Corley Says 2020 Vote Smoother Than Hoped


In an election season defined by partisan vitriol and hate, Danny Burgess tries a little kissing (of his wife Courtney, of course) to woo a voter or two. 

Despite worries nationwide about the voting process in 2020, due to taking place in the middle of a pandemic and concerns raised by President Trump about the validity of mail-in votes, Pasco’s Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley said the county’s efforts this past election were about as smooth as could be.

“Overall, it exceeded my wildest expectations,” Corley said. 

Roughly 304,000 votes were cast in Pasco County, including 302,621 votes for president. President Donald Trump received 179,621 votes, or 59.4 percent, while President-elect Joe Biden received 119,073, or 39.4 percent.

Nationally, however, Biden defeated Trump by more than six million votes and in the Electoral College 306-232.

The 304,000 votes cast in Pasco represented 78 percent of the eligible voters, far exceeding 2016’s totals of 244,950 ballots cast and a 73-percent turnout.

Despite the record-setting numbers, Corley said the ability to secure six gymnasiums countywide for early voting and the influx of mail-in votes prevented some of the 3-4 hour long waits in line he feared beforehand.

In fact, only 65,000 votes (21% of all ballots cast) were cast on Nov. 3. Twice that number, 113,000, were cast during early voting, and more than 121,000 were mail-in votes, compared to 68,178 in 2016.

“The mail-in votes were a great safety valve and allowed for the in-person voting to be less crowded,” Corley said.

Corley added that mail-in voting has been growing in popularity since Florida started it in 2002, “but this year it was on steroids because of the pandemic.”

Despite President Trump’s disinformation campaign against mail-in voting (except in Florida, where he said it was okay), Corley thinks the mail-in numbers will only grow in the future.

“It got politicized, and that is very unfortunate,” he said. 

Not surprisingly, Pasco County remained red, as Republican candidates went 9-0 in the vote, including Gus Bilirakis (U.S. Rep., Cong. Dist. 12), Danny Burgess (State Sen. Dist. 20), Randy Maggard (State Rep. Dist. 38), Superintendent of Schools Kurt Browning and County Commissioners Jack Mariano and Kathryn Starkey.

For complete Pasco County 2020 General Election results, visit PascoVotes.org. — JCC

Diverging Diamond Delay

The Diverging Diamond Interchange now under construction at the junction of S.R. 56 and I-75 is expected to alleviate the traffic issues at arguably Wesley Chapel’s most congested point. (Photo: Charmaine George)

Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) chairman Mike Moore has always taken great pride in his efforts to expedite the construction of the Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI) at the busy junction of I-75 and S.R. 56.

With help from state legislators, what was originally scheduled for a 2024 completion was moved up and expected to be finished by the fall of 2021.

However, that date is now very much in question, which has riled Moore, who represents District 2, which includes most of Wesley Chapel.

“It’s very, very disappointing,” he says.

Armed with letters from constituents and his own daily experience driving through the congestion at the under-construction interchange, Moore is disappointed to hear that the project — originally expected to cost $18.5 million but now carrying a $33-million price tag — could now drag on until the spring of 2022 or even later.

Which is why, when Moore drives by the project now and sees workers, well, not working, it makes him seethe.

His frustration was on full display at a BCC meeting last month, when Moore delivered a blistering attack on the company, D.A.B. Constructors, Inc., in charge of the project.

Moore said he recently drove through the interchange and took pictures of the general malaise happening. He said he saw two workers standing next to a truck doing nothing, and a second group of construction workers standing on a hill.

“On a project of that magnitude, those are the only people I saw working on a Monday, a sunny Monday, at 1:30 in the afternoon,” Moore said. “I think that’s insane, that’s ridiculous, that’s embarrassing.”

More than 100,000 vehicles pass through the interchange on a daily basis. The eagerly-anticipated DDI is designed to create fewer conflict points at the interchange, and despite looking like a confusing, diamond-shaped jumble of roads in pictures, Florida’s first Diverging Diamond Interchange (at Exit 210 of I-75, in Sarasota) has been lauded for being safer and more efficient than your traditional junctions. 

Businesses Are Unhappy, Too

The Wesley Chapel DDI will be Florida’s second, and Moore isn’t the only one disappointed that it is so far behind schedule. 

