Buildings at the Brooker Creek Preserve Environmental Education Center are nearly finished, but its opening will wait for the completion of exhibits.
By THERESA BLACKWELL
Published October 3, 2003
EAST LAKE - The buildings at the Brooker Creek Preserve Environmental Education Center will be ready in November, but the doors won't open until April.
The original plan was to open the center in November, said Will Davis, director of the Pinellas County Environmental Management Department.
"At that time, we didn't know how successful we were going to be in acquiring funds for the (exhibits)," he said. "The board (of county commissioners) decided they would like to bring the center on line with the exhibits."
So the opening date was moved to April to allow time to make and install high-quality exhibits.
Claudia Lewis, education coordinator for the Brooker Creek center and the Weedon Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center in St. Petersburg, said she's hoping the center will open by the week of Earth Day, April 22, but no date is firm.
Lewis said they could have opened the center without the exhibits, but they thought it would make a better first impression on visitors to include exhibits and operating programs.
That's a concern with a valid precedent. In 1995, the Florida Aquarium in Tampa opened on schedule, but before exhibits were finished and construction was complete. The first visitors' complaints gave the aquarium a bad reputation that took years to overcome.
The next few months also will allow Pinellas officials time to hire new staff, including an environmental education manager to replace Lewis, who is doing double duty since her recent promotion to coordinator of education programs at the Brooker Creek and Weedon Island centers. Officials also will hire an educator, an administrative secretary and possibly a special events and volunteers coordinator.
The three buildings of the environmental education center include classrooms, interactive exhibits and multipurpose rooms. There's space for an auditorium, a dining area, a gift shop and offices for center staff members and volunteers.
The project, under the construction management of Creative Contractors of Clearwater, includes the buildings, boardwalks, roads and other site improvements, Davis said.
The total cost of construction and exhibits will top $11-million. The county is funding the $9.2-million construction cost as a capital improvement project, Davis said. The exhibits will cost about $2-million more. So far, he said, the county has amassed nearly $1.5-million of that $2-million from grants and other county operational and capital improvement funds.
"We still need half a million for the exhibits," Davis said. "We will continue to seek grants, maybe private partners, and one of the missions of the Friends of Brooker Creek is to help with the exhibits. They are also helping us raise funds for an observation tower, a boardwalk and some smaller issues."
Barbara Hoffman, a past president of the Friends who is coordinating fundraising for the center, said the group's work is temporarily on hold while it waits for guidelines from the county on soliciting donations from businesses and individuals.
"We had questions for the county like, "If I went out there and found someone who wanted to donate $2-million, could I name a building for him?"' she said.
Smaller donations would be more than welcome, Hoffman said, and the group can always use volunteers. Anyone interested in helping should call Hoffman at (727) 934-2680.
