[Times photo: Carrie Pratt]
Bird boom: Beth Harrod, an avian care specialist at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary in Indian Shores, feeds a baby blue jay on Friday. From April to August, when songbirds breed and hatch, hundreds of sick and orphaned birds are brought in for care.

By SHARON KENNEDY WYNNE

Crystal River jilted again by candidate

CRYSTAL RIVER -- Crystal River needs a new city manager. Anyone? Anyone? Hello?

Sure they've gone through seven managers in one decade, and granted there are still more than a few people miffed that the most recent ex-city manager, David Sallee, was shown the door after two years. But a pretty little town with a pool-water-clear river can't be that bad.

During the search for Sallee's 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.

Then the city was snubbed twice by the finalists who were offered the job. And now No. 3 is looking a little queasy.

"There seems to be a lot of instability there, and it bothers me," said Tony Hammond, the North Topsail Beach, N.C., manager. "As much as I want to go to Florida, I'm not sure I want to go that bad."

It remains to be seen how the matter will play out. The City Council, which has a meeting Monday, can either continue down its list of candidates or reopen the search.

Water board member wins confidence vote

TAMPA -- Hillsborough County has become a bit of an outcast in regional water issues, after trying to throw wrenches in plans for a desalination plant on its turf and questioning future water sources.

Commissioner Ronda Storms on Wednesday offered to step down from the Tampa Bay Water board, after facing charges of parochialism.

Fret not, the commission told her, it was the other board members of Tampa Bay Water who were acting selfish June 11 when they refused to consider concerns about future Hillsborough water projects.

Storms and fellow Commissioner Chris Hart found themselves rebuffed in the recent meeting when Pasco joined the other member governments in rejecting a Hillsborough request to consider future construction proposals separately.

And when Storms pressed the issue, Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala accused her of only wanting to vote against proposals in her own back yard. She said Storms needed to show some leadership, as part of a testy exchange.

Back in Hillsborough, Storms told her board: "I'm not going to throw my district under the bus so that Pinellas can have water."

Scientology land swap cleared for downtown Clearwater

CLEARWATER -- In an unprecedented move, the Clearwater City Commission agreed Thursday to swap land downtown with the Church of Scientology, helping each other consolidate blocks of property.

The city has never before traded land with the church, one of the largest landholders in downtown Clearwater.

Chalk it up to a thaw in the once-frosty relations between the city and the controversial church. And there are no longer limitations on the city's ability to make the trade. Last year commissioners repealed an ordinance that had prohibited Clearwater from giving property to a non-profit group or church, even in a trade for other property.

With the deal approved, the church now owns an entire block to build a parking garage, while the city now owns the majority of another block across the street to expand the police and fire departments.

Chemical site's risks merit health study

TARPON SPRINGS -- Prodded by concerns from residents, a federal agency has announced it will produce a new public health assessment by next summer that discusses the impact of the Stauffer phosphorus-processing plant, which is now a Superfund site.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry could include health studies of students who attended Gulfside Elementary School from 1978 to 1981, the year the plant closed, and former Stauffer workers. The agency will decide whether to do the health study after determining how many of the workers and students can be identified and found.

Officials think there are 2,567 former Stauffer employees, perhaps 2,000 of whom might still be alive, and 3,000 people who attended Gulfside Elementary from 1978 to 1981. They can contact PerStephanie Thompson toll free at the agency, 1-888-422-8737.

Stauffer Management Co. president Brian Spiller said he was "disappointed but not surprised" that the agency plans to study the issues related to Stauffer, which he called unnecessary.

Flight plans filed for endangered cranes

Wildlife researchers this week gained final approval to reintroduce endangered whooping cranes to the eastern United States using ultralight planes, an innovative method that worked last fall using sandhill cranes.

Ten baby whoopers have been in training since May, when they hatched in a Maryland laboratory, and will soon travel to Wisconsin to prepare for their historic 1,250-mile flight to Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Citrus County.

Before the experiment could begin, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had to obtain permission from 20 states and draft a proposed federal rule that would relax regulation of the species during the project.

The news came six weeks after the sandhill cranes returned, without human help, to Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin, proving to the world that the quirky migration method worked.

They will depart for Florida in mid October.

St. Petersburg agrees to sell Weeki Wachee land

ST. PETERSBURG -- St. Petersburg agreed Thursday to sell Weeki Wachee Spring to make it part of a state nature preserve, saying it is not a practical drinking water source.

Hernando County politicians and environmentalists were ecstatic, saying that state ownership of the 440 acres -- well known as home to a roadside mermaid tourist attraction -- will help preserve an important and rare "first-magnitude" spring.

The deal will provide St. Petersburg with $14.4-million that it can use for park, recreation, beautification and nature preservation efforts.

The city bought the land in 1940 with the idea of one day using the spring as a drinking water source. But that has since become close to impossible, with laws preventing water piped out of a county's jurisdiction.

Coming up this week

Gov. Jeb Bush will unveil his choices for the University of South Florida's Board of Trustees, part of the state's new governing system for higher education. The 13-member board will be calling the shots instead of the now-defunct state Board of Regents.

The fate of fireworks on the Fourth of July will be determined most likely by the weather next week. While some cities, such as Largo, already have banned fireworks, some such as Pasco County, are waiting to see whether rain can wash away their brushfire concerns.

Those big brown monotubes that the Florida Department of Transportation has put up at intersections in Pinellas Park, Largo and the Suncoast Parkway haven't won many fans, other than comedians who call them overhead sewer pipes. The DOT will hold a public meeting Monday to receive comment about enhancements to the monotube at Park Boulevard and 66th Street. It will address color choices, illuminated signs and the addition of a mural at the base of the structure. The meeting will be 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Pinellas Park City Auditorium, 7690 59th St. N.

- Compiled by Times staff writer Sharon Kennedy Wynne

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