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Flowers wilting, city seeks another DOT grant U.S. 19 beautification project TODAY U.S. 19 beautification project (2007) Turning An Eyesore Into Happy Median

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 23, 2008

PORT RICHEY - It turned a ragged section of U.S. 19, flanked by pawnshops, strip malls and derelict properties, into a corridor of lantana, palm trees and other flora.

But the $150,000 state Department of Transportation grant that paid for Port Richey's highway beatification project didn't account for the cost of maintaining the flower beds.

At the time, city council members balked at spending more tax dollars to install pipes under the highway to provide irrigation for the median flower beds, and the contract with Luke Brothers landscaping for the project didn't include watering.

Two years later, many of the flowers have wilted and died, cigarette butts and trash line the medians and the highway corridor has returned to its shabby condition.

So city officials have applied for another $150,000 DOT landscaping grant, this one to restore the flower beds.

"It wasn't done right the first time," City Manager Richard Reade said. "So we're going to do it again."

Reade said in a tight budget year the city doesn't have much to spend on landscaping.

"We don't have the staff or money to maintain it," Reade said.

DOT spokeswoman Kris Carson said the agency has given preliminary approval for a second grant and is waiting for the city to sign the agreement.

Carson said the previous agreement with the city, signed by former City Manager Jerry Calhoun, included a requirement that the city replace flowering plants, several varieties of which are not native to the state, several times a year.

"That was never done," she said.

Regardless, the DOT plans to cut another check for the city.

"We're directed by the Legislature to spend money on landscaping," Carson said.

She said the city has pledged to plant more durable varieties of flora along the medians.

The project is part of a broader effort to define the center of the city.

Known for its big-box retail stores and outlets, Port Richey often is mistaken by tourists and area residents for its larger and more populous neighbor, New Port Richey.

Two years ago, city officials came up with an idea to transform the busy thoroughfare's medians of yellowing grass into a picturesque gateway to the community.

Former Vice Mayor Phyllis Grae worked with DOT officials to secure the funding, and Margaret Moore designed the landscaping, which stretches from Grand Boulevard to Ridge Road and includes small clusters of greenery on two "triangles" in the median.

The city chipped in $60,000 from its community redevelopment fund for the project.

At one point, the city had studied putting an irrigation pipe under the highway, pumping water to the medians for the flower beds. But that proved to be too costly, so manual watering - driving a water truck along the busy highway - was the only solution.

For a while, vegetation along U.S. 19 was cared for by an unlikely custodian: the city's fire department. Firefighters watered them from a pumper truck with a section of hose.

Then the city bought a surplus U.S. Forestry Service water truck for $600. After some repairs to the aging vehicle, they put it to work watering the median beds.

Grae, who championed the project, said the flowers and plants were all native and blamed the current city administration for not adequately maintaining them.

"They didn't take care of them. That's what happened," she said. "It's a disgrace."

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (813) 948-4216 or cwade@tampatrib.com.

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