Olympus Pools Can Add Value To Your Home & Create Family Memories

This pool was created by Olympus Pools, which will custom-design your pool, spa and deck, too.

Backyard pools in Florida are pretty common, but Olympus Pools has helped hundreds of New Tampa and Wesley Chapel homeowners make a uniquely personal statement with theirs.

“We take pride in giving people the most bang for their buck,” says James Staten, who owns Olympus Pools with his wife, Alexis.

The options available to homeowners who want to build a pool are extensive with Olympus, ranging from traditional models that tend to be linear in shape, to blends of rustic and contemporary styles that combine the basic elements of fire, stone and water into a backyard oasis.

Designs can accommodate features such as a dry, sunken living room, swim-up bar and a cozy grotto illuminated with LED lighting and fire bowls. Water and lighting features can be managed from anywhere there’s a phone signal, via a smartphone app.

While the pool design will be one of a kind, Staten says the level of customer service also  is uniformly high.

“We build them the same way for our customers that we build them for ourselves,” he says.

Olympus Pools is licensed for commercial as well as residential pool construction, but Staten says creating the perfect backyard water wonderland for each customer’s needs is the heart of the business. In fact, he added, his company built 240 pools last year and he attributes this success to focusing on three key elements: design, construction and service.

“We try to make sure we’re the best in each of these three,” he says.

The Design Of Your Dreams

Making a splash (pun intended) with a great backyard pool starts with design and Staten says meeting each customer’s individual needs, interests and construction requirements are always considered in that process.

“Every design we do is custom,” he says.“ “Every single one. We don’t have any templates or cookie-cutter designs.”

Olympus Pools designer Santiago Serna develops a computerized design of a pool for a customer.

Staten says the goal is creating a pool that’s well-designed, meets your budget considerations and suits your lifestyle.

Olympus is staffed with pool designers like Toni Masse, who combines a background in construction with interior design experience in her swimming pool creations. She says creating a sunken living room for a pool has similarities to designing one inside a house.

“I enjoy the process of meeting new people and designing their pools,” she says, adding that paying attention to what  customers want as important in meeting their expectations. “Part of being a designer is listening to the customers.” 

Olympus designers can take your ideas and turn them into construction projects that Staten says will usually take six-to-eight weeks.

“We’re known for building pools very quickly,” he says.

Whether you want to add a spa to an existing pool or get a complete backyard makeover, Olympus pool designers stay connected with you throughout the process.

“I continue with you throughout the construction, because I’m committed to the customer from beginning to the end,” says Santiago Serna, who has 28 years of experience designing pools. Serna adds that he gets a great sense of satisfaction when he visits for a follow-up check of the construction and sees families having a barbecue around their pool.

Building a backyard pool means plunging into the deep end of home construction permitting that ensures the work conforms to legal standards. Staten says Olympus Pools manages that process, which is one way the company provides a high level of service to its customers.

“We handle all of the permits and engineering so the customer can sit back,” he says. “We do all the hard work.”

Customers can keep track of the progress on their project with construction updates they can receive as text messages.

“It keeps the customers involved and helps keep us on schedule,” says Staten.

Satisfied Customers

Receiving text updates is a feature that Dan Carroll says he appreciates about his customer experience with Olympus Pools.

“They tell you what’s going on,” says Carroll. “The quality,, I think, is outstanding. I got exactly what I wanted.”

Another thing that Staten emphasizes in his company’s pools is safety, from using unblockable channel drains to the screens and fences enclosing them.

“I have five children myself,” says the Live Oak Preserve resident. “So, it’s extremely important to me that you have the safest possible pool.”

Once your pool is completed, Staten says it will add value and “salability” to your home, although the big payoff to pool ownership isn’t necessarily financial. “You automatically have plans for every weekend,’’ he says. “My favorite memories are hanging out in a backyard pool with family and friends.”

Staten started his company after working in the pool construction industry for more than a decade.

“I’ve worked every job in the field,” says Staten, who manages the operation from the company offices located just off Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., near Tampa International Airport (west of Dale Mabry Hwy.)

Staten attributes a lot of the growth of Olympus Pools to referrals from customers. He also uses social media to generate interest from customers and people in the pool construction industry.

He also says his company’s page on Facebook (search: OlympusPools ) is a primary source for the most up-to-date information, photos and videos about pool design, construction trends and other information.

In addition to the Facebook page, you can visit OlympusPoolsFL.com, call 983-7854 or see the ad on page 28.  The Olympus Pools office & design center is located at 4422 N. Lauber Way in Tampa.

