Zach Karikas, a Freedom High grad, receives his award from New Tampa YMCA sports and teen program director Eamonn O’Sullivan. (Photo provided by the YMCA)
For the past five years, Zach Karikas has been a fixture at the New Tampa Family YMCA in Tampa Palms. If there was a youth league basketball game going on, Karikas was almost definitely there. Prior to the Coronavirus outbreak, he was a volunteer coach for four different teams in the league, which included the 7-8, 9-10, 11-12 and 13-15 age groups.
When the gym at the New Tampa Y opened again for limited 3-on-3 leagues in the fall, Karikas continued coaching. The 5-on-5 leagues finally started up again in January.
Karikas, 28, was recognized for his dedication when he was awarded the 2021 New Tampa Family YMCA Volunteer of the Year award. He received the honor from Sports Director Eamonn O’Sullivan in a virtual ceremony held in late March.
“I didn’t even know the Y did a Volunteer of the Year,’’ said a surprised Karikas, who adds that he has always loved basketball, even if he wasn’t particularly good at it.
A 2011 graduate of Freedom High, also in Tampa Palms, he said he tried out for the basketball team all four years and was cut every year.
He went off to Marshall University in West Virginia to pursue a degree in athletic training. When that didn’t work out, Karikas left Marshall in 2013 to return to Wesley Chapel. A few years later, he wanted to apply for a college scholarship and one requirement was community service hours. That’s when he started volunteer coaching at the YMCA despite not having any kids of his own.
Zach Karikas
At first, he coached just one team. But, that quickly became four teams.
“I just fell in love with it,’’ he says.
He currently is enrolled at Pasco-Hernando State College and his full-time job right now is installing shower doors. Ultimately, Karikas says he would like to earn a degree in sports management and coach basketball at either the high school or middle school level. It’s a passion he discovered five years ago at the New Tampa Family YMCA.
“I caught the coaching bug,’’ Karikas says. “I really enjoy coaching the youth, both on and off the court, showing them that you don’t have to be Lebron James to succeed on or off the court. It’s not always going to be sunshine and rainbows — there are ups and downs. You just have to keep going with whatever you want to do. Being a positive role model is a good feeling. Right when I walk into that gym I’ve got like five kids coming up to me and saying ‘Hey, coach Zach.’ I love the ability to give back to the younger generation.’’
For more information about the New Tampa Family YMCA, located at 16221 Compton Dr., call (813) 866-9622 or visit TampaYMCA.org.
As expected, the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) voted unanimously to put a temporary moratorium on new applications and approvals for multifamily dwellings at Tuesday’s BCC meeting in Dade City.
The 180-day moratorium was approved by a 5-0 vote, following a reading of 50 emails submitted by residents that were unanimously in favor of the pause.
Commissioner Mike Moore, who represents District 2, which includes most of Wesley Chapel, spearheaded the moratorium. He claims that the moratorium area, which is between S.R. 52 to the north and S.R. 54 to the south, as well as U.S. 41 to the west and Bruce B. Downs Blvd. to the east, is oversaturated with apartments. Moore says the argument against more multi-family entitlements is centered on developers attempting to rezone property to build more apartments and townhomes, as opposed to using the property for its original commercial purposes.
Opponents of the moratorium, like Eric Garduno of the Bay Area Apartment Association, argued multi-family residences play a vital role with providing affordable housing in a market where the median home price is rising.
According to Realtor.com, the median list price of homes in Wesley Chapel is currently $320,000; according to Zillow.com, it’s $288,000.
However, the residents who emailed the county — mostly from Seven Oaks, where a proposed apartment complex on Eagleston Blvd. was the impetus for the moratorium — cited concerns about schools, traffic, road safety and the ability of the current infrastructure to handle additional people.
The county intends to collect data over the course of the 180 days, and will decide if there is indeed oversaturation, as Moore claims, and what should be done about it.
Garduno says he is confident the data will show there is a high demand for multi-family dwellings.
Moore, however, believes otherwise.
“We do need to analyze and look very closely at the impacts multifamily can have in the area when it comes to economic development, when it comes to public safety, traffic, schools, infrastructure,” Moore says. “This gives us the time to do it…we can really, really dig in and see what impact these are going to really have.”
The first Rotary Club chartered for New Tampa or Wesley Chapel — the Rotary Club of New Tampa (RCNT), which has met on Friday mornings at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club for 25 years, now has a satellite club.
On April 7, twelve Charter (11 new and one returning) members of the Rotary Satellite Club of New Tampa After Hours were introduced by Rotary District 6890 Governor Mark Skolnick and After Hours chair Bob Thompson and inducted by RCNT president Walter Oles at Florida Ave. Brewing Co. on S.R. 56.
