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That's all it took to level the blighted auto body shop building at 1748 S Missouri Ave. that so many complained of for so long.
By ADRIENNE P. SAMUELS
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 23, 2002
LARGO -- The building that many considered to be one neighborhood's worst eyesore has been torn down.
The abandoned and former auto body shop that used to stand at 1748 S Missouri Ave., just in between Clearwater and Largo, is gone. Few will miss it.
"Anything in the world could have been found there," said Mike Strippoli, manager of Castrol Xpress Lube. "The Environmental Protection Agency was here. . . . You could find shopping carts, bottles, dead guys."
Folks in the area say property owner Eunice Little didn't keep up the old auto body shop that had been owned by her late husband, William. The doorless facility became a run-down target for paintball-practicing teens, a home for the homeless and a storage facility for leaking kerosene tanks. Virtually abandoned, it invited crime to the neighborhood.
Pinellas County gladly says good riddance.
"It was an attractive nuisance," said Robert Nagin, director of the Pinellas County Building Department.
After several citations and warnings addressed to the owner, Nagin's department can wash its hands of the corner property.
The land now is flat and covered with grass and gravel. The vacant site is the single best thing to happen there in years, neighbors said.
"There were derelicts living there; the roof was falling in," said John Shea, whose business is two doors down from the Little property. "We have been complaining and calling the county for years. There were break-ins. It was a blight on the neighborhood."
Though the property is not within the city of Largo, city officials there are happy to see it torn down. At Tuesday's City Commission meeting, City Manager Steven Stanton presented Mayor Bob Jackson with the "last piece of rock" from the torn-down building. Largo firefighters provide service to that area of unincorporated Pinellas County.
Eunice Little inherited the property from her husband after he had died earlier this year. She did not respond to several attempts to contact her by the Times.
Now all Little has to do is make sure the grass is mowed and trash cleared from the site, according to the county.
"We just wanted to get rid of the building," said Jack Tipton, of the county's code enforcement department. "It only took a day to take it down. We went out on the 16th and we verified that, yes, the building is torn down and the site is graded off to a nice, clean property."
At least one person is trying to purchase that land from Little. Bo Parris, who works with Futura Car Wash Systems, wants to build his business there. Parris and Little have talked many times, Parris said, but Little refuses to sell. Still, Parris won't give up hope.
"I even met the demolition crew out there," Parris said. "We've been dealing with Ms. Little for almost two years."
-- Adrienne Samuels can be reached at 445-4157 or samuels@sptimes.com.