Local News

Lightening things up, at the library

May 3, 2022 By Mike Camunas

Books usually illuminate the mind.

Now, the Lutz Branch Library, at 101 W. Lutz Lake Fern Road, is illuminating the books.

After undergoing a six-month, $790,000 renovation, the library has a fresh, bright new look — from more natural lighting, to new flooring, to new paint and walls, and even new furniture and installations.

The recent renovation at the Lutz Branch Library includes new carpeting and flooring. Some shelves were removed and new seating has been installed in the front area of the library, known as the Helen Swisshelm Reading Room. (Mike Camunas)

“We redesigned it, per se, to be more user-friendly,” Hillsborough County Library Public Service Regional Manager Suzy George said.

“It’s more open, brighter and more welcoming, as much as we could possibly make it,” she said.

Renovations included removing high shelves that were not being used and were blocking the flow of natural light, through the library’s windows.

The additional light was an immediate plus.

There were a number of upgrades, too: Better furniture, new carpeting, vinyl floors and glass doors.

A renovation at the Lutz Branch Library included updating the children’s reading area by enclosing it with glass-panel walls. The enclosure gives kids a more interactive area.

The library enclosed the children’s collection room. It’s now enclosed within glass walls, which reduces noise for other patrons, allows parents to see into the room, and gives children the freedom to have more interactive experiences.

“We wanted to give them the chance to create their own special space, as they now have more interactive toys and tools to use, and even a puppet theater,” George said.

“The new glass doors in the community rooms, the entrance and emergency doors — it all lets in so much more light and freshens up the library, as does a new coat of paint throughout the entire building.”

The library also added a self-checkout hub for drop-offs and pickups, near the front of the building.

“It’s a one-stop shop for all those in a hurry to get or return books,” George added.

Hillsborough County Library Public Service Regional Manager Suzy George

Library service in Lutz began in 1961, when a bookmobile started making regular stops. By the late 1960s, the library guild of the Lutz-Land O’ Lakes Woman’s Club set up a temporary library. It held thousands of volumes on homemade bookcases, while volunteers kept the library open 20 hours a week.

It wasn’t until April of 1970 that the Lutz Branch Library opened at its present location. Back then, it was only 2,000 square feet, but was expanded to its current size, 7,000 square feet, with a complete renovation in 2004. In 2007, the front area was dedicated as the Helen Swisshelm Reading Room, in recognition of her longtime service to the Lutz Branch and the Hillsborough County Library System.

Swisshelm founded the Friends of the Lutz Library and was its president from 2000 to 2007. She served on the Tampa-Hillsborough County Library Board from 1990 to 2005 and as its chair from 1992 to 1993.

The library also brought some of the community’s history into a new installation. A glass case houses several documents and artifacts donated by Dr. Susan McManus, a Land O’ Lakes native with a long family history in the area. She also wrote “Going, Going…Almost Gone: Lutz-Land O’ Lakes Pioneers Share Their Precious Memories,” which tells of the early history of the community.

Patrons arriving at the library will encounter a building with a new look, but the same hospitable vibe.

“I think (Lutz Branch has) always been a comfortable, welcoming, neighborhood branch,” George said. “We wanted to take a fresh approach to it, maybe modernize it a bit. By just changing the shelving, it let in so much more light, with an easy solution. It helped enhance all the other upgrades we were making, and let them shine. Literally.”

Published May 04, 2022

The Lutz Branch Library, 101 W. Lutz Lake Fern Road, opened in 1970, and has undergone a number of renovations — including one that recently wrapped up. It took six months and cost $790,000. The work involved opening up some interior space and making several modern upgrades.

The Lutz Branch Library, 101 W. Lutz Lake Fern Road, revamped the main collection area. High shelves have been removed, allowing natural light to spill in through the windows.

Theater survives pandemic, to remain a Zephyrhills staple

May 3, 2022 By Mike Camunas

Zephyrhills Cinema 10 is a theater that has entertained local movie buffs for decades.

There was a time, though, that like all movie theaters, its future was uncertain.

Larry Rutan can be found in the lobby of his Zephyrhills Cinema 10 most Friday afternoons and evenings when locals come in to see the latest movies out that week. (Mike Camunas)

The COVID-19 pandemic that nearly bankrupted many theater chains, forced Zephyrhills Cinema 10 owner Larry Rutan to close his theaters for months.

