It was a tough crowd in a noisy environment.
The Bradenton Beach bell tower clanged a reminder that it was noon. Construction workers’ machinery whirred and beeped in the background and large delivery trucks passed in the street.
About 30 people gathered at the Bay Drive-Bridge Street roundabout Jan. 20 to learn about the project underway just a few feet away.
Residents asked questions about the ongoing renovations on Bridge Street for more than an hour.
They are frustrated with the project, which thus far resulted in the removal of 14 cabbage palms, five Washingtonian palm trees and five black olive trees. The Washingtonians and black olives were relocated to the area where an above-ground cistern was installed.
The project is scheduled to conclude in February. In addition to removing some trees and plants and adding others, the project includes new sidewalks, the installation of 14 large concrete planters and the resurfacing of Bridge Street with a paver-like product.
Many of the meeting participants reside at the Pines Trailer Park, 103 Church Ave. Some Bridge Street merchants took part. They came armed with questions, concerns, compliments and criticism.
Participants listened and some walked away satisfied with what they heard. Pines resident Thomas Waxenfelter is eager to see the finished product.
“I heard a lot of great information that we may not have known before,” Waxenfelter said after the meeting. “Now we see things are improving and looking better and just looking pretty good.”
Bradenton Beach Police Lt. John Cosby, chair of the capital improvement projects committee, and city engineer Lynn Burnett, answered every question, even if they didn’t change every mind.
They acknowledged some aesthetic shortcomings in the project as they preached patience. The plants will grow and cascade over the sides of the stark planters, they said.
They also stressed the importance of the city meeting federal obligations through the project’s stormwater retention improvements.
Some of the Pines Trailer Park residents expressed their displeasure with the project. Jim Mox came armed with an alternative.
He wondered why the parking spaces and other areas now covered with rocks couldn’t instead have been blacktopped, with grates added for drainage and rocks underneath for filtration. The water would still go through, he said after the meeting.
Mox added that walking on blacktop would be safer than stepping on loose gravel, echoing a sentiment expressed by multiple participants.
Pines resident Ellen Scott called the presentation “a bunch of hogwash. It usually happens that way,” she said.
Some Bridge Street merchants were happy with what they heard. Amanda Escobio, owner of Searenity Beach Spa & Eco Boutique, 112 Bridge St., said she’s excited to see the project near completion.
“It’s nothing but good things for Bridge Street,” Escobio said. “It’s like watching a skyscraper being built. You can look at the glass as half empty or you can look at it as half full. The fact that flood control is going to improve our ability to enjoy this island for many, many years to come, that’s really what it’s about.”
Pines residents Deanna Ayers and Kathy Diskey commented before the meeting. Ayers said she was disappointed the street’s landscape had been changed.
“I wish I wasn’t here watching this, because it just hurts me to see all this happening,” she said.
Ayers acknowledged the look will improve over time, as plants grow and trees mature. But she said watching so much change at once has been upsetting.
Diskey said she was disappointed about three years ago, when city officials removed some non-native trees from Bridge Street.
“Then this concrete thing — is ugly,” she said, gesturing toward one of the recently added planters.
Some people refer to the planters as bunkers.
Bridge Street Merchants president Angela Rodocker, owner of BridgeWalk Resort, 100 Bridge St., praised Cosby and Burnett for conducting the open-air meeting.
“Anytime we can all come together and receive more information and then be able to make decisions off it, it’s just better,” she said. “I love the fact that there were so many people here from the community.”