WCCC Earns ‘Certified+’ Designation

The Florida Association of Chamber Professionals (FACP) had confirmed what local businesses already know:

The Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) does a pretty darned good job.

The FACP gave the WCCC a “Certified Plus” Chamber of Commerce designation at it’s annual conference in Orlando Sept. 28-29.

“It was great news,’’ says WCCC CEO Hope Allen. “It’s something we have definitely been shooting for.”

Being Certified Plus means the WCCC scored better than an 86 on its certification program, which took a year to put together. More than 300 pages long, it includes items like a particular chamber’s strategic planning, procedural information, membership growth and plans for transitioning from operating as a non-profit to a regular, for-profit business.

“The Certified Chamber of Commerce program sets standards within the industry and recognizes chambers that have met those standards while offering guidelines for those to improve their effectiveness,” said Tammy C. Bracewell, the FACP  president. “In many ways, it is like the Good Housekeeping seal of approval for a chamber of commerce.”

The WCCC was one of only five chambers to receive the Certified Plus Chamber status this year, joining the Melbourne Regional Chamber, the Charlotte County Chamber, the Bay County Chamber and the Ocala/Marion County Chamber.

The WCCC was the only one in the group that achieved that honored status with their inaugural application.

There are 250 chambers of commerce in Florida, and only 14 currently have Certified Plus Chamber designation, including the Greater Tampa and Brandon chambers.

The WCCC currently has 545 members, and is having its best year to date. Since last year, the WCCC has added 72 new members.

Allen and her two-person staff have helped grow the Chamber while also promoting the Wesley Chapel area. The WCCC gives monthly economic updates to its members via an economic development briefing at Pebble Creek Golf Club and also hosts dozens of free ribbon-cutting and networking events and mixers each year, a monthly business breakfast, a “Lunch & Learn” program, and last week, the Chamber hosted a “Get Down to Business Expo & Lunch” at Saddlebrook Resort off S.R. 54, featuring guest speaker and Business Executive Coach Jayne Jenkins.

For more information about the WCCC, visit WesleyChapelChamber.com, call 994-8534, or see the story on the following page.

Florida Orthopaedic Institute Celebrates One Year In Wesley Chapel!

With 26 years of experience treating patients throughout the Tampa Bay area, the doctors and staff at Florida Orthopaedic Institute are excited about the one-year anniversary of their newest office, located in the Shoppes of Wesley Chapel on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., directly across from Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC).

The Wesley Chapel office is helping Florida Orthopaedic Institute meet the increasing demand for specialized orthopaedic care that can help residents of Pasco County and nearby communities stay active.

The Board-certified doctors and surgeons at Florida Orthopaedic Institute have been recognized globally for their expertise. Headquartered in North Tampa, the Wesley Chapel office is the tenth for the practice, which now serves patients in or near Bloomingdale, Brandon, Citrus Park, Northdale, Oak Hill/Brooksville, Palm Harbor, South Tampa, Sun City Center, Temple Terrace and Wesley Chapel/New Tampa.

The Wesley Chapel office offers physician services, physical therapy and X-rays. Additionally, three Board-certified physicians are on staff:

• Christopher Baker, M.D., a fellowship-trained specialist in sports medicine and shoulder reconstruction;

• Brian Palumbo, M.D., who specializes in hip and knee replacement surgery, with a focus on diagnosing and treating hip and knee arthritis, and

• Timothy Epting, D.O., who focuses on injuries and disorders of the foot and ankle and general orthopaedic conditions.

In order to maintain the highest level of orthopaedic skill, Florida Orthopaedic Institute only employs doctors who have fellowship training.

“This additional training is just part of what sets us apart,” says Dr. Baker, “especially when the sophisticated work of joints is involved. In order to keep our patients active, the precision of the treatment is paramount to success.”

Dr. Baker has been with Florida Orthopaedic Institute for three years and has practiced in the area for six. He graduated cum laude with his M.D. degree from the University of Florida in Gainesville and completed his residency in Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. His fellowship at the Steadman Hawkins Clinic of the Carolinas (in Spartanburg, SC) gave him an extra year of study in sports medicine and shoulder reconstruction, making him the only fellowship-trained shoulder specialist in eastern Pasco County.

