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DADE CITY – The Book Shack, a Dade City business founded 45 years ago, recently opened in a space that is three times larger than its Seventh Street location. 

Owner Kristy Kassabaum celebrated the store’s grand reopening Oct. 5 at 37838 Pasco Ave. 

She bought the business from her husband’s grandmother, Jo Kassabaum, in September 2016. Kassabaum said she wanted to have a business of her own and that she was happy to keep the business in the family.

The move to a larger space was necessary, Kassabaum said, because she had outgrown the previous location. Kassabaum said she not only wanted more room for her products but she also wanted to offer more services to her customers.

In addition to purchasing new or used books, customers may enjoy coffee and treats provided by Farmhouse Brew & Bites, a business owned by Ronnie and Jenny Williams.

“We thought it would be a good opportunity … kind of like an Oxford Exchange kind of look,” Ronnie Williams said regarding Farmhouse Brew & Bites’ location in The Book Shack. 

Williams was referring to a bookshop/coffee shop/restaurant called The Oxford Exchange in Tampa.

The Williamses also own The Farmhouse Market & Café at 14124 Fifth St. The company has been in business since 2018 “with a vision of supporting local farms & businesses to bring the best & freshest products,” according to its website. 

The Book Shack customers can also admire and buy pieces of art created by local artists in a mini-version of Out of Our Hands Gallery, provided by Russ and Lee Taylor.

The gallery, located at 14245 Seventh St., will celebrate its sixth year in business on Nov. 11, Lee Taylor said. It “specializes in offering local, regional, original, handcrafted work from Florida fine artists. Everything is selected with great care, directly from the artists,” according to its website. 

Art pieces displayed inside The Book Shack are priced at $50 and below. Lee Taylor said the purpose of having them there is to provide a mini introduction to customers of the things the gallery has to offer at its location, which is three blocks away.

Sixteen artists are providing samples of their work at the gallery and eight of them live in Dade City, Lee Taylor said.

Customers visiting The Book Shack’s new location on Pasco Avenue will be thrilled to see the comfortable places where they may sit and relax while looking at a book, drinking coffee, eating a treat or admiring an art piece, according to Kassabaum.

The previous location on Seventh Street had a limited seating area and the aisles were difficult to navigate if there were many people in the store, Kassabaum said. This isn’t the case at all with the new location.

Customers may purchase new or used books at the store or by placing an order at mybookshack.com. 

Customers may also trade books they own in for other books offered at The Book Shack, Kassabaum said. A record is kept online of how much credit a customer has acquired through trading books at The Book Shack, Kassabaum said.

LAND O’ LAKES – Pasco County Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning acknowledged Oct. 15 that plans to reopen schools following Hurricane Milton were met with some criticism.

But that’s par for the course for decisions involving such storms.

“It doesn’t matter what the decision is that you’ve made,” Browning said. “You will have people over here that think you are a rock star. And there are people over here that if they saw you in the produce section of Publix, they would drag you out of that store and beat you about the head and shoulders.”

Staff returned to work Oct. 15. Students returned to class Oct. 16. 

Browning explained that he believes consistency and routine are important for children to have a sense of normalcy. 

“They’ve lost their homes. They’ve lost their clothes. They’ve lost the roof over their head. They’ve lost their automobile. And they need a place to belong,” Browning said. “Oftentimes, that place they belong is their school.”

Browning said storm-related decisions are vetted multiple times by his amazing team at Pasco County Schools. He described his top-level staff as selfless.

“I continue to be amazed when we get into a situation of not just one storm but back-to-back storms,” Browning said. “People are dead-dog tired but they don’t hesitate to step up and do what’s right for this community – mainly our students and our families.”

Elizabeth Kuhn, assistant superintendent for support services, told the school board Oct. 15 that Pasco and Zephyrhills high schools sustained the most damage from Hurricane Milton. 

“The fortunate thing is in both situations, we were able to reopen without making huge changes,” Kuhn said. 

Pasco High School had roof damage to Building 6 and the gym. The district is putting a temporary roof on Building 6 but the gym is going to take time to fix.

Zephyrhills High School experienced heavy flooding. Staff discovered water in the band room and a couple of classrooms. The city has helped by pumping water into two retention ponds. School leaders have had to make adjustments related to student drop-off and parking.

