Special to The Laker/Lutz News

By B.C. Manion

Oasis, A Pregnancy Care Center, hopes to expand by this time next year, said Peter Castellani, executive director of the center in Land O’ Lakes.

“We feel that God is calling us to open up a satellite center in Wesley Chapel,” he said.  The center also wants to increase services to men and launch a new program for students.

The pregnancy center, which opened in 2009 at 3632 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., offers a free array of services, including pregnancy testing, ultrasounds and information on topics including fetal development, childbirth, lactation and baby care.

It has an “earn while you learn” system, whereby women and their boyfriends or husbands can earn coupons by attending classes, reading books, watching DVDs, attending Bible study and taking part in other activities. The coupons can then be redeemed for items such as cribs, changing tables, swings, pack and plays, high chairs and toys.

“I like to say we provide everything from bibs to cribs,” Castellani said.

Since opening, the center has had more than 1,300 client visits, involving 300 families, Castellani said.

Ellie Soenksen said she had just turned 20 when she learned she was pregnant and turned to the center for help. The pregnancy was unplanned, and she and her boyfriend, Brent –now her husband — were happy, but scared.

Soenksen said she was raised in a family with strong religious convictions, and she was worried about how her parents would react. She turned to Oasis because she’d heard about the center following a previous pregnancy scare.

On the drive to the pregnancy center, the couple was concerned about being lectured. Instead, they found a friendly and welcoming atmosphere, Soenksen said.

The staff calmed her fears and offered useful advice, Soenksen said.

“They have a video about the first trimester, the second trimester, what to expect, what to eat,” said Soenksen, who was six-weeks pregnant when she began going to the pregnancy center. “I never knew that stuff.”

She felt safe at Oasis.

“It’s really easy to vent there. I explained that my parents didn’t know. No one knew because we didn’t want to get lectured,” she said.

The Oasis staff helped her understand how to talk to her parents about her pregnancy. They reminded her that she was her parents’ baby  — and they would likely want to help her.

Pure Schauer — Soenksen’s mother – is originally from Spain, but now lives in Odessa. She said she had always pictured her daughter graduating from college before beginning a family. But Schaur said she’s glad the community has a place like Oasis: “I think it’s wonderful they have this program here in this country to help girls.”

Soenksen lived with her mother during the final months of her pregnancy. Her husband joined the military and was away at training. She plans to join him when he’s assigned to a base. Meanwhile, Soenksen delivered her daughter – Tiffany Scarlett – on April 9. The infant was 22 inches long and weighed 7 pounds, 15 ounces.

Many people assume that Oasis primarily helps teenage girls who have unplanned pregnancies, Castellani said. In reality, teenage girls make up roughly one-fifth of the center’s clientele. The center has helped women ranging from 14 to 42, with the vast majority in their 20s and 30s.

In some cases, women turn to the center for help out of sheer economic need, Castellani said.

Tamika Stilley, who lives in Lakeshore Ranch across from Connerton, is one of those women who simply needed some help.

She came to the center when she was pregnant with her daughter, Taylin.

Stilley already had a daughter, 3-year-old Talia, and she knew she would need some assistance.

“Something probably would have had to be unpaid, if Oasis wasn’t in the picture,” she said. “She has to eat. She has to have diapers.”

Oasis turned out to be of far greater help than Stilley expected.

She has taken classes and attended Bible studies.

“They pray with you,” Stilley said.

They also have been willing to work with her when she needed items from the center’s “New Beginnings” room and had not accumulated enough coupons.

She recalled how thrilled she was when the center gave her a car seat she desperately needed when her daughter outgrew her infant seat.

“I was like, ‘Thank you, God. I was just about to cry,’ ” Stilley said.

Castellani said Oasis does not refer women to abortion clinics.

If women inquire about abortion, the staff explains the procedure, based on how far along their pregnancy is. Oasis provides referrals to adoption agencies for women considering that option.

Besides opening a satellite in Wesley Chapel, Oasis wants to expand its services for men, Castellani said.

“We want to start ministering to men because men are half the equation. We do provide some services to men now but we would like to focus more on them,” Castellani said.

Oasis also is exploring the potential for launching a “healthy relationship” program in Pasco County Schools. That program would promote abstinence, but also teach young people how to set boundaries, how to protect against date rape and how to avoid controlling relationships.

Oasis has just four staff members – including two full-time and two part-time. It also has about two dozen volunteers.

The items given to clients come from donations or are purchased through grants.

The center is always in need of more volunteers, more donations and financial support, Castellani said.

For information about Oasis or to access its services call (813) 406-4965 or email .

 

 

 

By B.C. Manion

 

Learning Gate Community School is one of 78 schools nationwide named a Green Ribbon School, a new designation that honors environmental excellence.

