Pebble Creek, Cross Creek & Live Oak Could Lose City Fire Services

The City of Tampa and Hillsborough County are in a dispute over usage of Tampa Fire Rescue Station No. 21 on Cross Creek Blvd. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

Since it opened in 2002, Tampa Fire Rescue Station No. 21 on Cross Creek Blvd. has not only serviced City of Tampa residents in New Tampa, but has also been contracted to respond to the homes in the New Tampa communities located in unincorporated Hillsborough County. That city-county agreement, however, is in peril.

While it may not be time to call 9-1-1 on the negotiations just yet, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn says that unless the county bridges the gap between what it has been paying and what the city thinks the county should be paying, Fire Station 21 — located on Cross Creek Blvd. just west of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. — will no longer respond to calls from residents in Pebble Creek, Live Oak, Cross Creek and the other communities located in unincorporated Hillsborough County.

“Effective Dec. 31, if some accomodation is not reached, the city is not going to be providing service to Pebble Creek anymore,’’ Buckhorn told the Neighborhood News on Sept. 29.

The county is paying the city $218,000 a year, plus any adjustments related to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), to service unincorporated New Tampa,

Buckhorn says that total should be closer to $1.46 million.

“We have told the county, ‘Look, we are not doing this anymore’,” Buckhorn says. “You can pay us what we think we are owed and deserve, or you can go provide the service yourself or contract with Pasco County. We don’t care (which one). We’re happy to be here for you, but we’re going to do it at a rate that compensates us appropriately.”

Without a contract with the city, Hillsborough has limited options. One, according to Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Chief Dennis Jones, would be to stand up some kind of a response unit in the area. Another would be to contract with Pasco County, whose nearest fire rescue station is No. 26 in front of the Meadow Pointe I community in Wesley Chapel, about six miles away from the easternmost part unicorporated New Tampa.

The nearest Hillsborough County fire rescue station is No. 5 on E. 139th Ave. in the University area.

The best option, according to Chief Jones, is reaching some agreement with the city. However, it is requesting that the county to pay 40 percent of the annual costs to operate Station 21, City of Tampa chief financial officer Sonya Little wrote in a letter to Hillsborough County chief financial administrator Bonnie Wise.

According to the letter, Tampa has calculated the annual operating costs of Fire Station 21 at $3,652,432, and 40 percent of that number is $1,406,973.

“In these tight budget times, we’re looking at every agreement we have and making sure we are being fairly and adequately compensated,” Buckhorn says, “and this is one that is so glaring and so out of line, we just said enough.”

Jones said the county found the $1.4 million figure “shocking.” According to numbers he says are from the city, less than two calls a day to unincorporated New Tampa are handled by Fire Station 21, or approximately 40 minutes a day (or 2.78 percent) of service.

“We thought that was a little bit of a jump without some rationale behind it,’’ Jones said. “We measured calls and amount of time, and it’s a very small number for us to pay that amount of money.”

Buckhorn doesn’t agree, however.

“The frequency of the runs have increased significantly,” Buckhorn said. “We calculated down to the man hour, down to the cost of the vehicle, to be 40 percent of our time up there out of Station 21.”

Jones says the City of Tampa is seeking money for everything from the cost of the building to vehicle depreciation to uniforms.

“Basically all the costs to run the fire station,’’ he said.

The county, however, is arguing that many of the costs the city wants to reimbursed for have nothing to do with the contracted services provided. Jones said the county is more than willing to make up for any CPIs that may have been missed in the past, and to pay its share of the operating costs of the fire vehicles used, as well as the materials and supplies associated with the calls to unincorporated New Tampa.

But the city, Jones says, built the fire station for the residents of New Tampa, not to accommodate any contract with the county. It owns the station, and the land it’s on, and Jones doesn’t think costs associated with that should be passed on to the county.

Buckhorn said the agreement between the city and county (which dates back to 1998) has long been an issue downtown, when some of the county’s players involved in negotiations worked for the city. Wise was former mayor Pam Iorio’s chief financial officer for eight years before joining the county in 2011, and Jones was the Tampa Fire Chief before retiring in 2010. He was lured out of retirement in 2015 by the county.

