Special to The Laker/Lutz News

By Joe Humphrey

A volunteer who attracts multiple planes to the Zephyrhills airport each year wants to bring a World War II aircraft to the city permanently.

John Bolender, organizer of the annual Bivouac and Barracks event and a volunteer at the Zephyrhills Airport Restored Barracks Museum, received city permission on Monday, July 11 to display a C-47 at the south entrance of the airport.

“It’s my plane,” Bolender said. “I’m giving it to the city.”

Bolender received the plane from a military group and has it stored at a friend’s place in Florala, Ala. He plans to raise the necessary money, $6,000, to relocate the plane from Alabama. Another $3,000-$4,000 would go toward renovation of the craft.

The city would only need to provide liability coverage for volunteers who work on the plane.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower called the C-47 “one of the most vital pieces of military equipment used in winning the war,” according to Boeing. The Skytrain, as it was known, had multiple functions beginning in World War II. According to Boeing, the plane could

–     Carry up to 6,000 pounds of cargo

–     Transport a fully assembled jeep or 37mm cannon

–     Transport up to 28 soldiers in full combat gear

–     Hold 14 stretchers and three nurses as a medical airlift plane

Bolender said the plane would anchor the museum and also provide more visibility for the airport.

“A lot of people don’t know we have an airport,” he said.

The event he organizes each year brings several vintage aircraft to Zephyrhills, but this would make one a permanent fixture. The display would be static, meaning visitors would not go inside the plane. Still, it would be an upgrade to the museum.

“It will be an anchor for our museum,” he said. “It will also be an asset to the entrance to the airport.”

In sharing his plan around town and at the Zephyhrhills Historical Association, Bolender has already met one person who worked on the planes in the service and another who jumped out of them. Bringing the plane to town strikes Mayor Cliff McDuffie as a good idea, “as long as we can get volunteers to renovate it.”

The model took its first flight in December 1941 — just two weeks after Pearl

Harbor. It has a 95-foot wingspan and measures about 64 feet long. It’s cruising speed, according to Boeing: 160 miles an hour.

To volunteer or for more information, contact Bolender at (813) 788-5969.

EPA gives county grant to clean busy roadways

By Kyle LoJacono

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently gave Pasco $1 million to clean up land contaminated with motor oil, gasoline and other chemicals along some of the most used county roads.

Pasco was awarded the grant, the first of its kind in its 124-year history, and property owners along US 41 in Land O’ Lakes and US 301 in Zephyrhills, Dade City and Lacoochee can apply to have their land renewed. It requires no matching money from the county.

“The program to award the grant was very competitive,” said Philip Vorsatz, the EPA’s coordinator for Florida and seven other southern states. “Less than one in five counties that applied were approved.”

Vorsatz said the areas contaminated with the various chemicals are known as brownfields. The federal government is spending $76 million this year to redevelop brownfields in 40 states and on three American Indian tribes’ land.

One of the largest brownfields in the county is the site of the Dade City Business Center, which for years was a citrus and orange juice processing plant, according to Pasco senior planner for economic development and redevelopment Melanie Kendrick. The former operation contaminated the land with biodiesel. Another is the old Cummer Cypress sawmill site in Lacoochee.

Another major contributor to the brownfields is the large number of underground storage tanks in Pasco. The county listed in its application for the grant information from the state Department of Environmental Protection showing it has 2,143 within its boundaries, of which 546 are leaking.

“Often it’s things you might not even think of that play a big part in contaminating the ground,” Kendrick said. “Even dental X-rays back in the day.”

Pasco has 53 cattle dipping vats, which hold chemicals used to protect livestock from ticks and other parasites, leaking into the ground. Other major contributors to the brownfields are scrap metal salvage yards, dry cleaners, vehicle and boat repair shops and old railroad ties, which give off arsenic.

Half of the money will go to cleaning petroleum sites, with the other half focusing on hazardous waste.

The county is forming a committee of various stakeholders to develop a plan that reviews Pasco’s history. It will also interview residents who have lived in the county for many years to track down potential waste sites. The second phase will sample soil and water to find where to focus the cleanup.

