Body Of New Tampa Man Recovered From S.C. River Coming Home

By Matt Wiley

Rescuers search the Chattooga River in South Carolina for missing New Tampa man Thomas Hill, who fell into the river during a rafting excursion June 19.
Rescuers search the Chattooga River in South Carolina for missing New Tampa man Thomas Hill, who fell into the river during a rafting excursion June 19.

The body of a New Tampa man has finally been recovered, following a whitewater rafting accident and 17-day search of the Chattooga Wild & Scenic River in South Carolina.

Thomas P. Hill, 51, a Hunter’s Green resident and a Sherwin-Williams Tampa district sales manager, fell out of a raft during a whitewater rafting trip on the Chattooga on June 19 in Oconee County near Long Creek, SC, which is located along the state’s border with Georgia. Hill had been in Helen, GA, to attend a Sherwin-Williams sales conference.

According to the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Hill’s body was recovered around 11:30 a.m. on July 5, following more than two weeks of failed attempts to retrieve and return his body to his wife Linda and four children in New Tampa.Continue reading

Rep. Ross Tackles Tough Immigration Issues At Town Hall Meeting In Lutz

By Matt Wiley

New Tampa's U.S. Representative Dennis Ross took questions from the community during a town hall meeting in Lutz on July 2.
New Tampa’s U.S. Representative Dennis Ross took questions from the community during a town hall meeting in Lutz on July 2.

New Tampa’s U.S. Representative Dennis Ross (R-Lakeland) has been making the rounds around the 15th Congressional District and getting an earful about tough issues, especially immigration.

During July 2 town hall meetings in both Lutz and Brandon, a total of more than 300 District 15 residents listened to and asked questions of their Congressman, many of which concerned student loans and the deficit. But, the topic that received the most attention at the Lutz-area meeting, by far, was immigration.Continue reading

Estancia Community Officially Approved For Wiregrass Ranch DRI

By Matt Wiley

Map source: PascoCountyFL.net, updated by New Tampa Neighborhood News
Map source: PascoCountyFL.net, updated by New Tampa Neighborhood News

At long last, homes will soon be going up inside the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI) in a newly formed Community Development District (CDD) called Estancia at Wiregrass, located north of the future Chancey Rd. extension and east of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., between S.R.s 56 and 54.

In January, we reported that Standard Pacific Homes (SPH), a builder from Orange County, CA, had purchased 677 acres of land from the Porter family, who own the Wiregrass DRI, to build a then-unnamed community consisting of 1,181 single-family homes spread out across four gated and un-gated neighborhoods. The community will be named Estancia.Continue reading

Wesley Chapel Rotary Installs New Board & Recaps Trip To Honduras

Three of the nine WC Rotarians who traveled to Las Trojes, Honduras, in April.
Three of the nine WC Rotarians who traveled to Las Trojes, Honduras, in April.

By Gary Nager

I was a Charter Member of the New Tampa Noon Rotary Club since its inception about ten years ago. But, when I attended my first Wesley Chapel (WC) Rotary Club meeting last year, I got the kind of feeling you only get when you know you’re among friends in a dynamic group of people that is not only still growing, its members keep building momentum together as a true Rotary family.Continue reading

Textbook Thief Taken In Tampa Palms

By Matt Wiley

Christopher Brock
Christopher Brock

An Oklahoma man who was arrested in Tampa Palms could face 20 years in prison for the theft of millions of dollars in textbooks.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO), Christopher J. Brock, 44, was arrested on June 20 at 16287 Enclave Village Dr., inside the Promenade at Tampa Palms condominiums complex for defrauding his former employer, Hoboken, NJ-based textbook publisher John Wiley & Sons, out of more than $2.8 million worth of textbooks.Continue reading