Due to the recent increase in COVID-19 cases in the city and state, the City of Tampa has decided to cancel this yearโs 4th of July — Boom by the Bay — celebration.
โWhile we would have loved to celebrate the 4th of July together in person, we have to put the safety of our community first,โ said Mayor Jane Castor in a press release. โWe are looking forward to an even bigger celebration next year once this virus is behind us, but we have to work together first to stop it.โ
Castor also urged people to continue practicing COVID-19 safety by wearing a face covering in public settings, washing your hands often for at least 20 seconds, keeping at least six feet from others and avoiding large gatherings.
If you are feeling ill, you are urged to stay home and get testing, which is free for Hillsborough County residents by calling 813-272-5900.
Hillsborough County had a record number of positive cases of Covid-19 with 244 on Wednesday, breaking the record set just two days before. There were also five deaths, bringing the county total to 107, while Florida has had more than 3,100 deaths.
The state, which has had 15 straight days of more than 1,000 positive cases, had 2,610 new cases on Wednesday, a day after setting the record with 2,783.
The worn-out dirt path that has unofficially connected Kinnan St. in New Tampa to Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe at the Pasco-Hillsborough county line has finally been cleared, along with the weeds, trees and bushes that have covered the 30-foot patch of land no manโs land for so long.
Itโs really happening, yโall.
The two roads will be connected, maybe by as soon as the end of this month, allowing access for first responders and emergency medical vehicles only.
For those who have hoped for years that another north-south connection would allow for easier access between Hillsborough and Pasco counties, sorry โ a gate will be installed to prohibit local vehicular traffic.
Hillsborough County will pay for the new connection to be paved and equipped with a gate that Pasco County will control and pay to maintain. Hillsborough County District 2 commissioner Ken Hagan secured $250,000 for the project two years ago in an effort to get the roads connected, although he had hoped for a connection that would be open to everyone, but Meadow Pointe II residents were able to convince the Pasco Board of County Commissioners that opening the connection to everyone would bring an unsafe amount of traffic through their neighborhood.
โIโm absolutely thrilled that New Tampa will finally have emergency and pedestrian access,โ Hagan says. โHowever, Iโm hopeful that one day Pasco County will quit being parochial and obtuse and authorize full access, which is undoubtedly desperately needed.โ
Pasco County Commission chair Mike Moore says there will be no need for full access, because connections are planned at the intersections of Meadow Pointe Blvd. and K-Bar Ranch Pkwy., as well as at Wyndfields Blvd. and K-Bar Ranch Pkwy., creating additional north-south roads between Pasco and Hillsborough counties.
Moore add that Meadow Pointe and Wyndfields Blvds. are more suited for additional traffic than Mansfield Blvd.
M/I Homes, the developer of New Tampaโs K-Bar Ranch, located in the city, will pay for a significant amount of the package as part of its development agreement. A new pathway for pedestrians and bicyclists will also be built as part of the project.
Gio Carillo shoots hoops at the Wesley Chapel District Park on Boyette Rd., which re-opened its courts recently and will be back to hosting its youth basketball leagues soon. (Photo: Charmaine George)
On June 1, roughly 20 kids showed up at a camp at Heritage Isles in New Tampa.
Two weeks later, a similarly-sized group was scheduled to begin camp at the Seven Oaks Community Club in Wesley Chapel.
PROtential Sports owner Nyree Bland could finally breathe again.
โI am grateful to be opened again. Itโs good to be back,โ says Bland who, along with her husband (and former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver) Tony, has been running sports camps locally for 17 years.
For a while, Bland was unsure if she would be able to host camps again in 2020. PROtential after-school camps were canceled when school was (back in March), and summer activities were in doubt right up until Gov. Ron DeSantis ended all restrictions on youth activities for the state on May 22.
โThe data is pretty clear that, for whatever reason, kids donโt seem to get infected at the same rates that some other adults get infected,โ DeSantis said when making the announcement.
