The Laker/Lutz News

Serving Pasco since 1981/Serving Lutz since 1964

Special to The Laker/Lutz News

FDOT warns against fake toll collection letters

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Some letters may be arriving in mailboxes seeking to collect unpaid tolls from various roadways like the Suncoast Parkway and Veterans Expressway, but not all are as they seem.

Florida Department of Transportation officials are asking travelers to be wary of any attempt to collect unpaid tolls by a company calling itself Toll Enforcement LLC.

The company, according to Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise spokesman Chad Huff, is sending “Final Warning Notice” letters to people, and asking them to immediately pay outstanding toll amounts, plus a fee of $50. However, FDOT is not working with any company by that name, and is posting a fraud alert on websites that serve its turnpikes, SunPass and Toll-By-Plate programs.

Any toll violations or warnings issued by FDOT would be printed in official document form, and will prominently feature the date, time and location of the alleged infraction, officials said, as well as a photo of the vehicle passing through a toll plaza.

The company is being investigated by law enforcement officials. Anyone who receives one of these documents are asked to contact SunPass at (888) 865-5352, so that it can be turned over to the appropriate law enforcement agency.

Shelter dogs desperately seeking adoptive, foster homes

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Pasco County Animal Services say their shelter is now bursting at the seams with adoptable dogs, and they need some caring individuals and families to help find them a home.

“The shelter is currently over capacity for dogs, and we need help right now,” said Mike Shumate, the county’s animal services manager, in a release.

The dogs, he said, have been spayed or neutered, microchipped, and have all their vaccinations.

The shelter is looking both for adoptive families and foster homes for dogs. Although not as widely known as adopting, fostering can help save the lives of two animals — the one with the temporary home, and the new dog that would take his place at the shelter.

The county continues to work toward saving 90 percent of its population, a far cry from the 46 percent euthanizing rate in 2012 before the program was implemented.

Since the program started, more than 2,300 animals have been saved from being put down, county officials said.

The adoption center is located at 19640 Dogpatch Lane in Land O’ Lakes. It is open from noon to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and on Thursday from noon until 6:30 p.m.

For information, visit PascoCountyFl.net/PAS, or call (813) 929-1212.

Missing plane search expands into Brooksville area

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As the search for a Zephyrhills pilot and his plane concluded its fourth day, members of Civil Air Patrol’s Florida Wing and local officials have pushed their search further south into the Brooksville area.

Theodore Weiss was last seen taking off from a social pilot gathering in Dunellon Saturday in his two-seat, single-engine Sonex homebuilt plane, but never made it to the Zephyrhills Municipal Airport.

Radar, however, showed Weiss’ plane heading not to Zephyrhills, but toward the Hernando County Airport in Brooksville instead. That created questions among some observers on why he would stray off-course.

But officials with Civil Air Patrol, an auxiliary to the U.S. Air Force, said such a flight path would be common for cautious pilots like Weiss flying in experimental planes.

“Mr. Weiss and the members of the Florida Sonex Association are cautious pilots,” said Maj. Willard Garman, CAP incident commander for the search, said in a release. “They routinely flew this particular route not only so that a nearby airport was always within each reach, but so that they nearby Suncoast Parkway was both a landmark and a potential emergency landing site.”

CAP officials said they were expanding their search area along the Brooksville route to see if Weiss may have flown further than his radar track indicated. That now expands the search area from Citrus to Hernando counties.

Weiss was first reported missing Monday when relatives and friends realized he never returned, and found his car still parked at the Zephyrhills airport with both Weiss and his plane missing.

Weiss’ plane is white with green and black stripes. Anyone with information is asked to contact their local sheriff’s office. The non-emergency number for the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office is (727) 844-7711. They also can email the Florida Wing at .

Family Dollar to close stores

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With financial results not meeting the expectations of executives, Family Dollar says it will trim its work force and close 370 of its stores nationwide, or 5 percent of its stores.

It’s unclear if any of the local stores are threatened. Family Dollar has a location at 34200 State Road 54 in Zephyrhills, and at 32644 State Road 52 in San Antonio.

