Just in case you missed the first annual Fall Festival at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (NTPAC) last year, this exciting, four-day event is back for a second year this weekend, beginning tonight! Attendees will get to check out the many unique music, dance, art and other cultural programs all weekend long at NTPAC (8550 Hunters Village Rd., Tampa 33647) and, best of all, it’s all free to attend!
Here is a variety of the hundreds of photos we took at last year’s Fall Fest and this year’s weekend promises to be even bigger and better!
Powerstories presents Stan Zimmerman’s “right before i go” as part of its “Celebrate the Power of the Arts” weekend at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center Sept. 20-21.
You may not know the name Stan Zimmerman, but if you’ve ever watched an episode of “The Golden Girls,” “Gilmore Girls” or “Roseanne,” you may already know his work.
But, whether you know his name or not, you owe it to yourself to check out Zimmerman’s original play, “right before I go,” in which he also acts as the narrator.
Zimmerman’s play about suicide notes will be performed at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (NTPAC, 5850 Hunters Village Rd.) on Friday and Saturday, September 20-21, 7 p.m., by Powerstories, “a nonprofit professional theatre troupe whose mission is to stage true stories to open minds and hearts and inspire action worldwide.” Powerstories will “Celebrate the Power of the Arts” throughout the weekend, which also will include an art display, raffles, appetizers, staged reading, talkback, celebrity meet & greet and live music.
Zimmerman, who also has directed many plays, says “right before i go” itself is “only about an hour long” and that there will be a half-hour sit-down with a mental health professional following the performance. A portion of the ticket sales will be donated to the Crisis Center of Hillsborough. Also scheduled to be readers are chief meteorologist Denis Phillips and anchor Wendy Ryan of ABC Action News Tampa Bay.
“I feel that with this piece, the audience will need to talk about it afterwards,” Zimmerman says. “It’s really about starting a discussion. I’ve found that after the show, people want to talk about it with total strangers on the street or friends and family.”
Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW) had this to say about the play: “Stan Zimmerman brings to life the last words written in letters by individuals lost to suicide — including celebrities, veterans, kids that were bullied, LGBTQ and the clinically depressed — and those who have survived suicide attempts. Since its acclaimed first performance at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2015, the play has traveled across the country, raising awareness and offering hope for suicide prevention.”
Zimmerman, who says he was mercilessly bullied and regularly spit on in 7th, 8th and 9th grade, admits that he would go home and “visualize taking my own life” many times.
In an interview on YouTube, he said, “I don’t suffer from depression, but if I did, and had those feelings [of suicide], I honestly don’t know if I’d be here today.”
But then, in 2012, “I was one of a couple of people who received a suicide note from a very good friend of mine named Kevin, who took his own life. I started Googling ‘suicide notes’ and had an idea to use my craft to put what I found into a play, with actors reading the suicide notes in order to help raise awareness and prevention for suicide.”
Writer, director, playwright and actor Stan Zimmerman will be the narrator for “right before i go” at NTPAC and will have a “talkback” session following the play. (Photo: Screenshot from YouTube)
With his career predominantly as a comedy writer, Zimmerman says he really scoured the internet in order to try to find a “funny” suicide note, “but what I found is that there really wasn’t one. Some of them were lighter, and that some people will laugh or giggle, but that may be nervous laughter. But, this is a very important moment in anyone’s life when they decide to do this.”
He says that when the play was first performed at the Fringe Festival, “the tendency for the actors was to play the result, you know, where this was going. And I had to remind them that there’s an urgency to these notes. These people that wrote these notes needed to get this out [because] they weren’t being heard and they had to tell people what they felt inside. And I think that’s why they’re all so powerful.” The subtitle of “right before i go” is “Destigmatizing Suicide.”
As for how he approached writing “right before i go,” Zimmerman says, “I wanted this to be sort of like ‘The Vagina Monologues,’ in that it would be something that would be easily performed and wouldn’t take a lot of rehearsal, so theatre companies, when they did this piece, they could rehearse it for a couple of hours or a couple of days and interpret it any way they wanted.”
