Tarpon adjusts paving priorities

City commissioners plan to scale back some items and preserve others in the multimillion-dollar downtown roadway improvement project.

TARPON SPRINGS - The city's wish list for improvements to be included in the Florida Department of Transportation's proposed downtown roadway project is getting shorter.

City commissioners said this week that they're willing to make sacrifices in order to cut the cost of DOT's plan to repave a 3-mile stretch of Pinellas Avenue and portions of Tarpon Avenue.

City officials recently estimated the project could cost a total of $10.2-million. The city is expected to pay roughly $6.1-million of that, while DOT pays a little more than $4-million. But the city's portion of the total cost could drop significantly if city commissioners vote to scale back parts of the road improvement plan and DOT agrees to pay a greater share of the total.

Although commissioners took no votes, they did come to some conclusions about priorities for the project during Tuesday night's City Commission meeting. Most agreed that plans to bury utility lines and relocate water and sewer lines along Tarpon and Pinellas avenues should remain high on the city's list.

Commissioners also seemed to agree to eliminate a plan that called for the portion of Tarpon Avenue from U.S. 19 to Huey Avenue to be repaved. That will save the city nearly $600,000. Proposed bike racks and decorative posts may also be cut from the plan, which could save the city an additional $95,200.

Meanwhile, Mayor Beverley Billiris asked DOT to pick up the estimated $1-million cost of reconstructing a section of Pinellas Avenue N. A 2-foot-thick layer of wood chips beneath the street's surface, once used to fill a marsh, is rotting and causing part of the street to sink.

"The fact that the sinking of the road has accelerated this project has caught us a little off-guard financially," Billiris said.

Billiris and other city officials said DOT should pay for the reconstruction costs since the state originally built the roadway. But DOT district project management engineer Ron Caldi said his agency is unlikely to do that unless it determines that the state is responsible for the roadway's failure.

"We're looking closely at what's out there, what happened when and why before we make a decision on that," Caldi said.

Several commissioners said they're worried that DOT is unfairly trying to shift some of the cost of the roadway plan onto the city and is not taking their concerns about project enhancements seriously.

"We have a major concern that you're not considering putting a left turn signal at (Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) and Tarpon Avenue," said City Commissioner Peter Dalacos.

DOT project engineer Brad Foran assured city officials that his agency plans to install left turn signals at the intersection and four others along Pinellas Avenue. Meanwhile, DOT is waiting for city officials to decide which enhancements they would like to include in the plan so the agency can work out a timetable for the project's completion. Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in June 2005, Caldi said.

Billiris hopes DOT and the city will have worked out most of the wrinkles in the project's design plan well before then.

"We're talking millions of dollars for this project," Billiris said. "We at least want to leave the residents of Tarpon Springs with a nice-looking finished product."

City commissioners are expected to vote by the first week of May on a final list of priorities for the roadway improvement project.

- Candace Rondeaux can be reached at 727 771-4307 or rondeaux@sptimes.com

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