Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Trees and picnic areas will replace the vandalism that covers San Antonio's McMullen Park.
By CHASE SQUIRES
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 16, 2000
SAINT LEO -- Town commissioners on Monday offered a helping hand to neighboring San Antonio as that city prepares to begin renovation of the only public access to Lake Jovita.
San Antonio's McMullen Park is a strip of waterfront about 50 feet wide. It was donated to the city, and is owned by San Antonio, but is entirely inside the town limits of Saint Leo.
San Antonio Commissioner Sharon Madden has taken up the work begun by former Commissioner Lori Hillman, using state and county grants to repair damage done by years of vandalism and neglect. When it's complete, Madden envisions a tree-lined entry way, parking, picnic areas and rest rooms.
"It's a beautiful park. Even the way it is now," she told Saint Leo commissioners at a Monday Saint Leo Town Commission meeting. "I just love the serenity."
Saint Leo Commissioner Richard Christmas asked what his town could do to help.
Madden said her city is limited to how much it can get done with $70,000 in grants, and may have to delay some plantings and adding a second rest room because of financial limits. Saint Leo, she said, could get involved by helping secure additional grant money to pay for trees, parking and handicap access.
Madden said blueprints have been drawn for the job ahead, and San Antonio commissioners will soon be reviewing bids for the repaving and other heavy jobs. She said she expects work to begin this year.
When it's complete, the park will offer a playground, fishing pier, picnic areas and barbecue grills and boat access for small crafts such as kayaks and canoes.
In other business at Monday's meeting, the commissioners voted 3-1 in favor of sending a letter to Pasco County officials, offering support for the idea of a four-lane bypass around the town instead of widening State Road 52 through town.
The issue sparked a public forum in June where many county residents living outside the town opposed a bypass, but commissioners said they felt town residents would favor anything that would keep a four-lane highway from running through town.
The lone dissenting vote was cast by Christmas, who said a bypass would just bring more sprawl and that no four-lane road should be built without a plan that connects it to a network of similar roads, otherwise it would create a bottleneck further down the road.
Commissioners also agreed it was time for another mosquito spraying. For the first time, the town will have to plan on spraying in the new Lake Jovita Golf and Country Club as the first homes have been completed and people are about to start moving in.