He also says that it just came to him “how the structure needed to be and how to group the notes to tell the story.”
Meanwhile, Zimmerman says that although he has made a career of writing, his first love was acting, and he started his career in the theatre program at New York University.
And, even though he didn’t originally intend to be the play’s narrator, “When I did the first table read in my living room with friends of mine, a lot of them said, ‘You’re a writer, you need to put yourself in this piece.’ That’s when I started writing a lot more in between. And, they said they wanted hope, so that’s when I started putting a lot of stuff about hope at the end.”
An Illustrious Career
Although Zimmerman and his long-time writing partner James Berg were never the head writers on “The Golden Girls,” “Gilmore Girls” or “Roseanne,” the Zimmerman/Berg team did write multiple episodes for all three and were able to capitalize on those successes (and others) with many other writing credits.
In addition, while they also didn’t receive writing credits for the original script of “The Brady Bunch Movie” (and weren’t happy about it), the team was hired by the film’s director Betty Thomas to do rewrites of the original script, and the movie became a hit. Zimmerman and Berg would then get full writing credits for “A Very Brady Sequel,” which also became a hit in 1996.
And, while none of the other TV series the pair wrote for — including the TV adaptation of the hit movie “Fame,” as well as “Just Our Luck,” “Pauly” and “Rita Rocks,” to name just a few — became monster hits, they also were hired as “term writers” for other series, most notably “The Nanny.”
Their work won the team two Writers Guild of America award nominations — for the “Rose’s Mother” episode of “The Golden Girls” and the infamous “Lesbian Kiss” episode of “Roseanne.”
Zimmerman and Berg also were the writers for “Ladies of the ‘80s: A Divas Christmas,” a 2023 TV Christmas comedy starring some of the most famous TV divas of the ‘80s — Loni Anderson (“WKRP in Cincinnati”), Morgan Fairchild (“Flamingo Road” and “Falcon’s Crest”), Linda Gray (“Dallas”), Donna Mills (“Knots Landing”) and Nicollette Sheridan (also “Knots Landing” and later, “Desperate Housewives”).
Also last year, Indian River Publishing (an independent book publishing company distributed by Simon & Schuster) published Zimmerman’s book The Girls: from Golden to Gilmore, subtitled “Stories about all the wonderful women I’ve worked with…” (Note-He says that the words that come after the ellipsis are “and Roseanne,” although the book cover doesn’t say it.)
The book tells Zimmerman’s true story as a TV and film writer and yes, all of the wonderful women he and Berg worked with together. I’ve read several chapters of my copy, which I will ask Stan to autograph when I meet him next month. It’s a great read.
Editor’s note — Although I also interviewed him on the phone, most of the direct quotes in this article came from the YouTube video “Playwright Stan Zimmerman Discusses Right Before I Go.” And, the information about his early life and career came from The Girls.
I don’t know if I’d agree that it is (as some have called it) the “Greatest Musical of All Time,” but I do know that the New Tampa Players’ production of “Singin’ in the Rain” at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (NTPAC) offers a super-fun evening (or afternoon) of entertainment!
The Neighborhood News was on hand for last night’s opening night of “Singin'” and there’s no doubt that the talented cast and crew of NTP’s production of the show — which originally was one of the first great movie musicals starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor and Jean Hagen — do justice to this story of two Hollywood stars trying to transition from silent films to “talkies.”
