School Traffic Remains A Concern In K-Bar Ranch

Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan discusses a new park and traffic study at a recent meeting with K-Bar Ranch residents. (Photo: John C. Cotey) 

Like almost every school in Tampa, Pride Elementary has traffic issues during drop-off and pick-up times.

Residents in K-Bar Ranch whose children attend the school may be receiving some relief, as the city and county are conducting a number of projects and studies in the area.

In another of Tampa City Council member Luis Viera’s community meetings on Aug. 22, residents had many of their concerns addressed by a panel of experts that the District 7 representative assembled, including Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan (who represents the New Tampa area for the county in Dist. 2), Dist. 6 Hillsborough School Board member Karen Perez and transportation and mobility experts from the city and county.

The hour-long meeting seemed to provide the answers, or reassurance that answers were being sought, that came from roughly 50 residents in attendance.

• The long-awaited Meadow Pointe Blvd. connector to K-Bar Ranch Pkwy. is now open, officially. It opened Aug. 30, a week after the meeting, but those in attendance were already told it would only be a matter of days.

The new connection now allows area residents a quick 4- or 5-minute drive to S.R. 56, just east of the Shops at Wiregrass. AdventHealth Wesley Chapel Hospital, I-75 and the Winn-Dixie and Super Target on County Line Rd. also are now a much shorter trip. 

Other connections which were planned for years are coming, Vik Bhide, the City of Tampa chief traffic management engineer said, but it may take a while for any of them to open. Other topics of discussion included:

• K-Bar residents still pine for a Kinnan St.-Mansfield Blvd. connection, which is now open only to emergency response vehicles and police. Area residents always bring up the topic, and this meeting was no different. They were told by Viera and Hagan to pin their hopes on the recent primary elections. Pasco County commissioner Mike Moore, a strong opponent of the connection, is leaving office, and his anticipated replacement Seth Weightman (the Republican nominee facing only a write-in candidate on Nov. 8) may be more amenable to the idea of opening the connection to all traffic, although that remains an unlikely scenario.

• Street lights may be on the way for Kinnan St., which runs north from Cross Creek Blvd. past Pride and to entrances at both K-Bar Ranch and Live Oak Preserve. At past meetings, residents have complained that the street is dangerous due to speeders, which is heightened by the lack of lighting. According to Josh Bellotti, the Hillsborough County director of engineering and operations, the county is working closely with Tampa Electric (TECO) and coming up with designs. “A rough estimate is that in about six months, I think you’ll see lights,” Bellotti said.

• It was suggested that the school zone be extended around Pride Elementary, and speed limits in the area be made more uniform. That continues to be studied by the City of Tampa.

• A Hillsborough County traffic study is under way in advance of the possibility of a massive upgrade of Cross Creek Park, which would include an indoor recreation center, updated playgrounds and outdoor basketball courts, a new parking lot and other amenities. The rec center and other amenities, which will cost roughly $8-million, would be built next to Pride, an area of high traffic in the morning and afternoons.

“I want to address the community transportation problem on the front end so we don’t exacerbate it,” said Commissioner Hagan. “This is a real opportunity to improve the current situation.”

Get A Brand-New Kitchen In Only Five Days With Kitchen Tune-Up

Al and Zein Aita’s Kitchen Tune-Up franchise can provide a custom complete or partially remodeled kitchen, or just some updates that can make your kitchen look more modern and new without the big price tag. (Photo by Charmaine George)

If you would love to have a new kitchen, but the thought of months of remodeling fills you with dread, Tampa Palms residents Al and Zein Aita want you to know they have the perfect solution for you.

As owners of the local franchise of Kitchen Tune-Up, they offer fast, clean, and affordable solutions for a complete kitchen makeover.

Kitchen Tune-Up has been around for more than 35 years and has more than 200 locations throughout the United States. Over the last few years, the company has grown tremendously, including the Aitas’ expansion into the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel area a little more than two years ago.

It’s the best of both worlds, says Al, because, “we are locally owned and operated, but we have the support of a large company.”

That means lower prices because the corporate entity buys in bulk. And while, these days, everyone is experiencing delays and supplier shortages, being a larger buyer, Kitchen Tune-Up is able to get priority faster than other companies, so access to materials hasn’t been as delayed as it has been for others in the industry.

Kitchen Tune-Up can help if you are looking for a complete, custom kitchen remodel, but they also offer much easier and quicker solutions that can update and refresh nearly every home.

