Junior Woman’s Club Members Accompany Vets On ‘Honor Flight’

honor3Tampa Palms resident Melanie Otte remembers her grandfather’s stories about World War II. He would regale the family about his wartime exploits, as they leafed through his photo albums, and proudly show off a picture of the Enola Gay — the first aircraft ever to drop an atomic bomb — that he had to jump a fence to take the photo with a small spy camera.

It never really hit her, though, what his service meant to him until she recently chose to take part in an Honor Flight.

Otte and Wesley Chapel resident Jennifer Lee, both members of the Greater Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC)’s New Tampa Junior Woman’s Club, served as volunteer guardians to a pair of U.S. Military veterans on Sept. 22, an experience that left both amazed, appreciative and very much in awe.

honor2
Jennifer Lee (left) and Melanie Otte

“I had been to Washington, DC, as a kid, but this was a much more moving experience,’’ Otte says. “I mean, standing there with a person who lived it, that was just something totally different.”

Honor Flights are one-day trips organized by non-profit organizations dedicated to providing a way for veterans to visit the monuments created in the name of their service scattered throughout the nation’s capital.

Last year, the New Tampa Junior Woman’s Club donated $400 so one veteran could make the trip. That inspired Otte and Lee to get involved as Honor Flight volunteers this year.

Otte served as a volunteer guardian to 80-year-old Korean War U.S. Air Force Military Police veteran Frank Kynion, who lives in St. Petersburg, while Lee escorted Laura Tilton, a 92-year-old Venice resident and World War II veteran.

The day of the Honor Flight began with alarm clocks going off at 3 a.m. for the volunteers, a donated breakfast from McDonald’s at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport, and a 4 a.m. flight to the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport with about 80 other veterans and their guardians.

When they got off the plane, the spunky Tilton asked Lee if the wheelchair had a speed limit, and Lee asked if she was pushing too fast.

“No, pick it up, we got things to see,’’ Tilton told her with glee.

honor4A contingent of military personnel was there to greet the veterans at the airport, setting off a whirlwind day of emotional sightseeing.

“When we were at the Korean War Memorial, it was very somber,” says Otte. “Frank was visibly taken aback. You could tell he was welling up.”

Otte said the listing of the Korean’s War’s U.S. fatalities (almost 40,000, with more than 100,000 injured) and the 19 haunting seven-foot-tall stainless steel statues standing in a patch of juniper bushes at the memorial was overwhelming.

Lee pushed Tilton around, although the former Naval Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN)/pharmacy maid, was able to stand and walk for short periods of time.

“She was a lot of fun,’’ Lee says. “I think a lot of them just appreciated the one-on-one attention. She told me, ‘I had so much fun. I like to giggle, you like to giggle. She told me I was now her third daughter.”

honor1As the vets returned to Florida, they read dozens of letters written to them by school children and adults, thanking them for their service and dedication. When the plane landed back in Clearwater, a throng of roughly 800 people, including a band, were there to greet them.

Kynion, who married a Japanese woman after the war, says he faced discrimination as a result, and also lived through the anti-military era of the Vietnam War, so he was humbled by the support. In fact, many of the veterans, on multiple occasions, asked why everyone was doing this for them.

Otte told him the answer was simple: “Because you are our heros.”

The GFWC New Tampa Junior Woman’s Club meets the second Monday of every month at 6:30 p.m. at the New Tampa YMCA (16221 Compton Dr. in Tampa Palms). For more info, visit GFWCNewTampaJuniors.org.

Two-car collision on S.R. 54 leaves two dead

fhpWESLEY CHAPEL — Two women are dead after an accident on S.R. 54 and Ernest Drive near the New River Library backed up traffic for hours Sunday night.

Lutz resident Barbara Janet Charlebois, 38, was traveling west on S.R. 54  when, for unknown reasons, she drove off the roadway and onto the right shoulder of the road. She overcorrected her vehicle, a 2004 Toyota Camry, to the left which caused her to swerve into the eastbound lane and into the direct path of a 2014 Buick Verano driven by 76-year-old Bridget Mary Kent of Ontario, Canada.

