State House District 63 candidate Fentrice Driskell is hoping to return incumbent Shawn Harrison’s seat to Democratic hands in the General Election on Tuesday, November 6.
There was never any doubt, at least in her mind, that Fentrice Driskell was going to one day run for office.
It was just a matter of when.
Well, when…is now.
In February, Driskell filed to run for the Florida House District 63 seat currently held by Republican and long-time New Tampa resident Shawn Harrison.
District 63 includes New Tampa, as well as Carrollwood, Lutz and the Lake Magdalene and University of South Florida areas to our south and east.
Driskell’s entry into the race was greeted with great enthusiasm by many Democrats, who consider it one of the most flippable State House seats.
Shawn Harrison
Harrison won the seat in 2010, lost it to Mark Danish in 2012, then reclaimed it in 2014. In 2016, Harrison held off Democratic challenger and fellow former Tampa City Council member Lisa Montelione by 1,363 votes, or 51-49 percent.
“I’ve known for quite some time I would like to run one day,” Driskell says. “I thought it would be later in life, though. But, the 2016 election motivated me.”
Driskell was almost immediately endorsed by prominent local Democrats like Betty Castor, Alex Sink, Pat Kemp and State House Democratic Leader, State Rep. Janet Cruz, after throwing her hat in the ring.
Driskell felt that women’s voices were missing from the political debate, and felt like public schools, where her mother taught for 35 years, were under attack. She saw a political landscape dominated by acrimony and inertia, instead of focusing on providing affordable housing, a safe and clean environment and economic policies that would benefit everyone.
“After the 2016 election, I really decided that if I don’t like the way things are going, I can either keep talking about it or do something about it,” Driskell says. “I started attending candidate trainings and really thinking about some of the issues I care about the most.”
Driskell said her passion for government was ignited while she attended Lake Gibson High in Lakeland.
During her junior year, she attended Florida Girls State, a week-long workshop that focuses on government, politics and Americanism.
“It completely changed my trajectory,” Driskell says.
She graduated from Lake Gibson No. 1 in her class and attended Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, where she was the school’s first African-American female student body government president.
She graduated from Harvard and then Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C., and has been president of the George Edgecomb Bar Association for black lawyers in Tampa. She is currently a partner and business litigator at the Carlton Fields law firm near Tampa International Airport.
When she decided to run and looked at the open races, she saw District 63 as a perfect place to bring what she says will be an inclusive style of representation.
“I looked at the level of representation that District 63 is getting and felt I had something better to offer,” Driskell says.
According to the Lakeland native, District 63 is roughly 38 percent registered Democrats, 32 percent Republicans and 30 percent unaffiliated.
“When you have a district that balanced, you have to be able to lead from a place that is reflective of that and inclusive of everyone,” Driskell says. “My opponent has moved too far to the right for this district.”
Driskell (see ad on pg. 6) has attended a few New Tampa town halls, and organized some meet-and-greets in local communities, most recently in Arbor Greene, and hopes to strike a chord with local voters, who trended Democratic in 2016.
“We’ve been able to build a lot of great momentum and enthusiasm around our campaign,” Driskell says. “What we’ve found is that people want to talk about the kind of bread-and-butter issues that affect us every day, like schools, gun safety, keeping kids safe. Because we have been able to engage them directly, people are excited to have the opportunity to have a representative who will listen to them.”
Big Easy Bucha is available in all Publix stores. Austin Sherman shows off his original product – with flavors such as Jazz Juice and Streetcar Sipper — and its first-to-market kombucha “shots.”
When Austin Sherman graduated from New Tampa’s Wharton High School in 2001, he headed to the nearby University of South Florida to pursue a degree in communications.
At that time, he wouldn’t have guessed he’d be where he is now — leading a company brewing kombucha, a fermented, probiotic tea that is increasing in popularity and market share, with products in many major grocery stores, such as Whole Foods and Publix.
Austin and his wife, Alexis Korman, who co-founded Big Easy Bucha in New Orleans four years ago, expect to sell 3 million bottles in 2018.
And, with the way they’re growing, Austin says they’ll sell 10 million bottles next year.
