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Now that School Choice has been settled, the Pinellas County School Board is ready to proceed with and make their decision as to the building of a North County School Bus Facility. The area they are looking at is near the intersection of S.R. 580 and McMullen-Booth Road by the Clearwater Water Treatment Plant.
The problems with this location are many! Traffic on already congested and over capacity roads. Can you imagine the congestion of up to 300 buses and drivers’ cars, even if driving times are staggered on these roads? The possible pollution of Briar Creek and Tampa Bay despite the assurances from them that this just couldn’t happen! Did you know that Briar Creek has the only waterfall (Magnolia Falls) in Pinellas County? That this facility would be put right behind over 500 senior citizens homes with over 30% of them already having respiratory problems and border on the east right next to Country Villas subdivision? There are too many serious reasons to stop this project to mention here.
This must be a serious concern to many people if seven subdivisions, the Suncoast Chapter of the Sierra Club and the entire Safety Harbor City Commission from the Mayor on down are opposing the matter. We are talking about over 2,000 residents who have signed petitions! Just how many people or organizations does it take to get this issue dropped? Isn’t Supt. Clayton Wilcox and the Pinellas County School Board listening to the voting citizens of the County? Stop now!
It’s time to think outside the box! There’s a reason that anytime a bus facility is brought up and tried to be placed near residences that people are objecting and in an uproar! It’s not a nice facility to have in your backyard! Just because a compound where hundreds of buses have been parked together strobe lights flashing and engines starting up at 4 or 5 a.m. each morning has always been the way does not mean that there isn’t a better solution out there! Park 20 or 30 buses at different schools where they are needed in the mornings. Possibly have tankers deliver fuel to them where they sit in the evenings when no students are present. Issue gas cards to the drivers so that they can get gas when they are on the roads after dropping off all students. Some of these ideas might not work but I’m convinced that an alternative solution to bus compounds is out there if we put our heads together. In this age of security and Florida’s potential storms it just does not make sense to have hundreds of buses parked close together in a compound. There has to be a better way!
This issue will probably be discussed at a workshop this month and/or put on the agenda for a decision by the School Board sometime in the next two months. I urge you to call the School Board office at 727-588-6300, give your name and address for their records and tell them you OPPOSE the building of the North County School Bus Terminal. ONE call will go to ALL the members!
You will not have to answer any questions or be put on the spot. Just do it NOW, BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE FOR YOUR VOICE TO BE HEARD! You may also email board members at
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These phone calls to the board office must by law be passed on to each of the members! Your emails, by law, cannot be erased before the members see them!
The senior citizen residents of Briar Creek and all the others living near this possible facility have respectfully opposed this facility for 11⁄2 years. It’s coming to a conclusion soon. We ask for your help. Join us in our opposition. We are not asking you to come to meetings, walk up and down the streets with signs or to intrude in your lives. All we ask is let your voices be heard! Call or email today!
Sharon Philyaw is chairwoman of “NO BUS FOR US” Committee, Briar Creek MHP (Resident Owned), Safety Harbor.
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