BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH PRODID:-//Telerik Inc.//Sitefinity CMS 15.4//EN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Central Standard Time BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251102T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=11 TZNAME:Central Standard Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250301T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:Central Daylight Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:Escambia County will host a grand opening ceremony for the new Public Beach Access #4 at 16470 Perdido Key Drive on March 4\, 2022 at 9:3 0 a.m. The new beach access will be open sunrise to sunset and features a permeable concrete parking lot with 35 parking spots\, an ADA-compliant Ac cessMat dune walkover and educational signage about protected wildlife. Th e site will add an additional 300 feet of public beach access on the weste rn side of Perdido Key\, adjacent to the Crab Trap restaurant.\nEscambia C ounty District 1 Commissioner and Chairman Jeff Bergosh\, who represents P erdido Key\, stated:\n&ldquo\;A lot of folks have worked very hard for eig ht long years to see this project come to fruition&mdash\;and on March 4th  \;--this beach access will finally be available for public use! \ ;A HUGE thank you goes out to all the staff and citizens who worked to mak e this day a reality! This new access point will allow us to more than dou ble the existing amount of free public beach access on Perdido Key for all the citizens of Escambia County to enjoy&mdash\;which in and of itself is a remarkable accomplishment. But this is only the beginning of the work o ur office plans to pursue to create more free access points on Perdido Key for our citizens&rsquo\; use in the years to come. I look forward to aggr essively moving in that direction&mdash\;but in the meantime\, I look forw ard to utilizing this newly completed beach access #4 very frequently-- al ong with all the citizens of Escambia County&mdash\;and it will be open ju st in time for Spring Break! \; This is a great day for Escambia Count y!&rdquo\;\nThe site was acquired in 2014 in part with a grant from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service to provide public beach access and conserve c ritical habitat for threatened and endangered species. It was the former s ite of the Sundown Condominium which was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 20 04. The original concrete pad and building debris were removed in the summ er of 2020 and the prior parking lot&rsquo\;s shell base was reutilized fo r the new public access. Funds for construction were provided by the Touri sm Development Tax (TDT).\nThe site is also home to designated Perdido Key Beach Mouse habitat and the site will be managed in accordance with the P erdido Key Habitat Conservation Plan. Fencing will prevent pedestrian and vehicular trespass into protected habitat areas\, while signage will educa te visitors about threatened and endangered species that utilize the site\ , including beach mice\, nesting shorebirds and sea turtles.\nEscambia Cou nty would like to thank the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and US Fi sh and Wildlife service for their cooperation in the acquisition and devel opment of the project.\nFor more information\, please contact the Office o f Community and Media Relations at 850-595-1647 or email cmr@myescambia.co m. DTEND:20220304T163000Z DTSTAMP:20260910T135650Z DTSTART:20220304T153000Z LOCATION:16470 Perdido Key Drive, Perdido Key SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:Beach Access #4 Ribbon Cutting UID:RFCALITEM639246454105500507 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Escambia County will host a grand opening c eremony for the new Public Beach Access #4 at 16470 Perdido Key Drive on M arch 4\, 2022 at 9:30 a.m. The new beach access will be open sunrise to su nset and features a permeable concrete parking lot with 35 parking spots\, an ADA-compliant AccessMat dune walkover and educational signage about pr otected wildlife. The site will add an additional 300 feet of public beach access on the western side of Perdido Key\, adjacent to the Crab Trap res taurant.

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Escambia County District 1 Commissioner and Chairman Jeff Bergosh\, who represents Perdido Key\, stated:

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&ldquo\;A lot of f olks have worked very hard for eight long years to see this project come t o fruition&mdash\;and on March 4th \;--this beach access wi ll finally be available for public use! \;A HUGE thank you goes out to all the staff and citizens who worked to make this day a reality! This ne w access point will allow us to more than double the existing amount of fr ee public beach access on Perdido Key for all the citizens of Escambia Cou nty to enjoy&mdash\;which in and of itself is a remarkable accomplishment. But this is only the beginning of the work our office plans to pursue to create more free access points on Perdido Key for our citizens&rsquo\; use in the years to come. I look forward to aggressively moving in that direc tion&mdash\;but in the meantime\, I look forward to utilizing this newly c ompleted beach access #4 very frequently-- along with all the citizens of Escambia County&mdash\;and it will be open just in time for Spring Break!& nbsp\; This is a great day for Escambia County!&rdquo\;

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The site w as acquired in 2014 in part with a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife S ervice to provide public beach access and conserve critical habitat for th reatened and endangered species. It was the former site of the Sundown Con dominium which was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. The original concr ete pad and building debris were removed in the summer of 2020 and the pri or parking lot&rsquo\;s shell base was reutilized for the new public acces s. Funds for construction were provided by the Tourism Development Tax (TD T).

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The site is also home to designated Perdido Key Beach Mouse ha bitat and the site will be managed in accordance with the Perdido Key Habi tat Conservation Plan. Fencing will prevent pedestrian and vehicular tresp ass into protected habitat areas\, while signage will educate visitors abo ut threatened and endangered species that utilize the site\, including bea ch mice\, nesting shorebirds and sea turtles.

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Escambia County woul d like to thank the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and US Fish and W ildlife service for their cooperation in the acquisition and development o f the project.

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For more information\, please contact the Office of Community and Media Relations at 850-595-1647 or email cmr@myescambia.com .

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