Jazz Tyme Productions is proud to announce that the Wesley Chapel Jazz Festival will return to the Wesley Chapel District Park on Boyette Rd. on Saturday, October 21, noon-8 p.m. (File photo from 2016)
Although it always features a little more than โjustโ great jazz, itโs hard not to have a soft spot for the Wesley Chapel Jazz Festival, which returns to the Wesley Chapel District Park on Boyette Rd. (two miles north of S.R. 54) on Saturday, October 21, noon-8 p.m.
Event organizer and promoter Tim Hancock of Jazz Tyme Productions has previously survived events where the heat index seemed to reach 120 degrees and one cancelled by torrential rain as the headliner hit the stage.
But, through it all, Hancock has brought great music, some excellent food and other vendors together for all-day shows that are appropriate for families but still allows adults to enjoy adult music and to a location only 15 minutes or so north of the Hillsborough/Pasco county line.
Bring your lawn chairs and/or blankets and grab the kids for some fun activities just for them.
This yearโs Jazz Festival sponsors include the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce, Rubenstein Law, DeSigns Signs & Printing, Serenity Village Insurance & Consulting, Kaptain Krab Seafood, Jazz Tyme Productions and the New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News.
Food vendors already announced for this year include JBโs Sweet Addictions, Anthony & Son Catering, Mommaโs Empanadas, The Tea Jug, T-Momma Catering & Kaptain Krab Seafood.
New Tampa and Wesley Chapel residents whose homes, possessions or businesses suffered damage or loss as a result of Hurricane Irma may be surprised that the Small Business Administration (SBA) can help them get back in business or help them be made whole again.
The SBA is providing assistance with low-interest disaster loans for Florida residents and businesses in the 48 counties covered by U.S. President Donald J. Trumpโs disaster declaration covering areas affected by Hurricane Irma. Hillsborough and Pasco are among the Florida counties eligible for federal assistance.
Homeowners can apply for low-interest loans up to $200,000 to repair or replace damage to their primary residence and along with renters, can apply for up to $40,000 to cover personal property, including vehicles. SBA homeowner disaster loan rates are advertised as being as low as 1.75 percent with terms up to 30 years.
Help For Businesses, Too
When it comes to assisting businesses and private nonprofit organizations of any size, the SBA disaster loans address not only physical damage to assets such as real estate, infrastructure and inventory, but economic loss as well. Owners can apply for up to $2 million for physical loss and $2 million to cover working capital.
Those loans, called Economic Injury Disaster Loans, are available even if no physical property damage has occurred.
The SBA is advertising loan rates as low as 3.305 percent for businesses and as low as 2.5 percent for non-profit organizations.
The SBA may not be the first place people might think of for homeowner or renter disaster assistance, so public affairs specialists like Mary Gipson and Laura Wages have been dispatched from the agencyโs Disaster Assistance Field Operations Office in Atlanta to spread the word about the resource through local media, including a recent stop at the Neighborhood News office.
Gipson says providing disaster assistance is part of the job. โIn times of presidential or other federal agency-declared disaster, we make loans to businesses of all sizes, nonprofit organizations, homeowners and renters,โ she says.
Applications for physical property damage loans need to be filed by Thursday, November 9, and the deadline to return economic injury applications is June 11, 2018.
According to Gipson, if you think you have a claim, apply sooner, not later.
โDo not delay when completing your SBA application,โ she says.
The SBA loaned $40,900 in Tampa in 2016, with no reported loans in Wesley Chapel, according to data on its website, sba.gov, where you can find more information and apply online.
You can call (800) 659-2955 (or {800} 877-8339 (for deaf and hard of hearing applicants) or call Mary at (202) 579-3172.
If you prefer to do business in person, there is an SBA Disaster Recovery Center serving Hillsborough and Pasco county residents 36 minutes south of County Line Rd. and Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd.,ย at Hillsborough Community College at the Regent (6437 Watson Rd. in Riverview). It is open daily from 8 a.m. — 8 p.m., according to the SBA website. Applicants can get assistance filling out the form and have their application reviewed before submitting it.
On Saturday, October 15, which is National Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Day, Heritage Isles resident Kimberley Asante will lead an event called โLetโs Not Be Still!โ
Itโs New Tampaโs first walk to support the Star Legacy Foundation, which provides research, education and support for families who have lost their babies due to miscarriage, stillborn birth or death shortly after birth.
