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Another Brick In The Wall Debate

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By TONY MARRERO Hernando Today

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 19, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - As much as the city council has lamented the fiasco that the effort to conceal City Hall's giant generator has become, they sure do have fun discussing it.

The jocular banter about the much-debated issue returned during the council's regular meeting Monday night.
Council members have poked fun at Councilmember Lara Bradburn's determination to conceal the generator, a $47,000 piece of machinery the size of an economy car that Bradburn has called "an elephant," since it appeared there last year. She pushed to have it moved but relented when Pierce advised there is no better place to put it without spending tens of thousands more.

"Whatever we do," Mayor David Pugh Jr. quipped. "I think we need a picture of Lara on there."

The council eventually voted 3-2 to pay a contractor $25,000 to build a brick wall to hide the generator.

Ressell Inc. had originally proposed a $65,000, two-layered brick edifice complete with decorative fascia. But the city only has $23,000 left over from a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant used to install the generator and hurricane window screens on City Hall and the police department.

Ressell toned down the wall and more than halved the price. The city will have to pay the extra $2,000 out of its own coffers.

Pierce also said the city could hire a prison crew to build the wall, or have city staff do it. The problem: The city doesn't have a mason on staff, and no local inmates confined by walls have the experience to build one.

The city could also spend a couple of thousand dollars on shrubs to hide the generator, Pierce said.
Council members proffered other ideas before Monday's vote.

"I think we can come up with a four dollar proposal with cardboard and duct tape," Councilmember Richard Lewis said.

"Paint trees on it," Mayor David Pugh Jr. said, and then added as a nod to Bradburn's environmental bent: "Now that's green."

Later in the meeting, the mayor and father of two recommended the city paint SpongeBob SquarePants on the generator. Pugh and Councilmember Joe Bernardini would later dissent in the vote.

"There's actually a fourth option," Pierce told the council. "Do nothing."

"Well, wait a second, Emory," Bradburn shot back as she waved printed accounts of past conversations on the topic. "According to the minutes, you've already done that."

The chambers erupted in laughter and a chorus of "Ooohs."

"Score one for Lara," Bernardini said.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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