It’s Time To Vote!

Shaun Dunn says sales of Trump merchandise are a good indicator of how well the President will do in Florida. The polls say otherwise. (Photo by John C. Cotey)

If local merchandise sales are any indication, Donald Trump is headed to a landslide re-election on Nov. 3.

That’s how Shaun Dunn sees it, anyway. The businessman  runs a Trump tent right next to his Joe Biden tent at the entrance to The Grove in Wesley Chapel, and says the Republican president is outselling the Democratic former VP 10-to-1. He is admittedly not a political scientist or pollster, but he is a numbers guy, and he thinks they are saying something.

“If there really is 50 percent support of Biden, that tent should really have way more people,” he says. “As far as I’m concerned it just really shows you that the silent majority is more than you think.”

Based on his sales and the interest people stopping by have shown, he thinks Wesley Chapel is Trump Country. Memorabilia like Trump-branded magnets, yard signs, hats, coins, mugs and yes, even masks to protect you from the spread of coronavirus, are flying off his tables. 

Flags and the iconic red Make America Great Again hats are his best sellers, and Dunn says he has sold 250 life-size cutouts of Trump – at $75 a pop – since opening his stand on Sept. 1.

Before he could open his Trump tent at The Grove, however, he had to agree to open a Biden tent as well.

 Mark Gold, who is developing The Grove, insisted Dunn do a tent for each candidate, as he didn’t want to get caught in any political quandary.

“I told him if he wants to do one, he does both,” Gold says. “To be fair.”

Dunn says he was fine with the idea. In fact, he kind of liked it.

“I got to thinking about it, and you know, that’s probably the right thing to do,” he says. “That way, everybody gets a chance.”

In fact, Dunn has opened Biden tents next to his Trump tents at his Holiday Mall location, also owned by Gold, and in Lakeland.

The Biden tent at The Grove was his first, and he says he has never seen any others in his travels.

Suli Torres works the Biden tent. She jokes that she got the short end of the stick, but since she will be voting for Biden, she is fine with it. 

“Everyone is pretty excited to see me, I’ve even had people offer me food and drinks,” she says, then adding, with a chuckle, “maybe they feel sorry for me.”

Torres was engaged in a conversation with a customer about climate change when we visited on a Monday morning, although that conversation was interrupted by a young woman wanting to purchase a Biden hat. At the Trump tent, though, Dunn was busy ringing up a pink “Women For Trump” t-shirt and a matching pink hat for one customer, and a mask and a coffee mug for another

Does the popularity of the Trump tent concern Torres when it comes to the Nov. 3 election?

Not really. “Florida is a Republican (controlled) state, so I’m okay with it,” she says. “I will cast my vote and hope for the best.”

Dunn eschews political talk at either tent. He says his employees are trained not to get political with customers. He is unwilling to debate Trump vs. Biden, and says he is only there to make money.

“They all want to talk politics,” he says. “I don’t say nothing. Basically, I tell them ‘I hear ya,’ because I don’t want to be getting involved. I like somebody, but I prefer not to say. I’ll vote for who I like. But, this is just a business for me.”

 The one thing the Trump and Biden tents, which are spaced about 10 feet apart, do have in common? The amount of vitriol those working them have had to endure.

Due to the toxicity of the country’s political climate, Dunn and Torres each say they have been sworn at and threatened by people driving by or leaving after purchasing something from the other tent. 

Financially, the Biden tent only makes enough money to cover what Dunn pays his employees and the rent. The Trump tent has been far more lucrative.

Dunn says four of his former employees left him to start their own Trump tents, and are all doing well. He wishes he had started selling it sooner. “I’d be able to retire by now,” he says.

However, do sales equal votes? Even in 2016, the Trump merchandising operation was a juggernaut, and he lost the popular vote by roughly 3-million nationwide to former First Lady Hillary Clinton, while claiming a narrow 70,000-vote edge in crucial battleground states Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to give him a victory in the electoral college. (Trump won Florida by 112,000 votes; he won Pasco County by 52,000).

This election, the polls are favoring Biden — by larger margins than they favored Clinton — but Trump gear is just as prevalent, if not moreso, than four years ago. How those numbers will add up on election day remains to be seen.

The only math that really matters, however, is the nationwide final tally of votes. Record turnout is expected all across the country.

Dunn is likely correct about Wesley Chapel, and more broadly Pasco County, being Trump Country. Republicans have unanimously controlled the five-person County Commission for many years, and there are currently 159,127 registered Republicans, or 26,100 more than in 2016.

Meanwhile, there are only 118,127 registered Democrats in Pasco, an increase of only 10,800.