Wesley Chapel High Softball Team Still Young, But Improved

Pitcher Ally Fraley

The Wesley Chapel High (WCH) softball team, under coach Steve Mumaw, is still going to be young but has enough veteran experience returning to create what should be a stable blend of talent. The team boasts five sophomore starters, all of whom started the 2016 season as freshmen.

“It’s basically our whole infield,” Mumaw said. “We have an exciting future ahead of us, some might end up going to the new school (Cypress Creek High, which opens next fall), but we’re going to coach them up the same.”

The Wildcats suffered through a feast-or-famine 7-17 season last year, scoring eight or more runs in five of their wins, but scoring two runs or less nine times during losses. During one stretch, they were blanked in four of six games, all but one against district opponents.

The Wildcats will have to find a way to string hits together. Leading hitter and sophomore third baseman Ashley Nickisher (32 hits, .421 avg.) returns to the fold. Nickisher tied for the team lead in RBI last season with fellow sophomore Neely Peterson, and led the team with four triples and added six doubles.

Senior Dana Mumaw, the coach’s daughter, hit .390 last season with a team-high nine doubles. The hope is that the potent duo in the middle of the lineup can get the offense going.

Incoming freshman pitchers Jordan Almasy and Ally Fraley, both right-handers, add some punch to the WCH bullpen.

INF Ashley Nickisher

“It’s an upgrade from what we had last year,” Mumaw said.

With a team ERA of 9.07 last season, the Wildcats are sure to improve in 2017, especially considering Almasy has already verbally committed to the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

One of the top travel league players in the area, Almasy boasts a fastball in the mid-60 mile-per-hour range, and she swings a solid bat as well.

Wesley Chapel will need to lean on a defense that needs to be improved, and with everyone returning it should be.

“Softball is a lot of small ball,” Mumaw said. “You have to make sure your first-base and third-base defenses are all correct.”

The Wildcats will need them to be, because they play in a district where offense is king.

Defending Class 6A, District 7 champ Land O’ Lakes can both hit and run, batting .326 with 68 stolen bases last year en route to a 27-3-1 record and appearance in the state semifinals.

Even the district runners-up, River Ridge, can hit and steal — the Royal Knights piled up 15 home runs and 61 stolen bases a year ago.

With expected improvement from Pasco High as well this season, the Wildcats still hope to improve on last year’s 3-7 district record.

Veterans Elementary teacher named county’s best

Rob Patterson moves from desk to desk around his fifth-grade math classroom at Veterans Elementary.

One girl says she is confused, and he jokes, “that’s okay, it’s your birthday.” He remembered.

He refers to another student by his nickname, and bounces around to help others on a fractions problem in an easy, soft-spoken style, often admiring his students’ handiwork.

On Jan. 27, at its S.T.A.R. (Staff That Are Remarkable) awards event at the Wesley Chapel High Center for the Performing Arts, the Pasco Education Foundation named Patterson the 2017 Pasco County Teacher of the Year.

He seems almost embarrassed by the attention. Patterson, 46, insists he is no different than any other teacher, and added there are so many more just as deserving.

But, what might have earned him his designation more than anything else is his connection with his students, which is evident as he glides between the maze of desks in his classroom.

“What makes me successful is my relationship with the kids,’’ Patterson says. “I invest time to know them, I integrate them into problems, I interact with them.”

He remembers little things, like birthdays, and tries to know his students’ favorite football team, or what dance class they might be taking, or how many siblings they have.

Making that connection is why, 10 years ago, Patterson first decided to start working on becoming a teacher.

“It was the best career decision I could have made,’’ he says.

At the time, he was on the road making good money as a customer service representative. But, he was away from his children, Jacob, now 13, and Peyton, 17.

And, he admitted that he was missing something. It turned out to be the joy he got impacting young kids, which he did while teaching golf in his earlier days as an assistant pro at Northdale Country Club in Carrollwood and at the TPC (Tournament Players Club) Tampa Bay in Lutz.

It was while still working as a customer service rep that Patterson started taking education classes at the University of South Florida (USF) in his spare time. He sat in on classes with students young enough to be his kids. Little by little, he moved closer to what he really wanted to do.

“I chose elementary school at an early age for kids,’’ Patterson says. “I like this age. I think its important get to kids early, to make an impact early. That definitely helps them later on.”

After completing his B.S. in Elementary Education degree at USF and teaching one year in Hillsborough County, Patterson joined Veterans Elementary in 2009.

He says that although he has learned a lot from the women teachers he has worked with, he relishes his role as the rare male elementary school teacher, especially when it comes to the boys. That means high-fives here and there, sports talk and even fantasy football discussions over lunch.

