Metro review

By SHARON KENNEDY WYNNE

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 10, 2001

Some highlights of the news from around the region for the week just ended.

'Full monty' keeps sex stings at bay

HUDSON -- It seems strippers aren't the only ones who have to take their clothes off to get the job done. Add vice detectives to the list.

Pasco County officials have been frustrated that they have been unable to shut down a cluster of lingerie studios and massage parlors along U.S. 19 in Hudson because the lingerie parlors workers are skilled at weeding out undercover detectives, a county attorney says.

Models won't expose themselves -- and thus place themselves under the restrictions of the county's new adult business ordinance -- until customers strip first. Deputies can't strip on duty.

As County Commissioner Peter Altman explained, referring to the British movie about men who become strippers: "The Sheriff's Office won't do the full monty."

Assistant County Attorney Sid Kilgore encouraged deputies to gather all details they can about the businesses. The evidence might not reach the threshold for a criminal case, but it could be enough to close the business under the ordinance.

[Times photo: Cherie Diez] This monotube traffic signal in Pinellas Park has been the talk of the town.

Problems plague signs on state roads

The state's road agency is getting a lot of heat for its street signs lately.

The Florida Department of Transportation spent $254,000 to put about 60 back-lit traffic signs up 18 months ago on U.S. 19 in Pinellas County. The signs, lit from within by a fluorescent bulb and usually 8 feet long, show cross-streets and address ranges along the highway.

The problem: The signs are falling faster than those sale signs on Wal-Mart TV commercials.

Then on Thursday, the St. Petersburg City Council pleaded with the agency to keep its hulking "monotube" traffic signals off the intersection at Tyrone Boulevard and 66th Street.

The tubes, picked for intersections in Pinellas Park, Largo and the Suncoast Parkway for their hurricane resistance, look like overhead sewer pipes, council members complained.

But the DOT owns the roads where the monotubes have arisen, so there's little the city can do.

Fire guts a landmark Inverness diner

INVERNESS -- The Cove Pub and Restaurant, an Inverness landmark known for its colorful clientele, hubcap-size hamburgers and fiery chicken wings, was consumed by flames in an early morning blaze that started in the kitchen Thursday and took firefighters more than five hours to extinguish.

The allure of the 21-year-old restaurant was its blend of people: professionals, blue-collar workers, tourists and families. And the owners and patrons were always proud of its slapped-together design, even if it meant that going to the restrooms involved leaving the restaurant through a rear door and entering another building.

The current owners plan to rebuild. "It may not have the same charm as the original," said general manager Robin Warrington, "but we're definitely going to come back."

Crystal River may have manager within reach at last

CRYSTAL RIVER -- City Manager David Sallee cleaned out his desk Wednesday and briefed the police chief who stepped into the job temporarily after the last potential candidate for Sallee's job dropped out.

The high turnover in the city manager job soured the City Council's top choice. But Mike Underwood, who has been offered the job and is negotiating a contract, says the high turnover in the post can change "with the right man."

"There is an opportunity and a challenge here," Underwood said Tuesday from his office in Graceville, the Florida Panhandle community near the Alabama border where he is city manager.

Sallee's two-year contract was not renewed, and many residents are still holding protests, writing letters and vowing revenge at the next election.

While searching for a replacement, four of the seven city manager finalists dropped out, and at least one of those finalists said he pulled away after learning of the job's high turnover. There have been seven managers since 1990.

Hillsborough agrees to talk about desal settlement

TAMPA -- Tempers may be cooling over the proposed desalination plant on Tampa Bay.

After a closed-door meeting Thursday, Hillsborough County commissioners agreed to enter settlement talks on their legal challenge of plant.

The settlement talks come a little more than a month after commissioners voted 5-1 to challenge the draft permit for the plant issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The move infuriated other members of Tampa Bay Water who had committed to work on alternatives to pumping groundwater.

Under terms of the settlement proposal, Tampa Bay Water, which supplies most of the region's water, and the desalination plant builders would provide a $26-million insurance policy to cover any environmental damage resulting from the salty discharge of desalination.

"It's a good start," said Commissioner Ronda Storms. But neighbors of the plant, angered by the private meeting, vowed to keep fighting.

Biologist studies, collects droves of dead doves

ST. PETERSBURG -- If you find a recently dead ring-necked dove, a state agency wants to come and get it.

During the past few weeks, dozens of turtle doves, also known as ring-necked doves, have been dying in and near St. Petersburg.

The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission in Lakeland is conducting tests on the turtle doves to determine why they are dying. Results so far have been inconclusive. So the call went out last week for any birds found, and 30 to 40 reports have come in daily, officials said.

Whatever is killing the birds probably isn't harmful to humans, but officials recommend the birds not be touched. Some possible causes have been ruled out, such as trichomoniasis (a parasite), avian pox and salmonella.

Coming up this week

This week is crunch time for Gov. Jeb Bush and his veto pen. He has until Saturday to approve the state budget. Florida TaxWatch last week released its annual list of turkeys, the local pork projects legislators insert in the state budget, saying it was the largest list of turkeys the group has seen since it started combing the budget in 1983. Bush has vetoed more than $300-million in budget items each of the last two years.

When the gavel drops in Pasco County courtrooms Monday, it will once again be a question of who will record the proceedings. The struggle between east Pasco's independent court reporters and the Pinellas-Pasco judicial circuit heads into the week the same way it started this past week. Reporters say they don't plan to work without the promise of a raise. Chief Judge Susan Schaeffer has said the court is not inclined to meet with people issuing threats.

-- Compiled by Times staff writer Sharon Kennedy Wynne

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