Sponge Docks merchants hold talks but cannot reach agreement on limiting weekend events.
By CANDACE RONDEAUX
Published June 27, 2003
TARPON SPRINGS - The more the Sponge Docks change, the more they stay the same. After nearly two weeks of gloomy deliberations, merchants are still divided on whether weekend festivals should continue to be held there.
About 25 Sponge Docks merchants met Wednesday night to discuss the future of special events in the heart of the city's tourist district. But some merchants said Thursday they're still not happy and want the festivals to change.
"If they're going to hold another one of those shindigs down there and block off the streets, we may have to go to court over that," Sponge Docks store owner Johnny Georgiou said. "We're going to get an injunction."
Georgiou is one of about 35 merchants who circulated a petition earlier this month demanding changes to the way Sponge Docks festivals are run.
Some shop and restaurant owners say they're fed up with weekendlong events, such as arts and crafts shows, that close down Dodecanese Boulevard, cut off store access and create parking nightmares.
Georgiou said he was disappointed in the meeting's outcome.
"I guess they were trying to come up with some happy medium," Georgiou said. "The only way I'll be satisfied is if they keep that street open when they have those things."
Despite the complaints, the meeting's organizer, City Commissioner Peter Nehr, said he thought the discussion was a first step toward mending fences in the city's deeply divided tourist district.
"I still think a lot of things got resolved," said Nehr, also a merchant on the docks. "I think everybody who came was there to look at the problem and talk about it."
Merchants at Wednesday's meeting agreed to limit the number of festivals at the Sponge Docks and to diversify the types of events that take place there, Nehr said. But the real key to changing festival organizing is more cooperation and participation on the part of the merchants.
"If more people volunteer their time to help organize these festivals, then we won't have to rely on vendors so much to run them," Nehr said. "We can choose what kinds of festivals we have and when we have them."
