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Some things truly are priceless

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Remember finding a coin or arrowhead and wondering if it’s worth anything?

Imagine having a large document signed by Abraham Lincoln, passed down from one generation to the next, and not really knowing its value or its history with the nation’s 16th president.

For now, it has a safe and protected place in the home of 84-year-old Martha M. Fountain, a lifelong resident of Zephyrhills.

Dated December 15, 1864, Martha Fountain proudly holds ‘The President’s Thanks and Certificate of Honorable Service’ signed by Abraham Lincoln at the Executive Mansion in Washington City.
(Doug Sanders)

She lives in a community that was founded in 1909 by Capt. Howard B. Jeffries as a retirement colony for Union Civil War Veterans.

A newspaper man himself, Jeffries would not have missed the opportunity to write about Martha.

She has been the artifact’s owner since her husband’s death in 2016.

Married for 31 years to Guy Joseph Fountain Jr., Martha remembers the document hanging in her husband’s office of the Best Way Electric Company in Dade City.

“I’m not much into history,” Martha explained during a recent interview in her home, with her caregiver at her side. “I don’t know much about my husband’s family history,” she added.

Following six months of research with several military websites and The History Center at the Pioneer Florida Museum and Village north of Dade City, the remarkable life of the man named on the Lincoln document begins to emerge.

It turns out Guy Fountain had a great-great uncle named Samuel Warren Fountain.

He was only 15-years-old at the outbreak of the American Civil War on April 12, 1861.

Samuel had to wait until 1864 before joining an infantry of the 8th Corps of the Army of West Virginia, which became famous for having future U.S. presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley serving in its ranks.

As part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864, Samuel Warren Fountain served under Maj. Gen. David Hunter during the Civil War. Hunter later achieved fame as the president of the military commission trying the conspirators involved with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
(Robert Massey)

Samuel Fountain graduated from West Point on June 15, 1870, four months before the death of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Lexington, Virginia.

Commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the 8th U.S. Cavalry, he was active for the next 20 years in military campaigns against Geronimo and Sitting Bull.

He once described a skirmish in New Mexico as “rough country where horses cannot go.”

During the Spanish-American War, Samuel Fountain served first commanding a squadron of the 8th Cavalry in Cuba.

As Adjutant General in the Philippine Islands, a captain on his staff was John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, who later served as the commander of the American Expeditionary Force on the Western Front during World War I.

In 1904, when Fountain was a lieutenant colonel, he was put in charge of security at the St. Louis World’s Fair.

According to the Arlington National Cemetery website, a local newspaper reported this:

“Under his direction the members of the guard controlled the great mass of people…and on the last day of the Fair, when disorder and vandalism were feared, every officer and member of the guard was on duty, and so placed that when the lights were out and the World’s Fair at St. Louis had passed into history, not a disorderly act had occurred, or a dollar’s worth of property had been destroyed.”

Ironically, Geronimo was also at the fair as a living exhibit intended as a “monument to the progress of civilization.” Under guard, he made bows and arrows while Pueblo women seated beside him pounded corn and made pottery. Geronimo also sold autographs and posed for pictures.

President Abraham Lincoln’s signature remains legible after 154 years.
(Doug Sanders)

Samuel Fountain was a brigadier general a year before the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in the nation’s capital. He gave a speech about Abraham Lincoln during his appearance before the Union League Club of Philadelphia on February 9, 1921:

“Other men have reunited a divided nation, or liberated an enslaved race, or carried to conclusion a fratricidal war, or swept immoral institutions from the earth by consummate Statesmanship; but no man ever combined and carried through, chiefly by the clarity of his mind and the purity of his character, several such gigantic enterprises in half a decade.”

Samuel Fountain died on Nov. 15, 1930, five months after the birth of Guy Fountain, and six years before the death of Capt. Howard Jeffries in New York City on March 20, 1936.

