The Laker/Lutz News

Serving Pasco since 1981/Serving Lutz since 1964

Michael Hinman

Elevated toll road down, almost out

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The private elevated toll road proposed for the State Road 54/56 corridor isn’t so private anymore. And that might be enough to cancel the project altogether.

Florida Department of Transportation secretary Ananth Prasad said he has some serious concerns about the controversial 33-mile project, especially after the developers behind the project — International Infrastructure Partners — signaled they would need some taxpayer investment in the project.

“He came to the conclusion that the project does not look very promising,” FDOT spokesman Dick Kane told The Laker/Lutz News. “The reason, he said, was that when they looked into the financials of the unsolicited proposal, it was not what we were initially led to believe.”

Prasad, who was traveling Wednesday, did not have the exact amount IIP expected the state to contribute. However, even a single dollar would be more than what officials were told would be required, as the estimated $2.2 billion project was going to be funded completely by private equity.

Prasad, hearing that there would have to be some public dollars, then suggested in a meeting with the developer last week that it might be time to “hit the reset button,” Kane said.

That does not mean the project is dead, but it certainly is on life support. Prasad plans to meet with the developers again in the next couple of weeks to see if they can hammer out some of the questions that have been raised around the project.

A request for comment from the developers of the proposed project is pending return.

Pasco County administrator Michele Baker, however, said it’s not completely over.

“Pasco County will continue to engage the public and move forward with its analyses and studies in order to determine how to manage future congestion on the State Road 54/56 corridor,” Baker said, in a statement.

The county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization will continue to consider options as it gets ready to adopt its long-range transportation plan in December, Baker said.

Members of a local opposition group Pasco Fiasco say they believe the project has been scrapped, based on what they’ve been told by Pasco County commissioner Jack Mariano, who also opposes the project. However, the group is still planning a rally May 19 at 7 p.m. at Sunlake High School promoting their position.

Bondi saves Fasano’s prescription drug program with $2M pledge

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Every year since Gov. Rick Scott took office, Mike Fasano says he’s had to fight to keep the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program alive.

Mike Fasano
Mike Fasano

But now he won’t have to worry about it for the next four years, thanks to a last-minute rescue of the program by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Using money made from a settlement with CVS Caremark, Bondi has pledged $2 million toward the prescription drug program, enough to keep it going until 2018, after the state Legislature failed to include $500,000 in annual funding in its $77 billion budget.

“Shutting down pill mills and protecting Floridians from prescription drug overdoses has been one of my top priorities,” Bondi said, in a release. “The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program is one important tool in the battle against prescription drug abuse, and by funding it for four years with this settlement money, we can ensure that it continues to be an effective tool.”

Fasano helped create the program through legislation as a state senator, and continued to champion the program, even as Pasco County’s tax collector. He helped secure the funding last year thanks to a little bit of general fund money left over from the state budget, but it was clear it would not even be considered in the upcoming budget at all.

In a statement issued Monday morning, Fasano did not mince words with the Legislature or Scott.

“The total failure of this Legislature and governor to properly protect the citizens of our state is disappointing,” Fasano said in his statement. “This is one tool that law enforcement has long supported as a means to protect our citizens. To end this legislative session without funding the PDMP has put countless lives in jeopardy.”

On Monday afternoon, Fasano told The Laker/Lutz News that Scott has cut the program from his budget from the very beginning of his term.

“It took us 10 years to finally get it passed (originally), and I pursue it because I’ve spoken to the moms, dads, and grandparents, and uncles and sisters who have lost loved ones because of prescription drugs,” Fasano said. “I know for a fact that it is working.”

A request for comment with Scott’s office is pending.

The program started in 2009, and requires health practitioners to report every time a controlled substance is dispensed to an individual. The information is stored in a database designed to discourage “doctor shopping” and other ways people acquire prescription medication in an attempt to abuse it.

Funding the program requires about $500,000 each year, or 0.0006 percent of the state budget, Fasano said.

Bondi pointed out in a release that when she took office, 98 of the top 100 dispensing physicians of oxycodone nationwide resided in Florida. Now, none of the top 100 reside here.

