Zephyrhills/East Pasco News

Residents weigh in on Pasco’s quality of life

September 11, 2013 By B.C. Manion

Pasco County residents like to express themselves at the polls, but aren’t all that interested in attending public meetings.

When they need to go to work, chances are they’ll hop in their car and drive themselves there.

And, when it comes to ranking efforts to create jobs and grow the economy — they see plenty of room for improvement.

These are just a few of the findings from the National Citizen Survey, which offers a glimpse of how Pasco residents view the quality of life in the county and provides a basic report card on government services.

The survey is a collaborative effort between the National Research Center Inc. and the International City/County Management Association.

The survey was developed by the National Research Center to provide a statistically valid survey of resident opinions about the services provided by local government.

The survey was distributed to 1,200 randomly selected addresses, and of those, 243 were returned for a return rate of 23 percent. The survey has a plus or minus 6 percent margin of error.

According to the survey, 91 percent of those responding said they are registered to vote and 81 percent said they made it to the polls on Election Day.

Far fewer seemed interested in making their opinions known at public meetings. Just 21 percent of the survey takers said they attended a meeting of local elected officials or other local public meeting in the last year.

When it comes to getting around, 76 percent reported that they drive alone in their car to get the work, and just 7 percent said they’d been on a bus in the county during the past year. Fewer than a third gave good or excellent marks to ease of biking or walking around the county.

Overall, 68 percent of those surveyed gave Pasco County a good or excellent mark for its quality of life. But just 34 percent gave good or excellent marks to economic development, and a whopping 85 percent said job growth is too slow.

Opportunities to attend cultural events also scored poorly, with just 30 percent giving good or excellent marks in that category.

On a brighter note, however, 79 percent gave excellent or good marks for the county’s public library services.

The survey rated a number of county services, which were compared to a benchmark database. Of the 40 services for which comparison was available, none exceeded the benchmark, 15 were similar and 25 were ranked below.

Despite that outcome, though, 81 percent of those surveyed said they would be somewhat or very likely to recommend living in Pasco County, and 83 percent said they planned to remain in Pasco for the next five years.

The county has made gains in some areas.

The availability of affordable health care, for instance, was rated as good or excellent by 60 percent of the survey takers, compared to 46 percent last year and 44 percent in 2009.

Health services, overall, also scored a higher mark — with good or excellent ratings by 64 percent, compared to 57 percent last year and 49 percent in 2009.

Parks and recreation also picked up a few points, with 50 percent of those surveyed rating recreational opportunities as good or excellent, compared to 45 percent last year.

On the public safety front, 93 percent of the respondents reported feeling safe or somewhat safe in their homes during the day.

Five percent of those surveyed said they or someone in their household had been a victim of crime — compared to 14 percent the previous year.

However, just 72 percent said they reported the crime to police, compared with 84 percent reporting it the year before.

The Pasco County Commission is expected to hear a report on the survey when they meet Sept. 4. The item had been on the commission’s Aug. 27 agenda, but was delayed because of long discussions on other issues.

Radio-controlled planes go back in time at fly-in

September 11, 2013 By Michael Hinman

Larry Utt spent a year painstakingly creating his replica of an S.E.5a plane, popular with both American and British forces during World War I.

His plane is a fraction of the size of the original Scout Experimental 5, which was nearly 21 feet long, more than 9 feet high, and weighed 1,410 pounds when empty. But when it’s in the air, it’s hard to believe it’s only radio-controlled.

Joe Barzyz of Spring Hill fuels up his Cub radio-controlled airplane, preparing it for flight on Connerton Preserve. This hand-built Cub is one of many planes that visitors can see at the Golden Era Fly-In on Sept. 14 at Connerton’s Area 52 field. (Photo by Michael Hinman)

“It’s just a model, until it flies,” Utt said. “After that, it’s an airplane.”

The S.E.5a is one of more than a couple dozen radio-controlled planes from the “Downton Abbey” era scheduled to dazzle aviation fans Sept. 14 at the Golden Era Fly-In. The event, presented by Bay City Flyers of Land O’ Lakes, is open to spectators and pilots alike at Connerton Preserve’s Area 52 field just off SR 52.

“You pay a small fee to fly, which is a fundraiser for the club,” Utt said. Spectators are also welcome beginning at 9 a.m. for a modest $3 donation at the gate.