One of the benefits of the program is if enough landowners participate, the county may receive additional federal money, as well as tax breaks and redevelopment grants to large landholders, in the future.

Kendrick said, “It’s a touchy subject,” for owners to submit their land for the cleanups.

“No one wants people to think of their land as dirty,” Kendrick said. “However, it can help attract more investment in the county overall, which helps everyone.

“There are companies that develop only on former brownfields,” Kendrick continued. “For example, a successful brownfield site is the Ikea furniture store in Ybor City.”

That Ybor location was the home of a canning company from 1936 to 1981.

County Commissioner Pat Mulieri said the board predicts this grant will continue to turn Pasco from a bedroom community into one with a large number of high-paying jobs.

“This brownfields program will help us rebuild rundown areas all over Pasco,” Mulieri said. “It will help everyone from US 19 in west Pasco to US 301 in east Pasco and everyone in between. It’s a win-win opportunity because we cleanup and bring in jobs at the same time.”

The people along US 301 in northern Pasco could especially benefit from the program, as the area has seen economic hardships since the sawmill closed in 1959 and the citrus facility ceased operating. The location has seen stagnate growth in part because of the contaminated land, according to Kendrick.

For more information on the program, visit portal.pascocountyfl.net.

 

By Kyle LoJacono

David Reutimann finished as the runner-up at NASCAR’s inaugural race at Kentucky Speedway.

It is the first top-five showing of the year for the former Zephyrhills resident who finished behind Kyle Busch. Reutimann and his No. 00 car started 17th in the Quaker State 400, but he fought his way back and passed Jimmie Johnson on the final lap to post the second-place performance.

“It feels great, it feels good,” Reutimann said. “Second is still second, but it’s certainly a lot closer than we have been in the last month or so, so it felt really good.”

Johnson tipped his cap to Reutimann after the race.

“I had my hands full with the 00,” Johnson said. “I think he probably was the best car at the end.”

Reutimann said he was pleasantly surprised with the finish, as Kentucky is not a track he is familiar with, but what he does know is it can be a treacherous course.

“There are a lot of different places at Kentucky that are a little rough, but there is no way that you can just get around them,” Reutimann said. “Some of the bumps are just there and there’s really not much you can do. There is really only two ways that you can do it. You can work on your car and try to make it more compliant at those spots and not bounce so bad or you can just drive around them.

“Some situations where they aren’t as big, you can just drive around the bumps getting in and be okay,” Reutimann continued. “That’s the only two ways I know how to do it, and I don’t think either one is a sure bet that you’re going to be okay. That’s just the nature of the racetrack and something that you have to work around.”

The showing moved Reutimann up two spots in the Sprint Cup standings to No. 24. He is 91 points behind Clint Bower for the 12th — and final — spot to make NASCAR’s postseason chase.

Reutimann’s best finishes of the year were ninth at Charlotte on May 29 and 13th at both Las Vegas on March 6 and Pocono on June 12.

“It’s been an awful season for us,” Reutimann said. “At the end of last year it felt like we were making some gains. This year, we haven’t had the results we’ve been looking for.”

Reutimann last won at Chicagoland Speedway July 2010. He credits his crew for the running at Kentucky and predicts momentum may be building.

“The guys are trying to figure out why we’re not running well, and hence we have a better car this weekend,” Reutimann said. “It’s a step in the right direction.”

NASCAR’s next race is on Sunday, July 17 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway starting at 1 p.m.

–All results as recorded by NASCAR.

 

David Reutimann 2011 Season

Race                                    Place

Daytona 500                        30

Subway Fresh Fit 500            29

Kobalt Tools 400                        13

Jeff Byrd 500                        30

Auto Club 400                        19

Goody’s Fast Relief 500            15

Samsung Mobile 500            29

Aaron’s 499                                    14

Crown Royal Presents            31

the Matthew and Daniel

Hansen 400

Showtime Southern 500            16

FedEx 400 benefitting            15

Autism Speaks

Cocla-Cola 600                        9

STP 400                                    22

5-Hour Energy 500                        13

Heluva Good! Sour                        35

Cream Dips 400

Toyota/Save Mart 350            350

Coke Zero 400                        25

Quaker State 400                        2

 

 

By B.C. Manion

The girls are sitting in a semi-circle, watching intently as Diana Murcar sits at the potter’s wheel, demonstrating how to take a ball of clay and transform it into a pot.

