The City of Treasure Island is on the brink of an even more exciting future for its residents, businesses and a growing number of tourists. High on the City Commission’s list are vital upgrades for its deteriorating municipal buildings, with the possibility of a new complex similar to
the recent improvements in Madeira Beach… Necessary repairs to the Treasure Island Causeway bridges, continuing maintenance costs and possible reinstatement of tolls … And positive responses to the recent Vision Group survey and community workshop looking toward Treasure Island in 2020.
One prime example is the recent opening of the new 77 all-suite Treasure Island Beach Resort, operated by the Ocean Properties’ Opal Collection at 10800 Gulf Blvd. Nasser Wehbe, General Manager and Ocean Properties’ Regional Operations Manager, has a very positive outlook for Treasure Island that led to building the first new hotel in many years here.
He told Paradise News, “By bringing this hotel to Treasure Island, the local establishments will also thrive as we welcome both residents and tourists. Our luxury suites offer an escape to a refreshing blend of casual beachfront luxury, soothing coastal-inspired design and charming ambience. Our signature restaurant, BRGR Kitchen & Bar, offers delicious gourmet burgers and hearty salads, as well as handcrafted cocktails while guests watch our world famous Gulf sunsets. We know that everyone who visits our Treasure Island Beach Resort will not be disappointed!”
Mayor Robert Minning and City Manager Reid Silverboard provided Paradise News exclusive insight on the community’s problems, possibilities and very positive outlook for the future.
New Municipal Complex
City officials are looking for solutions to transform the current City Hall, Police, Fire and Public Works buildings into a modern administration complex that could include its existing City Hall/Fire Dept./Police Dept. area and the Community Center and city park.
As Silverboard explained, “A recent bid was about $700,000 for critical repairs to the windows, doors and low-sloped roofs for the Police and Fire buildings, and roof and fascia board repairs to City Hall. This would just get us by for another day, so the City is preparing an RFQ (Request for Qualifications) to send by the end of the month to engineering/architectural firms. This will be for an assessment of the current buildings with recommendations and costs for replacing them with a modern complex on the current 108th Avenue site, or another City site.”
“A much-needed parking garage is another option for consideration. It would offer public parking to meet the city’s needs and could be done as a public/private partnership with businesses purchasing spaces. All our hotels and many businesses would be able to participate.” The Mayor added, “Parking is the Number One issue from our Commission.”
He reiterated that “We can no longer continue to throw money down a rat hole. The RFQ is for site selection, to develop a conceptual design, an engineering design, and for construction management, for the project. Local residents and businesses would have plenty of input on where and how the project would be done.”
Silverboard noted, “The City’s financial condition is such that we have plenty of leeway to issue bonds to pay for a new complex.”
Causeway Bridge Situation
Treasure Island Causeway is a series of three bridges (the outer ones fixed, the middle one a bascule drawbridge) crossing Boca Ciega Bay between the City and mainland St. Petersburg. Under an agreement that dates to 1938 all three bridges were constructed, owned and maintained by the City of Treasure Island. All motorists paid a $1.00 toll, with discount stickers for residents, until June, 2006, when the first span of the drawbridge was reopened with no toll booth.
The Causeway was first opened to traffic in 1939 and quickly became a popular route to the Pinellas County barrier islands for beach getaways. By 2002, an engineering study revealed that all three bridges had become so structurally deficient that immediate action had to be taken to replace the bridges. Construction on the West and East fixed bridges started in late 2003 and was completed in October 2004. Three months later, construction of the new drawbridge began and the “new Causeway bascule bridge” was dedicated in ceremonies held on August 25, 2007.
“Total cost of the project was about $65 million,” Silverboard explained. “Funding included a $5 million TOPS grant from the State for the two fixed bridges, and $10 million from the City for extensive permitting and engineering design. Thanks to late Congressman C. W. “Bill” Young the City got about $50 million for the new drawbridge through the Federal Highway Administration. Then Mayor Mary Maloof agreed to take off the tolls once the first span of the bridge was completed.”
“We offered the East fixed bridge to St. Petersburg, and the drawbridge to the State or County, but no one wanted to take them. As a result, we’ve had to budget between $700,000 to $800,000 a year for operation, maintenance and repairs, and had to spend about $900,000 extra last year for concrete repairs and painting of the three bridges.
“We can no longer afford to maintain and repair these bridges and 1.8 miles of causeway, and we’re now in the final stage of an RFQ to hire an engineering firm to undertake various studies to get the information needed for the Commission to make a decision on whether or not to reinstate tolls. These studies would focus on Traffic and Toll Revenue, including where the Causeway users are coming from and heading to, the amount of traffic at different times of the year, and times of day TheCommission needs these details to determine future funding, toll collection methodology and design, cost of operation and maintenance, and setting up a toll rate structure including discounts for residents and other frequent users and city businesses.”
“The Commission is adamant that all tolls would go toward bridge operation and maintenance. Any tolls would be all-electronic, to eliminate traffic bottlenecks. With the survey starting as soon as possible, the public and Commission will be kept fully informed, with a likely portal on our City website. We would hope to have a decision later this year.”
Unique Vision Group
Treasure Island is fortunate to have an innovative Future Vision Group that dates to 2009, and recently completed a community workshop whose results were recently mailed to all 5,000 resident homes. Both Mayor Minning and City Manager Silverboard are very pleased with the recent survey results and workshop.
The Vision Steering Committee chairman is Mitchell Shenkman, a former publicly traded company president who moved to TI with his wife Whitney in 1998 from New York City. He told Paradise News, “I got involved with the Vision Steering Committee in 2009 at its inception, with 20 other residents and business people. We were tasked with identifying community priorities for the next 20-year future vision for TI. In 2010 a community survey was launched with 1,332 respondents and we also held three community engagements facilitated by the Collaborative Labs of St Petersburg College. In March 2011 the Commission was given the results and a joint Vision/Commission/City Staff group made the next steps to mobilize the vision. A new stewardship committee was formed to insure the vision of the community was being accomplished.”