It’s not how Austin envisioned his future. He left college in 2005 to join a commercial real estate firm in Seattle. He remembers it being a busy, stressful time, while he worked hard.
“Every dollar I made, I would invest in more real estate,” he says. “I was 25 years old, with a couple of million dollars in real estate. Then, I woke up one day and it was all worth nothing.”
The real estate bubble had burst. Over time, the firm he worked for let its employees go and shut its doors, and Austin came back to New Tampa to figure out what to do next.
He landed a job as a bartender at the old Ciccio & Tony’s in Tampa Palms, where he met people like Dan Costello.
“Dan was one of my favorite customers,” Austin says. “He was very active in the beverage and salty snack business, and I found that fascinating.”
Austin was living with his younger sister, Chelsea, who was studying to be a nurse. It was Chelsea who learned how to brew kombucha. Many people drink kombucha because of the health benefits associated with its probiotics.
“In nursing school, all of my peers were super health conscious,” says Chelsea. “Some were brewing kombucha; and we all were drinking it. We were trying to be health forward for our patients.”
Austin Sherman and his sister, Chelsea, before Wharton’s prom in 2001, when the siblings were growing up in Arbor Greene.
Chelsea taught Austin how to brew kombucha, which he had been introduced to in Seattle.
“I had been in bartending and mixology, so I knew how to put ingredients together and get a desired result,” says Austin. “I made my first batch with pineapple and elderflower.”
He began experimenting with different flavors and made small batches to pass out to his friends and family.
He moved to New Orleans, where Alexis was living and working as a writer.
In 2014, they officially launched their company in New Orleans and called it Big Easy Bucha.
“I really didn’t have a vision of what this could become,” Austin says. “At that time, it was just a hobby.”
Just four years later, it’s so much more. The friends and family he used to pass out samples to are not only his customers, they’re also his biggest supporters — and some are even employees.
Chelsea left nursing to work full-time as a marketing associate for the company.
Meanwhile, Dan Costello has served as an advisor and has just transitioned to the role of president of Big Easy Bucha.
Austin’s best friend from high school, Ted Krawsck, lives in Wesley Chapel and says he’s now a Big Easy Bucha “one-a-day-er.”
Ted says he was surprised to discover the positive effects kombucha has had for him.
“It had huge health benefits,” Ted says. “As someone with stomach problems, I instantly started feeling better. My stomach felt completely different.”
Austin says he and Alexis had tried other brands and were put off by the flavor, so they wanted to be a “gateway” drink for people who are new to kombucha.
While the kombucha trend started in the west, Big Easy Bucha is focused on the growing markets in the southeastern United States.
“Big Easy Bucha is definitely based on the Southern palate, with flavors that are very fruit forward,” such as strawberry, blueberry, pineapple, and satsuma — a citrus fruit similar to a Mandarin or clementine orange, Chelsea says.
Austin’s favorite flavor is still that first combination he put together in his first brew in Tampa, pineapple and elderflower. Now, that combo is known as Big Easy Bucha’s “Jazz Juice.”
A highlight of the company’s story so far is that last year, Big Easy Bucha was successful in getting its products into Publix stores.
“It’s really hard to do,” says Austin. “I’ve been a customer of Publix my entire life. I remember shopping at the store on Cross Creek Blvd.”
He adds that in the year that Big Easy Bucha products have been sold at Publix, the chain has opened 50 new stores, for a total of 1,196 Publix stores nationwide. Whenever a new Publix opens, it stocks Big Easy Bucha.
“It’s been fun,” Austin says. “We’ve been able to grow in Publix.”
He thinks Publix likes working with Big Easy Bucha, too.
“We’re known to Publix as innovators,” Austin explains. Recently, a Publix buyer suggested an idea for a new product — a kombucha “shot” for people who want the probiotics and healthy organic acids of the drink, but don’t want to have to drink a full 16 ounces.
“Within four weeks, we had samples for them,” says Austin. “Coke and Pepsi can’t move that fast. It takes them a year to get it through research and development and another two years to get to market, if they decide to make the product.”
Now, the four-ounce shots also are available at all Publix stores and Big Easy Bucha is the first kombucha company making the product, which are called Lil’ Easy Kombucha Shots.