Howard R. Levin, the chairman and chief executive of Family Dollar, blamed sever winter weather conditions that kept many shoppers away in the north over the past few month. It also disrupted merchandise deliveries, and higher-than-expected costs to maintain those stores. All of that contributed to net sales dropping by $200 million — or 7 percent — from the previous year.

There are more than 50 Family Dollar stores in the Tampa Bay region, and is one of several chains with stores locally that caters to the low-cost merchandise market.

The store closings along with the job cuts and lower prices on nearly 1,000 items would save the chain between $40 million and $45 million in the coming year, executives said. Family Dollar also will slow its national growth this year, giving time for some new stores to become profitable.

Family Dollar averages a little more than six employees per store, with closings alone expected to affect 2,300 jobs.

Florida TaxWatch wants non-violent prison sentences reduced

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Florida, like many states, spends a lot of money maintaining its prison system. But it can spend a little less if the state simply reduces prison sentences for non-violent offenders, according to officials with Florida TaxWatch.

The idea, they say, is to reduce the prison population by downgrading offenses and implementing alternatives to incarceration for non-violent, low-level offenders.

“Florida’s criminal justice system can do more to improve public safety beyond locking up all offenders,” said Dominic M. Calabro, president and chief executive of Florida TaxWatch, in a release. “Nearly half of Florida’s new prison admissions are non-violent offenders charged with third-degree felonies, the lowest offense on the felony severity chart. Florida could be safer by rehabilitating these offenders without having them spend time in costly prisons, or crime colleges, where they are detained with dangerous, violent criminals.”

A new report from the group says some third-degree felonies can be reduced to misdemeanors. They would still carry “significant punishment” for offenders, but it would reduce the burden on taxpayers at the same time.

“The punishment should fit the crime and the cost,” said Dan McCarthy, director of the TaxWatch Center for Smart Justice, in a release. “Florida could save millions of dollars and improve public safety by reducing our non-violent prison population through alternative adjudication.”

Florida’s prison population has increased by more than 400 percent in the last 35 years, though the state population has only doubled during that same time, according to Florida TaxWatch. The state has 1.5 million felons, but Florida’s crime rate is at its lowest point in more than 40 years.

To learn more about Florida TaxWatch’s breakdown on third-degree felonies, click here.

Search for missing pilot turns to Citrus County

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Aerial searches continue Wednesday by Civil Air Patrol’s Florida Wing for a Zephyrhills pilot and his single-engine plane that has been missing since Saturday.

Those efforts are now focused on the Withlacoochee State Forest for Theodore Weiss and his Sonex homebuilt airplane. It was last seen Saturday at a Sonex event in Dunellon, when Weiss took off to head back to Zephyrhills Municipal Airport. However, family members declared him missing on Monday when his car was found at the airport and no sign of him or his plane.

Florida Wing aircraft are flying different routes to try and search the dense forest. Radar, according to officials, last detected Weiss’ plane in the area.

The forest is one of the largest state forests in Florida, covering more than 157,000 acres in Pasco, Hernando, Citrus and Sumter counties.

Searches also will be conducted along the route Weiss would have flown toward Zephyrhills had he turned in that direction from his last known location, Civil Air Patrol spokesman Maj. Joseph Tomasone said in a release.

The plane is white with green and black stripes.

Anyone with information is asked to contact their local sheriff’s office. The non-emergency number for the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office is (727) 844-7711.

Sheriff’s office to honor volunteers Friday

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Volunteers will be the focus of a celebration Friday by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office at the annual Volunteers in Police Service Recognition Luncheon.

More than 230 volunteers contributed to nearly 70,000 documented hours in 2013 to the sheriff’s office. That donation of time equates to a $1.3 million in-kind contribution by these volunteers who did various things from parking enforcement, finger printing, working inside courthouses, and many other assignments throughout the county.

