How New Tampa voted

Ken Hagan

Two faces quite familiar to New Tampa voters — Republican Hillsborough County commissioners s Ken Hagan and Victor Crist — both easily won their primary elections Aug. 28, officially kicking off campaigns which, if successful, would result in them exchanging seats on the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners. Meanwhile, Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum pulled off a shocker statewide that reverberated nationally.

Gillum shocked almost everyone with a win in Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, to set up a showdown with Donald Trump-endorsed Republican Ron DeSantis to replace Rick Scott as Florida’s governor.

Both gubernatorial candidates defeated establishment-backed candidates, setting the stage for an interesting fall battle that will match contenders from what many believe to be the party’s bases.
With his victory, Gillum, a progressive candidate backed by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, becomes Florida’s first black gubernatorial candidate, after he defeated favored Gwen Graham, the daughter of popular former Florida governor and U.S. senator Bob Graham.

Although he was fourth in many polls leading up to the primary vote and was outspent by Graham $13 million to $2.5 million, there was talk of a Gillum surge in the final days, which turned out to be prescient.

Andrew Gillum

Gillum captured 34.3 percent of the state-wide Democratic vote (or 517,834 votes of the 1,509,794 cast). Graham finished second with 31.3 percent, while Phillip Levine (20.3 percent) and Jeff Greene (10 percent) rounded out the top candidates in the Democratic field.

“People didn’t think we had a chance, but we did,” Gillum told CNN shortly after being declared the winner. “I think voters have had enough with the status quo.”

DeSantis, first elected to Congress in 2012, represents the Daytona Beach area and originally ran for the U.S. Senate in 2016, when it appeared that Marco Rubio, coming off an unsuccessful presidential campaign, was not going to run. Once Rubio re-entered the Senate race, DeSantis exited.

Running behind former Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam at the time, DeSantis fully embraced an endorsement from President Trump in the spring and it shot him into a lead he never relinquished. DeSantis was the choice of 913,955 Republican voters out of 1,618,372 who cast ballots in the primary, or 56.4 percent. Putnam was a distant second with 36.5 percent.

Ron DeSantis

President Trump congratulated DeSantis on the win the night of the primaries, and the next morning, he attacked Gillum, calling him DeSantis’ “biggest dream
a failed Socialist Mayor named Andrew Gillum who has allowed crime and & other problems to flourish in his city.”

In New Tampa’s voting precincts, DeSantis beat Putnam by a smaller but still decisive 50-43 percent margin. Putnam won only three precincts — 357 and 358 in Tampa Palms, and 671, which primarily encompasses Pebble Creek — but only by a combined 13 votes.

Gillum was much more popular in New Tampa than in the state in general, winning 45 percent of the vote in our precincts to just 32 percent for Graham. In votes cast just for Gillum or Graham, Gillum was the choice 58 percent of the time.

Locally, Hagan, a former New Tampa resident now residing in Carrollwood who previously served in New Tampa’s District 2 before being elected to represent countywide District 5, defeated Chris Paradies 72.4 percent to 27.6 percent in the Republican primary race for the District 2 seat.

Currently the longest current serving county commissioner, Hagan has raised $485,574 and barely touched his war chest to beat Paradies, spending $98,773 (which is almost twice as much as Paradies and Hagan’s November 6 opponent, Democrat Angela Birdsong, have raised combined).

Birdsong was the only Democrat to file for District 2, which is currently the seat held by Comm. Crist.
Crist is running for Hagan’s soon-to-be-vacated District 5 seat (both are term-limited out of their current positions), and defeated Angel S. Urbina Capo for the Republican nomination with 81 percent of the vote.

Crist’s Democratic opponent in November is expected to pose a much stiffer challenge. Mariella Smith, a local businesswoman, is a first-time Democratic candidate but has the backing of U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor and other state Democratic leaders.

