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Pasco County retains masks, for now

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After a briefing from the director of the county’s health department, the Pasco County Commission has decided to continue its mask mandate — at least for now.

Mike Napier, director of the Pasco County office of the Florida Department of Health, told commissioners at their Sept. 21 meeting that positive COVID-19 cases had been trending in the wrong direction recently.

“I wish I had better news as far as what our cases have been over the last several weeks,” Napier said. “We’ve started to see some increased number of cases,” Napier said.

Mike Napier, director of the Pasco County office of the Florida Department of Health (File)

Pasco County’s cumulative number of cases he told commissioners was 8,834 cases, as of Sept. 21, the health director reported.

“The concern here really is, we were doing pretty well back in the early part of September, averaging about 3%, as a rolling average on our positivity. Last week, it was the first time in almost a month that we got almost a 6% positivity rate and we had 1,300 cases.

“The number that should be a little bit alarming to you is that in this past week, we’ve had a 61% increase in cases in the last seven days. So, we’re headed in the wrong direction at this point,” Napier said.

“At the low mark, the county was averaging 29 cases a day — to where we are today, where we’re averaging almost 50 day, and that’s over a two-week period,” Napier said.

“I know that schools were a big question.

“We had a total of 79 students and 26 staff that have tested positive, for 105 total cases (as of Sept. 18),” he said.

“There’s a lot of criteria that goes into the determination of whether or a not a student has to be excluded or not,” Napier said.

Out of the nearly 1,400 exposures at school, there are 857 students and staff currently quarantined, but also 542 people have been released, Napier said.

The public health officer said he knows there’s a lot of interest on when it would be appropriate to lift mask mandates and social distancing restrictions.

“From public health standpoint, I have to tell you, when we have a vaccine or when we have medication to treat COVID,” Napier said. From a practical standpoint, the number of positive cases needs to be lower. “We’re at 49 averaging a day.”

“We’re trending higher in our positivity rate. We were at 3%, we’re at 4% right now. That 1% does matter,” Napier said.

He said he’s on regular conference calls with health officers and county officials around the region.

“We’re all getting the same questions, right? We’re all trying to come up with that answer.

“We are looking at a regional approach for face coverings,” Napier said.

They’re trying to reach a consensus on the numbers and benchmarks to use.

“We’re actually looking to the academics, to be able to come up with something from a regional standpoint. We know that we have a community that moves from Pasco to Pinellas, and from Pinellas into Pasco. Hernando. Hillsborough — all of those counties.”

Initially, the increase in cases stemmed from the virus spreading within families, the public health official said. But now, there’s community spread.

Labor Day could have affected the spread. It’s too early to tell whether the recent opening of bars has had an impact,  he added.

COVID-19 remains a threat
“The pandemic is not over. I understand that face coverings are inconvenient and uncomfortable, however, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association continue to support the use of face coverings to reduce the exposure of COVID-19,” Napier said.

He continued: “Just as recently as last week, the CDC director Robert Redfield said, “The best defense that we currently have against this virus are the important mitigation efforts of wearing a mask, washing your hands, social distancing and being careful around crowds.”

Commissioner Ron Oakley said most of the people he’s heard from favor continuing the requirement for masks.

“I’d say that 80% to 85% of the citizens think it’s too early to remove masks, which is good to hear because I think they realize that it’s not over, and they still need to be taking precautions,” Oakley said.

Pasco County Administrator Dan Biles said steps that have been taken to reduce the spread have been working.

“The county has seen a decrease of about 72%, in its seven-day rolling average, from its peak,” Biles said.

Commissioner Mike Wells said he’s not a big fan of wearing a mask. But, he added: “I wear a mask when I have to. It could possibly save lives.”

At the same time, he has empathy for business owners who are trying to impose the mandate.

“I’ve seen businesses get in arguments with folks. It’s just tough,” Wells said. “I’ve been in WaWa, people yelling. I’ve been in Walmart. I’ve been in Target. Folks yelling. ‘You’ve got to wear a mask. You’ve got the wrong mask,’” Wells said.

But, Wells told Napier that he respects him, and added: “I support it (the mask mandate) until you tell us otherwise.”

