St. Petersburg gives dogs a place to roam

By BRYAN GILMER

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 18, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- The City Council on Thursday approved letting dogs frolic with their owners and without leashes on a little-used acre at Coquina Key Park.

The council unanimously established the city's first dog park and set the stage for others throughout the city.

"I am very much for dog parks," Kathy Helmuth, who lives on 30th Avenue N, dozens of blocks north of Coquina Key, told the council. "Coquina Key is not in my neighborhood, but if this is the first step to establishing dog parks in the city, I'm for it."

The Leisure Service Department's has a list of possible sites for future parks that includes Crescent Lake Park, North Shore Park, Bartlett Park, Campbell Park, Lake Vista Park, Maximo Park, Childs Park, Azalea Park and Walter Fuller Park.

Also Thursday, the council:

Approved closing one block of 19th Avenue N between Fourth and Fifth streets to aid a proposed townhouse development facing Crescent Lake and a commercial development on Fourth Street that will include an Outback Steak House and possibly a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop.

Authorized an additional subsidy of $300,000 for Sunken Gardens, which is proving more expensive for the city to operate than it foresaw. It also authorized $124,000 extra for property taxes and lease payments for the land on which Florida International Museum operates.

The council did not discuss the African People's Education and Defense Fund's desire to name a grant-financed gym "Uhuru Black Gym of Our Own," a name prohibited by the grant contract between the group and the city.

City legal staff had expected to make a recommendation on the matter Thursday, but they postponed it after scheduling a meeting Monday with the APEDF's attorney.

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