Thursday February 28th, 2008 - 3:15PM

Friends of The Pensacola Bay Area's Vince Whibbs Sr. Community Maritime Park, now incorporated as Friends of the Community Maritime Park, Inc., released their new logo created by Micah Baldwin of MBaldwin Photography of Pensacola ( http://www.MBaldwinphotography.com ).

The logo's use with the Friends' web site will begin appearing on the Friends' http://www.CommunityMaritimePark.com site on Monday, March 3. It will also grace the organization's emailed news report - now standing at more than 10,000 opt-in subscribers to the free publication, as well as identifying other Friends' projects.

"The colors capture the full flavor and excitement of the Friends' web site," said Glenn C. Obert, chair of the Friends' Board of Trustees. Mr. Obert's firm, Webfoot Enterprises (http://www.WebfootEnterprises.com) designed, and administers the Friends' site.

"Her selection of the heron on the park's bulkhead next to a piling overlooking the waters of Pensacola Bay tells the story of preserving waterfront access for everyone generations into the future."

Mr. Obert took the introduction of the logo to reemphasize the pressing urgency for building the park.

"We will raise money for an office so Friends will have a central meeting point to coordinate activities, and to purchase other items making a visible impact to the community such as in-window signs for merchants and businesses, car magnets, and yard signs, to communicate the theme 'We Want Our CMP!'" Mr. Obert said. "Friends will use every avenue available to it to get the message out that the park is a first-priority strongly backed by an even greater percentage of people than the 56% that voted 'Yes!' when it passed a referendum vote.

"We need the 1,500 new jobs more than ever in the Pensacola Bay Area market. We need the massive educational benefits that opening the UWF's Community Maritime Park campus will bring to our residents. We need the tax revenues from sales tax collected on park activities, and property taxes from office development will bring to our hard-strapped governmental treasuries. We need the permanent preservation of the public's use and enjoyment of the waterfront that will outlive all of us.

"In short, we need The Pensacola Bay Area's Vince Whibbs Sr. Community Maritime Park. We voted on it, and the voters issued a mandate to build it. 'We Want Our CMP!'"

In addition to the use of the logo by Friends, it will also be donated for use to the non-profit Community Maritime Park Associates Board of Trustees.

"We are preparing templates for stationary and business cards, all at no cost whatsoever to the public," Mr. Obert added. "That is the purpose of the Friends organization; to develop no-cost solutions to as much of the park's creation and maintenance as possible."

Now that Friends is incorporated, and has its identity in place through adoption of a logo, the next step for the organization is to meet with city officials to plan a clean-up program for the park area and begin making visible changes to demonstrate both commitment and progress to the public.

Plans also call for an on-line store to market items from local merchants no matter the size, from brick and mortar operations to at-home businesses.