Unfortunately, Doug Wall didn’t live long enough to see his vision of a New Tampa cultural or arts center come to fruition, but those who remember his impact on the local arts scene say his contributions shouldn’t be forgotten.
The founder of the New Tampa Players (NTP), a local acting troupe, Wall succumbed to cancer in 2017. But, in a recent letter to the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners, District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera urged the board to give Wall “a place of named honor” in the New Tampa Performing Arts Center, which is currently under construction in the Hunter’s Lake area off Bruce B. Downs Blvd. and is expected to be completed later this year.
“He came to New Tampa long before we became a booming suburban area,” Viera wrote. “He quickly became the backbone for the performing arts scene in New Tampa….Mr. Wall was here as one of the early pioneers of (zip code) 33647. He needs to be honored on this building.”
Others, like former Hunter’s Green resident and former State Rep. Shawn Harrison and his wife Susan, also support recognizing Wall.
Wall founded NTP and held its first event, a membership gala, in June 2002, and began auditions for its first production “They’re Playing Our Song” the next month, with plans to perform it later that year and Hunter’s Green and Tampa Palms Country Clubs.
For two decades, he fought to help make the Performing Arts Center a reality, while putting on productions and holding youth theater camps in the area.
Nora Paine, the producing artistic director for the NTP, says it would be a fitting honor to include Wall in his long-hoped-for dream.
“Community performing arts in New Tampa are Doug Wall’s legacy,” she said. “Starting in 2002, he set in motion and promoted the efforts that have finally come to fruition in the New Tampa Performing Arts Center…We miss Doug every day, and we are proud to continue his legacy at New Tampa Players.”
When K-Bar Ranch resident Pauline Sturtevant lived in California, she would drive 30 minutes, sometimes more, to the nearest all-abilities park for her son Caleb, who has Downs Syndrome.
It was the only place she could find with swings that were designed to hold his neck up properly, slides with higher sides to prevent him from falling off, or even a ramp to accommodate Caleb’s still-developing walking skills.
Caleb is 17 now, and while he may be too old for it, Pauline Sturtevant is thrilled that other parents will have a similar park closer to their homes in New Tampa.
“It’s important, you just don’t realize how much,” she said. ‘‘For the parents to feel like someone took the time to think about (a project like this), to make sure their kids were included and had a place to go, was super important.”
On Feb. 14, ground was broken at the New Tampa Community Park on the City of Tampa’s first disability and sensory-friendly playground.
District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, who championed the New Tampa All Abilities Playground almost immediately after being elected in 2016, echoed Pauline Sturtevant’s message at the groundbreaking.
Tampa City Council member Luis Viera
Mayor Jane Castor
Nora PaIne (NT Players Club Penguin Project President)
Phyllis Guthman, Disability Resource Hub Founder
Parks and Rec Director Sherisha Hills
Zach Mueller
Congresswoman Kathy Castor
“You are not alone,” Viera told the crowd, which included members of the New Tampa Players’ Penguin Project, a theatre program for children and young adults with special needs. “You have friends, you have family, you have people who have been through this many many years before…and you have the City of Tampa having your back and making sure everyone has a place at the table.”
The 10,000-sq.-ft. park will cost roughly $2 million — paid for by city money and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal funding — and will include multiple play pieces that are wheelchair-accessible, a sensory area geared towards children with autism and other sensory or cognitive challenges, a new art mural based on a “Fantastic Florida Nature” theme, and more.
At the groundbreaking, City of Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said that the park will have “16 different opportunities involving all of the sensory abilities in that park. It will be fantastic.”
Mayor Castor said the importance of parks in the development of a number of skills in children is sometimes taken for granted.
Making the city’s parks more accessible to everyone is a movement she strongly supports.
“I feel everything starts at parks and recreation, out on those fields,” Castor said. “That’s where children learn the life skills, that’s where they make lifelong friendships, and that’s where healthy skills and attitudes are developed. It all starts with ‘Hey, you wanna play?’”
For children with special needs, regular playgrounds can be a haven for emotional discomfort and even injuries, and it is easy for them to shrink away in fear. Pauline Sturtevant says it always pained her to see special needs children sitting on the sidelines at most other parks, and “developing a mentality that they are different and should be in a different place.”
Now, they will have their own place.
“The families are excited,” said Melissa Ewen, the director of fellowship and special connections, a special needs ministry at St. James United Methodist Church, also located in Tampa Palms. “Most of the ones I talk to have older high school or adult-aged family members, but for them it’s a sigh of relief. They know the challenges they faced; others won’t have to.”
