New Tampa Neighborhood News, Volume 25, Issue 17, Aug. 11, 2017

Volume 25 Issue 17 August 11, 2017

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City’s 2018 Budget Includes NT Rec Center Upgrade & More

By JOHN C. COTEY

john@ntneighborhoodnews.com Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn has proposed a $972.4 million budget for fiscal year 2018 (which begins Oct. 1) that will result in some increased taxes, but it is a budget that also had some good news for local residents.

Buckhorn’s 2018 budget proposal includes money for a new fire station located off County Line Rd. near Grand Hampton, the expansion of the New Tampa Recreation Center in Tampa Palms, design funding for a future “sensory friendly” park behind the BJ’s Wholesale Club store in Tampa Palms and funds to improve both water pressure and code enforcement in the area.

“Overall, there are some good things in there for New Tampa, so I think we did well,’’ says Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera, the Hunter’s Green resident who represents District 7, which includes New Tampa, Terrace Park, Forest Hills and the University area. “Not to say we worked hard for it…but we worked hard for it.”

Buckhorn’s budget proposes a property tax increase for the first time since 1989, as he is asking to raise the city’s millage rate 9/10ths of a percentage point from 5.7326 to 6.6326 (or $6.63 for every $1,000 of taxable property).

“The day of reckoning has come,” says Mayor Buckhorn, a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative whose last term (due to term limits) as mayor ends in 2019, said. “I don’t like it any more than you do.”

For a home assessed at $168,829, which is the average in all of District 7, the property tax increase for homeowners will be $142.55 a year.

Also Inside This Issue: News, Business & Sports Updates ‘Sensory Park’ Is Close To Council Member’s Heart; Website Says Easton Park Is The Best Place To Buy A Home; New Hailey Foundation Kicks Off; S.R. 56 Getting Still More Restaurants; Mini Doughnut Factory Eyeing Wesley Chapel; ‘Keys With Eeeze’ To Roll Out Locally; Benito Girl Helps Bring Flag Football To Her Classmates; Plus, Multiple Local Business Features!

Pages 3-38

Neighborhood Magazine

Juvenile Diabetes Concert Raises Thousands; Noble Crust Opens; Wok Chi Is A Fresh Idea In Chinese; Plus, More Neighborhood Nibbles & Business Bytes!

Pages 39-52

Thousands are on waiting lists for the New Tampa Recreation Center’s dance, acrobatic and sports readiness programs, like the one pictured, a problem that could be alleviated with the $1.95 million dedicated to expansion in Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s proposed budget for 2017-18.

The increase for a home assessed at $261,500, which according to Zillow.com is the median home value for New Tampa, will be $235.35 a year, or $19.61 a month.

The property tax revenues are expected to produce $40 million in additional annual revenue for the city.

However, the city faces a $14-million shortfall this year and will have to soon start making $13-million-per-year debt payments on a 20-year-old public safety bond.

“Much of what we face today is not of our making,” Buckhorn says, “but the solutions will be.”

A ballot measure approved by the Florida Legislature, however, to increase homestead exemptions from $50,000 to $75,000 would reduce a property’s taxable value, saving the homeowner money but costing the city more than $5 million a year.

“In the 30 years I have been doing this (working in government), I have never seen the attack on local governments that I have seen this (legislative) session,” Buckhorn says. “This Legislature is hell-bent on doing whatever they can to limit local government and hamstringing us.”

However, without the millage rate increase, it is unlikely that all of the projects that

will benefit New Tampa could go forward.

The proposed budget has $1.9 million earmarked for expanding the New Tampa Recreation Center, which is one of only two facilities in the city that is home to the highly touted dance, acrobatics and sports readiness program (the other is the Wayne Papy Athletic Center in Seminole Heights).

But, there currently is not enough room or staff to accommodate everyone.

The program at the NT Rec Center has grown from 59 participants in 2008 to more than 1,200 today, but that’s not even half of the people who want to participate — roughly 2,200 are on a waiting list.

This is the third time a budget proposal has had money in it for Rec Center expansion.

Last year’s budget had $3 million allocated to expansion, before it was amended and the money was redirected to fixing the Cuscaden Pool in Ybor City.

But, Viera said last year’s experience — which left a sour taste in the mouths of many in New Tampa — has created a new awareness of the budget process, emboldened by town halls he has been hosting as well as the recently formed New Tampa Council, which consists of representatives from most of New Tampa’s neighborhoods.

“New Tampa has got to lobby and push it through because you know what happened last year,’’ Viera said. “You have one vote with me, but you need four (of seven Council member votes).”

An additional $1.4 million of community investment taxes will be budgeted to complete

See “Budget” on page 4.

Florida Hospital Center Ice To Host ‘Tampa Bay Idol’ Auditions

By JOHN C. COTEY

john@ntneighborhoodnews.com Is “the next” Carrie Underwood lurking in the New Tampa or Wesley Chapel area? Is a Kelly Clarkson walking the aisles at your neighborhood Publix? Is someone with the same talents as Fantasia Barrino hanging out at the Shop of Wiregrass or Tampa Premium Outlets?

The producers of “American Idol” sure hope so.

Roughly 400 aspiring singers will flock to Wesley Chapel’s Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI) on Saturday, August 12, for a guaranteed opportunity to become a television singing sensation when “Tampa Bay Idol” auditions will be held.

Sign-ups opened on Aug. 5 and the 400 available slots quickly filled up with singers from all across Tampa Bay. If there is time available, others who didn’t make the sign-up cut also will be allowed to audition.

WFTS-TV’s ABC Action News and “Tampa Bay’s Morning Blend” will be on hand to host the auditions, and those trying out will perform a short a capella song before a panel of local celebrity judges at FHCI.

The winner of “Tampa Bay Idol” will receive a “Front of the Line” ticket to audition for “American Idol” producers during their bus tour stop in Orlando on Thursday, August 17.

“We’re happy to be giving Bay-area singers a unique opportunity — a chance to audition directly in front of producers from one of America’s most popular TV shows, ‘American Idol,’” said Nick Nicholson, vice president and general manager of WFTS. “That’s something no other television station in Tampa can offer.”

“American Idol” is one of the most successful and iconic television shows in history. Created

by Simon Fuller and hosted by Ryan Seacrest, it began airing on the Fox-TV network in 2002 with judges Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell — and many of the singers — becoming household names.

The airing of the auditions was always a big part of the show’s initial appeal. As the ratings Will the next Carrie Underwood be singing at Florida Hospital Center Ice tomorrow? finally eroded and “Idol” grew stale, it ended its first run on April 7, 2016.