Smith garnered 83 percent of the ballots cast, or 77,228 votes, to 15,904 for her opponent in the primary, Elvin Piggott.

Victor Crist

She has shown the kind of fund-raising prowess that could help her overcome Crist’s money and name recognition, with $81,423 raised and just 14,007.14 spent.

Crist has raised $129,080 but has spent $88,814. “When I fund-raise, I do it to benefit the nonprofit organizations I support (like the University Area Community Center),” Crist said. “I don’t spend any time fund-raising for my campaign.”

In District 7, another countywide seat currently held by outgoing commissioner Al Higginbotham, Todd Marks defeated Aakash Patel in a bitterly fought Republican primary.

Patel spent more than $400,000 trying to the win the nomination, and boasted endorsements from Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, State House Speaker Richard Corcoran, former Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford and U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis.

However, Marks, who spent only about a third of what Patel did, picked up 68 percent of the vote in a surprisingly decisive win.

Marks will face Democrat Kimberly Overman for the District 7 seat in the fall. Overman, a financial planner, took 47 percent of the vote in a four-person field, finishing well ahead of second-place Sky White, who had 20 percent.

In Hillsborough School Board elections, New Tampa’s District 3 seat, currently held by Cindy Stuart, was not on the ballot this year, but a countywide seat in District 6 (to replace April Griffin) was up for grabs, as a field of six candidates battled, with Henry “Shake” Washington (32.7 percent) and Karen Perez (28 percent) advancing to a November runoff.

In what will be another hotly-contested local race on Nov. 6, District 63 State Rep. Shawn Harrison, a Republican, will try to hold onto his seat against Democrat candidate Fentrice Driskell. Neither candidate faced a primary opponent on Aug. 28..

Twisted Sisters Softball Wins World Series

The 10U Twisted Sisters All-Stars from North Tampa made friends with other teams at the world series, including the Chinese team (pictured) that ended up cheering for them as the Twisted Sisters won the World Series championship game.

The Twisted Sisters 10U All-Star softball team, made up of primarily of players from New Tampa, Zephyrhills and Wesley Chapel, weren’t so sure about their new Florida uniforms given to them by the organizers of the World Series Diamond Championship.

They didn’t fit right. Didn’t feel right. Didn’t look right.

So, after a slow start at the World Series in Lake City, FL, where the team went 3-3 in pool play and suffered consecutive losses for the first time all season, coach Otis Bass asked if his team could go back to their North Tampa All-Star uniforms.

Granted permission to do so, the Twisted Sisters didn’t lose again.

On Aug. 3, the team won three games, and on Saturday, Aug. 4, they rolled over Treasure Coast 7-0 to capture the Babe Ruth World Series 10U Diamond Championship.

“What a way to end it,” said Bass.

What a way indeed. On the morning she found out her great grandmother had passed away, pitcher Jordan Ankers pitched a no-hitter, outfielder Willa Soorus broke open a pitcher’s duel with a bases-clearing triple in the fourth inning, and catcher Allison McDuffie hit a home run the next inning to cap off a dramatic run to the title.

“It was a really cool moment,” said Bass, whose daughter Bella played second base and hit .458 with a team-best 10 RBI at the World Series and is one of four Hunter’s Green Elementary students on the team, along with Soorus, Eliza Connell and Skylah Stephens.

Bass said his roster was littered with standout players.

Ankers was dominant in the pitching circle and batted .385 on the way to being named to the All-10U World Series team.

Chelsea Anderson, a first baseman who also filled in at catcher when needed, played both positions so well at the World Series she was awarded a Gold Glove.

Soorus — “Our unsung hero throughout the World Series,” Bass said — led the team with a .538 batting average, while outfielder Lola Coole, who goes to Tampa Palms Elementary, was second with a .526 average. Third baseman Haley Horne batted .391 and was second on the team with 9 RBI.

