Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 4

SECTION DO NORTH SUNCOAST Upper Pinellas, Pasco Counties Sunday, May 22, 1966 CLASSIFIED Fire Destroys I3 pusmesses Giant1 'tf' fvv.i'.;r:' u-- 1 j-, W. r- U' --4 i 1 k. V- 'J i J't t'' i 1 'i t- i A 1 -v -f 1 tmm t- r' More Pictures, Page 10-B By JACK BELICH and KEN GOLDMAN The Times Staff A spectacular downtown fire In St. Petersburg raged out of control for more than two hours yesterday afternoon, destroying two Central Avenue businesses and causing severe smoke and water damage to several others. Total damage was estimated at $275,000.

(1 la U3 A Architect's Rendering Of The Sunshine Mall Proposed For Construction In Clearwater 0 ii mi in 1 1 hi $8-MILLION CLEARWATER PROJECT Anderson Honored At Park Rites Shopping Complex Plans Revealed if. in" County Voters Get 2nd Chance This Tuesday Times Bureau CLEARWATER It's march-to-the-polla time again Tupsday, after only a three-week breather. This will be an opportunity for Pinellas County voters to redeem themselves, after recording a disappointing 39.6 per cent turnout on May 3. It's expected the county's 119,923 Democrats may Improve on their 47.6 per cent turnout because of the torrid governor's race. But Pinellas' 102,306 registered Republicans, with a 29.7 per cent turnout May 3, face a short ballot featuring only a runoff for a State House seat and five men wanting to be GOP state executive committeeman.

ABSENTEE ballot interest is again running high, as it did for the May 3 primary. The office of the supervisor of elections reported 660 applications for absentee ballots on the weekend before the May 3 primary, and 730 applications this weekend. Absentee ballots can be ob tomobiles and will ultimately provide for 60 shops, including a restaurant row, drug and variety stores and a 500-seat auditor! urn to be used as a convention center. Stern called Clearwater the "greatest city in the world" and cited the "enormous" growth potential of the greater Clear water area as the reason for his firm's decision to develop the area-wide center here. When completed, Stern estimated the mall will provide 1,000 jobs and will become a "major factor" in the financial development of the Clearwater ASKED IF the mall would create any additional traffic problems on Missouri Avenue, Stern answered these problems can be "easily resolved." Clearwater Mayor Joseph Turner added that negotiations with state and county officials indicated the six-laning of Missouri was a possibility.

Richard Leandri and Associates of Clearwater have teen designated the Florida leasing agents for the project and Frank Mudano, also of Clearwater, will serve as chief architect. No date has yet been set for the groundbreaking, but Stern indicated construction will begin this summer. The mall management will also be announced in the next few weeks, Stern said. Destroyed were Kent Fabrics, 864 Central Avenue and King's Budget Clothiers, 866 Central Avenue. Severe smoke damage was reported at Fremac's clothing store, 872 Central Avenue; The Sportsman's Bar, 862 Central Avenue; and The Uniform Center, 858 Central Avenue.

A MASSIVE traffic problem developed as St. Petersburg police, assisted by reserve police called to emergency duty, blocked ett several blocks. A large throng of onlookers was attracted to the scene by billowing smoke and flames visible for miles. One firefighter was treated at Mound Park Hospital for smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion and several others, including a district fire chief, were treated at the scene. According to the assistant fire marshal, Capt.

Donald Zussy, and fire department investiga tor Lt. Preston Nail the blaze, first reported at 12:06 p.m., ap parently had been burning for some time before it was discovered. HY 50, manager of Kent Fabrics, told investiga tors he had just returned from Union Trust National Bank across the street when he and Mitchell Szewczyk, along with a woman employe, noticed "a light flickering" in a balcony area near the rear of the store. The two men ran to the rear, saw smoke and reached for a small fire extinguisher. Phillips said he quickly realized that the extinguisher "couldn't do the job." PHILLrPS SAID he and Szewczyk tried to beat a hasty retreat.

But blinded by the acrid smoke, the two found themselves having to climb over furniture and store fixtures to escape. Meanwhile, next door, the manager at King's Clothiers, Joseph Lima, 27, of Tampa, was smelling smoke. He looked for the source, "but I couldn't find it." In desperation, Lima went to the front of his store and called the Fire Department Seconds later, Phillips and Szewczyk came stumbling out of their store. Behind them were flames. The blaze, helped along by the wind, quickly spread to King's Clothiers.

Forty-five minutes after the first alarm, both stores were fully ablaze. Both are housed in one building, sep arated by an interior wall. GALLANT ACTION by a horde of firefighters together with concrete block walls on both sides of the fire prevent ed the inferno from spreading to Is Unveiled County Commission chairman; chairman, and James B. Work, located In Tarpon Springs. By JOSEPH CASTELLO Times Bureau CLEARWATER The wraps were taken off a proposed $8-million shopping center complex! for Clearwater at a luncheon press conference here yesterday.

To be called the Sunshine Mall, the 45-acre development on Missouri Avenue, directly op posite Sears Town, will feature a two-story J. C. Penney department store, a motion picture theatre, a 12-bay auto service center and a number of exclusive specialty shops on an air-conditioned shopping mall. ALEX STERN, president of Gambest Corporation, said Sunshine Mall will be "the out standing shopping center on the West Coast of Florida." Gambest, a New York-based company specializing in the. de velopment of shopping centers, was recently awarded a $15 million contract for a center in Hartford, as part of the massive urban renewal plan there.