Martha Fountain recalls turning down an offer to sell the Lincoln document still in her possession.

But, with no children, she is undecided about its future.

At this point, she’s not sure what she will do with it. Before doing anything, she plans to consult her lawyer, John Council.

Council has had his own brush with preserving history, having a law office in Dade City at the historic red brick jailhouse, where the last legal hanging in Pasco County was carried out on Jan. 4, 1918.

Baldomero Lopez was more than a local hero

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When motorists drive past the Baldomero Lopez State Veterans Nursing Home in Land O’ Lakes, chances are they won’t know much about the history of the man for whom the facility is named.

That’s where Bill Dotterer comes in.

This iconic image was taken of 1st Lt. Baldomero Lopez leading troops in an invasion at Inchon during the Korean War. Lopez died minutes after the photo was taken.
(Bill Dotterer)

He’s a volunteer with the Tampa Bay History Center and he shared the story of 1st Lt. Baldomero Lopez’s life and his heroic actions during a talk earlier this year at the Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library. The history center and library jointly presented the free program.

Lopez may not be widely known in many circles, but he is in the U.S. Marine Corps, Dotterer said.

“Lopez is a very important person in Tampa Bay’s history,” the speaker added, noting Lopez was the first person who grew up in Tampa to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Dotterer shared details of Lopez’s early years.

Lopez grew up during a time when Ybor City and West Tampa were vibrant places, with a thriving cigar industry, with people living there who had come from Spain, Cuba, Italy and Sicily, Dotterer said. There were social clubs, baseball teams and dominoes, he noted, and Lopez grew up in that milieu.

“In the neighborhood where he lived, he was well known as a baseball player. He had a paper route. He was just an All-American kid,” Dotterer said.

Lopez also was interested in the military.

He attended Hillsborough High School, where he was in charge of the ROTC program. He marched in the Gasparilla Parade one year, leading all of the junior ROTC units, Dotterer said.

Baldomero Lopez
Company A, 1st Battalion
5th Marines, 1st Marine Division
Born: Aug, 23, 1925
Died: Sept. 15, 1950

The speaker noted that much of his talk was based on information he gleaned from a conversation he had with E.J. Salcines, a former judge and noted Tampa historian.

Lopez was third in his class when he graduated from Hillsborough High in 1943. He decided to enlist in the Navy, Dotterer said.

Initially, Lopez was sent to Quantico, Virginia, but he was pulled from that program and sent to Annapolis for an officer training program, Dotterer added. Next, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps, as a second lieutenant.

By then, it was 1947 and the war had ended.

Lopez was sent to China, to lead a mortar platoon, and after that, he returned to Camp Pendleton, where he received orders to become an instructor at the Basic School in Quantico, Dotterer said.

Lopez was still at Pendleton when the Korean War broke out and his unit was assigned to go overseas, Dotterer said. Lopez wanted to go with them.

Dotterer then shared this account, which he said came from Salcines.

Lopez was a on a train, heading from California to Virginia, Dotterer said.

“Every place that the train stopped, he got off and called and said, ‘Please change my orders. I want to go with my unit.’

“When he finally gets to Quantico, they say, ‘OK, you can rejoin your unit.’,” Dotterer said.

Lopez heads back to California, but at that point, his unit is already gone. Somehow, he catches up with them, across the Pacific, Dotterer continued.

The Korean War began when the North Koreans attacked south of this 38th parallel, which is what divides North Korea and South Korea, Dotterer said.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur was the head commander of allied forces in Korea, and he decided to take back Seoul, Dotterer said.

The invasion is made at Inchon Harbor, near Seoul.

It wasn’t an ideal place to invade because it had the third-highest tides in the world, going from zero to 40 feet in a day. It also had 40-foot seawalls around it, which the Marines had to build ladders to scale, Dotterer said.

“The anchorage, itself, where all of the ships would end up for the invasion, was pretty small. It was pretty tight to get in there,” he added.

