On WCOA's Good Morning Pensacola Today talking Debris Removal from Private Subdivisions

I was on WCOA's Good Morning Pensacola today discussing the FDOT bridge debacle and debris pickup from gated, private neighborhoods.

I was asked to speak today on WCOA's Good Morning Pensacola radio program with Don Parker, and so I happily agreed.

We had a good conversation about the thorny issue of picking up Hurricane Sally debris from all around the county AND the difficulty facing our efforts to pick up from some private subdivisions due to Federal red-tape.

I discussed this issue with WEAR ABC Ch. 3 yesterday.

We also talked about the ongoing saga of the FDOT's contractor's  barges trashing our three-mile bridge--creating an absolute nightmare in our two county area.

You can listen to the segment from today's show here

Bridge Naming Citizen's Input: Beall and James Are Top 2 Submissions....Plus lots of Other Names....

1,069 folks submitted input.

Removing duplicates, 804 unique individuals submitted names for the bridge.

Chappie James was the number 1 name selected

Philip D. Beall was the number 2 highest total.

Lots of other variations submitted, see chart above.

This information will be provided to the bridge naming committee--who knows, maybe they will just combine the #1 and #2 top picks for names and combine them to form the

"Chappie James-Philip D. Beall Memorial Bridge"

It will be interesting to watch how this goes.

Thanks to all citizens that participated and provided input!

Escambia-Gulf Breeze Bridge-Naming Committee Holds Organizational Meeting

Last night the Escambia County-City of Gulf Breeze Bridge-naming committee held its first meeting.

The purpose of this committee is to take public input and decide on a name for the replacement structure for the existing Philip D. Beall Sr. Memorial Bridge that is being built over Pensacola Bay.  Current FDOT policy states that absent legislative action, a replacement structure carries the existing designation

However there is a movement afoot to pull the existing designation and rename the replacement structure in honor of General Chappie James.

My personal feelings on the subject have been well documented:  I will never vote to remove a historical memorial designation on a whim.  Never.  I also believe that the aviator Chappie James was truly a great American Hero and that we should honor him locally, in his hometown, by re-naming Pensacola's airport in his honor--as Louisville recently did for their hometown hero Muhammad Ali.

Ultimately, the committee will make the final recommendation for our consideration, though.

8 of the 9 members of this newly-formed committee were present, along with an equal number of members of the public, myself, Commissioner Robert Bender, and media representatives from the PNJ and WEAR ABC.

At this meeting, and after we went around the room and all in attendance were recognized and allowed to introduce ourselves, Gulf Breeze attorney Timothy Burr was selected as chairman and some initial housekeeping items were addressed as follows:

--County staff gave a brief overview of the sunshine law and its applicability to this group.

--Chairman Burr took input from committee members and the public and the group decided upon three meetings for input from the public and an eventual decision meeting where the committee would hopefully vote on a name.

(Public comments were allowed in a very informal manner and will be a part of the meeting agenda's going forward; Kirke Beall spoke (grandson of Philip Beall Sr.) and I spoke as well. Multiple  members of the committee and the public spoke and were heard.)

--June 11th, 5:30 PM  Escambia County Commission Boardroom
--June 12th, 5:30 PM Gulf Breeze (venue TBA)

--July 9th, final committee meeting for decision, 5:30 Escambia County Commission Boardroom

Escambia County staff committed to taking for action the committee recommendation that an email address be established and monitored and advertised that will allow citizens to give suggested names for the bridge.  This information will be shared with committee members one-week prior to the next meeting on June 11th.

10 Initial, Potential Ideas for Our Bridge Naming Committee's Consideration.....

Here are ten initial thought's for our "bridge naming" committee's consideration (below).  This committee should consider ALL alternatives on THEIR timeline--not an artificially-created timeline.

The Board of County Commissioners wisely voted to impanel a committee to look at the issues surrounding the naming of the replacement bridge being constructed over the existing 3-Mile Bridge.

Most folks had not realized the bridge has an official designation already, the Philip D. Beall Sr. Memorial Bridge.  According to FDOT and absent any legislative change in Tallahassee, the replacement bridge will carry the same designation as the original bridge.

A group of motivated citizens, however, are asking us to remove the designation from Beall and vote to advocate to our legislative delegation that the new structure be named for General Daniel R. "Chappie" James instead.

General James was born in Pensacola and he was a war hero who ultimately rose to the rank of 4-Star General and he was the first Black man to achieve this rank.

