The news that Tampa
firefighters were unable to open a privately owned hydrant at an apartment
complex had residents calling the Lealman Fire Department. The mostly elderly
women worried that the hydrants in their complexes also might be rusted shut.
Fire Chief Rick Graham
reassured them: "We do test every hydrant in our district every year,
including the private hydrants. I don't think we'd sit there for 15 minutes
pounding on a hydrant trying to keep it open."
Lealman's real problem, Graham
acknowledged, is too few hydrants in some areas. In a worst-case scenario,
Graham said a hydrant might be 2,000 feet from a house.
"There's a hydrant
situation here that needs to be addressed, needs to be taken care of, but
Lealman is not burning down," he said.
Firefighters are aware of the
areas where there are few hydrants and take precautions for handling the
situation, Graham said. They carry more hoses and water than other departments.
They also will do things such as dropping the hose by the hydrant and stretching
it as they go into the situation rather than running back to the hydrant. They
also send more firefighters to battle any blazes.
"It's a big issue in the
Fire Department, obviously," Graham said. "But it's not the whole
district."
While firefighters try to be
prepared, it can be hard to convince insurers of that.
The lack of hydrants in some
areas can lower the area's ISO rating. ISO stands for Insurance Services Office
Inc., which provides statistics and other information to determine how much an
insurance policy should cost. The better the ISO rating, the lower the fire
insurance rates for homeowners.
"If you're missing
hydrants, it affects your ISO rating," Graham said. And that means
homeowners' costs are higher.
Ray Neri, president of the
Lealman Community Association, said the organization discovered the hydrant
shortage recently while members conducted a walking survey of Lealman
neighborhoods to prepare a revitalization plan for the area.
"We've got areas where
the fire hydrants are a couple of blocks away," Neri said.
Association members also found
that St. Petersburg provided the water service and water lines in much of the
affected area. St. Petersburg charges Lealman residents 25 percent more for
their water and part of that, Neri said, should go to improving infrastructure
and providing such things as fire hydrants.
St. Petersburg officials have
a different view.
The agreement to provide water
for Lealman applies only to drinking water, said Patti Anderson, St.
Petersburg's assistant public utilities director. The 25 percent surcharge comes
into effect because of the distance the water must go. It also helps to maintain
the system.
"I'm not aware of any
obligation to provide fire protection," Anderson said. "Outside of the
city limits, we have water pipes. We maintain those pipes."
Any monies collected from
Lealman are "not anywhere close to sufficient for upgrading the system for
fire protection," she said.
Even inside the city, the
amount residents pay for drinking water does not go to install fire hydrants. If
the St. Petersburg fire department wants a new hydrant, it pays the water
department. That cost comes out of citizens' property taxes.
Since none of the county's
property taxes from Lealman come to St. Petersburg, the city will not provide
hydrants, she said. The county and city have been arguing the issue, she said,
but the discussion keeps running into a stalemate.
While St. Petersburg has taken
a hard line, Anderson said that when the city installs new pipes, they'll be the
size that is best for attaching to hydrants.
"We're not going to put
in fire hydrants, but we'll put in pipes," she said. "It's not a total
solution for sure, but we feel like we're making a good-faith effort because we
are concerned."
Some of those changes for
Lealman are in St. Petersburg's 10-year plan, but Anderson said she had no
information on when any pipe replacement might begin.
Press arrow to return to top of page
If approved
by voters in August, the referendum would be the latest to expand Seminole's
boundaries.
By MAUREEN BYRNE
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 20, 2001
If approved by voters in August, the
referendum would be the latest to expand Seminole's boundaries.
SEMINOLE -- The boundaries of the city may change
again.
The city has scheduled an annexation referendum Aug. 7
for voters in Seminole Grove Estates, a subdivision of 222 homes just west of
113th Street between 86th and 102nd avenues.
The neighborhood, which includes the Seminole Youth
Athletic Association complex on 90th Avenue, petitioned the city to set up the
vote. Only people who live within the boundaries of the area may vote.
The proposed annexation is the latest in a string of
annexations over the past year.
City officials hope more are on the way. They want to
triple Seminole's size to 12.5 square miles, meaning it could become home for as
many as 60,000 residents.
Today, Seminole's approximately 16,000 residents live
within a 4-square-mile city.
If voters approve the upcoming referendum, Seminole
would grow by 81 acres.
The annexation also would bring 476 registered voters
and about 550 residents into the city.
The annexation would take effect Aug. 17. If the
referendum fails, state law prohibits another annexation vote for at least two
years.
"Obviously, we're excited that there are so many
people requesting information regarding annexation," said Mitch Bobowski,
Seminole's general services director. "As each one of these referendums is
successful, we get flooded with calls from other neighborhoods.
"We're ecstatic that people really want to be a
part of the city," he said.
A year ago, residents of three unincorporated areas
overwhelmingly voted to join Seminole, greatly increasing the city's tax base
and adding thousands to its population.
In January, residents of the Townhomes of Lake Seminole
and the Sandy Woods subdivision voted to join the city.
The annexation was the second largest in Seminole's
history and boosted the city's population by about 1,500 residents.
And last week, voters in the Orangewood and Seminole
Forest neighborhoods approved annexation referendums. The two areas brought 53
acres, 183 homes, 352 registered voters and about 474 residents into Seminole.
An efficient and accessible government, nice parks and
facilities -- especially the city's new recreation complex -- and fiscally
conservative leaders attracted Dave Hughes to Seminole.
He and two of his neighbors passed out literature on
the August referendum throughout Seminole Grove Estates.
"I'm confident they do a good job," Hughes,
54, said of city officials.
- Times staff writer
Maureen Byrne can be reached at 445-4163.
Press arrow to return to top of page
He admits
there are too few and that's being addressed, but each hydrant is tested
annually and none are rusted shut.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 20, 2001
He admits there are too few and
that's being addressed, but each hydrant is tested annually and none are rusted
shut.
LEALMAN -- The news that Tampa firefighters were unable
to open a privately owned hydrant at an apartment complex had residents calling
the Lealman Fire Department. The mostly elderly women worried that the hydrants
in their complexes also might be rusted shut.
Fire Chief Rick Graham reassured them: "We do test
every hydrant in our district every year, including the private hydrants. I
don't think we'd sit there for 15 minutes pounding on a hydrant trying to keep
it open."
Lealman's real problem, Graham acknowledged, is too few
hydrants in some areas. In a worst-case scenario, Graham said a hydrant might be
2,000 feet from a house.
"There's a hydrant situation here that needs to be
addressed, needs to be taken care of, but Lealman is not burning down," he
said.
Firefighters are aware of the areas where there are few
hydrants and take precautions for handling the situation, Graham said. They
carry more hoses and water than other departments. They also will do things such
as dropping the hose by the hydrant and stretching it as they go into the
situation rather than running back to the hydrant. They also send more
firefighters to battle any blazes.
"It's a big issue in the Fire Department,
obviously," Graham said. "But it's not the whole district."
While firefighters try to be prepared, it can be hard
to convince insurers of that.
The lack of hydrants in some areas can lower the area's
ISO rating. ISO stands for Insurance Services Office Inc., which provides
statistics and other information to determine how much an insurance policy
should cost. The better the ISO rating, the lower the fire insurance rates for
homeowners.
"If you're missing hydrants, it affects your ISO
rating," Graham said. And that means homeowners' costs are higher.
Ray Neri, president of the Lealman Community
Association, said the organization discovered the hydrant shortage recently
while members conducted a walking survey of Lealman neighborhoods to prepare a
revitalization plan for the area.
"We've got areas where the fire hydrants are a
couple of blocks away," Neri said.
Association members also found that St. Petersburg
provided the water service and water lines in much of the affected area. St.
Petersburg charges Lealman residents 25 percent more for their water and part of
that, Neri said, should go to improving infrastructure and providing such things
as fire hydrants.
St. Petersburg officials have a different view.
The agreement to provide water for Lealman applies only
to drinking water, said Patti Anderson, St. Petersburg's assistant public
utilities director. The 25 percent surcharge comes into effect because of the
distance the water must go. It also helps to maintain the system.
"I'm not aware of any obligation to provide fire
protection," Anderson said. "Outside of the city limits, we have water
pipes. We maintain those pipes."
Any monies collected from Lealman are "not
anywhere close to sufficient for upgrading the system for fire protection,"
she said.
Even inside the city, the amount residents pay for
drinking water does not go to install fire hydrants. If the St. Petersburg fire
department wants a new hydrant, it pays the water department. That cost comes
out of citizens' property taxes.
Since none of the county's property taxes from Lealman
come to St. Petersburg, the city will not provide hydrants, she said. The county
and city have been arguing the issue, she said, but the discussion keeps running
into a stalemate.
While St. Petersburg has taken a hard line, Anderson
said that when the city installs new pipes, they'll be the size that is best for
attaching to hydrants.
"We're not going to put in fire hydrants, but
we'll put in pipes," she said. "It's not a total solution for sure,
but we feel like we're making a good-faith effort because we are
concerned."
Some of those changes for Lealman are in St.
Petersburg's 10-year plan, but Anderson said she had no information on when any
pipe replacement might begin.
"I'm not aware of any obligation to provide fire
protection," Anderson said. "Outside of the city limits, we have water
pipes. We maintain those pipes."
Any monies collected from Lealman are "not
anywhere close to sufficient for upgrading the system for fire protection,"
she said.
Even inside the city, the amount residents pay for
drinking water does not go to install fire hydrants. If the St. Petersburg fire
department wants a new hydrant, it pays the water department. That cost comes
out of citizens' property taxes.
Since none of the county's property taxes from Lealman
come to St. Petersburg, the city will not provide hydrants, she said. The county
and city have been arguing the issue, she said, but the discussion keeps running
into a stalemate.
While St. Petersburg has taken a hard line, Anderson
said that when the city installs new pipes, they'll be the size that is best for
attaching to hydrants.
"We're not going to put in fire hydrants, but
we'll put in pipes," she said. "It's not a total solution for sure,
but we feel like we're making a good-faith effort because we are
concerned."
Some of those changes for Lealman are in St.
Petersburg's 10-year plan, but Anderson said she had no information on when any
pipe replacement might begin.
Press arrow to return to top of page
On Monday,
county commissioners will see on paper an incorporated effort to improve an
unincorporated area suffering from neglect.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 24, 2001
LEALMAN -- Since late last year, a group of residents
has been dreaming about the unincorporated area's future.
This week, they bring that vision to the Pinellas
County Commission with the hope that the members will like their proposed plan
enough to pay for it.
"We know that the commissioners want to do this
for us. They've all voiced that individually," said Ray Neri, head of the
Lealman Community Association. "We're looking forward to future projects
with the county to get this area (improved)."
Momentum for revitalizing Lealman began gaining ground
last November during a community meeting with county representatives. Neighbors
complained about too few fire hydrants and street lights and high crime rates.
The county sent members of its planning department to
work with residents to create a plan to improve Lealman.
This portion of unincorporated Pinellas County is
located roughly between Pinellas Park and St. Petersburg. Its eastern boundary
begins around Interstate 275 and extends west as far as Park Street. Kenneth
City splits the larger Lealman area into east Lealman and west Lealman.
Revitalization efforts will focus on the eastern side,
particularly the area bounded on the north by 62nd Avenue N and on the south by
40th Avenue N. The eastern boundary is 49th Street N. The western edge is split
between 55th and 58th streets N.
That's the neediest area, said Frank Bowman of the
Pinellas County Community Development Department.
To better inform their judgments, residents walked the
area talking to people and taking notes on what they saw. They also visited
other cities and communities to take pictures of things they would want to
emulate in Lealman.
The proposal is still in draft form.
"It's basically a framework on which we'll do
things," Bowman said.
The point of Monday's meeting is to give commissioners
a chance to see the proposal and talk among themselves about the plan. The next
step will be to finalize the proposal, which is scheduled to come before the
commission for approval on July 17, Bowman said.
Then comes the real work of setting priorities and
developing programs. Those programs likely will be in the county's 2002 budget,
Bowman said.
Among the plan's goals:
Develop and publish a historical pamphlet for use in
the schools and to distribute at restaurants and businesses
Identify and mark all homes and other structures
erected before 1920.
Work with the Post Office to change the community's
mailing address to "Lealman" -- rather than using the nearest city --
while retaining the same ZIP code.
Help property owners find low-cost loans or grants to
improve the appearance of homes and rental property.
Focus code enforcement on substandard rental property
to force investor owners to maintain it.
Encourage owners to improve properties by educating
them, helping those who need it and rewarding those who keep their homes in good
condition.
Promote youth activities, parks and recreation in the
area. Hold festivals and other events that celebrate Lealman and its residents.
Find ways to use the land along Joe's Creek and the
former Frontier Recycling property for trails, paths and green space.
When the new fire station is built, think about using
the existing building as offices for social service providers. Those providers
should include such programs as Social Security, Neighborly Senior Services, the
Lealman Family Center and a medical clinic.
Work with the county to have the Mobile Dental and
Health units make regular calls in the Lealman area.
Work on getting sidewalks.
Ask the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office to put a
substation in Lealman.
Strengthen the local Crime Watch program.
Work with the county and the city of St. Petersburg to
get more fire hydrants where they're needed.
Continue collecting signatures on petitions for street
lights.
If you go
Pinellas County commissioners are scheduled this week
to consider two issues facing Lealman. They'll get their first look at a draft
of the Lealman revitalization plan during a workshop at 9:30 a.m. Monday. The
next day, at a 9:45 a.m. meeting, they'll consider a petition to install street
lights in one section of Lealman. Both meetings will be held in the commission
chambers at the courthouse, 315 Court St., Clearwater.
What are the ties that bind? What is the
sense of community in south Pinellas? Along the barrier island cities, is there
a beach lifestyle — and how do residents of each town along Gulf Boulevard see
themselves as the same as, and different from, each other? Why do people who
live near Seminole — but not within its boundaries — consider themselves as
residents of Seminole? Why are residents of Kenneth City and Lealman looking to
common concerns? And within the 100 neighborhoods of St. Petersburg, how do —
or don't — residents of the city see themselves as neighbors? You are invited
to read about all these areas that make up southern Pinellas County's
neighborhoods. Please click below or on the icons above to begin the
exploration.
Press arrow to return to top of page
Activists
in the unincorporated area suggest a radical survival mechanism: Merge with tiny
Kenneth City.
By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 1, 2001
Activists in the unincorporated area
suggest a radical survival mechanism: Merge with tiny Kenneth City.
It's easy to get a rise out of Lealman residents. Just
mention annexation.
The word raises the specter of rapacious cities --
Pinellas Park, Seminole and St. Petersburg -- gobbling piranha-like at the edges
of this unincorporated area. The threat of being consumed piecemeal strikes at
the Lealman psyche, with its fierce dislike of government intrusion on an
independent way of life.
"We are being nibbled to death by ducks,"
Lealman Community Association president Ray Neri said. "They're going down
the corridors and taking the commercial properties."
The prospect of losing community identity and
self-determination has some Lealman residents suggesting a radical solution:
Merge as a whole rather than wait to be picked off a bite at a time. And merge
with a community that's not so big that Lealman would lose its identity in the
larger mix.
On Wednesday, Neri and others from the Community
Association appeared before the Kenneth City Council to suggest that the town
annex the Lealman Fire District.
The benefits to both sides are obvious, Neri said.
Such a merger would create a city about the size of
neighboring Pinellas Park. The enlarged Kenneth City would be eligible for more
money from state and federal sources. Lealman has green space that Kenneth City
lacks. The town would have access to Lealman's larger and improving tax base.
If Kenneth City does not grow, Neri said, there will be
no choice but to raise taxes to support the necessary services and "you
will tax yourselves out of business." A merger, he said, will stabilize
taxes well into the future.
"We don't want a situation where we start to tax
our elderly residents out of their homes; nor do you," Neri said.
"This is a win-win thing for both Kenneth City and
us. I don't see how this doesn't make sense for everybody. ... This is going to
be an exciting adventure. We can change the face of Pinellas County."
"I think it's an exciting idea," Kenneth City
council member Teresa Zemaitis said. "I think it could fly. I'd like to
hear more from some of the professionals involved. ... The concept is a strong
one."
Council member Al Carrier was similarly enthusiastic,
saying, "I'd like to see it happen. ... It's a fact of life, if this town
doesn't grow, it's going to die."