At the same time, however, the limiting factors at Inchon also may have made it a good place to invade because the enemy would never expect it, he said.

Lopez demonstrated courage
Lopez, who was 25, was on one of the landing ships.

Before the invasion, he wrote his parents a final letter, not knowing it would be his final letter, Dotterer said.

“Basically, he said, ‘Hey, I chose to do this, so if anything happens, I decided I wanted to be a Marine officer, so here I am. Secondly, please send me some good cigars.’

“On Sept. 15, the invasion begins. He is with Company A, First Battalion, Fifth Marines, and they’re going into Red Beach,” Dotterer said.

This historic marker in downtown Tampa commemorates the heroic actions that 1st Lt. Baldomero Lopez took during the Korean War.
(B.C. Manion)

There were two hills, which meant the enemy was at the top of the hill shooting down.

An iconic photograph, taken during the invasion, shows Lopez leading his troops up a wooden ladder over the seawall, Dotterer said.

“Sad to say, this is minutes before he is killed. He’s leading his troops over the seawall. There’s a machine-gun, automatic type position here, that they are trying to take out.

“He had actually pulled a pin on a grenade to throw it into the pill box,” Dotterer said.

Instead, “he gets hit with automatic weapon fire. One in the shoulder. One in the abdomen or chest. He’s shot down. That grenade has the pin out.”

Within seconds, Lopez decided to save his troops. He scooped the grenade under his body.

“He took the full brunt of the grenade in the explosion. His troops were essentially saved. They went on to take that pillbox,” Dotterer said.

Since then, Lopez has been honored in various ways.

There’s a historic marker commemorating Lopez’s heroics in downtown Tampa and there’s a memorial for him at Hillsborough High School. There’s a public elementary school named after him in Seffner and there’s a memorial to Lopez at Veterans Memorial Park.

In 2012, the Tampa Bay History Center received a Korean War Veterans Medal on behalf of Lopez, presented by Jong-Hoon Kim, a member of the 19th National Assembly and Chair of the International Relations Committee, Saenuri Party. Kim was accompanied by Choi Young-Jin, the Korean Ambassador to the United Nations and other Korean Dignitaries.

Additionally, there’s Lopez Hall at the Basic School aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, a dining facility that was dedicated in 2013, and there’s a navy ship named in his honor.

And, the Marine Corps Association and Foundation, (MCA&F), bestows The Lieutenant Baldomero Lopez Honor Graduate Award to the Marine of each graduating company from the Basic School who demonstrates the highest potential for future leadership and responsibility in the Marine Corps.

In essence, Dotterer said, “he was an amazing hero.”

Published June 6, 2018

Figure skating heats up in Wesley Chapel

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As Tampa Bay becomes synonymous with hockey this time of year, another ice-based sport is heating up in the region.

For the first time, the Florida Sports Foundation selected Pasco County to be the host community for the annual Sunshine State Games Figure Skating Championships.

The competition took place at Florida Hospital Center Ice in Wesley Chapel, from May 18 through May 20.

The games drew more than 300 male and female skaters of all ages, with skaters and their families trekking all the way from the First Coast to South Florida, and everywhere in-between, to compete in the statewide, Olympic-style program.

The majority of the participants were girls between the ages of 10 to 14.

Ten-year-old Jordan Scott, of Wesley Chapel, won the juvenile girls free skate event and was a recipient of the Betty Stark Award as the games’ top juvenile skater.

Skating sisters shine
A pair of young sisters from Wesley Chapel fared among the best.

Twelve-year-old Haley Scott and 10-year-old Jordan Scott each earned gold medals in their respective competitions.

Haley won the novice ladies division with a personal-best in the free skate (84.96 total score).

Jordan, meanwhile, won the juvenile girls free skate event (48.75 score) and was a recipient of the Betty Stark Award as the games’ top juvenile skater.