Napier said if the numbers were trending down, he would be in a different position.

As it stands now, he told board members he wouldn’t lift the requirement before getting another update, which is expected in October.

Published September 30, 2020

Pasco County seeks new location for food relief

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Pasco County commissioners don’t want a replay of the overwhelming crowds and hours-long

Pasco County officials moved to cancel a federal emergency food program at Land O’ Lakes Recreation Center. They decided the location, with a playground and youth ball fields, would be inappropriate to handle large crowds of applicants and traffic. Another location is being sought. (Kathy Steele)

waits that hampered efforts in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties for residents seeking to qualify for disaster food relief following Hurricane Irma’s destruction.

So, on Oct. 16, Pasco County Administrator Dan Biles prepared to send a letter to the Florida Department of Family and Children Services cancelling plans for a similar event scheduled at the Land O’ Lakes Recreation Center.

The four-day event had been slated to begin on Oct. 22.

Pasco officials now are scouting for a different location, and will work with local DCF officials to identify a more suitable site, said Biles.

Per the agreement, either party can terminate upon three days prior written notice.

As of Oct. 16, about 11,000 people had pre-registered online to participate in the emergency food program, Biles said.

The challenge is finding a large building with sufficient parking in a location that is accessible, he said.

“We (Pasco County) don’t have a location for that,” Biles said.

The better option likely is finding a private property that would meet those requirements, he added.

County commissioners were scheduled to hold a workshop on Oct. 17 in Dade City, with discussion of the emergency food program an added topic. The meeting was scheduled after publication deadlines for The Laker/Lutz News.

County commissioners reluctantly approved the Land O’ Lakes Recreation Center for the federal relief program on Oct. 10.

Their approval came only after an unsuccessful try

to move the emergency food program to a vacant Super Target store, at State Road 54 and Suncoast Parkway.

That didn’t happen because the owner told county staff that the store needs repairs that could not be completed in time.

“So, that’s out of the loop,” Pasco County Commission Chairman Mike Moore said during the Oct. 10 meeting.

Moore and Pasco County Commissioner Kathryn Starkey both indicated that the Target store would be better able to handle a high volume of traffic.

They also voiced concerns that a crush of vehicles and people at the recreation center would slow work commutes and recreational activities scheduled in the afternoon.

A Florida Department of Children and Families official estimated up to 82,000 people could show up to the site during the four-day period.

The Land O’ Lakes Branch Library and several schools also are along Collier Parkway.

Before Biles cancelled the use of the recreation center site, county staff members and DCF officials had been working on plans to limit disruptions at the recreation center.

State workers processing the applications were planning to park their vehicles at a vacant Kmart store on State Road 54. The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office had agreed to assist with traffic.

Pasco commissioners had been told that the 6 p.m. closing time would be met to keep from interfering with regular activities at the center.

Ongoing reports of problems at other sites around the Tampa Bay area also had heightened Pasco officials concerns.

The Food for Florida program is administered by DCF in partnership with the United States Department of Agriculture.

Residents can qualify based on income and losses.

People who currently recei

ve food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, aren’t eligible. Instead, they will be compensated with extra benefits through the monthly program.

For eligible applicants, Disaster-SNAP, or D-SNAP debit-style cards will be issued if the applicant lived or worked in one of the 48 declared federal disaster counties from Sept. 5 to Oct. 4.

Those qualifying can receive assistance for the months of September and October.

For information, visit Dcf.state.fl.us/programs/access

Published Oct. 18, 2017

‘Welcome to Lutz’ sign goes missing

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Jay Muffly, who serves on the Lutz Civic Association, is trying to unravel a mystery, and he’s hoping someone from the public can help.

He’s trying to figure out what happened to the “Welcome to Lutz” sign that, until recently, greeted motorists as they entered the community near County Line Road.

This is what the ‘Welcome to Lutz’ sign looked like before it went missing, which is believed to have happened sometime between April 22 and April 23.
(Courtesy of Jay Muffly)

“My daughter says she thinks it was there, Saturday (on April 22). She thinks. She’s not 100 percent sure,” Muffly said.