Bass said every member of the Twisted Sisters contributed to the 7-3 record at the World Series, including outfielder Eliana Rivera (.357), shortstop Eliza Connell, Skylah Stephens and Turner/Bartels’ Grace Mercado.

Bass also credited his coaching staff — Jamie Ankers, Justin Horne and Devon and Mike Connell — with helping lead the team to an undefeated season in Xtreme Softball, a State championship and World Series title.

“We knew we had great pitching and could hit well, and were fast and smart on the basepaths,” Bass said. “We had them battle-tested, and knew we had a pretty good team here.”

Fore! Pebble Creek Golf Club Owner Says Listing Was A Mistake

Is the Pebble Creek Golf Club for sale? Maybe. Maybe not.

Like so many rumors, it started on the internet — that the Pebble Creek Golf Club (PCGC) was up for sale.

So we asked Bill Place, who has owned the club since 2005.

“It’s not up for sale,” he says.

But, according to land brokers Cushman & Wakefield, it is indeed up for sale, and is listed on the firm’s website.

The extensive listing touts the 12 existing lakes, homes in Pebble Creek that are selling “in the mid-$200,000s to upper-$300,000s,” an average household income within a three-mile radius of $106,179 and the 3,189,266 square feet of retail within a three-mile radius of the semi-private golf course.

Included is a marketing flyer, water and sewage map, a zoning site plan, Pebble Creek’s declaration of covenants and restrictions (dated Sept. 2, 1986) and a unit count calculation that says 840 apartment and townhome units are potentially feasible to replace the golf course.

Place said he never intended for Pebble Creek to be listed as for sale. He says Cushman & Wakefield were contacted by a builder looking for land, and the firm asked if he was interested.

He merely said he was.

“But, I never requested a listing,” Place says. “Obviously, they seem to be taking it a little further and I need to find out why they would be putting up a listing. I never signed a listing agreement.”

Place says he did call Cushman & Wakefield after he talked to us, and expected the listing to be removed. But as we went to press with this issue, it was still there.

Basically, Place says he isn’t planting a For Sale sign on the first tee and selling Pebble Creek Golf Club publicly.

“But yes, I am absolutely looking at all options,” he says.

And why wouldn’t he?

Business at PCGC continues to trend downward. Over the last year, Place says revenues at the club are down by a third, and profits are down by 50 percent. Some of that he attributes to the construction on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., but admits it is an industry-wide slump.

“Is Pebble Creek doing well? No, it’s not doing great at this point,” Place says. “We all need more people to play golf. It seems like the millennials just don’t like to golf as much.”

Membership at PCGC has remained stagnant. Place says despite being surrounded by 1,100 homes, the golf club only has 20 members that are actually Pebble Creek residents.

“That’s not a lot of support,” he says.

PCGC is located at 10550 Regents Park Dr., and boasts 6,436 yards of play from the blue tees. it was designed by Bill Amick and built in 1967.

Place bought the course in 2005, and helped revive it. But, golf courses may be a dying breed, and Place says New Tampa — and all of Florida — is oversaturated with them. Pebble Creek has to compete with private country clubs like Hunter’s Green and Tampa Palms, as well as semi-private Heritage Isles, which are all a short drive away.

That leaves a lot of land — in Pebble Creek’s case, 149 acres worth of it — that potentially has more value to him in the hands of developers. Place is well aware that a few miles north in Wesley Chapel, where it took almost two years of public hearings and government meetings, struggling Quail Hollow Golf & Country Club is now being razed by its owners to make room for 400 homes.

“Even if I assumed the best case and some builder wanted to pay for it, with all the rezoning and public hearings and battles, it may not even be possible here,” Place says. “It certainly was for Quail Hollow.”

Place and wife Su Lee own the company, Ace Golf, that owns Pebble Creek Golf Club, and three other golf courses, along with two driving ranges in Brandon and Riverview.

