Special to The Laker/Lutz News

Students will be back in their regular classrooms this fall

By B.C. Manion

As a new year rings in for Hillsborough County public schools, Gaither High students will return to a campus that is quite different from the one they left in June.

For one thing, the heavy equipment that’s been a fixture on campus for the past 18 months will be gone.

And, for the first time in a year and a half, the school’s 1,975 students and its 180 staff members will no longer be using any of the 24 portable classrooms that have been on campus during a five-phase renovation project.

Students and staff will also notice the final fruits of the $16 million project.

They’ll see improvements in the school’s cafeteria, gymnasium and auditorium. Those are in addition to renovations that were completed during the first four phases.

Principal Marie Whelan is thrilled to be nearly finished with the school’s first major facelift since it opened in 1984.

The upgrades are getting good reviews, Whelan said. “The kids said to me yesterday, ‘It looks like a community college.’”

Whelan, a Gaither alum, is thrilled to see the improvements at the school that she’s been leading since 2009.

Whelan appreciates the patience her staff and students have shown throughout the hassles that construction projects cause. Some of the students even had a hand in the project — helping to move some furniture and boxes, the principal said.

Students have been enjoying the updated media center, which has new tables, including high-tops. Many go the library before their school day begins, Whelan said.

“We’ll have 40 to 50 kids who get here early,” Whelan said.

Improvements that students and staff are likely to notice when they return to school this week include new lighting in the gymnasium and auditorium, along with a fresh paint job in the gym.

The gym’s bleachers also have been relocated so they’re closer to the basketball court. This frees up the room behind the bleachers, allowing space for other uses, such as wrestling or cheerleading practices, Whelan said.

The restrooms near the gym and auditorium have brand new stalls and fixtures, and gleaming tiles, too.

Other restrooms in the school also have been updated and all now comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, said John Williams, a project coordinator for Hillsborough Schools.

Projects of this scope always create disruptions, but efforts were made to keep them to a minimum, Williams said.

Classrooms were packed up and moved into portables while work was done and then packed up and moved back into the refurbished classroom spaces.

The work was timed to make the moves during the summer months and winter break to reduce disruption of students and staff.

Larger projects — such as the locker rooms, auditorium, gymnasium, cafeteria and  kitchen — were tackled during the summer, Williams said.

The renovation included replacing the school’s roof and air-conditioning system, adding fire sprinklers throughout the building, enhancing the intercom system and adding new fire and security alarms.

It also included adding a staircase near the front of the school to meet current codes, Williams said.

Another part of the project involved adding a new entrance into the front office. This shortens the distance people must walk between the parking lot in front of the school and the main office.

It also offers an extra measure of security because once classes begin each day, the doors leading into the corridor near the school’s cafeteria are locked up, and people must use the main entrance.

Other parts of the project included upgrading the lights in the parking lot and installing new ones near the school’s entry.

The renovation also included a fresh coat of paint for the cafeteria, a new serving line and some new kitchen equipment.

Crews did encounter some surprises, Williams said.

“When you do a renovation on a building this old, there is always something that comes up,” Williams said.

In this case, they found electrical panels that needed to be replaced, some frayed wiring and some conditions that were no longer up to code.

Flooring in high traffic places was replaced, Williams said. Other touches included new cabinetry in the science classrooms and new projector equipment in classrooms.

The project also involved some fresh landscaping around the new interior stairwell at the front of the school. The contractor purchased plants grown by Gaither’s horticultural program to complete that part of the job, Whelan said.

By Jeff Odom

While most children were busy soaking up the last few weeks of summer vacation, 6-year-old twin sisters Kendall and Rebecca Compton were taking in the joy of giving back to those in need.

With the help of their mother, Katie, the girls purchased 23 pairs of shoes from the Rack Room store at University Mall to donate to the Everyday Blessings Children’s Home in Thonotosassa. They brought children to the mall Aug. 4 to pick out their kicks that suited them best.

