Kinnan /Mansfield May Be Connected, But Only For Emergencies

This is the view from the end of Kinnan St., which runs north from Cross Creek Blvd. Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe is on the other side of the barrier, about 40 feet away. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

The decades-old debate over connecting Kinnan St. in New Tampa to Mansfield Blvd. in Wesley Chapel appears to have, pardon the pun, reached the end of the road.

After years of meetings and studies and community activism, the Pasco Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) sided with the Meadow Pointe residents who claim that connecting the roads would put their children’s safety at risk.

On June 11, the Pasco MPO voted unanimously to forward their recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners that Wesley Chapel be connected to New Tampa’s growing K-Bar Ranch community via two roads further to the east of Kinnan-Mansfield (neither has been completed) — Meadow Pointe Blvd. and Wyndfields Blvd., both of which would eventually connect to K-Bar Ranch Blvd. (at different locations).

But, Mansfield Blvd. and Kinnan St. will not be connected for area commuters.

“Everybody that came today spoke against opening up Kinnan and Mansfield,” said Pasco District 2 Commissioner Mike Moore, who represents the Meadow Pointe area, at the June 11 Pasco MPO meeting. “There was one person who was in favor of it, and he lives in New Tampa.”

Hunter’s Green resident Dr. Jim Davison was the person who spoke in favor of connecting Kinnan-Mansfield.

The final vote to settle the roadways question was expected to be held In August, in Dade City.

Considering that all five members on the Pasco BOC also are on the MPO Board that voted unanimously in favor of making only two of the three connections that were considered, it is almost certain to pass.

Hillsborough County District 2 commissioner Ken Hagan and District 7 Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera, both of whom have fought for the connection for years, expressed disappointment and frustration over the Pasco MPO’s decision.

Hagan called it “extremely parochial and irrational.”

However, both New Tampa representatives took some solace in the fact that the famed 40-foot patch of dirt, weeds and trees (and often, garbage and abandoned furniture) separating the roads may be paved over, connecting the roads for use by emergency service vehicles — with a mechanical traffic arm keeping local traffic out — as well as providing a path for bikers and pedestrians.

Public safety was one of the primary reasons both Hagan and Viera had fought for the connection.

“I’m pleased that Pasco County is finally recognizing the significant public safety concerns with Kinnan-Mansfield remaining closed,” Hagan said. “I think this is a necessary first step, and we will live to fight another day.”

Davison was less pleased with the concession for emergency vehicle access. A longtime traffic activist and emergency room physician, Davison said that most people come to the hospital emergency room by private vehicle, not an ambulance, and those people will still face a longer trip to get care.

“Connecting Kinnan and Mansfield is in the public good,” Dr. Davison said.

After years of political arguments and one costly study, Pasco’s MPO turned to its residents to help render a decision.

The MPO was presented with the results from its recent online Pasco Resident Survey, which asked which of four options for connecting Meadow Pointe to New Tampa were preferred.

Meghan McKinney of the consulting firm AECOM, which conducted the initial Wesley Chapel Roadway Connections study which produced the choices for the online survey, said the total number of eligible respondents was 1,180.

The option most favored by those polled online was Option 2, which asked if respondents favored connecting only Meadow Pointe Blvd. to K-Bar Ranch Pkwy. 

Nearly 68 percent responded yes, with 32 percent saying no.

The MPO, however, voted unanimously to forward the second-most popular option, Option 3 — connecting both the Meadow Pointe Blvd. Extension and Wyndfields Blvd. to K-Bar Ranch Pkwy. — which 66 percent favored.

Connecting only Kinnan-Mansfield was never an option — nor was it an option that was studied in the year-long Roadways Connections Study commissioned by the county — but the controversial connection was included with the other roads in both Option 1 and Option 4. Option 1, which asked if residents would be in favor of connecting Kinnan to Mansfield as well as the Meadow Pointe Blvd. Extension to K-Bar Ranch Pkwy., received a “yes” vote by 54 percent of respondents. 

The least popular option from the survey results was No. 4, which would have connected Mansfield Blvd., the Meadow Pointe Blvd. Extension and Wyndfields Blvd. — in other words, all three potential connections to the New Tampa area. Even so, a majority of those responding, 52 percent, still voted in favor of that option as well.

Dr. Valerie Mainguy, a Meadow Pointe resident who works at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church on Cross Creek Blvd., suggested that those numbers were tainted. She told the board she was privy to a “huge initiative” by New Tampa residents to use Pasco addresses and names to skew the results to get Kinnan-Mansfield connected

She said the “fraud” that happened is well known and public knowledge, although she offered no proof of it.