“We’re monitoring water all over the county as everyone,” Kuhn said. “The biggest challenge with this storm is that it changes. Today there were roads that might have been OK and now they’re not.”

Transportation staff has been evaluating roads daily to ensure they’re unobstructed. 

Kuhn said as many as 44 schools were without power. Power returned for all schools by the end of Oct. 15. 

“We’re very happy that you’re back at school,” said Megan Harding, chair of the school board. “That’s all our hearts want is for you to be at school but we also understand this is a very difficult and stressful and traumatic situation. So,if it’s not safe or if you’re having (trouble), please contact your administrator, contact your school, because we’re all in this together.”

DADE CITY – A request to install a 195-foot-tall monopine cell phone tower did not gain a favorable recommendation from the Pasco County Planning Commission on Oct. 3. 

Cynthia M Barthle/Anthemnet, Inc./Verizon Wireless had requested a conditional use that would enable the cell tower to be located on the northwest corner of the intersection of St. Joe Road and Mt. Zion Road. 

County staff recommended the planning commission send a favorable recommendation with conditions to the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners, which has final authority. 

If approved, the proposed cell tower would have dense branching and could accommodate Verizon Wireless and up to three additional cell carriers. It would be located within a 2,500-square-foot fenced compound area within an overall parcel that contains 4.22 acres.

Mary Solik, who is legal counsel for the applicant, told the planning commission that the area where they wanted the cell tower to be placed was the result of a long search to find a site that was buildable, leasable and that would meet locational and performance criteria. 

“We were left with very few options and unfortunately we have unhappy neighbors,” Solik said.

Some residents of the nearby Willow Run subdivision objected to the proposed placement of the tower at that location.

Nancy Cabiness Johnson described Willow Run as a gated, deed restricted, high value residential community. Johnson said she believed the placement of the cell tower so close to Willow Run that it would have a negative impact on the community’s property values.

Robert Welbourn, who is president of the Willow Run Property Owners Association, told members the home values in his neighborhood “range probably anywhere from $700,000 to $1.5 million. 

“This has a greater financial impact on our residents and our community,” Welbourn said. “It has a more unfair impact to us financially because we have a greater investment.” Welbourn believes placing the cell tower at the proposed location would stigmatize the property.

Solik responded to some of the concerns of neighbors.

“The Barthle property was really all we had left,” Solik said.

“It truly looks like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree up on a pole,” planning commission member Jon Moody said.

Planning commission member Chris Poole said he understood that 5G technology, which is being used, would require tighter spacing of cell towers for it to work efficiently. However, Poole said, “I’m struggling with the need for a tower a mile away from another tower.”

David Taulbee, of Tampa-based Lee Pallardy Inc., told the planning commission that he has 25 years experience evaluating whether cell towers have negative impacts on property values.

“Not once has your appraiser or any appraiser along the whole west coast of Florida and into central Florida made a reduction in an assessment of property – commercial, rural, residential, urban, whatever you want to call it – because of proximity to a tower,” Taulbee said. “There’s simply no market data that indicates and supports that these towers impact values.”

Charles Grey, who chairs the planning commission, disagreed with Taulbee’s view on whether cell towers impact property values.

“I tend to take the common-sense approach,” Grey said. “I’ve been in the real estate business for over 50 years here. So, in my opinion, if I had that monstrosity next to my house then it would impact the value of my property. So if you think it doesn’t you’re just making up a story.

“We’re here to protect our people. That’s our number one job.”

Moody asked the applicant if they would rather have a long continuance so they could either find another site or a tower that could be more compatible with the area, or if they preferred a recommendation of denial.

“I don’t often bring you a site like this but this one is what it is because of what’s on the ground out there,” Solik said. “We have limited choices so I think we would prefer to keep it moving.

“I’m sorry that you’re choosing to penalize Anthemnet going forward.”

“I want you to understand,” Grey said, “that we’re not penalizing anyone. We’re just protecting the people that live here – the same thing I would do for you if you lived here.”

Solik and the people accompanying her were reminded that Moody had given them the option to do a continuance so the issues could be readdressed and they hadn’t done that.

Planning commission members then voted to recommend to county commissioners to deny the request. County commissioners are scheduled to vote Nov. 12.