Haley won the same award back in 2016 for first-place finishes in the juvenile girls free skate and intermediate ladies short events.

She also won the games’ Dorothy Dodson Award in 2017, named after the late long-time figure skating judge that recognizes the highest combined score in the intermediate ladies free skating and short program events.

The success in Florida has translated to the national stage, for Haley.

Between October and January, she skated in the South Atlantic Regional Championships in Ashburn, Virginia (second place, Intermediate Ladies); the Eastern Sectional Championships in Foxborough, Massachusetts (second place, Intermediate Ladies); and in the 2018 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, California (10th place Intermediate Ladies).

Twelve-year-old Haley Scott, of Wesley Chapel, won the novice ladies division with a personal-best in the free skate (84.96 total score). Her younger sister, Jordan Scott, 10, also earned a gold medal in the juvenile free skate. (Courtesy of Julie Scott)

But, her proudest skating moment came the year before, when she earned a bronze medal in the juvenile girls division at the 2017 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Kansas City, Missouri.

Ranked among the nation’s top young figure skaters, the Olympics may be a reality someday.

“My goal is just to keep having fun, keep pushing to my potential, just enjoying the journey,” she said. “The Olympics would be great.”

The Scott sisters have each been skating for about six years, when they first tried it out at a friend’s birthday party.

They’ve been hooked ever since.

“I like the challenge of it. Each day you get to do something new and try to push yourself,” Haley said.

Added Jordan: “I also love competing. It’s really fun to ice skate.”

In the juvenile division, figure skater Kaitlyn Wright, 6, left, talks with friend, Briana Reich, 7, of Wellington. The two girls are coached by Lauren Salzlechner, also of Wellington. Wright and her family may be moving to Wesley Chapel in order to live near Florida Hospital Center Ice. (Fred Bellet)

A convenient training ground
The skating wunderkinds, along with their mother Julie Scott, moved to Wesley Chapel from Port Orange, chiefly for the offerings at Florida Hospital Center Ice.

Labeled the largest ice sports facility in the Southeastern U.S., the 150,500-square-foot, two-story complex features five ice rinks — an Olympic rink (200 feet by 100 feet), three National Hockey League-sized rinks (200 feet by 85 feet) and a mini rink.

While living in Port Orange, the family would commute three hours everyday to a skating facility in Jacksonville.

They made the daily drive for about four years, until Florida Hospital Center Ice launched in January 2017.

Now they’re just minutes away from sheets of ice.

“This facility is probably the best in the southeast right now. It really is. You really can’t beat it,” Julie Scott said.

The Scott sisters, who are home-schooled, use the Wesley Chapel facility about six days a week for practice and training. Their team of coaches is also stationed there.

“They’ve got ballet here. They’ve got yoga. They have it all. They have a trainer. It’s all in-house, which is really nice,” their mother said.

Other skating families are relocating to Wesley Chapel to access those opportunities.

Josh and Marissa Wright and their two children soon plan to move to the area from Boynton Beach. They want to be within a 15-minute drive of Center Ice.

They recently made the 3 ½-hour drive from South Florida so their 6-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, could participate in the games’ basic series event.

When Josh first toured the facility, he was awestruck with the complex located off Interstate 75 at the State Road 56 interchange.

“It’s amazing. It’s unbelievable. I mean, there’s nothing like this,” he said, adding the facility his family currently uses only has one rink.

Florida’s figure skating surge
The first Sunshine State Games Figure Skating Championships began 32 years ago in Clearwater with less than 60 skaters.

It’s grown nearly fivefold since, and has been hosted at several other locations over the years, including Tampa, Ellenton, Jacksonville and West Palm Beach, among others.

Twelve-year-old Avery Kelley and her coach, Steve Belanger, both of Jupiter, made the trip to the annual Sunshine State Games Figure Skating Championships at Florida Hospital Center Ice in Wesley Chapel. Kelley, a competitor in the intermediate division, skates with “elegance and poise,” according to her coach. (Fred Bellet)

Betty Stark has served as the games’ figure skating director since its inception.

