The City Council hopes to reach compromises the Civic Club and a pony riding academy can accept.
By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published June 4, 2004
OLDSMAR - Like so many times before, the City Council faced two of its most dogged problems this week.
But this time, city officials are taking different tracks to deal with the Oldsmar Civic Club and the Hire-A-Pony Riding Academy.
At a meeting Tuesday night, council members said they will offer to go into mediation with the Civic Club members to try to solve a contentious and sometimes bitter dispute over the club's land on St. Petersburg Drive - the potential location of a new library.
In a second, unrelated matter, upset horseback riders returned to protest an $800-per-month fee for Hire-A-Pony to use the city's new horse trail in the Mobbly Bayou Wilderness Preserve.
In both cases, though, the problems aren't nearly resolved.
Civic Club president Cecil Short didn't seem keen Thursday to the idea of mediation.
"They know what we want," said Short, who has repeatedly taken a hard line on moving aside for the construction of a new library. "If they would put up another building, and we would have the same deal there, we would give up our building.
"It seems like they're willing to do anything to get it. If they aren't, they can build somewhere else."
City officials have been talking to club members for roughly a year about moving the club's weekly bingo and monthly meeting to a new location, so that a library can be built on the Civic Club site.
Currently, club members own the property, and as part of a complex agreement, lease it to the city for use as a cultural arts center. When that deal expires in 2044, the city will take control. But council members want the land now. They say it will be the perfect location for its new library.
After two unproductive work sessions in April, council member Jim Ronecker said he wanted to explore all legal options. On Tuesday, Ronecker suggested mediation.
If club directors agree, the city would pay the cost for the session. Its results would not be binding.
In response to the city's attempts to acquire club property, Short said directors hired Oldsmar attorney Bryan Kutchins.
"They have already offered us two different buildings to set up in," Short said. "Well, if we accept that, we exactly have nothing. The members want to own a building for the next 40 years, a piece of property. That's what we want. And it won't change."
Meanwhile, some officials thought the city's other long-running conflict, this one with a local horseback riding academy, had been fixed. Pinellas County commissioners expressed relief last week that a new, less environmentally damaging horse trail was in place to accommodate Hire-A-Pony, a Hillsborough County business.
County commissioners thought the parades of heartbroken children had ended.
But at a city meeting Tuesday, the children were back - this time to complain about an $800 monthly fee that would put Hire-A-Pony out of business, said owner Armando Gort.
"We're still in a power struggle," he said. "First, we had a fight about the trails, and now we're fighting about the fees. I don't mind paying a fee. But I don't make that kind of money."
According to a proposed licensing agreement debated this week, Gort would have to pay $800 each month for access to the city's new milelong trail, built on 6 acres of pine forest in the Mobbly Bayou Wilderness Preserve.
Previously, Hire-A-Pony used a longer trail in the preserve that county environmental planners said was damaging the ecosystem. Rather than prohibit horseback riding altogether, the city and county agreed to build a new trail in an uplands portion of the preserve.
As part of the proposed licensing agreement for the uplands trail, Gort would be responsible for removing trash and debris, including horse manure. Hire-A-Pony must also have liability insurance on top of the monthly operating fee.
"This is a for-profit business using public property," said City Manager Bruce Haddock. "Eight hundred dollars, I think, is pretty cheap for them to use the public's land."
But council members thought the fee, $9,600 annually, was too high for a business that primarily serves children.
"(That's) like saying we don't want horse trails here," Mayor Jerry Beverland said. "I think that's wrong."
Like the feud with the Civic Club, council members said they would work to reach a compromise with Gort.
And like club members, Gort said there's not much wiggle room.
"I live in a 30-year-old trailer, that's how much money I'm making," Gort said. "I cannot afford $800 a month. I cannot afford $400 a month. I cannot afford a monthly fee.