It was a challenging time.

Rutan had to lay off all his employees. To keep the place from closing permanently, he burned through his savings and maxed out his credit cards.

When he was able to reopen, business was slow. He was forced to show classic movies and offer group rates to rent an entire auditorium for close friends or family.

Ky-leigh Freed makes popcorn in the lobby of Zephyrhills Cinema.

“Once we started getting new movies again, it just started to get a little bit better and better each week,” he said.

“I’m a positive thinker, so I never said that we would close for good,” the theater owner added.

That was good news for longtime manager and Dade City native Karisten Deem. She’s been coming to this movie theater since she was a kid, and now, despite losing her position for a brief time, she considers working at Zephyrhills Cinema 10 her dream job.

“I was meant for this job and I’m lucky to have it,” Deem said. “I just love getting to see what (movies) are coming out and see the audiences react to them. As someone who loves movies and listening to people talking about the movies coming out, it was scary to close down.

“Larry will say movies are basically timeless. That’s why people keep coming back, because movies will never go away.”

Zephyrhills Cinema 10 is a local institution and, of course, the only theater in town.

It may not have the largest auditoriums, but Zephyrhills Cinema 10 allows showings of smaller movies that attract locals.

Rutan, a contractor, built the entertainment venue from the ground up. In the 1990s, he bought the land for the theater, which opened with six auditoriums. Now, it has 10.

Recently, Rutan completed renovations that included adding reclining and stadium seating to the larger auditoriums, and giving the lobby a fresh, new look.

Alex and Rebecca Cruz, who are regular patrons, raved about the updated seating.

The two are wedding photographers from Dade City and they frequently bring their children to see films at Zephyrhills Cinema 10.

“We love watching movies — the seats here are just the best. We have a good experience every time we come here. We like how it’s just nice and quaint,” Alex said.

Larry Rutan built Zephyrhills Cinema 10 in the early ’90s. It began with six screens and now has 10. It is the community’s only theater.

“The second he went online to get tickets, we were like, it has to be Zephyrhills (Cinema 10), because — it’s the chairs. The chairs are the best and the most comfortable for seeing movies,” said Rebecca, referring to the tickets they bought to bring their children to watch “Fantastic Beasts.”

Ironically, Rutan rarely gets to view films for more than an hour at a time.

“I love movies,” the 75-year-old said. “I just don’t have time for them. People think I sit here all day and watch movies, but I don’t.”

Instead, he’s managing the cinemas — helping his employees and greeting customers.

“I’m one of those people that enjoys meeting people,” Rutan said. “Obviously, weekends are our busiest times, so a lot of people definitely come in on Friday nights. I want this to be ‘the place to be.’”

The fact that the theater owner is too busy to watch a film from start to finish — well, that’s nothing new.

“I can’t even tell you the first movie that was shown here,” he said.

“It was a Friday and I was in work garb, and dirty and messy. I went home to shower, came back, and they had already sold the first ticket.

“I missed the grand opening!”

Zephyrhills Cinema 10
Where: 6848 Gall Blvd., Zephyrhills
When: Movies are screened seven days a week, with most beginning around 4 p.m. Check the website for showtimes.
Cost: Adults $11, Children $8. There are Kiddie Showtimes every Tuesday and Wednesday at 10 a.m. during the summer, which cost just $1.
Details: Local movie theater showing the latest releases from blockbusters to small indie films in the Zephyrhills community going strong for 30 years.
Info: Call 813-782-2222, or visit ZephyrhillsCinema.com for showtimes and to purchase tickets.

Published May 04, 2022

On any given weekend, Zephyrhills Cinema 10 serves nearly 300 moviegoers, sometimes more, depending on which movies are playing.

Zephyrhills Cinema 10, 6848 Gall Blvd., in Zephyrhills, has been an entertainment staple and local hangout in the community for 30 years.

State Road 52 is becoming a magnet for new development

May 3, 2022 By B.C. Manion

The Pasco County Planning Commission has recommended approval of a rezoning to allow more than 1,400 residential units, and nearly 117,000 square feet of commercial and office uses on a site on State Road 52.