County officials are working on estimating the costs of
such a merger. Kenneth City and Lealman representatives are scheduling a
workshop where they can begin exploring the possibility in depth.
Neri and other Lealman activists also are scheduling
talks with groups in that unincorporated community to float the idea among
residents.
"I don't even know what resistance we're going to
meet in our own confines," Neri said. "I don't think this is a
cakewalk by any stretch of the imagination."
Overture sets off alarms
The idea of merging Kenneth City and Lealman has been
suggested in the past, but it never went anywhere. That changed recently as
Seminole annexed a chunk of Lealman's western border and took away tax dollars
that supported the area's fire service. At the same time, Pinellas Park nibbles
at the area's northern border, taking one property at a time. Just last month,
St. Petersburg began feeling out county officials about a possible annexation of
the Joe's Creek Industrial Park area east of 34th Street N and south of 54th
Avenue.
"That, of course, set off alarms," Neri said.
If taxes from that area were taken away, it would spell the end of the fire
district because an unbearable tax burden would be left on the remaining
residents, he said.
Such a threat to the area's eastern border comes at a
time when Lealman residents were beginning to organize and make themselves heard
at the county level in an effort to improve their neighborhoods.
A county-financed revitalization program is expected to
improve neighborhood appearances and develop recreation areas, among other
things. But then Lealman will be an even juicier plum for plucking, Neri said.
"That's kind of like dressing the table for a whole bunch of hungry people
and we're not the eaters. We're the meal."
Neri and other community leaders have met with state
and local officials, searching for ways to stop annexation, even temporarily.
That effort has failed. Time and again, they've been told the ultimate
protection against being annexed into a city is to belong to a city.
Therein lies the Lealman irony: The people don't want a
local government, yet to retain their identity as a community, their only
defense may be to accept one.
Why Kenneth City?
For a merger, community leaders' eyes have not turned
to Pinellas Park, Seminole or St. Petersburg.
Pinellas Park, Neri said, is seen as so
annexation-happy that it's willing to do almost anything to get people to join
the city. Neri referred to tax and fee breaks that Pinellas Park dangles as
bait, especially to businesses.
Instead, Neri and other Lealman activists have turned
to tiny Kenneth City.
"We're both going down the tubes if we don't do
anything," Neri said.
Kenneth City already contracts with Lealman for fire
service, a cost that could increase as tax-rich businesses are annexed into
other cities. That gives Kenneth City a vested interest in merging with Lealman
to protect itself, Neri said.
"Seminole and Pinellas Park are eroding our tax
base, which will raise our taxes and therefore raise the price (of fire service)
to Kenneth City," Neri said at a meeting last month of officials and
residents who were interested in talking about a merger.
Such a union would have a big impact on Kenneth City.
The town has about 4,500 people. But if the entire Lealman Fire District voted
for a merger, a city of about 40,000 would be created -- about the size of
neighboring Pinellas Park.
The newcomers would outnumber existing Kenneth City
residents 8-1 -- which might threaten the town's identity.
"That's the part I don't have any idea
about," said Bill Smith, the Kenneth City mayor. "I just really don't
know what the people might think about it."
"If we don't do this, we will vanish. There's no
question about it," Neri said. "This may happen. This may not happen.
All we know is if we sit still with our heads in the dirt, we're going to get
our butts kicked."
Kenneth City
·
Has 4,400 residents 18 and older, 62
fewer than in the 1990 census. It's the only area in upper south Pinellas County
to show a population decline.
·
Begun in 1956 by real estate
developer Sidney Colen, who named it after his son, Kenneth. The town was
incorporated in 1957.
·
Area is about 1 square mile.
Lealman Fire District
·
Has about 35,995 residents 18 and
older.
·
Area is about 11 square miles.
·
Has two fire stations and the busiest
firefighters in the county. Last year, the two stations answered 8,805 calls,
more than 12 calls a day per station.
·
Is one of the earliest communities to
appear on a Pinellas County map.
·
The name Lealman is believed to have
originated between 1879-1885 when Elias B. Lealman bought 95 acres along what is
now 54th Avenue N. Lealman became prominent as the main stop of the Orange Belt
Railroad in the late 1800s.
·
Local folklore and at least one
historian say Lealman actually was issued a city charter sometime in the late
1800s or early 1900s. But it's unclear if anyone ever acted on that charter and
today it's considered to be part of unincorporated Pinellas County.
Press arrow to return to top of page
The
benefits for the unincorporated area and tiny Kenneth City are clear, Lealman
civic leaders say.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 11, 2001
LEALMAN -- With annexations by surrounding cities
nibbling at the edges of this unincorporated area, civic leaders have suggested
a radical solution to maintaining their community identity: Merge with Kenneth
City.
That will be the main topic on tonight's agenda at the
Lealman Community Association meeting.
"We want to hear the opinions of people that are
diametrically opposed to annexation," said Ray Neri, president of the
association. "We want to know what their concerns are. We want to
understand their concerns. The more varied concerns we get, the better off we'll
be."
Neri said everyone is welcome at the meeting, even
non-Lealman residents.
Neri and other association leaders have been the movers
and shakers behind the merger idea. They even appeared in front of the Kenneth
City Town Council last month to ask if that body might be interested in annexing
the entire Lealman fire district.
Kenneth City council members were cautiously receptive
to the idea, saying they wanted to explore the idea.
"It's a thing that's interesting that we need to
explore and find out what it would do for each one of us," Kenneth City
Mayor Bill Smith said. "I'm just waiting to get some figures put
together." That's part of what Neri and other association members are doing
now. They spent Friday night brainstorming some of the pluses and minuses of
such a move. "We're going into battle, folks," Community Association
member Ron Campbell told the others before they began. "We need to prepare.
We need to figure out how to sell this to the opposition."
For the people at that meeting, the benefits to both
Lealman and Kenneth City are numerous and obvious. Among them:
For Lealman, stable borders and self-determination.
For Kenneth City, access to more recreation areas,
green space, and family and human services.
For both, a way to reduce escalating costs and provide
access to revenue sharing.
One of the main benefits to Kenneth City comes under a
general heading called "economy of scale," Neri said.
The town is so small -- about 4,500 people -- that
staffing such services such as the Police Department ends up costing more per
capita than it might in a larger community. That's because there have to be so
many people to cover each shift even though the officers are covering only 1
square mile. Yet those same officers could cover a much larger area without
charging more, Neri said.
Neri also said that such a merger, whereby Kenneth City
would effectively annex the entire Lealman fire district, would prevent the town
from becoming surrounded by larger communities on all sides and being eventually
squeezed out of existence.
Smith, the Kenneth City mayor, said he does not see
that as a persuasive argument. No one can come and take us, he said.
"We're here and we've got our borders and we'll
stay here," Smith said. "If this thing don't come to pass, we'll still
be here. . . . It's not like we're up against a rock and a hard place."
But Smith voiced some of the concerns that Neri's group
touched on last Friday.
If Kenneth City took over the Lealman fire district, it
would be the same as a guppy trying to swallow a whale. Lealman, with about
35,000 people, outnumbers Kenneth City by about 8-1. That means Lealman could
simply take over once it was annexed.
Smith said he would want guarantees up front that
Kenneth City would always have representation on the council.
That's fine with Neri and his group.
Neri said he thinks the council should be expanded to
seven members with each running from a district. Kenneth City could have its own
district to ensure that it would always have an active voice in the new city
government.
*
* *
In other Lealman news, the Lealman Fire Commission
agreed to explore the possibility of asking the state Legislature to force the
Pinellas Planning Commission to allow a Fire Commission member to join it. The
PPC is an advisory board that oversees such items as annexation. It is made up
of representatives from municipalities, the County Commission and the School
Board.
The Fire Commission also gave tentative approval to a
budget that would reduce the millage for fire service in the Lealman area for
the 2001-2002 fiscal year. Under the proposal, the tax rate would be reduced by
about 3 percent, from 5.5 mills to 5.3 mills. A mill is $1 of tax for every
$1,000 of assessed property value.
If you go
The Lealman Community Association will meet at 7
tonight at Lealman Fire Station 18, 4017 56th Ave. N. Among the topics will be
the possible merger of Lealman with Kenneth City. The meeting is open to
residents of the unincorporated Lealman community and Kenneth City. For
information, call Ray Neri, president of the Community Association, at 527-5352.
Press arrow to return to top of page
Kenneth
City holds a workshop Wednesday to hear about merging with the larger, loosely
defined Lealman area.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 22, 2001
Kenneth City holds a workshop
Wednesday to hear about merging with the larger, loosely defined Lealman area.
KENNETH CITY -- Ever since several Lealman leaders
asked the Town Council to consider merging the two entities, Kenneth City
residents have burst forth with questions and worries.
They're concerned about allegations that Kenneth City
faces a dim future if it fails to expands its borders, Mayor Bill Smith said.
"There's no reason for Kenneth City to
collapse," Smith said Thursday. "You can keep saying we're dead if we
don't do this, but you don't know what you're talking about."
On the other hand, if the two merge, other Kenneth City
residents worry that Lealman, with its larger population (about 35,000 to the
town's 4,500), will take over and Kenneth City would disappear.
"It's just not true," Smith said.
Smith wants to calm those fears until council members
have a chance to decide if the Lealman merger is something they want to do.
David Healey, director of the Pinellas Planning
Council, will speak to the Kenneth City council this Wednesday. The Planning
Council provides policy advice and recommendations to the County Commission on
land use issues, including annexation.
"He's going to come in and explain to the people
of Kenneth City what annexation involves," Smith said. "It's an
educational meeting. Let him explain to the people there's a lot of things we've
got to look at."
People had better listen well. Healey will not take
questions from the floor.
The issue of merging Kenneth City and the land bounded
by the Lealman Fire District arose late last month.
Ray Neri and other Lealman Community Association
leaders are tired of their unincorporated community being nibbled at by
annexations from all sides, Seminole, Pinellas Park and St. Petersburg. The
annexations are cutting into the area's tax base and striking at the heart of
Lealman residents who want to be independent.
If Lealman merged with Kenneth City, that would stop
the annexations. The resulting city would be large enough to attain government
grants that Kenneth City currently does not qualify for. Kenneth City also would
benefit, Lealman leaders said, because their community has green space and
recreational areas the town is lacking. Lealman also has plenty of space for
improvement, development and redevelopment.
Kenneth City seems cool to the idea. "We do sense
some hesitancy," Neri said.
So, while he and his board members plan to be at
Wednesday's workshop to hear what Healey has to say, they're looking for other
options. That could include trying to incorporate Lealman as a city. Neri said
he senses that could be popular with Lealman residents, at least on an emotional
level.
"It seems the majority of people would go for that
very easily, but it brings up a whole nest of worms we haven't even considered
at this point," Neri said.
Right now, he said, it seems the most economical and
best solution would be to create one large municipality through a merger with
Kenneth City.
Mayor Smith said he's maintaining a neutral stance. He
doesn't have enough information about costs, benefits or anything else to form
an opinion, he said.
"I just don't know anything," Smith said.
"It may be the best thing that ever happened to Kenneth City. It may be the
worst."
If you go
What: Workshop about the possible annexation of the
Lealman Fire District with Kenneth City
Who: David Healey, director of the Pinellas Planning
Council, will speak to the Kenneth City Town Council
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Community Hall, 4600 58th St. N.
For Information: Call 544-6655.
Note: The workshop is open to the public, but no
questions will be taken from the audience.
Press arrow to return to top of page
Commissioner
John Morroni wants to see whether apparent lower costs, such as for law
enforcement, encourage annexation.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 22, 2001
PINELLAS PARK -- Cities using sheriff's deputies often
boast of the financial savings when they pursue areas for annexation, County
Commissioner John Morroni agreed, and he wants to examine whether Sheriff's
Office policies ultimately can harm unincorporated residents.
At a town meeting last week, Morroni had just explained
that county taxes in both municipalities and unincorporated areas are likely to
increase in the coming year, with the unincorporated areas taking the hardest
hit.
The increase is due in part to annexations, Morroni
said. As cities annex more and more land, the property owners who are left
behind must foot more and more of the bill.
And the tax bills are high for a reason, Morroni said.
New voting machines. More deputies for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
But if the cities are annexing land, then that leaves
less area to patrol, Pinellas Park Mayor Bill Mischler said. So why does Sheriff
Everett Rice need to hire more officers?
Kay Daly of the county Economic Development Department
had an answer: Rice contracts with cities to supply police services. And, she
added, Rice charges those municipal clients less than his actual costs.
Rice, who was not at the meeting, said Thursday that
his budget is complex, with some monies used for countywide expenses, such as
the jail. Other monies are apportioned, he said.
Take patrol, for example. About 80 percent of the
sheriff's patrol budget is funded by tax revenue from the unincorporated areas
of Pinellas County, he said.
The other 20 percent of the patrol budget is funded by
tax money from the cities, Rice said. The sheriff comes into those areas if
needed and acts as an extra layer of coverage.
Thus, when he contracts with a city to provide its law
enforcement, Rice said he does not charge full price for his deputies. Instead,
he takes into account what that particular city is already paying for the
sheriff and deducts that amount from the cost for service.
"They're already paying for part of it. That's why
they get a discount on the price," Rice said. "That's only fair."
The unincorporated areas, he said, are not subsidizing
the cities.
The real savings to the cities come because they can
eliminate some costs, such as a police chief. Because the Sheriff's Office is
bigger, it can provide more things at a lower cost than can a much smaller
department.
"I had heard that once before, that he was
contracting with the cities for less, but I don't know if he's ever told that to
the County Commission in a presentation," Morroni said. "Now we're
finding out it's true."
Commissioners are scheduled to discuss the county
budget during a Monday workshop, and Morroni said he wanted to raise the issue
then.
He agreed that it would be worth investigating whether
the apparent lower costs some cities pay could actually encourage annexation.
For example, when Seminole was enticing the western
portion of the Lealman Fire District and other areas between that city and
Pinellas Park to annex into the city last year, it touted its cost-saving
services. One of those was its contract with the Pinellas County Sheriff's
Office, which already served the Lealman area.
In essence, one of the sales pitches for annexation was
that Seminole could provide the sheriff's services, which they were already
getting, for less.
Morroni agreed that would be a powerful enticement.
"Why wouldn't people want to go into the city for
that reason alone?" Morroni asked.
Unfortunately, he said, using that sales pitch means
one county service was being used ultimately to harm other unincorporated areas.
Lealman immediately lost tax revenue to their fire
district when the annexation went through, and now property taxes likely will
increase by about 2.3 percent in the unincorporated areas overall primarily
because of that annexation.
If the deal the sheriff is offering is being used to
encourage annexation, Morroni said, it needs to be looked at.
"The last thing I want to do as a County
Commissioner is encourage annexation," he said. "We need to get an
answer on it quick."
Press arrow to return to top of page
Annexing
such a large area would pose many challenges for the tiny town. Some will be
explored tonight.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 25, 2001
Annexing such a large area would pose
many challenges for the tiny town. Some will be explored tonight.
KENNETH CITY -- The idea seems pretty ambitious: Tiny
Kenneth City would annex the much bigger Lealman area.
Doing so would pump a town of about 4,500 people up to
a city of about 40,000. It would increase Kenneth City's area from about one
square mile to about 12 square miles. The need for city services would increase
dramatically.
Yet it was Lealman -- fearful of being nibbled into
oblivion by annexations involving other cities -- that put the proposal on the
table.
Tonight, Kenneth City's council members will have a
chance to hear what it would take to make such a proposal come to pass.
It's simpler than one would think.
Basically, the Kenneth City Town Council and voters
within the borders of the Lealman Fire District have to agree. If they do, it's
a done deal. (Kenneth City would not automatically take over the Fire District's
services in such an annexation.)
The difficult part will be deciding if it's a good
idea.
"It makes sense only if you improve the services
and the quality of lives of the people in these areas," said Frank Bowman,
a senior development specialist with the Pinellas County Community Development
Department. Bowman has spent much of the past year working in the unincorporated
area of Lealman east of Kenneth City developing a redevelopment plan for that
community.
It might make sense for both parties, Bowman said. Such
a merger would prevent Lealman from being gobbled up piecemeal by Pinellas Park,
Seminole and St. Petersburg annexing into the area.
It also might give Lealman more of a chance at
self-determination and self-governance, both of which have become more important
in that area as residents there have begun improving their neighborhoods and
looking to the future.
