Category: News

Mayor Buckhorn Taking Fight To Mosquitoes & Zika

While the federal government continued to dawdle over additional funding to fight the spread of the Zika virus, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn has taken matters into his own hands.

Or rather, the hands of the city’s code inspectors, who have been tasked with finding abandoned pools and standing water in order to take the fight to the mosquitoes, whether they carry the Zika virus or not.

On Aug. 22, Mayor Buckhorn held a press conference at an abandoned home in the Wellswood area of central Tampa. He announced that the city is going on the offensive with bricks, or “dunks,” that can be tossed into areas where there is standing water — prime breeding ground for mosquitoes — to kill the pesky insects’ larvae.

“In light of what has been going on around the state of Florida, we decided not to wait for politicians in Washington, D.C., to act,’’ Buckhorn said at his press conference. “We’re going to take action ourselves. We can be proactive in terms of negating the environment in which mosquitoes breed.”

Stopping The Spread Of Zika

The Zika virus is spread by certain mosquitoes who become infected when they bite a person already infected. It also can be transmitted sexually, from one infected person to another.

Though most people will not feel any effects of the virus other than fever, headaches and joint pain, it is especially hazardous to pregnant women. It can cause severe brain defects — or microcephaly — in unborn fetuses. The virus can cause babies to be born with unusually small heads and underdeveloped brains, and lead to growth problems.

Tampa initially purchased 3,600 of the dunks, which cost roughly $5,000. The dunks contain BTI, or Bacillis thuringiensis israelensis, which is a bacterium that kills mosquito larvae. It has a range of 100 sq. ft. and can last for 30 days.

But, a week after Buckhorn’s press conference, the city announced 5,000 more dunks had been purchased, in anticipation of the rainy weather that was coming.

Tampa was hit hard by Tropical Storm/ Hurricane Hermine, which produced massive rains, which, of course, usually leads to standing pools of water.

“Our residents’ safety is our number one priority,” Buckhorn said. “With heavy rain comes standing water and we’re working around the clock to prevent the Zika virus from coming to Tampa, If that means purchasing an additional 10,000 dunks, we will do just that.”

The dunks have been given to more than 80 city code inspectors and neighborhood workers to distribute to areas where they are needed. An emphasis is being placed on abandoned homes with pools and retention ponds.

Mosquito control is typically handled by Hillsborough County, rather than the city, but Buckhorn decided to take an aggressive approach to a problem that is growing, although it has mainly been confined to the Miami area. In particular, the Wynwood neighborhood north of downtown Miami has been hit hard.

Until recently, there hadn’t been any locally transmitted cases in Tampa Bay.

Hitting Close To Home

A day after Buckhorn held his press conference, however, Florida Governor Rick Scott announced the first locally transmitted case of Zika during a roundtable discussion about the disease in Clearwater.

According to reports, a Tampa Fire Rescue (TFR) firefighter who lives in Pinellas County has contracted the Zika virus.

“This person did not travel to an infected area with Zika; we are looking at a number of locations,” Gov. Scott said. “Hopefully, something good will happen and it will just be a single case. But (whatever) we do find out, what we will do is we will be very aggressive.”

The TFR firefighter works out of Station No. 3 on Kennedy Blvd. in south Tampa. Other firefighters at the station tested negative for the virus.

The state has emergency funds of $26 million to help fight the spread of and to treat Zika. However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) & Prevention said late last week it was almost out of money to fight Zika, even as three new state cases here were announced. Florida now has 46 cases of infection.

According to reports, the CDC already has spent $8 million fighting Zika in Florida. Congress, which has been in recess, returned to work this week and the $1.9-billion funding request from the White House to combat Zika is still awaiting action.

Zika originated in Brazil in 2015, but there are more than 2,200 cases of Zika to date in the U.S., and more than 8,000 reported cases in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories.

Zika

‘Community’ Is At The Heart Of Cypress Point Community Church

cypress pointWEB — The Cypress Point Community Church Worship Band is an important part of church activities. Its repertoire ranges from an ecclesiastical-inspired version of the Rolling Stones song “Gimme Shelter” to classic Christian Rock favorites.

When Cross Creek residents Dean and Heidi Reule began Cypress Point Community Church in 1998, the married couple saw that residents of the burgeoning New Tampa area would need houses of worship as well as places to work, shop and play. As Hetti, who is the church’s children’s pastor, explains it, the insight was more inspired than reasoned.

