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It was home
By KATHY SAUNDERS © St. Petersburg Times, published January 28, 2001 TREASURE ISLAND -- With a tissue in one hand and a camera in the other, Martha Dilley watched Friday as the city demolished her former home. "We lived there and enjoyed the sunsets. The kids flew kites and there were Easter egg hunts," Dilley said. "But it's bittersweet. I can come down any time and sit in the park." Treasure Island bought the Dilley property at 9700 Gulf Blvd. in December to open the view to the beach. The Dilley land was the largest of four parcels the city needs in order to develop the Sunset Vista Trailhead Park at the entrance to Sunset Beach. "It's a prime piece of property," said City Manager Chuck Coward, thanking Mrs. Dilley publicly for agreeing to sell the land. Three of Martha and the late Earl Dilley's six children watched the bulldozer tear down the home that their parents built 20 years ago atop a bait shop and pool supply store. As the bulldozer mangled the front awnings, the words "Ma Dill's Bait & Tackle" were visible underneath. They were printed in a large painting of a shrimp. "That's the color it used to be," said Dilley's son, Earl Jr., pointing to a strip of aquamarine paint under the wood. "Look, there's the wall that Maggie painted," said Mary O'Leary, Dilley's daughter. She said her sister Maggie, now of Long Island, N.Y., painted sea shells and other designs on the bathroom wall. "She is very artistic," O'Leary said. O'Leary's 12-year-old daughter, Maura, waited as harvest gold and avocado green appliances fell from the second floor to a pile of rubble on the ground. She wanted to grab some of the blue bricks that used to surround a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary on her grandparents' northwest balcony. "That was my favorite part of the house," she said. Sonny Glasbrenner's demolition crews stopped for a few moments and Maura and her Uncle Earl collected a few of the bricks around the crumpled shrine. After the house was leveled, the Dilleys gathered with other spectators across the street at the Islander Grill restaurant, where owner Gus Scholle provided champagne and a spread of muffins, vegetables, fruit and twice-baked potatoes. Scholle was celebrating the new view from his restaurant to the beach. "I plan to put some more windows in now," Scholle said. The event was attended by city commissioners, civic leaders and Mayor Leon Atkinson, who campaigned to create better views along the waterfront. Atkinson, at the controls of the bulldozer, took the first swing at the house. "I'm the mayor that knocks buildings down," Atkinson said, retelling stories about his childhood visits to the drugstore that was there before the bait shop. "That was my cousin's first job, working in the drugstore," Atkinson said. "There used to be a beachwear store next to that." When the Dilleys bought the half-acre site in 1969, they opened the bait shop and Earl Jr. ran a pool supply store next door. Along with the $731,000 Dilley site, the city plans to buy an adjacent parcel for $175,000 from the All Children's Hospital Foundation and six lots from brothers Frederick and Clarence Pheil of Chesterfield, N.C. That property is expected to cost $300,000. Bob Guido of the Trust for Public Lands, a private land conservation organization in Tallahassee, has been negotiating on behalf of the city for another property owned by the estate of Gary Noordhoek. Guido, who took "before" and "after" photos during the demolition, said he was optimistic that the city can buy the Noordhoek site. To protect the beachfront from private development, the trust purchases properties until the city can pay for them. Treasure Island has received a state grant for $1.2-million to repay the trust. "I'm just glad there are not going to be condos there," David Dilley said as he gathered mementos of his parents' former home. Treasure Island Realtor Jim White said a private developer probably could build up to 30 condominiums on a waterfront site that size. "They could probably go for a half-million to a million dollars each," White said. "The land is probably worth about $3-million." Even without the Noordhoek property, the city has enough space to develop the new park and eventually connect with its beach trail, which runs behind the hotels on the main stretch of beach near 107th/Central Avenue. In a few days, when the rubble is cleared, Coward, the city manager, said crews will begin to restore the natural vegetation. In a year or so when the city has the money to complete the park, residents and visitors will be able to watch the sunset from a sand platform rising above the dunes.
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