In May, it was announced the show would be returning, and would be aired on ABC. Pop star Katy Perry has been announced as one of the judges, with rumors that former Commodores front man Lionel Ritchie could be a judge as well.

New Tampa’s Rotary Clubs Both Step Up Their ‘Service Above Self’

An editorial by Gary Nager Years before I helped charter the New Tampa Noon Rotary Club — which meets every Wednesday at noon in Mulligan’s Irish Pub in the Pebble Creek Golf Club — the first Rotary Club meetings I ever attended were on Fridays at 7 a.m., in Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club (TPGCC).

I may not have been at the first meeting of the original Rotary Club of New Tampa (I may also refer to it as the NT Breakfast Rotary) which, more than 20 years later, still meets Fridays at 7 a.m. at TPGCC, but I definitely attended multiple meetings of the club that first year, when it became (and still holds the record) the largest Rotary Club ever chartered in the southeastern U.S., with more than 60 charter members.

Not only were these people tremendously energetic (e.g., they were singing songs from the Rotary Songbook, aka, “Songs From the Year of the Flood,” at 7 a.m., no less, which was not particularly appealing to me) and dedicated to Rotary’s motto of “Service Above Self,” it also brought in amazing guest speakers who provided me with many of my biggest news stories back when there was a lot less news to write about that wasn’t road- or school- or development-related.

About a dozen years ago, I helped bring together a group of like-minded people who also wanted to be Rotarians — and who were more available for a lunch-time weekly meeting — at the old Circles New Tampa Bistro in Pebble Creek. It was a much smaller group — I think we chartered with 18-20 members — but we became like a new family — and quite a few of the original club members (and several who

New Tampa Neighborhood News Address: 29157 Chapel Park Dr., Suite B Wesley Chapel, FL 33543 Phone: (813) 910-2575 Advertising E-mail: Ads@NTNeighborhoodNews.com Editorial E-mail: EditorialDept@NTNeighborhoodNews.com Publisher & Editor Gary Nager Marketing/Advertising Representative Tom Damico Advertising Sales & Office Assistant Jannah McDonald Assistant Editor / Photographer John C. Cotey Staff Writer Celeste McLaughlin Correspondents Brad Stager • Andy Warrener WCNT-tv Video Producer & Editor Gavin Olsen Graphic Designers Blake Beatty • Georgia Carmichael Nothing that appears in New Tampa Neighborhood News may be reproduced, whether wholly or in part, without permission. Opinions expressed by New Tampa Neighborhood News writers are their own and do not reflect the publisher’s opinion.

The deadline for outside editorial submissions and advertisements for Volume 25, Issue 19, of New Tampa Neighborhood News is Monday, August 28, 2017.

New Tampa Neighborhood News will consider previously non-published outside editorial submissions if they are double spaced, typed and less than 500 words. New Tampa Neighborhood News reserves the right to edit and/or reject all outside editorial submissions and makes no guarantees regarding publication dates.

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joined within the first couple of years) are still members today.

Rotary International, the parent organization which has all but eradicated polio from the world (Left): Rotary District 6890 Governor Tom Wagner (l.) and New Tampa Noon Rotary president Vinnie Kudva. (Center): Kudva, (with only eight New Tampa (Breakfast) Rotary president Karen Frashier, with firefighters at Station No. 20 on BBD Blvd. in Tampa Palms. (Right) new cases announced in 2016, Sophia Contino and Pasco Sheriff’s Deputies receive a donation from Frashier and New Tampa Rotary past president Brice Wolford. all in Pakistan and “knows more about how to access Global and international service projects in 2017-18 club Afghanistan), is the largest service organization Local District grant money from the Rotary president Belvai “Vinnie” Kudva’s native India, on Earth, with tens of thousands of clubs and Foundation in order to fund important service Nepal and Kenya. more than 1.2 million members worldwide. projects than just about anyone.” Small but Many of our club members, myself inThose numbers give local Rotary clubs, mighty, indeed. cluded, couldn’t understand how we could do which are grouped together in districts, a lot of For more information about the New so much good with such a small club, but curability to serve not only their local communities, rent District Governor Tom Wagner explained Tampa Noon Rotary, search “New Tampa but to do service projects around the world.

Noon Rotary” on Facebook. when he visited our Aug. 2 meeting that Vinnie, Despite their differences in size, both clubs truly embody the spirit of Rotary. The Breakfast Rotary’s sheer numbers (with around 70 members today) allow the club to take on major service projects — like building a playground at Rotary’s Camp Florida in Brandon, humanitarian trips to Costa Rica and Honduras, helping to put on the Wiregrass Wobble Turkey Trot 5K race and taking over as the host organization for the rejuvenated Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel — and donating tens of thousands of dollars per year.

Although I mentioned in our last issue that the Breakfast Rotary honored me for helping make sure the Taste was a success this year, I neglected to tell you that on June 30 (the day I got engaged), the club donated more than $44,000 to 23 different nonprofit organizations, everything from the New Tampa Relay for Life and the March of Dimes to Sophia’s Lemonade Stand to benefit the Pasco Sheriff’s Charities, Inc. As outgoing president Brice Wolford handed the gavel over to 2017-18 president and 2017 Taste event chair Karen Frashier, New Tampa’s original Rotary Club is still vibrant and will continue to be ingrained in the fabric of the New Tampa community.

For the complete list of organizations the club helped this year and more information, please visit NewTampaRotary.org.

But, before you make the assumption that small cannot be mighty, consider this: the NT Noon Rotary Club won the District 6890 Membership award by growing from fewer than 20 to 26 members, and has not only hosted another successful annual bike ride through Flatwoods Park, but also been able to provide

Table of Contents

Local News Updates.....................3-19

Will New Tampa Get A ‘Sensory Friendly’ Park?......4 Niche.com Puts Easton Park At The Top Of Its List...6 Hailey Acierno May Be Gone, But Not Forgotten......8 Chuy’s & Earth Fare Coming To S.R. 56 Area?.......10 Taco Bus Ventures Its Way Into Wesley Chapel.........11 Mini Doughnut Factory Hopes To Open Nearby.....12 “Keys With Eeeze” To Revolutionize Auto Service...16 New Tampa Community Calendar..............................18

Local Business Updates..............22-27

New Tampa Dance Theatre Producing Stars..........22 Brandon Legal Offers Multi-Faceted Approach......24 SPOTLIGHT On: Creative Permanent Makeup.....25 Check Out The Transformations Aesthetic Center...26 SPOTLIGHT On: Panda Hugs Learning Center.....31