With great singing and dancing by Kyle Billington in Kelly’s role as Don Lockwood, Olivia Carr in the Reynolds role of talented starlet Kathy Selden, Rhett Ricardo as Lockwood’s best friend Cosmo Brown (the role made famous by O’Connor), and the scene-stealing Melanie Bierweiler absolutely nailing the Oscar-nominated Hagen role as Lina Lamont — the silent film star who can’t sing or dance — and an outstanding ensemble cast, 12-piece orchestra (a record for the Players) and crew, “Singin’ in the Rain” gives you plenty of value for your entertainment dollar. NTP producing artistic director Nora Paine directs and fellow Players veterans G. Frank Meekins (musical director) and Sarah Walston Pilllips (choreographer) deliver a toe-tapping, tap-dancing, rollicking good time.
The title song, of course, is a timeless classic, but we also loved Ricardo’s “Make ‘Em Laugh,” Kyle and Olivia’s “You Were Meant for Me,” NTP vet Kyle Fisher singing “Beautiful Girls,” Olivia’s turn on “Good Morning” and the full company’s take on both “Broadway Melody” and the reprise of “Singin’ in the Rain” that closes the show.
If you haven’t yet bought your tickets, there were seats still available for all of the following performances:
Tonight at 8 p.m.
Tomorrow (Sunday, July 20) at 3 p.m. (only a couple of single seats left)
Friday-Saturday, July 26-27, at. 8 p.m.
Saturday, July 27, at 3 p.m.
Sunday, July 28, at 3 p.m.
Visit NewTampaPlayers.org to get yours or visit the NTPAC box office at 8550 Hunters Village Rd., Tampa 33647!
Melanie Bierweiler plays Lina Lamont and Kyle Billington is Don Lockwood in the New Tampa Players’ production of “Singin’ in the Rain,” which has six performances the weekend of July 19-21 and July 26- 28 at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center. (Photo courtesy of New Tampa Players)
As someone who previously performed a tiny part in a New Tampa Players (NTP) production, I can only tell you how much hard work it took to make community theater look and sound as good as it does when it finally hits the stage.
What I can’t tell you is how much hard work it takes to blend together more than 30 cast members — some of whom sing only, others who dance only and still others who do both — and how to make it all come together seamlessly on stage after only a few weeks of rehearsals.
But, based on my experience performing in NTP’s production of “Grease” — the first Players performance held at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (NTPAC) off Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. last summer — I have no doubt that director (and NTP producing artistic director) Nora Paine, musical director Frank Meekins and choreographer Sarah Walston will make it happen when NTP presents the classic musical “Singin’ in the Rain” at the NTPAC for two consecutive weekends — July 19-21 and 26-28.
Although Meekins was both director and musical director for “Grease,” Paine was the producer and stage manager for that show and Walston was the choreographer. In other words, the trio is comfortable working together, “and we all had an interest in working on ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ together,” Meekins says. “So, it all just kind of worked out. Although the tap dancing definitely makes it more challenging, we’re all very excited about this show.”
According to Wikipedia, “‘Singin’ in the Rain’ is a stage musical with story by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, lyrics by Arthur Freed and music by Nacio Herb Brown. Adapted from the 1952 movie of the same name, starring Gene Kelly (and directed and choreographed by Kelly and Stanley Donen), the stage musical’s plot closely adheres to the original film.”
Set in Hollywood in the waning days of the silent screen era, “Singin’” focuses on romantic lead Don Lockwood (played by Kyle Billington), his sidekick Cosmo Brown (Rhett Ricardo), aspiring actress Kathy Selden (Olivia Carr, who played Sandy in “Grease”), and Lockwood’s leading lady Lina Lamont (Melanie Bierweiler), “whose less-than-dulcet vocal tones make her an unlikely candidate for stardom in talking pictures,” again, according to the “Singin’” entry in Wikipedia.
The stage show had its world premiere in 1983 at the London Palladium, where it ran for more than two years, and has spawned a Broadway production and many stagings worldwide. It has been called, “The greatest movie musical of all time.”
According to NTP’s NewTampaPlayers.orgwebsite, “Each unforgettable scene, song and dance is accounted for, including the show-stopping title number, complete with an onstage rainstorm! Hilarious situations, snappy dialogue and a hit-parade score of Hollywood standards make ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ the perfect entertainment for any fan of the golden age of movie musicals.”
