Category: Featured

RADDSports Fights Back Against Pasco County’s Default Claim

Mediation is scheduled for Monday.

RADDSports chief operating officer Anthony Homer appeared at the Nov. 15 Pasco County Commission meeting to ask the commissioners to vote to overturn their previous decision to hold RADD in default. The commissioners refused without discussion. ***(Screenshot from Pasco Television)***

Pasco County is looking to take over the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, but the company that currently runs it, RADDSports, is claiming that Pasco — primarily Florida Sports Coast director Adam Thomas — has used bogus claims to force RADD out or into a reduced role.

The two sides are at odds over how the facility, which opened in July of 2020 but officially opened in January 2021, is being run and the results of those early efforts.

The county’s Board of Commissioners (BOC) approved a Notice of Default, originally written by Thomas, as part of its Consent Agenda at the BOC’s Oct. 25th meeting, without any discussion. Included was the okay to pay Tampa law firm Carlton Fields up to $200,000 to handle the default case, as well as more than $2.8 million to cover the potential cost of the takeover plan.

Although RADDSports’ lawyers were under the impression that the two sides would be able to meet before the default notice was sent, it was delivered on Nov. 4 by attorney Dane Blunt of Carlton Fields.

“The notice claims that RADDSports is in default of a handful of sections of the contract the two sides originally signed,” said Blunt’s letter.

However, the letter stated that it is the county’s option to allow RADDSports to continue operating the sports campus and that, “RADDSports is in full control of the future” provided it undergo a ‘radical shift in (its) current operations, promotion, and marketing’ to attain compliance with the contract.”

Anthony Homer, the chief operating officer for RADDSports, told county commissioners at the Oct. 25 meeting that he and his company were eager to come to the table and work out any differences, and appeared to be blindsided by the delivery of the Nov. 4 Notice of Default letter.

Homer also attended the Nov. 15 BOC meeting and delivered RADDSports’ refutation of the Notice of Default in person. Commissioners voted unanimously to allow it into record, but again, with no discussion

He told the commissioners they had been misled and that some data had been misrepresented at the Oct. 25 meeting, and that they approved a Notice of Default “for which the county had no support.”

Homer said he was told by the county’s attorneys after the Oct. 25 meeting that the notice of default would not be issued and, instead, discussions would be held to settle the matter.

“Since then, the county has refused to engage in any substantive discussion,” Homer said. “It has not provided any data upon which it based its claims to put RADDSports in default and, despite saying otherwise, on Nov. 4, the county’s attorneys issued (RADD) a Notice of Default.”

The Nov. 4 notice, says Homer, was different than the one the commissioners voted on at the Oct. 25 meeting, as specific data was removed after RADD supplied the correct data. And, in RADD’s letter of refutation given to the BOC, more data was provided to prove the county had been using incorrect information to make its case.

In fact, Homer said, when it comes to the county’s claims that RADDSports has focused on local residents and events and hasn’t appealed to tourists, the county paid $30,000 to Zartico, a data intelligence company that focuses on the visitor economy, to do a custom analysis of the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus visitor-to-resident ratio.

“(Zartico’s report) actually confirmed the data we had previously provided,” Homer said. “So, it’s now obvious that the county has no support for its claim that RADDSports is in default and is asserting its claims in bad faith.”

Homer said the claims made by the county were unfairly damaging the reputation of RADDSports and were making it harder to book events. He asked that the BOC vote to immediately revoke the Notice of Default.

He didn’t get the vote he requested, but Homer and RADDSports will still be getting a chance to make their case.

In the Nov. 4 default letter, Blunt wrote that, “At this time, the County believes it is in the best interest of both parties’ to mediate their disputes pursuant to the Agreement.”

A mediation with retired Judge Gregory Holder has been scheduled for Monday, Nov. 28, and Blunt said the county plans to participate.

“We ask that RADDSports come to mediation prepared to share with the county its detailed, written plan for future compliance with the Agreement,” Blunt said.

RADD will make its defense that most of the claims in the Notice of Default are false, as it already has in multiple letters to the county and to Carlton Fields.

If the contract between the county and RADDSports, which has 18 years remaining on it, is terminated by Pasco, it likely will result in an expensive legal battle.

RADD president & CEO Richard Blalock said he hopes it doesn’t come to that.

“RADDSports remains willing to work with the County and all stakeholders,” Blalock wrote. “The cloud of a bogus Notice of Default will not help those discussions, but will lead to litigation that will be expensive to both parties and hinder the mutually beneficial resolution of the County’s perceived issues.”