Local School & Sports Updates..30-37 Your Back To School Guide For 2017-18..............30-31 Aubrey Gets Flag Football Added At Middle Schools...34 Wharton, Freedom Cross Country Previews...........36-37

Neighborhood Magazine

Deacon Blues Band Raises $1,700 For JDRF ....39 Nobel Crust Opens At The Shops At Wiregrass........40 Wok Chi’s Unique Chinese Cuisine In Wiregrass....42 ‘Neighborhood Nibbles & Business Bytes’.........46 New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Classifieds...........48 @NTWCNews

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 25, Issue 17 • August 11, 2017 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

3

Planned ‘Sensory Park’ Close To Viera’s Heart

‘Budget’

Continued from page 1 the construction of Fire Station No. 23 (above), which will be located in the Grand Hampton/ Grand Colony area off County Line Rd. It will be the fourth fire station in the New Tampa area, along with fire stations 20 (on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in Tampa Palms), 21 (just east of BBD on Cross Creek Blvd.) and 22 (on Cross Creek Blvd. between Cory Lake Isles and Morris Bridge Rd.).

“Public safety is issue no. 1 when you look at what government’s job is,’’ Viera says. “Just look at the city’s budget expenditures, where half of it ($243.7 million of $399.3 million) goes to police and fire.”

The station will house 39 firefighters (many of whom will come from the city’s proposed 48 new Fire Rescue personnel city-wide), an engine company, a truck company and a rescue unit.

The new station also will be home to a new District Fire Chief, who will coordinate responses between the other New Tampa fire stations.

The addition of Fire Station No. 23

4

is seen as an important safety measure in a sprawling area that is still growing and still lacks easy emergency access to many of the communities. It also will take some of the pressure off the other locations.

A fifth Fire Station, No. 24, was announced last year for the K-Bar Ranch area, but won’t be built until at least 2021.

The proposed 2018 budge also includes $90,000 for a study and design of a “sensoryfriendly” park on the land behind BJs, which will be developed in conjunction with the University of South Florida (See story, right).

The budget proposal by Buckhorn was met with approval by members of the New Tampa Council, which Viera formed to help lobby the city on the needs of the New Tampa community.

New Tampa Council members Maggie Wilson, Warren Dixon, Brian Koerber and Tracy Falkowitz, all Tampa Palms residents, attended the budget presentation with Viera.

The city will hold a pair of public hearings on the proposed budget and tax rate on Weds., Sept. 13 & 26, at 5:01 p.m., in the City Council chambers on the third floor of Old City Hall at 315 E. Kennedy Blvd.

District 7 Tampa City Council member and Hunter’s Green resident Luis Viera has championed many causes since being elected last December, from starting a veteran’s council to creating a New Tampa Council to taking a hands-on approach to tackling issues at the New Tampa Recreation Center.

But, Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s proposed Fiscal 2018 Tampa city budget has now given him another one. With $90,000 in the proposed budget earmarked for the design and study, it appears that a new “sensory-friendly” park could be in New Tampa’s future, to be located behind the BJ’s Wholesale Club on Commerce Palms Dr. in Tampa Palms.

For Viera, whose older brother Juan has autism, creating parks for special needs children and adults is an issue that hits close to home.

“It’s a big issue for me,’’ Viera says. “This park will be the first of its kind in Tampa. Frankly, this is the kind of stuff, that helps people, that you run for City Council for.”

A number of sensory-friendly attractions are being added across the country as more and more children and adults are identified as having Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 3.5 million Americans live with ASD. Roughly one in every 68 children has been identified with ASD, and it is 4.5 times more common in boys (1 in 42) than girls (1 in 189). The prevalence of autism in U.S. children has increased by nearly 120 percent since the year 2000.

Those on the autism spectrum take in information from their five senses just like everyone else, but cannot process it the same way and become overwhelmed. Being overwhelmed

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 25, Issue 17 • August 11, 2017 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

leads to those within the spectrum being unable to communicate and interact, leading to anxiety and, in parental parlance, meltdowns.

A sensory-friendly park, then, would stress serenity. Sometimes, it is subtle and barely noticeable changes — like the addition of gardens and artwork, different walking surfaces, more comfortable swings — that can distinguish these parks from others but still keep them accessible to everyone.

“I think it would have a huge impact for many families who can’t participate in a typical park,’’ says Mindy Stevens, M.S., the program director for USF’s Center for Autism & Related Disabilities (CARD). “It will definitely lead to (these affected) families being able to access their community more.”

Because so many don’t understand what those on the autism spectrum go through, it often leads to bullying. Viera said his family still has painful memories of middle and high school, when Juan, who is now 46, was bullied.

“It’s something I grew up with, it was part of my life,’’ says Viera. “We have a lot of work to do. I’ve certainly seen changes. You still see lots of bullying out there, but it is getting better.”

Stevens said her staff has already met with Mayor Buckhorn about the park, as well as many within the city’s Parks & Recreation department. CARD will help train the proposed park’s staff and volunteers, while also providing technical support.

While the groundbreaking for the park is a ways off, Viera says he hopes the see it open within two years, adding that it will be one of his big priorities over the next 12 months.“The first sensory-friendly park in Tampa, to have it here, that’s a big deal,’’ he says. — JCC

Neighborhood News

@NTWCNews

Niche.com Study Says Easton Park Is No. 1

By JOHN C. COTEY john@ntneighborhoodnews.com If you’re looking for the best place to buy a home, Niche.com says you should look no further than Easton Park.

According to the website, Easton Park, which is part of K-Bar Ranch and located just north of Cross Creek Blvd. off Morris Bridge Rd., is the best place to buy a house in America.

Easton Park is No. 1 on the Niche.com list, but not the only New Tampa neighborhood to be highly ranked, as Grand Hampton came in at No. 4.

Niche.com is a Pittsburgh-based website that highlights the best places to live and go to school. It claims to combine “rigorous analysis with authentic reviews” in determining its rankings. A team of data scientists, it says, evaluate countless data sets to produce its results.

To determine the best places to live, 12 data sources — crime reports, community surveys, zip code business patterns and the American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau, to name a few — are listed with links.

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Easton Park was given a B- grade for public schools, but A-plusses for housing and being good for families. It also received As for nightlife and diversity.

According to Niche.com, the median price for a home is $224,659, while the median household income in Easton Park is $109,293.

The community is highly educated, according to the study — 25 percent of adult residents have a Master’s degree or more, compared with the national average of 11 percent, while 37 percent have Bachelor’s degrees, compared with the national average of 19 percent.