In September, the Cypress Creek Town Center Property Owners Association (POA) — which includes the Tampa Premium Outlets, Costco and more than 20 other businesses located west of the interchange, sent a letter to Moore and District 3 Commissioner Kathryn Starkey expressing concern about the progress of the interchange.

The POA, which said it has spent $25 million over the last 15 years “reconstructing and widening miles 

of highway in the State Road 54/56 corridor” to offset the additional traffic the Town Center attracts, said it reached out to the Florida Department of Transportation when it was becoming clear that the project was falling behind schedule.

It asked FDOT to accelerate the DDI during Covid-19, due to the reduction of traffic, but were told material deliveries had hindered the project and that D.A.B. Constructors “did not feel any substantial gains could be made.”

The POA wrote to Moore and Starkey that they were told the project was at least 200 days behind schedule — pushing the completion date to late summer of 2022.

“It’s very unfortunate that this is happening,” said Comm. Starkey, “but at least FDOT is doing as much as they can to push it along.”

Pasco County has no control over state road projects like the DDI, but Moore and Starkey both reached out to David Gwynn, the FDOT secretary for District 7, after receiving the letter from that group of angry businesses.

FDOT has taken efforts to remedy the situation, and could impose more penalties. Gwynn wrote back to Moore telling him if D.A.B. Constructors can’t meet the contracted end date, “liquidated damages, of $9,837 a day, will be assessed for every day that the contractor is late in completing the project.”

That means that for every month they are behind schedule, D.A.B. Constructors would incur a $300,000 fine.

Pasco’s BCC chair Mike Moore says D.A.B. Constructors “can’t handle it” when it comes to finishing the diverging diamond project on time.

The DDI construction kicked off in early 2019, and had an original schedule of 800 days, resulting in a finish date of April 2021. That did account for delays due to rain and holidays (though not for something like Covid-19, which did cause delays for materials for many area projects).

Gwynn wrote that in roughly 20 months, D.A.B. Constructors had been granted 99 days for weather, 34 days of holiday time and 30 days for unforeseen conditions. All told, that added 163 days to the contract, changing the end date to August 26, 2021.

“Ninety-nine rain days? I don’t how that is, but okay, I guess?,” Moore said. “I guess if it sprinkles outside they don’t work?”

Moore also found 34 days off for holidays “extreme.”

Moore wants to see FDOT come down hard on D.A.B. Constructors, including fines and heavy pressure. He went as far as to suggest D.A.B. “sub out every little piece of the project going forward
cut their losses, and get out.”

He doesn’t want the company used on any more projects in Pasco County, where it is currently working on 10 other projects, including the widening of State Roads 54 and 52.

“They have so many projects going on right now they can’t handle it,” Moore says.

Starkey worried that any further delays could impact the traffic for yet another holiday season in 2021, further hurting businesses in the S.R. 56 corridor.

We Have Moved Again, Thanks To All Of These Businesses!

When you stay in business for 27 years and have had to move more than one or two times, you definitely dread having to do it again.

Well, I will be celebrating my 27th anniversary of owning and publishing the New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News in a new location (more on exactly where that is below) in February, which will be our sixth office location in all that time.

I doubt that anybody can name all five of our previous office locations, but rather than make a contest out of it, I’ll tell you all of them at the end of this editorial. (if even I can remember them).

This would definitely have been the worst and hardest move, business or residence, of my entire life, if not for the help of several of the advertisers who appear in this publication and one Rotarian I greatly admire.

I don’t consider myself to be a “hoarder,” per se, but those of us in the news business are supposed to save records for at least a certain period of time and I may have taken that to something of an extreme in my nearly three decades of serving the same distribution areas.

In addition, there was a time when we would order many hundreds (500-600 or more) of extra copies of each issue, so that we could, by leaving copies around the community, provide more people with all of the information they couldn’t get anywhere else. But, not only did that never benefit the business financially, it left us with hundreds of extra copies of hundreds of issues of the paper. Do the math. That’s literally “crap-tons” of paper!

We started ordering and saving fewer extra copies a few years ago — and we’ve always thrown out/recycled hundreds of copies each year, but all I knew was that we couldn’t (and shouldn’t) take it all with us to our slightly smaller new office, located less than a half-mile west on S.R. 54 from the office we were leaving, both of which are very close to Saddlebrook Resort. 

