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Neighbors squabble over rec center

As Clearwater tries to make plans for a Morningside-Meadows center, the lists of demands constantly changes.

By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published May 5, 2006

CLEARWATER - Before neighbors in an east Clearwater community began to squabble over plans for a new $3.1-million city recreation center, Mayor Frank Hibbard reminded them Wednesday there is an easy way to end the whole debate.

"I can tell you, and this isn't a threat, but we have other places we can use this money," Hibbard told a group of 50 Morningside-Meadows residents. "This is something all of the council believed the neighborhood wanted."

And the neighborhood may want it - with tennis courts, an outdoor walking track, two entrances and a room for bridge. And without gymnastics, too much fencing and corrugated metal siding.

The list of demands changes and grows daily.

Two meetings, several e-mail trees, informational pamphlets and phone calls later, city officials still cannot give the money away.

Deliberations continued on Wednesday, when city officials invited neighbors to the Ross Norton Recreation Complex on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. The idea for city officials was to show off a revamped facility and portend Morningside's future.

Some residents are anxious about plans for the recreation center, saying it may add more traffic and more bulk to their quaint planned community.

After greetings and a tour of Ross Norton on Wednesday, the residents settled down into bright blue common room. From there, the charm eroded quickly.

When Clearwater parks and recreation director Kevin Dunbar said the new facility would help combat childhood obesity, one resident snapped back about a plan to build video games and a 57-inch television into a teen lounge.

When Dunbar talked about having one entrance into the center to better monitor children, neighbors said the idea would turn the facility into a prison.

When City Manager Bill Horne reiterated that the $3.1-million could be used somewhere else, a resident rightly noted that would take a vote of the City Council, since the money was set aside as Penny for Pinellas dollars.

"It doesn't do us any good to spend two or three hours here debating bits and pieces," Horne said. "If at the end of the day, you really don't want the center, the council isn't really going to impose it on you."

The residents want a new center, they said, but...

"We have concerns," said neighborhood association vice president Mary McGarvey.

McGarvey, 45, co-wrote a flier that circulated last month that warned the neighborhood a new rec center could be coming. City officials are only discussing the center, which could open in later 2008, because they need a better estimate of how much recreation $3.1-million can buy.

The new center will include a pool and a playground, Dunbar said. The basketball courts will likely be eliminated. After that, everything's up in the air.

The uncertainty wouldn't settle neighbors at the evening meeting. Question after question surrounded the tennis courts now on the 8-acre property.

Will they stay? Why did a city schematic say they were being eliminated? Why won't you listen to what we want?

Other residents tried to temper the outrage.

"There are people in this community who would like the center just like the one that is proposed," said Regina Young Hyatt, who moved to Morningside-Meadows in December. "We have heard for two meetings in a row from only the other perspective. My husband and I are new to this community and we represent the future. We are young professional people who need a fitness center."

The city should learn late this month how far their money will go toward the new rec center. After that, work will begin on what goes where.

"This park's not going to be built to what my desires are," said John Quattrocki, 46, a neighborhood resident and member of the city's design committee. "But when I talk to some people, all they are concerned about are "my desires.' This is a neighborhood folks.

"I'd love to see us put everything in this park we can," Quattrocki said. "But it would have to be Central Park - in New York City."

[Last modified May 5, 2006, 02:30:26]