This is Day 3 of a summer arts class at HiBrow Art Gallery, 14127 Seventh St., in downtown Dade City.

And this is one place where girls are getting a kick out of getting their hands dirty.

The clay-making class that they’re in is just one of a series of week-long classes being offered at the gallery, which is part of Dade City Center for the Arts Inc.

When Murcar finishes reviewing how to use the wheel, it doesn’t take 12-year-old Nell Curry long to take her place at the wheel and begin working her clay.

She looks like a natural.

Meanwhile, Amy Sandy, 12 and Jaiden Ryker, 8, are using two tabletop wheels in another part of the gallery. Ryker’s fingers work quickly as the wheel spins; Sandy wasn’t having such good luck. The wheel was barely chugging. Chalk that up to a technical problem.

No big deal. These girls were having fun in a class where they get to make pots, plates, cups and other items from clay.

India Alfonso, 14, was hanging out at the studio as a volunteer.

She’ll do whatever the teacher needs.

Murcar said she’s known Alfonso, who will be heading to Pasco High in the fall, since the teenager was in kindergarten.

Alfonso said she enjoys helping the students and doesn’t mind doing whatever else that is needed. She likes being at the studio.

“I’ve always been interested in art,” said Alfonso. Besides, she added: “I also get to make stuff, too,”

Murcar, an art teacher at Centennial Elementary since 1987, is glad that Stuart Marcus asked her to teach the summer art classes.

“There are not a lot of opportunities in this community currently, for children, in the visual arts. There’s a dance studio nearby and there’s lots of things for athletics and such, but there’s not too much for the arts,” Murcar said.

“This is actually something I’ve been wanting to do, but I’ve never really had the facilities in the community,” said the woman who has organized many art shows in Dade City and Zephyrhills.

She’s hoping these summer classes will give the students a chance to express themselves artistically and will help to cultivate in them an abiding interest in the arts.

She hopes they have fun, exploring and experimenting with different kinds of materials, she said.

“I hope it develops a lifelong passion with creating things with their hands and supporting the arts and being involved in the arts,” Murcar said.

She also hopes that over the long-term more arts programs will become available for children in the community.

Early experiences with art can leave a deep impression, said Murcar, who recalls having an art teacher in first grade, who – for whatever reason – was suddenly gone.

“I spent the rest of my elementary career going, ‘Where is the art teacher?’ ” She said.

Murcar didn’t have another art teacher until she was in middle school.

For her, doing art was a way to stand out among her peers.

“I was always the class artist. To me, it was always amazing how much they liked the things that I drew,” Murcar said.

The summer session started last week with clay making and will focus this week on drawing. Next week, it will be painting. The week after that, sculpture. The final week will feature cartooning.

There are still some slots available in the classes, which are open to anyone 5 years old or older. The classes are Monday through Friday, 1-5 p.m. The weekly tuition is $125.

For more information call the HiBrow Art Gallery, (352) 521-3823.

By B.C. Manion

A pastor in Zephyrhills doesn’t want money to be the only reason that a child doesn’t get a Christian education.

“We have a lot of kids who come at no cost. We’ve been doing that since Day 1,” said Mike Smith, pastor at Fair Haven Baptist Church and principal of Zephyrhills Christian Academy, 34927 Eiland Blvd.

The pastor’s philosophy is to “never allow money to be the issue.”

Smith said he interviews students and parents during the admission process.

“When I do interviews, I talk to the kid,” Smith said. “I’ll say, “Do you want be here. If they say “Yes,” I’ll give that kid a chance.”

In some cases, a family may be unable to afford the tuition, Smith said.

He said he informs them of scholarships that are available through the “Step Up for Students” program and through the McKay Scholarship program.

But if they are unable to secure those and cannot afford the tuition, Smith said he will do what he can to work with the family.

It costs about $400 a month to attend the Christian school, Smith said.

The school’s enrollment typically hovers between 130-140 students, Smith said.