“This is where I need to be,” Patterson said. “I need to be in education. I just have a love for kids. This is my happy place.”

Wesley Chapel’s Teachers of the Year by school

Wesley Chapel High School: Helen Mester

Wiregrass Ranch High School: Mathew Simmons

Thomas E. Weightman Middle School: J. Franklin Britton, III

Dr. John Long Middle School: Jessica Beagle

Double Branch Elementary School: Deborah Torres

New River Elementary School: Jolene Furman

Quail Hollow Elementary School: Lora Darby

Sand Pine Elementary School: Tamara Perugini

Seven Oaks Elementary School: Stephanie Huff

Veterans Elementary School: Robert Patterson

Watergrass Elementary School: Heather Kiefer

Wesley Chapel Elementary School: Christina Salerno

Wiregrass Elementary School: Stephanie Hodges

Despite Objections, Quail Hollow Golf Course To Be Replaced With Homes?

Residents who live near the Quail Hollow Golf & Country Club golf course pack the Dade City Courthouse hoping to keep a developer from replacing the golf course with 400 homes.

Residents who live near Quail Hollow Golf & Country Club (G&CC) may not be able to save their golf course, but their concerns about flooding and traffic may help determine exactly how many homes are built on the land that currently is home to their beloved links.

At a public hearing on Jan. 12 at the Dade City Courthouse, QHG&CC’s owner asked to have its request for rezoning the property for 400 homes delayed while it looks into developing a plan that wouldn’t require a zoning change, per the suggestion of the Pasco County Developmental Review Committee (DRC).

Andre Carollo’s Pasco Office Park LLC, the owner of the golf course (located at 6225 Old Pasco Rd., north of Wesley Chapel Blvd.), was represented at the DRC meeting by his attorney Barbara Wilhite.

Carollo has been seeking to rezone the property from R1, which allows for homes on 20,000-sq.-ft. lots, to a Master Planned Unit Development (MPUD), which allows for homes on 4,000–sq.-ft. lots.

In essence, Carollo is hoping to squeeze roughly 400 homes on the 175-acre site, as opposed to the 283 he would be limited to under the current zoning.

More than 100 residents were in attendance at the meeting, and two dozen spoke. While many lamented the loss of green space and privacy, one of the biggest concerns was the 6,811-yard golf course’s propensity for flooding.

The belief of residents is that the golf course can’t handle 400 homes, and that construction of those houses would exacerbate a long-standing problem.

“During rainy season, it’s a mess,’’ said Linda Garrett, who lives on Sandbagger Ln. “When it rains, it floods the course and fills a ditch on the side of my house. How is the flooding and runoff not going to affect us?”

Chief assistant county attorney David Goldstein asked if there was a flood study or any experts or staff members who could definitively answer if the land could handle 400 homes, but none were forthcoming.

Because DRC members have only seen plans for 400 homes, Goldstein asked to see a plan for 283 homes.

“It would be helpful to conceptually analyze what the property would look like as R1,’’ he said, for the sake of comparison.

Wilhite asked for time to produce such a plan and said she will present it at a future DRC meeting.  The project would need final approval from the Pasco Board of County Commissioners.

The delay seemed to please the crowd crammed into the courthouse, although Goldstein warned that the DRC didn’t have the power to save the golf course.

“I’d hate to think that anybody in this audience thinks this board has the power to require this land to stay a golf course…because we don’t,” Goldstein said. “This land is zoned R1. The DRC can recommend it stays R1. But, it is not within our purview (to say) that it stays a golf course.”

And it won’t.

“I understand that everybody still wants the golf course and would hope my client maintains it so they could have a park behind their house forever, but that’s not the reality,’’ Wilhite said.

Someone in the crowd yelled out, “Then why did you sell it to us like that?”

Wilhite responded, “The reality is, the property has always been zoned for residential use; it was never zoned to be a golf course.”

Two DRC members — assistant county administrators Cathy Pearson and Flip Mellinger — expressed condolences for those who bought homes years ago, at a premium price, that were on a golf course but now appear likely to be surrounded by new homes in the future.

Despite its residential zoning, Mellinger said there was no mistaking it was sold as a golf course community. He had just listened to residents from Sandbagger Ln., Golf Course Lp., Country Club Rd. and 9 Iron Ct. plead their cases.

“When I look at the street names, you can’t tell me it wasn’t sold to them as a golf course community,’’ Mellinger said. He added that the course was built in 1965, before the county had zoning laws, and in the 1990s took advantage of the new rules to change it to an R1. He said he would recommend that it stay as an R1.