He also has been very influential in high school athletics, since he assisted in opening the sports medicine programs at Wesley Chapel and Zephyrhills high schools. Dr. Baker also treats professional athletes and has served as the orthopaedic & sports medicine physician for the Tampa Bay Storm Arena Football League team.

In addition to caring for athletes, he also treats patients who have shoulder pain stemming from aging or injury. Many patients avoid shoulder treatment because they are afraid they will need surgery or because of the misconception that pain is a normal part of aging, but Dr. Baker always informs his patients about all available alternatives.

“There are a lot of options other than surgery, like physical therapy or cortisone injections,’’ he says. “Our mission is to do what is best for the individual patient.”

Even when surgery is necessary, Dr. Baker says he does not go straight to invasive surgical techniques. He uses the latest technologies and says that many repairs are done with an arthroscope to minimize incisions, pain and recovery time. The other doctors at Florida Orthopaedic Institute, like Dr. Palumbo, also believe that minimizing surgical trauma and muscle damage should be a high priority for any surgeon.

Speaking of Dr. Palumbo, he served in the Special Operations Command for the U.S. Air Force. He later earned his M.D. degree from the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he also served as a resident in USF’s Department of Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine. After that, he attended Harvard Medical School’s Hip & Knee reconstruction surgical fellowship for one year at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA.

Dr. Palumbo specializes in hip and knee arthritis management, joint replacement surgery and the treatment of failed or painful hip and knee joint replacements. He is Board-certified by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, a member of the American Association of Hip & Knee Surgeons, and serves as an assistant professor for the University of South Florida’s Orthopaedic Residency Program.

There are several unique aspects to Dr. Palumbo’s orthopaedic practice. He is a proponent of the direct anterior approach (DAA) or frontal approach for hip replacements. He says this technique minimizes surgical trauma and allows for faster recovery and decreased pain. He explains that, “Rather than cutting through or damaging muscles, (with the DAA approach) you’re simply spreading certain muscles to the side, using their natural tissue planes. It’s like opening a window versus breaking through it.”

His approach to joint replacement surgery also includes a technique for total knee replacements called Kinematic Knee Alignment. This technique is unique in that the goal of the surgery is to restore the natural position and dynamics of the knee joint, rather than implanting it in an alignment that the surgeon believes is correct.

“Conventional total knee arthroplasty implants the knee where the surgeon thinks it belongs, while kinematic alignment attempts to implant the knee replacement in a way that attempts to replicate (that) knee before he or she had arthritis,” he states. 

Dr. Palumbo also is an advocate for partial (rather than total) knee replacements whenever possible. He feels that sparing hip and knee joint muscles and preserving bone (when possible) can lead to improved and faster recovery and long-term outcomes.

He also firmly believes in the importance of fellowship-trained, specialized surgeons. “The added training and expertise this provides allows us to care for complex failed and painful joint replacement issues,” he says. “Approximately 30 percent of joint replacements I perform are re-do replacements for old or failed joint replacements.”

Educating patients is a core philosophy at the Florida Orthopaedic Institute, whose surgeons encourage patients to seek out options to ensure that they are getting a doctor who is experienced in treating their particular type of injury.

Dr. Epting (below) is a foot and ankle specialist who is Board-certified in orthopaedic surgery, with fellowship training from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Prior to joining the Florida Orthopaedic Institute team, Dr. Epting served three years as an attending orthopaedic surgeon at the Naval Hospital in Jacksonville, FL. He also served as an orthopaedic surgeon in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 2010. “My military experience and fellowship training allow me to explore all options for my patients so they can receive the best possible care,” he says.

Dr. Epting treat sports injuries (fractures, ligament and tendon injuries) of the ankle and foot, as well as arthritis (fusions and ankle replacements) and foot and ankle deformities. He utilizes non-surgical measures (bracing and physical therapy) as well as surgical repair, arthroscopy, and reconstruction when appropriate.   

For more info, stop in at Florida Orthopaedic Institute’s Wesley Chapel office at 2653 BBD, visit FloridaOrtho.com or see pg. 5. The Wesley Chapel location is open Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Call (800) FL-ORTHO for appointments. — Submitted to & edited by Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News.

Dreaming Of A White Christmas? VIP Pest Control Can Blanket Your Lawn In ‘Snow!’

vippest1
VIP Pest Control owner Vicki Hutto (with her pomeranians Chloe, left, and Bailey) can promise you a White Christmas this year.

