Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves opened today’s press conference with the news that state budget has two items that are important to the city.
“We’ve got the state budget that was released this morning,” he said. “And we were certainly glad to see two line items – $750,000 for the Veterans Memorial Park bathrooms, as well as $850,000 for our partnership with the sheriff’s department in terms of gunshot recognition technology.”
The mayor gave an update on the cleanup of Missing Children’s Memorial on Hawkshaw Lagoon.
“I know there was some publicity around the condition the structure itself for the memorial,” Reeves said. “Coincidentally, we were actually already in process, probably maybe about a week before that, maybe a little less, of some cleanup…We had our team, Public Works, Parks & Rec and Neighborhood Services, all met out there last Tuesday morning to assess the situation.”
He continued, “We received that assessment back. We think the cost is gonna be about $30,000 between all the cleanup as well as cutting back of some of foliage there that doesn’t allow us to see that area. We certainly don’t want to put ourselves in a position to spend that kind of money and then not be able to patrol and maintain that it’s staying clean.”
The mayor said that he wanted the cleanup to completed by Memorial Day. He added that maintaince of city parks and faclities is “really a foundational issue.”
“We’re going to really revamp policies when it comes to naming things, when it comes to taking on maintenance of things that other folks want to do. We’re going to have a more formal procedure in how that happens because when we sign on to maintain something, we’re signing the taxpayer on to maintain it.”
Malcolm Yonge Community Center
The city has received the engineering report on the structure but hasn’t had time to review: “I just got the update two minutes before I walked up here that we have received the full structural assessment. So obviously I have not seen it.”
Reeves shared that he would shared the structural assessment with the leaseholder (Lighthouse Academy) and determine what will happen next.