Special to The Laker/Lutz News

Local reaction to project’s holdup

By Kyle LoJacono

The Pasco County project to connect SR 56 and Mansfield and Meadow Pointe boulevards in Wesley Chapel has been pushed back a second time to as late as August 1.
The connection was originally set to open in March, but the construction company, WDG Construction Inc., had its contract terminated by the county after its vehicle and workers insurance expired, according to Pasco’s chief engineer Jim Widman.

The bonding company has been looking for a replacement to finish the project since.
“RIPA (& Associates) is who the bonding company has selected,” said Robert Shepherd, Pasco County Chief Project Manager, on May 17. “They are in final negotiations now and it should be finalized in seven to 10 days.”
RIPA, a Tampa-based firm, is also the bonder’s choice to complete the Collier Parkway extension in Land O’ Lakes. WDG was also working on that project before it was terminated. No additional county money will be needed because the bonding company is required to cover any additional cost above the original contract.
“There is 20 to 25 days left of work to be done, but we don’t know yet when that work will begin,” Shepherd said.
Shepherd also said lanes of SR 54 will not be closed as part of the road widening project. The county had planned to detour vehicles through Meadow Pointe to SR 56 during the summer during the SR 54 project.
Even though SR 54 will remain open, the newly opened alternative route through Wesley Chapel will likely bring increased traffic flow to the Wiregrass area, including the Shops at Wiregrass.
“We will have an influx of traffic coming by the Shops at Wiregrass and I think that will lead to more impulse buying,” said Greg Lenners, general manager at the shops. “People will stop by to pick up something on the way home.”
Lenners said the shops’ parking lot is about 40 percent full Monday through Thursday and 90 to 100 percent full Friday to Sunday. The delayed opening does not seem to bother the general manager.
“It is perfect time for us,” Lenners said. “It is right before school starts and the stores will be having their back-to-school events. It is also not long before the holidays, so it is great for us.”
Lenners said he lives in Meadow Pointe and it is about a nine mile drive now when he takes SR 54 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard to the shops. He said that would be cut to about five miles when the connection opens.
Schools that will be affected by the connection include Wiregrass Ranch High and Dr. John Long Middle. Students who live along Meadow Pointe and SR 54 east of I-75 are zoned for the schools, according to the Pasco school district’s Web site of www.pasco.k12.fl.us.
Driving time for school bus drivers, parents and older children traveling to and from the facilities each day would likely be reduced, as they will be for Lenners once the connection opens. Pasco’s school board has not released bus routes for next year and will not examine changes until later in the summer.
Kathy Appleby, manager of Dillard’s at the shops, said the store is hoping for a 5 to 10 percent increase in customers when the connection opens. She added the business did not know when the connection was originally scheduled for completion.
“We didn’t really know when the (SR) 56 extension was going to open before it did last year, so when this part opens it will be just another big surprise for us,” Appleby said.
The increased traffic from the east will help Dillard’s more than most stores at the shops because of its location.
“We are in the back of the mall so people going north on Bruce B. Downs might not see us driving by,” Appleby said. “This will increase our visibility when it happens…The road will help the businesses in the shops and that will keep the money here in Pasco, which helps us all.”

Cancer Survivor pursues race car dreams

By Sarah Whitman

Accelerating to 100 mph around the Daytona Speedway racetrack, Land O’ Lakes resident Tom Harrison felt his pulse race. He pressed down hard on the gas, remembering a few months before when he was too sick to get out of bed.
“I was going around at top speed and I pictured myself lying bald with a chemo needle in my arm,” Harrison, 56, said. “At that moment, I thanked God for my life.”
Harrison, a family man and proud patriot, was diagnosed with throat and tongue cancer last September. Uncertain about the future, he made a list of things he wanted to accomplish in life. Getting his race car driver’s license was at the top.

