Drought Conditions Continue Following Flatwoods Brush Fire

Fueled by dry conditions and a recent lack of rain, three brush fires spread and burned more than 200 acres in Flatwoods Park between Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. and Morris Bridge Rd., creating smoky conditions and temporarily shutting down parts of I-75 over the weekend of May 6-7.

The fires began near Fletcher Ave. and BBD Saturday afternoon, with heavy smoke forcing the closure of I-75 northbound between those two exits as Hillsborough County Fire Rescue (HCFR) fought to contain it.

The fires spread quickly from 20 acres to 200 acres, aided by high winds.

Flatwoods Park was evacuated and closed, although Hillsborough County Fire Rescue said no homes were threatened.

Around 8 p.m., after roughly six hours, Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) State Troopers reopened I-75, although advisories remained in effect for travelers due to the thick smoke from the fire.

In New Tampa, the smell of smoke was strong enough to keep many people indoors for parts of the weekend, while smoke resembling morning fog could still be seen near I-75, as travelers commuted on BBD.

The 5,000-acre Flatwoods Park, a popular local destination for biking and hiking, has ceased burning after HCFR spent hours pouring more than 30,000 gallons of water over the fire, part of a weekend effort that included the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO), Tampa Police Department (TPD) and Florida Forestry Service (FFS) firefighters working in unison to slow the spread of the flames and keep the fire from endangering local residents.

Smoky conditions from the fire spread across much of the Tampa Bay area. The Lakeland Ledger reported that the smoky conditions spread to as far away as Lakeland and much of Polk County Saturday afternoon and evening.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

No matter how many firelines are dug, and no matter how much water is dumped over the spate of recent wildfires, the biggest helping hand would be rain. But, ongoing dry conditions and high winds are making things difficult for area firefighters.

New Tampa was fortunate that the Flatwoods Park fire was contained as quickly as it was. In other areas, like nearby Pasco County, a raging 2,200-acre wildfire continues to cause problems at Starkey Wilderness Park (between S.R. 52 and S.R. 54 near New Port Richey) and other smaller fires in the area have forced local schools to be shut down and caused multiple evacuations over the past few weeks. 

School Board Approves Rezoning Plan: New Tampa Families Brace For Changes

Note: This story has been updated since it was written for the May 19 printed issue of Neighborhood News.

The Hillsborough County School Board met on May 16 and approved a rezoning plan that has had many parents up in arms and many others pleased since it was announced in March.

The plan will shift hundreds of students currently attending Pride, Heritage, Hunter’s Green and Clark elementaries for the school year that begins in August, 2018.

After nearly 20 speakers addressed the Board (14 speakers in favor of rezoning and 4 speakers opposed), the Board discussed the proposal at length before voting 6-1 in favor of the rezoning plan. While acknowledging the inconvenience to some parents and the discomfort of change, the Board ultimately chose to move forward with the plan.

Prior to the vote, school district representatives discussed implementation plans that were released online May 4, allowing many families who don’t want to leave Pride Elementary an option to stay there.

‱ Students who want to move to their new school early, for the upcoming 2017-18 school year (instead of 2018-19, when the changes are proposed to take effect) will have a special choice application to do so between July 11-20, if capacity is available.

‱ Students currently in 3rd grade (who will be in 5th grade when the plan is implemented) will be allowed to remain at their current school by completing a special choice application.

‱ Because capacity is expected to be available at Pride, students currently in grades 1-3 at Pride will be eligible to enter a special lottery to remain at Pride for the 2018-19 school year. The lottery will be conducted based on available capacity (estimated 150 seats) and will likely be held next spring or summer.

‱ No preference will be available for younger siblings of students who fit the above categories.

‱ School choice will be closed for all schools involved in this proposal for the first year of implementation, with the exception of the special choice applications listed above and hardship applications, which will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

‱ Transportation is generally not provided to students who are “grandfathered” into their current school or those who choose to opt in to their new school early.