New apartment complex planned for Zephyrhills’ New River area

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A developer that wanted to add another recreational vehicle park to State Road 54 just west of Zephyrhills has been convinced to build a new apartment complex instead.

Terrace Investors LLC wants the Pasco County Commission to rezone a 14-acre piece of property on New River Road next to Terrace Park Mobile Home Park, so that it can build a 228-unit project.

Details of the project itself were not available, but the rezoning would allow Terrace Investors to build up to 335 units. The company reportedly made the adjustment to apartments in-line with the county’s vision to construct more dense, vertical non-residential development as well as sophisticated residential development in that region.

Terrace Investors bought the vacant land in 1999 for $240,000, according to the Pasco County Property Appraiser. The company is owned by Steve McConihay, according to state corporation records, who in 2012 proposed to replace a 138-lot RV park with a 230-unit apartment complex in Largo, according to published reports.

His new project there, called Boulevard Apartments, secured $30 million in financing just last month. That funding announcement included a note that the developer, McConihay, was looking to develop “several other” in-fill locations with high-end apartments.

Last September, the land owner had proposed to build New River RV Resort on the land near Zephyrhills, which would have offered 137 lots.

The commission is set to review the proposal during its meeting Tuesday morning in Dade City.

Florida first state to demand a single-subject Constitutional convention

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The first step in many to call the nation’s first Constitutional convention in nearly 230 years is on its way to Washington D.C., after a proposal from state Sen. Wilton Simpson earned approval from both the Florida House and Florida Senate.

S.M. 368 calls for an Article V Convention — named for the section of the U.S. Constitution that allows states to start the amendment proposal process. This particular convention would demand the U.S. Congress only consider and pass bills with a single subject. The goal is to eliminate the many unrelated riders that get attached to bills, amendments that may not have been passed otherwise on their own.

“This is about having the federal government start conducting themselves in a professional manner,” Simpson, R-Trilby, told The Laker/Lutz News back in January. “Most of the frustration we have with our government is that you have something like a spending bill in Congress. They always add on several hundred millions of dollars of something that has nothing to do with the subject they are dealing with. And as a citizen of the state of Florida, I am tired of our federal government being operated this way.”

What made it through the Legislature is not necessarily a bill, but instead a “memorial.” It demonstrates Florida’s support of a specific measure, in this case calling for a convention, and does not require the signature of Gov. Rick Scott.

However, that does not mean delegates should start making travel plans. At least 33 other states will have to pass similar or identical memorials before such a convention could be scheduled.

A convention of this sort is just one way to amend the Constitution, but one that is typically not used. In fact, the last time a convention was called this way, it was 1787, and that was to write the U.S. Constitution itself in Philadelphia.

Congress can propose Constitutional amendments, and then have them ratified by the states. However, if Congress doesn’t introduce such an amendment — which supporters of this movement believe Congress wouldn’t do — then the fallback position is to have states call for the convention directly.

The passage of the memorial was great news for W. Spider Webb Jr., a former Tallahassee lobbyist who founded the activist group Single Subject Amendment.

“Both parties are guilty about the use of riders,” Webb said in January. “We are not trying to give Congress a black eye. We are trying to improve the way Americans view Congress.”

Webb now plans to take the newly approved memorial to the national stage as he tries to convince other states to do the same thing.

“If Florida passes this, then other states will take a more serious look at this,” Simpson said earlier this year. “Doing a Constitutional amendment is such a large task, I think it will pick up momentum as more states pass it.”

Many state governments already prevent riders on bills, either by requiring bills to be single-subject, or giving governors the power to veto specific portions of a bill, and approving the rest.

President Bill Clinton tried to accomplish this at the federal level with a line-item veto act introduced by Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Dole in 1996. However, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that law unconstitutional in 1998.

Pasco exploring bringing all advertising signs to the ground

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More than a decade after she led a crusade to lower new business advertising signs in Pasco County, Kathryn Starkey is gearing up to bring the “grandfathered” ones up to code.