“We knew we were going to work with Everyday Blessings because our church had worked with them in the past, so we contacted them and asked the best way to support them,” said Katie, of Wesley Chapel. “We were originally just going to have people donate shoes, but (the home) said they couldn’t determine sizes and types the kids might need, so we went with this.”

Rack Room staffers grouped the shoes by price in order to avoid any confusion. The store also gave the Comptons some help with a buy one, get one half off deal and opened an hour early to accommodate the children.

Katie said both Rebecca and Katie enjoyed helping the children, and in return were given plenty of praise from their new friends.

“They took very good care of us (at Rack Room),” Katie said. “The kids were all smiles and very thrilled and super, super appreciative, and it was a lot of fun for everyone.”

In the future, the Comptons plan to continue working with the children’s home, which provides housing to foster children ages 17 and younger who have been removed from their previous residences due to neglect, abuse or abandonment. Katie has a few ideas in mind on what they will do, but said she is still in the planning stages.

“We asked (Everyday Blessings) if they would like to do this kind of thing again, and they said yes, something like suitcases filled with items for the kids, so that would be something fun for a project next year to gather suitcases and then fill them with items that are personal,” Katie said. “They also invited us out to come visit the kids, and I’ve got a lot of ideas on what the kids there might need.”

 

She added she is planning to work with the home and her church, Water’s Edge Church in Wesley Chapel, one day soon on renovating a room to make it friendlier for the children during their stay at Everyday Blessings.

“We want to come in and take measurements for a new floor, some new paint on the walls, new curtains, new beds, new everything,” Katie said. She added, “(The children) need some warmth and we want to make it a little more home like. We just got the information, but I talked to the women’s ministry there, and they’re all excited about doing it.”

For more information on the Everyday Blessings, including upcoming events to help support  the children, visit www.EverydayBlessingsinc.org.

By Kyle LoJacono

Members of the Wiregrass Ranch girls cross country team can’t stand being second in anything.

The squad has dominated the area distance running scene in recent years, and a trio of Bulls has also put themselves at the top of the 2013 graduating class.

Seniors Hannah Eder, Emily Payne and Nikita Shah have identical 4.65 weight grade point averages (GPA), putting them on pace to finish as co-valedictorians.

“We’ve known each other for a lot of years, and we’ve always been academically talented and willing to work hard,” said Shah, who is planning for a career in medicine. “We all like learning. We’re competitive between each other, but we’re also supportive of each other.”

Seventh-year Wiregrass Ranch cross country coach Don Howard said it’s common for distance runners to be good students because both require planning toward a long-term goal.

“You have to train every day, and you have to keep motivated the whole time,” said Shah, the team’s top runner. “Even if you don’t feel it one day you have to go out there. Same thing with academics. You have to study before, and if you have to know something you go and learn it. You can’t put it off.”

Howard is used to having good students on his team, but not quite at the level of Eder, Payne and Shah at the same time.

“I’m not sure if there’s ever been three girls tied for valedictorian on the same team,” Howard said. “They all get along; they’re friends. I don’t see competition between them (with grades). I would like to see a tri-val all-cross country girl year.”

Eder, who plans to be an orthodontist, said a reason for their academic success is Howard’s view on grades.

“I think it’s because coach Howard is so supportive of school work,” Eder said. “He always tells us to put school first.”

Shah and Payne have been on the cross country team since their freshman season.

Eder competed as a ninth-grader, but focused on soccer and track the last two years. She returned this season in part to be in shape for the other sports while staying close to Shah and Payne.

“Emily and Nikita are two of my best friends, so it’s a way to keep up with them,” Eder said. She added, “It’s motivation to stay on top of things because if you see other people getting an A you want to work harder. If you see someone getting first and you’re getting third or fourth in a track meet you want to push yourself to do better. We’re still friends. It’s not cutthroat, but we’re definitely competitive.”

Payne, who is most interested in biology, said they didn’t realize they had the same GPA until the track season of their junior year.

“It just kind of happened,” Payne said. “It’s nice because we’ve always been friends, so we can study for class together and we can run together, even though I can’t keep up with Nikita. … It’s really nice to have them, because I know there’s someone to always keep me on my toes.”