A majority of those saying no to any connections involving Mansfield Blvd. came from those who live along the road. They were signified by red dots on a map showing where the respondents resided.

“The ones that would utilize that connection don’t want that connection,” Moore said.

Those who showed up to the MPO meeting spoke against adding any more traffic to Mansfield Blvd.

“I’m a red dot because I’m the father of two boys that ride their bikes up and down (Mansfield) every day to go to school,” said Meadow Pointe II resident Brad Jorgensen.

Like many of those opposed to connecting Kinnan St. to Mansfield Blvd., Jorgensen cited the safety of children in the neighborhoods along the road.

“This is about not turning our neighborhood into alternate Bruce B. Downs,” Jorgensen said.

Fr. David Says Goodbye

It was his last mass, but it felt like his first one.

The pews at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church were filled. Everyone was eager to hear what he was going to say. And, the nerves and emotions were almost overwhelming.

“It was pulling me in all kinds of different directions,’’ Father David DeJulio said.

After 16 years of leading St. Mark’s through massive growth and the construction of a new church, making hundreds of friends in the community and helping even more families, Fr. David said goodbye on June 30 to a congregation that has grown from 2,100 families when he came to the church to more than 3,800 as he departs.

He was pleased with his homily, which challenged parishioners to hold steady as they follow Christ, despite the ever-growing plague of distractions. Towards the end of the eucharist prayer, as the end of his time at St. Mark’s drew nearer, he started fighting back those emotions.

Tampa City Council member Luis Viera presented Fr. David with a city commendation, leading to a rousing 45-second standing ovation. When Fr. David tried to bring the mass to a close, his staff 

interrupted him and presented him with a plaque.

“I lost it there at the end,” Fr. David confessed. 

After gathering himself, he followed a procession of altar boys and deacons and, for the last time as their priest, walked past rows of the adoring St. Mark congregants for the final time.

”I’m not really thrilled about leaving,” Fr. David said afterwards, “but when God tells you you gotta go, you gotta go.”

He is headed north (but not too far) to St. Frances Xavier of Cabrini in Spring Hill, only 15 minutes from where his twin brother Frankie’s family lives.

Fr. David will essentially trade parishes with Rev. Richard Jankowski, who has been at St. Frances of Cabrini for 13 years.

It’s the next stop on Fr. David’s journey, which began at the age of 5, when he says he first knew the church is where he wanted to be.

It wasn’t until he was 27, however, that he entered the seminary. He graduated with a finance degree from the University of South Florida, making the long drive to classes from his family’s home in Holiday, FL.

He took a job at a bank in St. Petersburg, a job he said he truly enjoyed. But, that feeling he got in church as a kid never went away.

“It kept haunting me,” he says.

His first year in the seminary, he wasn’t so sure he made the right choice. He thought about quitting after one semester. He had been living with his girlfriend in an apartment in St. Petersburg and was in control of his life. But, when he entered the seminary, he wasn’t.

“My first year was tough,” he says. “I just really didn’t like it.”

He knew he had faith, but wondered what kind. In the end, it turned out to be a determined, resilient and unbending faith, the same kind of faith he implores his parishioners to strive for every day.

It is Fr. David’s style, which is described as easy-going, funny but still somewhat stern, that made him a popular fixture in New Tampa.

Among the first families he met when he came to St. Mark’s were Richard and Nancy Larson. Nancy was the liturgist at St. Mark’s, and Frankie contacted her about planning a party for the installation of his brother, the new priest.

The party was held at Hunter’s Green Country Club, in the community where Fr. David has lived in a home the church uses as its rectory.

Richard and Fr. David became instant friends, as did dozens of others from Hunter’s Green who joined Fr. David’s Bible study group that would meet weekly at his home. Fr. David would teach, and afterwards, there would be wine and food and cigars.

“He built my faith and he made me a much stronger person,” Richard says. “He did that to our whole group.”

Many, Richard says, weren’t even members at St. Mark’s, but Fr. David still brought them home, too.

“He was so good at evangelizing and bringing people back to the church,” Richard says. “He was just a regular guy. I think that appealed to a lot of people.”

Fr. David golfed with the group — he says his handicap is currently a 13 — and the more time he spent with those who had stopped going to church, the more those people started going again.

When they found out Fr. David was leaving, the group pitched in and bought him a membership to Southern Hills Plantation in Brooksville, 10 miles from his new church, so he could continue to spread God’s word to new friends while working on that handicap. 

