Special to The Laker/Lutz News

By Diane Kortus

Staff Writer

LAND O’ LAKES — Vipul Patel wanted his new Land O’ Lakes pharmacy to have a name that was meaningful and memorable. And so he chose Aum, the chant used in Yoga to deepen thought and sharpen focus.

“Aum gives you mental peace, and I wanted to bring that to my patients,” said Patel. “It is part of my culture and is meaningful to me.”

The word aum, which rhymes with home, expresses the ultimate reality. It is a universal word used by many religions — aum among Hindu and Buddhist, amin among Moslems, and amen among Christians.

Patel came to the U.S. from India at age 18 to attend college and graduated with a master’s degree in pharmacology from Long Island University in 2002. The youngest of five children, he was the first to study in the U.S.

He moved to Florida shortly after graduating and was hired by Eckerd’s Pharmacy, which later became CVS Pharmacy. Most of Patel’s seven years working for the national chains were at their Land O’ Lakes and Wesley Chapel stores.

As a staff pharmacist, Patel was limited to the amount of customized care he could provide his patients. He dreamed of his own store and opened Aum Pharmacy this past August in the office park in front of the Oakstead community, located off SR 54, about a mile west of US 41.

Many of Patel’s initial patients were referrals from the three doctors and two dentists also located at the Oakstead center. Since then, his patient list has grown as word spread on the personal attention he provides. There is seldom a wait, and Patel personally talks to every patient before filling his or her prescriptions.

Patel prides himself on making sure patients get the prescriptions they need at the best price. It is not unusual for him to call a doctor and recommend a generic form of a prescription that is significantly less expensive.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time, the doctor will change the prescription,” said Patel. “I recently had a patient who saved $134 a week because I called his doctor and suggested an ointment instead of the cream version of an eczema medicine.”

Patel also works to find substitute medication for patients if the prescription ordered by their doctor is not covered by their health insurance plan.

“It’s not good for people to go without their medicine, and it’s not their fault if their insurance does not cover a particular medicine,” said Patel.

Seventy percent of Patel’s patients do not have insurance, which is the complete opposite of chain pharmacies, said Patel, which is why price is such a major concern. Most of Aum Pharmacy’s patients are seniors and typically spend between $500 and $1,000 a month on medication.

Aum Pharmacy offers the same seven-day supply of free antibiotics as does Publix Super Market, and also matches Wal-Mart’s $4 per month discount program for common prescriptions, but without the $10 membership fee Wal-Mart charges.

Patel lives in New Tampa with his wife, Ami, who assists her husband at the pharmacy. The couple has a 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son.

Aum Pharmacy is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is located at 2646 Narnia Way, Suite 101, Land O’ Lakes 34638. Phone is (813) 388-6875 and fax is (813) 388-6871. Patel can also be reached by e-mail at .

Foundation helps thousands each year

By Kyle LoJacono

Staff Writer

PASCO COUNTY — Bob Loring is known as the head elf for Toys for Tots of East Pasco.

“It’ll ruin my Christmas if we can’t help these needy children,” Loring said. “One year we ran out of toys and had to turn some parents away in Dade City. That crushed me to watch those parents not have presents for their kids. I don’t want that to ever happen again.”

Loring has been the EPTFT coordinator since 1999. He moved to Zephyrhills from Miami in 1996 after retiring from Florida International University.

The Toys for Tots Foundation was founded by the U.S. Marine Corps in 1948 to collect unwrapped presents and distribute them to needy children during the holidays.

EPTFT was founded in the early 1990s. Last year, it distributed presents to 3,300 children and wants to do the same this year.

While EPTFT focuses on Pasco County children, Loring said families in north Hillsborough County zip codes that cross into Pasco are not turned away.

All toys will be distributed on Dec. 19 at five locations, one of which is at Wesley Chapel Elementary. Anna Fulk is the captain for the Wesley Chapel distribution.

“After parents register with us they get to go shopping for their children at our tables,” Fulk said. “The tables are set up in a circle I call ‘the circle of life.’ Each table has toys for different ages of children.”

Fulk said the distribution will be from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Parents will be able to select one large and two small presents, plus all the stocking-stuffers and stuffed animals they want.

