Bayboro research efforts to expand

Additional scientists of varied specialties will complement coastal geology work there now.

By BRYAN GILMER

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 16, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- The U.S. Geological Survey plans to expand its research center near Bayboro Harbor, adding a new building and 30 to 40 new people to join the more than 80 who now work there.

The research agency will add scientists in a variety of specialties to complement the coastal geology focus there now.

USGS is adding a few biologists and hydrologists right away with the other new scientists and support staff to be added during the next three to five years, said Bonnie McGregor, the federal agency's regional director.

"We have been looking more and more to do some interdisciplinary studies," to explore how the changing shape of the coastline affects sea creatures and the groundwater underneath the ocean floor and the land, she said. "The community has just been tremendously supportive."

Since the city and the University of South Florida wooed USGS to come here in 1988, the federal scientists have worked closely with professors and students at the university and the federal program here has steadily expanded.

Expanding that partnership to new scientific disciplines appears to support newly appointed USF President Judy Genshaft's aspiration to propel the university into the top tier of research institutions.

The USGS expansion also meshes with a plan the City Council approved a year ago to tailor its 3-acre port on Bayboro Harbor toward the city's marine research community. Mayor David Fischer has estimated that marine science research employs some 700 people in the city.

That port plan includes creating "Port Discovery," a tourist destination that would also serve as a hands-on research lab for schoolchildren who would travel there with their teachers. USGS scientists have already worked to train teachers and to broadcast educational programs, McGregor said.

U.S. Rep C.W. Bill Young, a Pinellas Republican, has advocated the USGS presence in the city all along, working closely with Peter Betzer, head of the university's marine sciences program. Young said Betzer's dream of turning the city into a hot spot for marine research is coming true.

McGregor said it is too early to estimate what the expansion might cost, but Young said Wednesday that he will make sure the USGS gets the money it needs.

The federal Office of Management and Budget approved the USGS budget for next year without including the expansion, Young said. But Young chairs the House Appropriations Committee. "When we start to mark up that appropriations bill, I have a feeling the funding is going to be in it," Young said. "I intend to add it."

The expansion will require a new 30,000-square-foot building next to the two USGS buildings at 600 Fourth St. S. McGregor said it has not been decided whether the federal government should build it or whether a private developer might do so and lease the space to the USGS.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.