By Matt Wiley
If youโre on Wesley Chapel roads, or any Florida road for that matter, stay off your phone. Or, off of the keyboard, at least, as Floridaโs texting and driving ban has gone into effect. However, there are some exceptions.
On October 1, Florida became the 41st state to actively ban texting while driving. According to the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), 3,400 crashes resulted from distraction by an electronic device in the state last year, 24 of which resulted in fatalities.
By Matt Wiley
A woman is dead following an early-morning head-on collision in New Tampa.
According to the Hillsborough County Sheriffโs Office (HCSO), just before 4 a.m. on September 20, Kunjummen Arun Babu, 18, of Zephyrhills, was driving north on Morris Bridge Rd. near Pictoral Park Dr., about half of a mile north of Cross Creek Blvd. in his 2010 Honda Accord. At the same time, Rita Marie Sutliff, 68, also of Zephyrhills, was driving south on Morris Bridge in her 2012 Ford Explorer. Both vehicles were traveling at about 50 m.p.h.Continue reading
By Matt Wiley | September 14
Watching children develop from newborns to college scholars is a joy usually reserved for parents. However, Josรฉ Jimรฉnez, M.D., the one physician who has been seeing all of the patients at Small World Pediatrics (now located jut north of S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel) for the past decade, has been right there with the parents in the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel area help those kids stay healthy as they have grown and matured from babies and young children into teenagers and young adults.
Now located (since 2010) in the Windguard Professional Center across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from the new Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC), Small World Pediatrics is a full-service pediatrics practice that cares for children from the time that they are born through their college years (usually to about age 21).
Among the services Dr. Jimรฉnez provides are physical exams for school and sports, vaccinations for daycare, school and college entry, and treating a wide range of pediatric illnesses.
By Matt Wiley | September 14
With the changing of the seasons comes the annual Harvest Volleyball Tournament at New Tampaโs Paul R. Wharton High, along with its accompanying food drive.
For the third consecutive year, Wharton High will welcome Brandon, Clearwater, Freedom, King, Riverview, Strawberry Crest and Wiregrass Ranch high schools to its Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. campus to compete in the annual girls volleyball tournament on Friday-Saturday, September 20-21. But the battle wonโt be completely on the court, as each team participating also is being challenged to collect the most donated canned and boxed food items. Wharton has won the tourney each of the first two years.
โ(Wharton) started the Harvest Tournament for two reasons,โ explains volleyball coach Eric Barber. โTo provide a tournament in the north Tampa area that these schools could attend, as well as provide a way for high school volleyball programs to directly impact their communities in a positive way.โ
Barber says that the schools that he thinks will pose the biggest threat to Whartonโs โthree-peatโ are Wiregrass Ranch, Clearwater, and New Tampa rival Freedom. However, Barber adds that he thinks that Wharton still might have an advantage over the competition.
โWe have been fortunate to win the last two, so I think a certain level of confidence comes with that,โโBarber explains. โWe are also working on being more diverse in our offense this year.โ
Anyone planning to attend the tournament who is interested in donating cans/boxes of food is encouraged to do so, as a box will be set up in front of the gym for any donations. Wharton would like to send a big “Thank You” to the event’s sponsors: Marco’s Pizza, Bagels Plus, Dunkin’ Donuts, Rent King andย RPM Physical Therapy.
By Bonnie Mason | September 14
Roger Briggs, the chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Sun Laboratory Services, Inc. (which has a location in Wesley Chapel), stands by his mission to โdeliver a level of patient service other laboratories are either unwilling or unable to provide.โ
Briggs says that both Sun Labsโ new diagnostic center, located across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC), as well as the original location in Sun City Center, offer convenience and customer-centered care that other labs often donโt.
The main laboratory opened in Sun City in 2005 and grew from about 1,000 square feet to a 15,000-sq.-ft. facility.
โWe went from serving a few local clients to more than 300, in addition to the individual patients who use our two diagnostic centers daily for their prescribed lab tests,โ says Briggs.
Sun Laboratory Services is a full-service clinical laboratory that partners with businesses and organizations to provide onsite phlebotomy services (phlebotomy is the act of drawing or removing blood in order to obtain a sample for analysis and diagnosis) and lab results. Sun Laboratory-trained technicians visit hundreds of assisted living and skilled nursing Continue reading