“It’s the same strength and efficacy, in a fun and festive shot format,” explains Austin. “We’re in New Orleans, so everything’s festive (here).”
To buy Big Easy Bucha, visit any local Publix store and look for it in the refrigerated aisle, next to the juices. For more information about the company, visit BigEasyBucha.com.
At 11 years old, Sarah Clanton is finally learning to walk, thanks to the help of the special horses and people at Emerald M Therapeutic Riding Center in Brooksville.
Sarah was adopted from an orphanage in Ukraine when she was five. At just 19 pounds, she had been kept in a bed all her life. Her mom, Yvonne, says she could barely sit up.
Yvonne and her husband, Jon, began helping Sarah in all the ways they could, including physical therapy, to help her learn to walk.
While Sarah has special needs, including blindness and other conditions, doctors could find no reason physically why she wouldn’t be able to walk.
“There’s no muscular or neurological reason she can’t walk,” Yvonne says. “It’s just that she’s missing all those milestones and all those years of development, and her brain just doesn’t have ability to put it together.”
Earlier this year, Yvonne decided to take a chance on something different. It’s called hippotherapy, and it uses the movements of a horse to help people like Sarah. Yvonne had heard about a place called Emerald M Therapeutic Riding Center, so she decided to try it out.
“I did this just for the heck of it,” says Yvonne. “I didn’t really expect it to work.”
But, it has.
“It’s amazing,” says Yvonne. “We can walk with her now, just by holding one hand. Before, most of the time we just carried her — even around the house — because it was just easier.”
Yvonne and Jon have four other children. Of their five kids, three have some sort of disability, and their son, Sam, also benefits from hippotherapy at Emerald M. Of all the therapies her kids have experienced, says Yvonne, “Nothing has ever been as dramatic the change we’ve seen in Sarah.”
Lisa Michelangelo
(To purchase tickets to its Grand Opening Fundraiser on Saturday, October 20, 5:30 p.m.-10 p.m., visit EmeraldMTherapeuticRidingCenter.org.)
Emerald M Therapeutic Riding Center was founded by Lisa Michelangelo, a former New Tampa resident who is a physical therapist. For about eight years, she managed the physical therapy department at the Fit 4 Life Personal Training & Physical Therapy studio in Tampa Palms.
She and her family always loved horses, so in 2013 – when Lisa’s daughters were 13 and 10 – they moved out to Dade City, where they could have a larger property and be able to live with their horses, rather than boarding them elsewhere.
At that time, it occurred to Lisa that she had the opportunity to combine her love of horses with her professional career as a physical therapist.
Lisa did extensive continuing education through the American Hippotherapy Association to be able to provide this unique therapy.
“Through the use of a horse and movement, we target deficiencies and work on areas such as core strength, balance and walking,” explains Lisa. “The horse replicates human walking. I can put someone on the back of the horse, and they feel like they’re walking on air. Once we can recreate the walking pattern on the horse, we can also recreate it on the ground.”
In 2014, Lisa launched Emerald M Therapeutic Riding Center on her property in Dade City.
“The name, Emerald M, comes from the emerald gem stone,” Lisa explains. “The emerald stands for hope, renewal and growth, and that’s what we provide to the people we serve. We provide hope and a renewed sense of self, and then they continue to grow.” She says the “M” is for her last name.
Lisa explains that participants in her program have a wide variety of conditions that bring them to her.
“We have kids and adults who come to us with autism, processing disorders, emotional disorders, cerebral palsy, paralysis and brain tumors,” she explains, “It’s a whole plethora of diagnoses.”
She explains that sometimes a child or adult can complete hippotherapy, because they have successfully overcome the condition that caused them to need the therapy. At that point, they graduate to therapeutic riding, which is where they learn horsemanship skills and how to ride.
In addition, Emerald M offers beginner riding lessons for siblings of program participants, too.
“We know it affects the whole family,” Lisa says, speaking of the conditions that cause people to come to her riding center for therapy. “Often, the siblings of the children with special needs are watching their brother or sister ride, and they want to ride, too.”
Growth… And Tragedy
A couple of years ago, Emerald M became a nonprofit organization, with Lisa as its founder. “Since then, the program has exploded,” Lisa says, explaining that word of mouth and practitioner support continues to draw new people into the program.
