Grandma Claire’s Reading Room Dedicated At New Tampa Library

Grandma Claire’s Early Learning Hive, a space handcrafted to combine youth recreation & education into a single experience, has been unveiled at the New Tampa Regional Library (NTRL) on Cross Creek Blvd. About 50 people, including the family of the longtime educator and librarian the room was named for, attended the ceremony at NTRL on Sept. 22.

Claire Unnasch, whose plaque is proudly displayed in The Hive, was a special education teacher, school librarian and middle school math teacher at South End School in Cedar Grove, NJ. However, the nickname “Grandma Claire” wasn’t coined until her later career as a volunteer at local libraries, where she discovered her immense affection for preschool-age children. Grandma Claire passed away in 2016.

Thomas Unnasch, Grandma Claire’s son, spoke at the unveiling, as children raced around playing and grabbing books.

“She would be beyond herself if she could see what we’ve created here,” Thomas said.

District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera and Hillsborough County’s director of library services Andrew Breidenbaugh also spoke at the podium, sharing their vision of recreating Grandma Claire’s Early Learning Hive for libraries across the District in the years to come, to spread Claire’s love for children & education even further.

The New Tampa Regional Library (10001 Cross Creek Blvd.) is open every day.

 

Chess Champ Has All The Right Moves

Cannon Farragut, an 8-year-old Hunter’s Green resident, recently captured a Florida State Chess Championship. Is there a national championship on the horizon for this chess wunderkind?

Chess began with a key on a laptop keyboard being plucked loose and set aside.

Then another. And another.

By the time William Farragut discovered what was happening and could stop Cannon, his then-4-year-old son, every key on his laptop had been removed.

“I was furious,” William says. So, as a solution for his uber-curious son, William bought Cannon his own, cheaper laptop. He loaded it with math and science programs, and randomly ran across a chess app and installed that, too.

“I was being totally stereotypical, but chess is for smart kids, right?” William asks.

Within a month, it was the only thing Cannon was playing. By watching videos of matches, he learned not only how the pieces move, but how to “weaponize” those moves by stringing them together and outsmarting the opposition.

His father was stunned.

Four years later, Cannon, now 8, is the Arnold Denker Florida State Champion in the 1800-under division. High-level chess players don’t generally compete in age groups, they compete against others in the same ratings group. Cannon toppled adults 3-4 times his age on his way to the championship at the 1800-&-Under level (more on this below).

In November, he will represent the U.S. at the World Youth Championships in Spain.

Then, in December, he’ll travel to the National Scholastic Chess Championships in Orlando, where the very best players in the country will be on hand to prove their rankings. Cannon is currently ranked in the Top 20 in the U.S. in his age group, but is in the top 10 of everyone in the 1800-&-Under rating group in the entire U.S.

Can he win a national championship?

“I think I can win,” Cannon says.

On a typical Tuesday night. Cannon breezes through the meeting room at Compton Park, which is filled with dozens of young New Tampa chess players, members of the invite-only Champions Chess Club coached by Tampa Palms residents Mark Ritter and his wife Tania Kranich-Ritter, a former New York State champion.

Cannon is happy, polite, affable. Even during his matches, he looks around the room, smiling, rising from his seat to walk around and watch some of his clubmates. On occasion, he’ll also practice his jump shot form, as Cannon also is a skilled basketball player.

But Mark, an internationally rated chess master and one of only five Level 5-rated coaches in the country, and Tania, who coached teams at Tampa Palms Elementary and Liberty Middle School to national championships in 2005 and 2006, respectively, were skeptical when Cannon, then 5, showed up at the club hoping to join.

“When I first came in, they almost pushed me away,’’ William says, laughing.

Cannon hid behind his father’s legs. The club was mostly older kids, Tania told William, with players from 3rd grade to high school, with ratings ranging from 500 to 2100.

William tried to explain that he thought Cannon had something, and Mark told him every parent says that. But, since they had already made the trip, Mark agreed to sit down at the chess board with the youngster.

After five minutes, Mark looked at William, and said, “You know, there might be something here.”

Cannon then played one of the lower-rated players in the club, and lost. The tears flowed. When he and William left that day, Mark wasn’t sure he’d ever see them again.

Cannon did come back, however, and lost again, and cried again, a scenario that repeated itself several times the first few weeks. He was, however, getting better every visit. When he was six, he officially joined the club.

Mark says Cannon’s appetite for chess was voracious, and he devoured more and more instructional videos as his rating started climbing and the wins began piling up.

Even more pleasing was that Cannon slowly transformed from a shy kid into a social butterfly, making friends easily and becoming one of the club’s most popular members.