It’s usually Golden Arches in the sky when there’s a McDonald’s around. But the newest McDonald’s at 1733 Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in Wesley Chapel has a sign at ground level, thanks to a Pasco County ordinance, and the early efforts of Pasco County Commissioner Kathryn Starkey. (Michael Hinman/Staff Photo)
It’s usually Golden Arches in the sky when there’s a McDonald’s around. But the newest McDonald’s at 1733 Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in Wesley Chapel has a sign at ground level, thanks to a Pasco County ordinance, and the early efforts of Pasco County Commissioner Kathryn Starkey.
(Michael Hinman/Staff Photo)

The county commissioner says it’s time her colleagues start looking into enforcing the sign laws — which typically limit sign height at 11 feet — uniformly across Pasco, including those signs that pre-date the 2003 changes to the ordinance. Starkey, however, says she won’t push it without trying to find at least some help for business owners, who would have to invest in new signs.

“One of the biggest complaints I get is the old signs that are still up, so we got to figure out a way to help those businesses bring those signs to our new look,” Starkey said. “It’s difficult. It’s a financial investment, but I think we should incentivize them to bring them up to the current code.”

How to incentivize those businesses is still a big question mark, but one possibility could be offering small grants or even low-interest microloans to help defray the costs, Starkey said.

Businesses with grandfathered signs have been allowed to keep them as long as they are not changed in a way that would make them become “more non-conforming” to the ordinance. After 11 years, some of those signs are starting to show their age, and are looking more and more out of place in areas where ground-level, or monument, signs have become the norm.

Starkey’s original goal was to prevent the growing Wesley Chapel area from becoming what U.S. 19 is on the western side of the county. Because of Wesley Chapel’s proximity to Interstate 75, early signs would create what Starkey called “circuses in the sky,” to be visible to interstate travelers still a couple miles away.

Instead, Starkey — through her activist group Scenic Pasco — influenced the way the county looked at both business signs and billboards, all before she first sought elected office. That work brought Wesley Chapel more in-line with the standards of neighboring New Tampa, and prevented some roads like State Road 54 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard from being littered with high road advertising signs, each one trying to outdo its neighbors.

Fortunately, a good portion of Wesley Chapel was developed after the ordinance went into effect, so many of the problems involving grandfathered signs are not present in Wesley Chapel. But as Starkey heads west, first through Land O’ Lakes, and then toward U.S. 19 — with the new development of Trinity one of the lone exceptions — she gradually finds signs creeping higher and higher, and it’s something she wants to finally get fixed.

“In September, we’re having our first community meeting about redevelopment, and I think we’ll start exploring the ideas of how we can help people not only deal with their signs, but maybe help them to figure out how to improve their landscaping and even the architecture in their buildings,” Starkey said.

The change in business signs and billboards helped not only Pasco to grow, but property values as well, she said.

“I’m very glad that we had a county commission at the time that was willing to take the political hit from some who didn’t want to change the way they were doing business,” Starkey said. “But it’s made such a difference. We have to have ordinances like this because it really does affect our quality of life, and how other people see us. Otherwise, what it says to me is that we don’t care about how we look.”

Published April 30, 2014

Skydiving’s newest sport returns to Zephyrhills with nationals

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It’s quite easily one of the newest sports out there, and something many people have never heard of.

Canopy piloting, more commonly known as ‘swooping,’ forces skydivers to pick up speed as they approach the ground, rather than slow down. Then they have to navigate obstacles, typically over lakes and ponds since water is more forgiving in high-speed impacts than the hard ground. (Courtesy of Joe Abeln)
Canopy piloting, more commonly known as ‘swooping,’ forces skydivers to pick up speed as they approach the ground, rather than slow down. Then they have to navigate obstacles, typically over lakes and ponds since water is more forgiving in high-speed impacts than the hard ground.
(Courtesy of Joe Abeln)

For the second straight year, Skydive City in Zephyrhills will host the U.S. Parachute Association National Skydiving Championships of Canopy Piloting May 22-24. And whenever drop zone owner T.K. Hayes shares that with someone outside of skydiving, he can almost anticipate that first question: What is canopy piloting?

“It’s a fairly new sport that has come around in the last 10 to 12 years, and it’s grown into its own discipline of skydiving,” he said.

