New pipes to alleviate Tarpon Woods flooding

By Daniel Paquette

EAST LAKE – One summer nearly a decade ago, Barbara Smith found fish scattered across her driveway in the Tarpon Woods subdivision. After a particularly bad storm, a pond near her home on Toniwood Lane had overflowed into the streets.

"It has just been a nightmare for years," Smith, 62, said of stormwater drainage in the neighborhood. "The roads have been flooded so bad and for so long, my son has had to walk to work."

Help may be coming.

On Thursday, Pinellas County officials outlined a plan for an eight-month project to install new drainage pipes that will, if all goes as planned, empty into a lower portion of Brooker Creek.

The $1.75 million project, to break ground April 16, will be funded by the Southwest Florida Water Management District and revenue from the Penny for Pinellas sales tax.

Continued...