Such a move might also help Kenneth City "to stem
future decline," Bowman said. As it is, he said, Kenneth City is small and
built out. Soon, the town's infrastructure, such as sewers, will begin to age
and need to be replaced, he said. That can be costly, especially if the tax base
is small. Enlarging the tax base might help spread that cost out.
It's those sort of issues that Kenneth City officials
need to look to when evaluating the proposal, said David Healey, director of the
Pinellas Planning Council.
"It will take statesmanship on the part of Kenneth
City," Healey said.
Part of that statesmanship will come after the facts
and figures are in. Healey said the Planning Council is willing to provide the
information necessary to help make the decision on whether to go for the
annexation.
It will be fairly easy, he said, to figure out how much
money the enlarged city would have coming in from taxes and franchise fees and
other revenues. The difficult part will be estimating what the expenditures
might be. A city that size probably will need to hire a city manager and maybe
some department heads, he said, so those salaries have to be factored in.
The question of other costs, such as an expanded City
Hall or improved parks, also will have to be included.
Other cities of similar size, such as Pinellas Park,
can be used as models, he said, but those cities have been around awhile and
have reached their status over years. One question that will have to be answered
is whether the enlarged Kenneth City would have to do many of these things
immediately or could put some things off for a while.
"It's not going to be exact," Healey said of
the cost estimates.
Healey said he had no idea when those estimates might
be available. Neither Kenneth City nor Lealman had made an official request for
the Planning Council's help, he said.
Once those figures are in, if it appears that it's in
the best interests of both Kenneth City and Lealman to proceed, it's a fairly
straightforward process.
The Kenneth City Town Council would have to give a
report to the Pinellas County Commission showing what members intended to do and
that they could provide services to the area. The report is just that, a report,
not a request for permission. Healy said the commission cannot stop Kenneth City
from annexing Lealman.
Then Kenneth City council members would have to pass an
ordinance to hold a referendum. To do that, council members would have to hold
two public hearings on the ordinance so residents and others could give their
views.
The referendum could be held in Lealman alone or in
both Kenneth City and Lealman.
If the referendum is held only in Lealman, and if the
people there turn it down, it would be two years before Kenneth City could try
again.
If the referendum is held in both Kenneth City and
Lealman, both sides would have to agree. If either side defeated the referendum,
it would fail. Again, it would be two years before Kenneth City could again try
to annex Lealman.
Healey said no other city could stop the process. But
other cities could campaign against the annexation or continue to annex in the
area until Kenneth City's annexation referendum is held.
If the annexation went through, Lealman could become
part of Kenneth City in as few as 10 days after the vote or wait as long as a
year before the final merger takes place.
Healey said that might be a good idea in this case
because it would give Kenneth City time to make the transition as easy as
possible.
If you go
What: Workshop about the possible annexation of the
Lealman Fire District by Kenneth City
Who: David Healey, director of the Pinellas Planning
Council, will speak to the Kenneth City Town Council
When: 7:30 tonight
Where: Community Hall, 4600 58th St. N.
For Information: Call 544-6655.
Press arrow to return to top of page
Commissioners
say they'll sue if they don't recoup money lost when cities annexed chunks of
the district.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 22, 2001
Commissioners say they'll sue if they
don't recoup money lost when cities annexed chunks of the district.
LEALMAN -- Fire commissioners, invoking a new state
law, moved Monday to recover tax revenues lost because of repeated annexations
into the fire district.
In addition to recouping money for Lealman,
commissioners hope to put the brakes on annexations by Pinellas Park, Seminole,
St. Petersburg and Kenneth City.
"I really think we need to pursue this,"
Lealman Fire Commission head Linda Campbell said. "I think we would be
remiss in our jobs if we don't."
The commissioners told their attorney, Andrew Salzman
of Clearwater, to sue if negotiations fail to regain the lost tax money.
It hardly will be clear sailing. The Lealman Fire
Commission appears to be the first to apply the statute, and Salzman concedes
that the law is open to interpretation and may be contradicted by other
statutes. A judge may have the final say, he said.
The statute addressing annexations within independent
special districts was passed by the state Legislature in June 2000 as an add-on
to a bill dealing with garbage.
When a city wants to annex land in a special district
such as Lealman, it's supposed to inform the district's governing body, Salzman
said. But that hasn't happened, he said.
The purpose of full disclosure is to allow the Fire
Commission and the city to discuss who will handle fire service for the annexed
property. If Lealman continues to provide fire service, then the taxes levied
for fire must be sent to Lealman.
If the city takes over fire service, the law says the
city must hand over to Lealman the millage it would have received from the
property for at least four years from the time of annexation, Salzman said. The
idea is to give Lealman time to adjust to the upcoming loss of revenue.
That hasn't happened either, said Salzman, who wants to
sit down with representatives of the cities that have annexed into Lealman to
see whether an agreement can be negotiated to have those cities send Lealman the
money the district believes it is owed.
It's unclear how much land or revenue could be
involved. Lealman has asked the Pinellas Planning Council to compile a list of
properties that have been annexed in the past year and their value.
That should take about a week, said the Planning
Council's Mark Ely. Ely said he's beginning at Nov. 7, 2000, and will end with
the current date.
That time period should include property that Pinellas
Park has annexed, and the news that Pinellas Park might be liable for taxes to
Lealman came as an unwelcome surprise.
"Just because they said it doesn't mean they have
an accurate legal opinion," Pinellas Park City Manager Jerry Mudd said.
Mudd declined further comment, saying he needed to
study the statute with his community development department and the city
attorney. He also declined to speculate on the effect the statute might have on
future annexations into Lealman.
Ely's list also may include two lots that Kenneth City
annexed. Like Mudd, Kenneth City Mayor Bill Smith chose a wait-and-see attitude.
But Smith said he sympathized with the Fire Commission's decisions.
"I can see where they'd probably want to do
something like that. Pinellas Park is sitting out there waiting to pounce on
them," Smith said. St. Petersburg also is interested in parts of Lealman,
he said.
"They'd get nibbled down until they're out of
business," he said.
Ely's list will not include two annexations that have
been sore points for both fire commissioners and area residents. One is an area
north of 54th Avenue N and east of Interstate 275 where a Cracker Barrel
Restaurant is about to be built.
The other is at the opposite end of Lealman, along Park
Street where Seminole annexed Otter Key, Target, Don Pablo and other businesses
last summer, taking a chunk of the district's tax base. The worth of that
property is estimated at $36.1-million, with an estimated annual tax revenue of
$198,818.
Lealman still handles fire service there because
Seminole has no fire stations close by, yet Seminole gets the tax money.
While Fire Commissioners may think that the new statute
is a way to recoup that money, Planning Council representatives disagree.
That's why Ely will not include that annexation in the
list he's preparing. It's all a matter of timing, he said.
The Seminole annexation took place seven days before
the payment provision became law, Ely said.
"Seminole got that annexation under the wire by
one week," Ely said. "Talk about dodging a bullet."
Seminole City Manager Frank Edmonds agreed Seminole
will not be affected by the dispute. Not only was the Seminole annexation
completed before Lealman became an independent fire district, he said, but the
city has no intention of annexing into Lealman in the future.
"Seminole all along has said and has indicated on
official maps that we do not intend to grow east of Park Street," Edmonds
said.
Lealman's attorney is not sure that Seminole can avoid
the repercussions of its past annexation.
"We're going to investigate all areas that were
annexed," Salzman said.
In other business:
Fire commissioners decided to give themselves monthly
salaries of $500, the highest allowed by law. Commissioners generally meet once
a month.
Commissioners served as volunteers and were unable to
draw salaries until Lealman became a special district last year.
Ray Neri, head of the Lealman Community Association,
asked commissioners to reconsider their decision, saying he didn't think it was
wise for them to give themselves a salary considering all that is happening in
the community. Refusing the salary would be a "small gesture, but it's a
gesture that I think will be appreciated by the community," Neri said.
Campbell, the commission head, said, "I have sat
on this board, gratis, since '93 and have spent lots of time and so have other
board members. . . . I feel that the state has allowed us this opportunity and I
don't see anything wrong with it."
Commission member Bill Adams said the salaries were
justified: "We're professionals and you get what you pay for."
Commission members also agreed to pass a tentative tax
rate of 5.323 mills for the 2001-02 fiscal year, a reduction from the current
5.5 mills. A mill is $1 of tax for each $1,000 of assessed property value.
The commission will have a final reading of the budget
at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Fire Station 18, 4017 56th Ave. N. The meeting is open to
the public.
Press arrow to return to top of page
A county
panel offers advice to governments on annexing into fire districts, among other
things.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 26, 2001
A county panel offers advice to
governments on annexing into fire districts, among other things.
LEALMAN -- As residents in unincorporated Pinellas
County consider legal action to protect their borders and tax bases against land
grabs by adjoining cities, a county agency wants to counsel cities on how to
proceed with annexations.
On Monday, a committee of the Pinellas Planning Council
will meet to discuss the mechanics of annexation. Uppermost on the minds of many
in Lealman will be the seemingly unchecked ability of cities to annex into fire
districts.
The Planning Council advises the County Commission on
matters of development and annexation. Its members are mayors or other elected
officials from each of the county's larger cities, a School Board member and a
county commissioner. Several smaller cities jointly appoint one member to
represent their interests.
In the past couple of years, Seminole, Pinellas Park,
St. Petersburg and Kenneth City have annexed land in the Lealman Fire District.
Much of the property is commercial, and the loss cut
severely into Lealman's tax base.
Last summer, Seminole annexed land along Park Street
that includes such businesses as Target, Don Pablo's and Hops. The land was
valued at about $36.1-million, with an estimated annual tax revenue of about
$199,000 that is now going to Seminole.
Especially galling to Fire District leaders: They still
have to serve the area because Seminole has no fire engines nearby. Seminole
pays nothing for a service that Lealman provides.
Since Nov. 7, 2000, Pinellas Park has annexed 27.15
acres in Lealman worth about $967,400 -- another $5,321 lost in tax revenue.
Stung by the losses, the Fire Commission voted
unanimously last week to be the first to try to regain those lost revenues under
a new state law. The statute says, among other things, that cities annexing into
special districts may have to pay the lost taxes for up to four years to give
the district time to accommodate its budget to the loss.
But Dave Healey, executive director of the Planning
Council, said the law is not as clear as it might seem. The state law that
created the Lealman Fire District would seem to conflict with the law that the
Fire Commission cites, Healey said.
"A reasonable person . . . will read those
statutes and be at the very least confused," Healey said. The two statutes
cannot be read together, he said. Either a new statute, a court decision, or an
agreement among the parties will have to be thrashed out to make them work.
Healey said the Planning Council has asked its own
attorneys and the county's attorneys to look at the situation. It's also why the
item is on Monday's agenda.
It might be difficult to negotiate detente when the
Lealman Fire Commission has not been invited to the table.
Linda Campbell, president of the Fire Commission, said
Friday that her group had not been officially informed of Monday's meeting.
Healey said he had told one Fire Commission member
about the meeting.
Campbell said that's not enough. When the Planning
Council talks about issues affecting the Fire District, the commission needs
official notification, she said. Now that she knows about the meeting, the
commission will send someone to the meeting. But she said the lack of
communication contributes to the distrust that commission members and some
Lealman residents hold for the Planning Council.
"This is one of the reasons you've got the
community of Lealman up in arms about it because no one seems to have our best
interests at heart," Campbell said. "From what their past history has
been, they've always leaned toward the municipalities when it's come to
annexations."
To which Healey said, "Poppycock."
If you go
The Planners Advisory Committee of the Pinellas
Planning Council will hold a special meeting at 2:30 p.m. Monday to discuss
annexation within fire districts and the county's voluntary annexation
ordinance. The meeting, which is open to the public, will be at the Planning
Council, Suite 850, on the eighth floor of the Bank of America Building, 600
Cleveland St., Clearwater. For information, call 464-8250.
Press arrow to return to top of page
The latest
issue involves Pinellas Park, the Lealman Fire Commission and who knows what -
and when.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 29, 2001
The latest issue involves Pinellas
Park, the Lealman Fire Commission and who knows what -- and when.
LEALMAN -- A Pinellas Park official conceded Tuesday
that his city has not notified Lealman of its annexations -- contrary to what he
said one day before at a county meeting.
The issue blew up when Linda Campbell, head of the
Lealman Fire Commission, accused Pinellas Park of failing to notify her group of
annexations within the unincorporated district's borders.
Bud Wortendyke, who oversees Pinellas Park annexations,
denied the charge. Pinellas Park had sent notice, he said. The fault, Wortendyke
said, was within Campbell's organization for failing to pass on the information.
That was Monday in front of a county committee that met
to talk about annexation issues. By Tuesday, the story had changed.
Wortendyke conceded that Pinellas Park hadn't informed
the Lealman Fire Commission of annexations within its service area. But that was
okay, he said. Pinellas Park had agreed to notify Lealman only if the city
annexed any commercial properties.
Since April, Pinellas Park has annexed homes, the St.
Petersburg pumping station and the Salvation Army. Earlier this month, the city
annexed several businesses along 34th Street N near 62nd Avenue N.
The pumping station and the Salvation Army do not
qualify as commercial, Wortendyke said, because they bring in no tax revenue.
Lealman would want to know if those properties were annexed so they know not to
perform fire inspections in those buildings.
As for the businesses on 34th Street, Wortendyke said
he planned to notify the Fire Commission as soon as the ordinances came back --
in other words, after the annexation had become law and it was too late for
Lealman to protest.
"There's no sense in telling them we've annexed
something until we've annexed it," Wortendyke said. "They don't have
any right to protest it."
Wortendyke agreed Tuesday that the city's notification
procedures need some work. In the future, he said, the city will notify the
Lealman commission about residential and commercial annexations.
"We'll get this ironed out," Wortendyke said.
That may be, but for Lealman officials, the dispute is
symbolic of a larger problem.
When it comes to annexations, they say, individuals
have no voice in annexations and are left without information and defenses as
cities acquire property.
Lealman Fire Commission members again felt that lack of
consideration at a special meeting Monday of the Planners Advisory Committee of
the Pinellas Planning Council.
First, the committee's makeup -- employees from the
planning or annexation departments of cities that included Pinellas Park,
Seminole and Largo -- irked the Lealman representatives.
The committee reports to the Pinellas Planning Council,
whose members are appointed by city councils. (One member is appointed by the
School Board and another by the County Commission.) The Planning Council reports
to the County Commission.
The Lealman Fire Commission has asked to sit on the
Planning Council. Fire officials say they are the only elected people in Lealman
and are best suited to monitor annexations that could deplete the tax base and
thus increase taxes in that area.
The Planning Council refused, saying its charter does
not allow such bodies as fire commissions to appoint members. The County
Commission-appointed member is supposed to represent the views of unincorporated
residents.
But it doesn't happen that way, said Lealman's
Campbell. Only the cities' views are heard and property owners never get a
chance to express their views or even understand what's happening until it's too
late.
"It opened my eyes to see exactly what kind of
power this Planning Council has (in) representing municipalities," Campbell
said after Monday's meeting.
At one point, Campbell reported, Planning Council
members said it was wrong for a city to do a "point-to-point"
annexation, where just the corners of properties touch each other.
Moments later, they said it was okay to use a right of
way to complete an annexation as long as the "gap" was not too large.
"John Q. Public is at a disadvantage,"
Campbell said. "They change the rules as they go along."
Press arrow to return to top of page
After
Kenneth City rejects a merger proposition, the area begins getting a feel for
incorporation.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 2, 2001
LEALMAN -- Talk about creating a city of Lealman became
more than conversation last week after leaders of a community group asked their
state representative for help.
Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg, agreed to inform the
Pinellas County Commission in writing of the Lealman Community Association's
intention to become a city.
Farkas said he also will discuss Lealman's predicament
with the other state legislators who comprise the Pinellas Legislative
Delegation. "If that's the only option, I think they have the right to try
and form a municipality," Farkas said. "They keep losing their outer
borders to municipalities."
Lealman leaders such as Ray Neri see incorporation as
the only way to maintain their independence and protect their boundaries and tax
base against repeated annexations by the adjoining cities of Pinellas Park,
Seminole, St. Petersburg and Kenneth City.
The movement for creating a city had its genesis in a
group that formed a couple of years ago to help revitalize part of eastern
Lealman, an unincorporated area of Pinellas bounded by Kenneth City and I-275
and Pinellas Park and St. Petersburg.
