The Laker/Lutz News

Serving Pasco since 1981/Serving Lutz since 1964

Local News

Contract extended on intersection improvement

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The Pasco County Commission has granted an extension of 240 calendar days to D.A.B. Constructors Inc., to complete the construction of intersection improvements at State Road 54 and Morris Bridge Road and Eiland Boulevard.

The project had been scheduled to be completed by Nov. 22, but needs to be delayed because of utility coordination and relocation delays in the state Department of Transportation’s project that is widening State Road 54 to Curley Road.

D.A.B. also is the contractor on that project.

The contractor can’t proceed until utilities have been coordinated at the intersection. This coordination effort resulted in the need to extend the intersection improvements (SR 54 at Morris Bridge and Eiland Boulevard) construction contract by an additional 240 days.

The new completion date is expected to be July 19, 2021.

Published October 21, 2020

Use care in watering — or face fines

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Here’s a friendly reminder from the folks at Hillsborough County Public Utilities: Pay attention to the county’s watering restrictions.

Residents living in unincorporated Hillsborough County are allowed to water their lawns twice a week, and those restrictions are effective throughout the year, according to a Hillsborough County news release.

To help conserve on water, make sure your watering systems have no leaks, that spray patterns are directed properly and that the sprinkler heads are in working order. (Courtesy of Hillsborough County)

The ordinance covers all sources of water, except for reclaimed water.

These are the watering rules:

  • Lawn watering must be done before 8 a.m. or after 6 p.m., and property owners can only water once on the designated days.
  • Addresses ending in 0, 1, 2, or 3 can water their lawns on Mondays and Thursdays.
  • Addresses ending in 4, 5, or 6 can water their lawns on Tuesdays and Fridays.
  • Addresses ending in 7, 8, or 9 can water their lawns Wednesdays and Saturdays.
  • Locations with no addresses, such as common areas, and locations with mixed addresses, such as office complexes, can water their lawns on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Hillsborough County Code Enforcement enforces the county ordinance for year-round watering restrictions.

Violations may result in citations starting at $100.

The release also provides this advice, from the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Science: A rule of thumb is to water the lawn when 30% to 50% of the lawn shows signs that the grass has folding leaf blades, a blue-gray color, or footprints are visible in the grass.

It’s also a good idea to check to make sure that the sprinkler system is working properly and that there are no leaks, broken sprinkler heads or misdirected spray patterns, the release added.

To report properties that are not adhering to watering restrictions, call Code Enforcement at (813) 224-8993.

Learn more online at HCFLGov.net/WaterRestrictions.

For more information on conserving water, visit HCFLGov.net/WaterConservation, or call the Water Conservation Hotline at (813) 663-3295.

Published October 21, 2020

Local chiropractor keeps Lightning fit for ice

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Dr. Timothy Bain dreamed of someday hoisting the NHL’s Stanley Cup, as he grew up in the Northeast and played and watched hockey.

Little did he expect, however, to actually get that rare opportunity.

“Who knew at 53 (years old) that this would happen? I thought it’d happen at like 23,” Bain quipped, in reference to hoisting the Cup, after the Lightning’s Stanley Cup win after six games against the Dallas Stars.

The Wesley Chapel resident has been the Lightning’s team chiropractor since 2011.

Tampa Bay Lightning team chiropractor Dr. Timothy Bain celebrates the organization winning its second Stanley Cup in franchise history. The Wesley Chapel resident spent 65 days with the team in the NHL playoff ‘bubble’ in Canada from late July through late September. (Courtesy of David Miles)

He also runs his own practice, B3 Medical, with locations in Wesley Chapel, New Tampa, Carrollwood and Riverview, and works with a sports performance facility at Saddlebrook Resort & Spa designed for elite-level athletes.

Bain assists Lightning players on injury prevention and body maintenance.

The scope of work includes neurological-based adjustments, post-concussion therapy, craniosacral therapy, plus other exercise therapies to help improve muscle tissue on extremities, such as feet and ankles.

“Ultimately, it’s about getting the athlete better,” Bain said, describing his role with the team.

