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Tending Roads Well-Traveled

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By SUSAN M. GREEN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 19, 2008

Updated: 01/17/2008 05:14 pm

RIVERVIEW - Wearing shorts in January and clutching a satchel of road maps, Dave Kulow still enjoys two passions he discovered 50 years ago as a young missionary: a sunny climate and an interest in transportation challenges.

As a teenager, the Ohio native spent two years in tropical Papua New Guinea, building roads and infrastructure for a community he described as once removed from the Stone Age.

The experience shaped his future, he said, and eventually led him to settle in Florida.

What is relatively new and far less thrilling is planning his days around traffic.

The retiree and Air Force veteran books doctor appointments in late morning or after lunch. He consults the clock before getting behind the wheel for shopping or errands.

"I don't schedule anything before 9 o'clock in the morning," said Kulow, who lives in Boyette Springs and depends on Boyette Road to access Bell Shoals Road, U.S. 301 or Interstate 75.

During rush hour, he said, "I spend an hour getting from my place to the interstate."
Work crews are busy widening the often-snarled stretch. When the work is completed, Boyette east of Balm-Riverview Road will swell from two to four travel lanes and boast new turn lanes at high-traffic points. Kulow, who unsuccessfully pressed county officials to approve a six-lane road, predicted it won't be enough.

"It'll be a failed road when it opens," he said.

That's why he has participated in several county road planning exercises over the years, including the most recent South County Transportation Plan that prompted citizen outcry from Riverview, Gibsonton, Lithia, Ruskin and Wimauma.

That plan was shelved after elected officials directed the county's Metropolitan Planning Organization to start over with fresh projections for South Hillsborough County's highway needs, said Ned Baier, a transportation planning manager in Hillsborough's Planning and Growth Management Department.

"It will not be resurrected," Baier said, adding that county planners expect to seek public input on whether to proceed only with a portion of the plan concerning road improvements and extensions in Wimauma.

Kulow, one of a handful of residents without ties to the development industry on the committee that recommended the South County plan, said he doesn't disagree with critics of such controversial proposals as new bridges over the Alafia River and a limited-access, high-speed highway looping through rural areas. But he thinks people should get involved in solutions to gridlock.

Since moving to Boyette Springs in 1992, Kulow has watched thousands of homes sprout in the cow pastures that used to stretch in most directions from his neighborhood. He has been on the losing end of citizen efforts to curb growth.

"When I moved here in 1992, I could drive from my house to work in the hospital at MacDill Air Force Base and get there in half an hour," Kulow said. He retired in 1997.

"If I were looking for a place to retire now, I don't know," he said. "Hillsborough County is great for climate. But the quality of life is making it a strain."

He blames gridlock not only for motorist frustration and an increase in car accidents but also for idling away costly fuel.

"We're talking millions of dollars that could go into houses and college tuition or buying food that is going out the tailpipe uselessly," Kulow said. It also could be dangerous when hurricanes or other disasters threaten, he said.

Like many transplants from northern states, Kulow said moving to Florida was an escape from the snow and ice of his native Ohio.

At age 18, he started a two-year missionary stint in Papua New Guinea, in 1954. He returned to Ohio, went to nursing school, got married and then spent five more years in New Guinea working in health care. He later returned to Ohio and got his bachelor's and master's degrees in nursing administration and public health.

After working as a home health consultant, he volunteered for the Air Force, asking to be stationed "somewhere warm." Eventually, he made his way to the Tampa area.

In Boyette Springs, he has been president of the homeowners association and is president of the community's special taxing district, which assesses fees for property owners to pay for maintenance and improvements of common areas.

He has been an outspoken critic of the county's growth management policies - which he described as a "government-knows-best" approach - saying the boom in new residents is outstripping the area's ability to provide roads, water, schools, electrical services and other needed infrastructure.

Projects that promise thousands of homes, such as Lake Hutto in Lithia, Waterset in Apollo Beach and Triple Creek in Riverview, often capture local residents' attention.

"That hasn't been the real killer," Kulow said, adding that those projects usually come with developer requirements that help offset the effects.

"It's been the smaller developments," he said, pointing to subdivisions of a few hundred homes each that sprang up on the map in recent years. "It all adds up to thousands and thousands of homes."

Public apathy and lack of information are top sources of frustration for community leaders, he said.

Kulow said more residents need to reach out and become involved in planning. He said he was part of a handful of residents recruited to serve on the working committee that came up with recommendations for the now-derailed South County Transportation Plan.

"We residents were grossly outnumbered by developers, builders, contractors and lawyers" with ties to the construction industry, Kulow said.

"The concept was good, to get the public involved," he said. "However, the public was not widely involved."

Kulow said he believes some roads will need to be widened to accommodate growth.

However, he said, planning should include options such as telecommuting, staggered work and school times and convenient public bus service.

He said the government may need to consider mandating use of the railroad for commuter service for certain hours each day.

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

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