He underwent surgery to have a tumor removed; then endured the pain of radiation and chemotherapy. The treatments worked and Harrison went into remission. In April, he hit the track at driving school and walked away carrying a dream come true, a regional Sports Car Club of America racing license.
“It was exciting, exhilarating and a little bit scary my first time on the track,” Harrison said. “You’re going really fast and I wondered if I’d actually have what it took to not be afraid, to just pay attention and drive. I was surprised how well I did.”
Harrison lives in Lake Padgett Estates with his fianceé Colleen and sons, Alex, 19, Adam, 17, Westley, 14, and Dean, 10. He’s spent most of his life working in construction, specifically in the field of building materials, and previously worked as an auto mechanic. He was laid off from his job around the same time he was diagnosed with cancer.
“It couldn’t have happened at a worse time,” Harrison said. “I’d been laid off from work. I had no job and no insurance. I was faced with my own mortality and I realized there were a lot of things I wanted to do in my life, all the would of, could of, should of dones.”
Harrison decided to pursue life’s what-ifs. What if he’d pursued racing? What if he’d spent more time building a family business?
Alex wanted to help his dad achieve those dreams.
“I was worried he wasn’t going to make it,” Alex said. “It was pretty tough and nerve wracking for a while. I told him I would help him do whatever he wanted to do. When he got better and we were able to do those things, it was pretty awesome.”
Alex, like his father, is a longtime NASCAR and Dale Earnhardt fan. So, he was excited to accompany his dad to driving school in Daytona and stand on the same track where Earnhardt raced.
Alex acted as his dad’s pit crew at the weekend-long school.
“He was there every step of the way,” Harrison said. “The Honda Civic I was driving broke once but because Alex was there, we were able to fix it and I was able to finish.”
Alex will go to school to earn his own license at Homestead in Miami in June. He will drive a 1993 Mustang restored in the family garage.
Harrison raced his Civic, which was given to him by a friend, at driving school and at his first official race at Daytona, an SCCA regional competition this May.
The father and son will hit the track for two more races this summer, in Sebring and Brooksville.
Alex and his dad are also in business together. They own Eaglespeed US, a company specializing in door and window replacements. The company operates online at www.eaglespeed.us.
Since going into remission, Harrison has had more time to focus on growing the business. He’s also added a side business. Eaglespeed now restores and sells muscle cars, like Alex’s Mustang.
“Our business is doors and windows, but we tied racing in with the business,” Harrison said.
Alex said he likes fixing up cars and even installing windows with his dad.
“I enjoy spending time with him and working with him,” Alex said. “I always have but what he went through was still such an eye opener. People are not in our lives forever so it’s important to spend time with family while they’re here.”
Harrison’s fiancée and his other sons are also incredibly supportive.
Harrison said he’s learned to value family above all else. He attends church regularly at First United Methodist of Land O’ Lakes and attributes his survival to never letting go of faith. He is looking forward to marrying Colleen and seeing his youngest son Dean grow up.
“I’m excited about everyday now,” Harrison said. “The race car thing is what got me back out of bed but there is so much I want to do.”

By Joe Potter
Laker Correspondent

Hundreds of people turned out May 22 for the Leon Shoupe Benefit Tournament at two locations in Dade City, including family, friends and softball players Shoupe had known most of his life.
Leon, owner of Roto-Rooter Sewer Services in Dade City for 17 years, died unexpectedly Jan. 15 of a heart attack. He was 45.
Approximately $6,000 was raised for the Shoupe family, including his widow, Kim, and his children, Kaleigh and Trent Shoupe, according to Jack Rhoden, one of the benefit tournament’s organizers.

