Luis Viera lives in New Tampa and his son attends school here. Now, the Hunterâs Green resident and Tampa attorney says he may be interested in representing New Tampa on the Tampa City Council.
Viera told the Neighborhood News that he is exploring whether or not to challenge for the District 7 seat currently held by Lisa Montelione.
Since Montelione has filed to challenge Shawn Harrison in the House District 63 race (see pg. 8), state law requires that she resign and vacate her council seat by Election Day (November 8, 2016). Tampa will hold a special election to replace her.
In the meantime, Viera is on a fact-finding mission to decide whether or not to pursue a job that he admits intrigues him.
âIts a really unique seat,ââ says Viera, an attorney with Ogden & Sullivan, P.A., a civil trial practice firm in Tampa. âItâs the only seat for the City of Tampa that represents North (and New) Tampa. Iâm lifelong from this area. I grew up in Temple Terrace, right next door, and have lived in New Tampa for the last 10 years or so. My son goes to school at Lawton Chiles Elementary. Iâm a stakeholder in this area.â
Viera has no timetable for declaring his candidacy for the cityâs nonpartisan elections, and is hoping to line up bipartisan support before doing so, even though he canât run as a Republican or Democrat.
Having lived in New Tampa during the seemingly endless construction work on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., Viera says one of the main issues he would tackle would be transportation.
âIâm not saying that by getting on Council and making efforts its going to be a panacea, a heal all. Itâs not,ââ Viera admits. âBut, you can certainly make targeted (transportation) investments that I think will make things better.â
Some other issues mentioned by Viera include strengthening the link between North and New Tampa, fighting for more assistance for the cityâs police and fire departments and ensuring that New Tampa gets its fair share of the cityâs tax pie.
Viera helped found and is the President of the Lawyers Autism Awareness Foundation, which has raised roughly $40,000 for children with autism and other developmental disabilities, and does an annual âSensory Friendly Santaâ event for children with autism and other developmental disabilities.
He has served on the Board of Tampa Bay Best Buddies (2011-15), is presently the chair of the City of Tampaâs Civil Service Board (which hears the appeals of city workers who have been terminated or disciplined and wish to appeal). He also is the incoming president of the Tampa Hispanic Bar Association.
âIâve always been involved in civic issues and always had an interest in politics,ââ Viera said. â(Running for City Council) would be an extension of that.â
Wesley Chapel artist Alan Metzger didnât sell any of his original art all weekend, but when he packed up Sunday at the conclusion of the 11th annual Suncoast Arts Festival (SAF) at the Shops at Wiregrass mall, he did so with plans to return.
âI thought it was a real good event,ââ said Metzger, who did sell 20-40 prints of his work, including a commemorative poster for the International Polo Club of Palm Beach for which Metzger won an award and some acclaim. âThe (SAF) event was really well run, and I was impressed.â
The SAF, held on Paseo Dr. down the heart of the mall the weekend of Jan. 16-17, got a perfect day of weather on Saturday for its biggest crowds, and then survived a major overnight storm to once again pull off a successful event.
Artists came to the area from places like Satsuma, FL, Aurora, CO, and Eastham, MA, selling all kinds of fine art, jewelry and other crafts.
âIâm really pleased with how everything went,ââ said Jennifer Douglas, who owns Jennifer Lee Events, which managed this yearâs SAF. âEven the bad weather (early Sunday morning) did very minimal damage. The skies cleared just in time for another gorgeous day.â
Proceeds from the festival are donated to Pasco County schools through the Fine Arts of the Suncoastâs grant program.
Eleven grants were awarded Sunday to Pasco County art students, including Wiregrass Ranchâs Darcy Fermin.
Fermin was awarded the grant so the school could work with its printing press to making etchings and linoleum carvings and create one-of-a-kind prints. Students there are researching the pros and cons of different printing press art.
Douglas said that while she wouldnât have official attendance figures for a few weeks, in recent years the event has drawn roughly 100,000 visitors over the course of the weekend and this yearâs crowds were similar to those in the past.
The festival had a free, hands-on art garden and art âmakerspace,â where kids could create their own works of art. In front of the Dillardâs at the mall, sidewalk artists used chalk to create drawings of colorful frogs, a large octopus, a 3-D rendition of BB-8 (the droid from the latest âStar Warsâ movie) and others.