Gambest has been studying the Clearwater site for three years now. Stern said the covered, land scaped mall here wijl feature a "Boutique Boulevard" of spe-, cialty shops and will include fountains, gardens and rest areas. A supermarket will be included in the complex, he said, and, for the benefit of housewives with tired feet, its interior will be carpeted from wall to wall. The twin-screen theatre will allow patrons to see differ- -Staff Photo by William Robinson Gambest President Alex Stern Meets Press TARPON SPRINGS "A man known throughout the state as one of its foremost conserva tionists" was the tribute to County -Commissioner A. L.

An derson by Florida Park Board Director Bill Miller, in his key note talk yesterday. The occasion was the formal dedication of A. L. Anberson Park on U.S. 19 the second county park dedicated in Tar pon Springs in recent weeks.

FRED H. HOWARD Park was dedicated live weeks ago yes terday. "A guiding factor in the park movement of Pinellas County ever since he was elected to the Board of County Commissioners some eight years ago," Miller said of the veteran commission er and Pinellas County Parks Board member. Miller cited the remarkable progress in the development of a county park system during this eight-year period and said it has been done entirely with out federal or state financial as sistance. "Neither the federal nor the state systems are capable of providing outdoor recreation for all our citizens," Miller, stated "And Pinellas County has set an outstanding example at the county level in acquiring and developing these sorely needed (Please see ANDERSON, 3-B) The Plaque ent movies with a single ticket, he the mall, we are encouraging the abandonment of old-fashioned store fronts, which we feel, drive away more customers than -they attract," Stern said.

HE ANNOUNCED a lease had already been negotiated with the J. C. Penney Company for a 130,000 square foot "one-stop WEARY FIREMAN stumbles from blaze. other businesses. Spokesmen said the Sportsman's Bar on one side was protected by a thick firewall and Fremac's on the other side was sheltered by a double concrete-block wall.

Firemen fought the stubborn blaze with an array of equipment including several aerial hoses and a snorkle truck until p.m. when the fire was offi cially declared under control. Hoses were put into play from every conceivable angle. Several high pressure hoses were stationed, on the roof of the B. F.

Goodrich, store, 30 Ninth St. S. SHORTLY AFTER the fire was reported, District Fire Chief Melvin Groves, who had (Please see FIRE, Fage 10-B) Clearwater Youth Bitten By Moccasin CLEARWATER Daniel P. Jefferson, 11, of 1255 Byron Drive, was admitted to Morton Plant Hospital yesterday morning for treatment of a snake bite. A Clearwater police spokesman said the boy was apparently bitten by- a water moccasin while trying to capture the reptile from a north Clearwater creek.

He was listed in fair condition last night. Time Photo by Lortyn Carlson Mark Wheeler, Parks Board Parks director. The park is I Ik family center." An additional 60,000 square feet will be made available to the Penney company when the need arises, Stern said. The Penney store is scheduled to open next year, he said, and will then close its 26-year-old downtown Clearwater location. The center will park 3,000 au Field Official For NAACP Is Named TAMPA A former St.

Petersburg resident now working with the Rural Manpower Training Project in Tallahassee yesterday was appointed Flori da field director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peode (NAACP). The appointment of Marvin Davies was announced by Mrs. Ruby Hurley, NAACP regional director based in Atlanta. Mrs. Hurley was in Tampa for the day-long meeting of the NAACP state executive committee.

SHE ALSO ANNOUNCED the state NAACP offices would be moved from Tampa to St. Petersburg "as soon as offices can be located." Mrs. Hurley said the move was Deing made lor two reasons. She said the Tampa office location has become less desira-(Plcase see NAACP, Tage 11-B) tained until 5 p.m. Monday at the elections offices at the Courthouse in Clearwater and at the County Building in St.

Petersburg, at 150 Fifth St N. All ballots also must be returned to one of these offices by 5 p.m. Monday. Tuesday's election is a party primary like its predecessor May 3, which means the county's 5,100 registered indepen- (flease see PINELLAS, 11-B) Bereaved Guidance Is Offered Have you lost your: husband or wife through death? Parade Magazine writers Sid Ross and Marianna Hassol today on page 14 tell about unique orgnization in Pittsburgh, called THEO They Help Each Other. THEO's aim is to assist the widowed and their families spiritually, socially, financlalsy.

Most of the members are widows or widowers over 40. And THEO Is teaching the mthat morbidity and self-pity have no place in life. If you know of a similra group already meeting on the Sun-coast, please write The St. Petersburg Times, P. O.

Box 1121. And be sure to read about THEO today in Parade, a supplement of The Sunday Times. jL If you were born in an even numbered year, your driver's Tjl fa I license expires on the last day -ffjl of your birth month this year. 21 If you were born in an- VHUj odd-numbered year, your fjl iC driver's license is good un. Jtfa far iH i gggzMi fx County Commissioner A.

L. Anderson, second from left, unveils the bronze plaque marking a new county park in his name. Also shown are, from left, George Ruppcl, Pinellas.