Business Owner Helps Local Resident Survive Electric Bike Accident

Pete Veloz

Anne Oliver was riding her electric bike to her dentist’s office for an 8 a.m. appointment when she decided to cross S.R. 54 during a lapse in the traffic.

With plenty of time, she proceeded across the road.

“I looked and there were no cars, just one truck,” Anne says.

Anne thought she could drive right up on the median, and assumed it had an angled curb, which many do. Unfortunately, this median had a steep curb, which Anne remembers looking down and not seeing until the last second. 

It was the last thing she remembers before a violent crash.

Fortunately for her, Pete Veloz was driving that truck.

Veloz, who owns Paver World of Wesley Chapel a little east on S.R. 54 and is known as “Paver Pete,” was cruising along in his Ford F-350 work truck when he saw a woman crossing the road on her bike. He could tell she was heading to the median, but then everything happened in slow motion, he says.

“She went flying through the air, she went one way and her bike went the other way,” Pete says. “She landed face first on the grass. If that was a concrete median, it could have been really bad.”

The bike landed in the lane closest to the median. Pete swerved around it, looked in his driver’s sideview mirror, and saw Anne laying motionless, her leg sprawled out into the road. He thought she might have broken her neck, or even worse.

Anne, left, and her husband John.

“You know how sometimes someone will wreck their bike, but the adrenaline is going and they pop back up and keep going?,” Pete says. “She was knocked out.”

He backed up his truck, jumped out and dragged her all the way onto the median. He helped take off her helmet. He pulled the bike off the road. Cars were driving by, but Pete’s truck was serving as a caution and slowing them down.

Pete called 9-1-1. A woman from the Brookside Professional Park across the street ran over and called 9-1-1 as well. The police were there in moments, Pete says. Anne came to, moaning in pain, but was discombobulated and didn’t remember anything from the accident.

“I remember Pete’s voice and him trying to help me,” Anne says. “It was sunny. My face was bleeding, so he got me a rag. I still have never even seen his face.”

Anne’s husband, John, was driving back from Riverview when he got a call from the woman who had also come over to help. He doesn’t remember her name, just that she was calling from a New York area code. 

“Your wife’s been in an accident,” she told him, “but she’s okay and wants to talk to you.”

Anne tried to explain what happened, but was still struggling to sort things out. She doesn’t remember talking to John. She was loaded into an ambulance, and the woman with the New York area code called John back to tell him his wife was being transported to St. Joseph’s hospital.

John, a nurse, knew that wasn’t great because there were a number of closer options (like AdventHealth Wesley Chapel) but that St. Joseph’s has the nearest trauma center. 

As he headed in that direction, Pete called him with more details, and offered to take the bike so it wasn’t impounded.

Anne was in the hospital for nearly two weeks. The crash had been fierce. She fractured her nasal cavity, her face was scraped and bloody, she suffered tissue damage on her right hand and wrist, and worst of all, she suffered a tibia plateau fracture, which is a break of the larger lower leg bone below the knee that breaks into the knee joint itself.

Anne had Open Reduction and Internal Fixation, or ORIF, which is used to repair broken bones with hardware. In Anne’s case, it was synthetic putty, brackets and screws.

Because it is such a vital load-bearing area, it will take months for her leg to heal. Anne says she is facing three months of a non-weight-bearing existence.

But, she is alive.

If Pete wasn’t driving that truck, she’s not sure she would be.

“I am very grateful that things were not worse,” Anne says. “It could have been a lot worse. With all the cars that drive by, anything could have happened.”

Anne and John actually bought their electric bikes because John suffers from multiple sclerosis and cannot walk, so the bike offers pedaling assistance. The Seven Oaks residents typically ride their bikes around the nature trails where they live.

On the day of her dentist appointment, Anne had to take John’s heavier bike because hers was having its brakes fixed.

A Growing Trend

Electric bikes generally don’t have great suspension or shocks, and Anne thinks that — as well as the weight of the bike — contributed to the forceful accident, as the tires did not absorb the contact with the curb.

Anne and John say the doctors and nurses at St. Joseph’s said they were just one of many they had seen come in following an accident on an electric bike. 

According to a CBS News report, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission determined that injuries from electric scooters, bikes, hoverboards and other “mirco-mobility” products are up 70 percent the past four years, with 200,000 ER visits and at least 71 deaths from 2017-20.”

