County eyes Tiger Point Rec. Center
BY FRANKLIN HAYES Gulf Breeze News franklin@gulfbreezenews.com

Santa Rosa County officials are looking to develop a recreation master plan for the Gulf Breeze, Tiger Point and Midway areas. Government representatives say the plan would begin with a study based on broad public input that would evaluate existing conditions, project future needs and identify specific program and facility expansion options.

"The study area would include all of Commissioner [John] Broxson's voting district, including the City of Gulf Breeze, and would be funded out of his recreation funds," Beckie Faulkenberry with the county's planning and zoning department wrote in an email. "I anticipate that such a study would cost between $30,000 and $50,000."

One expansion option being discussed is a recreation facility for the Tiger Point area that would be similar in size and scope to the South Santa Rosa Recreation Center in on Shoreline Drive. The Tiger Point Sports Association (TPSA), a youth athletic organization that developed as a response to explosive growth in the area, would more than likely be the proposed building's primary tenant.

The president of Tiger Point park, Tom Dorsey, described plans as "very very preliminary" and said, "It's a good thing the county is planning for the future."

"Hopefully, [the proposed facility] would take a little bit of the burden off of us," said Gulf Breeze's director of Parks and Recreation, Ron Pulley. The director said approximately 1,000 individual children are served by the Gulf Breeze Sports Association (GBSA) in one year in baseball, tee ball, softball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, cheerleading and football programs. Out of that number, he said about two thirds of the GBSA's athletes live outside the city limits.

"Tiger Point has an equally strong number of supporters down there and any improvements would make us equally stronger," he said.

Another function of the proposed building could be a joint use agreement with Pensacola Junior College (PJC) for an athletic complex, Broxson said.

The PJC board of trustees currently owns a little over 100 acres of land on Nantahala Beach Road valued at nearly $4 million. The college's administrators have previously discussed plans to construct a "Midway Campus" on the wooded, empty lot across the street from the Mediacom office complex, but do not have the funding to do so.

"The only thing we have done is to put it on the state's board of education property development list as a special center sight," said Isaac Brigham, Senior Vice President of Planning and Administration for PJC.

Broxson said if plans were further developed, the county's proposed recreation center would more than likely be the first building built, and would probably entice PJC officials to more aggressively pursue their development plans.

"If we can come up with a joint use plan where local government provides construction money then the state could provide matching funds," said PJC president Tom Delaino.

The college president said his staff is in constant communication with county and school district officials to develop programs customized for the South Santa Rosa student demographic, such as medical and vocational training degree tracks.

"We've given a lot of thought to the educational needs of Santa Rosa County instead of waiting on state funds that are stretched thin by so many things right now," Delaino said.