 

Proposed budget also includes development funding, two new jobs

By B.C. Manion

After years of belt-tightening, the city of Zephyrhills is planning to give its employees a 2 percent raise.

It may not be a huge increase, but it is a tangible sign of the city’s appreciation for its employees’ efforts, said Mayor Steve Van Gorden.

The raise is included in the city’s proposed budget, which gained first-round approval by the Zephyrhills City Council on July 30 and will be considered for final adoption on Sept. 24.

If the raise is approved, it will take effect Jan. 6.

City manager Jim Drumm said he was able to propose the raise because the city has reduced its costs through downsizing its staff for the past three years.

The city’s proposed spending plan also calls for trimming three full-time positions and adding two. The new positions are a police sergeant and a deputy airport manager.

The sergeant will replace a police captain job that was eliminated from last year’s budget. The sergeant’s spot is at a lower pay grade and involves working on the street instead of behind a desk, Drumm said.

The other new job is for an employee who already works at the airport, Drumm said. Nathan Coleman would assume that post and will work closely with the city’s new airport manager, Michael Handrahan, who is scheduled to begin work on Nov. 1.

Drumm recommended trimming two vacant positions in the public works department. He also has proposed cutting the slot for the city planner/economic development coordinator, which is occupied.

In a budget letter to council members, Drumm wrote he would prefer not to cut a position that is occupied. However, he added, he believes eliminating the post is necessary if the city wishes to contract for outside services to administer economic development efforts.

Council members are considering different scenarios to amp up efforts to help local businesses grow, attract new companies and enhance the city’s economic health.

In one option, the Greater Zephyrhills Chamber of Commerce would take a leadership role. In another, the city may contract with the Pasco Economic Development Council to focus on those efforts.

Or, it may use city personnel to accomplish that mission, Drumm said. He said the final outcome could be a hybrid of the various proposals.

The chamber’s executive board doesn’t want to contract out the work to another group because they think it’s essential that whomever leads the effort has a firm grasp on the city’s attributes and its business community’s interests, along with a relationship with other community organizations and the general public.

The chamber’s board recommended the city allocate up to $100,000 for economic development efforts.

Of that, the chamber would receive $50,000 to provide administrative, managerial and leadership support to the economic development group. Their recommendation also includes $25,000 for startup, marketing and operational support and $25,000 to cover half the salary of a city position that would be assigned to work on economic development efforts.

The $25,000 for startup and marketing costs would be kept in a city budget, Drumm said.

The city manager said he sees strengths in each of the various models.

The chamber may be a stronger player when it comes to being knowledgeable about local business issues and interests, Drumm said. But the economic development council may be more plugged into leads for companies outside of the area that the city may want to target.

The city’s staff, on the other hand, is knowledgeable about government requirements and regulations that businesses must meet in order to establish a location in the city or expand one, Drumm said.

The city manager said he’s not sure what the final form will be, but he knows the mayor and city council want to step up efforts to boost the economy and attract more jobs.

In another move aimed at helping the city maximize its potential, the budget includes about $60,000 to have a study done by outside consultants to advise on steps to make the best use of Zephyrhills’ assets and help generate more jobs.

Pasco did a similar study, and it led to significant changes in the way the county is planning for its future and marketing itself.

Pasco uses incentives to lure new companies. It has identified areas where it is encouraging an urban scale of development and other locations the county thinks should remain rural.

 

Pasco woman invents device to help

By B.C. Manion

If you’ve ever had trouble opening a bottle, you can relate to Linda Appleby.

She was at a baby christening party in New Jersey when she just couldn’t get a good grip on the plastic cap on a water bottle.

She turned to her daughter, Emma Faassee, for help.

“Can you open this bottle for me?” Appleby asked her daughter.

But Faassee told her, “No. I can’t do it.”

The two women looked at each other, and an idea was born.

Faassee, who is an architect, got to work designing a simple device to help twist off bottle caps.

