From roundabout to rubble

Destruction of Clearwater Beach's roundabout fountain is to begin sometime soon. Exactly when is not clear, however.

By JENNIFER FARRELL, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 7, 2002

CLEARWATER -- Demolition of the $2.1-million fountain at the center of the Clearwater Beach roundabout should begin this month.

City Commissioners on Monday agreed to pay Oldsmar-based Keystone Excavators $163,281 to tear down the fountain and haul away the rubble. Gary Johnson, city public services director, said the job will take about two weeks and the concrete will be recycled for use in the new Memorial Causeway Bridge project.

Exactly when demolition will begin remains a question. Johnson said the contractors, already at work a stone's throw away on the Mandalay streetscape project, could begin as soon as commissioners grant final approval today.

But Commissioner Hoyt Hamilton criticized plans to work at night as too disruptive for residents and tourists on the beach.

"These people are not going to get any sleep," he said.

Instead, Hamilton suggested working during the day and putting off construction for two weeks. The Monday after Thanksgiving, he said, begins the beach's slowest week of the year, all the better for a project that will require closing the roundabout's inner lane.

Assistant City Manager Garry Brumback warned commissioners that timing is always a problem.

"Our experience is there is no good time and nobody wants to see anything ever done," he said.

Commissioners agreed last year that the fountain had to go, citing annual maintenance costs of $231,720 and a bulky design that blocked visibility in the accident-prone traffic circle.

Identified as a senseless tap on water resources, the fountain has been dry for more than a year.

It has not been decided what precisely will replace the fountain, which is 20 feet tall and 180 feet across at its widest point, although officials have talked about some kind of public art. Crews will leave intact a network of underground pipes on the chance that future designs might include some sort of water component, maybe a reflecting pool.

In the short term, sod and shrubbery will replace the fountain and the project will be financed with money left over from the original construction budget. City officials have said they will rely on public opinion before deciding what sort of art may be installed.

"By Christmas, it will be beautiful," said Johnson.

-- Jennifer Farrell can be reached at 445-4160 or farrell@sptimes.com.

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