|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Condition of park prompts scolding
By DAVE SHELTON
Article published on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 |
 |
![[Image]](/content_images/041608_bee-02.jpg) |
| Photo by DAVE SHELTON |
| A rotting basketball net dangles over Belleair Beach officials unhappy at conditions found at Bayside Park. |
|
BELLEAIR BEACH – Mayor Lynn Rives angrily lashed out April 11 at what he said was poor maintenance of the city’s Bayside Park, which is adjacent to city hall.
Rives said he has received complaints from residents about unmowed grass, weeds, litter and crumbling playground equipment.
Pete Cavalli, the city director of Community Services, shot back that it is difficult to fit park maintenance into the schedule of his two employees and that picking up litter in the park could be a full-time job.
The mayor’s comments came during a City Council bus tour of the city. A small bus carried the council and city department heads to all of its parks and through several neighborhoods to see first-hand issues that are facing the city.
The last stop on the tour was the Bayside Park where Rives spoke angrily at the park’s condition. He pointed to two painted iron “monkey bars” shaped like an engine and caboose. When Cavalli said they were old and needed to be replaced, Rives shot back that they could be repaired and wouldn’t be in their current condition if they had been properly maintained in the past.
Rives added that replacement parts could probably also be obtained so new equipment wouldn’t have to be bought.
Cavalli then pointed to a half-court basketball court and said he was looking for a new Plexiglas backboard to replace the old, painted steel backboard with a rotted, dangling net.
Rives suggested that a beautiful view could be created from the park if a mangrove patch between the park and Intracoastal Waterway was properly trimmed back. Cavalli disagreed, but said “I don’t mean it as an argument, you are the professional,” referring to Rives’ job as Director of Leisure Activities in Oldsmar.
The city recently approved $3,500 to hire a landscaper to cut back the mangroves at Cavalli’s suggestion.
Before winding up the two-hour tour, the council stopped and walked around the renovation project at Morgan Street Park, which has been closed for the work. Expected to reopen around May 1, this beachfront park will feature new, marked parking spaces, bathrooms, a new gazebo, benches and picnic tables.
The council stayed on its bus as it stopped in the parking lot of the city owned marina, through several neighborhoods and past small pocket parks accessing views of the Intracoastal Waterway.
|
Article published on Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Copyright © Tampa Bay Newspapers: All rights reserved. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tampa Bay Newspapers
9911 Seminole Blvd.
Seminole, FL 33772
(727) 397-5563
Open Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
|
|