This also was the first year the street art was a commissioned exhibit, which was sponsored by Tampa Bay Business for Culture & the Arts.
Metzger said the rough overnight weather did scatter the tent and some of the artwork of one of the artists across from him, but the festivalâs staff did a great job of retrieving the tent and art and restoring it to its proper place.
Some artists did choose to leave before the bad weather arrived on Sunday to be safe, Lee said, because their art was more delicate, but she also noted that there was a total of 125 booths set up by artists and sponsors, and 116 confirmed artists, as well as seven sidewalk chalk artists, and that business was as brisk on Sunday as it was the day before.
On the main stage across from Macyâs, De Leiâed Parrots (photo on next page) provided musical entertainment on Saturday and the popular Florida-based band the Black Honkeys played on Sunday.
The 2016 SAFâs Best of Show Award went to Maitland, FL artist Rolly Ray Reel, who has been exhibiting at art festivals all across the country for 45 years and has appeared at this event before. His booth featured mixed media pieces that toed the line between painting and sculpture, incorporating found items like chains, stones and metal with acrylic and oils into some very interesting art that caught the eyes of many those passing by.
Dr. Navdeep Jassal, M.D. (left) and Dr. Maulik Bhalani M.D.
Dr. Maulik Bhalani M.D. knows that when people hear of pain clinics, some think of the so-called âpill mills.â He understands that after years of headlines about abuse of certain pain medications, particularly in Florida, the reputation is tough to shake.
But, at Dr. Bhalaniâs Florida Pain Medicine on Windguard Cir. (across from Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, or FHWC, where he moved in May from his former location on Ashley Oaks Cir. in Seven Oaks), he says the perceptions are not even close to reality.
âThe typical working class person doesnât want to see a pain management doctor because they think that doctor is going to get them hooked on medication,ââ says Dr. Bhalani. âLittle old ladies, grandmothers, will come in and tell us…I know those stories that are out there on the news. But, when they come in here, from minute one, itâs a totally difference experience.â
The office is clean and lively, the doctors are open and friendly and the approach to managing your pain, which employs the latest technological advances, is always, they say, measured and restrained, yet effective.
âThereâs not a bunch of guys outside in the parking lot smoking, looking disheveled, looking for pain meds,ââ Dr. Bhalani says. âThatâs not the kind of practice we are.â
The kind of practice Florida Pain Medicine is, Dr. Bhalani says, is one that focuses on interventional pain management. âStart-to-finish pain care,ââ he says.
Sometimes, in the best cases, that means opioid management, ice and injections until the patient can complete physical therapy.
âThen, we wean them off pain meds, hopefully with the goal of we never see them again, which means they are doing great and back to living their life,ââ Dr. Bhalani says.
Florida Pain Medicine also offers Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) and ultrasound therapy.
In other cases, like patients with terminal cancer, Dr. Bhalani says his goal is not to let them live out their last days in misery.
Whatever the malady, âWe never force anything on anyone,ââ Dr. Bhalani says.
Pain management means different treatments for different people. Every patient is unique, but the main goal for Dr. Bhalani and his associate at Florida Pain Medicine, Dr. Navdeep Jassal, M.D., is to help their patients return to a normal way of life. Their motto is âRestore Function, Relive Life.â
âWe want to get you back to where you can live your life the way you like living it,â Dr. Bhalani says.
A Little Info About The Doctors
Dr. Bhalani, a huge local sports fan and 10-year Tampa Bay Buccaneers season ticket holder who dons a Jameis Winston jersey for home games, has followed in the footsteps of his father, who is a pain medicine doctor in the Ormond Beach area of Florida, as well as several of his uncles and aunts.
In fact, Dr. Bhalani is one of 13 cousins in his family â and all are physicians.
âWe donât know how to do anything else,ââ he says, chuckling and joking that he might raise his kids, who are ages 3, 1 and 10 months old, to be NFL punters.
Dr. Bhalani received his M.D. degree from the Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, NE. He also spent two years as a resident at Maryland General Hospital in Baltimore in 2005; was the chief resident at the University of South Floridaâs Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Residency Program; and completed an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Pain Medicine Fellowship in Interventional Pain Medicine at USF in 2010. He is Board-certified in Interventional Pain Medicine and in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.
