Mayor Rob Marlowe
I’m still getting asked how I like being Mayor. It has its moments. Fortunately the good ones outweigh the bad ones by a wide margin. There are occasionally some rather fun ones. Several of us had the opportunity to ride in the Chasco Boat Parade and I took the opportunity to take several pictures.
One of the pictures came in handy the next Wednesday when I got a full page handwritten complaint about the disturbance that a Tyrannosaurus Rex was causing by roaring loud enough to rattle windows across the river. Had I NOT snapped a picture of the offending T-Rex, I might have passed off the letter as an April Fools joke…
T-Rex
I couldn’t have made this stuff up if I tried!
Interestingly enough, the T-Rex shares a back yard with both a Triceratops and a Velociraptor.
A quick review of the city’s code of ordinances reveals that the city has never addressed the issue of someone keeping dinosaurs in their back yard. Chickens yes, dinosaurs no.
Velociraptor
I subsequently heard a rumor that a local tour boat operator has been pitching his boat rides by telling folks that they would be able to enjoy seeing both manatees and dinosaurs during their ride down the beautiful Cotee River.
City staff are now trying to deal with the noisy dinosaur on the basis of the racket he creates when he roars at passing boats.
Like I said, I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried!
Triceratops
Dinosaurs aside, we’ve gotten quite a bit accomplished in the last year:
The business incubator opened last summer and three of the companies that were in the incubator when it opened have moved into digs of their own downtown. These three companies are just some of the new businesses that have chosen to call New Port Richey home.
We have a development agreement in place for the Hacienda. Somewhere in the next two to four years, we ought to see the Hacienda reopen as a hotel.
While no construction has started yet, a lot has been going on. I had the opportunity to see some of the architectural renderings of what the Hacienda will look like when it is done. The most striking change is to the north elevation. 
Click on the picture to get a larger view of what the north side of the hotel looks like without all the stuff that was added on over the years.
Although progress on Sims Park seemed to stop after the removal of the section of Grand Blvd that runs through the park, there has been quite a bit of work going on behind the scenes. The architects made a presentation at last Tuesday night’s work session and the presentation is online where you can see it yourself.
Some of the details will change before we finish. I don’t believe anybody particularly liked the design of the entrance to the park off Main Street (page 5 of the presentation). I’d like to see something more Mediterranean so that it would compliment the Hacienda next to it. I suspect that the landscaping will be scaled back and some of the features (eg. the docks on Orange Lake) may be delayed until a second phase starts in a year.
Key things that you WILL see sooner rather than later will include a new playground, additional shade for concert goers, and new restrooms.
All in all, the Sims Park upgrades are quite ambitious and the latest estimate is that everything will be finalized, contracts let, and construction started on or about June 1st. I certainly hope so.
We’ve been successful in dealing with nuisance and blighted properties. The city turned a blind eye to these problems for far too long. That has changed and property owners are now on notice that they are responsible for the condition of their property and what happens on that property. There are some additional changes we hope to put into effect over the coming months to improve things further.
I have been blessed to have four fellow council members who are adamant that we are going to deal with the city’s problems and move the city forward. I couldn’t ask for a better group. Likewise, I’ve been fortunate to have great individuals serving as city manager and department heads for the city. They are taking the vision that council has for the city and they are making things happen.
The nicest part of the job has been that our citizens are noticing the changes and people are stopping me on the street to tell me how much they like the direction that the city is taking.
There are a lot of things that I expect to see develop over the next year or so.
First among them is completion of the long stalled Main Street Landings project. The developer will be coming before the city’s CRA the evening of April 21st with a plan to complete the project and open it.
Developers are already nosing around the old Baptist Church property on the east side of Orange Lake. I expect this will become a very attractive parcel as the Sims Park / Orange Lake improvements are completed.
The old Spoonbills property and the empty block immediately east of it are ripe for redevelopment.
The city is going to have to address the creation of additional parking as part of its capital expenditures plan. We are going to need a parking garage sooner rather than later. I expect this to be a topic for discussion as we review our Five Year Capital Improvement Plan this summer.
This summer you should see the start of construction on both the multi-use trail from the River Walk to the Rec Center as well as improvements on Plathe Road.
The multi-use trail will get you safely from the Cotee River Park to the Starkey Trail Extension at the corner of Congress and Massachusetts. Think about a bike ride from Sims Park all the way to US 98 at the north end of the Suncoast Trail in Citrus County…
The Plathe Road improvements will make it easy to get to the Grey Preserve on paved roads.
The concept of a consolidated VA center on the old Community Hospital site is still very much alive.
With construction on US 19 finally wrapping up, we should be able to start working on making US 19 more presentable. Median landscaping is on the agenda for the April 21st council meeting. We’ve also got a group of local businesses that are interested in being part of the process to beautify US 19.
There are also plans afoot to restart some of the grant programs we used to have for paint-up / fix-up projects by residents that need a little help.
It is an exciting time to be Mayor of New Port Richey. I appreciate your encouragement and support.
Rob Marlowe, Mayor
Imcubator becomes convention center to help feed hotel and downtown. Parking garage on Acorn St with centralized valet at at Bank & Main.
The front conference room and the big room in the back would both be very useful in attracting small groups to use the Hacienda as a conference venue.
I’m leaning toward a multi-story parking garage to replace the Swanson Lot, although there is a good argument to be made for putting the garage at the corner of Bank and Nebraska.
Thanks for the Sims Park documents, Rob. No one would ever know they existed unless they were at the meeting last week which I couldn’t make. You’re setting a great example.
Did you know that the construction on US19 has the southbound turn lanes onto Main St closed down? I doubt they’re doing it during the day but it was closed 6PM-10PM Sunday night.
At least they are making a mess at night. It looks like they only have one lane and some cleanup to go.