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Company To Rescue S.R. 60 Medians

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By TOM BRENNAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 25, 2008

BRANDON - An undisclosed landscaping company is ready to care for the medians along State Road 60 between Interstate 75 and Valrico Road, saving greenery that would have been torn out.

Principals with the company want to remain anonymous until the details of their agreement with the county can be hammered out, said John Newton, a section director in the county's Public Works Department.

"We are not a liberty to go into who it is, but this a reputable business more than capable of doing this type of work," he said.

The landscaping appeared doomed when budget cuts forced the county to quit maintaining trees, flowers and shrubs on state roads and relinquish maintenance responsibilities to the state. The Florida Department of Transportation only allows grass in its medians because it's cheaper and easier to groom, so the plantings would have been dug up and replaced with sod.

The Greater Brandon Chamber of Commerce had worked for months trying to establish a sponsorship program to encourage businesses to sponsor maintenance of the S.R. 60 medians. Its board of directors approved the program earlier this week and selected a landscaper, but since then members have been told by county officials the chamber's help is no longer needed.

Newton said he hopes to have company can take over maintenance of the medians by September. The work will include caring for plantings in 14 medians.

The same company also plans to maintain medians along U.S. 41 from the intersection of Florida and Nebraska avenues north to the Pasco County line.

Reporter Tom Brennan can be reached at (813) 657-4528 or tbrennan@tampatrib.com.

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