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(Since Oct. 7, 1999)

Bob Andelman Articles Archive

Jack Critchfield is impatient.

He figures everyone must knowby now how productive the coming together of Hillsborough and Pinellas counties could be on regional and economic issues. He just can't figure out why there are any foot-draggers left among us.

"I think, 'Why can't they see it as clearly as I do?' Then I realize they haven't been through it before and they're still protecting regional boundaries," says Critchfield, president of the $3.5 billion Florida Progress corporation (its subsidiaries include Florida Power, Talquin, Mid-Continent Life, Progress Credit Corp. and Electric Fuels Corp.). "It seems so obvious that it's necessary I sometimes get impatient with the education process."

For Critchfield, "bridging the bay" means deja vu. It repeats the process he experienced in Greater Orlando in the late '1970s and early '80s as the Mouse Kingdom dealt with the growing pains of maturing from back water into boom town. Critchfield was president of Rollins College for 10 years, followed by stints as president of Winter Park Telephone Co. and its parent United Telephone Company of Florida before joining a Winter Park division of Florida Power in 1983.

"Some of what we're going through I have to inspire myself again for because it's a cookie-cutter repeat of going from local to regional thinking," he says.

Although he has only been in the Bay area since January 1987, Critchfield made an immediate impact on regional business affairs. He pressed the Pinellas County Committee of 100 and Suncoast Chamber of Commerce to combine forces and eventually be redubbed the Pinellas Economic Development Council, of which Critchfield is now chairman. Through it, he has a platform to push loudly and powerfully for greater Hillsborough and Pinellas unity and cooperation.

"We need business and political leaders who understand there is strength in regionalism," says Critchfield. "There is strength that doesn't depend on regional or county borders."

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