Thursday December 27th, 2007 - 2:30PM

* Can downtown revitalization work? Ask Oklahoma City!

* Glenn's Corner: Friends getting ready for a great 2008

* Friends in the process of organizing as an "open books" non-profit corporation

* Friends looking for a home

Can downtown revitalization work? Ask Oklahoma City!

In a period of financial uncertainty, it's fair to ask if anyone has figured out how to make downtown revitalization work. If the answer is "Yes!" then what are they doing that the Pensacola Bay Area needs to do as well?

Oklahoma City is a great place to ask.

We wanted to share this story with you from Oklahoma City Friday, "The newspaper for Oklahoma's trendsetters" so you can see for yourself that prosperity is there for those who go after it:

The following article is copyright 2007 - Used with permission

This may have been our greatest year yet.

IT WAS a very good year. Our Centennial Year

History may record it as one of our -- if not the --best year in our history.

Downtown Oklahoma City, once the rendezvous of wine-oes sleeping in the streets, mushroomed into a sparkling, dynamic city core that any American city would die for. 19,000 new jobs in 2007.

Hundreds of new condominiums were open and under construction. Major street intersections were bricked. New big convention-able hotels opened. Empty office buildings were converted into slick, upscale condominiums. The historic Skirvin hotel came to life as a swingin\u2019 new lady.

Bricktown became nationally known with new corporate headquarters like Sonic and new entertainment facilities like Toby Keith's restaurant. Business was booming in Bricktown and more is on the way.

Still celebrating their newness were the Don W. Reynolds Art Museum, the Ron Norick Library and the renovated Civic Music Hall. And the National Memorial reached new heights.

It was happening all over town. A gain in the building of new homes. New businesses everywhere.

You could rarely get out of sight of some new construction in progress.

And coming to the end of the year, the fabulous Centennial Parade, capped by the Greatest Show in our history, The Centennial Spectacular before 30,000 in the Cox Center and the Bricktown ball park.

-30-

If Oklahoma City can do it - we can do it. It begins downtown.

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Glenn's Corner: Friends getting ready for a great 2008

Welcome back Friends!

The Friends' website saw its 3rd busiest month to date; the holiday shopping season hardly slowed our visitors and their interest in the park through the CommunityMaritimePark.com website.

As most of you may have noticed the website is seeing many more frequent news updates. This site is intended to be your news portal to all things related to the development of the Community Maritime Park, and as more things happen, more news articles will be published.

A few weeks ago, Friends received the endorsement of the non-profit Community Maritime Park Associates (non-profit CMPA) to begin formal planning to assist the city with cleanup efforts on the park property.

So we are calling out to our Friends to volunteer to help us to cut tree limbs, mark holes, pick up trash, and other necessary activities to get the property looking nice, thus giving everyone a clear view to the bay. If you are a landscaper, or just a supporter that believes in the park and are willing to contribute some of your time and/or equipment to help, we would love to have you join with your Friends for any of the various projects!

Friends is also looking for a street-level walk-in office space downtown. This will allow our Friends a place to meet and work on planning and projects for the CMP, close to the CMP.

For those interested in helping Friends with the cleanup project, or with the availability of office space which you are willing to share with us, or any other way you think you can help Friends with the Community Maritime Park (CMP), please tell us that you'd like to help.

The preferred method to offer your assistance is to visit the website at http://CommunityMaritimePark.com and click the "Contact" tab and fill out the form.

Or if you prefer to email me, you may do so by writing me at glenn@communitymaritimepark.com with "WE WANT TO HELP THE CMP!" as the subjecy.

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Friends in the process of organizing as an "open books" non-profit corporation

Hopefully, by late January, Friends of the Community Maritime Park will be an IRS recognized 501c3 non-profit corporation.

This opens up a wide variety of opportunities for Friends. It will allow us to receive tax-deductible contributions. It will allow us to operate Community Maritime Park focused retailing, the way that The Friends of the (New York City) Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art runs the Museum shop to raise money for museum projects.

In the interests of following the example set by the non-profit Community Maritime Park Associates (non-profit CMPA), Friends will operate as an "open books" non-profit. What that means to you is that the Friends financial records will be open for public inspection just as are the records of the non-profit CMPA.

Twenty-five percent of Friends' net revenues will be donated directly to the non-profit CMPA. The other 75 percent will be used for public amenities, educational projects, and other public park-related investments.