The field itself was a grazing area for cattle just a decade ago, and now consists of two pavilions and grassy runways on land now owned by the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Club members built the field and maintain it. It has become a popular daily stop for many of the local club’s more than 200 members.

During the week, some flyers could be out as early as sunrise, and many stay until after lunch. On the weekends, many of the clubs’ younger members stop by, many times father and son teams enjoying the open sky.

Area 52 is one of three fields Bay City uses, but each one is special, said one of the group’s leaders, Mike Diesu. Despite the use of mufflers, and flying when few other people are around, the hobby of radio-controlled planes is not something usually well-accepted in neighborhoods.

“Clubs usually lose locations because of development,” said Joe Barzyz, who moved to the area from New Jersey in 2005. “People who have an interest in all this think it’s nice, but the problem is that once you put a house on the other side of the road, and they start hearing the mufflers, you have a problem.”

Area 52 is good because it’s a preserve, and there isn’t a house for miles. The only thing interfering with flying there, besides bad weather, are sandhill cranes. If one of those protected birds shows up on a runway, everything stops until they make their way elsewhere on the land.

Flyers at Area 52 respect the birds, and the land they use. They are careful to not spill fuel on the grass, and keep the whole area maintained, including grass mowing.

Bay City Flyers also stay active in the community, helping with food drives, and teaching aviation students. Flying a radio-controlled plane is not as easy as it looks, and getting good at it could take as long as becoming an actual pilot.

Sometimes, new flyers will spend thousands of dollars on equipment, and go out feeling like they’re ready to go. But after their first crash — and there are many crashes in radio-controlled flying — they can become discouraged easily.

“It’s only as expensive as you want it to be,” Utt said. While some planes can cost upward of $3,000, many good ones can be found for less than $300.

In fact, Bay City encourages people to join before they even buy a plane, to learn how to fly, use some of the club’s equipment, and then use that experience in buying their own plane.

And fly-ins, like the one next week, are great tools to add more pilots to the ranks.

The Golden Era Fly-In will run from 9 a.m. through 2 p.m., and features planes from 1919 to 1939. Landing fees for pilots are $10, and free lunch will be offered to all Academy of Model Aeronautics members who are flying.

Lunch will be available for spectators for a small price.

For more information, visit BayCityFlyers.org.

Pasco could have state’s first private toll road

September 11, 2013 By B.C. Manion

Gerald Stanley wants to build the first private toll road in the state. And he wants to build it across Pasco County.

Stanley, a retired road builder from Lutz who is a partner with International Infrastructure Partners LLC, submitted an unsolicited proposal June 11 to the state Department of Transportation proposing a toll road be built along the SR 54/SR 56 corridor. That would link Wesley Chapel to New Port Richey, with the possible addition of Wesley Chapel to US 301 in Zephyrhills.

The partnership proposes to lease the right-of-way from the state and both build and operate a 33-mile toll road. Much of the road would be elevated, but portions would be at ground level where necessary. It would be constructed in phases, with the first leg planned for SR 54/56 from Bruce B. Downs Boulevard to the Suncoast Parkway.

The second phase would go from the Suncoast Parkway to US 19 in New Port Richey. A possible third phase would extend the road from Bruce B. Downs to Zephyrhills. It’s possible, however, that phases one and two would be combined immediately for cost efficiency.

Stanley touted the benefits of the proposed project in a letter addressed to Anath Prasad, the secretary of the state roads department.

“This will be the first of its kind, privately funded, designed, built, operated and maintained elevated expressway in the state of Florida,” Stanley wrote. “It will create thousands of jobs for Floridians, further economic development in Pasco County, improve traffic flow, and promote use of existing and future transportation facilities.”

International Infrastructure Partners was formed specifically to manage the project and consists of engineers, accountants and financial professionals, according to Stanley’s proposal.

The construction would be done by PCL, a company that is currently working on the Interstate 4 connector project. The company also has completed work for the toll-funded Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway.

Guggenheim Securities LLC would be the capital partner for the project, Stanley said, soliciting investments through a fund called “FL54Xpressway.”

Kris Carson, spokeswoman for District 7 of the DOT, said it is too early to tell if any project like this would come to fruition.

“It could be that nothing ever happens,” Carson said. “There are a lot of questions to be answered.”

