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The community and other beach towns believe the transit authority is not listening to their needs.
By AMY WIMMER
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 17, 2001
MADEIRA BEACH -- Frustrated by what they see as the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority's refusal to cooperate with city residents and officials, Madeira Beach commissioners are looking for a way out of the county bus service.
PSTA Director Roger Sweeney said he knows of no legal way for Madeira Beach residents to wiggle out of paying for their membership, which costs residents of participating municipalities $65 annually for every $100,000 of property they own.
City Manager Mike Bonfield said Madeira Beach is investigating anyway.
"The first thing you have to do is figure out what your options are, and then you go from there," Bonfield said.
Sweeney said PSTA's difficulty in dealing with the cities comes from discontented residents who complain about bus stops in their neighborhoods. The beach trolley is popular, but residents don't want to accommodate the PSTA buses that connect with the trolleys from the mainland.
"We let (the cities) know that when you move the route, you're only moving the issue," Sweeney said. "It gets too confusing to the riding public if you keep moving the bus routes just because one or two residents don't want the buses in their neighborhood."
Madeira Beach is not the only community expressing concern over PSTA's handling of trouble spots in its busing system. Gulfport City Council members also have questioned whether they should try to get their residents out of PSTA, and while city commissioners in Indian Rocks Beach have not threatened to leave the system altogether, they do admit frustrations.
"PSTA definitely has some accountability issues," said Tom Brobeil, city manager in Indian Rocks Beach.
The cities' problems with PSTA have been exacerbated by the inclusion of Treasure Island and St. Pete Beach in the authority's popular beach trolley system. Both cities opted out of a voter referendum in the mid 1980s that made most Pinellas municipalities part of PSTA, but the bus authority obtained $750,000 worth of grants last year to expand the trolley into the two southern beach cities.
When the program began, St. Pete Beach was expected to pay about $160,000 annually for the service. Treasure Island expected to pay about $80,000.
Meanwhile, residents of Madeira Beach and Indian Rocks Beach, which are both about half the size of St. Pete Beach, pay more than $300,000 annually. In addition to the trolley service, PSTA also maintains a bus that travels to the mainland from both member cities.
"Now, for a fraction of what other beaches are paying for bus service, these cities are able to have PSTA come through with their trolley," said Bob Lee, city manager in Gulfport.
Lee's frustrations with PSTA stem from his inability to convince the agency to bring its successful beach trolley through his city. Residents of Gulfport pay about $283,000 annually to PSTA.
The trolley travels Pasadena Avenue to Central Avenue in its return to Williams Park in St. Petersburg, and Lee has been unsuccessful in attempts to convince the agency to travel through Gulfport on its way to St. Petersburg.
The grant money for the beach trolley will run out in two years, Sweeney said, and PSTA is investigating ways to keep Treasure Island and St. Pete Beach in the system afterward. The two cities could be asked to have their own voter referendums to opt into the PSTA system.
Outside of Treasure Island and St. Pete Beach, city officials' complaints about PSTA are widespread, ranging from insensitivity over resident concerns about buses in neighborhoods to a refusal to compromise when municipalities need buses to stop in a different location.
In Madeira Beach, the city worked for months to convince PSTA to stop its beach trolley within John's Pass Village. The trolley now goes into the village on its northbound trip, but on the southbound trip it stops on Gulf Boulevard across the street from the village.
The city has given up asking the bus authority to pull into the village on its southbound trips, but has requested that the trolleys pull into the city park across the street from the village.
That way, passengers will be delivered closer to the pedestrian walkway underneath John's Pass Bridge, a path that will get them into the village more safely than crossing five-lane Gulf Boulevard, which has no pedestrian traffic signal in the John's Pass Village area.
Bonfield said PSTA declined the request, partly because of time constraints on the route. He added that he believes the bus authority doesn't want to establish a precedent of pulling off Gulf Boulevard to make trolley stops.
"We went to them with legitimate concerns, and we were treated like we were being unreasonable with what we were asking," he said.
In a letter to county commissioners and PSTA board members, Bonfield wrote that Madeira Beach was looking for a way out of the bus system and he complained of Sweeney's "lack of professionalism."
"The overall experience of dealing with PSTA and Mr. Sweeney has left the city with the impression our voices are not a factor in their consideration," Bonfield wrote.
Sweeney argues that the beach cities' attempts to alleviate their residents' concerns only creates more problems.
"You end up with a political solution that doesn't make sense for our customers," Sweeney said.
In Indian Rocks Beach, the beach trolley and PSTA bus from the mainland were regularly pausing for 15 to 30 minutes in front of the Tacky Turtle on Gulf Boulevard.
The scheduled delay was forcing motorists to pass the buses in the center turn lane because Gulf Boulevard is three lanes wide there. Brobeil said he was frustrated that city officials had to devise a solution themselves rather than let PSTA respond to complaints about its agency.
"It shouldn't be necessary for a city public works director to figure out a solution to a transportation problem that's been brought to PSTA's attention," Brobeil said.