“Barns & Noble has given us a cases of books donated by customers for parents to pick from, and Bob Williams with Support Our Troops donated about 1,000 toothbrushes to give out too,” Fulk said. “We tell the parents that it’s just like shopping, but there is no cashier at the end. That always surprises them because unfortunately many people in need are used to having things just shoved at them without getting to pick. We let them have their choice of the toys.”

EPTFT collects toys all year, but sets up extra drop-off locations in east and central Pasco in November to increase donations during the holidays. J.Joseph Salon in Land O’ Lakes was one of those locations this year.

“We had a good year in a recession and wanted to find a way to give back to the community,” said Roy Naccour, J.Joseph owner. “Lots of people have been bringing in presents and asking us about the program. The community reaction has been great, and I want to thank them for it. It’s important that every kid has something special at this time of year.”

Loring said EPTFT will be collecting toys until Dec. 18 for this year.

“When I started with Toys for Tots I was told that half the kids in Pasco are on some sort of assistance, like free or reduced lunches at school,” Loring said. “I don’t know the exact numbers, but it must be higher after the economy went bad. My phones are ringing off the hook with parents wanting to register for toys.”

To qualify for help from EPTFT a child must be receiving some financial assistance. To help the most underprivileged children, Loring asks the public schools to select the students that are most in need.

“What is great to me is we are as grass roots as it gets,” Loring said. “Each community in Pasco takes ownership of the needy kids in their area and the great thing is any community can get in on the program. When I started we had just one distribution location. Now we have five.”

For more information on EPTFT, e-mail Loring at , call him at (352) 588-4230 or visit www.toysfortotspasco.org.

Distribution Locations for Toys for Tots of East Pasco

• Alice B. Hall Community Center, 38116 Fifth Ave., Zephyrhills
• Wesley Chapel Elementary, 30243 Wells Road, Wesley Chapel
• Pasco-Hernando Community College, 36727 Blanton Road, Dade City
• New Life Assembly, 38012 Trilby Road, Trilby
• Land O’ Lakes Community Center, 5401 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., Land O’ Lakes

Operations have shut down, but that should have little immediate impact on residents and businesses, community leaders say.

By Ashley Reams Dunn

News Editor

LAND O’ LAKES — Just weeks ago, Ron Levondosky, owner of Amalfi Pizza & Pasta could count on at least $1,000 in business every month from Connerton.

Levondosky’s restaurant is located in Arbor Square, the shopping center in Connerton. Levondosky catered parties and other functions that Connerton would organize. He would also see Connerton employees in his eatery for lunch about three times a week.

But he won’t be getting that business anymore — at least not for a while.

On Dec. 4, Connerton’s developer, Terrabrook, ended operations at its offices and welcome center and laid off six full-time and four part-time employees. It announced Dec. 8 that it would be leaving the entire project. Developers are now in the process of trying to sell Connerton to an investor.

“It’s regrettable,” said County Commissioner Ann Hildebrand, “… I’m optimistic that it will come back.”

Connerton is a 4,800-acre mixed-use community in Land O’ Lakes on US 41. It encompasses an area bordered by SR 52 to the north and Ehren Cutoff to the south and east.

Developers envisioned that the community would be self-contained with homes, businesses, a hospital, schools and recreation opportunities. County officials even gave the project its own category called “New Town” in the county’s long-range plan. The state designation of New Town is a planned urban community created in a rural or undeveloped area and designed to be self-sufficient with its own housing, education, retail, government, recreation and commerce. It is designed to encourage development that is compact, mixed-use, pedestrian oriented, environmentally sensitive and provide a balance between housing and employment.

In total, approximately 8,500 residential units and more than 3 million square feet of commercial space for office, retail and industrial uses were planned.

Terrabrook received its first approvals for construction in 2003. Homes were priced from the $130,000’s to the millions.

There were going to be five villages, and homes in the first village, the Arbors, were nearly sold out. Homes in the second village, the Gardens, were up for sale. Before the housing market slumped, Connerton developers expected to sell 700 to 800 homes each year. Little more than 200 homes have been sold so far.

University Community Hospital opened in March in Connerton Commerce Park, the development’s industrial, office and service complex.

“We don’t anticipate any problems or interruptions,” said CEO Debi Martoccio.

UCH draws patients from Pasco, Hillsborough, Hernando, Polk and Citrus counties. The hospital has 76 employees and has doubled its amount of patients since Nov. 1.