Specifically, the rezoning would allow 953 single-family detached units, 119 single-family attached units, 336 multifamily units and 116,882 square feet of commercial/office uses on 493 acres.

The site is within the Central Pasco Employment Village, an area designated by the Pasco County Commission years ago to create a coordinated vision among a group of landowners.

The plan envisions a mixed-use employment village on more than 2,400 acres, located along the south side of State Road 52, roughly between Collier Parkway Extension and Bellamy Brothers Boulevard. The employment village is expected to contain commercial, residential and industrial uses.

Attorney Joel Tew represented Lennar Homes, applicant/developer, and the Swope family entities, which own the land.

Tew reminded the planning board: “You’ll recall that last summer, we completed a plan amendment that updated and modified the CPEV (Central Pasco Employment Village) overall master plan for the entire acreage that has the 20 or so multiple landowners.”

During that plan amendment process, Tew said, his client was strongly encouraged to entertain an entitlement exchange with another property owner.

“We relocated a large quantity of industrial, corporate office entitlements that were in the center of the overall plan, we relocated that to the eastern part, so they would be adjacent to the existing Southworth site, where the Amazon facility was being contemplated.

“So, we have now been able to better concentrate the large employment areas in, say, the eastern third of CPEV, and then we moved the residential to the center.

“That did two things. Obviously, you got the critical mass for the employment that (the Pasco Economic Development Council Inc.) EDC was looking for on the eastern end. It’s closer to Bellamy Brothers Boulevard, where they had existing sewer/water and infrastructure.

“We’re here to now rezone the Swope parcel to memorialize, primarily, the residential entitlements that were traded for, together with this quantity of support commercial/office that’s being retained in that center part.

“We’re doing exactly what we promised you and the board, a year ago, we would do,” Tew said,

“To our knowledge, as of today, we now have no objections from any of the other stakeholders in CPEV,” Tew said.

Achieving that consensus was not easy, given the number of owners involved in CPEV, he said. But he speculated the harmony among owners may stem from the Swope family’s willingness to take considerably less entitlement than the methodology would allow.

He explained that Heidt Design came up with a methodology and a chart for assigning entitlements, based on net developable acreage and the different levels of density or intensity that the master plan assigned to parcels.

Tew told the planning board: “Swope is only asking you to zone about 25% of the multifamily that they would have been entitled to, under that methodology. So, they’re leaving a large number of multifamily units, in the pot.

“They had high density residential on virtually all of their acreage, so they could have taken a lot more,” Tew explained.

The planning board unanimously recommended approval of the rezoning request, which now goes to the Pasco County Commission for final approval.

As an aside, Tew told the planning board that “there’s very high interest in the portion of CPEV that has industrial entitlements. I think we’re going to get a lot of action there,” Tew said.

He also noted that he represents Pasco Town Center, at Interstate 75 and State Road 52, which has modified a pending master-planned unit development to increase entitlements to 4 million square feet.

“The market believes that you have arrived, that Pasco County has arrived on the industrial and office employment jobs,” Tew said.

Requests coming before the planning board for new mixed-use projects and apartment developments along State Road 52 signal the growing interest in the area.

One significant project that plans to set up shop on State Road 52 is Amazon, which intends to build a 517,220-square-foot facility, on a site at State Road 52 and Bellamy Brothers Boulevard.

The $150 million Amazon Robotic Sortation Center (ARSC) is being built at Eagle Industrial Park, a 127-acre property that was identified as part of the Pasco EDC Ready Sites Program. It is expected to employ 500 workers.

Meanwhile, further to the west, the new Angeline mixed-use community — being billed as a wellness-themed community — is planned on thousands of acres, east of the Suncoast Parkway and south of State Road 52.

Within that community, Moffitt Cancer Center plans to have a Pasco campus that will include a massive research and corporate innovation district.

Site entitlements for Moffitt’s project, which encompass 24 million square feet, include plans for a hospital, research and development space, office, manufacturing, laboratories, pharmacies, educational facility/university, hotel, and commercial space.

The multiyear, multiphase project is expected to create 14,500 jobs.