After Fr. David’s final mass Sunday, he was greeted in the courtyard by Noel and Nellie Negron, whose eyes welled with tears as they thanked their longtime priest for bringing them back into the church.

Noel has been a member for 23 years, but hasn’t always been a regular churchgoer.

“I went when I felt like it,” he said. “When I met Fr. David, he brought me back. (Now) there isn’t a Sunday I miss. I love coming to church.”

Nellie recalled a story about the time her granddaughter Olivia saw Fr. David walking alone across the field next to the church, and asked if that was Jesus.

“I will always remember that story,” she said, smiling. “I love him. I am going to miss him.”

The Negrons have already been to his new church, and plan on stopping in for a mass here and there.

Richard says he will do the same, as, he suspects, many others who knew Fr. David also will do. He joked that he will definitely see Fr. David again, “because I made him promise he would do my funeral.”

Priests usually serve 12 years at one church, but Father David was given 16, so he could spend some time enjoying the church he helped to build.

Fr. David was named pastor at St. Mark’s in 2003, preaching from the Family Life Center the church flock was quickly outgrowing. He envisioned a spiritual center for New Tampa, a place for families to come together in prayer. A fund-raising campaign was started, and the although the economic downturn in 2008 forced a delay, on June 6, 2015, the $10.1-million, 35,000-sq.-ft. sanctuary was dedicated. 

Today, the church is only $1.5 million from paying off a $5-million loan to finish it.

“It’s kind of a slip of the tongue to say it’s “my place,” but I feel connected here,” Fr. David says proudly. I spent half my priesthood here. It’s always going to have a special place in my heart, wherever I am.”

Father David will always be remembered for his stewardship over the sanctuary project, which he credits as a testament to the “tremendous sacrifices on the part of parishioners.”

But, it’s just a small part of the legacy he hopes he leaves behind.

“Obviously buildings are important, but what happened here is we created a place with a story,” he says.

He says he wants to be remembered not only for helping create a beautiful structure to worship in, but also for what has happened inside it. He is proud that St. Mark has been a place where families feel welcome, where you’re greeted by four or five people before you even got to your seat, where he challenged his parishioners’ faith and helped guide them through both happy and difficult times.

He fostered a community that did many good things, a community that he helped connect to God through his teachings.

At the end of the day, and 16 wonderful years, it was all that he could ask.

“I started to think about him not being here, and it was a very emotional thing,” Noel said. “When you have someone you can turn to for some encouragement and leadership and someone to guide us…and now he won’t be here. He was a good shepherd for us.” 

Big Changes Coming To WaterGrass

Florida Medical Clinic will be the first of what is likely to be many businesses coming to the Promenade Business Centre.

Florida Medical Clinic (FMC) is set to be the first occupant of the long-planned Promenade Business Centre located at the Curley Rd. entrance to the WaterGrass community. But, it won’t be the last.

On June 19, Pasco’s Board of County Commissioners approved a large-scale comprehensive plan amendment, amending the Future Land Use designation for the property from TC (Town Center) to PD (Planned Development) on 77 acres at the northeast and southeast corners of the Curley Rd. intersection with Overpass Rd.

The Promenade Business Centre PD will consist of an employment center within the WaterGrass Master Planned Unit Development (MPUD). The business park concept, according to the background summary, “proposes mixed-use development that incorporates office, retail and multi-family/townhomes with a focus on Business Park uses that encourages target industry job creation.”

The Promenade Business Centre would add roughly 1.2 million square feet of corporate business park uses, including for such things as medical clinics, corporate headquarters, research and development facilities and business accessory retail (like food service within an office complex) uses.

The development may also feature multi-story buildings that would incorporate uses such as cafeterias, restaurants, banks, health or fitness facilities, meeting rooms, co-working spaces, off-street parking and on-site day care facilities, according to the summary.

The parcels proposed for the business center also would include two parks and Pasco Fire Rescue Station 38, a 10,843-sq.ft. facility which broke ground last year and is expected to open this fall.

A new charter school, next to Station 38, also is in the concept plans. 

FMC’s Latest Foray Into WC

The Florida Medical Clinic WaterGrass Medical Building is set to begin construction later this year and will open in late 2020, says Barbara Kininmonth, VP of sales and marketing for Crown Community Development (also the primary developer of Seven Oaks). 

The two-story, 30,000-sq.-ft. facility is needed in the quickly growing area, Kininmonth says. “There is going to be a variety of things at the front of WaterGrass,” she says. “Florida Medical Clinic really wanted to be at that location with all the new housing coming to the area. We thought there would be good support for that.”