Simply, skydivers jump from a plane that’s just 5,000 feet in the air (compared to the normal 12,000 feet for typical skydiving), and instead of slowing down before hitting the ground, these jumpers actually speed up — some as fast as 90 mph — swooping through a ground-level course that’s exciting for spectators, and dangerous for the jumpers.

And Hayes knows all about that danger. He has a spinal fusion to prove it.

“When we built the first swoop pond out here in 2000 or 2001, it wasn’t even a sport then,” Hayes said. “It was a windy day, and I got down too low and caught me knees in the water at 50 to 60 mph. I bounced out of the pond and landed on my head, breaking my neck.”

Luckily Hayes wasn’t paralyzed, but his swooping days are over. Since then, canopy piloting has grown from a hobby to a high-skilled sport where only divers with hundreds if not thousands of jumps to their name can even think about competing in. It’s basically the NASCAR of skydiving.

“There is definitely a lot less margin for error, so people who are competing in this event are extremely experienced and have trained specifically for this,” said Nancy Koreen, director of sport promotion for the U.S. Parachute Association, based in Fredericksburg, Va.

Last year’s national champion, Curt Bartholomew, has been in town already getting set for the national meet. And even someone at his skill level has to work through bumps and bruises.

“He was wearing a knee brace and an ankle brace, and was using ice packs between jumps,” Hayes said. “They are true athletes, and they go through a regimen of training and physical fitness, because you really have to be at the top of your game to compete.”

Zephyrhills has successfully bid for the event the last two years, and the warm reception of the near 70 jumpers last year, along with a solid drop zone complete with a pond, has made Skydive City a premier place for the event. But getting spectators to come out, however, has not been so easy, and Hayes has made some changes for this year’s championship he hopes will be much friendlier for those who want to see the swoopers compete.

“We didn’t get the word out much last year, and it’s happening during the week, so I know that might affect those numbers even more,” Hayes said. “We didn’t have a budget last year, but we were able to get a small one this year. So we’ll have new features, like a color commentator on a sound system, to let people know what’s happening. This should make it a little more exciting, because last year I think too many people were in the dark on what’s happening.”

The event is free for spectators, who will get to see bursts of action as multiple swoopers jump from a plane at once. Canopy piloting, Hayes said, is probably the closest skydiving will ever get to a spectator sport.

And it’s helped Zephyrhills not only reach the national stage, but the global one. Skydive City will be the site of the world championships of canopy piloting in November — the first time the United States has ever hosted it — and that could draw more than 120 jumpers and their entourages from all over the planet.

“We’re becoming experts in hosting these things, and I hope we can build a market for canopy piloting right here,” Hayes said. “It’s just a cool thing, which you don’t even realize until you come out and see it for yourself.”

WHAT: U.S. Parachute Association National Skydiving Championships of Canopy Piloting
WHEN: May 22-24
WHERE: Skydive City, 4241 Sky Dive Lane, Zephyrhills
COST: Free for spectators
INFO: SkydiveCity.com

Published April 30, 3014

Drumm takes final stand as Zephyrhills city manager

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Jim Drumm likely saw the first cracks in his tenure as Zephyrhills city manager last July when councilmen Lance Smith and Ken Burgess both gave him low marks on their evaluations of his job performance.

Zephyrhills city manager Jim Drumm goes over some last-minute details with city finance director Stacie Poppell ahead of a special city council meeting last week where Drumm’s severance package was discussed. (Courtesy of Michael Hinman)
Zephyrhills city manager Jim Drumm goes over some last-minute details with city finance director Stacie Poppell ahead of a special city council meeting last week where Drumm’s severance package was discussed.
(Courtesy of Michael Hinman)

Drumm had communications issues, according to the evaluations, especially when it came to city employees and the public as a whole. He wasn’t getting out to meet enough people. The city’s relationship with Pasco County was troubled, at best.

Yet Drumm wasn’t worried about his job. While he knew there was room for improvement in his own job performance, he received high marks from the three other council members. And as far as Drumm was concerned, there were nowhere near the four votes required to remove him, if that’s what Smith and Burgess were aiming for.

That all changed, however, in March, when Drumm found himself fighting for his job — the voices of two councilmen suddenly gaining the power of the majority.