Sadly, upon some initial push-back being applied to this idea of ripping one man's memorial down in order to honor another man---some have resorted to the politics of personal destruction; they have actively begun to run down the Beall family name.  They have called Beall Sr. a racist and even a white supremacist.

This is all untrue and it is disappointing and disgusting that folks would lower themselves to this level in order to rip one family's good name from the bridge to get what they want. 

I believe that if General James was here to witness these machinations, he would be deeply disappointed;  I do not believe he would want to watch one family name be stripped from a monument so his name could be placed on this same monument.  But because nobody knows what he might think, because he has passed away, this is simply speculation.

So again, I'm proud that Escambia County voted to take a step back--just  as Gulf Breeze appears poised to do as well.  I'm glad we will be forming a committee to look at all aspects of this issue with the goal of giving the BCC a good, solid recommendation that we can act upon-- based upon rational, reasoned, and measured consideration of multiple alternatives by a committee of citizens taking input from the entire community.

I am going to advocate for giving this committee broad berth in looking at multiple ideas with the intention of asking them to bring back their preferred alternative (s) from which the BCC can choose.

Here's an initial list of 10 things that I feel should be considered by the committee:

1.  Maintain status-quo-take no option on the naming and let FDOT protocol prevail.

2.  Name replacement bridge for General James (thereby removing Beall memorial from bridge)

3.  Joint designation for bridge "James-Beall" bridge or "Beall-James" bridge

4.  One Span (Pensacola to Gulf Breeze) named the Philip Beall Bridge and the other Span (Gulf Breeze to Pensacola) the Chappie James Bridge

5.  Focusing resources on naming Airport for James instead of bridge (Like Louisville, KY, recently did for Muhammad Ali)--This is the alternative I prefer, as it makes the most sense in my opinion..

6. Switching Designations (e.g. Chappie James taking the name of the new bridge and the Beall family taking the designation from downtown's "Chappie James" state building on Government st.)

Committee Approach to Naming Replacement Bridge a Prudent Way Forward

The committee approach to selection of a memorial namesake for the replacement 3-mile bridge is the prudent, rational, and intelligent way forward that the BCC will pursue.

Today at the committee of the whole, Commissioner Bender added an item to the agenda at the table.

The item was a discussion on the process of determining a name for the replacement bridge under construction over Pensacola Bay.

A citizen's initiative movement has been gaining momentum with the singular focus of having the designation of this replacement bridge changed from the Philip D. Beall Sr. Memorial Bridge, (which the new structure, the replacement structure would carry absent legislative action) to the General Daniel "Chappie" James Bridge.

I have called for a compromise that honors both men.  This idea has been met with significant resistance.

Pensacola has voted to request the legislative delegation move to rename the bridge.

On Monday, the Santa Rosa County Commission voted unanimously to change the designation to honor Chappie James.

The Gulf Breeze city council, at their agenda review session yesterday afternoon, DID NOT add this issue as a discussion item for their meeting next week.

And today, at the BCC's committee of the whole, Commissioner Bender brought forth the idea of slowing the process down and perhaps organizing a committee to study the issue and provide alternatives that may honor our unique heritage and all area veterans that have served the country in the armed forces.  He also stated that he did not want to feel rushed into this decision.

I concurred, as did Commissioner Barry.

So next week we will discuss the formation of a BCC committee to analyze the naming protocols with the intention of having this committee make a recommendation to the BCC for us to consider.

This is a reasonable and rational approach to this issue that I believe will be favorably voted forward next week--because it is a balanced and measured, non "frenzied and harried" way to logically work through this issue so that all sides can be considered.

I look forward to this discussion next week.

You can watch the deliberations and discussions in this video.  Good discussion!

Great News For Area Fishermen!

I received the below email today from Robert Turpin, the BCC's  Director of Marine Services.


"Skanska [the contractor that is building the new 3-Mile bridge] deployed approx. 150 concrete piling cut-off pieces (approx. 800 tons) in Escambia Near-Shore East Artificial Reef Site at 30 Deg 17.750'N; 087 Deg 13.500'W (approx. 4.5nmi ESE of Pensacola Pass). Water depth at the site is 45 feet."


This is great news for area fishermen...now they know exactly where to go for this new structure which will become habitat for all sorts of fish species in the years to come.

Thanks to Skanska and hats off to everyone from the county and state that was involved in making this happen!

Here are the pictures, below, of the piles being taken out and dropped.