“The two of them well aware of the longstanding inadeuqacies of it,” Buckhorn said.

Buckhorn said Jones complained about the agreement before retiring. Jones says he doesn’t recall ever having that conversation with Buckhorn when he was mayor, or before that when Buckhorn served as a city council member.

Both sides will continue to negotiate. The interlocal agreement they renewed in 2013 states that either party can terminate the agreement upon 90 days notice, which would mean Buckhorn would have had to exercise the option on Oct. 1 to meet his Dec. 31 cutoff date.

According to Buckhorn, the county has offered to pay an additional $40,000, which he said was “pretty much insulting.”

Jones said the county has offered to pay $56,000 more, as well as an additional $32,500 yearly for expendables. Even using Jones’ numbers, the difference between the city and county is still roughly $1.3 million.

“It’s a huge gap,” Jones said. “Is there a meeting place? I would hope there is. I’m confident we’ll come up with a resolution.”

Local Couple Teach How To Mentor At-Risk Kids

Joe & Carol Gravante have turned their love of children and their own empty nest into an opportunity to teach a free mentoring class to help adults mentor at-risk kids. The classes began last week at Bridgeway Church on Wells Rd.

Joe and Carol Gravante, residents of Heritage Isles in New Tampa, are empty nesters who say that God gave them a new purpose after their three boys grew up and left home.

After raising their sons and hosting at least two dozen foreign exchange students, including 12 who stayed with them for a year and attended local schools, the Gravantes have turned their attention to mentoring at-risk kids in our community.

“Carol and I had started working with a mentoring group in Tampa several years ago, and when we first started we had no idea what we were doing,” Joe explains. “The training that we received was more about how the foster care system works, the formalities, not how to actually deal with the kids themselves. There was nothing available (to teach us) how to communicate and how to handle certain situations you might be put in that are different from raising your own kids.”

So, Joe says, he and Carol shared resources with other people they knew who also were mentoring. His sister-in-law in Missouri, for example, who helped him find school resources for a tenth grader who needed help to pass his classes. Joe also did online searches for answers to questions he had, and he tried different techniques with the teenagers he was mentoring.

Now, Joe and Carol have taken their experiences and developed a curriculum to help people learn skills that will help them be good mentors. After teaching the class Joe developed last year, it will be offered again this year at Bridgeway Church, located at 30660 Wells Rd. in Wesley Chapel. The classes started September 25 and meet every other Monday. There is no cost to attend, and childcare is provided for people who sign up for the class and need it.

Class topics include effective communication, anger management, time management, bullying, dealing with attitudes, when to say “yes” and “no” and much more.

“Really, these classes are good for anyone who’s raising kids, or even in the workplace,” says Carol.

Other Options

Joe says they also are currently coming up with a schedule of opportunities for people who want to serve their community and help kids, but don’t have the time to commit to mentoring a child one hour every week.

“We have two focuses,” explains Carol. “Some people want to get involved right away and do something purposeful.”

For those people, the couple is organizing events where anyone can come out and interact with at-risk kids in a large group setting. Joe and Carol say they have a friend with a horse ranch where they have taken groups of kids, and volunteers help to lead the horses and play with the kids.

“People find it’s quite fun!” Carol says. “Some people aren’t comfortable with the idea of working with at-risk kids. They worry they have too many limitations or the kids have too much baggage, but the events help people get more comfortable until they are ready for a one-on-one relationship with the students.”

Their goal is to encourage more people to provide that time to help students who need it. After all, Joe says, every child he’s mentored has benefitted from the experience.

“These kids just need time and attention,” he says.

Joe knows that because he once benefitted from mentoring, too.

“I had this (U.S. military) Colonel who changed my entire life,” he says. “I grew up in the city of Pittsburgh (PA). It was a steel mill town, and that’s all I knew. When I joined the military, this amazing man took the time and energy to make me see I could be so much more than what I was. He mentored me from 20 years old until 30-something. He was the one who really set me on the right path.”

