At his Monday presser, Mayor Grover Robinson said he has been in discussion with Interim County Administrator Wes Moreno and county staff about the long-awaited Hollice T. Williams Park to be built under the I-110 overpass.
According to mayor, the county prefers building out the project in one step and not breaking it up into several phases.
“So it means the city is going to be is going to be responsible for the skate park,” said Mayor Robinson. “There’s about $700,000 or so that we need to put into it to finish up the skate park and the bathrooms to that area.”
He plans to bring the funding request to the Pensacola City Council in August. The mayor hesitated on giving a completion date for the skate park, but he hopes to have it finished before he leaves office in November 2022.
Jon Shell, founder of Upward Intuition, has been pushing for the city’s first skate park since 2015. Â He and the local skate community raised funds to enlist California-based Spohn Ranch, which built the ramp skateboarding legend Tony Hawk pulled the first 900 on, to draw plans for the park.
In December 2018, the Pensacola City Council members decided to assume responsibility for the park and fund the project.
Mayor Robinson also mentioned the need to redo the tennis courts at Roger Scott, which he estimated would cost $2.6 million. He hopes the county will help fund have the cost.
“It’s been over 50 years since those hardcourts have been repaired,” he said. “They’ve been topped over, but they haven’t been milled replaced with new stuff.”
The mayor said he has asked the county to assist so that city and county residents would pay the same rate to use the new courts.