“Cannon’s growing social skills emphasize a much-overlooked benefit of chess,” says Mark. “While most of the focus remains on improving one’s game and rating — too much in my opinion — important social behaviors, such as sportsmanship, communication and interaction, are part of the package, too.”

Cannon has rapidly evolved from a kid plucking the keys off his father’s computer keyboard to Florida’s best player among those with 1800-&-Under ratings, according to the U.S. Chess Federation ratings. As such, he rarely plays anyone who is not much older than he is, a fact that Cannon admits has created some awkward situations.

“I think they are more nervous than I am,” Cannon says. “I don’t think they want to lose to a kid.”

But, his recent Florida State title is certainly the biggest win of his career, at least so far.

“It is a big deal,” Cannon says. “This is like my first major tournament I won and that inspires me to keep going, so I can become a Grandmaster and beat Magnus Carlsen.”

Both are lofty goals — Cannon is currently rated at 1771; when you reach 2200, you become a Master, and at 2500 you are a Grandmaster. But,  Carlsen, the current World Champion, is a true chess prodigy with a rating greater than 2800.

Chess is a hard game that very few master. So, how has an 8-year-old managed to do it?

Tough to say, says Mark.

“Nobody’s answered that question,” he says. “His ability to see tactics and combinations that most players can’t is phenomenal. He has a natural ability for spatial relationships, pattern recognition, things like that. How do you define that? It’s just wiring.”

Well, there’s wiring and then there’s hard work. Cannon is a dedicated student of the game. He describes the chessboard as a picture, or a puzzle. He says he sees what to do in his mind, “which is telling me what to do, like connecting the dots. Where the line starts is my first move.”

Cannon’s tendency to move too quickly at times is one of his few weaknesses. When he sees a dot to connect, he does so, with supreme confidence, even if it only took him a few minutes to notice. Sometimes, he admits that there was a better move out there.

That didn’t stop him in Jacksonville, however, when he won his State title. That victory netted Cannon $800 and a trophy (photo) almost as tall as he is. He loves his trophy. The money, he says, “I’m giving to my mom and dad so they can have some of it.”

That should at least cover the cost of that laptop, new keys and all.

Dem. Kelly Smith To Take On Mike Moore For County Commission In November

Kelly Smith 

For Kelly Smith, running as the Democratic Party’s candidate for the District 2 seat on the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners is more about civic duty than personal achievement.

“I really am coming at this from a public service standpoint. I never imagined I would run for office,” says Smith, who has lived in Wesley Chapel for 10 years and will oppose Republican incumbent and fellow Wesley Chapel resident Mike Moore in this year’s general election on Tuesday, November 6.

Neither candidate will face a primary opponent. In addition to partisan primaries for local, state and national offices, the primary election, which also included the only elections for Pasco School Board and several judges, were held on August 28.

Smith says that watching District 2’s boundaries evolve from relatively pastoral to thoroughly suburban provided her with the motivation to enter politics. She says her goal is to ensure that Pasco voters have distinct options as to who will best help manage the area’s growth.

“We need to bring change to our community and really be looking at how we can serve our community the best,” Smith says.

The foot-shaped Dist. 2 extends from the Hillsborough County line to north of S.R. 52, with its western border between U.S. 41 and the Suncoast Pkwy., and extending all the way to U.S. 301/Gall Blvd. at its easternmost edge in Zephyrhills.

Smith says she believes that the current lineup of Pasco commissioners has fallen short in meeting residents’ needs.

“Without a doubt, (they’re) not planning for the infrastructure and the service needs that go along with the growth we’re experiencing,” Smith says.

She says that growth is coming at a cost, and usually one that prospective homeowners can’t afford. She believes that future development needs to include a wider variety of affordbale housing for residents.

“One of the big components that’s missing in Pasco County is a better variety of dwelling types and a better variety of (housing) price points,” Smith says.

Smith also says she wants to attract more skilled jobs to the area’s economy, which already has a lot of customer service positions. Pasco County government can encourage wage growth in the private sector, she says, by setting an example and adopting a minimum salary of $15 an hour for full-time positions.

“Currently, 24 percent of full-time employees (who work for Pasco County) make less than $15 an hour,” she says. “As the second largest employer in Pasco County, that would certainly set a standard that hopefully the rest of the community would follow.”

Smith says her more than 20 years of professional experience provides an informed background from which to draw on when it comes to addressing quality-of-life issues like congestion. Her resume includes positions in engineering operations (including data analysis and contract administration) for site development and transportation projects in the private sector and serving as a zoning administrator for the City of Marco Island, near Naples, FL.