First, if you still love your kitchen but it’s looking a little worn, the “original tune-up” includes a deep cleaning and wood reconditioning. Cabinets are cleaned to remove all dirt, grease, wax, smoke and dust, and any imperfections or discolorations are restored, including repairing scratches and dents. They’ll make your old cabinets look like new with a penetrating oil or fresh coat of finish, and you can even add new accessories, such as hardware, roll-out drawers inside your cabinets, or new countertops or backsplashes.

If you no longer love your cabinets, but you still like the color, Kitchen Tune-Up can replace all of your doors and drawer fronts with new ones that are color-matched to your existing cabinet boxes in a process called “redooring,” which includes new, soft-close hinges, pulls and knobs.

Changing the color isn’t hard, either. Al says most customers choose this option, which is called “refacing.”

“Refacing is perfect for customers who like the layout of their kitchen and don’t want demolition mess,” he says.

This includes redooring, but also adding a veneer layer to the cabinet boxes so you’re not limited to your current kitchen color.

“Most kitchens are done in four days at about half the cost of a new kitchen,” Al says. “It’s a beautiful transition without the hassle and the mess.”

He says his job is something like being a detective, listening to the customer and making recommendations about what would work best for them. With any of the available options, Kitchen Tune-Up technicians can customize the job to include upgrades such as adding an island, additional cabinets, or whatever the customer wants in order to have the kitchen of their dreams.

For those who don’t like their current kitchen layout or need more extensive help, Al says working with Kitchen Tune-Up allows customers the benefits of the large corporate backing for full kitchen redesigns, with 3D designs and quality technical support for any unusual circumstances. 

He says current trends include two-tone kitchens, with white cabinets on the top and grey or blue cabinets on the bottom. Many customers are choosing natural colors — such as a soft green — for their cabinets. Al says having the support of the national Kitchen Tune-Up corporation helps him to stay up-to-date on all trends and new ideas.

With any option, customers can add on accessories, such as a farmhouse sink, which is a popular option right now. Al says his customers also love having rollout trays inside the cabinets.

“They don’t have to go digging deep in a bottom cabinet anymore,” he says. “Just roll it out, and it’s very smooth and practical, so you don’t have to be on the ground looking for your pots and pans.”

The process starts with a phone call, where Al strives to understand exactly what each customer wants and needs, and then schedules a free, in-home consultation and estimate. Everything is custom made, so careful measurements are taken, and then it takes about three weeks to order and receive materials.

The Five ‘Trust Points’

Al says he often hears stories about problems with contractors, but Kitchen Tune-Up has a very strict set of “Trust Points” that every franchisee is expected to provide.

These Trust Points include:

• We listen carefully.

• We communicate promptly.

• We respect your home.

• We arrive on time.

• We provide solutions.

“We want to ensure our customers have a good experience, so we emphasize these trust points,” Al says.

Al and Zein have lived in Tampa Palms for six years and say they always dreamed of running a business together. Al’s background is in retail and sales, and Zein’s is in accounting, although she also holds a Master’s degree from the University of South Florida in Project Management. So, Al works with the customers to ensure they get the kitchen of their dreams, while Zein handles the accounting for the business.

The couple has a 16-month-old daughter, Julia.

“It’s been challenging taking care of a baby and running a business,” Al says, “but we’ve gotten used to it and are getting better every day.”

He says they love it when they get to reveal a finished kitchen to their customers.

“It’s very rewarding to start on a Monday with one kitchen and end on Friday with a completely different kitchen,” Al says. “It’s the best part of the job and we’re happy to help our customers with that.”

Cheryle White recently had her cabinets refaced, after buying a new home with cabinets she didn’t like.

“They didn’t have handles, didn’t open and close properly, and my kitchen looked old and dated and needed to be refreshed,” Cheryle says. “At the same time, it had brand new quartz countertops that we didn’t want to waste, so we looked at our options.”

She says she’s thrilled with how her kitchen turned out.

“A lot of people don’t know that if your cabinets are in good shape, you don’t need to tear them out,” she says. “If you just don’t like the aesthetics, you can change them.”

Kitchen Tune-Up offers several options for financing, which currently includes a 12-month interest-free option.

Kitchen Tune-Up will come to you for a free in-home consultation. For more information, (813) 822-5911 or visit KitchenTuneUp.com/tampa-north-fl.

Neena Pacholke: The ‘Brightest Light In The Room’

Former Freedom High basketball star Neena Pacholke, who was a popular news anchor for WAOW-TV in Wausau, WI, tragically took her own life on Aug. 27.

There was something about Neena Pacholke that made you feel special and loved.