Soon, the programs Lisa offers outgrew the five-acre property she had in Dade City, so she moved the riding center to Brooksville.
She says the new property is only 5 miles from the former one, and her participants coming from places such as Wesley Chapel and New Tampa don’t mind the drive. Sarah’s mom, Yvonne, who drives from Zephyrhills, says the hour-long drive is absolutely worth it, for the amazing results they are seeing in Sarah.
“We had to make that move to accommodate the growth,” says Lisa. “The new property is much more suited for the kind of work that we do.”
In the midst of moving, the staff and volunteers at Emerald M experienced a tragedy. When a storm blew through the area, three of the riding center’s horses were killed by a lightning strike.
“It was tragic,” said Lisa, who adds that says she has had support from the organization’s board of directors and volunteers, and throughout the community, as supporters set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to help with the cost of new horses.
“They will never be replaced,” says Lisa. “However, we have come through and have brought in some new furry friends. The new horses help to carry the load.”To celebrate the opening of the new location and to continue to raise funds for the organization’s mission, Emerald M is hosting a grand opening fundraising dinner on Saturday, October 20, from 5:30 p.m.-10 p.m.
Helping Veterans, Too
About a year ago, Lisa began partnering with an organization called Veterans Alternative to help U.S. Military combat veterans and their spouses. Veterans Alternative helps veterans from all over the country, all branches of the military, and all eras of war, by providing a weeklong retreat to work through PTSD and other issues.
Lisa facilitates the part of the program called P.E.A.C.E., or “Powerful Equine Assisted Counseling Experience.” She says she comes alongside mental health providers who join these combat veterans and their spouses for a day of therapy with the horses at Emerald M.
Each horse has a story — what jobs they’ve done, or what hurdles they’ve faced — which are relayed by mental health counselors. And in turn, the veterans relate their own personal stories to the stories of the horses they are working with. Lisa says they begin to talk about things that might be challenging to them.
“It’s incredible,” she says.
Over the past year, 135 combat veterans have completed the program.
“We even have combat veterans who have found so much reward in this program, that now they’re out here volunteering, giving back by helping their brothers and sisters in the military,” says Lisa.
One such veteran is Franco Caro, a former U.S. Marine who served from 2001-05, and who deployed to Iraq in 2003. After leaving the military, he struggled with finding a sense of purpose.
“I tried to take my life nine times between 2005 and 2010,” he says. “To go from working nonstop in the military to being told you can’t do that anymore, you feel lost.”
Working with mental health providers and taking medications didn’t keep him from attempting suicide.
But, Franco’s last suicide attempt was in 2010, before he found something to give him the sense of accomplishment he was looking for.
Franco says he first encountered horses and the idea of therapy through riding and caring for them at a place called Rocking Horse Farm in New Port Richey. Just this summer, he was introduced to Emerald M Therapeutic Riding Center, and he now volunteers there two or three times a week.
“I don’t realize how far I’ve come until I start thinking back,” Franco says. “When I go there, instead of overanalyzing myself, it allows my brain an escape to focus on something else.”
He explains that his role is to be sure the horse he cares for, named Anna, is ready to work with the hippotherapy participants. He grooms Anna, rides her to be sure she’s properly exercised, gets her tacked up, and makes sure she’s comfortable.
“I look over my horse from nose to tail, make sure she’s walking correctly, standing correctly, doesn’t have any wounds or discomfort,” Franco says. “She can’t tell me, so I form a strong bond with her. It puts me at ease, too, and Lisa’s getting a volunteer who knows horsemanship and what to do.”
Those volunteers, Lisa says, are essential. “I couldn’t do it without them,” she says.
Franco also volunteers with the P.E.A.C.E. program, where he can tell his story to fellow veterans and share how equine therapy has helped him. “They are very small, very personal groups, and we are there connecting with the veterans one-on-one,” Franco says.
Whether it’s working with veterans or kids with special needs, Lisa says she has been a part of incredible changes at Emerald M.
“Miracles happen out here,” Lisa says. “A lot of times, it’s unexplainable. It truly is the horses. I facilitate it, but the animals do have a sense that we can’t explain. The changes that we see out here are monumental for both families and individuals.”