“I would love to crack 150 this year,” Smith said, noting that a larger enrollment will help the school to expand its facility. Right now, it operates out of 22,000 square feet of space. It wants to add 6,000 square feet, he said.

Smith said he thinks the enrollment would be higher if more people were familiar with the school, which offers a Bible-based curriculum for pre-kindergarten through 12^th grade.

It also provides a wide array of athletics and activities including football, volleyball, basketball, weight lifting and bowling.

When the school opened in 1999, it had just 30 students.

He thinks the enrollment would be even greater if more people were aware of the school.

“I don’t think a lot of people know about our school,” Smith said.

For more information about the school, call (813) 779-9829.

 

By Zack Peterson

The effects of the recession have had everyone scrambling for footing.

Between high unemployment rates, gas prices and budget cuts, it’s become imperative to pinch every penny, even with simple day-to-day chores like grocery shopping.

That’s where Tracy Shaw comes in.

Shaw, a local of Land O’ Lakes, utilizes coupons to save money, particularly when it comes to weekly grocery shopping.

“I try to help people save money with things that you can use,” Shaw said. “I’m a stay-at-home mom with two kids, and the only reason I can continue to stay at home is because I use coupons.”

Shaw claims the use of coupons has made it possible to save upwards of 80 percent off her weekly grocery-shopping bill.

“My grocery budget has changed dramatically,” Shaw said. “It’s now only $40 thanks to coupons. If I can do it, then anybody can do it.”

For the most part, Shaw shops at Target and Publix, but anywhere she goes, she applies five basic tips.

1. Be prepared

“It sounds simple,” Shaw said. “But it’s actually harder when you try to accomplish it.

“Know what’s on sale. If you run into the grocery store on your way from somewhere or you think you’re just going to run in and grab one thing, what happens is that you end up doing that five times a week and each time you spend a quick 20 bucks, a quick 10 bucks; then all of a sudden you spend 100 bucks and you don’t have any idea what you bought.”

2. Make a list and stick to it

Shaw emphasizes that shoppers must stay true to their lists, despite all the objects that may look appealing.

“Those other things are all going to go on sale eventually,” Shaw said. “Just wait.”
3. Have coupons ready

“I don’t want to do anything crazy when I’m in the store,” Shaw said. “I want to have it there and situated so that when I get up the cash register, I can just hand it to the cashier and I’m done.”

4. Stack coupons

Both Publix and Target have store and manufacture coupons.

Store coupons don’t have barcodes on them, and instead have an LEU number which makes the coupon only usable at a particular store.

However, according to Shaw, Publix will also accept store coupons from other competitors.

“For example, this Publix (off Collier Parkway) will take Publix, Target, Winn Dixie, Sweetbay and Fresh Market coupons.”

Manufacturer coupons are typically the coupons found in newspapers or the ones shoppers have the ability to print from online.

When shoppers stack the coupons together to be used at the same time, the real savings begin.

“You can use both store and manufacture coupons on one item. And then, if you’re in a buy one, get one free scenario at Publix, you can use four coupons. So sometimes, you can even make money on a transaction,” Shaw said.

5. Stockpile goods

Shaw encourages buyers to buy enough of a product to make it to the next sale cycle. These cycles are typically six to eight weeks long.

“You don’t have to be extreme and buy rooms full of things. You just have to have enough to make it to the next sale cycle,” Shaw said. “You always want to buy enough when it’s on sale so that you’re saving your money.”

Shaw notes that this tip dramatically decreases the amount of money spent on groceries.

“If you buy what you need every week, you will spend $100-$150. If you buy what’s just on sale and you have your stockpile in place, I guarantee you can spend at least half that,” Shaw said.

However, Shaw stresses that her methods are not similar to the “extreme coupon movements.”

According to Shaw, enthusiasts of the extreme coupon movement spend six to eight hours a day dealing with coupons and buying food that they may not even ever use.

“I’m just here to help people save money on their groceries so that they can utilize money on other things,” Shaw said. “I only spend an hour to two hours max on the weekend organizing my coupons and I save 60, 70, 80 percent on my grocery bill? I would do it.”

Shaw shares her success with the community by blogging on her website, www.havingfunspending.com and by giving “coupon talks” throughout areas of the community where she explains the method of saving money with coupons through “introduction to coupon sessions.”

