State funds help perk up parks

[Times photo: Jim Damaske]

Beachgoers using the rental umbrellas along the south beach area of Honeymoon Island have to cross a rocky beach in some areas to get to the water.

The new state budget includes nearly $1.9-million for recreation areas in North Pinellas.

By EDIE GROSS

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 5, 2000

Ursula Beuschel plants her beach chair on a strip of sand no wider than a sidewalk and faces east to maximize her exposure to the morning sun.

To her left slopes a 4-foot cliff of sand and rocks she will have to scale to get back to the parking lot. To her right, a wide swath of rocks separates her from the water's sandy bottom.

Welcome to Honeymoon Island beach, nature's perfect gateway into the Gulf of Mexico -- if you can survive the walk.

"I have a lot of friends who don't want to come here because it's too rocky," laments Beuschel, an East Lake resident who comes to the beach once a week. "This one definitely needs a little help."

And help it will get.

The state budget, signed Tuesday by Gov. Jeb Bush, includes $750,000 to renourish Honeymoon Island with sand and cover up those rocks, which were left behind after developers in the 1960s tried to increase the size of the island.

The budget also includes another $1.1-million to improve or create parks in Tarpon Springs, Oldsmar, Safety Harbor, Dunedin, Clearwater and Largo.

"I never knew I had so many parks in my district," joked Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Palm Harbor, who helped secure much of the money. "Every park eligible in my district got funded."

Honeymoon Island's money will come through the Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Beaches and Coastal Systems. The rest of the parks will receive funds from the Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program.

In 1989, the county and state spent $1.3-million dumping sand on Honeymoon Island, only to watch it wash out to sea over the next two years. The state thinks it can prevent that this time by building a fishing pier on the south side of the island to protect the beach from strong waves, said Catherine Florko, DEP's manager of renourishment projects in Pinellas County.

In addition to protecting the beach, the pier would give anglers a place to fish far away from the shoreline, where sea turtles might nest.

"Hopefully, we'll end up with a lot of really good environmental benefits," Florko said. The $750,000 granted for the coming year will pay for design work and some construction involved in bringing offshore sand to Honeymoon Island. The Florida Park Service would help design the pier, Florko said. The project's time line depends on when the state can get the 100,000 cubic yards of sand it needs.

Fields and courts

Work on the long-awaited baseball fields at Canal Park in Oldsmar will likely begin much sooner. Larry Liebling, vice president of the Oldsmar Little League and a coordinator of its Project Play Ball fundraising campaign, said he hopes to break ground on five new fields this fall.

The city received $150,000 from the state for the project. Little Leaguers have raised another $160,000 on their own, and the city plans to chip in $200,000, according to its latest budget proposal.

Liebling estimates it will cost $650,000 to $750,000 to build and light the fields, useful for baseball, softball and T-ball. The project should take about four months to complete.

The league, which is busting at the seams with 700 ballplayers, is in desperate need of the space. Many of the team members wrote letters to the Legislature pleading for the money.

"It was such a rewarding experience for the kids to see that they could have some impact on the decisions made in faraway Tallahassee. Those children probably thought nobody listened," Liebling said. "The complex will be outstanding, the envy of the whole bay area."

Youth soccer players in Safety Harbor, who now have to play on fields in Countryside, also benefited from the legislative session. The state money awarded this year means the city can build its own soccer complex on a 10-acre tract called the Messinger property.

The city has not set a time line for the project yet, but estimates it may cost up to $1-million.

Dunedin plans to renovate and rebuild its community center on Michigan Boulevard. That means the playground and multipurpose courts outside the building will probably have to move, said Harry Gross, director of Leisure Services.

The Legislature set aside $150,000 to help build new courts and a covered playground for the facility.

"We're pretty happy about it," said Gross, who estimates the center serves 115,000 people a year.

Peaceful places

Passive parks, more populated with squirrels and picnic tables than ball teams and basketball courts, were rewarded this year as well.

The Legislature set aside $100,000 to build a boardwalk and a fishing pier in Anderson Park, a county park in Tarpon Springs.

Monique Smith has been coming to Anderson Park since she got her driver's license in high school. Now a freshman at St. Petersburg Junior College, she comes to the forested spot on Lake Tarpon about three times a week to study.

"It's quiet. It's peaceful. It's relaxing," she said last week. "A little boardwalk and a fishing pier would be good. People could bring their kids."

Kay Ashton has been bringing her granddaughter, Kahlie Ashton, to the park since she was 3 months old. Now 2, Kahlie walks the nature trails, picking up rocks and looking at wildlife. The boardwalk will be a new place for her granddaughter to explore, and the pier will give her husband a new spot from which to fish for bass, Ashton said.

"We always walk the trail and come back and swing," she said while pushing her granddaughter on a swing set. "There are so many squirrels for her to look at. She loves the animals."

The Clearwater East-West Trail, awarded $150,000, was actually built 20 to 25 years ago. The city will use the money to replace the 6-foot-wide sidewalk with a 10-foot-wide blacktop path, said Kevin Dunbar, parks and recreation director.

The trail, which stretches from Safety Harbor to Clearwater roughly along the State Road 590 corridor, also will be landscaped.

Safety Harbor officials envision Marina Park as a lush gateway to the city's downtown. The state money awarded this year will help build a fountain and an observation area in the park, which is south of the Safety Harbor Resort and Spa, said City Commissioner Keith Zayac.

The entire project will cost about $800,000, most of which will be paid for with city funds, said Tom Ronald, Leisure Services director. The city will begin work on the park this fall and expects to finish it within four or five months, he said.

Largo Central Park's upgrades will get under way this fall as well. City officials plan to install a bike path, nature trail, picnic shelters and a boardwalk through a swamp in the far eastern 76 acres of the park.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District, or Swiftmud, will build a stormwater treatment facility there as well. Penny For Pinellas is contributing $1.2-million toward the project. Swiftmud will kick in $400,000, and the state contributed $150,000.

"It's going to be more akin to a nature park than an active park," said Doug Matthews, marketing and events manager for the Largo recreation and parks department. "It gives us passive park land right in the middle of the city, which there's really not a whole lot of anymore. A place just to be able to get away from the noise and the traffic."

Tarpon Springs is hoping for the same benefit with its North Anclote River Nature Park, which received $125,000 from the Legislature. The city will contribute about another $125,000 to add trails, picnic tables and bathrooms to the 80-acre parcel it finished buying in March.

The county has agreed to build a spur from the Pinellas Trail into the park, which has no equal in Tarpon Springs. Kathy Monahan, the city's cultural and civic services administrator, said she hopes the work will be completed by Dec. 2, in time for the 10-year anniversary of the Pinellas Trail.

"This is a major preservation project with natural resources for the city," Monahan said. "We really don't have anything like it for the public."

Latvala said he was pleased with the state support that local parks received this year. He had urged the county and each city to apply for state money, warning them that other communities would be perfectly happy to take those funds and support their own projects.

"We pushed the cities to apply for the grants," Latvala said. "Somebody's going to get the money if we don't."

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