SESHCA Meeting Will Address Nebraska Ave. Beautification

Trees and beautification, particularly along Nebraska Avenue south of Hillsborough Avenue, will be the topic of Tuesday evening's Southeast Seminole Heights Civic Association general membership meeting, 7 p.m. at the Kathryn Malone Center at Giddens Park, on the southeast corner of Giddens Avenue and North 12th Street.

Speakers will include Terry Johnson of the University of South Florida's Florida Center for Community Design and Research at the School of Architecture, and City of Tampa urban planning coordinator Randy Goers.

SESHCA president Sherry Genovar-Simons said the speakers will address “putting together a plan of action on how to utilize the city trees, how to take care of them, and monitor them and make sure they are taken care of.”

The meeting's topic was inspired, Genovar-Simons said, by the of the city's Community Tree Program. For the first time, researchers will study how well the trees planted under the program fare.

Government inaction is another reason. Genovar-Simons said trees and landscaping were supposed to accompany a major Florida Department of Transportation overhaul of Nebraska Avenue between Kennedy Boulevard and Hillsborough Avenue that took place in 2007 through 2008. The plants never got planted, and when SESHCA inquired as to why, Genovar-Simons said they were essentially told that FDOT required a study and plan to pay for the foliage, and the city said it didn't have the money for such a study.

Genovar-Simons hopes the meeting will produce ideas for getting the funds for those trees and shrubs finally released. “Any help we can get to make things better looking, we'll take,” she said.

If You Go

The meeting is open to the public starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 20, but refreshments will be served at 6:45 p.m.