Newly re-elected Mayor of Pensacola, D.C. Reeves, held his first weekly press conference of the new term on Wednesday. The meeting was highlighted by Reeves’ agenda for the development of Pensacola.
The mayor provided several updates for his second-term agenda. He said he intends to complete several ongoing projects such as efforts to increase affordable housing, the ongoing ACW cleanup, and the development of a new shipbuilding project at the Port of Pensacola.
Speaking on affordable housing, Reeves highlighted the achievements of REAP (Re-Entry Alliance Pensacola) in constructing new transitional housing in the form of pallet shelters on Blount Street.
“I know we had a crazy week last week,” Reeves said. “Obviously, the election last night, but the New Horizon Village last week getting done at REAP. I want to thank our partners there, also at our COC, Opening Doors Northwest Florida, and putting those 14 pallet shelters on West Blount Street. And we'll keep working with REAP and other partners on transitional housing to put some more of those pallet shelter units in.”
Reeves continued with a status update on the redevelopment of the Malcolm Yonge Gym site into affordable single-family homes, and said he was prepared to sign the closing document by the end of the day.
He continued on affordability, speaking on childcare and after-school programs.
“So that free after-school care is provided as a scholarship to up to 175 qualifying children, ages 5 to 12, attending after-school programming at Cobb, Gull Point, and Woodland Heights,” he explained. “We got free spots for after-school care. We know we have families in need that, as things get more and more expensive, certainly want to make sure that they're taking advantage of that.”
For more information on the program, residents can visit pcola.co/after-school.
Reeves also gave an update on the ongoing cleanup of the ACW (American Creosote Works) superfund cleanup site.
“We are finally at the part where you're going to start to see some of that work taking place, some of the yard scraping, some of those things that have been planned,” the mayor said. “There's not a change in that procedure, but, again, there's always been, as we know for many, many years now, some time lapses in the plan being announced and then things actually happening, so we want to make sure that the surrounding neighborhood is aware.”
The meeting will take place Aug. 25 at Sanders Beach Community Center beginning at 6 p.m. Remedial action at the site will begin later this year and will involve removal of contaminated soil in surrounding lots and the backfilling of those lots.
Reeves finished with an update on the Birdon shipbuilding project at the Port of Pensacola. He revealed that a noise study is currently being conducted both by the city and independently by Birdon to ensure the company’s activities will not create a noise burden or other negative impacts for the downtown area.
“That was a non-starter for me from day one, and I appreciate them adhering to that and understanding and respecting that,” he said. “There will be a public presentation probably at an agenda conference where the noise study team will come in and give the results of that. We have our own, someone representing the city that is reading these results and making sure that they're analyzed correctly and that we agree on what it says.”
The finalization of Birdon’s lease at the Port rests on the results of the noise study. Reeves intends to finalize the study and lease before the Oct. 1 Triumph meeting in order to coincide with the third step of the agreement Pensacola has with the nonprofit.