“At Pride, we know we’ll have some space available for some period of time while K-Bar Ranch is being built out,” says Lorraine Duffy Suarez, Hillsborough County Public Schools general manager for growth management. “As long as we have space to accommodate people, we try to, if it doesn’t have a negative effect somewhere else down the line.”

The update provided on May 4 also outlined a slight revision to the original proposal. Students who live in the Addison Park apartments at the corner of Cross Creek Blvd. and Kinnan St. will be moved from Heritage to Pride, to better balance the enrollments at those two schools.

This is in addition to the previously released changes, which make room for expected growth in K-Bar Ranch over the coming years by shifting students in the following ways:

‱ More than 550 students who are currently bused to Clark and Hunter’s Green from the area surrounding the University of South Florida move to schools in their neighborhood.

‱ More than 550 students move from Pride to Hunter’s Green (Arbor Greene and Cory Lake Isles residents)

‱ Nearly 200 students move from Hunter’s Green to Clark (residents of the Morgan Creek apartments)

‱ About 200 move from Heritage to Pride (K-Bar Ranch and Addison Park residents; Easton Park residents will stay at Heritage)

More information about the proposal and implementation strategies are on the school district’s website at sdhc.k12.fl.us/doc/251/growth-management/resources/boundary/.

Bell Schedule Changes

At its meeting on April 25, the Hillsborough School Board voted to approve changes to the bell schedule for the 2018-19 school year, giving parents time to adjust to new start and end times for most schools.

School superintendent Jeff Eakins says the changes are necessary to allow time for buses to get kids to school on time. The new schedule will add 15 minutes to the school day at the elementary level, which is expected to be filled with additional time for art, music, and physical education. Middle school students lose 15 minutes and high school students lose 32 minutes. Both middle and high schools will keep their seven-period schedules, but may see the elimination of homeroom, a shorter time for lunch, and class periods may be reduced by a minute or two.

For New Tampa elementary schools — including Chiles, Clark, Heritage, Hunter’s Green, Pride and Tampa Palms — the school day will start at 8:35 a.m. and end at 3:05 p.m. beginning in the fall of 2018. At Benito and Liberty middle schools, the school day will start at 9:15 a.m. and end at 4:15 p.m. At Freedom and Wharton high schools, the day will start at 7:15 a.m. and end at 2:10 p.m. Monday will continue to be an early release day, with students being dismissed one hour early.

For students at Turner/Bartels K-8 school, bell times for the 2018-19 school year are still “to be determined.” The District will survey parents this fall and release information about new bell times during the next school year.

Sheriff’s Office Releases Pictures Of Mosque Fire Suspect

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is still searching for the person they say set fire to the New Tampa mosque Masjid Daarus Salaam, and released pictures from surveillance video Tuesday morning.

The video, recorded at approximately 2 a.m. on Feb. 24, captured a male subject entering the property of The Islamic Society of New Tampa on Morris Bridge Rd. just north of Cross Creek Blvd., on foot.

The subject. according to the HCSO, was carrying a large container and rope.  The subject moved to an exterior entry door located on the northeast side of the Mosque, where he fashioned the rope as a trailer to
the large container.

He was then seen attempting to ignite the rope, which was sprayed with an ignitable liquid accelerant and apparently set to act as a fuse. After the rope failed to sustain fire, the subject poured a trail of what appeared to be an ignitable liquid accelerant on the sidewalk and successfully ignited the sidewalk.

The fire, however, failed to effectively ignite the large container.  The subject then moved out of view of the camera. He was able to successfully ignite the large ignitable liquid accelerant container, which in turn caused damage to the Mosque.

The subject then fled toward Morris Bridge Rd. undetected.  Laboratory results confirmed gasoline was present at the fire scene.