She said it’s “a good tune-up” for skaters with aspirations of reaching qualifying competitions, like regionals and sectionals, later in the year.

“A lot of the kids that participate in the Sunshine State Games get the opportunity, if they place, to go on to the State Games of America,” she said, noting several homegrown skaters have wound up competing nationally and internationally.

Stark, a former club figure skater herself at the University of Florida, has also witnessed the sport’s surge in the state across the past three decades.

“It’s been taking off a lot.” she said. “The number of rinks and the interest in figure skating has increased a lot. Coaches have been coming down here starting up programs. Guests coaches from across the country love to come down for the warm weather…and some of them just wind up staying here; and they bring their expertise from their years of skating and their coaching.”

Meantime, the figure skating event may remain here for the foreseeable future.

Pasco County Tourism Manager Consuelo Sanchez said the county plans to bid to keep the state games in Wesley Chapel for the next few years.

“We are interested to keep it here because it is the most important (figure skating) competition in the whole state of Florida,” she said.

Further, the event may be a springboard for drawing even larger figure skating competitions at Florida Hospital Center Ice.

“The good thing about bringing the Sunshine Games is we’re going to show that we can host big events,” Sanchez said.

“We’re already having conversations with USA Figure Skating to try and bring regionals and, hopefully, national championships here. But, they wanted to see that we have the capability of hosting these events, and this is a great experience.”

The facility is already no stranger to the big stage.

It was the training home for the USA Hockey Women’s National Team that won gold in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

It has also hosted multiple National USA Hockey championships and is the training home for international athletes — including six-time French national champion figure skating pair Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres.

And, it’s bucking the notion that ice sports are reserved for northern states and colder climates.

Said Julie Scott, “Everybody always asks us, ‘Why ice skating in Florida?’ But, why not? You’ve got these great facilities.”

Published June 6, 2018

The Shops at Wiregrass sold to QIC

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The Shops at Wiregrass in Wesley Chapel is among 10 regional malls that will be sold by Forest City Realty Trust, Inc., for a total of about $3.2 billion, according to an announcement by Forest City.

The buyer is Australia-based QIC, an investment partner of Forest City. QIC currently owns about 49 percent of the Wiregrass mall, with Forest City holding 51 percent ownership, according to Greg Lenners, the mall’s general manager.

The Shops at Wiregrass is being sold, along with nine other regional malls, but it will be business as usual for shoppers and merchants. (File)

QIC has been a partner with Forest Realty for about two years, Lenners said.

“As far as merchants at Wiregrass and customers, nobody will notice anything different,” Lenners said. “You’re not going to see any changes other than ongoing improvements at center court.”

In other words, it’s business as usual.

The sale of six of the malls, including Wiregrass, is expected to close by the end of the year for about $1.24 billion. No information was provided on the value of the individual malls.

The remaining four malls will be sold for about $1.93 billion as Forest City “secures replacement assets,” according to a news release about the sale.

Many of the malls are in California, with others in Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Nevada and West Virginia.

Per the agreement, Forest City will transfer its retail operations, including most of its personnel, to QIC.

So far, leasing, marketing, tenant coordination, legal and human resources have been transitioned to QIC. Accounting, property management and other functions will transfer as closings are completed.

“We view the U.S. real estate market and the retail sector in particular as a strong investment opportunity,” said Steve Leigh, in a written statement. He is QIC’s managing director of global real estate.

QIC began its partnership with Forest City in 2013.

Once the sale of the 10 malls to QIC, and the company’s New York specialty retail centers to Madison International is complete, Forest City will no longer have shopping centers in its portfolio.

“We are very pleased to achieve this key milestone with our partner,” said David J. LaRue in a written statement. LaRue is Forest City president and chief executive officer. “This transaction is a win-win for all parties, as we continue to focus our business on urban residential, office and mixed-use assets, and QIC acquires full ownership of a U.S. retail presence with high quality regional malls in strong markets.”