Published May 04, 2022

Elected leaders are trying to figure out how to get kids to school safely

May 3, 2022 By B.C. Manion

When Pasco County Schools announced it would be dropping courtesy busing for middle and high school students next school year, local residents began seeking other answers from local elected leaders.

The decision affects about 3,000 students, who live closer than 2 miles from school. It doesn’t affect elementary school students.

The district’s rationale for ending the courtesy bus rides is that it will take some of the strain off the bus driver shortage, and should help with getting students to school on time and reducing wait times for students needing to be transported home after school.

Courtesy bus rides are expected to end this fall for sixth- through 12th-graders living within 2 miles of Pasco County Schools. The school district’s decision has prompted discussion among elected leaders of various government boards. (File)

Plus, the state doesn’t pay for those courtesy bus rides.

Since the district’s announcement, the issue has been sparking conversations among other elected government leaders.

During the Pasco County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) meeting a couple of weeks after the announcement, Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore told his MPO board colleagues: “I don’t know if you are, but I’ve gotten several emails from constituents with concerns.

“How is that going to work with our prioritization of sidewalks?” Moore asked other elected members on the board, which is responsible for transportation planning throughout Pasco County.

There are many areas within 2 miles of schools that lack sidewalks, Moore noted. “Students will have to walk in yards or in streets,” he said.

Moore than asked whether there were ways for the county board and the school board to work together to attract funding for additional sidewalks.

Tina Russo, a planner for the MPO, responded: “We feel the urgency. This has been a big discussion with all of our folks in the county, with figuring out the best way to move forward.

“There is a school safety group that meets monthly that discusses several different things, whether it be crossing guards, traffic officers, sidewalks, all of those things.

“Right now, we’re working on a county process of how we’re going to fund sidewalks and rank them, and then go after different pots of funding,” she said.

Russo added: “There’s nothing easy about it.”

Moore said if there any grants available, action is needed now.

Pasco County Commission Chairman Kathryn Starkey agreed solutions must be found.

However, she added: “There has to be a process, where they identify the most critical ones. That’s a lengthy process.”

Right of way must be secured, and in some cases the property owners are unwilling to sell, Moore said. That requires eminent domain — a process the county likes to avoid, he added.

“The most concerning thing is time,” said Camille Hernandez, who was attending her final MPO meeting before leaving her role as mayor of Dade City.

“It takes so long,” she said, to secure funding, acquire right of way and get sidewalks built.

“There really needs to be creative thinking here. We can’t wait,” Hernandez said.

“It’s really going to be an activist kind of movement, in the interim, whether it’s walking groups or biking groups — it’s going to have to be alternative methods,” she said.

Starkey said one potential solution is called a Walking School Bus. Essentially, it’s a group of students walking together to school, chaperoned by volunteer adults.

In addition to concerns raised by the MPO, the issue came up again at the Pasco County Planning Commission meeting, during discussion of a rezoning request.

Chris Williams, director of planning for the school district, was asking whether a proposed project had sidewalks.

That’s a critical issue, Williams said, because of the shortage of bus drivers and the lack of state funding for bus rides within 2 miles of school. The state does allow some bus rides within 2 miles, but the walking conditions must be deemed dangerous by very specific state standards.

Chief Assistant County Attorney David Goldstein told the planning board: “The MPO board expressed a great deal of concern about us having inadequate sidewalks to the schools.

“I think it is a high priority for our board (Pasco County Commission) to get that issue dealt with. There is a program called Safe Routes to Schools, but it is a fairly slow process to get sidewalks built.

Goldstein noted that at least one commissioner “said maybe the county should be looking at spending some Penny for Pasco money, as part of the renewal, to prioritize all of these sidewalks and get them built quickly.”

To make that happen, the county would need cooperation from the school district to identify areas where there’s an immediate needs for sidewalks, Goldstein said.

“I would think the voters would support getting these sidewalks built for safe transportation to schools. We just need to know where the proper locations are to do that,” Goldstein said.

Planning board chairman Charles Grey agreed the issue is important.

“It is a valid concern and I think it is something that we, as a county, need to address,” Grey said.

Discussions on the topic are likely to continue within the coming months, before the courtesy bus rides are slated to end in the fall.

Published May 04, 2022

New River Branch Library celebrates its revival

May 3, 2022 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

Artwork adorned the walls of the main lobby.

