Oct. 28--SEBRING -- A design review application before the Community Redevelopment Agency from the city's utilities department to complete construction of a pole barn at 454 N. Franklin St. may have opened up a can of worms.

Discussion led to how unattractive it and other city-owned sites are.

Three city-owned facilities are located in or near residential neighborhoods: the water division and sewer division, public works and the vehicle maintenance shop.

Jack York, the city's wastewater collections supervisor, explained that the pole barn project went back four years and that a slab and the poles were already in place.

All they needed to do was put on the roof, but they ran into a problem when they learned some of the land was part of an old CSX railroad easement.

The construction came to a halt.

The property was finally turned over to the city by the county on Sept. 15 for a sum of $10, and York said he hoped to get the barn finished in order to store some trucks and other city equipment there.

CRA Chairman Gene Brenner strongly suggested that the city could do a better job with some kind of landscaping there.

A visit to Franklin Street on Tuesday showed 10 iron structural steel I-beams rising upward from a concrete slab into exposed cross-beams where the unfinished pole barn awaits completion.

Weathered wooden boards and pieces of plywood were piled near an exposed chain-link fence.

What looked like an old newspaper pinned partially under the pile fluttered in the wind.

Further back into the property were piles of unused bricks. One stack was next to a concrete shed that needed fresh paint.

Board members discussed the unsightliness of the city-owned Public Works Department facility that borders with a residential neighborhood on Hawthorne Drive, as well as the storage facility on North Eucalyptus Street.

What was not discussed was the driveway to the city's vehicle maintenance shop.

To the right of the property were piles of pipes and uprooted fire hydrants. There was no fence or landscape buffer to hide the baby blue pipe stacks from nearby homes, both next to the driveway and on Cypress Street.

Cypress Street resident Tristan Heiss said he was upset at what he has to look at every day. He's got a view of the pipes and a second Quonset hut at the motor vehicle maintenance shop, which is also visible from the Sebring Parkway.

"They're fining me $200 per day," said Heiss, speaking about a code enforcement violation on his property. It is for rubbish and trash and unlicensed vehicles, according to Sebring Police Cmdr. Steve Carr.