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By EILEEN SCHULTE, Times Staff WriterThe county's transportation agency is persuaded to approve a traffic light for Briar Creek Boulevard and McMullen-Booth Road.
CLEARWATER - For years, engineers said there is no need for a traffic signal at Briar Creek Boulevard and McMullen-Booth Road.
There was simply not enough traffic or accidents to justify it, experts concluded.
But on Wednesday, more than 100 seniors and three Safety Harbor city commissioners begged to differ at a Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting.
And they won.
The MPO gave a green light to a traffic signal at the intersection.
The decision was a victory for residents of the 55-plus Safety Harbor manufactured home community. They have crusaded for a stoplight at the entrance to the neighborhood for years.
Former Safety Harbor city commissioner George Costage, who was at the meeting, said he's been fighting for it since 1986.
Costage and others gave most, if not all, of the credit for the residents' triumph to City Commissioner Andy Steingold.
"I think I fulfilled my campaign promise," Steingold said after the meeting.
After an initial study had concluded a light was not needed at the intersection, Steingold pushed on.
"I requested the city spend $7,500 on a traffic flow study," he said.
But an analysis by the TBE Group, a company the city hired, also found the volume of traffic on McMullen-Booth Road - more than 58,000 cars and trucks a day - was not enough to justify a light.
The study did indicate that a light would help speed up traffic during peak evening hours in that area of McMullen-Booth Road.
Despite the findings, the City Commission agreed with residents that the intersection is dangerous, and it decided to petition the MPO, which had found no need for a signal.
Wednesday, city commissioners and residents pleaded with the elected officials who sit on the MPO, the county's transportation planning agency.
"There are grandparents living there. Just remember how your grandparents navigated roads," said Safety Harbor Vice Mayor Keith Zayac. "Sometimes you have to look beyond the numbers."
After a short discussion, MPO members voted 7-2 for the project, with Belleair Bluffs Mayor Chris Arbutine and County Commissioner Bob Stewart, voting against it.
The light will cost about $160,000. City Manager Wayne Logan said TBE is working on a design proposal, and he intends to present it at an Oct. 3 City Commission meeting.
"We plan to move post-haste on this very important project," Logan said. "We will do everything at the city level to move this along as quickly as possible."
Steingold discovered the residents' plight while going door-to-door during his run for office.
They told him that if they want to head south, they have to first head north, zip across three lanes of traffic on McMullen-Booth Road, which some people call a "racetrack," then make a U-turn at the Mease Drive light. It's a harrowing experience, they said.
There were two selling points that helped residents of the 513-home community get their way with the MPO: the city had promised to pay for and maintain the signal, and it will work in conjunction with a light at Mease Drive, which is just less than 800 feet away.
Years ago when McMullen-Booth Road was a sleepy two-lane road, Costage used to shoo cows off it. He marveled at how drastically things have changed.
"We've gone from a dirt road to six lanes plus a median," he said. Trying to get across it "is not worth one life, anyone's life."
--Eileen Schulte can be reached at 727 445-4153 or schulte@sptimes.com