The nation’s largest food drive is held each year when the National Association of Letter Carriers collects non-perishable donations along their postal routes in the “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive. In Wesley Chapel, this year’s drive got a helping hand from some local Boy Scouts.
The boys are from Troop 2 in Wesley Chapel, which meets at Atonement Lutheran Church on S.R. 54. The boys, all 11-17 years old, gathered at the local post office to help with the big job of sorting and packing food to be delivered to local food banks, pantries and shelters.
Some of the boys’ parents and other family members and friends helped, too. All of the volunteers, together, handled 16,228 pounds of food.
“The Boy Scouts of America’s slogan is ‘Do a Good Turn Daily,’” says Earle McDonald, a parent and committee member for Troop 2. “These boys went above and beyond that Saturday. The donations they helped pack will provide more than 13,000 meals to families in need in our area.”
McDonald encourages anyone who is interested in learning more about Boy Scouts to visit Scouting.org. “If a boy you know is interested in joining Troop 2,” he says, “come to one of our meetings, held Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m. at Atonement Lutheran Church (on S.R. 54). — CM
J.D. Porter says big things are coming to Wiregrass Ranch, including Raymond James.
Following almost five years of discussions and anticipation — mixed in with a nice-sized helping of doubt — the long-talked-about Raymond James Financial campus is one huge step closer to becoming a reality at the corner of S.R. 56 and Mansfield Blvd.
Wiregrass Ranch developer JD Porter finally received the news two weeks ago that he has been waiting more than two years for, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has proffered an environmental permit for the 65 acres of property just east of the Shops at Wiregrass mall.
“We were all thrilled, everyone in the family,’’ said Porter, the owner and operator of Wiregrass Ranch Inc. “We worked very, very closely with the Army engineers, and it is nice to finally reach a resolution.”
Porter joked in April at a Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) Economic Development meeting that he was tired of hearing about the delays involving Raymond James, but insisted (as he has many times in the past) that the facility was still imminent. He predicted then he would have the Army Corps permit in a few weeks, and though it took just a little bit longer he is now ready to proceed.
“Right now, we have all the permits in hand to proceed forward,’’ Porter said.
The St. Petersburg-based financial services company has been working for several years on the process with the Porter family and, in early 2011, agreed to purchase the land at an undisclosed price, provided the permitting could be completed.
The deal was approved by the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) later that year. In exchange for $15-million in incentives and tax breaks, the county would reap the benefits of what would eventually be planned as six four-story buildings totaling roughly 1-million-sq.-ft., and housing 750 employees by 2024, which will inject millions into the county tax rolls.
Although the Raymond James campus was originally scheduled to begin building in 2012, with the first 100 employees arriving by 2014, the project stalled.
In 2014, a few months after another financial firm, T. Rowe Price, jettisoned its plans to build on 72 acres near the Suncoast Pkwy., Raymond James postponed its project. But, the financial services giant did say it still had plans for the property.
Now, there is renewed optimism that Raymond James will make the impact promised years ago.
“I’m glad that’s over and done with,’’ said District 2 commissioner Mike Moore. “The economic impact will be huge for Pasco County as a whole. There will be nothing bigger in the county.”
Moore said Raymond James will become the largest non-governmental employer in Pasco. “And, anytime you bring in a large employer like that, things start to happen around it,’’ he says.
Bill Cronin, the new president and CEO of the Pasco Economic Development Council (EDC), said when he started in January, one of his first meetings was with Raymond James, citing the importance of getting the company here.
“The investment by Raymond James will be one that, when other companies look to grow here, they will see that someone else has blazed that trail for them,’’ Cronin said. “It will make my job a little easier, to show people there are others that have made this positive decision.”
He added, “Success begets success.”
The next step for Porter will be to re-negotiate the development agreement and adjust some of the original timelines with the BOCC, which will likely take place in the next month or so.
“That triggers the closing,’’ Porter said.
Porter thinks the addition of the financial facility is a major piece of what he hopes the Wiregrass Ranch area will become, as it should drive up home sales and makes the area more attractive to other businesses.
