Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Plan is window into two views of bus depots

A School Board plan to build a compound here worries some who would be neighbors.

By EILEEN SCHULTE
Published January 31, 2007

Mind-boggling noise. Bumper to bumper traffic. Blinding lights. Malodorous pollution.

When the residents of the Briar Creek mobile home park learned that the Pinellas County School Board wanted to build a bus parking and maintenance depot near McMullen-Booth Road and State Road 580, their fears ran as wild as the coyotes that roam behind their neighborhood.

But what is it really like to live near such a place?

To find out, go to 49th Street S and Sixth Avenue S in St. Petersburg, where a School Board facility sits in the midst of a working-class neighborhood and gets mixed reviews from its neighbors.

Michael Pisculli and his wife, Melissa, live on Emerson Avenue S, a block away from the St. Petersburg bus compound.

"The buses are not remotely an issue for us," he said last week. "I think there's a million other things worth thinking about than that."

Lisa Grover, whose family lives a few doors down on the same street, also indicated she and her family aren't bothered at all by the terminal, and that the buses have become part of the backdrop of their daily lives.

Even Annie Thomas, who has owned Annie's Hair Boutique for the past decade directly across the street from the bus terminal, isn't irritated by it.

She said when the terminal was expanded and remodeled a few years ago, neighbors met with School Board officials and voiced their fears about congestion on Sixth Avenue.

Officials responded by installing a traffic signal at Fairfield Avenue S and 49th Street, which relieved the congestion.

"Of those who complained, most stayed," Thomas said.

But Teresa Krul, a retiree who has lived half a block away from the bus terminal for two years, is more than ready to leave.

"At 5:30 every morning, the lights come on like a football field," she said. "It's also loud. Picture 60 buses starting up. Then you hear them backing up. The noise is terrible. It also adds to the traffic. I can't imagine what it's going to be like on McMullen-Booth Road. Traffic will come to a complete standstill."

Hilda Hilts, a garbage truck driver for the city of St. Petersburg and former school bus driver, agreed. She has lived in a house directly across from the terminal for eight years. She said when the district expanded the compound, bugs and rats who lived on the property invaded her house.

And things have only gotten worse.

"I hate it," Hilts said. "You can't sleep at night. (The bus drivers) come in at 4:30 a.m. and let the buses idle for an hour and a half. I clocked it. When they back up, they go BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. The drivers also blast their music in their own vehicles. Those people have no consideration. I feel sorry for anybody who lives near where they're going to build a bus terminal. They're going to be miserable."

She also said district employees loiter near the front gate of the facility and smoke and socialize - loudly.

* * *

In real estate, location is everything, and school officials say they've got one in North Pinellas that could work for everyone.

Jim Miller, director of real property management for Pinellas County schools, said that although the proposed north county bus terminal might be similar to and probably slightly larger than the St. Petersburg compound, the setting would be completely different.

For starters, it will be much more isolated than the 49th Street facility.

"From the major roadway, no one is going to know it's there," he said. "There will be no buses that would exit or return near a residence."

He said there will be a 50- to 75-foot natural buffer zone between it and the nearest homes "that we won't touch." Miller also said the district would add even more vegetation within that tract. There will also be a 10-foot-high chain link fence surrounding the 20- to 22-acre facility.

The proposal calls for Clearwater to turn over to the district more than 20 acres of a 120-acre swath of land that the city owns just north of SR 580, on the east side of McMullen-Booth Road. It would become the home base for maintaining, repairing and parking school buses.

In return, the city would get about 20 acres that the district owns near Lake Chautauqua Park, at the south end of Landmark Drive, off Enterprise Drive.

A traffic signal would likely be installed on McMullen-Booth Road at the turnoff into the golf driving range on the property.

A conceptual plan will probably be completed within a week, Miller said. School Board and Clearwater officials are scheduled to meet and talk about the proposal on or about Feb. 5. Then they plan to talk to the folks in Briar Creek and the surrounding neighborhoods.

"Conceptually, the city administration thinks it's a good project," said Clearwater City Manager Bill Horne. "We feel the school district can mitigate the noise and pollution issues."

Because he lives not far from the Northwood Commons shopping center which sits on McMullen-Booth Road, Horne knows the area well.

"There are buses on McMullen-Booth Road now," Horne said. "So I think it would have a negligible (impact)."

Opponents of the proposal circulated a petition and have gathered 1,737 signatures from residents who don't want the bus barn at that location.

But the district has searched for a suitable site for north county bus terminal for years.

According to Rick McBride, director of transportation for Pinellas County schools, the northern part of the county is currently serviced by two bus compounds, one in Tarpon Springs that is home base for 75 buses, and a temporary compound next to High Point Elementary School in Clearwater with about 200 buses.

McBride said buses based at the two north county compounds transport approximately 14,000 students daily, 10,000 on High Point buses and 4,000 on Tarpon Springs buses.

"There would be many advantages to having a new north county compound," McBride said in an e-mail. As a temporary facility, the High Point site lacks "what it needs to support a large bus compound for the long term. There would be considerable expense involved to upgrade this facility and it is not logistically located to service the north county areas efficiently for the long term."

Based on a 180-day school year, McBride estimated the savings to the district if the High Point buses were moved north would be:

- 2,449 miles per day; or 440,820 miles saved annually.

- 81.93 employee hours saved per day; or 14,747 hours saved annually.

"This is a potential savings of approximately $490,000 (to) $500,000 annually to the district," he said.

* * *

School Board member Peggy O'Shea toured the proposed site a few weeks ago.

She said she understands that nobody wants this in their back yard and that "it would certainly impact the residents," and "I understand their point."

"But it's a money issue for the district," she said. "We want to reduce our fuel costs."

O'Shea wants to remind residents that "this is really preliminary."

"As far as the School Board goes, it's not even our land yet," she said.

She said she is open to other options, and if a more suitable site becomes available, perhaps in an industrial area, she would be willing to explore such an alternative.

Fast Facts:

Proposed bus compound

Location: 20-plus acres northeast of State Road 580 and McMullen-Booth Road.

Buses: 255.

Employee parking: 300 spaces.

Service bays: 10.

Buffer: 10-foot chain-link fence, 50 to 75 feet of vegetation.

Possible future expansion: 45 buses and 84 employee parking spaces.

[Last modified January 30, 2007, 23:00:50]