The program recognizes schools that save energy, reduce costs, feature environmentally sustainable learning spaces, protect health, foster wellness, and offer environmental education to boost academic achievement and community engagement.

Learning Gate is the only school in the Tampa Bay region to receive the designation, the environmental counterpart to the nation’s Blue Ribbon School award, a prestigious honor that recognizes academic excellence. Awards were announced April 23 by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Only three schools in Florida received the honor; the other two are in Miami-Dade and West Palm. Just eight public charter schools across the nation, including Learning Gate, were included in the inaugural group of Green Ribbon Schools. Florida is among 29 states and the District of Columbia with schools on the list.

Patti Girard, CEO and founder of Learning Gate Community School, was delighted by the honor.

“It’s great,” said Girard, who founded the school more than a quarter-century ago.

Girard is pleased that national leaders are encouraging schools to follow sustainable practices, so they can pass along those values to children as they grow up.

“They understand that we’ve got to teach it,” Girard said.

At Learning Gate, the school’s motto, “Nature is Our Best Teacher,” is played out in all sorts of ways across campus.

A visit to the campus on any given day will find children working in the school’s garden, tromping through the woods to observe birds being tagged for a research study, knocking over plastic liter bottles in a game of outdoor bowling or engaged in lessons in the first classrooms in the nation to receive platinum certification under the LEED for Schools rating system through the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

State departments of education chose the nominees. Schools selected for the award create “green” environments by reducing environmental impact, promoting health, and ensuring high-quality environmental and outdoor education, according to national Green Ribbon program documents.

“Green Ribbon Schools demonstrate compelling examples of the ways schools can expand their coursework while also helping children build real world skill sets, cut school costs, and provide healthy learning environments,” Duncan said, in a news release.

More than 350 schools completed applications, which were submitted to state education agencies. Of those, state agencies submitted about 100 for consideration.

Schools receiving the designation include 66 public schools and 12 private schools.

 

Glance box

High school public hearing

A hearing on a proposed special use permit for a school for sixth- through 12^th-graders in Lutz is slated for 6 p.m. on May 14 at the Frederick B. Karl County Center at 601 E. Kennedy Blvd., in downtown Tampa. Learning Gate Community School wants to open a campus that will one day have about 1,000 students in grades six through eight at the site, which is near the intersection of US 41 and Sunset Lane in Lutz.

By B.C. Manion

 

Tromping through Lake Dan Nature Preserve, visitors step on branches, pine needles and chunks of wood where mature oaks once stood.

Sunlight streams into open spaces in sandhill habitat and pine flatwoods forest, where the oak hammocks’ leafy canopy once provided shade and beauty.

To onlookers, the aftermath of heavy equipment knocking down and grinding up oak trees may seem to be evidence of a devastating attack against nature.

Environmental specialists from Hillsborough County, however, tell a different story. The oaks had to be cleared to create conditions that support gopher tortoises, Sherman’s fox squirrels, indigo snakes and other wildlife on the property at 11009 Tarpon Springs Road in Odessa.

A multitude of oak trees became established in the area because of decades of fire suppression by humans, said Stephen Dickman, an environmental specialist for the county’s parks, recreation and conservation department.

“The problem with fire suppression is, it changes the habitat over a period of time,” said Bernie Kaiser, a biologist with the county’s parks, recreation and conservation department.

Forests need fires to burn dead vegetation, to generate regrowth of native plants and grasses and to improve the habitat for wildlife, Dickman said. The oak canopy was shading out plant life on the forest floor, Kaiser added.

“It would be like you took your rose bush and you put it under your balcony,” he said.

“If fire had been permitted to continue through this system every few years, it would have remained open,” Dickman said.

“Tortoises prefer an open habitat,” he said, noting most of the roughly 130 gopher tortoise burrows that were found near the clearing were on wide-open land.

The burrows serve as habitat not only for the tortoises, but also for other species, Kaiser said. “There’s a whole suite of insects that live in there. There are several rodents that live in there. There’s snakes that live in there.

“They’ll live in there, alongside the tortoise, or they’ll just use it occasionally, as shelter,” he said.

Clearing for the upland habitat restoration project, in a 25-acre area, was completed in March. Trees that were cleared had diameters ranging from 3 inches to 20 inches. The area represents a small portion of the preserve, which covers hundreds of acres and was purchased through Hillsborough County’s Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program.

The preserve has oaks, pine flatwoods, cypress swamps and open pasture, and there are frequent sightings of deer, turkey, wood storks, gopher tortoises, blue herons, ibis and other wildlife.

