The City Council votes unanimously to file a lawsuit in order to close the Royal Palm motel, a refuge for drug activity.
By LORRI HELFAND
Published April 2, 2004
CLEARWATER - The owner of the Royal Palm pleaded her case, but the City Council was adamant.
Her voice quavering, Mary Sowasochocki asked the council at Thursday's meeting not to take legal action to shut her motel, which has become a refuge for drug dealers and drug addicts.
"I cleaned out the place. I threw a lot of people out. I've done everything the police asked me to do," Sowasochocki said. "I want to find out what you want me to do."
But the City Council told Sowasochocki she had already had her chance and unanimously voted to file a suit against her to close it down.
"I think we can look at a history here," said City Council member Frank Hibbard, referring to a five-year record of extensive drug activity at the motel. "I don't think any of us take it lightly."
Three residents, two of them fighting back tears, begged city leaders to close down the motel that police Chief Sid Klein has called a "drug hole."
From June 1999 to Nov. 2003, Clearwater police reports indicate 43 drug-related incidents were reported. Police twice offered their assistance in cleaning up the motel: in 2000 and again in 2003, but problems persisted.
Both Patty Bianco and Maryce Garber live near the hotel and say they're petrified.
"I sleep with a .357 by my side every night," said Bianco, whose grandparents ran the motel at 1250 Cleveland St. for 47 years. "It's unbearable. It's totally unbearable."
Bianco is devastated that the motel, which used to be her home, has become a sanctuary for drug dealers.
"It hurts the way Sid Klein called it a "drug hole,' but that's what it's come to," Bianco said.
Garber, who said she also sleeps with a .357 pistol, said drug dealers and prostitutes run rampant in the neighborhood. There are other problem establishments in the area, she said, and she wants to see them closed, too.
"We love Clearwater," Garber said. "We want to see Clearwater cleaned up."
In other action, the council voted to appoint Hibbard to a one-year term as vice mayor. Hibbard will replace Hoyt Hamilton, who served the past year.
Also in other business, Turner Construction announced that it had won the Horizon Award from the Associated General Contractors of Greater Florida for its work on the new Clearwater Library. The award recognizes excellence in construction projects.