On Thanksgiving night, when Meadow Pointe resident Vicki Hutto has her yard set up for Christmas and flips the switch to light the decorations for the first time this season, not only will her lawn be ornamented with reindeer and snowmen, but also with a white sparkle that is reminiscent of northern winters. She’ll have a dusting of “snow” on her lawn, thanks to a service now being offered by her company, VIP Pest Control.

Vicki is both the owner and operator of VIP Pest Control, which is celebrating its tenth year in business in New Tampa, Wesley Chapel and surrounding areas in Pasco and Hillsborough counties. While the company’s specialty is keeping homes, businesses and lawns free from nuisance animals and insects (including termites, mosquitoes, ants, roaches, bed bugs and more), Vicki has developed a creative way to help those who have been dreaming of a white Christmas experience it here in Florida.

vipsnowThe VIP Pest Control lawn care technicians will actually paint your lawn white, providing the perfect backdrop for seasonal decorations. “We even figured out a way to make it sparkle, if you want,” says Vicki.

Vicki recalls an elderly customer who wanted snow in her yard, like she had up north, “and she sang Christmas songs from her wheelchair while she watched her lawn being painted,” she says. Vicki tells of another customer who wanted to propose marriage with a white Christmas backdrop. Now, Vicki is offering a way to make that happen, too.

“We use an organic paint that is kid- and pet-friendly,” she explains. “Dogs can play on it and kids can sit on it for pictures.”

How does it work? “We spray the lawn three times, so that all sides of each blade of grass are completely covered. It won’t rub off, wash off, or wear off, but it is removed after about three grass clippings.” She says that since grass is dormant in the winter, that usually takes about three months.

Especially for northerners who may miss the white beauty of winter, but not the cold, Vicki says, “Here’s your white Christmas.”

For videos that show the treatment being applied, and the results of one home’s snow application, visit VIPPestControlLLC.com/snow.

Green Lawns, Too!

Year-’round, the team at VIP Pest Control works to keep lawns pest-free, which helps them stay green and healthy. In the winter, when grass is dormant, you may have brown patches that take time to correct. VIP Pest Control offers a service to paint your lawn green until the brown patches grow back healthy. If your homeowners association requires you to have a green lawn, call VIP Pest Control to learn about painting it green for the winter.

Like all of VIP Pest Control’s treatments, the green lawn treatment also is environmentally friendly and can be used on lawns where both pets and kids play.

In Your Home…

This is the time of year when VIP Pest Control gets many calls about roaches and rodents, especially as people get boxes out of their attics with holiday decorations for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“If you see signs of rodents (such as droppings or noises), call us right away,” says Vicki. “Rodents can be dangerous, because they can chew through wires and actually set your whole house on fire.”

Vicki says people often see roaches, especially palmetto bugs, which like to live in cardboard, and German roaches, which can be transported into your home as eggs on boxes delivered by shipping companies.

“German roaches are the ones that will make you sick,” she says. “They’re much smaller than the big palmetto bugs, but they carry diseases.”

And, while termites don’t typically swarm in winter, Vicki says that all Floridians need to be aware that both drywood and subterranean termites can cause damage to your home year-’round. With the drywood termites, sometimes people get a “false swarm.” When you turn on your heat, termites may think it’s swarm season and fly out of the walls of your home to mate. There’s nothing “false” about what they do to your home behind those walls, though.

“When that swarm is gone and you no longer see them, you still have termites,” Vicki explains. “They eat the wood of your home 24 hours a day, and there’s nothing you can do to get rid of them yourself. You really have to call a professional.”

When a VIP Pest Control technician comes out to your home to inspect for termites, they’ll help you determine what conditions in and around your house might lead to termites. For example, termites have easy access to your home when you have mulch up against your house, tree branches or plants that touch your house, or wood-to-ground contact. Hutto says you can help keep termites away from your home by reducing these “conducive conditions.”

When Vicki established VIP in 2006, she says it was her goal to provide a higher level of customer service than other local companies. She says she chose to name her business “VIP” to indicate that to her, customers are, “Very Important People.”

