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Ferlita Meets With Citizens Group

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By LIZ BLEAU, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 19, 2008

GIBSONTON - Residents brought their concerns over a wide range of issues, including roads, proposed bridges and snipe signs, to County Commissioner Rose Ferlita at a meeting of the Concerned Citizens of Gibsonton last week.

Ferlita enlisted several county employees to come to the meeting and help answer residents' questions.
Dexter Barge, head of the county's Code Enforcement Department, which monitors snipe signs, said the signs are a problem not only in Hillsborough County but also throughout the country.

"It's very difficult for us to make cases, because the users are hard to catch or hard to track down," he said. "Mostly we do remove them."

Because the problem is so large, Barge said the county is looking at enlisting trained volunteers to pick up the signs.

"Right now we are working through all the legal stuff," he said. "Where they have used volunteers, there have been some lawsuits, probably because they were not properly trained."

Barge said he also is looking to revise the county code to tighten restrictions and penalties for snipe signs.
County transportation Director Bob Campbell, in an answer to a resident's question, said the county is proceeding to call the bond on the developer of Carriage Pointe off Symmes Road and will use the money for turn lanes the developer was required to build but has not.

Ferlita said she uses community plans as a basis for determining what the residents in a community want.

"Community plans are important," she said.

Gibsonton resident Bob Minthorn said a proposal to extend 78th Street south over the Alafia River through an existing neighborhood and environmental lands goes against the Gibsonton Community Plan.

"We spent three years on the plan and never heard about this road until it showed up on the South County Transportation Plan," he said.

Campbell, who said the road and bridge are conceptual, said the Metropolitan Planning Organization will reassess that proposal this year or next.

"There is no official bridge so there is no conflict," Campbell said.

However, Minthorn said that as long as the bridge remains on the maps, "We will have to fight for years to get it off. It would split our community in half. It makes no sense," he said.

The road would be a half-mile from U.S. 41 and cut through the Golden Aster Preserve, some of the county's environmental land.

Reporter Liz Bleau can be reached at (813) 865-1557 or lbleau@tampatrib.com.

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