The Laker/Lutz News

Serving Pasco since 1981/Serving Lutz since 1964

Special to The Laker/Lutz News

In Print: A true American hero, remembered once again

By

It’s the kind of heroic scene that movies try to capture, but can never quite get right.

Baldomero Lopez is a name many residents might be familiar with locally, thanks to the veterans nursing home just off Ehren Cutoff. Reporter Michael Murillo, however, shares a lot more about the man behind the name in his regular history column, Presenting the Past.

The Baldomero Lopez State Veterans Nursing Home honors its namesake with a wall display as visitors walk into the facility. (Photo by Michael Murillo)
The Baldomero Lopez State Veterans Nursing Home honors its namesake with a wall display as visitors walk into the facility. (Photo by Michael Murillo)

There, we learn about Lopez, a first lieutenant with the U.S. Marine Corps, who worked directly under Gen. Douglas MacArthur in efforts to recapture the South Korean capital of Seoul. A photographer caught some of the final moments of his life at the Battle of Inchon, when he led the 3rd Platoon, Company A, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines over the seawall at Red Beach — literally scaling the wall.

The moments after on that fateful day on Sept. 15, 1950, would be remembered fondly by history, where he would sacrifice his life to save his men. And it’s a story you don’t want to miss in this week’s print edition of The Laker/Lutz News, which you can find on newsstands now, or you can read online by clicking here.

Pasco County has taken a hard stance when it comes to signs for businesses, but one type of sign they have overlooked a bit are loose, flag-like banners known as “feather signs.”

But not anymore. County commissioners were set last week to prohibit the temporary signs, especially after they started to dominate the landscape along major thoroughfares like U.S. 41. However, commissioners have agreed to hold off a bit, because homebuilders need something to grab the attention of motorists into their communities, and feather signs have been the way to go.

“We’re hoping that you’ll allow us to put together a policy that provides us a pathway for compliance,” said Jennifer Doerfel, executive vice president of the Tampa Bay Builders Association, which represents homebuilders locally. “We do not want to see blight, and we certainly don’t want to see tattered signs, and we’re part of this community, too. We want to make sure this looks great, because that’s what attracts buyers to our homes.”

Builders have worked with other communities to find a good balance between good advertising and eliminating blight, Doerfel said, and there’s hope that they can find that balance in Pasco as well.

Why are the signs so important to developers? Find out in reporter Michael Hinman’s story in the print edition of this week’s The Laker. Or you can read it online right now by clicking here.

The recent death of poet Maya Angelou hit many people who enjoyed her work over the decades quite hard, and Janet Watson of Wesley Chapel is no exception.

The local poet says she’ll miss the moving words Angelou put to paper, but expects her work will inspire artists for many years — and generations — to come.

“I’m so pleased that the world has paused for a moment to realize that poetry has value, and to mourn the passing of a great poet,” Watson recently told reporter B.C. Manion.

Watson does not want young people to miss out on the chance to have their own poetry recognized at the state level, and is working to spread news about one competition she feels ever aspiring creative writer should consider.

To find out about it, pick up this week’s The Laker, or read all about Watson and her work in our free online edition by clicking here.

All of these stories and more can be found in this week’s The Laker/Lutz News, available in newsstands throughout east and central Pasco County as well as northern Hillsborough County. Find out what has your community talking this week by getting your local news straight from the only source you need.

If The Laker/Lutz News is not coming to your door, call us to see where you can get your copy at (813) 909-2800, or read our free e-edition by clicking here.

Pasco EDC wins three awards at state conference

By

The Pasco Economic Development Council has received three promotional and marketing awards from the Florida Economic Development Council during its annual conference in June.

Pasco EDC won for best email campaign, best annual report design and best special event. These awards join six others the organization has received at the state and national level over the past four years.

“Marketing Pasco County to the business community locally, regionally and nationally is a big part of what we do, and it is wonderful to see our efforts recognized on a state level,” said John Hagen, president and chief executive of Pasco EDC, in a release.