“I’m trying to show people that it’s fun,” Shaw said. “I truly believe that we’ve lost something over the last ten years. You know, people don’t say thank you anymore; people don’t open doors anymore. Everybody is so concerned with where the world has gone that we forget about the people around us. I think if I can tell one person about this, then maybe that one person will do it, and maybe that one person will tell someone else and hopefully there will be a domino effect.”

By Kaitlyn Hodgins

Rain did not stop car lovers on Saturday, July 9 as more than 120 cars entered the monthly Premium Productions Car Show at The Shops at Wiregrass in Wesley Chapel.

Young and old alike gathered to display their hard work as they polished and primed their stock, modified, street cars and trucks.

“I’ve washed and waxed this baby twice since I’ve been here,” said Mike Davis of his 2012 Ford Mustang GT.

“Honestly, the rain did discourage me from taking her out, but she’s only two weeks old and so fun to drive it was just too hard to say no,” Davis explained when asked about bringing his car out in the rain.

With scattered thunderstorms scheduled all afternoon for the Pasco County area, Premium Productions judges Judy Pariseau and Carole Halbrook said they were surprised they had such a great turn out.

“Usually the rain discourages owners from brining out their prized cars, not today though,” Pariseau said. “Maybe because there is no entrance fee for today’s show, we usually charge to enter, but today is free in celebration of the holiday that has just past.”

Contestants came from as far as Vermont and California and as close to right around the corner to enter the show, eager to receive one of the 10 Best of Show awards and the 60 other trophies handed out.

Cars ranging from a 1926 Packard with original plates to a two-week-old 2012 Mustang were judged on the “clean and shine of their interior and exterior, including the engine compartments,” according to Halbrook.

Ten Best of Show awards went to various categories, including a 1949 Mercury convertible belonging to Roger Landig, Best of Stock Overall to a 2003 Corvette Stock ZO6 belonging to Luis Santiago and Best of Show to Mike Davis’ 2012 Ford Mustang GT.

“A lot of work goes into getting her ready for shows,” Santiago said. “It takes about eight hours of prep work and cleaning just for one show, but it is so worth it.”

Premium Productions will hold its next monthly car show back at Wiregrass on Saturday, August 6. Visit www.premiumcarshows.com for more information.

Seafood restaurant and market offers wide selection of choices

By B.C. Manion

If you want to get Chad Wright all riled up, just ask him if the gator sold at Sabrina’s Seafood Market and Restaurant tastes like chicken.

The longtime alligator trapper and skinner will put it to you straight: “Gator meat tastes like gator.

“Everybody says it tastes like chicken. That’s my biggest pet peeve,” said Wright, who has been skinning gators since he was 8.

If you had gator that tasted like chicken, chances are, it was chicken, he said.

He and his wife, Cortney, opened Sabrina’s Seafood Market and Restaurant in Dade City in March.

Gator items on their menu include Gator gumbo ($3.75 a bowl and $1.75 a cup), a Gator Nugget Basket with fried gator nuggets, cole slaw and fries or hush puppies ($6.99), a gator sampler ($4.99) and gator burger ($6.99).

The menu also includes a wide selection of seafood baskets as well as all sorts of sandwiches and entrees; wings, side dishes, appetizers, sandwiches and a couple of salads. It has a kid’s menu at both lunch and dinner.

The restaurant bears the name of the couple’s daughter Sabrina, who sold her Grand Champion-prize winning hog, Oreo, to invest in the family’s business.

Before opening for business, the family did a lot of work to make it a comfortable place to eat. The cleaned up the interior and repainted the exterior. The 26-seat restaurant has a cozy feel.

There’s also a colorful sign, featuring a gator wearing an apron, to draw attention to the business, located at 14748 US 98 Bypass.

The restaurant is a family affair. The couple’s daughter, Rachael, helps out. She’s experimented with some stuffed fish dishes.

Some are a hit, Chad Wright said. Others? Not so much. The tasty ones may be offered to patrons; the others, won’t.

The couple’s son, Chad Jr., also helps out by running all sorts of errands, Cortney said.

