The Laker/Lutz News

Serving Pasco since 1981/Serving Lutz since 1964

North Avenue

Dade City wants your junk

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The City of Dade City is providing trash trucks to help residents dispose of household waste on Neighborhood Cleanup Day on Oct. 16, from 8 a.m. to noon.

Residents are asked to clean up their properties, and to remove junk and/or debris from their yards.

Then, residents can take the unwanted items to one of these four dumpster locations:

  • 10th Street and Whitehouse, behind Bravo’s
  • North Seventh Street parking lot, behind Del Carmen’s
  • Watson Park on North Avenue, on the basketball courtside
  • Watson Park on Main Avenue, parking lot

Tires and household hazardous waste cannot be dropped off.

Acceptable materials include glass, wood (8 feet or less), fence, carpet, household trash, furniture, mattresses, and plywood.

For information, call Dade City Public Works at 352-523-5050.

Published October 13, 2021

Community gardening coming to Dade City

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Two new community gardens will be coming soon to Dade City.

The University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Pasco County Extension Office will be establishing community gardens with the help of the City of Dade City, the Pasco County Commission and private donors.

Soon, gardeners will be using community gardening plots to grow vegetables in Dade City. (Courtesy of Eden Santiago-Gomez, Pasco Extension Office)

Members of the community will be able to grow their own produce in free garden plots, according to Whitney C. Elmore, Pasco County Extension director and urban horticulture agent.

The gardens will be located at Watson Park, which is at North and Main avenues, between 17th and 19th streets, and on the land surrounding the Stallings Building, at 15029 14th St.

The Dade City Watson Park Community Garden is being made possible with support from Dade City Mayor Camille Hernandez, the Dade City Commission and UF/IFAS, Elmore said. This is a new land use agreement model piloted between the University of Florida and a municipality, she added.

The Stallings Building Urban Farm has been made possible through the recently passed Pasco County Urban Agriculture Ordinance, the cooperation of Pasco County Commission and the guidance of Assistant County Administrator Cathy Pearson, Elmore added.

Many private citizens and companies also donated items and equipment to make these new ventures possible, according to Eden Santiago-Gomez, community gardens program assistant at the extension office.

The Dade City Watson Park Community Garden will host more than 30 community plots of varying sizes, including wheelchair-accessible and senior-accessible raised beds. All plots and beds will be available to lease free of charge on a first-come, first-served basis to the surrounding community.

Nice, plump tomatoes may be among the vegetables grown soon in Dade City by gardeners using community garden plots. (Courtesy of University of Florida/IFAS)

Educator plots also will be available, so students on school field trips can engage and interact with all things gardening.

Lessons will be taught, on site, by the UF/IFAS Pasco County Extension faculty and staff on topics such as gardening 101, good bugs/bad bugs, gardening for nutrition, composting, rain water harvesting, fertilizers, eating on a budget, and making your own healthy snacks, Elmore added.

Garden tours also will be available to the public in the future by Pasco Master Gardeners and Horticulture staff.

A planting party will be held to commemorate the first community garden in Dade City. The party will be on Jan. 12, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., at the Dade City Watson Park Community Garden. The public is invited to share the afternoon with Dade City officials, local leaders and members of the community.

The Stallings Building Urban Farm will feature more than 50 8-foot-by-8-foot community plots and six raised wheelchair-accessible beds, all available for the community to lease, free of charge on a first-come, first-served basis. The rest of the area will be farmed by the UF/IFAS Pasco County Extension Office’s Community Gardens Program. All food grown in that area of the Urban Farm will be donated to local food pantries initially. At some point, the hope is to offer a monthly farm stand or possibly Community Supported Agriculture to benefit the local community, Santiago-Gomez said.

Numerous gardening techniques will be utilized at this site (from traditional row cropping to permaculture design techniques) as educational demonstrations for county residents during various classes, to be offered in the near future.

Both gardens are located in the low-income communities of Dade City, and are aimed at helping local community members learn to grow their own food.

This will give local community members access to fresh fruits and vegetables, in what is currently a food desert. Additionally, money saved on grocery bills, by growing much of the produce needed for a family, can be redirected to other areas of everyday life, Elmore said.

Citizens can sign up now for a free garden plot at either of these locations and start gardening. Please contact Eden Santiago-Gomez at or (352) 518-0156 to reserve your free plot.

Here’s a slate of upcoming classes aimed at helping people who want to learn more about how to propagate from seeds, and other gardening topics.

Propagating from Seeds #101
Where: Clayton Hall at Pasco County Fairgrounds, 36702 State Road 52 in Dade City
When: Jan. 6, 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Cost: Free
Details: Learn some tricks of the trade to successfully germinate seeds and raise the seedlings to beautiful plants.
Registration is required. Call the UF/IFAS Pasco County Extension Office at (352) 518-0156 for details.        

