County opens improved Neri Park in Lealman
Pinellas County officially opened the improved Raymond H. Neri Park with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday, Feb. 7, at the new park address, 4300 Duval Park Blvd., in unincorporated Lealman. The park is now open daily from 7 a.m.-sunset.
The 38-acre Joe’s Creek Greenway Park first opened in 2005 with a field and a trail. The improved park includes playgrounds, adult fitness equipment, dog parks (coming soon), trails, picnic shelters, restrooms, open play areas, and an athletic field.
The park is named for Raymond H. Neri, a champion of the unincorporated Lealman community who died in 2017. Neri promoted economic development, enhanced government services, and shared community spaces for the people of Lealman.
Construction of Raymond H. Neri Park was paid for with Penny for Pinellas funding supplemented by state and federal funds.
PSTA awarded $1.6M for ferry infrastructure
Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority has received more than $1.6 million in federal funding that will pave the way for permanent ferry infrastructure and improved water transportation.
The funding is from two separate appropriations from the 2026 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Bill signed by President Trump. The first appropriation, worth $850,000 and sponsored by U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, will be used to construct a permanent ferry dock to be used by the Tampa Bay Ferry to connect St. Petersburg and Tampa.
The second appropriation, worth $828,000 and sponsored by U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, will be used to restore the Ferry Dock in Dunedin and support the Clearwater Ferry service between Dunedin, Downtown Clearwater, and Clearwater Beach. This project restores a critical transit link that supports tourism, workforce mobility, and congestion relief along the intracoastal corridor.
County jail awarded reaccreditation
LARGO — The Pinellas County Jail was recently awarded accreditation from the National Commission on Correctional Health Care. The onsite review for accreditation was conducted Jan. 28-30. The accreditation status is effective until January 2029.
To earn the original NCCHC accreditation, the jail underwent a rigorous and professional assessment in July of 2022. During the assessment, a team of experienced physicians and experts in correctional health care surveyed the facility for compliance with jail-specific standards in several areas such as patient care and treatment, health promotion, safety and disease prevention, governance and administration, personnel and training, special needs and services, and medical-legal issues.
Accreditation signifies the facility meets the nation’s premier standards on correctional health care and indicates a commitment to providing incarcerated individuals with a constitutionally acceptable level of care, based on compliance with NCCHC’s rigorous standards. Accreditation translates into improved health status, fewer grievances and lawsuits, and reduces health risk to the community when incarcerated people are released.