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| From University of West Florida Archives. Carpenter's Creek at Davis Hwy. 1940. |
Carpenter's Creek Town Hall Meeting Fabulous
The charret town hall meeting on February 21st was fabulous. About 90 people attended. Small groups set at tables eating pizza, drinking iced tea and discussing their vision and priorities for the restoration and preservation of Carpenter's Creek. In spite of the weather, many of the older residents came and reminisced about growing up, playing, fishing and swimming in the creek. At one time it was a major recreational facility in Escambia County and the City of Pensacola.
The energy and excitement in the Asbury meeting facility gave one a sense of hope and destiny . Commission Grover Robinson participated and talked about the opportunities for Restore Act funds. Dale Perkins, our ECUA board member was there and talked about water quality. Many people were at the meeting, including people who live on the creek, nature lovers, environmentalist, and many more.
I want to give a special thanks to Laurie Murphy, her husband Pat who was the facilitator and Laurie's awesome son, Jordon. The whole family worked hard to organize and set up the event. Laurie is the director of the Emerald Coast Keepers. I call her Wonder Woman.
On March 25th, Laurie will have another clean up event. Move information will be coming soon about that. Also, I plan to have another town hall meeting the end of April or first of May. We are planning an earth day event and petition drive to "Save Carpenter's Creek".
In addition, I would like to thank Highpoint DBE and Eager Beaver for participating in the last clean up. They brought the equipment needed to get heavy debris out of the creek. I would like to give a special thanks to the incredible Pensacola City County Staff, Council Executive Don Kraher, and Sonja Gaines and Elaine Mager who got out the letters, flyers and announcements about the town hall meetings. Last, but not least, I would like to think Derek Owens, public works director, for the material about the City's storm water projects along Carpenter Creek and for the video that is now on the City's website about the efforts the City is making to prevent trash, garbage and other pollutants from going into the creek.
The Community is coming together in a powerful way to restore what never should have been lost.
The 1940 picture of the creek is what Carpenter's Creek once looked like. Now the creek barely visible driving over the bridge just north of Airport on Davis Hwy. I was glad to see Dr. Elizebeth Benchly from UWF archelogy at the town hall. Thank you, UWF.