In response to Stanley’s proposal, the state roads department issued a request for proposals to encourage a competitive process, and set a date of Oct. 23 for opening those proposals.

John Hagen, president and CEO of the Pasco Economic Development Council Inc., said when the idea of a toll road was initially raised, there were questions about who would pay for it, and its financial feasibility.

The fact that a private group has stepped forward and is willing to pay for it, gives legitimacy to the concept, he said.

Like Carson, Hagan said it is too early to tell if a project will materialize.

“There are a lot of technical questions that need to be answered,” Hagan said.

But if a toll road is built, it will provide an additional transportation option that will allow traffic to move quickly across the county on a toll road, while local traffic uses the surface streets, the economic development expert said.

Steps must be taken to increase traffic capacity, Hagan said. Otherwise, “eventually SR 54/SR 56 will just become a parking lot.”
Jeff Miller, a real estate agent and resident of Wesley Chapel, said he welcomes this type of project. He sees it as a way for people, like himself, to get to New Port Richey and Pinellas County much more quickly than is possible now.

“It’s not a done deal. We’re all trying to determine if it’s feasible,” Stanley said. “If it’s not profitable, it won’t be built.”

If the project is done, however, it will employ hundreds of construction workers and will bring more industry to Pasco County.

It will also help prevent gridlock, as Pasco continues to grow, said Stanley, who has been a part of the Florida Transportation Builders Association for 35 years, and was the group’s president in 2005-06.

“We’re looking to the future,” he said.

In its request for proposals, the state DOT requires those interested in pursuing a private toll road to:

–Obtain any required approvals from federal regulatory agencies to operate a toll facility in this corridor;

–Identify and comply with existing federal, state, and local regulatory agency requirements;

–Identify and address how the proposer plans to design, construct, operate and maintain a toll facility in Pasco County;

–Identify and address existing infrastructure and utility conflicts, and provide for resolution of such infrastructure and utility conflicts;

–Address future build-outs of infrastructure in the corridor(s) that may be impacted by or impact the toll road, and future phases of the toll road;

–Identify and address any zoning or land development codes of any affected local government.

The submitter must also demonstrate its ability to further economic development in the region and state, protect the environment, create temporary and permanent jobs in Florida, improve transportation efficiency and otherwise benefit citizens and the state.

The state would not provide any funding for the project, according to the RFP.

A decision on awarding the project would occur on Nov. 6, according to the RFP.

Parade of 400 choppers honor first responders

September 11, 2013 By Michael Hinman

It’s never too early in the morning to ride a motorcycle, especially when it’s all to say thank you to firefighters and emergency first responders.

Nearly 400 motorcycles showed up for this year’s Sept. 11 Gratitude Ride, sponsored by Pasco County Choppers to honor members of Pasco County’s Fire Rescue and raise money for its benevolent fund. (Photo by Michael Hinman)

Some 400 cyclists showed up at the Pasco County Government Center on US 41 Saturday to participate in the annual Sept. 11 Gratitude Ride.

The event, organized by local Realtor Dan Turner and his wife Cheryl, is a way these chopper enthusiasts honor members of Pasco County Fire Rescue, and raise money for the Pasco County Fire Benevolent Fund.

“Make no mistake about it, this is a 9/11 event,” Turner told the crowd during a short ceremony. “It has been 12 years. Can you believe it? Unfortunately a lot of people have forgotten all about it, and we just want to make sure everybody remembers.”

The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks killed 412 emergency workers in New York City alone, all of them trying to rescue people from the World Trade Center after each tower was struck by a commercial jetliner.

But it’s not just during terrorist attacks they put their lives on the line. This year alone, 79 firefighters have lost their lives in the line of duty, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. Between 1977 and 2011, there have been 4,325 on-duty firefighter fatalities — an average of 127 each year.

The Benevolent Fund raises money not for equipment or vehicles, but instead to help members of the Pasco County Fire Rescue when they may need a little financial assistance.

“They are the ones that always say it’s just a job, but we all know they run into danger as we are running away from it,” Turner told The Laker/Lutz News last month.

“As we reflect back on that horrible day back in September 2001, we remember all the public safety personnel (who) were affected,” said Pasco County Fire Chief Scott Cassin. “They were doing everything they do every day: saving lives and saving property.”

Pasco County Choppers, which hosted the event, said nearly $4,900 was raised for the local benevolent fund, more than double what was raised last year. Even winners of the poker run, a fun event to encourage motorcyclists to visit multiple locations, gave a little back.

