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Lake, Garden Projects On Tap

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By KATHY STEELE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 31, 2007

SEMINOLE HEIGHTS - Two city-funded projects will clean up a lake and restore a historical garden center.

Lake Roberta's cleanup begins in January; the Seminole Garden Center's makeover in April.

The city recently hired contractors Kamminga & Roodvoets of Tampa to install a sediment trap and stormwater inlets to block debris and oil from settling in Lake Roberta and to ease erosion that washes away neighbors' yards.

The work will take about four months, city stormwater director Chuck Walter said. In addition, wetlands vegetation will be planted, some exotic plants removed and portions of the lake reshaped to improve water circulation.

'It doesn't really circulate through the lake,' Walter said.

The project's cost of about $316,000 will be shared by the city and the Southwest Florida Water Management District. The money is part of about $840,000 earmarked for an urban lake rescue project for Lake Roberta in Hampton Terrace, Lake Edna in Wellswood and Lake Kipling in South Tampa.

In June, representatives of Swiftmud and the Dyer, Riddle, Mills and Precourt engineering company discussed the project with about 40 residents. Some residents hoped the city would dredge the sediment-filled lake but were told money was not available.

Dyer, Riddle representatives said as much as 5 feet of sediment may have built up in the natural lake, which was a watering hole for cattle drives in the 1880s. In the 1950s, the city converted the lake to a retention pond, and years of runoff left it polluted.

In April, the city's $1.1 million project to restore the neighborhood's 68-year-old garden center, 5810 Central Ave., gets under way. Parks and recreation officials say it should be completed within 10 months.

Project manager Brad Suder gave more than 70 residents an update last week during the Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association's monthly meeting.

'The biggest impact is the restoration of the old historical windows,' Suder said, which will add considerable natural light.

The center was built in 1939 with money from the federal Works Progress Administration, a program created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to put people to work during the Depression.

The interior restoration will include replacing linoleum flooring with wooden floors, raising the ceiling slightly and removing 1970s paneling. Bathrooms will be enlarged and an outside ramp modified to meet federal disability standards.

The city also has agreed to construct a 'crooked' driveway to protect a sunken rock garden that was covered up when the area became a dirt parking lot, probably in the late 1970s.

A geological survey in August provided a possible outline of where the garden once existed, and the city adjusted its driveway design. There are no plans or money available to restore the sunken garden.

Residents asked about playground equipment and restoration of a fish pond, but the city has no plans for major landscaping.

'This project really and truly is for the building,' Suder said.

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

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