PANAMA CITY — With a resounding response from Glenwood residents, city officials pledged that they would not place a compressed natural gas station on Redwood Avenue near 11th Street.
At a public meeting Thursday night at the A.D. Harris campus on 11th Street, Commissioner John Kady said the commission would not consider the Redwood location without reviewing other locations. At the meeting, City Manager Jeff Brown could only think of one location that would be big enough and on a major thoroughfare, U.S. 98 next to the Red Cross, which also is in Glenwood.
“Get Glenwood out of your mind,” Lois Barker said. “The answer is no, no, no!”
Brown then said he would not recommend the Redwood location to the commission, leaving the project in limbo.
Commissioner Kenneth Brown went on to praise the residents who showed up at the meeting, more than 20, for voicing their opinion.
“You can’t stay home and wait for something to happen,” Kenneth Brown said. “You did this yourselves.”
The city had seriously considered putting a natural gas station on Redwood Avenue starting in September. Public works had designated items in the budget specifically for natural gas vehicles. The commission received a plan from Zeit Energy for a $1.5 million station on Sept. 20.
The top concern for residents was that having an increase of vehicles on Redwood and 11th Street would endanger children walking in the neighborhood.
“We don’t want to put one child — red, yellow, green, black, purple,” William Swift said. “We don’t want to put one child in a position to negotiate 18 wheelers.”
Public Works Director Neil Fravel said the increase in traffic would nonexistent in the first year of the project.
“A lot of solid waste trucks already use Redwood every day,” Fravel said.
However, he admitted that the vision of the city is to eventually attract private companies to use their natural gas station, which could include large vehicles.
There was some concern about the possibility of an explosion but it paled in comparison to traffic considerations.
“Everything man made has the possibility to fail,” James Barker said.
Fravel also stated that a natural gas station is an approved use at that property, which is zoned industrial. If a private company wanted to build one, all they would need is a development order.
“I wouldn’t want it next to my house,” Kady said.