It’s a great place for hiking and horseback riding, said Nadine Pedersen, who lives near the preserve.

Pedersen said she understands the goal of the clearing, but she thinks the county could have explained it better in advance and could have been more sensitive about the trees that were removed. Instead of heavy equipment knocking down and grinding trees, she would have preferred a more selective removal by crews using chainsaws. She thinks the heavy equipment was disruptive to wildlife.

Dickman said he understands why preserve users might be concerned.

“I can see their point. I can understand why someone would be upset. It’s an emotional reaction. If I were in their shoes, I would probably feel similar,” he said. “I saved some trees. I probably could have saved more.”

Kaiser characterized the removal of the oaks as “sort of a drastic step,” but one that was necessary.

“The only way you’re going to reset everything is to come in here and do something drastic to get rid of the hardwood,” he said.

People may enjoy the beauty of oaks, he noted, “but for a lot of those species that live there, it’s no different than the intersection of Kennedy and Nebraska — it’s simply not suitable habitat.”

Historically, most upland habitat in Florida burned on a three-year cycle, Kaiser said, sparked by lightning.

“Before the whole place (state) got chopped up with streets and roads and fence lines, these fires would carry for hundreds of miles and they weren’t really these intense wildfires that you see.”

While wetlands creation tends to instantly add beauty to an area, uplands restoration generally doesn’t, he said.

“We like to say, ‘For the first few years, they’re very ugly babies,’ ” Kaiser said.

The county also has been using prescribed burns in small areas to clear debris on the forest floor.

“When we do burns, we burn on a very specific wind direction and humidity and dispersion, to manage the smoke impact on the surrounding areas – roads, highways,” Dickman said.

Once plant life has a chance to rebound, the area will look much different, Dickman and Kaiser said.

“When we were surveying, we found some areas that had some pretty good ground cover. When we apply fire to this, those plants will be able to produce flower and produce seed and begin seeding the place in,” Dickman said.

“If you come back out here at the first of September, you’ll see a radical difference,” Kaiser said.

 

/glance box

For more information

To learn more about upland habitat restoration, fire ecology and prescribed burns, visit these websites:

http://hillsboroughcounty.org/parks/resources/publications/prescribedfireinformation.pdf http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/florida/index.html

www.archbold-station.org/

www.talltimbers.org/

http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/florida/index.htm

 

 

 

By B.C. Manion

 

Picture, if you will, thousands of soccer, baseball, softball and lacrosse players streaming into Wesley Chapel to test their skills in their respective sports.

Many of those players and their families would stick around for a few days, competing in tournaments, staying overnight at area hotels, doing a little shopping and eating at local restaurants.

That’s what Pasco County officials envision will happen with the Fields at Wiregrass, a proposed sports complex that would have 12 fields for soccer and lacrosse and eight fields for baseball and softball.

The proposal came a step closer to reality on April 24, when the Pasco County Commission voted unanimously to allocate up to $14 million for the project.

“We’re on track now to deliver a world-class facility to Pasco County,” said J.D. Porter, whose family owns the land where the complex would be built, following the board’s vote.

The Porters would operate and maintain the complex, under an agreement with the county.

The deal is not entirely sealed.

In addition to setting a spending cap on the project, commissioners directed their staff to iron out the details of the deal with the Porters. Some issues not yet resolved include how much fill dirt the Porters would need to provide for the project, how the county would handle traffic and development phasing issues connected to future construction within the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact and how much escrow the county would require the Porters to set aside in the event the sports complex project fails at some point in the future.

“It’s going to be a diamond for the area,” said Jeff Miller, economic development chairman of the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce.

The new sports complex would bolster the local economy with both short-term and long-term impacts, Miller said.

In the near term, it would produce more business for the local economy. In the long haul, it will help create a favorable perception of the area, making it more attractive to potential employers.

“If you pay attention to what’s happening in the area this is a huge step,” Miller said.

While the board unanimously approved proceeding with negotiations, Commissioners  Henry Wilson and Jack Mariano initially balked at earmarking nearly all of the county’s tourism tax dollars for the proposed complex.

Other commissioners said the time for action had come.

“It’s time to get off the dime,” said Commission Chairwoman Ann Hildebrand.

“I think we have to move – stop talking and start doing,” said Commissioner Pat Mulieri. “Wesley Chapel is an economic engine for Pasco County. Sometimes you have to take a stand.’’
Ted Schrader, commission vice chairman, put it like this: “The intent of the tourist tax was to build a marquee facility.”

The Fields at Wiregrass could accommodate more than 2,000 teams for tournaments annually, said Jason Payne, of Turf Solutions Group LLC, a company that specializes in these developments.