Another important player at the restaurant is Lori Carter, who manages the restaurant and is Cortney’s dear friend.

Initially, the restaurant and seafood market enjoyed big crowds, but that was before the northerners headed home for the summer, Cortney Wright said. Now, the business has scaled back its hours for the summer months.

The family gets the fresh seafood that it serves and sells directly from boat captains, in places like Tarpon Springs, Weeki Wachee and Anna Maria. That cuts out the middlemen and allows the seafood market and restaurant to offer better prices to its patrons, Chad Wright said.

The gator meat the restaurant serves comes from Chad Wright’s processing plant, which the trapper opened after tiring of selling so many of his gators to other processing plants.

He has been hunting gators since he was 8 years old and is a contract trapper for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

In the not too distant future, some of the restaurant’s floor space will give way to a display case for seafood, Chad said.

“Some people come here and they don’t see a display case and it kind of turns them off. We’re going to get a display case,” he said.

Seafood patrons can order fresh seafood before 5 p.m. and pick up the next business day. Available seafood includes blue crabs, gulf shrimp, oysters, mullet, grouper, snapper, catfish, tilapia.

The market also can provide Alaskan show crab, salmon, lobster and clams, but that may take up to a week to receive.

The seafood market is only running two days a week at the moment, now that northerners have headed home for the summer, Cortney said.

The restaurant has cut back its hours, too. It is closed on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. It is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

 

Sabrina’s Seafood Market and Restaurant

14748 US 98 Bypass, Dade City

(352) 518-4280

Restaurant: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday

Market: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday

WHAT’S IN A NAME

By Kyle LoJacono

This week will look into how Lake Jovita and Land O’ Lakes got their names.

(1) LAKE JOVITA is generally associated with the area in the town of Saint Leo between SR 52 and St. Joe, Happy Hills and Hancock Bluff roads. The location contains a large number of small to medium-sized lakes and ponds. The largest is located behind Saint Leo University, which is called either Clear Lake or Lake Jovita.

Lake Jovita’s naming goes back to Feb. 15, 1882 when judge Edmund F. Dunne and his cousin Capt. Hugh Dunne are said to have come upon the lake. The feast of Sts. Faustinus and Jovita is observed on Feb. 15, and the two celebrated the day with their company on the shore.

The original name of the body of water was Clear Lake, but the Catholic immigrants changed the name to honor the saint. The settlers even changed the name of San Antonio to Lake Jovita in 1926, but the city reverted back to San Antonio on Aug. 1, 1931.

(2) LAND O’ LAKES is a relatively new name and is made up of several smaller communities, such as Denham and Drexel, to form the central Pasco County town.

The name first appeared in June 13, 1949 when Denham-Drexel Civic Association members voted to call the area Land O’ Lakes. Many people have taken credit for coming up with the name. One of the well-documented namers is Madeline Prince, a real estate agent and community activist. She spoke at the meeting and pushed for the name because she said the area had, “about 2,000 people and about 2,000 lakes.”

Another story states that a man from Wisconsin, whose name is lost to time, was a winner of a 1949 naming contest. He simply borrowed the name from a popular brand of butter he was used to in Wisconsin.

While the name was adopted in 1949, the Pasco Historical Preservation Committee uses 1950 on its historic marker because that was the year the Ehren Post Office closed and the Land O’ Lakes Post Office opened. The 1950 date was also when the State of Florida Department of Transportation formally recognized the name and began putting it on maps. Local residents Walter and Betty Franzell took the request to Tallahassee on behalf of the new Land O’ Lakes Civic Association.

The civic association convinced the Land O’ Lakes butter company to donate some of its product to the town for the old Flapjack Festival, which has since ceased to operate.

Additionally, while the historic marker lists the name Land O’Lakes without a space after the apostrophe, the original name is with the space. It is spelled with the space by the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Postal Service and Pasco County School District.

For additional information on these areas and how they got their names, visit www.fivay.org.

*The Laker and the Lutz News series on how historic places were named will continue throughout the summer. Information is provided by interviews with Pasco County historian Jeff Miller of Fivay.org and the West Pasco Historical Society. See how LeHeup Hill, McLeod, Meridian Avenue, Prospect and Saint Leo got their names next week.