“There was not much in the area at the time and the Lord was very clear about wanting a nondenominational Christian church in the area,” Hetti says.

Dean, who is the lead pastor of Cypress Point, agrees that the decision to start a church came from a deep conviction of its righteousness.

“It was that mysterious sense of vocation,” he said. “I just had the sense that this was God’s plan for my life.”

Cypress Point’s genesis was a small group of spiritually like-hearted families who gathered together in a living room for Bible study and prayer. As the church grew in size, venues such as the Hunter’s Green Model & Visitor Center and the Muvico Starlight 20 movie theater on Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. accommodated the growing congregation. Today, more than 700 worshippers attend services weekly in their own 30,000-sq.-ft. building on Morris Bridge Rd., just north of Cross Creek Blvd.

In addition to having a spacious sanctuary of its own in which to hold religious services, Cypress Point also has grown in terms of its impact on the local community, and beyond. “We’re a church that really tries to be on mission. We try to minister to the whole range of human needs,” says Pastor Dean, who has a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Florida State University in Tallahassee. “It’s what you do with the message that’s important to us.”

Among the services focusing members’ efforts to serve others are a Care Center, which provides groceries to 48 families each month and outreach ministries serving members of the military and firefighting communities.

Pastor Dean says church members deliver food to local fire stations to demonstrate their appreciation to the first responders staffing them. Support for the military community ranges from visiting veterans in hospitals and nursing homes to helping the families of deployed active duty forces when daily life presents challenges.

“Our military support mission is recognition of how many people in New Tampa that are active duty or retired military persons,” Dean says. “Somebody deploys and, on the home front, there’s a family of somebody who serves, and it’s nice to have a church family to help with practical matters and child care.”

The Military Support Outreach ministry also assists homeless veterans and sends care packages to troops stationed overseas.

In addition to community outreach, Cypress Point offers classes, workshops and topical Life Groups that provide members with Bible-based life skills and fellowship. Topics range from strengthening marriages to family protection classes that teach how to respond in an active shooter situation.

Like many churches, Cypress Point engages with communities outside its local area with missions to other states that refurbish homes and perform other acts of charity.

There’s also a global reach to Cypress Point’s missions. Mission teams travel to Thailand and Laos to assist youth at risk of exploitation there. Through construction projects and economic development programs, Cypress Point supports Christians who are a religious minority in those countries and often live and practice their faith on the margins of society, says Dean.

“We focus on serving the persecuted, underserved churches in Southeast Asia.”

Helping To Fight Fear

Just as the leadership of Cypress Point Community Church supports Christian communities facing persecution overseas, it also is dedicated to fighting religious intolerance in its own neighborhood (as Dean remarked in a recent service) by, “building bridges of love and respect with our Muslim neighbors.”

Cypress Point is next door to the Islamic Society of New Tampa’s Daarus-Salaam Mosque and the two groups occasionally get together for picnics and open house events.

That neighborly approach appeals to Cypress Point member Leon Jonas.

“Pastor Dean, he preaches love,” the Cross Creek resident says. “You’ve got to know your neighbor. Once you get to know people, you’re not so cold toward them.”

Leon and his wife Zoey (who volunteers with the worship arts and prayer teams) have been members since 2013. According to Zoey, being a part of Cypress Point’s church family means more than showing up on Sunday mornings. “You have to participate to make things happen,” she says.

Another appealing aspect of Cypress Point Community Church, according to some of its members, is its family-friendly atmosphere.

Bobbie Benson says discovering the church nine years ago following a divorce helped her and her three children get through a difficult transition in their lives.

“I felt accepted right away,” the Tampa Palms resident says. “After my divorce, (the church family) gave me a lot of support and gave my children stability. There’s a place for everybody here.”

Doing More To Serve Families

In particular, Cypress Point emphasizes being a place for children. There are age-appropriate Bible studies and activities that engage the church’s youth.

Tampa Palms resident Jill Barber is the worship arts pastor and sings in the worship band. She says attending Cypress Point has been especially beneficial to her five children.

“It’s a great place for my children to grow up in,” Jill says. “It has changed their lives by loving God and serving others.”

Involving young people in service to others is one way Cypress Point delivers its educational message, according to Sunday School teacher Rachid Mehdaova, who lives in Live Oak Preserve.

“They do a mission once a year,” Rachid says. “This year, the mission was local, working with Habitat for Humanity and going to multiple projects.”