It has been missing since at least April 23 at 1:30 p.m., he added.

“I sent a message to the president of the (GFWC Land O’ Lakes) Woman’s Club, to see if she would ask her people,” he said.

Muffly has a number of theories about what might have happened.

“There are so many variables,” he said.

“One of the poles has some rot in it. Those screws may not have been holding. Maybe it had blown, or maybe it was cockeyed,” he said.

So, he put in an inquiry to the Hillsborough County Public Works Department to see if the crew that maintains the right-of-way moved it.

Muffly things the crew may have reasoned: “Well, this is falling apart, we better take it, or something.

Or, he said, “A trailer truck could have gone by there at a high rate of speed and maybe blown it off.”

The sign that is missing was “at County Line Road, where the turn lane starts to go to Target, just before the first oak tree,” Muffly said. It was installed by the Lutz Civic Association.

He estimates it will cost about $2,500 to replace it.

He’s made a report to the community resource deputy, who said he’d look around, and ask others to look and listen around.

At this point, Muffly said he has no clue where it could be.

“It’d be nice if someone did know,” he said.

Anyone who knows of the whereabouts of the sign is welcome to call Muffly at (813) 949-2224.

Published May 3, 2017

Commissioner seeks to keep Target open

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Pasco County Commission Chairwoman Kathryn Starkey isn’t ready to concede that Target must close its store in Odessa.

The national discount chain recently announced the closure of 13 stores across the country for poor sales performance.

The Odessa location, at 16400 State Road 54, is expected to shut its doors on Jan. 30, displacing more than 140 employees.

Target officials say their workers will be offered positions at other stores.

Starkey has been trying to change Target’s mind.

“I let them know they are looking backward not forward,” said Starkey at the Nov. 17 meeting of the Pasco County Commission in Dade City. “We need to have a deeper dealing with Target and show them in person what’s going on in this area.”

There is no word on whether Target will reconsider its decision or send corporate representatives for a tour.

But, Starkey said the closure would be a “black eye” for Pasco County and Target.

“We’d like to move the discount to the next level, and move our Target off the closure list,” she said.

The super center in Odessa opened in 2006, only a couple of years before the economy tanked. Pasco County now is booming with new development, both commercial and residential.

That likely wasn’t a factor in Target’s decision.

Many big box stores are looking to downsize in an era of Internet sales, said Richard Gehring, the county’s strategic policy administrator.

In fact, even as Target plans 13 closings, the company also is building 15 new stores in the next year. Only two are super centers. The others range in size from about 16,000 square feet to 29,000 square feet, according to Target.

At more than 120,000 square feet, the Odessa location, with a garden center and parking area, could be attractive to another business that wants to move quickly into ready-made space, said Gehring.

“It’s a negative. It could also be a positive,” he said. “It’s a major opportunity.”

Published November 25, 2015

Target store to close in January

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A Target store in Odessa is one of 13 stores that the national discount chain plans to close in January, according to an announcement from Target’s corporate headquarters.

The store, at 16400 State Road 54, opened nearly a decade ago. But within two years of its opening, the economy took a steep dive.

Now, despite a renewed boom in development and an improving economy, Target considers the Odessa store and 12 others in the nation to be poor performers.

This Target store in Odessa is one of 13 across the country that the national chain plans to close. (B.C. Manion/Staff Photo)
This Target store in Odessa is one of 13 across the country that the national chain plans to close.
(B.C. Manion/Staff Photo)

“The decision to close a Target store is not made lightly,” said Kristy Welker, a Target spokeswoman who responded to an email inquiry from The Laker/Lutz News. “We typically decide to close a store after careful consideration of the long-term financial performance of a particular location. Typically, the decision to close a store is a result of seeing several years of decreasing profitability.”

The 146 employees at the Odessa store will be offered transfers to other Target stores, Welker said.

They were notified of the closure on Nov. 2. The store’s last day will be Jan. 30.

Other Target stores on the closure list include locations in Texas, Arizona, California and Kentucky.

Target Corporation owns the property, which Pasco County appraises at about $6 million. Taxes due for 2015 are about $116,000.

