Brooker Creek to get complex for education

That's one project among $254.9-million in projects planned for the next two years.

By EDIE GROSS

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 18, 2000

Coming soon to a theater near you: a raging wildfire.

First-degree burns, dehydration, loss of nose hair and excessive property damage not included.

The future education center at Brooker Creek Preserve in East Lake will feature a "cybertech theater" that, among other experiences, will allow visitors to understand what it feels like to be inside a wildfire -- and live through it.

The county will spend $7.8-million during the next two years building the center, one of $254.9-million in capital projects the county has planned for that period. An education center at Weedon Island Preserve, a botanical garden in Largo, improvements to Fort De Soto Park and new roads throughout the county all are part of the list.

The projects should be familiar to Pinellas County residents, who voted in 1997 to extend the Penny For Pinellas tax 10 more years based on the promise that these items would be addressed.

About $100-million for the projects will come from the Penny For Pinellas, transportation impact fees and grants. The county plans to borrow the rest so it can do in two years what it would normally take five years to complete. The 10-year bond will be paid off with future Penny dollars.

County commissioners, who were first presented the list last week during a budget session, were pleased.

"The question I was asked the year the Penny For Pinellas was on the ballot was, "Will you follow through and do what you say you're going to do?' " said Commissioner Bob Stewart. "This is what we told voters we would do and now we're indicating we're going to get it done -- and get it done earlier than we said we would."

The Brooker Creek education complex, which will include classroom, office and exhibit space as well as the theater, is slated to open in spring 2002. The theater, sort of a virtual reality simulator, is designed to show visitors the kinds of things they cannot safely see in the preserve, said environmental education coordinator Carlos de la Rosa.

"You walk in and you're someplace else. You're in a wildfire or traveling down a gopher tortoise hole. You're surrounded by the sounds and the vision of someplace else," de la Rosa said. "You can go outside and see lots of things. What we want to show you inside is what you can't see outside."

The budget also includes money to start designing and possibly building an interpretive center at Weedon Island Preserve near St. Petersburg. That project is still in the preliminary stages, but county officials envision a center that will educate visitors about the environment and the American Indians who once lived there.

Other outdoor venues that will benefit from the county's plan:

The Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo, which will feature a wedding garden, tropical garden, jazz garden and butterfly garden, as well as foot bridges connecting it to nearby Heritage Village and the Cooperative Extension Service. The project, $16-million overall, is expected to be finished in 2002.

Fort De Soto Park, which is getting a longer bike trail, pier repairs and facility improvements.

Wall Springs Park in Palm Harbor, a popular North Pinellas swimming hole for nearly 100 years before it closed in 1966. It will re-open during 2001 as a county park with trails, piers, picnic facilities and a spur onto the Pinellas Trail.

Florida Power Trail, which will close a 20.6-mile gap in the Pinellas Trail from Palm Harbor down the east side of the county to the Gandy Bridge. The trail, along Florida Power Corp. right of way, does not have a completion date yet. It is expected to cost no more than $15-million to build.

The largest item on the capital projects list is the one dedicated to buying and preserving environmentally sensitive lands. The county will spend nearly $30-million in pursuit of those properties during the next two years.

The county has set aside 5,000 acres since 1972. It has its eyes on 2,500 more acres, from Tarpon Springs, where a series of islands and saltwater marshes dots the Anclote River, to God's Island, a 15-acre potential bird habitat east of Shell Key.

This effort is part of the reason commissioners favor borrowing $154-million for capital improvements rather than waiting an extra three years for Penny dollars. The county wants to buy this sensitive land before developers do; and the sooner it's bought, the less expensive it will be.

"You might sock away dollars for five years and find it's not available anymore; or if it is available, it's three times more costly than it was," said county budget director Mark Woodard.

Borrowing the money also speeds up work on other needed improvements, particularly roads. In August or September, the county will start work on two road projects: the $25-million extension of Bryan Dairy Road from 72nd Street to U.S. 19 and the $3-million construction of the East-West Parkway in Oldsmar.

The Bryan Dairy extension should be finished by the summer of 2002, said Jim Collins, county engineer. The East-West Parkway, which connects Forest Lakes Boulevard in Oldsmar to Linebaugh Avenue in Hillsborough County, should take 18 months to complete, he said.

In November and December, the county will begin widening Klosterman Road and will continue the Belcher Road extension from Tampa to Alderman roads. Klosterman, which will go from two lanes to four lanes divided by a median, will take 18 months to complete at a cost of $6-million.

The four-lane Belcher extension, a $5-million project, also will take 18 months, Collins said. Construction on the section between Alderman and Klosterman roads is expected to begin in 2003.

"The county will have built three parallel corridors to U.S. 19 -- McMullen-Booth, Belcher and County Road 1," said County Administrator Fred Marquis. "If we hadn't done this, U.S. 19 would literally be a parking lot. This whole center part of the county would be gridlock."

Other projects receiving money during the next two years of the capital improvement plan:

Florida Avenue, the main street through historic downtown Palm Harbor.

Keystone Road, which will be widened to six lanes from U.S. 19 to East Lake Road. The plan includes money to design the project, but construction will not start until 2003 or 2004.

The county's first alternative high school for students who are not succeeding in traditional classrooms, including students who are disruptive, truants or have criminal records. The new school, which would open for the 2002-03 school year, probably will be built near the juvenile detention center in Largo.

Florida International Museum in St. Petersburg, which will receive $1-million toward its permanent John F. Kennedy exhibit.

"The funds are well-distributed throughout the county, meeting the needs in the unincorporated area. It's a true balance between road projects and endangered land purchases and park expenditures," said Stewart. "I'm pleased with it."

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