Just two years ago, Pasco EDC first stepped into the world of social media and online marketing, starting its first email campaign, the Monday Cup O’ News. This email is a simple digest of news stories about what is happening in Pasco as it relates to business and economic development.

It has since become Pasco EDC’s top email campaign, with a subscription list now of nearly 1,300 people.

“We needed a simple and effective way to spread positive news about Pasco County to the business community,” said Summer Martin, marketing and events coordinator for Pasco EDC, in a release. “Often, people are so busy with their day-to-day lives, it is hard for them to keep up with what is happening in the news. We wanted to make it easy for people to know what is happening in Pasco, and convey our news releases to a broader audience.”

Pasco EDC also was recognized for its annual report, designed to be a key part of the organization’s branding. One of the primary messages Pasco EDC tries to convey is that it is an innovative economic development organization in Florida, and a leader in new ideas for local economic development in the nation.

The third award was for the organization’s 12th annual NetFest, designed to provide an opportunity for business and community leaders to meet, get to know each other, and talk informally about community business, and to help strengthen those relationships.

The Florida Economic Development Conference is the premier professional development event attended by economic, work force and community developers from Florida’s 67 counties, 400 cities, 24 work force regions, 12 universities, and 28 community colleges.

CupONews

 

TBARTA picks Don Skelton as interim executive director

By

Don Skelton is the new interim executive director of the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority board of directors.

He replaces Bob Clifford, TBARTA’s first executive director, who resigned to join the engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, according to a release.

Skelton has a lengthy career in transportation planning and programs, including serving as secretary of the District 7 office for the Florida Department of Transportation for seven years, ending in 2012. During that time, he was on the board of directors as an “ex officio” member, and was instrumental in providing support for the development of TBARTA’s master transportation plan.

Right now, however, he is vice president at H.W. Lochner, where he provides transportation engineering services for the Tampa Bay region and Central Florida.

“Don was there when we started, and played a major role in our early success,” said Ronnie Duncan, TBARTA’s chair, in a release. “There could not be (a) better person to serve in this capacity as we work through the process of selecting a permanent executive director.”

TBARTA was created in 2007 by the Legislature to plan and develop a multimodal transportation system that will connect the second counties of the Tampa Bay region — Pasco, Hillsborough, Hernando, Citrus, Manatee, Pinellas and Sarasota.

Hillsborough offering workshop for landlords, renters

By

Hillsborough County has unveiled a new program to help residential landlords and rental managers provide safer dwellings, avoid code violations, and assist tenants in crisis.

The first in a series of free landlord/tenant forums will take place June 24 at 9 a.m., at University Area Community Development Corp., 14013 N. 22nd St., in Tampa. Other presentations will be scheduled throughout the county this summer and fall.

The forum series aims to provide education and information about county services, including safety nets for renters in crisis and county code requirements. Topics range from rental assistance programs to smoke detectors, and will include those with expertise and various rental fields to help answer questions.

Joining the forum will include representatives from code enforcement, Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, community affairs, consumer protection, fire rescue, neighborhood relations, pet resources and social services.

The program also is opened to renters.

For information, or to RSVP, email Jim Blinck at , or call (813) 274-6600. Or visit HillsboroughCounty.org/Code.

Pasco Fire Rescue focuses on training this week

By

Beginning Sunday, Pasco County Fire Rescue will participate in the 2014 International Fire/EMS Safety and Health Week, which aims to improve firefighter safety and health, and give all a better chance of survival during emergencies.

The week is a joint initiative of the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the National Volunteer Fire Council. During the week, fire departments around the world will take time to increase awareness and action so that safety and health become a priority in all fire departments.

“We fully value the important of pausing for a moment to reflect on the importance of firefighter safety and health issues,” Fire Chief Scott Cassin said, in a release.

