Category: News

Former Police Officer And Youth Football Coach Eyeing District 7

district 7 race — Orlando Gudes will run for the City Council District 7 seat.

Orlando Gudes says he is all about the people, and all about his community.

He thinks he can help uplift both as a Tampa City Council member.

Gudes told the Neighborhood News that he intends to run for the District 7 Tampa City Council seat that will be soon vacated by Lisa Montelione, who has filed to challenge Shawn Harrison for the Florida House District 63 seat in November. State law requires that Montelione resign and vacate her council seat by June 10 of this year.

Gudes, a retired Tampa police officer and Director of the United Youth Football Conference, joins a field of prospective candidates for the municipal elections next March that already includes Cory Lake Isles Community Development District (CDD) chair Dr. Cyril Spiro, and recent Tampa Palms resident and La Gaceta (Tampa’s largest Spanish language newspaper) assistant to the editor Gene Siudut.

Tampa Palms resident and lawyer Luis Viera also has expressed interest in representing District 7, which runs north from Waters Ave. to County Line Rd., including Forest Hills, Terrace Park, New Tampa and the University of South Florida.

Gudes, who helps run his family’s Gudes Funeral Home on E. Hillsborough Ave., is the first non-New Tampa resident that we know of with intentions to run for Montelione’s seat. Gudes has lived in North Tampa (between Fowler Ave. and Busch Blvd., in the Copeland Park area) for 16 years.

“The heart of North Tampa,’’ he calls it.

He said that as a police officer, youth football coach and organizer, and mentor to countless children and adults, public service is in his blood. He sees a division between North Tampa, New Tampa and other parts of District 7, a gap he would like to bridge.

“It’s a unique district,’’ said the 48-year-old Gudes. “To me, I feel the district has become kind of divided and I don’t think it should be. New Tampa, University area, whatever you want to call it, we’re all in the same district. I don’t believe the area you live in defines you, rich or poor. We’re all people. We should all be helping each other.”

Gudes says there isn’t a door in North Tampa he probably hasn’t knocked on at some time or another, and few residents he hasn’t met.

A Tampa Bay Tech High (on Orient Rd. in Tampa) graduate, Gudes attended Bethune-Cookman College (now University) in Daytona Beach, before transferring back home and receiving his Associate of Arts degree from Saint Leo University near Dade City. He also says he has a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Behavorial Science and a Master’s degree in human resource administration from National Louis University in Tampa.

Gudes served nine years as a school resource officer in the late-1990s, early-2000s before “returning to the streets” and becoming a master patrol officer.

In 2004, Gudes started the Unity Youth Football Conference (UYFC), to give local children a flag and tackle football league that they could afford and that was in their community.

The UYFC instituted study halls and grade-point-average requirements, and helped keep kids out of trouble. A number of its players went on to become high school and college players, including Matt Jones, currently the starting running back for the NFL’s Washington Redskins.

While Gudes says he has some ideas about what he would like to accomplish as a City Council member, he plans on unveiling his platform after taking the pulse of the community. “This isn’t about me, it’s about them,’’ he says.

“The whole philosophy of our campaign, our whole mission is community, compassion and contribution,’’ Gudes says. “That’s my commitment to the people.”

Gudes also says he is planning to hold multiple “Chat and Chew With Gudes” meetings at which the community will be invited to discuss what they think its needs are. He says he wants to hold one in every part of District 7.

“Whether some of the things people want is attainable or not, they need someone to knock on those doors, to get them to open and to get people to listen to us,’’ Gudes says. “I’m not afraid to knock on those doors.”

Has The Bruce B. Downs Blvd. Segment D Widening Already Begun?

BBD widening — The next stage of Bruce B. Downs’ widening is underway.

Long rows of traffic cones and white barricades and a procession of construction trucks and workers have appeared recently north of Pebble Creek Dr. all the way up to County Line Rd. (Segment D) in New Tampa, as the Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. widening project begins to enter its final phases.

