Special to The Laker/Lutz News

Hero’s wife thinks his police training and instincts kicked in

By B.C. Manion

Carolyn and Joe Sentelik of Zephyrhills had just bought a boat and were scouting out a marina where they could use it.

They decided they would spend part of their Sunday just watching boaters at a marina and then grab a bite to eat.
They had intended to go to Clearwater, but while en route decided instead to go to Dunedin.
“There’s some sort of divine intervention as to why it happened the way it did,” Joe said.
“I think things happen for a reason,” Carolyn agreed.
The couple had spent some time on the morning of Aug. 29 looking at boats and watching people launch them, before heading to Bon Appetit Restaurant for lunch, Carolyn said.
They had just ordered their drinks when they heard a terrible noise, she said.
“We heard a screech and a thump. It was a very odd sound,” she said. It was the kind of sound that signals “something very, very horrible had happened.”
“We heard a woman scream, “Someone call 911.”
Joe, a former police officer, didn’t hesitate. He took off running toward the sound, and when he got there, he saw a 1995 white Mercury Marquis had plunged over the seawall into the water.
The driver was 89-year-old Joseph Schlesselman, who was accompanied by his 86-year-old wife, Ruth.
As the car began to sink, Joe Sentelik dove into the water to attempt a rescue. Another man also jumped in, and as both men attempted to get into the sinking car, a third man with a boat came along and hurled a fire extinguisher through the rear window – creating a hole the size of a dinner plate, Carolyn said.
“I could see a person in the car, in the front,” Carolyn said. “I thought I was going to see a man die right in front of me. It made me feel sick.”
After the fire extinguisher broke through the window, Joe used his hand and his fist to break away enough glass to get his body through, Carolyn said.
Once he got in, he tried unlocking the backseat doors, but was only able to get the backseat door on the passenger seat unlocked.
“It was chaotic and crazy and traumatic,” Carolyn said.
“He went down three times,” she said, tugging at the driver – but couldn’t get him loose.
“I was screaming for him to get out. I was afraid he was going to be killed,” Carolyn said. She was especially worried because Joe suffered a heart attack in May and because he’s on blood thinners, he was bleeding profusely from cuts that he got from the glass.
Joe said everything happened so quickly he’s not sure exactly who did what.
He knows another rescuer was able to get in and to cut the driver and his wife free from their seatbelts.
That man also helped to push the driver out of the car, and Joe pulled the driver out the rest of the way – loading him onto a nearby boat.
Someone else pulled the woman to safety.
The elderly woman was so small, Carolyn didn’t even realize there was anyone else in the car.
Once the couple was safe, Joe used a rope to pull himself out of the water. He cut his feet on the barnacles as he climbed the marina wall.
There was blood gushing everywhere, Carolyn said. “It was kind of gory.”
After the rescue, the driver told deputies he had pulled into a handicapped parking space and his foot slipped from the brake pedal onto the gas, causing the car to plunge into the water, according to a Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office report.
The report also identified the other rescuers. They were Eric Corum, 42, of Tarpon Springs and Courtney Douthit, 32, of Dunedin.
Once they were out of the water, the couple was transported to Mease Dunedin Hospital, where they were treated and released.
Joe was taken to the same hospital, where emergency room personnel scrubbed out the tiny pieces of glass that were embedded in his skin, and used tweezers to take out the larger pieces.
Besides hospital bills the couple expects to receive, Joe’s cell phone was ruined – and his contact list was destroyed.
Carolyn said they received a thank you note from the couple’s son.
The Aug. 31 letter, from James J. Schlesselman, of Pittsburgh, Pa., expressed deep appreciation from himself and his brother. In part, it notes that without the rescuers’ intervention, “Our mom and dad would have undergone a terrifying death, drowning while trapped in their car under water.”
The son also volunteered to cover any of the Senteliks’ expenses, but the couple declined the offer.
“I’m just glad they’re all right,” Joe said. “For the last 10 seconds their heads were under water.”
The rescuers barely got the couple out before the car was totally submerged. The entire rescue probably lasted about three minutes, he said.
Carolyn, executive director of the Florida Hospital Zephyrhills Foundation, said she is tremendously proud of her husband.
She said she told him: “You are a much better person than I could ever hope to be because I’m not sure I could do what you did.”
She’s still in awe. “It was incredible,’’ she said.
By the way, over Labor Day weekend the Senteliks took their 22-foot angler out for their first spin.
They launched it from the Dunedin Marina.

