Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 80

Petersburg GBmcs CLEARWATER EDITION St. Petersburg, Fla. TUESDAY, JULY 19, 1994 tiuairts oDims mograftioini Hvomm SumshDinie By G.G. RIGSBY Times Staff Writer A women's clothing store is heading for Largo Mall, anchor JCPenney is leaving and another store I ponders moving. Simmons said.

"It's an ideal location for older people in this area," she said. But Simmons said she recently paid $6,000 for a new air conditioner for the space she has now, and the mall owners won't guarantee her if she moves elsewhere in the mall that she won't have to pay for a new air conditioner there, too. The cost wouldn't be worthwhile when she can sign only a month-to-month lease, she said. "The owners are not signing any new leases," she said. "Everyone is on Sunshine Mall manager Kay Vega was on vacation and could not be reached for comment.

A spokesman for the company that owns the mall, Fusco Corp. of New Haven, did not return a telephone call seeking comment. Stuarts closed Saturday, said Deborah Reich, in the parent company's headquarters, Petrie Stores of Secaucus, NJ. She would not say why the store closed, how many employees it had or what happened to them. Nearby Stuarts are in Clearwater, Countryside and Seminole malls, Reich said, with a new Stuarts expected to open in mid- to late August in Largo Mall.

The new Stuarts will carry juniors, women's plus-size and children's clothing. When Sunshine Mall celebrated its 25th anniversary last September, it had more vacant storefronts than occupied ones. Since then, the McCrory Variety Store has closed and anchor JCPenney announced last month that it will close in January, ending 55 years of business in the downtown area. Simmons said the mall is in a no-win situa-Please see STUARTS Page 6 CLEARWATER Stuarts women's clothing store has closed in Sunshine Mall, the latest in a growing list of tenants to leave the aging mall near downtown. Able Medical Aids also may have to leave because of the mall's uncertain future, one of the company's owners, Nancy Simmons, said Monday.

Able Medical Aids, which has been in the mall for 11 years, needs more space and would very much like to stay in Sunshine Mall, Treated sewer water on hold Clearwater officials say it is too soon to commit to building a reclaimed water system for irrigation. Stewart may try for county position St. Petersburg City Council member Robert Stewart will announce his political plans today. A colleague says he intends to seek a seat on the County Commission. i I By THOMAS C.

TOBIN Times Staff Writer CLEARWATER A reclaimed water system does not appear to be in the city's future, despite relentless lobbying Monday from City Commissioner Art Deegan. Commissioners voted 4-1 against Deegan's proposal to start ft myth By NED SEATON Timee Staff Writer Robert Stewart, a St. Petersburg City Council member for nearly a decade, may be looking to move up the political ladder. Stewart has scheduled a news conference this morning on the steps of the county courthouse in Clearwater. He will not say directly what he plans to announce, but at least one colleague close to him says Stewart intends to campaign for a seat on the County Commission.

"He's running," said St. Petersburg City Council member Da 1 i building a sys-tem that might some day have delivered reclaimed water to all homes in Clearwater. But commissioners left open the possibility that the idea could come up again in two months. Deegan's hi Art Deegan wants a reclaimed water system to serve parts of Clearwater. vid weicn, a Stewart ally.

"He's planning an announcement." Stewart Would only say: "You can piece that together from a Timet photo JOAN KADEL FENTON Russell Kantner built this $9 treehouse on his grandfather's land, near Phillippe Parkway. He says that motorists enjoy seeing him 35 feet up in the oak tree, and that they often wave and shout up to him. Treetop is place to think, drink and wave i plan: A $6-million system of pipes and pumps to deliver reclaimed water to Island Estates and Clearwater Beach. Half the money was to come from state grants, some of it from reserves in the city's utility fund and some from the proposed sale of Clearwater's reclaimed water to Pinellas County. Please see WATER Page 3 FACES IN THE CROWD JACQUIN IaiJI SAWDERS lot ot people Robert Stewart until well, is t0 announce you dont pans today.

know what I'm going to do." To run for the county post, Stewart has to resign from the city government seat he has held since 1985. He is the president of the City Council. City term limit rules would require him to step down next year anyway. Stewart, 56, has been a proponent of efforts to attract a Major League Baseball team and to redevelop downtown St. Petersburg including the controversial deal with a development company to build a theater complex.

