Meadow Pointe, Union Park Parents Hope To Change School Rezoning

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Option 12, pictured above, moves residents in areas numbered 16-23 from the John Long Middle/Wiregrass Ranch High zone & puts them at Weightman Middle and Wesley Chapel High.

When Tom McClanahan first heard that the community in which he lives — Union Park — was being re-zoned and his two children would be attending Thomas Weightman Middle School and Wesley Chapel High School (WCH) instead of nearby John Long Middle and Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH), he was stunned.

Because Union Park is tucked in the southeastern corner of Wesley Chapel, he and other residents never thought re-zoning to help stock the new Cypress Creek High (previously referred to as GGG) — which is located north of S.R. 54 and west of I-75 — would involve them. “That’s why we didn’t get involved,’’ he says.

Until now, that is. Tonight, McClanahan will present an alternative to the Pasco County School Board in preparation for the the big Tuesday, November 29 meeting when a large crowd of parents from Union Park and Meadow Pointe III & IV is expected to  gather at WCH’s auditorium to voice their concerns. 

Since the new school zone — Option 12 — was chosen by the Pasco County School Boundary Committee (SBC) on Oct. 20 for Cypress Creek High and to relieve overcrowding at all the Wesley Chapel middle and high schools (which are all over capacity) parents in the areas expected to be most affected in Meadow Pointe III and IV and Union Park have rallied to decry the new zones.

Option 12 re-zones all students who live in neighborhoods with access to Meadow Pointe Blvd., like Sheringham, Heatherstone, Claridge Place, Nesslewood and Larkenheath. It also moves more than 300 middle and high school students out of Country Walk and Fox Ridge in Meadow Pointe IV, as well as students all the way east to Union Park.

Groups opposing Option 12 have met numerous times since the proposal was put forth as the SBC choice, developing what they feel are better options. Those options have already been sent to Pasco School Board members and members of the SBC, which is comprised of principals from Wesley Chapel’s schools and parent representatives — including two from Seven Oaks, originally a candidate to be re-zoned.

None of those representatives, however, were from Meadow Pointe or Union Park.

meadowpointesplit“I would say that personally, I was very surprised and confused by the recommendation,’’ said Kevin Croswell, who is representing Meadow Pointe III. “I was surprised because of our physical proximity to our current schools versus the proposal to send students 8-10 miles away. It also splits up Meadow Pointe III. We’d be the only community split up, which contradicts one of the guidelines of re-zoning, which is maintaining subdivision integrity.”

According to Croswell, 56 percent of students in Meadow Pointe III would remain at their current school, with 44 percent having to attend Weightman and Wesley Chapel.

Both groups represented by Croswell and McClanahan have met, and both say they are proceeding professionally and respectfully.

They have asked their neighbors not to flood Pasco’s School Board with angry calls or emails, and instead would like their proposals to do their talking for them. They think when taking future road construction on S.R. 56 and S.R 54 that will impact travel to Weightman and WCH into consideration, as well as slight modifications of other plans (like Options 13 and 20) that could provide greater relief — particularly to Wiregrass Ranch, which is at 168 percent of its capacity — they can get results.

All concerns and feedback raised at the parent meeting will be addressed a few days later, at what could be the final SBC meeting on Friday, December 2, where it will be determined if any changes need to be made. 

“It is certainly possible (changes will be made),’’ said Chris Williams, Pasco’s planning director. “The committee usually does a pretty good job and considers things and talks through them and is willing to look at problems from a different perspective.”

Folks in Meadow Pointe and Union Park admit, however, that they were caught by surprise and acknowledge that it is late in the game. But, McClanahan says he has his fingers crossed. 

“All of us moved here, because of the schools, so it’s a tough pill to swallow,’’ McClanahan says. “Part of me thinks we might just be going through the motions, but Chris Williams, and some committee and Board members (say) they are willing to tweak things if we are able to present a good enough proposal. And, I think we can.”

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.

The Beach House Assisted Living Complex Breaks Ground In Wiregrass Ranch

(L.-r.) Jonathan Till, the legislative assistant for State Representative Danny Burgess; Hope Allen, President/CEO, the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce; Pasco County commissioner Mike Moore; Allan Brown, Principal, Prevarian Senior Living; JD Porter, Developer, Wiregrass Ranch; and Kim Nadwodny, the regional operations manager for Life Care Services, take part in a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Beach House Assisted Living and Memory Care at Wiregrass Ranch senior living community in Wesley Chapel. The community is scheduled to open in late 2017.
(L.-r.) Jonathan Till, the legislative assistant for State Representative Danny Burgess; Hope Allen, President/CEO, the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce; Pasco County commissioner Mike Moore; Allan Brown, Principal, Prevarian Senior Living; JD Porter, Developer, Wiregrass Ranch; and Kim Nadwodny, the regional operations manager for Life Care Services, take part in a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Beach House Assisted Living and Memory Care at Wiregrass Ranch senior living community in Wesley Chapel. The community is scheduled to open in late 2017.

