Tampa City Council member Luis Viera (center, pink shirt) meets with Tampa Palms-area residents who are concerned about a new apartment complex slated to be built near their homes in the TPOST CDD/Tampa Palms Area 3.
More apartments are coming to the Tampa Palms area, and Kevin Hawley knows there is little he can do to stop them.
But, the Tuscany at Tampa Palms Homeowners Association (HOA) president is still going to try.
On Oct. 28, he organized a meeting โ socially distant, of course โ in a cul-de-sac in Tuscany in the hopes of formulating a plan to convince developer Warren Kinsler of New Tampa Inc. to not build 400 apartment units at 7970 Tampa Palms Blvd., just west and across the street from the Emerald Pointe Townhomes.
However, New Tampa Inc., which bought the property in the Tampa Palms Open Space & Transportation (TPOST Community Development District in 1994, already has the entitlements to build them, going back to 1985, when the property was first annexed into the city.
Still, Hawleyโs meeting, which included Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera (who represents District 7, which includes most of New Tampa) and various HOA board members from neighboring communities Chelsea, Buckingham and Stafford, stirred the debate. Hawley said more than 30 residents attended.
โOur concern is that it (the apartments) will have a negative impact on Tampa Palms Elementary, which is already beyond capacity, and a negative impact on traffic, where we already have problems on Tampa Palms Blvd.โ Hawley says. โThere also is concern about the possible impact on property values, and some also voiced concerns about environmental impacts.โ
A City of Tampa Variance Review Board meeting for the property had been scheduled for Oct. 13, creating the stir. However, that meeting did not need to be held because the planned development has an allowance for 40 percent tree retention, and โthey actually have 50 percent retention,โ according to Abbye Feeley, the Director of Tampaโs Development & Growth Management Department (formerly known as the Planning and Development department).
โThe notices (for the variance meeting) went out prematurely,โ she added.
Feeley said the area has already gone through the first round review to ensure that it is compliant with all of the codes that govern it, and the city is waiting for the developersโ resubmission. Feeley says little can be done to stop Kinsler from building the apartments.
โUnfortunately, the builders of these villages (like Tuscany, Chelsea and Buckingham) never properly briefed their buyers about the developerโs rights and plans for the whole area,โ said Maggie Wilson, the vice-president of the Tampa Palms Owners Association (TPOA).
The TPOA represents the owners and residents of 3,000 single family homes and 1,500 apartments in Tampa Palms. TPOST 3, which was once part of the Tampa Palms DRI before being purchased by Kinsler, already has more than 1,000 homes in its various villages and apartment communities.
When asked by Hawley to join him in opposing the apartment project, the TPOA declined.
โThey are the big dog,โ Hawley says of the TPOA. โI reached out to them, and they said this has been zoned this way for a long time and they decided as a board not to oppose it,โ says Hawley, a USF faculty member and Tampa Palms resident for 18 years.
With no way to stop the project, Hawley is hoping for at least some traffic mitigation from the developer, or some way to โsoften the impact.โ
Hawley doesnโt think that entitlements and plans developed two decades ago necessarily still make sense today, and would like to see other things considered for the property that better meet the needs of the area.
He even has his own suggestion โ instead of yet another apartment complex, why not build something for older residents in their 60s and 70s? โThat way, there will be less impact on the schools,โ he says, โbut it would still bring in more residents to support local businesses and restaurants.โ
Viera said he will meet with Hawley and the residents in a few weeks, and intends on bringing some planning officials from the city to also participate.
Wharton cornerback Fred Jolly has been one of the top players this season on the Wildcatsโ fearsome defense. (Photo: Alyssa Cason).
Prior to Wharton Highโs game against Plant on Oct. 23, first-year head coach Mike Williams was about the only person around the Wildcatsโ football program who could remember the last time Wharton beat the Panthers.
But thatโs only because he played in that game, for Plant, which suffered a 15-14 loss on that night โ way back in 2000.
Well, it doesnโt take such a long memory to remember such things anymore, because Wharton beat Williamsโ alma mater 10-0 โ even more impressive considering that Plant had scored 40 or more points in the last five games between the teams.
The win improved Whartonโs record to 6-0 on the season, its best start since going 7-0 in 2006. It can match that start tonight with a win over Durant at Wharton.