Two years ago, Ace Golf bought Plantation Palms Golf Club in Land O’Lakes, which had been closed for two years. Ace Golf also owns the Wentworth and Crescent Oaks golf clubs in Tarpon Springs.

He says he has had numerous offers to sell Pebble Creek Golf Club over the years, but nothing concrete, and that’s where it stands now.

But, he knows the rumor is out there. His hope is that it doesn’t hurt business, including at the popular Mulligans Irish Pub inside PCGC, and that the golf club itself can rebound.

“It’s just crazy that we’ve had people walk in and say ‘When are you closing?,’” Place says. “We may never close.”

Benito parents, staff fret over Kinnan and Cross Creek intersection

Wendy Arroyo, parent of a 7th grader, and her mother Elsie were among those holding signs last week urging drivers to be more careful.

Nearly a dozen Benito Middle School parents and teacher lined the roads that run by their children’s school last week with bright yellow signs blaring simple messages:

Be Careful.

Slow Down.

Phones Down.

Drive Like Your Kids Live Here.

Teaming up with Vision Zero Hillsborough, the Benito parents hoped to shine a light on a growing problem in this congested section of New Tampa. About a month into the new school year, parents are saying the conditions in which their kids walk and bike to school are becoming more and more dangerous.

With the school situated on the south side of busy Cross Creek Blvd., the tail end of the morning commute is made more difficult by hundreds of students walking and biking — with many of them having to cross the busy street — to get to Benito.

While flashing lights are present along Cross Creek, notifying drivers that the speed limit is 20 miles per hour during the times students are walking to school, drivers leaving Kinnan St. and turning east or west onto Cross Creek don’t see those signs.

The intersection is congested with those heading to work and parents trying to get into the car line to drop their children off at school. Because there are cars entering the Benito parking lot from both directions on Cross Creek, the entrance can get backed up, leaving drivers trying to cross over from Kinnan St. to have to wait an extra light cycle, sometimes two.

That can lead to bad decisions by drivers who are in a hurry, while also creating backups in both directions along Cross Creek Blvd.

Ironically, about an hour before parents and Vision Zero Hillsborough showed up with their signs, as if to highlight the dangers of Kinnan and Cross Creek, an accident in the middle of the intersection backed up morning traffic and sent debris like broken glass flying into the crosswalk. Fortunately, it happened before schooltime pedestrian traffic.

Cars making a left turn onto Cross Creek Blvd. from Kinnan St. are sometimes failing to yield to kids crossing to school.

The most sometimes-heart-stopping concern, Benito principal John Sanders says, results from drivers leaving Kinnan Street and making a left onto Cross Creek heading east.

“Kids are in that crosswalk while cars are turning,” says Sanders. “The cars go right in front of them or right behind them — by feet and sometimes inches.”

The problem is that when the crosswalk light is green, giving the pedestrians the right of way to cross the street, drivers making a left onto Cross Creek also have the same green light. Legally, they have to yield to the pedestrians in the crosswalk, but it appears many drivers are acting as if they have a green arrow instead, and don’t notice or aren’t checking to make sure that there aren’t pedestrians in (or entering) the crosswalk.

“It’s not a safe crosswalk for students because of so much traffic coming from so many different directions, and people aren’t paying attention,” says Jenny Giraldo, whose daughter attends Benito. “Signage is lacking on so many levels, drivers aren’t really made aware. They need to be woken up.”
Sanders adds that he is hopeful that changes will be made.

On Friday, September 7(the day this issue hits mailboxes), a meeting is scheduled with representatives from the City of Tampa and the Hillsborough County School Board to discuss possible changes to lights and signs in the area.

“I think that the light situation needs to change,” says Benito Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) president Cindy Walton. “There needs to be no turn on red or the light for walking needs to be longer, while other lights aren’t green. It causes children to walk at the same time cars want to go, and cars don’t yield to pedestrians the way they should.”