“Winners of the poker run reverted nearly all of the money they won back to the cause,” Turner said in an email after the event. “Once again (it shows) that the biker community is there for those that lay their lives on the line for us, every single day of the year.”

Giving readers what they want to read

September 11, 2013 By Diane Kortus

Running a newspaper is not much different than running any other small business.

All successful businesses work to give customers what they want at a fair price so they continue to be their customer and tell friends and family about their products and services.

If you are a restaurant, you offer a menu filled with dishes customers have asked for and prepared by the best chef in town. If you are a retail store, you sell products people want so they come back and shop again.

At The Laker/Lutz News, our customers are both readers and advertisers. We know that if we give you stories and information about people and issues that are important to you, you will read your paper cover to cover, week after week, and share what you’ve read with family and friends.

And we know that your readership has a direct impact on the bottom line of our other customer — businesses that advertise in our papers. The better and more completely you read your paper, the more you will take note of the adjacent ads.

Which brings me to why we’re making some changes to the kinds of stories we write in The Laker/Lutz News.

Last spring we hired an independent research company to ask readers what type of news they want in their community paper. This was done in conjunction with our annual circulation audit that verifies the number of papers we print and deliver.

This study revealed the No. 1 reason people like you read The Laker/Lutz News is to learn about things to do in their community. Our best-read section is What’s Happening with its news briefs about upcoming activities and events.

Because readers put What’s Happening at the top of their list, we’re expanding this section and increasing our coverage of community events before they take place. B.C. Manion, our community editor for the past three years, is taking on this charge and welcomes suggestions on events you’d like to see covered.

The second topic most requested is business news.

You want to know what’s coming when you see a new commercial building underway. You want to know about local road improvements and how they will impact your drive to work. You are curious about local businesses, big and small, and are looking for new places to shop and professional services in your neighborhood.

To increase our business coverage, in late July we hired Michael Hinman as our news editor because of his community and business journalism background. In addition to working for several area weekly newspapers, Michael spent five years as a reporter at the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Like B.C., Michael also welcomes your story ideas. Both journalists can be reached at (813) 909-2800 or by email at or .

You may have already noticed that there’s more business news in your paper. Last week, for example, we were the first to report on the expansion of Florida Medical Clinic’s new facilities in Zephyrhills and Carrollwood. This week we have a story on the elevated expressway for SR 54 that’s being proposed by a private developer.

I began this column talking about the importance of giving customers what they want. That’s why we’re committing more of our resources to stories you want to read. And why you’re seeing more stories about upcoming events, local businesses and growth and development.

With more than 60,000 readers, it’s impossible to give every single person everything they want in their community paper. But know that we’re acting on the best information we have to give you the kinds of stories you tell us you’re most interested in reading in The Laker/Lutz News.

Wesley Chapel seminar to promote women’s health

September 11, 2013 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

Women who want to hear a lecture on heart health, watch a cooking demonstration or get a bit of pampering can get those things and more at the Women’s Health & Wellness Day at Saddlebrook Resort Tampa, off SR 54 in Wesley Chapel.

The free half-day seminar, sponsored by Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, will be on Sept. 21 from 8:30 a.m. until 1 p.m.

The seminar will feature six breakout sessions, giving women a chance to hear from some of the area’s most respected physicians discussing heart health, breast cancer risk factors, pregnancy, healthy aging and other wellness topics.

Women who are pregnant or are thinking of having a baby can talk with a lactation consultant.

The event will also feature a women’s health panel, with experts fielding questions about primary health care, internal medicine, geriatric medicine, obstetrics and gynecology.

There will also be a cooking demonstration and free screenings for blood pressure, blood glucose, BMI and others. There will be pampering opportunities, too, and giveaways.

The event will feature a women’s health panel, answering questions about primary health care, internal medicine, geriatric medicine, obstetrics and gynecology.

Send questions in advance to .

Space for the seminar is limited and reservations are required.

To register, call (813) 929-5432.

Dade City artist makes a worldwide impression

September 4, 2013 By B.C. Manion

Long before Pat Weaver began pursuing her passion for art, she was known as a businesswoman and politician in Dade City.