“I think whether we’re talking Raymond James, or the mall or Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, the state college, you are looking at the kinds of things that define cities and define regions,’’ Porter says. “We’re lucky to land four of them in a short time, when some communities don’t have this after 30 or 40 years.”
A tray of fresh blueberries. Florida fruits, food production. UF/IFAS Photo by Tyler Jones.
With consumers looking for more locally-sourced food, small businesses offering products made from local produce and meats are becoming more common.
Called “cottage food” operations, these businesses produce small-scale, local food, where raw ingredients are processed in a way that adds value to the final product, such as creating cheese from milk or jam from berries.
Starting this type of business can be daunting, so the Tampa Bay Cottage Industry Expo will help those who are new in the industry learn what they need to know about food safety, regulations, and marketing, to get their business off the ground.
The expo will be held on Saturday, July 30, at Wiregrass Ranch High, located at 2909 Mansfield Blvd., beginning at 9 a.m. It’s open to anyone interested in cottage food operations.
“We want to enable people with a good idea to hit the ground running,” says event organizer Dr. Whitney Elmore of the University of Florida Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) extension office in Pasco County. “We can provide the ‘do’s and help you avoid the ‘don’t’s when it comes to rules and regulations, and share best practices for marketing, including social media.”
Elmore says her office and the UF/IFAS extension offices in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties are working together to put on this expo in respond to a need. “We are constantly getting calls and people walking in who are asking how to get started, especially when it comes to rules, regulations and safety concerns.”
The expo is for small business owners – or people looking to start their own business – in fruits and vegetables, livestock, and hydroponics, which is a way of growing food in water without soil. Sessions will include topics such as agriculture production, legal and regulatory considerations, and marketing.
Fish fedding on roots of lettuce.
In Pasco County, Elmore says there are many you-pick blueberry farms, and when they have leftover berries at the end of the season, they also have a dilemma. What to do? “Farmers can turn their leftover blueberries into jams and jellies and sell them at a premium. Our goal is to have no waste.” Just like turning the proverbial lemons into lemonade, Elmore explains, the farmers turn their berries into “useful, high-dollar commodities.”
She says these businesses are important to the economy in Pasco County. “People are looking for locally sourced food, and they are willing to pay more for it,” Elmore says. “We want to keep our food local, produce it locally, and keep the money associated with it local.”
Some of the expo attendees are people who only have an idea and no experience in the market, while others have decades of experience in growing food or raising livestock, but are looking to improve or expand their business.
“In some cases, we’re helping people achieve a lifelong dream,” says Elmore.
Food trucks will be on site throughout the event, offering lunch, snacks and drinks for sale.
Anyone who has not yet registered for the Tampa Bay Cottage Industry Expo but would like to attend can register on-site at the opening of the event. The fee to attend for the day is $30, and event organizers ask that you be prepared to pay by credit card, as cash will not be accepted.
Dem. Lisa Montelione no longer has to worry about a primary challenge and is now set to face off against Rep. incumbent Shawn Harrison in the Florida House District 63 race.
Although it wasn’t much of a surprise, Mike Reedy, who was Montelione’s only Democrat primary challenger, dropped out of the Florida House District 63 race on June 24. That leaves just Montelione, who resigned her Tampa City Council seat last month, against Harrison, the Republican incumbent, on Nov. 8.
Reedy informed his followers that he was bowing out, and endorsed Montelione in the process.
“I wanted to personally let you know that today I have decided to end my campaign for the Florida House,’’ Reedy wrote to supporters via his Facebook page. “When I started this campaign, it was because I felt District 63 deserved an advocate in Tallahassee — someone who would fight for innovative job creation, smart budgeting and fair taxes; lead initiatives to make college more affordable, and see to it that working and middle-class families like my own are heard in Tallahassee.”
Reedy was far behind in fund raising for his race, having only brought in roughly $20,000, while Montelione raised $6,360 last month ($1,818.40 of that was from the Florida Democratic Party), to bring her total to nearly $65,000 cash on hand.
Harrison, meanwhile, has raised $164,755, including $135,000 cash on hand. He raised $9,400 last month, completing the best three-month period of fund raising he has enjoyed. Combined with April and May’s numbers, Harrison raised a little more than $51,000 over the past three months.
