 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Fireworks to light up new look of village
By AMY WIMMER
© St. Petersburg Times, MADEIRA BEACH -- The city will celebrate its new and improved John's Pass Village with fireworks and live entertainment Friday night. Madeira Beach officials worked for years to envision an updated village, and for the past year contractors have buried utilities, repaved streets, laid brick sidewalks and added palm trees and decorative lighting. The result, officials hope, will be a John's Pass Village that is more attractive to tourists and easier for local residents to maneuver around. People can get their first official glimpse of the village's $1.2-million improvements Friday night. The celebration, which runs from 6:30 to 10 p.m., will include a presentation by city officials and a brief history of the village from local businesswoman Pat Shontz. Most of the festivities will take place in front of the Rusty Anchor, 190 John's Pass Boardwalk. Entertainment will began at 7 p.m., with local musician Suzette Jennings performing from 7 to 7:45 p.m.; 8:15 to 9 p.m.; and 9:15 to 10 p.m. Tropic Heat, another local group, will perform from 7:45 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. The fireworks show will run from 9 to 9:15 p.m. Madeira Beach's modern economic history can be traced to the northern shore of John's Pass, where fishermen settled after the turn of the century. According to folklore, its namesake is John Leveque, or Levick, a turtle hunter who buried his gold in the sand near where the village stands today. He returned from an expedition in 1848 to find that a hurricane had washed away his gold and cut a new inlet -- John's Pass. Since then, generations of merchants have sold their wares along John's Pass. The village is actually made up of several buildings that were renovated in the 1970s and 1980s to resemble an old-fashioned fishing town. Most of the renovation dollars for John's Pass Village came from the Southwest Florida Water Management District, the Pinellas Anclote Basin Board, and county Community Development Block Grant funds. Madeira Beach paid about 25 percent of the costs. The city has plans for more improvements at John's Pass Village, which include burying utilities along Pelican Lane, which runs behind the shops. Designs for those plans are under way, city development services director Mike Maxemow said.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times South Pinellas desks |
