REDINGTON BEACH – The Redington Beach City Commission decided Oct. 20 to send a commission member to an upcoming Redington Shores town meeting to discuss purchasing two lots located south of Redington Beach Town Park.
Redington Shores owns the land and uses it as a stormwater project staging area.
One of the lots is 74 feet by 83 feet and has a current market value of $191,054, according to the Pinellas County Property Appraiser’s Web site. The other lot is 71 feet by 83 feet and has a current market value of $136,226.
Any purchase by Redington Beach would be dependent upon availability of grant money, Vice Mayor Mark Deighton said. If the funds are not available, the town will not purchase the two lots.
Redington Beach residents have asked town leaders when Redington Shores would clean up the property.
Mayor Nick Simons received a letter this month from Redington Shores Mayor Bert Adams saying effective Jan. 1 the lots at 16335 Gulf Blvd. would be cleared.
“The Town of Redington Shores will remove the fencing, grade and sod the lot. The Town of Redington Shores greatly appreciates having had permission from the Town of Redington Beach to make use of our lot for a project staging area,” Adams wrote.
The commission discussed again purchasing the parcels from Redington Shores to expand the park. Earlier this year, the commission sent Redington Shores a letter asking if it would consider selling the lots.
The Redington Shores Commission discussed the possible land purchase at a July 29 workshop session and decided not to sell.
“After some discussion the commission agreed that we do not wish to offer these lots for sale at this time,” Adams wrote in a letter dated July 31. “We certainly appreciate your desire to expand your town’s park with the addition of these lots, and hope you will continue to communicate any future ideas to us in the spirit of community.”
The town has looked at grants to enable the purchase of the land. One potential grant required that the landowner must express interest in selling the land.
“All we were looking for was to see if they were open at some price (to sell the land),” said Commissioner Fred Steiermann.
Dock replacements
Replacing an old dock could soon be a simpler process in town.
The commission passed on first reading an update ordinance on docks. The update would allow residents to rebuild or reconstruct an existing dock where they did not change the design without having to get approval from the board of adjustment. Currently only maintenance and repairs are allowed.
The current practice didn’t make sense. People had the permit and variance that was still valid and the board of adjustment was routinely approving variances to reconstruct docks, said Commissioner David Drillick.
The second and final reading of the updated dock ordinance is Nov. 17.
In other matters:
• The town commission modified the assistant public works’ job description to include code enforcement.
• The Town Commission appointed Antonio Tamburri to serve a two-year term on the park board and appointed Paul Madsen to serve as an alternate park board member.
• The Town Commission updated the employee manual with pension benefits not paid by the town when an employee is out on worker’s compensation. More workers’ compensation is paid instead.
