TP Park looking to purchase more land
BY FRANKLIN HAYES Gulf Breeze News franklin@gulfbreezenews.com

Football teams are set to rush (football term instead of invade) Tiger Point Park this fall and the planning process is well underway. Park officials hope to convert at least one soccer field into a football practice area.

On a larger scale, the area's county commissioner, John Broxson, is developing a recreation master plan that may entice Pensacola Junior College (PJC) to open a campus on the peninsula.

"We are going to provide a place to play football," said Broxson, who has been working closely with the park's board of directors. "There's no intention to encroach on soccer or baseball programs. It should be a very compatible relationship."

Tiger Point Park chairman Tom Dorsey said plans are still in the preliminary phase and that the board is looking to procure additional land in the near future.

"We'll make it work and hopefully it will be short term," he said.

Dorsey commented that a deal with PJC would be the quickest and easiest way for the park to expand, but no formal plans have been developed.

One option being discussed is a recreation facility for the Tiger Point area that would be similar in size to the South Santa Rosa Recreation Center in on Shoreline Drive. The Tiger Point Sports Association (TPSA) would more than likely be the proposed building's primary tenant.

PJC owns a large tract of land in the area and has discussed opening an additional campus in southern Santa Rosa County. The PJC land is on Nantahala Beach Road valued at nearly $4 million.

The college's administrators had 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.

Broxson will conduct several interviews April 26 with companies that responded to a request for qualifications (RFQ) to develop a recreation master plan for the Tiger Point area.