Escambia County Commissioner Doug Underhill came on “Pensacola Speaks” yesterday to give us an update on what is happening in the southwest portion of the county. He talked about master planning Perdido Key, Warrington revitalization, developing the cyber-security industry and the jail.
Commissioner Underhill also discussed the importance of building a sound infrastructure that attracts economic development. I mentioned the replacement of the Navy Point bridge that began this summer.
“We’ve got a lot of deferred maintenance infrastructure issues,” he said. “At Checker’s there at Navy Boulevard and Gulf Beach Highway, we refer to that as ‘dysfunction junction’ and you only have to drive through it once to know why we call it that. That should have been taken care of years ago. Construction is getting underway there.”
He mentioned the replacement of the old Corry Field bridge.
“Keep in mind that the Corry Field Road repairs we did after the flood were just temporary,” said Underhill. “That’s got a full bridge going in and some of these infrastructure issues.”
The commissioner added, “We always talk about what can government do to bring back jobs. The biggest thing that government needs to be doing is fixing the infrastructure to create an environment where the private sector wants to bring in jobs. That’s really been what our focus is on there in Warrington.”
Pensacola Speaks airs on News Talk 1370 WCOA Monday-Friday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.