This year’s theme is “Train Like You Fight,” focusing on a critical component of firefighter and emergency medical responder safety: training. This focuses on safety on the training ground and reduction of training-related injuries and death, and the importance of adequate training to prepare for safe, fire-ground operations.

Pasco County Fire Rescue provides critical, life-saving services, and must be ready to respond to all types of emergency and disasters, county officials said. The department is made up of 473 career personnel, and just over 200 volunteers that protect nearly 500,000 people in an area of 747 square miles.

Nationwide, 81,000 firefighters are injured each year, and it re-enforces the need for each responded to be prepared in every way when an emergency call comes in.

For more information on what Pasco County Fire Rescue is doing to improve its operations, call Andrew Fossa at (813) 929-2750, or email him at .

 

Rising tensions in Iraq kicking up gas prices

By

It doesn’t take a lot to push up gas prices, and even just the thought of conflict rising once again in Iraq has done just that, breaking a downward streak of more than 50 days in Florida.

“Motorists should be ready for gas prices to increase around 5 to 10 cents,” said AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins, in a release. “The price hike could continue depending on the duration of this conflict.”

Violence has erupted in northern Iraq from a militant group known as the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, which has already taken control of two major cities, including Mosul and Tikrit.

Crude oil prices had its biggest weekly gain of the year so far thanks to that violence, with a barrel of oil closing at $106.91, more than $4 over what it was the week before at $102.66, according to AAA. Iraq is the second largest crude oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, and there is concern in that group that violence could spread to the main oil-producing areas of the country.

The conflict also could delay the re-opening of a key pipeline in the region that has been closed since March, AAA officials said.

Florida, nor the nation, have yet to see a direct uptick in prices. Regular unleaded in the state was $3.57 Sunday, down a penny from a week ago, and 8 cents from a month ago. The national average is $3.66, also down a penny from a week ago, but just 2 cents from a month ago.

Park fees in Pasco waived on Saturday

By

The weather might not necessarily cooperate, but if there’s any sunshine this weekend, the Florida Department of Health in Pasco County is encouraging people to get outside and have some healthy active outdoor fun.

It’s all part of National Get Outdoors Day and the health department’s Healthiest Weight initiative. Falling this year on June 14, National Get Outdoors Day is designed to bring awareness to the physical opportunities Pasco has to offer in the outdoors, and parking fees in the county’s 11 parks will be waived.

“National Get Outdoors Day encourages healthy, active outdoor fun, and Healthiest Weight Florida is working to increase physical activity, so working to ether makes good sense,” said county health officer Mike Napier, in a release. “Everyone can benefit from being physically active, and visiting out local parks is a great place to start.”

Prime goals of the national day are reaching first-time visitors to public lands, and reconnecting youth to the outdoors.

“All of us need to be more active,” Rick Buckman, Pasco’s parks and recreation director said, in a release. “This is a wonderful day to visit your local parks, and start a new healthy habit. Get active outdoors and enjoy Florida’s environment.”

For information about park locations in Pasco, click here. For information on National Get Outdoors Day, visit NationalGetOutdoorsDay.org.

Pasco honors red, white and blue this Saturday

By

June 14 is typically a day set aside to honor the Stars and Stripes, celebrating the flag’s official adoption on that day in 1777.

But two local groups, however, will spend the day honoring the men and women who have fought to protect it with events in Zephyrhills and Dade City. And those with a fast enough car might be able to make both of them.

Southport Springs will kick it all off with a dedication beginning at 10 a.m. of a memorial that will feature the service flags from all the military branches as well as an inscribed granite stone. The community, located at 3737 Southport Springs Parkway in Zephyrhills, itself is the home of more than 200 veterans.

Among the flags that will join the memorial near the community’s clubhouse will be the American flag, as well as the prisoner of war flag. The memorial also will have a brick wall with two benches, and red flower beds to symbolize the red stripes of the nation’s flag.