And, in his Nov. 14 letter to the commissioners, Homer said, “That the county would allocate $2.8M to take over operations of a facility RADDSports operates at no cost (to the county) is simply mind boggling. We can only imagine there are areas in the County which would be delighted to see that invested in additional parks and recreation offerings.”

Here are the portions of the contract between RADDSports & Pasco County that the county claims RADDSports has defaulted on & RADD’s responses to each claim:

Claim #1 — RADD has not continuously operated the Sports Park Property to ensure that 90% of the 80% annual average of participants and non-participants….are non-County residents.
RADD’s Response — RADD President and CEO Richard Blalock said in his company’s refutation letter that the county has no supporting data for this claim, and that RADDSports has provided data from a “credible, billion dollar, national 3rd party data provider” to Thomas that shows RADDSports has exceeded those targets and is not in default.

Claim #2 — RADDSports’ events have resulted in hotel stays that are “well short” of what is needed.
RADD’s Response — RADDSports says it is not to blame for Covid restrictions (as well as the number of people not ready to return to traveling) in 2020 and 2021, but regardless, had 74,400 non-county visits in 2021 (3.7 times more than required) and 59,000 non-county visits through three quarters of 2022 (2.8 times more than required). Blalock calls this claim “particularly egregious” considering the data Pasco received from Zartico (which it also says Florida Sports Coast never told them about) shows the number of out-of-county visitors has increased every year and 83 percent of those visitors required overnight stays.

Claim #3 — RADDSports has failed to promote and market the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus as it relates to promoting tourism, based on a review of RADDSports’ Facebook and Instagram posts and newsletters.
RADD’s Response — RADDSports claims that the county is misreading the contract, which states that it is Pasco County’s responsibility to market the facility, and other than obligating RADDSports to “provide marketing information and material to the Pasco County Office of Tourism,” does not place any obligations on RADDSports. In fact, RADDSports argues that it is Florida Sports Coast that was in default of that part of the contract. As of September 12 of this year, the Florida Sports Coast website still referred to the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus as a “proposed 8 court indoor sports facility.” Even after asking Thomas to update it, it took more than a month for the changes to be made.

Claim #4 — RADDSports is not cooperating with the Residence Inn by Marriott hotel when it comes to marketing opportunities, claiming that the hotel operator also has expressed concern about the way RADDSports is operating and has asked the County to step in.
RADD’s Response — In their response to the county, RADDSports insists the operator of the Residence Inn has not made such claims, and that the county’s lawyers “affirmatively asked the (Residence Inn) operator to make such claims, and even went so far as to draft a letter for him they asked him to sign making (those) claims….The operator refused to sign the letter drafted by the County’s Lawyers.”

Claim #5 — That RADDSports also has heard from “multiple sources” that they were rudely rebuffed when trying to book events, and failed to timely respond to inquiries while prioritizing local events.
RADD’s Response — According to data from RADDSports, in 2021, the facility hosted 52 events, when it was projected to host only 38, and brought in 30 organizations, 26,000 athletes and 60,000 spectators. So far this year, the campus has hosted 44 events and will host 62 by year’s end, bringing in 15,000 athletes, 38,000 spectators and $5.5 million in economic impact, and already has 48 events booked for 2023, and 86% are returning events. “We believe this speaks to the professionalism and support (we give to) all event organizers that we are privileged to host at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County,” Blalock wrote.

Claim #6 — That RADDSports is in default of Section 9.03 because it has failed to provide the required annual financial audit for the year ending December 31, 2021.
RADD’s Response — RADD claims it cannot control the timing of the audit, and due to “significant personal issues” it had been delayed. Regardless, the contract doesn’t state a deadline for delivery and, last week, RADD said the audit was completed and delivered to Thomas.

RADDSPORTS Wiregrass ranch sports campus

Do You Remember When Wharton & Benito First Opened? I Do!

Gary Nager Editorial

For those of you who weren’t living in the New Tampa area when Paul R. Wharton High and Louis Benito Middle School opened in August of 1997, you may be unaware that high school-aged kids living in New Tampa in the mid-1990s were originally bused to King High on N. 50th St., a 10-mile trip for kids living in Tampa Palms and a 12-mile trek for those, like my family, who were living in Hunter’s Green — the two largest communities in the New Tampa area at the time.