Youth Pastor Earl Henning has been a part of Cypress Point for 16 years and has witnessed its growth. He says much of the church’s future expansion will be oriented toward its youngest members.

“We are in the process of building a 10,000-sq.-ft. youth center with a gym, basketball court, rec center and café,” Henning says, adding that the church hopes to eventually begin a special-needs youth program.

Serving Cypress Point’s youngest members is central to its mission, Pastor Dean says.

“We partner with families to help the mom, the dad, the guardian to build spiritually strong children.”

Cypress Point Community Church is located at 15820 Morris Bridge Rd. Sunday services are held at 9:30 and 11 a.m. For more information, call 986-9100 or visit CPCConline.com.

Cypress Point

District 1 Winner To Help Shape The Future Of The ‘Connected City’

rachel_oconnor2 — Pasco County Commission District 1 candidate Rachel O’Connor answers a question, as fellow candidate Ron Oakley checks his notes at a recent candidate forum in Zephyrhills

Three of the five Pasco Board of County Commissioners seats are up for grabs on Tuesday, November 8, the most interesting of which might just be District 1, which represents the Zephyrhills, Dade City and Wesley Chapel areas.

There are three Republicans on the ballot vying for votes in the Tuesday, August 30, primary election –

(in alphabetical order, as they will appear on the Aug. 30 ballot)

• Ronald Oakley, a 71-year-old Zephyrhills citrus farmer and former treasurer and chairman of the Southwest Florida Water Management District board;

• Rachel O’Connor, a 31-year-old Pasco County substitute teacher and former Republican Party of Florida field representative who also is a Wesley Chapel resident;

• Debbie Wells of Lake Jovita, 66, the director of sales for the Tampa division of Meritage Homes and ex-wife of Pasco Property Appraiser Mike Wells, Sr.

Wells’ son, Mike Jr., currently is Pasco’s District 4 commissioner.

O’Connor and Oakley both ran unsuccessfully for the same seat in the 2012 Republican primary, losing to four-term incumbent Ted Schrader, who this year running for property appraiser.

The winner faces Dimitri Delgado, 51, a no-party candidate, in the general election on Nov. 8.

The three candidates all present similar views on many subjects, with some differences on quite a few, like development, supporting police, improving the area roads and increasing tourism.

The Metro Question

However, at a Pasco County Commission Candidate Forum on Aug. 15, in front of roughly 25 potential voters at the Alice Hall Community Center in Zephyrhills, the biggest difference between the candidates’ views centered on Metro Development’s plans to build a “Connected City” on nearly 8,000 acres of land that sits in District 1.

Because Metro asked to delay consideration of its plans in front of the commission, originally slated for July, to sometime later this year, the winner of the District 1 race could now cast a crucial vote.

Recent attempts by Metro, as reported by the Tampa Bay Times, to stack an advisory board with hand-picked members while removing public and county representation, as well as a request for impact fee credits typically not afforded to other developers, has raised some eyebrows.

O’Connor is opposed to the project and says she will not vote for it.

“They propose taking the voice of the people away, giving them permission to do whatever they want with the land there,’’ said O’Connor, adding that giving Metro impact fee credits, “would not fly with another developer.”

Oakley and Wells both said they needed more information before deciding if they are in favor of the project, which includes a highly-anticipated “Crystal Lagoon” in the Epperson Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI) off Curley Rd., as well as the promise of ultra-fast internet speeds in every home in the development.

“There’s a lot of issues and nuances that are unknown,’’ Wells said.

Oakley said he has had at least seven meetings with Metro Development, and has been unable to figure out “what they are holding back.”

O’Connor, however, questioned whether Oakley or Wells could vote against the project at all, based on the fact they have received a combined $20,000 in campaign contributions — $14,000 for Wells and $6,000 for Oakley — from Metro and its affiliated companies.

“I know Rachel said she was the only candidate that did not take contributions, but they were not offered to her,” said Wells, a claim O’Connor said was not true.

“I would never support that (project), which is why I have not taken the opportunities presented to me to take money from Metro Development,’’ O’Connor said.

Metro also has donated thousands to commissioners who are currently serving and running for re-election.

Oakley defended taking contributions from a development company that will need his vote.

“I did, I got a contribution from them for my campaign,’’ Oakley said. “That money was needed to run my campaign. Just like anybody else that has to run a campaign, it costs money. I can tell you that in that process, I didn’t sell my integrity, I didn’t sell my soul, and I didn’t sell my vote to Metro.”