“I had retail stores downtown. I had Tricia’s. Then, I had Church Street Gallery. Then, I had Pat-e-cat’s,” said Weaver, who also served the community as both a city commissioner and later a mayor for Dade City.

She enjoyed politics and retailing, but was always drawn to art.

About four decades ago, Weaver began taking periodic trips to Scottsdale to take classes from accomplished artists.

Pat Weaver stands in front a picture window in her studio, surrounded by a few of her many works of art. (Photo by B.C. Manion)

“I would save up money and go out there and rent an apartment and stay two weeks at a time and study,” Weaver said. “Then, I’d come home for a year or two and save up my money and go back again.”

She stayed with retail, as she honed her artistic technique. Then, she began offering classes on the side.

“I started teaching locally, day classes and night classes,” Weaver said. “I also traveled to Lakeland and Plant City. That’s where I kind of cut my teeth on teaching.”

Initially, she painted with oils.

“About 20 years ago, I went into transparent watercolor. I just fell in love with the medium and decided I wanted to try it. It was an instant love affair with watercolor,” said Weaver.

Since teaching herself watercolor, she has gone on to write books about the art form, and offers workshops around the country. In fact, “I am better known away from Dade City than I am here,” said Weaver, whose book “Watercolor Simplified” is available through Amazon.com.

“I like to paint with a lot of energy and see things develop quickly,” Weaver said. “Watercolor allows for that, much more than any other medium does.”

Weaver teaches about 20 workshops a year, generally booked two to three years out. She’s taught in Florida, the Carolinas, Georgia, San Diego and Arizona.

She’s shared her knowledge in other countries, too.

“I’ve taught in the Bahamas and in Mexico, Italy, Spain, England, France,” Weaver said. Most of the students in her international classes have traveled from the United States to take part.

She lines up most of the work through art associations, watercolor societies and other organizations that sponsor her workshops. She handles her own travel arrangements.

“It just evolved over many years,” said Weaver, who has a home studio on the 36 acres she shares with her husband, Glenn.

Weaver said she gained considerable exposure about 15 years ago, when she was elected president of the Florida Watercolor Society. But her love for art dates back to childhood. She credits her mother for nurturing her creative spirit.

“She’s the one who instilled that desire in me to do art,” Weaver said.

Her seventh-grade teacher, Myra O’ Berry, was a positive influence, too.

“She would just assign me a special project and tell me to go down to the teachers’ lounge to draw it,” Weaver said. “She saw my gift.”

She pays forward that encouragement to her students while challenging them at the same time.

“I want them to be knowledgeable,” Weaver said.

They also need to know that excellence requires commitment, she said.

“The only way you can become good at anything is by doing it over and over and over,” Weaver said. “You have to be persistent and be willing to practice and apply what you learn. You can’t go and take three days of lessons and then go home and not paint until you decide to go back and take another workshop. There are no shortcuts to getting there.

Weaver said she doesn’t try to shape an artist’s style or point-of-view, but she seeks to broaden their knowledge and help them improve their techniques.

When she’s teaching or creating art, she’s absorbed by the work.

“When you are really into painting, you’re oblivious to anything else,” Weaver said.

She has a spontaneous approach to painting. She completes her artworks in one sitting.

She said her favorite type of art tends to be whatever she’s working on at the moment. But she does acknowledge a special fondness for doing commissioned portraits of dogs.

“As long as I get to paint, I’m happy,” Weaver said.

On a typical day she heads out to her studio about 10 a.m. and paints until about 4 p.m., with a break for lunch. Her days go longer when she’s on the road teaching.

She enjoys sharing what she knows.

“I love to see people learn and get excited about what they are doing,” she said. “They begin to see things differently than they ever saw them before.

“Most people don’t pay any attention to the light outdoors, or the colors, or the values. When you start painting, you become very aware of things.”

One of the things she loves about painting is that people can do it at any age.

“As long as your eyes are good and your hands are pretty steady, you can paint into late years. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to do,” she said.

Over the years, being an artist has had its satisfactions and its setbacks. Not every painting comes out the way she would like, but when they don’t, she just picks up another piece of watercolor paper and gets busy again.

That approach has yielded a rich life, filled with wonderful experiences and good friends, Weaver said.

“It’s taken me a very, very long time to get to the point that I am now,” she said. “But I’ve enjoyed the journey.”

To learn more about Pat Weaver and her art, visit www.patweaver.net.