The area is a victim of the county's neglect, Neri
said. Services from the Sheriff's Office, code enforcement and other county
agencies are poor. "We don't get anything for our money," Neri said.
Association members came to realize that adjoining
cities were annexing Lealman businesses, leaving behind the homeowners to carry
one of the county's heaviest tax burdens.
In June, Neri and other association leaders approached
Kenneth City about a merger. They were rejected, which left incorporation as the
resort.
So, on Wednesday night, Neri will ask Community
Association members if they want to become a city. The incorporation process is
estimated to take at least two years.
"It's going to be an experience. I'm looking
forward to it," Neri said. "This is going to take time. It's not going
to happen with a wave of the wand."
Neri said he also knows the campaign will not be
popular with everyone. He expects some opposition from Lealman residents and
adjoining cities.
"We're going to raise hell," he said.
"We're going to upset a lot of people."
Seminole, which annexed a big piece of Lealman in
March, was the most recent Pinellas city to be incorporated, in 1970. The
soonest Lealman could become a city would be late 2003, said Ken Small of the
Florida League of Cities. The league provides advice and lobbying clout on
behalf of municipalities and counsels areas wanting to become cities.
Community Association leaders have taken the correct
first step, Small said, by contacting Farkas, who represents them in the
Legislature. They'll also have to contact state Sen. Jim Sebesta, R-St.
Petersburg.
A special act of the Legislature is required to create
a city, Small said, and Farkas will be the one to drive that activity.
The next move is a feasibility study that determines
the boundaries of the proposed city, the services that will be provided, and the
new city's tax base. Small said residents will need to know what incorporation
will cost them as taxpayers.
"Without that, you don't even know how to come up
with a basic budget," Small said.
Lealman leaders also need to be talking to the
community, he said, holding public meetings where neighbors can share pros and
cons or contribute ideas about the new city's form of government, and the number
of elected officials and their terms.
A separate committee would create a city charter, or
constitution, and that document will be included with the feasibility study when
it goes before the Legislature, probably in 2003.
If legislators and the governor approve, then Lealman
voters would have the final say in a referendum. If residents vote to
incorporate, a transition team would run Lealman until the first elections,
Small said.
The process is complicated and expensive, Small said.
Feasibility studies can cost $20,000. Other costs, such as attorneys fees, are
unknown.
In some cases, Small said, the county will pay for the
study, (but) "some counties will turn out to be real cheap and say, sorry,
you do it."
County Commissioner Ken Welch, whose district includes
Lealman, met Thursday with Neri to discuss incorporation. Welch said he had two
concerns: the effect on the county's tax base if Lealman were to become a city
and the level of community support for incorporation.
Welch said he has asked county officials for an
analysis of the tax effects and wants Neri to bring him a petition with at least
1,000 signatures.
If you're interested
Creating a city of Lealman is one topic of discussion
for the Lealman Community Association meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Fire
Station 18, 4017 56th Ave. N. For information, call Ray Neri, 527-5352. The
meeting is open to the public.
To become a city
Here are the basics:
1. The state representative for the area sponsors a
bill in the Legislature.
2. A feasibility study establishes boundaries and
calculates the tax base. A committee writes a city charter.
3. Public hearings allow residents to voice their
opinions and suggest a type of government.
4. The feasibility study is sent to the Legislature and
makes the rounds of state agencies for analysis. With a house committee's
endorsement, a bill goes before the House and then the Senate for passage.
5. The bill goes to the governor for approval.
6. If local voters approve incorporation in a
referendum, a transition team runs the new city until a government can be
elected.
- Source: Florida League
of Cities
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In Lealman,
a crowd of 90 is mostly enthusiastic about moving toward cityhood, so much so
that they plunk down bills toward a ''city kitty.''
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 9, 2001
LEALMAN -- With cheers ringing in their ears, most of
the estimated 90 people who crowded into a community meeting Wednesday raised
their hands in agreement: Lealman residents need to take the next step toward
becoming a city.
The idea of incorporation has gained favor as the
solution to protect the area against annexations by the adjoining cities of
Pinellas Park, Seminole, St. Petersburg and Kenneth City.
"Let's get the $25,000 to do a study,"
resident Charlie Bell said. "Let's get the ball rolling. I'm willing to put
20 bucks on the table right now."
Bell took the money from his wallet and placed it on
the table in front of the leaders of the Lealman Community Association.
He turned back to the audience and said of association
president Ray Neri, who had spent much of the evening speaking, "I'll pay
20 bucks any time to make him shut up."
Others walked to the front of the room to plunk down
1's, 10's and 20's.
Neri asked for a show of hands from those "who
think we're still on the right track." Up went most of the arms. When Neri
asked if anyone thought the association was making a mistake to raise money for
a study, there was only one hand.
Neri told the man that he was brave to show his
opposition and asked that he join the organization and attend future meetings to
keep his viewpoint alive.
Lifelong Lealman resident Ron Lowe then stepped forward
and said he was proud of the people in the room. He recounted a time he had
appeared before the County Commission to ask its members to do something for
Lealman. Lowe said it was like begging.
"I don't want to have to beg for anything
anymore," Lowe said. "Let's push this thing through and do it
right."
Audience members donated $350 on the spot for the
"city kitty," including $20 each from state Rep. Frank Farkas and
state Sen. Jim Sebesta, both Republicans from St. Petersburg.
Farkas and Sebesta had come to listen. They will have
to sponsor the state law allowing the unincorporated Lealman area to become a
city, if the movement gets that far. Farkas has informed the County Commission
of Lealman's intent.
But first, Lealman must conduct a feasibility study to
see what the new city's boundaries might be. The study also would determine the
expected tax base and the likely taxes residents and businesses would have to
pay.
"The key is going to be the feasibility study,
obviously," Sebesta said Wednesday.
Sebesta called Wednesday's meeting a "wonderful
exercise in democracy." He said he was especially impressed at the turnout
because he'd never seen so many people come to that type of gathering.
Given that, and the support most present had for the
prospect of the study, Sebesta said he thought it was bad that it would cost the
people about $25,000 just to "ask the question" whether they should
become a city. Sebesta said he wanted to try to help Lealman residents find the
money or other help in having the study done.
"There may be other ways to skin the cat,"
Sebesta said.
Warding off nibblers
The Community Association has set up several committees
to organize the drive toward cityhood. One of those will work to convince
property owners not to annex into nearby cities. Another will work at raising
money for the feasibility study. Yet another will work at getting folks
registered to vote and then out to the polls to increase the area's political
clout.
During the past year or so, Lealman has become
increasingly hotter for civic activism as residents have united to clean up and
revitalize the area. They've also become more politically aware of the fact that
adjacent cities, especially Seminole, Pinellas Park and St. Petersburg, were
annexing millions of dollars worth of Lealman property.
Most of that property has been commercial, which
removes it from the area's tax base. The need for services remains and, after
the annexations, residents and businesses are left bearing a higher tax burden
to make up for the loss.
The Lealman Community Association has taken the lead in
trying to stop the annexations -- soliciting state and local help and asking
nearby Kenneth City if it would merge with the Lealman area. Those options fell
through, leaving incorporation as the only way to protect Lealman's borders.
The feasibility study will take about two years. Until
then, most questions cannot be answered, such as the new city's likely
boundaries and whether it would include only the Lealman area east of Kenneth
City or also west Lealman.
Several west Lealman residents who attended Wednesday's
meeting want to make sure they're not left out.
"This is really exciting. West Lealman should be
included," Pat Erdmann said. "We're on the ground floor of creating a
new city."
Applause broke out as Erdmann continued.
"I don't want to be Kenneth City. I don't want to
be Pinellas Park," Erdmann said. "Long live Lealman!"
Erdmann waved her fist in the air and "yeas"
could be heard among the applause.
A naysayer
There were doubters, too.
Bob Payne was worried about the effect of incorporation
on taxes and on freedom.
"I don't want to be in a city anyplace,"
Payne said. "There's no way taxes can possibly go down. ... We've been
county for a long time. It's been a good county. ... I want my freedom the way
I've been having it."
Payne wondered where a Lealman city would get the money
to pay for things such as a City Hall or services.
Someone from the audience called out: "You think
we're not paying for it now?"
Payne urged the audience and association board members
to drop the incorporation idea. He vowed to get people to sign petitions against
it.
Another audience member called out: "We're not
making decisions here. All we're talking about is a feasibility study."
Then Payne and John Frank, a member of the Community
Association board, debated annexation and revenue sources for cities.
Frank told Payne that cities can get revenue-sharing
money and other funding that is not available to an unincorporated area. It's
that sort of money that might help keep taxes down, Frank said.
As for fighting annexation another way, Frank said,
that was unrealistic. The cities, he said, take the businesses, which pay the
most tax dollars. Once all the commercial property is gone and only the
residences are left, what's left "is going to become the biggest slum in
Pinellas County."
It's necessary to work against that, Frank said.
Someone in the audience said to the woman standing next
to him: "This stuff is educational. I had no idea this was going on."
Another cry: "We have to be somebody. We're nobody
now."
Neri, president of the association, reminded everyone
that the results of the study may stop the incorporation movement in its tracks
if taxes appear to be unreasonable. "I'm not stupid," Neri said.
"I don't expect anyone in here to be stupid."
But if the study is reassuring then, yes, Neri said,
it's worth going the whole way. In the end, he said, Lealman voters will make
the final decision.
If you're interested
A representative from the Florida League of Cities will
talk about the steps to become a city at the next Lealman Community Association
meeting, at 7 p.m. Oct. 3. The location has not been scheduled. Association
members have decided to move their monthly meetings because the fire station
they've been using cannot hold the number of people who show up. For
information, call association president Ray Neri, 527-5352.
To become a city
Here are the basics:
1. The state representative for the area sponsors a
bill in the Legislature.
2. A feasibility study establishes boundaries and
calculates the tax base. A committee writes a city charter.
3. Public hearings allow residents to voice their
opinions and suggest a type of government.
4. The feasibility study is sent to the Legislature and
makes the rounds of state agencies for analysis. With a House committee's
endorsement, a bill goes before the House and then the Senate for passage.
5. The bill goes to the governor for approval.
6. If local voters approve incorporation in a
referendum, a transition team runs the new city until a government can be
elected.
-- Source: Florida League of Cities
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Lealman
hopes a proposed two-year inquiry into incorporation would ease the annexing of
fire district territory.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 16, 2001
Lealman hopes a proposed two-year
inquiry into incorporation would ease the annexing of fire district territory.
LEALMAN -- So, you've decided to create a city.
First, you'll need to know your borders and the
businesses that would contribute to the tax base.
And right away, Lealman activists have a problem. With
ongoing annexations into their unincorporated area by the adjoining cities of
Pinellas Park, Seminole, St. Petersburg and Kenneth City, the boundaries are
ever changing and shrinking.
The Lealman Community Association is working to raise
$25,000 for a feasibility study that will determine whether cityhood is a good
idea. The neighbors also are lobbying for a freeze on annexations -- at least
until the study is done.
The study would take about two years, at which point
Lealman voters would decide their fate. If they reject cityhood, annexation
season resumes. If Lealman becomes a city, its borders are protected forever.
Any moratorium on annexations would end at any point
the feasibility study indicated Lealman couldn't make it as a city, said Ray
Neri, president of the Community Association.
Neri has written Pinellas Park Mayor Bill Mischler and
City Council members, asking them to stop annexing into the Lealman Fire
District until residents have a chance to sort things out.
The issue has not come before the Pinellas Park
Council, but Mischler has said he's not in favor of holding off on annexations.
"It's the individual property owner's
choice," Mischler said recently. "If somebody wants to come into the
city, welcome. If you don't, have a great day."
Neri also has asked state Rep. Frank Farkas, R-St.
Petersburg, to sponsor a bill in the Legislature that temporarily would freeze
annexations in Lealman.
Farkas could not be reached for comment.
State Sen. Jim Sebesta, R-St. Petersburg, said Thursday
that it was an "interesting idea." Until he learned more about it,
Sebesta said, it's hard to know whether he would support the idea.
Sebesta said he worried about the constitutionality of
the proposal and planned to check on it. There should be some way, he said, to
give the people of Lealman some protection so they can decide what to do with
their future.
If Neri's idea is constitutional and workable, Sebesta
said he's sure other unincorporated areas in Florida that are facing the same
issues would support such legislation. Of course, there would also be a lot of
opposition from cities, he said.
In the meantime, Pinellas Park has halted new
annexations into the Fire District while the city and Fire Commission try to
hammer out an agreement that would benefit both.
Such an agreement would allow Pinellas Park to annex
into the fire district, but somehow would ensure that the fire tax money would
not be taken away from Lealman.
It was the loss of that tax money that prompted the
drive for incorporation.
"They want to do the moral thing," Lealman
Fire Chief Rick Graham told commissioners Monday night of his meeting with
Pinellas Park's assistant city manager and public relations official. The two
Pinellas Park officials asked to meet with Graham and Fire Commission head Linda
Campbell.
"Their object is not to hurt or damage our
department," Graham said, but he conceded that Pinellas Park still refused
to stop annexing into the district.
"We know they're not going to stop," he said.
The prospect of an agreement that could serve both
Lealman and Pinellas Park was greeted with skepticism by some commission
members.
Such an agreement would not stop annexations by
Seminole and St. Petersburg, commission member Kathleen Litton said.
"From a fire district standpoint, as a
commissioner, I understand how this could be good," Litton said, "but
I'm also an individual taxpayer and I understand my day is coming."
Neri also doubted that such an agreement would stop the
cityhood movement.
"Initially, it was the fire thing. Initially it
was the taxes," Neri said. "But it moved from the money issue to the
people want their right of self-determination. They still don't have it
regardless of what you do with the fire district."
Now, he said, it has become
emotional for many in the Lealman community.
“I
think now they see an opportunity ... now it’s in their minds that being their
own city has some advantages they didn’t have before,” Neri said. “This is
like grass roots. It’s kind of spreading underneath the surface.”
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Lealman: Move lines to stop
nibblers
To keep incorporation viable,
civic leaders ask county commissioners to shift some boundaries.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 19, 2001
To keep incorporation viable, civic leaders ask county
commissioners to shift some boundaries.
LEALMAN -- Some local activists have labored for months making plans to
improve this unincorporated area, but as they worked, they feared that the
improvements would only make Lealman more appetizing to annexing cities.
Out of that fear and a desire for self-determination, the movement toward
cityhood was born. Now a concern that prime taxable properties could still be
lost, destroying the possibility of incorporation, has spawned an effort to
block virtually all annexations in Lealman.
Twenty-two members of the area's revitalization team want Pinellas County
commissioners to move the boundaries of "annexation planning areas" so
they conform with the limits of the Lealman fire district.
The effect would be to stop voluntary annexations by Pinellas Park, St.
Petersburg and Kenneth City. Those three municipalities have sizable planning
areas within Lealman.
Changing the planning boundaries would "recognize and respect the
integrity of the Lealman community and our desire to plan for our future without
concerns over erosion of our community through annexations," the Lealman
group wrote to the County Commission.
What the Lealman residents are seeking would change an initiative that county
voters approved just last year.
The so-called annexation planning areas were set aside for each city to annex
without competition from other municipalities. Some areas were designated
"county planning areas" that were to be free of annexations.
Recent annexations have placed a higher tax burden on residents left in
Lealman. Pinellas Park and the fire district are trying to work out an agreement
to keep that tax money in Lealman, but such an agreement would not apply to
Seminole, St. Petersburg or Kenneth City.
Nor would such an agreement stop the annexations.
By moving the planning area lines back to match the boundaries of the fire
district, voluntary annexations could not be conducted in Lealman. However,
cities still could do mass annexations by referendum (as Seminole did in March).
Changing those boundaries will not be easy, said Dave Healey, executive
director of the Pinellas Planning Council. The council, made up of
representatives from the county's 24 cities, the County Commission and the
School Board, advises the commission on annexation issues.
The Planning Commission would hear arguments first, Healey said, which would
give the cities a chance to object to the changes.
Pinellas Park Mayor Bill Mischler said he didn't know if his city would
oppose a move to change the lines. But Mischler said he personally opposes
anything that would limit someone's right to voluntarily annex into a city.
"I do believe people have the right to make their own choice,"
Mischler said. "This is a democracy that we live in. . . . To me, it's up
to the individual property owner."