O’Connor, who has railed against the ‘Good ol’ Boy Network’ during her campaign, said that is not a chance voters should take.

“When you take money from a developer or a builder, you are pretty much saying that they have an open door to you,’’ she said. “And, if they don’t have the door to you, they invest heavily in other county commission candidates. When you take $14,000 from one developer, that is pretty much buying your vote. No way you’re going to say no, I’m sorry.”

Other than the exchange over Metro, the three candidates did not disagree on much.

On the vastly expanding Wesley Chapel area, all three candidates agree that growth and development is a good thing.

Oakley said that the economic development on the east side of Pasco County, primarily in Wesley Chapel, was a “steamroller and it is running down that road” towards Zephyrhills and Dade City. He said that is a good thing, as long as certain controls are in place.

“It’s one of the better things we have going for Pasco County,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, Wells, citing what she said was a 20-plus-year career in business leadership and boardrooms (mostly in real estate, where she is currently director of sales for the Tampa Division of Meritage Homes) said that to continue the growth, she would form a strong partnership with Pasco Economic Development Council (EDC) president and CEO, Bill Cronin. She stressed the need for Pasco to better market itself to continue to attract new businesses.

O’Connor presented a six-point plan for harnessing the growth, including streamlining permitting and updating the county’s technology for handling it, reviewing codes to make sure the county is open to all types of businesses, instead of just a few, creating competitive impact fees and evening the playing field by not playing favorites to certain developers.

All three candidates, speaking in front of a small Zephyrhills audience, said S.R. 56 was going to connect to their city and they needed to be ready and prepared for the growth that is likely to come with it.

Regarding the county’s current issues with homelessness and drugs, Wells said she was a proponent of helping, “but also to enable them to get jobs and get back on their feet.”

Oakley called for a bigger role by local ministries, while O’Connor said working with the sheriff’s office to help stop the drug problem would play a big role in settling the homeless issue.

All three candidates profusely praised both Sheriff Chris Nocco’s office and the county’s other first responders, and promised to help find more funding for those departments.

Asked what is one of the biggest issues facing the district and county, O’Connor said preparing for the upcoming development and population boom that would accompany it is a priority. Wells said the Zephyrhills Airport was a “jewel” and needed attention, and also stressed the need for better county infrastructure. Oakley said he was “very passionate” about improving Pasco residents’ quality of life.

District 1

Despite A New, Functioning Kidney, Joey Still Facing Challenges

Dana Richman’s son Joey waited months for a kidney donor, and finally found one. Joey was on the mend after New Tampa resident and former MMA fighter Mike Miller stepped forward and donated a kidney, but then, he got sick again.

This time, though, it was cancer.

And, in the middle of a series of touch-and-go stays in the hospital, with Dana unable to work due to the volume of her son’s doctor’s appointments and wondering if Joey would even make it through the night, she received news that the home she shares with her sons Joey, Jason and Jake was headed for foreclosure.

“Can you give me five minutes to catch my breath,’’ Dana wondered aloud.

Once again, Joey, a Wiregrass Ranch High grad and hopeful University of South Florida Student, is in a life-altering battle, and his mother and brothers stand firmly in his corner, along with a good number of Wesley Chapel residents.

Joey, 22, whose #AKidneyForJoey hashtag campaign to help him find a donor drew a lot of attention earlier this year, including a story we wrote in our Apr. 8 issue. Joey got his kidney, thanks to Miller, at the time a New Tampa resident and fledgling mixed martial artist.

And, for a few days — especially the first few days after his April 20 surgery — Joey was feeling terrific, hopeful that he had beaten Allport’s Syndrome, a genetic condition that causes hearing loss and kidney failure. In fact, his new kidney had started functioning immediately, even before doctors had a chance to close him up.

But by June, he had started feeling fatigued again. His esophagus was bothering him, and he thought it might be related to ulcers. According to Dana, she was told that her son was fine, and that his body was still adjusting to the new kidney. His medications were tweaked, he was no longer on dialysis and Joey continued to recover, still confident he was inching closer to normal.

But, after helping his brothers fix a hole in the roof of their home, Joey says he felt dehydrated and weak.

“He spent the weekend curled up on the couch from pain,’’ Dana says.

He was taken to the hospital on July 5, where doctors found lesions on his esophagus. They were sent off for biopsies and Joey was sent home.