I remember attending Hillsborough School Board meetings in 1996, trying to find out when High School BBB and Middle School AA (as they were first known) would open in the New Tampa area.

Once it was determined that both schools would open for the start of the 1997-98 school year, the School Board accepted input from the community to help name the two schools. But, despite the best efforts of yours truly and other local activists at the time, neither school would be named for the area in which they were located.

In fact, “New Tampa High” never made it to what the School Board said were its top-four choices for the school ultimately named for former School District administrator Paul R. Wharton (photo), although “Northeast High” was the fourth highest vote-getter.

As for Benito, “New Tampa Middle School” did make the School Board members’ final four, but ultimately finished fourth in their strange point-tallying system. Instead, the school was named for Louis Benito, the former owner of one of the Tampa Bay area’s largest advertising agencies and popular civic activist who had passed away a few years earlier.

I also attended the School Board meeting in December 1996, when long-time Ben Hill Middle School principal Mitch Muley was named as the first-ever principal at Wharton and former Eisenhower Middle School teacher and assistant principal Lewis Brinson was named the opening day principal at Benito.

These were exciting times for me, as having a local high school and middle school meant that my sons, who were both at Hunter’s Green Elementary at the time, would be able to walk to Benito from our Hunter’s Green home and would be living less than two miles up Bruce B. Downs Blvd. from their high school.

I remember touring both schools shortly before they opened and visiting them on the first day of school and feeling nothing but happiness and pride. I believed that having the schools in our area would help New Tampa continue to grow, would help increase our property values and would provide me, as the owner and editor of the Neighborhood News, with new sources of news for my still-young (I had only owned it for 3-1/2 years at the time), but growing publication — and all of those things did (thankfully) come true.

Considering that high school football wasn’t a big deal where I grew up in Long Island, NY (especially because my high school team was so bad), I could picture being part of the big crowds for Florida’s famous “Friday Night Lights,” at the packed gym for not only boys but girls basketball (which I never had growing up), pep rallies and so much more — all of which also came to fruition.

And, even though there also definitely were some growing pains, especially at Wharton, which opened with a super-high percentage of kids on free and reduced lunch because of desegregation-forced busing, for me, the school has been a consistent source of pride for the last quarter of a century.

And, although this issue primarily focuses on Wharton, it’s not because Benito wasn’t also very good to my sons and our community — because it was and still is — it’s because we got invited to (and were happy to attend) the 25th anniversary celebration held at Wharton on Nov. 4 (see pgs. 4-5), but heard nothing about a similar event at Benito. If we somehow missed such a celebration, or if one is still coming up, please email me at ads@NTNeighborhoodNews.com and we will try to show New Tampa’s original middle school some love, too.

wharton high school

All Abilities Park Progressing Towards Opening

The New Tampa All Abilities Park, which has been in the works since 2018, could be open by the end of this year.

Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera, who represents New Tampa in District 7, says that although he hasn’t yet heard of an official opening date, he is hoping the park — which will cater to children with autism and other sensory and cognitive challenges, can open sometime next month.

The city broke ground back on the park on Feb. 14.

“The All Abilities Park is coming along great,” says Viera, who excitedly posted these pictures on his Facebook page recently. Viera has spearheaded the park’s development since first winning office in 2016. His older brother Juan is on the autistic spectrum.

The full-fledged autism/sensory park will be the first of its kind in Tampa. Tens of thousands of kids in the New Tampa area and beyond are projected to use the park once it opens.

The 10,000-sq.-ft. park will include play pieces that are wheelchair accessible and geared towards those with sensory challenges. Other sensory areas and colorful murals highlight a nature theme.

The park, which will cost roughly $2 million, paid for by the city and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal funding, will be available to everyone.

“I am grateful for the hard work of our city staff,” says Viera, a New Tampa resident. “I have worked for five years to get this park created and it is wonderful to see how beautiful it is. More than anything, this park is a symbol to families raising children with special needs that they do have a place at the table in our city.”

All Abilities Luis Viera

Celebrating The 25th Anniversary Of Paul R. Wharton High School!

Darren Glover made the move in 1997 from Eisenhower Middle School in Gibsonton to a brand new high school opening in New Tampa.

A quarter of a century later, he’s still a Wharton Wildcat and has no plans to ever leave. He was one of more than 200 current and former Wildcats who gathered Nov. 5 in the school’s cafeteria to celebrate the school’s 25th anniversary.