Shred (360)Your Troubles Away!

So first, I called on Cam Caudle, a U.S. Army veteran and member of the Rotary Club of New Tampa (the club that has been meeting on Friday mornings at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club for almost as long as I’ve been in business). Cam also is a recent (2015) “Franchisee of the Year” of Shred360, an incredible mobile document destruction company.


So, whether you have years of no-longer-needed financial and other records that you want to safely dispose of, or thousands of copies of publications that you’ll never need (or both), Cam will send his mobile unit to your home or office and will shred all that paper, on-site which will then be recycled. (Note – The Neighborhood News is and always has been printed on 100% recycled paper, no matter which stock we’ve been using.)

In our case, Cam’s guy Ed (photo above) pulled the truck up to our office, and we dropped those thousands of copies into a rolling bin from our second floor stairs. The bin then got loaded into the truck (several times) and I was able to watch, on a small monitor, 27 years of my memories literally being torn to shreds…in a good way.

Got a large or small shredding job for Shred 360? Cam does some shredding events for charity throughout the year, but his prices are very fair and his people are as excellent at their jobs as Cam is funny. 

Call Cam at (813) 944-2223 or visit Shred360.com and tell him I sent you (and told you to watch his stand-up comedy debut. Really funny stuff, but not suitable for kids!)

Why Is This Hauler Smiling?

Next, I definitely needed a good junk guy to get rid of…well, everything that wasn’t coming to the new office that wasn’t able to be shredded.

And believe me, that was a lot of stuff. We had several old filing cabinets filled with old advertising agreements, office furniture that wasn’t going to be needed in the new office, a safe, and a whole lot more.

And, it just so happened that our old friend Don Smith — also known as The Happy Hauler — of Smith’s Clean-Up Service (top left photo) had just started back up advertising with us again. 

Don’s another hard-working man. I stuffed lots of large, contractor-sized bags of garbage and he carried those bags — and the aforementioned filing cabinets and other garbage — to his waiting trailer and loaded all of it by himself.

Don told me that when he receives items he believes will be useful to local charities — like The Children’s Home Foundation of Tampa or the Sunrise of Pasco Hospice — he’ll set those aside and drive them to the organizations. He told me our filing cabinets, the safe and some of the furniture might be useful to those charities. Best of all, he was done in less than an hour and his rates are extremely reasonable. 

So, for everything from single item pick-ups to yard waste, construction debris, small building tear-downs and yes, office (or home) clean-outs, call Don at Smith’s Clean-Up Service at (813) 727-6655. Be sure to tell him that Gary from the Neighborhood News sent you! 

Who’s Gonna Clean This Mess?

Another aspect of moving out of one office and into another is that the place you’re leaving has to be broom-clean and even though the place you’re moving to should also be broom clean, I wanted both offices to be as clean as possible. 

For our “move-out” clean-up, I chose the company that’s been cleaning our office at the last three or four of our locations and the last at least 10-15 years — D Ultra Cleaning Services.

My friends Eduardo and Deborah Ferreira of D Ultra have always been reliable and although some of their cleaning folks don’t speak much English, Eduardo and Deborah are both bilingual in English and Spanish and anytime I’ve had an issue over the years, they’ve always taken care of it right away. They’re good people who also do grout/ceramic cleaning, pressure washing, carpet and window cleaning and house and light commercial cleaning.

Call D Ultra Cleaning Services at (813) 758-9710 or visit DUltraCleaningService.com.

Because both jobs were so big and I had limited time to get them both done, I decided to let my other friend Celly De Freitas of Clean-it (at right in photo above, which was not taken at our new office, by the way) take on the job of getting our new office sparkling clean before we moved into it. 

Celly came with her outstanding crew and in less than two hours, made the new office ready for primetime — or at least for us moving in. 

Clean-it has other excellent references, is licensed and insured and also has been cleaning homes and offices in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel for nearly 20 years. Call (813) 505-0431 for a free quote today.

What I Really Need Is A Nerd!

I don’t know about your business, but our office has to have working computers and I still don’t know the difference between a server and a network and had no idea how to make sure we were able to safely move all of our desktop computers to the new office.

