City, neighbors discuss how to save clubhouse

One idea is to renovate the little-used building, once used by baseball greats, for a city-sponsored teen program.

By ANDREW MEACHAM

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 14, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- The city and Crescent Lake Neighborhood Association are searching for ways to save the Huggins-Stengel clubhouse.

The small building at the southeast corner of the Crescent Lake park at 1320 Fifth St. N has outlived its usefulness as a locker room but leaves little space with which to do much else. At the association meeting Thursday, leisure services administrator Lee Metzger will propose renovating the space for a city-sponsored teen organization.

As a spring training site for the New York Yankees in the 1920s and 1930s, Huggins-Stengel Field reverberates with baseball history. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig shook the dust off their home-run bats there (and posed for pictures now hanging in Metzger's office).

The Baltimore Orioles also made the field their temporary home. The clubhouse was added in the 1960s but in recent years has seen little use. Visiting high-school teams prefer to change and shower in their own locker rooms, and only the neighborhood association holds regular meetings there.

Meanwhile, three full-time staff, at least a half-dozen computers and a steady stream of volunteers have been making do with "a 12-foot by 15- or 20-foot room" at the leisure services administration building at 1400 19th St. N, said Bob Valente, who supervises Teen Arts, Sports and Cultural Opportunities.

TASCO runs sports leagues, pool parties and dances, plans college visits and puts out Impressions Teen Magazine through a grant from the Juvenile Welfare Board.

To ease overcrowding and restore some presently unused space, Metzger is checking into a conversion plan. Lockers could come out and additional restrooms would go in (augmenting a design for men only), along with wheelchair ramps and air conditioning units. Funding for the estimated $250,000 project is up in the air, Metzger said.

Metzger and Valente will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday with Crescent Lake neighbors at the clubhouse.

Fossil Park honors 100-year-old farmer

Fossil Park will honor one of its oldest residents at its Tuesday meeting, which happens to be the 100th birthday of Frank Ziniker. A retired contractor and dairy farmer, Ziniker in 1958 built the home he still occupies alone. His wife died at "80 or 81" in 1980. The couple had no children.

Ziniker operates a small orchard the fruits of which include oranges, grapefruit, avocados, bananas and sugar cane.

"It's small, but it's big enough for some women to get lost in the other day," Ziniker said.

As for the secret to his good health, Ziniker said, "I take wonderful supplements," including vitamins, minerals and blue-green algae.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m., Huber Gardens, 521 69th Ave. N.

Meetings

CONA: 7 p.m. Wednesday at the St. Petersburg Times auditorium, 490 First Ave. S.

CENTRAL OAK PARK: 7 p.m. Tuesday. St. Luke's United Methodist Church, 4444 Fifth Ave. N.

CRESCENT HEIGHTS: 7 p.m. Tuesday. American Baptist Church of Beatitudes, 2812 Eighth St. N. Speaker: traffic engineer Michael Fredericks.

EDGEMOOR: 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Faith Covenant Church, 150 62nd Ave. NE. Officer elections.

FRUITLAND HEIGHTS: 7 p.m. Wednesday. Omega House, 1836 20th Ave. S. Open forum.

HOLIDAY PARK: 7:30 p.m. Monday. Garden Crest Presbyterian Church, 5901 Ninth Ave. N. Officer elections.

JUNGLE TERRACE: 7 p.m. Monday. Walter Fuller Recreation Center, 7891 26th Ave. N. Consultant presentation on neighborhood plan.

LAKE PASADENA: 7 p.m. Thursday. Pilgrim Congregational Church, 6301 Central Ave. Quarterly membership meeting.

LAKEWOOD ESTATES CRIME WATCH: 7 p.m. Wednesday. Maximo Elementary School, 4850 31st St. S. Speaker: police Chief Goliath Davis.

LAKEWOOD TERRACE: 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Lake Maggiore Baptist Church, 4100 Dr. M.L. King (Ninth) St. Officer elections.

MAGNOLIA HEIGHTS: 7 p.m. Thursday. Woodlawn Presbyterian Church, 2612 12th St. N. Officer elections.

MOBEL AMERICANA: 7 p.m. Wednesday, clubhouse, 7201 First St. NE. Officer elections.

NORTH SHORE: 7 p.m. Monday. Westminster Presbyterian Church, 126 11th Ave. NE. Officer elections, neighborhood plan.

PERKINS: 7 p.m. Monday. Perkins Elementary School, 2205 18th Ave. S. Open forum.

PONCE DE LEON: 7 p.m. Thursday. Gladden Park Recreation Center, 3901 30th Ave. N. Neighborhood plan; presentation by police on illegal drugs.

WINSTON PARK: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. North Branch Library, 861 70th Ave. N. Officer installation. Update by CONA president Jim Biggerstaff.

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