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Thank you for your patience while we reviewed the latest feedback about the project. We received your comments through three primary channels: your communication with project manager Kathy Fernandez, comments and questions offered during our Project Information Meeting on Dec. 13, 2023, and in our post-meeting online survey.

Here is what we learned:

Next Steps

Project Overview

The existing roadway has two travel lanes with roadside ditches, sidewalk on the south side, sporadic sidewalk on the north side, and the existing roadway’s lane width varies from 11-12 feet through the project area. The posted speed is 25mph at the west end, in the downtown area, and 30mph once you pass Omaha Street to the east.

The project team is evaluating the need to improve safety for pedestrians by completing the sidewalk on the north side, improve segments of sidewalk on the south side, provide consistent lane widths through the corridor, improve drainage to better manage runoff from the roadway, and evaluate opportunities for traffic calming.

The project aims to preserve the character of the community and limit impacts to residents and business owners while enhancing the safety and welfare of drivers and pedestrians. Uninterrupted sidewalk on both sides of Nebraska Avenue will make it easier and safer for pedestrians to walk to school or downtown, and the drainage improvements will reduce road runoff into yards during heavy rains.

Project Update

Pinellas County held a Virtual Project Information Meeting on Dec. 13, 2023, during which staff shared information about the project’s updated design, answered questions and listened to comments. More than 200 people registered for the meeting and 135 attended. Residents learned about significant changes that were made to the design based on public feedback, including:

Other key elements of the project were explained in greater detail, including:

The project team’s responsibility is to propose the safest solution based on the project goals and the limitations of the project area. We’ve heard that some members of the community oppose the mini-roundabout and we hope that the challenges this intersection presents and the reasons we are recommending the mini-roundabout were sufficiently explained during the presentation.

The updated design, while still in progress, responds to resident requests to preserve as many trees as possible. The new proposed design preserves all but five trees that need to be removed from the south side of Nebraska Avenue, near 16th Street. New trees will be planted within the corridor by the County’s Urban Forestry team, in coordination with the community, once the project is complete.

The updated design also responds to resident requests to replace the concept of a multi-use trail with a wide sidewalk on the north side of Nebraska. It would be built as a concrete sidewalk rather than an asphalt path and would avoid landscape features where possible. The sidewalk on the south side will remain in place. Segments of sidewalk along the south side that are in poor conditions will be replaced.

We appreciate the community’s interest and involvement in making this project a success.

Project Location

Estimated Project Timeline

Community Outreach

Project Engineering Plans (Not Finalized)

Project Funding

This project is supported by the Penny for Pinellas.

Contact Us

Kathy FernandezProject ManagerPublic Works / Capital Improvements14 S. Ft. Harrison Ave., Clearwater, FL 33756(727) 464-3695krfernandez@pinellas.gov

E-mail addresses are public records under Florida law and are not exempt from public-records requirements. If you do not want your e-mail address to be subject to being released pursuant to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact the entity via the phone number and/or mailing address provided above.

PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Amy Moore loves the Palm Harbor Community, where she was born and raised.

Moore has moved around the country for the last 20 years while her husband served in the Army, but the couple moved back home earlier this year.

What You Need To Know

“We’ve lived everywhere from Alaska, Hawaii, New York, Tennessee and this is where we want to be,” Moore said.

When Moore heard some of her neighbors were struggling this holiday season, she wanted to help. It started with a post in a Facebook group about people asking where they could find an affordable place to live.

“One of the ladies actually ended up making her own post about an extended stay motel where multiple families lived,” Moore said. “To be honest, I wasn’t aware that was happening in this area.”

Moore and a couple of friends began collecting toys, clothes, school supplies and everyday essentials to give to those families. When they put out a call for some donations, the community answered.

“We weren’t expecting it to get like this,” Moore said. “We thought a few sponsors, a few gifts, someone suggested an Amazon Wishlist. It went from less than 100 things to over 300, 400 things.”

Those hundreds of gifts fill the lobby at the Palm Harbor Inn.

The motel off of Highway 19 North has become home to working families in a tough financial spot. While inflation has been gradually slowing this year, a recent study from WalletHub ranked Tampa Bay second in the country’s metro areas with the highest rise in inflation, behind Miami.

About 75% of occupants in the motel’s 100 rooms live there full-time and stay for up to two years, according to the property manager. Heidi Meyer moved to the inn last year from Holiday because she couldn’t afford to keep up with rent.

“This place was affordable and once we moved in here, it’s like one big family community,” she said. “Everybody looks out for everybody. We all do the best we can here, and this is the best we can do right now.”