For more information, visit Forestcity.net.

Published Oct. 11, 2017

 

Ice arena offers plenty of room, action

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There’s no shortage of activities — or room— at the newly minted Florida Hospital Center Ice.

From learning to skate, to playing hockey and curling, there’s plenty to do at the much-ballyhooed facility, which measures 150,500 square feet.

On Jan. 28, during the facility’s opening weekend, hundreds of youth and adults packed into what has been described as “the largest ice sports facility in the Southeastern United States.”

During a water break, Mason Cessna, 9, of Valrico, gets a quick swig during the 9- and 10-year-old session. Coaches were watching the individual abilities of each participant in the ‘Squirts’ division.
(Fred Bellet)

Patrons came from as far away Brooksville, Valrico and Lithia to check out the complex, at 3173 Cypress Ridge Blvd., which is off Interstate 75 at the State Road 56 interchange in Wesley Chapel.

Others visited from nearby Lutz, Land O’ Lakes and New Tampa.

And, while two of the complex’s five rinks remain under construction, there were plenty of options to accommodate ice enthusiasts of all kinds.

The Olympic rink, which measures 200 feet by 100 feet, was fully occupied with public skaters and learn-to-skate participants.

Two NHL-sized rinks (200 feet by 85 feet), meanwhile, were teeming with hours of youth recreational hockey evaluations and adult pickup games.

During breaks in ice action, spectators marveled at the fully stocked pro shop and other amenities at the two-story facility.

Gordie Zimmermann, managing partner of Florida Hospital Center Ice, is one contented man.

“We’ve exceeded our expectations from the get-go,” Zimmermann said. “Like participation for the Learn to Skate, everything’s almost double of what we thought it would be coming out of the starting block, so it’s been terrific.”

That, too, applies to registration figures for the center’s adult hockey leagues.

Florida Hospital Center Ice has attracted a large number of skaters, taking to the ice.
(Fred Bellet)

The initial eight-week “reduced” session has 25 teams signed up, consisting of beginner, intermediate and advanced leagues.

“We thought we would maybe get 10 teams in the first adult (league),” Zimmermann said. He’s elated with the current registration figures.

Additionally, more teams are anticipated to sign up once 12-week sessions commence.

Besides recreation league offerings, the center also will be home base for several other area-based teams and organizations.

The Wiregrass Ranch and Freedom high school club teams have signed up. The same goes for the University of South Florida Ice Bulls, of the American Collegiate Hockey Association.

The Tampa Bay Junior Hockey Club, an elite training development program, also has jumped aboard.

Consequently, a bevy of regional and international tournaments and camps are in the works, Zimmermann said.

One of the more intriguing on the docket is the World V-Red Prospect Advanced Camp, from July 16 through July 21.

Labeled as Canada’s No. 1 hockey program, it’s the first time ever the weeklong event will be hosted in the United States.

“The biggest thing that we’re doing,” Zimmermann said, “is that we’re bringing in major tournaments through the summer, and we’re going to bring in another one that’s going to be huge for the area for hockey.”

Rob Passante, left, of Wesley Chapel, has the duty of tying ice skates for 10-year-old Tucker McKinney, of Seffner, as Tucker’s brother, Luke McKinney, 4, looks on. Tucker is friends with Passante’s son, Dominic.
(Fred Bellet)

The complex, too, has drawn the eyes of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who’ve signed on as program rink sponsors.

No plans are in the works for the Lightning to relocate their practices from the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon, however.

Other visiting NHL teams, though, may practice at the Wesley Chapel complex during their road trips to Florida; multiple NHL organizations have already expressed interest in doing so, Zimmermann said.

Still, there will be ample ice time for everyone — even the average skater or recreational hockey player.

