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What's Brewing

Accepting lesser of two evils

By SUSAN THURSTON
Published August 4, 2006

These days, you can't cut a blade of grass along Bayshore Boulevard without someone taking note.

That's a good thing.

Maybe too good.

Earlier this week, a few dozen people, mostly residents of the Monte Carlo condo building, picketed along Bayshore in protest of a concrete enclosure the city recently built in the grassy median.

They say Tampa's most scenic street is no place to put a generator for a sewage lift station. They want the 8-foot-tall rectangular enclosure moved. And pronto.

Hold your hammers, city officials say. The city needs the enclosure and generator in order to comply with state and county environmental regulators who slapped the city with fines for a series of nasty sewage spills blamed on an outdated system.

Steve Daignault, the city's public works administrator, said his staff looked long and hard for an appropriate site for the generator, which will come on when the pumping station on Bayshore loses power. Sites to the north would have blocked waterfront views from single-family houses, he said. Other sites would have been too visible along Bayshore.

Engineers settled on the site at Bayshore and Stovall Street, just to the north of the Monte Carlo, between three mature trees. To further hide the structure, they painted it green and put tall potted plants around it.

Daignault admits the site isn't ideal. He, too, wants to keep Bayshore as pristine as possible. But, even more, he doesn't want raw sewage flowing in the streets, which happens on Coachman Avenue after a heavy rain. He also doesn't have a blank check for paying for the project.

Putting the enclosure and generator on the Bayshore median cost about $75,000.

Moving it to under the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway, the preferred site for Monte Carlo residents and some other people along Bayshore, would run between about $363,000 and $529,000. Moving it to an easement behind the Monte Carlo, which would require the building's okay, would cost about $200,000.

So, like a lot of things in life, it comes down to money - and will.

I agree with Monte Carlo residents that the city should have consulted the public before building the structure. Putting anything on Bayshore without seeking input sets a bad precedent that could come back to haunt.

But I disagree that the so-called green bunker is an evil eyesore that detracts from the Bayshore experience. Although I might think differently if I lived next to the structure, the trees do a decent job hiding it, and eventually the landscaping will fill in around it. It's not that ugly and not worth paying gobs of more money to move it.

What's more outrageous are the frequent sewage leaks and stinks on Bayshore. During storm Frances in 2004, poop water bubbled out of manhole covers on Coachman Avenue for days. One man reported picking up toilet paper that floated into his friend's back yard.

Now that's an eyesore. Not to mention a real health hazard.

The city assures the $1.2-million project, which includes installing bigger sewer pipes, will fix the sewage problems on Coachman, which filter onto Bayshore. That's actually a big deal, considering that every time a resident in South Tampa east of Dale Mabry Highway flushes a toilet or runs a dishwater, the wastewater flows under Coachman en route to the treatment plant on Hooker's Point.

Obviously, getting this sewage situation under control is a huge priority. Environmental regulators won't likely let the city slide.

Moving the bunker may seem the most aesthetically pleasing alternative, but at what cost? Upping annual fees for stormwater and wastewater fees wasn't an easy sell, and project needs far exceed the city's budget.

Daignault and City Council member John Dingfelder are working with engineers and Monte Carlo residents to try to find an alternative site. I'd urge them to consider the issue every time they flush their commodes. A bunker on Bayshore seems a whole lot better than sewage on Bayshore.

THE LAST DROP: The liquor wars are heating up on Dale Mabry Highway. ABC Fine Wine & Spirits has bought billboard space above Total Wine & More across the street. The message is pretty clever: Bait and switch pricing is totally beneath us.

Susan Thurston can be reached at thurston@sptimes.com or 226-3394.

[Last modified August 3, 2006, 10:59:08]