Grand Hampton, which is located west of Bruce B. Downs Blvd. on County Line Rd., received the same grades as Easton Park, with one exception — instead of an A for nightlife, it received an A-.

The median price for a home in Grand Hampton is $261,662, while the median household income is $121,245.

To check out more rankings or to search for your neighborhood or school, check out Niche.com.

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 25, Issue 17 • August 11, 2017 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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‘Hailey’s Voice Of Hope’ To Become A Resource For Mental Illness

By CELESTE MCLAUGHLIN celeste@ntneighborhoodnews.com For Lisa Acierno, coping with the loss of her daughter is still a daily struggle.

“I’m trying every day to get through the day,” she says.

Hailey, who was a 17-year-old student at Wharton High, went missing from her Arbor Greene home on March 28.

A Facebook page was launched, called “Find Hailey Acierno,” and hundreds of people joined. They shared encouragement, ideas and tips. They offered love and support to Hailey’s family in a time of uncertainty.

They also shared information about when searches for Hailey were being organized. Many even showed up to comb Flatwoods Park to look for her.

On April 7, Lisa’s worst fears came true.

After those volunteers, law enforcement and other agencies had spent days searching, Hailey’s body was found.

The Facebook group’s name was changed to “In Memory of Hailey Acierno,” and those same members again offered encouragement, support and love.

They also asked, “What can we do?”

The number of people joining the page, reaching out to the family and offering to help continued to grow.

In her grief, Lisa began to dream of honoring Hailey by making a difference for those people who struggle with mental illness, as her daughter did.

“Let’s get rid of the stigma,” Lisa says.

“During the search for Hailey, we were afraid of people’s opinions if we said what medications she was on, but that’s got to quit. People who are mentally ill didn’t do anything to choose this any more than someone with cancer or diabetes chooses those illnesses.

They don’t want it.”

Lisa decided to start a foundation. She, her husband Chris, and adult sons Ryan and Josh make up the foundation’s board. They’ve applied for 501c3 status to be recognized as a registered nonprofit organization.

They reached out to the Facebook group to name the foundation, and they have changed the name once more. It’s now “Hailey’s Voice of Hope.”

Right now, Lisa says she doesn’t know exactly what her foundation intends to accomplish. She knows she wants to do something to act on the hundreds of offers of

8

mental health services in our community. Lisa admits that she’s not sure where those conversations will lead.

She’s thinking of starting a letter-writing campaign to the Florida legislature. With 3,500 members on the Facebook page, maybe one of those volunteers could craft a letter. If Lisa posts a request to the Hailey’s Voice of Hope Facebook page, she hopes that maybe 500 or 1,000 people would copy that letter and send it, and get some attention for the cause.

Or, maybe the foundation could organize something she calls “Hailey’s Ride,” to help families get their children to available services, which is sometimes impossible The family of Hailey Acierno has launched a nonprofit foundation, Hailey’s Voice for working parents who of Hope, online at HaileysVoice.com, where you can support awareness and services would need to take hours for those who struggle with mental health by purchasing items (pictured) or vol- off from work to leave, pick up their kids, take unteering your time. them where they need to help that people continue to give her.

Lisa says changes are needed. For ex- go, drop them off back at home or school, ample, she says mental health services in our and go back to work.

Lisa is thinking even bigger, too. area aren’t available the way they should be.

“My ultimate dream is ‘Hailey’s “A perfect example was two years ago, when Hailey was being discharged from a residential program because insurance said she no longer needed to be there,” Lisa says.

“They would pay for a partial outpatient program, but there isn’t one in Hillsborough County. She was basically kicked out of a residential facility and sent to something that didn’t exist.”

House,’” Lisa says. “Somewhere kids could go after school, not to focus on their problems, but how to help them — maybe through art or music therapy — so they are learning coping skills.”

While she knows it’s a really big goal and that it ultimately might not happen, she’s not afraid to dream it.

“I keep saying that MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) was one started by one mad mother, the Susan G. Komen Foundation was started by one mad sister, and I’m a mad mom right now.”

Everyone is welcome to attend the volunteer meeting . Lisa asks that you RSVP, if possible, via the Facebook event, “Hailey’s Voice of Hope – Volunteer Meeting,” or email Lisa at LAcierno@aol.com.

“It’s going to take a village to make this happen,” Lisa says. “It shouldn’t take something like this to get everyone’s attention.

Hailey’s story was front page news because she was missing for so long, but there are so many families who are going through this who don’t get that kind of attention.”

She says that every day she wonders what more she could have done to help her daughter.

“Right now, we have a lot of support and so many people offering to volunteer,” Lisa says. “I just can’t sit back and do nothing.”

For more information about the foundation and its efforts, join the Facebook group, “Hailey’s Voice of Hope” or visit HaileysVoice.com.

Volunteer Meeting Tomorrow

So, Lisa is organizing a volunteer meeting, asking the supporters from her Facebook page — and the rest of the community — to show up for a town-hall type gathering on Saturday, August 12, 10 a.m., at the Arbor Greene clubhouse off Cross Creek Blvd., giving everyone (even those who aren’t Arbor Greene residents) an opportunity to discuss how to raise money for the foundation, and what people can do to support needed

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 25, Issue 17 • August 11, 2017 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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Multi - Family 230 Units

More Eateries & Shops Getting Closer On S.R. 56 Across From The Outlet Mall

By JOHN C. COTEY

Parcel C 12.3+ Acres (Future)

Parcel D 10.0+ Acres

lvd

rB

e ent ra C

r

Sie

56

nd s res

Cyp

Map Key 56

al Dr

Undeveloped Parcel

M e m o ri

Cyp res s Cr eek Rd

Regency Shopping Ctr

Old

Parcel S 16.6+ Acres

Dr

10

Parcel B 15.3+ Acres

(Future)

Gra

Rumored Development

Brightwork Crossing 56

Proposed, Approved or Under Construction

Parcel P 8.0+ Acres

Existing Development

I-75

ment is building a strip center between the Taco ian and gluten-free alternatives as well. Some Bell and Bahama Breeze site that will have seven have referred to Mellow Mushroom as a “hiptenants (including Mellow Mushroom).

Parcel Qpie” pizza place, as many locations pay homage While new to the New Tampa/Wesley 1.5+ Acresto the tie-dye style of the late 1960s.

54 area, Mellow Mushroom is a chain Chapel Chuy’s is a Tex-Mex chain headquartered founded in 1974 in Atlanta, and has more than in Austin, TX, that was established in 1982. It 150 locations in the U.S., including Brandon, now boasts nearly 100 locations nationwide.

