Headlines on PNJ.com: This is the news from Tuesday, August 27
Escambia demolishes the old probation building in N. Palafox, and the Pensacola family makes millions making quilts without sewing a single stitch
The old Escambia County Probation Department building at 2251 N. Palafox is being demolished.
The property is owned by Escambia County, and demolition work began on the building Thursday. It was built in 1957 and has 3,000 square feet of space. The county considered redeveloping the property, but repeated problems with flooding led to it having to be demolished.
Natural springs in the area contributed to persistent flooding in the building’s basement, leading to pumps being installed to keep the water out. The building was also damaged by flooding in 2014 and by Hurricane Sally in 2020.
FEMA funds drainage project: Escambia is prone to flooding, but a $4.5 million stormwater project could help keep those streets afloat
The county had considered building a retention pond on the property to solve drainage problems in the area. But the same flooding problems that plagued the old probation building made that impossible, too. Escambia engineers examined the site and concluded that it was too close to the water table to build an effective retention pond.
“The possibility of a pond or some other type of retention basin was considered on this property, but after some geotechnical testing, the water table is too high, so it’s not really suitable for our purposes,” explained Robert McCracken, director of the Escambia County Engineering and Construction Management Department. “It’s not really suitable for that because of the subsurface conditions.”
The county is still looking for a site for a suitable retention pond in the area, which is near the city-county line on the border of North Hill and is prone to frequent flooding due to its low elevation. In June 2023, flooding at the corner of Maxwell and North Palafox Streets was so high that dozens of families and individuals housed at the Max-Well Respite Center for the homeless had to be evacuated. The center is across the street from the probation building.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has agreed to grant Escambia County $4.5 million for projects to help improve drainage in the region.
“We are still working on the drainage of the area,” McCracken said. “We are looking for a place where we can build a stormwater detention basin to facilitate the flow of the runoff that fills Long Hollow Pond, which stays full because the entire area drains into the city’s Long Hollow Pond, which is normally overloaded. The more detention basins we can put upstream in that stormwater diversion line, the more water can be held back before it reaches Long Hollow Pond.”
The county considered creating a retention pond at several locations in the area, including at Pensacola High School and on some county-owned properties, such as the parking lot of Community Health Northwest Florida Walk-In Care on North Palafox Street, which has also struggled with flooding problems in the past.
No decision has been made on the location of the new retention pond and there are currently no plans to do anything with the property after the building is demolished, such as selling it or repurposing it. Demolition of the entire property is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Once this is complete, the area will be landscaped and fenced.
