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Letter to the editor

Talk of the bay: Progress puts up most to fight hurricanes

By Times Staff
Published June 20, 2007

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, which big power company will spend the most on us all? For purposes of "hurricane-hardening" plans, the winner appears to be Progress Energy. The St. Petersburg-based utility told state regulators it will spend an average of $56 for each of its 1.6-million customers on hardening transmission lines and other hurricane-proofing steps this year. Miami's Florida Power & Light promised an average $45 per customer, followed by Tampa Electric at $37 and the Panhandle's Gulf Power at $26.

Danka performs debt reduction

Many credit "counseling" companies advertise that they can cut your debts in half. On Tuesday, Danka Business Systems performed the corporate equivalent on itself. The St. Petersburg company, which sells and distributes office copiers and printers from manufacturers like Canon and Toshiba, said it agreed to a new credit deal with GE Corporate Lending that, upon completion, will reduce its annual interest expense from $29-million to $13-million. Danka's U.S. stock price rose nine percent Tuesday on the news, to $1.09 per share.

Spain still making waves for Odyssey

The Kingdom of Spain continues to pressure Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration for details on a mysterious shipwreck it found near the mouth of the English Channel. In a filing Monday in Tampa federal court, a Spanish lawyer asked that Odyssey be forced to let it inspect photographs of, and artifacts from, the ship to determine whether it was of Spanish origin. Spain's hope of hopes: that the ship and another that recently yielded a half-million coins to Odyssey are one and the same.

Channelside bars to cut the volume

The owner of Channelside Bay Plaza has pledged to tone down two of its nightclub tenants: Sling Shots and McGraw's Country Party. Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. leases land under Channelside from the Tampa Port Authority, and board members balked last month at allowing a new office tenant until the bars cleaned up their act. Ashkenazy's attorney wrote the agency June 4 that his client asked the bars' owner to stop promoting free shots all night Friday and Saturday and an amateur boxing night at McGraw's. Ashkenzy also promised not to lease new space to bars that don't offer a full food menu. That satisfied the port board, which approved the office lease Tuesday.

[Last modified June 19, 2007, 23:00:37]