The smile, the laugh, the joy. 

“She had this bright, awesome personality that just made you feel so welcomed,” said Lauren Repp, a longtime friend and former basketball teammate. “She had a special charm.”

Charm may be the best word to describe Neena’s personality, as she had it in abundance, according to those who played basketball with her, or watched her as a television anchor where, judging from the outpouring of love following her death, she could radiate from the screen and make you feel as if you’ve been friends for years.

Neena, who played high school basketball at Freedom High and then at the University of South Florida, took her own life Aug. 27 in her Wausau, WI, home. She was only 27.

Neena’s life was celebrated at Radiant Church Heights in Tampa on Sept. 10. She is survived by her sister Kaitlynn, father Aaron and mother Laurie, who coached her at Freedom.

“Absolutely devastated,” wrote Aaron on Facebook. “She was a great gift.”

Neena’s death was shocking to most who knew her. However, Laurie told WAOW-TV News 9 in Wausau, where her daughter was a popular anchor, that Neena had struggled with mental health issues for years. 

“She was getting treatment,” Laurie said. “I’ll put it out there — she had been to the crisis center a couple of times. She had so many people here to talk to. She talked to people, but she didn’t want anybody to know how she was hurting, so she didn’t talk until it got so bad.” 

That part is what makes it so painful for friends like Repp, who met Neena when they were 12 years old.

“It’s hard to wrap my head around,” Repp said. “Just hearing that maybe it was because she felt like a burden to others, it breaks my heart. All of us are living with the what-ifs and are absolutely crushed and devastated.”

Neena was the “ideal American girl” in high school, who would get excited over coffee, loved the changing seasons and buying a new sweater or boots. She painted her nails on the Fourth of July and St. Patrick’s Day and loved being with her cat, says Faith Woodard who, along with Repp, were teammates of Neena’s.

The Pacholke family in happier times: (l.-r.) Laurie, Kaitlynn, Neena and Aaron. (Photo: Pacholke family Facebook page)

The three were starters on the 2013 Freedom High team that made the program’s only State final four appearance. Woodard said she has been watching old game films since receiving the news. 

The gritty, tenacious Neena was the Patriots’ point guard, and even watching old games today, Woodard said she can feel her energy and glee.

“She was the glue on that team,” Woodard said. “She was everyone’s biggest cheerleader. But, she was more than just your teammate. She was your friend…She was the happiest person I knew, and the best person I knew.”

After graduating from USF in 2017, she joined WAOW-TV as a reporter. At her service at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Weston, WI, on Sept. 4, one of her first friends at the station, Josh Holland, shared with an in-person audience of roughly 200 what a joy Neena had been. Together, the two rookie reporters went to high school pep rallies, sported silly socks, challenged high school athletes to Nerf football games and played life-size games of Hungry Hungry Hippos against students. “She went to great lengths to bring joy to others,” Holland said. 

She was promoted to anchor in 2019 and her popularity grew. Following her death, the station’s phone lines and Facebook page were flooded with condolence calls and sadness from people who only knew her through a screen, her personality breaking through that barrier.

When WAOW-TV had technical difficulties and couldn’t broadcast her memorial service live, it didn’t stop more than 22,000 people from watching when it was posted a day later.

Brendan Mackey wrote that being Neena’s co-anchor was an honor and called her, “The brightest light in the room.”

Friends like Repp and Woodard will never forget Neena. Not only did Faith transfer to Freedom for her senior season because of Neena, she followed her into broadcasting, and is currently an anchor for KTHV-TV (THV11) in Little Rock, AR.

“I always tried to be more like her,” Woodard said. “I tried to volunteer more because she did. I tried to do the good things she did and I even tried to make my work (as a news anchor) look more like hers. More than anything, I’m going to miss her for the good, supportive person she was.”

Repp said Neena’s loss will be felt by many. She well remembers her friend always wiggling her way out of running at the end of basketball practices, never taking anything too seriously and always being able to break the tension by laughing or giggling about something.

Repp said she was recently at a Milwaukee Brewers game when the ladies sitting behind her found out she played basketball in Tampa with Neena. 

“They started freaking out,” Repp says. “They told me they loved her.”

It is a feeling shared by many.

Spotlight On: Bounty Hunters Basketball!

The Bounty Hunters, a local AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) competitive basketball program, is hosting tryouts for its girls travel teams on Sunday, October 23, and invites girls in grades 5-11 in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel to try out for the squad. 