โIn 2016, I was pregnant with my daughter,โ says Kimberley, who lives in Heritage Isles. โMy cousin, who lives in Spain, was pregnant at the same time and was due 10 days after me. We shared a lot of our experiences, because this was the first pregnancy for both of us. On December 31, my baby, Maya, was born happy and healthy. Unfortunately, 2 weeks later my cousinโs baby was stillborn. It was such a horrible loss for the whole family.โ
Kimberley decided to do something in honor of her cousin and many other families who suffer similar losses. She says she tried to find an event to participate in, but couldnโt find anything closer than Atlanta. Thatโs when she decided to organize the event herself.
The โLetโs Not Be Stillโ walk will start at Heritage Isles Country Club (10630 Plantation Bay Dr.) with registration at 8 a.m. and a family walk at 9:30 a.m. Thereโs a โdiaper dashโ for toddlers ages three and under, and a โkids fun runโ for ages four through 12. Also, there will be a remembrance ceremony at 11 a.m.
In February of 2015, I finally got to do the exclusive interview that former Wharton High football star Joel Miller had promised from Day One he would give me โ where he finally got to tell me and our readers his side of the story of the locker room incident between him and former University of South Florida (USF) head football coach Jim Leavitt that ultimately cost Leavitt his job when Joel was a walk-on onto the USF team.
Unfortunately, that incident became the defining moment of his too-short life and that interview was the last real conversation I ever had with Joel, who passed away unexpectedly on September 10 at the too-young age of 29. Joel was a month or so older than my older son Jared, who first got to know his friend when both played youth football for the New Tampa Wildcats.
Jared and I spoke shortly after we heard the news that Joel had passed and both of us were heartbroken for his entire family โ his mother Kathy, his father Paul and his siblings.
โJoel and I became a lot closer after high school,โ Jared said. โI canโt believe heโs gone.โ
Of course, Joel would become one of the top running backs in Hillsborough County when he played for Wharton, where he ran for more than 2,600 yards his final two high school seasons and won Hillsborough Countyโs 2006 Golden Helmet Award for Class 5A-6A players.
He and Jared remained friends following the Leavitt incident, when all this smart, tough, talented young man wanted to do was to finally be able to tell his side of the story.
We published my interview with Joel in our February 28, 2015, issue, and it was easy to tell that he still hadnโt reconciled how or why the incident happened or how he ended up being blamed for what happened to Leavitt afterward.
โI wasnโt the whistleblower who called the media after the incident,โ Joel told me. โI never wanted anyone to find out what happened. I just wanted to play football.โ
I was sad that neither Jared nor I were able to attend Joelโs Celebration of Life at St Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church on Cross Creek Blvd. on Sept. 23, but I tried to picture myself in his parentsโ shoes and my heart bleeds for Kathy, the long-time local school teacher who I know loved Joel the way I love both of my boys.
Like many other people, I found out about Joelโs passing on Facebook, where I saw this post from Kathy:
โMy baby Joel passed away today. I am numb and heartbroken. As you all know, we were very close… I donโt even know what to say or what to do…I know he knows I love him and hope he is at peace… My Joely.โ
And then, after his memorial service on the 23rd, Kathy posted:
โOur family would like to thank everyone for donating money towards Joelโs Memorial Service. It was beautiful. Thank you to all who attended the Celebration of Life. We truly appreciate it very much. It was great seeing everyone and hearing the stories that included Joel. We also appreciate all the cards, texts, phone calls, visits and food. This has been a very difficult time for all of us. It still doesnโt seem real. We want each and every one of you to know how much your support has meant to us. Love, the Miller Family.โ
A few days later, on Jaredโs own 29th birthday, he posted:ย โI dedicate this birthday to Joel Miller. I will forever miss you man! Wish that you were here. Love you, bud. My prayers are with your family!โ
And, one of Joelโs former coaches at Wharton (and for the New Tampa Wildcats) Craig Rainey, who also was our neighbor when I first moved my family to Florida, posted this:
โJoel, I really donโt even know where to start and canโt believe it. I will never forget you coming in as a freshman introducing yourself, telling me you were our starting running back. From that day forward I knew you were going to be fun to coach and you were. So glad that we developed a friendship and always kept in touch. I have many memories that I will never forget. You were a great kid and touched so many around you. I love you and am going to miss you kid. RIP. Godspeed. Heaven has gained another angel. My thoughts and prayers are with the entire Miller Family.โ
The City of Tampa and Hillsborough County are in a dispute over usage of Tampa Fire Rescue Station No. 21 on Cross Creek Blvd. (Photo: John C. Cotey)
Since it opened in 2002, Tampa Fire Rescue Station No. 21 on Cross Creek Blvd. has not only serviced City of Tampa residents in New Tampa, but has also been contracted to respond to the homes in the New Tampa communities located in unincorporated Hillsborough County. That city-county agreement, however, is in peril.