FMC also has two major nearby complexes: 60,000 sq. ft. on S.R. 54 in Land O’Lakes and the newer, 85,00-sq.-ft. complex  just south of AdventHealth Wesley Chapel on Bruce B. Downs Blvd.

Kininmonth also says that the rest of the Promenade Business Centre tenants will be market-driven.

The WaterGrass community recently held its Grand Opening for Phase III, the latest residential offering, with seven neighborhoods and builders Meritage Homes, D.R. Horton, Taylor Morrison and Vitale Homes.

Phase III will be the last single-family-home phase of the community, which currently has 800 residents, a number which will swell to 1,900 when WaterGrass is built out.

Promenade Park in Phase III, which sits on four acres and Kininmonth calls a “unique” amenity, also is close to opening. 

“Everything is meant to be family-centric,” she says, adding that Phase III will be completely private and gated, and will include a resort-style pool, large splash pad, shaded picnic area, open playfield, two dog parks (one for large dogs, and another for smaller dogs), a playground and a pavilion with luxury seating and WiFi where parents can relax within view of the playground and splash pad.

“The market in Florida, in Wesley Chapel in particular, has been very very strong and growing,” Kininmonth says. “A lot of exciting things are happening in Pasco, and we’re glad to be here.”

Check Out These Local Events For the 4th!

There are lots of options for area residents looking for some local Fourth of July fun and fireworks, but the best option may be the annual celebration right on S.R. 54 at the Avalon Park West (APW) community.

For the sixth straight year, APW will hold its Fourth of July celebration, which is expected to draw thousands of festive frolickers — and many from the surrounding areas, including Tampa — as it continues to grow in popularity.

“Last year, we had 2-3,000 people, which was definitely the biggest crowd we ever had,” says Marielle Fernandez, APW’s marketing and events coordinator. “It’s grown every year.”

While APW is a growing mixed-use community with roughly 2,000 residents, Marielle says more than half of those that come for the fireworks are actually not APW residents. 

The celebration is scheduled for 5 p.m.-9 p.m. on Thursday, July 4, and as usual the event will include a host of activities to keep families entertained.

While last year’s celebration featured a pie bake-off, this year it will be called a “Patriotic Bake-Off” and will include pies, brownies, cakes and cookies. 

There also will be a bike parade (strollers and wagons welcome) beginning at 6 p.m., with kids showing off their decorating skills, and Fernandez says there will be more food trucks, vendors and community performances than ever.

“I think the response has been really great,” Fernandez says. “It’s nice having something for the community to come together and celebrate. And, we’re happy we’ve become that hub where they come to enjoy the Fourth of July.”

You have to register for the bike parade and bake-off. To do so, and for more information, visit AvalonParkWest.com. 

DINNER & A SHOW!: For those who are interested in a sit-down dinner followed by fireworks, our friends Anass El-Omari and his wife Susana Herrera of Omari’s Grill at the Lexington Oaks Golf Course (which is closed for renovations) are hosting a delicious, family-friendly, open-to-the-public celebration on the 4th, with hamburgers and BBQ chicken on the grill (plus side dishes) served from 5 p.m.-9 p.m.

There also will be live music, a premium alcohol cash bar and what Susana promises will be an impressive professional fireworks display. Reservations are definitely suggested, because brunch events at Omari’s Grill have been known to sell out and people love barbecues and fireworks for the 4th. The cost is just $14.99 per person (ages 13+), with kids ages 4-12 just $5.99. 

Please note that no outside food or drink will be permitted during this event. For reservations, call (813) 907-7270 or see the ad on pg. 39 of this issue for more information.

BOOM!: If you think bigger is better, then you might like this — The City of Tampa will unveil a new Fourth of July celebration of its own.

After back-to-back busts with celebrations organized by private vendors, Tampa is taking over the festivities this year.

New Mayor of Tampa Jane Castor announced shortly after being elected that the city will host a “Boom by the Bay” fireworks spectacle, which she says will be “sparking a brand-new tradition in Tampa.”

Tampa’s Fourth of July celebration will feature four fireworks displays spanning 2.5 miles of the city’s majestic waterfront, from Armature Works to Riverfront Park to the Tampa Convention Center and over to Sparkman Wharf.

There will be activities for the family and live entertainment as well.

“I want to kick off my time in office with a big bang,” Mayor Castor said in a video posted to social media announcing the event.

You can text the word BOOM to 888 777 to receive special notifications about “Boom by the Bay.”

Time To Take Out The Trash!

Those blue bins still have Pasco County District 2 commissioner Mike Moore seeing red.

