An Unforgettable Brief Encounter
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The expected increase in business in the South Bay area never happened. The Mayor and City Council had expected that the dredging of the bay would cause a huge increase in new business in their city. South Bay had been given a mile wide and six mile long section of bay front by the State years ago. It was to be used as industrial sites. The property was marsh with the only part above high tide level being the land most distant from the bay. There was a narrow band along side Bay Shore Drive that was high enough to be used.
Crystal had seen the property from the air several times, she inquired and found that the city owned it and it was to be used as industrial sites. Crystal talked to Pat and Tim about getting the land from the city and dredging fill from the bay to raise the site to a level it could be used. Pat told them he had been thinking about opening a concrete plant to sell to the South Bay area. Concrete was coming from North Bay now. Pat said the gravel would come from the Colson Quarry. He said that the small city really did not have the business to support a concrete plant. But he said that there was a need for a concrete pipe plant and a casting plant to make concrete piling and sea wall panels in their part of the state.
Tim asked if they had noticed the crowded basin the shrimp fleet was using in nearly the center of down town. They needed more space and the two shrimp houses needed more dock space to unload the shrimp. Tim suggested that a complete shrimp facility would prosper if a harbor was built for it. Crystal suggested that there was a need for a harbor for pleasure boats and traffic from the Intercostals Water Way to tie up.
Staggs, the ship yard manager, was a city council member. The three of them invited Staggs to have lunch with them that day. Pat broached the subject of the city industrial development property and outlined their ideas of how they could make use of it. Staggs said that the Mayor and the other members of the council would accept any offer for the property provided it would at least create one new industry and jobs. He said development grants were available from the state.
Two weeks later Pat and Crystal appeared before the city council and passed around a drawing of what they proposed to do with the property. Staggs noted that there was a large industry proposed and asked how many new jobs they thought it might create. Pat told them over a hundred was likely. Pat passed around a letter of proposal then. The proposal was that Pat pay one dollar for the property and asked the city to seek grants from the state amounting to twenty two million dollars.
The city promised an answer to his offer after consulting with the city attorney. He was promised a vote on the matter the next council meeting.
Two weeks later Pat was about to become the owner of all of the bay shore from the river bridge to the Atlantic ocean except for the mile the city occupied.
The dredge was moved in place and began a wide deep canal at the western edge of the property. That would become the barge canal that would allow loading of the concrete products of the concrete plant. The canal went all the way to the edge of Bay shore drive.
Stone from the quarry was used to line the banks of that canal. A quarter of mile east the dredge began another canal parallel to the first one. It was much wider than the first one. That made enough fill to bring the proposed site of the concrete plant to over ten feet above high tide level. When that canal was lined with stone it became the new home of the Colson tugs and barge fleet. Further east the shrimp facility was started. A canal was dredged two hundred yards into the marsh and then the large harbor was started. It would be a half mile long and a quarter of a mile wide. All four sides would have short piers extending out far enough for a shrimp boat to tie up to. There would be one hundred piers, that would dock two hundred boats. In the center of the basin on both sides would be the space for several shrimp brokerage houses and ice houses. A concrete roadway and off street parking for crew member's cars. would circle the harbor. Pat had decided to build a fueling dock at the end nearest Bay Shore Drive there would be pump islands for cars and trucks as well as a fuel dock for boats. Dock lease fees would be paid there as well.
Another basin was next, it was the same size as the shrimp harbor and had concrete piers like the other. The roads and parking were identical and again a fuel dock and fuel islands for vehicles was at the entrance.
Between those harbors Pat built a giant supermarket and a hardware store. There was a huge parking lot in front of both stores. Each would have small electric carts to pick up shoppers and deliver them and their purchases back to their boats.
The hardware store was to keep in stock any item that might be needed for the boats.
As soon as the concrete plant was operating it began working 24/7 and was turning out concrete piling and started making pipe. Six ten cubic yard mixer trucks were kept busy during the days pouring pier decks, concrete roads and parking. At night another driver was pouring pipe and piling with them.
The grant money came from the state to the city just before Pat reached the limit of his credit line at the bank.
With that twenty two million Pat could pay the money back he had borrowed from the bank and finish the project.
A fire in the down town section destroyed a block of old buildings. All of those buildings were built over a hundred years before and were in bad condition. Pat bought the property for near nothing. After he had the rubble cleared off the property he had new off street parking poured in concrete and storm drainage piped. A wide sidewalk was poured around that block and in the center was a pool with a large statue of Neptune. The pool was a made into a fountain with water jets and colored lights shining on them. Ornamental trees were planted and side walks were installed. Concrete benches were everywhere. Decretive lights all over were the finishing touch. After the grass was green and the trees that did not live were replaced Pat and Crystal had a ribbon cutting ceremony. The mayor cut the ribbon and listened as Crystal made a short speech giving the park to the city from Colson Industries. Pat handed the mayor an envelope containing the deeds to the property already endorsed over to the city.