If you're interested
Lynn Tipton of the Florida League of Cities will speak at the next meeting of
the Lealman Community Association. Tipton will discuss the steps necessary for
the Lealman area to become a city at 7 p.m. Oct. 3 at the Disabled American
Veterans headquarters, 4801 37th St. N. For information, call Community
Association president Ray Neri at 527-5352 or log on to the group's Web site at web.tampabay.rr.com/wni2001/.
The Lealman Revitalization Team meeting scheduled for Thursday has been
postponed until Oct. 18. It starts at 7 p.m. at Lealman United Methodist Church,
4090 58th Ave. N. Both meetings are open to the public.
Press arrow to return to top of page
If the county donates the land,
community activists say, a park on the 16 acres would attract businesses and
families.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 30, 2001
If the county donates the land, community activists say, a
park on the 16 acres would attract businesses and families.
LEALMAN -- The intersection is nondescript: five roads, a railroad track, a
drainage ditch in need of mowing.
But walk east along that drainage ditch. Ignore the "no
trespassing" sign as you squeeze through a gap in the first locked gate.
Walk a few hundred feet more. Avoid the second locked gate by slipping into a
woods to duck through a huge hole in a chain link fence.
"Oh, my God!"
"That's what everyone says," said Ray Neri, president of the
Lealman Community Association. A satisfied smile spread across Neri's face as a
visitor got a first look at 16 or so undeveloped acres in the middle of east
Lealman.
For Neri and others who want to revitalize the Lealman area, the acreage is
the repository of big hopes and dreams.
They want the county, which owns the land, to donate the land to the
community so it can become a place where kids can come to fish and play pickup
ball games while families picnic nearby. The park would be such an asset, they
believe, that it would help entice businesses and families to settle in and
improve the Lealman area.
"This little piece of land, really, can make a difference to all of
Lealman," Neri said.
Neri and other Lealman activists have been urging county officials to turn
the property over. The snag is that there is some contamination on part of the
property. But the contamination is 26 feet down, Neri said, and will not hurt
anyone at that depth. County officials are studying the issue now.
In the meantime, the Lealman group is trying to garner support from everyone
they can to urge that the area be preserved. Most recently, they invited the St.
Petersburg Audubon Society to tour the property and see the unexpected Eden in
mid Pinellas.
"People can't fathom this until they see it," said Becky Harriman,
a member of the Lealman Community Association.
Neri agreed, saying, "It's like living in New York and never seeing
Central Park, (then) all of a sudden, going through a hedge and there it
is."
Certainly, it is different from most of the rest of Pinellas County. The
dew-ridden grass soaks shoes and pant legs. As you walk through the grass, brown
moths are kicked up, only to disappear again into the shadows of the earth.
A visitor can sit on the grassy shore by the pond and watch a moorhen taunt
an alligator in order to protect its young. Other moorhen seem to walk on water
as they move from one spot to another across lily pads. Surfacing turtles cause
the glasslike calm of the pond to ripple.
Gaudy butterflies of orange and black or black and yellow or plain yellow
flit from place to place. Dragonflies hover above the tall grass.
And birds. Birds of all kinds are everywhere.
"We need to have these park and protected areas, a place that is for
people and all living things to be together." said Helen Warren, the board
member of the St. Petersburg Audubon Society who organized the field trip to
Lealman. "We should have places like this pocketed throughout our
community."
The argument for such places is based on the need for a better quality of
life and for community education, she said. But it's also based on the emotions
felt while at the site.
"There's just a sense of, my, this is precious. This is a jewel,"
Warren said. "It's like all is right in the world. But it could be better.
We the people could make it better."
* * *
LEALMAN -- Members of the St. Petersburg Audubon Society walked Saturday
through an undeveloped area of the Lealman community next to Joe's Creek. While
there, they spotted wildlife such as alligators, dragonflies, butterflies and
birds. Lots of birds. Here's a list of the birds they saw.
Anhinga
Great blue heron
Great egret
Snowy egret
Tricolored heron
*Black-crowned night-heron
White ibis
*Wood stork
Mottled duck
*Cooper's hawk
*Red-shouldered hawk
Common moorhen
*Limpkin
Laughing gull
Eurasian collared dove
Mourning dove
Monk parakeet
Belted kingfisher
Blue jay
Fish crow
Blue-gray gnatcatcher
Northern mockingbird
European starling
*Summer tanager
Northern cardinal
Red-winged blackbird
Boat-tailed grackle
*Birds that society members did not expect to see.
- Source: St. Petersburg Audubon Society
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Rep. Frank Farkas is drafting a
bill to halt annexations while Lealman considers cityhood and to keep the tax
base from being nibbled away.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 3, 2001
LEALMAN -- While residents of this unincorporated area seek money and support
in a campaign to become a city, help seems to be coming from state officials.
Rep. Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg, is drafting a bill that would halt
annexations in the Lealman area long enough to give citizens there a chance to
become organized and decide whether forming a city is what they want to do. That
annexation moratorium could last one or two years, or even more, Farkas said
Monday. Activists in Lealman worry about preserving the community identity in
the face of repeated annexations.
Farkas said he plans to take the idea before the rest of the Pinellas County
legislative delegation at its November meeting.
Because it would be a local bill, if the rest of the delegation approved,
passage in front of the entire Legislature and eventual approval by the governor
is generally ensured. It could become law as soon as July 1, 2002, he said.
"This is exactly what we wanted to happen. We're just glad we got relief
from them," said Ray Neri, president of the Lealman Community Association,
which is spearheading the drive toward cityhood. "We couldn't ask for any
more than that."
Neri's group had asked Farkas and state Sen. Jim Sebesta, R-St. Petersburg,
for help in drafting a local bill for such a moratorium.
We asked for them to protect "the entire fire district. . . . We asked
for two years or until such time as we see this is not a viable option, (then)
we would ask that they rescind it," Neri said.
Farkas said he is also helping the Lealman Fire Commission with one of its
problems that arose from constant annexations into the area. In that case, the
annexations have taken a toll on the tax base as adjoining cities -- Pinellas
Park, Seminole, St. Petersburg and Kenneth City -- have nibbled away at pieces
of the district.
Much of the nibbling has been of lucrative business areas, leaving Lealman
taxpayers to pay higher bills, while, in many cases, still being primarily
responsible for fire service in the annexed areas.
So the Lealman Fire Commission asked Farkas to draft a local bill that would
allow annexations into the fire district, but would leave Lealman as the
department primarily responsible for fire service and as the recipient of fire
taxes.
It's not a new idea. Palm Harbor and the Indian Rocks fire departments have
similar clauses in the legislation that created them.
The legislation creating Lealman's fire district even had such a clause, but
it was deleted before the bill was passed last year. The reason was to avoid
possible issues of double taxation, said Lealman Fire Commission Chairwoman
Linda Campbell. But instead, it created worse problems for Lealman.
"We really have a conflict here," Campbell said. "If cities
want to come in and annex, fine, but we should keep the ad valorem (tax)."
If the bill passes, Campbell said, she thinks that will deter some annexation
because some of the cities pitch their fire departments as part of the deal to
entice people to annex into their borders.
Neri said he understands what the Fire Commission is doing, but he worries
that it will not serve the community's needs in the long run. Not fighting
annexation itself, he said, means the Fire Commission appears to be giving up
the idea of helping area residents preserve their integrity as a community and
their rights as property owners.
Campbell disagreed, saying that the Fire Commission's first duty is to the
fire district and to protecting the taxpayers.
The issue of community identity and cityhood is separate from the fire tax
issue, she said, and needs to be addresses separately by the Community
Association. But both need to be pursued.
"I think they're going about it the right way. They're trying to protect
the citizens' rights overall," Campbell said of the Community Association.
"I think they're doing an awesome job."
If you're interested
Keynote speaker at tonight's meeting of the Lealman Community Association is
an expert in city formation. Lynn Tipton of the Florida League of Cities will
talk about the steps necessary to form a city. The meeting, which is open to the
public, will be at 7 p.m. at the Lealman Disabled American Veterans, 4801 37th
St. N, Lealman. For information, call association president Ray Neri, 527-5352,
or go to the group's Web site at web.tampabay.rr.com/wni2001.
The Lealman Community is holding its Second Annual Mystery Poker Run on
Sunday. Registration starts at the VFW, 4145 34th St. N (under the 34th St.
overpass) at 9 a.m. The VFW will have breakfast available starting at 8 a.m. The
first motorcycle will leave the property at 10 a.m. and the last at 11. Prizes
range from $50 to $200. Hot dogs and cold drinks will be available. Proceeds
benefit the families of Lealman and the Lealman Community. There will also be a
collection box for contributions to the "city kitty," moneys for a
feasibility study to decide whether Lealman should become a city. For
information, call Marcie Lauster, 343-8199.
Press arrow to return to top of page
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 7, 2001
LEALMAN -- The city of Lealman. The town of Lealman.
Lealman Village.
LEALMAN -- The city of Lealman. The town of Lealman. Lealman Village.
What to call Lealman could be the first of many decisions if residents decide
to incorporate their area. Legally, the name will not matter because cities,
towns and villages are equal under Florida law. It's simply a matter of what the
people want.
That's the first lesson of Florida cityhood, Lynn Tipton of the Florida
League of Cities said Wednesday. City government is the only government in
Florida the people can choose to have. All others -- state, county, school board
-- are already in place and imposed on the people by the state Constitution.
In the end, the people of Lealman will vote whether or not to form a city and
have a local government.
"It has to pass by a simple majority," Tipton said, meaning 50
percent plus one vote of those who cast a ballot in the referendum on the issue.
Tipton had been invited to talk to members of the Lealman Community
Association, and anyone else who wanted to listen, about the steps in forming a
city. Members of the association are pushing to incorporate Lealman.
The drive to cityhood was triggered as a way to fend off annexations by the
adjoining cities of Seminole, Pinellas Park, St. Petersburg and Kenneth City.
The additions have eaten into the area's tax base and, some say, eroded the
sense of community that has long existed in Lealman.
The area is roughly between Pinellas Park and St. Petersburg and from St.
Petersburg on the east to Park Street on the west. Lealman snakes around Kenneth
City, in the middle.
A feasibility study should be a first step, Tipton said. That would look at
the area's tax base and the possible costs of running a city.
Certain decisions must be made even earlier. If organizers plan to create a
"full-service" city, which will supply water, road repairs, sewers and
everything else, that would cost one thing. However, organizers might want to
create something called a "contract" city or, more irreverently,
"government lite."
Such a city, Tipton said, contracts out most services. That can keep the
prices much lower because the municipality will have to hire a limited number of
people to oversee the contracts and make sure they are enforced to residents'
satisfaction.
That may be where Lealman's organizers intend to go. Ray Neri, head of the
Community Association, has talked of contracting with the Pinellas County
Sheriff's Office. That would give the area more control over the sheriff's
activities in the Lealman area and attention to it, Neri has said.
Full-service government and government lite are the extremes, Tipton said.
There are hybrids.
"There's so many grades along this scale you can look at," she
said. "It's all based on what you want to do."
Once the feasibility study is complete, Tipton said, it must be given to the
county's legislative delegation at least 90 days before the start of the
legislative session. State officials study it and, if everything goes well, the
Legislature gives its approval.
Then it comes back for the voters' approval. All of this could take 21/2
years. "It's actually a fairly simple process," Tipton said.
"What's difficult is deciding what you want."
A feasibility study could cost up to $25,000. Lealman has collected a little
more than $500 from out-of-pocket donations at meetings for the "city
kitty," but residents are trying to come up with ways to raise more money.
"We're going to have to get creative," said Ron Kimball, a member
of the Community Association board. Kimball is in charge of fundraising for the
city kitty.
The other problem Lealman has is ongoing annexations.
"You can't do a feasibility study if the boundaries and the monies are
changing every day," Neri said.
So they asked state Rep. Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg, to sponsor a local
bill to temporarily freeze annexations within the borders of the Lealman fire
district while the area works through the process of becoming a city. Farkas has
agreed to do so.
Last Wednesday, the push to freeze annexations got some support from a couple
of unexpected sources.
Pinellas County Commissioner John Morroni came to Wednesday's meeting to tell
Lealman residents that he supported Farkas' efforts.
"I am totally in support of what Rep. Farkas is doing for you right
now," Morroni said. "There needs to be a cooling off period. . . . You
should have the right to find out what your destiny is."
Also at the meeting was St. Petersburg council member Jay Lasita. Lasita said
he could see no reason not to support Farkas' bill.
"Speaking for myself, I would be predisposed to support it," Lasita
said. "I respect the rights of the folks in Lealman to . . . explore their
options."
He agreed that the dust needs to settle a bit. However, Lasita said that if
the St. Petersburg city staff came up with compelling reasons to not support
Farkas' efforts, he might change his mind. He also declined to speculate on what
the remainder of the St. Petersburg council might say.
"I don't know what our staff is going to say about all this,"
Lasita said. "I don't know what position our city is going to take."
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The interim county administrator
suggests moving map lines to limit annexation and help the community revitalize.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 14, 2001
Lealman residents, who solicited county help to protect
their borders, received encouraging news last week.
Lealman residents, who solicited county help to protect their borders,
received encouraging news last week.
The interim county administrator and her staff support their request. Now
it's up to the County Commission.
"We've taken a carefully supportive position knowing that it's not our
decision to make," interim County Administrator Gay Lancaster said.
The idea, she said, is to give Lealman some ability to clarify its boundaries
so residents can work at revitalizing their community without thinking it's
going to be snatched out from under them.
Preventing annexations also will give Lealman residents a chance to
capitalize on their strong sense of community identity and to determine what
their future might be, she said.
The idea is simple: Move the lines on a map.
The change would limit where the adjacent cities can annex. If the new lines
are drawn to coincide with fire district boundaries, neighboring cities
generally will have to leave Lealman alone.
Cities still would be able to annex into Lealman by referendum, meaning they
could take larger tracts of land if enough voters in the area agreed. Cities
also could voluntarily take individual properties, but each annexation would
require County Commission approval.
Some commissioners gave their preliminary endorsement to Lancaster's idea.
"It has my tentative support," said Commissioner Ken Welch, who
represents the Lealman area. He has not seen the paperwork, but if the move
gives Lealman time to decide its future, then it's a good idea, he said.
Commissioner Barbara Sheen Todd said, "I think there ought to be a
moratorium" on annexations.
Lealman has asked people to leave them alone right now to give them a chance
to redevelop and form a community, and it's time to do that, she said.
"I agree that we've got to recoup a sense of normalcy for the
unincorporated area and give them a breather," Todd said. "I believe
the best government is a government the people choose to have."
"That's excellent," Ray Neri, president of the Lealman Community
Association, said upon hearing of the support. Neri is a member of the
revitalization group that asked the county for help, and the community
association has actively sought an end to annexations.
Pinellas Park has the biggest stake in any decision; it has the largest
annexation planning area that overlaps into Lealman.
Yet, Lealman may find some support there.
Pinellas Park council member Rick Butler said he thinks his city should spend
its time working to annex lucrative properties to the north and west and leave
Lealman alone.
Pinellas Park Mayor Bill Mischler said he might not oppose moving the map
lines. He would have to see the proposal before making a final decision, he
said.
"I'm not heavy on this," Mischler said. "I'm very open on
this."
A year ago, Pinellas County voters approved a map of so-called annexation
planning areas. Within each area, a city could annex free from competition. The
goal was to prevent the "annexation wars" that had sprung up between
cities as they fought over desirable properties.
In south Pinellas, the main unincorporated area is Lealman, known mostly by
its fire district that is located generally between Pinellas Park to the north
and St. Petersburg to the south. The annexation planning map put some of the
Lealman Fire District into city planning areas. Pinellas Park got the largest
amount. Kenneth City got some. St. Petersburg and Seminole got a bit.
In a subsequent referendum that was unrelated to the establishment of
planning areas, Seminole annexed a tax-rich part of the district on the west
side of Park Street that includes a Target and Sears.
In January, a group of Lealman residents heeded the county's call to form a
revitalization team to spruce up the area. The neighbors discovered that
repeated annexations were eating away at the area's tax base, leaving a higher
tax burden on those who remained in the unincorporated district.
They explored how to stop the annexations and many of them concluded that the
only way to preserve their community was to form a city.
The first item of business in deciding whether to become a city is a
feasibility study, but it's necessary to know what the proposed city's
boundaries are. If the boundaries are changing because of annexations, then it's
impossible to perform a meaningful study.
So community activists asked county and state officials for help. Thus far,
it appears they're getting it.
