Incoming WC Rotary Club president Dr. Pablo Rivera (right) and current president Erin Meyer, at the club’s meeting at Quail Hollow Country Club in Wesley Chapel on May 11.
The Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon has been forced to cancel the 2016 Freedom Fest, which had been scheduled for July 2, after the host site pulled out.
‘The Grove (at WC shopping plaza) just pulled out on us,” said Dr. Pablo Rivera, the club’s incoming president for the 2016-17 Rotary year & the event co-chair. “I literally have major sponsor checks inbound to us as we speak that I now have to return.” The club was hoping to have those sponsors instead sponsor the upcoming Duck Derby.
Rivera said the club tried to quickly relocate the event to a few other locations (including near the Tampa Premium Outlet Mall), “but we can’t pull off a (venue) change by July 2 (the scheduled date for the 2016 Freedom Fest).”
The event had previously been held at the Shops of Wiregrass mall, last year drawing an estimated 50,000 people to the July 3 event and raising more than $25,000 for the club’s selected charitable causes.
The club’s first-ever Duck Derby will be held on Saturday, May 21, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., lakeside at Hungry Harry’s BBQ on U.S.41 in Land O’Lakes. The top prize for the Duck Derby will be $2,500, with more than two dozen other prizes available.
“We’re now focused on making the first Duck Derby another major fund-raising event for our club’s selected charities,” Rivera said.
Current club president Erin Meyer added, “We still plan to host a fifth annual Freedom Fest next year.”
John and Alissa Holcomb with their children (l.-r.) Isaac, Annlee, Jacob and Aliah.
Alissa Holcomb sat in church on Mother’s Day in 2011, when Pastor James Dodzweit asked for all the mothers in attendance to stand and be acknowledged.
That morning, Alissa had suffered her third miscarriage.
She stayed in her seat.
Her story, and journey, started right there.
That summer, Alissa and her husband John had all but given up on having children. Married in 2004, they started trying to make a family in 2006. Alissa had already been through two miscarriages, but the third one, on that Mother’s Day in 2011, was the cruelest of them all.
“Lord, what do you have in store?,’’ she prayed.
They agreed to stop trying for a baby. The pressure, and heartbreaking failures, had become too much.
So, they turned to adoption, which Alissa says they had always planned to do, in addition to having their own babies anyway. Alissa had her heart set on adopting a baby, but twice, when they thought they were close, a pair of matches fell through.
They came to a halting revelation: “Maybe we’re not going to be parents,” she recalls.
But, Alissa continued to attend adoption classes. She learned that older sets of biological siblings were the hardest kids to find homes for, and also the most plentiful in the adoption system. So, while she desired a baby, she came home one night from class and told John she might be open to adopting somewhat older siblings.
She didn’t share this with anyone. And yet, strangely, the adoption agency, which knew she was only looking for a baby, called soon after her conversation with John to ask if she would be interested in a five-year-old African-American boy and his four-year-old sister.
In October 2011, she met Isaac and Aliah, and on Dec. 3, the children moved into their home. She had her kids. She was a mother.
A week later, Alissa found out she was pregnant.
***
With a Dollar Store pregnancy test in the bathroom of a Cracker Barrel, Alissa confirmed the suspicion she had an hour earlier by the sickness she says she felt after catching a whiff of a soiled diaper.
Her previous pregnancy tests had taken longer to reveal a thin double line. This one was instant and “darker than dark.”
She was dumbfounded. She went to the doctor for a quick blood test to confirm, and then met her husband at Walmart, where he was shopping. She surprised him with a baby Christmas stocking.
When he looked inside, he saw the pregnancy test.
“It was crazy, just crazy,’’ she said. “I mean, that’s not a plan. That’s not how this is supposed to happen. But, because of our faith, we felt this was totally God, they way he had orchestrated the whole thing.”
On March 7, 2012, the Holcombs’ adoption of Isaac and Aliah was made official. She spent her first-ever Mother’s Day pregnant with Jacob, eating breakfast in bed, compliments of Isaac and Aliah.
***
Alissa works as the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel area director for Young Life, a national, non-denominational Christian ministry dedicated to introducing teenagers to Jesus and helping them grow in their faith.