According to Hillsborough County community relations coordinator Andrea Roshaven, all the construction you are currently seeing north of Cross Creek Blvd. is Verizon doing advance utility locations in preparation for the actual widening of BBD from four lanes to eight.

Once Verizon has completed the work, construction is expected to begin in the fall of this year. “We haven’t awarded the work, but it is funded,’’ Roshaven said.

That will be welcome news to northbound travelers who have to deal with the stacking left lanes between the McDonald’s and Walmart on the west side of BBD. The bottlenecks and congestion in this area has been caused by BBD reducing from four northbound lanes down to two in less than half a mile.

Segment D, which is a little less than a mile-and-a-half stretch, is currently estimated to cost $21.6 million, although that figure could change once a contractor has been procured.

Meanwhile, work on Segment A, by Prince Contracting, also continues in earnest, as workers widen BBD from four to eight lanes from E. Bearss Ave. to Palm Springs Blvd. in Tampa Palms.

Recent work at Amberly Dr, was done to overbuild the existing roadway to match BBD, which was two feet higher after widening. Amberly Dr. was given a gradual grade for a smoother transition onto BBD. Similar elevation work was done at the Tampa Palms Blvd. and Cypress Preserve Dr. intersections with BBD.

More cones and barriers are in place from Tampa Palms Blvd. to Palm Springs Blvd., as the area is being prepped for the widening to complete the Segment A portion, a $55.5-million project which is still not expected to be finished until the summer of 2017.

“People will continue to see intermittent lane closures,’’ Roshaven says.

So what can commuters expect in the coming months? In late March or early April, there will be a lane switch south of the bridge over Cypress Creek (just south of Amberly Dr.) in order to vacate the northbound bridge section for demolition. The lane switch will take place between Cypress Creek and Cypress Preserve Dr., using the crossovers located at Cypress Creek and south of Cypress Preserve Dr.

The two lanes of southbound traffic will shift into the new permanent southbound lanes and the two lanes of northbound traffic will shift into the existing southbound lanes.

The county will be installing message boards in advance to alert drivers to the lane switch before it happens.

Segments B and C are all but completed. While work on the segments couldn’t be finished until the I-75 widening project between Fowler Ave. and S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel was completed last spring, John McShaffery, the Florida Department of Transportation spokesperson, says that other than some final pavement corrections, electrical work, lighting and the installation of traffic counter loops — “pretty much things that aren’t noticed too much.”— the work at I-75 and BBD is finished and will be 100-percent wrapped up by May, or “right on target.”

Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel Goes All Out For Heart Month!

Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC), which is, of course, currently being expanded, continues to be a great community partner, offering many opportunities for local residents to visit and learn more about this spectacular, technologically advanced, $150-million, 200,000-sq.-ft., 83-bed facility, which is adding 111,993 sq. ft. of new construction, as well as 10,834 sq. ft. of renovated space as we speak.

Although February was technically heart month, the hospital extended that month by a couple of weeks when president and CEO Denyse Bales-Chubb cut a ribbon (along with the Greater Wesley Chapel and Central Pasco Chambers of Commerce) on FHWC’s newly expanded cardiac cath lab (on Mar. 13), which has doubled in size.

“We’re so proud of all of our technological innovations here at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel,” Bales-Chubb said during the event, which also featured free food, door prizes and even a walk-through tour of a giant inflatable heart (at the far left in the header at the top of this page), so attendees could actually get a close-up look at how the human heart works.

In late February, FHWC hosted a cupcake-tasting contest, where Bales-Chubb, FHWC Executive Chef Jerry Dzialo, WCCC CEO Hope Allen and yours truly were the “celebrity” judges.

We sampled 20 different types of cupcakes, from my favorite with chocolate and peanut butter to the favorite of all four judges for appearance, the raspberry surprise cupcake shown top right in the header above.

After the judging, all of the more than 350 total cupcakes the hospital created for the event were sold and many of the flavors continue to be sold in the hospital’s café.