Anyone with any information is asked to call the HCSO at 813-247-8200, or anyone with any information regarding the identity and whereabouts of the suspect and who wants to be eligible for a cash reward is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS (8477), report anonymously online at www.crimestopperstb.com or send a mobile tip using the HCSO P3 Tips Mobile application, which is a free download for iPhones, iPads and Droids.

You must call Crime Stoppers first to be eligible for a reward.

 

‘Extra’ Star Mario Lopez Attracts A Crowd Of 1,100 To Wesley Chapel Nissan!

Although I was already 30 when TV star Mario Lopez began his five-year run as AC Slater in the “Saved By the Bell” TV series, I remember that not only was I a fan of the show, but so were my sons, neither of whom had yet reached double digits when the original “Saved By the Bell” series ended in 1994.

Today, Lopez is starting his tenth year as the co-host of the Emmy Award-winning daily syndicated “Extra” TV series. So, what was this Hollywood star doing in Wesley Chapel on April 22?

Lopez spent the day with Wesley Chapel Nissan owner Jay Rosario, including a four-hour appearance at the dealership, which was named the first Motor Trend magazine-certified auto dealership in Florida, meaning that the dealership’s pre-owned side only sells pre-owned vehicles that have been certified (inspected, upgraded and guaranteed) by Motor Trend.

“It’s a big honor,” Wesley Chapel Nissan  public relations manager and Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber Ambassador Troy Stevenson. “We wanted to reach as many people as possible with the news about Motor Trend and Mario Lopez sure delivered.”

In fact, a crowd estimated at 1,100 people by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office — which was on-hand in force for the event and of which Rosario, executive GM Joey Falcon and their staff have been major supporters — came to see Mario, who threw Wesley Chapel Nissan T-shirts, posed for pictures and signed autographs for dozens of excited guests the last couple of hours of the event, which included giving away more than 900 hot dogs. Some of those attendees also got to enjoy gourmet cuisine like filet mignon sliders provided by Vesh Catering in the VIP area inside the dealership.

Rosario, an Orange County Sheriff’s Office reservist who lives in Orlando (where he owns Celebrity Nissan), was one of the first people allowed inside the Pulse Night Club following the mass shooting tragedy there in June of last year. I hope to be able to discuss both the aftermath of that horrible event with him and his support of Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco in a future episode of WCNT-tv and in these pages. — Gary Nager

Unexpected Visitor Drives Into Cloud 9 Photo Studio

When a photo session at Cloud 9 Studios in Wesley Chapel scheduled for 1 p.m. on April 25 was cancelled, owner Jeanine McLeod took her one-year-old son, James, and went out to grab lunch.

The office manager, Mary Gullett, stayed in the studio while assistant Carla Holness photographed her own three children —ages almost 1, 4, and 5 — in the back.

That’s when, all of a sudden, a car came crashing through the front doors of Cloud 9’s building in the Summergate Professional Center behind Sam’s Club off S.R. 56.

“I heard tires screeching and felt the building rattle,” Carla says.

According to a report by the Florida Highway Patrol, 80-year-old Theresa Drummond was attempting to park her car when she pressed the gas pedal instead of the brake.

That sent her 2005 while Ford Taurus over the curb, in between two pillars and halfway through the door into the building at 27340 Cashford Circle.

“What’s crazy is that Jeanine is always there with James and I’m not usually there with my kids,” says Carla. “About half an hour before it happened, the kids were all running around playing, so I’m just so thankful that they were out to lunch and that my kids were in the back.”

Jeanine echoed Carla’s grateful attitude.

“All of us are a little shook up, but I’m just so thankful everyone is okay,’’ Jeanine said. “ My son loves to play at the windows with the curtains, and he’s always up there looking as the cars go by.”

Both ladies are amazed that the car fit exactly through the columns on either side of the front door. “The car had to be lined up perfectly,” says Jeanine. “Any farther to the left or right and she would have hit steel columns.”

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Drummond was not transported to a medical facility. The studio was temporarily boarded up until new doors could be installed.