So, I called my friend Michael Varnadore, the owner of Nerds To Go Computer Service of New Tampa (photo top right), which has a brick-and-mortar location in the Pebble Creek Collection (behind KobĂ© Steakhouse; one of our former offices was in the same plaza). 

I have had a service agreement with the New Tampa Nerds to Go for over a year, but I never felt as fortunate to have it as I did as we got ready to move. Mike said to me, “Gary, this is why you hired us. We’ve got you covered.” and dispatched his newest Nerd, Derik Jenkins, to our old office a few days before our move. 

Derik came to see how things were connected to make sure that we could move the whole shebang safely, and when he came back, he got it disconnected, reconnected and up and running — and we literally never missed a beat.

If this kind of peace of mind is important to you, you should definitely visit Nerds To Go at 19651 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., Ste C-6, or call Mike’s awesome sidekick, Maxine, at (813) 321-1700 or visit NerdsToGo.com. Also, check out the ad in our latest issue for a great Black Friday special on an Acer Aspire TC-865 Desktop PC and other deals.

So, there you have it. Our new office is in the Westbrook Professional Park at 28949 S.R. 54, Wesley Chapel 33543. As soon as we get everything put away, we’ll host an Open House/party to show off our new digs. 

In the meantime, listed below are all five of our previous offices:

1. Gerry Mann Financial Building (11201 N. 56th St., Temple Terrace)

2. Palm Plaza (12108 N. 56th St., Tampa/Temple Terrace)

3. Pebble Creek Collection (19651 BBD Blvd., New Tampa)

4. Shoppes at Amberly (15345 Amberly Dr., Tampa Palms)

5. Brookside Prof. Park (29157 Chapel Park Dr., Suite B, Wesley Chapel)

Thanks again to all of our advertisers and friends who helped get us moved in quickly, cleanly and safely. 

DON’T PANIC!

Kristy Darragh

Scrolling through Kelsey Darragh’s popular YouTube channel, one thing is for certain — she has no filter.

Some of the titles and topics of her videos may make you blush (don’t ask), while others you will irresistibly click (we said don’t ask!), but Kelsey is both sassy and serious, and most often both at the same time.

However, you don’t have to dig deep into  her YouTube channel to find Darragh — a 2008 Freedom High graduate now living in a Los Angeles apartment with a view of the famous Hollywood sign — tackling more serious issues dealing with gay, lesbian and trans issues, being in an abusive relationship, battling chronic pain, getting sober and even living with mental illness.

Darragh, who proudly says she is a three-time college dropout — Auburn University, the New York Film Academy and Los Angeles City College — used her edgy sense of humor to burst onto the YouTube scene in 2010, and started working for Buzzfeed in 2015. One of her favorite videos was about being chained to her mother Kristy Darragh, well-known local realtor, for 24 hours. And, while mom may blush at some of the titles on her daughter’s YouTube page, Kristy has appeared in a few of Kelsey’s videos herself.

Kristy knew that Kelsey had struggled her entire life with anxiety, panic and depression. But, while she was at Buzzfeed, Kelsey bravely revealed it to the whole world, in video form of course. 

The reaction transformed her life, and her mission.

“My parents will tell you that I’m the most dramatic child that ever existed,” Kelsey says. “It’s no surprise that I’m using my voice for (both) entertainment and mental health activism. It was just kind of written in the stars for me.”

Kelsey Darragh’s first book is now available for presale and will be out for the holidays. Coming forward with her own mental health struggles has led to a career of helping others. We recently caught up with her to chat about making her life, well, an open book. 

NN: You’re an author! How surprised will the people you went to school with in New Tampa be when they see your first book?

KD: Never in a million years would anyone think I would write a book, especially a workbook about mental health. But I love books. I was obsessed with the language arts programs at Tampa Palms Elementary. I was always in that library. I can see it right now in my head, I knew every corner of that library. Definitely a book lover, but never in a milion years did I think I had anything important to say or any stories to write about that anyone would give a sh-t about until this book. I still can’t believe it.

NN: What spurred your interest in mental health?