For more info about FHWC, including upcoming events like “Fun & Fancy: Ladies Night Out at FHWC” on Wed., Apr. 6, 5:30 p.m.-8 p.m., visit FloridaHospital.com/wesley-chapel or see this issue’s Community Calendar on pg. 20 for pre-registration info.

Wesley Chapel Borders To Be Defined By April?

Pasco County planner Matt Armstrong and Wesley Chapel borders — Pasco County planner Matt Armstrong hopes to settle the debate over Wesley Chapel borders.

Following presentations last month by both the Greater Wesley Chapel (WCCC) and Central Pasco (CPCC) Chambers of Commerce, the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) could be set Wesley Chapel borders with Lutz/Land O’Lakes that ultimately should finally settle a long-simmering dispute at the BCC’s monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 26.

The commissioners are expected to vote on a recommendation from Pasco planners on definitive borders between the two Census Designated Places (Wesley Chapel and Land O’Lakes/Lutz together are both CDPs) during the meeting at the West Pasco Government Center Board Room in New Port Richey.

Until then, county planners and administrators are poring over a stack of documents from each side — and even getting some help from the folks at Google maps —interpreting where those borders should be.

“We are looking to establish a city boundary by legislative action,’’ said Matt Armstrong, the county’s executive planner. “None of these areas that are Census Designated Places have that. That’s some of the reason people have struggled with this.”

After separate meetings with the two groups last month, Armstrong said representatives from both areas will meet with each other in the next few weeks, with the county’s planning department serving as the moderator.

“Ultimately, we will be bringing a report to the Board of County Commissioners with a recommendation on what we think the boundaries will be,’’ Armstrong says. “The Board can hear public comment, and then we will be asking them to establish the borders.”

When broken down, the primary dispute seems to be over the slice of land between Wesley Chapel Blvd. and I-75 in the Cypress Creek Town Center Development of Regional Impact (DRI), which has been exacerbated recently by the steady business development in the area.

Armstrong said he was at one recent border meeting where a representative from one of the new businesses on the east side of Wesley Chapel Blvd. said they were happy to “be here in Lutz.”

But, take a look at the web page for Culver’s, which calls its restaurant on E. Bearss Ave. in Tampa “Culver’s of Tampa,” its restaurant in Largo “Culver’s of Largo,” and its restaurant in Port Richey “Culver’s of Port Richey.” At its brand new location on S.R. 56 west of the Tampa Premium Outlets mall, however (which physically is located on Sun Vista Dr. in Lutz), it is called “Culver’s of Wesley Chapel.”

And it isn’t alone. While all of the area being debated by the WCCC and CPCC has either Land O’Lakes or Lutz addresses and zip codes, many businesses in the area identify themselves as being in Wesley Chapel.

“It’s just a mess,’’ Armstrong says.

Where Are The Wesley Chapel borders?

While the current debate is about borders, it originally began, as we detailed in our last issue, as a disagreement over the renaming of the Wesley Chapel Blvd. extension where the extension now crosses southbound over S.R. 56 and continues toward County Line Rd.

The southern portion of the extension, said CPCC member Sandy Graves at the time, needed to represent Lutz-Land O’Lakes, the area through which it cuts. A petition requesting that the name of the southern portion of the extension be changed to Circle O Ranch was presented to the BCC on Jan. 19. But, Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce CEO Hope Allen protested, saying it needed to remain Wesley Chapel Blvd., as all of the businesses in the area already call it that and have for years.

Instead of making a decision, the BCC decided to explore the issue further. The Board members decided that defining the borders between Lutz-Land O’Lakes and Wesley Chapel needed to be settled first.

That set off a fact-finding mission by each side, in an effort to buttress their respective arguments. 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, essentially, the area between Wesley Chapel Blvd. and I-75 is at the heart of the dispute.

The Wesley Chapel Chamber met with Armstrong and his staff Feb. 19, two weeks after he met with the CPCC.

“I think the meeting went fine,’’ said Allen. “I think we got our point across and delivered the message we went to deliver.”