All of the photos on these pages were taken during rehearsals for the New Tampa Players production of “Singin’ in the Rain,” which will have six performances at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center over two weekends — July 19-21 & July 26-28. (Photos by Charmaine George & Gary Nager)
Meekins says that in addition to the title number — “And yes, it will be raining,” he says — many of the songs are well-known, memorable and can be considered “show stoppers,” including “You Are My Lucky Star,” “Would You” and especially “Broadway Rhythm.”
“The title song is actually performed twice — once by Don Lockwood at the end of the first act and the second time by the entire cast (at the close of Act 2), all of whom who will be singing and dancing together in the rain,” Meekins says. “I
know it will be amazing to see this cast come together for that finale. All of the cast members have different levels of experience, but I have no doubt that it will all come together.”
Get your tickets now for “Singin’ in the Rain” at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (8550 Hunters Village Rd., off Bruce B. Downs Blvd.). The show (presented through the generous support of Hillsborough County and Florida Arts and Culture and with special arrangement through Music Theatre International) will be performed Fri.-Sat., July 19-20 and July 26-27, at 8 p.m., and at 3 p.m. on Sun., July 21 & 28. Tickets cost $21-$35 and are available at NewTampaPlayers.org.
For more information, call (813) 543-6252 or see the ad below.
New Parks, The Pebble Creek Golf Course & Sidewalks Were Among The Many Topics Covered At The NTPAC
Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan (at podium in upper right) addresses about 200 New Tampa residents at his standing-room-only Town Hall meeting on June 10 at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center. Hagan brought along representatives of pretty much every county department to help answer questions he couldn’t during his 90-minute question-and-answer session. (Photo by Charmaine George)
Even though signs were posted throughout the New Tampa area for several weeks leading up to it, neither District 2 Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan nor New Tampa Performing Arts Center (NTPAC) manager Keith Arsenault expected the standing-room-only crowd of more than 200 people who showed up at Comm. Hagan’s Town Hall meeting on June 10 at NTPAC.
“I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight,” Hagan said as he stood behind the podium on the NTPAC’s stage. “I know there’s a million things you could be doing with your time but the fact that you took time out of your schedules to join us is very much appreciated. This is a heck of a crowd. I expected a pretty good turnout but I had no idea it would be to this extent.”
Before he began the Town Hall, Hagan said he had a few “housekeeping” issues he wanted to get to, including an announcement about “New Tampa’s own Bruhat Soma, who recently won the Scripps National Spelling Bee. We invited him here tonight, but as you can imagine, he’s been to the White House, to California…we will be formally recognizing him at a future County Commission meeting, but what a tremendous accomplishment! I still remember the word that I misspelled in third grade… it was ‘grammar.’ To this day, I still think about that, but I wanted to honor this young man.”
Hagan then mentioned that if people in attendance were like him, “You’re probably tired of seeing my picture on signs all around the neighborhoods. Well, those signs have all now been removed.”
The Reason For The Town Hall
“The purpose of this meeting tonight is to bring the county government to you,” Hagan said. “New Tampa is a wonderful community, as I know first-hand, having lived here for 15 years. It’s also a very unique community, as most of New Tampa is located in the City of Tampa, but you have certain neighborhoods — Cross Creek, Pebble Creek and Live Oak — that are in unincorporated Hillsborough.”
Hagan then noted that, “Most of the main roads in New Tampa are county roads — Bruce B. Downs, Morris Bridge, Kinnan Street and you’ve got Cross Creek (Blvd.), with parts in the city, parts in the county. One of the first things I did, many moons ago, when I lived in Cross Creek, was to widen Cross Creek Blvd. to four lanes and to get a traffic signal at Kinnan — and that’s when I realized the challenge, because it was divided.”
