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Residents voice anger over sewer lift station
By RYAN MALDONADO SOUTH PASADENA -- It's a cross between a space station and a lifeguard stand. A child might confuse it for an obstacle course at a playground. A James Bond villain might scour its large aluminum compartments for a big, red self-destruct button. The bottom line: It's not pretty and neighbors feel it's possibly unsafe. That's why more than 60 South Pasadena residents convened at City Hall Tuesday morning to discuss the hazards and aesthetic integrity of a sewer lift station located near the entrance of Shore Drive S off Pasadena Avenue. Work on the 11-foot tower, surrounded by more than 15 vertical signs and barriers, began in September and is now in its final stages. The $129,000 lift was created as part of the city's 10-year plan to replace the submarine-style stations that stood 4 feet off the ground but left technicians with limited work space. Shore Drive neighbors are irked not only by the lift station's physical appearance, but they claim it obstructs incoming and outgoing traffic and is dangerous to the local children who play at the South Pasadena Habitat Extension, a park located 10 feet from the structure. "I ain't got a clue what it is," said Steven Dixon, 42, who lives on Shore Drive. "At the park nearby, kids come over here after school, they get right up and hang out there all the time." Neighbors' displeasure with the lift station was evident Tuesday in the "unheard of" turnout at City Hall and the booing for city officials, starting with Public Works Director Gary Anderson's announcement that more signs were coming. "If that lift station had been there five years ago, I wouldn't even have considered moving there," Bonnie Brinker told the Commission. "It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. It looks like a lookout station at a prison." The lift station collects sewage and pumps it to St. Petersburg to be processed. The city tried to locate the tower in the park away from the subterranean well, but Preservation 2000, the group that granted South Pasadena the money to build the habitat, rejected that move. "I think there should have been an attempt to involve the people here today from the beginning," said Judith Churchman, who has lived in South Pasadena for 14 years. "Here is a hazard that eliminated a line of traffic on a street that leads to 55-plus condos. "Like it or not, we are the people who have more vision problems driving at night," Churchman said. "I don't think the city should spend one cent beautifying it until they rectify it." Commissioner Wayne Barr said nothing can be done about relocating the platform, but the town arranged with Tampa Bay Engineers to make extra room for beautifying the median near the lift station. Barr acknowledged that shrubbery will not cover the entire structure. "(The sewer lift) is not pleasing to look at, but there are a lot of federal and state laws we have to abide by," Barr said. "We certainly would have put that on the other side of the road if we could have." Tuesday's workshop served as a means for commissioners to get feedback about lift station No. 3. No decisions about the structure's future were made. "Hopefully the meeting educated the people that were here; the safety issue was my main concern," Anderson said. "The added stripes and the reflectors should fix that problem, because (the station) is not going anywhere. "(The station) took a few people by surprise. You know what they say, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.' "
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