There also are 109,682 registered voters who did not list a party affiliation, an increase of 27,000 from the 2016 election.

One thing that is certain: Pasco County will vote. Presidential election voter turnout has averaged well over 70 percent since 1984, according to the PascoVotes.gov website. In 2016, the voter turnout was 73 percent.

In fact, residents were voting long before early voting even started on Oct. 19, as more than 70,000 mail-in votes already had been received, accounting for 18 percent of all registered voters in Pasco.

And, with this election expected to break turnout records across the country, Tami Bentley, the director of voter administration for Pasco County, says they are ready not just for more voters, but more socially-distant voters, due to Covid-19 concerns.

“We have worked closely with Pasco County to secure some larger early voting facilities,” Bentley says, like the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County.

In addition, mail drop boxes will be posted at every early voting site for the first time, hopefully assuaging fears about mail-in ballot voter fraud being perpetuated on social media and by President Trump himself.

Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco and Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley also put out a joint statement promising a safe environment at all early voting locations, all of which will be manned by Poll Deputies.

Interesting Local Pasco Races

While Trump-Biden tops the ballot and is driving the expected record voter turnout, other races that have local implications include:

Superintendent of Schools: Kurt Browning, the Republican who easily won his primary,  is running for his third term against Bayonet Point Middle School teacher Cynthia Thompson, who says the District needs an educator to fix it.

State Senator District 20: Republican Danny Burgess resigned as executive director of the Florida Department of Veteran’s Affairs in June to run against Democrat Kathy Lewis in this special election to replace Tom Lee, who retired. 

State Representative District 38: Republican Randy Maggard won the 2018 election to replace Burgess, and is defending his seat against Democrat Brian Staver. 

Pasco County Commission, District 3: Incumbent Republican Kathryn Starkey, first elected in 2012, has raised more than $200,000 in her bid to keep her seat against Democrat Jessica Stempien, who has raised $30,000.

Pasco County Commission, District 5: Incumbent Republican Jack Mariano is seeking his fifth term (he was first elected in 2004) against Democrat Brandi Geoit and independent Victor Rodriguez.

Florida 12th U.S. Congressional District: Republican incumbent Gus Bilirakis, who replaced his father Mike (who served for 25 years) when he was first elected to the District 9 seat in 2007, is trying for another term in District 12 (which he has represented since 2013)against Democrat Kimberly Walker. 

Early voting continues through Oct. 31, 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Vote By Mail drop boxes are available at each early voting site, including the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus (3021 Sports Coast Way), AdventHealth Center Ice (3173 Cypress Ridge Blvd.) and the New River Library (34043 S.R. 54). 

The general election is Tuesday, November 3, when polls will be open 7 a.m.-7 p.m.. Wesley Chapel has 13 polling places, which can be found by visiting PascoVotes.gov or by checking your voter registration information.

How Crazy Will This Election Get? It Is 2020, After All!

Considering that I didn’t cast a ballot for U.S. President back in 2016 (and took a lot of heat for it, from friends and readers on both ends of the political spectrum), it should come as little to no surprise that I did not vote for either President Donald Trump or former Vice-President Joe Biden (or any other candidate) this year.

Oh, just as I did in 2016, I still voted, I just didn’t feel, in all good conscience, that I could vote for either of these two men to lead our country for the next four years.

“Well, that means you can’t complain if you don’t like who ends up getting elected,” is what many of my detractors told me in ‘16.

I countered that, as an American citizen, I have the right to do anything I want (as long as it’s legal), I just felt again that I would rather let the rest of the country decide between two candidates I can’t personally support — which also is my right. 

And, just to repeat myself, just because I didn’t cast my vote for Trump or former First Lady Hillary Clinton in ‘16, or Trump or Biden this year doesn’t mean I didn’t vote. I did vote for the local and state candidates I felt I could support — some of whom won and some who lost last time — and I again feel pretty good about most of the people and amendments I did support.

And yes, I have now voted this year — by a mail-in ballot that I requested and received from Pasco Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley’s office. I had no desire whatsoever to vote in person and, based on the lines from Day One at Pasco’s early voting locations, I don’t want to drop off my ballot, either.

Covid-19 has affected so many aspects of our daily lives and although I’m still wearing a face mask everywhere in public I do go, way too many of you aren’t doing the same, so even with my vote, I still feel I need to do everything I can to protect myself.

As for who I’m voted for in some of the other elections on the Nov. 3 ballot, I’d rather not say, but Here is how I voted on all six Amendments to the Florida Constitution that also were on my ballot — several of which I have fairly strong feelings about:

On Amendment 1, I  say Yes, you should have to be a U.S. citizen to vote in any election, although I foolishly thought it was already a requirement nationwide. 