Pat had a long talk with Staggs at the ship yard the next day. Pat suggested that Staggs make a motion in a city council meeting that they find a really good engineer to apply for state and federal funds for the building of a new municipal complex. Pat told Staggs that same engineer could apply for grant funds for a city auditorium and community center. Pat said that Urban Renewal funds were available as well. Pat said he wanted South Bay to become a pretty 'Bed room' city to North Bay. Pat said he was going to make all of his property look better. He promised to do his part.
The city received a grant for two million to build a city complex. The Fire Department, Police Department and City Jail were on one end. All the other city offices were in the center and the auditorium and community center were at the other end. To get the grant the city would have to participate to the extent of two hundred thousand dollars. They did not have the money and did not have that much surplus in expected revenue
Pat had the city declare a dock and large parking lot as surplus. It had been used in years past as a loading dock when the city had loaded barges with garbage to be dumped hundreds of miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. Pat recommended that the city advertise the property for sale. They were to take sealed bids.
Seventeen bids were received, the figures were from ten thousand to one hundred twenty thousand. Pat's bid was read last. His bid was for two hundred thousand.
The city of South Bay could build a new municipal complex.
Tim asked what he wanted with a large parking lot and a 'Plain Jane' wide long concrete wharf in the center of town. Pat told him he was thinking of starting a taxi-ferry service on the bay. Tim asked "What are you going to do next?"
North Bay had a similar dock. It had not been used since the sixties when the federal government had stopped the dumping at sea. Paul Anderson had been elected to the North Bay city council before the tornado and although he had moved from the city he still served. Pat met with Paul and told him he had a need for a piece of city property. Pat told him the details. Paul promised to have the property declared as surplus and that the city would take bids for it. North Bay's garbage dock was near the exact center of the main part of town.
The dock property was declared surplus, it was legally advertised and bids were taken. Pat bid two hundred thousand dollars, he was the high bid but by less than five thousand.
Colson Industries had bought twelve high speed diesel crew boats in Charleston. Most were in very good condition. Only four had been used by the Colson company. Eight had been tied up since purchased. Pat had Staggs to check them all out at the ship yard. Staggs reported that all eight were in perfect condition. Pat wanted them all painted yellow with black squares. He wanted them to be identified as water taxis. Pat asked Staggs to clear out the metal benches and install as many padded bus seats as would fit in them.
Tim drew up a large glassed in waiting room with chairs and a booth for collecting the fares. Those would be in the center of the piers on each side of the bay. Tim proposed to air-condition and heat them and thought there should be rest rooms. Crystal asked if there was a need for a metal roof and outside seating on the pier before the waiting room. Pat approved the drawings and Crystal's suggestions. He wanted to start the ferry service the first day of the month six weeks away. Crystal and Janet took care of advertising, Tim had the structures fabricated at the ship yard, each was erected in one week. A week before the first of the next month the ferry service was ready. The first ride was free, over and back. About ninety percent of the passengers were just taking a free ride. Ten percent were trying to find out if this was a better way to get to and from their work place. Most of them found that it was.
The next day the rides were not free. A charge of two dollars was the fare each way. Each ferry could seat fifty. That day each ferry carried ten or less passengers each trip. The passengers were going to North Bay in the morning, very little was to South Bay then. In the afternoon and evening they were coming back to South Bay.
Pat thought that the city was ready now for several thousand nice apartments, and at least three shopping malls. Not all at once but a little at a time.
Property was cheap south of South Bay, it was all swamp. Pat bought a parcel of fifteen thousand acres for ten dollars an acre. After the sale was made Pat waited until the dredge was finished with a contract for the corps to begin developing his new land. He started in from the Inland Waterway and had the dredge begin making large areas of dry land in the swamp. When it was finished slightly over half of the property was more than ten feet above sea level. The remainder was deep and wide canals. Pat began building apartments, a hundred units at a time. As soon as they were rented he would start another hundred.
Pat wanted Crystal to run for a place on the city council. She won a council seat. She had the restrictions on issuing permits for the sale of alcohol relaxed. Almost immediately a fine restaurant decided to locate in South Bay. After the tornado destroyed the pawn shop and beer joint across from the pump shop, Pat had bought the property. He built the restaurant and leased it at a rate that his costs would be returned in five years. Pat asked Crystal to get the council to consider seeking a grant for Urban Renewal funds. She convinced the council that the city could use a face lift.