Composting Workshop
Where: Centennial Park Branch Library, 5740 Moog Road in Holiday
When: Jan. 11, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Cost: $35 fee, includes instruction and one composting bin
Details: Learn how to recycle nutrients into plants and add organic matter to your soil. The workshop covers the do’s and don’ts of composting for Florida flowers and vegetables. Each Pasco household is eligible to receive one compost bin when at least one household member registers and attends this workshop.
Call the UF/IFAS Pasco County Extension Office at (352) 518-0156 for details.        

Vegetable Gardening Basics
Where: Stallings Building, 15029 14th St., in Dade City
When: Jan. 18, 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Cost: Free
Details: Learn how to to choose a location for a garden, what makes good soil, when to plant different vegetables, and how to control common vegetable garden pests.
Registration is required. Call the UF/IFAS Pasco County Extension Office at (352) 518-0156 for details.        

Published December 27, 2017

Cleaning up Zephyrhills’ neighborhoods

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When Gail Hamilton was hired to lead the Zephyrhills Community Redevelopment Agency about a year ago, she noticed an unsettling trend while patrolling the older, traditional city neighborhoods.

Scattered across several homeowners’ lawns were old appliances, rolled-up carpets, debris and fallen trees.

“I think nobody had done anything in a long time,” Hamilton said, regarding the condition of the historic Zephyrhills neighborhoods.

“The first thing when you start redeveloping an area is you look to clean it up,” she added.

To do so, Hamilton collaborated with several other city departments — Code Enforcement, Public Works, Police and Fire Departments—to create a so-called “Clean Team.”

Here is a map of some of the neighborhoods the ‘Clean Team’ is targeting for its neighborhood cleanup program. The red shaded area is where the crew’s third cleanup was on Feb. 27. They will focus on neighborhoods that fall within the green shade on May 21. (Courtesy of Gail Hamilton)
Here is a map of some of the neighborhoods the ‘Clean Team’ is targeting for its neighborhood cleanup program. The red shaded area is where the crew’s third cleanup was on Feb. 27. They will focus on neighborhoods that fall within the green shade on May 21.
(Courtesy of Gail Hamilton)

The “Clean Team” organizes neighborhood cleanups every other month, pinpointing a different geographical area within the city limits for each event.

The program offers an opportunity for city residents to get rid of unwanted junk, with public works crews and community volunteers lending a helping hand.

“We go in there…and clean up anything people can get out into their alley or curbside, because we don’t go onto private property and pick anything up,” said Shane LeBlanc, Zephyrhills Public Works director. “A lot of people will have roll-off construction dumpsters outside. A lot of people drop stuff off to us.”

“You can get rid of your junk, and you don’t even have to bring it to the site,” Hamilton said. “We have crews that are going up and down the alleyway within the area that we’re cleaning, and if you can just get it to the alley, we’ll pick it up. So for people that don’t have a truck or the means to get it to us, we’re trying to help them as much as we possibly can, so there’s no excuse that you don’t clean up your property.”

The third neighborhood cleanup, on Feb. 27, was labeled as the “most successful” yet, according to Hamilton. The cleanup encompassed the area between North Avenue and Sixth Avenue, covering neighborhoods all the way east to 20th Street.

Approximately 160 cubic yards of mixed debris, 24 televisions, 44 tires and one washing machine were hauled away.

Additionally, 39 residents dropped off their junk to the construction dumpsters at various staging areas set up by the clean team.

When cruising around town, Hamilton notices a sizable difference when she sees neighborhoods that have participated in the cleanup program.

“I think we’re beginning to turn a corner with the neighborhoods understanding what we’re trying to do, and appreciate the ability to bring their trash,” the redevelopment agency director said.

“We’re trying to attack it from each angle so nobody can say, ‘Well, it was too hard to clean up my yard.’”

The cleanups also serve as a warning for residents that may be in violation of the city’s code enforcement. Instead of immediately being issued a citation, residents have the opportunity to get rid of the trash in their yard without being fined, thereby being offered an amnesty of sorts.

Hamilton noted city officials are being as accommodating as possible with the program, saying, “We tell people, ‘this is your opportunity…to clean up your infractions or the problems you have on your property, but if you don’t, you will be cited for it.’ We’re still working on that, and getting through the neighborhoods and making people believe, ‘Yes, there will be consequences if you don’t clean up.’

“It’s the ‘carrot and the stick’ approach,’ Hamilton added. “The city will use the ‘stick’ from code enforcement to say, ‘OK, if you don’t clean it up, we’ll fine you.’”

Residents who receive a citation have 30 days to clean up their property.

The fourth neighborhood cleanup is set for May 21 from 8 a.m. to noon.

It will span from Gall Boulevard to 16th Street, generally encompassing the area between Fifth Avenue and South Avenue.

While the program was initially going to focus on the 520-acre CRA district, officials plan to eventually make their way through the entire city.

“We’re going to expand out,” LeBlanc said. “We’ve got other areas in the city that need attention as well.

“It’s a great service to people that can’t get rid of things,” LeBlanc said.

Published May 4, 2016