She also has been a coordinator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the City of Naples and Collier County. Smith earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Liberal Arts (with minors in Computer Science, School Health Education and Special Education) from Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven.

“I really do think that my experience has put me in exactly the right position to be a county commissioner,” says Smith.

In addition to her professional work experience, Smith volunteers on behalf of young people, advocating for kids going through the legal system with the Florida Guardian ad Litem program and as a photographer with Heart Gallery of Pinellas & Pasco, a nonprofit organization that promotes the adoption of children in foster care.

“I have always looked at how my actions can have a positive consequence outside of me,” says Smith, who lives in Meadow Pointe with her husband Patrick and their three adopted teenage children: Macy, Andrew and Carter.

Running as a Democratic against a popular Republican opponent in a county where President Trump won 58 percent of the vote in 2016 might seem to be a formidable task, but Smith says she’s up to it.

“I really do think I have a chance,” she says, adding that she gets a good response from people, including Republicans, when she canvases neighborhoods. “Local government is not so partisan. It’s about what’s best for your community.”

Visit KellySmithforPasco.com or “Kelly Smith for Pasco County Commissioner” on Facebook to find out more.

School Security A Call To Duty For New Guards

Eugene Figueroa was sitting in the living room of his Spring Hill home when he first saw the reports of another school shooting, this time on Feb. 14 of this year at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, FL.

Figueroa’s heart dropped. He felt sick. He could not believe that once again, helpless and unsuspecting children had been gunned down in their classrooms.

In the aftermath, the debate raged for days and months — how can we stop this from happening again?

Figueroa, a 51-year-old retired correctional officer, had his own ideas, and they didn’t involve arming teachers or running schools like a military base.

His idea involved people like him, retired law enforcement, retired military, retired security.

“I’m right here,” he yelled one night at his television as pundits argued over the best course of action.

As it turned out, Figueroa wasn’t alone. The idea of requiring an armed security officer at every school in Florida’s 67 countywide districts was almost immediately passed into law following the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas, with $67 million set aside to fund it. While that wasn’t enough to pay for actual police officers, counties like Pasco had opted to hire 55 full-time “guardians” for its 49 elementary schools.

“We had 200 people apply in the first two days,” says Pasco County assistant superintendant for support services Elizabeth Kuhn. “We had to shut the ad down.”

Among the first to apply were Figueroa, now stationed at Seven Oaks, Roy Wright, who is at Veterans, and Fred Jackson at Quail Hollow elementary schools.

When the county launched the school security program, it was looking for very specific people. Previous experience in law enforcement, security or the military was a must, and the ability to relate to children and thrive in a school environment was just as important.

“A lot of the job would be interacting with kids, not just standing up against a wall,” Kuhn said. “This was not just a law enforcement job, it was not just a school job, it was both.”

That made it perfect for Jackson, a soft-spoken, 52-year-old retired police officer from Fort Myers.

So, Who Are These Guys?

Jackson had worked with children his entire adult life. He was a D.A.R.E. officer, helping to keep kids from getting involved in drugs and gangs, and was a school resource officer for 10 years.


“My whole life was trying to make life better for people in predominantly poor areas,” Jackson says.

That included time working the streets in some of Fort Myers’ most drug-infested areas, and watching the crack epidemic take off and, unfortunately, flourish.

Quail Hollow’s security guard sees himself as a mentor, much in the way he viewed his middle school football coach, who was also a police officer and often wore his uniform to practices.

“That really appealed to me,” he says.

Football was Jackson’s plan B. He was a standout safety for Florida A&M High in Tallahassee, and earned a scholarship to Florida A&M University (also in Tallahassee) before his playing days were scuttled by a neck injury.

He was working a security job in Atlanta when his wife Eugenia, a third-grade teacher at Woodland Elementary in Zephyrhills, told him about the opportunity.

“I was saddened by the Parkland shooting, thinking about all the innocent kids who didn’t have a chance to mature and grow up to be whatever they wanted to be,” Jackson says. “So, the chance to reach kids and protect kids, this was the best thing for me. I really saw this as a calling.”

Like every school security officer, Jackson underwent 132 intensive hours of training this summer in preparation, a good many of those hours dedicated to the gun range and live shooter simulations.

In Pasco, school security officers wear a ballistic vest, and carry a gun on one hip and a Taser on the other. “And we have ample amounts of ammunition,” Jackson says.

Jackson loves his interactions with the kids at Quail Hollow, describing it as a family.

And, while he understands why some parents may have initially been leery of an armed guard around their children, just the other day a father there to pick up his son walked up to him to thank him for what he is doing.

