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A Palm Harbor downtown group chooses to postpone streetscaping projects.
By RICHARD DANIELSON
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 26, 2001
PALM HARBOR -- Asked whether it preferred spending $340,000 on beautifying two downtown streets or a downtown activity building, the Palm Harbor Main Street Association Monday night made its choice.
Delay the streetscaping and do the activity building, a majority of board members recommended.
But under a new proposal outlined by Pinellas County officials, the old church activity building that exists now would not be the building that the Main Street organization gets in the future.
Instead, county officials propose to demolish the existing activity building and replace it with one that is roughly the same size and that would be easier to maintain.
The old activity building, once part of Palm Harbor United Methodist Church, was originally to be bulldozed to make room for parking. But hundreds of residents signed petitions asking that it be used for a community center.
The Main Street association wants to use the building as its headquarters and rent it out for wedding receptions and other fundraising events.
County director of general services Carl Barron said he recently spent a day walking and crawling through the old activity building. He is convinced that renovating it would be tricky.
Barron said the building's windows, doors, air conditioning, electrical systems, plumbing fixtures and roof would have to be replaced. He also noted that the building's stucco was cracked and separating in places and would require patching around the new windows and doors, as well as where it connects to the old White Chapel, which is being preserved.
"You're going to end up with an old block building that has a stucco finish that looks like it's been patched, and you're not going to like what you see," Barron told the Main Street board.
As an alternative, Barron said the county could demolish the old activity building and replace it. The new building would be about the same size, about 3,000 square feet. That would provide the Main Street organization with a home, he said.
Barron said the idea would work with the money available only if the county itself acted as the contractor for the project. That way, county employees would build the structure, and the county would save about 40 percent of the project's costs, Barron said. The Main Street board would have a voice in helping design the building, he said.
County Commissioner Susan Latvala said she was thrilled with Barron's proposal.
"This is a much better deal," she said. "The more we talked about that ugly old building, the more concerned I became."
County officials still plan to hold a public meeting sometime in July to gauge community reaction to the proposal. The issue is expected to go back to the County Commission for consideration in August.
On Monday, the Main Street board had to recommend how to spend limited funds.
The entire streetscaping project has a budget of $2.7-million, which was to be paid for by Penny for Pinellas sales tax revenues.
The project includes improvements to Florida and Georgia avenues and 11th Street, as well as a parking lot and new landscaping.
Because of cost overruns on past Penny for Pinellas projects, county officials have set more rigid project budgets for the future. Officials found that they couldn't preserve the activity building and complete proposed improvements to 12th Street and Omaha Circle between Nebraska and Georgia avenues. This month, they said either the building would have to go, or the streetscaping on those roads would have to be delayed.
Main Street board member Brenda Brown said she was disappointed when she learned of the tough choice, but "it comes down to prioritizing. "I think the whole future of Main Street is dependent on us having a home and us having a place to raise funds," said Brown, who owns the Iris and Ivy Flower Shop on Florida Avenue.
But board member Winona Jones voted against delaying the road projects. She said the community had backed the streetscaping proposal several times and argued that the Main Street board should not start trading away pieces of the plan.
"This is a matter of principle with me," she said.