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Middle Lake

Looking for something fun to do?

May 5, 2020 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

Pasco County has been phasing in the reopening of some of its recreational facilities.

Ballfields and playgrounds remain closed in Pasco County, but some places are open in Pasco and Hillsborough counties that give people a chance to get out for some fresh air and exercise. (B.C. Manion)

Activities such as walking, biking, hiking, fishing or running can be done in specific locations, according to a Pasco County news release.

Groups of more than 10 will not be permitted and people must maintain social distancing from others of at least 6 feet, to help prevent the spread of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19).

There are limited access openings at Pasco County parks, listed below. Restrooms remain closed unless noted, so please plan accordingly:

  • Withlacoochee River Park, Dade City
  • Aripeka Sandhills Preserve, Hudson
  • Boy Scout Preserve, New Port Richey
  • Crews Lake Wilderness Park, Spring Hill
  • Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park, New Port Richey
  • Key Vista Nature Park, Holiday
  • Lake Lisa Park, Port Richey
  • Pasco Palms Preserve, New Port Richey
  • Upper Pithclachascotee Preserve, Spring Hill
  • Robert J. Strickland Memorial Park, Hudson

These public boat ramps remain open:

  • Anclote River Park, Holiday (restroom access)
  • Robert J. Strickland Memorial Park, Hudson
  • Moon Lake Park, New Port Richey
  • Middle Lake, Dade City
  • Eagle Point Park, kayak and canoe, New Port Richey

These trails remain open

  • The Suncoast Trail
  • Starkey Boulevard Trail
  • Starkey Gap Trail

The county also recently reopened these additional locations, effective May 2:

  • Anclote River Park
  • Anclote Gulf Park
  • Eagle Point Park
  • Moon Lake Park
  • Robert K. Rees Memorial Park

SunWest Park will be open to 100 cars at a time, in addition to annual passholders.

All Pasco County recreation complexes, community centers and playgrounds remain closed.

All events, activities, youth and adult sports leagues, special event reservations, pavilions, camp/RV grounds, cabin rentals, field reservations and any other reservations also remain closed until further notice.

The status of summer camp programs is not yet known. The county is awaiting updates from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine how it can safely offer its summer camp program.

Gov. Ron DeSantis also announced that the state’s parks would reopen, effective May 4.

In Hillsborough County, officials reopened most of its nature preserves and the boat ramp at E.G. Simmons Conservation Park on May 2. It also reopened several conservation parks, along with walking trails at six neighborhood parks on May 4.

Residents will be required to follow social distancing guidelines, and portions of the parks will remain closed, including playgrounds, picnic areas, and kayak/canoe facilities.

The following conservation parks reopened at 8 a.m., on May 4:

  • Flatwoods Conservation Park, 14302 Morris Bridge Road, Thonotosassa, and 18205 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., in Tampa
  • Morris Bridge Off-Road Biking Area, 12651 Morris Bridge Road in Thonotosassa
  • Alderman’s Ford Conservation Park, 100 Alderman’s Ford Park Drive, Plant City, for hiking and biking only
  • Upper Tampa Bay Trail and all parking areas

Walking trails are open at these neighborhood parks:

  • Jackson Springs Community Center, 8620 Jackson Springs Road in Tampa
  • Northdale Community Center, 15550 Spring Pine Drive, Tampa
  • Carrollwood Village Community Park, 4680 W. Village Drive, Tampa
  • Ruskin Community Center, 901 6th St. S.E., Ruskin
  • Apollo Beach Community Center, 664 Golf and See Blvd., Apollo Beach
  • All People’s Life Center, 6105 E. Sligh Ave., Tampa

All other parks remain closed.

Published May 06, 2020

Filed Under: Local News Tagged With: Alderman's Ford Conservation Park, All People's Life Center, Anclote Gulf Park, Anclote River Park, Apollo Beach Community Center, Aripeka Sandhills Preserve, Boy Scout Preserve, Carrollwood Village Community Park, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19, Crews Lake Wilderness Park, E.G. Simmons Conservation Park, Eagle Point Park, Flatwoods Conservation Park, Jackson Springs Community Center, Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park, Key Vista Nature Park, Lake Lisa Park, Middle Lake, Moon Lake Park, Morris Bridge, Northdale Community Center, Pasco Palms Preserve, Robert Strickland Memorial Park, Ron DeSantis, Ruskin Community Center, Starkey Bouulevard Trail, Starkey Gap Trail, SunWest Park, The Suncoast Trail, Upper Pithclachascotee Preserve, Upper Tampa Bay Trail, Withlacoochee River Park

Appreciating Joe Hancock’s legacy

June 8, 2016 By Tom Jackson

To begin to appreciate the sudden and shocking loss of Joseph Neal Hancock — legacy grove owner, ubiquitous volunteer, Southern historian and, poignantly, amateur bicycling enthusiast — you begin here, a half-mile and then some from Townsend House Cemetery.