KD: At Buzzfeed, we were going to post videos every day that pertain to mental health education (during mental health month) and make them entertaining so people didn’t roll their eyes at the science-y nature of what we were posting. In the brainstorm, I had the idea to tell my mental health journey through a video using stop motion effects and all of the props used in the video were replicas of all the pills I had been prescribed over the years.

So, I would make the pills into different stop motion art and words and figures and told my story over voiceover through the very short film. When I posted it through Buzzfeed’s platform, it went completely viral. Hundreds of thousands of comments, millions of views, I was getting messages by the 1000s every day. People struggling with the same thing. Two people even got quotes from the video as tatoos on their bodies… just opening that door for conversation caused the floodgates to open. 

NN: Which led to a second life as an activist?

KD:  I always say I kind of became an accidental activist. Once I realized oh (crap) people really want more of this content, I needed to be a voice for people to have access to information. It’s so so funny to think of it as a passion, because for so many years it was the bane of my existence.

NN: And now, you are putting it in book form. 

KD: I had been doing videos, more mental health content, public speaking, interviews
.I realized it’s very hard to cover the entirety of it in one article or one video. I wanted to share the information in a way that was understandable and relatable because every book out there that I could find about mental health was so boring. 

NN: It’s not a traditional mental health book written by a doctor. In fact, that’s what you think will appeal to those who might benefit from its contents?

KD: It was important to create a workbook, and not a traditional read-it-and-toss-it book. All the pages have exercises or games or different methods of managing mental health. I want people to carry it in their pocket like a little mental health Bible (laughs).

(L.-r.) Kristy, Mike, Megan & Kelsey Darragh

NN: There’re probably no greater thrill than seeing your book for the first time.

KD: The first thing I did when we confirmed the cover, I printed it out at the exact size and the dimensions and taped it on top of another book I have, and set it on my desk. I wanted to see how it looked amongst my other books. And, I studied the way Barnes & Noble marketed and laid out books in their stores. That’s why the book is bright neon yellow with giant bold letters that say ‘Don’t F*cking Panic.’ I want people to see this book.

NN: So, you scheduled a book about anxiety that is coming out in a year that has been plagued by coronavirus, lockdowns, job losses and the most nerve-wracking election season ever. Are you just lucky, or an evil marketing genius?

KD: Launching my first book in the middle of a pandemic and before an election season was not anything I imagined happening, but in a weird way something beautiful that has come of this pandemic is people are paying attention to their mental health now more than ever. They are foreced to come to terms with their struggles. I think the collective response has just been this book is so needed right now. the deep ernd into cold water. We have floaties and hot life guards here.

NN: Your mom (well-known local Realtor Kristy Darragh of Florida Executive Realty) and occasional video co-star must be thrilled.

KD: She is such a successful staple in New Tampa and I always saw her as a very strong, independent woman in a mentor position. To have something as incredible and crazy as a book coming out with my name on it, I know she is so proud for me to be breaking stigmas and talking about things people don’t talk about. Maybe this wasn’t the plan that they had for their daughter, to have their book debut with a giant ‘F bomb’ in the middle of it, but they have been nothing but supportive. My mom ordered like 10 books. Maybe she’s leaving it on the coffee table in the houses she’s selling. (laughs).

KRISTY DARRAGH

* Longtime New Tampa resident now living in Los Angeles.

* Can be seen on E!’s “Dating: No Filter.”

* First went viral on YouTube ten years ago with her video “Sh-t Girlfriends Say.” She began to attract more followers and started a web series on her channel, which has more than 116,000 subscribers. With an average viewership of 14+ million, Darragh tackles topics like sex, beauty, and mental health. 

* Began making digital content for Buzzfeed like “Ladies’ Room” and “Adult Sh-t.”

* Created a top-tier show for Comcast’s “Watchable” called “Am I Doing This Right?”

* In 2019, was selected as a Sundance New Voice writer for her dark comedy series “Where We Are.”

 * Is also a passionate member and supporter of the LGBTQ community as she says she identifies as queer and bisexual.

* Currently directing a documentary on Saraya Rees, a 14-year-old in Oregon battling mental illness, who was sentenced to 11 years in juvenile prison.

