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The bill that President Bush is expected to sign offers the region $100-million in projects.
By JEAN HELLER and BILL ADAIR
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 15, 2003
The new federal spending bill passed by the House and Senate on Thursday night contains $100-million in valentines for the Tampa Bay area.
Among the largest expenditures are $10-million that will help solve irritating and dangerous traffic logjams in central Pinellas County and $7.9-million to continue work on the regional reservoir system under construction by Tampa Bay Water in southern Hillsborough County.
There is also money for terrorism preparedness, law enforcement, Pinellas County beach construction, economic development and medical and scientific research that earmarks several million for the University of South Florida and St. Petersburg College.
"I'm prepared to defend any of these projects that we've put in this bill," said U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Largo, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, when asked if the items amounted to pork for areas in and around his Pinellas district. "The biggest amounts of money will be providing research and information and training for something that is a national threat. I certainly will not apologize for that."
The largest single line item among local projects is $10-million earmarked to help Pinellas County purchase the Sunshine Speedway immediately south of Ulmerton Road between 44th and 46th Streets N.
Owning the property will allow the county, along with the Florida Department of Transportation, to build an expressway from the south end of the Bayside Bridge across the Speedway property and linking with Interstate 275.
The project will provide a route without any traffic signals from State Road 60 to Orlando.
"We're extremely thankful and grateful for a really wonderful Valentine's Day present," said County Commissioner Karen Seel, who led the effort to obtain money for the Speedway property, which will cost about $20-million.
"We'll have to see if we can find the additional $10-million by putting some things on hold," Seel said. "Or we might buy the property in stages or ask the federal government for the additional $10-million next year."
About 40 percent of the Speedway property will be needed for the new road. The rest is expected to be used by St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, which is directly north on the other side of Ulmerton.
"We'd like to create an intermodal center there for light rail or high-speed rail and other forms of transportation," said airport director David Metz. Some of the land might also be used for additional remote parking.
Metz said he expected that the 120-acre parcel would be in county hands within 12 months.
Young said that fixing this traffic bottleneck was essential.
"Just like U.S. 19, we were really far behind on the Roosevelt connector," he said. "We need to get caught up."
Road projects like this usually are included in the highway bill, which passes Congress every three or four years. But as chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Young has the clout to create new road projects every year.
Jerry Maxwell, general manager of Tampa Bay Water, the area's principal water utility, said the money in the budget for the reservoir would help fund construction.
"Thanks to the continuing efforts of Congressman Young, we are going to see the reservoir project to the end," Maxwell said. "I think the federal funding now totals something over $45-million. We're elated that in a very tight budget year, we've been able to keep . . . this project moving."
Originally, there was no money in President Bush's budget for Pinellas beach construction, but the budget he is expected to sign contains $3-million to complete a study on finding new sources of sand, to begin engineering for St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island and to allow continued monitoring of Sand Key.
"In Florida, beaches are an essential part of our economy," Young said. "We've had a very successful beach program in Pinellas. Our beaches are in very good shape."
The city of Clearwater will receive more than $3-million to continue environmental projects.
The bulk of the money, $2.8-million, will help fund a massive dredging project at Stevenson Creek that is headed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and meant to restore the estuary so fish and wildlife can thrive.
The city's wastewater and reclaimed water project received $450,000 and Beach Walk, the planned redesign of Gulfview Boulevard, drew an additional $202,000.
All of the projects are in their second year, and city officials had pushed for the money.
"These were not surprises," said City Manager Bill Horne. "But whatever we can get, it's all in the kitty. It's all appreciated and it helps us."
The University of South Florida in Tampa will get $12.6-million for a variety of construction and research projects in biological and environmental science, crime and drug addiction, medicine and education. The bill also contains funding for projects at USF St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg College, Eckerd College and the Stetson University College of Law.
-- Times staff writer Jennifer Farrell contributed to this report.
University of South Florida Center for Biological Defense (building): $1,200,000.
Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center: Includes $1,390,000 for the University of South Florida neuroimaging project into the relationship between genetic predisposition and environmental factors bearing upon drug addiction. USF received $522,000 for this project last year.
Stetson University College of Law Tampa campus: $450,000.
Tampa Bay Reservoir: $7,875,000.
Lawton & Rhea Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies in Tampa, for training paraprofessionals in the health-care field: $1,000,000.
University of South Florida construction for the Center for Biological Defense, Tampa: $5,000,000.
University of South Florida Health Sciences Center and College of Medicine, renovation of brain repair labs, Tampa: $3,000,000.
University of South Florida, Tampa, for the Florida Policy Exchange Center on Aging: $400,000.
University of South Florida, Tampa, for the Tampa Bay Consortium for the Development of Educational Leaders and the Preparation and Recruitment of Teachers: $100,000.
University of South Florida, Tampa, for a "Globalization Research Network": $1,500,000.
Florida high speed rail: $2,150,000.