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Tarpon's mayor asks for a study of safety issues on all multiple-name streets after a petition to rename W Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
By KELLEY BENHAM, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 23, 2003
TARPON SPRINGS -- Bob Jakeway is so concerned that living on W Martin Luther King Jr. Drive is unsafe that he hung an escape ladder from his window, collected 233 signatures on a petition and asked commissioners Tuesday night to change the name of his street.
But police, fire and emergency response officials do not share his concerns, and the City Commission made no promises, except to study the issue.
Jakeway, 58, lives in a three-story house in the two-block section of the street between Alt. U.S. 19 and Whitcomb Bayou. All 22 homeowners there want the name changed to Whitcomb Boulevard, he said.
He said that the street has too many names, potentially creating confusion for emergency vehicles. He said he worries that if his house caught on fire, he, his wife and his two Labradors would be trapped waiting for the firetruck.
The street changes from Lake Street on the east side of U.S. 19, to E Martin Luther King through Union Academy, to W Martin Luther King Drive in his neighborhood, to Whitcomb Boulevard at Whitcomb Bayou, to Gulf Road out to Sunset Beach.
"Any time you have multiple street names, there's a margin of error," Jakeway told the commission. "If it had one constant name from U.S. 19 to Sunset Beach, I wouldn't be standing here talking to you."
Conversations with the city fire chief and the county 911 coordinator bolstered his fears, he said.
So, commissioners asked Tarpon Springs Fire Chief Kevin Bowman, who was in the audience, whether the street was a safety problem.
"I do not see it as a safety problem," Bowman said.
Commissioners asked Police Chief Mark Lecouris the same question.
"All due respect," he said, "but there is not an ounce of safety concern."
Jakeway submitted an unsigned statement he said came from a Pinellas County 911 coordinator, which described confusion created by callers not being able to describe their location when they need help. It did not mention Tarpon Springs, Martin Luther King Drive, or multiple street names.
Asked later, Jakeway declined to give the name of the county 911 coordinator he talked to.
The county's 911 coordinator is Chuck Freeman. He said Wednesday he has never heard of Bob Jakeway. "He has not spoken with me," Freeman said.
Freeman said he doesn't know of any safety problem in Tarpon Springs. Lots of streets in the county have a number of names, he said. "Once you're used to it, it's not a problem."
Although Jakeway's street has been called Martin Luther King Jr. Drive for nearly 13 years, he said, some residents still refer to that section by its previous name, Lake Street. One resident still has mail delivered to a Lake Street address, he said.
Commissioner David Archie said he doesn't see how naming part of it Whitcomb Boulevard will reduce the confusion.
"If it's called Whitcomb, will they stop calling it Lake Street?" he asked.
Jakeway's proposal would extend Whitcomb Boulevard, and, by his logic, would reduce the number of names the street has because there would not be an "East" and "West" Martin Luther King Drive.
Archie didn't immediately accept that reasoning, but he's keeping an open mind. "I'm not leaning this way or that way," he said. "I just really want to see where the safety issue is."
Mayor Frank DiDonato asked the city staff to look at all the major thoroughfares in the city that have multiple names and identify any safety concerns. The city will hold a workshop on the matter.
"If indeed it is a safety issue, then it's a safety issue for all the streets," he said. "We ought to do it properly and look at all of them."
Jakeway wants the issue on the Feb. 11 commission agenda, but City Manager Ellen Posivach said the planning department is understaffed and the study could take longer than that.
-- Kelley Benham can be reached at (727) 445-4182 or benham@sptimes.com .