She drew the plans and Appleby found a plastic company in Clearwater to make the device.

The mother-daughter duo created a company, filed a patent and are now taking their product to market.

They call their gadget CapTwist, a simple name to convey what it does, said Appleby.

CapTwist is a tear-shaped plastic device that fits snugly over a bottle cap, and with an easy turn, the cap comes off.

It can be used to twist the caps off of water, soda bottles and beer bottles. It can even provide leverage to help get the lids off of prescription bottles — depending on its size.

She and her daughter are searching out markets in Florida and New Jersey, but they also think the product will have national and international appeal because it can make life easier for anyone.

It’s for anybody who has trouble twisting off bottle caps, Appleby said. It may be especially appealing to elderly people, women, children and people with arthritis or muscular dystrophy.

Flight attendants may find the tool useful, too, as they twist the lids off miniature liquor or plastic water bottles.

Appleby said she wants to sell her product at liquor stores, at bars and in convenience stores. She also thinks they’d be a great novelty item for companies to give away.

The inventors have already patented a larger version of their product to open beverages in big-mouth bottles, such as sports drinks.

The product typically comes in a package of two for $5. However, the company is looking to offer singles in some locations, such as bars or convenience stores, said Appleby, who lives in Trinity.

Appleby, who is a former saleswoman for The Tampa Tribune, and her daughter are doing their best to get the word out about CapTwist.

The women even pitched their product at a live casting call in Orlando for “Shark Tank,” the ABC reality television show on which startup or established entrepreneurs make a pitch to a panel of investors to try to get financial backing and marketing help.

The women were among a crowd of about 500 entrepreneurs making pitches to be on the show.

So far, they’ve invested about $20,000 to patent the item, manufacture it and market it.

Appleby said she doesn’t know if the product will catch on, but she hopes it will. Her goal is to make enough money so her husband can retire.

Regardless of what happens, she’s been having a splendid time learning the ins and outs of being an inventor.

And, she encourages other would-be inventors to try bringing their ideas to life.

“If people find that there’s a problem and they come up with a solution, that’s when you need to do an invention,” Appleby said. She added, “Don’t be intimidated. How many times have you thought of something, and then a year later it’s out there?”

But it will require work, Appleby said. And, quick success is unlikely, she added.

One book that Appleby found particularly helpful was One Simple Idea by Stephen Key.

“These ideas don’t evolve overnight. You have to do your research. You have to do your design. It takes a lot of time,” Appleby said.

To find out more about CapTwist, visit Indiegogo.com/captwist.

By Jeff Odom

Wesley Chapel High student-athletes have a new ally in their quest for conference, district and state championships this school year.

Florida Hospital Zephyhrills has partnered with the school to give medical care for the Wildcats competing in every sport.

The hospital, which already provides care to Zephyrhills High, will provide Wesley Chapel a certified athletic trainer to treat injuries, while also teaching the student-athletes how to avoid them with conditioning and proper techniques, at no cost to the school.

“With the issue of concussions nowadays for football and those kind of contact sports, it’s going to make a big difference and a bigger impact for players to be able to seek help when they’re injured, and (trainers) can make the determination on the extent with their training,” said Wildcats athletic director Mike Rogers.

Rogers, who also serves as Wesley Chapel boys golf coach, said the knowledge and experience the partnership brings to the athletic department will be a relief to coaches who may not have the necessary training on how to treat certain injuries.

“I think it takes a lot of the pressure and responsibility of making certain determinations off of our coaches,” Rogers said. “A coach isn’t certified in that area and they’re not required to know (injuries), so it could be hard for them to make sense of some of them.”

In addition to the trainer, the Wildcats will, if needed, receive further treatment from Dr. Chris Baker, an orthopedic institute doctor at the hospital.

Baker will make trips between both Zephyrhills and Wesley Chapel events. If he is not in attendance, the trainers have direct access to him by phone, and in turn Baker will provide consultation to other medical professionals if a player is injured and transported for emergency treatment.

