A town-hall speaker pressed Panama City staff on the status and feasibility of a planned West Beach Drive multi-use path funded by a Florida Department of Transportation grant, asking for documentation of expenses, design coordination with FDOT and whether the city risks losing the funds.

At the meeting, the speaker said the original grant was “$8,000,000,” that about $1,000,000 had been spent on early design, and that the remainder appeared to be uncommitted. He asked staff whether the city had filed the grant-required quarterly reports with FDOT and whether additional engineering spending had occurred since the last public records entries. He also raised a technical concern: he said the FDOT right-of-way width in one segment was 43–45 feet, which would make fitting an 8- to 12-foot multi-use path plus the required buffers physically infeasible without additional right-of-way or state relinquishment.

The speaker requested clarity before the grant’s sunset date; staff acknowledged a one-time extension that currently extends certain deadlines to the end of December and said they would prepare a memo summarizing project status, invoices and FDOT coordination by Wednesday. The speaker said he had already filed public-records requests and had been told there were no additional claims filed recently for additional design work; staff countered that the city’s bookkeeping and the contractor invoicing cadence can create gaps between work performed and invoices received.

Commissioners said they would circulate a staff memo with the five written questions the speaker provided and make staff available for a follow-up. Staff also emphasized that the original grant budget covered more than just pavement and path construction; it included design, surveys, environmental work, landscaping and a planned water-line project. The town-hall exchange did not adopt policy changes but signaled that the commission expects a written project status and financial reconciliation to inform next steps and any possible decision on whether to pursue reallocation if FDOT will not approve a revised design.

Speakers urged the commission to determine whether it is feasible to redesign the path to FDOT standards in the existing right-of-way or whether the city should seek a legislative repurpose of the funds before the grant period expires.