A butterfly release was held outdoors.

This sign helps guide visitors to New River Branch Library and its Discovery Gardens, at 34043 State Road 54, in Wesley Chapel, near Zephyrhills. The library has been updated through an extensive renovation. (Fred Bellet)

Speakers addressed the crowd, and people toured the building and grounds, as the New River Branch Library, at 34043 State Road 54, celebrated its rededication.

The $2.8 million project — including design, construction, furnishings, technology and associated expenses — is one of seven library renovation projects being completed through General Obligation bonds approved by voters in 2018.

From the outside, New River’s red brick building, constructed in 1991, looks much the same.

But now, the Discovery Gardens is on the east side of the building, and additional trees and flowering plants on the library’s campus give the property a fresh, new look.

Indoors, the library space is brighter and more open. The update includes new flooring, restrooms, seating and technology.

The space has been reconfigured to provide more opportunities for public use.

There’s a children’s room, a teen room, study rooms, a community room and other spaces designed to meet various needs.

This library is far more than just a place to read and check out books.

It’s a place where adults gather to do chair yoga, crochet or knit; children gather for story time; and, people of all ages garden and take advantage of the library’s many other offerings.

Published May 04, 2022

Dignitaries and people involved in the renovation project prepare to perform the ribbon-cutting, signaling the rededication of the New River Branch Library.

Discovery Gardens is located on the east side of New River Branch Library. Because of its location, it gets plenty of early morning sunshine. Four-year-old Riley Roby is watering some of the lettuce leaf basil and other vegetables growing in the garden. The Wesley Chapel boy was there with his mom, Bethany, and his 1-year-old brother, Judah.

Residents, staff and members of the Friends of the Library, fill the main lobby at the New River Branch Library rededication ceremony.

A sunflower blooms in the Discovery Gardens at the New River Branch Library.

Ted Williamson, of Williamson Design Associates, spoke during the rededication ceremony.

Jane Kane, left, and Oaklee Gagnon, right, both of Dade City, check out the seed library for those wanting to cultivate plants or flowers. The two women were among members of the Friends of the Library.

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the butterfly release and touring through the New River Library, Judy Semonick, left, of Wesley Chapel, and Pat Smith, of Zephyrhills, take a break inside the library to cool down.

George Tharin, senior project architect from Williamson Design Associates, shares details about the library’s update.

Angelo Liranzo was one of the event’s masters of ceremonies who introduced people who played a role in revitalizing the library and creating the Discovery Gardens. Normally, Liranzo is based at the Hugh Embry Branch Library, in Dade City.

Mixed-use project proposed in Connected City

May 3, 2022 By B.C. Manion

The Pasco County Planning Commission has recommended approval of a maximum of 525 residences and 106,285 square feet of office uses on a site of approximately 158 acres, in an area known as Connected City.

The Connected City corridor consists of about 7,800 acres in a state-approved development district meant to foster residential communities and employment centers that are the wave of the future. Its borders are Interstate 75, State Road 52, and Curley and Overpass roads.

The area is meant to feature cutting-edge technology, including gigabit Internet speeds and innovation.

The proposed project, which gained the planning board’s recommendation for approval on April 21, is at the northeast corner of Elam and Kenton roads, about 6,600 feet east of Interstate 75. The site is currently vacant and used for agricultural pursuits.

The proposed 525 residences may consist of a mix of single-family detached, attached and/or multifamily, courtyard houses, row houses, townhouses and possibly garden-style apartments, Tammy Snyder, a Pasco County planner told the planning board.

This portion of Connected City requires medium density standards of 3.25 residence per acre. There’s also a maximum number of single-family residences allowed in this part of Connected City. Thus, the proposed project is limited to 192 single-family residences, according to Brad Tippin, the county’s development review manager.

Also, Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative owns 12.18 acres of this site.

Clarke Hobby, an attorney representing the applicants, said the request involves a site within Connected City’s Community Hub Zone.

“The overall intent of the Community Hub is to create mixed-use projects that create a blend of employment and mixed-use housing opportunities.

“As we go from over on Curley (Road) with the lowest densities and moving to the west, we are approaching the business core zone, and staff thinks that the best planning objectives are not only to phase out having single-family, as was mentioned, but to get to a higher density as you approach that area.