He is a Republican. Another Republican Cecil Keene, a long- Please see STEWART Page 6 Long arms pulling, skinny legs pumping, looking for all the world like a good-natured spider, he scurries branch by branch up the noble oak tree. Thirty-five feet up, he reaches his platform, his refuge, his stage. Cars rush by on Phillippe Parkway in north Pinellas County. Some of the drivers wave and shout encouragement.

"You get 'em, boy. You the man!" It is almost as if he represents some cause near to their hearts. If so, it is never put into words. Russell Kantner only grins and waves back with both hands. "They love me," he says happily.

"Something about me sitting up here makes them feel good." Kantner's tree is set back some 50 feet from the highway, but his trash-wood platform is quite visible. "People think it's got to be Kantner has been leaning somewhat perilously out of his platform, talking downward. Now he descends, swinging less gracefully than Tarzan from branch to branch. The tree sways with his weight. He lands heavily and lurches away from an empty beer bottle lying on the ground.

"They're crowding out people like me and my brothers and my grandpa and grandma," he says. "We ain't gone yet, but probably soon will be. Grandpa's put the land up for sale." Kantner's brother Robin helped build the platform; so did his friend Chuck Wilkins. Both climb up regularly and help with the sitting and thinking. Another brother, Scott, hangs around, too.

Scott is younger and barbered and looks more like the rest of the world. "I won't climb up in that tree," he says. He has a job with the state. Please see TREETOP Page 3 against some damn law or other," he says. "Me climbing up on my perch and just sitting and drinking beer and thinking things over.

"But it ain't illegal. This is my family land. I was born here. My grandfather still owns these 2 acres. I grew up hunting quail and dove right there across the highway.

It was a nice ol' orange grove in those days. Now look at it." He points to a housing warren, surrounded by a masonry fence. "They're ruining this country. They're taking the pretty out of it." So birds can nest in peace In the latest attempt to control boats on Alligator Lake, Safety Harbor considers speed limits and a buffer zone. Seeing the future By ERIKA N.

DUCKWORTH Time Staff Writer rjt i.u i I I call, prices for these services could range from $62,000 to $73,600, assuming there were 200 to 300 calls annually. Old store will get a new look Clearwater city officials got their first glimpse Monday of how the former Maas Brothers department store downtown will look after a major renovation. Commissioners so far have authorized for the project and are expected to spend more. Plans call for a Stein Mart clothing store to open in August on the middle floor. Restaurants are proposed for the first and third floors, with meeting space for conferences and community events in remaining areas of the building.

An architect's rendering, unveiled in City Commission chambers, features the west side of the building overlooking Clearwater Harbor. Not pictured is an atrium that architect Dean Rowe has suggested as "an enhancement." Inside A Tarpon Springs man has filed a lawsuit against Horizon Hospital. The lawsuit alleges the hospital took too long to file papers required to hold him under the Baker Act. Page 3 PINELLAS DIGEST Pinellas County sheriff gives estimates to Dunedin DUNEDIN It will take weeks for city staffers to analyze the second part of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office proposal for providing public safety services to Dunedin, said City Manager John Lawrence. The proposal, received by commissioners on Friday, is a more thorough cost summary than the initial report provided.

Analysis is needed to determine whether the city would benefit by handing over all, part, or none of its public safety business to the Sheriff's Office. The bottom line in the new report remains the same: The Sheriff's Office would charge the city about for deputies and related expenses and a $738,540 start-up fee. The Dunedin Police Department costs the city a year. The second part of the proposal provides details of costs, so that the city can determine whether it wants to contract with the Sheriff's Office for specific services. Cost scenarios for crime scene, fingerprint and evidence services were provided, based on the number of calls received.

Figuring a cost of $115.38 per SAFETY HARBOR City commissioners voted Monday night to establish Alligator Lake as an idle-speed zone and to create a buffer zone for nearby wildlife. There will be a public hearing Aug. 1 before final adoption of the ordinance. Currently, there is a 10 horsepower restriction on craft that use Alligator Lake. If the idle-speed zone becomes law, that restriction will no longer apply larger engines will be permissible because they won't be allowed to exceed idle speed.

For more than two years, commissioners have looked for ways to control speed and noise on Alligator Lake, which is surrounded by homes and condominiums. It is also the site of bird colonies with hundreds of nesting herons and egrets. Last month, the city restricted Please see NEST Page 6 This architect's rendering of how the former Maas Brothers downtown department store will look after a major renovation was unveiled Monday to Clearwater city officials. The multimillion-dollar project calls for a Stein Mart clothing store, which will open in August. Also proposed are restaurants and meeting space for conferences and events..