He added that, “The good thing is that we have a wonderful relationship with the City of Tampa, which makes things move a lot better. I know when I lived here, sometimes it felt like there were two New Tampas — south of I-75 and north of 75, which I know because I lived for nine years in Tampa Palms and six years in Cross Creek.”
Hagan also said that he recognized that, “New Tampa is quite a bit aways from downtown Tampa, where the government offices are, and most folks up here are working or are busy with day-to-day activities and don’t have the opportunity to come down to attend a County Commission or City Council meeting. That’s why I wanted to have a forum, where we would bring the various county departments here to answer your concerns.”
He also made sure that people in the audience understood that, “We’re here tonight to discuss New Tampa issues. We’re not here to discuss energy policy, geopolitical issues, presidential or any other elections. There also are some folks signed up asking questions about some issues related to New Tampa that I’m not going to touch on tonight (because there were 75+ people signed up to speak and less than 90 minutes before the meeting had to end), but if you provided your contact information, someone from my office will contact you and we will provide you with an update”
Introducing The Departments
Hagan then introduced the 50 or so people in attendance from the various city and county departments — City of Tampa Police (TPD), Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO), Hillsborough Fire Rescue (HFR), Pet Resources, Code Enforcement, Library Services, Tax Collector, Property Appraiser, Clerk of the Court, Supervisor of Elections, Affordable Housing, Homeless Services, Public Works, Conservation & Environmental Lands Management, County Parks & Recreation, City Parks & Recreation, Water Resources, Development Services, Children’s Services and the county’s Office of Emergency Management. Hagan thanked Arsenault and his NTPAC staff for hosting the meeting and noted what an amazing addition it already has been to the New Tampa community.
And Away We Go!
As Hagan scrolled his way through the sign-up sheets, he decided to start the actual town hall with an update on the improvements to Branchton Park.
“When I lived in Cross Creek, I would often take Morris Bridge Rd. to get home and I would drive by this beautiful, but underutilized, park at the corner of Morris Bridge and Cross Creek,” Hagan said. “I said to myself that this would be a real opportunity to create a wonderful park that would be a true destination.”
He then noted that several years ago, the county purchased 22 acres surrounding the existing park, “So now, we have a total of 42 acres. And what I wanted was to find out what the community, what amenities you wanted for this park, so we did an online survey to which more than 500 people responded and we incorporated nearly all of those suggestions into the park’s design.”
Hagan then said that the county broke ground on the on the $9.5 million in improvements to Branchton Park, “about a year and a half ago. Phase 1 will have a new playground, splash pad, shelters, pickleball courts, a dog park and we’re looking for a private partner to provide the county’s first zip line. It’s going to be something really cool.” He added that he’s hopeful to have a ribbon cutting for Phase 1 sometime in September of this year.
Speaking of parks, Hagan next gave an update on the Cross Creek Park Recreation Center, located adjacent to Pride Elementary.
“This 17,000-sq.-ft. gymnasium and rec center is fully funded at a little over $9 million,” he said, “It also will have walking trails, a new playground and parking. It will provide much-needed after-school and summer programs for children, as well as senior and adult programming during the day. It will have indoor basketball, volleyball, pickleball..plus a fitness room and multi-purpose room.”
He also said the next phase at the rec center will include an outdoor pavilion and a shade structure for the outdoor basketball court. “The current status is that the bidding is under way and closes this month (June) and we’re hoping to break ground on this recreation center in August or September.”
Many local residents checked out the plans for the expansion of Branchton Regional Park. (Photo by Gary Nager)
Hagan then recognized Cheryl Pahl, a retired 20-year teacher at Hunter’s Green Elementary and Pebble Creek resident for 30 years, who gave a prepared speech about incorporating a ceramics/ pottery art studio somewhere in New Tampa.
