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By Melody Jameson
melody@observernews.net
APOLLO BEACH - A combination of circumstances – all money related – is being blamed for stalling the long planned, eagerly awaited, much discussed community recreation park expansion here.
What’s more, given the current economic climate, county officials do not foresee the expansion that was to have included a first-class skateboard facility and a well-equipped dog park coming off a back burner in the near future.
Such is the assessment summed up this week by John Brill, spokesman for Hillsborough County’s Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department.
Four factors combined to forestall completion of the park expansion on 10 acres adjacent to the existing community recreational facilities on Golf and Sea Boulevard, Brill said. The four involve high construction bids, loss of grant money, county income cutbacks resulting from tax reform legislation and lack of monies to maintain the facilities once completed.
The first indication of problems pointing to a delay in construction came when bids were received for building the amenities. Brill noted that the project, when designed about two years ago, was expected to cost between $800,000 and $850,000. However, bids came in with figures in the $1.5 million neighborhood, he said. He could not explain why the project construction estimates fell so far short of the bid amounts received.
Than, as time elapsed and the project sat on the drawing boards, a $250,000 grant from a participating state agency was lost, the spokesman added.
The situation further was complicated with passage of statewide ad valorem or real property tax reduction measures that gave a break to homeowners but also served to cut income revenues for Florida’s county governments, Brill asserted.
And, finally, this led to slashed county budgets which, in Hillsborough, eliminated any monies that could be applied to maintenance of the new park facilities upon their completion, Brill said. “We won’t build a project we cannot maintain adequately,” he added. “And at this point, we can’t even do all the mowing we’re used to doing. We just don’t have the personnel anymore.”
The project is not dead, but definitely is on a back burner for the foreseeable future, Brill indicated.
On one hand, if a renewed effort to make the park expansion a reality were to be undertaken, it would not, after all, have to begin at ground zero. The acreage is in the county’s inventory and therefore available, plus the design and engineering work largely was completed, he acknowledged.
And, a new grant could be applied for, although this move probably would require updating the project plans, he added.
Then, too, a redesign of the project to eliminate a portion of the acreage where an old retention pond exists, thereby reducing some of the expense involved in handling the pond, might cut the overall project cost, Brill indicated.
But on the other hand, at this time there is no money on hand nor is any anticipated to cover the remainder of the construction costs or the routine maintenance expense, Brill emphasized, even though those charges also have decreased as construction assignments have declined and competition for those that do exist is keen.
The park expansion project, he agreed, is trapped between a fiscally feasible time to build it and a lack of money to take advantage of the timing.
It also is not the only such South County project to fall in this category.
The South Hillsborough “greenways” recreational trail also is on hold, with no positive indications for its construction on the horizon, according to Charner Benz Reese, former principal planner in the county parks section. Such trails, sometimes considered linear parks, are designed for such activities as hiking, jogging and bike riding with periodic trail heads or parking/rest areas.
The first segment, a two-mile stretch from East College Avenue in Ruskin northward to 19th Street N.E., was designed and fully funded but also has been sent to a back burner, she said. A second segment was partially funded but now is categorized as unfunded as the monies once designated were reallocated to another project, Reese added.
Reese herself also has been reassigned, she said, from the parks, recreation and conservation department to the planning and growth management area where she now is dealing with community planning
.
©2008 Melody Jameson
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