Although the club is a Satellite Club of the RCNT, Thompson, After Hours Sergeant-at-Arms Cam Caudle and membership chair Jason Contino say that the new club will meet in person only once each month (at least for now) on the first Wednesday of each month at locations throughout New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. “We’re also planning to have a Zoom meeting on the third Wednesday of each month,” Thompson said, “and begin working on service projects right away.”
The new satellite club’s first service project was a recent painting event at the Friends of the Joshua House Foundation, Inc. (FJHF), painting and prepping the residences of the abused and neglected children who live there for an upcoming Grand Re-Opening event.
The painting party was part of the After Hours Club’s promise to its Apr. 7 guest speaker, DeDe Grundel — the executive director of the FJHF, pictured above — when Thompson announced that the Joshua House will be the first charity of focus for the new Satellite club.
Contino says, “The Satellite club appeals to those who found Rotary attractive but couldn’t or didn’t want to meet at 7 a.m.”
The Rotary Satellite Club of New Tampa After Hours’ next meeting — which is open to prospective members and guests — will be held on Wednesday, May 5, at 7 p.m., at Double Branch Artisanal Ales in The Grove at Wesley Chapel. — GN
Residents of K-Bar Ranch met with City Council member Luis Viera last month to discuss a number of community issues, many related to public safety.
Public safety continues to be one of Tampa City Council member Luis Viera’s primary concerns in District 7, the area he represents that includes all of the communities within the city limits in New Tampa. And, while his primary focus may be on some of the struggling fire stations south of our area, a fire station that has yet to be funded built in K-Bar Ranch almost always makes its way into any conversation with Viera.
When he met with a smattering of K-Bar residents last month at the community’s amenity center — with staff from the Tampa Police (TPD), Parks & Recreation and Mobility departments in tow — public safety was at the forefront of much of the conversation.
Viera assured the residents in attendance that he was fighting to make sure the planned fire station in K-Bar Ranch comes to fruition, which would help reduce the below-average response times in that part of New Tampa. Because there remains only two entrances into western K-Bar — the main entrance at K-Bar Ranch Pkwy., and the less convenient way via Basset Creek Dr. past Pride Elementary — a fire station for a community that will have more than 2,000 homes with little access makes sense, Viera said. (Note: Easton Park has an entrance/exit off Morris Ridge Rd., but K-Bar Ranch Pkwy. currently does not connect the east and west sides of the community.)
Another access point, however, also would improve public safety response, although it is unclear other than planned connections at Meadow Pointe Blvd. and Wyndfields Blvd. leading into Pasco County, where those access roads could be constructed.
When leaving the growing New Tampa community, K-Bar Ranch Pkwy. and Bassett Creek Dr. both funnel into Kinnan St., so some residents argue that really, the only way in or out of K-Bar is through Kinnan.
And, in the case of any fender bender on Kinnan St., “People literally cannot get out of this neighborhood,” says Cindy Gustavel, who lives in K-Bar’s Heron Preserve subdivision.
There also were concerns expressed over speeding down both Kinnan St. and K-Bar Ranch Pkwy., a wide open stretch of road running east-west that was completed in 2019. Speed bumps aren’t a popular option to slow speeders, and police jurisdiction (K-Bar Ranch is right on the boundary between the City of Tampa and unincorporated Hillsborough County) is confusing for residents when deciding who to call to complain.
Also, there are no bike lanes painted on the new road
“You are taking your life into your own hands on that road (K-Bar Ranch Pkwy.),” says resident John Bowersox, who is hoping residents can be surveyed to figured out a solution.
Residents in attendance at the meeting also expressed concern about construction truck traffic on roads like Bassett Creek Dr. and Wild Tamarind Dr. — where children, bicyclists and pedestrians are more likely to be — and would prefer a sign directing those trucks to K-Bar Ranch Pkwy.
A proposed park in K-Bar Ranch on roughly 55 acres of land (including the possibility of additional acreage from the county in Live Oak Preserve) which has been discussed for years, remains in limbo, Viera said.
Originally planned to be a partnership between the city, which would maintain and run the park, and Hillsborough County, which would pay to build it, the discussion seems to have hit an impasse over what purpose the park would actually serve, in terms of whether it should focus on athletic fields or green space and trails. Viera told residents that resolving the issue and getting the park built has become one of his goals.
The New Tampa Performing Arts Center is planned to go on the currently unbuilt tract of land behind The Village at Hunter’s Lake plaza and in front of The Trails at Hunter’s Lake apartments.(Drone photo: Charmaine George)
Despite the fact a majority of Hillsborough County commissioners declined to vote to award a $7.3-million construction contract for the long-awaited New Tampa Performing Arts Center (PAC), District 2 Commissioner Ken Hagan says the show must go on, following another intermission.