Meyer works full-time as a security guard. But after paying rent and gas, there isn’t much extra money leftover to spend. Meyer said the gifts from the community will go a long way this Christmas.

“It means a lot to us,” she said. “It’s a godsend. I’m going to cry. It means a lot to all of us. It really does.”

Deb Kurtz has driven by the Palm Habor Inn for years, but never knew families like Meyer’s were living there full time. She and her husband stopped by to donate a few items and a check large enough to cover someone’s rent.

“It’s important to help people who don’t have as much as we do,” Kurtz said. “None of us, at some point, were that far away from being homeless or being in bad shape. Everybody’s been through rough times, so give each other a hand up.”

Moore believes everyone deserves to have a good holiday, no matter what situation they may find themselves in. She is overwhelmed by the generosity of strangers.

“It just shows the kindness of the community and the spirit,” Moore said. “It’s awesome.”

Moore is planning to organize another donation drive for families living at the Palm Harbor Inn around back-to-school time and again next Christmas.

A Publix delivery truck and passenger truck are some of the first casualties of the long-controversial roundabout at Palm Harbor Boulevard and Florida Avenue.

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Published July 10, 2023|Updated July 14, 2023

When the half-constructed roundabout opened at Palm Harbor Boulevard and Florida Avenue last month, local residents were wary. So far, it’s caused caused confusion and even a few collisions.

Now, some vocal residents doubt it’s the best mode of passage at the busy North Pinellas thoroughfare.

A sea of orange cones indicates that drivers must move in a circular fashion around the mess of dirt and cement at the center of the intersection.

Bobby Boles, an employee at Bill’s Palm Harbor Mobil and Auto Service Center on the northeast corner of the intersection, watched security camera footage from June 24 that showed a Publix truck ramming into the center, which hasn’t been fully constructed yet.

Two days earlier, he said, a passenger truck also hit the roundabout. It was brought into his repair shop, and damages will cost the driver more than $2,000.

The roundabout has been controversial since its early stages. Residents voiced disapproval as early as 2015, when Florida Department of Transportation officials said they were leaning toward installing the roundabout instead of a traffic light at Nebraska Avenue.

State officials said the roundabout is intended to reduce the number of fatal or injury crashes at the intersection. And after the $2.5 million upfront construction cost, the roundabout won’t cost as much to maintain compared to a traffic light. Construction is scheduled to finish in August.

Kim Cromble is an active member of the “Palm Harbor Roundabout” Facebook group. The Spring Hill resident said she’s started to avoid the traffic circle during her commute to and from her job at a private home in Palm Harbor.

“I will go out of my way to not use it,” she said in an interview. “I just think life would have been just fine with a traffic light.”

Cromble’s main complaint? The roundabout is too tight. She doesn’t want to run over the edge of the roundabout if she’s towing a trailer or in a large vehicle, she said.

One issue is that the roundabout isn’t complete yet, said Chelsea Favero, planning manager for Forward Pinellas, the region’s transportation planning agency, which helped coordinate the project and gather resident perspectives.

The west side of the roundabout still needs to be constructed, FDOT spokesperson Kristen Carson said. Signage, paving and pedestrian islands are on their way as well.

The cones are also making a tighter pathway for cars, Favero said. The roundabout was designed in consultation with the Palm Harbor fire department to, once complete, allow larger cars and emergency vehicles to lightly mount the pavement in order to clear the roundabout quickly.

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“I think people just need to be patient,” she said. Once it’s fully functioning, she said drivers will see some of the intended benefits.

“Can there be other crashes? Absolutely,” Favero said. “If someone doesn’t yield properly, then there can be a crash that results in some property damage. However, if you’re going to line up a fatal crash or a severe injury crash next to a property damage crash, we always want to see the property damage instead.”

Billy Coleman, owner of Palm Harbor Auto Service, another business adjacent to the roundabout, said he hasn’t lost customers since construction began last August. He favored a traffic light instead of the roundabout, but he said he’s trying to remain cooperative.

“One thing I learned a long time ago is you might as well shut up and make the best of it,” he said.

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Palm Harbor Museum brings its first Meet Me At The Museum Book Signing Event of 2024—featuring Terry Fortner in a Meet-and-Greet gathering on Saturday, February 24th from 1 to 3 PM at Palm Harbor Museum. You'll have the opportunity to chat with Terry about the newly-published 40th Anniversary Edition of her grandmother's acclaimed book, Yesteryear I Lived in Paradise, to ask questions and have Terry sign copies of these extraordinary stories by her grandmother, Myrtle Scharrer Betz (1895-1992). Light refreshments will be served.

