Cocoa Beach Mayor Ben Malik Details Improvement Plan For Cocoa Beach Sports Complex
By Ben Malik, Cocoa Beach Mayor // September 24, 2017
will help to bolster our local economy
BREVARD COUNTY • COCOA BEACH, FLORIDA – A new school year begins and it is a bittersweet reminder of how fast our children grow up as my wife and I watch our son enter his last year at Cocoa Beach High School.
It seems like just yesterday we watched him playing little league with his friends he made at Roosevelt Elementary, most of which are also entering their last year as seniors at Cocoa Beach High School.
These friendships can very well last a lifetime and is a reflection of the benefit of being a small town community that we all cherish!
The city of Cocoa Beach is taking the lead on a proposed improvement plan for the Cocoa Beach Sports Complex with funding commitments from the Space Coast Tourist Development Council (TDC).
The conceptual plan includes improvements to baseball/softball complex, soccer fields, fitness trails, educational facilities oriented to the lagoon, and access to the water.
This partnership will include the TDC, School Board, and the City of Cocoa Beach; other partners may be the Brevard Zoo, Florida Inland Navigational District, Eastern Florida State College and Florida Tech.
Moving the project forward with funding from the TDC will require cooperation and certainly will need to be a multi-year phased approach.
These improvements will be beneficial to the schools, the City, as well as, visitors to our area who help to bolster our economy. It has the potential to be a win–win for all who will be involved, but certainly the citizens of Cocoa Beach.
In addition, combining the use of new athletic fields with waterfront features will create educational and environmental opportunities for our students and citizens. It will encourage travel teams to visit and offer our students scholarship opportunities.
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These features along the shoreline will provide access for students to engage in hands on learning experiences. It is one thing to learn from a book, but a new experience when kinesthetic learning becomes a reality Cocoa Beach hotel visitors generate a significant amount of our region’s local bed tax and it is nice to see it finally being re-invested beachside.
I would like to thank Space Coast TDC Executive Director Eric Garvey and the TDC members, Brevard School Board member John Craig and staff, Cocoa Beach High School Principal Dr. Green and staff, City Manager Jim McKnight and staff, Cocoa Beach Leisure Board member Matt Harrington – and certainly our very own resident, Ms. Dee Dee Sheffield, for creating the overall vision plan for such an amazing amenity for all of us to enjoy.
When we all work together great things can happen. Thank you for your support and allowing me to serve as your mayor, please feel free to contact me with any suggestions at bmalik@cityofcocoabeach.com or my cell at 321-794-6668.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Elected as Mayor in 2016, Ben Malik has lived in Cocoa Beach since 2007. He is a graduate of the University of Florida and is Vice President/Commercial Banker at Florida Bank of Commerce. Malik was a Cocoa Beach City Commissioner 2012 to 2016 and is a former member of the Cocoa Beach Planning Board and Cocoa Beach Citizens Academy.
