Three Pensacola-area governments competing for $53 million in Hurricane Sally grants
Escambia County is seeking $30 million for a new Escambia County Area Transit Center as part of its three projects for a new Hurricane Sally recovery grant program.
The new energy-efficient ECAT Transit Center would also serve a dual role as a hurricane shelter and would include upgrades to the ECAT system, such as solar-powered bus shelters.
Escambia County commissioners finalized their three projects to submit to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Rebuild Florida Hurricane Sally Infrastructure Repair Program during an, at times, chaotic discussion Thursday.
The program offers up to $53.6 million for local governments in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties through a competitive grant program.
Five projects up for consideration:Escambia County may build new ECAT center, indoor sports facility with Sally grants
Pensacola's projects: Pensacola competing with Escambia County for $53.6M in Hurricane Sally recovery funding
The county publicly advertised five projects last month, but the rules of the grant program only allow for three applications.
The largest project to be removed was a $20 million ask for a new indoor multi-use sports facility at Ashton Brosnaham Park. Commissioners removed it from consideration after realizing that it would not meet the low-income population requirements of the grant's scoring rubric.
The commission also nixed a $2.5 million request to upgrade the Pensacola Bay Center.
Commissioner Steven Barry said that although the Ashton Brosnaham Park project was being removed from this grant application, he was committed to finding the funds to make the project a reality.
The total cost of that project is estimated between $50 and $60 million.
Commissioners seemed surprised about the criteria dictating what areas qualified as low income, and Barry questioned what data was being used in the grant process.
County staff said the data was based on U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development numbers from 2015, and acknowledged it was old but it was the latest data available that would be accepted for the grant program.
"That's not data; that's history," Commission Chairman Lumon May said.
Other commissioners expressed frustration with how the low-income areas were being applied to the grant program.
"This is a broken process," Bergosh said.
Barry questioned if the decision would be based solely on the scoring rubric.
"Is it simply a point basis? I understand there are points being attributed," Barry said. "But I mean, we attribute points to things, and then we vote."
County staff said they understood the grants would be awarded based on the scoring rubric.
May said that with three local governments applying and limited funds, there would have to be some decision made to award funds to all three.
"We all know that these decisions are going to be somewhat political," May said. "… I would say that they're going to hopefully divide it up proportionally."
Ultimately, commissioners approved the ECAT Center, a $6 million request for a Beach Haven stormwater and septic to sewer conversion, and bundled seven stormwater projects in low-income areas into a single $27.8 million request.
Santa Rosa County's three projects are for drainage: $1 million in Floridatown, $1 million for Janet Street, and $5 million for Pine Blossom Road.
The Pensacola City Council unanimously backed its three projects totaling $46 million Thursday night without comment for the Hollice T. Williams Stormwater Park, the Port of Pensacola and the Fricker Resource Center.
Before the vote, Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves thanked city staff for working on putting the applications together, including his newly formed grants office.
"We took a lot of time, effort and energy, and as I joke, our grants office are the most popular guys in the building right now and have been working really, really hard on this as well," Reeves said. "We feel really, really good about the potential of these projects, which is really potentially a transformational grant opportunity."
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia, Santa Rosa, Pensacola compete for Hurricane Sally grants
