Posted in Pensacola

What happened to $18.7 million for hatchery?

   June 25, 2019

In June 2018, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission asked the City of Pensacola to terminate its lease to build a $18.7-million fish hatchery on Bruce Beach.

A year later, the money is still sitting in a FWC bank account as it has since 2015.

When the agency made its request, FWC officials said, “Going forward, FWC will work other state and federal trustees on the Florida Trustee Implementation Group to seek an alternative site for this $18.7 million project as currently designed.”

Gov. Rick Scott, who was running for the U.S. Senate, told reporters that the funds would stay in Escambia County. The funds are part of the settlement with BP regarding the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Inweekly asked State Rep. Alex Andrade for his help in finding out what has happened to the fish hatchery money.

FWC Deputy Legislative Affairs Director Lance Watson replied, “We are evaluating options including the potential to site the hatchery at an alternative location. If the project does not go forward the remaining funds would be available for Florida trustees to apply to other recreational use projects.”

Share:

Rules for Comments

Your comments are welcomed, but there are some rules to follow:

(1) Be Nice. No comments that slander another, no racism, no sexism, no personal attacks.

(2) No Harrassing Comments.

(3) No Libel. That’s saying something is not true about someone. Don’t do it.

(4) Keep it clean. Nothing vulgar, obscene, or sexually related. No profanity or obvious substitutions.

(5) I reserve the right to remove any comments that violate our rules or are inappropriate. I am not responsible for what is posted. Comments may not appear right away until they are approved by a moderator.

(6) Limit your comments to the subject in this story only, and limit comments to 1,500 characters or less. Do not post copyrighted material. Comments will not be added to stories that are over five days old.

(7) No posts may advertise a commercial business, political candidate, or political group. Links in a comment aren’t allowed.

8) Commenting too many times may result in your comments not being allowed. Readers will begin to ignore your views.

9) Email me if you believe a comment violates any of these rules, and it will be deleted.