But, Anne and John say they hope to go back to riding their bikes — albeit in less crowded areas — when she heals.

As Anne fills in the blanks, she finds the possibilities of what could have happened to be terrifying. That’s why she wants everyone to know about Pete.

“That’s nice,” says Pete, “but I’m just glad she’s alright. It was pretty scary.”

Years ago, Pete says his youngest daughter was in a car accident, and no one stopped to help her. 

“That really broke my heart,” he says. 

So when he saw Anne collide with the curb and was laying there motionless, it was never even a decision.

“That’s what you do, right?,” Pete says. “That’s the type of guy I am. You see someone in need, you stop to help. That’s how it should be.”

Lotte Plaza Market Files Renovation Plans

The first Lotte Plaza Market in Rockville, MD. The upcoming location at the old Sweetbay Supermarket will look similar.

Lotte Plaza Market has filed plans with the City of Tampa to renovate the former Sweetbay Supermarket off Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., next to the Home Depot, as it prepares to open what will be New Tampa’s largest Asian marketplace.

The renovation project on the 49,432-sq.ft. building, roughly 11,000 square feet of which will be storage and cooler space, will transform the inside of the former grocery store into a marketplace that sells Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese food items and ingredients, a wide selection of meats and fresh fish and seafood and a huge variety of fruits and vegetables not found at American grocery stores. 

The Lotte Plaza Market also will include at least three restaurants in its food court, as well as a bakery and a tea stand.

The renovations will cost roughly $4.5 million, according to the plans. The owners of the small Maryland-based ethnic grocery store chain focusing on Asian groceries and goods purchased the old Sweetbay Market for $7 million in January of 2021.

The Sweetbay building closed in 2013 and has been unoccupied since. KNK Tampa, Ltd. bought it in 2001 and leased it to Kash n’ Karry for a 20-year term beginning in November of that year. Kash n’ Karry operated under the lease until June 14, 2006, when its Belgian parent company Delhaize America, Inc., converted it into a Sweetbay. But, despite its rebranding, Sweetbay never gained the popularity of nearby Publix or Walmart stores. 

In October of 2013, Jacksonville-based Bi-Lo Holdings bought 72 Sweetbay stores, plus the leases to 10 other underperforming Sweetbay locations that had already been closed. One of those leases belonged to the New Tampa location, which had six years remaining on it, but Bi-Lo Holdings declined to do anything with the property other than pay the rent until the deal expired in 2020.

Founded in 1976, Lotte Plaza Market is considered to be one of the premier Asian and international groceries in Maryland and Virginia, where it has 12 locations. The mini-chain also has one location in New Jersey, and opened the only other Florida location in Orlando on W. Colonial Dr. in February 2019.

Lotte Plaza Market is hoping to open 50 new locations by 2030. — JCC

Wesley Chapel Man’s Beekeeping Hobby Is As Sweet As Honey

Tucked away in Angus Valley, one of the few remaining places in Wesley Chapel that business and residential development haven’t touched, Jeff Hajari gets back to nature.

On this day, he is tending to his bees, all eight hives of them. It doesn’t take a lot of work, really, now that he has been doing this for two years, but he works to keep his hive small and strong.

In his kitchen, his countertops are filled with 16 oz. mason jars of the sweet elixir his troops have produced, roughly 400 pounds in all during his most recent harvest.

A large wedge of beeswax sits nearby on the floor, below a counter of vials filled with propolis (“bee glue”), a byproduct of the hive used by people with diabetes to heal wounds, combat allergies and even soothe toothaches.

“Bees are amazing,” Hajari says. “There are so many benefits to everything they produce.”

Which is part of the reason why Hajari is so fascinated by them. Truth is, we couldn’t live without bees, as they, along with butterflies, pollinate approximately 75 percent of the world’s flowering plants and 35 percent of the world’s food crops, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Hajari, 59, was born in Kerman, Iran, and came to the US in 1987 to start a new life. He settled in New York and began a career as a home improvement contractor, but then relocated to Florida and eventually bought a home in Angus Valley.

With an affinity for nature and being self-sustaining, Hajari started with chickens and goats in his backyard, and while his attempts to make goat’s milk failed, he did successfully manage to make some soap. 