On July 9, the phone rang. “They just said he needed to get back to the hospital immediately,” Dana says.

When Dana and Joey returned to Tampa General, the news was bad — he had lymphoma, a form of cancer that affects the immune system.

Dana says the doctors told her the cancer was a quick and aggressive form, and a direct complication of the kidney transplant. Joey remained in the hospital the rest of the month, and he had to be taken off the immune suppressants he was on that prevented his body from attacking his new kidney.

Dana claims the kidney transplanted into her son was not a perfect match after all, and that it had the virus that causes mononucleosis. Because Joey was on immune suppressants, there was nothing to stop the mono from spreading.

“One doctor told me there was a 1 percent chance of something like this happening,’’ Dana says. “She said he hadn’t seen this in 20 years.”

Joey was crestfallen. “The diagnosis was pretty traumatic for him,’’ Dana says. He told me, ‘No matter what I do, I keep winding up on death’s doorstep.’’’

Dana says his condition quickly worsened, and it was “hour-by-hour” — his white blood cells had bottomed out and he wasn’t responding at one point.

The few moments of peace he and his family had enjoyed immediately after the surgery was now gone, after months of believing he was getting closer to being in the clear.

It was during this time that Dana says she was told a forbearance agreement she had gotten, which would have delayed the mortgage payments on her family’s home while she went through the kidney donation process, was no longer approved. The mortgage company told her she was $15,000 behind and in foreclosure. She says a lawyer stepped forward and is currently helping her resolve the issue.

The home, she said, means a lot to her and the boys. That’s why Joey was repairing the roof ahead of a big storm. She is going through a difficult divorce, she says, and this is where Dana and the boys have decided to rebuild a new life.

It Takes A Village

Dana wouldn’t want to be anyplace else, she says. The outpouring of support she received when Joey was in need of a kidney was breathtaking, but this time, it has been even greater.

Organized mostly through the 11,000-member Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page, a number of fundraisers have been planned by the likes of 900 Degrees Woodfired Pizza (see ad on pg. 36), with owner Steve Falabella agreeing to give 25 percent of all sales on Aug. 23 to the family.

Other Wesley Chapel businesses, some selling jewelry, massages, clothing alterations, shirts and aesthetics treatments, have all donated portions of their sales during August to the Richmans.

Pinot’s Palette (see ad below) is hosting an event Saturday, August 27, with 20 percent of sales donated. There is a GoFundMe page at GoFundMe.com/akidneyforjoey, and the community has pitched in to organize a “meal train” to bring daily meals to the family through the TakeThemAMeal.com site.

“It has been amazing,’’ Dana says.

And the news is getting better.

Joey now is undergoing chemotherapy. He is halfway through a six-round dosage, receiving one every three weeks. The tumors are shrinking; his hair has started to fall out.

“He’s doing good,’’ Dana says.

His new kidney is functioning at 100 percent. He is back on low-dose immune suppressants, and the mono is gone.

Dana says the doctors tell her that there is a good chance he will keep the kidney, and a 70-80 percent chance they will kill the cancer, although there is a higher risk from here on out he may redevelop it in the future.

Joey’s spirits are up and he hopes to take some online courses this semester at USF.

“He just wants to be healthy and normal again, it’s all he wants,’’ Dana says.

“He’s one tough cookie.”

If you want to donate, visit GoFundMe.com/akidneyforjoey. To visit some of the contributors to Joey’s recovery, check out the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page.

Father Finds Some Solace After Son’s Killer Is Captured

Angels — (l-r)Wade, Wade Jr., William and Lynn Angel.

Wade Angel walked his wife to the garage around 5 a.m. the morning of August 9, kissing Lynn goodbye as she slid into the driver’s seat.

He returned to his computer, where he has spent almost every free moment the past three years in his Wesley Chapel home, and checked his email. One had just popped in, from the State Attorney’s office.

Just one line: “Mr. Angel, we have good news, Christopher Ponce has been arrested.”

He started yelling for Lynn. Even above the din of her car engine, she could hear him, and hopped out of the car, meeting him at the garage door.

He told her what the email said. They started crying, and held each other’s shaking bodies in their arms.

“Three years of bottled-up emotion,’’ Wade says. “One minute we were crying, the next minute we were laughing and jumping up and down, and the next minute we’d be crying again.”