A splash pad, pickleball courts and hiking trails are just some of the amenities that could be available to New Tampa residents by the end of this year, or early next year.
According to District 2 Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan, the county is ready to move ahead on a new park for the Branchton area off Morris Bridge Rd. south of Cross Creek Blvd. Hagan says the county staff is ready to submit plans for the park’s permitting.
“Ideally, after that’s approved, we should be able to have a groundbreaking out there probably in the April-May range,” Commissioner Hagan says.
If that happens, Branchton Regional Park will likely be completed sometime in early 2023, although Hagan says he is hoping the park can be finished by the end of 2022, if the summer weather and supply chains cooperate.
The park will replace the current Branchton Park, which sits on the southwest corner of Morris Bridge Rd. and Cross Creek Blvd. While the current park has an outdoor basketball court, playground and trails, it only has parking for roughly 10 cars and no bathrooms.
A Little History
In 2017, the county acquired four parcels of land totaling an additional 10 acres just south of the existing Branchton Park. The newly acquired land will be home to the new park, which will be developed in two phases.
Branchton Park
The first phase of construction includes 130 parking spots, walking trails, two dog parks, restrooms, shelters, four pickleball courts and a multipurpose court that can be configured as two basketball or two volleyball courts, according to a conceptual site plan provided last year.
The separate dog parks for small and large dogs will include shelters, benches, dog agility equipment, water and wash stations.
The new park also will include a playground and a splash pad.
Hagan says he has already secured the $6.1 million to construct the first phase in previous county budgets.
He added that he also has talked with Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister about building a mini-substation at the park, and that Chronister was in favor of that possibility.
“He likes the idea,” Hagan says. “I spoke to him about it and we agree that it would help increase the Sheriff’s Office’s presence around the park and also increase its presence throughout New Tampa.”
Although nothing has been formalized, Hagan also says that there also has been continuing conversation with private sector companies about a possible public-private partnership (PPP) about a zip line or “challenge” course for the park, perhaps in Phase 2.
The county already has completed the public survey portion of the project. Last year, nearly 500 people responded online to a survey with their requests for what they would like to see the park include. Many of the residents’ choices are included in the plans, according to the county’s website.
Plans to build some kind of new park in the Branchton area have circulated in Hillsborough County for years, going as far back as 2005 when the county had plans to build an athletic complex south of the existing Branchton Park. Those plans, however, never materialized.
As for that old Branchton Park, it will remain intact for the most part, but Hagan envisions re-developing it into a business center that could include a sports bar and other restaurants.
A potential recreation center at Cross Creek Park near Pride Elementary would likely be modeled after the Northdale Park & Recreation Center (above), Northdale, with indoor basketball/volleyball/pickleball courts and meeting rooms, as well as outdoor courts and a splash pad. (Photos: Charmaine George)
New Tampa does not lack for amenities, but if you don’t live in one of the many gated communities, your chances of actually using them usually depends upon an invite from someone who does.
Aside from being a member of the New Tampa YMCA or living in Cory Lake Isles, Arbor Greene, Hunter’s Green, Pebble Creek, Tampa Palms or West Meadows, it can sometimes be tough to find a place to play.
If District 2 Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan gets his way, however, there will be another option available.
The county is about to begin, according to the commissioner, the process of building the first public gymnasium at Cross Creek Park in New Tampa, adjacent to Pride Elementary and just off Kinnan St.
While New Tampa has a YMCA (which requires a membership to use) and the New Tampa Recreation Center (which is tailored towards dance and gymnastics), there is no indoor gym or recreation center that caters to basketball, volleyball and pickleball players, to name a few sports that Hagan envisions being played in the new facility.
“We have the Y, we have some school gyms and the city has the gymnastics center, but this will be the first gym that’s open to the public,” Hagan says. “This would fill a much-needed void that exists in New Tampa.”
The facility would be modeled after the other gymnasiums built by the county, and Hagan says it would likely compare to the Northdale Park & Recreation Center in Carrollwood. It would include multipurpose indoor courts and meeting rooms.
Currently, Cross Creek Park has a playground, a small pavilion area, two basketball courts that are showing their age, and two baseball fields that have not been manicured in years — the dirt on the fields is mostly overgrown with grass. There are no bathrooms (one portable potty, sometimes two, fill that need) or water fountains. It remains, popular, however, on the weekends.
The entire park would be upgraded. The baseball fields might be built over, and a new playground and updated outdoor basketball courts could be part of the package.
“We’re looking at doing a splash pad there as well,” Hagan says. “And the parking lot would be upgraded, which would improve access to the school.”
Hagan said while the facility would also provide morning programs for seniors, open basketball and volleyball play in the evenings and plenty of league play as well, the proximity to Pride also would open the center up for after-school and summer programs.