“I pray for you guys every night,” he told Jackson, who has a job he wishes wasn’t necessary. But, it is one he feels it is one of the most important he has ever had.

“The only reason we are here is to protect your babies,” Jackson says, “and the teachers, so they can teach your babies.”

  At the end of the day, the No. 1 job for a school security officer is to run towards a threat and try and eliminate it. It is not for the feint of heart, but then again, neither is Rikers Island, New York City’s notorious jail complex.

Because he spent 20 years working on the island, it may be hard to imagine Figueroa, a Puerto Rico-born, Bronx-raised retired corrections officer, being afraid of much.

A graduate of Norman Thomas High in Manahattan, Figueroa and his best friend both were attracted to being New York City cops. While his friend became a police officer, however, Figueroa decided to go the correctional officer route.

His first real job was at Rikers. He started at the Otis Bantum Center (OBC), and spent time working in some of the island’s other nine jails before transitioning to a transportation officer, hauling the bad guys back and forth.

Only six months into his job in 1990, Rikers Island erupted into a riot after an inmate assaulted an officer. That year, there were 2,500 violent incidents on the island.

“Pretty hair raising,” says Figueroa. “I was only one year in, and that was an eye opening experience. Luckily, God’s grace stood with me for 20 years.”

He and his wife Yvonne moved to Spring Hill in 2015, and since then, Eugene has spent most of his time fishing. But, the father of two grown children and grandfather to 1-, 7- and 8-year-olds, he, too, was sickened, and driven to apply to be a school security officer, by what happened in Parkland.

Like Jackson, Figueroa sees himself as a mentor to the students, and the first line of defense against any outside danger.

He is a presence during drop off and pick up times, and during the day, walks around campus, eyes always open, the route always varying.

“I’m like a junkyard dog, roaming the property,” he says.

When he peeks in on classrooms at Seven Oaks, he’ll flash a big smile or a thumbs up, with teachers and students often replying in kind. The school, he says, as have most of the parents, has warmed up to his presence. “Some are receptive, some aren’t and that’s okay,” Figueroa says. “They’re going to love me at the end of the day when I’m the one taking a bullet for one of their kids, God forbid.”

Wright also hopes that never has to happen for any of his fellow security officers, but he has spent his whole life preparing for it.

He joined the military in 1986 after graduating from high school. He was Military Police, and was stationed in Germany from 1986-94, and when he returned to Augusta, GA, he joined a Special Reaction (or SWAT) team.

After leaving the military in 2000, Wright became a high-threat diplomat security contractor, working in Bosnia and Kuwait, and, for 16 years, in Iraq.

In 2016, he traded in that stressful career for a local security job in the hopes of settling down with his fiancée.

When the Parkland shootings took place, his first reaction was to think of a way to help. The school security job allows him to do that.

“I can tell you that every person in my class, and we started with 58, everyone either had grandchildren or children and all felt as strongly as I did about being here and taking care of our younger generation,” Wright says.

After his training. Wright chose to be stationed at Veterans Elementary, because he is a veteran who wanted to settle down in Wesley Chapel.

He says the transition to spending his days around the kids he is responsible for protecting is “wonderful.”

On his first day, he arrived to find “Welcome to the team, Roy” written on a dry erase board on the wall behind his desk, which is in a hallway. He has no plans to wipe it off.

“From day one, everyone has been so supportive,” he says.

The kids call him Mr. Roy, or Mr. Security, which makes him laugh.

He is always on the move, checking gates and doors, and keeping a close eye on the school playground, which faces S.R. 54.

“There were some parents who were skeptical,” Wright says. “I had a father tell me, ‘Mr. Roy, initially I wasn’t very fond of the program, but I travel (S.R. 54) here periodically and to see you standing outside the playground like you do, taking care of our children
.well, I want to apologize and say thank you.’”

The kids at the school have taken notice as well. One little boy, Wright says, came up to him a few weeks ago and asked why he hadn’t seen the security officer that day during recess. Wright had been in a meeting, and the boy had noticed that the footprints Wright usually left near the playground weren’t there.

“I missed you out there,” the boy said.

“I’m sorry, buddy,” Wright replied.

The moment cemented what he had hoped going in — that his presence would be felt, and would make everyone feel safer.

That feeling is likely pervasive across not only Wesley Chapel, but also across Pasco County and the state. While Figueroa, Jackson and Wright wish the jobs they have and love weren’t necessary, they feel strongly that they are.

“I’m wholeheartedly into this program and feel strongly about it, but it is unfortunate that it is a necessity now,” Wright says. “It’s a shame our children have to be protected by a person like me, or a sheriff’s officer or police officer. But that’s what we’re here for, and that’s what we will do.”