“God gave us memories so that we might have roses in December.” — James M. Barrie

As Wiregrass Ranch and Wesley Chapel continue to grow, so do the needs of the people living there. With that in mind, ground was officially broken on Nov. 2 for the new Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch assisted living facility, which is located on S.R. 56, a half-mile east of Mansfield Blvd.

After some short speeches, a group of local dignitaries planted their shovels into a ceremonial pile of dirt to officially kick off construction of the 93,000-sq.-ft. Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch facility, the first of its kind in Wesley Chapel.

“We’re very happy to be done (with permitting) and ready to begin construction,’’ said Allan Brown, the head of the Dallas, TX-based Prevarian Companies, which already owns Beach House facilities in Naples and Jacksonville.

Brown gave credit to JD Porter, who was at the groundbreaking, along with his sister Quinn Miller, for their family’s measured development of the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI), and the foresight to look down the road.

“Two-plus years ago, when we first looked at this market in Wesley Chapel, and specifically in Wiregrass Ranch, this area looked extraordinarily different,’’ Brown said. “Look at it now. Thanks to the Porter family and the great job they do.”

The Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch will be dedicated to seniors who need assistance with the activities of daily living, and will also provide specialized memory care services for residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia. The community is expected to accommodate 100 area seniors with private residences, including 67 alcove one-bedroom or two-bedroom plans for assisted living and 33 suites for memory care.

Amenities at the Beach House, which Brown said was named to evoke pleasant memories of summers gone by for older Florida residents, will include a restaurant-style dining room, a private dining room, activities room, salon and spa, theater and outdoor living areas.

Life Care Services, represented at the groundbreaking by regional operations manager Kim Nadwodny, serves more than 33,000 older adults nationwide and will be the operator of the Beach House.

Pasco County District 2 commissioner Mike Moore, who represents the Wiregrass Ranch area, hailed the groundbreaking as a significant step for the area as it matures.

“I’ve said this for years, we need an assisted living facility in Wesley Chapel, and not just any assisted living facility, but one like this,’’ Moore said. “As the population grows and Wesley Chapel continues to grow, there’s a huge need for these kinds of facilities. It’s close to home, you can go take your loved one out for the day to the mall. This is a great location for it.”

Moore said it will be nice for local residents, in many cases, not to have to drive to Tampa to see their elderly loved ones, as the Beach House will be the first living assisted facility in Wesley Chapel.

“It’s amazing what is going on in this community,’’ Brown said. “It’s become a community that is rich in the resource of people and services and neighborhoods, and it’s growth done the right way. We look forward to being one of those trusted resources.”

In New Tampa, there are three such facilities — The Legacy at Highwoods Preserve, Memory Lane Cottage in Tampa Palms and Discovery Village, which is located right across the street from Freedom High in Tampa Palms (and less than two miles from both The Legacy and Memory Lane) and is also scheduled open in 2017.

For more information, visit BeachHouseWiregrass.com.

Florida Hospital Center Ice Inches Closer To Its Opening

Gordie Zimmermann stands on one of the all-but-completed rinks at Florida Hospital Center Ice, which is expected to “soft open” sometime in December.
Gordie Zimmermann stands on one of the all-but-completed rinks at Florida Hospital Center Ice, which is expected to “soft open” sometime in December.

As the Grand Opening of the $20-million Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI) fast approaches, not a day goes by that Gordie Zimmermann isn’t asked about when that will be.

He is asked in the grocery store, while walking around Wesley Chapel and his phone never seems to stop dinging with text messages and ringing with eager callers.

“Everybody is excited about it,’’ Zimmermann says. “I got hammered all weekend with phone calls, people asking when it will be open and when can they book a birthday party and what are some of the great events coming in. This is such a big community in Wesley Chapel, they can’t wait.”

They won’t have to much longer. Zimmermann says the 150,500-sq.-ft. FCHI, which is located along Cypress Ridge Blvd. on the northeast corner of the I-75/S.R. 56 interchange in Wesley Chapel, is looking at a soft opening in December to test out some final details. He says there are plans for an official Grand Opening in January.  A tentative date has been set, but he still can’t reveal it.

fhci11_9_5A tour through the facility on Nov. 9 revealed that it won’t be long.

