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Road toll
By AMY WIMMER, Times Staff Writer ST. PETE BEACH -- At least Castaway's Cafe can depend on regular business from the workers hired to rip up Blind Pass Road in front of the restaurant, relocate utility lines, add two new lanes and then pave it again. But customers trying to drive the road are less likely to navigate the obstacle course of dirt, pipes and heavy equipment as the Department of Transportation embarks on its $6.11-million project to widen the roadway. Owners Samantha Grosso and Jacki Hensler, mother and daughter, estimate the road work costs them about $200 a day in lost customers, even with the extra business from road workers, but they are trying to stay optimistic. They got a good deal on the cafe they opened less than a year ago because the road construction was getting ready to begin, and when customers started having trouble getting to the cafe, the owners started a lunchtime delivery service. Then there are the construction workers. "We were put here to feed those boys out there. They're here for breakfast. They're here for lunch," Hensler said. "We knew the construction was coming when we got here." Not all of the 20 or so business owners along Blind Pass Road have as many kind words for the DOT as Hensler. One restaurant has already closed, said Taso Papargiriou, who owns a convenience store on Blind Pass Road and is president of the North Beach Civic Association. A few businesses are for sale. One merchant refinanced his house to keep his business open. Their story isn't new or uncommon. Major road work projects and even small-scale beautification projects aimed at revitalizing neighborhoods are met with resistance from businesses afraid to risk the lost commerce. In this project, Blind Pass Road is being used as a "trial run" for the county's planned improvements for Gulf Boulevard, the beaches' main thoroughfare, so this small group of merchants will be the first to benefit from the improved landscaping, decorative street lighting, buried utility lines and other amenities that are part of the beautification. The city hopes to make Blind Pass Road an extension of Corey Avenue, St. Pete Beach's historic main street, and hopes to encourage mixed-use development along the corridor, with businesses on the ground floor and housing above. In the meantime, amid the mess and the noise and the dwindling customers, the storefronts are struggling. "It just looks seedy," said Len Stamos, who owns two Blind Pass businesses, Beach Cyclist and the St. Pete Beach Amusement Center. "When it's done and the road is improved and the drainage is done, I think the north end of the city is going to start to rival the south end of the city," said Stamos, referring to St. Pete Beach's popular Pass-a-Grille neighborhood. While the state paid property owners $9.9-million to acquire right of way along the street, the state already owned right of way in front of many of the businesses, and shop owners who lease their space received no reimbursement. Six months into the Blind Pass project, APAC, the contractor hired by the Department of Transportation, is 54 days behind schedule, according to David Gillett, the DOT project engineer. The contractor has fired two subcontractors and has now brought its own crews to the site to complete the work. The DOT expects the project to be complete in May 2003. Gillett has an office on St. Pete Beach's Corey Avenue, just around the corner from the construction, and is the business owners' liaison with DOT. He wishes more business owners took advantage of him. "I do hear through third parties that other people are having some complaints and some heartburn," Gillett said. "I'm trying to get a more personal relationship with them." Among the dissatisfied is the city of St. Pete Beach, which hoped to use the DOT project to upgrade the street. But the sidewalks are placed directly next to the street, instead of being buffered by a grassy area that would have provided more landscaping opportunities. Now the city is focusing on trying to get the DOT to install more medians in the center lane along the new road. "There was the impression that decisions had been made to take the sidewalks off the curb," City Manager Mike Bonfield said. "There were some expectations there that when the plans came out didn't, in fact, happen." Part of Gillett's job is to ensure the DOT meets its promise to business owners of maintaining access to their storefronts at every step of the project. Often, however, the work is so disruptive that customers avoid the businesses, even when DOT isn't blocking the entrance. "It's very difficult for our customers to get in and out," said Connie Bonnain of Lou's Florist. "The water drainage is dirty and muddy and unpleasant for customers to get their cars through. A lot of people drive on by because they can't figure out how to get over here." Papargiriou, the civic association president, said his income from the motel he owns on the other side of town is what keeps the doors open at his TLC Food Mart on Blind Pass Road. Business is down about 70 percent for him. Even Mermaids, St. Pete Beach's only exotic dancing club, is suffering. Manager Richard Klein said business is down about 60 percent. Stamos, who owns Blind Pass Road's bike shop and the arcade, said the businesses are determined to stick it out. "If we turn out our lights, we're going to be the last ones left," said Stamos, who has owned the bike shop for eight years. "We don't want to go out of business."
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