On Amendment 2, considering the cost of living these days, I don’t feel that even $10 per hour is much of a living wage, and As a small business owner, I have no problem with the $1-per-hour-per-year increase through 2026, so I’m voting Yes. 

On Amendment 3, I feel very strongly that in Primary Elections, only registered Republicans should vote for Republican candidates and Democrats for Democratic candidates, unless there is no opposition candidate, which is the system we currently have in place, so I’m voted No on changing that. 

On Amendment 4, I feel that we already have too many such amendments to deal with every year, so to require any amendment to have to be approved in two elections gets a hard No from me. I’m not really 100% sure how I feel about Amendment 5, but I voted Yes because I believe that homeowners (even though I’m not currently one) should get as much benefit as they can since owning a home continues to only get more expensive. 

And finally, I also feel that any spouse of any deceased or disabled veteran should get as much benefit as possible from their spouse’s service, so I’m voting Yes on Amendment 6.

Even if you disagree with everything I’ve said here, I hope you’ll also exercise your right to vote in this very important General Election.

Best Bye

The rumors that have been circulating the past 18 month of popular electronics retailer Best Buy closing its New Tampa location have turned out to be true.

The store, located in The Walk at Highwoods Preserve off of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. between the HomeGoods and Michaels store, has that announced it is shutting down on Oct. 31. The announcement points customers to the nearest locations in Brandon and Wesley Chapel (in The Grove).

The store has already begun the moving process. Many of the aisles in the New Tampa Best Buy have empty shelves and are blocked off, while some aisles are selling open box items at a 15-20 percent discount.

It is unclear if the effects of Covid-19 had a hand in the closing, although it had been rumored before the pandemic that the big box electronics giant’s New Tampa location had been struggling.

According to a recent report by CNN, Best Buy is at a disadvantage fighting companies like Amazon, Walmart, Target and Costco, because those others also sell food and other household essentials. Beat Buy is also facing higher costs when it comes with the rise in online orders. The CNN report says that “Best Buy’s gross profit rate fell 1.2 percentage points to 22.8% during the three months ending August 1, compared with the same period last year.”

The loss of Best Buy will leave a number of vacancies in the cross-section of BBD and around Highwoods Preserve Pkwy., such as the old Sweetbay grocery store (which has been vacant since 2013) and the former Romano’s Macaroni Grill restaurant (which has been closed since 2017, after two failed attempts after being revived as a Mexican restaurant) on the west side of BBD and the Pier 1 Importa (currently closing) on the east side.

The AMC Theater, which had to postpone a major renovation project and has been hit hard by Covid-19, and former Ruby Tuesday restaurant, which will be replaced by Aldi, are also on the east side on BBD.

Tyriq Outen Is Chasing An NHL Dream!

Tyriq Outen honed his hockey skills while living in New Tampa, and is riding high after an MVP performance in a major invitational tournament this summer has him a little closer to his dream of playing goalie in the NHL. (Photo courtesy of the Outen family).

The first time Tyriq Outen skated on ice at the Brandon’s Ice Sports Forum, he was 4 years old and decided immediately he wanted to be a goalie. 

A few weeks later, during his first lesson, his promising ice hockey career began…with his pads on backwards.

“Then, he fell behind the net and got his helmet caught in the net,” recalls his father, Ronnie. “It was a comedy of errors.”

That imperfect start, however, soon gave way to success at nearly every level at which “Ty,” as his family calls him, has played since. He went from being entangled in the nets to starring in them, and from being a junior standout to a legitimate NHL draft prospect with a bright future ahead of him.

“I feel like this is where I belong,” he says. “I fell in love with it right away.”

Tyriq grew up in New Tampa, and attended Turner Bartels Middle School. While his friends played Little League baseball and basketball and soccer at the New Tampa YMCA, Tyriq was part of a small but budding hockey community. 

He played for one of the best youth hockey teams in Florida, comprised of players from all over the state, but that meant lots of travel. He traveled by plane 2-3 times a month for big tournaments in the northeast and Canada, but mostly spent lots of time in the car with Ronnie driving all over the southeast.

Ronnie, the basketball director at the new Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, understood the lifestyle and demands for a high-caliber youth athlete. A former college basketball player who played professionally overseas, Ronnie understood it was all about exposure and training. When it was time to choose a high school, Ronnie and Tyriq moved to hockey-hotbed Boston and lived in an apartment.

