Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
As the wish list deadline nears, cities are forming alliances and asking for less emphasis on waterfront access.
By AMY WIMMER
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 23, 2000
ST. PETE BEACH -- The waterfront communities that weathered the 1993 oil spill together are now faced with competing for $2.5-million in settlement money.
Another chunk of the settlement has been set aside for ecological improvements. The $2.5-million must be used for recreational improvements to compensate for the fishing, shelling and beachgoing days lost to the oil.
As the beach cities are learning, a couple million dollars can go only so far. And when divided among Pinellas County's coastal communities, the money can get gobbled up even more quickly.
Some cities are forming alliances, urging the agencies responsible for divvying up the funds -- the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the state Department of Environmental Protection -- to favor certain types of projects.
In Treasure Island and St. Pete Beach, the commissions passed resolutions urging the agencies to choose projects that would benefit the beaches most affected by the spill. Redington Shores and North Redington Beach are throwing their weight behind a Pinellas County plan to buy Redington Long Pier.
But representatives from the NOAA already told the beach cities during a workshop this month that the pier would not receive help from the oil settlement funding. Because the pier would operate as a fee-based facility and would not create new waterfront access, the oil spill money cannot be used to fund it, NOAA officials said.
"We're trying to create increased access," said Tom Moore, a NOAA habitat restoration specialist. "That pier is already existing there."
The DEP and NOAA have stated that increasing the amount of waterfront access could be a priority for them as they hand out oil spill money. But both St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island recently passed resolutions urging the agencies to overlook waterfront property purchases.
The focus, the cities said, should be on lower-budget items that could benefit more residents throughout the beach towns.
"I challenge anyone to find a piece of property along the beach that's going to be centrally located enough to benefit everyone up and down the beach," St. Pete Beach City Manager Carl Schwing said.
The resolutions passed by St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island urge NOAA and DEP to give the money to the municipalities "directly impacted by this tragic event and . . . proportionately according to the damage received."
Some coastal towns and cities in northern Pinellas admit that the spill affected them little, even though the southern beaches were closed for days for cleanup. But because tourists generally believed that all Pinellas beaches were closed, those beach communities also suffered damages, they contend.
Moore, of the NOAA, said the cities' interest in seeing the most affected towns receive more settlement money will weigh in the agencies' decision. The deadline for submitting project ideas is April 30.
"I know that was a continuing theme," Moore said. "And we'll take that under consideration."