Coach Max Guevara (photo, with assistant coach Jess Cumba), who played AAU ball when he was a kid (“Which probably saved my life,” he says, since he grew up in one of the worst neighborhoods in Philadelphia) and in various adult leagues, played an assistant coach role with other organizations and the feedback he received from other parents was always overwhelmingly positive. 

“When you hear; ‘You should have your own team’ enough times, you start to consider it,” Guevara says. “It frustrated me seeing my own daughter go from program to program being told what to do but not being shown how to do it. About a year ago, I contacted the AAU to see what it would take to start my own club.”

Guevara sought corporate sponsorship for 6 months, but says he was told by corporate CEOs and general managers that, “‘No one cares about girls’ basketball’ and that they failed to see the return on their investment. So, I funded the Bounty Hunters out of my own pocket.  We ran our first camp this past summer and it sold out in less than 2 weeks.”

The Bounty Hunters is a year-round program, but from March to August, Guevara says his Junior Varsity (JV) and Varsity teams will travel in and out of the state, participating in tournaments against the best their age group has to offer.  “We also teach these kids to be productive members of the community through volunteering and teaching them respect, communication skills, self-esteem and even money management,” he says. 

The Bounty Hunters JV team is for girls in grades 5-8, and the Varsity team is for girls in grades 9-11. A total of 13 players per travel team will be selected, although the program also offers a Developmental Team. 

The tryouts to be held on Oct. 23 will be free of charge. “As a nonprofit organization, we must rely of the generosity of the community to survive,” Guevara says. “You can help us keep this going by making a contribution on our website (BountyHunterBasketball.com).” For more details, please email info@bountyhunterbasketball.com. 

Florida’s Sports Coast To Host 2022-24 Florida Senior Games

The Wesley Chapel area already is host to some of the largest youth sports tournaments in the Tampa Bay area and will now expand its reach to a new demographic — seniors.

The Florida Sports Foundation, the state of Florida’s sports promotion and development organization, and Florida’s Sports Coast (Pasco County’s sports tourism arm) will team up to be the primary host of Florida Senior Games for the next three years, starting in December of this year.

“It’s definitely a different demographic than what we tend to go after,” said Adam Thomas, the director of Florida’s Sports Coast. “Out of all of our sports, 95% of them are youth sports. This will be a new audience to tap into.”

The Florida Senior Games is an Olympic-style sports festival, for athletes over the age of 50 (and there is even a 100+ age group). The 31st annual Games in December will consist of 22 sports — half of which will be staged in Wesley Chapel — and will be held December 3-11. The event is a qualifier for the 2023 National Senior Games in Pittsburgh, PA.

The county has hosted various Senior Games events in the past. The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County hosted bag toss, basketball shooting, 3-on-3 basketball and volleyball in December 2020, while pickleball was played at the Sarah Vande Berg (SVB) Tennis & Wellness Center in Zephyrhills. 

This year, however, will mark the county’s first time as the primary host of the entire event.

And, because of the growth of sports venues in Wesley Chapel over the past decade, many of the events will take place here.

The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus will host archery, basketball shooting and 3-on-3 basketball (Dec. 3), and volleyball (Dec. 10-11), while Saddlebrook Resort will host foot golf Dec. 10.

SVB will host almost every racquet sport, including padel (which will be played for the first time in the Senior Games Dec. 9-11), tennis (Dec. 3-8) and pickleball (Dec. 8-11).

Cypress Creek High and its rubber track will be home for many of the running events. Track & field is scheduled for Dec. 9-11, with a 1,500-meter power walk and 1,500-meter race walk set for Dec. 11.

Events like bowling and shuffleboard (Zephyrhills), golf (Trinity), and even power lifting (Land O’Lakes) will be held across the county.

“We’ve always been involved with the Senior Games in some form or fashion,” Thomas says, “but landing the actual games as the host destination, that will bring in close to 2,000 (hotel) rooms for a week-long event, and it will bring up to 3,000 athletes and their families here for that same time period. So we’re looking at total visitors per day of 4,000.”

Thomas says that, according to Florida’s Sports Coast’s projections, the Senior Games will have an economic impact of $1.2 million per day throughout Pasco County. And, because the event is a national qualifier, Thomas is hoping the Florida games can put Florida’s Sports Coast in line to host the national event at some point down the road.

“This opens the door for us,” Thomas says. “We’ve definitely got our eyes on that.”

For more information about the 2022 Florida Senior Games, visit FloridaSeniorGames.com or follow FloridaSeniorGames on Facebook. For more information about Florida’s Sports Coast, visit FLSportsCoast.com.