“I have been teaching pottery at the Carrollwood Cultural Center,” Pahl said, “and I’m here tonight to advocate for the arts in New Tampa. This wonderful venue (the NTPAC) provides a road map to remove gaps to other types of art instruction in New Tampa outside of regular K-12 school instruction. We could provide pottery, painting and drawing instruction for all ages at this facility (the Cross Creek rec center). All art classes will have registration and other fees, so it could be self-sustaining after the initial outlay.”
Pahl also mentioned that she and a group of volunteers circulated a petition around New Tampa and had collected, “close to 300 signatures.”
Hagan responded that he fully supports creating an art and ceramics studio and, “I’ve had preliminary discussions with our parks director Rick Valdez to discuss potential options.” He added that the Parks Dept. has “eliminated kiln (ceramics oven) studios in our parks facilities, but based on the interest you’ve garnered, I want to make this a reality. An art and kiln studio will most likely be located in a dedicated room at the Cross Creek park or here (at NTPAC) in Phase 2, with Cross Creek a better chance to have it sooner. But, we’re going to make this happen.”
Next, Maggie Wilson from the Tampa Palms Owners Association thanked Hagan and the county for repairing some sidewalks along BBD in Tampa Palms North “very quickly.”
Also speaking on sidewalks was Diane Campbell from The Hammocks off County Line Rd., who began asking seven years ago for a sidewalk from in front of Grand Hampton to the stores on both sides of County Line & BBD, such as Target and LA Fitness.
“Pasco put in a sidewalk on their side of County Line from Target to the entrance to Northwood” she said, “so we would just need one from Grand Hampton to Northwood. You said Public Works would look into it, so I’m wondering if there’s an update on it.”
Hagan responded that sidewalks and road resurfacing, “are the biggest unfunded needs we face. We have hundreds, if not thousands, of unfunded sidewalk repairs, in addition to new sidewalks that you’re referencing right now. We also heard from many in the community about adding a traffic signal on County Line (at the entrance to Grand Hampton) and I’m very pleased that I was able to get the funding for that signal. Your sidewalk project is on the list of needs, but it’s currently unfunded for, I believe, $1.9 million. Should the (one-cent) Community Investment Tax (CIT) renewal — which is on the ballot this November) — pass again, then we will be able to get that sidewalk completed.”
Via Italia restaurant owner and Live Oak Preserve resident Sunny Patel asks about a possible Kinnan St.-Mansfield Blvd. connection.
Next up was Sunny Patel, the twelve-year Live Oak resident who also recently became the new owner of Via Italia restaurant. Patel said he was thankful the county built the NTPAC, but that he is hoping that one day, the Kinnan St.-Mansfield Blvd. connection that is now paved will one day be open to vehicular traffic.
Hagan said, “You say you’ve lived here for twelve years, but I’ve been working on this issue even longer. The obstruction to making the connection is the Pasco County Board of Commissioners. I actually had an agreement with the county administrator, three administrators ago, that once Mansfield was connected to 56, they would open up Kinnan to Mansfield, but that never transpired. To show you how far back this goes, I was on the front page of the (now defunct) Tampa Tribune quoted as saying that there should be a toll booth on Bruce B. Downs (at the Pasco County line) because 60-70% of the traffic on BBD emanated from Pasco County.”
He added, “The frustrating thing is that the Pasco County staff, their MPO, have all agreed that making the connection makes sense. The emergency and bicycle access at that location is a step in the right direction, but come hell or high water, one of these days, that’s going to happen under my watch.”
Hunter’s Green resident Ed Killborn then raised a very popular topic — the timing of the traffic signals along BBD. “Since BBD was widened, the timing of the traffic signals has actually increased traffic tremendously,” Killborn said. “You sit at one red light, then the next red light and the next…and people are speeding like crazy trying to get through the lights before they change. There are two lights at BBD and I-75 and I defy you to get through those two lights going 45 miles per hour (the posted speed limit). My question is, why can’t we do something about reasonable timing of the lights at 45 miles per hour?”