They asked the county to move the annexation planning area lines.
They've also asked state Rep. Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg, to place a
moratorium on annexations in the Lealman Fire District for two years while
residents work through the process of trying to become a city.
Farkas has drafted such a law and plans to introduce it during the 2002
Legislative session.
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The interim county administrator
supports a moratorium and hopes the tiny community can revitalize itself.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 14, 2001
Lealman residents, who solicited county help to protect
their borders, received encouraging news last week.
Lealman residents, who solicited county help to protect their borders,
received encouraging news last week.
The interim county administrator and her staff support their request. Now
it's up to the County Commission.
"We've taken a carefully supportive position knowing that it's not our
decision to make," interim County Administrator Gay Lancaster said.
The idea, she said, is to give Lealman some ability to clarify its boundaries
so residents can work at revitalizing their community without thinking it's
going to be snatched out from under them.
Preventing annexations also will give Lealman residents a chance to
capitalize on their strong sense of community identity and to determine what
their future might be, she said.
The idea is simple: Move the lines on a map.
The change would limit where the adjacent cities can annex. If the new lines
are drawn to coincide with fire district boundaries, neighboring cities
generally will have to leave Lealman alone.
In a related development, the county wants to form an "American
assembly," a committee of representatives from groups that would be
affected by an annexation, Lancaster said. This would apply throughout
unincorporated Pinellas.
This has come about because activists in Lealman have complained that they
have been forgotten when it comes to making county annexation rules that affect
their future.
The assembly would include the cities who annex, residents of the
unincorporated areas being annexed, county officials who have to approve and
mediate annexations, and special districts whose finances could be affected by
losing property from their tax rolls.
Lancaster's first idea -- the moratorium -- won preliminary endorsement from
some commissioners.
"It has my tentative support," said Commissioner Ken Welch, who
represents the Lealman area. He has not seen the paperwork, but if the move
gives Lealman time to decide its future, then it's a good idea, he said.
Commissioner Barbara Sheen Todd said, "I think there ought to be a
moratorium" on annexations.
Lealman has asked people to leave them alone right now to give them a chance
to redevelop and form a community, and it's time to do that, she said.
"I believe the best government is a government the people choose to
have," Todd said.
"That's excellent," Ray Neri, president of the Lealman Community
Association, said upon hearing of the support. Neri is a member of the
revitalization group that asked the county for help, and the community
association has actively sought an end to annexations.
Pinellas Park has the biggest stake in any decision; it has the largest
annexation planning area that overlaps into Lealman.
Yet, Lealman may find some support there.
Pinellas Park council member Rick Butler said he thinks his city should spend
its time working to annex lucrative properties to the north and west and leave
Lealman alone.
Pinellas Park Mayor Bill Mischler said he might not oppose moving the map
lines. He would have to see the proposal before making a final decision, he
said.
"I'm not heavy on this," Mischler said. "I'm very open on
this."
Cities still would be able to annex into Lealman by referendum, meaning they
could take larger tracts of land if enough voters in the area agreed. Cities
also could voluntarily take individual properties, but each annexation would
require County Commission approval.
A year ago, Pinellas County voters approved a map of so-called annexation
planning areas. Within each area, a city could annex free from competition. The
goal was to prevent the "annexation wars" that had sprung up between
cities as they fought over desirable properties.
In south Pinellas, the main unincorporated area is Lealman, known mostly by
its fire district and which is located generally between Pinellas Park to the
north and St. Petersburg to the south.
In January, a group of Lealman residents heeded the county's call to form a
revitalization team to spruce up the area. The neighbors discovered that
repeated annexations were eating away at the area's tax base, leaving a higher
tax burden on those who remained in the unincorporated district.
They've asked state Rep. Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg, to place a
moratorium on annexations in the Lealman Fire District for two years while
residents work through the process of trying to become a city.
Farkas has drafted such a law and plans to introduce it during the 2002
Legislative session.
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An
agreement in the 1980s to be annexed in exchange for city work finally comes to
fruition for a Lealman business.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 4, 2001
An agreement in the 1980s to be
annexed in exchange for city work finally comes to fruition for a Lealman
business.
PINELLAS PARK -- In the late 1980s, Sandy and Grover
Servis wanted to expand their towing business so they asked to be listed on the
city's rotation list to pick up wrecked and disabled cars.
There was one problem: Their business was not within
city limits, a requirement for being on the list.
The city had a solution. If the Servises would sign an
agreement saying they'd allow their property to be annexed into Pinellas Park
should the city limits reach them, then they could be on the list. Pinellas Park
made the same offer to all towing services within a mile of the city limits.
The Servises signed.
For several years, the arrangement worked well. Then,
in 1992, the Servises transformed their towing business into a car repair
service. They forgot about their agreement.
Three or four weeks ago, they received a letter from
Pinellas Park welcoming them to the city. The city limits had expanded and
officials wanted to cash in on their agreement.
Trouble is, the Servises want no part of Pinellas Park.
In fact, Mrs. Servis said they never wanted to annex into Pinellas Park.
Now the City Council must decide whether to hold them
to their agreement or let them stay in the county. That decision likely will
come at Thursday's Council meeting, 7:30 p.m. in City Hall, 5141 78th Ave. N.
The meeting is open to the public.
At least two Council members are willing to let them
out of the agreement. It takes at least three of the five members to make a
decision.
"I'm not going to pursue it," said Mayor Bill
Mischler, who has maintained that annexations should be voluntary. "They
have their rights and I believe in that. No hard feelings."
Rick Butler had harsher words for the Servises.
"My personal thing is, I'm going to let them out
of it," he said. "I'm not sure I want them in our community."
The irritating thing, he said, is that the Servises
were willing to take the city's money although they had no intention of becoming
part of the city.
"To me, that's kind of cheesy at best,"
Butler said. "It isn't the type (of resident) I want if they did it for
self-benefit."
Mrs. Servis bristled at Butler's statements which, she
said, mirrored what he told her when she spoke with him.
"They never paid us a penny," she said.
"We did them a service."
Her company, then known as G and S Towing, picked up
wrecks and broken-down or abandoned cars and bicycles. In all cases, it was the
owner who paid.
"If they didn't, we got stuck with it," she
said. "Nobody paid."
It's true, she said, that she and her husband never
wanted to be annexed. They thought the issue would never come up because the
next-door neighbor also did not want to be in Pinellas Park.
It's true, she said, that taxes may be lower in
Pinellas Park, but that doesn't take into account impact fees and other
assessments.
Mrs. Servis said she and her husband have had bad
experiences with Pinellas Park officials. Several years ago, a Pinellas Park
fire inspector visited their new company, Express Auto Transport, 6590 Haines
Road, and threatened to close them down.
Her husband told him to get off the property because he
had no right to be there. Mr. Servis then called the Lealman Fire Department,
which has jurisdiction of their section of the county. Lealman handled the
situation politely and well, she said.
"We've had absolutely no problem with
Lealman," Mrs. Servis said.
The Servises' poor impressions of Pinellas Park were
confirmed after receiving the letter welcoming them to the city.
Bud Wortendyke, who oversees annexations for the city,
was insistent that they would have to be annexed, she said.
"He's extremely arrogant," Mrs. Servis said.
Wortendyke did not return a phone call asking for
comment.
Because of their discussion with Wortendyke, the
Servises began calling Council members. That's when Butler became rude,
according to Mrs. Servis.
At first, he was nice, she said, then Butler told her,
"If you want to stay in Lealman, fine, I have a real city to worry about.
You have enough problems down there."
Mrs. Servis said, "I have no problems" with
Lealman.
The annexation agreements with towing companies were
developed years ago because several companies wanted to be in the rotation. Such
agreements were still being written as late as 1997 when Jim Madden was city
manager.
Such agreements are still in use today, City Manager
Jerry Mudd said. They are required by a Pinellas Park ordinance.
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Lealman
upset with its legislative support
Community activists had hoped
Sen. Jim Sebesta would be able to help in their fight to stop annexations.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 7, 2001
Community activists had hoped Sen. Jim Sebesta would be
able to help in their fight to stop annexations.
LEALMAN -- State Sen. Jim Sebesta came to a September community meeting where
most of the estimated 90 people cheered and agreed that Lealman needed to take
the next step toward becoming a city.
Impressed by the enthusiasm, Sebesta called it a "wonderful exercise in
democracy" and said he'd never seen so many people come to that type
meeting. He even contributed $20 to a "city kitty" to help Lealman
activists raise the estimated $25,000 for a study to see if creating a
municipality makes fiscal sense.
Sebesta, R-St. Petersburg, sympathized with the need to raise that much money
"just to ask the question." He told neighbors he understood how
difficult it would be to determine if Lealman could support itself while
adjacent cities continued to annex properties. The continued annexations
constantly change the tax base, making it difficult, if not impossible, to
estimate how much money the city of Lealman would have.
Lealman activists believed they had the senator's unqualified support.
Soon after, they asked the state legislative delegation to pass a bill
prohibiting annexations within the Lealman Fire District for two years. That
would give them enough time to do the study and see if residents wanted to form
a city. With Sebesta's support, they thought the bill would be a slam dunk.
But they were stunned late last week to discover that Sebesta may not support
such a proposal. The legislator has doubts, ranging from the amount of community
support for cityhood to the length of time it would take to pass a local bill.
Since such a bill would not become law until probably July, he said, annexations
would continue at least until then.
Some in Lealman believe Sebesta is reneging on a promise.
"Sebesta floored me," said Ray Neri, president of the Lealman
Community Association, the group that has spearheaded the drive to cityhood for
the unincorporated area.
Neri said he saw the senator's position as a reversal of his previous stance.
Sebesta, however, denied that he has changed his position.
"I never said that I would sponsor the bill," Sebesta said. "I
don't think it's the right approach."
The senator said he agreed only to contact the state Department of Community
Affairs to see if funds could be given to Lealman for the feasibility study.
Sebesta said he had done that.
"The answer is no," he said.
He suggested that Lealman activists need to figure out how long it will take
to raise the $25,000 for the study. Once they do that, they should go to
Pinellas Park, Seminole, St. Petersburg and Kenneth City and ask that they not
annex into Lealman for that time period. If the money has not been raised in
that time, then the cities could renew annexing into the Lealman area.
Neri said the Lealman Community Association has written to Pinellas Park
Mayor Bill Mischler to ask that they not annex into the area for two years. That
would give activists time to raise money for the study, have it done and, if
cityhood proved to be a good idea, to let Lealman residents vote on the issue
and make the final decision.
Mischler never acknowledged receiving the letter, Neri said. And just last
month, the Pinellas Park City Council told its staff to accept annexations from
Lealman.
"Our rights are not protected," Neri said. "We are subject to
the will of cities who don't have anything to do with us. (But) by their very
actions, they impact us."
Sebesta said he did not believe that Neri's experience with Pinellas Park was
an indication that his idea was bad or would fail.
"They haven't done it the right way," he said. Neri's proposal for
a two-year moratorium was "too long, too indefinite."
Sebesta said he'll be watching Neri's group for the next two weeks to see
what members do. Their actions will determine how Sebesta proceeds on Nov. 15
when the moratorium proposal is scheduled to come before the Pinellas
Legislative Delegation. That's when Sebesta will have to decide where he stands.
Annexation meeting
The Lealman Community Association will discuss the best
strategies to prevent annexations into the area at a 7 p.m. meeting tonight at
the Disabled American Veterans, 4801 37th St. N. For information, call
association president Ray Neri at 527-5352, or go to the group's Web site at
web.tampabay.rr.com/wni2001/. The meeting is open to the public.
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As the county looks to tighten
local annexation policies, the city wants to expand its borders and grow to
50,000 residents.
By MAUREEN BYRNE
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 4, 2001
SEMINOLE -- No more Mr. Nice Guy.
SEMINOLE -- No more Mr. Nice Guy.
City officials say if the county wants to play rough when it comes to
annexation, so can they.
The latest move by the county to restrict annexations by referendum has hit a
nerve with Seminole. Officials say the city's policy on annexation has been
merely reactive: They respond only to people who are interested in joining
Seminole.
"Up until today, that is how we have proceeded," said City Manager
Frank Edmunds.
But now it's time to take a different approach, city leaders say, especially
since the county wants to write its own laws for annexation rather than follow
the state's rules.
Although no formal plan of action has been decided yet, the City Council
agreed at a workshop Tuesday to beef up its efforts at annexation. Edmunds said
the city is planning a "marketing program in which we can get the word
out." A mass mailing or fliers tucked in newspapers promoting the city are
two considerations.
"Maybe we have been too nice," council member Pete Bengston said.
"We need to get very, very aggressive. If we sit back any longer, we're not
going to get anybody else, and the county is going to make sure of that."
Edmunds said he is reluctant to say Seminole will become aggressive about
annexations. Rather, he said, he prefers to use the word proactive.
"We are accused of being aggressive, and we are not," Edmunds said.
"We are accused of not being factual, and we are. Other than the banners
that say "Grow With Us,' we haven't really done anything."
The prospect of a more aggressive Seminole upsets some Lealman residents, who
blame last year's annexation of property along Park Street for taking away a
chunk of their tax base and costing them money.
"That's what has started all this," said Ray Neri, president of the
Lealman Community Association, referring to the antiannexation movement in the
Lealman area. "We don't think that was an ethical move. Besides, we think
that annexation all over the county is out of hand."
Seminole's opportunity to grow may screech to a halt if the county succeeds
in changing the rules. The move to restrict cities from annexing unincorporated
land is the latest county effort to have more of a voice in annexations. The
county wants state lawmakers to exempt Pinellas from current state rules
regarding annexation referendums. If county voters approve, then the commission
could write new rules, making annexation by referendum more difficult for
cities.
County commissioners say they are only responding to people who live in
unincorporated areas who oppose annexations. Some of those individuals say they
will be forced to join a city under the current state law, which says the
approval of 50 percent of the voters plus one is necessary for a municipality to
annex a large area at one time.
Since December 1999, Seminole has hosted 73 meetings for subdivisions,
neighborhoods or condominiums interested in annexation. Since then, the city has
conducted nine annexations by referendum, two of which failed. In August, voters
in Seminole Grove Estates, a neighborhood just west of the Pinellas Trail
between 86th and 102nd avenues, turned down Seminole's latest offer to join the
city.
According to Mitch Bobowski, Seminole's general services director, about five
neighborhoods are interested in joining the city. However, the residents who
live there cannot vote to join the city because their communities are not
contiguous to Seminole, a requirement of annexation.
"If we could get to them today, we would hold referendums,"
Bobowski said.
Last year, the city plotted boundaries it would like Seminole to expand to:
131st Street on the west, 110th Avenue on the north, Starkey Road on the east
and Bay Pines on the south.
If that could be accomplished, the city would cover 12.5 square miles and
would contain 50,000 to 60,000 residents, compared with about 4 square miles and
16,000 residents now.
"I, for one, want to see us grow to our original plans," said Mayor
Dottie Reeder.
All council members agreed and said it's time to do something now before it's
too late. "I think we need to set up a very assertive time line," said
council member Patricia Hartstein.
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Lealman, the amoeba with resolve
The area
will remain open to nibblers, but still may be able to salvage fire taxes from
annexed areas. Activists plot their next move, if any.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 11, 2001
The area will remain open to
nibblers, but still may be able to salvage fire taxes from annexed areas.
Activists plot their next move, if any.
LEALMAN -- State legislators last week delivered a
crippling blow to activists who want to create a city by abandoning a bill that
would have safeguarded residents from annexations.
"We're dead in the water this year," said Ray
Neri, referring to legislative efforts to protect the unincorporated area's
borders.
Neri, head of the Lealman Community Association, denied
that the drive to cityhood had suffered a fatal blow. "I guess we go to
Plan Z. It must be Plan Z; we've done every other plan."
Still alive is a related proposal to ensure that fire
taxes from areas annexed into adjacent cities would go to the Lealman Fire
District.
Under the current system, the fire taxes go to the
annexing city even if Lealman continues to provide fire service. Lealman
taxpayers and fire officials have complained of the increased monetary burden
placed on them as taxes increase to make up the lost revenue.
Legislators plan to discuss the proposal at their
meeting Thursday.
Rep. Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg, also had planned
to introduce a bill that would have placed a two-year moratorium on annexations
into the fire district.
The ban was designed to give Lealman activists a chance
to raise $25,000 for a feasibility study that would determine if incorporation
made financial sense.