Games were played at Mickens Field, located at the corner of Taylor Avenue and Canal Street, and Watson Park, located on North Avenue and Main Avenue between 17th and 19th streets.
The city cleaned up Mickens Field, which had not been used regularly for about a decade, so there would be two fields where the games could be played. City manager Billy Poe and other city staff members stepped up and did “a tremendous amount of work” when the request was made to use Mickens Field, Rhoden said. The Shoupe family and others really appreciate the help the city provided, Rhoden continued.
Members of the Shoupe family came out to Watson Park at 8 a.m. to throw out the first pitch of the tournament, according to Rhoden. The tournament continued well into the night before wrapping up.
The tournament was planned because Leon played adult softball for several years, Rhoden said. Leon knew many of the members of the other teams from Dade City, Zephyrhills, Land O’ Lakes, Lakeland, Spring Hill, Brooksville and Winter Haven that participated in the tournament.
Umpires donated their time for the tournament, according to Rhoden. Leroy Tolbert flew in from Tennessee to umpire a couple of games and flew back after the games.
Chicken dinners, hamburgers, hot dogs, water and soft drinks were sold throughout the day at both fields to raise additional money for the Shoupe family.
The tournament turned out better than anticipated Kim said. She could not believe how many people turned out to support it.
They would have celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary in February, continued Kim Shoupe, who has operated Roto-Rooter since her husband’s death.
Her husband was a happy-go-lucky man who knew everybody around, Kim said.
Leon’s mother, Frances Shoupe, said she thought it was wonderful to have a softball benefit to help raise money for her late son’s family.
Leon’s parents, Roy Leon Shoupe Sr. and Frances, opened the Roto-Rooter business in Pasco County in 1973. Frances ran the business by herself for a couple of years after her husband passed away. Leon took over the business in 1992.
Roto-Rooter’s team bested the team Donkey Bunch 14-12 in one of the games played at Mickens Field. Donkey Punch had players from Dade City, Zephyrhills and Brooksville.
Leon is remembered for giving friends and family members nicknames. One of the Roto-Rooter team members, Joel Dixon, whom Shoupe had dubbed “Fat Boy,” helped his team’s cause by blasting a grand slam. Dixon said afterward it had felt good to hit the homerun. When asked if he hits the long ball often, Dixon replied, “No, man. I’m just a base hitter.”

Lutz Elementary 1953 first-grade class return home

By Kyle LoJacono

Members of the Lutz Elementary School’s first-grade class of 1953 are organizing a reunion this summer to reflect on the last 57 years.
“I’m not big on high school reunions, but I thought it would be kind of fun to get the class together that went to first grade in the old brick school in front of the current elementary school,” said Robert Jackson, who has lived in Lutz his whole life and is organizing the reunion.

Jackson said the date and plans for the reunion are not yet set, but hopes the group will be able to do something like a barbecue at the Old Lutz Schoolhouse on US 41. Anyone living in the area who went to the school for first grade in 1953 and wants to attend should e-mail Jackson at .
Jackson, 63, estimated there were 45 people who started first grade in 1953 in Lutz. Of those he has located 28. At least seven of those have died and six, including Jackson, still live in the town.
“I’m the third generation of my family to live on the homestead here,” Jackson said.
The remaining 21 told Jackson they would come to the reunion, even those from places as far as Michigan. He said the date of the event will not be set until he can find the time that allows everyone to attend, which he thought would be in midsummer.
One who attended the school with Jackson is Jim Kilburn, 62, who moved to Lutz when he was 7-years-old. Apart from his early days and nine years from 1990 to 1999 when he lived in Atlanta, Kilburn has called the town home.
“Lutz is a great place to live,” Kilburn said. “I grew up on a lake so I had great entertainment swimming, fishing and hunting.
“The area was so self contained that you knew everyone and were good friends with the whole town,” Kilburn continued. “We did all of our shopping here. My father built a Phillips 66 gas station where (Felicitous) is now and there was only one other gas station in the area.”
That close-knit community likely had its advantages, but not for children getting into trouble.
“Everyone knew each other by face and name. As a kid you couldn’t get away with anything,” Jackson said jokingly. “When one adult heard about whatever trouble you got into it wasn’t long before your parents knew.”
In the 1950s in Florida, students stayed in elementary school through sixth grade, went to junior high school for seventh through ninth grade and spent the last three years in high school.
In Lutz the students in fourth grade and below went to school in the old schoolhouse and moved to the older portion in the back of the current elementary school for fifth through sixth and some even through seventh grade. Jackson then attended Adams Junior High for eighth grade and the class was then the first at the current Buchanan Middle for ninth grade.
“We all went to Chamberlain for high school,” said Vernon Wynn, 63, who also went to Lutz Elementary with Jackson and Kilburn. “It was different from walking to school each day to the Lutz school to busing to school each day.”
Wynn has lived in Lutz his whole life and his grandparents came to the town in the 1920s.
All three men remember Lutz as a much different place than it is today. For one thing the only traffic signal was a blinking caution light at the intersection of US 41 and W. Lutz-Lake Fern Road. At that time, both US 41 and Dale Mabry were two-lane highways. Neither the Sunset Point Shopping Center nor the Sunset Plaza existed and there was nothing but woods and orange groves along Van Dyke Road.
The Lutz Branch Library also was not built in the 1950s and the fire station was in a smaller building across the street from its present location. The three remembered a baseball field where the library is now with a bandstand and tennis courts to its west.
“That was the center of town and everyone would get together to watch the kids play baseball,” Wynn said. “I’ve got nothing against libraries, but I’m still sad to see Bullard Park without the ball field.”
When asked why he wanted to be a part of the reunion, Wynn said, “I’d like to see some of the people I grew up with. The main objective is to reach out to those who have meant something to us.”

