Edgemoor

Canal Cleanup Committee Meeting Minutes

Oct 01, 2005

EDGEMOOR NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

CANAL CLEANUP COMMITTEE- MINUTES

Sept. 26, 2005 7:30 PM 5695 Kiwanis Place N.E., [Kubala residence]

Chairman Tom Demint opened the meeting with a welcome.
Over 30 neighbors attended responding to some 600 mailed invitations.
?˜ The neighborhood committee has been seeking to cleanup the 54th. Avenue Canal for more than 3 years.
?˜ The city has agreed to dredge a 15 ft. wide channel in from the bay, but would require the shoreline property owners to bear the cost.
?˜ A local conservation group, Gandy Coastal Cleanup, has ?“Adopted?” the 54th. Avenue Canal and periodically advertises, (April and September), for volunteers. Their clearing effort, however, does not extend west beyond Puryear Park!
?˜ The last effort at canal cleanup was conducted by the Storm water Engineering Department.
?˜ It was suggested that the original bequest deeding the canal area real estate to St. Petersburg required a guarantee of perpetual maintenance by the city.
?˜ All discussions with the city have excluded provisions for boating access despite the fact that, prior to the cemented channel walls, the 54th. Avenue canal had several boat ramps.
?˜ It was urged that the committee enlist the support of adjoining neighborhoods, recognizing the threat of flood damage and even poor drainage following a hurricane surge.
> Shorecrest School and Progress Energy should be contacted to lend their support to our canal cleanup project. [Shorecrest may regard the contamination as a health threat for their students.]
?˜ We were urged to collect historic photographic data that will depict the filling in of the canal by overgrowth and silting over a span of recent years.
?˜ It was noted that the city responded promptly to appeals for 47th. Avenue canal maintenance when the Placido Bayou residents conveyed their demands via their attorney.
?˜ Attendees were urged to frequent our web site: www.neighborhoodlink.com/stpetersburg/edgemmor.
?˜ It was suggested that we all send carefully worded e-mail requests to Mayor Baker and our City Council Representatives, urging their help in cleaning the canal.

Unapproved draft Minutes by Conrad Weiser, Secretary Pro Tem.