One rink is all but finished, framed by completed dasher boards, glass and scoreboards. Once it is cleaned up, the ice will be ready to go in.

A second rink is right behind, as the protective glass was carefully put in recently by workers. A third rink, as well as the main NHL-sized rink, are taking form.

“We’re working as fast as we can to get all the kinks out,’’ says Zimmermann, a developer for Z Mitch, LLC. “Everything has to be just right.” As we went to press last week, the electricity was turned on, lighting up the interior.

Zimmermann said the demand for the new facility has already far exceeded what he expected.

“It’s already basically booked into the summer,’’ he says. “And, we haven’t even gotten to our fall schedule yet.”

fhci11_9Zimmermann says FHCI is about 80-85 percent done. The seating and kitchen for the Top Shelf Restaurant & Bar, which will overlook the rinks below, and seating areas for fans are now easy to visualize.

Sometime in December, Zimmermann says the palatial new complex will be open for some public skating, pick-up hockey games and skate-and-shoot sessions. Learn to Skate USA classes also will be offered sometime in December.

Come January, those in charge of getting the facility up and running will be on a power play. Zimmerman says some events are already scheduled with the Tampa Bay Lightning, including a street hockey tournament (on FHCI’s multi-sports pad) followed by a skills camp put on by former Lightning players.

Zimmermann says the Lightning, who also will hold occasional practices at the facility, will release those details when the plans are finalized.

Better Book Now!

Some of the non-sports events already booked include the Taste of New Tampa and an unnamed (by Zimmermann) 250-person corporate roundtable discussion.

fhci11_9_3On June 17, Skate For Hope, which will feature many of the world’s top figure skaters and will benefit cancer research, will be held at FHCI. Also in June, there will be a National Roller Hockey Tournament that Zimmermann says will feature 200 teams playing for 10 days on three of the FHCI rinks.

USA Hockey adult leagues for age groups ranging from 40+ to 70+ also are coming, and Zimmermann says Tampa Bay Lightning High School Hockey League games will be played at the rink beginning Jan. 4, with the Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) team he coaches getting the opening night honors, highlighting a doubleheader (and potentially a triple header), along with a to-be-determined opponent and 2-4 other teams.

High school ice hockey players from WRH, Freedom, Wesley Chapel and Wharton (which currently does not have a team but has in the past) high schools will use the rink for practices and games.

On Jan. 18, Bright House Sports Network (BHSN) will televise a live high school hockey game from FHCI.

fhci11_9_4The eagerly-anticipated facility, which will be the largest skating complex south of New York the day it opens, will feature three NHL-sized hockey rinks and one larger, Olympic-size rink, as well as 17,000-sq.-ft. multi-sports pad that can accommodate a number of other sports, even basketball and volleyball and lacrosse.

In addition to the rinks and restaurant, FHCI will have a sports performance center, fitness room and plenty of room for yoga, pilates and dance classes, as well as corporate outings and parties.

“Everything is going smoothly,’’ Zimmermann says, “and when we open, it’s going to be good.”

The most important aspect of the facility – the 65 miles of refrigerated pipe laid in by Toronto’s CIMCO — has to be tested thoroughly as the big motors that will eventually keep the ice for the various rinks at a cool 22-28 degrees or so are revved up, and the final touches are being carefully addressed.

For more information, visit FloridaHospitalCenterIce.com or see the ad on page 12 of this issue.

How Wesley Chapel Voted For President & Local Races On Nov. 8

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There were voting lines at Lexington Oaks (Precinct 73) on Nov. 8. President-elect Donald Trump received 2,438 of the votes cast at the precinct, while Hillary Clinton got 2,106 (44.1 percent)

President-Elect Donald Trump.

For almost exactly half of the country, that was either a sad or terrifying (or both) prospect, but the possibility apparently pleased Pasco County voters enough that the New York real estate developer and reality-TV star was a decisive choice county-wide on Nov. 8 — as Trump won Pasco with 58.4 percent of the 244,620 votes cast, while former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received only 37 percent.

Nationwide in the 2016 General Election, Trump won the Electoral College 290-228 with Michigan still counting votes as of our press time, although the former First Lady won the popular vote, with 62,829,832 votes to 61,488,190 for Trump, with a few million votes still outstanding..

Trump’s 141,943-89,998 advantage in votes cast in Pasco, where turnout was at 72.8 percent — compared with just 56.8 percent nationwide, wasn’t a surprise in Republican-leaning Pasco.

In Wesley Chapel’s precincts, however, the margin was much closer than it was countywide: Trump grabbed 49.9 percent of the vote, while Clinton was at 45.2 percent. With 30,324 votes cast, Trump finished with a 1,423-vote edge.

