EATONVILLE, Fla. – A Florida task force gave final approval to recommend St. Augustine as the top site for a new museum of Black history, but this might not be the end for Eatonville as the potential site.
The task force voted 6-1 to submit its report to Gov. Ron DeSantis, and then the Florida Legislature, ranking St. Augustine as the top option. The task force also recommended, however, that the legislature do a feasibility study for the top three ranked locations before making the final selection — St. Augustine, Eatonville and Opa-Locka.
For the past nine months, the cities have been lobbying to be the site of the proposed museum.
There was a strong vision for the 10-acre area on Wymore Road, just off the I-4 expressway in Eatonville.
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But after months of lobbying and debate, a nine-member task force chose St. Augustine as the best place to build it. State Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, is the chair of the task force and says Eatonville could still be selected.
”That is a possibility,” she said. “The draft of the final report requires a feasibility study of the top three and the rankings had it as St. Augustine, Eatonville and Opa-Locka.”
But it could take up to a year for those studies to be done. Some state leaders like Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, are torn.
He spoke with News 6 Thursday exclusively about the museum.
“The African American community has been instrumental in building the state right, and they have been instrumental in a lot of places,” Scott said. “Eatonville is historic from the standpoint, I think it’s the oldest African-American city in the country, where St. Augustine is the oldest inhabited city in Florida, so I don’t know how, this will be a tough decision.”
The task force has to submit its report to the governor by Monday.
He will be asked to approve it, and if he does, it will then go to the legislature for final approval and funding.
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