Creekwood residents voice roundabout concerns

Diane Carter stood outside her Creekwood home and looked out at a pond that almost completely was covered by ducklings.

"Is our wildlife going to go away?" she said with a forlorn look on her face. 

Diane and Tom Carter hosted several concerned Creekwood neighborhood homeowners March 17 at their Terrace East home.

The Carters' home, which has been in the family for 19 years, is most susceptible to change as Manatee County plans a roundabout at Creekwood Boulevard and 73rd Street East, which is the entrance into the community.

While all homeowners had their concerns about the roundabout, they also came to support the Carters.

Tom Carter stepped forward to answer his wife's question about the wildlife going away from their backyard.

"This is a dog-and-pony show," Tom Carter said. "Everything will be gone."

Tom Carter said county officials have told him it could be possible that a large pond behind his home and several trees would need to be removed for the project. He said the new road configuration would have traffic passing his home only about 30 yards away.

The way his backyard sits at the present could best be described as tranquil.

Tom Carter said the county has looked into building the traffic circle to the opposite side of Creekwood Boulevard (to the southeast) but that would involve filling in part or all of a huge pond.

"I was told that would have been a $6.2 million project," he said.

Katie Walstrom, who has lived on 72nd Street for 25 years, said it is not right to cut into the Carters' property.

"I don't understand why you take property in the middle of town," she said.

She also was concerned that no signs were placed at the roundabout site or in the Creekside neighborhood.

Ogden Clark, the strategic affairs manager for Manatee County's Public Works department, said the land acquisition for the project was not as extreme as the Carters believed it to be. And he said the county currently is looking at other options for the roundabout.

Construction on the project was supposed to start in January and be completed in January 2024, but the county has put on the brakes after listening to Creekwood residents' concerns. Clark said District 5 Commissioner Vanessa Baugh asked Public Works to take another look at the project.

"I don't believe the brakes are on," said Kelly Blaski who has lived in 73rd Street for two years with her husband, Rick Blaski. "This was so not up front. We didn't know about this and it is like things are getting shoved down our throat."

Kelly Blaski also is worried that if a roundabout is built right outside the entrance to the community that it will increase truck traffic going past the entrance.

Rick Blaski said one of his biggest concerns was that the sign announcing the project was on 52nd Place East coming out of the shopping center and not at the actual roundabout site at Creekwood Boulevard and 73rd Street East. The concerned residents said it was misleading and added that they could never read the sign anyway because the print was too small and there are too many too many traffic concerns at that spot to look around.

Diane Carter said she didn't know about the project until she saw workers planning stakes into her property.

When Joe Cantalupo, who has lived in Creekwood for 29 years, saw the project sign for the first time on 52nd Place East, he said he through "it was a joke sign."

"That roundabout is not going to do anything," Cantalupo said. "It will be a hindrance. It will destroy the entrance to Creekwood."

Jeff Denler and Maureen Denler, who have lived on 52nd Terrace East for 18 years, said they were concerned both about the traffic at their community entrance and the noise from the road being closer to the homes.

They also said they thought the roundabout was going to be built where the sign about the project was posted.

Clark said the county is looking at options in realignment that could be a win-win for both the motorists and the residents. 

He said everything has stopped now until updated designs are presented and approved by the commissioners. He said the process will be a new design alignment, surveys, the plan being approved by the board of commissioners, and property acquisition before construction can begin.

He said construction on the project isn't likely to begin in the next six months and he said a general meeting will be held to discuss the project with Creekwood residents well before that point.

Clark said the county should have enough "wiggle room" to adjust the project.