“We can do a lot more…and still keep our public skate and our learn-to-skate program going; we don’t have to cancel it,” Zimmermann explained.

Other key features of the complex, interestingly, don’t even require ice.

Rinks can be converted to accommodate large corporate events and dry floor sports, such as basketball, volleyball and box lacrosse.

“We have a sub-floor that goes over the ice,” Zimmermann said, “and a sport court goes on top of one of the NHL rinks. We can put it on any one, and we can also do it on the mini-rink.”

There’s also a six-lane, 90-yard running track, and a 2,600-square-foot fitness facility.

All those features, Zimmermann said, set the facility apart from other complexes.

Kim Payne, communications director at Florida Hospital Center Ice, watches a practice session from an observation area on the second-floor.
(Fred Bellet)

“Really, there’s nothing comparable to this south of New York all the way through the West Coast,” Zimmermann said. “It’s pretty amazing.”

Shari Klutz, skating the center’s program director, agrees.

“I love this facility,” said Klutz, who previously served as figure skating director at the Ashburn Ice House in Virginia. “They thought of a lot of key things, and made it unique. It has every training aspect you could need.”

The ice complex has been a long time coming for the area.

Previously, many Pasco and north Hillsborough residents would trek to Brandon to get their hockey and skating fix. Others may have used the Clearwater Ice Arena or the Tampa Bay Skating Academy in Oldsmar.

Florida Hospital Center Ice was expected to open in October 2015. However, various permitting and technological setbacks stalled the $28 million capital investment project.

Zimmermann pointed to a lengthy commissioning period, balancing of the building and “other things out of our control.”

“I wouldn’t say they were necessarily delays,” Zimmermann said. “It’s a very complicated building.”

He added: “We would have loved to be open before the (Christmas) holiday, but we’re going to be here a long time, so we wanted to do it right.”

With a relative dearth of ice complexes in the Bay Area, Center Ice is forecasted as an economic driver for both Wesley Chapel and Pasco County.

The county already has five hotels in development, including two directly adjacent to the complex.

Officials believe the massive facility will attract 1.5 million to 2 million visitors annually, with 40 percent coming from outside Tampa Bay.

Though open and operable, the entire complex is still not fully complete.

Finishing touches are still being made to the fitness center and two rinks. The full-service restaurant, Top Shelf Sports Lounge, is slated to open sometime this month.

Published February 22, 2017

Sometimes the best gifts come in camouflage

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For three unsuspecting siblings attending Saint Anthony School in San Antonio, a student assembly marking an early start for Christmas break on Dec. 19 was more than it seemed.

It actually was cover for a carefully orchestrated holiday surprise: The return of their father, U.S. Army Col. Peter Quinn.

U.S. Army Col. Peter Quinn returns from deployment in Afghanistan just in time for the holidays, surprising his children on stage in front of 200 classmates at Saint Anthony School in San Antonio. The officer’s wife Kelly, left, joins him along with two of his children: Gabriel, 13, and Grace, 11. (Courtesy of Bryant L. Griffin)
U.S. Army Col. Peter Quinn returns from deployment in Afghanistan just in time for the holidays, surprising his children on stage in front of 200 classmates at Saint Anthony School in San Antonio. The officer’s wife Kelly, left, joins him along with two of his children: Gabriel, 13, and Grace, 11.
(Courtesy of Bryant L. Griffin)

Quinn, who just returned from Bagram, Afghanistan for a two-week leave, was determined to give his children a present they wouldn’t forget, especially since the deployment — his second to the region — resulted in nearly a year of separation from his Wesley Chapel family.

Working with the Army Intelligence and Security Command in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, Quinn currently serves as a senior contracting officer’s representative providing linguistic support to U.S. forces in Afghanistan. His deployment ends next May, when he plans to return stateside and retire from the Army after 30 years of service.

His secretive homecoming came together with help from his wife Kelly, and the school.

