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Pond Issue No Longer Stagnant

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By KATHY STEELE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 21, 2007

EAST TAMPA - The question is asked at nearly every monthly meeting of the East Tampa Community Revitalization Partnership.

What's going on with the retention ponds? Especially the one on 34th Street, chosen nearly three years ago as the first of three to become miniparks.

"I don't want to be too old to go to the pond," said former executive board member Dianne Hart, who tossed out the question at the November partnership meeting.

She wondered when a groundbreaking might be held.

Finally, East Tampa redevelopment manager Ed Johnson could say the pond is under construction, although there is no groundbreaking ceremony. Mayor Pam Iorio is waiting until the job is done, he said.

"Let's just do a celebration when it's complete," Johnson told the group. That will be in spring or early summer.

Last week, residents could see early construction signs: silt barriers encircling the pond and surveyors stakes sprouting in the grass.

The partnership is a volunteer advisory group that works with the city on redevelopment projects in East Tampa's community redevelopment area bordered by Hillsborough Avenue, interstates 275 and 4, and the city limits. A portion of property taxes from the area is reinvested in the community.

The pond at Fair Oaks Playground, at 34th and Caracas Street, is one of three retention ponds announced in 2005 as a pilot project. Ponds at 19th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, near Young Middle Magnet School, and at 22nd and Chelsea streets also are due for makeovers.

Through the years, a higher-than-expected price tag, a redesign and reluctance by contractors to bid pond by pond slowed the project.

Bundled together at a cost of about $1.5 million, the project was more attractive, and Johnson said the contract recently was awarded to Gibbs & Register. The company has offices in Orlando, Lakeland, Jacksonville and Sarasota.
East Tampa has about 20 retention ponds totaling more than 70 acres, among the city's largest concentration. Many were built in the 1970s to help prevent flooding.

For years, residents have complained the ponds are an eyesore. In 2004, city officials, prodded by residents' complaints, began looking at ways to spruce up the ponds, including replacing chain link fencing with bollards.

When the pilot project was proposed, city officials hoped about $200,000 a pond would be sufficient to create miniparks with funding from federal grants and East Tampa property taxes.

The price tag ballooned to about $1 million a pond after an initial design that included a bridge with a gazebo spanning the pond, a walking trail, decorative lighting and birdhouses, a picnic area that could double as a live music venue and a landscape in bloom with Florida native plants.

That was scaled back closer to $500,000 a pond, with the gazebo added to the landscape but no bridge. The bridge might be revived later, Johnson said, and sprucing up the first pond could lead to another project.

"We're trying to find out if we have any dollars to redo or expand the Fair Oaks community center," Johnson said. "It's one of the most heavily trafficked centers with about 400 kids a day."

Reporter Kathy Steele can be reached at (813) 835-2103 or ksteele@tampatrib.com.

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