Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Local pool company defends its plans

Pinch-A-Penny's president makes assurances that the company would be a good neighbor if allowed to move in near a proposed town center.

By SHANNON TAN
Published May 16, 2005

LARGO - For more than three years, Pinch-A-Penny president John Thomas has tried to find a place to relocate his growing pool supply business.

Thomas drives past the vacant land behind the Crossroads Mall every day to get to work. One day, he decided to research the property. At 29.6 acres, it was larger than he thought. Owned by the county, it was just down the street from his headquarters at 14480 62nd St. N.

That was a year and a half ago.

Thomas' inquiry started the wheels turning for the county, which decided to sell the property this year. Pinch-A-Penny was the highest bidder, offering $4.68-million for the land, which is appraised at $4.26-million assuming a land use change to industrial limited or residential office general. The company also offered to donate 5 of 18 acres it owns adjacent to the land, worth $875,000, to the county for recreation.

Pinch-A-Penny's proposal has won the support of both Largo Mayor Bob Jackson and the county, which approved a purchase contract with the company.

But its plan has come under fire from Boulder Venture South LLC, owners of Crossroads Mall, who say an industrial facility doesn't belong next to their proposed town center. The city's consultant, Renaissance Planning Group, thinks the only solution is to erect a huge wall between the two projects.

There are no 12-foot walls in Pinch-A-Penny's architectural renderings. Instead, a buffer of trees and landscaping surround the three buildings. Molding features and large windows ensure that the two-story high facilities won't look like a big square box. A borrow pit in the middle of a pond could be turned into a recreational area for employees.

Trucks will still use 62nd Street N to get to the facility so traffic patterns won't be altered, said James P. Eisch, executive vice president of Pinch-A-Penny. From the town center, residents won't be able to see the docks, which will be built to face each other.

"Hopefully, it will give people an idea of the commitment we're making," said Thomas.

The company is proposing to double its space and build a 40,000- to 50,000-square-foot office building, a 200,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution building, and a 150,000-square-foot building for light assembly.

The $40-million project would create 400 new jobs over the next five years that pay 120 percent of the local average wage, according to Mike Meidel, director of Pinellas County Economic Development.

The prospect excites PTEC Clearwater principal Warren Laux. "It could potentially help place some of our graduates it they have any jobs that associate with what we're training for," he said.

The county ranked interested companies using factors such as the bid price, the jobs it would create and retain and the wages it would pay. "Pinch-A-Penny met every single one of them," Meidel said.

But according to the contract approved by the County Commission, if Pinch-A-Penny does not get the land use change, it can still purchase the property, appraised at $2.78-million with its current zoning of residential urban and preservation.

Largo City Manager Steven Stanton said that raises concerns because the company can buy the property regardless of whether it creates new jobs.

Boulder Venture South brought in experts at Tuesday's Commission meeting to discuss the potential safety problems in having an industrial facility next to a congested town center.

"You do not have a guarantee as to what industrial use could go there immediately or down the road," said Robert Pennock, an ex-bureau chief of local planning at the Department of Community Affairs. "This industrial use has many hazards associated with it."

Thomas stresses that the chemicals are a small portion of his business, which also sells pool equipment like nets and brushes. The company dilutes some chemicals or repackages them, but it does not produce any chemicals, he says.

About 10,000 to 99,999 pounds of calcium hypochlorite are stored at the Pinch-A-Penny facility daily. The maximum amount of the chemical stored in one day is 600,000 pounds, according to documents filed under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act. The company also buys Trichloro-s-Triazinetrione, or stabilized chlorine, in granular form and presses it into three-inch tablets shaped like hockey pucks.

The company buys the calcium hypochlorite powder already packaged in 1-pound bags, stores it, then ships it to customers. It is used to "shock" pools, or spike their chlorine levels, once a week.

"We do everything we can to promote liquid bleach," said Thomas. "It's just a safer product overall."

Two residents have written to Largo officials opposing the rezoning of the property. But Lynn Sawers, 54, said she is reassured that the company does not manufacture chlorine.

The Buffalo resident has spent the past four winters in a home behind the Crossroads Mall and is considering moving permanently to Largo. "I'm interested in knowing about their safety record and how residents around them feel about it," she said.

According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, calcium hypochlorite readily decomposes in water releasing oxygen and chlorine. When it catches fire, it is difficult to extinguish as it creates its own oxygen.

Thomas says there have been no serious incidents at the facility in the past 28 years since it has been there.

"The building's never burned down," he said. "We've never lost a day of work."

Records show that firefighters responded to a hazmat call on July 22, 2004, and a fire on Sept. 17, 2002, at the facility. The 2004 incident was caused when a bag broke, mixing sulfamic acid and hypochlorous acid. No one was injured, and the smoldering product was treated with water by employees before firefighters arrived. In the other incident, a 55-gallon plastic drum filled with grease rugs began to smolder inside the warehouse, Pinch-A-Penny officials said.

Pinch-A-Penny's 62nd Street plant is considered one of 22 high-risk facilities in the city, according to Largo Fire Rescue. That means the department will automatically send four, instead of three, engines, to the facility for a structure fire. Other places on the list include high-rise nursing homes, Honeywell, Heritage Village, Largo Medical Center and the city's wastewater treatment plant.

It's up to the city to decide whether to put a densely populated town center next to a Pinch-A-Penny facility, said Largo Fire Chief Jeff Bullock.

"As a fire chief we'll protect whatever we build there," he said.

--Shannon Tan can be reached at shtan@sptimes.com or 445-4174.

[Last modified May 16, 2005, 01:11:15]