Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Officials fail to show for meeting

The Tarpon Springs police chief asks the Union Academy Development Corp. to present its questions in writing. An NAACP official wants to try meeting again.

By ROBIN STEIN
Published April 10, 2006

TARPON SPRINGS - For the Union Academy residents hoping to talk with local officials face-to-face, a meeting last week was a disappointment, but not a defeat.

About 25 people gathered at the Union Academy Family Center on Thursday night to air their concerns to the Tarpon Springs Housing Authority and Police Department.

But nobody from either agency showed up.

The conspicuous absence was not lost on the crowd, the two representatives from the local NAACP, or Eddie L. Cole Sr., the chairman of the nonprofit Union Academy Development Corp., who organized the meeting.

"I was very surprised," said Nathaniel Patterson, of the NAACP. "But that's why I said let's try it again."

Cole, a longtime critic of the city's plans to revitalize Union Academy, had written letters inviting police Chief Mark LeCouris and Housing Authority director Pat Weber to last week's meeting.

Contacted by the Times to find out why no one from the Police Department went to the meeting, LeCouris sent over a copy of a letter he sent to Cole in response to the invitation.

"The Police Department respectfully declines your invitation," LeCouris wrote. "Based on the past history between you/your corporation and the Police Department, we would request any of your questions be documented in writing so we can respond appropriately."

Weber could not be reached Friday.

Copies of the invitation were also sent to city manager and members of the City Commission, but the only city official who attended was City Commissioner Robin Saenger, who said turnout could likely be improved if all participants were included in the scheduling process.

"I didn't expect to be the only one there," Saenger said. "I wanted to learn more about the issue and I thought the best way to do that was to go."

At the meeting, one person called out that it's easier to get in touch with the White House than City Hall, but Cole cut off the chuckling, saying he had never tried to contact the White House. He urged the group to avoid griping and focus on laying out a game plan.

One of the most pressing matters, Cole said, is a grant announcement recently released by the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County.

Included in the announcement were statistics gathered by the Tarpon Springs Police Department, which indicate that in 2004, officers responded to 434 crime-related calls in Union Academy, 75 percent of which involved violent crimes.

And the neighborhood accounted for 75 percent of the city's cocaine-related crime in 2005, the announcement states.

The statistics painted a misleading and insulting image, residents said, as if people in the neighborhood need security guards to go out to their mailboxes.

"I don't want my neighborhood to be described as blighted," said Annie D. Dabbs, a 20-year resident.

The group decided its plan of action will include three subcommittees. One will set up a meeting with officials in City Hall, another will reach out to the Police Department and a third was delegated to work on a grant proposal with Citizens Alliance for Progress.

It was important to get down to the bottom of the statistics, said Nathaniel Ramsey, the president of the local NAACP, lest they run down property values.

But Ramsey said he was more concerned about where the Juvenile Welfare Board funding would ultimately end up and whether residents would be among the parties involved.

A grant of $176,000 has been earmarked for after-school program for children in Union Academy and support services for their families, said Danielle Ricciardi, senior community planner at the board.

Last year, the board provided $110,000 for an after-school program run by the YMCA, the Tarpon Springs Housing Authority and the Police Department after it lost county funding, Ricciardi said.

This year, the Juvenile Welfare Board put out an open request for proposals, and Cole said Citizens Alliance for Progress plans to be in the competition.

Several agencies attended informational meetings last month, Ricciardi said, but because proposals are not due until May 8, it is difficult to gauge how many will be vying for the grant.

[Last modified April 10, 2006, 01:57:00]