“That brings us to 2015 when the next Vision Steering Committee was appointed with the same task, with a survey started last March and completed in September. We got approximately 800 survey respondents, which led to our January 30 community workshop. We had an enthusiastic turnout of 83 TI residents and 10 TI business folks.”
“Now the results of the community workshop and surveys are getting to our residents and business people. This will insure all will be informed, with many of this year’s results similar to those of 2011. Included are beautification and preservation of our beaches … redevelopment of the north end and west beach trail, from 104th to 119th street …consideration of a modest increase in height and density, with view corridors of our beautiful beach. I look forward to continue being part of our smart growth and prosperity in the coming years.”
Survey & Workshop Highlights
By 2020 the three most popular prospective headlines the participants wanted to read in the newspaper about Treasure Island were:
1. Downtown Business Area Development Completed – Tower Bell Rings in New Development
2. New Resort and Destination Marina opens on Gators’ Property
3. Best Place to Live is also best place to visit.(2 and 3 tied for popularity)
Top strategies chosen for the community included:
1. Utilize downtown area for “First Friday” type of event. Plan and promote sports tourism, beach friendly events – such as beach volleyball, softball, baseball
2. Make Treasure Island more pedestrian friendly with better lighting, safer repaired sidewalks and green spaces. Improve bike trail for safer biking, extend the beach trail southward and put a designated bike lane on the beach trail
3. The City has to market the city.
Top Strategies selected for growth included:
1. Redevelop Gators’ property into a viable tourist destination including a destination Marina resort.
2. Revitalize downtown, build attractive parking garage.
3. Establish planned development for the beach area.
Top Strategies for beautification and environmental preservation were:
1. Create and enforce a set of environmental & beautification standards for the beach & community
2. Complete under-grounding of Utilities
3. Community to educate beachgoers, residents and visitors on recycling and beach clean-up (2 and 3 tied for popularity)
A sampling of resident and business responses to the recent Vision Workshop and survey results are included in the sidebar to the right.
Story by Steve Traiman
[Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Mitchell Shenkman, Mayor Robert Minning and City Manager Reid Silverboard for their comments and insight.]
[Steve Traiman is President of Creative Copy by Steve Traiman in St. Pete Beach, offering freelance business writing services. He can be reached via email at traimancreativecopy@gmail.com)
TI Community Response to Recent Visioning Session
Here’s a sampling of attendee comments from the January 30 Treasure Island Visioning Session:
Arthur Czyszczon, General Manager, Page Terrace Hotel: “I attended the Community Input Workshop that the Vision Steering Committee held for the Vision of Treasure Island’s 2020 look. Treasure Island is my home. My family lives and works here. I am excited for our future. New development with an appreciation of green spaces and environmentally forward thinking will catapult Treasure Island into a Top 10 destination to visit and live. Redevelopment not only benefits our residents now, it secures a bright future for our children and grandchildren.”
Saleene Partridge, Educator & Board Member:“We’ve lived here since July, 2010, and for 17 years I’ve been a teacher, education administrator,and have a Master’s in Writing Curriculum. I am active on the Planning & Zoning Board, the Local Planning Agency and the Vision Steering Committee. With a great turnout at the Visioning session, we were extremely pleased to see many new faces of residents who had not attended earlier meetings. It was inspiring to us to hear more items for discussion we had not heard earlier. A lot of residents had good ideas on the need for more downtown area redevelopment, and it was encouraging that many residents are concerned about helping small, local businesses by doing more to promote tourism.”
Atul Shah, Owner, At Cost Liquors: “I’ve been here 28 years and started from scratch in 1989 with our site at 9861 Gulf Blvd. We’ve seen a lot of changes in the community and have been involved with the Visioning group since it began about five years ago. As a local businessman, I would like to promote more businesses outside of downtown, into the South Side and other areas. Celebrations should be spread out to more beach areas away from the recent site behind the Bilmar to get more tourist traffic. That’s why we have so many vacant storefronts as our officials are not doing enough to promote all of Treasure Island. We need more public parking as well all over the beach. The City needs to talk to some local developers to help with new parking.”
Ric & Danute Krebs, Retired Schoolteachers: Ric notes, “We’ve been here about three years, coming from Naperville in west suburban Chicago. We both attended the recent Visioning session that was definitely positive with many good ideas. For me as a new resident it was very educational and an opportunity to learn what others concerns are.“ Danute adds, “It was intriguing that many did not realize this was a ‘community’ Visioning session as they had only their own private concerns. There were times when discussions were good but better monitoring would have kept one topic from monopolizing the floor. One disappointment was as relatively new residents, we felt the City Manager could have given a clearer background about the Visioning group and its mission.”
Greg Tong, American Legion Post 158: “Although I’m not a resident, I have a keen interest in the community. I’ve been active for several years with the Treasure Island/Madeira Beach Chamber, and am on the Board. I’ve been involved with our Visioning group since we had the last Collaborative LabSession five years ago. At the recent Visioning session, everybody seemed on board that we have to move forward together. I’d like to see a more concerted effort to bring more high-quality tourist visitors to the community. Having more places such as the new Opal Collection Hotel for these tourists to stay at will give our Chamber more impetus to promote our beautiful beach. It was great to see so many residents and business people interested in helping build our community. Whatever we do we need to keep in mind that the focus is to keep the tourists coming, and to keep the residents happy.”
Quotes gathered by Steve Traiman