Summer camps and sports leagues are ready to go. There will be strict new CDC guidelines to follow, such as cleaning and social distancing protocols.
How that works out, however, remains to be seen, as anyone who has ever coached a large group of 9-year-olds can attest.
Keith Wiley, the Pasco County director of Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources, says his department is working closely with the 30 or so co-sponsored groups they partner with to determine the best and safest way forward.
Although DeSantis specifically said the state would not โbe instituting a lot of rulesโ and would โtrust parents to be able to make decisions in conjunction with physicians,โ Wiley says that all groups hosting youth sports leagues in Pasco County will be required to supply a safe play plan to the county that strictly adheres to CDC guidelines.
Although parks and fields are open for walk-up play by the general public, co-sponsored leagues can only return once those plans have been approved by the county.
According to the CDC, the โlowest riskโ of Covid-19 spreading is during skill-building drills and conditioning, with team-based practices considered a โhigher risk.โ
Full competition between teams from the same local geographic area is considered โeven more risk,โ while full competition between teams from different geographic areas is considered the โhighest risk.โ
Equipment like bats, balls, pads and helmets will also require disinfecting they had probably not received in previous years. Counselors and coaches should wear masks, according to the CDC.
Requiring groups to ponder the new normal and submit a plan was a no-brainer.
โUntil you start to think it through and visualize what practices or games will look like, itโs difficult,โ Wiley says. โWe didnโt want groups running out there and figuring it out on the fly.โ
Considering that the publicโs feelings on masks isnโt unanimous, Wiley is hoping the community can come together to follow the rules for the sake of the 5,000 or so children that typically participate in youth sports across Pasco County. Keeping parents from hovering at practices and games will be a challenge as well.
โItโs going to be extremely difficult to police and enforce,โ Wiley says. โSo far, however, weโve had a few conversations with our 30 co-sponsored groups, and they have all been positive. We havenโt had to twist any arms.โ
As for the popular county-sponsored summer camps at 11 locations, Wiley said they will be limited to 25 percent of typical capacity.
He says the county did a survey and 60 percent of the parents of previous participants said they had every intention of returning. The remaining 40 percent were a โmixed bag.โ
Wiley notes that the Pasco camps usually fill up within three minutes of registration opening.
โMy guess is there are going to be a lot of folks waiting to rush right in,โ Wiley says, โand a percentage of families that plan on taking it slow.โ
The Wesley Chapel Athletic Association (WCAA), which says it serves more than 3,500 area families, has made no official announcement yet about upcoming registrations.
The WCAAโs Board of Directors met on May 28 to discuss how to best implement its summer athletic programs, and what has to be done to make soccer, basketball and baseball safe for everyone.
Baseball, for example, had just begun its spring Babe Ruth League (which also includes Cal Ripken baseball) when Covid-19 hit. Spring ball would have ended in mid-May, with All-Star Districts and State play running during the summer.
All-stars, however, has been canceled for 2020, so Chad Erker, the director of WCAA Baseball, says the organization may resume the spring league to fill the calendar and get kids back on the fields.
โWeโre working on it,โ he says. โI think, first and foremost, weโd have to see who is willing to return, who can return, who wants to return. And, who feels safe in returning.โ
That will be the same predicament facing every camp and every sports league trying to return to action over the next few months. Erker says entire rosters of teams may need to be shuffled so games can be scheduled. Many camps will have to run at a smaller capacity, due to the CDC guidelines, so the demand may still be there, but the numbers wonโt.
Meanwhile, Bland says PROtentialโs camps usually have 100-plus participants at each location, but will be limited to 25 percent of their usual capacity.
She has canceled the field trips that are usually a part of the PROtential Sports summer camp experience. Counselors will be taking temperatures daily. The groups will be kept smaller than usual, since some of the activities are held indoors.
