Stage is set for Tarpon elections

In February, voters will select a new city commissioner and decide on two deals involving city land. The deadline to register to vote is Jan. 7.

By KELLEY BENHAM, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 30, 2002

TARPON SPRINGS -- The ballot is set and the voter registration deadline is approaching for the city's special election Feb. 4.

Voters will choose a replacement for Commissioner Beverley Billiris, who resigned to run for mayor in 2004. On the same ballot, they will decide whether the city can lease a 19-acre lot behind Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital to an apartment developer, and whether it can sell a 0.4-acre lot on Hibiscus Street.

The deadline to register to vote in the election is 5 p.m. Jan. 7. Registration forms are available at the City Clerk's Office, 410 N Ring Ave.; the Tarpon Springs Library, 138 E Lemon St.; the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Office, 315 Court St., Clearwater; or any driver's license office.

Absentee ballots can be requested by calling the city clerk at 942-5614, or they can be cast in person at the clerk's office. Absentee ballots must be submitted to the clerk's office by 7 p.m. election day.

Four candidates -- Wayne Ekren, Spanos Harding, Peter Nehr and Roger Sellew -- have filed to run for Billiris' seat.

Ekren, 48, spent most of his career in speech-language pathology before earning a law degree in 2001. His practice specializes in health care law and elder law. Ekren finished second to Cindy Domino for a commission seat in 1999, drawing 26 percent of the vote.

Harding, 38, has run for the commission twice. A Tarpon Springs native, he has run both large and small businesses and owns a propane business and a construction company.

Nehr, 50 owns three local businesses and is active in a number of community groups. He finished second to Jim Archer for a commission seat in 1998 and ran unsuccessfully for School Board in 2000.

A first-time candidate, Sellew, 64, ran Mayor Frank DiDonato's 2000 re-election campaign. He moved to Tarpon Springs in 1998, after working for a plastics company for almost 30 years and then heading a joint venture between that company and Exxon Corp.

The two land deals on the ballot received unanimous support from the commission, but they must also get voter approval under the City Charter.

The Boston-based Gatehouse Group wants to build 160 apartments for seniors on the land near Helen Ellis Hospital, east of Alt. U.S. 19 off Curlew Place.

If voters agree, the city expects to make almost $4-million over 50 years -- $300,000 up front and $73,500 per year. The developers would also pay about $60,000 a year in property taxes and at least $33,000 per year in service fees, the city estimates. At the end of the lease, the city would get the land back, with the apartments.

The city also wants to sell a 0.4-acre property at 330 Hibiscus St. It obtained the lot and the 100-year-old building on it from a tax lien and has always intended to sell it.

Three groups have expressed interest in the property. The St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral wants to put a parking lot there for its youth center across the street.

Developer Joseph Heidenreich Jr. of Neighborhood Homes of West Florida and developer Mark Johnson of Florida Custom Homes have proposed building homes on the lot.

Any buyer would have to pay at least the appraised value of the property, which is $55,000. The city is still taking offers, said the city's business services specialist, Charlie Attardo. The City Commission will chose the potential buyer sometime before the election.

-- Kelley Benham can be reached at 445-4182 or benham@sptimes.com .

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