Clearwater and West Tampa.

The nearest to Wesley Chapel is in Kissimmee, It serves up a variety of specialty pizzas and one of the restaurant chain’s five Orlando-area dozens of different craft beers with an atypical locations. It also has locations in Tallahassee and vibe and unusual decor. It offers vegan, vegetar- Gainesville, and is building one in Jacksonville. d Wesley Chapel Blv

The long-dormant stretch of S.R. 56 from Wesley Chapel Blvd. to I-75 has been bustling the past two years. On the south side of 56, development has boomed with the Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO), Costco, Cheddars, BJ’s Brewhouse, Longhorn Steakhouse, Culver’s, Chick Fil-A and others, with more yet to come.

Now, it looks like the Cypress Creek Town Center North development, located across S.R. 56 from TPO, is starting to catch up.

According to Pasco County building permit records, at least 10 other businesses — including Tex-Mex restaurant Chuy’s and psychedelic pizza place Mellow Mushroom, are under construction on the more than 200 acres of property on the north side of S.R. 56 owned by the Sierra family’s Pasco Ranch, Inc. The coming businesses, all of which are located on Sierra Center Blvd. (which runs through the Cypress Creek Town Center North development), will join the recently opened Ford’s Garage, Pollo Tropical and Wendy’s, as well as the soon-to-open Taco Bell, all on the north side of 56.

Another popular restaurant, Bahama Breeze Island Grill, is planned a little further to the east of Chuy’s. The owners of that restaurant, which specializes in Caribbean-inspired food and tropical drinks, had their pre-application meeting with county planners on Jan. 30. Bahama Breeze is expected to be roughly 8,000-sq.-ft. with an outdoor seating area.

Mellow Mushroom and Chuy’s Tex-Mex will add to the area’s quickly growing chain food scene. Tennessee-based Hutton Develop-

Wesley Chapel Blvd

john@ntneighborhoodnews.com

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Neighborhood News

Map is not to scale & has been modified

by Neighborhood News to make it easier to read.

Chuy’s offers made-from-scratch TexMex- inspired dishes, and varies the look of each link in its chain. According to county permit records, the Wesley Chapel Chuy’s will be 8,492sq. ft., with 605 of those for an outside patio.

While no opening date is available, let’s hope it’s before Jan. 8, Elvis Presley’s birthday.

Each Chuy’s has a shrine to Elvis, and his birthday is celebrated each year at the restaurants with a party...often with an Elvis impersonator.

Many of these new locations appeared on

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Taco Bus Also Rolling Into The Area

a map produced by leasing agents last year, but one that did appear on that map (that we also ended up showing on our map of the area in our April issues) but is apparently not coming to Cypress Creek Town Center North is Newk’s Eatery. A spokesperson for Newk’s said that the company, based in Jackson, MS, is looking at other options in the Wesley Chapel area, but had no specific locations at our press time.

By JOHN C. COTEY

john@ntneighborhoodnews.com

Earth Fare On The Way?

If you think the restaurant scene along S.R. 56 is becoming crowded — which is likely to add almost 20 dining choices in a half-mile or so stretch, the grocery store scene may not be far behind.

Hutton also met with Pasco County planners last month to propose a development of 3.84 acres on the northeast corner of S.R. 56 and Wesley Chapel Blvd. that has appeared on our map as “Regency Shopping Center.” That development (west of Ford’s Garage) would encompass a 35,320-sq.-ft. retail center, which will include a 23,820-sq.-ft. grocery — expected to be a green or boutique grocer and now rumored but not confirmed at our press time to be the sixth Earth Fare store in Florida — and the remaining 11,500 square feet will house general retail stores.

(Note: Earth Fare is a true green grocer that started with one store in Asheville, NC, and now has more than 40 stores in the southeastern U.S. Earth Fare already is building a store in nearby Oldsmar and has one in Seminole.)

That grocery store would be just northeast (across S.R. 56) from the proposed Aldi store, and east (across Wesley Chapel Blvd.) from a possible 16,000-sq.-ft. grocery store in the Brightwork Crossing project (north and west of Walgreens; look for more info about this new development in a future issue).

Taco Bell should be open in CCTC North as you’re reading this...with much more to come.

Even though many locals still wonder if we’ll ever have anything other than a Publix or a Winn-Dixie in the New Tampa/Wesley Chapel area, these three new stores and the new Costco means a much more competitive marketplace for your grocery dollar is coming to the S.R. 56 area very soon.

County permitting records reveal that a Men’s Wearhouse, Great Clips, Mattress Firm and T-Mobile store are on the way, as well as a Five Below discount store, which caters to the pre-teen and teen market and doesn’t sell anything more expensive than $5.

Founded in 2002, Five Below has nearly 600 stores nationwide. The nearest locations are in the North Pointe Plaza on N. Dale Mabry in Tampa, and in Plant City. The Wesley Chapel location will be 8,960-sq.-ft.

Permitting also shows a 24,230-sq.-ft.

PetSmart and an 89,995-sq.-ft. Dick’s Sporting Goods store coming to Cypress Creek Town Center North, although we have been told that neither store will move from their current locations in The Grove, although a Burlington Coat Factory, also earmarked for the same area, reportedly will be built there.

A new Taco Bus is rolling into Wesley Chapel.

According to permitting records filed with Pasco County, the popular food-truckturned-mini-restaurant is planning to set up its ninth Tampa Bay location within a month, inside the Tailgate Mart convenience store on the northeast corner of Wesley Chapel Blvd. and S.R. 56, adjacent to the Shell Station.

“We just finished getting permitting done and are aiming to get that location up and running by September,’’ said Heather Chaudhry, director of marketing and operations, adding that another Taco Bus location in Treasure Island also is set to open around the same time.

The Tailgate Mart, located at 25195 S.R. 54, currently has a deli that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner items, but it will be remodeled to accommodate the latest entry into the busy eatery scene along S.R. 56/54 corridor.

Chaudhry said Taco Bus typically prefers stand-alone locations, but they do make exceptions in high-volume areas, like the intersection of S.R. 56 and S.R. 54/Wesley Chapel Blvd.

“We’re not looking to do many locations like this,’’ she said. “Wesley Chapel is an up-and-coming location, so it’s a very good place to be, with all the development and expansion in that area.”