โWe expected to have a good season, but maybe not to this extent,โ says Williams, a former college All-American wide receiver at Southern Cal and first-round NFL draft pick of Detroit. โI knew we had some good players, and some good size, but we also had a bunch of young players competing for the first time.โ
Another thing Williams knew โ his defense was going to be nasty. And it has been.
The Wildcats have only allowed 23 points in six games. Only one team โ Alonso โ has scored a touchdown against Wharton, getting two while losing 44-17 to the Wildcats. Wharton has shut out Freedom 50-0, King 14-0, and Plant.
While the offense is still rounding into shape, the โCats have been truly dominant on the other side of the ball.
Junior linebacker Henry Griffith leads the team with 56 tackles, including nine for a loss of yards, and Booker Pickett Jr. has 50 tackles. Only a freshman, Pickett Jr. is already 6โ-4โ, 200 pounds โ โHeโs a monster,โ Williams says โ and shares the same on-field ferocity as his father, a former University of Miami linebacker.
Junior linebacker Daveon Crouch, arguably the teamโs best overall player and a Division I prospect, has a team-high nine sacks and regularly delivers a wallop, forcing six fumbles.
And, if you can bypass the linebackers, the Wildcatsโ defensive backfield will be waiting for you.
โWe have elite cover guys,โ Williams says. โIn my book, we have the best secondary in the county that nobody is talking about.โ
Junior cornerback Jairon Dorsey leads the team with four interceptions, and has returned two of them for touchdowns. Junior Fred Jolly has eight passes defended and returned a punt blocked by Pickett Jr. for a TD with five minutes left to beat Palm Harbor University 7-3.
Williams says Junior Jason Cornwell, who returned his only interception this season 70 yards for a score, and senior Markell Dominique are primetime players as well.
Wharton, which had its Oct. 30 game against Steinbrenner canceled due to Covid-19 issues related to the Warriors, will wrap up the regular season tonight, then will host Riverview in the first round of the Class 8A playoffs on Nov. 13.
Williams hopes his offense, directed by quarterback Emery Floyd, and the 1-2 punch of running backs Keith Morris and Johnny Cason, is clicking by then. Along with the defense, he thinks something special might be brewing off Bruce B. Downs Blvd.
โEven though the program may have been up and down, Coach Mitchell really had a group that wasnโt afraid to work hard, wasnโt afraid to be in the weight room,โ Williams says. โHe had good things going. Weโre going to keep it going.โ
When Mitch Thrower and Jessica Vaughn decided to run for the Hillsborough County School Board, things were a little bit different than they are now.
In fact, the job they are both vying for โ the District 3 seat that includes all of New Tampaโs public schools โ suddenly looks a lot harder than it once did.
In the past six months, Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on the school system, and the schoolโs budget situation has gone from bad to worse to downright terrible.
โI completely agree itโs become a tougher job,โ says Thrower, the former chairman of the Hillsborough County Planning Commission (he resigned in June). โThere are some very tough decisions that are going to need to be made.โ
Vaughn, a Tampa Palms resident and substitute teacher who was elected to the Tampa Palms Community Development District (CDD) Board in 2016, doesnโt disagree. In fact, when it comes to discussing the biggest issues facing schools in the upcoming months, they both agree the budget and keeping schools safe โ primarily from Covid-19 โ are easily the top two issues of the campaign.
Thrower, a Carrollwood resident, was the top finisher among six candidates in the August primary, capturing 25% of the vote, while Vaughn was second with 24.5%. The difference between the two was a mere 296 votes out of 42,950 votes cast.
Now that just these two candidates remain, both feel voters will be able to draw a clearer distinction between them. The early voting period is October 19 through November 1, with Election Day scheduled for Tuesday, November 3.
Jessica Vaughn, and husband Nilesh and son Zachariah.
When it comes to fixing the $32-million shortfall in the Districtโs budget โ much of it due to the continued loss of students due to home schooling and charter schools โ a lot of belt-tightening, including potential layoffs and program cuts, is in the future for the county.
Vaughn, who has a Bachelor of Science in Education degree from the University of South Florida, says the School District needs to stem the loss of students, and an evaluation to find out why more students are choosing charter schools โ and how public schools can retain those students โ is vital.