Hagan believes that once all of the county commissioners’ concerns are addressed by staff, construction will proceed.
“I’m not really concerned,” Comm. Hagan told the Neighborhood News. “I think once staff fully describes and explains not only the history of the project but the operational plan, I think the individual Board members will be comfortable with it.”
Hagan’s motion to execute the construction contract with Bandes Construction Company was seconded by Dist. 4’s Stacy White but received no other support. It was withdrawn after some debate, and deferred to the next BOCC meeting on May 5.
The opposition, mostly due to concerns over money and the company that will be managing the facility, raised a few eyebrows in New Tampa, but Hagan says the project, which is located directly across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from the Hunter’s Green community in The Village at Hunter’s Lake, is not in any danger. The pad for the PAC is already in place (see photo), built by the developer, Harrison Bennett Properties, LLC.
Roughly $8 million in funding to complete the project was set aside in 2019 via a bond issue.
The New Tampa PAC — which for almost all of its history had been referred to as the New Tampa Cultural Center — will be a 350-seat venue with four dance studios. The seats in the auditorium will be retractable, allowing the space to be converted into a multi-purpose room for event receptions. The 20,000-sq.-ft. building is adaptable to accommodate various needs when it comes to space. There also are plans to add a second story in the future to accommodate additional dance studios and community spaces.
Commissioners Mariella Smith, Kimberly Overman, Gwen Myers and Harry Cohen shared many of the same concerns, mostly centering around questions regarding the company that will manage the facility — the Florida Cultural Group (FCG). Formerly known as The Manatee Players, Inc., the FCG is an umbrella organization that operates the Manatee Performing Arts Center, and the Manatee Players community theater.
Smith questioned why the operations would be handled by a Manatee-based company, as opposed to the local New Tampa Players (NTP). But NTP, which would make its home at the new PAC, is a much smaller organization that has never handled the management of a theater. It currently operates out of its recently completed Uptown Stage location in the University Mall on E. Fowler Ave.
“I just have a concern about the county putting $8 million into a 20,000-sq.-ft. edifice somewhere where there’s not more local community control,” Smith said, while also voicing concern that the City of Tampa was not contributing to the construction when the facility is located in Tampa. However, as Hagan pointed out, the PAC is just as close to residents in the unincorporated area of New Tampa as it is to those in the area living within city limits.
Overman said with so many of the county’s capital improvement projects having to be deferred in these cash-strapped times, she was not necessarily opposed but, “the timing just feels wrong…..I just can’t support moving this forward right now.”
Cohen also had concerns about the arrangement with FCG.
“I don’t think money was the issue, but the main misunderstanding was with the Florida Cultural Group and their role,” says Hagan of the group that will receive nearly $1.5 million to run the PAC through 2025. “A couple of commissioners didn’t understand their history. Our staff has worked on this for a couple of years. They feel extremely confident this will be a very successful partnership and they (FCG) will be able to bring in major national acts and fundraise.”
As for the City of Tampa contributing, District 7 City Council member Luis Viera motioned at the Council’s April 15 meeting to request Mayor Jane Castor’s administration meet with the county to make an arrangement on helping to finance maintenance, to the tune of maybe $50,000-$75,000 a year.
Rendering of the front of the NT PAC, which the county commission has yet to award a contract for construction for. (Fleischman Garcia Architecture)
The previous administration under Bob Buckhorn declined to help, Viera says he was told.
Viera told his fellow Council members that the project was a long-time coming and of much importance to the New Tampa area, and that he was ready to fight for it. Viera’s motion passed unanimously.
How much that helps get the project over the final hurdle remains to be seen.
The PAC has been in the works for 20 years, beginning in 2001 when a Connecticut firm was paid $27,000 by the City for a study that determined New Tampa could support a cultural center.
Rendering of the lobby of the NT PAC. (Fleischman Garcia Architecture)
The project fizzled out in 2005, but was revived in 2007, when Hagan and former fellow Commissioner Victor Crist pushed to keep it alive. In 2014, the Village at Hunter’s Lake project, of which the New Tampa PAC is a central part, was initially approved.
Hagan said he has sat through at least 15 different votes on the PAC throughout the years and, at different times over they years, we reported that it was expected to be completed by 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Even that latest projection isn’t going to happen, however.
“I’m extremely frustrated that it’s taken this long to execute the (PAC’s) construction contract,” Hagan says. “We should be cutting the ribbon now, not awarding the construction contract. I mean, we designated the funding in 2019. We really should have been up and running by now. That part is very, very frustrating.”