That’s why, for example, you’ll always talk with a live person when you call VIP’s office.  “We give our customers personal attention,” explains Vicki. “No two people are alike, and no two houses are alike.”

Same-day service is often available, especially if you have a serious issue that needs immediate attention. “If you call us in the morning,” says Vicki, “we can usually work you in that day.”

One of the company’s VIP customers is April Saland, who called Vicki when she discovered flying insects in her home.

“VIP came right out and told me I had subterranean termites,” says Saland. “It was a horrible issue, but Vicki held my hand and walked me through the process. She was awesome, and made us comfortable knowing she could save our home.”

VIP Pest Control is located at 119 Flagship Dr., in Lutz. It is open Mon.-Fri., 8:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. For info, visit VIPPestControlLLC.com or call 234-8888. Also, check out VIP Pest Control on Episode 1 of WCNT-tv on YouTube.

‘That’s A Wrap’ — Schneider’s 1st CineFlix Film Fest Was Fun For Everyone!

full-cineflix-team-garyI can’t even begin to tell you how much fun I had the week of Oct. 31-Nov. 3 at the Cobb Grove 16 theater, as actor/director John Schneider brought his first CineFlix Independent Film Festival to Wesley Chapel.

First of all, Schneider and his producer Alicia Allain of Maven Entertainment were on site all week and five of the 22 films featured in the festival were films they produced together. In addition, Schneider and several of the other filmmakers with films being shown during the festival also were at the theater to answer questions at virtually every showing.

Best of all, I felt honored and privileged to have gotten the opportunity to interview — for WCNT-tv (Wesley Chapel & New Tampa Television) — Schneider and his fellow filmmakers Edo Natasha and Quantae Love of “Popolo” and Trent Dion Soto of “Among the Discarded” before the festival started. Schneider said that he has had enough of still being best known for his most famous starring role as Bo Duke in “The Dukes of Hazzard,” despite also having starred as Superman’s father on “Smallville,” and the fact he currently is starring in Tyler Perry’s popular “The Haves and the Have Nots” on the Oprah Winfrey Network. His twice-flooded John Schneider Studios in Louisiana was the setting for most of his films, although many of the other entries in the festival — including “Popolo” and “Among the Discarded” — were filmed elsewhere.

john-solo-stillNo matter where they were shot, however, Schneider and Allain’s first-of-its-kind independent film festival, which gave these indie filmmakers not only a showcase for their work, but also gives them a cut of the festival’s sales proceeds, was a blast.

I’m not going to lie that the theaters were packed for the festival, but those of us who did attend any of the 22 films did not go home disappointed.

Of the films I saw, my favorite was Schneider’s own legal thriller “Inadmissible,” where he plays a hard-smoking, hard-drinking District Attorney named Bryce Danos who is trying to put away the son of a major mob figure. It’s definitely an exciting, edge-of-your-seat adventure and Schneider appreciated it when I said Danos could kick the butt of Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher character.

I did also love “Popolo,” which is the story of a former soldier who opens a martial arts school in Hawaii who ends up fighting not only racial prejudice (“Popolo” is a kind of berry in Hawaii that turns black, as well as a racial slur used by some Hawaiian people) but another former soldier turned ruthless mercenary.

inadmissable-titleAlthough Soto’s “Discarded” is a documentary that was shot entirely with a $300 GoPro camera, it is a moving film chronicling the 30 days Soto spent among the homeless people living on Skid Row in Los Angeles.

I also enjoyed Schneider’s “Hate Crime,” about a gay man who kills his lover, and although the story was a little gory for my taste, Schneider’s “Anderson Bench” is a dark, grisly comedy reminiscent of the ‘80s cult classic “Eating Raoul.”

Considering that I had to work, I couldn’t see all of the films during the festival, but the good news is that virtually all of them will be available in Digital on Demand format beginning sometime around Thanksgiving. I wish the films would have been shown in one of the Cinebistro theaters at The Grove 16, but the event was still very entertaining, so I hope Schneider and Allain will be encouraged enough to want to bring the festival back next year.

As for Schneider still being pigeonholed as Bo Duke, I have to agree with what he said during our WCNT interview: “That’s like a guy curing cancer but people knowing him for a great term paper he wrote in 1978.”

For more information about the films at the festival, visit CineFlixFest.com. And, check out all nine of my short interview segments with Schneider, Soto, Natasha and Love at WCNT-tv on YouTube.

