Pasco’s Libraries Adapting To New Technologies To Stay Relevant

The times they are a’changing, and so, too, are libraries, according to Bob Harrison of Pasco County Libraries.

“Typically when people think of libraries, they think of books,” Harrison told local business leaders on July 20, during a Lunch n’ Learn program in the Don Porter Boardroom at the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC), which sponsored the event. “But, we’re so much more than just books.”

Harrison said area libraries are taking a quantum leap into the future with a litany of new services offered to both small businesses and residents of Pasco County.

Although the image of libraries may be of dusty old bookshelves and gray-haired librarians demanding total silence, one of the first services detailed by Harrison was the addition in many county libraries of community meeting rooms.

Space is subject to availability, but having a public space to meet can be an asset for a small business or organization. Heck, just look around at any coffee shop during the day, and you can see all kinds of business meetings taking place. The library not only offers free internet, but also  low-cost printers and copiers.

“We are trying to become part of the Maker Movement that’s sweeping the nation right now,” Harrison said. “The libraries have jumped into it.”

Maker Spaces, as they are dubbed, are being created across the county’s seven branches in Hudson, Regency Park, Centennial Park, South Holiday, Hugh Embry, Land O’ Lakes and the New River branch library at 34043 S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel.

The New River library has a meeting room that can accommodate up to 30 people, and does not even require a library card to book, which can be done at PascoLibraries.org.

Adrienne Hymes, Missioner for the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida, sees it as an opportunity, as she said her church is looking to incorporate new members from the Wesley Chapel area.

“We are trying to establish a church in Wesley Chapel, and we need options for meeting spaces,” Hymes said.

Additionally, Pasco’s libraries offer a conduit to the WCCC and to the Pasco County Economic Development Council (EDC).

With that access, potential or existing business owners can learn the ins and outs of how to start and/or run a business in the county, and receive direction to the appropriate places for permitting or licensing information that goes beyond a typical Google search.

All you need is a library card.

AtoZDatabases.com, for example, offers access to business listings not just in the county, but nationwide. The site is a subscription site, but can be used for free at the library. The site  says that while Google and other search engines are valuable tools, they are limited to simple searches. AtoZDatabases can handle more complex questions, and returns the information in a consistent format.

“All the information you need is in one place,” Harrison says.

Pasco County library card holders also can access Demographics Now, a database that gathers information from the US Census from 2000 and 2010, as well other sources. There, users can find information about population density, income, ethnicity, even retail spending figures on households — information that can be vital when deciding whether to start a new business and where it might be most successful.

“I already have a (Pasco library) card, I just didn’t know these services were available,” said Roslyn Yee, founder of Vibrant Life International, a wellness consulting company in Lutz. “I like to be able to research companies. Now, it looks like I can do this from the comfort of my own home.”

Another invaluable tool in Pasco County Libraries’ online arsenal is access to Lynda.com, a popular online training company that offers more than 6,000 video courses on business, technology, software and marketing, to name just a few.

Users can access videos teaching Adobe products like Photoshop or Creative Suite, and other programs. You can learn how to shoot better photos with your DSLR camera, or how to how to master WordPress.

The site boasts more than 1,200 design courses, and over 700 web development and design courses. Lynda.com was acquired by LinkedIn,  and typically requires a monthly fee.

However, with a library card, users can access the premium version through the library website. All library cardholders need is their online access password, and they can even use the service from their home or office computers.

It’s all part of Pasco County Libraries’ vision for the future.

“We see a future for the county library system being heavy on tech and all community-driven,” Harrison said.

That includes things like a Community Garden Maker Space at the New River branch, a new sound studio being built at the Hudson branch and a woodworking shop at the Land O’ Lakes branch.

Volunteers help staff the spaces and libraries are always seeking more volunteers. The ideas for new services are generated by feedback from the community.

“We want residents to drive it,” said Harrison. “We want the library to be more than a knowledge center, we want it to be a hub for the community.”

During the WCCC workshop, Harrison said that Pasco’s libraries spend only $12 per person per year, while the average spent by the rest of the state’s counties is $26 per person.

“We are good stewards of your tax dollars,” Harrison said. “But, as the county grows, we expect to be able to offer additional services as demand grows.”

Southern Pasco County, especially the Wesley Chapel area, is booming with growth. A growing property tax base, along with a 501 (c)(3) Friends of the Library charitable organization, are primarily responsible for funding the library’s current leap into the 21st Century.

For additional information, visit PascoLibraries.org

Pasco OKs School Impact Fee Increase

Once the increases are all rolled in over the next three years, these will be the school impact fees in Pasco County.

As expected, and facing a dire need to build more schools in the quickly growing parts of the Pasco County — particularly Wesley Chapel — the Pasco Board of County Commissioners (BCC) voted Aug. 15 to raise school impact fees on new homes.

The unanimous decision by the BCC was no surprise. Prior to the BCC’s last board meeting on July 13, the Pasco County School District and the Tampa Bay Builders Association (TBBA) had forged a deal to phase in an impact fee increase of roughly $3,500 over three years — $2,252 on Jan. 1, 2018, and $600 on Jan. 1 in 2019 and 2020.