The chiropractor’s work to enhance players’ bodies for the ice was deemed so critical that he was included in the team’s 52-member traveling party (including players and coaches) to the NHL’s quarantine “bubble” for the postseason tournament in Canada.

“They were really great at saying, ‘We need you there, we want you there, you’re a big part of our team,’ and it made me feel really good and proud of that,” Bain said.

The traveling party spent a combined 65 days at hotels in Toronto and then Edmonton through the team’s lengthy title run, from late July through late September, where all games were played without fans in attendance. The great measures were put in place to safely complete the NHL playoffs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

For Bain and other Lightning personnel, being away from family and home for so long was quite challenging. So, too, was being cooped up in a hotel room, ice rink or training room.

The Wesley Chapel physician made the best of it, however.

He approached it as a valuable bonding experience, particularly when the club shifted to Rogers Place in Edmonton for the conference finals, where rinks and hotels are intertwined.

He likened it to a kid’s summer camp, where everyone bunks together on the same floor and is around each other seemingly at all times.

“We lived on basically one floor, and we walked to the rink and walked back to the floor,” Bain said. “We had a really small, little treatment room, and all the guys kind of came in there and hung in there while they were getting treated, or waited to get treated, so we became a real close-knit group through this whole bubble process.

“I never want to have to leave my family again for that long, but it was a really great experience,” he said.

Boredom might’ve set in for some on non-game days, but Bain kept busy all throughout.

He worked with each of the 25-plus active players on various therapy regimens and body maintenance, all while keeping tabs on his medical businesses back in Tampa.

“Me, I really didn’t have a lot of downtime,” Bain said. “All of us therapists were extremely busy from sun up to 12 a.m., 1 a.m. We had guys working on different things and keeping them on track. You may have had an hour here or an hour there to grab a sandwich, but you really didn’t have a ton of downtime.”

Circumstances aside, seeing the Lightning win the Cup for the first time since 2004 ranks among his life’s most special moments.

“I was hoping to win a Stanley Cup since I can remember, and so this is a way to have that dream come true,” Bain said.

Like other staff members of the Lightning — Bain has since enjoyed some personal time with the Cup, like hugging it during the team’s plane ride back to the United States.

He’s partaken in other Cup traditions — kissing it, sharing drinks out of it, and otherwise marveling at it in the training room and lunchroom at team headquarters.  “We really had a lot of great time to spend with the Cup,” Bain said.

As a hockey lifer, Bain appreciates the significance of the moments.

The Tampa Bay Lightning won its second Stanley Cup in franchise history after downing the Dallas Stars in six games in the NHL finals last month. The NHL playoffs were played in Canada without fans.

Aside from playing hockey as a youth and working for the Lightning, Bain’s also been a longtime referee in the sport’s minor leagues.

The Cup is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America. Part of its lore is being the only trophy in major sports not reproduced each year.

When a team wins the Cup, they are allowed to hold on to the trophy for one year, and the name of every player, coach and front-office employee is inscribed onto it.

With that, it’s widely considered bad form for players and hockey fans to touch the Cup if their team didn’t win it in a particular year.

Naturally, Bain had never touched the Cup until now.

“There’s no trophy in the world like it, right?,” Bain said. “There’s only one of these things, and part of that joy is being able to spend some time with it.”

 

Talent, grit, leadership carried Lightning

The Lightning had its fair share of opportunities to claim an NHL championship since Bain began working for the club nearly a decade ago.

Before this banner season, Bain was sure the 2018-2019 team would win the Cup following its 62-win regular season — which tied the 1995-1996 Detroit Red Wings for most by a team in the regular season in NHL history.

That squad, however, was shockingly swept in four games by then No. 8 seeded Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round.

Bain had a front row seat to that squad’s April 2019 playoff meltdown.

“We had the superstars,” he said, “(but) we didn’t necessarily have the grit and the determination and the size to get through the way that the game is (loosely) officiated and played differently throughout the playoffs.”

Bain also viewed the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 teams capable of winning a title, until key injuries to goalies and others hit at the wrong time.