Christopher Ponce, accused of killing 20-year-old William Brooks Angel in 2012 while driving drunk, was arrested in Spain on Aug. 9 after a manhunt lasting more than three years.

Ponce was driving the wrong way in the northbound lanes of I-275 near downtown Tampa when he hit William Angel’s 2000 Ford Mustang, also seriously injuring passengers Jay Davis and Robert Newberry.

On May 9, 2013, Ponce slipped off an electronic monitoring bracelet he had been wearing while awaiting trial for DUI manslaughter. He has been on the run ever since.

In 2014, CNN’s “The Hunt”, hosted by John Walsh of “America’s Most Wanted” fame, profiled the case.

Wade has spent the last three years hunting his son’s killer. Until this year, he had been doing it on a full-time basis, leaving his job building and customizing wheelchairs at Shriners Hospital for Children in Tampa, to set up a website — FindChrisPonce.com —dedicated to the search and asking for tips.

He received many, but they all proved fruitless. New York City police interviewed someone in a bar there based on a tip. In Chicago, police visited a house they were told Ponce might be, and the same for a house in California.

Wade, however, never lost his drive.

“If William were here, he would say, ‘Dad, let it go,’” Wade says. “But, I made a promise. I did this for him, not for me. I wasn’t going to stop.”

He scoured the internet for 15 hours a day, and blogged often about Ponce. Wade was in constant touch with U.S. Marshalls and FBI agents, hopeful they were closing in on the fugitive.

For these last three years, the search consumed him. He says Lynn became concerned.

“But, she understood that the day we went to the funeral home to see my son’s body, I promised him that I was going to make sure that justice was done,’’ Wade said. “I thought by that I meant I was saying I would stay on top of the attorneys and get a proper trial and a lifelong sentence. But then, (Ponce) takes off. So, before I can get justice (for William), I have to find him.”

Although he continues to devote every free hour to the hunt, Wade finally returned to work in January, but not before posting this on Jan. 15, 2016: “I truly feel that this is the year we get him.”

And now, it is.

According to Wade, a reporter for Ideal, a newspaper in Granada, Spain, who broke the story, told him that Ponce had been acting suspiciously in a bus station in nearby Almeria, in southeast of Spain near the Mediterranean Sea, when police asked for his identification.

Ponce supplied a forged Mexican passport, and the name on his bus pass was not his. After fingerprinting him, Spanish police discovered he was listed in an Interpol fugitive database.

Ponce currently is awaiting extradition. The Ideal reporter told him Ponce is currently being held in one of the area’s tougher prisons. That made Wade happy.

He is not surprised at all that Ponce was caught in Spain. He received a tip through the website shortly after starting it in 2013, that Ponce was headed for Spain. So, he began tracking Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses, which are the numerical labels assigned to any device on a computer network that uses Internet Protocol, to see if anyone was checking his site from Spain.

Every month he would download all the IP addresses in a spreadsheet and email them to U.S. Marshalls.

Someone was definitely checking his website from Spain. Once in a McDonald’s, but usually on public wifi from bus stations.

Wade says, “When he was arrested in Spain, I said ‘I knew it!,’” adding that Ponce and his family are too narcissistic to resist the chance to see their names in print and wonder what people were saying about them. That’s one of the reasons, he says, that he started the website, hoping to catch Ponce electronically.

He would try to raise Ponce’s ire — “to get his dander up” Wade says — by posting negative things, hoping to bait him into commenting or trying to contact him.

“Since Christopher is a drunk and an addict, I thought maybe one time he would be drunk and high and he’d make a mistake,’’ Wade says.

Ponce may not have been directly captured because of any leads from Wade’s site, but because he was captured in a bus station, where so many IP address hits had come from, he could have been on his way to use the station’s public wifi.

Either way, it doesn’t matter, Wade says. Ponce will have plenty of time to read the site dedicated to putting him away for life from prison, where he will end up.

Wade’s last website update read, in part: “CHRISTOPHER PONCE HAS BEEN ARRESTED IN SPAIN!!!!!!!! That’s right, the POS is finally in jail.”

Wade promises it won’t be his last post, however.

“The website is still up, and I will continue to write,’’ Wade says. “I will take him (Ponce) through the extradition and then take him through the trial. I’m not done yet. The day he is sentenced, that will be my last post.”

You can follow Wade’s journey at FindChrisPonce.com, or on Facebook at Facebook.com/findchrisponce.

Chris Ponce fugitive