Glover is one of just five teachers at the school that opened the school and has remained there, along with paraprofessional Sherry Hargin, guidance counselor Cindy Rogers and English teacher Merrill Connor.

Others, like current principal Mike Rowan, assistant principal Eddie Henderson and guidance counselor Tommy Tonelli, were at Wharton in 1997, but left for other jobs before coming back to stay at the school.

While Glover may not have expected to spend the next two-plus decades at Wharton, he confesses to having loved every minute of it.

He met his wife Elizabeth, a social studies teacher, at the school (well, technically, at happy hour at Durango Steak House, which is now Hungry Crab Juicy Seafood). They had two sons – Riley, who graduated from Wharton in 2021, and Aubrey, who is currently a senior.

“I built a family here. It has been really great,” says Glover, a driver’s education teacher and athletic department business manager. When the school organized the 25th anniversary gathering, he was eager to reconnect with past Wildcats.

The celebration included the school’s first principal Mitch Muley and assistant principal (AP) Carmen Aguero (top left photo on next page), plus the four other principals who have led the school — George Gaffney, Brad Woods, Scott Fritz and current principal Mike Rowan, who was an original teacher at the school (all of whom are shown on page 1).

Also on hand were original staffers and athletic coaches Marcie Scholl, David Mitchell (2nd photo from left on next page), Henderson and Tonelli (both in far right pics on next page). The celebration was held prior to Wharton’s football game against Hillsborough High, and many of the dignitaries stuck around for the 27-7 win, as the ‘Cats head into the playoffs. Many of the original staffers were recognized on the field during halftime.

“I was really looking forward to seeing everyone,” Glover said.. “They weren’t coming back for a free hamburger (or, in this case, Mediterranean food from The Little Greek); they were coming back for a reason. — to see their old high school, to be a part of it again. It’s a great thing.”

During the pre-game meal, not only did the 200+ people in attendance hear from Muley and Rowan, but current Wharton math teacher Carlos Rosaly read a number of recollections of the early days of the school written by those original staffers:

“From Carmen Aguero,” Rosaly read, “one day there was a huge squirrel that climbed up the building outside the cafeteria and Mitch yelled to Junior (former head custodian Tirso ‘Junior’ Cintron), ‘Get the pressure washer and shoot that thing. So, Junior did exactly that. Meanwhile, the bell rang and out from the cafeteria came 200 children who all of a sudden were getting showered on.”

Rosaly also read an anecdote from former Wharton AP Pam Peralta, “Some of Pam’s favorite memories are coaching swim team with Marcie Scholl and winning Districts in our first year, and attending sporting events and watching Wharton’s finest cheerleaders at the spring pep rally that first year.”

Rosaly said Aguero also recalled when interviews were being conducted in the trailers on BBD and Muley was upset about something and “started spewing profanities…in front of a visiting parent. Carmen said to the parent about Muley, ‘Man, you never know what you’re getting into with these construction workers.’”

Starting Out…

In December 1996, Mitchell Muley was named Wharton’s first principal. He had already opened Ben Hill Junior High on Ehrlich Rd. 10 years earlier, and he had a good relationship with long-time Hillsborough County Schools administrator Paul R. Wharton, for whom the school was named. Muley, then 49, was the perfect fit.

Mitch Muley, the school’s first principal.

He worked out of a trailer on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. near where the school was being built.

Muley spent his first six months ordering equipment, interviewing potential teachers and visiting potential students at junior high/middle schools like Van Buren and Buchanan that weren’t really close (Benito Middle School, which also opened in ‘97, provided a much closer option for New Tampa kids, too), and King, Chamberlain and Hillsborough high schools.

He put together a committee of those students who, in March, picked a school mascot — as the Wildcats beat out the Wolves.

In April, the school’s colors were selected – navy blue and white, with black trim – and the school hired its first head football coach, Dan Acosta.

The first football team had to practice that spring at Greco Middle School on Fowler Ave. They had to practice without equipment.

That was followed by selecting cheerleaders, a band director, a fight song and an alma mater song, as well as more coaches and teachers.

On August 17, 1997, Paul R. Wharton High swung its doors open for the first time. The traffic light on BBD across from the entrance to what is now Live Oak Preserve hadn’t yet been installed. Fences and walkways weren’t quite completed. Some painting still had to be done. The auditorium wouldn’t be ready until Oct. 1.

“We were still trying to get our certificate of occupancy two days before opening,” Muley recalls. “Just trying to get everything ready, to get it open, is what I’ll remember from that first year.”