Dogsledding in Florida? It’s a pastime with some bite

September 4, 2013 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

“Hike, Hike!” Peggy Wright loudly calls out to the group of dogs in front of her, spurring them to start running.

At her command, the dogs bolt, pulling a two-wheeled sled that she’s standing on. As they move, each time she approaches a bend on the paved trail outlining the placid lake, Wright yells “Gee!” to direct the dogs right, or “Ha!” to send them to the left.

Boisterous, 6-year-old Kyra howls and barks as she sprints along with the rest of the pack, burning pent-up energy and thriving in the company of other huskies, malamutes, Akitas, and other sled dog breeds.

Peggy Wright, foreground, leashes her two huskies, Minka on the left and Bear on the right, prepping them for a sled run in Freedom Lake Park. Behind them, Matt Aamold is with his female husky mix, Bianca. (Photo courtesy of Peggy Wright)

This isn’t the harsh snows of the Arctic Circle. Instead, it’s Freedom Lake Park on a brisk Sunday afternoon in Florida, filled with plenty of trees, calm waters and grassy pastures.

Kyra is one of three Siberian huskies belonging to Carol Robinson, a massage therapist from Lutz, who is a member of the Sandy Paws Dog Sled Club in Pinellas Park.

“These dogs are strong and fast,” said Robinson, who joined the club in 2011 and regularly attends its monthly meetings. “It’s a little difficult sometimes to contain them because they get so excited, (but) they’re working as a team.”

Robinson and some of the other dog owners flank the pack, running about a mile with them around the lake. Without the owners at their side, the pack can run up to 20 miles an hour with a 150-pound sled and two people on it.

“Halt!” Wright booms. The command causes the dogs to come to a complete stop after their first lap. Before taking their second or even third cycle on the trail, the dogs and their owners take a break to mingle, rest and drink lots of water.

Wright started the dog sled club about four years ago with four of her friends. All five had Siberian huskies. Northern dogs like these huskies are naturally very active, and they can be destructive if they’re not strenuously engaged.

“By having this group, we’re able to teach people how to keep their dogs out of trouble,” Wright said. “When dogs are disciplined and correctly exercised, they are much happier and healthier.”

Wright and her friends wanted to open the club to everyone with Siberian huskies and similar breeds, so they created a website and used social networking sites like Meetup and Facebook. The club went from five to more than 170 members from all over the Tampa Bay area.

The sledding get-togethers happen monthly, except during the summer when it’s too hot for the dogs to run. Wright said the gatherings generally draw about 30 to 50 members at a time. The club gives her a chance to meet with other dog owners, while the dogs themselves play with each other.

“When we’re all together in a group, we can share stories or ideas,” Robinson said. “What’s the best brush to get that undercoat out? What food are you using to keep their coat?”

Robinson also likes to spread the word about pet adoptions because of her involvement with a dog rescue center.

“Sometimes we bring some of our dogs there and say if anyone’s looking to adopt, we have this one or that one,” she said. “We’ve had some successful adoptions through just networking.”

While Robinson greets and talks with the other owners, Kyra, with her pale blue eyes and soft thick black-and-white fur, joins in with her fellow dogs. Before they get ready to pull a sled, the dogs socialize by howling, sniffing and jumping on each other.

But because of their high energy levels, their owners keep them leashed.

Siberian huskies like Kyra were initially bred in the Arctic climates of northeastern Asia — mainly to serve as transportation for nomadic tribes, which didn’t have horses, donkeys and camels to rely on.

“For the original tribes, they would load up the sled with all their personal belongings,” Robinson said. “They were putting their housing, their tents, their blankets — everything went on these sleds. It was the dog’s job to pull it to the next location.”

Huskies have built-in stamina, lots of energy and strong stocky bodies. They were bred to run long distances in cold weather, and they also love to be around other dogs and people.

The dog sled club outings serve as an outlet for all their natural inclinations.

The club’s next outing is Sept. 22 at Freedom Lake Park, 9990 46th St. in Pinellas Park, for the group’s first real sledding event since last May.

For more information on the group, visit sandypawssleddogclub.com.

By Marie Abramov

Maintenance costs could drown Hercules pool for good

September 4, 2013 By Michael Hinman

Another summer without the Hercules Aquatic Center is coming to a close, and yet the future of this once vibrant public swimming pool park is still dried up.

