Seldom have hamburgers made a group so happy
By ANDREW MEACHAM
Published November 14, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - The wait is nearly over for Meadowlawn residents expecting a Checkers Drive-In Restaurant at 6200 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N. Carlos Yepes, president of the Belleair Development Group, confirmed Thursday that the project is on track.
Some residents had begun to wonder.
Homeless men sometimes used the former Shell gas station as a campground, said Dolores Singleton, a Meadowlawn Neighborhood Association board member. Anxious residents got a lift in June, when the Environmental Development Commission approved a site plan for a Checkers there.
"We were so excited something was going to happen with this property," Singleton said.
But for the next five months, nothing happened, prompting renewed questions as to whether a Checkers was coming to the busy corner after all. Neighbors needn't have worried. Checkers has bought the property through a Tampa real estate agent and should have the restaurant up and running by mid January.
Construction won't take long, at least not on the site. Checkers builds its restaurants elsewhere and trucks them to sites fully built, Yepes said.
Thanks to a mysterious donor, young people will soon be able to learn computer skills even if they do not have computers at home.
By the Word of Faith Church, at 558 28th St. S, will receive five computers. More could follow, said Freddie Miller, vice president of the Palmetto Park Neighborhood Association, which helped broker the donation to the church led by the Rev. Willis Sands.
The neighborhood hopes to attract a tutor who can teach children and teenagers after school. Long-term goals include getting kids who have dropped out of school to re-enroll or pursue a high school equivalency degree.
"If you go out now trying to find a job, you can forget it if you can't run a computer," Miller said. He described the source of the donation only as "a benefactor."
The Meadowlawn Neighborhood Association has swung into the holiday spirit with a handful of $20 gift cards from grocery stores donated to Lynch Elementary School. School administrators will decide how to distribute the cards. After Thanksgiving, the neighborhood will launch a canned food drive for the St. Petersburg Free Clinic.
After several dormant months, the Five Points Neighborhood Association will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Wesley United Methodist Church, 301 37th Ave. N. Topics include the future of the association and need for a new president.
MeetingsAMERICANA COVE: 7 p.m. Wednesday. Clubhouse, 7201 First St. N. Open forum.
BARCLEY ESTATES: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. St. James United Methodist Church, 845 87th Ave. N. Codes compliance representative; identity theft.
BARTLETT PARK: 6 p.m. Thursday. Neighborhood Housing Services, 1600 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. S. Please bring a dish; come early to help set up.
BAYOU HIGHLANDS: 7 p.m. Thursday (6:30 p.m. social). Skyway Resource Center, 1065 62nd Ave. S. The Rev. Dwane Craig, on volunteers for the ARC afterschool program; AIG representative Lori Latimer on insurance planning and retirement.
CENTRAL OAK PARK: 7 p.m. Tuesday (6:30 p.m. Crime Watch). St. Luke's United Methodist Church, 4444 Fifth Ave. N. Officer elections; holiday dinner plans; Metro Crime Prevention.
COUNCIL OF NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATIONS: 7 p.m. Wednesday (6 p.m. social). The Sunshine Center, 330 Fifth St. N. Exploring the possibility of burying utility lines; any other issues from members.
CRESCENT HEIGHTS: 7 p.m. Tuesday. American Baptist Church of the Beatitudes, 2812 Eighth St. N. Residential parking permits.
CRESCENT LAKE: 7 p.m. Thursday. Clubhouse, 1320 Fifth St. N. Officer elections.
FOSSIL PARK: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. 601 Northmoor Ave. N. Officer nominations, refreshments. (Usual Nov. 2 meeting was postponed because of elections.)
FRUITLAND HEIGHTS/CASLER HEIGHTS: 7 p.m. Wednesday. New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, 2120 19th St. S.
GREATER PINELLAS POINT: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (7 p.m. social). Bay Vista Recreation Center, 7000 Fourth St. S. Representatives of Mahaffey Theater, Sunken Gardens.
HARRIS PARK: 7:30 p.m. Monday. Vietnamese Alliance Church, 4344 21st St. N. Open forum.
HIGHLAND OAKS: 6 p.m. Thursday. Sanderlin Family Services Center, 2335 22nd Ave. S. Plans for 2004 forfeiture grants.
HISTORIC OLD NORTHEAST: 7 p.m. Monday (6:45 p.m. social). Westminster Presbyterian Church, 126 11th Ave. NE. Networking forum with local businesses.
HOLIDAY PARK: 7:30 p.m. Monday. Garden of Peace Lutheran Church, 6161 22nd Ave. N. Community policing; revisions to bylaws.
JUNGLE TERRACE: 7 p.m. Monday (6:45 p.m. ice cream social). Walter Fuller Recreation Center, 7891 26th Ave. N. County property appraiser Jim Smith; Amy Edwards, SPCA, on homeless and abused animals.
LAKEWOOD TERRACE: 7 p.m. Thursday. Lake Maggiore Baptist Church, 4100 King St. Planning annual holiday celebration for Dec. 10 (with Cromwell Heights and Highland Oaks); officer elections.
MAGNOLIA HEIGHTS: 7:15 p.m. Tuesday. Woodlawn Presbyterian Church, 2612 12th St. N. Representative from Progress Energy.
MEADOWLAWN: 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Hope Lutheran Church, 1801 62nd Ave. N. Local historian Scott Hartzell.
NORTH EAST PARK: 7:30 p.m. Monday. Masonic Home, 3201 First St. NE. Melissa Seixas, Progress Energy; neighborhood transportation manager Michael Frederick.
PERRY BAYVIEW: 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Bethel Metropolitan Baptist Church, 3455 26th Ave. S. Officer nominations.
PONCE DE LEON: 7 p.m. Thursday. Gladden Park Recreation Center, 3901 30th N. Neighborhood plan.
SHORE ACRES: 7:30 p.m. Monday. Shores Acres Recreation Center, 4230 Shore Acres Blvd. NE. Traffic calming; Albert Whitted Airport report.
TWINBROOKS: 6:30 p.m. Monday. Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, 3500 18th Ave. S. Open forum.
TYRONE LANDING: 7 p.m. Tuesday. Garden of Peace Lutheran Church, 6161 22nd Ave. N. Neighborhood transportation manager Michael Frederick.
GRAND CENTRAL DISTRICT: 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. Grinder's coffee shop, 2444 Central Ave. Open forum.