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City, group battle over bathhouse
By JON WILSON
© St. Petersburg Times, ST. PETERSBURG -- Once a demolition target, an old Campbell Park bathhouse has survived. It stands painted and almost shiny near the E.H. McLin Pool. But now it's caught in a tug-of-war between a neighborhood association and a city government home-repair team. Each wants to use the 3,500-square-foot structure. Both can't use it at the same time. So the question has become, which group will win the building at 1201 Seventh Ave. S. The issue hit City Hall Thursday. Iveta Martin Berry, Campbell Park neighborhood president, saw city workers taking partitions and plumbing fixtures out of the building. Sensitive to what she thought might be a surprise tear-down, Berry went straight to the City Council, which happened to be meeting. The vigorously outspoken Berry gave members an earful. "Don't you know I was furious?" Berry said later. Berry, Campbell Park resident Vearl Scott, mayoral candidate Omali Yeshitela and civil rights leader Sevell Brown III fought earlier this year to save the bathhouse when it appeared the city would demolish the 28-year-old building. Many Campbell Park residents want the bathhouse for a neighborhood center, where meetings, classes and after-school activities could be held. The city's N-Team, which fixes up houses for residents who can't afford repairs themselves, has been using the bathhouse for storage and training sessions for its crews. The building sits next to the McLin pool, named for a prominent African American, and is inside city-owned Campbell Park, a historic green space and recreation area next to the neighborhood of the same name. Neighbors, Berry among them, watch park developments like hawks. They fought the Pinellas school district when it wanted to take 6 park acres for a Campbell Park Elementary School expansion, succeeding in getting the parcel reduced to about 3 acres. Berry was upset when she learned the N-Team would like to use the bathhouse permanently. "I'm still trying to make that a neighborhood center," Berry said. She said the neighborhood association has grant money available to operate the center, which she said would complement the existing city-run Campbell Park recreation center, not compete with it. She said a separate neighborhood center also could offer free recreation programs for youngsters who can't pay for city fee-based programs. The N-Team has used the building for three or four years, said Bob Gilder, the N-Team's supervisor. "It became our home," Gilder said. He said it is well situated to serve the Campbell Park neighborhood, which he said has received more N-Team services than any other neighborhood. "There has never been a time when (Berry) called on the N-Team to help in her neighborhood when we didn't do it," said Gilder, who estimated his group has worked about 2,000 jobs in Campbell Park. Berry acknowledged the team has been helpful. "I'm not complaining about the N-Team and their program, I'm complaining they are (getting ready) to come take our building," she said. A problem, said deputy mayor Mike Dove, is that the building is not set up to be used as a neighborhood center. It would take about $200,000 worth of renovations, he said. Berry said she isn't sure renovations would require that much, and if it did, she believes the city has the money to do it. "Stop telling me it's not there," she said. Discussions are bound to continue. A meeting between Berry and city staff members is expected this week.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