To address the cars not yielding to pedestrians — or not being aware of the situation — the PTSA invited Vision Zero Hillsborough to hold the rally along Cross Creek Blvd. during the morning drop-off time on Aug. 31.

The Vision Zero Action Plan was developed by the Hillsborough Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Policy Committee, and has organized similar efforts at other dangerous areas in Tampa, most recently Seminole Heights.

“Vision Zero is an organization that is trying to eliminate traffic deaths,” Walton explains. “The event is to raise awareness that there are children, and drivers need to obey traffic laws, yield to pedestrians and slow down.”

While the school administrators and PTSA are working to educate parents and students at the school, Walton says Vision Zero was brought in to bring awareness to those drivers who are not part of the school.

“We knew we needed to reach out to the (entire) community, versus just our parents,” says Walton. “We need to have that awareness within our own community that students are walking along Cross Creek Blvd. and drivers need to watch out.”

Sanders agrees that the issue needs to be addressed in multiple ways.

“Part of it is educating the children who are walking to do everything in their power and control to keep themselves safe at that intersection,” he says. “Some of them are crossing in the crosswalk, assuming that they’re safe, and they’re not.”

To drivers — both those parents in the car line and those who are just trying to get to work through the mess of traffic, Sanders makes this plea: “Please exercise patience,” he says. “Especially from about 8:30 to 9:30 a.m., exercise extreme caution in the area. Please, if you’re turning left onto Cross Creek from Kinnan, be aware that green light happens while kids are in the crosswalk.”

No Major Incidents
Yet

According to the City of Tampa Police Department (TPD), since school started on Aug. 10, there has been just one minor accident between a student and a driver, which happened the morning of Aug. 16.

An eastbound vehicle turning right into Benito off of Cross Creek didn’t stop for a red light and struck a bicycle with the front bumper of the car. Fortunately, the student was able to attend school that day.

Eddy Durkin, a spokesperson for the TPD, says officers initiated 17 traffic stops —including 15 during school hours — at either the intersection of Cross Creek and Kinnan or directly in front of Benito that week.

“We are hopeful that the balance of education and enforcement being provided regarding vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian safety will assist drivers, riders and walkers in making good decisions,” he says.

Parents are concerned that the next accident might not be so minor.

Giraldo says she recently saw a terrifying incident at that intersection.

A student crossing Cross Creek Blvd. in the crosswalk with a green “walk” signal had no idea that a large pickup truck was making a left-hand turn from Kinnan onto Cross Creek. The vehicle didn’t yield to the student in the crosswalk, and the student didn’t see the truck, as it was coming from behind her.

Giraldo says she was sitting in her car at the intersection and that she saw a woman who happened to be in the intersection grab the child by her backpack and yank her out of the path of the oncoming truck.

“It happened in a split second,” she says, “and it’s horrifying to think what would have happened if that woman hadn’t been standing there.”

Walton and other parents are hopeful that drivers will change their bad habits to make getting to school safer for students.

“Walking is good for them, riding their bike is exercise, and it’s good for them to be outside,” says Walton. “If traffic was aware and slowed down, and if traffic yielded to them, it would absolutely be safe for them to ride to school.”

 

Aggressive Approach Yields Tourism Results

Pasco County has put its tourism department on steroids.

The county’s formerly sleepy, nature-centric manner of attracting visitors is giving way to a high-powered, aggressive approach that, if everything goes according to plan, will soon yield a new brand that is expected to focus on the county’s diverse offerings.

Executive director Adam Thomas of the Pasco County Visitor Bureau has commissioned Tallahassee-based public relations firm Zimmerman Agency, LLC, to help coordinate a brand relaunch at a cost of $481,000. In other words, the motto “Open spaces. Vibrant Places.” could be giving way to something that reaches a broader, more defined audience.

“We are building a platform that is going to springboard us into the future and will make us relevant in the Florida tourism market,” Thomas says.