For more information about Emerald M Riding Center, to donate to its GoFundMe campaign, or to purchase tickets to its Grand Opening Fundraiser on Saturday, October 20,5:30 p.m.-10 p.m., visit EmeraldMTherapeuticRidingCenter.org.
The heat isn’t going away. Neither, then, are the uncomfortable conditions still being faced by many students in Hillsborough County, where the air conditioning systems at some schools appear to be held together by staples and duct tape.
Looking to address that situation, as well as many others, the Hillsborough County School Board (HCSB) voted to place a referendum on the General Election ballot on Tuesday, November 6, to help fill a gap in funding that has led to myriad of problems in our schools.
A half-cent sales tax increase referendum was hurried and approved in late August by the School Board, despite concerns the chances of passage would be hurt by competingagainst a transportation referendum already asking for a one-cent sales tax increase.
The education referendum for Hillsborough County Public Schools, the eighth-largest school system in the country, would raise an anticipated $131 million annually, or $1.3 billion over 10 years. Nearly half of that would go to fixing or replacing air conditioning systems in roughly 200 of the county’s 250 schools.
In New Tampa, every school would have its air conditioning systems replaced or overhauled by 2023, with the exception of Hunter’s Green and Tampa Palms elementary schools and Turner/Bartels K-8, all of which would have theirs done between 2023-28.
Every school in Hillsborough County is expected to receive at least $500,000 of benefit from the tax.
School Superintendent Jeff Eakins has been on the town hall circuit this month and last, visiting schools across the county (see picture).
He held a town hall at Wharton High on Oct. 1.
Ahead of his New Tampa visit, the Hillsborough County School District released a list on Sept. 21 of 1,785 projects that would be funded by the tax increase.
Here are the projects for New Tampa schools to be funded by the tax:
Benito Middle School — Years 1-5:Air Conditioning Replacement or Overhaul, Carpeting Replacement Project, Generator Project, Hard-Surface Flooring Replacement Project, Repave Athletic Tracks, Replace Security System, School Interior Repainting Project
Years 6-10:Replace Fire Alarm System
Chiles Elementary School — Years 1-5:Air Conditioning Replacement or Overhaul, Carpeting Replacement Project, Fire Evacuation Improvements, Hard-Surface Flooring Replacement Project, K-3 Playground Replacement, Replace Fire Alarm System
Years 6-10: Grade 4-5 Playground Replacement
Clark Elementary — Years 1-5: Air Conditioning Replacement or Overhaul, Carpeting Replacement Project, Fire Evacuation Improvements, Grade 4-5 Playground Replacement, Hard-Surface Flooring Replacement Project, Replace Fire Alarm System
Years 6-10: Air Conditioning Replacement or Overhaul, Exterior Paint and Waterproofing, Outdoor Court Replacement
Liberty Middle School — Years 1-5:Air Conditioning Replacement or Overhaul, Exterior Paint and Waterproofing, School Interior Repainting Project, Upgrade Classroom Network Infrastructure
Years 6-10: Elevator Modernization, Replace Fire Alarm System, Replace Telephone System, Sand and Recondition Gym Floor
Pride Elementary — Years 1-5: Air Conditioning Replacement or Overhaul, Fire Evacuation Improvements, Grade 4-5 Playground Replacement, Pre-K Playground Replacement, Replace Aging Roof
Years 6-10: Elevator Modernization, K-3 Playground Replacement, Outdoor Court Replacement, Replace Telephone System
Tampa Palms Elementary — Years 1-5: Grade 4-5 Playground Replacement, K-3 Playground Replacement, Replace Stage Lighting
Years 6-10: Air Conditioning Replacement or Overhaul, Carpeting Replacement Project, Generator Project, Hard-Surface Flooring Replacement Project, Outdoor Court Replacement
Turner Bartels K-8 School — Years 1-5:K-3 Playground Replacement, Pre-K Playground Replacement
Years 6-10:Air Conditioning Replacement or Overhaul, Elevator Modernization, Outdoor Court Replacement, Repave Athletic Tracks, Replace Telephone System, School Interior Repainting Project
Wharton High — Years 1-5:Air Conditioning Replacement or Overhaul, Fire Evacuation Improvements, Replace Aging Roof, Replace Fire Alarm System
Years 6 to 10: Carpeting Replacement Project, Repave Athletic Tracks, Sand and Recondition Gym Floor, School Interior Repainting Project
The bike and pedestrian path along New Tampa Blvd. in West Meadows is showing its age.
