Ward 1 Candidate Question of the Week: Promoting Gulfport Services

Voters will head to the polls on March 13 to decide who will represent them as Gulfport City Council Member for Wards 1 and 3.

To help inform the community, Patch will publish a City Council Candidate Question of the Week for both Wards.

Below, you will find the answers for the Ward 1 Candidates: David Hastings and Dan Liedtke.

Gulfport Patch Question of the Week: Are there underused services in Gulfport? If so, what are they, and how would you promote those services so that they provide a greater benefit to the entire community?

David Hastings

"We are a full service City and that is quite an accomplishment for a city our size and we have done a great job of holding those services together in this challenging economic time. That said there are a few areas that we could focus on.  

The Marina. We currently are running at a 70% occupancy and our current sitting Council just workshopped the idea of allowing live aboards under tightly controlled rules. We would have to make approximately $233,000 in capital improvements which would also benefit the marina greatly and we may be able to use some of the State's Sales Tax revenue we get annually to pay for these improvements. According to the annual expense estimates provided by the marina we would only have to have 9 live aboards to break even. The Council only heard positive resident feedback so it's something we will continue to look at.  

Clymer Park. I walk my dogs there every day and I seldom see anyone else especially in the second block. We have a fantastic arts and gardening community that are also underused and perhaps we could blend those 3 into a destination park filled with a fitness path, children's playground, display of local arts and zero scaping and even a community garden. This would also help tie 22nd Ave and the Waterfront district together.  

49th Street Neighborhood Center. This is way underused. Perhaps a visioning session to explore possibilities can lead to a better utilization.  

Our Rec Center. Serves a great purpose but perhaps we could promote the renting of it's unused rooms upstairs, Rec Center ball field and the waterfront. Council is currently looking at building an amphitheater which could bring additional revenue to the City.  

The Casino. My wife and I have catered many events throughout Pinellas County and our own Casino takes a back seat to none. We need to aggressively market this as a wedding venue. We also have some of the best restaurants in the Tampa Bay market and local beds to accommodate the wedding party with a beach scene to add icing on the cake. Few venues can match that.  

Our Beach. Now that we are taking measures to clean up our beach and we are discussing allowing vendors to rent our beach to provide our residents and quests amenities such as beach chairs, umbrellas, non polluting toys like kayaks and wind surfing, it's time that we promote our beach to out of state tourists.  

Volunteers. As most of you know I am big on volunteering and our City has an extensive network of fantastic volunteers but I would like to invite more people to help out in any way they can. By increasing our volunteer pool there is nothing that we as a City can not accomplish."

Dan Liedtke

Recycling: "Recycling is on the verge of being profitable and a higher participation rate could put the city well into the black. Currently the city does not have a feasible plan for businesses to recycle. This should be looked into and a plan could be developed to help create incentives for businesses to participate in the recycling program. Greater participation in Gulfport's recycling program will result in more money for the city which will help lower taxes and create a healthier, cleaner environment.

Recreation Center: The Recreation Center's “Teen Night”, after school and Tot Time programs as well as the VPK program are all excellent offerings that more residents should be taking advantage of. St. Pete Beach recently offered 1/2 price memberships to increase revenue and promote their recreation services. All our programs could do with lowered, not raised rates in tough economic times to increase participation. Also, a small advertising budget to get the word out would help with participation. The Teen Council should be consulted concerning what would make these programs more attractive to local teens.

The children of Gulfport need more options for their leisure time. The current survey is a step in the right direction towards bringing new programs and services to the library. Any idea that comes from the survey that can provide a service to the community and/or revenue to the city needs to be fully explored.

Senior Center: Recently, a Gulfport resident suffered a fall. The end result of which was much worse than it should have been because he lay for 2 nights before an alert neighbor called the Police Department. I encourage all seniors living alone to take advantage of the Senior Center Telephone Reassurance program.

The Senior Center could also benefit from improved exercise facilities. We should be looking into leveraging opportunities offered by the AARP Fitness and Wellness Program which offers business growth options for fitness professionals. Expanding the fitness area in the senior center while improving the health and wellness of the 50+ population will help lead to more active healthier lifestyles. With the help of the programs offered through AARP getting our seniors into shape has never been easier and more cost-effective. 

Gulfport Municipal Marina: The City of St Pete Beach just received a $220,000 federal grant for their marina project from the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service's Boating Infrastructure Grant Program. If the City of St Pete Beach is successful in getting all the necessary permits for their marina we can expect reduced demand for the Gulfport Marina. It is unfortunate that the City of Gulfport has not competed for some of the federal grant money that is available for boating infrastructure. If it is not too late the city of Gulfport should be making attempts to tap into this same program that recently awarded St Pete Beach almost a quarter million dollars.

The mayor brought forward an idea last week that is worth serious consideration. Having “Live Aboards” in the marina is the type of idea that the city council should be spending some time on. The limit on the length of stay in our marina is turning away business. Recently a boater commented on this website that he took his business to another marina due to the length of stay limitations at the Gulfport Marina.

Finally, the Gulfport Municipal Marina has a highly skilled and experienced harbormaster, Denis Frain, who takes a lot of pride in the marina and does a first-class job. Let’s promote the personal experience you get at the Gulfport Marina and allocate a portion of the funds generated by the marina to an effective advertising program.

The Gulfport Municipal Marina is currently one of the most underused service offerings in the city and will be facing new challenges in the future. Now is a good time to start putting a plan into place if the Gulfport Marina is going to compete long into the future."

Have a question?

If you would like to submit a question for the candidates, email the Editor at cherlene.willis@patch.com.

Editor's Note: The "Question of the Week" for the Gulfport City Council Candidates for Ward 3 will be published in a separate story.