Legacy At Highwoods Preserve Resident Celebrates Her 106th Birthday In Style!

My mother’s mother lived until three weeks before her 92 birthday and my beloved Nana’s older sister lived until a week before her 100th birthday, so long life thankfully runs in my family.

Even so, both my Nan and Great Aunt Molly were still quite a few years younger when they passed than New Tampa resident Frances Brassey, who just celebrated her 106th birthday last month.

Frances is a resident of The Legacy at Highwoods Preserve Assisted Living & Memory Care (a Lifewell Senior Living community), located at 18600 Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. (where West Meadows meets Richmond Place) who was born on October 4, 1912 “the same year the Titanic sunk,” Frances reminded folks in attendance at her birthday party at The Legacy.

Frances got to celebrate her 106th birthday with her son Wayne and her daughter-in-law Dorothy at an event attended not only by her family and the other residents and staff at The Legacy, but also by District 38 State Rep. Shawn Harrison and District 2 Hillsborough County Commissioner Victor Crist, both of whom not only posed for pictures and chatted with Frances and her family, they also each brought a framed item for Frances to keep.

Comm. Crist’s was a proclamation, signed by all seven commissioners, that said, “The Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners is pleased to recognize Frances Brassey on the celebratory occasion of her 106th birthday, and applauds her for uplifting, inspiring and sharing knowledge with people throughout her well-traveled life.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Harrison brought a framed letter he wrote to Frances that said “It’s good to be able to celebrate with you again. I’m so happy to share this special day with you. You are a great inspiration, and I’m sure that your full life has impacted many people in many positive ways.”

Although I didn’t get to talk to Frances because I got there a little late, as the party went into it’s third hour, but I could see how much Frances loves The Legacy and her fellow residents.

And, when asked about the secret to her long life, Frances said, “drinking a Coke a day,” which is not only a pretty decent testament to Coca-Cola, it also reminded me of something said at a luncheon following my Great Aunt Molly’s funeral, which was held at a Jewish delicatessen in North Miami.
My cousin Arthur, the younger of Molly’s sons, asked everyone to raise their sandwich as he said, “Mom, you always said the salted, cured meats and French fries were the secrets to long life, and after almost 100 years of life, who could argue with you?” I’m pretty sure no one’s arguing with Frances, either.

The Legacy also recently welcomed two new top-level staff members — executive director Virginia Rice and chef Dennis Millet.

For more information about or to schedule a tour of The Legacy, visit LegacyatHighwoodsPreserve.com or call (813) 375-9858.

Do Not Miss The First New Tampa Brew Fest On Nov. 10!

When I was at the University of Florida, I remember asking a friend after at least six hours at a dorm party, “So, how much beer is too much beer?”

His response was, “The question is, how much beer is enough beer?

Well, those who attend the first-ever New Tampa Brew Fest, presented by Kling Law of Tampa, on Saturday, November 10, 6 p.m.-10 p.m., at the Venetian Event Center in front of St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church (9724 Cross Creek Blvd.), may actually be able to answer both of those questions. (kidding)

Hosted by the Rotary Club of New Tampa Noon (the club I belong to), which meets Wednesdays at noon at Mulligans Irish Pub inside the Pebble Creek Golf Club, this first-ever New Tampa Brew Fest is likely to become an instant classic.

Thanks to the efforts of club members Jeff Ulbrich, Lisa Hickey, Dr. Steve Dau and multiple others, the Brew Fest will feature at least 75 different craft and brand-name beers including (but not limited to; more may still be added):

*Big Storm Brewery — Oktoberfest, Oatmeal Stout & Lightning Lager
*Big Top Brewing Co. — Trapeze Monk, Hawaiian Lion & Conch Republic
*Blue Point Brewing Co. — Toasted Lager, Citrus Plunge & Prop Stopper
*Bold City Brewery — Duke’s Cold Nose, Mad Manatee & 1901
*Coppertail Brewing Co. — Free Dive, Unholy Trippel & Independent Pilsner
*Florida Avenue Brewing — Lager, IPA & Brown Ale
*Founders Brewing Co. — All Day IPA, Solid Gold & PC Pilsner
*Funky Buddha Brewery — Floridian, Pineapple Beach Blonde & Hop Gun IPA
*Goose Island Brewing Co. — 312 Urban & English Style IPA
*Highland Brewing Co. — Gaelic Ale, Mandarin & Daycation IPA
*Kona Brewing — Longboard Lager, Fire Rock Pale Ale & Big Wave Golden Ale
*Mr. Dunderbak’s — Biergarten
*Swamp Head Brewery — Stump Knocker, Big Nose IPA & Cottonmouth
*3 Daughters Brewing — Beach Blonde, Rod Bender & Floating Dock
*Uinta Brewing Co. — Pale Ale, Baba Black Lager & Lime Pilsner
We don’t yet know exactly what brews the following will be bringing,
but there also will be samples at the event of:
*Brew Hub *Dunder Brau Brewing *Keel & Curley Cider
*Lagunitas Brewing Co. *Liquid Garage *Two Henry’s Brewing Co.
*White Claw Hard Seltzer *Wiregrass Brewing *Yuengling Brewery