Nowhere in Wesley Chapel was Trump fever stronger than in the Quail Hollow area, where 2,284 votes were cast for the President-Elect at the polling booths at Quail Hollow Country Club. That was 63 percent of the votes cast, with Clinton receiving 1,179 votes.

The only other polling place in Wesley Chapel where Trump received more than 51.1 percent of the ballots cast was Meadow Point IV, where clubhouse voters gave him a 737-502 advantage, or 56.6 percent to Clinton’s 38.6.

Take away those two precincts and the race between Trump and Clinton was virtually even in zip codes 33543-45.

Clinton, who leads the national popular vote by roughly 1.5-million ballots, won four of the 11 precincts in Wesley Chapel. She received more votes at Bridgewater Church on Wells Rd. (48-46 percent), Meadow Pointe III (50-45), Northwood Community Center (55-41) and Meadow Pointe II (51-43).

In the four combined precincts in Meadow Pointe, the Wesley Chapel community was split right down the middle, casting 4,347 votes for Clinton and 4,344 for Trump, a difference of only three votes.

Clinton’s vaunted “ground game” did not materialize on Election Day nationwide, or in Pasco. While she actually led after the early voting period by 55 votes, ballots cast on Nov. 8 in Wesley Chapel’s precincts favored Trump 6,453 to 4,994. 

Many voters, according to various media reports, also may have just been plain disgusted by both candidates — or perhaps an election season filled with political ads, name-calling and scandals — and didn’t bother to cast a vote for either candidate, despite going through the trouble of finding a polling station, standing in line and filling out a ballot.

In Pasco, there were 1,388 undervotes, or ballots cast where the voter elected not to make a choice for president, more than twice the 616 undervotes in 2012. The number of undervotes in many other places also was more than twice what it was in 2012. In Michigan alone, for example, more than 87,000 undervotes were tabulated.

While Clinton couldn’t get more votes from Pasco County residents than Trump received, Ron Oakley did.

Oakley, 71, decisively won the District 1 County Commission seat, which represents much of Wesley Chapel, with a decisive victory over retired U.S. Coast Guard commander and no-party candidate Dimitri Delgado.

After all 112 precincts were counted, Oakley more than doubled Delgado’s vote total with 151,849, or 69.2 percent of the vote. Delgado was the choice on only 66,503 ballots, or 30.3 percent.

Oakley, a Zephyrhills resident who formerly served on the Southwest Florida Water Management District governing board and whose family is well known in the local citrus and ranching industries, put $150,000 of his own money behind his bid in June to help win the seat, which includes the area in Wesley Chapel north of S.R. 54.

In 2012, Oakley also ran for the District 1 seat, but was defeated in the Rep. primary by Ted Schrader, who elected not to run for the seat again and instead lost in the Republican primary in his bid to become Pasco’s new property appraiser.

This year, Oakley defeated Rachel O’Connor and Mary Wells in the primary to earn the right to face Delgado, who had no party affiliation.

Oakley led a Republican sweep of the three commission seats that were up for grabs.

In District 3, Kathryn Starkey, 58, rolled past Democrat Barry Horvath 62.2-37.8 percent, or a little more than a 55,000-vote advantage. Starkey’s district runs all the way from the west coast of the county to just east of I-75, and includes a small part of Wesley Chapel bordered by I-75, S.R. 56, Bruce B. Downs Blvd. and County Line Rd. In District 5, Jack Mariano, 56, ran virtually unopposed, garnering 96 percent of the vote.

In the U.S. Senate race between Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Patrick Murphy, it was the incumbent (and failed presidential candidate) winning comfortably overall with 4,822,182 votes, or 52 percent. Murphy received 44.3 percent, or 4,105,251 votes. In Pasco County, Rubio was the pick of 134,631 voters, or 56.6 percent, while Murphy received 88,520 votes, or 37.2 percent.

Don Peters (below, center) didn’t win his Community Development District (CDD) race, but these folks did: Rick Carroll (Lexington Oaks, Seat 1), Michael Cline (Meadow Pointe II, Seat 1), John Picarelli (Meadow Pointe II, Seat 5), Mimi Kilpatrick (Northwood, Seat 1), Brian Quigley (Northwood, Seat 3), Barbara Cruz (Northwood, Seat 5), Sam Watson (Oak Creek, Seat 4), Charlie Cacioppo (Seven Oaks, Seat 2), Gerald Cruz (Seven Oaks, Seat 4) and John Christensen (Seven Oaks, Seat 5).

For more Wesley Chapel Election results, visit WCNeighborhoodNews.com.