Three schools were planned for the community. The first, an elementary school, is under construction now and on track to open in August 2010, according to Chris Williams, the Pasco school district’s director of Planning. There is also land for a middle school at the same location and another elementary school at another location in Connerton, but the district has no immediate plans to build those schools, Williams said.

Connerton has it’s own recreational activity center, Club Connerton, which opened recently and cost $8 million. Hildebrand said that the greatest impact on Connerton residents would likely relate to Club Connerton. Since Terrabrook pulled out of the development, the activity center has been turned over to Connerton Community Council Inc., a nonprofit group owned by the residents.

Five shopping centers were also planned for Connerton. The first shopping center, Arbor Square, opened in March 2007. It has banks, restaurants and other businesses and is anchored by a Publix supermarket.

“That’s always going to be a draw there,” Hildebrand said.

The project might be shut down for now, but most businesses shouldn’t be impacted, explained Kathy Dunkley, executive director of the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce.

“The homeowners aren’t leaving,” she said. “The people who are living there that support those stores are still there.”

The economy is to blame for the closing of Arbor Square stores such as the UPS Store and Chick Chat, Dunkley said.

“Nothing is going to happen until the economy starts changing,” she said.

“I think there’s been probably a disappointment because the businesses thought there would be a lot more in the area,” she added.

Levondosky, who opened Amalfi Pizza & Pasta nearly a year ago, said his business would probably be impacted more than others because of the catering he did for Connerton activities.

With only about 200 homes in Connerton and a total of 2,713 homes within a three-mile radius, staying in business is “a challenge,” Levondosky said.

Rent rates are higher at Arbor Square compared to other shopping centers in the area because of the Connerton name, and many of the businesses there have found it difficult to meet those rates in the slow economy, Levondosky said.

He said business owners are hoping a new developer comes in and takes over soon.

“We all realize what potentially is going to be here,” he said, “but getting to that point is going to be the difficult part.”

Not even Santa can escape the pitfalls of a down economy.

By Kyle LoJacono

Staff Writer

LUTZ — Christmas in the Park will not happen this year for one very big reason — money.

“On Nov. 1, people from the Parks (Recreation and Conservation) Department changed all the locks at the Lutz Community Center without telling anyone,” Marilyn Wannamaker said. “They told us they were charging (nonprofit) organizations $20 an hour to use the center.”

Wannamaker is the president of the Lutz-Land O’ Lakes Woman’s Club, but she said she was only speaking as a concerned citizen of Lutz.

“What really makes me upset is that the county had nothing to do with building the center or the train depot, but now they are charging anyone to use it,” Wannamaker said. “We use the center and so did the Garden Club, two bridge clubs, a bunch of woodworkers, the Boy Scouts and the Civil Air Patrol. Now the bridge clubs have nowhere to play and the scouts and CAP can’t have a place to have dinners to celebrate their awards. It would cost us way too much to have the Christmas in the Park, much less all our meetings at the center.”

As of November, any nonprofit group must pay $20 an hour to use either the Lutz Train Depot or the center, and other groups must pay $40. Even the Little Women of Lutz, the youth arm of the Woman’s Club, will have to pay to meet at Nye Park.

The Woman’s Club has approval to meet at the Land O’ Lakes Community Center without charge.

To put on the Christmas in the Park as it had in past years, the Woman’s Club would have to rent the center, the train depot and the park next to the depot. They would also be charged $20 a day to put up the giant holiday cards along W. Lutz-Lake Fern Road.

“We learned about the new fees when we heard that the Christmas in the Park was canceled,” said Robert Coates, committee chairperson for Boy Scout Troop 12 in Lutz. “We always put the cards up for the Woman’s Club and then take them down, but they told us it would cost them about $250 to have the cards up.”

Coates said the scouts are working to get permission from the Free Masons to use Masonic Lodge for future dinners and special events.

In past years, the Woman’s Club and Lutz Civic Association would give out hot chocolate and cookies from the center while the event happened in the park, but not this year.

“It’s just terrible to lockout all the people of Lutz from the facilities that we put up,” Wannamaker said. “The county just told us the Woman’s and the Garden Club could use the center rent free as long as we made them our co-sponsor for everything we do and used their logo. We still have to vote to see if we are going to do that or not at our January meeting.”

