ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — The City of St. Petersburg will move forward with the Science Center deal. Mayor Kenneth Welch spoke to residents on the West Side during a meeting Wednesday. Those residents previously said their voices weren’t being heard on the matter.

“I think the exciting part about this is that our constituents got to see this process work in real time,” said Copley Gerdes, city council member.

Dozens of emails, calls, and one packed council meeting later, the deal gets to move forward.

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“This is a giant win for the City of St. Pete,” said John Hoke, the Jungle Terrace Civic Association President.

The decision was in the mayor’s hands after the city council voted unanimously to get the five-year-long deal rolling. Welch said his hesitancy came from Hurricanes Milton and Helene showing holes in the infrastructure, and the need for increased stormwater capacity at the Northwest Waste Reclamation Facility behind the Science Center.

“I am the only mayor in St. Pete’s history who’s had to tell our citizens not to do laundry, not to flush the toilets. We had to shut down two sewer plants last year,” Welch said.

8 On Your Side asked if the mayor had any honest thoughts about this decision biting residents in the future.

“That’s why I made the decision that I didn’t want the maximum capacity at that plant in case it is again the only running plant in the city. We’re going to take a little bit less in terms of capacity building, but there are other ways that we’re going to try to mitigate that,” Welch said.

The mayor said his mind was made up Friday, a day after the council meeting, and then he sent out a memo to council members Tuesday saying he believed the Science Center could’ve been built in another location on the West Side, like empty schools from upcoming consolidation or the St. Petersburg College parking lot.

Welch said the council will support higher cost options and potentially relocating the brush site for the Science Center’s redevelopment. Residents said they reached a good compromise.

“I think the city will still be able to be as resilient as possible while having a science center,” Hoke said.

The next steps are to execute the contract the city has with the people behind the Science Center deal. City staff will work on other ways to complete the infrastructure upgrades needed at the Northwest Water Reclamation Facility.