“When we were in Boston, he was literally on the ice 5-6 days a week,” he says. “No knock on Florida, but there was a rink in every neighborhood. Imagine if Hunter’s Green had one, and Arbor Greene and Live Oak had one, if you had 5-6 rinks in this area, think of the pool of talent you’d have to draw from. That’s how it is up there. That is why the competition was so good.”

First Stop – Foxboro

Tyriq hooked up with the South Shore Kings in Foxboro, MA, and began to take off as a player. He had a 3.08 goals-against average (GAA) and a 90% save percentage in his two seasons.

At the age of 17, Tyriq made it onto the coveted NHL Central Scouting list as No. 19 among all North American goalie prospects. His athleticism, Ronnie says, is off the charts — he can roll out of bed and dunk a basketball — and his skating and stick skills are exceptional. Tyriq’s vision and game management continue to improve.

Toronto Maple Leafs development camp, June 30, 2018. Mark Blinch/Toronto Maple Leafs

Once a growth spurt got him to 6-feet, 3-inches, it completed the package, making him an enticing prospect at a position where taller, athletic goaltenders — like the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Andre Vasilevskiy, who also is 6’-3” —seem to be the future.

In Boston, NHL scouts were watching every game. “It definitely got the heart pumping,” Tyriq says.

Although Ronnie had spent most of his life playing and coaching basketball, he had married Heather, a native Canadian, who came from a family of goalies.

Tyriq was born in Miramichi, New Brunswick, where his grandfather Hugh Moar — Tyriq called him Grampy — was in the town’s Hall of Fame and his uncles were accomplished junior goaltenders.

Ronnie jokes that basketball never had a chance. Which, he adds, was fine by him.

“It wasn’t a disappointment at all,” he says. “I didn’t want him growing up with anyone comparing him to me or anything like that. I was just happy that every time he came off the ice, whether after practice or a game, he had a smile, and five minutes into the drive home, he wanted to talk about the game.”

Dealing With Adversity

After graduating high school in Boston, Tyriq had to choose between pursuing a Division I college career, or signing with a major junior hockey team, which would end his amateur status.

Tyriq with “Grampy”, Hugh Moar.

With a chance to sign with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), the former team of NHL stars like Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy and Roberto Luongo, and just an hour north from his birthplace, where his goalkeeping family had built a following, how could he resist?

It turned out to be the first speed bump in Tyriq’s career.

The QMJHL is one of three major junior ice hockey leagues that make up the Canadian Hockey League, along with the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and Western Hockey League (WHL). Acadie-Bathurst had loaded up the previous season to win the QMJHL President’s Cup, and they captured the Memorial Cup against the winners from the OHL and WHL.

Tyriq says many of the players acquired to win the title in 2017-18 departed after that season. His new team won just eight games in 2018-19, and he finished with an 0-20 record, a 5.89 goals against average and faced nearly 1,000 shots in only 1,364 minutes. After a coaching change, Tyriq was released.

“The fact that it was (so close to Miramichi) made it even worse,” Ronnie says. “The whole town was hurrah hurrah, the hometown boy is coming, everybody was happy for that to happen. So, it made it double the monkey on his back.”

Ronnie worried about how Tyriq would handle his first-ever adversity. “I would be lying and he wouldn’t be human if I said it didn’t get him down.” 

Ronnie says he reached out to Tampa Bay Lightning goalkeeping coach Frantz Jean for some guidance, concerned his son might retire his pads. Jean, however, reassured Ronnie that Tyriq was still highly regarded, and that NHL scouts will be watching to see how he reacted to his adversity.

“The ones that are successful come out the other side stronger,” Ronnie remembers being told.

Getting Back In The Pads

Tyriq got back to work. Determined to come back even stronger, rather than give up, he doubled down on his efforts. When he was tired, he thought about Bathurst. When he didn’t want to work out, he thought about Bathurst. 

“I’m already up,” Tyriq would say as his dad walked into his room to wake him up early in the morning.

“That showed me just how tough he really is,” Ronnie says.

The Outen family — (l.-r) Tyriq, Kiana, Heather and Ronnie — has lived in Live Oak Preserve in New Tampa since 2006. 

Tyriq’s bounceback started in Grand Falls, New Brunswick, in the Maritime Hockey League, a league below major junior. If playing near his hometown made the Bathurst experience more painful, then his first appearance at the Miramichi Civic Centre, against the hometown Timberwolves, offered some redemption — he stopped 34 of 35 shots in a 6-1 win.

He went on to beat the Timberwolves two more times at the Civic Centre, and stopped 145 of 156 shots the hometown team fired at him over five games.