While it may not be time to call 9-1-1 on the negotiations just yet, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn says that unless the county bridges the gap between what it has been paying and what the city thinks the county should be paying, Fire Station 21 โ located on Cross Creek Blvd. just west of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. โ will no longer respond to calls from residents in Pebble Creek, Live Oak, Cross Creek and the other communities located in unincorporated Hillsborough County.
โEffective Dec. 31, if some accomodation is not reached, the city is not going to be providing service to Pebble Creek anymore,โโ Buckhorn told the Neighborhood News on Sept. 29.
The county is paying the city $218,000 a year, plus any adjustments related to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), to service unincorporated New Tampa,
Buckhorn says that total should be closer to $1.46 million.
โWe have told the county, โLook, we are not doing this anymoreโ,โ Buckhorn says. โYou can pay us what we think we are owed and deserve, or you can go provide the service yourself or contract with Pasco County. We donโt care (which one). Weโre happy to be here for you, but weโre going to do it at a rate that compensates us appropriately.โ
Without a contract with the city, Hillsborough has limited options. One, according to Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Chief Dennis Jones, would be to stand up some kind of a response unit in the area. Another would be to contract with Pasco County, whose nearest fire rescue station is No. 26 in front of the Meadow Pointe I community in Wesley Chapel, about six miles away from the easternmost part unicorporated New Tampa.
The nearest Hillsborough County fire rescue station is No. 5 on E. 139th Ave. in the University area.
The best option, according to Chief Jones, is reaching some agreement with the city. However, it is requesting that the county to pay 40 percent of the annual costs to operate Station 21, City of Tampa chief financial officer Sonya Little wrote in a letter to Hillsborough County chief financial administrator Bonnie Wise.
According to the letter, Tampa has calculated the annual operating costs of Fire Station 21 at $3,652,432, and 40 percent of that number is $1,406,973.
โIn these tight budget times, weโre looking at every agreement we have and making sure we are being fairly and adequately compensated,โ Buckhorn says, โand this is one that is so glaring and so out of line, we just said enough.โ
Jones said the county found the $1.4 million figure โshocking.โ According to numbers he says are from the city, less than two calls a day to unincorporated New Tampa are handled by Fire Station 21, or approximately 40 minutes a day (or 2.78 percent) of service.
โWe thought that was a little bit of a jump without some rationale behind it,โโ Jones said. โWe measured calls and amount of time, and itโs a very small number for us to pay that amount of money.โ
Buckhorn doesnโt agree, however.
โThe frequency of the runs have increased significantly,โ Buckhorn said. โWe calculated down to the man hour, down to the cost of the vehicle, to be 40 percent of our time up there out of Station 21.โ
Jones says the City of Tampa is seeking money for everything from the cost of the building to vehicle depreciation to uniforms.
โBasically all the costs to run the fire station,โโ he said.
The county, however, is arguing that many of the costs the city wants to reimbursed for have nothing to do with the contracted services provided. Jones said the county is more than willing to make up for any CPIs that may have been missed in the past, and to pay its share of the operating costs of the fire vehicles used, as well as the materials and supplies associated with the calls to unincorporated New Tampa.
But the city, Jones says, built the fire station for the residents of New Tampa, not to accommodate any contract with the county. It owns the station, and the land itโs on, and Jones doesnโt think costs associated with that should be passed on to the county.
Buckhorn said the agreement between the city and county (which dates back to 1998) has long been an issue downtown, when some of the countyโs players involved in negotiations worked for the city. Wise was former mayor Pam Iorioโs chief financial officer for eight years before joining the county in 2011, and Jones was the Tampa Fire Chief before retiring in 2010. He was lured out of retirement in 2015 by the county.
โThe two of them well aware of the longstanding inadeuqacies of it,โ Buckhorn said.
Buckhorn said Jones complained about the agreement before retiring. Jones says he doesnโt recall ever having that conversation with Buckhorn when he was mayor, or before that when Buckhorn served as a city council member.
Both sides will continue to negotiate. The interlocal agreement they renewed in 2013 states that either party can terminate the agreement upon 90 days notice, which would mean Buckhorn would have had to exercise the option on Oct. 1 to meet his Dec. 31 cutoff date.
According to Buckhorn, the county has offered to pay an additional $40,000, which he said was โpretty much insulting.โ
Jones said the county has offered to pay $56,000 more, as well as an additional $32,500 yearly for expendables. Even using Jonesโ numbers, the difference between the city and county is still roughly $1.3 million.
โItโs a huge gap,โ Jones said. โIs there a meeting place? I would hope there is. Iโm confident weโll come up with a resolution.โ