She doesn’t share the same birthing story most moms do. There are no straight lines from moment to moment, just roadblocks and obstacles and twisting paths headed seemingly nowhere, until they all headed somewhere.
“The moment I laid eyes on Isaac and Aliah, and other adoptive parents can speak to this too, it was like a unique birthing experience,’’ Alissa says. “We were overcome by emotion. We knew. These are our kids.”
Jacob, who was born in July of 2012, made Alissa a mom again. And, after giving up on having a fourth child, the Holcombs found out — surprise — in 2015 that she was pregnant with Annlee, who is now 9 months old.
“It’s been a crazy journey,’’ Alissa said, “and I’m really grateful. As hard as it’s been, I’m really grateful for the (now four) children I have.”
Alissa works hard at making her family work. Despite her biological attachments to two of her children, she has worked hard at ensuring that she has that same feeling of attachment with Isaac and Aliah. They come from hard places.They have questions. The Holcombs attend family counseling to help seek those answers out.
“Being parents is the hardest thing we’ve ever done,’’ Alissa says. “But, we are committed to the overall health of the family. It’s a work in progress.”
***
For Alissa, Mother’s Day brings on a wave of emotions. It it is a reminder of pain and suffering, but mostly of hope and salvation. She thinks there were reasons for everything, from the miscarriages to failed adoptions to her change of heart that brought Isaac and Ali
ah into her heart, to her first and second successful pregnancies.
Since that lowest point in 2011 when Mother’s Day was only a reminder of failure, it now brings her joy.
Just a year after that, when Pastor James asked all the mothers to stand, she jumped to her feet, smiling, with one thought:
“Oh my gosh,’’ she thought, “I’m here, and I’m a mom.”
Public transportation accommodation, utilizing overpasses to cut down on intersection congestion, express lanes and even the potential of toll roads and rail are all included in concepts that could greatly improve the traffic on S.R.s 54 and 56, as Phase I of the “Vision 54/56” study is all but complete and headed to the Pasco County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO).
“Hopefully, they will tell us to move forward to Phase II,’’ says Pasco transportation engineer Ali Atefi.
In Phase II, the MPO would be looking at five alternative intersection improvements — a no-build alternative will not be forwarded — that could have an eventual effect on Wesley Chapel, specifically at S.R. 54 and Wesley Chapel Blvd. and at S.R. 56 and Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd.
If the MPO approves, Phase II will see the Vision 54/56 Taskforce look at further modifications while fleshing out more details and also studying other alternatives. Phase II also will involve broader public involvement, including online surveys.
Other aspects of improving the 54/56 corridor, such as meeting federal requirements for environmental standards and the effects on local businesses and properties, as well as funding, will be tackled during a later phase.
“We’re not getting into funding yet, that’s for a different time,’’ Atefi says. “At this point, the objective is to figure out what people want 54 to look like.”
Atefi stresses that the existing six lanes of S.R. 54/56 will stay the way they are and will always be free of charge, although some alternatives could involve additional toll roads or express lanes.
“There could be exclusives lanes for busses or there can be a rail at this point, we don’t know,’’ Atefi says. “In all cases, we are keeping the existing six lanes. We will keep it the way it is, free of charge. Anything we add will be an addition to what people already have.”
Studying The Studies
As part of the MPO’s “Mobility 2040” Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), the Vision 54/56 study has been conducted using two task forces: one to study the corridor east of U.S. 41 to Bruce B. Downs (which includes the Wesley Chapel area), and another to study the area from U.S. 41 west to U.S. 19.
Prior to the study, Atefi said Pasco’s population is expected to grow to 905,000 by 2040 (from the current population of 490,000), and 135,000 of those new residents are expected to move into the S.R. 54/56 corridor.
“That’s 35-percent of the county’s growth,” Atefi says. “Imagine if development moves faster.”
Each Task Force was comprised of nine individuals from local Chambers of Commerce and civic groups. The task force that represented Wesley Chapel included Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) CEO Hope Allen, Sandy Graves of the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce (CPCC), Steve White of the Pasco Alliance of Community Associations (PACA), the Pasco Economic Development Council (EDC)’s Brent Nye (who is also a member of the Wesley Chapel Noon Rotary Club), project developer Joe Cimino, MPO Citizen Advisory Committee members Christie Zimmer and Rob Sercu, as well as citizens-at-large Debby Catanzaro and former Wesley Chapel Noon Rotary president Kelly Mothershead.
