Springfield rebuilding project gains momentum despite setbacks

BAY COUNTY, Fla. ( WMBB ) – We’re one week away from the 6th anniversary of Hurricane Michael and some folks are still trying to rebuild.

Count the city of Springfield in that group. Fortunately, city officials are finally seeing some momentum in their rebuilding project.

The pandemic delayed the rebuild and city officials say FEMA and the state were the biggest stumbling blocks, making them jump through regulatory hoops.

During a special meeting Thursday, commissioners took the steps to finally move forward. Springfield commissioners hoped to break ground on rebuild projects before hurricane Michael’s 6th anniversary on October 10th.

They’d originally planned to start on the municipal complex after they received a grant for a nature park.

But FEMA is requiring 10 native american tribes to sign off on the environmental assessment for a stormwater pond before awarding the $3.1 million grant. Only 9-tribes approved.

The city tried but never reached the 10th.

“We can’t live forever. The grant was done two, and a half years ago. It expires in September of next year. We hadn’t even started the project. So instead of going another year with back and forth and what we do, we don’t do Florida commerce where the next Monday will be the cut-off,” Mayor Ralph Hammond said.

Commissioners say they’re now asking the Florida Department of Commerce to terminate the nature park project agreement.

Commissioners say they’ll put that setback behind them and look to the future. Thursday they selected Reliant South Construction’s bid of $22.3 million for the city complex, which includes a city hall, a police station and fire station, and a public works building.

“Everything with Michael’s been a challenge. We had a low bid. We did not select them. Some of their paperwork was off. So we went with the next highest bid or next lowest bid, which would then allow construction. So once Macdonald gets done with them and verifies that they’re all good in the contracts ready to sign, they’ll come back to commission and we’ll officially accept it,” Hammond said.

Site work for the project will cost about $4.1 million.

“We’ll be getting it all done for less than $5 million, which is still a good deal for which we had revenues to pay for that already. So we’re just excited to get going on it. The communities waited a long time,” Hammond added.

Commissioners are scheduled to finalize the plans at Monday’s commission meeting. Mayor Hammond said he’s hopeful groundbreaking will happen on November 7th.

Money has not changed hands and there’s nothing to negotiate with the state.

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