The memorial is not just for those who traveled overseas to fight, but also for those who stayed behind to support the war effort at home, beginning to World War I nearly a century ago.

That event will be followed 13 miles away at the Historic Dade City Courthouse on Meridian Avenue as county officials join together to rededicate the World War II memorial that has graced the courthouse gazebo since 1954.

Pasco County and Dade City used grant money as well as private donations to replace the aging wood facades with more permanent granite, listing the names of the 1,855 people who represented the county during that great war.

“Unfortunately, they are reaching an age where they are not going to be with us much longer,” Pasco County commissioner Ted Schrader, one of the leaders of the restoration effort, told The Laker last week. “It was important for those who are still alive and for their family members that we make sure this memorial is here forever.”

That event kicks off at 11 a.m., and will include U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor. To read more about that service, click here.

For more information on the Southport Springs dedication, call (813) 782-3800.

USDA committing $31.5M to citrus greening disease

By

More than $31 million in funding for research and Cooperative Extension Service projects to fight citrus greening disease is being released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Most of the funding for the research comes from the 2014 Farm Bill passed by Congress this past spring, with an additional $6.5 million coming from the USDA budget, officials said.

It’s spearheaded for research to combat huanglongbing, commonly known as citrus greening disease. HLB is a pathogen that is transmitted by insects that causes fruit to yellow and become bitter.

Although it was first recognized in the 1920s, HLB wasn’t found in Florida until the late 1990s, according to published reports.

“USDA is committed to the fight against citrus greening, including making major research investments to counter this destructive disease,” said USDA secretary Tom Vilsack, in a release. “The citrus industry and the thousands of jobs it supports are depending on groundbreaking research to neutralize this threat.”

Because there are wide differences in the occurrence and progression of HLB among the states, there are regional as well as national priorities for the Citrus Disease Research and Education Program, which will disperse research funds. Projects that are multistate, multi-institutional or trans-disciplinary will be considered first, officials said.

Along with the research, the USDA’s HLB Multi-Agency Coordination Group said it was funding three new projects to combat citrus greening.

The first will commit $2 million to field test antimicrobials that have shown promise in combating HLB in laboratory and greenhouse studies.

The second, also funded up to $2 million, will support the deployment of large-scale thermotherapy, since studies have shown heating a tree to 120 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 48 hours can kill the HLB bacterium in the upper tree. That allows the tree to regain productivity, officials said.

A third project will use $2.5 million to establish several model groves in cooperation with Florida Citrus Health Management Areas that would include systematic surveys, timely chemical treatments, new planting strategies, and the removal of dead and abandoned groves.

Vietnam, Korea no longer ‘conflicts’ in Florida

By

For years, soldiers who fought in Korea and Vietnam were told they participated in “conflicts.” But Gov. Rick Scott has signed H.B. 559 into law Thursday, which at least in the eyes of Florida, changes those “conflicts” into “wars.”

It might seem like a matter of semantics, but for veterans, using the terms “Korean War” and “Vietnam War” instead of “Korean Conflict” and “Vietnam Era” more accurately reflects the nature of the battles during those years.

The name change will be reflected on Korean War Veteran license plates in Florida, one of several plates the will be redesigned under the legislation to include images of the awards and decorations on the plate. It allows the plates to be more recognizable, and increase awareness of the veterans’ service, according to the governor’s office.

“This legislation is one more way we thank our veterans for their service and sacrifice,” Scott said, in a release.

Florida, he said, has the nation’s third largest population of veterans with more than 1.5 million people. The bill passed both the House and Senate unanimously. It also creates a new special use license place for those who have received the Combat Medical Badge, a plate that was not available to Floridians previously.

“As Americans, we are grateful for the sacrifices made by our veterans to keep us safe and free,” state Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, said in a release. “This session, we were proud to honor their sacrifices and also create a Combat Medical Badge to recognize contributions of field medics in our military.”