“It was an honor to serve on this task force,’’ Allen said recently. “We are literally paving the way to our future…One major sticking point for me was to ensure whatever alternatives we presented, fit well with the overall master plan for our region.”
At their March 31 meeting, the East Task Force concluded its survey results, with Alternative H — which calls for maintaining six general purpose lanes and an At Grade (ground level) exclusive land for BRT or rail transportation – receiving the highest marks.
“This was the only truly At Grade alternative where there is no elevated structure involved,’’ says Atefi.
Alternative J, which called little or no action on the corridor, just maintaining the six lanes already in existence and maintaining local bus routes, scored second-highest.
Alternative F, modeled after much of the work on U.S. 19 in Pinellas County (Clearwater in particular) in which an overpass would feature six east-west lanes, but be subject to either a toll lane or express lane with high-occupancy rules, was the third choice of the task force
Alternative B did not score in the top 3, but might be the most ambitious of the alternatives. It features six lanes of traffic going in both east and west directions, with one additional express lane which busses could also utilize. Because is it elevated, Alternative B also includes a facility/tower for pedestrians to reach the overpass so they can ride public transportation.
Like Alternative F, Alternative B’s express lanes would need to be enforced to make it effective.
“You cannot have an express lane everybody uses, so you have to (enforce) special things, like all express lanes have to be high-occupancy vehicles (2-3 passengers) or, say you have to pay a toll,’’ Atefi says. “It has to be a special thing so you keep the integrity of express lanes intact.”
The task forces met over the course of seven months at Rasmussen College (off S.R. 54) in Land O’Lakes. Atefi says that many on the east task force have expressed interest in continuing forward in Phase II.
“On a scale of 1-10, I would rate it as a 10,’’ Atefi says of the task force’s work so far. “We educated them, they learned and they accomplished what we wanted them to accomplish. I can’t complain.”
For more information, please visit Vision54-56.com.
After weeks of research by the Wesley Chapel and Central Pasco Chambers of Commerce to help Pasco County staffers determine the borders of Wesley Chapel and Lutz/Land O’Lakes — which included bringing in local historians and combing through old newspaper archives — both organizations found out recently it was a wasted effort.
Bottom line? Barring a successful effort to incorporate either area, there will be no defined borders for Wesley Chapel or Lutz/Land O’Lakes.
Are the two intersections shown above in Wesley Chapel or Lutz/Land O’Lakes? Pasco County: ‘We won’t define a border.’
In fact, new Pasco Planning & Development administrator Kristen Hughes said defined borders were never going to happen, because that is not the job of the county.
But, that was news to the WCCC and CPCC, as the leaders of both Chambers were left scratching their heads.
“Each group had an opportunity to present their side and their information,’’ said WCCC CEO Hope Allen, after getting the bad news. “We were all under the impression there would be a resolution and the county would be the deciding factor and we would live with whatever the county decided. Toward the end, the county said that wasn’t going to be the case.”
Pasco County planner Matt Armstrong met with both sides in February and said in March he was still collecting data and that, “Ultimately, we will be bringing a report to the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) with a recommendation on what we think the boundaries (should) be.”
But, between then and our press time, Pasco County attorneys stepped in and said defining borders to settle the dispute was not the job of the county.
The border decision, which had been expected for more than a month to be voted on by the BCC at their April 26 meeting, never made it onto the agenda.
“Yeah, I was surprised,’’ said Allen. “It would have been nice to know that. We spent lot of time on this. We were following the lead of the county.”
Calls to Armstrong were returned by Hughes, who said, “We are not going to define a border.’’
Hughes also was critical of local reporting on this issue, claiming that of all things he has read, half were wrong. He also claimed defined borders were never on the table, even though the WCCC and CPCC were working specifically on that issue. “But, that was our impression,’’ Allen says.