Hagan responded, “First of all, I agree with you. I’m pretty certain I ran one of those lights on my way here.” He also said that he would have Josh Bellotti from Public Works, who was in attendance at the Town Hall meeting, get with Killborn to discuss the timing of the signals on BBD.
Several speakers were on hand simply to thank Hagan and his fellow commissioners for building the NTPAC. Tampa Palms resident Blake Hamilton was one of those but he also asked that the county find the money to expand the facility. Hagan recapped his efforts to make the dreams of Graeme Woodbrook and the late Doug Wall a reality.
“The county bought this land as part of the BBD widening project,” Hagan said, “and some in the county wanted to ‘surplus’ it, meaning that it would’ve ended up as more houses or apartments, and I said, ‘Hell no, this is an unbelievable opportunity, in the middle of this community, to do something really special here. It took a lot longer than it should have, but I’m very proud that it’s here. But, to answer your question, it was designed with the ability to expand, so it’s 20,000 sq. ft. now and we can expand it by another 10,000 sq. ft., which is included in the CIT list of eligible projects.”
Another local resident asked why the power lines between Pebble Creek and Cross Creek aren’t buried, “because we lost power during the last big storm when it seemed everyone else in New Tampa still had power.” Hagan said the last he heard was that TECO (Tampa Electric Co.) had a plan in place and a route selected for burying those power lines, “but that isn’t expected to start until next year.”
New Tampa resident Suzie Marie then asked why there seems to be a lot more Tampa Police officers patrolling New Tampa than there are Hillsborough Sheriff ’s deputies, to which Hagan responded that, “Our Sheriff’s Office, led by Sheriff (Chad) Chronister, does a great job, and crime is down around the county, but the county is always below the national average for deputies per 1,000 population. But, what I sill tell you is that a substation will be located at Branchton Park, which will increase the Sheriff’s Office presence in New Tampa.”
Next up was Leslie Green of the Save Pebble Creek group, who thanked Comm. Hagan for voting against rezoning of the now-vacant Pebble Creek golf course and asked if the county would consider buying it to make it a county public golf course.
Hagan said that the county has looked into it and the most likely scenario would be for the Tampa Sports Authority to buy it, “but we’d have to have a willing seller, and he would have to come down from his current number. But absolutely, we’re interested.”
He added that he has not yet seen any attempt to re-zone the property for affordable housing under the state’s new Live Local act, “and Adam Gormly with our Development Services department tells me that the golf course would not qualify for Live Local.”
Long-time Cory Lake Isles resident Sid Shaw expressed concerns about safety on Morris Bridge Rd. from Cross Creek Blvd. south to I-75 (at the Fletcher Ave. exit). Hagan responded, “Morris Bridge is extremely dangerous. Last year alone, there were 33 crashes and three fatalities. A couple of months ago, we approved $2 million for safety improvements, including no-passing vertical delineators, reflective and profiled lane line markings, speed feedback signs, flashing beacons, curb warnings, back plates, electrical conduits, bike lane safety enhancements, bridge bike lane signs, milling and resurfacing, wildlife signs and more. Morris Bridge will be made a much safer road.”
Hagan also mentioned that he is working to get the Bay Chapel Food Pantry on BBD $10-$15,000 to help them get a new freezer and that the work on the Grand Hampton traffic signal on County Line Rd. had begun and could be completed by the end of June. He also responded to a question about resurfacing the side roads in Pebble Creek now that Pebble Creek Dr. and Regents Park Dr. are finished. “That’s about a $6 million project and we will need the CIT to pass for that to be funded.” As for the expansion of the New Tampa Regional Library, Hagan said the plan is to expand the library by an additional 5,000 sq. ft. at a cost of about $700,000.
After the meeting, Hagan and his aide Rich Reidy responded to my question about the $500 million in overturned transportation tax money, about half of which will go back to county for “major road improvements by July 1,” according to Reidy. “But we wanted it to improve neighborhood roads.”
