Land buy is step in plan to fix creek problems

Safety Harbor will purchase property from the Florida Sheriff's Youth Ranch for a reservoir to help control Bishop Creek's flow.

By LEON M. TUCKER

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 3, 2001

SAFETY HARBOR -- Leslie Grace clapped quietly and mouthed the words "thank you" when commissioners on Monday took the next step in fixing problems on the banks of Bishop Creek.

For the past year and a half, the Harbor Woods resident has been vocal about her concerns living along the creek that winds through the city and has pointed out that her swimming pool is a few feet from sliding into the creek bottom.

In an effort to calm the fears of residents such as Grace, city leaders agreed to buy a chunk of property from the Florida Sheriff's Youth Ranch for $350,000 and turn it into a water retention area.

"Given the fact that we have creek problems on our property, it was a no-lose situation. We have to fix that creek," said Leonard Klaskow, area program manager for the central office of the Florida Sheriff's Youth Ranch.

An engineering firm hired by the city last year said that Bishop Creek's problems come primarily from heavy rains that fill the creek and saturate the side slopes, causing the banks to slump into the creek from the bottom up.

The problem affects dozens of homes that sit on or near the creek banks.

To help remedy the problem, Commissioner Keith Zayac, who works as a civil engineer in Tampa, suggested that a reservoir be built to help slow down the creek's flow.

The city-hired firm agreed and recommended the city purchase 5 acres of youth ranch property and develop it into a water retention area.

Newly elected Commissioner Robin Borland is president of the Harbor Woods Neighborhood Association and lives along one of the areas most affected by erosion.

"It was a wonderful idea that has helped get this thing running and will solve a big percentage of the problems along the creek," she said. "I'm ecstatic that we were able to purchase that property."

In other commission activity, the city will purchase a half-acre that will provide access to an otherwise landlocked piece of property planned for city soccer fields.

The chunk of land just north of downtown was purchased for $12,500.

In 1999 the city bought the 10-acre soccer field site north of Cedar Street near the Huntington subdivisions for $330,000, but construction plans were stalled when city officials ran into problems providing access to the land.

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