When the new Lowe’s store opens next March, it not only will bring more jobs to State Road 54 in Land O’ Lakes, but more traffic congestion as well.
To accommodate the new store, Pasco County will link the Lowe’s parking lot to the Village Lakes Shopping Center across the street, complete with the first traffic light between Collier Parkway and Land O’ Lakes Boulevard.
But that does mean some parking spaces at Village Lakes have to go, and traffic patterns through the parking lots there will be adjusted as well. In return, the area will get new crosswalks — one of the few places pedestrians can legally cross along the nearly two-mile stretch.
Want details of what this new intersection will entail? Check out reporter Michael Hinman’s story in this week’s print edition of The Laker/Lutz News, available on newsstands and in many home driveways right now. Or you can check out the complete paper online with our free e-edition by clicking here.
He may not look like Kris Kringle, but Bob Loring feels he might be a little like Old Saint Nick, considering how many toys he delivers each year.
Loring leads the local Toys For Tots chapter, part of a national program that distributes toys to needy children, run by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve for more than 65 years.
“I’m the head elf,” Loring recently told reporter Michael Murillo. “It’s a thrill. Personally, it’s so rewarding. I get to work with and be around the neatest people in Pasco County.”
Loring first took over in 1999, and that first year, delivered toys for nearly 400 children just in time for Christmas in the Dade City area. Since then, the program has been expanded across the county, aiming to help 4,000 children.
Find out more about the program, and how you can help, in this week’s print edition of The Laker/Lutz News, available now. You also can read all about it with our free online e-edition, which you can find right here.
And finally, Rushe Middle School is going the extra mile when it comes to reading. The school has started a We Be Book’n club, and is looking for new ways to introduce young people to books in today’s digital age.
That includes a recent trip to Barnes & Noble where students took part in a scavenger hunt to find out what they’ll be reading next.
“It’s just for fun,” one of the teachers, Kelli Rapaport told reporter B.C. Manion. “We just want to get kids excited about literacy.”
It’s not the last thing — or even the biggest thing — the We Be Book’n club has planned for the coming school year. Want to see what else is up the sleeves of teachers like Rapaport and Dawn Gilliland? Then check out this week’s print edition of The Laker/Lutz News, or do some reading of your own in our free online e-edition by clicking here.
All of these stories and more can be found in this week’s The Laker/Lutz News, available in newsstands throughout east and central Pasco County as well as northern Hillsborough County. Find out what has your community talking this week by getting your local news straight from the only source you need.
If The Laker/Lutz News is not coming to your door, call us to see where you can get your copy at (813) 909-2800, or read our free e-edition by clicking here.
