Public safety, restroom facility under construction on Pensacola Beach
BY LISA NEWELL Gulf Breeze News lisa@gulfbreezenews.com

The port-a-potties' days are numbered on Casino Beach.

Construction crews recently broke ground on a public safety building/restroom on the site where they stood prior to Hurricane Ivan in September of 2004.

The two-story building will include restrooms and a lifeguard ready room for quick breaks or to provide shelter during a storm, a first aid room to treat minor injuries such as overheating, a senior lifeguard office and a storage room on the first floor.

The second floor is scheduled to have locker rooms to accommodate 50 lifeguards, a training/break room and administrative offices.

Public Safety Director Bob West said the lifeguard areas will operate as a command center, with a Public Address system, computer for weather radar and may possibly become a Weather Bug station affiliated with WEAR TV3.

In other news, Santa Rosa Island Authority engineer Dave Hemphill said utilities on the north side of Via de Luna will be completed before the end of the year, and there is good progress on Fort Pickens Road, where Gulf Power is laying underground utilities.

The planned flushing system for Little Sabine Bay is awaiting a $350,000 water management district grant.

Hemphill says a similar system is used in the Destin Harbor.

"In a matter of hours, it's clear as a bell," Hemphill said.

In other news, SRIA was told that walk in traffic has increased at the Pensacola Visitor's Center. Executive Director Sandy Johnston said 3,484 visited the center in August, up from 2,221 a year ago.

Johnston said the number one source of visitors was South Florida. Also, inquiries

are up among Europeans, who Johnston said like the fall season in Pensacola because summer is too hot.

Also, the board said the rumors of the SRIA's demise are greatly exaggerated.

"That's been going on downtown for a hundred years," said Bill "McGuire" Martin, SRIA board member, of the talk that Escambia County is going to do away with the longstanding governing board for the Island.

The Santa Rosa Island Authority's next committee meeting will be held Wednesday, Oct. 4 at 5 p.m. at the SRIA building on Pensacola Beach.