This year was different though. A couple circumstances gave Bain unwavering confidence the Lightning would finally pull off a Cup win.

He credited the organization’s respective acquisitions of forwards Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow and defensemen Zach Bogosian, Pat Maroon and Luke Schenn.

Those players, Bain said, “changed the culture enough” by bringing some toughness to the club to complement its offensive-minded skill players.

The team chiropractor singled out Maroon for his leadership in bringing the team together during a critical weeklong trip to Sweden back in November.

“Where there may have been cliques before, Pat Maroon changed that,” Bain said of the 32-year-old defenseman who also won the Cup in 2019 with the St. Louis Blues, becoming the third player in the NHL expansion era to register back-to-back titles with different teams.

Another watershed moment, Bain said, came when the team was exacting revenge over Columbus in a five overtime 3-2 victory in Game 1 in the Eastern Conference first round on Aug. 11 — the fourth-longest game in NHL history.

“When we won that game, that’s when I thought, ‘This is gonna happen,’” Bain said of the possibility on the Lightning winning the Cup.

Besides the outright win, it was the team’s composed locker room between each period that opened his eyes: “When the guys were coming out or going in, they were all laughing and having fun, and there was not a guy in there that was nervous, and they kept it that way through five overtimes.”

He added: “Everybody was on the same page, they all bought into a system and put aside their own personal stuff to win a goal, and it was an amazing thing to be a part of.”

Now that he’s hoisted the Cup, Bain already has a new goal — defending the Cup in 2021, hopefully at Amalie Arena, in front of 20,000 or so screaming Lightning fans.

“That would be nice, wouldn’t it? That was the hardest part, is we weren’t able to do that with all the fans,” Bain said.

Published October 14, 2020

Efforts underway to encourage tourism

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It’s no secret that Florida’s tourism economy has been decimated from impacts of COVID-19, and Dana Young, president and CEO of Visit Florida, recently detailed tourism losses the state has suffered during a Zoom breakfast meeting with the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce.

At the same session, Young outlined efforts that have started to spur a tourism rebound.

“Prior to the pandemic, Florida tourism had just capped off our 10th consecutive year of record visitation. We welcomed over 130 million visitors to our state in 2019,” Young said, during the Oct. 6 meeting.

“And, these folks contributed $91 billion to our economy and supported 1.5 million jobs,” Young added.

In fact, she reported that Florida’s State Economist Amy Baker warned last year that tourism-related revenue losses posed the greatest potential risk to Florida’ economic outlook.

“A little over a year later, that prediction has come true. In the long-range financial outlook released last month to the Legislature, the economists reported that the pandemic’s fiscal impact on tourism accounts for half of Florida’s $2.7 billion budget shortfall,” Young said.

Hotels have been hit hard, Young said, in response to a question from a Zoom listener.

“The latest number I saw was that hotels in Florida had lost over $5 billion, and that was several weeks ago, so I’ve got to think that number is significantly higher,” she said.

But, Young said Visit Florida is ready to meet the challenge.

Speeding up recovery, if only just by a few months, will restore millions of dollars in tax revenues and create thousands of jobs for Floridians, she said.

“Since the pandemic began, Visit Florida and my great research and marketing professionals have been carefully monitoring public health data, travel-related metrics and trends, to guide our decision-making process,” she explained.

When the virus began making news in China, Visit Florida decided to stop advertising in that market.

“When travel essentially ceased to exist in March, Visit Florida pulled out all of our advertising, in preparation for the recovery,” Young said.

Doing that saved $13 million that is now being invested in a recovery campaign, she said.

“The timing of our recovery plan, as in everything at Visit Florida, is driven by data.

“We’ve been monitoring traveler sentiment, destination readiness and all sorts of trends out there — to determine in a data-driven way, when we should start advertising again.

“We want to make sure that people are ready to book travel, or receptive to seeing messages about travel,” she said.

“In these early stages of recovery, we know that people are more likely and more comfortable to travel closer to home. So, in-state travel is absolutely critical to our rebound.

“Floridians hold the key to our recovery, particularly in these early stages.