By Kyle LoJacono

Those driving through the eastern edge of the construction zone to widen SR 54 may have noticed what looks like another road headed toward Zephyrhills.
What they are seeing is the future Zephyrhills Bypass, which will make travel easier between the east Pasco County city and the rest of the county while reducing traffic on SR 54.

“This is one of the biggest road projects in the history of the county,” said James Widman, Pasco chief engineer. “For now we are planning for it to be done in three phases and that portion near Curley (Road) is the first.”
The final plans for the Bypass are not set in stone as its completion will not be until at least 2016, but the overall plan is as follows.
The highway’s construction starts in the west where SR 54 turns south just east of Curley. A four-lane highway will be built through the northern edge of New River Town Center and Harrison-Bennett commercial development in Wesley Chapel. The width will be reduced to two lanes through the more rural areas to the east.
The first phase also includes building a bridge and will connect with Eiland Boulevard near Handcart Road in Zephyrhills. The construction is projected at nearly $12 million plus $2.5 million each for design and engineering and right-of-way land acquisition.
The second part of the project will widen Eiland from two to four lanes from Handcart in the west to Dean Dairy Road. It would also add a sidewalk. Construction would cost about $12.7 million, with an additional $900,000 for design and engineering. Right-of-way would be less than $300,000.
The last portion will continue that widening of Eiland from Dean Dairy to US 301, also called Gall Boulevard. The sidewalk would also be extended through the site. Construction is projected at $17 million, $872,000 for design and engineering and $360,000 for right-of-way.
Several million dollars have already been paid for the project, which brings the total projected cost at more than $50 million. The three-part plan will be paid for by a combination of gas taxes and transportation impact fees if the current plan is followed.
Construction would be completed for the first two phases between 2016 and 2017, while the third will be finished in 2019 or 2020, according to Deborah Bolduc, program administrator for Pasco’s engineering services.
There is still the possibility that the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) will step in and change the county’s plan for the bypass.
“We are actually hoping FDOT takes jurisdiction of the Zephyrhills Bypass and do the project themselves,” Widman said. “In that case it would be the new (SR) 54 and the county would take control of the existing portion of (SR) 54.”
Widman said if FDOT takes control of the bypass project, the county would continue the widening of the existing SR 54 to US 301 in Zephyrhills. If not then FDOT would do the widening of the existing SR 54 instead.
Whichever governmental body does the widening, the two roads will create two, four-lane highways connecting Zephyrhills with Wesley Chapel and make travel to Land O’ Lakes and the rest of Pasco easier.
“Everyone at the county’s economic development council wants easier ways to connect Zephyrhills, Dade City, Wesley Chapel and the rest of east Pasco with areas to the west,” said John Hagen, Pasco’s president of economic development. “The opening of the SR 56 extension has helped with those connections and the Zephyrhills Bypass and SR 54 widening will continue that trend.
“The roads will make travel easier and will let more people get to the great things in east Pasco County,” Hagen continued. “A connected Pasco is a more economically viable Pasco.”

-All figures involving the Zephyrhills Bypass as in the capital improvement plan for 2011-2015.

Lutz artist transforms rusted railroad spikes, old nuts and bolts and cast-off metal chairs into art

By B.C. Manion

Sparks fly as Karyn Adamek grinds the surface of a rusted railroad spike as she works to create Fancy Dancer, an equestrian metal sculpture.

