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$64.5 Million In BP Oil Spill Money Goes To Pensacola Airport, Whiting Aviation Park
July 20, 2018
Pensacola International Airport landed $56 million in BP oil-spill money for an expansion project, under a decision Wednesday by the Triumph Gulf Coast Board of Directors.
The board, meeting in DeFuniak Springs, also awarded $8.5 million for expansion of Whiting Aviation Park in Santa Rosa County. Triumph Gulf Coast Chairman Don Gaetz said in a news release the projects are expected to create more than 3,100 “high-paying” jobs and “grow Northwest Florida as a leader in aviation and aerospace.”
Approvals are still needed that involve funding obligations and performance requirements. Triumph Gulf Coast would be allowed to reclaim money if terms are not met.
The Pensacola grant, which will go for a new maintenance, repair and overhaul hangar, requires Pensacola’s aviation authority to put up more than $75 million from city, county, state and federal sources and $59 million from private companies.
At Whiting Aviation Park, Triumph Gulf Coast is contributing 48 percent of the costs of an expansion project that includes the purchase of 267 acres adjacent to NAS Whiting Field.
The money for the grants came from $300 million that Triumph Gulf Coast has received from the state’s share of a settlement with BP after the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The state created the non-profit Triumph Gulf Coast to administer settlement money. The seven-member board is expected to eventually handle three-quarters of the $2 billion the state will get over the next 13 years from BP. Triumph is required to spread out money to eight Gulf Coast counties most affected by the oil spill, with minimum spending benchmarks for each county — Bay, Escambia, Franklin, Gulf, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Wakulla and Walton.
by The News Service of Florida
Comments
3 Responses to “$64.5 Million In BP Oil Spill Money Goes To Pensacola Airport, Whiting Aviation Park”
Infrastructure. infrastructure, infrastructure!!! I am all for jobs, but this seems a misuse of what is deemed “oil spill money.” The incredible nightmare of the NIne Mile Road/Pine Forest bottle neck, is accompanied by the exposed manhole covers that stick up out of Airport Blvd. The storm run-off, the trash everywhere, the poor upkeep of our roads, the homeless people on every corner. Those would be important areas to improve before this non-profit gets to work on spending our money on projects that do nothing to improve most of our quality of life.
Wow. only did the airport and airlines make more money during that time flying reporters and politicians in and out but now they get 64 million, And not one drop of oil touched their property!
How about fixing the roads. How about giving Navy Federal employees some relieve getting to and leaving work. Even when people and business tries to bring jobs to Pensacola we cannot seem to figure out the infrastructure in and around Pensacola is still in the 1980’s. And just in case you cannot figure it out adding a 100 more stoplights to bottle up traffic is not the answer.