A Wesley Chapel woman was arrested Tuesday night after she struck and killed a 64-year-old woman in a mobility scooter who was checking her mail.
Nicole Marie Gennarini Cresswell, 24, was arrested just before midnight. She was found sitting in her gray 2019 Nissan Sentra in the driveway of a home on Shenandoah Run in Wesley Chapel. Gennarini Cresswell was arrested by Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) troopers and taken to the Pasco County Jail during the early morning hours on Wednesday, June 16, and charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving a death.
The FHP report says troopers were able to use vehicle parts found at the crash, as well as witness accounts, to assist in locating Gennarini Cresswell.
According to the FHP, Gennarini Cresswell was traveling westbound on Robin Roost Lane where she collided with the victim, who was retrieving her mail at the roadway edge at roughly 5:45 p.m.. She told troopers she had struck a deer earlier, but did not remember where.
Following the crash which caused damage to the front right portion of the vehicle, Gennarini Cresswell fled the scene as the victim suffered fatal injuries.
Pebble Creek Golf Club opened in 1967, long before New Tampa as we know it was developed.
The letters went out last weekend, but were probably not a surprise to anyone living in Pebble Creek.
The golf course, the oldest one in the area, is shutting down for good on July 31.
Pebble Creek Golf Club (PCGC) owner Bill Place, who has been trying for years to sell the 6,436-yard golf course he bought in 2005, says he can’t continue losing money on something with no future. After a few failed attempts to finalize a deal with developers the past few years, as well as unsuccessfully trying late last year to get a brownfield designation from the county that would have helped cover almost 3/4 of the cost to decontaminate the soil, Place says he was out of options.
The club, heading into what is usually its slowest time of the year from August through October, currently has only 13 full-time members.
“Even though we had a little bit of a bump from Covid-19, I’ve already started to see it back off as people go back to work,” Place said. “We’re on a path to to repeat 2018 and 2019, when we lost money those years.”
Place also said merely maintaining the course had become financially untenable. Built in 1967, he says the course still has its original irrigation system and “it failed miserably during this recent drought.
“It was time.”
Place says he has quietly told brokers in the last six years he was looking to sell the golf course. After having his brownfield designation rejected in December 2020, Place has continued entertaining suitors.
DR Horton, one of the original interested buyers of the PCGC, had done preliminary testing two years ago and discovered contaminants on the golf course before withdrawing its interest. A brownfield site is a property that is contaminated, which hinders efforts to expand or redevelop it. But there are significant tax credits offered to help clean the property up.
Without those tax credits, Place will likely foot the bill. He has paid $150,000 to have the site tested by an environmental testing firm, and expects results this week. A preliminary estimate, he says, indicated it would then take 6-9 months to decontaminate the soil. That could cost Place $1 million.
But he has potential developers lined up — he will choose one in the next two months — and says he is including the two Pebble Creek homeowners associations, who serve roughly 1,300 homeowners, in the process. Regardless, he expects a significant number of residents to protest when rezoning the 149-acre property gets underway.
“No matter what, we are trying every which way we can to work with the HOAs,” Place says. “I know they would rather have the golf course, but we are looking for the best possible solution.”
Steve Falabella filled his staff at his new bistro, but it wasn’t easy. (Photo: John C. Cotey)
The signs are all over — on the front of businesses reducing their hours because they don’t have enough employees, a drive-through posting asking for your patience due to a historic shortage of workers and another sign offering a $500 bonus and a free sub sandwich with every shift.
At places just opened, like the Falabella Family Bistro, there’s no need to post a Now Hiring sign because, well, no one seems to be reading it.
While owner Steve Falabella will be able to open his new bistro in The Grove with (barely) a full staff within the next week or too, he also is opening a second 900º Woodfired Pizza place, like his popular location at the Shops of Wiregrass, right next door.
“If I had to open that today, there’s no way I could,” he says.
Due in large part to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the governmental response to it, jobs aren’t hard to come by, but employees are, says Falabella, who owns three businesses in Wesley Chapel.
Here’s the deal: many folks are unwilling to seek work at businesses that don’t pay as much as they currently are getting from unemployment.
At the height of the pandemic, Congress expanded federal unemployment insurance (Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation) to $600 a week. It is currently $300 a week, in addition to the Florida’s state-level benefit of $275 weekly (which is typically for 12 weeks, but was extended during the pandemic).
The majority of those on unemployment assistance, then, receive nearly $600 a week, or the equivalent of working 40 hours while being paid $15 an hour.
For anyone paying less than $15/hour, or even more in a lot of cases, it’s tough to compete.
“It’s not just us, it’s the entire country,” says Falabella. “It’s a sensitive topic.”
Falabella chooses his words carefully, as a result. The issue has strong political overtones. While it has increased concerns about the growth of the welfare state, it also has shined a light on what some feel are unfair wages, causing some small business owners to reassess compensation.
However, the level of unemployment pay is keeping some home, instead of in the workforce, says Fallabella.
“It’s not a theory,” says Falabella. “I talk to people I want to hire back that left months ago, and they tell me as soon as the unemployment dries up they’ll be back out there looking (for a job).”
Signs like this ask for patience as some local businesses are shorthanded.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that Floridians who receive unemployment benefits will have to provide proof that they’re looking for a job, a requirement that was lifted during the pandemic but expired in May.
Florida also will withdraw from the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation Program on June 26.
“I think it’s pretty clear now, we have an abundance of job openings,” DeSantis says.
Jamie Hess, who owns the Treble Makers Dueling Piano Restaurant & Bar in The Grove, as well as a computer repair shop, says he has been able to keep a full staff but it hasn’t been easy.