Moore is renewing an old fight against donation bins that seem to be a breeding ground for mini-junkyards, as a recent spate of trash dumpings have pushed him to ask for stiffer rules and harsher penalties.

Moore, who originally pushed to enact an ordinance passed in 2016 making it harder to leave unmanned bins scattered around the county, is rolling his sleeves back up. The Seven Oaks resident’s district serves most of Wesley Chapel, and one recurrent dumping ground on S.R. 56 just east of I-75 has him particularly unhappy.

“When we did that (ordinance in 2016), a bunch of them did go away,” says Moore. “It wasn’t as bad. But now that the dust has settled, they have been starting to reappear all over the place.”

That may not be much of a surprise. The 2016 ordinance required that those operating the donation bins apply for a permit, which entailed producing a site plan and receiving written permission from the landowner, as well as a regular pick-up schedule to be followed.

And how many bin operators have applied for a permit since then?

“Zero,” says Moore.

Three of the dumping locations — there are many all across the county, Moore says — that have gained a lot of attention among Neighborhood News readers the past month are in Wesley Chapel, including one near his home.

A pair of bins placed across the street from the Wesley Chapel Mini car dealership near the Texas Roadhouse restaurant, and another near the Sam’s Club (also on S.R. 56) have been attracting items not intended as donations.

Photo: Dan Ballman (Facebook)

Resident Dan Ballman posted the photo above on the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page on June 9 pleading for an answer to the illegal dumping problem, with a two pictures of the dumping site between Texas Roadhouse and TD Bank.

One picture, he wrote, was taken on May 26, and the second was taken two weeks later, after the junk pile had doubled in size.

A dresser, at least five couches, six mattresses, a television set and what appears to be a dishwasher can be seen in the pictures. it looked as if enough items were dropped off to fully furnish a one-bedroom apartment. 

Facebook page members have called the dumpers “lazy,” “horrible” and “disgusting,” while suggesting that the county install cameras in certain hot spots to catch the lawbreakers in the act.

Moore says the county already has asked code enforcement and the Pasco Sheriff’s Office to investigate, and said cameras have been placed at other locations he cannot reveal.

Moore said some bins have been seized as evidence for potential criminal proceedings. Although the bins are labeled for charitable donations, the commissioner thinks they are full-fledged businesses cashing in.

“Companies are collecting textiles to be reimbursed for it, to sell it,” Moore says. “Some say they give a portion of the funds to charity. We can’t confirm or deny that, because when you call the number on the bin, there’s no answer.”

While the bins themselves — which are not picked up in a timely fashion and are often overflowing — are a problem, District 1 commissioner Ron Oakley pointed out that those dumping items with no intention of putting anything in a bin also are an issue. 

Commissioner Moore, however, said it is the bins themselves that begin the process of sites turning into junkyards. Commissioner Kathryn Starkey called the bins “magnets” for junk haulers to unload their stuff.

Moore said he suspects some of the junk dumpers are professionals who get paid to haul away large items but then decide to unload it somewhere other than the nearest junkyard — the Pasco County Transfer Station (PCTS) at 9626 Handcart Rd. in Dade City — to avoid paying a fee.

The PCTS charges $2.96 for every 100 pounds dumped.

When the county has to clean up these eyesores, it is at the taxpayers’ expense, Moore says.

On May 21 at a Board of County Commissioners meeting in New Port Richey, Moore suggested that the county ban unmanned collection bins altogether, which would affect legitimate collection bins like those used for recycling and those used by churches. County assistant attorney Kristi Sims said that the county would “quite definitely” be sued.

“I cannot stand up here and tell you we will win,” Sims said.

What the county has done is that it has begun monitoring various sites and seizing bins, and some sites that have been cleared out have since been repopulated with more bins — or more junk. 

The county also sent 40 letters to property owners where the bins are being placed, asking if they had given permission; 15 of those letters involved bins from one company.

About 20 have responded, “and not a single one has said they gave permission,” Moore said.

Those who haven’t replied have until July 1 to do so.

Sims suggested that Moore hold off on pushing for a ban and allow for renewed enforcement efforts this summer to take hold. “Let’s see how this shakes out,” she said.

Moore said the county needs to end the problem as soon as possible. He is promoting strict enforcement of the ordinance and stiff penalties — including third-degree felony charges for dumping more than 500 pounds (or 100 cubic feet in volume), which carries with it up to five years in prison.

“I’m frustrated,” Moore said, “That’s why we’re taking it to next level. Now, we’re going to go out, and we’re going to catch them. We’re going to prosecute (them). We need to catch a few of them, and if they meet the criteria for a felony, they are going to be in bad shape.”