Volunteers who have accumulated between 100 and 1,000 hours will be honored Friday with the Presidential Service Award, while those achieving more than 4,000 lifetime volunteer hours will receive the President’s Lifetime Service Award.

Five volunteers will be selected in different categories for volunteer of the year. They include John Simmons in the citizen service unit category, Ian Goalan in parking enforcement, Suzanne Baginskie in support services, Lee Pagillo and Brenda Webb in mounted unit, and Lester McMahan in citizen service.

Simmons, a field training officer and volunteer since 2005, has contributed to training, development and implementing the agency’s new dispatch system within the volunteer unit. Goalan, a volunteer with the parking enforcement unit since 2009, recently became a field training officer and has displayed a commitment to the unit, the sheriff’s office said.

Baginskie is tasked with sending out meeting reminders, informing members of special events, attending all citizen academies, and many other events in the community as a volunteer secretary. She has donated her time with the agency since 2009.

Both Pagillo and Webb have assisted in mounted rescue missions, community rides, mall parking lot patrols and several other events throughout the county on their own horses. They each accumulated more than 580 volunteer hours in 2013.

McMahan has volunteered with the sheriff’s office since 2011, and is a crew leader at Safety Town. In 2013, he contributed 1,853 hours of service — 36 hours a week — to the agency.

The event starts at 11 a.m., and takes place inside Spartan Manor, 6121 Massachusetts Ave., in New Port Richey.

Volunteers who have served for 10 years or more include:

• Donna True (18 years, Reserve)
• Angela Signoriello (18 years, Safety Town)
• Frances Creegan (17 years, Victim Advocate)
• Francis “Frank” Hunt (14 years, Parking Enforcement)
• Michael McCoy (13 years, Reserve)
• Barbara Grimes (13 years, Parking Enforcement)
• Warren Sheridan (12 years, Criminal Investigation Division)
• Joseph Seidel (12 years, Criminal Investigation Division)
• Steve Salagaras (12 years, Reserve)
• Janet Hochendoner (11 years, Safety Town)
• Gerald Hochendoner (11 years, Safety Town)
• Charles Bergevin (11 years, Crime Prevention)
• Carolyn Lodge (11 years, Crime Prevention)
• David Lodge (11 years, Crime Prevention)
• Elisabeth Kracik (11 years, Safety Town)
• Michael Pulaski (10 years, Parking Enforcement)
• Gennaro Palladino (10 years, Reserve)
• Nellie Robinson (10 years, Safety Town)
• Robert Engle (10 years, Citizens Service Unit)
• Kenneth Warzyn (10 years, Court Services)

Connerton’s Homes are On Parade

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The 2014 Tampa Bay Parade of Homes opened on Saturday, April 5th and will continue through Saturday, April 19th. Connerton is proud to showcase all 4 quality builders, Ryland Homes, M/I Homes, Taylor Morrison and Homes by WestBay. Six decorated models are available for viewing, with varied home styles for buyers of all ages.

ConnertonLookConnerton is located in central Pasco County, away from the hustle and bustle of crowded highways and bumper-to-bumper traffic. Over 125 families have made the decision to call Connerton home since the community reopened in May 2013.

What makes Connerton unique? Connerton has been given a “New Town” designation awarded by the State and County for master-planned, urban communities designed to be self-sufficient. A New Town possesses its own housing, education and government facilities, retail, commerce and recreation. Currently, there are only 3 New Towns in the state of Florida, and Connerton is the only one that exists in West Florida. The other Florida New Towns are Seaside, located in the panhandle, and Celebration, situated just outside of Orlando.

Connerton’s vibrant New Town live/work/play design,will unfold over the next decade and potentially make the community wholly self-sustaining. When complete, Connerton will be composed of 8,500 homes, 1.7 million square feet of retail space, 1.4 million square feet of office space a government center, multiple schools, and more than 1,000 acres of natural protected spaces. This is a plan, not just a dream!

As a Connerton resident, you can enjoy a world of amenities that include a state-of-the art fitness center, miles of hiking and biking trails, a nature preserve filled with natural wonders, sporting fields, gardening, social gatherings, yoga classes and meditation, an outdoor amphitheater as well as an aquatic center overflowing with fun.