“In our first round of ads, we’re looking to remind Floridians of why they should be so proud to live here, and live in a state where the world dreams of vacationing.

“We want to take that pride and we want to channel that into getting Floridians to travel within our state, and harness that into supporting our Florida businesses, so many of which are hurting badly right now,” Young said.

“We’re trying to introduce them to maybe a part of Florida that they’ve never seen.

“Maybe they thought they would have to fly to another state or another country to have experiences that they can have right here at home,” she added.

The budget for the in-state marketing campaign is $3.4 million.

Visit Florida also understands how important it is to attract out-of-state visitors, too, Young said.

It launched a new effort last week that focuses on key drive markets to Florida, around the United States, particularly in the Eastern United States.

The tourism organization’s research reveals that people are willing to travel about 700 miles for a Florida vacation, Young said. So domestic marketing focuses on areas such as Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Birmingham, Nashville and Philadelphia.

The budget for that campaign is around $10 million, Young said.

“While we have heard anecdotally that other states are at a complete standstill about marketing to out-of-state visitors, we at Visit Florida plan to continue to be very aggressive in our approach, to save as much of the winter season and early 2021 as possible,” Young said.

“We want Florida to be the first destination that comes to mind when travelers sit down and plan a vacation, and heavy marketing is the best way to accomplish that goal. So, that is what we are doing,” Young said.

During the pandemic, the North Tampa Bay Chamber has shifted presentations that typically were given at in-person breakfast and luncheon meetings to Zoom sessions instead, allowing members to hear from speakers on a broad range of topics — without risk of exposure to COVID-19.

Published October 14, 2020

Starkey Ranch K-8 is set to open next fall

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A new kindergarten through eighth grade school that’s being constructed in the Starkey Ranch community now has an official name: Starkey Ranch K-8.

The school is scheduled to open next fall, and will part of a complex that includes a district park, a theater and library. The district park opened in November 2017.

This is what the Starkey Ranch K-8 School campus will look like. (Courtesy of Pasco County Schools)

The quartet of community amenities resulted from a public-public-private partnership involving Pasco County Schools, Pasco County and the Wheelock Communities, the private developers of Starkey Ranch, a community off State Road 54 in Trinity.

Starkey Ranch K-8 School is the public school district’s first school specifically designed for elementary and middle school students.

The school is expected to have about 1,000 elementary school students and 600 middle school students. The campus includes a gymnasium, athletic fields, a running track and sports courts that will be available during non-school hours to residents, through a shared-use agreement.

Additionally, the third part of the partnership involves Pasco County, and involves the construction of what’s been dubbed TLC, which stands for theater, library and cultural center.

The TLC will accommodate public library patrons and students. It also will have a 250-seat theater and three makerspaces.

The Pasco County School Board approved the school’s official name during its Oct. 6 meeting. The board prefers to name schools after the general location, features of the area or historical information about the area.

Published October 14, 2020

Embracing the changing world of education

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When people arrive on the campus of Sunlake Academy of Math & Science, in Lutz, they are greeted by a place that sets a positive tone.

“Welcome back Ravens, we missed you,” proclaims a sign near the school’s driveway.

“We support our students. We support teachers. We support our administration. We love our school,” a sign on a fence declares.

“Go Ravens!” a third sign encourages.

Sounds of children — playing outdoors—  fill the air.

Principal Judy Moore came to Sunlake Academy of Math & Science last year, after a lengthy career leading schools in North Carolina. (B.C. Manion)

And, near the front door of the public charter school, there’s a reminder of today’s COVID-19 times. A sign reminds those entering that they must wear a face mask and maintain social distancing.

Inside, there are other clues regarding the ongoing pandemic.

There’s hand sanitizer on the counter, plexiglass separating office staff from visitors, and social distancing signs.

Children seem to be taking it all in stride as they walk down a corridor in single file, dressed in school uniforms and wearing their masks of various designs.

They wave to Principal Judy Moore, as they make their way to Spanish class.

Finding the balance between safety and normalcy has presented new challenges, but Moore said that adapting to change is part of an educator’s way of life.