Allen said her group presented a 70-page document backing their claims, as well as a 2005 Vision Report that the WCCC says was approved by Pasco commissioners.

The CPCC countered that its 2003 Vision Report was adopted first, and brought noted USF political science professor Susan McManus to its meeting with Armstrong to help make their case. McManus has co-written books on the history of Lutz and Land O’Lakes.

Armstrong jokes that he is becoming an expert on the histories of the two places, thanks to all of the material that has been presented to him to help settle the dispute, including volumes of McManus’ work, a trove of newspaper articles and even local historian Madonna Jervis Wise’s book on the history of Wesley Chapel (see pg. 1). The book, entitled Images of America: Wesley Chapel, says that Wesley Chapel was founded in the 1840s, and is shown on a 1879 survey map of Pasco County, before Land O’Lakes was established in 1949.

However, the dispute is not over what town existed first. And, even in carefully-researched historical records, there are no definitive boundaries laid out because neither area was ever incorporated, or essentially created as its own city with its own governmental structure.

But, the respective “hearts” of both areas — U.S. 41 in Land O’Lakes and the area around Boyette Rd. and S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel — are unmistakable, says Armstrong.

“The history points to early beginnings, and we know where the hearts of those communities are,’’ Armstrong said. “But, the boundary in between gets a little fuzzy.”

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 Census Designated Places, like Wesley Chapel, Land O’Lakes/Lutz, Trinity and Hudson, to name a few. And, Armstrong says that 450,000 of the 490,000 people living in Pasco reside in those currently unincorporated areas.

Armstrong admits that so many areas without defined borders can create the kind of confusion we are seeing in Wesley Chapel and Lutz/Land O’Lakes, where postal zip codes have changed and there is a myriad of other “boundaries,” which can be confusing.

“Part of the frustration for the citizens who lives in any one of these places is, ‘What the heck, the zip code says this, the Census Designated Place says something else, my kids are going to school based on other boundaries and my voting precinct is somewhere else,’’’ Armstrong says. “It’s been like this for years, and now, it’s coming to a head.”

That’s actually a good thing, he says, because it is being done in the open and publicly. Much of the Lutz-Land O’Lakes anger stems from the belief that past decisions made by the BCC cut the area out of the process to accommodate Wesley Chapel’s growth and ongoing “branding.”

Wesley Chapel Blvd. is an example, according to Graves. It sprouted as a road name for the portion of S.R. 54 from S.R. 56 to Lexington Oaks when the Lutz-Land O’Lakes contingent thought it was going to be Worthington Gardens Blvd., a decision she said “happened overnight.”

The former “Wesley Chapel” placemaker sign was another example cited by Graves. It was put up a few hundred feet west of where Wesley Chapel Blvd. begins, clearly in Lutz’s 33559 zip code. Armstrong said the sign’s arrival “lit a match” in Pasco, and Graves led the fight to have the sign removed — which it was.

“The whole process hasn’t been completely transparent,’’ Armstrong says. “But, this time, it is.”

Both sides have been passionate about their arguments. The claim that the area, its residents and businesses would be much better served if the area was clearly defined as theirs. And, both claim history is on their side.

History, though, may give way to common sense.

“We will collect all of the history from both groups and look at some of the rational (potential) boundaries between the two things,’’ Armstrong says. “There may be a natural feature that divides the two, or a major road. But, it needs to make sense today, and that may be separate from history.”

‘Mayor Bob’ Visits Chiles Elementary

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn has faced some tough lines of questioning in his five years as the city’s head honcho, so taking a few softballs from the second graders at Lawton Chiles Elementary in Tampa Palms on March 8 was something of a welcome respite.

Not that a few fastballs weren’t sneaked in there, however.

After talking to the children about how much he loved his job and how important it was, Buckhorn fielded questions asking him about his favorite food, color and his favorite sports.

Oh yeah…and a few about the traffic in New Tampa.

“We do need a train that runs from New Tampa to downtown Tampa,” Buckhorn answered to one traffic question.

