"The only way (the city is) going to get that building is when we die," says Oldsmar Civic Club president Cecil Short.
By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published March 17, 2004
OLDSMAR - The Oldsmar Civic Club remains hostile to the idea of leaving its well-established home to make way for a new library.
Civic Club members informally rejected a city offer last week that would have moved their weekly bingo games to two other downtown locations and would have paid the group $71,500 for the property.
If the proposal had been accepted, the city would have razed the Civic Club building along St. Petersburg Drive, which doubles as the city's arts center, and built a new library in its place.
"Ridiculous," said club president Cecil Short, calling City Manager Bruce Haddock's offer "a slap in the face."
Short, 78, said several of the club's 30-plus elderly members have no intention of ever selling.
"The only way (the city is) going to get that building is when we die," Short said.
Last week was the second time in less than a year that club members have balked at moving from their nearly 60-year-old home. In September, members voted against relocating to the former Kumar mansion because that building didn't meet the club's needs.
Apparently neither did the city's latest offer, which was presented to members last week.
In it, the city would give the club use of the city's senior center or City Council chambers, both on State Street, for bingo on Monday and Saturday nights and a business meeting the first Wednesday of each month.
The city would also place a bronze plaque at the site of the new library recognizing the Civic Club's contribution.
In exchange the Civic Club would convey the building and parking lot at the corner of St. Petersburg Drive and Dartmouth Street to the city. The club owns the property, but a 50-year agreement signed 10 years ago gives the city operational control. The city would pay the club $71,500, the appraised value of the club's ownership interest, Haddock said.
"That figure's a joke," Short said.
Short contends that the club should receive much more based on its past cooperation with the city. In the 1994 agreement, the two sides struck a deal in which the Civic Club donated five acres surrounding the club property to the city. The club also allowed the city to lease the existing club building for $1 a year to use as an arts center in the interim.
In return, the city agreed to maintain the building and added $75,000 in renovations.
"We're not enemies," Short said. "It's just that they're trying to steal a building from us. They got the land for nothing to begin with."
For tax purposes, the Civic Club building is now assessed at $249,800. And on the open market, Short said developers would pay at least $65 per square foot for vacant commercial property, or $260,000 for the 4,000-square-foot property.
But according to the agreement, the Civic Club cannot sell the property to a private interest. And at the end of the 50-year lease, the city receives ownership.
"We are interested in acquiring ownership at this time," Haddock wrote in a March 5 letter to Short.
Mayor Jerry Beverland said there is enough room to construct the new library next to the Civic Club building if members continue to refuse to move. But, he said, the grandeur of the city's newest project might be diminished if it can't be built on the street corner.
He said he was not surprised club members rejected the city's offer.
"I'm not out to get their building," Beverland said. "I want to make an incredible complex for the city. And by giving us that land, they helped with that vision. But our vision goes beyond the Civic Club building.