Great! So, How & Where Do I Buy My Tickets?

Tickets to the New Tampa Brew Fest have been reduced to just $25 per person and that includes as many samples of all of the great beers that will be on hand as you desire.

The food trucks listed below will not be inside the event (the food will not be included with the cost of your Brew Fest admission) and each truck charges different prices for the different kinds of food they serve.

Kling Law will be providing FREE Uber rides home for any Brew Fest attendees who need them and designated driver attendance tickets cost just $20 apiece for those who want to check out the event without sampling the beers. And of course, you must be at least 18 to attend and at least age 21 to drink any of the brews at the event.

Best of all, the net proceeds from the New Tampa Brew Fest will benefit the New Tampa Noon Rotary Foundation, which supports and does service projects to benefit organizations that serve U.S. military active duty and veterans and other first responders, as well as schools, the elderly and service projects from Fire Station No. 20 on BBD to as far away as India, Nepal and Kenya. Rotary International, the world’s largest service organization, with thousands of clubs and more than 1 million members worldwide, is also the organization that is within just a few cases a year (in mainly war-torn, impoverished countries) of completely eradicating polio (which once crippled and killed hundreds of thousands of people worldwide per year).

To pre-purchase New Tampa Brew Fest tickets, visit NewTampaBrewFest.com or search “New Tampa Brew Fest” on Facebook. Tickets also will be sold at the event that night.—GN

 

And, Outside The Brew Fest, These Food Trucks Are Scheduled To Be On-Site!

So Many Amendments…Do We Really Know How To Vote On Them?

Even though Florida has a hotly contested race for both Governor and the U.S. Senate coming up in the General Election tomorrow, I honestly can’t imagine that too many of us are actually looking forward to casting ballots this time around.

Why?

Well, mid-term elections are always a hit-and-miss proposition, but for the residents of New Tampa — who will pick three new Hillsborough County commissioners and a new School Board member — I have to think that, like me, some of you are so confused by all of the constitutional amendments on the ballot that you may choose to stay home instead of trying to really figure out how you should vote on some, if not most, of them.

Even though I have a four-year college degree from the University of Florida and I’ve been a professional writer and editor for more than 35 years, it seems to me that the wording of all proposed amendments to our state constitution are designed to confuse us, which makes filling in those “No” spaces hard to resist.

So, here’s a look at just a few of the 12 amendments on the ballot — because I personally may not get very far before I just start voting no on all of them. I mean, should it really take me a half hour or more, not including waiting on line time, just to vote?

Let’s start with Amendment 1 — Increased Homestead Property Tax Assessment, which grants an additional $25,000 homestead exemption for homes valued over $125,000. Owners of homes worth more than $100,000 would also receive an increase in their exemption.

If that’s the case, why don’t they just say it’s an additional exemption for homes worth more than $100,000?

On the surface, this seems like a no-brainer. After all, who wouldn’t want an additional homestead exemption?

On the other hand, groups like Florida Tax Watch, the League of Women Voters (LOWV) and others oppose it because it would take about $700 million a year out of the pockets of Florida’s cities, counties and other taxing authorities (although it wouldn’t affect school districts), starting in 2019, according to the Florida Association of Counties.

The LOWV says the likely result will be cuts in services or higher local tax rates to make up for the revenue losses, or possibly both.

OK, so how about Amendment 2 — Limitations on Property Tax Assessments?

In 2008, Florida voters amended the state Constitution to provide a 10-percent cap on annual property value increases for non-homestead property. This includes vacation homes, apartment buildings, vacant land, shopping centers and office buildings. The amendment excluded limits on assessments for school taxes.