Smoothing metal surfaces is a basic part of the artist’s job.
“You can’t weld rust on rust,” Adamek explains, as she prepares the surface for welding.
“Since I work with found metal objects, everything is usually rusted. So, I try to get it into some welding condition,” she said.
The makings for her artworks include brake pads, nails, hammers, nuts, bolts, screws, springs, sheet metal, horseshoes, rods and other items.
The stuff comes from all sorts of places.
Flea markets. Thrift stores. Friends’ yards. Even from junk piles she sees on the side of the road.
All of the railroad spikes in Fancy Dancer, for instance, came from an abandoned railroad track on a friend’s private land.
“They had torn up some track on his property and it was in a big pile rotting away,” said Adamek, 52.
“Most of the stuff that I work with – that’s what is happening to it. So, I recreate it and reincarnate it. Certain pieces of metal will inspire me to make a certain creation,” she said.
Recently, she spied a metal chair that had been set out for trash collectors. She plucked it up and gave it new life. She turned it into a plant holder and took it to sell at Annie’s Garden Shed in Lutz, where she works part-time.
Working with metal can be dirty, hot and hard. It’s time-consuming, too.

But Adamek loves it.
“”It is a spiritual thing for me,” she said.
When she’s out in her workshop, she can work 12 or 13 hours at a stretch. She becomes so absorbed in what she’s doing, she often loses track of time.
But there’s a feeling of deep satisfaction when she finishes a piece, she said. And, that feeling can turn into pure joy, when her work is on display and she sees people responding to it.
Her largest metal art works are of horses, which weigh hundreds of pounds and are close to actual life-size.
“They’re a little surreal in a way, in that they are not exactly proportioned,” she said.
She also makes the horse in a modular form, so the head and the tail come off. That makes it easier to transport if she’s taking one to an art show, or if one of her patrons wants to move the horse into a different place in the yard.
Adamek also makes much smaller versions of horses and other sculptures, and she makes functional art, too. For instance, she made a round table from a circular piece of glass, supported by three giant leaves that she cut from metal and bent to hold up the glass.
Through the years, Adamek has explored several artistic mediums including throwing clay, painting and doing sculpture, stained glass and murals.
She doesn’t use mechanical drawings to create her metal art, but instead works from sketches, photographs and paintings.
When she is welding or grinding metal, she is careful to protect herself. She wears gloves, a helmet, long pants, boots and a fire retardant shirt. She also uses good tools to help prevent injuries.
Adamek said she comes by her love of metal work naturally.
“My grandfather worked at J & L Steel in Pittsburgh,” she said. “That’s where I grew up.
“My dad was an amazing auto body man. He made things in our driveway that looked like they came out of the factory.”
The artist did not fully appreciate her father’s or grandfather’s skills when she was young. Indeed, it was just a few years ago when she studying welding that she realized the opportunities she had missed.
She laments the fact that she did not recognize their talents and did not tap into their expertise while they were alive.
“They had all of this knowledge. I didn’t even pay attention to it,”
Strange as it may seem, her work with hard metals began with an interest in gardening.
Adamek was studying horticulture when someone handed her a topiary book.
She decided she wanted to learn how to weld, so she could create topiaries – which are metal structures designed to support plants.
It was like an entirely new world had opened up for her.
She went from learning how to weld at a trade school into working in the real world as a volunteer at a shop in Channelside where they make gates and railings. She wanted to hang out at the shop so she could learn more about working with metals.
Gradually, she began buying pieces of equipment and creating her workshop at home.
She still makes topiaries, but has branched out into all sorts of garden décor, yard art and creative pieces intended for juried art shows.
She won an honorable mention at the Wesley Chapel Celebration of the Arts, a show sponsored last year by the Wesley Chapel Chamber at the Shops at Wiregrass.
At the 43rd Annual Fine Arts for Ocala, she won best of show, picking up $3,000 in prize money.
Prices for her pieces range from around $75 to more than $5,000 for the large equestrian pieces. Adamek also does custom work on request.
While her love for gardening led her onto a new path, Adamek still enjoys working with plants and creating artworks that go well in gardens.
“Plants and metals – I like those two mediums,” she said.
For more information about her work, go to karynsart.com.

