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Neighborhood Report

Businesses dreading drainage project

By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published September 8, 2006

What will it take to stop street flooding in Ybor City? A 72-inch drainage pipe under 15th Street. Road closures from Fifth Avenue to Palm Avenue. Months of construction.

During football season.

If there's a jackhammer going off, forget about business, said Dean Delriccio, owner of Rock N Sports Grill on 15th Street.

Street construction for the $2.7-million city drainage project will begin in late November and stretch into spring, through college bowl games and the NFL Super Bowl.

Delriccio has been lining up college football alumni clubs to watch games at his bar since it opened in June 2005. Last season was just a warmup for Delriccio's bar; not many people knew it existed. He has been waiting for this football season all year.

"I think it's going to hurt me," Delriccio said after an Aug. 30 public meeting held by the city to talk to business owners and residents about the construction plans.

Construction will take place in four, monthlong segments. To make 15th Street as usable as possible, crews will work on one stretch of the road at a time, repair it, then move on to the next, said city construction engineer Don Cermeno.

"We can mope about it, we can get upset about it, but it's here," said Brenda W. Thrower, economic development specialist for the city.

The city will issue a newsletter, broadcast public television spots and post signs throughout Ybor City to educate visitors and residents about the reason for the construction: flooding problems as historic as the district itself.

After a rainstorm Monday, the city had to close Seventh Avenue because it flooded with 1½ feet of water, stormwater department director Charles R. Walter said.

To help businesses inconvenienced during construction, the city will provide customers free parking validation at the garages.

And Gasparilla revelers need not worry about construction affecting the parade in January. Construction will steer clear of Seventh Avenue during the celebration, Walter said.

"We want to bring people down here," Thrower said. "We want to work with people."

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at 226-3354 or azayas@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 7, 2006, 11:01:04]