However, the 2008 amendment on non-homestead property value limits is scheduled to automatically repeal on Jan. 1, 2019. Amendment 2, placed on the ballot by the Florida Legislature, would make the 10-percent limit on property value permanent (a legislative analysis of the proposal is here).

Like the 2008 amendment, Amendment 2 would exclude local school district taxes from the property value limits. The limits also do not apply if the property changes hands or if it undergoes substantial improvements. In other words, if a store is built on a piece of vacant land, the property value increase would not be protected by the 10-percent limit.

Florida Tax Watch supports this amendment but the LOWV is opposed to it.

Amendment 3 — Voter Control of Gambling In Florida — is an interesting one created by a citizen initiative, that would require approval of any new casino gambling through a citizen-initiative constitutional amendment, effectively barring the Legislature (as well as the Constitutional Review Commission, or CRC) from making those gambling decisions by passing laws. The interesting thing is that the new law would not affect the state’s ability to negotiate with Native American-owned casinos (like the Seminole Hard Rock here in Tampa) or dog- or horse-racing or the state lottery.

Because it puts the decision-making power for new casinos into the hands of Florida’s residents, both Tax Watch and the LOWV support Amendment 3, although a spate of recent TV ads would tell you that it wouldn’t actually help the average Florida resident much, if at all.

Another one that has gotten a lot of attention is Amendment 4 — Voting Restoration. This amendment would restore the voting rights of convicted felons (excluding those convicted of murder and felony sex crimes) who have served their time and paid their restitution without the current 5-7-year waiting period.

Again, this seems like a fair law, especially in light of statistics quoted by the LOWV (which helped write the amendment) that the recidivism rate for those who have had their voting rights restored goes down by 30 percent.

It seems to me that those who have served time for felonies may have more important things on their plate — like finding a job, getting back to normalcy with their families, etc. — than whether or not they should vote, but this one at least seems to make sense.

I also think that constitutional amendments are important enough that legislators shouldn’t be able to tack unrelated issues onto them. For example, is Amendment 6 about the rights of crime victims or the retirement age of judges? And how are those two things related?

Yeesh.

A Little About Political Ads & Introducing Our ‘New’ Managing Editor

If you check out the first 20 pages of the current New Tampa issue — and I hear so many of you read every page — you’ll see that we have quite a few more political ads than we normally do.

That’s by design. I have always felt that if those running for office were made to understand that:

1) the Neighborhood News is the one and only news magazine serving New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, the only publication providing actual news New Tampa residents need to know and not just advertorials; and that

2) we reach more than 27,000 residences and businesses and at least 60,000 potential voters in New Tampa’s zip code 33647 (and roughly 23,000 residences and businesses and 50,000 voters receive our Wesley Chapel edition) by direct mail) who tell us they voraciously read every issue cover-to-cover; and that

3) it costs significantly less to put a 1/4- or a 1/2-page ad in the Neighborhood News than it does to do a solo direct mail piece (that more than 90 percent of the people who receive them throw away without looking at them), that

4)  it wouldn’t make sense for those hoping to entice New Tampa’s upscale, but notoriously non-voting public to not want to throw a few dollars our way in order to get their names and faces in front of all of those voters in a medium they already turn to for their local news.

Well, it hasn’t been easy to get them all to spend that money, but I’m proud to say this issue is packed with not only political ads, but also with information you should check out before the General Election on Tuesday, November 6, including two sales tax referendums that are both on the ballot, plus stories about a couple of candidates you may not have heard of before.

In addition, we have an update on New Tampa Blvd., a new partnership program for the New Tampa Players, the opening of a new reading room at the New Tampa Regional Library and a story about a Wharton High grad capitalizing on the probiotic tea craze in a big way.

And, that’s just in our first 17 pages, where those political ads have taken up shop for at least one issue, and, hopefully, they will again for New Tampa Issue #23-18 (Nov. 2), which comes out the Friday before the election.

Because of the open nature of campaign fundraising, all local candidates have to provide lists of all the money they’ve raised for their respective campaigns to Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer’s office, but there’s no doubt that while some candidates have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for these local races, others have mostly self-funded their candidacies or raised in the low thousands of dollars. To that end, some of the candidates with ads in these pages have raised a lot of money, while others are at the lower end of the spectrum, yet they all felt strongly enough about the nature of our readership to at least take a shot with us.