The Ever-Expanding Field
New Tampa emergency room physician and long-time Hunter’s Green resident Jim Davison, M.D., is the latest entry in the special election to fill the remaining two years of Montelione’s District 7 seat on the Tampa City Council. Dr. Davison turned in his Statement of Candidate form on June 30, two days after Arbor Greene’s Avis Harrison turned in hers.
That brings the total to six candidates trying to capture the non-partisan seat, a field that also includes Cory Lake Isles (CLI) resident Dr. Cyril Spiro, who works in health care data analytics and chairs the CLI Community Development District (CDD) Board; Tampa Palms resident and lawyer Luis Viera; Tampa Palms resident and La Gaceta assistant editor Gene Siudut; and retired police officer and community activist Orlando Gudes, who resides in the Copeland Park area between Busch Blvd. and Fowler Ave.
Like most of the other candidates, Dr. Davison, 61, says transportation will be one of his key issues, and he doesn’t lack for experience in that department.
He was a Tampa City Council appointee to the “Committee of 99,” a transportation panel formed in 1999 by then-Hillsborough County administrator Dan Kleman to find solutions to transportation problems throughout the county. Dr. Davison also wasthe co-founder and first chairman of the New Tampa Transportation Task Force.
He has been active in most of the transportation issues affecting New Tampa, where he and his wife Diane and their four children have lived for 23 years, working for advisory boards and task forces. He supported the recent Tampa Bay Express (TBX) vote, which passed, and worked against GO Hillsborough, which failed.
Dr. Davison has twice unsuccessfully run for county commission, in 2002 and 2004. In 2002, he came in third (with 25 percent of the vote) in the GOP primary for the District 2 Hillsborough County Commission seat won by Ken Hagan, and in 2004, Davison lost to Mark Sharpe in the countywide District 7 GOP primary.
Avis Harrison officially announced her candidacy via a media release July 8. A Pensacola native, Harrison has been a member of the New Tampa Junior Women’s Club and serves as a home school evaluator. She also is the photo chairperson and a member of the Parent Teacher Association at Corbett Preparatory School in Tampa.
Recently widowed, Harrison has three children ages 19, 26 and 31, and is currently raising her 6-year-old granddaughter.
Other Fund-Raising Results
Viera opened his campaign with a huge fund-raising haul, taking in a little over $33,000 (of which $3,000 were in-kind donations) in
Luis Viera had a big fundraising haul in June.
June. Viera says that he has recently garnered the support of former State Senator James Hargrett and former Tampa City Council member Rudy Fernandez.
Spiro raised $9,094 in June, with $4,600 of that total coming in the form of three donations he made to his campaign. Spiro now has $17,526 cash on hand after two months of fund raising.
Gudes raised $7,806 in June, followed by Siudut with $6,665 and Harrison with $2,700, $1,000 of which was in the form of personal loan to her campaign.
Caetano On The Ballot For School Board Again
Former Tampa City Council member and Bostonian Hair Salon owner Joseph Caetano has qualified to be on the Nov. 8 ballot as one of eight candidates vying for the countywide District 7 seat on the Hillsborough County School Board being vacated by Carol Kurdell.
This is the second attempt (the first was in 1996) at a School Board run by the long-time New Tampa resident, who last served in the Dist. 7 City Council in 2011. — GN
Freedom senior Taylor Blair (second from the left, front row) went with 12 students and eight adults to Flint & Detroit, MI, with the Ryan Nece Foundation this summer to lend a hand.
Taylor Blair, a senior at Freedom High in Tampa Palms, recently traveled to Flint, MI, to work with local organizations trying to mitigate the city’s ongoing water crisis and help residents of the area.
Blair was part of a group of 12 students and eight adults from the Ryan Nece Foundation, including founder Ryan Nece and CEO Shelley Sharp, and several board members. Nece, who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beginning in 2002 and was part of team that won Super Bowl XXVII, started the foundation in 2006. Nece was released by the Bucs before the 2008 season, then played for the Detroit Lions for one season. The group from his foundation traveled to Michigan June 12-16 and, in addition to their projects in Flint, the students also volunteered in Detroit, about an hour away.