Local Sikh Temple A Haven For The Hungry

The Sikh Gurdwara in New Tampa serves nearly 1,000 hot meals every Sunday to those in need. It is open to everyone. (Photos courtesy of the Sikh Gurdwara of Tampa Bay)

Tucked between Cross Creek Blvd. and the entrance to Cory Lake Isles on Morris Bridge Rd., the Sikh Gurdwara of Tampa Bay temple, which typically goes about its business in relative anonymity, has become a haven for the hungry.

Every Sunday from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., almost since the Covid-19 pandemic began, hundreds of families happily receive aluminum, plastic and styrofoam containers filled with hot meals — rice, soups, pastas, curries, veggie burgers and even burritos.

What started as a mission to help a few has quickly evolved into a mission feeding hundreds.

While meals are handed out at the Sikh Gurdwara, volunteers fill their trunks with food and seek out the homeless and hungry.

“When the pandemic started in mid-March, we had to shut down our temples like all the churches, and we were wondering how we could do something to lift the spirits of our congregation,” says Harpartap Singh, one of the temple’s volunteers.

The congregants turned to the temple’s langar, the community kitchen of a Gurdwara, which serves meals free of charge to everyone, regardless of religion, gender or ethnicity. “One of the primary things in our religion is that everybody is treated equal,” Singh says.

The Gurdwara expanded the concept, and reached out beyond its congregation.

The members hung banners and posted invitations on social media. On March 18, it began — volunteers made 300 meals, although Singh says they were only expecting 15, or maybe 30 people. The plan was to take whatever was left over to Feeding Tampa Bay, part of the Feeding America network, which provides food to thousands of families that need it.

However, that Sunday, the crowd was overwhelming. More than 250 meals were served. 

“And we haven’t stopped since,” Singh says.

Now, the Sikh Gurdwara of Tampa Bay, which has been at its Morris Bridge location for 27 years, serves nearly 800 meals every Sunday. And, that number continues to grow. 

On the Sunday before we went to press, the main course was split pea curry, prepared as usual by three chefs that Singh says are all excellent. Main courses are typically accompanied by bottled water, fruit, chips and salad.

Singh says the “humbling experience” of feeding the hungry has moved his congregation, and inspired the group to do more.

“Barely a week goes by that we don’t stand there and cry with somebody,” Singh says. “They tell us it is the best meal they have had all week, and tell us stories about how some of their family members have died and there was nothing they could do. We have fed people who are living in their cars.”

The hot meals are just part of the Sikh outreach. 

Volunteers take food all over Tampa Bay, seeking out the homeless and the needy. At one location, under a bridge in the Mango area, Singh says that 70-80 homeless people now wait for the Gurdwara volunteers to arrive with the food on Sundays. Whether it’s in the downtown areas of Tampa, St. Petersburg or Clearwater, a handful of loyal volunteers fan out to find people on the street to distribute an additional 200-300 meals.

The Gurdwara members provide groceries for roughly 50 families. They have fed and paid the rent for international students at USF who have lost their jobs and cannot return home. They deliver food to an orphanage in Wesley Chapel that cares for autistic children, as well as first responders and those on the front lines of the Covid-19 battle.

The volunteer list at the temple is 400 strong. Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, who has visited the Sunday food drive multiple times, says he will be giving the group a City Council commendation in the coming weeks.

“What they do is incredible,” he says. “They are good people.”

Most of the expenses are paid by the congregation, which is comprised of many doctors, engineers and business owners throughout the Tampa Bay area. Some sponsors also have stepped forward. In all, Singh says the Gurdwara has been responsible for distributing roughly 19,000 food packages and $60,000 worth of dry groceries since the pandemic began.

He says the congregation sees some of the real impacts of the Covid-19 battle up close on a weekly basis. 

The pain is real. The Gurdwara has enough food to last through February of 2021, and its members have no intention of stopping even if the pandemic passes. They are even looking into becoming a farmshare conduit.

“Even though this is a great country, there are so many people who need help,” Singh says. “It has truly touched us and lifted our spirits, and that’s what any religion is about. We are blessed to be able to do this.”

The Sikh Gurdwara is located at 15302 Morris Bridge Rd. in Thonotosassa. For more information about the Gurdwara and its food drive, visit TampaGurdwara.com, search for Tampa Gurdwara on Facebook or call (813) 599-1557.