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Waterfront park will welcome travelers
By AMY WIMMER MADEIRA BEACH -- A new park at the city's entrance will include a 60-foot fishing pier, a wide waterfront walkway and an expansive green space. Causeway Park, a rare one-acre parcel of undeveloped waterfront land in Madeira Beach, will greet travelers entering the city on the Tom Stuart Causeway. The park will include a lighted walkway along Boca Ciega Bay, a small playground and a covered pier with benches that will act as an observation deck. One thing the new park will lack is parking. In a conceptual plan unveiled Tuesday, the city is providing just six parking /paces, including one reserved for the handicapped. "I think there's going to be a lot of foot traffic there -- more than cars," Commissioner Jan Sturgis said. The park is intended to double as a grandiose welcome sign to Madeira Beach. The city purchased the land for $1.9-million using a grant from Preservation 2000. Development of the park will be financed with $400,000 the city received in a settlement after an oil spill disrupted the tourist season in 1993. The idea is similar to one currently envisioned in St. Pete Beach, which also owns the property on the north side of 75th Avenue as travelers enter on the Corey Causeway. City Hall currently occupies that site, but employees are being relocated across the street, making way for a waterfront city park. Mike Bonfield, the city manager in Madeira Beach, was hired last week as city manager in St. Pete Beach and will play a major role in helping St. Pete Beach develop that city's revamped entrance. Work on the Madeira Beach park could begin in three months. Bonfield said several contractors could be involved in the project, including separate companies to handle the seawall, the sidewalks and parking, the landscaping and the construction of the fishing pier, observation deck and other structures. Mayor Tom DeCesare advocated hiring a landscape architect to select the plants and their placement. "If you're putting all this money into a park, you should have a person who's a professional," DeCesare said. Among the first priorities will be replacement of the seawall, a project that will consume $150,000 of the $400,000 park development budget. "It's terrible out there," said Jeff Siewert, a senior project manager with Jones Edmunds & Associates, the city's engineering firm. "It's failing. It's old and dangerous."
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