Target representatives didn’t respond to a request regarding future plans for the property.

While Target is closing some stores, 16 stores have recently opened or are slated to open between October 2015 and October 2017, according to a list provided by company representatives.

While two stores are super-sized at about 122,000 square feet and 143,000 square feet, most of the others are smaller than Target’s usual footprint.

The smaller stores range in size from about 16,000 square feet to about 29,000 square feet.

Most are located in California or the Northeast. None on the list are in Florida.

Published November 18, 2015

No second drive-thru for Suncoast Parkway McDonald’s?

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The McDonald’s fast-food restaurant chain has reinvented its drive-thru in recent years to allow two lanes for those seeking to get something to eat on the go.

However, the McDonald’s on State Road 54 near its interchange with Suncoast Parkway may not be joining the ranks of those other restaurants anytime soon.

Pasco County officials are recommending denying a request by McDonald’s Corp. to add that lane to its location at 16330 State Road 54 in Odessa. Their reason? Someone who decides to pull out of the drive-thru line without completing their order won’t have any way to do it.

Members of the Pasco County Development Review Committee are set to discuss the McDonald’s proposal during its regular meeting Dec. 4. The restaurant wants to eliminate a 10-foot bypass lane around the back of the restaurant — and ultimately its drive-thru line — because otherwise, it wouldn’t have enough room to create the double-lane drive-thru.

McDonald’s representative Stephanie Tyrrell filed documents with the county saying an existing traffic pass-through behind the restaurant used primarily for a Target department store, would provide the ability for customers to bypass the drive-thru lane, without the need of having it specifically on the restaurant’s site.

“However, McDonald’s drive-through customers are familiar with the operation of McDonald’s side-by side drive-through lanes,” Tyrrell wrote in her filings. “McDonald’s drive-through customers are aware that if other drive-through customers behind need to exit the lane, they have to remove their vehicles from the lane and provide the space necessary for those customer in need to leave. The customers that remove their vehicles can return to the drive-through lane by circulating around the building.”

Tyrrell points out a similar situation the company faced with a McDonald’s on North Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa where a double-lane drive-thru was created last March, with vehicles needing to bypass using an existing pass-through lane for a neighboring retail center. Over the past six months, that drive-thru has “operated successfully,” she added, acting as a good indicator the proposed changes in Odessa would work as well.

However, county senior development review technician Dorothy Masumian tells the development review committee that it would create chaos for customers in the McDonald’s parking lot — especially during the times when someone wants to get out of the drive-thru line.

“With the proposed second drive-through lane, there will be several vehicles in the first and second drive-through lanes that will not be accessible to a bypass lane, and a few vehicles that will not be able to exit the first drive-through lane without asking the vehicles ahead in the queue to move her/his vehicle from the lane,” Masumian said. “This scenario is not in the best interest of the public’s health, safety and welfare in cases of emergencies and/or unforeseen circumstances.”

The McDonald’s is owned by Brickman Management Co. Inc. of Port Richey, which owns eight restaurants in Pasco and Hillsborough counties.

McDonald’s will have a chance to plead its case in front of Pasco County administrator Michele Baker and the rest of the development review committee in a meeting set for Dec. 4 at 1:30 p.m., at 8731 Citizens Drive in New Port Richey.

Pasco County officials initially approved the plan to build the McDonald’s at Suncoast Crossing in 2006, with the restaurant opening a year later.

CareerSource job fair attracts 315 people

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More than 300 people decided to “race to work,” taking part in a job fair through CareerSource Pasco Hernando.

RACE to Work — the Reemployment Assistance Community Event — attracted 315 job-seekers and 50 employers, according to a release. It took place at three sites in Dade City, New Port Richey and Spring Hill, and was designed to help pair people who have received or exhausted unemployment benefits, with employers with job openings.

“These events are the first step to developing relationships within the community,” said Rick Casey, the director of career and testing services at Pasco-Hernando State College, in a release.

Employers taking part included Target, Alumni Guard, Toys R Us, Communication Concepts and Sparton Electronics, as well as the county’s largest employer, Pasco County Schools.