The collision between the two cars occurred around 8:50 p.m.. Charlebois suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene. Kent had serious injuries and was taken to Lakeland Regional Hospital.

There were two passengers in Kent’s vehicle. and both were taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa. Lillian Cruickshank, 70, suffered serious injuries. William Edward Kent, 78 of Ontario, Canada, passed away overnight.

 

 

Say goodnight to blight as new county ordinance is passed

By Matt Wiley

Dilapidated businesses will no longer have a place in Pasco County, after the county commission voted to establish news rules to eliminate local eyesores.

The so-called blight ordinance, proposed by Dist. 2 Commissioner Mike Moore, was passed unanimously on Oct. 20 by the Pasco Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) to the relief of local businesses and residents.

Moore’s proposed ordinance to issue fines and even potential jail time to property owners who let their commercial properties become dilapidated attracted about 100 residents and business owners to the Sept. 30 town hall meeting at the Pasco County Utilities Administration Office off Central Blvd. in Land O’Lakes.

Comm. Moore presented the ordinance as a way to clean up properties to attract new businesses, clean up the county’s image and help prevent the crime that occurs in buildings that aren’t maintained.

The ordinance, modeled after a similar ordinance in Hillsborough County, won’t go into effect until May 1, 2016. The new law gives property owners a 30-day notice to get their blighted buildings repaired, or be subject to a fine. They’ll then be given another 30 days to fix the problem.

If the problem persists beyond 60 days, property owners will be susceptible to a fine of $500 per day until the problem is fixed. If it’s discovered by the county attorney that a business owner has the means to fix the problem or demolish a blighted building and still chooses not to, that person could face jail time.

“What we’re trying to do here is tell people, ‘You need to fix the problem,’” Comm. Moore told the residents at the town hall. “Fix the problem or you’re going to get fined. It’s not good for the surrounding property owners, it’s not good for the community and it’s not good for Pasco County.”

The primary concerns of local businesses is that areas that have vacant and rundown structures do not promote local business growth, bring down property values and discourage other local businesses that are maintained properly.

Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco said at the town hall that the ordinance is also important because it removes the environments that allow crimes, including drug use, squatting and other illegal activities, to persist. He said the U.S. 19 corridor gets the most calls about crime at various dilapidated businesses.

“From a law enforcement standpoint (ordinances like this) are things that we need,” Nocco said. “If we can limit the places crimes can occur, we can push crime somewhere else. And, we’re trying to push it out of Pasco County.

He added, “We can arrest people all the time. The problem is, when they get out, they go right back to where they came from.”

Moore said he is convinced the ordinance will deter current and future businesses from letting their storefronts and surrounding area from becoming unkempt.

“It doesn’t matter what corridor it is,’’ Moore said. “This ordinance will be a deterrent in the hopes that future commercial property owners will realize that if they let their property become dilapidated, they’re going to get fined.”

Lexington Oaks resident Peter Hansel supports the ordinance.

“The strongest point of this ordinance that I support is the law enforcement aspect,” he said. “I see that as a time saver and financial (resource) saver. I think that by enacting something like this, it will go a long way.”

Aside from crime and squatter, Pasco Professional Firefighters spokesperson Robert Fuerst said properties that are allowed to deteriorate and fester pose other risks.

“Dilapidated properties to firefighters are a special risk,” Fuerst said. “Everything we do is a managed risk. When you have a property that is not maintained, all of the equations that we use to do our job become more risky.”

New Port Richey’s Hunter’s Ridge Homeowner’s Association president Hugh Townsend also said that the ordinance takes a page out of what many residential areas have enforced for years.

“Right now, if a homeowner violates our deed restrictions, (the HOA) cite(s) them and then (the HOA) fine(s) them,” Townsend said. “There’s compliance. When people get hit in the pocket book, they’re going to conform.”

However, some residents did express concern that the cost of enforcing another ordinance would fall to the county taxpayers.

“I’ve done some research,’’ said Land O’Lakes resident Cassie Holloway, saying that adding another ordinance to the existing code enforcement ordinances, the price of demolishing buildings, as well as additional staff for that department, would be a burden to Pasco taxpayers.