โWhy arenโt they choosing our public schools? That is the question that needs to be answered,โ she says. โWe need to fix that.โ
Vaughn, who has been endorsed by the Tampa Bay Times, also says the county needs to look for alternative sources of revenue, and make sure the money it does have is being spent wisely on items like administrative salaries and contracts with vendors.
Mitch Thrower with Ally (pink bandana) and Ruby.
Thrower, who started his professional career auditing school boards at the State of Florida Auditor Generalโs office, thinks it is time for tough questions for those controlling the Districtโs purse strings.
โI think my business experience is needed at this time,โ he says. โI can go in there as an auditor and I know what questions to ask. When it to comes to experience, honestly, thereโs no comparison.โ
Thrower is a Certified Public Accountant and certified internal auditor, and he holds a Bachelor of Science in Management degree from Tulane University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Florida State University.
When it to comes to school safety, both candidates are in favor of mandating masks in schools to deal with the spread of Covid-19, say teacher safety is a priority and approve of the other safety precautions being taken by the District.
Both candidates said the School Boardโs handling of the return to school in August, arguably one of the most important discussions it has had to make in recent memory, could have been smoother. Thrower says he will bring more communication to the position, which he thought was lacking during the controversial re-opening discussions. He also felt the School Board wasnโt โproactive and creative enough.โ
Meanwhile, Vaughn said she was extremely frustrated watching the School Board meetings, particularly the lack of planning. She said she was advocating in March and April for a plan in case the pandemic stretched into the fall, including the creation of e-Learning centers to accommodate parents who needed to return to work and didnโt have childcare.
โNothing would have been perfect,โ she says. โYou canโt mitigate a pandemic perfectly. But, I would like the School Board to be more realistic and proactive about our challenges and less reactive. It undermines public confidence in the Board.โ
Both candidates, who have children in public schools, say charter schools have a place in education. Thrower says charter schools provide options, โbut they should be held accountable just like public schools.โ
Vaughn says she is fine with not-for-profit charter schools, except when they hire for-profit management companies.
โAt the end of the day, all parents really want the same thing,โ Vaughn says. โThey want a safe environment thatโs close by, that is free, that nurtures and respects their students and offers them a good education. And, I want to see that happen in our public schools.โ
Overall, Thrower had raised $58,500 but only had $6,500 cash on hand at our press time, while Vaughn had brought in $45,127, but still had nearly $28,000 cash on hand.
Vaughn has criticized Thrower for taking more than $12,000 from developers while he was chairman of the Hillsborough Planning Commission, which examines and weighs in on development projects for the county commission.
Thrower resigned from that position in June, to avoid any charges of impropriety.
Thrower says he is running a non-partisan campaign built on his experience and not as an activist. Since the primary, Vaughn has outraised Thrower $18,940 to $4,725, thanks to $12,000 in donations from the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee.
The rumors that have been circulating the past 18 month of popular electronics retailer Best Buy closing its New Tampa location have turned out to be true.
The store, located in The Walk at Highwoods Preserve off of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. between the HomeGoods and Michaels store, has that announced it is shutting down on Oct. 31. The announcement points customers to the nearest locations in Brandon and Wesley Chapel (in The Grove).
The store has already begun the moving process. Many of the aisles in the New Tampa Best Buy have empty shelves and are blocked off, while some aisles are selling open box items at a 15-20 percent discount.
It is unclear if the effects of Covid-19 had a hand in the closing, although it had been rumored before the pandemic that the big box electronics giant’s New Tampa location had been struggling.
According to a recent report by CNN, Best Buy is at a disadvantage fighting companies like Amazon, Walmart, Target and Costco, because those others also sell food and other household essentials. Beat Buy is also facing higher costs when it comes with the rise in online orders. The CNN report says that “Best Buy’s gross profit rate fell 1.2 percentage points to 22.8% during the three months ending August 1, compared with the same period last year.”
The loss of Best Buy will leave a number of vacancies in the cross-section of BBD and around Highwoods Preserve Pkwy., such as the old Sweetbay grocery store (which has been vacant since 2013) and the former Romano’s Macaroni Grill restaurant (which has been closed since 2017, after two failed attempts after being revived as a Mexican restaurant) on the west side of BBD and the Pier 1 Importa (currently closing) on the east side.
