $510K and setting aside another building for health care. The city is short $2 million to do the demolition.
