Neighbors vote to pay police to nab speeders

As a last resort, Bay Arbor hires a sheriff's deputy to patrol the main drag of the private gated community.

By MEGAN SCOTT
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 22, 2003

OLDSMAR -- The Bay Arbor Property Owners Association has tried everything: word of mouth, public meetings and newsletters.

But residents still zoom up and down Bay Arbor Boulevard, the main drag of the 230-home gated community that runs for more than a mile.

"I'd say they do an excess of 50," said Pat Grant, 38, chairman of the neighborhood's safety committee. The speed limit is 25 mph. "We've been very, very lucky that there has not been an accident yet."

The homeowners association has tried for the past year to hire a Pinellas County sheriff's deputy to enforce the speed limit in the subdivision. It already has hired an engineer to complete a study and recommend a posted speed.

But when the board signed a contract with the county for a sheriff's patrol in August, they were told any contracts for service must go through the city.

City officials considered the association's proposal this week and asked City Attorney Tom Trask to prepare an agreement authorizing the sheriff to monitor the streets in Bay Arbor at the association's expense.

"If that's what they want, then I'm all for it," Mayor Jerry Beverland said. "Any time a subdivision wants to request something, I'm going to support them."

Association president Steven Howarth, 34, said he hopes to have the sheriff patrols start in April. The association has already budgeted for the $25-per-hour expense.

Howarth said the deputy will more than likely be on patrol for three-hour shifts during times of higher-volume traffic: in the morning and at night.

"The frequency will depend on the response to it," Howarth said. "In other words, if the speeding continues, then we would probably be more likely to continue doing it in the future."

Grant, who was one of the first residents to move into Bay Arbor, said the speeding problem has been ongoing. Even when the neighborhood was partially occupied, contractors would speed up and down the main drag, he said.

Then he noticed more residents were doing it. When the association was established in November 2001, it considered a three-pronged approach: communication, raised asphalt "speed tables" in the road to prompt motorists to slow down and sheriff's patrols.

They decided not to put in the speed tables.

"Speed bumps tend to only make speeders slow down when they go over the bumps and accelerate between them," Grant said. "There was a lot of controversy for people in the back who would have to hit them every day, so we took that into account as well."

Howarth said deciding to implement the sheriff's patrols was difficult for the board. But he said it was made with the best interests of the residents in mind.

"The board has consistently made decisions like this which are intended to improve safety," Howarth said. "I've always seen the board willing to take action when it comes to safety of residents."

"It's our thinking that if a few people get tickets, that the word will spread and we'll see this come to a stop," Grant said.

-- Megan Scott can be reached at (727) 445-4183 or mscott@sptimes.co .

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