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.
(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
