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Latest News

2-11-08 - PR News:
Many of you may have seen WEAR channel 3 news out of Pensacola air a segment on the Navarre Pass recently. They ran a 2-3 minute spot the evening after the Corps of Engineers (COE) from Mobile had been here. The traffic on our website was way up and we received quite a few donations and some promotional sales. My inbox was packed with emails praising our dedication and encouraging the continuation of the campaign.

Last Thursday we had our committee meeting, if you missed it you missed out on allot of great information. Prior to the meeting we took the COE out to the original site so they could look over the area and get a better idea of the scope of the project. We spent about 45 minutes out there and then we rallied at the meeting room where about 30 people had already gathered to hear what the COE had to say.

The gentleman we spoke with is a project manager from the COE’s, he’s been with them for 27 years and his specialty is projects like this. He mentioned that he felt as though the Navarre Pass project would be a “small scale” project meaning less than $10M and that of that 10M, the corps would pick up 65% of the costs. He said that with studies, design, engineering and construction he still thinks it could be done for less than 10M. That’s a far cry from the figures that some would try to convince us of.

Later in the talk, the COE mentioned that one of the best things about having the COE do the work is that once the project is completed, the COE will be bound for 50 years to repair any damages caused by “acts of God”. “In other words, if a hurricane comes along and closes the pass up, the corps will re-open it at no cost to the Sponsor“. He said.

The COE will not just get involved in a project like this; they must show a “Federal Benefit” of having the Pass. “There are two ways in my opinion to show this benefit” he said. “One would be a benefit to commerce, the other being environmental” he went on to say. He did state that there’s no promise that any of that can be shown with enough benefit to prove the feasibility of the project. “However” he said “it seems to me that this is a project that you all feel strongly about and have for forty years or so, the least the COE could do is to help you answer some of those feasibility questions” What a great thing to hear from someone in a position to help us. At least he’s willing to look at it objectively.

As you watch the news and read the papers keep in mind that all of our Commissioners were invited to attend this meeting with us but none did. Many of the questions they have raised concerning the project were answered quite easily by the COE’s last Thursday night. It would have been a great opportunity for them to get better informed on some of their concerns and we were regretful that they were not in attendance.
More to come…

NPPC