The moratorium also would have allowed time for a
referendum in which Lealman voters could decide whether they wanted to become a
city.
Farkas decided to withdraw the bill after Pinellas
County's state senators declined to support it. The bill would not have passed,
said Chris Davis, a Farkas spokesman.
Farkas did not return a phone message asking for
comment.
The legislative letdown was the latest pothole in the
bumpy road that Community Association members have traveled the past couple of
years.
The group was established to ignite a revitalization
effort. Instead, the neighbors became more aware of the fact that Pinellas Park,
Seminole, St. Petersburg and Kenneth City were annexing into their area, taking
chunks of the Lealman tax base with them.
Association members also fretted that once they spruced
up the area, the cities would annex and leave behind poor housing and needy
people.
"We're going to create one of the largest slums in
central Pinellas County," said Jon Frank of the Community Association
board.
Activists realized their best defense was to become a
city. First, they tried to merge with Kenneth City. But the little town that is
surrounded on three sides by Lealman and outnumbered 8-1 declined to explore the
idea.
The next idea, to form the city of Lealman, has proven
to be difficult and expensive. It's hard to set boundaries with the continual
annexations.
As Frank told Pinellas Park Council members Thursday:
"Every Pinellas Park council meeting, the shape of Lealman changes."
There have been bright moments. Farkas and state Sen.
Jim Sebesta, R-St. Petersburg, attended a Lealman meeting and were so taken by
the enthusiasm they each gave $20 to the cause and vowed help.
But when the time came to support the Farkas bill,
Sebesta refused, saying some in Lealman opposed cityhood and that he believed an
enforced moratorium was not the proper way to go about it. The neighboring
cities also opposed.
Farkas withdrew the bill days after Sebesta's
reluctance became public.
"The whole thing that bothered me most is (that)
the support vanished," Neri said. "We were very naive and didn't
understand the political situation."
Lealman activists wonder where to go next. Raise the
$25,000 for a feasibility study? Raise more and hire a lobbyist to push their
message? Try again next year for a moratorium on annexations?
As for maintaining their borders, association members
have a tentative meeting scheduled with the Pinellas Park Council for sometime
in the new year. Annexation policies are scheduled to be the main issue.
Association leaders also have hinted they could change
their approach entirely.
They could ask to merge with St. Petersburg or Pinellas
Park, an idea broached earlier this year. It would seem unlikely since Lealman
residents have said they want self-determination and to maintain community
identity.
Or they could just let incorporation die.
Neri said that's not up to him.
"I don't think that's my decision," he said.
"It was always the people's decision."
For Neri, Frank and others, as long as they have the
support, they'll keep pushing for cityhood.
"We have a vision for the future in Lealman and
we're trying to make that happen, but at every juncture, we meet a
roadblock," Frank said. "There's another story to be told here. It's
the story of the people of Lealman."
If you're interested
The Pinellas County Legislative Delegation will meet
from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday at St. Petersburg College, Fine Arts
Auditorium, Clearwater. Among the items to be discussed will be a local bill
that would ensure that the Lealman Fire District receives taxes from all
properties in its borders, even if the land was annexed by a city.
Press arrow to return to top of page
What
happened to lights promised months ago? Florida Power says they're coming, and
they're on time.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 11, 2001
LEALMAN -- Tony Clark thought his
two-year battle to get neighborhood streetlights was over last June when the
County Commission approved the project.
LEALMAN -- Tony Clark thought his two-year battle to
get neighborhood streetlights was over last June when the County Commission
approved the project.
The first streetlight would go up in August, Clark was
told. Then, it was September. Then October.
The latest estimates, Clark said, put installation
"maybe (at) the end of December, possibly the beginning of January."
"I expected that it would move along a little bit
faster, especially because these street lighting petitions are something that
the community has requested," Clark said.
Residents, he said, "agreed that they want the
lights. They agreed with the placement of the lights. They agreed to pay for the
lights. There should be no hold-up."
Florida Power, however, said the lights are coming and
they're on time.
"We're on schedule for this project. We didn't
expect to have much done before December or January," said Rick Janka, a
Florida Power spokesman. Lealman might see the beginnings of the project before
Thanksgiving, he said. "I can understand that they're anxious."
People need to understand that "just to put in a
normal streetlight takes six weeks," he said.
Florida Power needs to install 268 lights and 155 new
poles for this project.
"It's just a huge, huge job," Janka said.
Clark's crusade began in 1999 with a request to the
county for a petition. The county mapped out lighting districts in the central
portion of east Lealman, that portion of the unincorporated area between St.
Petersburg, Pinellas Park and Kenneth City's eastern border.
The county returned the prepared petition in September
2000. Clark spent the next five or six months talking with the more than 1,000
property owners in the lighting district that had been drawn around his
neighborhood.
When more than 60 percent signed the petition
indicating they were willing to pay for the lights, Clark took it back to the
Pinellas County Commission for members' approval. That came in June and Clark
was told installation would begin in about eight weeks.
To fill in the time, Clark spread his efforts to other
lighting districts and, just recently, sent two more completed petitions for
Lealman Heights and Hoeldtke Heights. Fourth and fifth petitions for Fruit Haven
and Orangewood Heights are almost complete.
But selling people on the idea became more difficult
when lights did not come to the area as a result of the first petition. Clark
said he felt as if he'd reneged on a promise and that residents were doubting
him.
"It kind of makes me the liar, or makes me not
have the correct information about stuff, which I'm supposed to be giving
people," Clark said. "I try to give information out as accurately as I
can possibly give it."
The delay made Clark and the Lealman Community
Association, which spearheaded the streetlight drive, decide to postpone
collecting signatures until they actually saw some results.
The delay also has sent a political message to Clark,
who is active in the movement to have Lealman become a city.
"If we were our own city, then we could have our
City Council vote and we would have streetlights. We would have had them years
ago if we were a city. It all kind of ties together with what we're talking
about becoming our own city."
Press arrow to return to top of page
Leaders say legislators denied
protection against crippling annexation of some pieces of the fire district.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times,
published November 18, 2001
LEALMAN -- Pinellas legislators have gutted a bill that Lealman residents
hoped would protect their borders from annexation and validate their pursuit of
cityhood.
What happened instead Thursday, Lealman leaders say, is the county's
legislative delegation has declared open season for cities hunting for property
in the unincorporated fire district.
The Lealman activists foresee the dominoes tumbling: the loss of tax base and
any chance of cityhood, the eventual dissolution of the fire district.
Their fears already are taking shape as St. Petersburg prepares to annex the
two largest chunks of commercial property: the Joe's Creek industrial area to
the southeast and the Lighthouse Point area, near Tyrone Boulevard.
In Joe's Creek, there are $75-million worth of commercial and industrial
properties -- or about 9 percent of Lealman's fire and emergency budget.
"That's going to kill us. That's going to kill us," said Linda
Campbell, head of the Lealman Fire Commission. "That's huge. I mean, that
floors me. That's the meat of our industrial income."
To acquire any of Joe's Creek, St. Petersburg would need County Commission
approval to expand its annexation planning area.
Consideration of the first property in that area is scheduled to come before
the St. Petersburg City Council on Nov. 29.
A cry for help is denied
The legislative measure, sponsored by state Rep. Frank Farkas, R-St.
Petersburg, was supposed to answer the Lealman community's cry for help.
A little more than a year ago, it became evident to Lealman activists that
annexations threatened their very existence.
Seminole took a chunk that included such lucrative Park Street property as
Target and the Don Pablo's and Hops restaurants.
Worse, Lealman had to continue providing fire service to the area while
receiving no tax revenue for it -- which meant the people living in the district
had to pay more to keep the equipment and firefighters going.
Farkas agreed to sponsor two bills. One, requested by the community
association, would have placed a two-year moratorium on annexations in the fire
district, thus allowing Lealman residents to perform a feasibility study to see
if cityhood was a possibility.
The other, requested by the fire commission, would have placed a moratorium
on annexations while cityhood was explored and assured Lealman would get fire
tax money for any district land annexed.
Cities protested the bills, particularly the moratorium provisions, and
legislators refused to consider them. Then, Farkas said, legislators changed the
remainder of the bill, allowing Pinellas Park and St. Petersburg to complete
annexations into Lealman.
The law would not take effect until Jan. 1, 2003, and stipulated that Lealman
would keep the fire taxes on annexed lands only until 2008. After that, the tax
revenue would go to the cities.
'I think the big bucks talk'
Lealman activists said they feel helpless and betrayed.
"They're going to grab everything that's valuable," said Ray Neri,
Community Association head. "We have a nonbill bill. They fed us a
cookie."
Rebecca Harriman, a Community Association board member and Lealman fire
commissioner, agreed that the bill as approved Thursday is the area's death
knell.
"It's open season on Lealman now," said Harriman, who emphasized
that she was speaking as a Community Association member. "It's going to be
an interesting year."
Farkas defended his decision to change the effective date, saying the delay
was a matter of about six months. The five-year limitation, requested by state
Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Palm Harbor, will ensure that the Legislature reviews the
situation in five years. If necessary, the Legislature can extend that date,
Farkas said. The five years also will give county officials time to solve their
annexation problems.
"Our hopes are that the county somehow takes an active role," he
said.
Farkas seemed unconcerned about the loss of revenue to Lealman should St.
Petersburg annex the Joe's Creek area.
"Over the last several years, they have lost a lot of their tax
base," he said. "They've lost a significant amount of their tax base
already."
One idea, Farkas said, is to dissolve the fire district.
"A city could come in and take over the fire district," he said. Or
a city could annex the whole unincorporated area. Farkas denied he was
advocating that.
"It's just another option," Farkas said. "We're looking at
options."
That irked Neri.
"They talk about the unincorporated area as if it were land and not
people," Neri said. Elected officials need to remember, he said, that real
people with emotions and commitments to a community are involved.
Lealman residents have such a sense of community, Neri said, that at least
1,000 of them have signed a petition in favor of cityhood.
Campbell said she didn't blame the cities that want to annex into Lealman.
They want to grow, she said, and they are only doing what the law allows.
She had harsher words for the legislative delegation and for county
commissioners who have allowed repeated annexations into Lealman.
"It's obvious to me as a citizen of this community that our
representatives are not for the little guy anymore," Campbell said. "I
think the big bucks talk. I think the power talks and the cities have the
power."
It's time for county commissioners to help, she said.
"We do need some protection. This would definitely be a feather in their
hat, if they would stand up for the little guy and say, "We're going to
give them a chance.' "
County Commissioner Ken Welch said he wants his fellow commissioners to
authorize the Pinellas Planning Council to conduct at least part of the
feasibility study to determine whether Lealman should become a city.
On Tuesday, Lealman representatives will ask the County
Commission to move annexation planning boundaries back to coincide with the fire
district boundaries
Seminole's Dottie Reeder wants to
talk with Broward officials, who have dealt with such problems for decades.
By MAUREEN BYRNE
© St. Petersburg Times,
published November 18, 2001
SEMINOLE -- With annexation issues coming to a boil, Seminole Mayor Dottie
Reeder is looking for some help. So why not seek guidance from folks who already
have been through what Pinellas County is now experiencing: turf wars.
Reeder is suggesting that Pinellas mayors invite officials from Broward
County, where all unincorporated areas have been mandated to form their own
cities or join existing municipalities, to speak to them. Seminole would host
the meeting, she said. A date has not been set.
"I am not proposing that Pinellas County would duplicate any other
county," Reeder said at a City Council meeting last week.
But she said she does think such a meeting would be a good place to start in
resolving annexation problems in the county.
So does Pinellas Park Mayor Bill Mischler. "We are all in support of
this," he said of Reeder's idea. "All this bickering and fighting
about annexation. It shouldn't be. We have more important things to do."
Mischler knows about lack of harmony over annexation. The city of Largo is ready
to sue Pinellas Park and Pinellas County over an agreement the three reached
more than a year ago. Largo officials said it would provide sewer service to
property owners in their sewer district whether they agreed to become city
residents or not.
Now, Largo has accused Pinellas Park and the county of violating that
agreement. Pinellas Park and the county say Largo has two ways to provide sewer
service: A fast track for those who agree to become city residents and a slower
track for those who do not.
Reeder's request to Broward County for help with annexation won't be the
first. "We do talk to other cities and counties," said Cynthia
Chambers, director of Broward County's Planning Services Division. "We're
always available to do that."
Unlike Pinellas, which is in the early stages of dealing with annexation,
Broward has been struggling with annexation issues for the past two decades.
Bills have passed, an ad hoc committee headed by the Broward County legislative
delegation was formed, and cities have fought over the ownership of
unincorporated areas.
Annexation matters change from year to year, Chambers said. "You're
never quite sure how it's going to turn out until it's done," she said.
"It's about money, politics and people."
In Pinellas, some cities, including Seminole, Kenneth City, Clearwater, Largo
and Pinellas Park, have passed resolutions opposing the county's efforts to
restrict annexations by referendum. The County Commission sought to get state
lawmakers to exempt Pinellas from current annexation rules. If county voters
approved the legislation, the commission could have written new rules that could
make annexation by referendum more difficult for cities.
But so far, the county has been unable to find a sponsor for such a bill.
Meanwhile, county officials have another idea on how to deal with annexation
in Pinellas. Assistant County Administrator Gay Lancaster has recommended using
the American Assembly process, an open forum with representatives from cities
who annex, residents of the unincorporated areas being annexed, county officials
who have to approve and mediate annexations, and special districts whose
finances could be affected by losing property from their tax rolls. Once the
group is formed, members then would spend about a year to focus on annexation.
-- Staff writer Anne Lindberg contributed to this report.
Annexation plan would split Lealman
As part of the plan, Pinellas
Park will decide whether to rezone land to residential. The move would help
developers but hurt Lealman.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 12, 2001
As part of the plan, Pinellas Park will decide whether to
rezone land to residential. The move would help developers but hurt Lealman.
PINELLAS PARK -- East and west Lealman could be severed and one of the area's
last horse farms could be replaced by apartments if the City Council agrees to a
proposed annexation.
The linchpin in the deal is a zoning change: Developers want to build 130
apartments and 67 single-family homes, but Pinellas Park must change the
properties' zoning from farm to residential.
Without that promise, the owners won't annex into Pinellas Park, said Tom
Shevlin, the city's zoning director.
"That's the deal. They want assurances that this approval would be part
of the annexation," Shevlin said.
A hearing covering the zoning issues is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Jan. 3 in
front of the city's Planning and Zoning Commission at City Hall, 5141 78th Ave.
N.
The City Council would consider the annexation and zoning changes at the same
time, Shevlin said, probably in February.
The importance of the three parcels is their location. If the property is
annexed, Pinellas Park and Kenneth City will touch, cutting Lealman in two.
In one swoop, Lealman residents' hopes of incorporating one large city would
be crushed.
"We knew this was going to happen," said Ray Neri, head of the
Lealman Community Association. "This is our nightmare coming true."
St. Petersburg architect Randy Wedding, who is designing the project, said
apartments are slated for the land abutting 62nd Avenue N. The homes would be on
the parcel along 58th Avenue.
Much of the land is currently occupied by Millbrooke Stables.
The barn and riding facilities are leased out. About 50 horses are boarded on
the land, with their owners paying up to $300 a month for care. A few owners pay
more for extra services.
Kara Fenlon, who leases the property, did not return a phone message asking
for comment.
Boarders were horrified to hear they might have to move their horses.
"It's an absolute travesty to the horse community," said Evie
Wolfe, who boards three horses and gives riding lessons at Millbrooke.
"Where are we going to go?"
No other barn in Pinellas Park, she said, has room to take that many horses.
It's likely many of them will have to go to barns in Hillsborough, Manatee or
Sarasota counties.
"I'm just trying to figure out where I could scrape up enough money to
build a barn," Wolfe said. "I'd be full of tenants."
Wedding said it's unclear when construction might begin, but owners should
have at least six to eight months to find another home for their horses.
The proposed annexation is more bad news for Lealman activists who want to
combine the eastern and western portions of that unincorporated area. The new
city would look like earmuffs, with large portions on each side of Kenneth City
connected by a narrow land bridge between that town and Pinellas Park.
Failing that, activists' best hope would be two smaller cities: between
Kenneth City and St. Petersburg and between Kenneth City and Seminole.
"I'd like to know what Pinellas Park promised them," Neri said.
"That's the whole key."
