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Largo will pay Pinellas Park $56,400 for the pumping stations and do repairs estimated at $168,000.
By ERIC STIRGUS
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 2, 2001
LARGO -- Hoping to avoid what city officials call "strained relations" with a neighbor, the Largo City Commission on Tuesday approved buying three lift stations from Pinellas Park.
Commissioners approved spending $56,400 to buy the stations, which pump wastewater from an area served by Pinellas Park to Largo's wastewater treatment plant.
"It's important in the sense (of changing the perception) that Largo is not willing to cooperate with its neighbors," Mayor Bob Jackson said of the resolution.
Largo commissioners agreed to buy the lift stations in January for $225,000. But a city-hired engineering firm determined the stations needed repair and estimated the work at $168,000. Pinellas Park's staff disputed the repair costs.
Unable to resolve the dispute, Largo staff last month asked commissioners to request a meeting with their Pinellas Park counterparts. Largo officials were involved in such a get-together in March 2000, when they met with Clearwater leaders to settle a dispute over 14 acres both cities thought they were entitled to annex.
The meeting with Pinellas Park had been tentatively scheduled for May 31 at the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority headquarters.
But then Largo's staff offered to buy the stations for $56,400, nearly the entire difference between Largo's original offer and the estimated repair work. Largo would pay for the repairs under the deal, which was pursuant to Largo commission's approval. Pinellas Park agreed.
"The ill will that exists over this issue between both communities will continue further damaging the already-strained relations," Steve Ross, who negotiated the resolution for Largo, wrote in a memo to commissioners.
Commissioners also voted 4-3 Tuesday to allowtheir police officers to buy their own weapons. The matter had been before commissioners twice last month, but each time the commission reached a 3-3 vote because one commissioner did not attend the meeting.
"What do they say, three times the charm?" Commissioner Marty Shelby said as Largo police Chief Lester Aradi and Deputy Chief Judy Gershkowitz approached the commission to discuss the issue.
The 9mm handguns will no longer be needed once the department receives its new .40-caliber semiautomatics. Police department officials wanted to sell the 9mm guns to officers to defray the cost of the new weapons.
Some commissioners were concerned the guns would get into the wrong hands.
Commissioners Pat Burke, Harriet Crozier, Jean Halvorsen and Mary Laurance voted in favor of the proposal. Jackson, Shelby and Pat Gerard voted against the measure.