Taco Bus has achieved something of a cult status since its humble and quirky beginnings in 1996 as a converted school bus

operating as a food truck on E. Hillsborough Ave., selling authentic Mexican fare. Chef Rene Valenzuela quickly expanded to St. Petersburg, before taking the food truck concept inside and opening a restaurant in downtown Tampa, while still retaining the school bus setting and charm.

Taco Bus achieved even greater, nationwide notoriety in 2011 when it was featured on an episode of Food Network’s “Man v. Food, “as well as an episode of Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”

The nearest current location to Wesley Chapel is on E. Fletcher Ave. in the University of South Florida area. With its late hours, affordable prices and popular conchintina pibil (slow-roasted pork), el hefe burritos, 99-cent empanadas and $2 tacos on Tuesdays, it is a popular stop for local college students.

“Wesley Chapel is not far from many of our other locations,’’ Chaudhry said. “We’re lucky in that aspect, that we have some exposure in the area. We are always looking to bring the bus experience to our other customers in the area.”

The Taco Bus will be located in the westernmost portion of the Cypress Creek Town Center DRI, directly north and across S.R. 56 from a proposed Aldi store.

Directly west of the Taco Bus is the Brightwork Crossing project, which is expected to bring a Firestone Auto, Wawa and Burger King to S.R. 54 as well. Representatives from both of those companies have already met with the county to pursue permits.

Burger King is looking to construct a 3,349-sq.-ft. restaurant on S.R. 54, just west of the proposed 5,636-sq.-ft. Wawa.

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For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 25, Issue 17 • August 11, 2017 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

11

Wesley Chapel Residents Score A Hit With Their South Tampa Mini Doughnut Factory

By JOHN C. COTEY

john@ntneighborhoodnews.com Wesley Chapel resident Patrick Ruddell doesn’t wait for many things, and he knows what he wants.

So, when he found himself tossing and turning in bed one night three years ago mulling his next move, he got up and opened his laptop at 3 a.m. and emailed three of the top donut shops in Tampa with one simple question: “Do you want to sell? I want to buy.”

“That’s all I sent,’’ Patrick says. “Three emails with the exact same phrase.”

In 12 hours, he had a response, and just two hours after that, he had a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Three days later, he was at Perks Donut Bar in South Tampa.

“I loved it,’’ he says. “It was perfect.”

And with that, Patrick and his wife Zezura were on their way to becoming the King and Queen of Doughnuts in the Tampa Bay area.

Mini Doughnuts, to be exact.

The Wesley Chapel couple, easily recognizable around the area for his distinguished beard and her wide smile, have created a succulent sensation with their Mini Doughnut Factory, which opened in November 2015 on S. Dale Mabry Hwy. in South Tampa and became a social media wonder on Instagram and Facebook, thanks to a smart and aggressive strategy and a fresh twist on a pretty standard product.

The Mini Doughnut Factory makes its popular, doublebite-sized donuts to order in a small, 1,200-sq.ft. space in a nondescript strip center with bad parking and, almost always, a crowd out the door.

The cake portion of their donuts are tasty, but not too sweet. That is saved for the variety of interesting and unique toppings ranging from sweet to savory — from your basic chocolate and vanilla to eye- and taste-bud-catchers like the Sweet Pig (maple icing and bacon), LeLe Coco (lemon icing and toasted coconut) and the Homer Simpson (strawberry icing with rainbow sprinkles). Customers know to always keep their eyes open

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(l.-r.) Zezura, son Jordyn, daughter Aryanna and Patrick Ruddell have made their Mini Doughnut Factory in South Tampa one of Tampa Bay’s hottest spots, and hope to bring one to Wesley Chapel one day. (Photo courtesy of Lindsey Meyer)

for new flavors, too, like the Guava minis for Gasparilla and the Fireball buttercream icing and Hot Tamales for Father’s Day. Initially, Ruddell was worried that regular customers of Perks would turn their noses up at the newer, smaller doughnuts. “Why are you doing mini donuts?,” people told him.

“That’s stupid.”

He actually considered offering regular-sized donuts initially, before easing into the miniature version. But, that was hardly the Ruddells’ style.

“We decided, that’s it, we’re opening as mini doughnuts

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from Day 1,” Zezura says. “You’re either going to love it or hate it. And, people loved it from Day 1.”

By January, the lines were long and seemingly unending.

“I went out the door, took a selfie and was like, oh my God, what did we do here?,” Patrick says. “In less than three months, how did this happen?”

“We cried,” Zezura says. “We literally cried.”

It is more than just the doughnuts, says business partner and friend Lee Kearney, a broker for Spin Real Estate in Seminole Heights. It’s the experience, as customers can watch their

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doughnuts being dipped, rolled and packed up, as well as the interaction with employees, including Patrick and Zezura.

Always Giving Back, Too

The Ruddells say they feel deeply connected and thankful to their community and customers. They have spearheaded a number of charitable projects around Tampa Bay and are not only regulars at events to help the less fortunate, but among the first to reach into their own pockets.

“They are a big hit because they have integrated themselves into the community,’’ Kearney says. “They promote good things in the community. That, and it’s a great product, by great people. (All of that is) what makes it special.”

Success was nothing new for the Ruddells. Patrick had a great run in real estate years before, flipping more than 700 houses between 2005-08, before the market crashed and took almost everything he owned with it.

“We lost everything, literally everything,” Zezura says.

“We were living in Seven Oaks, had what we thought was our forever home. Great money, great house, nice cars, the whole shebang. We lost everything down to where we had to sell jewelry to pay bills.”

“We short sold that house,” Patrick says, adding, “We lost $170,000 selling that house.’’

The Ruddells struggled that first year after the economy crashed, but slowly worked their way back, emboldened by a never-say-die entrepreneurial spirit.

Patrick flipped some web domains, including ScienceFiction.com (the country’s top sci-fi website, he says, with four million visitors a month) in 2010 after the family moved to Fort Lauderdale, where he took a web job he ended up not enjoying.

They moved back to Wesley Chapel and used that money to get back into real estate. They plotted their next move.

The plan was to diversify, and find something that was recession-proof.

Driving around Wesley Chapel and New Tampa, Patrick says he felt like he was passing a Dunkin’ Donuts at every turn.

One of his hobbies, he says, is walking into a business and analyzing it. How much would it cost? Could he make it better?

“Obviously, if there are five Dunkin’ Donuts within a few square miles of where we are, doughnuts are doing well,’’ Pat-

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rick said. And he had no doubt he could make better doughnuts, specifically smaller ones that are made-to-order and always fresh, in a variety of designs and toppings.

The Power Of Love...& Great Doughnuts

Success has taken the Ruddells on a roller coaster ride neither ever imagined.

