The Board of County Commissioners received a very important letter this week from Rear Admiral Bette Bolivar, Commander, Navy Region Southeast regarding the OLF 8 / OLF X land swap deal.
This project has been in the works for many, many years and is a very important economic development project for District 1 and Escambia County. It was the #1 rated economic development project from the restore act committee.
Over the last several years, however, the project's costs have continuously escalated and the requirements for the OLF X landing field in Santa Rosa County have continued to grow. Because this project's costs have continued to escalate, Escambia County had faced the very realistic possibility of having to walk away from this deal.
Last month, the County threw out a "Hail Mary" pass and contacted Matt Gaetz who committed to help facilitate the completion of this land swap deal. Additionally, Administrator Jack Brown wrote to the Navy on behalf of the commissioners in an attempt to keep the project on track. In his letter, he asked for some concessions from the Navy to keep the costs from escalating further.
This week we have received the Navy's response, from Admiral Bolivar. From the letter:
"After thorough review, evaluation, and consideration of the requirements for Navy helicopter outlying landing fields in the Naval Air Station (NAS) Whiting Field Training Complex, and with the concurrence of CNATRA's and higher headquarters, we have determined several items may be deferred from the initial stated requirements.."
Although reluctant to put a price on the concessions, Administrator Jack Brown stated that "an initial look at what has been offered points to potentially $1-2 Million dollars the County will save on improvements to OLF X in Santa Rosa County."
Because this is such a huge project for District 1 and all of Escambia County--and as the District 1 representative on the BCC-I applaud the efforts of the County Staff and the Navy to help reduce the costs associated with this project. Hopefully this concession will allow us to keep moving forward with this very worthwhile project!
Even though we are in Escambia, We need Whiting Field to stay open. I believe that Trump's Budget and the BRAC process is motivating the Navy to want to make this happen and the sooner the better. They may be open to deep concessions on the deal. Please save Escambia all the tax money you can but our partner is Santa Rosa and Whiting Field is important to us also. I believe you want to cut through the red tape just as much as the rest of us. Please do.
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