The Century Town Council Tuesday night approved a request by grant administrator Robin Phillips for the town to begin procurement services by securing agreements with an architect, engineer and administrator for the three bridges and hurricane shelter, as required when federal monies are awarded.
The Town of Century was recently awarded a Community Development Block Grant-Hurricane Sally Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grant for $12,877,137 under the Rebuild Florida Infrastructure Repair program to demolish the old Century High School gymnasium building located at 440 East Hecker Road and build a shelter that can also be used as a multi-purpose facility and to make drainage and road improvements at Jefferson Avenue, Freedom Road Bridge and Alger Road Bridge, which were damaged during Hurricane Sally.
Phillips said Pensacola State College, owner of the land where the old gym is located, is ready to give the town the property but a survey must be done first to get a legal description of the property to deed it over to the town. The next step is to get three quotes from surveying companies and award the one the council chooses. She said after the legal description and boundaries are determined, there has to be meeting with the architect to discuss a holding pond and parking lot locations for the shelter.
Councilwoman Alicia Johnson made a motion to advertise for three quotes from surveying companies on surveying the old Century gym land, which was seconded by Councilwoman Shelisa McCall. The motion carried unanimously. The council will select the company when Phillips brings the quotes to the council in the future.
The town recently received $1,297,000 in legislative appropriations from State Rep. Michelle Salzman recently for Freedom Road bridge, which has been out of service for almost four years. Part of the $2,869,637 announced awarded by the state last Thursday will repair Freedom Road bridge, a culvert just north of it on Jefferson Avenue and Alger Road. Municipal Engineering’s Dale Long said Escambia County (Fla.) has plans to repair Mill Pond bridge, which is in bad shape also using structural engineer Bart Hendricks at Mott MacDonald.
Councilman Luis Gomez produced a video on his cell phone of what he said was raw sewage that was coming out a pipe in front of the Pilgrim Lodge Missionary Baptist Church on Front Street.
“I rode around there last Tuesday after we adjourned,” said Gomez. “That’s raw sewage running out of the Pilgrim Lodge manhole. We got $700,000 to fix that. We got $8 million to fix all of the rest of them. We got another million from State Sen. Doug Broxson and Escambia County Commissioner Stephen Barry to pay the 10 percent and that was three years ago, when Mr. Henry Hawkins was the mayor. If they put a shovel in that ground for that gym, I’m going to be highly upset because I guarantee you, we can get that moving because that’s something that somebody above this council wants.”
Gomez went on to say he was told in December, 2022, that Pilgrim Lodge lift station would be worked the first of this year and then that it would be worked on in March and then that it would be worked on the middle of this month and now he is being told it will be worked on the end of this month. He said he was amazed at what he called ‘excuses’ as to why it has not been worked on, and so raw sewage continues to come out of the pipe there.
Long explained that the $1,297,000 was estimated to be enough money to repair Freedom Road bridge by itself, but the town did not know it was going to get that money, so it went after the Sally Grant money, and included Freedom Road in it and just learned it will be awarded.
“We didn’t know we were going to get that so we went after the other money,” said Long. “What you have now is enough money to do Freedom Road, the little culvert just north of Freedom Road on Jefferson and Alger Road (both estimated to cost about $30,000). All that money is in this Sally grant and then you also have the extra money from the state to cover any overages.”
Long said the state Legislature money does not require the high level of procurement process the federal money does, so the town can start on a project quicker by utilizing that funding.
Councilwoman Johnson made a motion to begin procurement procedures for professional services from an architect, an administrator and an engineer for all three bridges and the shelter, with the condition that if the $1,297,000 legislative appropriation (which must be spent in the next two years) fully covers the cost of Freedom Road Bridge, the remaining $2,869,637 from the CDBG-DR Sally grant will be used to complete repairs on the other two bridges. Councilwoman McCall seconded the motion. It carried unanimously.
