Local News

DOVER – Bikes For Christ is preparing for another busy holiday season.

The need for bicycles becomes even greater around this time of year and Bikes For Christ needs help this Christmas season to continue supporting those less fortunate.

Bikes For Christ partners with over 100 organizations in the Tampa Bay area, providing bicycles as transportation for the clients these agencies serve. 

Its main focus is on veterans overcoming hardships, underprivileged children and individuals striving to escape poverty and challenging circumstances. 

Each bicycle is accompanied by a copy of the Gospel of John, reflecting the organization’s mission to share Christ’s love and care.

In addition to its ongoing holiday activities, Bikes For Christ has added a few events: 

• Ribbon Cutting: Bikes For Christ will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. Nov. 14 to dedicate its new building at 2500 Al Simmons Road. facebook.com/share/17vBkETCq8/
• Bicycles and Holiday Bells Fundraising Event: Belleair Towers in Clearwater will host the Bicycles and Holiday Bells fundraiser. The family-friendly event includes a ride on the Pinellas Trail, pictures with Santa, refreshments, raffles and auctions. The event runs from 10 a.m. to noon Dec. 7 at 1100 Ponce De Leon Blvd., Clearwater. www.eventbrite.com/e/bicycles-and-holiday-bells-tickets-1055289432099

This year, Bikes For Christ has received several accolades, including:

• Nonprofit of the Year – Valrico FishHawk Chamber.
• Finalist for Nonprofit of the Year – South Tampa Chamber of Commerce.

LAND O’ LAKES – School board members took turns Nov. 5 praising Kurt Browning for 12 years of leadership at Pasco County Schools. 

Browning was first elected as superintendent of schools in November 2012 and reelected in 2016 and 2020. He decided in 2022 not to seek a fourth term. Former Florida Sen. John Legg was elected superintendent on Nov. 5.

Nov. 18 will be Browning’s last day.

District 1 school board member Al Hernandez told Browning that he had shown “unwavering dedication and profound commitment” while serving as superintendent.

Hernandez, who was elected in 2022, also told Browning that all the things he had accomplished over the last 12 years should be celebrated. 

“He has stood as a beacon of resilience and vision,” Hernandez said. “We’ve come a long way in this last 12 years.”

District 3 representative Cynthia Armstrong said Browning was going to be missed. 

“We have been innovative and we have become a standout district, leading the way for many other districts in the state,” Armstrong said. 

District 2 representative Colleen Beaudoin spoke positively about both Browning and vice chairwoman Allison Crumbley, whose 14-year tenure on the board will end Nov. 19. Jessica Wright defeated Crumbley to claim the District 4 seat in the nonpartisan school board election in August. 

“I know how deeply you both care about our community and the countless hours you’ve spent advocating for championing public education locally and in Tallahassee,” Beaudoin said. 

Things that were added to the district during their tenure included the Cambridge, STEM and STEAM programs. After thanking the board members for their remarks, Browning looked back at some of the things that had been achieved over the past 12 years.

One of those was saving families millions of dollars in tuition charges because of opportunities in the district.

Browning said he never thought when he graduated from Pasco High School nearly 49 years ago that he would one day be superintendent of Pasco County Schools.

Browning added that he hadn’t considered running for a third term in 2020. However, Browning changed his mind  because he loved the job, the district’s staff and what had been accomplished during his tenure.

He credited the school board and the district’s staff with helping to make those things possible. 

“The superintendent is powerless without a great school board and just as importantly the superintendent is powerless without an incredible team that supports that superintendent,” Browning said. “After 12 years you really become a family and it’s hard to divorce yourself from people that you’ve worked with day in and day out.”

 

Makeup days picked for hurricanes Helene and Milton

Pasco County Schools will make up for instructional time lost to hurricanes Helene and Milton by operating on Jan. 29, Feb. 26, March 26 and April 30.

Assistant Superintendent Kevin Shibley told the school board Nov. 5 the four days would allow the district to meet the state minimum for instructional time. Those days would not interrupt other upcoming vacations and holidays.

The school board voted 4-1 on the plan. District 2 representative Colleen Beaudoin cast the dissenting vote because she thought more makeup days were needed. The district canceled two days ahead of Helene and seven days before and after Milton. She favored Feb. 14 and April 21 as additional makeup days. 

“I’m just having a hard time coming to terms with losing so much time,” Beaudoin said.

Other members were concerned about the number of days students had lost. However, they settled on the four dates after Assistant Superintendent Cortney Gantt told them too many employees wouldn’t be available on Feb. 14 and April 21.

“We believe we will have so many staff absences that it will become, for lack of a better term, babysitting,” Gantt said.

A similar situation could be avoided in the future, Shibley said, if the administration planned to place three-day weekends into the spring semester. Those could be converted into four-day weekends if makeup days were not needed, Sibley said.

 

DADE CITY – Combat-injured Marine Corps veteran Mary Katherine Mason-Alston makes shortbread with a family recipe that dates back to her great-grandmother.

Mason-Alston stands as a shining example of a person who served our country and now works as an entrepreneurial shortbread maker.

“Her path to success is the exact model we hope others will follow,” said Whitney Elmore, director of UF/IFAS Extension Pasco County. “A dream, hard work and using the available resources effectively all led to her success.”

Mason-Alson opened her store in May 2021 and calls it “Lanky Lassie’s Shortbread.”

“Lanky” because she stands nearly 6 feet. 

“I’m a tall girl, and I make shortbread,” Mason-Alston said. “Plus, I wanted it to be alliterative.” “Lassie” means “young girl” in Scotland.

Her journey as a budding shortbread entrepreneur started when she worked as a sales representative for the hotel industry. She made shortbread as gifts for clients. After she lost her job at the height of the pandemic in 2020, she started making shortbread, partly, as she says, because she had to make enough money to feed her children.

