Plans are underway to install additional outdoor lighting to Harborwalk by the end of August 2012 after concerns over nighttime campus safety were addressed.
One significantly darker corner of campus is the city-owned Poynter Park between the library and Harbor Hall. While USFSP property along the harbor is lit at night, the park is not, resulting in a gloomy walk for students to and from the old Dali museum.
Physical Plant Director John Dickson met with city personnel and representatives from the Poynter Institute on Jan. 30 to discuss nighttime safety improvements in the park. Adding lights, revamping the sidewalks and installing blue emergency phones were among the recommendations.
The university and Poynter suggestions were formally submitted the same day.
“Contact information was exchanged with the intent they would review our recommendations and get back to us,” Dickson said, adding that a “definitive date was not set.”
In the meantime, additional lighting is planned along Harborwalk, according to Dickson, who said the new lights will be in place “no later than the end of August 2012.”
No recent crimes have been reported to in or near Poynter Park, said Lt. Reggie Oliver of the University Police Services.
“We have had a couple of incidents involving suspects from the surrounding areas, such as shoplifters from the Publix shopping plaza and individuals from the Salvation Army shelter that have come on campus after attempting to evade St. Petersburg [police] officers,” he said, adding the only recently reported crimes involved theft of bicycles or electronics.
Oliver said students who do not feel safe on campus, at night or otherwise, can use one of the 34 blue phones on campus to request an escort from university police. Phones close to Poynter Park are at the corner of Third Street and Sixth Avenue South, Third Street and Eighth Avenue South and in the Harbor Hall parking lot.
Another corner of campus in need of lighting is the recreation field, said Todd Clark, coordinator of fitness and intramural sports. The field, bordered by Third and Fourth Streets South and Fifth Avenue South, is equipped with safety lighting, though not enough light for intramural sports to play on the field at night. As a result, intramural sports with evening games are moved to off-campus fields, including Coquina Key Park.
“It is an on-going project,” Clark said. Talks have involved members of Student Life and Student Government. “We continue to look into the cost of lights, installation and other needs for the rec field,” Clark said. Bleachers and a scoreboard are two items previously discussed to improve the field.
An external site assessment and safety audit in May 2009 found the university in compliance with recommended lighting levels.
Feature photo: Additional lighting will be installed along Harborwalk by the end of August, said physical plant employees. The Poynter Institute and the university are also in negotiations with the city to add lights to the park between the library and Harbor Hall.
Photos by Christopher Guinn