Dr. Bhalaniâs credentials also include sitting on the Board of the Florida Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (FSIPP) as a Director-at-Large, and he is proud of the work the FSIPP did in helping craft the so-called âPill Mill Billâ in 2011, which forced clinics to register with the state and banned doctors from dispensing opioid prescription painkillers like Vicodin and Oxycodone from their offices. The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program also was implemented, which Drs. Bhalani and Jassal reference to look at a patientâs prescription drug history.
Dr. Jassal says he heard about all the âwild wild west storiesâ about Floridaâs pill mills when he was studying in New York.
âI didnât believe it until I came down here,ââ he says. âBut, itâs improved dramatically (since 2011), thanks to the efforts of Dr. Bhalani and others.â
A car enthusiast and avid runner who sometimes puts in 15 miles on a weekend as a way to relax, Dr. Jassal joined Dr. Bhalani in July after completing a Pain Medicine Fellowship at USF, where he was a student of Dr. Bhalaniâs. Before that, he was a resident at North Shore-Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health Systems and Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine in Great Neck, NY.
Most patients Drs. Bhalani and Jassal see are what you might expect â those suffering from back, neck and joint pain. Others have more serious conditions, like poor recovery from back surgery, painful diabetes and even cancer. Each treatment plan varies.
The doctors at Florida Pain Medicine say they prefer a conservative approach. Patients generally will not be prescribed any controlled pain medications on the first visit. The doctors are careful to give a full exam â surprising to patients who have been to other pain medicine doctors â and look over X-rays and other images and notes from the referring doctor. as well as run a urine drug screen.
Dr. Bhalani said he and Dr. Jassal will sometimes suggest a smaller dose of medicine than the patient is currently taking. Others are often offered alternatives to stronger prescription drugs, like local anaesthetic injections (epidurals, for example), anti-inflammatory drugs, physical therapy or even weight loss to relieve pain.
âIf that doesnât work, weâll use more aggressive measures,ââ Dr. Bhalani said. âWe really try to be kind of conservative initially.â
Dr. Jassal says that since joining Florida Pain Medicine in July, he has seen as many patients in six months as he expected to see in nine months or a year. On average, Drs. Bhalani and Jassal see 25-27 patients a day, a number they think is perfect to give them time to give each patient individualized care.
Business has been so good that Dr. Bhalani, who opened his second Florida Pain Medicine on Arbor Ridge Dr. in Zephyrhills on Nov. 16, says he hopes to open another this summer or in early 2007, in Brandon.
The expansion speaks to the popularity of the doctors and the officeâs friendly, comfortable environment cultivated by Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP) Louann Brown and office manager Stacye Ciegler.
Dr. Jassal thinks the officeâs reputation, which includes strong relationships with local pharmacists and doctors, comes from the way the patients are cared for at Florida Pain Medicine. Dr. Bhalani says he recommends for his patients the same things he would for his own parents: âLiterally, that is how we treat every single patient,â he says proudly.
A soft, personal touch and firm recommendations are something Dr. Jassal thinks patients appreciative. Sometimes, an injection, which can relieve pain for months, is suggested instead of a prescription. âSometimes, they are like wow, I wish someone had recommended this 4-5 years ago.â
Dr. Bhalani says he recently treated a 90-year-old patient who told him, âWell, Doc, if this works as good as the last one, thatâd be great,â to which Dr. Bhalani replied, âOh, the last one helped you?,â and the patient told him that was the reason he hadnât been back for seven months. âAnd Iâve been golfing the whole time!,â he said.
Not to be outdone, Dr. Jassal has a 97-year old patient who receives periodic injections, which he says, âkeeps her happiness, and her happiness is dancing with her son,ââ
Most of the officeâs business, Dr. Bhalani says, comes from referrals. He thinks he treats as many local physicians and their family members as anyone in the area.
Dr. Bhalani can do procedures at Florida Hospital Zephyrhills, where he is the director of the Intervention & Pain Program, and at New Tampa Surgery Center on Cypress Ridge Blvd.