Friends wants to thank Kathlyn White, an attorney with the firm of Mc Donald Fleming, Morehead and a sitting member of the non-profit CMPA Board of Trustees for donating her time to create the By-Laws and other legal documents involved with this organization.

We are in the process of engaging a CPA to ensure the integrity of the financial records. If you are a CPA with non-profit 501c3 and/or 501c4 experience, or know of someone who is, please drop us a line at glenn@CommunityMaritimePark.com

Friends also wants to thank the following who will sit as the initial Board of Trustees for Friends:

Glenn C. Obert, owner of Webfoot Enterprises, Chair

Kenneth E. Lamb, owner of CyberSmart Computers and Networking, Vice Chair

Ellen Hoefer, assistant city banking manager with Peoples First Community Bank, Secretary/Treasurer

Kathlyn White, Board member, corporate registered agent, and legal counsel

Mike Bates, owner of WEBY AM-1330, Board member

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Friends looking for a home

Friends is looking for a property to set up as its offices. We'd prefer a downtown street-front so that we can garner the visibility that comes with that type of location. We will also needs access into the evening hours so that working Friends can participate in volunteer projects when they get off their job.

Friends will be more than happy to accept shared arrangements with another business. So if you have excess square footage, then we would love to talk with you about that arrangement as well.

In the short run - 3 - 6 months, Friends will need a rent-deferred arrangement until we are incorporated as a non-profit and have some donations in the treasury.

Like any other non-profit civic organization, Friends survives on the generosity of its supporters. If you have a property available, or know of one, please contact Glenn C. Obert at this email address:

glenn@communitymaritimepark.com

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Email Board of Trustees members with your thoughts and ideas!

Here are the email addresses for the Board of Trustees members. Remember, the non-profit Community Maritime Park Associates, Inc. (non-profit CMPA) operates in full compliance with Florida's Government in the Sunshine Act. All email communications are open public records available to anyone who asks for them.

The syntax for the Board members is first name.last name@whibbspark.org

Judge Lacey Collier (Chairman): lacey.collier@whibbspark.org

Mayor John H. Fogg: john.fogg@whibbspark.org

Collier Merrill: collier.merrill@whibbspark.org

Dick Baker: dick.baker@whibbspark.org

Dr. Jimmy Jones: jimmy.jones@whibbspark.org

Eddie Todd: eddie.todd@whibbspark.org

Rev. Hugh King: hugh.king@whibbspark.org

John Merting: john.merting@whibbspark.org

Juanita Scott: juanita.scott@whibbspark.org

Kathlyn White: kathlyn.white@whibbspark.org

Rodney Jackson: rodney.jackson@whibbspark.org

Susan Story: susan.story@whibbspark.org

Acting Executive Director on loan from the City of Pensacola
Ed Spears: espears@ci.pensacola.fl.us

Friends' web site:
http://www.CommunityMaritimePark.com



Email Friends:
glenn@communitymaritimepark.com

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* Link up to the Maritime Museum

A number of people asked us to include a link for those interested in learning more about the Adm. John H. Fetterman State of Florida Maritime Museum and Research Center at the University of West Florida Community Maritime Park Campus.

Give this link a try, and then bookmark it for future updates!

http://www.uwf.edu/maritime

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Email Relay Participants: Please forward this to your email lists, blogs, message boards, and other publications. Thanks to you, more than 500 people not on the regular Friends email list get the latest updates on the Community Maritime Park each week. You are making a difference!

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Questions? Ed Spears has the answers!

"When in doubt, call Ed to find out!"

Here is the contact information for Ed Spears, acting Executive Director of the non-profit CMPA:

Edward E. Spears, Neighborhood & Economic Development Administrator, City of Pensacola
180 Governmental Center, Pensacola, FL
P.O. Box 12910 / Pensacola, Florida 32521
(850) 436-5655 (office) / (850) 595-1143 (fax) / email: espears@ci.pensacola.fl.us

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Don't miss even one exciting second as the CMP goes from vision to reality!

Get your own FREE subscription to the Friends report: http://supporters.communitymaritimepark.com

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That's it for this week - until then, "Thanks!" from all your friends . . . who are Friends of the Pensacola Bay Area's Vince J. Whibbs Sr. Community Maritime Park!

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Federal CAN SPAM ACT information

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Administrative email contact: Glenn C. Obert
glenn@webfootenterprises.com