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Who wants all that icky nature stuff at a park?

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published February 14, 2006

Fort De Soto Park is one of Pinellas County's great treasures.

The park is a V-shaped barrier island off the southern tip of the county. The beaches face the Gulf of Mexico to the west and Tampa Bay to the east.

It is often said to be one of America's best beaches. This past year it was ranked No. 1 nationally by Stephen Leatherman, the South Florida professor who goes by the nickname "Dr. Beach."

Here is his description:

It's a long, wide, sugar sand beach with great shelling and thriving natural dunes on the Gulf of Mexico. There's a 105-year-old fort that's a landmark of Florida history. Along with being a wonderful place to swim, there's fishing, boating, canoeing, kayaking, bird-watching, camping, biking, walking and even a dog park for enjoying the park with your four-legged pals.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Those existing human-made amenities, including covered picnic shelters, restrooms and concessions, are not too obtrusive.

The best thing about Fort De Soto, its signature, is its naturalness. If your idea of a beach is a crowded commercial strip with boom boxes, parking lots and bars serving pina coladas, this is not the place for you.

Now, maybe you have missed the news about what's going on with Fort De Soto. After all, there's not a peep about it on the park's Web page.

But here are some of the things being discussed for the park, which is under the control of the Pinellas County Commission:

--A 225-seat restaurant near the fort, with beer and wine sales and Sunday brunch.

--A second restaurant later, potentially, at one of the park's two fishing piers.

--A trolley service that would travel around the island.

--Portable buildings for expanded concessions at the park's boat ramp and campground.

--Packaged beer sales, even though drinking is supposedly not allowed in the park.

--An ice cream and vending cart that would travel around the park.

--The possibility of more events such as Civil War re-enactments and triathlons.

There's more, but you get the idea.

This deal is not done, but it is two-thirds of the way there. The county already has been through a competitive process and has chosen a South Florida company with which to negotiate a 10-year lease. The County Commission could vote next month.

The county's staff is enthusiastic about the possibilities. The concessionaire is, too. These changes will make Fort De Soto, he said in a recent article in the St. Petersburg Times in which he discussed his ideas, "a real destination."

A real destination. As opposed, you know, to just a bunch of sand.

What do you think?

Maybe you are thinking: "Hey, this is great! I want Fort De Soto to be more like a commercial beach, because we don't have enough.

"I want restaurant traffic, even on Sunday morning, and alcohol sales to boaters," you might be thinking. "And while I am taking a hike, I want an ice-cream cart coming around. Heck, I even hope it plays one of those little tunes."

Me, I am not thinking that.

I am thinking that the county has lost its freaking mind.

Good God! Is there one thing - ONE THING - that we might manage not to develop any further in Pinellas County?

No, don't answer that.

The county says a lot of people have asked for this. In the first place, I do not believe it. In the second place, even if 10,000 people had asked for it, or 50,000, or 300,000, that still would not be a majority of the county's residents. In the third place, even if it were a majority, it still would not be right.

The county ought to keep the park concessions at about the level they are now. No big restaurants. No Sunday brunch. No package alcohol sales. No traveling ice cream carts.

And if making money is such an important consideration, then the county should consider a token entrance fee, one that would not be too burdensome on the families that go there.

Or, what the heck. Maybe they should just cut to the chase, and sell the thing for condos.

[Last modified February 14, 2006, 02:45:31]