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Parents Worry Where The Sidewalk Ends

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By SUSAN M. GREEN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 14, 2007

GIBSONTON - It's not exactly a great white way, but it could be if only it stretched all the way to Eisenhower Middle School.

That's how Kirsten Mattingly of Apollo Beach feels about a sidewalk that extends from the entrance to Kings Lake subdivision east along Old Big Bend Road but stops well short of its logical destination: Eisenhower Middle. Pedestrians bound for Eisenhower or neighboring East Bay High School must walk along the roadside past a transformer station and a bus parking area at the west end of the middle school.

"They students have a fabulous foot path, but it stops," Mattingly said. "I want to see the path extended right through the school."
Mattingly has been driving her children from Apollo Beach to Eisenhower and East Bay campuses for the past few years, as traffic has steadily increased.

She said she and other parents find themselves regularly dodging students who walk home toward Kings Lake from school. Many students try to stay in the grass until they reach the sidewalk, Mattingly said, but stray into the road sometimes when the grass is high.

Drivers on narrow Old Big Bend Road, which runs parallel to its busy four-lane counterpart, are forced to veer into the lane for oncoming traffic to avoid the youngsters, Mattingly said.

"I know there are a lot of parents that feel the same way," she said. "You can see the look in their face. ... It's going to cost a life."

Spokesman Steve Valdez said Hillsborough County's Public Works Department received a request from Mattingly for the sidewalk extension last week and immediately contacted the school district to find out whether school officials see a need for the sidewalk.

The stretch of sidewalk that exists came courtesy of the developer of a complex at the front of Kings Lake. County rules require developers to build sidewalks from border to border of the project site, Valdez said.

The county has a policy in place to fill in gaps for sidewalks between development properties, he said, but there is a backlog of requests.

Complicating matters is a plan for a developer near U.S. 41 and Big Bend Road to widen the four-lane highway in the next year or so, Valdez said. County crews recently bolstered Big Bend's approaches to a railroad crossing east of U.S. 41, but the work was designed to last about a year in anticipation of the road widening, Valdez said.

County officials don't know what Big Bend construction might mean for Old Big Bend Road, the bigger highway's predecessor that has become an access road for the schools.

Valdez couldn't guess at the cost of extending the Kings Lake sidewalk, but he said sidewalks typically cost $300,000 a mile.

"It's not cheap," he said. "It's not something we want to do only to have it ripped out by a developer in 12 months."

Even so, Mattingly's request might zoom ahead if the schools say the sidewalk is needed for safety reasons, Valdez said.

"With a school's concurrence and a need, it jumps way up on the list," he said. "Without it ... it doesn't stand a real good chance of getting funded in the foreseeable future."

The school district did not respond to requests for information from the South Shore News & Tribune by deadline. County officials said they received a response from the district's bus route coordinator indicating the district has provided buses for students from Covington Garden and Kings Lake to the east of the school and does not want students walking to campus because of traffic problems in the area.
Mattingly said a lot of students apparently are not taking the bus, possibly because it's inconvenient.

"Someone is going to get hurt," she said of the situation. "I think it's an accident waiting to happen."

Sticker Shock

About two weeks ago, Hillsborough County closed the Fairway Boulevard bridge in Apollo Beach without notice because inspections showed it was not safe for motorists. A new bridge is under construction but likely won't be finished for about six months. Officials announced they would spend $70,000 to repair the bridge temporarily.

Rosemary Matuschewsky of Apollo Beach called to ask why the county is spending so much money to provide a shortcut of about two miles for neighborhoods off Flamingo Drive.

"I pay high taxes," she said. "Why would you spend $70,000 to fix a bridge that's going to be torn down ... just for the convenience of people who don't want to drive to U.S. 41?"

Valdez said officials met with residents this year before the bridge replacement project started and encountered resistance to the idea of closing the bridge for the better part of a year. Construction started in spring.

Residents of Symphony Isles and other neighborhoods off Flamingo complained that the only intersection with traffic signals that eases left turns onto busy U.S. 41 is at Apollo Beach Boulevard. Fairway provided a way to get to Apollo Beach Boulevard and negotiate the left turn there.

"They were extremely adamant," Valdez said. "We did make a commitment to keep the bridge open. We don't want to lose people's trust. ... $70,000 was a fair price to live up to that commitment."

He noted that school buses also use the bridge to transport children to Apollo Beach Elementary.

Heads Up For Krycul Motorists

Work on a water main connection is expected to require closing the southbound lane of Krycul Avenue between St. Rose Court and Zepolle Way in Riverview intermittently between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Thursday. For information, call (813) 272-5275.

Reporter Susan M. Green can be reached at (813) 865-1566 or sgreen@tampatrib.com.

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