“Success is more stressful than failure,’’ Patrick says.

Zezura says they worked 100 hours a week for six straight months, creating a major imbalance between work and family, including their two children, son Jordyn and daughter Aryanna.

Even a 20-year relationship couldn’t withstand some of the pressures they were now facing.

They separated and even filed for divorce at one point.

However, what initially tore them apart brought them back together, stronger than before.

“We decided last year that we needed to turn the corner

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and fix this,’’ Zezura says.

It came down to being unable to live without each other.

“I’m the one that will run through the wall, but this is the most supportive woman ever,’’ Patrick says. “Success or failure, she is always there, saying, ‘We are going to do it, we are going to make it.’”

“I’m not afraid of failure, really,’’ Zezura says.

“Because we’ve been there,’’ Patrick adds. “If you’ve made it once, you can make it again.”

And yes, they have made it, again. After breaking even the first month, Patrick and Zezura were pulling in six-figure profits at the Mini Doughnut Factory by the sixth month, far exceeding their goals and expectations.

They will open a second store in St. Petersburg later this summer. Another is planned for Orlando.

However, what’s the one place they would like to build a Mini Doughnut Factory more than any other?

At home, here in Wesley Chapel.

“We want it more than anything,’’ Patrick says.

They once again live in Wesley Chapel, and send their kids to schools there. Patrick coaches basketball at the Wesley Chapel District Park on Boyette Rd. — a pretty good hoopster himself, the 5-foot-10 donut maven says he once harbored NBA dreams — and the Ruddells are regulars at Wesley Chapel eateries like their favorite, First Watch, where they say they can be found a handful of times a week.

The one thing they’d like to do most in Wesley Chapel, though, is work. Two months ago, they were on the verge of a deal to open a store on S.R. 56. What they thought was a done deal, however, wasn’t, as they say the leasing company reneged on an agreement.

It was devastating. So, they have had to move on. But, every once in a while, a customer from Wesley Chapel will venture into their store, and ask why they can’t have one here.

Patrick says he hasn’t given up yet. He may be close to bringing a store to North Tampa.

“It hits me hard in the heart,’’ he says. “I wanna be everywhere where people want us to be.”

For more info, visit MiniDoughnutFactory.com, or search MiniDoughnutFactory on Facebook and Instagram. Just don’t do it on an empty stomach.

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 25, Issue 17 • August 11, 2017 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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‘Keys With Eeeze’ Inventor Has A Wesley Chapel Connection!

By GARY NAGER

When you bring your car to the dealership or an independent auto service center for service, from an oil change to a new transmission, have you ever worried about putting your costly key “fob” in the service center’s after-hours “dropbox?”

I sure have. When one of my electronic keys broke a few years back, leaving me with only one, I remember bringing my car for service at my dealership shortly after it had closed and was left wondering, “What happens if they somehow lose my one remaining key? And, how much will it cost me to replace it?”

Well, thanks to the brother of a friend of mine, worrying about leaving today’s expensive, computerized car keys will soon be a thing of the past, because of a new smartphone app and key drop terminal called “Keys with Eeeze.”

That’s the good news. The even better news is that Keys with Eeeze will one day do more for auto service centers and even rental car companies than just make it more convenient to leave your keys. With everyone in our technologicallydriven world begging for speed and convenience, Keys with Eeeze will allow you to step up to a machine that looks very similar to a bank ATM, and with a few touch-screen commands, secure your valuable keys, order whatever services you need, and every time your key or your car moves — from the parking area outside the service center to onto the lift to completion, etc. — you’ll receive an electronic Instant Message (IM).

In other words, even if it’s not after hours, Keys with Eeeze will allow you to check your car in, order the services you need and pick up your car, all without ever having to talk to a service writer. How’s that for convenience?

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Inventor Tony Santo (left)’s Keys with Eeeze terminal isn’t available at Chevrolet of Wesley Chapel...at least not yet...but one day, it will completely change the way you check in & out of an auto service center.

The Wesley Chapel Connection

Keys with Eeeze was invented by a Dillsburg, PA, software developer named Tony Santo. If that name sounds a little familiar to you, maybe it’s because you know Tony’s brother Ken — the former owner of Skinny’s Sports Bar and Santo’s Pizza & Pasta on S.R, 54.

But, Ken is more than just Tony’s brother. Ken and his friend Tim Booth (the former owner of the Wesley Chapel Silver Ring Café, which was located in the same Pinebrook at The Grove plaza as Santo’s and Skinny’s who still owns Silver Ring Cafés in Riverview and Lakeland) are Tony’s point men to roll out Keys with Eeeze here in Florida. The invention is so new that Ken, Tim and Tony are right now revamping their existing website and marketing

materials for Keys with Eeeze in order to better capture the attention and imagination of Wesley Chapel’s growing list of auto dealerships, chain and local independent service centers and those rental car companies.

And, Keys with Eeeze is already operational and exceeding expectations back in Dillsburg, where HC Automotive became the first auto repair shop in the world to employ Santo’s incredible, new technology.

Santo says the idea for his invention came to him as he was dropping off his car for service and looking down at the paper envelope he had to fill out by hand, drop his key into and deposit in the box at the dealership’s door. He wondered why anyone, in today’s technologically advanced age, would still be using a system

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 25, Issue 17 • August 11, 2017 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

that hasn’t changed much since the 1950s?

According to hard numbers given to Santo

by HC Automotive owner Jon Gustafson, who only rolled out the new system at the end of April, the software is more than paying for itself.

In fact, although Santo originally estimated that it could take up to a year for a service center to generate enough additional income using Keys with Eeeze to pay for the cost of the software and kiosk, Gustafson’s two-lift service shop generated enough income to justify the expense in less than 120 days!

“We knew we had something special when Tony first told me about Keys with Eeeze,” says his proud brother. “We just didn’t know it would make such a difference so quickly.”

Tony adds, “(Gustafson) says it has revolutionized his business. He tells me that when he first rolled out the kiosk and software at HC Auto, only 10 or 15 percent of the service center’s customers were using it. Just a few months later, 49 percent of his customers are using it and he’s seen a 30-percent increase in revenue, all of which, he says, is directly attributable to Keys with Eeeze.”

Santo’s invention combines an automated software system you can download to your smartphone that will allow you to manage your service appointment — from dropping off the key into the kiosk to picking it up after hours.

The new technology also allows your key to be coded to your phone and be delivered back to you at the kiosk any time of the day or night.

