Top stories of the week include Bay Center future, shelter in peril and a nudist camp!
Here's a roundup of our top stories from the past week.
With a subscription to the Pensacola News Journal, you will receive full access to the work done by our journalists and photographers as they head out every day to help inform and explain the important issues affecting your community.
Pensacola Bay Center needs millions in repairs and upgrades. Is it worth the cost?
The Pensacola Bay Center has been a fixture in the community for almost 40 years, a venue for shows of all kinds from monster trucks to Michael Jackson, as well as graduations, sporting events and expos.
However, for much of that time the Bay Center has operated at a loss, all while the building continues to age and compete with more modern venues for national acts, as well as local entertainment options.
Now county leaders are deciding if it’s worth putting more money into the Bay Center and if so, how much more.
Escambia County budgeted $8,845,000 for expenses related to the Bay Center for 2023-2024, which is consistent with past years. The county has spent about $5 million to $8.5 million annually on operating expenses for the facility since 2018. That’s far short from the millions more the study said the facility needs to repair or replace infrastructure and equipment.
Read the full story here: Pensacola Bay Center needs millions in repairs and upgrades. Is it worth the cost?
Pensacola's largest shelter for homeless families is on verge of losing its home
Pensacola’s largest shelter for families experiencing homelessness is running low on money to pay its bills, including rent.
The Max-Well Respite Center is now on a month-to-month lease with the owner of the 17,040 square-foot facility, 2200 N. Palafox LLC, which just listed the property for sale for $2,460,000.
Max-Well Respite Center is a transitional housing program under the nonprofit organization Re-entry Alliance Pensacola (REAP), which offers people experiencing homelessness ? including families, veterans and individuals ? a place to stay while they get back on their feet and to receive food, lodging and services to help them become independent. The REAP shelter opened at 2200 N. Palafox in July 2022.
Vince Whibbs, executive director for Re-Entry Alliance Pensacola, said funds provided by the city of Pensacola from the American Rescue Plan Act for the program is gone. The money was provided for one year and Whibbs said it ran out several months ago, leaving them strapped for cash.
Read the full story here: Pensacola's largest shelter for homeless families is on the verge of losing its home too
Gulf Breeze doctor accused of running pill mill may be forced to forfeit $27K
A Santa Rosa County judge ruled Monday to strike a Gulf Breeze doctor's affirmative defenses to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement seizing over $27,000 from multiple bank accounts.
Elaine Sharp, an OB/GYN based in Gulf Breeze, is embroiled in a civil case with FDLE as it seeks to seize money from Sharp's accounts after she allegedly benefitted from a racketeering scheme and a practice of overprescribing of controlled substances.
One of the main objections Sharp's attorney has to FDLE's allegations is proving the money they're attempting to seize is linked to any contraband or other criminal offense. The attorney claims the FDLE failed "to establish a nexus or relationship between the possession" and a criminal enterprise.
However, as Judge Clifton Drake said, the filing does not provide any facts as to why any money is not connected to a crime or why FDLE's accusation are false.
Read the full story here: Gulf Breeze doctor accused of running pill mill may be forced to forfeit $27K
Few counties ask a children's trust to pay into its CRAs. Escambia looks to be an exception
Escambia County's vote last week for the Escambia Children's Trust to pay into the county's Community Redevelopment Agency districts puts the county in the rare position among the 11 counties with major children's service councils.
Broward County and Miami-Dade County are the only two counties with children's services councils that are members of the Florida Alliance of Children's Councils and Trusts that are required to pay into local CRAs, according to FACCT. The others are exempt either because the children's trust pre-dates any local CRA or the local governments have not requested it.
Escambia County commissioners voted 3-0 March 21 to officially request that the Escambia Children's Trust pay into its nine CRA districts. The payment requirement includes a $1.1 million back payment for the previous years of the Children's Trust's existence and the future collections would be at least $445,000 a year, depending on taxable land values.
Read the full story: Few counties ask a children's trust to pay into its CRAs. Escambia looks to be an exception
Santa Rosa nudist camp is celebrating 10 years
Up yonder north of Chumuckla, south of Jay, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, there's Hidden Lake Resort.
The resort ? a beautiful, sprawling 110-acre spread with a lake and lagoon amid pine boonies ? truly is hidden away from signs of civilization. The people who live there aren't hidden though. You can see them ? head to toe.
Naked chores. Naked meals. Naked showers, duh. Naked laundry ? though honestly, there's not that much laundry. Naked volleyball. Naked hiking and fishing. Naked golf cart riding. No clothes, except maybe some sandals or some type of shawl.
Hidden Lake Resort is a nudist camp resort that has been serving nude people in the area for 10 years.
Read full story here: Santa Rosa nudist camp is celebrating 10 years. Their campers might surprise you.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: PNJ top stories include Bay Center future, nudist camp, homeless shelter