The AMC Theater, which had to postpone a major renovation project and has been hit hard by Covid-19, and former Ruby Tuesday restaurant, which will be replaced by Aldi, are also on the east side on BBD.
Tyriq Outen honed his hockey skills while living in New Tampa, and is riding high after an MVP performance in a major invitational tournament this summer has him a little closer to his dream of playing goalie in the NHL. (Photo courtesy of the Outen family).
The first time Tyriq Outen skated on ice at the Brandonโs Ice Sports Forum, he was 4 years old and decided immediately he wanted to be a goalie.
A few weeks later, during his first lesson, his promising ice hockey career began…with his pads on backwards.
โThen, he fell behind the net and got his helmet caught in the net,โ recalls his father, Ronnie. โIt was a comedy of errors.โ
That imperfect start, however, soon gave way to success at nearly every level at which โTy,โ as his family calls him, has played since. He went from being entangled in the nets to starring in them, and from being a junior standout to a legitimate NHL draft prospect with a bright future ahead of him.
โI feel like this is where I belong,โ he says. โI fell in love with it right away.โ
Tyriq grew up in New Tampa, and attended Turner Bartels Middle School. While his friends played Little League baseball and basketball and soccer at the New Tampa YMCA, Tyriq was part of a small but budding hockey community.
He played for one of the best youth hockey teams in Florida, comprised of players from all over the state, but that meant lots of travel. He traveled by plane 2-3 times a month for big tournaments in the northeast and Canada, but mostly spent lots of time in the car with Ronnie driving all over the southeast.
Ronnie, the basketball director at the new Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, understood the lifestyle and demands for a high-caliber youth athlete. A former college basketball player who played professionally overseas, Ronnie understood it was all about exposure and training. When it was time to choose a high school, Ronnie and Tyriq moved to hockey-hotbed Boston and lived in an apartment.
โWhen we were in Boston, he was literally on the ice 5-6 days a week,โ he says. โNo knock on Florida, but there was a rink in every neighborhood. Imagine if Hunterโs Green had one, and Arbor Greene and Live Oak had one, if you had 5-6 rinks in this area, think of the pool of talent youโd have to draw from. Thatโs how it is up there. That is why the competition was so good.โ
First Stop โ Foxboro
Tyriq hooked up with the South Shore Kings in Foxboro, MA, and began to take off as a player. He had a 3.08 goals-against average (GAA) and a 90% save percentage in his two seasons.
At the age of 17, Tyriq made it onto the coveted NHL Central Scouting list as No. 19 among all North American goalie prospects. His athleticism, Ronnie says, is off the charts โ he can roll out of bed and dunk a basketball โ and his skating and stick skills are exceptional. Tyriqโs vision and game management continue to improve.
Toronto Maple Leafs development camp, June 30, 2018. Mark Blinch/Toronto Maple Leafs
Once a growth spurt got him to 6-feet, 3-inches, it completed the package, making him an enticing prospect at a position where taller, athletic goaltenders โ like the Tampa Bay Lightningโs Andre Vasilevskiy, who also is 6โ-3โ โseem to be the future.
In Boston, NHL scouts were watching every game. โIt definitely got the heart pumping,โ Tyriq says.
Although Ronnie had spent most of his life playing and coaching basketball, he had married Heather, a native Canadian, who came from a family of goalies.
Tyriq was born in Miramichi, New Brunswick, where his grandfather Hugh Moar โ Tyriq called him Grampy โ was in the townโs Hall of Fame and his uncles were accomplished junior goaltenders.
Ronnie jokes that basketball never had a chance. Which, he adds, was fine by him.
โIt wasnโt a disappointment at all,โ he says. โI didnโt want him growing up with anyone comparing him to me or anything like that. I was just happy that every time he came off the ice, whether after practice or a game, he had a smile, and five minutes into the drive home, he wanted to talk about the game.โ
Dealing With Adversity
After graduating high school in Boston, Tyriq had to choose between pursuing a Division I college career, or signing with a major junior hockey team, which would end his amateur status.
Tyriq with “Grampy”, Hugh Moar.
