Grand name wanted for lake

''Town Pond'' won't do, officials say, after Clearwater expands and beautifies the downtown retention, uh, lake.

By DEBORAH O'NEIL, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 3, 2002

CLEARWATER -- That mucky, concrete-lined brown pool of water sitting just east of Prospect Street -- now, that is a pond.

The landscaped $7-million water body with a cascading waterfall that will replace the pond and help alleviate downtown flooding -- that will be a "lake."

So say city officials who want to come up with a new name for the downtown drainage project that will expand an existing 1.8 acre retention pond to 4 acres in a parklike setting.

The naming effort has begun with city officials urging everyone to stop calling it "Town Pond," the name it has carried for years.

"Town Lake," Mayor Brian Aungst said, correcting a reporter. "It's right up there with the Great Lakes."

Work is set to begin on the project this month, and city staff members plan to confer with the City Commission about how to best name the lake.

Aungst said he is open to ideas for a new name. "I'll be all ears," he said.

Among the possibilities being bandied about is having a naming contest open to the community and asking local historians for suggestions.

"If there is consensus, there is consensus not to name it Town Pond," said City Manger Bill Horne. "There's nothing really enchanting about it. It's kind of bland and very bureaucratic, and we want our community to be vibrant. And when you name things, there is a vibrancy and significance in the name."

City leaders say they want a name befitting the significance of the project. The new lake will be the first of its kind in Clearwater, designed to collect runoff from a 100-acre basin and clean it before discharging the water into Clearwater Harbor.

The concrete that encloses the existing structure will disappear, and the lake will be built to look like it has always been there, said Tom Miller, assistant engineering director for the city. Picnic tables, benches and a walking path will surround the lake.

Original estimates had the project costing $13-million, but it now appears it will be closer to $7-million, Miller said. City leaders hope the drainage project will encourage downtown development by giving builders the option of paying to use the new lake rather than building their own retention ponds as part of new projects.

"It's going to be one of the most significant capital improvement projects in downtown we've had in a long time," Miller said.

One name floating around for the project is Pierce Lake, Horne said, which stems from Pierce Street downtown. But the city also should consider its historical figures, founding fathers or leaders, officials said.

A community contest, said assistant city manager Garry Brumback, would be a fun way to involve Clearwater residents.

"We may name it Bob, I don't know," Brumback said jokingly. "One of the things I found is when you ask our citizens to participate in something, there is no way to predict what they may come up with."

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