If you don’t mind spending less for a home, you will find that Connerton is a naturally wise choice.

See why people of all ages have come here to experience community living as it was meant to be. Parade of Homes hours are Monday thru Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday Noon to 6 p.m.

Connerton is located on U.S. 41 in Land O’ Lakes, six miles north of State Road 54. Call (813) 996-5800, or visit www.Connerton.com.

This story is a feature of the advertising department.

In Print: Beer, trains, and remembering a dark time

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What started as two guys and a micro-brewery in an Odessa industrial park has grown into a beer-making enterprise that is now looking for a home about half the size of Walmart.

Many who stop by Big Storm’s taproom are regulars, joining the ‘StormChaser’ mug club. The brewery already is looking for bigger space to help expand operations even more. (Photo by Michael Hinman)
Many who stop by Big Storm’s taproom are regulars, joining the ‘StormChaser’ mug club. The brewery already is looking for bigger space to help expand operations even more. (Photo by Michael Hinman)

Big Storm Brewing Co. is just two years old, and already the company is pushing out 5,000 barrels of beer annually, and it hasn’t even started to offer Big Storm in cans yet.

“I never thought when we started that we would ever need anything more than this little shop,” Mike Bishop, Big Storm’s co-founder and head brewer, told reporter Michael Hinman. “We just thought we would make boutique beers, and make enough to pay the bills and give us a little money on the side. But that was not our destiny. People just wanted our beers.”

Big Storm has just expanded into South Florida, and is about to make its debut in bars in and around Orlando. Read the complete story in this week’s The Laker/Lutz News.

Reporter B.C. Manion got a good look at how far model train builders are willing to go with their creations during a recent visit to the Suncoast Center for Fine Scale Modeling.

As part of her regular Worth the Trip series, B.C. visited the Odessa center and had a chance to talk to the model-makers that turn these railroad dreams into a scale-model reality.

“There’s so many things in here for you to see,” said Dale MacKeown, a member of the Sundance Central team. “People who come in here typically spend two, two-and-a-half hours. We have people who come in here every time.”

Finally Philip Gans has a story that few are left to share about a terrible time in human history: the Holocaust.

“Your children will never have a chance to see a concentration camp survivor,” Gans told students at Land O’ Lakes High School.

The 86-year-old was forced to flee their home in Amsterdam when he was young, and avoided detection for more than a year before Nazi soldiers finally caught up to his family in 1943 when Gans was just 15.

His number, 139755, is still tattooed on his arm, being kept at Auschwitz III. But Gans considers himself one of the few lucky ones to come out of there.

“I survived,” he said. “There were many people who did not survive. My dad, for instance, he was the only (one) of the 21 members of his family that did not die in the gas chmabers. He died in a death march April 1945, a month before the liberation.”

All of these stories and more are 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.

Be careful in highway work zones, FDOT says

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In 2012, there were 51 fatalities, nearly 3,500 serious injuries and 4,700 crashes — all in Florida’s work zones.

Although that’s down from 62 fatalities and 3,700 serious injuries, the Florida Department of Transportation wants to continue to bring light to dangers in work zones, designating this week National Work Zone Awareness Week.

“Florida has many infrastructure improvement projects,” FDOT secretary Ananth Prasad said, in a release. “Work zones create unexpected hazards, and extra caution should be taken in these areas. Motorists should slow down, stay alert, and avoid distractions like texting.”

The awareness week began in 1999 when the Federal Highway Administration, the American Traffic Safety Services Association, and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials pledged to increase public awareness of work zone safety issues through a national media campaign.

Local, state and federal transportation officials observe that in April, the traditional start of the highway construction season across most of the country.

“Construction crews face difficult conditions every day while they work to improve our highways and make them safer,” said Col. David Brierton, Florida Highway Patrol’s director, in a release. “And those conditions are made even more difficult when you factor in the daily flow of traffic they must work around.”