“One of my co-workers said, ‘this is the best shortbread I’ve ever had,’” she said.

She later won the shortbread competition at the Central Florida Scottish Highland Games with her Great-Grandma Murray’s recipe and started her shortbread business, mostly as a hobby in 2011.

“My mother always made shortbread for Christmas, and her grandmother made shortbread cookies for Christmas. People loved it,” Mason-Alston said.

What’s the secret? She credits her thicker, softer shortbread.

Word began to spread, and people would drive to her home to buy it. But she wanted more exposure, so she messaged people through the Dade City Life Facebook page.

Dade City Life asked if she was selling to local businesses. But she said she could not without a commercial kitchen.

She hoped the people at Dade City Life could share posts from her business and they gladly did. Mason-Alston discovered the Pasco County incubator through Dade City Life as well.

Turns out the SMARTstart Incubator Kitchen was just three miles from her house.

“I wasn’t actively looking for a kitchen,” she said. “I was thinking I would have to go to Tampa. It’s awesome it all worked out.”

She contacted Dan Mitchell, director of SMARTstart.

Mitchell helped connect her with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and guided her through the licensing process. That led to her getting her food permit, allowing her to sell wholesale. She now sells wholesale and retail from her store.

“He always had the answers I needed or connected me with those who did,” she said. “When I learned about the incubator, I sought guidance on setting up the business correctly, including legal wholesale practices.”

In addition to the incubator, Mason-Alston credits her business success to her military experience.

While a freshman at the University of South Florida, terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. That fateful day, she decided to serve her country. She always had a competitive fire in her belly from her days as a high-school athlete. Also, her brothers were already in the Marine Corps and told her it wasn’t for girls. That only fueled Mason-Alston’s fire to join.

“I wanted to do the hardest branch,” she said. “They held themselves to a higher standard. I love that type of fierceness.”

Mason-Alston served in the Marines from 2002 to 2008 and was injured during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.

“The grit and tenacity instilled in me as a Marine make it impossible to quit or fail,” Mason-Alston said. “I draw from the Marine Corps’ 14 leadership traits — JJDIDTIEBUCKLE: Justice, Judgement, Enthusiasm, Bearing, Dependability, Initiative, Decisiveness, Tact, Integrity, Courage, Knowledge, Loyalty, and Endurance. Living by these principles has been invaluable to my success.”

DADE CITY – Residents who attended a town hall meeting Oct. 24 were told by Pasco County officials that recovery from Hurricane Milton is going to be a marathon, not a sprint.

Several Pasco County government officials and a representative from FEMA presided over the town hall at the Historic Pasco County Courthouse. 

Several people attending the meeting said they believed the development of new homes and businesses in Pasco County over the past few years is what caused flooding to occur.

County Administrator Mike Carballa countered by saying the flooding caused by Hurricane Milton on Oct. 9 was likely to be considered a 500-year event that was unprecedented in Pasco County.

He also estimated that more than a billion dollars of damage has occurred in Pasco County because of the high winds and massive amounts of rain that fell on both sides of the county. He added that estimate is likely to increase as insurance companies and FEMA continue assessing the damages that occurred.

Of the more than 9,000 building inspections done by the county, 6,000 were declared as being “majorly damaged structures” and 500 were declared as total losses, according to J.P. Murphy, the county’s director of building construction services.

County officials announced that a new community developed in Holiday, known as Project Hope, would provide temporary housing to 100 people who have been displaced by Hurricane Milton.

There are 25 trailers on the property on Grand Boulevard that can each house two people along with 50 single-person pallet homes. Pasco County purchased the two-acre site in July with the intention of using it for a temporary low barrier homeless shelter.  

There were more than 5,800 people in shelters after Milton hit, according to Cathy Pearson, assistant county administrator for public services. The county partnered with Catholic Charities to get Project Hope up and running according to Pearson. 

Shelter is also still available at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus in Wesley Chapel and at the Fasano Regional Hurricane Shelter in Hudson, according to county officials.

Currently four people with special needs are staying at the Fasano Shelter, said Christina Louv-Pickle of the Florida Department of Health Pasco County. They are likely to be there on a long time basis, she added. Meanwhile, numerous other people are staying at the part of that shelter that is overseen by Pasco County, she said.

The FEMA representative told attendees that the agency would help provide temporary shelter in hotels for people who qualified because they had been displaced from their homes. They were told to call 800-621-3362 to request assistance. 

It wasn’t possible to determine when the flooding in communities such as Dade City and Zephyrhills would recede, according to Andrew Fossa, the county’s emergency management director.

That’s because the Withlacoochee River has reached its highest flood level in years because of the 21 inches of rain the Lacoochee area received in less than four hours, according to Fossa. 

In addition, Dade City received 18 inches of rain in a little under four hours while Zephyrhills received 15-18 inches of rain. 

“That is historic rain in that short amount of time,” Fossa said.

It’s estimated that 1.4 million yards of debris would have to be removed as the result of Hurricane Milton, according to Kevin Pliska, the county’s solid waste director. 

PliskaHe said on Oct. 24 that more than 186,000 cubic yards of debris had already been removed from throughout the county.

People whose homes were flooded were urged to remove debris from them as soon as possible and place it where the county could pick it up. They were also told to remove up to four inches of drywall above the level where the floodwater was in their homes to help prevent mold from developing.

They were also told the county was going to soon have a place on its webpage where people could report they had debris needing to be removed along with posting their location.

And it was announced that volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were going to be helping Hurricane Milton victims to remove drywall from their homes along with providing other assistance.

Carballa said toward the end of the meeting that the county was working as fast as it could. He emphasized that the damage caused by Hurricane Milton “is a recovery that will take months, if not years, for us to really fully overcome.”