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Escambia County opens Carpenter Creek stormwater park after $4M restoration
Summary
County officials and state partners held a ribbon-cutting for the new Carpenter Creek stormwater park, a roughly $4 million restoration that officials say restored about seven acres of wetlands and used Deepwater Horizon/RESTORE funding administered by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Commissioner May opened the ribbon-cutting for a newly completed stormwater park at Carpenter's Creek, calling the project “a long time coming” and saying the facility belongs to the neighborhood and will improve local quality of life.
Chip Kershenfeld, Escambia County's Natural Resources Management Director, told attendees the site restored over seven acres of degraded wetlands on a former landfill, and that excavation uncovered septic tanks and 55-gallon drums that were removed during construction. “This project we wanted to do, not a stormwater pond, but a stormwater park,” Kershenfeld said, describing a treatment train that includes underground hydrodynamic separators, pervious pavement, bioretention cells, a two-acre stormwater pond and a half-acre dry pond.
Kershenfeld said the project cost about $4,000,000 and that roughly half the funding came from grants administered by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection drawn from Deepwater Horizon/RESTORE-related dollars. He credited multiple county departments, consultants Moffett Nichols and designer Jeff Helms, and contractor Roads Inc of Northwest Florida for bringing the work to completion.
Pierce Barrett, an engineer with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, congratulated county staff and singled out county project manager Beth Galoque for guiding the project to completion despite “hiccups.” “It is a nice park and a nice double feature of an environmental and passive recreational facility,” Barrett said.
Officials pointed to downstream benefits for water quality, saying treated stormwater flows from Carpenter's Creek through Bayou Tahar and ultimately to Pensacola Bay. The site also includes a pollinator garden intended to support bees and hummingbirds; Kershenfeld noted the flowers had not yet bloomed at the ribbon-cutting.
Commissioner May closed by again thanking staff, former leaders and residents who helped secure the property, announced the formal ribbon cutting, and encouraged the community to use the new facility.