Joe says the cycle of being mentored, and now being in a position to pay his experiences forward and serve his community, continues with the kids he’s impacted.

“I see the kids I’ve mentored already giving back in their communities,” he says. “It’s so good to see that you can make a difference that way, no matter how old you are.”

For more information or to register for the mentoring class, contact Carol at (813) 753-8338.

New Identities Hair Studio Featured On HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks’ With The Bucs!

It wasn’t just another hair coloring appointment for Katie Ellwood.

After all, Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Kwon Alexander was sitting in her chair at the New Identities Hair Studio of Tampa in Tampa Palms and a handful of television cameras were pointed right at her.

Everything she said, every move she made, every hair she dyed red was going to be shown to the entire country on HBO’s popular “Hard Knocks” reality show. “Was I nervous?,’’ Katie said. “Yeah, a little.”

Thanks to a recommendation from one of her customers, Bucs defensive tackle and Tampa Palms resident Gerald McCoy, Ellwood was working her magic on Alexander, who was looking to sharpen the red in his current ‘do. Katie had done a similar job on McCoy two years ago, and the All-Pro lineman noticed that Alexander’s color was fading and told his teammate he needed to go see his stylist.

“Hard Knocks,” which airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on HBO and offers a behind-the-scenes look at one NFL team each preseason – this year it’s the Bucs –  followed along.

“That was my first experience with a camera crew focused on what I was doing,’’ said Katie, although she has been involved in other photo shoots over the years. “The production crew was very nice and very informative.”

Marc Rockquemore, who owns New Identities Hair Studios of Tampa with his wife Kelly, said they had less than 24 hours to get ready for Alexander and the HBO crew.

Being on reality television shows, however, is old hat for Rockquemore and the crew at New Identities, which has been featured on shows like FOX-TV’s “Ambush Makeover,” The Learning Channel’s “A Wedding Story” and MTV’s “True Life.”

New Identities also has had a long relationship with the Bucs. From 2003 until last year, Rockquemore sent a crew of stylists to every Bucs game to do the cheerleaders’ hair. Currently, New Identities is working with the Tampa Bay Lightning cheerleaders.

“We’ve had a lot of blessings come into our lives,’’ says Rockquemore, whose studio has more than 10,000 followers on Instagram.

Katie’s experience in front of the cameras took more than an hour, but once edited by HBO producers, was distilled into her 30 seconds of fame in the show’s third episode (check it out on the HBO GO app).

Instead of any viewing parties, Katie said she just went over to her girlfriend’s house to watch it when it aired.

“It was a little strange to see,’’ said Katie, a big Bucs fan and “Hard Knocks” viewer even before her appearance. “I just wanted to make sure I didn’t sound like a goober or anything. Once my 30 seconds were over, I was able to relax and just watch the rest of the show.”

She did receive a slew of text messages that night. Patrons at the new Fat Rabbit Pub in Tampa Palms, which Katie owns with her husband John, congratulated her the next day. Two days later, an old friend and former Bucs cheerleader texted her from New York to tell her she had seen her on the show.

“Overall, it was a really cool experience,’’ Katie said.

For more information about the New Identities Hair Studios in Tampa Palms (15307 Amberly Dr.) and South Shore (10639 Big Bend Rd., Riverview), visit NewIdentitiesSalon.com, or call (813) 979-0760 (New Tampa) or (813) 741-1177 (Riverview).

NJROTC Cadet’s Charismatic, Fun-Loving Character Touched Many

Connor Hale (left) and David Elder at the American Cancer Society’s New Tampa Relay For Life in May. “He was just such a good guy to be around,” Connor says.

Last October, when David Elder was a freshman at Wharton High and a member of the school’s National Junior Reserve Officers Training Corp (NJROTC) program, he was participating in one of his first drill meets at Central High School in Brooksville, called the Iron Bear Challenge.

It was early and still wet outside, and Elder, as his friends in Wharton’s NJROTC call him, was participating in the tire flip event. David was a little too close to another team’s tire and when he slipped, the huge tractor tire struck his leg just below the knee and slid down to the ankle, breaking both bones in his leg.