The situation is not as simple as repealing the new fees.

“The charges are a necessity,” said John Brill, spokesperson for the Parks department. “We don’t want to charge people, but it’s either that or close parks. During the public hearing portion of the decision making process, the majority of the people that attended said they’d rather see the fees than parks close.”

The department also forced every car that attended the Lake Park Arts and Crafts Festival on Dec. 5 and 6 to pay $2 for the first time. The weather was not ideal that weekend, but only 15,000 people attended the festival.

In 2008, between 35,000 and 40,000 went to the two-day show.

“People thought that the money was going to the Woman’s Club, but we didn’t get any of it,” said Shirley Simmons, club member and co-chairperson for the festival. “It was surprise to us that there would be a gate fee back in October.

“The rangers at the park had to man the gates, so they weren’t as visible and helpful as in years past.”

Simmons has been a club member since 1980 and was the president from 1984 to 1986.

“In spite of all of it, we had a great weekend,” Simmons said. “The art show was a success and our over 250 vendors were happy.”

Nothing is planned as of now to protest the new fees, it seems that may change with time.

“We have nothing set in stone to do anything now until we have a united effort from the community to stop this nonsense,” Wannamaker said. “As far as I know, no one is using the facility now, which is really pointless to have a building that no one can afford to use.”

Tocobaga District makes crossing over bigger than ever

By Kyle LoJacono

Staff Writer

LUTZ — Before Cub Scout Jacob Tactuk, 10, could cross over to Boy Scouts, he had to earn the Arrow of Light award, the most important achievement for any Cub Scout.

All Cub Scouts Webelos have to earn the award before they move on to Boy Scouts. To earn the AOL, scouts must earn activity badges from 20 Webelo activities. Some of the activities include: fitness, aquanaut, citizen, communicator, outdoorsman, artist, scholar and handyman.

“It wasn’t hard work because it was so much fun,” said Tactuk, of Pack 12 in Lutz. “I like doing all the activities and getting awards.”

After earning the award, the scouts receive a badge that is sewn onto their Boy Scout uniform. The badge is the only one carried over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.

In past years, Cub Scouts crossed over to Boys Scouts when they received their AOL award, but the Tocobaga District, which covers all Cub Scout packs and Boy Scout troops in north Hillsborough County, decided to do something different this year.

Instead of crossing over to Boy Scouts when they received their AOL award, all north Hillsborough Cub Scouts will cross over together at group campout. The event, called Webelo Woods, will be Jan. 22 and 23, 2010 at Camp Brorein on Boy Scout Road in Odessa.

Tactuk is a fifth-grader at Lutz Elementary and started in Cub Scouts as a Wolf scout. He and his stepbrother, Nathan Burnside, were two of nine Webelo scouts from the pack that earned the award on Dec. 11. Their father, Matthew Burnside, is their den master.

“I’m very proud of what they’ve both been able to accomplish, and it’s been a great bunch of years helping them in Cub Scouts,” Burnside said. “Both my two boys and the other Webelos have all worked hard and will be very ready to be Boy Scouts…We go on more campouts than most Cub Scout dens to try and make them ready to be Boy Scouts. I’m biased, but I think they are the most ready to become Boys Scouts of any den in the area.”

Burnside said his oldest son, Matt, is a Life Scout in Boy Scout Troop 12, of Lutz.

The camp will have eight stations designed to teach the boys skills needed in Boy Scouts. Some of the stations will include: first aid; navigation skills and an axe yard to teach the scouts knife, axe and saw safety.

“I think it’s a good idea to have the district cross over together,” Burnside said. “Lots of boys drop out of scouting after they earn the AOL. It’s easy to lose interest without events like this one to prepare the kids and keep scouting in their lives.”

Tactuk said of earning the award, “I’m ready to start in Boy Scouts right now. The campout will real be fun too…My dad has helped me and Nathan and all the other scouts get our AOL.”

For more information on Cub Scouting, visit www.scouting.org. For information on the Tocobaga District, e-mail or visit www.boyscouting.com.

Pack 12 Webelos who received their Arrow of Light Award on Dec. 11 include:

• Nathan Burnside
• Camrin Cowden
• Krisztian Fedor
• Ryan Fisher
• Evan Hopkins
• Jacob May
• Liam McGann
• Jacob Tactuk
• Lonnie Wooton