Blair says the first day in Flint, the group assembled rain barrels that collect and filter rainwater to make it useable for watering gardens. The next day, they delivered the barrels to residents affected by the water crisis and helped in community gardens by weeding and planting.
“It was eye-opening,” Blair says. “It was hard to believe, with all the luxuries that we have in our day-to-day lives, that in other parts of the same country, there are these types of communities where (so many) people are in need.”
Sharp says the students helped citizens and worked on sustainability projects, such as urban gardening. “We worked with a wonderful organization called Edible Flint that encourages gardening,” Sharp explains, including fundraising before the trip to buy all of the materials and supplies for the rain barrels.
Blair says that after two days in Flint, the group spent the next day in Detroit, and she and her fellow students were shocked at the conditions they experienced. “To an extent, some of the conditions were as bad as a third world country,” she explains. “For example, we were in a neighborhood where there weren’t very many grocery stores, because the people are so poor they can’t buy enough food (to support the store). So, we worked with a program called Greening of Detroit that’s helping people to start gardens to grow healthy food.”
Blair was touched by the examples of generosity they saw, such as the woman who appeared to be in need herself, however, “She said that if anyone is hungry, they can come and take something from her garden.”
The trip was the final event in a year of learning and service that Blair and the other students had just completed as part of the Ryan Nece Foundation’s flagship program, called the Student Service Program. “It’s a two-year program for high school juniors and seniors,” explains Sharp, who says students apply at the end of their sophomore year and are chosen based on their leadership skills and commitment to service.
“At the end of their first year, the program culminates with a service learning trip outside of our area,” Sharp adds. “It’s a real eye opener to the needs of the community.”
Blair says she heard about the program through the college and career counselor at her school. “It sounded like it was very similar to my personal interests,” she says. “So, I applied and, fortunately, I got in.”
Blair spent the last year learning about servant leadership and practicing skills she was taught through the Student Service Program at local service projects.
“We focus on leadership and service,” Blair explains. “Every month we have a class where we learn about one of the principals from the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens (by Sean Covey, 1998). Business leaders from the community come in and teach us skills, and then we do community service projects.”
As a group, Blair says, “We look for opportunities to give back to the community and help people in need, and we talk about the power of giving.”
She says her favorite local project was when the group worked with The Spring of Tampa Bay, a residential facility for victims of domestic violence. “First, we learned about domestic violence with both adults and teens, and how to identify when it’s happening,” Blair says, explaining they were taught how to identify “little red flags” that indicate someone might be a victim of domestic violence. She says the group then worked in The Spring’s thrift shop to provide support to that organization, and filmed a public service announcement about teen dating violence.
Sharp says the highlight of each year is the annual trip outside of the Tampa Bay area. For the past couple of years, the foundation’s trip has been to the Dominican Republic. However, she explains that this year, concerns about the Zika virus prompted the group to plan a trip inside the U.S. instead.
“It was a surprise to learn that we were going to Flint instead of the Dominican Republic, and saddening because we had heard so much about that trip from the students who’ve gone in the past,” says Blair, “but then, we were excited because we would get to help people in a poorer community here in the U.S.”
When asked if the time she spent learning leadership skills and working on service projects was overwhelming for a busy high school student, Blair says, “It wasn’t too time consuming because it was so much fun and so interesting.” She adds that she’ll spend the next year serving as a mentor to the new students who were recently chosen for the program and will continue to participate in the foundation’s service projects.
The nation’s largest food drive is held each year when the National Association of Letter Carriers collects non-perishable donations along their postal routes in the “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive. In Wesley Chapel, this year’s drive got a helping hand from some local Boy Scouts.
“The Boy Scouts of America’s slogan is ‘Do a Good Turn Daily,’” says Earle McDonald, a parent and committee member for Troop 2. “These boys went above and beyond that Saturday. The donations they helped pack will provide more than 13,000 meals to families in need in our area.”
Although the Raymond James campus was originally scheduled to begin building in 2012, with the first 100 employees arriving by 2014, the project stalled.