“It was loud,” recalls Senior Chief Petty Officer (Ret.) David Ingalls, who is retired from the U.S. Navy and one of David’s instructors. “We knew it was a pretty bad break.”

With his leg broken in two places, he should have been in a lot of pain. But, Elder somehow was making everyone else laugh, acting like a hero being carried off on the stretcher. As they closed the doors to the ambulance, he was waving to everyone and “dabbing.”

“That’s when we really saw his personality,” says Ingalls. “David just had a lot of charisma.”

When students arrived at Wharton for the first day of school this year, Elder’s friends were told that he had passed away.

Just the day before, Elder, Connor Hale and a bunch of their friends helped lead freshman orientation at Wharton High for new students entering NJROTC.

After, the cadets went to the movies. The theater was empty, except for them, so whenever a song played between dialogue, David and Connor would put on sunglasses, jump up, and “dance like spazzes,” says Connor. That was typical of the kid he calls Elder, who “could make anyone laugh or smile.”

David Elder’s dad says those kids were part of what David loved best, the NJROTC program. As a freshman last school year, he jumped into every activity offered.

“He excelled above and beyond anything I expected,” says Jim Elder. “He was on the rifle team, drill team, color guard, everything. He did great at everything he tried.”

David even enjoyed uniform inspections, something many cadets dread. “He’d have me come out and inspect his uniform for lint and check his brass. I showed him how to shine his shoes. He was very methodical about proper appearance with his uniform.”

A week later, more than three dozen cadets from Wharton and other area schools, who had met Elder at NJROTC events, attended his memorial service.

“He was enthusiastic about being a young leader and had a lot of potential,” says Major Michael Beale, who is retired from the U.S. Marine Corps, and was another of David’s instructors. “For a young kid to impact so many people, you know he has unique character traits. People wanted to be around him, and he touched so many lives.”

“He was a model cadet,” adds Ingalls.

Jim says his son had aspirations to join the military. He was interested in aviation, but since he wore glasses, he knew that was a long shot. He also loved the water, and really loved sailing. NJROTC gave him the opportunity to attend Sail Academy, a training academy hosted by Eckerd College in St. Petersburg.

“He’s named after my dad, who is a retired U.S. Army paratrooper,” says Jim, who also served in the military. “David just thought his grandpa was the greatest thing walking on two feet. He always liked to hear Grandpa Dave stories.”

David grew up in Pinellas County, where his mom still lives. He had been living with his dad and last summer, after outgrowing the Civil Air Patrol program for middle school students, the pair decided to move to Tampa to find a high school with a good NJROTC program.

“I wanted him to be exposed to more things and set him up for success in the future.”

Jim says Wharton, “just kind of worked out at the time,” and that he couldn’t have been any happier with their choice.

“I’m thrilled because the instructors there do amazing things for the kids,” he says. “They are top notch and I can’t say enough good things. They are solid, good people there.”

While NJROTC was David’s “main thing,” says Jim, “he was a really well-rounded kid.”

David was a huge history buff who was particularly into World War II. He collected vintage firearms and military uniforms, and even taught himself some German, using Google Translate.

“We’d be at the gun shop and he’d give the guy behind the counter a quick history lesson,” Jim recalls. They enjoyed shooting together, too, he says. “We would go shooting all the time. He shot better than I did, which drove me crazy.”

Connor says he already misses the kid he considered one of his best friends. “This is my first time experiencing something like this,” he says. “It’s tough. I already miss his good nature. He was just such a good guy to be around.”

When he recalls his many fun times with David, he calls those times “shenanigans. He was a goofball and we would just laugh at everything dumb,” Connor says, like watching YouTube videos or repeating a phrase endlessly to drive other people crazy. “There’s a lot of stuff I thought we’d (still) do together, like going back to Sail Academy and doing (the American Cancer Society’s New Tampa) Relay for Life” again.

Jim says he and his son had a special relationship, especially since just the two of them lived together. “We called each other ‘bro,’ and I would tell him, ‘You’re my best bro.’”

