Tampa Bay Times du lieu suivant : St. Petersburg, Florida • 86

FRIDAY, MAY 29. 1987 Unforeseen costs could threaten housing project By KATHY SUBKO Tlnwi Staff Writer ments to unaffordable levels. Deborah Vincent, executive director of the authority, said Thursday that the developers did not think they would have to pay those fees because the complex is to be a public project for the elderly. "We had some cost overruns on some things that we thought were going to be waived," said Jim Gilliam, president of the Cumberland Group, which is developing the project. But because the developers will actually own the building for 10 years before giving the city an option to buy it, the city and county say those fees must be paid.

Vincent said she had thought the project would qualify for a special program allowing reduced annual payments to the city, in lieu of county property taxes. She estimated the reduced payment at $32,000 a year. Paying regular property taxes would cost another $40,000 a year, she said. "The impact fee is also very devastating," Gilliam said. That one-time bill, to cover the burden of increased traffic, would be for $124,000 $1,000 per unit.

Vincent has written to the Pinellas County administrator to try to get the impact fee dropped. She is waiting for a response. And members of the authority's new projects committee are going to meet with city officials to explain the concept of the building and check again whether the complex would qualify for the annual payment in place of property taxes. If the developers have to pay those fees, the costs would ultimately be passed on to tenants. "We have no intention of scrapping the deal," Gilliam said.

He added that the rents would probably rise but not enough to change the low-income status of the project. But Vincent says the rent could go from $240 to $290 if the authority has to absorb those costs. "If we cannot do something from a financial standpoint, then the project is not as financially feasible as it once was," Vincent said. "We do not want to rent for $290 a month." It will be up to the housing authority to determine whether it still wants the complex built. CLEARWATER Some unforeseen costs are threatening development of a housing project for the elderly.

Members of the Clearwater Housing Authority were told Thursday that the agency may have to pick up property taxes and transportation impact fees for the project, planned on the former Clearwater Junior High School site. Those additional costs could, in turn, raise the rents of the low-income apart nt TIMES One price fits all at this shop Man sues, says seed in cookie caused injuries v. I By MARTHA NEIL Timet Staff Writer Xfl -i Bilotta broke two teeth on the large, black seed, cracked a third tooth and suffered permanent damage to his jaw, according to lawyer Thomas W. Carey. 1 i I K0 By CHRISTINA K.

COSDON Timet Staff Writer OLDSMAR Gloria Vander-bilt skirts and Koret separates can be found on the clothes racks at Nancy Dugan's and Tom Swaze's store, but the price is the eye-catcher. Each item in the shop, from slacks to sweaters, is priced $9. What about the quality of the clothing? "We don't buy irregulars or seconds," said Dugan this week. "All our clothing is first quality." Dugan and Swaze opened a women's sportswear shop, Ladies $9 Fashions, last week in the new Woodlands Square shopping cen- ter, on Curlew Road and State Road 584. This store offers at reduced prices some of the same clothing shoppers can find in the moderate departments of larger stores, said Swaze.

"We can do this by timely buying," he said. The couple explained that they purchase clothing at a time when manufacturers have moved on to the next season and have lowered the prices of the previous season's line. For example, many manufacturers now are working on their fall clothing, they said. "We won't be advancing the seasons," said Dugan, referring to the merchandising practice of advertising and selling clothes before the change of seasons. The challenge of buying for the store, she added, will be in finding manufacturers who make resort wear year round.

CLEARWATER An 81-year-old retiree who says he bit into the soft center of an Apple Newton and crunched down on a rock-hard seed is suing the Nabisco company for damages. Joseph Bilotta of New Port Richey is asking for an unspecified amount of money from Nabisco Brands Inc. to cover his medical expenses, bodily injury, disfigurement, pain and suffering, mental anguish and loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life. Bilotta broke two teeth on the large, black seed, cracked a third tooth and suffered permanent damage to his jaw, according to Thomas W. Carey, a Clearwater lawyer who filed the suit in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court for Bilotta earlier this week.

"Even though it's a small case and in a way it's a funny case, it has all the elements of a classic product liability case," Carey said. Bilotta had a right to expect that there wouldn't be anything hard in the apple-filled center of the cookie, a new version of Nabis-co's famous Fig Newton, Carey said. And the seed Bilotta bit down on is a foreign object that had nothing to do with the normal process of making an Apple Newton, Carey continued. The seed is about one-third the size of a small marble and just about as hard, the lawyer said. "I Timet photo JOAN KADEL FENTON Tom Swaze and Nancy Dugan display the merchandise at Ladies $9 Fashions.

just assumed it was a fig seed. Really hard. I don't think I could crack it unless I hit it with a hammer." Bilotta, a retired toolmaker from Detroit, didn't have much to say about the suit Thursday night when contacted at his home by a Times reporter. His wife, Marianna, said Apple New-tons are one of her husband's favorite foods, but the couple no longer buys the cookies since he crunched down on the seed. A spokesman at Nabisco Brands Inc.

headquarters in Par-sippany, N.J. could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon. Monthly trips to New York City will keep the store's racks filled, the merchants say. The buying trips eventually will extend to California, said Dugan. One-price stores are not new, she acknowledges.

"There are other companies, shoe stores and clothing stores, that have done the one-price concept," said Dugan. They selected $9, she said, because "anything under $10 is a key price. It's hard to pass up our price." Dugan's buying and merchandising experience comes from more than 20 years with the L.S. Ayres company, she says. Before leaving this year, Dugan said she was a divisional vice president of sportwear, a job that included 25 department stores throughout Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky.

Swaze says his merchandising experience includes being a regional manager for J. Riggings store in Dallas and a regional manager for the Chess King's stores in seven southern states. Dugan and Swaze said they have been partners since a chance meeting in their hometown of Indi anapolis. They went to high school together, but when they met two years ago after a class reunion, they hadn't seen each other for 20 years. "We've been together ever since," said Swaze.

As for the business, said Swaze, "We worked hard for many years for other businesses, now we want that experience to work for us." The store is open seven days a week. Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

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