“The most important thing is to have a certified athletic trainer in the high school and the second most important thing is to have communication between the trainer and the doctor … to see if the player could play again, and that was 100 percent absent out here in East Pasco,” Baker said. “What I did was I basically got together with the hospital and said ‘You provide trainers in mission trips overseas, why don’t we provide an athletic trainer to the high schools?’ and got them to buy in.”

Baker said the hospital was able to get the funding for the Immediate Post–Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) program, which is a brain measurement tool for athletes who have sustained a serious head injury. He added the computer baseline test will provide the trainers with an accurate diagnosis of how severe a concussion is based on an athlete’s predetermined score.

“(The trainers) are tremendously trained with concussion management and with the ImPACT testing,” Baker said. He added, “We’re needing more tools to evaluate whether they are safe to return back or not; this is another tool we have that gives us an objective measure. A lot of times if a kid has a really bad concussion we have to remove them from class and from homework until they can fully recover, so this will give us a little more credibility to test that.”

For more information on Florida Hospital Zephyrhills’ partnership with Wesley Chapel, visit www.fhzeph.org.

Compiled by Kyle LoJacono

Voters made their decisions known for the primary races, setting the competition for the general election on Nov. 6.

In addition, anyone running for school board who received more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary wins the office. If not, the top two candidates will face off in the general election.

All those who want to vote in the general election must be registered with their county’s supervisor of elections office by Oct. 9. For Pasco residents, visit www.pascovotes.com or call (800) 851-8754. For those in Hillsborough, visit votehillsborough.org or call (813) 744-5900.

Results of the local races include:

 

Florida Senate

 

District 17 Republican primary*

John Legg 63 percent

Rob Wallace 23 percent

John Korsak 15 percent

 

District 24 Republican primary

Tom Lee 60 percent

Rachel Burgin 40 percent

 

Florida House of Representatives

 

District 37 Republican primary

Richard Corcoran 83 percent

Strother Hammond 17 percent

 

District 63 Democrat primary

Mark Danish 62 percent

Z.J. Hafeez 38 percent

 

Pasco County Commission

 

District 1 Republican primary*

Ted Schrader 37 percent

Ron Oakley 31 percent

Rachel O’Connor 31 percent

 

District 3 Republican primary

Kathryn Starkey 43 percent

Christopher Gregg 18 percent

Randy Evans 14 percent

Karen King 14 percent

Joshua Griffin 10 percent

 

District 5 Republican primary*

Jack Mariano 51 percent

William Jesse Gunter 49 percent

 

Hillsborough County Commission

 

District 2 Republican primary*

Victor Crist 63 percent

Sharon Calvert 37 percent

 

District 6 Republican primary

Margaret Iuculano 52 percent

Don Kruse 48 percent

 

Pasco superintendent Republican primary

Kurt Browning 66 percent

Heather Fiorentino 27 percent

Kenneth Benson 7 percent

 

Pasco School Board**

 

District 2

Joanne Hurley 68 percent

Don Stephenson 32 percent

 

Hillsborough School Board**

 

District 1

Susan Valdes 62 percent

Eddy Calcines 38 percent

 

District 3

Cindy Stuart 58 percent

Jack Lamb 42 percent

 

District 5

Doretha Edgecomb 70 percent

Henry Ballard Jr. 30 percent

 

District 7

Carol Kurdell 36 percent

Terry Kemple 19 percent

Michael Weston 17 percent

Joseph Jordan-Robinson 10 percent

Robert McElheny 9 percent

Carl Francis Kosierowski 9 percent

 

Pasco sheriff Republican primary

Chris Nocco 85 percent

Maurice Radford 9 percent

Roger Joseph Fortney 6 percent

 

Hillsborough supervisor of elections Democrat primary

Craig Latimer 53 percent

Thomas Scott 47 percent

 

Pasco property appraiser Republican primary

Mike Wells 77 percent

Walter Price 23 percent

 

Hillsborough property appraiser Republican primary

Ronda Storms 70 percent

Rob Turner 30 percent

 

*Unopposed in general election

**School board members do not give a party affiliation