Resiliency Hub Breaks Ground
By: Shelia Mader
Monday afternoon, city and county officials, contractors, members of the public gathered in blistering temperatures for the ground-breaking of a resiliency hub.
The City of Marianna is building the hub and community shelter at Optimist Park located within the Marianna Educational Recreational Expo (MERE) complex. It is the intention for it to serve as a multi-purpose facility for recreation (a place for basketball, volleyball, and pickleball) and as a disaster shelter that can support response and recovery operations.
The facility is being designed to be resilient to extreme weather. It’s built to withstand winds up to 150 mph, which makes it suitable to serve as a safe gathering place during hurricanes and severe storms.
There is more than adequate reason for the hub to be built. After Hurricane Michael in 2018, Marianna’s infrastructure proved vulnerable even though it is well inland. This highlighted the need for better long-term facilities that can shelter residents and be a logistics base during emergencies.
The hub is meant to provide more reliable shelter capacity so that schools or other limited spaces aren’t the only options in a disaster. It’s also designed to serve as a Point of Distribution (POD) for supplies and a staging area for recovery efforts.
Funding sources for the project is backed by multiple grant sources, primarily: Community Development Block Grant Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) funds; Community Development Block Grant – Covid (CDBG-CV) funds, Legislative appropriations, Funds from the Florida Division of Emergency Management and Florida Commerce.
Under the CDBG-MIT program, the City was awarded more than $5.2 million specifically for the resiliency hub. These federal mitigation funds focus on increasing community resilience after disasters, especially in places designated as most impacted and distressed.
The City has adjusted and combined grant funding streams (like reallocating previously-designated grant dollars from other projects) to support this hub’s construction more fully.
There was also a grant reimbursement amendment approved that changes how reimbursements are handled, helping the city manage cash flow during construction.
In late 2025, the City Commission voted to change contractors due to delays with the original builder and awarded the project to Ram Development so work could continue on schedule.
Earlier bids for the total construction package (including site work and building) showed a total budget of around $8.65 million for core portions of the project.
Intended Uses Once Completed
Once finished, the resiliency hub will be used for:
Community recreation during normal operations.
Shelter for residents during hurricanes or emergencies.
Point of distribution for supplies during disaster response.
Staging and coordination space for recovery efforts after extreme weather or other crises.
With this week’s weather and the lack of sufficient heat for many homes in Jackson County, when completed this hub may serve as a shelter for those in need of a warmer environment.