1953 Lutz Elementary first grade reunion
When: this summer
Where: TBA
Members of the class interested in attending should e-mail

Public invited to flag retirement

By Kyle LoJacono

Boy Scouts of America Troop 72 of Zephyrhills is retiring 100 U.S. flags on Memorial Day, May 31, from 7 to 8 p.m.
When the troop was planning its Memorial Day meeting, several ideas were tossed around the building. Some ideas were to play patriotic games and other patriotic activities, and what the scouts came up with could not have been more appropriate to honor the holiday.

“There were some other ideas, but they decided to have a flag retirement ceremony,” said the troop’s scoutmaster Greg Hilferding. “I couldn’t have been a prouder scout master at that moment.”
The troop, which meets at the public meeting hall in Shepard Park in Zephyrhills, will conduct the ceremony at the park, located at the intersection of US 301 and A Avenue. The public is invited to watch the event.
“It’s our goal to maintain a solemn nature,” Hilferding said. “It won’t be a flashy show or anything like that. It’ll be a quiet and dignified retirement.”
Hilferding, who earned his Eagle Scout award and grew up in the city, said parking is very limited at Shepard Park and suggests people show up early. He also encourages people to bring their own chairs to watch the ceremony.
The troop has at least 100 flags that need to be retired, which will makes it the largest such ceremony the troop has done during any of the scouts’ time with the organization. Hilferding said he was never involved with a ceremony this large when he was in Boy Scouts either.
“We usually just do a handful of flags a year,” Hilferding said. “So many people have been flying flags during the last 10 years and a lot of them are worn down now and have to be retired. There is just a lot more patriotism now I think.”
The United States Flag Code states, “The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.”
Such conditions unfitting of display include holes, tears or faded colors.
The ceremony will start with a presentation of the colors and will be followed by a short speech about the U.S. flag. Then the retirement will begin.
Goin’ Postal will provide drinks and light refreshments during the event.

“Gregg asked me if I’d like to provide refreshments and to distribute information about my annual ‘Flag Replacement & Exchange Program’ and I said ‘Yes!’” said Goin’ Postal co-owner M.J. Price. “It was very kind of Gregg to ask us to be involved in this special ceremony and I am eager to have our two children, Bodhi (age 2) and Ellie (age 1) witness how flags are retired properly.”
Each July Goin’ Postal accepts worn-out flags. Hilferding said several of the flags the troop received for the retirement are from Goin’ Postal’s program last year. Others were given to the troop by people in the community who wanted them retired properly.
Hilferding said he does not think all the flags will be retired during the upcoming ceremony because each flag must be retired one at a time. The troop will eventually retire them all and it accepts flags no longer fit to fly throughout the year.