Primary Elections Drove Record Number Of Local Voters To The Polls

 A substantial increase in primary voting in Pasco County is expected to be a bellwether for what could be one of the most anticipated general elections in recent memory on Tuesday, November 6.

Turnout for early voting, vote by mail and on primary election day on Aug. 28 were all higher than they were in 2016 in Pasco County and overall, 24.85 percent of registered voters cast ballots, compared to 18.64 percent in 2016 and 14.93 percent in 2014.

Pasco County Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley says overall numbers on Aug. 28 were up, due to the ease of voting, as well as the fact that voters seem to be more engaged this year than they have been in the past.

“There is a caveat,” he says. “While the needle is moving in the right direction and it’s a fantastic increase, that’s still only one in four people voting (in the primary election). It’s not time for confetti, but it is a step in the right direction.”

In Wesley Chapel, more than 10,000 votes were cast, or only 21.9 percent of registered voters. However, take away those not registered with either major party, of which only seven percent voted, and that number is better – 28.6 percent of registered Democrats and Republicans in Wesley Chapel’s voting precincts cast ballots in the primary.

Other than the primaries to choose gubernatorial candidates for each party, there were no hot intra-party races driving people to the polls, and Corley says that could mean a massive turnout for the general election, when the ballot will offer more choices and pit those political parties against each other.

Andrew Gillum

Those additional choices include two Pasco County Commission races that weren’t contested in the primaries, and what will be a heated U.S. Senate race between current Republican Governor Rick Scott and Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson, who has held his position since 2001.

The one race drawing national attention that is expected to drive people to the polls more than any other, however, will be the one to replace Gov. Scott as Florida Governor, between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum.

Gillum shocked almost everyone with a win in the primary to set up a showdown with the Donald Trump-endorsed DeSantis. Both candidates defeated establishment-backed candidates, setting the stage for an interesting battle that will match contenders from what many believe to be the party’s bases.

Gillum became Florida’s first-ever black gubernatorial candidate after he defeated favored Gwen Graham, the daughter of popular former Florida Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham.

Although he was fourth in many polls leading up to the primary vote and was outspent by Graham 6-to-1, there was talk of a Gillum surge in the final days, which turned out to be prescient.

Gillum captured 34.3 percent of the state-wide Democratic vote (or 517,834 votes of the 1,509,794 ballots cast). Graham finished second with 31.3 percent, while Phillip Levine (20.3 percent) and Jeff Greene (10 percent) rounded out the top candidates in the Democratic field.

Ron DeSantis

“People didn’t think we had a chance, but we did,” Gillum told CNN shortly after being declared the winner. “I think voters have had enough with the status quo.”

DeSantis, who was first elected to Congress in 2012, represents the Daytona Beach area and originally ran for the U.S. Senate in 2016, when it appeared that Marco Rubio, coming off an unsuccessful presidential campaign, was not going to run. Once Rubio re-entered the race, DeSantis exited it.

Running behind former Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam at the time, DeSantis fully embraced an endorsement from President Trump in the spring and it shot him into a lead he never relinquished.

DeSantis was the choice of 913,955 of Florida’s Republican voters out of 1,618,372 who cast ballots in the primary, or 56.4 percent. The previously favored Putnam was a distant second with 36.5 percent.

Pres. Trump congratulated DeSantis on the win the night of the primaries, and the next morning, the president attacked Gillum, calling him DeSantis’, “biggest dream
a failed Socialist Mayor who has allowed crime and & other problems to flourish in his city.”

Local Results

In Pasco County, however, Graham was the decisive winner over Gillum, garnering almost twice as many votes, beating the eventual nominee 42.7 percent to 25.1 percent.

In Wesley Chapel, though, Gillum was as clear a choice for Democrats as DeSantis was for Republicans. Both candidates were the top vote-getters in nine of Wesley Chapel’s 13 voting precincts, and both received 54 percent of the votes cast for the top two finishers.

In other races, Allen Altman won a fourth term on the Pasco County School Board with 57 percent of the vote, beating challengers Ken Mathis (23 percent) and Brian Staver (20 percent) for the District 1 seat, joining fellow incumbent Cynthia Armstrong, who retained her District 3 seat. 

Tara O’Connor and Megan Harding, who both received 37 percent of the vote for the District 5 seat, will run-off against each other on Nov. 6 because neither passed the 50-percent threshold in the primary.

A pair of Republican county commissioners did not have primary challenges and will be defending their seats on Nov. 6 – Mike Moore, who represents most of Wesley Chapel in District 2, and District 4’s Mike Wells. They will be running against Democrats Kelly Smith and Brandi Geoit, respectively.