Another student wanted to know why the red light by his house stayed red for so long. The exact location of that light was never pinpointed (and let’s be honest, we all have one of those lights we love to hate in New Tampa, don’t we?), but Buckhorn gave a quick wink said he would check it out.

He also was asked what he thought of Donald Trump.

“Oh, I think I’ll stay away from that one,’’ Buckhorn said. “But, I do not think he is good for the country.”

The event was organized by Linda Rosen, who was teaching her second graders about local government when she came up with the idea to try and get Buckhorn to visit her class. She had all of the kids write letters inviting him to Chiles, and the mayor ended up accepting.

Leading the second grade classes of teachers Ashley Mitchell, Elizabeth Horton, Tari Baldwin, Elaine Wilkinson, Michael Rehfus, Chelsea Bowen, Ami Egeland, Felicia Sell and Rosen into school’s media center was Alejandro Rodriguez, a mayor himself — he was elected by his classmates in Rosen and Bowen’s classes, a mock vote designed to teach the children about democracy.

The 8-year-old, decked out in gray slacks, a light green plaid shirt and a gray tie with white stripes, fidgeted in his seat with his hand thrust as high as he could reach, eagerly awaiting his chance for a question, like 150 of his classmates.

Buckhorn, who was elected to his first term as mayor in 2011 and then re-elected in 2015 while running unopposed, told the classes he caught the government bug as a fourth-grader growing up near Washington, D.C., when in 1968, he was helping out on the late Senator Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign.

“I used to have my mom drive me down to Bobby Kennedy’s headquarters, and I’d seal envelopes and put stamps on them,’’ Buckhorn said.

However, the kids seemed more interested in answers to the bigger, more important questions facing Tampa — such as his favorite color (blue), his favorite food (Italian), and his favorite sports (he played lacrosse and soccer in high school).

When he wasn’t playing sports, Buckhorn said, he was reading books or having crab apple fights with his friends.

“We didn’t have cell phones,” he said, drawing perhaps the loudest reaction of the morning from the gasping second graders.

“It was a much better life, I think,’’ he added. The lack of cell phones apparently made at least one child think Buckhorn was far older than his 57 years, because he was later asked if he had town criers when he was growing up.

Mayor Shares Governmental Info, Too

Buckhorn provided some civics lessons for the kids as well, explaining that he and the seven-member Tampa City Council operate mostly independently. “I meet with them once a year to tell them how much money they have to spend,” he said, referring to his annual budget meeting.

Asked if he can change the City Council’s decisions, Buckhorn told the class “sometimes,” explaining that he can veto items but “the City Council can override my veto with a 5-2 vote margin.”

“He added, “But, so far, I haven’t had to veto anything.”

The mayor, in case you were wondering (like at least one of the kids was), does not have a butler and maids. He told them, however, he was “rich in blessings with a great job, a great wife and great kids, but not rich rich, like Donald Trump.”

He jokingly bragged about having so much power, he could turn rivers green (which he did, again, on St. Patrick’s Day).

Buckhorn, who has two young daughters, also told the assembly “and none of you are ever allowed to marry them.”

Buckhorn impressed the crowd by telling the children he has been to President Barack Obama’s Christmas parties, and has even been to his office.

“Was his chair comfortable?,’’ one boy asked the mayor.

“Oh, I don’t dare sit in the president’s chair,’’ Buckhorn replied, grinning widely.

Buckhorn, whose second term is scheduled to end in 2019, said leaving the mayor’s office won’t be easy. “You’re going to have to pry my fingers off the desk,” he said.

He did, though, drop a hint about his rumored future plans, asking the kids if they’d like it if he came back to visit as Florida’s governor.

As for who Buckhorn, a Democrat (although all municipal elections in Tampa are non-partisan), is supporting for president, no surprises there.

“I am supporting Hillary Clinton,’’ he said of the Democratic frontrunner (see page 8) he introduced at her pep rally in Ybor City the following day. “Because I want my two little girls to grow up knowing there are no barriers. I want them to know that they can grow up to be president, too.”