The debate over what area defined Wesley Chapel and what area defined Lutz-Land O’Lakes was sparked in January by a request to the BCC from the CPCC to rename the southern end of Wesley Chapel Blvd. as it crossed southbound over S.R. 56, to be more representative of the Lutz-Land O’Lakes area.
That debate over renaming the road was tabled until the BCC could research the issue. Board members decided that defining the borders between the two unincorporated Census Designated Places (CDPs) — Lutz/Land O’Lakes and Wesley Chapel — needed to be settled first, setting off the fact-finding missions by all involved.
Representatives of Lutz/Land O’Lakes believe their border extends west to I-75. The Wesley Chapel side thinks its western border extends to Wesley Chapel Blvd. So, the area between S.R. 54/Wesley Chapel Blvd. and I-75, which currently have Lutz (33559) and Land O’Lakes (34639) addresses, has been at the heart of the dispute.
Both areas are unincorporated, meaning neither is governed by a local municipal corporation, but rather, in this case, by the county. Hughes cited poet Robert Frost in saying, “Good fences make good neighbors,” saying the solution lies in resolving the differences between the two Chambers.
“Our objectives are, one, we really are about getting people to hold hands and work together to achieve a common goal,’’ Hughes says. “And second, helping communities find their hearts. Where is their center, what is their identity, and how do you want to build that out?”
Pasco County currently only has six incorporated areas — the cities of Zephyrhills, Dade City, San Antonio, Port Richey and New Port Richey, and the incorporated town of Saint Leo.
The rest of the county is comprised of unincorporated CDPs like Wesley Chapel, Land O’Lakes/Lutz, Trinity and Hudson, to name a few. Armstrong said that 450,000 of the 490,000 people living in Pasco today reside in those currently unincorporated areas, with only 40,000 residing in the municipalities.
Hughes said he has heard there is a group looking into incorporating Wesley Chapel, in which case a discussion and vote on the requested borders would be taken. But, there hasn’t been any official action that he knows of…yet.
“It is my understanding (that there are people looking into it),’’ Allen said. “I don’t know if there’s a collective group, per se, but it is being discussed in different conversations. But, our Chamber has not taken a position on it.”
Some of the same concerns remain, but the entire debate seems to be back where it started — Wesley Chapel Blvd.
“We were opposed to the renaming of the southern portion of Wesley Chapel Blvd., and we are still opposed to that renaming,’’ Allen said.
Allen said the WCCC has reached out to the CPCC and asked that the leadership from both organizations sit down and look for resolutions to some of the issues between them.
Which, Hughes would say, beats drawing borders any day.
A Paul R. Wharton High student was stabbed several times by another student Thursday afternoon, suffering non-life threatening injuries.
According to the Hillsborough County’s Sheriff’s Office (HCSO), at approximately 2 p.m., two students got into a verbal confrontation which soon escalated into a physical fight. A 15-year-old student armed himself with a steak knife he had on his person — approximately eight inches in total length with a 4-inch serrated blade — and he stabbed the 14-year-old victim multiple times.
The 15-year-old then hid the knife in the nearby boys bathroom trash can, but it was recovered at the scene.
The 14-year-old victim was transported from the New Tampa school to Tampa General Hospital.
The suspect in the attack has been arrested and charged with Aggravated Battery with a Deadly Weapon, Tampering with Evidence and Possession of a Weapon on School Grounds.
She was dumbfounded. She went to the doctor for a quick blood test to confirm, and then met her husband at Walmart, where he was shopping. She surprised him with a baby Christmas stocking.
ture…One major sticking point for me was to ensure whatever alternatives we presented, fit well with the overall master plan for our region.”
Alternative F, modeled after much of the work on U.S. 19 in Pinellas County (Clearwater in particular) in which an overpass would feature six east-west lanes, but be subject to either a toll lane or express lane with high-occupancy rules, was the third choice of the task force
“You cannot have an express lane everybody uses, so you have to (enforce) special things, like all express lanes have to be high-occupancy vehicles (2-3 passengers) or, say you have to pay a toll,’’ Atefi says. “It has to be a special thing so you keep the integrity of express lanes intact.”
A Paul R. Wharton High student was stabbed several times by another student Thursday afternoon, suffering non-life threatening injuries.