Over the years, there have been so many requests for this out-of-print Florida treasure that offers Myrtle's first-hand accounts of growing up on Caladesi Island well before a hurricane split the island and created a second island that was named Honeymoon Island. Betz was a born storyteller with a one-of-a-kind life. With compelling honesty and humanity, she describes her experiences as the only child ever born on Caladesi Island, capturing the natural wonders, discomforts, challenges, and joys of pioneer life on a Florida West Coast barrier island, and providing one of the richest portraits available of pioneer life in Florida when it truly was the natural, tropical paradise that tourists and residents alike can only imagine today.

Spanning the time from when her Swiss immigrant father, Henry Scharrer, first arrived in America in 1883 until his death in 1934, Myrtle describes his experiences as in 1888 he homesteaded 156 acres of the undeveloped island that is now Caladesi Island State Park. Betz's memories of pioneer living as it transitioned into the Progressive and then the Depression eras and her observations, her father's wisdom, and her family's respect and care of their island and the sea will captivate you.

This just-released 40th Anniversary Edition contains additional photos, illustrations, a checklist of "Birds Seen On or Around Caladesi Island 1918-1935," chronological details and a "Timeline" addendum authored by Terry Fortner that clarifies the history—extending to the years before and after the narrative itself.

Please visit Palm Harbor Museum on Saturday, February 24th between 1 to 3 PM. Terry will have books available and will sign copies for you at this event and chat with you personally.

If you are cannot attend, you will find this book at the Nature Store at Honeymoon Island State Park and in area bookstores such as Back In The Day Books in Dunedin and in the Heritage Village gift shop.

Image credit: Photos from collection of Terry Fortner (Top L) Terry Fortner hugs the historic Harp Tree at Caladesi Island (Top R) 40th Anniversary Edition of Yesteryear I Lived in Paradise (Below) Myrtle Scharrer Betz on Caladesi Island.

PALM HARBOR, Fla. - County leaders in Pinellas say they want to improve the road, sidewalks and drainage systems in part of Palm Harbor, but the residents who live there say they have concerns.

The proposed improvements are planned for a one-mile stretch of Nebraska Avenue from Alternate U.S.-19 to Westlake Boulevard.

"We did not ask for this, and we don’t want it," Ada Henderson, who lives along Nebraska Avenue, said.

Right now, the two lanes vary in width from 11 to 12 feet, and there are sporadic sidewalks and ditches on both sides, the county said. The proposal would make the lanes a consistent 11 feet wide, sidewalks six feet wide on the south side and create a 10-foot-wide multiuse trail on the north side of the road.

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"People will be backing out into this path and into the street. They're going to run people over if they think that's going to be safe for people to have bicycles or a baby stroller. It's not safe," Henderson said. "You're not supposed to put a path in front of people's driveways, in front of their homes. People won’t be able to park. They won't be able to get their mail."

Henderson and Steve Ehlers, who also lives along Nebraska, said they’re concerned about traffic, safety and the value of their homes decreasing.

"You'll have no real driveway," Ehlers said. "You'll have just a parking lot right in front of your house. The houses are maybe 25 to 30 feet from the county right of way mark."

Ehlers and Henderson said residents are also concerned the project would eliminate the majority of the street’s trees.

"They want to cut most of the old growth trees down, which we find is one of the characteristics of Palm Harbor," Ehlers said.

The proposal also suggests possibly adding a roundabout at 16th Street.

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"They're not going to be able to maneuver around this roundabout," Henderson said.

Their biggest concern, they said, is for the safety of students from nearby schools who frequently walk and bike Nebraska Avenue.

"Right now, it is not safe, and what they’re going to do is going to be even worse," Henderson said.

Henderson said she’d rather see four way stops, traffic lights, streetlights and crosswalks with blinking lights added to Nebraska Avenue.

Right now, they have more than 400 signatures on a petition against the project.

The county said in a statement:

"The Nebraska Avenue Roadway Improvements Project is still early in the design phase. The design has changed significantly since it was first envisioned, particularly regarding tree preservation. Our aim is to make the route safer for schoolchildren and other pedestrians, improve drainage, and maintain the community’s charm. We are reviewing comments received from residents during a Project Information Meeting in February and in the months since, and we will continue to actively engage with the community."

Residents said they feel like the county hasn’t been listening to them. They plan to voice their concerns again at Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting.

Construction is supposed to start in spring of 2024 and wrap up by the end of summer 2025.