But, he really wanted his own honey. Because he returns to Iran every year to help take care of his mother, barnyard animals required too much care. So, three years ago, he bought his first beehive from a woman in Dade City for $250. He transferred the hive in his truck, and says that setting it up was, well, a bit painful.

“I got stung like crazy,” Jeff says. “Probably 20-25 times. But, it was okay.”

Hajari continued to add more hives — at one point he had 12-15. But, they were weaker hives, and he has found by limiting the hives to eight or so, he has a stronger, healthier group able to resist attackers like ants and other pests. Two years ago, he designed a new entrance for the beehive to fight against varroa mites, who were capable of wiping out an entire colony.

Hajari says he learned how to keep bees like you would learn about anything — the internet and trial and error. He watched documentaries and YouTube videos, read articles and purchased a beekeeping suit. Handy with wood working, he constructed frames for the bees to expand their honeycombs. He has made mistakes, losing bees and entire hives. “Like anything, there is a science to it,” he says.

Every few months, his kitchen becomes a laboratory, where he extracts the honey from the combs and bottles it.

“It takes two days to get it all done and jarred and ready,” Jeff says. “It’s a labor of love. As long as I have enough for my coffee and tea, and my friends.”

He says that the taste each time is different, and that it all depends on what flowers were pollinated. One of his recent batches was particularly dark and bitter.

“I don’t know why, but my honey looks almost like coffee,” he says. “I’ve been to stores but I have never seen anything that looks that dark. It’s extremely dark. But, I read where the darker the better, as it has more antioxidants and antibodies. So I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m good with it.’”

He sells his honey and propolis on Facebook marketplace, which you can find by searching “Local Honey Wesley Chapel.”

Hajari will even come remove a colony of bees from your yard, if need be.

“It’s a hobby, and it’s fun,” he says.

But, there’s always something new to learn, and Hajari has now added mushroom hunting — “Not the crazy ones, the edible ones” — to his nature quest. He joined a group that goes hunting in places like Ocala National Forest, the Croom Wildlife Management Area in Brooksville and even Hillsborough River State Park. One trip yielded a basket of Chanterelle mushrooms, which he cooked up. “I’m addicted to them, they were so good,” Jeff said.

Because he has so many trees and logs in his backyard, he ordered a mushroom growing kit and is hoping to produce Shitaki, Golden Oyster and Lion’s Mane mushrooms in his own backyard. He said it takes a year.

And,before he left for Iran recently, he planted a banana tree, avocados, blueberries and blackberries.

“I just like to be self sufficient,” he says, “especially when it comes to nutrition. I want everything organic, and I like to produce it myself.” What’s next for Jeff? He’s not sure, but he seems to be just beginning. “I always like to try something new,” he says.

A Gated Community At Last? 

A long-running saga at Heritage Isles has come to an end after more than 20 years and repeated efforts by many residents to activate the entrance gates at the front of their community.

Heritage Isles residents voted in favor of asking the City of Tampa to transfer ownership of the community’s roads to its Community Development District (CDD), which will lead to the security gates once again becoming functional.

The resolution needed two-thirds, or 66 percent of the homeowners who voted, to pass; it got 77 percent “yes” votes.

“The vote cemented what the residents want, which I feel really good about,” said CDD chairman Dan Barravecchio, who spearheaded the effort. “This was really about being able to take care of our own assets
and we can maintain a higher standard for our roads (than what the city can provide).”

The resolution is now in the hands of the City of Tampa which, after conducting its due diligence, will vote on it sometime in the coming months.

If it passes, which appears likely, the Heritage Isles CDD intends to install a new system to put the gates at its Grand Isle Dr. and Sandy Point Dr. entrances off of Cross Creek Blvd. back in working order for the first time since 2003.

The gates haven’t been used because the developer, Lennar Homes, conveyed the Heritage Isles infrastructure to the City of Tampa, which said that made the eight miles of roads within the community public. 

The city prohibited the gate attendant from denying entry to any vehicle, requiring “unimpeded access” to vehicles turning off of Cross Creek Blvd. into Heritage Isles.

The CDD decided to eliminate the guard service, for which it was paying $77,000 a year, and the gatehouse has remained vacant ever since.

“If we couldn’t secure the gate, and we couldn’t check identifications, then why were we paying $77,000 a year for someone that couldn’t do anything but flip a switch?,” Barravecchio asked.