“When I cooked up this idea several months ago and presented it to Kelly, she said, ‘You’re crazy,’” Peter Quinn said. “I said, ‘We could make this happen. We can make one of those special moments for Saint Anthony’s.

“I wanted to do something special for my kids. Every military dad wants to do that.”

However, meeting the surprise’s tight schedule after 20 hours of flying during two days of transit was tricky. His 10:30 a.m. Tampa arrival only allowed him a little more than an hour to reach the school.

The students assembled in the school’s parish center were set to head home at noon after prayers and announcements. Like Peter Quinn’s children, the students also were unaware of his imminent homecoming.

“I was a little bit worried because I almost missed my connecting flight,” Quinn said. “I was five minutes out from it taking off. I was running to my gate … because I wasn’t going to miss this.”

His children — Grace, 11; Faith, 11; and Gabriel 13 — were seated amongst their 200 classmates when Quinn, dressed in his camouflage duty uniform, suddenly emerged from the curtained stage. The reveal left them stunned.

Quinn, bearing the widest of grins, met their dash to the stage with a long-awaited embrace. The hugs were prolonged and repeated as cheers and applause quickly swept through the assembled students.

“It’s just really exciting,” said Fran Shiver, a Zephyrhills parent of a fourth-grade daughter at the school. “I think it’s something that just goes back to family. It’s so exciting to see the smiles on the kids’ faces. We really appreciate his service.”

For the school’s principal, Sister Alice Ottapurackal, the homecoming represents the very heart of Saint Anthony.

“We’re grateful that he is safe and coming back to us,” Ottapurackal said. “We do pray every day for him, and all the military people who are serving the country.

“We’re like a family, so we’re truly excited to see the children’s expressions.”

Indeed, as the hugs and tears continued before the school’s students, Quinn couldn’t have imagined a more poignant homecoming.

“This is the longest time we have been apart,” he said. “And they have been doing great helping mom out, and great in school. They have been a true blessing.”

Kelly Quinn couldn’t agree more.

“I just stood back there and I just wanted to see their reaction,” she said. “It was awesome.”

By Bryant L. Griffin

Published January 7, 2015

7-Eleven selling Lutz location, 74 others

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Competition from a new RaceTrac location just next door may have sealed the fate of a long-time service station in Pasco Lutz. (Photo by Michael Hinman)
Competition from a new RaceTrac location just next door may have sealed the fate of a long-time service station in Pasco Lutz. (Photo by Michael Hinman)

The 7-Eleven store at 23434 State Road 54 in Lutz, is one of 75 stations across the country 7-Eleven Inc. is putting up for sale.

Robbie Radant, a vice president with the company, said 7-Eleven is cutting loose stores like the Lutz one not because it’s underperforming, but because it no longer fits with its overall goals.

“There are many nice sites in this package that simple do not fit 7-Eleven’s current business model,” Radant said in a release. “All of these stores have solid merchandise sales, and should provide good opportunities for the right buyers.”

However, it’s likely that last year’s opening of a competing RaceTrac just next door may have played a role in why the 7-Eleven is hitting the market, after decades of minimal competition on its stretch of State Road 54.

7-Eleven is looking to part ways with 31 stores in Florida, along with 14 in Virginia, six in Massachusetts and Illinois, three in Texas and two in New York, Delaware, New Jersey and Utah. The company is selling single stores in Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

The Lutz site will not include the 7-Eleven branding, but could include a fuel contract with SEI Fuels Inc., a subsidiary of 7-Eleven, the company said.

7-Eleven has brought in NRC Realty & Capital Advisors of Chicago to conduct the sale, which will accept sealed bids from groups looking to buy single or multiple locations. The bid deadline is July 29.

The Lutz 7-Eleven opened in 1987 with a 3,100-square-foot store along State Road 54 when it was still a two-lane road. It includes a 10-year fuel contract.

For information on the sale, visit NRC.com/1408, or call (800) 747-3342, ext. 1408.