The baseball and softball fields could handle up to 64 teams each day. The fields would have all-weather “CoolMax” synthetic turf infields, and natural turf outfields with professional irrigation and drainage, features that would eliminate most rainouts, Payne said.

The soccer and lacrosse fields will support up to 100 teams per day.

The proposed agreement between the county and the Porters calls for making the fields available to local teams 25 percent of the time.

The sports complex is expected to attract more than 60,000 players, coaches and family members to tournaments, resulting in more than 100,000 hotel room nights each year.

In addition to the fields, the facility would have a check-in area, food service facilities, a player activity center, pavilions, shaded bleachers, practice areas, webcam field cameras and child play areas, Payne said.

Payne said his company has worked in more than 40 states from coast to coast on sports complexes and plans to assist The Fields at Wiregrass throughout the process. He said his company has learned from other facilities and plans to incorporate best practices into the Fields at Wiregrass.

The lacrosse fields at the new complex would enable the county to meet its pledge to provide additional lacrosse fields – which was part of a deal the county worked out with NDP Lacrosse, which manages the Dick’s Sporting Goods Tournament of Champions in Wesley Chapel.

The county had been in danger of losing that tournament to IMG Academies, an elite athletic training facility in Bradenton. IMG had offered a number of enticements and also boasted 17 fields at one location versus 14 fields at two locations in Wesley Chapel.

The lacrosse tournament, held in Wesley Chapel since 2008, draws about 80 teams from the United States and Canada.

 

 

Wesley Chapel to figure prominently

 

By B.C. Manion

 

It may not be easy for some to imagine, but the man who oversees planning and growth management for Pasco County predicts that the Wesley Chapel area will become the county’s new downtown.

Pasco County historically has grown along the west coast as growth pushed up from Pinellas County, but changing dynamics ultimately will transform Wesley Chapel – and the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI) – into a major center for companies and jobs, said Richard Gehring, growth management administrator for Pasco County.

The area already has experienced significant change during the past decade, Gehring said, including The Shops at Wiregrass, a regional shopping mall at SR 56 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.

Next to the mall, Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, an 80-bed hospital with room to expand to 300 beds, is set to open this fall at 2600 Bruce B. Downs Blvd. A three-story, 100,000-square-foot wellness center just broke grown on the property last week.

Meanwhile, the Pasco-Hernando Community College is building its first multi-story satellite – Porter Campus at Wiregrass — on SR 56, on a site donated by the Porter family.

The community college will be just across the road from a site where Raymond James is under contract with the Porters for a major satellite office park.

Gehring predicted that once construction on the Raymond James project begins, the Porters likely will be talking to national and global companies about additional projects in the area.

To add to the mix, the Pasco County Commission last week approved spending up to $14 million for The Fields at Wiregrass, a sports complex that the Porters have estimated would generate 100,000 hotel bed nights a year by attracting national and regional baseball, softball, soccer and lacrosse tournaments.

There’s also talk of a new shopping development at the Cypress Creek Town Center site that would be an upscale version of the outlet mall in Ellenton. When it opens, it would complement The Shops at Wiregrass and The Grove, Gehring said.

All in all, Wesley Chapel is poised to play a central role in a county that has much to offer as the economy begins to rebound, Gehring told those gathered at the monthly economic development meeting of the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce.

“What ends up being key here is that we have a majority of what is called ‘greenfield’ positions – lands that are ready for development, serviced with utilities and are poised to go — compared to the counties to the south, which have been the historic growth areas.”

It’s no accident that Pasco is attractive to large employers, Gehring said. It’s three to five times cheaper to develop on a new site, than to redevelop on an old one. For instance, when Raymond James was looking for sites, of the four selected, three were in Pasco, he said.

Pinellas County is mostly built-out and there aren’t many large sites in Hillsborough County north of SR 60, Gehring said. “It is hard to find 30-, 50-, 100-acre sites,” he said. “There are some, but not many.”

It’s not just a matter of having available land, however.

“Entitlements are key. Not only do you have to have the dirt. You have to have some things ready. In the county there are a lot of large-scale (development) approvals,” he said.

Pasco is using a tiered system of mobility fees to encourage employers to locate in the county. It also is planning for future transportation needs, by adopting a new phasing and timing policy to avoid gridlock, and planning for future light rail or rapid bus transit routes, Gehring said.

“We are regionally positioned. We have diverse market potential. We have plans and funding in motion.

“We want both quality and quantity at the same time, as we grow.”

Gehring praised the Pasco County Commission and County Administrator John Gallagher for reinventing county government and gearing up to be ready to accommodate the next wave of growth.

Pasco County has been very aggressive in setting itself up to be a regional player, he said.

“We’re prepared to create competitive advantage in this area.”