Wharton is now the neighborhood school, but communities like West Meadows and Cross Creek were fairly new, so many of its original 1,400 students were driven or bused in from previously attended far-away schools like Hillsborough and Chamberlain.

“What I remember was the diversity,” says Kedric Harris, currently an assistant principal at Gaither who attended Wharton that first year. “It was the first time being at a school that had a real world atmosphere. We had no seniors, but it was an interesting mix of white, Black and Hispanic students.”

Harris dove right in. He loved being at a new school. He ran for, and was elected, treasurer of the student government, and played on the basketball team that won 20 games.

What he remembers most is that while the school’s colors were blue, white and black, the school itself looked lavender and purple when he first arrived.

Harris was likely the first Wharton student to ever return to the school as a teacher. After graduating from Florida A&M, he became an English teacher at Wharton from 2004-11, and then an administrative resource teacher before moving to Gaither.

Tonelli, who retired as the super-successful boys basketball coach but continues as a guidance counselor at Wharton, says there is always something special about a new school, and you could feel it in 1997.

“It’s the excitement of everything being the first,” Tonelli says. “You are helping to establish the tradition, helping set the pride and create the enthusiasm for the school. That was an exciting time.”

Tough Times, Too…

There were tough times early. More than $19,000 of video equipment (76 VCRs and 14 camcorders) were stolen the weekend before the school opened, and a fight between students the first semester captured a significant amount of media attention.

The fight helped tarnish Wharton’s image, and other similar issues over the years have helped prevent the school from shaking it.

“Wharton, from the beginning, because of some of the fights, got a bad rap and a bad name,” Tonelli says. “But, a lot of really good things have gone on at Wharton the last 25 years. It has been unbelievable, really — really successful in so many areas. Academically, we’ve had some unbelievable kids that have gone on to do great things. From the school paper, the culinary program, the yearbook, the athletics, we’ve had a lot of really good things happen and a lot of good things continue to happen.”

Glover agrees, which is why it meant a lot for the past students, teachers and administrators to gather to celebrate 25 years of wonderful moments, he says

“I think Wharton bound the (New Tampa) area together,” he says. “We’ve had some bumpy times, but it’s a great school. We have some great families here, and there are some great things always happening. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

NTPAC Cuts A Ribbon, Plans For Shows In ‘23

The New Tampa Performing Arts Center (NTPAC) isn’t quite open for business yet, but the ribbon at the new facility has been cut.

A gathering of roughly 50 local dignitaries, residents and politicians gathered on Oct. 17 to snip the ribbon and get a peek at the new facility.

There wasn’t too much to see — some of the classroom areas are close to completion and the stage has taken shape, but there are no seats and no orchestra pit just yet — although after using little more than their respective imaginations for more than 20 years, it was a pleasant sight for those involved in the decades-long attempts to build the center.

The NTPAC dates back to 2001, when Hunter’s Green resident Graeme Woodbrook formed a committee of those involved in the New Tampa arts scene to pursue the idea. The vision was grand — a 50,000-, or even 65,000-sq.-ft. cultural center that would put New Tampa on the map and be the area’s anchor.

The current NTPAC is 20,000 sq. ft., but is expandable to 30,000 sq. ft.

Woodbrook and his group eventually formed a nonprofit organization called the New Tampa Cultural Arts Center, but attempts to find a home for the center, and the support they sought, fizzled by 2005 and the nonprofit dissolved.

However, Doug Wall, who founded the still-vibrant New Tampa Players theatre troupe and served on that nonprofit committee, continued the fight.

Woodbrook was on hand at the ribbon cutting, along with former Tampa City Councilman Shawn Harrison, District 2 County Commissioner Ken Hagan and former District 2 Commissioner (and State Sen.) Victor Crist, all of whom played vital roles in keeping the dream alive for so many years.

Wall passed away from cancer in 2017. Without Wall and Woodbrook, the NTPAC would have never come to fruition, according to Hagan.

Nora Paine, the current producing artistic director of the New Tampa Players, said the opening of the NTPAC for the troupe’s first performance, likely sometime in early 2023, will usher in the vision of the original theatre pioneers, and be a haven for those interested in the arts.

“For 20 years, we have made progress in building the New Tampa arts community,” Paine said. “I cannot wait for us all of us to see how the New Tampa Players and the whole New Tampa arts community will be able to flourish with an affordable, reliable and permanent home, here at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center.”

NTPAC