The commissioners all signaled their support for the increase at that meeting, but were unable to vote on the ordinance at the time because it had changed significantly from what was originally advertised.

The delay was to allow for further public comment, but there was only one speaker, who actually spoke in favor of the increase, at the Aug. 15 meeting.

The impact fee on a new single-family home, currently $4,828, will be bumped to $7,128 beginning in January. For any applications filed after Dec. 31, 2019, the last year of the phased-in increase, the impact fee on a new single-family home will be $8,328.

Impact fees are charges assessed on new construction to pay for other infrastructure needed to accommodate growth. In Wesley Chapel for example, homes are continuing to be built and the area continues to grow so rapidly that most of the elementary, middle and high schools have been over capacity (see story on page 13).

Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) has been on a 10-period schedule for the last two years, and while the rezoning will alleviate some overcrowding, the school still has no room. Cypress Creek, which opened Aug. 14 as a combined middle/high school, has roughly 1,900 students, which also is near its capacity.

Combining a middle and high school is not ideal.  Pasco County Superintendent of Schools Kurt Browning said he hopes to have a separate middle school built in four years on the Cypress Creek campus, as the new fees are expected to raise more than $200 million over the next decade for school construction.

The school district had formed a School Impact Fee Committee (SIFC) to study the issue, which hadn’t been done since a 2007 study that never went to a BCC vote. The SIFC met four times between March and April of this year and looked at a dozen options to raise enough funds for new schools to accommodate an expected increase over the next 10 years of 7,500 students. The members of the committee decided that the best way to raise the funds without requiring a referendum was the increase in home impact fees.

District staff recommended an increase to $9,028, or an 85 percent increase that it said would pay for four or five new schools those 10 years.

The TBBA was hoping to keep the increase to $7,176, or a 48-percent raise, which means that the school district got 92 percent of the increase it was seeking.

Tourist Tax Raised For Sports Complex

The long-awaited multi-use sports complex  in the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI) was officially approved by the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) on Aug. 5, and the county’s Tourist Development Tax (TDT), or “bed” tax, will be doubled to pay for it.

By a 4-0 vote, with District 4 commissioner Jack Mariano abstaining, the county approved the plan to build the $44-million complex on a 224-acre parcel of land owned by the county (that was previously donated by the Porter family) and located northeast of the Shops at Wiregrass.

The TDT is a tax placed on overnight hotel stays within the county.

Steve Domonkos, specialty leasing manager at the Shops at Wiregrass, and Hope Allen, the CEO of the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC), were the only speakers at the public hearing, and  both spoke in favor of increasing the TDT from two percent to four percent.

The BCC already had set aside $11 million ($8.5-million in tourist tax funds and $2.5 million in excess bond proceeds from a prior half-cent sales tax bond) and a county-backed loan of $14.2 million to pay for the project.

The increase in the TDT is expected to generate $1.2 million annually, which will help pay down the loan. RADDSports, which is developing the indoor sports facility that anchors the project, says that the projected revenue generated by the indoor/outdoor facility also will help repay the loan.

A 128-room Residence Inn by Marriott, which will be owned and operated by Mainsail Lodging & Development, also will be built at the complex, at a cost of roughly $19 million.

The pet-friendly hotel is expected to house many of the youth sports teams from all over the state that RADDSports’ Richard Blalock says will flock to the facility for tournaments.

The county expects the sports complex to generate 27,000 room nights per year.

The  98,000-sq.-ft. indoor sports facility, the first phase of the project, will host major tournaments for basketball, volleyball, cheerleading and other indoor sports. It also will boast meeting rooms and concession stands, and share the 60-acre site with an amphitheatre, as well as football and soccer fields and park trails, all part of the complex’s second phase.

So, Here’s A Little Back-To-School Reminiscing & The Latest News About WCNT-tv!

My sons, Jared and Jake, are now 28- and 25-year-old grown men, respectively, but I can still clearly remember the excitement they both felt every year when they went back to school, even through high school.

They’d be armed with new notebooks, pencils and calculators, some new clothes and would look forward to making new friends and catching up with old ones as they returned from whatever summertime activities or family vacations they had enjoyed.

And, although they both grew up in and went to public schools in nearby New Tampa, both of them always had friends who lived and went to school in Wesley Chapel, often through the many sports they both played. “The Chap” didn’t have nearly as many organized sports programs as New Tampa at that time, so the kids who lived in Meadow Pointe and even Lexington Oaks often had to cross the county line to play competitive soccer or baseball.

And, even though it wasn’t that long ago, there’s no doubt in my mind that it was a simpler time, especially in light of the truly frightening craziness going on throughout the world today, even though both of them were old enough then to still remember 9-11.

And yes, I’m proud to say that Jared, Jake and I are all products of public schools, although I grew up in Long Island, NY, and they spent their formative years here in Florida.

Today, Jared, who graduated, as I did, from the University of Florida in Gainesville, is the vice president of business development for the Orlando office of USA Solar, Inc., a solar energy installation company, while he is getting close to rolling out a new cell phone app that he has worked on for almost two years now.

