By Matt Wiley
Details have emerged and an arrest has been made in the shooting death of a Pasco County man who was shot in his car while driving on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in May.
According to the Tampa Police Department (TPD), Demetrio Earle, 27, of Tampa, was arrested around 3:45 p.m. on August 2, following an investigation into the May 31 death of 20-year-old Reggie Adams.Continue reading
By Matt Wiley
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) is seeking the public’s help in locating two suspects they believe are responsible for a string of robberies dating back to July 22, including one just south of Tampa Palms on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd.
According to HCSO, just after midnight on July 22, two black male suspects of unknown age — one wearing a hockey mask and wielding a revolver, the other wearing a dark bandana — began a cross-county robbery spree in Valrico, hitting a Circle K on Lumsden Rd. The two confronted the clerk and demanded money and lottery tickets. They even stole a donation jar from the checkout counter.Continue reading
By Matt Wiley
It appears as though the bustling New Tampa Recreation Center (NTRC) in Tampa Palms, which was expected to undergo an expansion this year, will remain at its current size for the foreseeable future.
In his 2014 City of Tampa Budget presentation on July 25, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn announced that his recommended budget for the City is $830.9 million, with about $103 million devoted to capital improvement projects, which include government, transportation, utilities and parks & recreation projects.
However, the expansion of the 19,500-sq.-ft. NTRC, a hub for local gymnasts, did not make it onto this year’s list of funded projects (although we mistakenly reported in our July 20 issue that the NTRC would be a funded project for 2013-14).Continue reading
Although I still hear a lot of the businesses we do business with say that they don’t see the economy recovering — at least not at any pace that’s helping them — based on the number of new businesses that keep opening in our area and the fact that those owners seem to have little or no trouble spending money with us to promote those businesses, I think there is some economic momentum being built in our community.
Every year, it seems, we have a fairly sizable number of advertisers who say, “Hold me out until after the summer, because there’s no one here until the end of August.” Well, even though we did have a few businesses pull their ads this summer, there have been even more coming in to take their place. In fact, I can safely say that, culminating with this issue, the summer of 2013 has been the best — in terms of both advertising revenue and the feedback we’re getting from readers and advertisers alike — we have ever had in our New Tampa and Wesley Chapel issues for June-August!Continue reading
By Matt Wiley
Getting from Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. to Morris Bridge Rd. by car could get a lot quicker in the next two years, as the City of Tampa plans to widen the portion of Cross Creek Blvd. that currently is still one lane in each direction, making the entire 4.5-mile stretch four lanes.
The project, which has been in the works for several years, could begin as soon as May 2014, according to city documents. Currently, Cross Creek Blvd. which links BBD to Morris Bridge Rd., is a four-lane divided road for two miles, beginning at BBD east to just beyond Cory Lake Dr. at the entrance to the Cory Lake Isles Professional Center.