GOOFY STUFF: SPLASH BALL — page 19
THE
May 24- 30, 2019 Volume V, Issue XXI
Hernando Sun
Y O U R
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W E E K LY
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I N F O R M AT I O N
Sheriff Al Nienhuis was the first to speak at the press conference held on Friday, May 17, 2019. He said,
and brought over here and forced to work in some sort of slave labor and prostitution. But, unfortunately it’s not unusual to have individuals right here in the United States that are forced into this type of activity.”
“Oftentimes, when we hear ‘human trafficking,’ it’s easy for us to think of a very big city, and maybe the victims who were kidnapped from some foreign land
Joined at the podium by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, and Special Agent Mark Brutnell of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), Nienhuis
said the investigation began two years ago, when an anonymous tip came to the Sheriff’s Office about a juvenile who was acting as a prostitute on a website called backpage. com, and possibly others. Backpage.com was seized by the FBI and shut down on April 6, 2018. Acting quickly on the tip, in less than 24 hours, members of the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office
CAFFE CONNECTION
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SPRING FOOTBALL GAME RESULTS Volunteers and members of Crosspoint Church gathered together recently to remodel and build an access ramp to the Learning building at the faith-based Life Center in Hernando County.
Community spirit in Hernando County is alive and well providing much needed repair services for The Life Center BY KENNETH ANTON PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX ANTON
Several members of the congregation of Crosspoint Church, doing community outreach under their #ForHernando program, assembled over the weekend to offer their support and services to the remodel and repair of The Life Center of Hernando (TLC). TLC is a faith based 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization which offers a safe home as well as life skill classes to new young mothers who have found themselves, due to various life circumstances, without a place
to live. In November of 2011, a little over 10 years after the idea for TLC was conceived, TLC was blessed with facilities to both house mothers and children in need and offer classes for the new mother’s which would help them gain the stability they needed to get on their feet. Through an outpouring of community support, TLC was able to get the building repaired and prepared for families to move in and begin providing the much-needed services they offered. Two years later, in February of 2013, TLC had their first resident move into the house. As a charity, with no solid
revenue stream, The Life Center operates solely on the donations and support of the very community whom they serve. Over the past couple of years, the facilities at TLC have fallen into a state of disrepair and, with no certified tradesmen on the board of directors and no resources readily available, the house was in need of some serious TLC itself. While having a conversation about TLC one day with Heidi Hofmeister (Crosspoint Church #ForHernando member), Barbara Lemoine (The founder of TLC) See TLC, Page 5
SPORTS
PHSC heads to DII World Series ARTICLE AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALICE MARY HERDEN
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91 69 INDEX
LOCAL & STATE 2 OUT & ABOUT 7 SPORTS 11 BUSINESS & COMMUNITY 13 FUNNIES 18 OPINION 19
12th Annual Hernando County Community Summit
County administrator Jeff Rogers speaks at the summit. by ROCCO MAGLIO
Connecting people and places
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hernandosun.com
See HUMAN TRAFFICKING, Page 2
The Life Center receives some TLC
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Ten arrested on human trafficking charges by LISA MCNEIL HERNANDO SUN WRITER
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On May 23 at 6 am the Pasco Hernando State College baseball team will board a plane and travel 1,322 miles to Enid, Oklahoma to play at David Allen Memorial Ballpark in competition for the 2019 NJCAA Division II Baseball World Series Championship Title, but first let us tell you how they got there. NJCAA DII Southeast District Championship
See SUMMIT, Page 5
For four days the Bobcats owned the NJCAA DII Southeast District Championship in Greenville North Carolina, after their loss to Pitt Community College. “It’s pretty simple; we had a tough drawdrawing the host,” Bobcats Head Baseball Coach Lyndon Coleman said. “We knew they had some pretty good arms and unfortunately some of the pitches that we made, we pitched into some bad situations, and we weren’t successful.” By that time, it was purely a mental game. Starting out with a loss can break any player’s mental focus, but after that loss, it was time “Getting this opportunity and being able to go all the way to to stand back take it one pitch at a time. the World Series it kind of allows you to realize that you can do “I told the guys on game two, that if you something in baseball no matter what level you are at, you have See PHSC, Page 11
On Thursday, May 16, 2019, Hernando Progress hosted the 12th Hernando County Community Summit in cooperation with the Greater Hernando Chamber of Commerce, SHRM, and the Hernando County Office of Economic Development. The summit lasted from 8am to 2pm. The summit was focused on the Healthcare and Manufacturing sectors in Hernando County. The speakers at the event were a number of government officials, Non-governmental organization (NGO) leaders, and business professionals including County Administrator Jeff Rogers, Ronald Pianta Planning and Zoning Director, Valerie Pianta Manager Economic Development, Carolyn Gosselin Senior Vice President of Development for the Florida Chamber, Adrienne Johnston Chief of the Bureau of Workforce Statistics and Economic Research, Florida Senator Wilton Simpson, Tina Berger Director of Manufacturing Talent Development FloridaMakes, J.J. Jarrell Corporate Director of Human Resources Cone Distributing and Stuart Rogel President Graylan Ventures. The speakers covered different aspects that affected the Hernando economy. County Administrator Rogers mentioned some tourism highlights: festivals, destination wedding venue, and capital funding for a possible future tourist attraction. The county administration is working on the Parks Master Plan, starting with Anderson Snow Park. He mentions that the demographics of Hernando are changing with the population becoming younger. The county administration is looking at putting in place business friendly policies, that protect local businesses and prevent out of town businesses from coming in for short periods to compete with local businesses. The county administration is looking at permitting efficiencies possibly utilizing remote inspections. He hopes to try stay out of the headlines and make better headlines. Ronald Pianta Planning and Zoning Director spoke next, he spoke about the Hernando County Comprehensive Plan which is
the talent to go all the way,” said Brayden Lyman
Senator Wilton Simpson speaks at the summit.