Each industry was looking to hire between three and 70 new employees for both seasonal and permanent positions.

For more information on services provided to job-seekers and employers, visit CareerSourcePascoHernando.com, or call Sunnye Fredia at (352) 247-0761.

Growth at The Grove may depend on traffic light

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Hiring has begun at a Chuck E. Cheese’s store now under construction at The Grove at Wesley Chapel, a shopping center opened at the height of the recent housing boom, which is now growing again.

How much the shopping center bordering Interstate 75 will expand, however, depends on the cooperation developers get from Pasco County officials.

Future growth at The Grove at Wesley Chapel depends on help from the county to keep traffic moving in and out of the shopping complex off County Road 54. (Fred Bellet/Photo)
Future growth at The Grove at Wesley Chapel depends on help from the county to keep traffic moving in and out of the shopping complex off County Road 54. (Fred Bellet/Photo)

“The challenge we have with all the major future development out of The Grove centers around the fact that the project lacks a traffic signal at the main entrance,” Jim Mazzarelli, managing director at Genesis Real Estate Advisers — the company working with The Grove developers — told members of the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce last week. “As our engineers say, we don’t have an ingress problem, we have an egress problem. You can get in, but you can’t get out.”

The Grove has two entrances off County Road 54, using Oakley Boulevard less than 1,000 feet from the I-75 interchange, and Gateway Boulevard, located another 800 feet or so from there, where customers can find a traffic signal.

Getting to Gateway is not easy, however. Shoppers have to leave The Grove, turn onto Dayflower Boulevard, and then turn onto Gateway on the other side of an Econo Lodge. Anyone wanting to drive just straight out on Oakley either has to make a right turn, or journey across three lanes of traffic to make a U-turn at Gateway.

“It’s a really awkward work-around,” Mazzarelli said. “It might work for everyone who is there now, but it doesn’t work for the big anchors who are going to come in and invest millions in a store. That’s a hurdle we’ve been working to overcome for the better part of three-and-a-half years. We’re getting there, but it’s a long road.”

One 17-acre piece of land on the southern end of The Grove property, for example, is set up for a large box store, like a Lowe’s or Target, Mazzarelli said. The land has been vacant since The Grove opened in 2007, but developers are in negotiations with a large department store “with a well-known name.”

Such a deal, however, is contingent with adding a traffic light for the Oakley connection to County Road 54. The Grove developers already have spent more than $250,000 in studies and other work to get that light in, but it still hasn’t happened.

“We are not taking this lightly by any means,” Mazzarelli said. “It is a critical element to the center as it stands today, especially right now when it’s only half built-out.”

Although 54 is now a county road, there are still Florida Department of Transportation restrictions in place since it controls the traffic lights for vehicles looking to access I-75. Generally DOT wants 1,260 feet separating traffic lights, and by adding one on Oakley, that would put three traffic lights in a stretch of road totaling a little more than 2,000 feet.

“If you put in another stop light, that and the other two stop lights already there creates the possibility of traffic backing up into the off-ramps of the interstate,” county spokesman Douglas Tobin said. “We are reviewing that, but one solution might be if you put a stop light in there, we have an agreement that, in the future, if it backs up, we’d be able to remove it.”

Other hindrances to expansion are restrictions The Grove had to negotiate through when it signed leases with some of its big tenants, like Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Old Navy. That was what stopped the Pasco County Tax Collector’s office from opening a new location at the center, and also kept the Pepin Academy charter school from considering some space.

“We had an idea to create this nice little educational court that could’ve been sealed off” from the rest of the complex, Mazzarelli said. “We went to the anchors and did a great deal of negotiating with them, but we couldn’t get the anchors to sign off on it.”

However, those restrictions could change in the near future. Many of the anchor leases are up for renewal, and since some stores would like the chance to upgrade their facilities, that gives The Grove a little bargaining power at the negotiation table.

“In addition to giving the anchors some money so they can refurbish their stores, we are getting a lot of these restrictions relaxed,” Mazzarelli said. “That will have obviously long-term benefits for the center, because the fewer restrictions we have, the more flexibility we will have, and the most success we’ll have in this space.”

Published October 29, 2014

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