Multiple attempts to get control of the community’s roads were denied. There was no legal mechanism in place to transfer the roads to a CDD, only to a homeowners association (HOA), and that required a 100% vote by homeowners.

According to Barravecchio, the city also was hesitant, due to the community’s outstanding bond debt.

Once that debt was paid off early in 2019, the CDD and its lawyers set out to have a state law written that allowed the conveyance of the roads in a community to a CDD with a 66% vote, as opposed to the 100% vote required by Tampa just to transfer it to an HOA.

“You had a better chance of winning the lottery than getting 100 percent,” says Mark Vega, the CDD district manager since 2014. In fact, Vega said he could only remember one case more than a decade ago where a community succeeded with a 100% vote, and it was actually two cases — the Huntington (42 homes) and Westover (61) villages in Tampa Palms. 

Heritage Isles hired a lobbyist and began the work of having the law crafted. Piggybacking on House Bill 57, a transportation bill, Heritage Isles was able to get Senate Bill 1194 included, which authorized “governing bodies of municipalities and counties to abandon and convey their interests in certain roads and rights-of-way dedicated in a recorded residential subdivision plat to community development districts under specified conditions.”

It was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis on June 29 of last year.

“This is groundbreaking, this is pioneer stuff,” Vegas says. “I already know of two CDDs that are excited to jump on the bandwagon, but this (Heritage Isles) is a first for the state of Florida.”

The CDD rallied support within Heritage Isles for the vote, which was held on March 18. Of the 1,020 homeowners in Heritage Isles, a total of 373 voted, with 286 voting “yes” for the community to gain ownership of its roads.

The CDD held a number of community meetings to explain their plans, conducted all the required road studies and has stockpiled more than $650,000 in its reserve funds for future road work.

Once the city approves the transfer, Heritage Isles plans to install a state-of-the-art virtual guard system at its two entrance/exit kiosks, similar to the one used by the Live Oak Preserve community off Bruce B. Downs Blvd., hopefully bringing the gate saga to an official end.

Vega says a lot of homeowners in Heritage Isles “were misled” into thinking they were buying into a gated community. Now, Heritage Isles finally can deliver on that promise.

“There isn’t a year that has gone by that the gate issue hasn’t come up,” says Barravecchio, who has lived in Heritage Isles since 2002 and has been on the CDD board since 2005. He says the effort was fueled by many of the early residents.

“The more long-time residents, they felt it was something that was taken away from them, so they had a much more personal interest in having it restored,” he says. “Those are the people that when they drive down my block and I’m out washing my car, they stop and say ‘Thank you.’”

Need A Workout? Feel The Burn (Boot Camp)!

Kathy Wasserman was looking for a new place to work out just as Burn Boot Camp was opening its doors in New Tampa for the first time roughly four years ago. She jumped on one of the grand opening offers and has been a member ever since.

“They offered a free 30 days, and, by the end of the 30 days, I was hooked,”  says Wasserman, a Tampa Palms resident. “Not only were the workout programs well thought out and varied, but the community of people is the nicest group of people I have ever worked out with.” 

Owner Tammy Henrici deserves some of that credit. When she took over Burn Boot Camp, located in the Big Bear Plaza off Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. between BayCare and Mahana Fresh, in September 2021, Covid had sucked some of the life out of the gym.

Tammy Henrici

Now, with new equipment and trainers and under her direction — Henrici even leads some of the 45-minute boot camps herself— the place is popping again.

“There’s increased energy and enthusiasm from the trainers,” Wasserman says. “I have never enjoyed working out more.”

Henrici is a self-described workout buff, who has been a member of many gyms over the years. She joined the Burn Boot Camp in New Tampa shortly after Wasserman did and found it just as satisfying. 

So, she decided to buy the New Tampa franchise.

“I was addicted. I was so excited about going the next morning I couldn’t sleep,” Henrici says. “I have been in the corporate world for 40 years and working out at Burn gave me the confidence to make a change in my life. When I saw how Burn can change people’s lives, I knew I had to own one to finally help other people realize their potential, too.”

Henrici used to work in IT for a major health company, and now focuses on fitness. She is a National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)- Certified Personal Trainer and also is a second-degree black belt in Krav Maga Martial Arts.