โThe parents we have talked to that are coming are super excited,โ Bland says. โSome arenโt ready. I think it is about 50-50. So, weโll be a lot smaller. But, itโs the new normal, and Iโm embracing it.โ
At Pasco school sites across the county, including Quail Hollow (above) and New River elementary schools, more than 1,000,000 meals were distributed to out-of-school students. (Photo: Charmaine George)
In early March, as they do every year, Pasco County schools started putting together plans to feed students who wouldnโt be in school during the 2019-20 spring break.
Little did they know, however, that shortly after they started preparing, the decision to keep students home from school due to Covid-19 fears would come down on April 13โฆand then be extendedโฆand then, finally, extended right through to the end of the academic year.
โIt just came out of the blue,โ says Betsy Kuhn, the school districtโs assistant superintendent for support services. โWe had to pull inventory (to feed students) from all over the county. It was crazy.โ
What started as seven sites distributing bags of food to students soon grew to 28 sites and some additional bus stop pick-up sites.
Instead of a few thousand meals for the week of spring break, the ongoing pandemic resulted in more than 1 million meals being handed out to students across Pasco County over two-plus months โ by food service employees, school administrators, teachers and volunteers.
The official total heading into the summer: 1,095,537 meals served.
โI definitely could not have imagined weโd get to that number,โ says Kuhn. โEvery week I would write down the numbers, and then last week I started looking at it and thought, โGosh, that has to be close to a million meals.โ
In Wesley Chapel, meals were handed out at Quail Hollow (QHE) and New River elementary schools. At New River, more than 10,000 meals were served on May 19 (which included additional meals for the following week, when there were no pick-ups because of Memorial Day weekend), bringing the total served at that location to 70,942.
That last week, nearly 10,000 meals were served at Quail Hollow โ which wasnโt a site the first two weeks โ to bring its total to 58,942 meals served.
Kara Smucker, the principal at QHE, lauded the effort by the Pasco School District on such short notice.
โThis is a big task, and there has been so much guidance and support,โ she said. โI appreciate all the hard work for all the kids in Pasco County.โ
In addition to food pick-ups, the District also organized food drives and distributed fresh produce donated by local farmers at impromptu Farm Fresh Pop-Ups.
Some of the food distributed at a Farm Fresh Pop-Up earlier this month at Wesley Chapel High.
At its first pop-up on May 6, more than 30,000 ears of corn were handed out in two hours at Pasco High in Dade City and at Pine View and Chasco middle schools in Land OโLakes and Port Richey, respectively..
The next week, at pop-ups at sites across the county, including one on May 14 at Cypress Creek High off Old Pasco Rd., hundreds of 10-pound boxes of a medley of vegetables were distributed and exhausted within an hour.
The most recent Farm Fresh Pop-ups were held at Pasco, Fivay (in Hudson) and Wesley Chapel high schools. More than 1,500 boxes of fresh fruit and vegetables were distributed, including all 540 available at Wesley Chapel.
โNo matter what we got, people responded,โ says Pasco County Schools spokesperson Steve Hegarty.
Food drives, at the Wesley Chapel Samโs Club and at the Target in Trinity, produced 500 boxes of nonperishable items to go with donated turkey breasts.
Kuhn estimates that food distribution during the summer, which started last week, will be higher than usual. But after distributing more than 1-million meals and countless boxes of nonperishable foods and produce, the School District is ready for the challenge.
โItโs a good feeling to have done what weโve done,โ Kuhn says. โWe have a lot to be proud of. And the people have been very very appreciative. Just really grateful. Itโs been great.โ
Pascoโs schools were just among the many local organizations and groups distributing food during these economically frightening times. Pasco County Commission chairman Mike Moore and District 38 State Rep. Randy Maggard hosted a drive-through food distribution site in the JC Penney parking lot at the Shops at Wiregrass May 20, with Farm Share โ which distributes produce and meat donated by the stateโs farmers โ providing nearly 35,000 pounds of food to more than 700 cars.