Hagan says one of the park directors with the county told him, “Trust me, it will be at capacity the day it opens.”
Hagan says he has secured $1.5 million for the project, and is looking at the rest of the funding to come from the American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) federal funding. Hillsborough County received $285 million from the federal program.
“I anticipate it being fully funded this year and ideally breaking ground in the summer or fall,” he said.
The county could begin community outreach and virtual public meetings about the project sometime this month or next.
The events of the past few weeks have really left me shaking my head. While I still was able to enjoy the Winter Olympics, the political overtones and the disgrace of the Russian figure skater who was allowed to compete, despite testing positive for a banned substance a couple of months earlier, definitely put a damper on the festivities for me — even though it didn’t keep me from watching many hours of the Beijing Games.
But, speaking of Russia, the situation in the Ukraine is just horrifying and definitely has me fearful for the world my young grandchildren will inherit. As of the date of this editorial, the undeclared war in Ukraine appeared to not be going as planned for Russia and its President Vladimir Putin and, while it’s impressive how well the Ukrainians have done at defending their homeland and their young democracy, Putin’s obvious instability has made the threat of what might still be to come in eastern Europe even scarier.
I don’t know how the war for Ukraine will turn out — it might even be over, I suppose, before this issue reaches your mailbox — but seeing how the world has supported the Ukrainians willing to fight for their freedom reminded me again how lucky we are to live in what is still the greatest democracy in the world, despite our own issues here at home.
I pray for a reasonable resolution for the people of Ukraine and for all of us, but I am more fearful than I ever have been for the safety of this world.
Meanwhile, In Dade City
Speaking of shaking my head, I honestly can’t believe that 79-year-old Curtis Reeves was acquitted of all charges after shooting and killing 43-year-old Chad Oulson eight years ago in what was then known as the Grove 16 movie theater in Wesley Chapel.
Curtis Reeves
I couldn’t understand how the trial didn’t come to pass for eight long years. I thought our criminal justice system was supposed to guarantee the “right to a speedy trial,” but Reeves’ defense team basically engineered the delays — all with their client on house arrest, instead of being held in a jail cell as he waited — apparently to great effect.
I have many problems with Reeves’ acquittal, especially through the eyes of a father. I can only imagine my son Jake texting with my grandson’s babysitter during the previews of a movie and being told to turn off his mobile phone by a gruff elderly man and, if he didn’t do so right away, having the man return from a trip to the theater manager’s office to engage my son again. I don’t think Jake would throw the man’s popcorn at him, but I could see him getting angry enough to at least get in the man’s face (he is his father’s son, after all). What I can’t imagine is him being shot and killed because some guy in a movie theater didn’t like the way he was being spoken to or treated.
And please, don’t get me started about whether or not Oulson threw his cell phone at Reeves. Not one witness corroborated that testimony, nor was there any video evidence of it, and honestly, who throws their $1,000 phone at anyone for any reason? Reeves clearly made up an excuse to shoot Oulson, and then gave his “I’m an old man who feared for his life” excuse that somehow played on the minds and feelings of the six jurors enough for them to acquit him of all charges — but after only 3-1/2 hours of deliberations?
I don’t believe for a second that Reeves — the former Tampa Police Captain who surely faced significantly worse situations without shooting those who were mean to him — feared at all for his life. He didn’t like being told to get out of a younger man’s face and clearly shot him without due provocation.
In my opinion, Reeves should be spending the rest of his life in prison for destroying a young family, but now, my fear is that others will be emboldened enough by this sham of a jury decision to take the same action — and also get away with it.
Score one for the bad guys.
But, Speaking Of Good Guys…
Speaking of fathers, I was moved to tears by the news that Christoph “Chris” Trina (photo), age 58, passed away after a heart attack and multiple strokes while on vacation with his family in Wisconsin. I reconnected with Chris as I became acquainted with his daughter Danielle Henry, the owner of The Bean Bar Co. in Tampa Palms, who has since become an advertiser of ours.
What I didn’t remember, without Chris reminding me, was that he also had advertised with us about 20 years ago, when he co-owned KMD Modeling in Tampa Palms. He always said such nice things about me and the Neighborhood News and I know that Danielle and her brother Kyle and their entire family are still suffering the after-effects of this sudden — and devastating loss.
“He raised us as a single dad for 12 years and he literally didn’t put up with any nonsense,” Danielle says. “We’re successful at a young age because he knows he didn’t let us do any less than our best.”
Chris was a passionate sports coach and cheerleader for his family and was loved by many — a wonderful man taken too soon.