With a chance to sign with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), the former team of NHL stars like Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy and Roberto Luongo, and just an hour north from his birthplace, where his goalkeeping family had built a following, how could he resist?
It turned out to be the first speed bump in Tyriqโs career.
The QMJHL is one of three major junior ice hockey leagues that make up the Canadian Hockey League, along with the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and Western Hockey League (WHL). Acadie-Bathurst had loaded up the previous season to win the QMJHL Presidentโs Cup, and they captured the Memorial Cup against the winners from the OHL and WHL.
Tyriq says many of the players acquired to win the title in 2017-18 departed after that season. His new team won just eight games in 2018-19, and he finished with an 0-20 record, a 5.89 goals against average and faced nearly 1,000 shots in only 1,364 minutes. After a coaching change, Tyriq was released.
โThe fact that it was (so close to Miramichi) made it even worse,โ Ronnie says. โThe whole town was hurrah hurrah, the hometown boy is coming, everybody was happy for that to happen. So, it made it double the monkey on his back.โ
Ronnie worried about how Tyriq would handle his first-ever adversity. โI would be lying and he wouldnโt be human if I said it didnโt get him down.โ
Ronnie says he reached out to Tampa Bay Lightning goalkeeping coach Frantz Jean for some guidance, concerned his son might retire his pads. Jean, however, reassured Ronnie that Tyriq was still highly regarded, and that NHL scouts will be watching to see how he reacted to his adversity.
โThe ones that are successful come out the other side stronger,โ Ronnie remembers being told.
Getting Back In The Pads
Tyriq got back to work. Determined to come back even stronger, rather than give up, he doubled down on his efforts. When he was tired, he thought about Bathurst. When he didnโt want to work out, he thought about Bathurst.
โIโm already up,โ Tyriq would say as his dad walked into his room to wake him up early in the morning.
โThat showed me just how tough he really is,โ Ronnie says.
The Outen family โ (l.-r) Tyriq, Kiana, Heather and Ronnie โ has lived in Live Oak Preserve in New Tampa since 2006.ย
Tyriqโs bounceback started in Grand Falls, New Brunswick, in the Maritime Hockey League, a league below major junior. If playing near his hometown made the Bathurst experience more painful, then his first appearance at the Miramichi Civic Centre, against the hometown Timberwolves, offered some redemption โ he stopped 34 of 35 shots in a 6-1 win.
He went on to beat the Timberwolves two more times at the Civic Centre, and stopped 145 of 156 shots the hometown team fired at him over five games.
Covid-19 ended the 2019-20 season early, so Tyriq returned to New Tampa. He worked out with the Lightning before the team entered the bubble en route to the Stanley Cup. Tyriq continued to grind, ready for his next challenge, which came when he was chosen to play at the prestigious invite-only Beantown Summer Classic in August in Exeter, NH, where NHL scouts handle the coaching duties.
โHe was so proud of having some of the Lightning playersโ phone numbers in his phone,โ Ronnie says. โThat was pretty cool for him.โ
The NextGen MVP!
Tyriq was the only goalie invited to play for an all-minority team โ NextGen AAA Foundation, a nonprofit that offers mentoring to hockey programs in underserved communities.
NextGen, which is coached by NHL players Bryce Salvador and Mike Grier, steamrolled the competition at the annual Beantown Classic in Boston, and went undefeated to win the title. Tyriq was 4-0, and even added five assists โ a shockingly high number for a goalie but a tribute to his stick skills โ and was named the tournamentโs MVP.
โThat was a big deal for me,โ Tyriq says. โI feel like Iโm ready to do bigger things. It was a great experience.โ
Tyriq canโt return to Canada right now due to Covid, but was approached by a Calgary Flames scout at the Beantown Classic, who hooked him up the Maine Nordiques of the North American Hockey League. He left New Tampa last month to begin training, and the season began earlier this month.
In three games so far with Maine, Tyriq is 2-1 with a 2.94 goals-against-average and a .924 percent save percentage.
โHe was in a bad situation before, but heโs recalibrated now,โ Ronnie says. โThis is a good situation for him. Itโs going to be a good year. He is totally happy โ you can hear it in his voice. And, thatโs the best thing.โ