Crystal interviewed several designers, she chose one and had the city enter into contract with them. The designer was to apply for grant funds and do the 'leg work' for arranging to get that grant. Pat had Crystal have that same firm apply for funds for a new water and sewage system. Those projects were funded first.
South Bay had been hardly more than a small community when Pat had bought the shore line of nearly all of that side of the bay. The main part of town was four blocks on both sides of Bay Shore Drive. The property between the bay and Bay Shore Drive was only a half block deep. The new city complex took up two blocks on that side. The remaining two blocks were occupied by old run down buildings. Pat bought them cheep. He demolished those buildings and replaced them with new two story rental buildings. The Bay Ferry Service was located between those buildings and the city complex.
The other side of Bay Shore Drive had only three blocks of old buildings left. Pat had converted one block on that side into a city park. One of those blocks was occupied by a beautiful church. It sat well back off the street and had paved parking for the congregation on both sides. Between the church and the park was two blocks of old buildings. None were more than one story high. Pat began buying them. As soon as he owned all of them he demolished them.
That side of Bay Shore Drive was only half a block deep also. There was a drainage canal running the length of the business section. Probably the canal was dug to raise the level of the ground to build the business section on. It was filled with floating trash when Pat first looked at it.
That canal was a blemish on what Pat planned. There was a wide space behind what had been buildings fronting on the street and the canal. Across the canal for half a mile was swamp and marsh. Pat thought his city could grow in that direction.
Pat purchased that water soaked land and another large section that was just barely dry. Pat had his dredge come in from the Inland Water Way parallel to Bay Shore Drive. The dredge was excavating a canal a thousand feet wide and very deep. The earth made a mile wide strip to build on to the south. It connected to the land Pat had already developed for his planned community.
That was where Pat planned to let the city grow. As soon as the first streets were complete Pat began selling parcels of the land. A man and wife team of realtors moved their office from North Bay and handled sales and rentals for Colson Properties.
Urban Renewal Funds were used to widen Bay Shore Drive to eight lanes from the river bridge to where it turned south and ran between the beach and the Inland Water Way. There was a grass and tree median and all utilities were under ground.
Pat planned on building an eight story building, two blocks long. The first floor at street level was to be shops then two floors of parking. There would be four floors of offices with a roof top restaurant with outside dining as well as inside. The view would be of the bay and to the east the ocean. Across the bay the drab clutter of North Bay would be visible. To the south the commercial then the residential part of the city. To the north was the city of barge homes at the river bridge and Pat's other holdings. Almost every thing was new and built to withstand any storm.
Pat convinced the Mayor and Council that it was time to think about public transportation. He advised that the city form a transit authority. That authority would take bids for someone to provide bus service to South Bay. Bids were taken and a bus service started.
The city was growing at the rate of thirty three new homes a week. Pat was approaching his goal of ten thousand apartments. The city was issuing over one hundred new business licenses each month.
Pat quit having to make things happen, the momentum would continue toward making South Bay a city of nice homes and reasonable priced apartments. It was becoming a city where businesses could operate at a profit and crime and theft was almost zilch.
South Bay started it's own school system. In two years it earned the honor of being the top graded school system in the state. It probably was the best in the nation. Crystal was head of the school board.
Families and small businesses were moving from North Bay to South Bay.
Pat and Crystal were on the roof of the eight story Colson building one afternoon in March. The building was not finished yet. Pat told Crystal they were looking at a modern city they had built. Pat told Crystal that in four years they had caused a small community of twelve hundred to grow to near forty thousand persons. They had created a small city, nearly all new buildings, a fine city management and a top notch police and fire department. Pat said "We have created a near perfect place to live honey, now I would like for us to get married and have a large family." Pat told Crystal that at twenty six years old she was at a perfect age to become a mother. Crystal agreed. There did not seem any reason to hurry, they decided to wait until June and slip away to Gatlinburg Tennessee and get married. They each thought it should be a private thing and just the two of them there.
Before the end of March Pat bought a hundred fifty by sixty foot barge. He bought the monster at scrap price. Pat bought the barge with the intent of making it into his and Crystal's new home. He designed a six bedroom luxury home to be built on it. It was to be a mansion. There would be an enclosed sauna and hot tub under a roof on deck. Off the kitchen and dining area would be a place for an outside grille. The barge was to be covered with a steel roof and totally enclosed in stainless steel grilles, children would be safe playing there and could not fall off. The barge was so big there was full headroom below her deck. Pat had port holes installed along both sides. Pat had a small section partitioned off in the bow to enclose the generator and two heat and air-condition units. Two large gas hot water heaters were there as well. Another room contained the sewage holding tank, the fresh water tank and diesel fuel storage.
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