However, state-of-the-art pain management procedures are often performed in his Wesley Chapel office, as opposed to the hospital or at ambulatory surgery centers, which helps save patients money.
âThe whole spectrum of care gives us flexibility,ââ says Dr. Bhalani.
 To reach either the Wesley Chapel Florida Pain Medicine office (at 2553 Windguard Cir.) or the Zephyrhillsâ location (38011 Arbor Ridge Dr.), call 388-2948.
Itâs still another week before district basketball tournaments heat up for area teams, but any suspense about who might be the Class 7A, District 8 top seed was quickly quashed coming out of Christmas break.
Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) opened the new year with consecutive victories over what was expected to be its stiffest competition â Freedom, Plant and Steinbrenner — to clinch the top seed for the 7A-8 tournament starting Jan. 26 at Plant. WRH, now 20-2 on the season heading into tonight’s game at Tampa Catholic, will play Leto in the quarterfinals.
The day before, the WRH girls completed the regular season sweep of secondÂ-seeded Plant, doing so with star player Trakyra Kidd in foul trouble. Kidd got into foul trouble in the first half, and had to sit out for much of the second.
Without Kidd, the Bulls ended the third period on a 6-Â0 run. When Kidd returned in the fourth, the Bulls put Plant away 63Â-50.
“That win was a big moment for us moving forward,” WRH head coach John Gant said. “It was concrete that we saw when she (Kidd) wasn’t on the floor that we were not going to fold our tent, that we can play and play well without her.”
WRH coach John Gant
The Bulls and Kidd would follow up that performance the next night on the road against the Patriots. While Freedom kept the game close through the third period, Kidd went off in the fourth, scoring 12 of her 24 points and hitting all six of her free throws, making her 10-Âfor-Â10 from the charity stripe on the night. The Bulls prevailed 49-Â43 and clinched the top spot in 7A-8, and two days beat Steinbrenner 54-42.
The Bulls host Sickles Friday in a 7A-8 contest.
Gant and Kidd lead one of the better girls basketball teams in the area. The Bulls have dropped only two games this season — a two-point loss to Seffner Christian in the season opener and a oneÂ-point loss to Palm Beach Gardens at the Florida Prospects Tournament in Orlando.
Three points are all that separates the Bulls from an unblemished record. Kidd has been a driving force in that endeavor.
“She has a mentality that she will not be stopped,” Gant said. “She has a nose for the goal and when you have lightning quickness and someone tries to stop you, it’s very difficult.
“She is one of the top two athletes in the area. This season, her maturity and her basketball intelligence have combined extremely well. She’s a coach’s dream. She makes me look good when the ball’s in her hands.”
Kidd is averaging just over 16.1 points per game, after scoring 9.8 last year. She also averages 6.4 rebounds, 5.5 steals and 4.3 assists a game.
Kidd has lots of help from a well-balanced WRH team.
Stephanie Brower
Junior forward Stephanie Brower, who is averaging 10.7 points and 8.8 rebounds a game, is one of the team’s most potent inside threats.
“She (Brower) is the secondÂ-best athlete on the team and plays tremendous defense,” Gant said. “She has great basketball intelligence and she’s one of the key leaders when TK (Kidd) is out.”
Junior guard Melissa Gordon is the team’s deep threat. Gordon has nailed 29 of the team’s 41 three-Âpointers this season and presents a great second option to Kidd.
“She (Gordon) has been hitting key shots for us this year,” Gant said. “She’s very difficult to guard.”
Sophomore guard Alexis Boldon and junior forward Nicole Carey are additional threats.
“Boldon has that wiry, won’t Âquit attitude,â Gant says. âShe’s one that always has the motor running and can help handle the ballâŠand she plays well inside.”
Junior guard Brooke Preiser comes off the bench and averages more than four points a game. Senior forward Alima James adds some more force inside with rebounding and blocked shots.
As the district playoffs loom, the Bulls have an extra layer of confidence knowing they can keep the train on the rails even without Kidd.
“The Plant game made me happy because I could see that even if I get in foul trouble, we’ll be more confident knowing the team can handle it,” Kidd said.
Sabrina Mize was watching her 8-year-old son Dylan jumping on a trampoline in a friendâs backyard in Quail Hollow before he jumped off to chase a ball barefoot through the grass.