As it relates to COVID-19, she said, “I think, like everybody else, you just take it as it comes, do the best job that you can.

“The challenge with COVID, all of the way back to March when it started — the information changes every 10 minutes. Whatever the standard is right now, is probably not going to be the standard tomorrow, or the day after,” she said.

That’s been a frustration for everyone, but the school has proceeded — giving parents an option for their children to learn at home or at school.

The children are assigned to a specific class, wherever they’re learning.

“If they happen to be at home, they’re basically on the screen and the teacher is interacting with the kids that are at home and the kids in the class, at the same time,” the principal said.

Teachers sometimes will group kids, so one teacher is working with the kids at school, while others instruct the online kids. And, then they will swap.

Some teachers feel they are better able to serve both groups that way, Moore said. But, other teachers are teaching both groups, simultaneously.

Moore knows that’s difficult to do, and she’s impressed.

Adapting to COVID-19 has required changes, but the school also is getting ready to embark on another big change — this one, of its own making.

Parents have raised $30,000 to pay for a new STEAM lab.

Sunlake Academy of Math & Science, in Lutz, is a public charter public school for kindergarten through eighth grade. It is operated by Charter Schools Associates Inc.

Initially, the hope was to open it at the beginning of this school year, but that was thrown off by COVID-19. Now, plans call for opening it within the next couple of months.

A space initially that was designed for a media center is being converted into the STEAM lab. (The acronym stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.)

A group, which Moore calls the STEAM Team, led the planning efforts. Moore joined that team, the executive area director from Charter School Associates and one of CSA’s math coaches during visits to STEAM labs at Corbett Prep, Jesuit High School and Academy of the Holy Names to glean ideas.

The lab will be equipped with Virtual Reality headsets, which individual classrooms can check out. It will have 3D printers, a 3D laser printer, tablets, and other devices and programs aimed at unleashing new ways of learning.

Children in kindergarten through fifth grade will visit once a week, and the technology will be incorporated into middle school classes.

The idea is to harness the power of technology to broaden learning experiences.

“You kind of have to change up the way you think, and the way you teach,” said Moore, who did her doctoral work in technology integration.

“It’s about higher order thinking skills. It’s about problem-solving. It’s about teamwork, creative thinking and creative problem-solving,” said Moore, who worked in the Gaston County school district in Charlotte, North Carolina, for 21 years before arriving last year at Sunlake Academy.

Educators must connect how they teach with how students learn, the principal added.

“For me, it became not so much about technology, not so much about how we teach, but it’s about how kids learn — and how they’re wired these days,” the principal added.

Today’s students are part of the digital native generation. They live in a world of Google, digital on-demand, virtual reality and other technical advances, Moore said.

Education must go deeper
“How do you make the students think through the problems versus the teacher just giving the question and the answer?” Moore said.

Students are challenged to consider: “How do you use your creativity to come to more than one solution, to the same problem?

“The truth of the matter is the jobs that we’re trying to prepare them for, don’t exist. And, they’re not going to exist anytime soon,” Moore said.

The principal and her husband moved to the area because he was offered a new job opportunity, and she set out seeking the right match for her interests and skills.

Moore said she was attracted to Sunlake Academy because she’s been interested for years in  differentiated instruction and higher-order thinking skills.

“We’re (Sunlake Academy) very data-driven. Our teachers are constantly checking in on where kids are in terms of their proficiency and growth, on different curriculum strands and skill sets.

“We have differentiated groups,” she said, adding there are multi-tiered systems of support for students who need extra help.

“I had a lot of opportunity to go where I wanted,” Moore said. “I chose to come here because they’re speaking my vision.”

The promise of stability was attractive, too.

In her previous district, the management style involved transferring principals around a lot.

“I really want to be in a place where I can make some change and be long-term,” Moore said.

Students attending the school, at 18681 N. Dale Mabry Highway, come from Hillsborough and Pasco counties. It draws primarily from the communities of Lutz, Land O’ Lakes, Tampa, Carrollwood, Cheval, Wesley Chapel and Odessa. It has some openings, so parents interested in learning more should contact the school.