I am proud, nearly 25 years later, to still be New Tampa’s primary source of news and information and you have no idea how much it means to me when those of you who see me out and about in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel, as I so often am, stop to tell me how much you read and love the Neighborhood News. — and even how much you enjoy our WCNT-tv segments. It certainly makes the late deadline evenings all the more worthwhile for yours truly.

Better Late Than Never, John…

A big part of why I have been able to be more involved in the sales side of this business is because for three years, I have had, hands down, not only the best assistant editor I’ve ever worked with in John C. Cotey, but truly one of the best  local beat writers/editors in the entire country — with a sense of humor to match.

John, a 16-year New Tampa resident, has been providing not only great local news and sports coverage for us since 2015, he also has found — and covered — some of the most touching and even heart-breaking human interest stories about people in and around New Tampa and Wesley Chapel we’ve ever covered.

In addition, he has continued to put his own thumbprint on the look of our publications and makes sure we cover as many stories as we can in every issue, every two weeks. He also does an outstanding job of managing our excellent freelance writers, including Brad Stager, Andy Warrener, Jarrett Guthrie and the incredible Celeste McLaughlin. (By the way, if you don’t read Celeste’s Kombucha tea and hippotherapy, which may not be what you’re thinking, stories in this issue, you’ll be missing some great stuff.)

And of course, as soon as we put a New Tampa issue to bed, John flips his hat (although he rarely wears a hat) to provide the same coverage of Wesley Chapel that he does here for zip code 33647 two weeks later.

In other words, there is no way in the world this publication would be what it is right now without him. So, that’s why I am proud to announce that John finally has gotten a long-overdue promotion. Instead of assistant editor, John C. Cotey is now the managing editor of both the New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News!

The best thing about that, for John, may be the fact that now, WCNT-tv senior video producer and photographer Gavin Olsen has to answer to him. Ah, good times, guys, and congratulations and thank you, John!

Nibbles and Bytes

FHWC Opens Wound Care Center
Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC), which will be changing its name to AdventHealth Wesley Chapel in January 2019 (see Business Notes on page 13), continues to be at the forefront of health care in our area. The hospital recently opened its Wound Care Center inside the FHWC Wellness Plaza, the building due north of the hospital itself.

FHWC CEO Denyse Bales-Chubb and dozens of Adventist Health dignitaries, local elected

officials/political candidates and North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce members were on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Aug. 27, and everyone in attendance (including yours truly) came away truly impressed with this latest addition to FHWC’s plethora of medical services for the community.

Although the Wound Care Center has plenty of state-of-the-art technology for caring for all kinds of wounds, lesions and lacerations, the coolest things we saw as we toured the facility were two hyperbaric chambers (photo far right), which traditionally have been used for people with the “bends” from scuba diving, but which (we were told) also can help with healing for those who have chronic sores and wounds that don’t heal, from diabetes or after radiation therapy for cancer.

Congrats also go out to the local catering company called C‱B‱K Catering & Events, which served amazing edible cones filled with a zesty chicken salad, plus delicious cheese tortellinis and perfect bruschetta at the event.

For more info about FHWC and the new Wound Care Center, visit FloridaHospital.com. For more info about C‱B‱K Catering, visit CBKTampa.com or call (813) 699-3060 and please tell Chase Mayer the New Tampa Neighborhood News sent you!

VIPs Check Out The Hyatt Place
In our last issue, I mentioned that the new Hyatt Place Hotel & Sierra Conference Center were getting ready to open, which actually happened on July 30.

On Aug. 9, representatives of the new hotel hosted a VIP event we attended, where members of the North Tampa Bay Chamber (NTBC) of Commerce Board of Directors and other local VIPs took tours of the 132-room hotel and got to sample some of the tasty food that will be served in the Hyatt Place’s Gallery restaurant.

The Hyatt Place Hotel is located at 26000 Sierra Center Blvd. For more info, stop in or call (813) 803-5600 or visit Hyatt.com, and please tell the hotel’s staff that you read about them (again) in the New Tampa Neighborhood News!

Umu To Replace OTB Café

Although OTB (Only The Best) Delights Café closed its original location at 2653 Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in Wesley Chapel several weeks ago, have no fear.

Not only is OTB set to reopen sometime in September in its new location a couple of miles further north at the new Nye Commons (4873 BBD), but there already is a new restaurant getting ready to open in its old location.

The Thai owners of Umu Japanese & Thai have been transforming the old OTB space into an elegant-looking future home of great sushi, Bento boxes and other Japanese and Thai favorites and hope to be open sometime in September.