Okaloosa County accepts grant for Veterans Park shoreline project

Oct. 21--CRESTVIEW -- A grant agreement that will provide money to restore the severely eroded shoreline at Veterans Park received the Okaloosa County Commission's unanimous acceptance Tuesday.

The 17.5-acre county park is on Okaloosa Island next to the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Convention Center and Choctawhatchee Bay.

Storm surge and strong winds from Hurricane Sally in September further reduced much of the park's shoreline that had been eroded by waves and boat wakes over the years. Also left in Sally's wake were several sailboats washed up on shore and a sand dune that now resembles a cliff.

In an agreement with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the foundation and the county will split the cost of a $3 million project to install a "living shoreline" that will protect more than 2,200 linear feet of the park.

The project will reduce the impact of wave energy and provide oyster habitat, a seagrass recruitment area and a salt marsh shelf, according to county Tourist Development Department Director Jennifer Adams.

The grant period extends from Dec. 1 of this year to Nov. 30, 2023. The county's current budget has $1.5 million in bed tax money/matching funds for the living shoreline work.

In addition to that project, the county could see various other Veterans Park additions -- paid for with a mix of bed tax money, grants and donations -- completed within about the next calendar year or so.

For example, county officials plan to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a women's veterans' memorial at the park on Veterans Day 2021.

The main highlight of the memorial, which has a cost of about $750,000, will be eight bronze, life-like statues of women who made significant military service contributions during periods of major conflicts throughout U.S. history.

The memorial was suggested by District 2 Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel. The statues will line an ADA-compliant path encircling an interior pond that is north of the convention center parking lot and south of the restrooms at the adjacent, county-owned Marler Park. A fountain will be added to the pond and an events platform will be built nearby.

Visitors to the memorial will cross a new bridge over a retention pond between the convention center parking lot and the park.

"We're trying to make this a healing place," Ketchel said of the memorial after Tuesday's meeting. "We want to keep the park natural but also showcase these statues, and I think we've found a way to do it."

A private foundation is seeking donations for the memorial, which officials plan to expand in future years.

Donors can make checks out to the Eglin Air Force Association, attention Candace Lovell Curtis, 210 W. Hollywood Blvd., Suite 137, Mary Esther, FL 32569.

Other planned Veterans Park additions include security cameras, lighting, a new main boardwalk and a pier with 22 boat slips for day-use docking on the bay.

Commission Chairman Trey Goodwin said at Tuesday's meeting that he hopes the county at some point will have a "gatekeeper" or security official at the park to keep an eye on the statues and other additions.

While referring to homeless people who frequently set up camp at the park, Goodwin said that "the living shoreline is good, but we have to put out the message that (the park is) also not living quarters. I think the more we add out there, the more we need to protect it."

During a "day of service" starting at 7 a.m. Saturday, Ketchel, her fellow members of the Choctawhatchee Bay Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and other volunteers plan to build seven picnic tables and clean up fallen trees and other Hurricane Sally-caused destruction at Veterans Park.

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