Pinellas Park officials previously have waived fees and made other promises
to encourage annexation. City officials defend themselves, saying the waived
fees are "soft" money that would not have come into city coffers
anyway. The ultimate benefit of increased tax revenue, they said, outweighs any
waived or lowered fees.
Neri disagreed, saying he believes that Pinellas Park residents would be
upset if they knew the "real cost" of annexation.
Bud Wortendyke, Pinellas Park's annexation guru, could not be reached for
comment.
But Wedding, the architect, said the city had promised nothing. The
developers, he said, want to have all city services available.
"We like being in Pinellas Park for that project," he said.
Plans for fire station withstand critics
Criticism of a station in Lealman
Park is not sufficient to derail the proposal, the fire commission chief says.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 12, 2001
Criticism of a station in Lealman Park is not sufficient to
derail the proposal, the fire commission chief says.
LEALMAN -- Fire commissioners say they'll continue with plans to build a new
fire station at the area's only park.
"Unless there is litigation brought against us to stop this process,
let's just keep going on," Lealman Fire Commission head Linda Campbell
said. Having only "three people" against the proposal is not enough to
derail the plans.
Campbell was referring to a Neighborhood Times article that quoted three
people who were opposed to the new station.
But at least one activist said Campbell is underestimating opposition.
"It isn't three people. It's a lot of people," said Ray Neri, head
of the Lealman Community Association.
That's still not enough opposition, Campbell said. The new station is badly
needed because the old one is "falling down," she said.
After years of waiting and asking, Lealman received $2-million this year in
Penny for Pinellas sales tax money to build a new station. The proposed site is
the northeast corner of Lealman Park, 54th Avenue and 37th Street N. It's the
only space, proponents say, that is suitable for such a structure. Construction
is scheduled to begin next year.
But as the likelihood of a station has grown, opposition has materialized.
Some want a new station elsewhere. Lealman has only one park, they say, and
it should not be shrunk to make way for the fire station.
Others, such as Neri, oppose the station itself.
With cities annexing chunks of Lealman, Neri said, it doesn't make sense to
build a station that a city soon will take over. It makes more sense, he said,
to spend that money on something that will stay with the community.
Campbell disagreed, saying the station would serve Lealman residents, no
matter who ran it.
Pinellas Park council shuns county confab
The chief reason given for
rejecting an invitation to smooth relationships between the cities, county and
unincorporated areas: Largo's participation.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 16, 2001
PINELLAS PARK -- City Council members have spurned an offer to take part in a
countywide group designed to plot future relations between the cities and the
county because the group will contain non-elected officials and representatives
from Largo.
Pinellas Park council members are sending word of their refusal to
participate in the American Assembly to other Pinellas cities in hopes that they
will also boycott the process.
Council members do plan, however, to get copies of the group's meeting
minutes so they can keep track of what's going on.
"My personal opinion, I don't want to be involved in anything Largo's
involved in. Period. End of discussion," Pinellas Park council member Chuck
Williams said before discussion began at Tuesday's workshop.
Fellow council member Ed Taylor agreed that the proposed group was too large.
"Too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the stew. I'm with Chuck. I don't
want to play," Taylor said.
Pinellas County Administrator Stephen Spratt did not return phone calls
asking for comment.
The American Assembly process was proposed by county officials this year
after discussions with Largo.
The idea is to bring together officials from Pinellas cities with
representatives from the county's unincorporated areas, such as Lealman, for a
year's discussion. The goal is to figure out ways for the cities and county to
deal with each other in the future, from issues of annexation to tourism and
business development.
The county has agreed to pay a consultant $51,000 to oversee the process.
Many of the cities involved, Largo, Tarpon Springs, St. Petersburg, Clearwater,
Gulfport, Oldsmar and Madeira Beach, would contribute to that cost.
Pinellas Park council member Patricia Bailey-Snook criticized spending that
much money on the idea.
The rest thought the committee would be one more layer of bureaucracy and a
pointless one at that because nonelected people would be on it.
"It appears to me they have some staff people who are trying to control
the policy," City Manager Jerry Mudd said. However, he said it appears the
county would go ahead with or without Pinellas Park.
Mayor Bill Mischler agreed that elected officials should make the decisions
through existing groups such as the Pinellas Planning Council and the Tampa Bay
Regional Planning Council.
Ray Neri, head of the Lealman Community Association, who has talked with
county officials about serving on the American Assembly, was shocked at Pinellas
Park's stance.
"If that doesn't sound small," Neri said. "Why wouldn't they
want to participate in the health of the county?"
The Pinellas Planning Council and Regional Planning Council may work well for
cities, said Neri, but those groups have no "real people" on them.
That would be one of the strengths of the American Assembly process.
"I think the assembly makes some sense because every aspect of the
county is voiced," Neri said. "I can't believe they're taking that
attitude."
Pinellas Park has been known to avoid those county bodies anyway, Neri said.
He referred to a recent meeting that Seminole Mayor Dottie Reeder called.
Mischler attended the secret meeting.
During that meeting, participants talked about the future of Pinellas County
in regard to annexations. They suggested bringing a representative from Broward
County in to talk about the situation there so they could use it as a possible
blueprint for Pinellas County.
No county officials and no representatives from the unincorporated areas were
invited. The meeting was also not announced publicly, so officials met without
any oversight or scrutiny.
Neri was outraged by the meeting, saying some of the cities were out of
control and flexing their muscles. This latest decision by Pinellas Park, he
said, was a "slap in the face" to the seven county commissioners.
"I think it's irresponsible," Neri said. "The county is the
only control to keep all the kids in the playground from hurting each other.
They're the ones that keep the bullies controlled. That could very well be why
they (the cities) don't like it."
Seminole wins fight over trash pickup
A judge says the city can designate a garbage hauler in newly annexed
territory.
By MAUREEN BYRNE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 16, 2001
SEMINOLE -- The city has won a turf war over garbage pickup.
SEMINOLE -- The city has won a turf war over garbage pickup.
A judge has sided with Seminole, saying the city has the legal right to tell
a garbage company to stop collecting trash in two areas it annexed in January.
"I think this was extremely critical because had we lost it would have
meant that the new residents coming into the city would not be able to reap the
same savings," said Mayor Dottie Reeder. "It was one of the most
important legal issues we faced as a city."
Because Seminole has an exclusive contract with Waste Management to haul away
solid waste within the city limits, officials earlier this year asked BFI to
stop its service to the annexed areas.
No, said BFI, which provides garbage collection for much of unincorporated
Pinellas County. The company claimed the city was displacing it by taking away
clients from the Townhomes of Lake Seminole and the Sandy Woods neighborhood.
The two garbage companies and the city held several meetings, but no amicable
resolution was reached.
BFI and the city were each looking at two different state statutes to make
their case. So they asked the courts for help in figuring out what law pertained
to the issue.
While the attorneys were waiting on an answer, BFI continued to provide
garbage pickup to the city's new residents. However, the residents did have the
right to change their service to Waste Management.
Stephen Chrumbis, an attorney representing BFI, argued that a relatively new
state law requires municipalities that displace solid waste providers to follow
certain procedures. They must hold a public hearing to seek comment. And they
must give the current provider a three-year notice or pay the company for 15
months' worth of business.
But Seminole City Attorney John Elias countered the city doesn't have to
follow those requirements because it was basing its request to BFI on another
state law -- one that involves annexation.
State legislation requires municipalities to recognize contracts from other
waste collection companies provided they were not executed within six months of
the annexation activity.
Townhomes of Lake Seminole is a 212-unit condominium complex that sits off
Seminole Boulevard; the Sandy Woods area, which is in the northwest part of the
city, is dotted with 198 homes. None of the residents has a contractual
agreement with BFI. Rather, the consumers pay for the garbage company's service
on a monthly basis.
After hearing from both attorneys, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court Judge Anthony
Rondolino recently entered a motion in favor of the city. Applying the
annexation law to the case, the judge said BFI's only entitlement to relief
would be "limited to the remainder of their contract terms which have
apparently already expired."
"The bottom line was Seminole was successful," Chrumbis said.
BFI has until Thursday to appeal the judge's decision. Chrumbis said the
company was considering whether to appeal.
This old creek
You've seen it. Looks like a
shallow ditch. Basically is. But Joe's Creek has a deep and colorful past. Think
kids on rafts, big fish, lots of frogs. Think old Pinellas, before the dredging
and development. There are still hints of that.
By JON WILSON and ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 23, 2001
ST. PETERSBURG -- Once upon a time, when Pinellas County was a wild
place, crusty woodsmen used Joe's Creek as place to hunt, fish and tie down the
turtles they caught. One of them left behind his first name.
[Times
photo: James Borchuck]
Joe Silva was a 19th century turtle trapper who filed a land grant here in
1843, historians say. He and his partner John Levique snared the shellbacks to
be sold in Key West and New Orleans.
Old old-timers who knew Silva passed along generation by generation what they
knew about the man and the stream. Eventually, Joe's Creek, labeled as such,
made the maps.
Every day, thousands of motorists pass over it as they roll along 34th Street
N, 49th, 58th and 66th. They probably don't know it. Most of the time, Joe's
Creek looks like a simple drainage ditch, which is essentially what it is these
days.
It has been dredged and channeled in spots and in another, molded with
concrete banks to let it pass tamely through an industrial park -- which also
bears the creek's name -- just east of U.S. 19.
It's a perfect basin, said 50-year-old Frank Bowman, whose family moved close
to the banks of the creek when he was 8 years old.
Developers had an easy time engineering drainage because it collected runoff
from both north and south.
But the original stream was not so pedestrian.
A 1920s archaeological dig on its banks unearthed fossils, including that of
a huge land tortoise whose surviving relatives are limited to the Galapagos
Islands.
The expedition worked south of 46th Avenue N near 70th Street, today an area
of modest houses and mobile home parks.
One big wild playground
In its way, Joe's Creek was one of the last south county frontiers. Twentieth
century boys and tomboys, decades worth of them from Lealman and northern St.
Petersburg, used the stream for adventure. Its deeper spots made swimming holes.
Kids threw in rafts they cobbled out of tire tubes and foam plastic.
Kurt Petty, 34, grew up at 46th Street N and 40th Avenue, maybe two blocks
from the creek.
"It was home away from home," he said. "Mom could always find
us."
Sometimes rafters pushed west, downstream to find the mysterious bayous of
lower Seminole, praying to be home before dark so Mom could indeed find them.
"It used to be filled with fish and lots and lots and lots of
frogs," said Bowman, now a specialist with the county's community
development department. Bowman said you could hear alligators coughing at night,
though they were seldom seen during the day.
Bowman and his pals managed to catch a 4-footer. They built a cage for it,
keeping it for a couple of months until someone's mother ordered them to let it
go.
Creek exploration was a grand thing to do.
"Cowboys and Indians and Army. It was perfect for that," Bowman
said.
But most mothers didn't like such ideas, he recalled. Many told their
children to stay clear of the creek.
Still, the boldest of rafters could navigate into Cross Bayou, drop south
past Bay Pines and make it to the pass leading to the Gulf of Mexico.
That's where an 1848 hurricane blew a gap through one of the offshore land
slivers called keys. Today the gap separates Madeira Beach from Treasure Island.
It's called John's Pass, named for Levique, Joe's pal.
Surprises still lurk
Joe's Creek starts in Silver Lake, roughly at 25th Street N and 42nd Avenue.
Years ago, the lake was probably a marsh. Some old maps and aerial photos
suggest so.
The stream creeps, rather than flows, often just above the St. Petersburg
city limits. It goes about 7 miles west and finally northwest until it reaches
the mangroves of Cross Bayou.
South of there, years ago, when west 54th Avenue N, still unpaved, poked into
a tangle of palmettos, pines and vines, a community theater stood at the point
where the avenue dead-ended at the creek. Loyd Spangler's Music Box Playhouse
had been crafted from an old barn.
These days, anyone's inspection would reveal mostly ho-hum geography. Much of
the creek is ankle or knee deep. You can't hike its whole length. Stray trash
speckles some of the banks. And don't try a canoe anywhere east of 66th Street,
or you'll be dragging your craft (and patience) behind.
But there are surprises, leftover pockets that, if not wild, make you think
of such land.
One example is nicknamed Lealman's Eden. Just east of 46th Avenue N and 46th
Street, the creek widens into a lake. County-fenced empty land surrounds it.
Bird chatter overrides traffic noise coming from busy 54th Avenue N.
In the creek, half a dozen mallards cruise. Overhead, patrolling for the odd
carcass, turkey vultures ride the wind. Anhingas spread their wings to dry. A
turtle slips into the creek.
Perhaps Joe once hunted its kind there.
Paradise found
Few people know about Joe's Creek Drive. There will be few hints here,
because the people who live there would probably like it kept quiet.
But it is another Joe's Creek surprise.
Up from a canyonlike section of the stream, the residential area is one of
sprawling, gracious homes amid large lots and ancient trees. An oak canopy
shades the drive. Here, shade mixed with a green-gold sunlight glow paints the
theme. It is a place to take a deep breath.
Farther west, where Joe's Creek touches Kenneth City, most of the land around
it amounted to cow pasture until the late 1950s or early '60s. It tended toward
sandy soil and palmettos, Bowman said.
Still farther on, closer to unincorporated Lealman, the country character
changed to one of oak-dominated woodlands.
Where Bowman grew up, the creek bed was 6 to 8 feet below the bank, and there
was a kind of sandy shore leading to the water, which he said was clear as
glass.
Nowadays, the creek changes dramatically just after it pushes under the
commercial strip of 66th Street N.
Closer to the bayou and Boca Ciega Bay, the water becomes brackish. It rises
and falls with the tide. It deepens and widens.
Bigger fish live there: mullet, snook and smallish bass, said Dave Currey,
who lives close to the banks.
"I've caught a lot of nice fish there, but I wouldn't eat them,"
Currey said.
Catches began to seem less appetizing after people began to be concerned
about pollution in the late 1960s and early '70s.
Kurt Petty, on the other hand, said he caught fish upstream as late as the
1970s or early '80s and ate them.
"I'm not dead, and I don't have any diseases."
Then they dredged
Dredging began on Joe's Creek about 1962, Bowman said. More development meant
the creek needed more drainage capacity, so the waterway needed to be cleared.
Gradually, it also got deeper and wider.
"The natural look began to go away. The natural wildlife habitat changed
probably after the first dredging. Then it began to look more like a drainage
ditch," Bowman said.
The dredging apparently contributed to the one flood that Bowman recalls
during the past 40 years.
It happened near 46th Avenue N around the 7000 block. A combination of
discarded lumber and water hyacinths plugged up part of the stream that passed
under a street. During a "freak afternoon rain" in the 1970s, the
creek flooded.
Bowman's grandmother lived in a mobile home park there that got flooded out.
He went over to reclaim some of her belongings and got himself into chest-deep
water. Bowman, over 6 feet tall, found drawers, cabinets and closets full of
water.
Old news clips say a 1979 storm dumped 17 inches of rain in 24 hours, causing
a flood and several deaths.
Some residents nearby wish the county would pay more attention to the creek.
Jack Shaw, who lives in Palm Circle Community, where some residents can sit
in their back yards and look over the creek, would like the silt islands cleared
away.
Tide brings in silt, Shaw said, and when it rains, more debris washes off the
drainage tiles that line part of the creek in this section.
"There used to be bass in there," Shaw said. "I mean, snook in
there that big," he said, holding his arms wide.
Parks may be on horizon
During the 1920s, visionary planner John Nolen drafted a potential
development blueprint for St. Petersburg and parts of the south county. The plan
included Joe's Creek as a linear park.
The idea has come around again. Many Lealman residents would like more green
space, and county officials have contemplated converting the creek into the kind
of park Nolen imagined.
The county owns right-of-way along the creek and could reasonably consider
turning some of it into walking paths.
And there is talk of turning into parks some of the creek's bulges -- the
lakes and the vacant land around them.
County officials have applied to the water management district for some
"modest" grants. But "It'll take a while" for anything to
happen, Bowman said.
It wouldn't be the first time creek land has been a target for preservation.
Starting in 1987, the San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land helped the
county get about 250 acres near the creek's mouth at Cross Bayou.
The area is just a short paddle from under the bridge on Park Street/Starkey
or from another bridge under Park Boulevard, near the canoe launch at the Cajun
Cafe.
One more thing: Water recycling plants now stand on the site of the old Music
Box Playhouse.
Joe might have recognized the original barn. The plants would have puzzled
him.
To
see articles written in 2002 click here