“The Business Core Zone, which is kind of the southern area of Pasco Town Center, that’s going to be a very intense and dense form of development down in that area. So, staff wants to make sure these areas are working together,” Hobby said.

By contrast, the developments of Epperson and Mirada are located in other areas of Connected City that specifically allow for lower density of development.

As part of the current proposed mixed-use project, Hobby said, “we’re building the first segment of Kenton Road. We’re having to acquire right of way from third parties for it, and we’re dedicating right of way. We’re going to be redesigning the intersection of Elam Road and Kenton Road to address an existing offset that staff identified, and it’s a fairly extensive amount of work and background work that had to go into making that happen.”

Efforts made to limit impacts
Hobby also noted that extensive work has been done to mitigate impacts on neighbors.

“Having grown up in Dade City, I fully realize that this is a very rural area, traditionally. And so we knew this was going to be one of the sites that our neighbors were going to be very concerned about the form of development and changes over time.

“So, we’ve had a series of meetings with them, and my client literally has spent the better part of the last week out there meeting … and trying to make everyone happy.

“We have a series of private agreements with them that relate to trees that we’re going to save on our property line, that provide nice buffering for them, some additional tree mitigation that we’re going to do on our site and then some landscaping things that we’re doing for our neighbors,” he said.

He provided letters of “no objection” for the record from eight of the 10 neighbors.

“We are, as staff noted, providing a service-ready site at the corner of Elam and Kenton, and working with our neighbor, Withlacoochee Electric River Cooperative, on that, and anticipate having a really nice use there. We’ve got some intel from them about what’s probably going to go there and I think everyone will be happy with the job creating uses there.

“We’ve also given extensive thought to the cross connections with the MPUD (master-planned unit development) that’s directly to our east and southeast. We have a lot of interconnections between that and the various parcels on our site, to ensure the connected in Connected City is being met.

“The result of all of this is that we have a really nice mixed-use development, with great interconnectivity, employment and housing options.

“So, I think we’re hitting all of the requirements of Connected City,” Hobby said.

Michael Pultorak, who lives on Kenton Road, expressed concerns about the potential for area flooding, if the water levels rise in King Lake.

“I am pro-growth. I am pro responsible growth. I am pro responsible development,” Pultorak said.

However, he added: “The problem is, since 2009, the water is up almost 8 feet.

“My 4-foot cattle fences are completely underwater during the rainy season, and the best I can do during the dry season is see the tops of them.

“We used to have land that exceeded 250 feet past those cattle fences.

“I have lost over 700 feet of land, linear, since 2009,” he said.

Pultorak said area residents told him there used to be three outlets for the lake and now that’s down to one, which is across Kenton Road.

“I’m pro-development. I’m pro-growth. But please don’t do it on the backs of the current residents and property owners that are trying to keep this as our homesteads and provide agricultural supplies and services and resources for the entire area,” he said.

Hobby said he’s also aware that some neighbors simply want to retain the area’s historically rural nature.

“Connected City was adopted some years ago. It was a legislative change from the state and the county is implementing it. This area is not going to stay rural much longer. It’s just not going to,” Hobby said.

“What we’re trying to do is be a good neighbor and provide good buffering where we can, to fulfill the Connected City goals, while not overwhelming our neighbors,” the attorney said.

Published May 04, 2022

Let Mother Nature help you save money

May 3, 2022 By Mary Rathman

Pasco County Utilities (PCU) is encouraging residents to plan now for the rainy season, which stretches from June through October, according to a PCU newsletter. During these months, afternoon rains can be expected almost every day.

The rainy season can mean abundant water and an increased risk of fungal pests for plants.

Some turfgrasses are sensitive to excess moisture, too.

The rainy season itself also offers a chance to let Mother Nature water for you, which can reduce water costs and irrigation expense.

Adjusting irrigation settings and making sure watering is done properly also can make a big difference in a lawn’s health.

Residents are encouraged to be sure that their irrigation controller is fitted with a working soil moisture sensor, evapotranspiration (ET) device, or rain sensor.

Smart irrigation controllers can keep landscape healthy, while providing the optimal amount of water for plants. Watering at the appropriate levels can save valuable drinking water and help prevent lawn-destroying fungus and disease, according to the release.