Recounting Charles Salvatore’s trip

By Kyle LoJacono

When Charles Salvatore set out on his trip across America April 20 he knew it would be tough, but not as hard as it turned out.
The Zephyrhills resident completed about 1,400 of his 5,600-mile journey from the city to Sterling, Ala. Even though he came up short, Salvatore is still the first person to go as far on a 50cc motor scooter, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Salvatore, 24, planned the trip to raise money and awareness for the American Liver Foundation’s Southeast Regional Division. During the weeks leading up to the trip he raised enough money to pay for his journey and donate $2,313 to the foundation, according to the division’s vice president Katherine Cline.
Salvatore recorded his trip, which can be viewed on www.youtube.com by searching for Charles Salvatore Alaska trip.
The Laker recently talked with Salvatore about his adventure, which he called “One Man’s Journey,” and his plans to continue supporting the foundation.
Q: What was it like to hit the road for the trip?
A: It was crazy. The first day was very exciting, but it rained a lot from Gainesville to Tallahassee. It was so cold that day I could see my breath.
Q: What was the worst part of the trip?
A: The sitting. My tailbone was bruised by the time I reached Houston.
Q: How frustrating were the delays you had?
A: I got pulled over three times in Florida and five times overall and that slowed me down a lot. Most of the time I had to maintain 40 mph by the signs, but the wind and rain and slowed me down to about 23 mph and the cops thought it was too dangerous for me to be on the highways.
Q: Did you think of turning back sooner?
A: I actually broke down in Alabama because I was way behind schedule and needed to go another 200 miles to reach New Orleans. I didn’t think I’d make it, but my fiancée (Billy-Jeen Gutierrez) talked to me about why I’m doing the trip and that got me back mentally. We took some stuff off my bike so I could go faster and I got to New Orleans in five hours.
Q: Will you continue to support the foundation?
A: I’m hoping to get something together with Zephyrhills High School where the grade-level that donates the most money to the foundation each quarter gets a big trophy. I’m talking like 6-foot. I’ve got some other fundraising plans.
Q: I understand you named the scooter Louisiana, why and how did it hold up?
A: It was such a relief to get to Louisiana that I had to name my bike after the state. It was so good to me. I’m pretty big (about 300 pounds), so it had a lot of weight to carry…I don’t have it right now because it’s stuck in Moore, Okla. at a motorcycle shop and they said it would cost $800 to ship it here. I want to get it back to auction off to raise money for the foundation.
Q: You had a close call in Oklahoma didn’t you?
A: I was on the side of the road with no (shoulder), so I was really close to the road. A double semitruck hit me in the side. I was only going 25 mph because I was going up a hill. I wasn’t hurt, but I was mentally messed up. People said it would happen, but I didn’t think it would. Then I talked with the people at the foundation and they thought it wasn’t worth my life so we called it off.
Q: Going so far must still make you proud though, right?
A: No one’s ever done it before. People with the Guinness records wanted me to go at least 3,000 miles and I went 1,600 miles because I had to take some back roads when cops thought it was too dangerous on the highway, but it was only 1,400 on the main roads. I have witnesses and I recorded it all, but I don’t know if they will accept that as a record or not.
Q: Would you do anything like this again?
A: I would never do it on something as small as a scooter. There were huge storms a lot of the time. There was a tornado the last day I was in Texas. It was super super windy and that slowed me down and I’d want something a little bigger.
Q: How has the experience changed you?
A: I’ve changed a lot from the trip. It makes me appreciate the land and Mother Nature. I didn’t expect the wind and rain to slow me so much, but I know it is powerful now. I grew as a person and it made me see what’s important and it helped lead me to my new career choice.
Q: And what is that?
A: I’m switching from going to school to be a chef to military service. I always wanted to go into the military and I want to join the Navy. I love the water and I wanted to be a marine biologist growing up, but I was just bad in school.
Q: You were going to the Art Institute of Tampa, so are you leaving it?
A: Yes. I like being a chef, but I decided why do something I like when I could do something I love.

—To donate to the American Liver Foundation, visit www.liverfoundation.org and click on the “donate” link on the upper left side of the screen.