🚗 City to add 35 new parking spaces downtown to offset loss from construction projects.
⏱ No-bid $451K contract awarded to contractor already working at The Landing to save time and money.
💰 Project funded by half-cent sales tax, coming in $50K under budget.
FORT WALTON BEACH — Citing a critical shortage of public parking downtown, the Fort Walton Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to waive competitive bidding requirements and award a $451,690.78 construction contract to GLC Contracting, LLC for a new lot at 147 Brooks St. SE, directly east of The Landing.
According to documents provided by the city in an agenda packet covering Tuesday’s meeting, in the last two years, the city has lost approximately 95 public parking spaces along Brooks Street due to construction projects.
Only about 25% of those spaces are expected to return after the Brooks Bridge replacement is complete, according to city staff.
Final plans, completed by Jenkins Engineering in April 2025, include:
GLC’s proposal, submitted in July, calls for substantial completion in 90 days and completion within 120 days of the Notice to Proceed. Liquidated damages for missed deadlines are estimated between $500 and $700 per day.
Councilman David Schmidt supported the urgency but stressed accountability. “I would like to lean towards a very tight period of performance that is realistic with staff evaluation,” he said.
Councilman Payne Walker confirmed with Payne that the project is funded through the city’s half-cent sales tax and was earmarked as a capital improvement project in the fiscal year 2024-25 budget.
Payne noted the contract price is roughly $50,000 under the $500,000 budget allocation.
Councilman Bryce Jeter made the motion to waive the purchasing policy and approve the contract, seconded by Schmidt.
“We’re going to hold them accountable to get it done as quickly as possible,” Jeter said.
Mayor Nic Allegretto called the vote, and the measure passed 7-0.
Emery Hagan has plenty of accolades: She’s the class vice president, a two-sport athlete, and she’s put in more than 200 volunteer hours.
But in her own words – the most compelling case for her candidacy for the Taylor Haugen Trophy comes from the bottom of the fifth page of her application. Under her dad’s name, she leaves the field for a second parent blank.
Hagan was born to a family of all boys. “My mom had always wanted a little girl. She tragically lost her mother when she was a few years old, causing her to forever yearn for a baby girl of her own to heal from her childhood lacking a mother figure,” she wrote in her application.
Her mother was a teacher who she credits with teaching her how to treat everyone with “the utmost kindness – as I may never know what they go home to each day.”
Hagan had to lean on those lessons being taught to others when she was in fith grade and unexpectedly lost her mother. Hours after learning of her mother’s death, she says her fifth grade teacher showed up to her house to console her – letting Hagan see firsthand how important her mom’s credo could be when others did it for her in her life.
Because of role models like Mrs. Moore, Hagan learned to use the tools her mother had to help others and her own experiences to be a light to others.
“Almost half of my childhood has been spent lacking a mother figure, but I am forever grateful to have shared the time we did,” Hagan concluded in her application, “I pray that I never stray from what she has instilled in me. As she always said, you may never know what a person may be going through. Always be the good in their day. Sometimes their life, their sanity, their safety depends on it. May her love and kindness forever live through me.”
Pro Communi Bono
St. Francis De Sales, Ora Pro Nobis!
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