Despite three legal opinions against him, Drumm maintains his position that no matter what his contract says, the city’s charter — the constitution of the local government — requires four votes to remove him.

The security of that belief encouraged Drumm to move his family to Zephyrhills in the first place, where he spent $185,000 on a home in Silver Oaks. That was despite still owning a house he bought for $135,000 at the height of the housing boom in 2005 in his former town of High Springs.

“I came here with a commitment,” Drumm told reporters after a special council meeting last week. “I wanted to do a good job, and apparently I did. The issues are not very clear, and I’m just surprised. What I’m getting is, ‘We don’t want to terminate you. We just don’t want to renew you.’”

During that same meeting, called to negotiate a severance package for Drumm, only Councilman Kenneth Compton seemed willing to stand up for the embattled city manager. And that had obviously become an unpopular position, especially after Compton watched the one other council member who agreed with him, Jodi Wilkeson, lose re-election, most likely because of her support of Drumm.

Wilkeson quietly supported Compton’s efforts last week, except this time from the audience instead of the dais.

“We are looking at numbers, and to me, the numbers should reflect what has happened over the tenure of the city manager,” Compton said. “When the city manager walked in here, he walked into a million-dollar shortfall in the budget, and within a matter of months, he turned it into a surplus.”

The city at the time was looking at layoffs to make up the budget shortfall in 2011, but instead Drumm filled the city’s contingency funds, not to the $300,000 or $500,000 it once contained, but instead to $1.5 million — and kept it there.

“This is a separation, and it’s not a happy thing,” Compton said. “Something didn’t work out, but my suggestion is the numbers be looked at.”

Alan Knight, the former high school football coach and educator who beat Wilkeson for his council seat, wasn’t focused on numbers. Instead, it was the three-year contract Drumm signed in 2011 set to expire May 18.

“Looking back at my experience, when I was a school principal and given a two-year contract, that was it,” he said. “If I didn’t get renewed, I didn’t get all these other things.”

Those things Drumm asked for included 20 weeks of severance pay, money for nearly 400 hours of “comp time” — hours worked above and beyond a standard work week without any pay — and for the city to continue paying premiums on the health insurance for an additional five months.

The council balked on the 20 weeks of severance last week, offering just 13 instead. Yet, 20 weeks is a standard for city and county managers, the maximum set by state law, said Lynn Tipton, executive director of the Florida City and County Management Association, the state’s professional organization for municipal managers like Drumm.

“It is recommended in light of the many costs a manager incurs in transition,” she said. In best-case scenarios, the hiring process for a city manager from the time an ad is placed for the job to signing the contract is four months. But that can sometimes go six months or even longer.

“However, this is greatly complicated by election cycles,” Tipton said, adding that some municipalities might just hire an interim until after the next election.

Drumm said he would likely seek unemployment insurance, but $275 a week is a far cry from $1,730 weekly. But he could have other income opportunities as well while he waits to find a new city manager job.

“Some managers are fortunate to find interim work, teaching and consulting while they await the next management position,” Tipton said. “Others take part-time work where available.”

The severance package proposed by the council last week would cost the city $54,000, but only a portion of that would actually represent cash in Drumm’s pocket. The rest are taxes and other costs the city would have to pay to part ways with him.

Drumm was expected to step down from his position April 25 if he agreed to the lower separation terms offered by the city. He resigned on Friday, after reportedly agreeing to the severance package.

The council approved the revised severance package 4-1, with Compton voting no. Just before the vote, Drumm did suggest that the lower payout may not be enough of an incentive for him to sign any agreement not to sue the city over the debacle, but the council voted their package in anyway.

Published April 30, 2014

Business Digest 04-30-14

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 Zephyrhills chamber business breakfast
The Greater Zephyrhills Chamber of Commerce will have a chamber business breakfast May 1 sponsored by Florida Hospital Zephyrhills. Randy Surber, president and chief executive of the hospital, will speak at Golden Corral, 6855 Gall Blvd., in Zephyrhills, with the event beginning at 7 a.m.

Cost is $7 for members.