Pasco senior assistant county attorney Kristi Sims responded that the new ordinance shifts the burden to the property owner to force them to spend their own money to tear down their dilapidated property.

 

Ninth Annual Tampa Fisher House Golf Tourney A Classic!

FisherHouseWEBMeanwhile, we went to press so soon after the ninth annual Fisher House Golf Classic (held at Pebble Creek Country Club off Bruce B. Downs {BBD} Blvd.) on October 30 that organizer and New Tampa Noon Rotary Club president Val Casey and her amazing committee did not yet have a total amount of funds raised.

But, with a full field of golfers and plenty of great sponsorships — including, for the first time, Val’s employer Delta Airlines — there’s little doubt that this year’s Fisher House Golf Classic was, indeed, a true classic.

Of course, the Tampa Fisher House is the 20-bed residence which houses and feeds — at no charge — the families and significant others of the wounded soldiers being treated at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital.

And, thanks to Val, the Arbor Greene resident from a military family who has organized and run the annual golf tourney to benefit the Haley Fisher House, more than $210,000 already had been raised in the previously eight years of the event, including surpassing her goal of $30,000 this year.

Val again thanks her fellow New Tampa Noon Rotary Club members Barry and Clare Shuman, as well as all of the tournament’s sponsors, golfers and supporters for their efforts this year and was again thrilled that injured U.S. Army Ranger Romy Camargo and several other Purple Heart recipients and other military veterans were again on-hand for the event.

Tampa Fisher House director Paula Welenc and Fisher House national Board member and U.S. Marines Lt. Gen. (ret.) Marty Steele, who has been a member of the Board of Directors of the national Fisher House Foundation, were both again thrilled to be able to attend — and speak at — the tournament’s awards ceremony.

“We certainly couldn’t have housed more than 850 family members of our wounded soldiers at the Tampa Fisher House without all of you supporting events like this one,” Welenc said.

To make a donation, email ValCasey3@aol.com or visit FisherHouse.org.

First weekend in the books, TPO is a hit

TallGirlDanceBy Gary Nager

How do you sum up, in one word, how many people in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel feel about the opening of the Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO) on S.R. 56?

I think Stacey Nance, the general manager of the sparkling new outlet mall, said it best at the festive VIP Grand Opening event on October 29:

“Finally!”

After years of delays due to environmental concerns, TPO — which originally was supposed to open as a series of big box stores (similar to The Grove shopping plaza off Oakley Blvd. in Wesley Chapel) before both The Grove and the Shops at Wiregrass mall — has finally taken its opening bow.

And, despite previous concerns (and a Sierra Club lawsuit) about environmental impacts on the Cypress Creek watershed (a major source of drinking water for New Tampa) and the traffic the mall would bring, from what I’ve seen and heard so far, the reviews for the 441,000-sq.-ft. designer outlet mall are mostly raves.

And, with the deals the mall’s 100+ stores were offering throughout  the Grand Opening weekend (Oct. 29-Nov. 1) — and the quality of the merchandise and the shops themselves — it was hard to not be impressed with TPO as a whole, regardless of any nit-picky little issues some have with it, such as:

1) TPO’s Name & Address — Despite the involvement and best efforts of the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce from Day One of this project, the mall’s main address, on Grand Cypress Dr., is in Lutz, not Wesley Chapel — and certainly not in Tampa — although (as Nance has had to explain many times) Tampa is the city most people who live outside of our area will look for when they search on-line for it.

2) The Food Court — Those of us who have been looking for some great new restaurants are not going to find them in the mall’s five-eatery Food Court. On the other hand, the lines at Asian Chao, South Philly Cheesesteaks and Villa Italian kept moving.

3) Traffic & Parking — The opening weekend traffic at TPO was greatly helped by the mall’s hiring of multiple off-duty law enforcement officers and their vehicles. How long that additional help will be on the scene remains to be seen, but this reporter was impressed by the lack of delays on S.R. 56.

As for parking, it’s also been pretty incredible how hard all those valet parking and orange-vested parking “directors” already have been working and how easily visitors have been able to get in and out of the mall’s 2,200 parking spaces (plus overflow lots). The opening weekend had some temperatures in the low 90s, but you have to wonder how the parking help will hold up in the heat of our Florida summers.

