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City Reopens Bidding On Basketball Courts

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@tampatrib.com

Published: October 22, 2008

Items of interest from the Oct. 13 Plant City Commission meeting included:

•Commissioners agreed to advertise for new bids for construction of concrete basketball courts at Mike Sansone Park off Park Road.

I Construction Group of Valrico submitted the low bid of $134,791 to build two courts and was awarded the project Sept. 22. The bid, however, was rejected when it was discovered the company lacked the requisite contractor license, City Manager David Sollenberger said.

•Commissioners adopted an emergency ordinance extending mandatory water restrictions ordered by the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

The Brooksville-based agency voted Sept. 30 to extend its current water shortage order through Feb. 27. The order restricts outdoor lawn and landscape irrigation to one day per week.

The region still feels the effects of a two-year drought, and portions of the 16-county district did not receive sufficient rain during the annual wet season, states background on the ordinance. As of Sept. 22, groundwater levels and stream flows in the region have peaked and are beginning to decline, the agency reports.

•Samuel W. Cooper Lake is looking "very, very nice" after the latest treatments to eliminate nuisance plants, the city manager said in his report.

Treatments were conducted in May and June and a third will be applied in February, if needed. The city's Stormwater Section performs spot treatments of individual nuisance plants along the lake's shore.

"So far, the nuisance plants on Sam Cooper Lake appear to be under control," Sollenberger reported.

The 10-acre lake at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Lake Street is the centerpiece of Samuel W. Cooper Park.

•Hillsborough County Traffic Engineering has advised the city it will perform another study to see if the intersection of Charlie Griffin and Mud Lake roads should be a four-way stop.

Responding to identical requests from the city in January 2006 and November 2007, the county performed two studies that determined additional stop signs are unwarranted. Since then, however, additional residential subdivisions have been developed in the area.

Commissioner Mike Sparkman vowed that if this latest effort fails, he will work with Hillsborough County Commissioner Al Higgenbotham, who lives in the Plant City area, to secure approval for the four-way stop.

George Wilkens

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