If bike and pedestrian paths are supposed to offer safety and comfort to those riding or walking on them, then the one running along the north side of New Tampa Blvd. in West Meadows has failed, say many of those who frequent it.
That may, however, be changing.
Jean Duncan, the City of Tampa’s director of transportation and stormwater services, says that after years of urging from local residents, plans to resurface the aged pathway are now under way.
While there is no schedule or cost yet for the project, Duncan says the city will begin looking at the pavement condition, the drainage issues that leave much of the path puddled hours after rainstorms and any issues with the American Disabilities Act (ADA) in regards to things like wheelchair ramps.
“Once we identify all of that, we will lay out a schedule for a design, which will require us to go out and do some survey work,” Duncan says. “Once that is complete, we will go to construction.”
Duncan says the city is targeting spring of 2019 to begin the project.
That may not satisfy all of Brad Van Rooyen’s wishes for New Tampa Blvd. and its battered pathway, but it is better than nothing, the West Meadows Home Owners Association president says.
Van Rooyen says he has been in discussions with the city about the condition of the road and pathway for more than a decade.
“Walk that path from Publix to the (New Tampa Blvd. Gateway) Bridge and if you don’t twist an ankle, trip over a root or wear out your sneakers, I’d be surprised,” he says.
Van Rooyen may be using a touch of hyperbole to make his point, but he says he has seen people trip on the path, and one bicyclist who hit a bad patch on the pathway crashed to the ground and had to be transported via ambulance to a hospital.
The pathway, critics says, has worn through its original surface, is jagged, cracked and uncomfortable.
That was evident on June 28, when 100 or so bicyclists came out for a memorial ride in honor of Pedro Aguerreberry, the West Meadows resident who was struck by a car and killed while out riding his bike with his two young children.
The bike path was so bad, says Hunter’s Green resident Peter Mirones, that police officers directed the bicyclists to ride in the road.
“After the extremely tragic accident, the memorial ride definitely drew some more attention to it,” Duncan says.
Mirones took District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera out to the path on July 2 to show him the cracked, uneven surface and to take pictures. Viera then asked the city staff to look into it, which it will be doing.
Van Rooyen said that, at one point, West Meadows was going to pave the bike path itself, but then-District 7 City Council member Lisa Montelione, who represented New Tampa from 2011-16, told him it was the city’s responsibility.
Van Rooyen met with city officials, showed them pictures of the deterioration, which was so bad the city’s attorney, “actually made us leave the room, and within 48 hours, some of the really serious potholes and dropoffs were fixed,” he says.
But, they were not enough, as the popular pathway continues to lose its form. Van Rooyen says that almost the entire length of the path — roughly 1.5 miles — needs to be re-finished.
“I get it, the city has budget constraints, and every community has got issues,” Van Rooyen says. “I’m not ungrateful. It’s a step in the right direction. But, the way to solve the problem is to spend the money and get it fixed the right way, so we don’t have to worry about it for the next 15 years. Anything short of a complete repaving is like putting on a Band-Aid. Eventually, it has to all be done.”
Van Rooyen adds that he thinks the city needs to not only take a look at the bike path, but should examine New Tampa Blvd. itself as well, which has weeds and roots growing up through sections of it.
Van Rooyen says that the road was built to handle West Meadows traffic, but once the bridge linked the road to Tampa Palms, there has been a dramatic increase in traffic and it has taken its toll on New Tampa Blvd.
“The road has never been paved, never been seal coated,” he says. “The markings on the road have become so worn down you can’t see the turn lanes. And, you see more and more potholes.”
He adds that the city was under the impression West Meadows was handling its own roads, and anytime someone called the city they were passed along to the HOA or Community Development District (CDD). “Then it just fell off everybody’s radar,” he says.
At least for now, it appears to be back on the city’s radar.