BandWEBVIP Breakfast

John and I were among the hundreds of media, Chamber and local governmental dignitaries on hand on Thursday morning for the mall’s amazing VIP breakfast.

With incredible food like breakfast crepes, pecan-crusted chicken & waffle “bites” and mini-Monte Christo sandwiches and adult beverages (I was among those raving about the mimosas  with not only orange, but also peach and even passion fruit juice) by Puff n’ Stuff Catering of Tampa, elected officials like State Rep. Danny Burgess, Pasco clerk & comptroller Paul O’Neil and Pasco commissioners Mike Moore, Jack Mariano and Board chair Ted Schrader, plus lots of WCCC and New Tampa and Wesley Chapel Rotary Club members helped Nance and crew celebrate TPO’s opening in style before Schrader and the top brass from Simon Premium Outlets cut the ribbon. Everyone who attended the invitation-only VIP breakfast also received a portable stand-up cooler as a parting gift.

Opening Weekend Deals

Although I certainly didn’t get to check out all of the 100+ stores that were open for the first weekend (a few more, like the Aldo outlet will open within the next week or two, bringing the total number of shops up to 110), there’s no doubt that the deals — and giveaways — were hot and heavy for the opening.

Many stores were offering not only 60-70-percent off (and more!), but also free gifts to the first wave of shoppers as the stores opened their doors following the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

SaksSignUpOf course, many people skipped the ribbon-cutting to line up in front of their favorite stores for their free gift(s).Considering that I only wear New Balance athletic shoes, I was one of the first 50 in line at the New Balance outlet, which earned me a $15 gift card, in addition to 60-percent-off the shoes I bought (which were already on clearance for half off the regular price). When it was all said and done, I went home with an incredible pair of “kicks,” plus some New Balance gym shorts and orthotic inserts for my shoes for less than $70!

And, while I didn’t get on line soon enough after that to get a free gift at the Calvin Klein outlet, I returned a $20 shirt I had purchased at the Prime Outlets of Ellenton (does anyone still remember how much further that drive is?), exchanged it for a $60 dress shirt that also was on clearance and with all of the discounts applied, I ended up getting that shirt for about $3!

Will the deals stay that impressive now that the opening weekend is over and the post-Halloween holiday season has officially begun? That remains to be seen. The whole concept of an outlet mall is that the merchandise sold there at deep discounts is so expensive to start with that only the rich could afford to shop at many of the stores without those discounts.

A case in point is TPO’s “signature” store, Saks Off 5th. Although I found it hard to believe how much merchandise in Saks has the same labels — Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, etc.  — as the ones in TPO’s individual outlets, the huge Off 5th store literally has something for everyone. I didn’t feel that the deals were quite as good there as at other stores, but I have shopped at the original Saks ON 5th Ave. in NYC, so I know there’s nothing “cheap” there. 


Bring It, Bethenny!

One of the highlights of the opening weekend was the appearance of  reality TV star, author and Skinny Girl owner Bethenny Frankel.

Frankel, who has appeared on “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart,” “The Real Housewives of New York City” and “Bethenny Ever After,” also founded Skinnygirl Cocktails, authored four self-help books and hosted the talk show, “Bethenny.”

She told me she appeared at the TPO opening not to promote herself, but because, “I’m an outlet mall shopper from way back and I’m here to give shopping tips to the women here.” Her #1 tip? “Clean out those closets, ladies! Why bring new stuff to clutter up your limited space when you still have things in your closet that no longer fit or are old or pilly?”

Considering how long we have waited for the opening of TPO, I’d have to agree that the outlet mall’s opening weekend was a smashing success. TPO may only be about half the size of the Shops at Wiregrass (which has more than 800,000 sq. ft. of retail and restaurant space), but it’s definitely a new force to be reckoned with that will surely bring more mom-and-pop businesses to our area. Take a bow, Simon!

For more info about the new TPO and its VIP Shopping Club, please visit PremiumOutlets.com/Tampa.