By Elizabeth Gwilt

Admitting to an oversight, the Hillsborough County School Board last week made yet more changes to the school calendar.
After the board passed a new calendar earlier this month that included 15 early release days and a last day of school that fell on a Monday, members met again to edit the calendar.
Fearing a large percentage of absences, members approved a compromise that pushes the last day of school up to a Friday, June 10.
And in response to parental backlash about the early release days, the board also slashed two from the slate, leaving 12 days in which students will depart two hours early. On the last day of school, students are dismissed 2½ hours early.
The board will also turn Feb. 11, the Florida State Fair student holiday, into a teacher workday.
Hillsborough High School sophomore Manash Ramanathan of Lutz is satisfied with the board’s decision.
“It was smart of them to move the last day to a Friday. There’s no way anyone would come to school, unless they had exams. Most people would probably leave for vacation anyway,” Ramanathan said.

Revised early release schedule
Sept. 15
Sept. 29
Oct. 13
Oct. 27
Nov. 10
Dec. 8
Jan. 12
Jan. 26
Feb. 9
Feb. 23
March 23
May 11
June 10*
[*All days two hours early except last day of school on June 10, which is 2½ hours]

By Kyle LoJacono

The stalled and long awaited extension to Collier Parkway began to move forward when the Pasco County Commission approved a contract with a replacement contractor.

Ripa & Associates was picked to complete the project that has been in limbo since the county fired WDG Construction from the job in February. The job was about 40 percent complete at that time.
The company resumed work on the road this week and is scheduled for completion in less than 200 days, according to Chris Laface, Ripa’s executive vice president.
“The project still has a long way to go,” Laface said. “We should be finished by March or April of next year.”
The project was first scheduled for completion in May. The original contract with WDG was for $4.3 million to extend Collier from where it stops a Hale Road 1.8 miles north to connect with Parkway Boulevard.
A future project will further extend Collier to connect with Ehren Cutoff, but Deborah Bolduc, program administrator for Pasco’s engineering services, said it will not be planned until 2013 or 2014 and will not be completed until at least 2015 or 2016.
WDG stopped work on the project in part because it lost some of its insurance coverage. About $2.5 million remains on the contract. Any additional cost to complete the job will be paid for by the bonding company that insured the work.
Pasco Chief Project Manager Robert Shepherd said whenever a project costs more than what was in the original contract the surety company has to pay the additional expenses. He said this protects the tax payers from having to pick up the bill down the road.
“Our attorney has to be commended for the work on this contract,” said Pasco Commission Chairwoman Pat Mulieri. “This road has a history. Originally it was to go behind the houses that face on Shinning Star Drive.
“The original alignment was a problem as the residents would have been sandwiched between two roads,” Mulieri continued. “I brought staff out to the area, met with residents and convinced staff a new alignment was needed. It will give residents a straight road to Parkway and will take buses off of Shinning Star.”
Mulieri added the road was to relieve traffic flow problems on US 41 and Parkway. It will also allow school buses an easier route getting students to and from Pine View Elementary and Pine View Middle schools located on Parkway.
Several neighborhoods, including Alto Acres, Oak Villa and Braesgate At Sable Ridge, are along Collier and zoned for both schools, according to current school boundary maps on the Pasco schools’ website.
The more direct route provided by the Collier extension will likely reduce the time and money for gas from bus routes next school year. Pasco schools spokeswoman Summer Romagnoli said bus routes are not planned until a road is completed and then only during the summer before the school year.
“The road will allow ease of traffic for people in the area,” Mulieri said. “It’s been a long time coming, but soon people will be able to take advantage of the new road.”

Collier Parkway extension
Cost: $2.5 million remaining
Length: 1.8 miles north to Parkway Boulevard
Completion date: March or April 2011
Company completing: Ripa & Associates