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Reader: School Bus Terminal Will Encroach On Briar Creek Community
To the Editor:
Senior citizens in 571 units living in Briar Creek were in for a shock
in November. The first signs of trouble were when surveyors planted
stakes in the ground for a proposed school bus terminal that will
encroach upon the unit owners’ property on the south side of the 55+
Briar Creek Mobile Home Community. A proposed land swap between the
City of Clearwater, current owners of 20 acres of a 120 acre tract east
of McMullen Booth Road and North of SR 580, with the Pinellas School
District is in the making. A large number of owners in Briar Creek with
an average age of 70+ will have to breath in diesel particulate matter
released into the air by the 300 buses. This pollution will severely
impact the elderly citizens of Briar Creek and could place many owners’
health at risk. Many acres of the land currently is home to such
animals as coyote, rabbits, gopher turtles, raccoons, bobcats, red tail
hawk, and barred owls just to name a few.
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A land swap between the Pinellas County School Board and the City of Clearwater would place a bus terminal adjacent to Briar Creek Mobile Home Community on currently undeveloped land just north of a city sewer plant. McMullen Booth Road is at the left and Morton Plant Mease Hospital is at the top left.
aerial photo courtesy Briar Creek homeowners
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This land will become the home of 300 school buses. This will add
pollution, noise, congestion on McMullen Booth Road, and impact the
drainage into Briar Creek. This small creek from which the community
derives its name, could now flood with the rain runoff from the new
site. I can appreciate the school district’s need for a bus terminal
but not at the expense of owners’ health and welfare. The owners of
Briar Creek are now mounting a campaign to defeat this undesirable
intrusion. They will be using petitions, phone calls, e-mail and
letters in an attempt to rejection the proposed plan. They even have
over 1,000 registered votes available at the next election. They also
have time because 95% of them are retired and looking for a crusade.
Additional information can be found on our web site www.mybriarcreek.com/nobus.htm
Gene Arend
Briar Creek, Safety Harbor
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