Other details that may be of interest to parents of potential students:

  • Before and after school care is available, with doors opening at 6:30 a.m., and closing at 6:30 p.m. Full-time or part-time child care is available to suit parents’ needs.
  • The school’s car line begins at 7:20 a.m., with classes beginning at 8 a.m.
  • Dismissal times are staggered, with the school day ending for kindergarten through second grade at 2:30 p.m.; and, for grades three through eight at 3 p.m.

For additional information about Sunlake Academy, visit SunlakeAcademy.org.

Published October 14, 2020

Halloween Howl canceled; smaller event planned

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While it likely won’t generate quite the level of fanfare as Halloween Howl, Main Street Zephyrhills Inc., is working to salvage some type of celebration for the holiday.

The full-on Halloween Howl has fallen victim to a concern for safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Typically, Halloween Howl features about 100 vendors, trick-or-treating along all the downtown shops, haunted house, hay ride, costume parade, carnival and more.

The Historic Jeffries House, 38537 Fifth Ave., will be decorated for family picture taking opportunities, in lieu of the canceled Halloween Howl event. Candy bags also will be given out around the property on Halloween night. (File)

The event generally attracts more than 6,000 people, including 3,000 kids who went through the haunted house last year.

“It’s a busy day,” said Gail Hamilton, director of the Zephyrhills Community Redevelopment Agency.

When people found out that Halloween Howl had been canceled, they expressed their displeasure, Hamilton said during a recent meeting of the Zephyrhills CRA Board, which is made up of members of the Zephyrhills City Council.

“When we said we weren’t doing anything at all, the community was not happy, so we’re trying to come up with something that is safe for the kiddos and the parents — something to be happy that you live in a small town,” Hamilton said.

So, the organization has proposed an alternative.

It includes decorating the front of the Historic Jeffries House with a “tasteful” Halloween theme to allow families to use it as a backdrop for photos, either standing in front of the house or sitting on the front porch. Additionally, on Halloween night, Main Street volunteers will hand out bags of candy to families that drive along Fifth Avenue; a pull-in parking space for candy bag distribution also will be made available.

Hamilton labeled it a “smaller version of Halloween, just something for the kids.”

The CRA Board offered support for the proposal. “I think it’s a great idea. I’m all for it,” said CRA board member Charles Proctor, also president of the Zephyrhills City Council.

Also, on the topic of festivals, Main Street Zephyrhills’ next major event is its annual Christmas Parade, tentatively scheduled for Dec. 5.

The event remains a go for now, although celebrations in other municipalities have been canceled.

Of note, last year’s Christmas parade drew about 15,000 people to downtown Zephyrhills, Hamilton said.

Main Street Zephyrhills is a 501c3 nonprofit that generally facilitates new business and organizes large events within the historic downtown district. The organization works in coordination with the Zephyrhills CRA.

For more information, visit MainStreetZephyrhills.org, or call (813) 782-1913.

Published October 14, 2020

Pasco County purchasing land in Land O’ Lakes

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The Pasco County Commission has approved the purchase of 24.87 acres from Lennar Homes LLC, for $1.25 million, plus closing costs and $50,000 to be paid to Connerton Commercial Property Association, the closing agent.

The property is part of the Connerton Employment Center master-planned unit development.

The county’s Fleet Management department plans to use the vacant property, which is centrally located within the county, for the department’s future growth.

The property is strategically located adjacent to the 300-acre central campus of the Utilities Department and the Land O’ Lakes Detention Center, according to the board’s Oct. 6 agenda materials.

Commissioners also passed a resolution declaring Oct. 4 through Oct. 10 as Fire Prevention Week in Pasco and acknowledging this year’s theme of “Serve up fire safety in the kitchen.”

The resolution notes that 2,630 people were killed nationally in home fires in 2019, including five in Pasco County. The resolution also points out that cooking is the leading cause of home fires in the United States, with two of every five home fires starting in the kitchen and 31% of these fires resulting from unattended cooking.