Burn New Tampa offers a combination of strength training and high intensity interval training (HIIT)  in each 45-minute camp. On Sundays, a protocol is released online and through an app explaining what lies ahead for the next week. No two workouts are the same, says Henrici, so no matter what days you come, the workouts will be targeting different parts of the body and range from strength to cardio.

Wasserman says she goes to 5-6 classes a week. There are other people like her, while others show up 2-3 times a week. There’s literally something for everyone, Henrici says, and anyone of any skill level can get something out of each boot camp.

“We meet each member at their level of fitness,” says Henrici. “We have some people who have never worked out before. We have some former collegiate athletes. We have moms and dads, people who are young and not so young anymore. No matter your background, we push everyone to do 1% better than the day before.”

Henrici says she has built a family atmosphere at Burn New Tampa, and Wasserman says that is probably what she likes most about it. 

“There is a level of inclusiveness and positivity you don’t normally see in gyms,” Wasserman says. “Everyone seems happy to see each other and work out next to each other. They high-five each other. There’s a positive, competitive nature I haven’t seen at other places.”

But, don’t mistake that camaraderie for being part of an easy workout. The workouts at Burn New Tampa are anything but, Henrici says. There are a variety of weights and resistance bands, along with foam jump boxes, a boxing bag and other equipment that keeps you moving from station to station.

For those who don’t work out due to creaky knees and sore joints, Burn has a floating floor which cushions the jumps and lessens the impact on your body. And, if you can’t jump, trainers can provide modified techniques.

“The floor was the initial physical thing that attracted me to the gym and it makes a big difference in a workout,” Henrici says.

Burn New Tampa offers camps six days of the week, with multiple camps — usually some in the morning and some in the early evening — each day of the week and two on Saturday morning. For four of the camps during the week, Burn New Tampa offers a complimentary “child watch” room (Burn is not a licensed day care provider, however). All the camps are open to both men and women, although Henrici says that her current members are predominately women.

The goal is to provide physical improvement via weight loss and muscle gain which, in turn, help decrease the need for a variety of medications you may be taking, as well as mental improvement by providing stress-reducing and endorphin-releasing workouts.

“That’s why so many members say this is their ‘happy place,’” Henrici says proudly.

About The Burn

Burn Boot Camp is a franchise with more than 330 locations across the U.S. All of its trainers are NASM CPTs (Certified Personal Trainers) and also have to be CPR-certified, including the four at Burn New Tampa. But, they also need to have the energy to run a boot camp and get to know each and every member’s needs.

“No one is a number, and we take pride in providing personal attention to every member,” Henrici says. “We can be giving Jane form correction while calling out to those at the next exercise to get three more reps in and addressing the entire camp about how much time is left, all at the same time.”

Burn New Tampa offers 6-, 12- and 18-month memberships, as well as month-to-month memberships. There are Camp Packs (5-8 camps per month) and Fit Cards, which are good for a year. Wasserman, who travels to visit her children in Nashville and Chicago, loves that Burn has universal memberships so her membership can be used at any Burn Boot Camp facility in the U.S.

If it all sounds too good to be true, Burn New Tampa is currently offering a 7-day complimentary trial for you to try it out and see for yourself.

With so many fitness options, Henrici thinks Burn New Tampa is the best choice because she says it is the total package.

“We provide unlimited 45-minute camps a week,” she says. “We offer 1:1 Focus Meetings with the trainer to set goals and monitor them. We also provide nutritional guidance. Members can also access daily virtual workouts when they can’t make it to the gym.”

The Focus Meeting is to help define what a member wants to get out of the boot camps. And while there are no certified nutritionists at Burn, the trainers do recognize the importance of a proper diet when it comes to being in shape and asks members to track their food intake in an app. They will suggest increases or decreases in their fat, carb, and protein intake. 

“We aren’t focused on the scale but rather on the inches, fat loss and muscle gain,” Henrici says.

The Burn Boot Camp app allows members to check in to camp for the child watch room, trainer and workout schedules for the week as well. And, the support from other members, Henrici says, is unrivaled.

“Your best friend may be here waiting for you.”

Burn Boot Camp New Tampa is located at 17512 Doña Michelle Dr., and is open Monday-Friday, 5:15 a.m.-10:30 a.m., and 4:15 p.m.-6:30 p.m.; and 7:45 a.m.-10 a.m. on Saturday. For more information, visit BurnBootCamp.com and check under “Locations” or call (813) 563-6700.