Jake, who graduated cum laude  from that other big state school in Tallahassee, is now a sales rep for Medtronic, a global leader in medical technology, services and solutions, sitting in on operations with doctors in Milwaukee, WI. 

In other words, both are doing great and proof positive that school is what you make of it, whether public, private or home-schooled. If your kids have been coming home since school started here in Pasco County on August 14 excited about their teachers, their friends and their school and you remain involved in the education process with them, it doesn’t matter how overcrowded their school might be. Both of my boys attended Hunter’s Green Elementary when it was at about twice its capacity of 900 students — bigger than many high schools today, including the new Cypress Creek Middle High on Old Pasco Rd. — and there’s no doubt in my mind that they both loved it there.

I’ll be honest that I’m glad that there was no Facebook, social media or smartphones when my kids were young, but seeing so many families I know and love posting their back-to-school pics recently got me feeling pretty nostalgic for those fun, albeit trying, days gone by.

I definitely don’t miss the long car lines, the homework help I often had to provide or the multiple trips to the emergency room with them, but my experience was definitely a positive one, so I hope it’ll be the same for you.

And, for those of you, like me, who no longer have young’ns, please remember that school is back in session, so put down those cell phones while driving, sit back, relax and enjoy all of the new restaurants now open and still to come in our area.

The Latest News About WCNT-tv!

Now just a couple of months into its second year as the only YouTube- and Facebook-based video webcast for New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, I’m proud to say that WCNT-tv — Wesley Chapel and New Tampa Television — is fast approaching a total reach of one million people and 500,000 total views between Facebook and YouTube.

We have changed the format of the “show” quite a bit, with more and shorter news, dining, Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) Featured Business and entertainment segments that always seem to get people talking.

And, that is the primary reason I co-founded the show nearly 15 months ago. With my degree, training and background in broadcasting, I simply could no longer allow this publication to be the only way I could reach out to the people in the communities I have served for the last 23-1/2 years.

During our most recent news segments, we’ve updated our map of the State Road 56 area near the Tampa Premium Outlets, previewed U.S. Congressman Gus Bilirakis and Pasco Commissioner Mike Moore’s transportation meeting on Aug. 21 (which we will recap in our next issue), and told you about not only Noble Crust and Irish 31 here in Wesley Chapel, but also the new Fat Rabbit Pub and Precinct Pizza in New Tampa.

If you’ve been reading this publication for any period of time, you know how much I love telling you about the new places to eat in our distribution areas and I’m not going to lie about how proud I am when the WCNT-tv “Neighborhood Dining News” segments get so many reactions like “Let’s Go!” anytime I’m the first to tell you about a new eatery.

My WCNT-tv co-anchor Susanna Martinez, WCCC Featured Business host Mollyana Ward, production assistant/video editor Gavin Olsen, cameraman Eric Cupps and I will have multiple new news, dining and business items to share with you on the show before the next issue of this publication reaches your mailbox, so please, subscribe to our Neighborhood News Facebook page and remember to View, Like & Share every episode of WCNT-tv!

Deacon Blues Band Concert Raises $1,700 For Juvenile Diabetes Research

Another day, another benefit concert, another $1,700 raised for yet another great cause for my friend and long-time New Tampa resident Bernie Desrosiers and his friends in the Deacon Blues Band.

The incredibly talented group of doctors and businessmen by day continue to rock the house every time they show up to raise money by night.

The band’s most recent show, held July 21 in The Palms Lounge at Peabody’s Billiards & Games (in the Shoppes of Amberly plaza in Tampa Palms), was attended by about 100 people and raised $1,700, which will be donated to help band member and baritone saxophonist Dr. Kelly O’Keefe’s participation in the upcoming “El Tour de Tucson” Ride to Cure Diabetes for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) in November of this year. El Tour is one of the largest “century” (100-mile) rides in the U.S., with more than 9,000 cyclists, 2,000 volunteers and 27,000 spectators and the stated goal of the JDRF is to “Create a World Without Diabetes.”

Desrosiers, the Deacon Blues’ goofy-hatted (“I’ve got more than 200, Gary,” he says in his Rhode Island/New England accent) keyboard player whose daughter Nicole (see below and photo, right) is a Type 1 diabetic, invited yours truly to come up on stage to sing “Brown Eyed Girl” with the band at the end of the show. Truth be told, I was a member of the group for a couple of gigs, so I had practiced the song with them multiple times, but I truly felt honored to be on stage again with these guys.

The show itself featured everything from the smooth finger-picking guitar stylings of Michael Marth to front man (and longtime New Tampa music teacher and church music director) Todd LeBlanc’s outstanding vocals and the “Blues Brothers”-styled two-saxophone horn section.

Stealing the show, despite all those earlier accolades, was Bernie and his wife (and backing vocalist) Anne’s daughter Nicole, who absolutely brought the house down with her spectacular voice. Nicole, a professional performer at Busch Gardens, belted out some Aretha and some Whitney and left the crowd wanting more.

To book the Deacon Blues Band or for more information, visit TheDeaconBlues.com or call (813) 361-2808. — GN