Working with local leaders, the Zimmerman Agency is expected to unveil a draft plan by Aug. 31, and the new brand for Pasco tourism could launch in early October.

Thomas says his goal is to help develop a “life-cycle” of tourism, where visitors fall in love with the area they are visiting, and decide to relocate their families or businesses here, and feed the ongoing growth of Pasco County.

While the county already boasts a variety of festivals and outdoor activities, as well as a bustling western coastline attractive to those who like water sports like fishing, inland suburban areas like Wesley Chapel have evolved quickly to offer even more, like two thriving shopping malls.

Natalie Taylor of “Tampa Bay’s Morning Blend” talks with Pasco County commissioner Mike Moore, Gordie Zimmerman and Adam Thomas about Pasco County tourism.

If tourism in Pasco County felt somewhat staid in the past, it could have been for a lack of product that is now becoming more ample.

Wesley Chapel already is proving there is fruit on the sports tree, thanks to the overwhelming and immediate success of Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI).

Helped by a two-percent increase in the Tourist Development Tax (TDT) last year to help pay for a new sports complex (see below) in Wiregrass Ranch, FHCI deserves to receive at least some of the credit for the recent boost in tourism dollars filling county coffers.

The TDT has raised more than $200,000 every month through June this year, with a high of $355,279 in April. Last year, the most it raised in any month was $157,942.

Managing partner Gordie Zimmermann (no relation to the agency) says FHCI is booked almost every weekend with hockey tournaments and other events, a majority of them requiring at least a two-night stay.

There is a rush to build more hotels (the Hyatt Place just opened and three more are on the way along S.R. 56), so visitors have a place to stay, and FHCI is more than able to fill them. “We didn’t have as many places to stay in Pasco County in the past,” says District 2 Pasco Commissioner Mike Moore. “Now, the visitors that may have come to Pasco for a day trip or to visit family can stay. We now have (hotels).”

Moore also said that in the past, the county has lost out on events, due to a lack of facilities, like FHCI, hotels and even enough shopping options and restaurants.

“Now, we can handle all of those visitors,” says Moore, who lives in Wesley Chapel.

Our area should be prepared to handle even more in 2019 and, as a result, more hotels and restaurants are on the way.

“I don’t know if they have ever seen anything like this in the history of the county, and we’re really just ramping up,” Zimmermann says. “We have a lot of different events coming in 2019 that we didn’t even have in 2018. It’s something every week.”

Even the “American Idol” auditions held last week (and one year ago) produced overnight stays. However, it has been the various ice sports, from youth and adult hockey to figure skating events, driving Wesley Chapel’s increased impact on county-wide tourism.

FHCI recently hosted a roller hockey tournament featuring 200 teams over the course of 10 days. Any number of events the facility has already hosted are the largest Pasco County has ever seen, Zimmermann says.

“I’m not surprised by the increase in tourism right now,” says Hope Allen, the CEO of the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce. “We can definitely  tip our hat to Gordie for the majority of that.”

Next year, the new RADDSports-developed Wiregrass Ranch Sports Complex will enter the tourism market and, like FHCI, is likely to make a huge impact of its own.

Thomas also hopes to shine a spotlight on some of Pasco County’s other treasures, including those that speak to the county’s reputation for open spaces, even if those seem to shrinking.

He said “influencers” in the travel industry will be enlisted to spread the word, even travel bloggers, many of whom have large audiences.

On a recent travel post, a blogger wrote of a trip she took, sponsored by VisitPasco, to the county. She wrote (and posted videos) about staying at the Hilton Garden Inn near the Suncoast Pkwy., where to rent a car or a bike, cycling through Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park, enjoying a balloon ride in Land O’Lakes, ziplining at TreeHoppers Aerial Adventure Park in Dade City and enjoying great food at Capital Tacos and Noble Crust in Wesley Chapel.

“Those are the people that can persuade someone’s travel plans,” Thomas says. “It’s all about finding different ways and different strategies.”