The resolution offers these suggestions to prevent fires related to cooking:

  • Stay in the kitchen when cooking food on the stovetop
  • Keep a 3-foot kid-free zone around cooking areas
  • Keep anything that can catch fire away from stove tops

To reduce potential deaths, the resolution advises that residents have smoke alarms that are in working order, and practice fire escape plans.

On another matter, County Administrator Dan Biles told commissioners that the county’s Animal Services department is going to affected areas of Hurricane Sally and bringing back animals for adoption.

In other actions, commissioners:

  • Approved a rezoning to allow up to 150,000 square feet of retail and commercial uses on approximately 38.62 acres at the southeast quadrant of Gunn Highway and State Road 54.

Plans call for construction of a maximum of 7,000 square feet for two fast food restaurants with drive thrus; a 10,000-square-foot day care (with a maximum of 180 students); 100,000 square feet of mini-storage; and, 33,000 square feet of general commercial.

  • Approved a large-scale comprehensive plan amendment to the future land use map, which will allow light industrial and commercial on slightly more than 90 acres at the northeast corner of the Interstate 75 and Blanton Road interchange, extending northerly along I-75 to the Hernando County line. The previous designation was for an employment center and agricultural uses.
  • Approved an increase of $304,000 in the fund used to pay for medical autopsies because of an increase in autopsies performed by the medical examiner this fiscal year.
  • Approved up to $800,000 in purchases of library books, resource subscriptions, and related items within fiscal year 2021. The items will be purchased from various vendors.

Published October 14, 2020

New specialty plate to support Florida 4-H

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Vouchers for a new specialty license plate bearing the iconic 4-H clover will be available for purchase at all county tax collector offices and license plate agencies in Florida, starting Oct. 16.

The license plate will go into production once 3,000 pre-sale vouchers have been sold. Florida 4-H has two years to reach the pre-sale goal. The voucher, which includes the $25 specialty plate fee plus processing fees, is a total of $33.

A new 4-H specialty tag will help to support the youth development program designed for ages 5 to 18. (Courtesy of University of Florida, UF/IFAS Communications)

One-hundred percent of the $25 specialty license plate fee will go directly toward statewide leadership programs such as 4-H University and 4-H Legislature, the Florida 4-H camping program and 4-H youth competitive teams, Michael Gutter, associate dean of the UF/IFAS Extension and 4-H state program leader, said in a UF/IFAS news release.

“Here is a chance to show off your 4-H pride while also supporting today’s and tomorrow’s youth,” Gutter said.

“We are calling on all 4-H members, supporters and alumni to help us reach our goal of 3,000 vouchers sold so we can see the 4-H plate on vehicles across Florida,” he added.

The youth development program is part of the land-grant university system and Cooperative Extension System.

The program provides hands-on educational activities and experiences for youth ages 5 to 18, with the objective of developing youth as individuals, and as responsible and productive citizens.

In Florida, 4-H is administered by University of Florida/IFAS Extension and Florida A&M University, and serves approximately 200,000 youth annually.

Published October 14, 2020

Pasco County launches citizen survey

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Pasco County is conducting its annual Citizen Survey through Nov. 6, according to a county news release.

The Citizen Survey, initially launched in 2009, is conducted annually to collect feedback on a variety of topics that affect the county’s future.

Here are topics included in the survey: Transportation; parks and libraries; emergency services; safety; growth; importance and quality of services.

The survey typically receives thousands of responses, intended to help the Pasco County Commission with planning discussions and decision-making.

“We’ve adapted in the face of unprecedented challenges to serve you in innovative new ways during 2020,” Organizational Performance Management Director Dr. Marc Bellas said, in the release. “Your feedback is a critical component to learn what matters most as we work to develop future programs and places that ensure a bright future for Pasco County.”

You can take the short survey in one of the following ways:

  • On the Pasco County’s homepage: MyPasco.net
  • On the MyPasco App, by clicking on the Citizen Survey button
  • On the Pasco County Facebook or Twitter pages
  • Click directly on the survey link: bit.ly/2020CitizenSurvey.

Published October 14, 2020