Martin to lead Saint Leo advisory council
Saint Leo University has launched a new Communication-Marketing-Multimedia Industry Advisory Council, with Summer Martin from the Pasco Economic Development Council, elected as chairwoman.

The council’s mission is to serve as an advisory body, working collaboratively with the instructional faculty and students by providing ideas and opinions on matters concerning the industry, and to help advance the department’s strategic plan.

“Talent is always No. 1 on a company’s wish list when choosing a location for its business,” said Martin, in a release. “This is a great opportunity for industry professionals to weigh in on the skills they would like to see future graduates have as it relates to their business and the field of marketing, communication and multimedia.”

Martin joined the PEDC in 2012, and has since helped the organization win four awards recognizing its marketing efforts. She also serves on the Tampa Bay Partnership’s Regional Marketing Council, and in 2012, participated as a member of the Communications Action Group for the Tampa Bay Host Committee.

“Saint Leo University is preparing students for future jobs, and we want to stay on the cutting edge,” said Michael Nastanski, dean of Saint Leo’s Donald R. Tapia School of Business, in a release. “We look forward to working with industry professionals to develop the Tampa Bay region’s talent.”

New city manager contract has guaranteed money

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The Zephyrhills City Council is expected to officially hire Steve Spina as its interim city manager Wednesday night, bringing back the long-time city leader after a three-year absence.

But while Jim Drumm had to fight for a severance package before resigning as city manager last week, Spina’s $48,000 will be guaranteed — even if the city finds and hires a full-time city manager before the six-month contract is up.

In a draft of the agreement provided to The Laker/Lutz News ahead of the meeting, Section 6 of Spina’s proposed contract would pay him $8,000 per month over a six-month period, and “in the event that the interim manager is terminated, requested to resign or a permanent city manager is hired, the city agrees (to) pay the interim manager for the remainder of the term.”

That could possibly leave very little legal wiggle room for city officials if the process to hire a replacement moves faster than expected, or the six-month stint with Spina simply doesn’t work out.

The salary section of Drumm’s three-year agreement paid him an annual base salary equivalent to just $7,500 per month, with no guaranteed money.

Spina also will not have some of the perks Drumm had — or even Spina had during his 15 years on the job before Drumm — including his own city vehicle.

Spina has not indicated whether he will throw his name into the mix in the city’s search for a permanent city manager, saying only that he was taking it “one day at a time.”

The special meeting to discuss the interim city manager agreement begins at 6 p.m., at City Hall, 5335 Eighth St., in Zephyrhills.

Steve Spina set to return as (interim) city manager

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The Zephyrhills City Council found its choice to take over the office of city manager. And as expected, it’s a familiar face.

But at least for now, Steve Spina’s return to his leadership role in Zephyrhills is a temporary one.

The council is set to meet Wednesday at 6 p.m. to hammer out a six-month contract that would make Spina the interim city manager effective May 1. It would be his first time on the job since retiring in 2011. He replaces his own successor, Jim Drumm, who resigned April 25 after two council members indicated they would not renew his contract.

“I’m excited at the opportunity,” Spina told The Laker/Lutz News on Tuesday. While it’s not clear what salary Spina would receive, published reports suggested his salary during the interim would be at the same level of the $97,000 annual scale he left with three years ago.

In March, Drumm said he felt the council was trying to entice Spina to return to his old job, and that he would even step aside to make room for Spina if that’s what the council wanted. Spina, however, told reporters he was not pursuing the job, and instead had applied for a position with Pasco County’s administration.

“I have great respect for Dr. Spina,” Drumm said from a prepared statement at the time. “I have not had his long tenure to compete with his knowledge and his many contacts. If it is not the intent of the city council to hire Dr. Spina, then I remained perplexed by the issues that warrant me to not continue working together to improve Zephyrhills.”

The job opportunity with the county did not pan out, however, and Spina became available to step back into Zephyrhills while the county conducts a search for a permanent replacement. Spina did not say if he would apply for the permanent position.

Spina first became city manager in 1996, working his way up through the city’s administration. He started his career in the city as a journalist, working as a reporter and later the editor of the Zephyrhills News following the death of longtime editor Bernie Wickstrom in 1987.