ST. PETERSBURG - Crescent Lake, the leafy rectangle between Fourth and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. streets from 12th to 22nd avenues N, will lose a champion Thursday. Clifford Holensworth, 43, steps down after more than four years as president of the Crescent Lake Neighborhood Association.
Holensworth represented the neighborhood on several development projects, some of them occurring simultaneously. He advocated for an attractive replacement for the former Bradford Coach House property (now a complex anchored by Outback Steakhouse), met with developers of Crescent Lake Town Homes and Crescent Lake City Homes to remind them of Neighborhood Design Review requirements, or city-imposed criteria for all structures in certain neighborhoods, including Crescent Lake.
In 2000, Holensworth accompanied police on an inspection of the Monticello Motel, then a vacant property inhabited by vagrants. It has since been renovated. He fought the owner of the Empress Motel and threatened a public-nuisance lawsuit for drug and prostitution activity.
Instead, owner Manji Jethwa met with residents and agreed to install security cameras, eliminate weekly rentals and tighten identification requirements.
An information systems analyst for All Children's Hospital, Holensworth designed and ran the association's Web site, www.CrescentLakeNeighborhood.com He also led the charge for a dog park in Crescent Lake Park, the city's first, and a traffic-calming plan.
The 2003 opening of the Teen Arts, Sports and Cultural Opportunities headquarters culminated months of work. Unable to arouse much interest in New York Yankees' baseball lockers left over from the early 1960s, Holensworth created a display case and stocked it with baseball memorabilia.
A crime crusader, he has joined community police officers on yearly ride-alongs and also rode with codes, fire and rescue units.
"Clifford is a Don Quixote," Greater Woodlawn president Cathy Wilson said. "He tilts at windmills, but always with a good heart and for a good cause."
"I probably set high standards," Holensworth admitted. "But by doing so I hope I encourage others to set high standards.
"We will never resolve prostitution in the city of St. Petersburg. But you can't just suck it up and say, "That's the way it is. There's nothing we can do."'
Mary Giglio will take over as president.
Crescent Lake meets at 7 p.m. Thursday at Huggins-Stengel Field in Crescent Lake Park. Baseball refreshments - peanuts and Cracker Jacks, hot dogs, root beer - will be available from 6:30 p.m. Guests are City Council member Bill Foster; neighborhood transportation manager Michael Frederick; Ed Montanari of the Albert Whitted Task Force; and police Sgt. Tim Montanari.
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Jungle Terrace residents who live south of Tyrone Boulevard have a chance Monday to get rid of odd-sized debris. The city will pick up old furniture, appliances, carpet and other trash too large to throw away during regular pickups, including tree limbs up to 4 feet. Do not leave paint or solvents. Jungle Terrace boundaries run from 66th Street to Boca Ciega Bay, from 22nd to 40th avenues N. This pick-up is the second of two, and does not apply to residents living north of Tyrone Boulevard. For more information, contact Tom Killian at 343-2041.
Meetings
BAYOU HIGHLANDS: 7 p.m. Thursday (6:30 p.m. social), 1065 62nd Ave. S. Planning neighborhood Fun Day.
LAKE MAGGIORE SHORES: 7 p.m. Thursday. Enoch Davis Center, 1111 18th Ave. S.
LAKEWOOD CIVIC: 7 p.m. Tuesday. Lakewood United Church of Christ, 2601 54th Ave. S. Retired IRS agent Mary A. Farrugia.
RIVIERA BAY: 7 p.m. Tuesday. St. James United Methodist Church, 845 87th Ave.
UPTOWN: 7 p.m. Wednesday. The Sunshine Center, 330 Fifth St. N. St. Anthony's Hospital construction plans.
