There is still a light to install at Trout Creek Dr. There also are a few patches here and there that need to be smoothed out, and trees and other aesthetic elements to put into place. As we went to press with this issue, just before Thanksgiving, there were portions of a few northbound lanes receiving their final paving layers, and some of those dreaded and all-too-familiar orange cones are lying around.
But, by the time this issue hits mailboxes, we are told they will have vanished. All eight lanes — eight! Downs, for all intents and purposes, are finally Bruce B. The project was a big one, right from the start. Though construction actually began in , the decade before that was filled with discussions and planning and petitions and angry residents, but for years, no money to do anything.
What was formerly N. Hopefully, we have learned from those mistakes. Wishful thinking, perhaps? Bearss Ave. That last piece, Segment D, began construction in , following a lightly attended public information meeting at Wharton High on Oct. While many of the businesses along the corridor suffered from lingering construction at their entrances and issues arose with various underground utilities, the high school was both one of the biggest obstacles — and concerns — of New Tampa residents.
This required a lot of hard work from a lot of different agencies. There was a lot of land acquisition; businesses had to work with us out there. We are excited to have it all open, and are hopeful that a lot of the lessons we learned in that corridor can be applied to future projects. Hudock has heard all of the complaints. He said his department tried to investigate specific issues that were reported, and worked hard at replying to customer service requests. According to a story in the then-St.
Petersburg Times, he was in charge of 2, miles of roads and bridges. In , a local newspaper yes, it pre-dates the Neighborhood News wrote a story about Downs, stating he had the most stressful job in the county. The day the story came out, Downs, who battled high blood pressure his entire life, collapsed while having lunch with co-workers.
He had suffered a major heart and passed away at the age of On April 17, , on his birthday, the county renamed 30th St. Fowler Ave. Petersburg Times in Nobody will ever know how much he did for St.
Petersburg and Florida. Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? In , the St. Louis Browns were the first team to come to St. Pete the Cubs came to Tampa in The Phillies came in , one year before Lang was elected mayor. After he brought teams to St.
Pete, Lang shifted his mission to getting a baseball stadium. By , Al Lang Field was finished. The shift to soccer came in And the historic post office downtown? He oversaw that project as well. Lang died in at He credited his long life to St. In , a newspaper article called his job one of the most stressful in the county.
The next day, he collapsed at a restaurant. He was just 53 when he died from the massive heart attack. Downs was a beloved and respected man, known for his directness and professionalism.
More than came to his funeral. Downs Boulevard during his time at USF. Three years after his death, the county renamed 30th Street in his honor. Thousands still drive down the road every day. She told the Times that her husband would have felt shocked to know about the road being named after him. James Albert Whitted was one of St. He was born in the Sunshine City in Whitted enlisted at age 24 when World War I broke out. According to Times archives, Whitted was one of the first pilots in the U.
Though he became a lieutenant in the Naval Flying Corps, he never ended up flying overseas. After his time in the Navy, Whitted started a commercial flight business in St. Over over the years he took hundreds of people up in his plane for free, just to share the experience of flight.
He especially loved to delight children with free rides. Whitted kept his planes, the Falcon which he built himself and the Bluebird, at a hangar at the Vinoy Basin. There were four others in the plane — three men, and a woman.
All five passengers died instantly. Whitted was survived by his wife and two young daughters. He was just 30 years old. The Albert Whitted Airport opened in , several years after his death. Hailing from Eufaula, Oklahoma, Selmon was the youngest of three brothers to play football at the University of Oklahoma. Selmon was the No. He worked as a banker in Tampa until , when he became the associate athletic director at USF. Off the field, he was known for being approachable and kind. Selmon did interviews and other public outreach for the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority after the expressway was named after him.
Instead of getting paid for this, he had THEA set up educational opportunities for students, including scholarships and internships. He often stopped by to chat with customers. The original location went on to close in I think he made us better.
William L. Straub was responsible for turning the St. Petersburg Times into a daily newspaper. The Michigan-born journalist purchased the paper in and became the editor. According to a profile in the Orlando Sentinel , Straub used his position to campaign for change.
His crusades included advocating for Pinellas to become its own county separate from Hillsborough and protecting the waterfront from development. He also pushed for St. Pete to own the port and hire a professional planner. Straub sold the paper to Paul Poynter, father of Nelson Poynter, in He stayed on as the editor until he died in Gandy had just brought the first electric streetcars to Philadelphia when he was invited to oversee a trolley system in St.
Gandy pursued other projects around Pinellas County, but the bridge plan stuck in his head until he was finally able to hire engineers to map out a route in He formed the Gandy Bridge Company and started surveying causeway dredging. By , his company was clearing away palmettos and mangroves on both sides of the bay. War Department. The board approved his bridge in Finally in , construction started. When the bridge finally opened in November , 17 state governors were present, including Florida Gov.
Cary A. Hardee, who severed a flowered rope to make it official. Gandy was celebrated that night at Williams Park. At the time, the Gandy was the longest highway built over water in the world. According to the St. Petersburg city website , the bridge cut travel time between Tampa and St.
Petersburg by more than half. The bridge enabled the growth that allowed St. Pete to become the largest city in Pinellas. Also known as M.
0コメント