Pasco County Schools, which owns the nearly 16 acres, wants to figure it out, and they’ve enlisted the Zephyrhills City Council to help them. But coming to a consensus may prove more difficult than either side realized.

“We do have to be realistic,” Council President Lance Smith said during the council’s regular Aug. 26 meeting. “It’s a loser — financially — but it does provide a service that is needed. And the question is, at what cost do we feel that we can provide it?”

Pasco County leased the property from the school district for nearly two decades, maintaining a large public swimming pool there. However, budget cuts in 2009 forced the county out, threatening to close the park, which is located on the corner of US 301 and CR 54.

The Zephyrhills Police Athletic League kept Hercules open in 2010, but didn’t return after that. The main problem was the cost to maintain the facilities, estimated at just north of $100,000.

Even if Zephyrhills decided to lease the property from the school board and reopen the park, there are some other obstacles in the way.

First, the county has plans to widen CR 54, which is going to force both the park and its immediate neighbor to the east, Zephyrhills High School, to give up some land. That means the school’s baseball fields and some of the parking lot to its outdoor athletics complex would need to be reconfigured, possibly taking some of the land where Hercules is now.

On top of that, the school board wants to cash in on part of the land, namely the piece that sits directly on the corner of US 301 and CR 54, which could be sold to build a potential gas station there.

“We are being asked to give up the most attractive and profitable piece of property and really push it to be a gas station,” said Councilwoman Jodi Wilkeson. “But it’s either that or do nothing, right?”

School district officials have mentioned turning Hercules into a maintenance facility for its area schools, and anything that happens to the westernmost piece of the property would still have to go in front of the council for rezoning, City Manager Jim Drumm said. If the city wanted to control that piece, it may have to cough up at least $1.2 million, which is about $1 million more than what the city even has on hand to deal with parks.

Allen Altman, who represents the Zephyrhills area on the Pasco County School Board, encouraged city officials to work with the school district on creating something the entire community can enjoy at Hercules Park.

“One of the things I have pushed for since I was elected was for us to participate with other governments as much as possible,” Altman said. “It cuts down on replication and provides as much savings and benefits to the taxpayer as possible.”

Altman acknowledged that the school board was exploring all possibilities with the land, including a potential sale of a portion of it, but he’s confident both governments can develop the best plan for both.

“It’s a beautiful piece of property,” Councilman Kenneth Compton said. “Talk about one of the best pieces of property, and that’s it. Just see this beautifully treed area, and then I just envision a gas station. I don’t know if I like that.”

Public has chance to weigh in on taxes

September 4, 2013 By B.C. Manion

The public will have a chance to tell Pasco County commissioners what they think about a proposed property tax hike and a nickel-a-gallon gas tax at a public hearing on Sept. 10.

Commissioners are likely to get an earful.

The county’s proposed property tax rate is 7.49 mills, up from last year’s rate of 6.86 mills. Its proposed municipal fire rate is 1.71 mills, up from 1.54 mills last year.

Each mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value. That means the owner of a $100,000 house, assuming a $50,000 homestead exemption, would pay $33 a year more.

The 5-cent tax would affect anyone who buys gas in Pasco County.

Commission Chairman Ted Schrader and commissioners Pat Mulieri, Kathryn Starkey and Jack Mariano voted in favor of advertising the proposed tax rate in July. Commissioner Henry Wilson voted against it, and said recently that he was still trying to find places to cut the budget.

The proposed property tax hike has drawn criticism from taxpayers who think the county should cut its spending, as well as pleadings from people who don’t want commissioners to cut their programs.

Commissioners have also heard from opponents to the proposed gas tax hike.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Chris Nocco has not given up on his bid to seek more money in his budget. On Aug. 27, however, commissioners passed a resolution allowing a portion of the Penny for Pasco to be spent on unmarked detective cars and other vehicles for the Sheriff’s office. They took that action because the language included in the Penny for Pasco referenced marked cars, but did not specify unmarked cars could be purchased with the tax proceeds.

Commissioners are set to have their public hearing on the taxes at their 6:30 p.m. meeting on Sept. 10 at the Dade City Historic Courthouse, 37918 Meridian Ave. in Dade City.

The board will cast its final vote on the property tax rate at its 6:30 p.m. meeting on Sept. 24 at the government center in New Port Richey, 8731 Citizens Drive in New Port Richey.