A few seconds later, he was running towards her.
âMom, I got bit by a snake,ââ he told her.
Sabrina didnât believe it at first.
âDid he just say what I thought he said?,ââ she thought.
Sure enough, upon further inspection, Dylanâs left ankle had two small, but very defined, puncture marks.
While Dylan had snake venom in his veins, Sabrina must have had ice water running through hers.
After getting some ice for his foot, she went hunting for the snake, hoping to identify it and praying it wasnât poisonous. About a foot-and-a-half long, she found it where her son had likely stepped on it, prompting the bite. She inched closer, within ten feet or so, and snapped a quick picture of the red-and-orange-colored snake on her cell phone before returning to her son.
All the while, she stayed calm, cool and collected.
âBecause my son was calm, I was calm,ââ Sabrina says. âHe was upset when I went to go find the snake, but that was really it.â
Sabrina sent the picture to a friend, asking if she knew what kind of a snake it was. Thatâs when Facebook sprung into action.
Shortly after her friend took the photo and posted it on the more-than- 8,000-member-strong Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page, local animal specialist Chris Wirt (we featured him in our issue dated October 24, 2015) received a message on his cellphone. He had been tagged in the Facebook post.
There is a friendly, running joke on the Facebook page about snakes and Wirt, the former Wesley Chapel resident who owns A All Animal Control of Tampa Bay. It seems like at least once a week, someone in the Wesley Chapel Community is tagging him and hoping he can identity some creature that has camped out on someoneâs porch or driveway to help determine the level of danger to the homeâs inhabitants and pets.
And, it doesnât just happen on the Wesley Chapel Community page. Wirt estimates that he receives five requests a day calling on his expertise with all kinds of critters from across the Bay area.
In this case, Wirt knew the snakebite was nothing to trifle with â he replied that Dylan had been bitten by a cottonmouth, a highly venomous type of water moccasin.
Sabrina already was at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC) when she received the news, about an hour after Dylan had been bit. Dylan was then transported to Florida Hospital Tampa because it has inpatient pediatric beds (FHWC does not). There, he was treated with anti-venin to combat the dangerous bite.
Sometimes, anti-venin isnât necessary, even when the victim is bitten by a venomous snake. According to the Tampa Poison Center website, 25 percent of snakebites are âdry bites,â where no venom is introduced to the body.
In Dylanâs case, the swelling had worsened, and had moved up his leg and was now creeping up the back of his calf. Sabrina said the bottom half of his leg âblew up so much you couldnât touch the skin; it was so tight and so hard.â
Dylan received a treatment of antivenin at 8 p.m. His body reacted well to it, so he received two more treatments over the next twelve hours.
Sometimes, like in the case of Hope Allen, the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce president, more drastic measures are required. In 2014, Allen was bitten by a pygmy rattlesnake â which Wirt says is the most common snake he comes across in Wesley Chapel â and required 18 vials of anti-venin and a five-day stay at FHWC, including two in the Intensive Care Unit.
â(Dylan) might have only gotten a little tiny bite of the venom,ââ Wirt said. âBut if you donât pay attention to whatâs going on and keep running around or whatever, it could start eating away at the muscle or nerveâŠand it could absolutely be fatal. The 5-to-6 deaths we see every year, though, are usually because the people bit are someplace where they canât get medical care.â
After two days in the hospital, Tampa Poison Control cleared the Veterans Elementary second-grader for a Wednesday release. The hospital kept him an additional night, just to be safe.
Sabrina said Dylan, who returned to school last week and is now off crutches, was probably more upset about the extra night in the hospital than he was about getting bitten by the cottonmouth.
On Thursday, Dylan was cleared by his doctors and left the hospital in a wheelchair.
The next day, he was back at the same friendâs house, whose yard had been cleared and treated for free by Wirt. Dylan spent most of New Yearâs Eve sitting in a chair with his leg elevated, holding a stick wrapped in the skin of the snake that bit him, compliments of a neighbor who had killed it.
Wirt is currently offering his snake service for $175 (it normally costs $250), which includes clearing the yard of any snake dens or nests and treating the perimeter of the yard and the house. He can be reached at tampa@aallanimalcontrol, or visit AAllAnimalControl.com/tampa.
