On the morning the Escambia Children’s Trust holds its monthly meeting, NorthEscambia.com reports that Urban Development Center failed to pay off its loan from the Town of Century.
The UDC CEO Jessica Griffen delivered a check for $11,000, but her organization still owes $10,925 on an interest-free loan of $61,925 made by the Century Town Council in March 2023.
“I was supposed to complete my final payment to the Town of Century by May 31st. I came down on Saturday (June 1) and delivered a check for $11,000 I’m paying toward my debt. That will leave me $10,925 more to pay,” she said, adding that she expected a “full payment” from the state soon.
The Century Town Council unanimously extended the next payment due date to July 8 (.
Last year, Escambia Children’s Trust (ECT) awarded a contract to the Pensacola non-profit Urban Development Center for “YouthFirst Century” to serve 750 youth ages 11-18 over a three-year period at a total cost of $1.2 million. In reality, they only reached 30 children in their targeted ages of 11-18. They requested to lower their target age group to just 5-years old, but that was also denied by ECT.
We don’t know what “full payment” from the state that Griffin is talking about.
Had the Escambia Children’s Trust done a better review of the UDC program, the award would never have been made and the Town of Century would not have made the loan.