Quail Hollow G&CC has had a up-and-down existence the past decade, even closing for two years in 2008-10. Carollo bought the property for $1.7 million in 2010 and the nicely refurbished course and clubhouse drew rave reviews when they re-opened.

Crystal Lagoon Breaks Ground In Epperson

Metro Development President Greg Singelton (middle) and Crystal Lagoons CEO Uri Man (right) lead a toast at the official groundbreaking for the lagoon at Epperson Ranch off Curley Rd.

When Metro Development president Greg Singleton was first told about a crystal lagoon, with its heavenly blue, ultra-clean water and sandy beaches, he confesses that he was a little underwhelmed.

But, at 30,000 feet, laying eyes on one for the first time a few months later, Singleton says he started sipping the Kool-Aid.

On Feb. 2, while standing in front of a crowd of more than 100 people at the official groundbreaking ceremony for the first Crystal Lagoon to be built in the U.S., Singleton was sipping champagne as he led a toast celebrating a sneak preview of the Metro Lagoon by Crystal Lagoons coming to the Epperson development Wesley Chapel.

With developers, home builders, county commissioners and the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) on hand at what could someday be home to as many as 3,000 homes off Curley Rd. (less than three miles north of S.R. 54), Metro Development showed off the beginnings of the massive project which currently is one large hole in the ground — while selling a vision so bright, the developer felt the need to hand out white Crystal Lagoon shades.

Epperson is part of the larger Connected City project, a high-tech, ultrafast gigabit community covering roughly 7,800 acres stretching from northern Wesley Chapel into San Antonio. That project is still working its way through the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners.

Crystal Lagoons are expected to become one of the fastest-growing amenities in the country, and was the star of the preview show. The 7.5- acre lagoon at Epperson will be 4,200 linear square feet (almost a mile) in circumference and will have an average depth of 8 feet, with some areas as deep as 10-12 feet.

Developed by real estate developer and biochemist Fernando Fischmann, it will be like “swimming in a bottle of Zephyrhills water,’’ Singleton said during the event.

That’s possible because of a patented pulse disinfection and ultrasonic filtration system, as well as 400 sensors monitoring the water. Singleton said the lagoon will use less water and chemicals than a golf course or park when it comes to maintenance.

Some of those on hand (including Neighborhood News editor Gary Nager) were taken up 75 feet in a tethered hot-air balloon for an aerial view of the lagoon, which will be the first operational Crystal Lagoon ever in the U.S., while the less adventurous were raised in mechanical lifts.

With the exception of a few kayaks laid out among the piles of dirt, there was little to see, but plenty to imagine.

“It will be the most incredible amenity you will ever see,’’ said Scott Andreason, the director of landscape architecture with Heidt Design, which is designing the surrounding features of the Metro Lagoon, such as:

The Hub.

• The Hub, which will provide access to the lagoon, and include a large plaza to host community events, like farmers markets, a synthetic lawn covered with shade sails, a stage for live entertainment like bands, and a huge outdoor television for sports and movie viewing.

• A restaurant and swim-up bar, with an extended plaza behind the restaurant for food trucks and the ability to host weddings and corporate events, as well as a zero-entry access to the lagoon.

•Venture Bay, for paddleboarders and kayakers.

•Gasparilla Island, which Andreason describes as an “endless island” with hammocks, cabanas and umbrellas, and a “Tidal Water” area where the water rises from zero to 3.5-feet deep.

•Cabana Pool, a cove within the lagoon completely surrounded by cabanas. In the middle of it, an entertainment pavilion to accommodate a deejay or band, and another large television screen.

Gasparilla Island.

• The Grotto, which Andreason calls the “gem” of the lagoon; it will feature a waterfall.

• Town Center & Getaway Cove, which will have beaches where you can watch the sun set.

With gigabit internet, homes by Pulte, DR Horton, Miranda and Apex Homes and what will be a one-of-a-kind lagoon — at least, for now — Singleton says the goal at Epperson Ranch is simple:

“We want to make it very difficult for you to go elsewhere.”

Crystal Lagoons CEO Uri Man his company, which has more than 1,500 patents in 60 countries,  already has 15 contracts to build other lagoons in the U.S., and will build hundreds in the next few years.

“It’s exciting,’’ he said.

He also noted that a recent Boston Consulting study says more than 2,000 lagoons will be built nationwide over next 15 years. Crystal Lagoons already has more than 600 projects in development across the globe.

But, Wesley Chapel will be the first in this country. After Epperson, Metro is scheduled to build a lagoon near the Mirada development just south of S.R. 52, also in the Connected City. It also has plans to build in the Riverview area and in Fort Myers. For more info, visit MetroPlaces.com or Facebook.com/CrystalLagoonWC.