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Police community center leaving Tyrone Gardens

It will reopen somewhere else in the neighborhood. An Army recruitment office will take over the old space.

By JON WILSON
Published August 17, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - A longtime police storefront in Tyrone Gardens shopping center will close Friday, and an Army recruiter's office will move in, officials said this week.

The Police Department's community resource center, which for 12 years has served western St. Petersburg as an information point for residents, a headquarters for community projects and a respite spot for officers, will reopen somewhere else in the neighborhood.

The site hasn't been determined, said police spokesman Bill Doniel. But a possibility is Tyrone Square Mall.

"That's one thing we're going to pursue," Doniel said.

About a mile away, Tyrone Square has a "City Hall in the Mall," a kiosk where volunteers provide information about city services and bus schedules and where residents can drop off their utility bills.

It might be a logical site for a new resource center, Doniel said.

"Maybe not as large an operation, but the same police information (available) out of it. That would at least give us a location where there are a lot of citizens present," Doniel said.

Amy Stevens of Tyrone Gardens LLC, the shopping center's owner, said via telephone Tuesday that an Army recruitment office will take over the 550-square-foot space at Tyrone Gardens. A recruiter already has space at Tyrone, but apparently needs more.

John Hall, the resource center's manager, said shopping center officials said in a letter that a tenant is waiting and that the resource center had until Sept. 1 to vacate.

Closing a couple of weeks early will give the volunteers who staff the center time to get everything moved.

"We have to get a lot of equipment packed and out of there," said Hall, 83, who said he has worked as a community resource volunteer for 101/2 years.

Five file cabinets, two desks, chairs, a television, a microwave oven and a small refrigerator are among the property to be moved.

"We will indeed find a place to store it" until a new site can be found, Hall said.

Besides Hall, two assistant managers and a secretary, all volunteers, work at the center, Hall said.

The center is one of six citywide. They began opening in 1992 as part of the Police Department's outreach. The centers are federally funded. Some are used for community meetings.

The one at Tyrone Gardens is not big enough to accommodate meetings. In addition to providing information about police services, the center has been headquarters for eyeglass donations for the Lions Club and its sight-saving program.

"People bring them in by the bushel basket full," Hall said.

Center volunteers also have begun collecting and issuing cell phones for the Agency on Aging. The phones are programmed for 911 calls only and are recycled to elderly people and others who need to have easily accessible emergency communication.

Hall is hopeful the center will reopen soon.

"We'd definitely like to open in this particular end of the city, and we're definitely going to keep the name of Tyrone resource center," he said.

[Last modified August 17, 2005, 01:22:30]