Soil moisture sensors measure how much water already is in the soil and interrupts the automatic irrigation system when enough moisture is present, and an ET controller monitors weather conditions and adjusts water delivery accordingly.

For information including smart irrigation rebates, water saving rebates, restrictions, conservation and more, visit bit.ly/SaveH2OPasco.

Published May 04, 2022

Ceremony celebrates new Dade City leaders

May 3, 2022 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

The Dade City Commission swore in a new mayor, a new mayor pro-tem, a new commissioner and an incumbent, during the commission’s April 26 meeting.

Jim Shive is the city’s new mayor, replacing Camille Hernandez, who retired from elected office. Knute Nathe is the new mayor pro tem. Ann Cosentino will fill the seat vacated by Hernandez, and Scott Black was reelected to another term.

Hernandez was elected in 2006 to a commission seat and served as mayor from 2012 until retiring in 2022.

Commissioners unanimously elected Shive as the city’s mayor and Nathe as the mayor pro tem.

Published May 04, 2022

The Dade City Commission, from left are Knute Nathe, Jim Shive, Scott Black, Ann Cosentino and Normita ‘Angel’ Woodard. Commissioners selected Shive as the city’s mayor and Nathe as mayor pro tem. (Courtesy of Jennifer Tussing)

Dade City Mayor Jim Shive, right, shakes hands with Mayor Pro Tem Knute Nathe during a City Commission Meeting on April 26.

Residential buildings to get taller in Pasco?

May 3, 2022 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

The Pasco County Planning Commission has recommended approval to a change in the county’s land development code that would allow residential buildings to be a maximum of 45 feet, which is 10 feet taller than the code currently allows.

The change is being initiated by the county, based on an action by the Pasco County Commission to direct the planning department to bring forth the modification.

The county board adopted the restated land development code on Oct. 18, 2011, and since then has adopted 54 amendments to the code, according to agenda backup materials for the planning board’s April 24 meeting.

The county board, on July 6, 2021, directed the staff to prepare the modification needed to increase the building height in all residential districts.

Planning Commissioner Peter Hanzel raised a question about potential impacts for firefighters.

Zoning Administrator Denise Hernandez said she would confer with Fire Rescue officials, but noted that commercial buildings can exceed 45 feet.

No one spoke for or against the proposal during the meeting.

Planners recommended approval of the change.

Published May 04, 2022

Enjoying a day out, while raising money for hospice care

May 3, 2022 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

Hundreds of people turned out to the Gulfside Hospice Charity Festival of Arts, recently held at Land O’ Lakes Heritage Park, off Land O’ Lakes Boulevard.

Eleven-year-old Brennen Lay, center, of Port Richey, keeps his eye on music teacher Katherine Hintz, of Land O’ Lakes, as she and violinists from Hintz Academy of Music perform. Thirteen-year-old Sasanka Sentail, left, of Land O’ Lakes, follows along. (Fred Bellet)

The event, on April 23, raised more than $20,000 to support hospice patient care and bereavement programs at Gulfside Hospice, according to a news release from the organizers.

The festival opened with the presentation of colors by the Pasco Sheriff’s Mounted Posse and a performance of the national anthem by Miss Pasco County’s Outstanding Teen, Larkin Mainwaring.

Guests enjoyed hands-on art stations, purchased art and grabbed a bite to eat from the food trucks.

A talent showcase highlighted all kinds of performers, including dancers, musicians, singers, a comedy act, and more.

Miss Pasco County Anastasia Valimaki performed her signature speed painting talent for the crowd, and held a meet-and-greet with Mainwaring throughout the day.

“We are here to help hospice patients and their families receive hospice care and bereavement services. Gulfside Hospice does not turn any patient away because of an inability to pay, and that’s only possible because of the support we gather from the community,” Carla Armstrong, director of philanthropy, said in the release.

“It’s a day of fun and a day that celebrates the arts, because there’s nothing that celebrates life more than creativity and art,” Armstrong added.

For more information about upcoming events to support Gulfside Hospice, visit Gulfside.org, or contact Leesa Fryer, fundraising & event planning manager, at 727-845-5707 or .

Published May 04, 2022