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A ceremony today salutes efforts of Anthony Borrell Jr. and his late father, who worked for years to clean up the area.
By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 17, 2001
TAMPA -- For years, Anthony Borrell Sr. would chase prostitutes away from his business along a seedy stretch of Nebraska Avenue by turning on the sprinklers.
It annoyed him to see this part of the Ybor Heights neighborhood overrun by vagrants, who took over the city park just blocks from his business.
Today, two years after his death, the city will rename the neighborhood park after Borrell, whose son played a major role renovating the long-neglected property as a tribute to his father.
Anthony Borrell Jr., chief executive officer of Borrell Electric, the company his father founded more than 50 years ago, will be on hand during a dedication ceremony at 10 a.m. today.
His company pumped thousands of dollars into the renovation of the park, providing bright lights and creating an endowment to maintain its upkeep.
"Being in the electrical business, one way to clear up a lot of these areas is by lighting them up," Borrell said Tuesday. "We just had to do something. (My father) would have enjoyed the park being turned over to the people."
The park, which opened at Nebraska and 26th avenues in 1970, never really took off. Parks director Ross Ferlita said the area was filled with too many "undesirables," and construction of Interstate 275 sliced the neighborhood in half, cutting off easy access to the playground.
So the parks department closed the restrooms, a once-beautiful fountain dried up and the grass died.
Borrell Jr. would drive past the graffiti-laden eyesore, called Nebraska Avenue Park, on his way to work.
"This park was atrocious," he said.
So Borrell Jr., whose family had been working for years to clean up the area, talked to Mayor Dick Greco about making some changes. The company put in new wiring, installed light fixtures and created a $50,000 endowment to maintain it.
The city put in new landscaping, laid sidewalks where the fountain was, erected signs, installed an irrigation system and put in new playground equipment.
The city has never had a family adopt a park, Ferlita said.
The Borrell family has "tried to improve their surrounding area," Ferlita said. "They really have gone out of their way."
Borrell said he wants to inspire other business owners in the neighborhood to follow suit and help clean up their property, too.
"Hopefully everybody will catch on and keep going," he said. "Maybe Nebraska Avenue will look presentable."