He and Falabella, as well as Joe Schembri of the Ice Dreammm Shop, who is opening his second location across the way from Falabella Family Bistro, are contemplating a shared employee program, where workers will train for all three of their restaurants and open up opportunities for them to work more hours if they choose.
“If I can only give someone 30 hours but Steve needs someone, that person can work (10 hours for him and/) or as much as they want,” says Hess. “We want everybody making decent money where they can afford to live.”
Hess, who also owns five Subway restaurants in New York, says the pandemic drove many employees out during the lockdowns, and the lack of employees as the economy rebounds has driven many of his contemporaries out of the restaurant business altogether.
While he says he pays above minimum wage at Treble Makers, pay expectations are “getting a little out of whack.”
He said had lost a bartender recently who said she couldn’t afford to work for only $25 an hour. He thinks the road back to pre-Covid times could be a long one.
“I think it’s going to take a long time,” Hess says. “Once the $300 (weekly federal) bonus goes away, you’ll see more people looking, but it’s probably not going to go back to the way it was.”
Bulls Fall Short In Spring Game It was a tale of two halves for the Wiregrass Ranch High football team in their 36-28 spring game loss to Berkeley Prep on May 20.
In the first half, Iowa State University commitment Rocco Becht completed four touchdowns to three different receivers as the Bulls jumped all over the Bucs.
Rocco Becht threw four touchdown passes in the spring game loss to Berkeley Prep. (Photo: Charmaine George)
In the second half, the Bulls were outscored 20-0. Head coach Mark Kantor, however, didn’t care as much about the score as he did about having a spring game, which no one played last year due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
“For me, it was about getting back to being competitive, and we accomplished that this spring,” Kantor said. “I don’t care if we win or lose a spring game. I saw some good things from the guys and they definitely competed; now we need to work on closing the deal.”
As is usually the case, Kantor spent the spring looking for depth on the offensive and defensive lines. Offensively, he has rising senior tackles Logan Ridolph (6-4, 275) and Christian Loaiza (6-5, 315) protecting Becht, and hopes to strengthen the other spots on the line. Defensively, he is searching for another interior lineman to pair up with rising junior Thomas Pehek (6-2, 210), especially after Berkeley Prep had success running the ball in the spring game.
Kantor is excited about the scoring potential of his 2021 Bulls. Becht threw for more than 200 yards and, of his four TDs, two were to rising senior transfer Malachi McLaughlin and one each went to rising junior running back Kenny Walker and rising senior Abram Breer.
Kantor says rising sophomore Izaiah Williams and rising junior Elijah Westbrooks, both WR/DBs, had outstanding springs.
“We’re excited about the fall,” Kantor said. “It’s going to be fun getting back in front of 1,200-1,300 fans at the Ranch cheering us on again.”
Back To Basics For Coyotes
After a 3-7 season in which games were cancelled and/or rescheduled and consistency was unattainable due to Covid-19, Cypress Creek High coach Mike Johnson eagerly welcomed the 2021 spring campaign.
“We just wanted to get back to basics,” Johnson said. “Last season was like a mish-mash of pickup games. You’d lose a game, pick up a game, it was just hard to get anything established.”
This spring, the Coyotes were able to put in 90 percent of their offensive and defensive schemes, and hope to refine them by the start of the 2021 season.
Rising junior linebacker Logan Falk closes in on a Land O’Lakes ball carrier in the spring game. (Photo: Charmine George)
In their spring game on May 19, they tied Land O’ Lakes 21-21 on a last-second field goal by rising senior placekicker Colton Corrao.
Operating in a different offense this year, promising rising senior quarterback Owen Walls completed 19 of 31 passes for 202 yards and two touchdowns. However, he also threw three interceptions.
Walls did engineer two scoring drives in the final six minutes to earn the tie. He found rising senior Merrick Simmons for a TD with just over a minute remaining and, after a defensive stand by the Coyotes, the offense was able to get in position for Corrao’s FG.
Johnson said the spring allowed him to find some depth on the offensive line, where he has 9-10 players to choose from.
He says rising junior Niko Huitz, who transferred in from New Mexico, was a spring revelation. He had an exceptional spring game and “was all over the field,” Johnson says, and rising sophomore Jaelen Collins impressed enough that Johnson expects big things from him this season.
“We have the guys, now we just have to put the pieces of the puzzle together,” Johnson says.
Wildcats Split Halves In Spring Clashes The All-Conference football teams in Pasco County aren’t announced until after each season, but Wesley Chapel High football coach Tony Egan feels confident that he can fill in the linebacker positions on those teams right now.
That’s how impressed he was this spring with the play of rising junior Jorden McCaslin (photo) and rising seniors Ayden Roysdon and Josh Poleon. Egan feels that all three linebackers have not just All-Conference high school talent, but Division I-A or I-AA college talent as well.
“I have to say the linebackers impressed me every day,” Egan says. “Every day, one of them did something that jumped out at you. It’s a really good group.”
The trio will anchor a defense that Egan says should be pretty good in the fall. The Wildcats surrendered 14 points in a one-half 14-7 loss to Dixie Hollins on broken plays in the spring jamboree, and then just one TD in a 28-8 win over Fivay in the other half.
While the Wildcats return their quarterback, top rusher and a bevy of talented receivers, Egan is concerned about the offensive line. He returns four starters, but they are young. “The offensive line will make us or break us,” Egan said.
Athletically, Egan thinks this is the best team he’s had since taking over in 2016. Even the offensive line is the biggest he’s had. He believes the 2021 team has the potential to be his best yet.
“The toughness and accountability is lacking,” says Egan, as the Wildcats head into an important summer of training. “But, if we get those things right, we’re going to be really good.”