Covid-19 ended the 2019-20 season early, so Tyriq returned to New Tampa. He worked out with the Lightning before the team entered the bubble en route to the Stanley Cup. Tyriq continued to grind, ready for his next challenge, which came when he was chosen to play at the prestigious invite-only Beantown Summer Classic in August in Exeter, NH, where NHL scouts handle the coaching duties.

“He was so proud of having some of the Lightning players’ phone numbers in his phone,” Ronnie says. “That was pretty cool for him.”

The NextGen MVP!

Tyriq was the only goalie invited to play for an all-minority team — NextGen AAA Foundation, a nonprofit that offers mentoring to hockey programs in underserved communities.

NextGen, which is coached by NHL players Bryce Salvador and Mike Grier, steamrolled the competition at the annual Beantown Classic in Boston, and went undefeated to win the title. Tyriq was 4-0, and even added five assists — a shockingly high number for a goalie but a tribute to his stick skills — and was named the tournament’s MVP.

“That was a big deal for me,” Tyriq says. “I feel like I’m ready to do bigger things. It was  a great experience.”

Tyriq can’t return to Canada right now due to Covid, but was approached by a Calgary Flames scout at the Beantown Classic, who hooked him up the Maine Nordiques of the North American Hockey League. He left New Tampa last month to begin training, and the season began earlier this month.

In three games so far with Maine, Tyriq is 2-1 with a 2.94 goals-against-average and a .924 percent save percentage.

“He was in a bad situation before, but he’s recalibrated now,” Ronnie says. “This is a good situation for him. It’s going to be a good year. He is totally happy — you can hear it in his voice. And, that’s the best thing.”

Church Sold; Will Become AdventHealth Care Pavilion

LifePoint Church, which took over the Winn-Dixie Supermarket in 2006, has moved to Wesley Chapel and AdventHealth is moving in. (Photo: Charmaine George)

The LifePoint Church building located on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in front of Hunter’s Green, has been sold to Advent Health, which intends to renovate it into a “care pavilion.”

AdventHealth paid $7.4 million for the 5.84-acre property and reportedly will spend $8.44 million more to renovate it, and plans to include exam rooms and imaging capabilities such as MRIs, X-rays and CT scans.

“We are still working to determine which care services will best fit the needs of the community,” says Richelle Hoenes-Ahearn, a spokesperson for AdventHealth. “We are excited about the opportunity to bring this kind of facility to the area and make it more convenient and accessible for people to prioritize health and wellness.”

Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, who represents District 7, which includes New Tampa, says he is working with AdventHealth to be sure the facility meets the needs of the New Tampa community.

He plans to have a meeting with AdventHealth in November to allow neighborhood leaders to ask any questions they may have about the project.

“This is a facility with a lot of potential benefits to the New Tampa area,” he says. “Dialogue is key.”

Meanwhile, LifePoint Church has moved its services to Wesley Chapel and also changed its name to The Gathering Church. 

Executive pastor Brian Brown says the sale of the building is not related to the effects of Covid-19. In fact, he says, discussions with AdventHealth started well before the pandemic hit, when the hospital system approached the church with an offer.

Brian says the church had previously been approached by other suitors looking to purchase the building, but the offer from AdventHealth was, “the right price at the right time.”

The sale closed in mid-September, which was at the end of at least nine or ten months of discussion and work towards that goal, says Brian. He added that the lengthy process AdventHealth had to go through for permitting and rezoning was somewhat delayed because parts of the government had been shut down due the pandemic.

LifePoint originally purchased the building in 2006, when it was a vacant former Winn-Dixie supermarket and the church was meeting at the New Tampa Family YMCA. LifePoint opened its doors at the building in 2007.

“It was great for us,” says Brian, “but we’ve had a change in focus as a ministry.”

Brad White is the senior pastor for the church, which at one time had multiple campuses in Hillsborough and Pasco counties. Now, the church is exclusively in Wesley Chapel, meeting at Wiregrass Ranch High on Mansfield Blvd. on Sundays at 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and noon.

“We have now focused all of our attention on the Wesley Chapel area,” says Brian. “That’s where all the growth is going.”

He says the church did a demographic study of its database and found that the majority of its congregation was coming from Wesley Chapel anyway, so the decision was made to move into the area where its people are living.

While the church may purchase another building in the future, for now, that’s not its priority.

“Our focus is just to love people and to help them begin a relationship with God,” says Brian, adding that buildings that are only used once a week cost a lot of money to maintain. “Now, dollars that were being spent on a facility are being used to facilitate relationships. We’re excited. It’s a great location for AdventHealth, so it’s a win-win for everybody.”