The food included chicken, rice, milk, cereal, granola bars, canned foods and fresh fruits and vegetables.
โIt was pretty incredible,โ Moore said. โIt was very humbling to see the need out there, and it was nice to be able to help.โ
I would be lying if I said I understood how people of color in this country feel every day about being black or brown in America.
So while, like most white Americans, I personally donโt care if the person who was killed by a police officer kneeling on his neck was black, brown, green or any color, religion or orientation, I completely understand the outrage being felt again by so many of us who witnessed what amounted to a public execution by Minneapolis Police Office Derek Chauvin of George Floyd, whose only crime was, apparently, passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a store.
Yes, I believe all four cops (the others let him be killed) shown in a video thankfully released the day after Floyd was killed should go to jail for murder. But no, I donโt understand why Floyd was targeted by these cops to receive this particular abuse of their power, especially in light of something that happened to Jannah and me only a year ago.
When we got married in March of 2019, some of our attendees gave us gifts of cash, including a few people who each gave us a $100 bill as a gift.
However, when we tried to pay a tab at a local bar with one of those $100 bills, we were informed that the bill was counterfeit. But, rather than have us arrested โ at least in part because the bar owner knew us from previous visits and said it was obvious we didnโt know the bill was no good โ all he did was ask us to use an alternate method of payment. I then took the bill to my bank, which told me that all they could do was take the bill out of circulation, which meant that we lost that $100 gift. Oh well.
One thing neither of us lost, however, was our life. No one handcuffed us or held us down to our pleas of โI canโt breathe.โ Today, we canโt help but wonder if we were black and strangers to the bar owner, if weโd still be alive.
Itโs horrifying to me that black, brown, Asian and LGBTQ people are targeted for this type of behavior so often. Something has to change. And yes, I understand why peaceful protests can and should be part of that solution.
Photo: WFLA.
Unfortunately, looting and setting fire to stores (photo) owned by people who literally had nothing to do with that situation should never be the target of those protests. But, they unfortunately too often are โ as seen around the country once again in the aftermath of Floydโs murder.
Yes, I am a firm believer that this country needs to change. I just think some people make change harder to accomplish by taking advantage of these situations in the name of โjustice.โ
These are very scary times, indeed.
Changes Abound
I realize that this is now the second Wesley Chapel issue in a row that doesnโt look or feel exactly like your usual Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News, but I know the content โ especially managing editor John Coteyโs continuing coverage of local Covid-19 news โ is still the same quality youโve grown accustomed to reading.
But, now that we were finally able to receive some funding through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and my long-time bank โ SunTrust (now Truist) โ we are able to continue to pay our staff, our office rent and our health insurance costs with the PPP funding while the local economy (hopefully) continues to recover.
The fact that this issue is already four pages larger than the previous two Wesley Chapel issues is one indication that things are turning back around โ weโre certainly happy to have almost all of our dentists back in the fold โ and the number of new businesses calling and emailing us for advertising information is another.
And, I know that our next issue, thanks again to the Times, will at least be printed on a brighter white newsprint while I continue our search for a web printer who can either print on glossy stock or at least a much heavier white paper, so our look can once again be the higher standard that we have, up until now, been able to maintain since 2005. I am hopeful that it wonโt take too long to get back to normal…not just for this publication, but for everyone.
Since the first New Tampa and Wesley Chapel issues in 15 years printed on newsprint came out in May, we have received overwhelming support from our readers and advertisers alike โ with a few notable exceptions. Weโve even had a few folks tell us they actually prefer the newsprint, โbecause it feels more like a newspaper this way.โ
Unfortunately for us, we have marketed ourselves as a glossy news magazine, not a newspaper, but I do appreciate that not everyone is hating this new look, which may have to stick around for a while. I have promised our advertisers (including the few that pulled out since our first newsprint issues hit in each market) that as soon as we are able to return to glossy (or at least, a much heavier white paper) stock, I will let each of them know.