Jim has met with Hailey Acierno’s parents, who started the foundation called Hailey’s Voice of Hope. “We’re going to try to collaborate and work together so that for her daughter and my son, neither of their names are forgotten,” he says. “We want to get the word out about suicide prevention so no other kid or parent has to go through this.”

Tampa Palms Resident Is FBLA’s New National President!

You’d probably expect the president of an international organization with more than 250,000 members to be professional, articulate and passionate about his role and vision for his organization.

What you might not expect is that he would be just 17 years old, and still in high school.

Max Michel is all of the above, having recently been elected as president of the national Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) organization.

“I serve our 250,000 members and work with other officers to create programs for our members,” Max explains. “I also work with the national board of directors, comprised of educators, CEOs, industry representatives and other professionals, to help steer the long-term strategies for the organization as a whole.”

Max has lived with his family in Tampa Palms since 2005, before he entered kindergarten at Chiles Elementary. He then attended Liberty Middle School. When it was time for high school, he chose the magnet program at Middleton High, located on N. 22nd St. in Tampa.

It was through his FBLA chapter at Middleton that Max pursued the chance to lead the national organization. He was elected president during the group’s National Leadership Conference in Anaheim, CA, on July 2, and immediately began his one-year term.

The National Leadership Conference comes after the District and State conferences. “FBLA gives students the opportunity to compete on District, State and National levels in 65 different events that cover everything from public speaking to healthcare,” Max says. “It allows students to find their niche.”

He adds that every year, the national competition is “awe-inspiring. There are about 13,000 people there, and you see diverse faces and cultures and backgrounds and how hard they all work to have made it that far.”

In 2016, Max placed second in FBLA’s national computer problem solving competition. This year, he didn’t compete so that he could focus on campaigning for national president.

First, he had to qualify on the state level, where he was chosen to be the candidate for president from the state of Florida. He went up against candidates from Oregon and Arizona for the national honor.

While Max only campaigned during the conference itself, he did a lot to prepare, including writing the speech he would give at a general session in front of all of the attendees.

As a freshman, Max had run for District office and, when it was time to give his speech in front of a much smaller crowd, he says he completely forgot it. “I blanked out,” he says. “It was so embarrassing.”

But, that was one of the things that spurred him to work on his public speaking and other skills.

“I grew a lot because of the leadership skills I’ve learned through FBLA,” says Max. So much so, that he says his school’s FBLA chapter adviser, Tayo Akinrefon, recommended that Max run for national president going into his senior year. “I thought he was joking, but he was super serious,” Max says. “That inspired me.”

“I worked on my public speaking a lot,” he adds. “Despite me not being the best speaker, I can connect with people on a genuine and authentic level, and I definitely have that desire to connect, regardless of culture or race or background.”

So, Max worked to make those connections with people at the conference, and this time, he was able to give the speech he had prepared without freezing or forgetting it.

When the voting was over, Max had won.

He says that has a specific goal for his time in office.

“I want to reach out to urban communities, which are currently underserved by FBLA,” he says. “Our end goal is to reach as many students as possible. We partner with other leadership programs and we want to offer resources for schools that are harder hit by issues such as poverty.” In the long-term, he says, that would mean allocating funds to charter chapters in those currently underserved areas.

He says that across the nation, there are some large cities that only have one or two FBLA chapters. Even his own school has room to grow in that area. “Most of our membership comes from the magnet program, and we want to diversify,” he says.

A Born Leader

Max comes from a large family, one of seven siblings, and he and his older brother are close enough in age that they both will graduate from high school this year. Alejandro, whom Max calls Alex, is currently a senior at Freedom High. Max says he and Alex are hoping to both attend Florida State University in Tallahassee next year. The two high school boys have two older sisters and an older brother, as well as two younger brothers, ages three and five.

He says being one of seven siblings has helped his leadership skills, whether it’s dividing up chores for the week or taking turns babysitting. “Being part of a big family, I’ve learned things like how to speak up for myself and being ready to help when needed,” he adds.

While he doesn’t yet know what career he’ll pursue after college, he’s sure of one thing. “Whatever job I have,” he says. “I want to make a lasting influence on people’s lives and do whatever I can to help others.”