Editorial: I’m No ‘Pundit,’ But I Was Wrong About This Election, Too!

gary-new-headshot-150x150In our last issue, I asked the question, “Does anyone still believe ‘La Donald’ was the best choice for the GOP to try to take back the White House?”

Well, Mr. Editor, the answer given by the American public was a resounding, “Heck, yeah!,” as New York billionaire Donald J. Trump is our President-Elect. Deal with it.

Although I took some very-much-expected heat — from both sides, by the way — for it on Facebook, I did as I promised and voted for no one in the Presidential race, even though I cast votes in almost every other race on my ballot on Nov. 8.

And apparently, I wasn’t alone. As chronicled in assistant editor John Cotey’s election recap in our current Wesley Chapel issue, Pasco County (which slaughtered the national voter turnout, 72 percent to 57 percent) more than doubled the total number of “undervotes” (or voters who cast ballots but did not cast a vote in the presidential race) from the 2012 Election.

Although I still hadn’t seen any news media run a story about how many people nationwide cast ballots (but not for president) this year, I did find one ABC News story from the controversial 2000 Presidential Election (remember “hanging chads?”) stating that there were more than two million undervotes for president nationwide that year — and I’m betting this year’s election will surpass that total when all of the final stats are released.

The reason I believe that — and the reason so many fewer registered voters, percentage-wise, cast ballots at all this year — and the reason Trump defeated former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for that matter, is that the campaign was so negative, so draining upon our republic and our people, something had to give.

And give, it did. If anyone still believes in any of the national polls, I have some beachfront property for sale in the Everglades for you. People were so disenchanted with both candidates that it’s hard for me to believe any candidate got any votes at all.

But, considering that most exit polls showed that the biggest single issue that affected how people voted this year was the need for a change, no one should be surprised that Trump won. Whether you love or hate Hillary, there’s no doubt that Americans made it loud and very clear that President Obama’s administration didn’t help enough people enough for them to want to accept four more years of what the outgoing president himself called a “continuation of the progress we’ve made,” which sounds great on the surface, but didn’t instill a whole lot of faith in the millions of Americans who are still struggling.

Sure, you can blame some of the president’s inability to govern on a Republican-led Congress that fought every policy he tried to implement, but voters nationwide said by delivering what really was a landslide (more on this below) victory for Trump that they’re tired of the bickering in our nation’s capital.

That’s why, even though his first-ever elected office of any kind is our Commander in Chief, so many undecided voters seemingly decided to try the new “kid” in town.

I still couldn’t vote for a reality TV star who doesn’t seem to respect women, but the fact is that many more women than expected did vote for him. In fact, the most hard-to-believe statistic I heard was that something above 60 percent of non-college-educated white women voted for Trump. College-educated women voted for Clinton, but by a much slimmer margin.

And, the fact Clinton won the popular vote isn’t really that important. She isn’t the first candidate to earn more individual votes and lose. It’s why the electoral college system was implemented in the first place. In this election, for example, Trump won 30 states, Clinton took 20 and the District of Columbia. But, Trump’s largest margin of victory in any of those states was only the 800,000 votes he won by in Texas. Clinton, on the other hand, won California (2.6 million) and New York (1.5 million) by a combined 4.1 million votes and she won her top-ten states by nearly 8 million votes, while Trump won by only 5.3-million in his top-ten states. Considering that there were only about 120-million ballots cast nationwide, that’s an awful lot of making up to do in his other 20 victorious states, so it’s no surprise he fell a couple of hundred thousand votes short of catching her in the popular vote.

So, even though he was never “my candidate,” I do understand why Trump won, from both the ideological and numbers standpoints, and with his Republican stronghold in both houses of Congress, it would appear he’ll have an easier time of getting his plans implemented. I guess time will tell whether or not all of the people protesting his victory will still be protesting when his (first?) four years is over.

He may not have gotten my vote, but he does have my attention. 

Congrats, WC Jazz Fest!

Congratulations go out to Tim Hancock of Jazz Tyme Productions, as his third Wesley Chapel Jazz Festival, held Oct. 15 at Avalon Park West, attracted an estimated 5,000 people.

Look for a recap and more pics at WCNeighborhoodNews.com.