T
Joined: Apr 11, 2002
Posts: 39
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T
Here's the latest news (as of 1/7/03) on the Tiki Gardens memorial project.
Update time, this time with some actual progress to report.-we (Cy and Tami) drove over to cocoa yesterday and spent about 90 minutes with Wayne. Succinctly, he doesn't think we should do kahona. He says it's a badly stylized version of an easter island statue, is not remotely evocative of tiki while lono is truly exemplary of the culture, and he can't understand why we would even consider anyone but lono (or, as wayne refers to him, sponge bob). I vote we do lono.
-Either way, he thinks 12' would be the most aesthetically appealing height, and he also thinks the tiki should be ground level with a detached bronze plaque. He wants to do the entire project, including install. Cost- $5,000, plus $350 for a 4' mockup and engineering plans, the cost of a stucco man to help with the final coat, whatever it would cost to install floodlights, and the cost of putting him up in a hotel for a couple nights (quick aside- Wayne is at times, a gentle, befuddled giant (he's like 6' 5"), in a genuinely endearing way. He thought TG was still in existence in webster and that tammy and I owned it and lived on the property. I think it was a case of tg overload after the article came out). Throw in the plaque and the cost of things we can't think of right now but you know there's going to be a few of and $6500 sounds like a good guess.
-Time frame: wayne can have the engineering plans and the mockup ready by the end of this month, start of February.
-County: The parks director has assigned the proposal to the parks advisory board for review, evaluation, and ultimately recommendations to the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners. The engineer in charge of processing our request has agreed to allow us to make the presentation ourselves to the board at their monthly meeting, scheduled for Thursday, February 20th at 9:00 am in Clearwater. According to our enginer, the board is comprised of citizens with a demonstrated interest in the welfare of the county parks system; while completely advisory in nature, he did say in a matter such as this the commissioners may well be inclined to adopt the board's suggestions lock, stock and barrel. Can you say, the whole ball of wax?
-And as of 15 seconds ago (hot off the fax) we are now in compliance with florida statutes chapter 496, allowing the establishment of a trust fund by a non-profit group; finally! I can't make it to the bank this afternoon, but by tomorrow will have established the Tiki Gardens Memorial Fund. I'll email you guys with the address and acct info.
We finally seem to have a little momentum; if you've got input or want to let tc members know where we stand, we probably should do it pretty soon because I plan on being unequivocally prepared for that presentation at least a couple weeks in advance, meaning no changes in our pitch after early february. let me know, thanks, cy
http://www.tikigardens.com
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