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Law office plans move to Kennedy, replacing club

NORTH HYDE PARK - Another law office will join those already on Kennedy Boulevard, this one in the place of a defunct but once riotous nightclub.

The City Council gave initial approval last week to plans for a three-story law office at the northeast corner of Kennedy and Fremont Avenue.

The law office will be occupied by the Solomon Tropp Law Group. It will replace Club Atlanta, which tormented neighbors for years with noisy late-night crowds.

The council is expected to give final approval July 17.

PORT TAMPA - Plans to convert Westshore Mobile Home Park into upscale apartments were delayed again last week as the City Council postponed its decision on closing Everett Street for a fourth time.

Phillips Development wants the city to close Everett Street so it can build 250 units closer to existing apartments north of the site at Everett and West Shore Boulevard. It also wants to develop a buffer between existing houses to the south.

Phillips has promised to build a greenways trail across the southern portion in lieu of a trail the city wanted to build along Everett. City department officials worry, however, that neighbors to the south will object.

They asked council for more time so the issue could be addressed.

Phillips president Don Phillips said purchasing the 7.5-acre mobile home park from the current owner, Weis Group Inc., hinges on closing the road. Weis has not informed tenants about the plan to build apartments on the site.

The council is now slated to hear the issue July 17.

INTERBAY - More than 100 people showed up June 20 for the first of two two-day cleanups at the Rembrandt Garden public housing complex.

The participants, including 40 people from Deeper Life Ministries and 30 children from the Boys and Girls Club, raked the grounds. The next day, others swept the parking lots.

The cleanups are the brainchild of Bruce Williams, Rembrandt's new tenants' association president. The goal: Make the complex look better and instill tenants with a sense of pride about their homes.

The cleanups continue today and Saturday.

Volunteers will paint rain and trash barrels and build drought-resistant gardens. For more information, call Williams at 831-2096.

PORT OF TAMPA - The Tampa Marine Institute will survive another year.

The state budget that Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law Monday includes $500,000 for the center, which has been turning around troubled teenagers since 1972.

The governor's proposed budget earlier in the year did not include that money, prompting fears that the center was sunk. But the Legislature included the money in its budget, and Bush did not wield his veto pen.

"I hope we don't have to go through this again next year," said Mike Thornton, the institute's executive director.

State money makes up the lion's share of the institute's $900,000 budget. The rest comes from the Hillsborough school district, the United Way, private contributions and government grants.

Children assigned to the institute are subjected to hard work and discipline but also a system of rewards that includes learning how to scuba dive and operate a boat.

TAMPA - Applications to send students to a school outside their home area for the 2003-04 academic year are due Monday.

Criteria for getting a special assignment include: afterschool care for working parents, medical and family hardships and enrollment in academic and vocational courses approved by the school board.

Applications can be obtained at the school you want your child to attend. For more information, call the pupil assignment office at 272-4612.

BALLAST POINT - The City Council last week denied a proposal to build a Walgreens and a bank at the Gandy Square Shopping Center near W Gandy Boulevard and S MacDill Avenue.

The council unanimously rejected the rezoning June 12, but the developer asked for another hearing.

Residents have argued the area does not need another drug store. A CVS is located across the street from Gandy Square.

A representative of the center's new owner has said the company will proceed with other plans to redevelop the site.

- RON MATUS, ELISABETH DYER