Here, if you weren’t among the earliest arrivals, is where you park, on the edge of another of Pasco County’s narrow, unpaved roads, among the four-wheel-drive SUVs and pickup trucks. So very many pickup trucks, signaling something else important: This is a funeral for a working man.

Joseph Neal Hancock was a man of achievement, generosity, reflection. (Courtesy of Hancock Family)
Joseph Neal Hancock was a man of achievement, generosity, reflection.
(Courtesy of Hancock Family)

And so, despite the morning’s rising heat, you slip into your sport jacket — respect must be paid — and strike out around the bend, kicking up dust in pursuit of the old final resting place for some of the east county’s most notable pioneer families: Johnstons, Eilands, Bellamys and, by the dozens, Hancocks. So very many Hancocks.

It was inevitable, then, Joe’s earthly remains would wind up here, on this shaded hill overlooking gentle pastureland and sparkling Middle Lake beyond, beneath the canopy of moss-draped oaks. It’s just the timing that was all off.

Joe Hancock, the son of the son of the son of farmers, was just 57 years old — the new 35, as every baby boomer knows — and hardy. We mentioned the bicycle. With cycling pal Jim Pavek pushing him and their families’ scalloping adventures waiting at the other end, he could make Steinhatchee, a 140-mile trip, in two days. He’d been known to pedal to North Carolina and beyond.

And, he thought nothing of putting in a quick 10 miles most any morning before work … which is what he was doing that fateful Saturday at the end of May when things went tragically awry: Desiree Michelle Nathe, 20, state-champion high jumper, cresting a hill on Lake Iola Road in her Hyundai Accent and finding Hancock in her path, knocking him off his German Focus bike and into eternity.

He leaves behind Jane, his first, foremost and lifetime love, three sons — Jimmy, 29, his business partner; Jackson, 18, who graduated high school Friday; and Jeb, 11 — and countless scores of friends, most of whom appear to have stories that begin, “You can’t put this in the newspaper.”

They gathered a dozen deep around a simple maple casket last Wednesday morning, serenaded by nature’s summer sounds: the electric buzz of cicadas, cheeping cardinals, cooing doves, the mournful cry of a distant loon — all God’s creatures forming a proper soundtrack behind the brief narrative of an outdoorsman’s life as told by Bill Scaife, who pastors Wilderness Lake Church in far north Land O’ Lakes.

Hancock didn’t lend, Scaife noted. He gave, because relationships were more important to him than balanced ledgers. He didn’t laugh or roll his eyes when a suburbanite new to country life insisted on burying a week-old calf with a blanket and a bottle she’d used in a hopeless attempt to keep it alive.

And, not much more than a week or so before, on a moonlight tour of their grove in the company golf cart with Jane by his side, he spoke as a philosopher about divine blessings, regrets — he had none — and their life together. It was all good, he said.

The lad who once declared his intention to become “a legend in his own time” had grown into a man of achievement, generosity, refection and perspective.

None of this is to suggest that anyone besides his Creator would have suggested Joe Hancock’s work in this mortal realm was even remotely complete. He was, it bears repeating, only 57 and, by every account, vibrant.

There’s no telling what might have accomplished with another 30 years — which isn’t out of the question, based on the lifespans of the other Hancocks buried up on the hill — but even if it was only 30 years of adoring Jane, doting on grandchildren and inhaling the perfume of orange blossoms, so what?

Instead, we are left to grapple, prematurely, with what he has bequeathed: yet another sad lesson about bicyclists lured to east Pasco’s tight, curvy, hilly back roads and motorists who happen upon them unexpectedly.

“I don’t know why,” says Pavek, Hancock’s riding pal, “but I just think something good is going to come from this, for Joe’s sake.”

What that something might be, Pavek can’t say for sure. Adding broad shoulders to the roads that attract cyclists from around the region would cost millions the county doesn’t have. Pasco’s emerging trail plan doesn’t stress the hilly routes cyclists love. And, even Pavek says there is more than adequate signage to alert drivers about the likely presence of bike riders.

What, then? Maybe people will be more mindful now, he says. This is more likely the ephemeral wish of a bereaved friend, but within it is the nugget of an opportunity.

To make alertness stick, a perpetual reminder would be helpful. And, if that reminder is low-cost, so much the better.

So how about this: Lake Iola Road, where a good man reared his boys, loved Jane, caused to prosper the family business and met his untimely end, gets an honorary second name: Joseph N. Hancock Memorial Highway.

And, near the spot of the crash, a suitable plaque, affixed to a German Focus. So we remember, always, and drive, or cycle, accordingly.

Tom Jackson, a resident of New Tampa, is interested in your ideas. To reach him, email .

Published June 8, 2016

Filed Under: Local News Tagged With: Bill Scaife, Desiree Michelle Nathe, Jim Pavek, Joseph Neal Hancock, Lake Iola Road, Land O' Lakes, Middle Lake, Townsend House Cemetery, Wilderness Lake Church

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