“Our Keys with Eeeze system puts you in the driver’s seat by giving you the ability to do business on your own time constraints, not the service shop’s,” Santo says. The software alone gives you carte blanche to pick a service date, order various items from a menu, communicate

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the issues you may be having with your vehicle electronically — concise, legible and in print — and receive instant feedback, updates and digital reports about your vehicle’s condition, all in an electronic Instant Message to your phone.”

He adds that if necessary, customers also can receive uploaded photos and recall notices about their vehicles, receive an electronic IM when their vehicle is ready for pickup and even access easy payment options, “so you can literally bypass the service desk most of the time and only talk to a service rep if there is a problem with your car that needs to be addressed.”

HC Auto has the prototype terminal for Santo’s system, which only allowed 12 keys to be stored in the kiosk at once, but the newer model shown on the previous page allows up to 30 cars at once to be entered into the system.

“That will be perfect for these dealerships here in Wesley Chapel, some of which have ten or more lifts,” says Ken. “I can’t imagine that a more efficient system than this one for keeping

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track of all those keys and service orders is going to be invented anytime soon.”

Tony has a patent pending on his invention and is in the process of rolling it out to dealerships and service centers nationwide. Ken and Tim only recently began handling all of Florida for him and say that even though they are still working on the retooling of the Keys with Eeeze website and marketing materials, they’ve already had some great interest.

“Keys with Eeeze is perfect for anyone with a busy lifestyle and millennials are eating it up,” Tony says. “I’m confident that I’ve hit on the right idea at the right time.”

And, why are there three “eeeze” in Keys With Eeeze? “Eeeze of checking in, Eeeze of doing business and Eeeze of checking out!”

For details, pricing and leasing information, please contact Ken Santo at (813) 727-5794 or visit KeysWithEeeze.biz. And, don’t forget to ask your dealer or service center if they have Keys With Eeeze!

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For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 25, Issue 17 • August 11, 2017 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

17

AUGUST 2017 Saturday, August 12

Bay Chapel Food Pantry - Free food for needy families. Open every Saturday from 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. behind Christian Brothers Automotive at 20300 Trout Creek Dr. (off BBD). For more info, visit BayChapel.com/foodpantry.

Hailey’s Voice of Hope Volunteer Meeting - See story, p. 8.

“Tampa Bay Idol” Auditions at Florida Hospital Center Ice - See story, p. 1.

Sunday, August 13

St. James Church 30th Anniversary Celebration - St. James United Methodist Church (16202 BBD Blvd.) continues celebrating its 30-year history with a message from former pastor Rev. Brian James at its 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. services. Wear a St. James t-shirt of any kind to recognize past and present ministries, groups, projects and teams of the church. Guest speakers and highlights lead up to a churchwide celebration on Sunday, September 10. Info at StJamesTampa.org.

Meditation Group - All faiths and all levels of meditation experience are welcome at this free meeting at Sanctuary Wellness Center, 8903 Regents Park Dr., Suite 120, 10 a.m-11 a.m. For more info, search “The Sanctuary Wellness Center in New Tampa” on Facebook or “New Tampa Intuitive Development Center” on Meetup.

Tuesday, August 15

Keep It Local - This seat-specific networking group emphasizes small, local businesses. Meets meets every Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. at GrillSmith at The Shops at Wiregrass. For more info, call Marino Cecchi at (813) 513-9001.

expert Dr. Todd DiLeo, D.C., will lead an in-depth discussion on the causes and seriousness of poor gastrointestinal health. Sessions will be held Wed., Aug. 16, 6 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 26, 11 a.m., and Wed., Aug. 30, 6:30 p.m. Search “Intrinsicwellness” on Facebook or call (813) 549-3551 for more info. Free tickets are available at eventbrite.com/e/gut-health-bring-healthy-back-tickets-36255811107.

Friday - August 18

Rotary Club of New Tampa - The New Tampa Rotary Club meets every Friday for breakfast at 7 a.m. at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club (TPGCC, 5811 Tampa Palms Blvd.). For more info, contact David Lanigan at (813) 760-6548 or dave@davidlanigan.com or visit NewTampa Rotary.org.

Friday - August 25

SOAR Co-Working Meet Up - Plan to join SOAR Co-Working at 17401 Commerce Park Blvd, Suite 103, for our next Meetup and get back in the groove with an interesting message and great tips from our speaker, Satira Haynes. For more information, call (813) 498-1932, email info@soarco-working.com or visit soarco-working.com.

Monday - August 28

New Tampa Democratic Club - The New Tampa Democrats meet the 4th Mon. of every month at the New Tampa Regional Library (10001 Cross Creek Blvd.).

For info, email newtampademocraticclub@gmail.com or call (813) 563-0845.

Free Self-Defense Class for Tweens/Teens and Families - Taught by a veteran police officer and black belt, this class offers practical self-defense techniques for grades 6-12. Held at the New Tampa Regional Library from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, August 16

BNI Millionaire Makers - The BNI Millionaire Makers chapter meets Weds. at Heritage Isles Country Club (10630 Plantation Bay Dr.), at 7:15 am. $13 to attend includes hot breakfast. Call Lisa Jordan at (813) 621-6015 for info.

Business Networking International (BNI) - BNI, a group of business pros dedicated to helping their member businesses grow through qualified referrals, meets every Wed., 7:30 a.m., at Mulligans inside Pebble Creek Golf Club (10550 Regents Park Dr.). Call Bill Sullivan at (813) 994-1143.

Partners In Network (PIN) - Partners In Network is a group of professionals, one specializing in each area of business, who form a connection for networking and business referrals. Meets Wednesdays for lunch at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club, 11:30 am. For info, call Georgianna Strickland (813-477-7306) or Ken Fernandez (813-334-6000) or email georgianna@strategicmarketingarts.com.

Rotary Club Of New Tampa Noon - The New Tampa Noon Rotary Club meets Wednesdays at noon at Mulligan’s Irish Pub (in the Pebble Creek Golf Club). Guests are always welcome. For more info, search “New Tampa Noon Rotary” on Facebook.

FREE Gut Health Workshop - Intrinsic Wellness Clinic & Functional Medicine

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Price Reduction! $10,000 towards buyers closing cost! Beautiful 4433 sq. ft. 4/4 home in Live Oak Preserve. 24 hour gated community, loaded with upgrades, including wooden floors, HUGE bonus room, a heated salt water pool and spa and MUCH MORE! Owner providing one year warranty. This is a MUST-SEE HOME! Offered at $549,999

ksullivan@bhhsflpg.com Kellysullivanhomes.com

Kelly L. Sullivan 813-767-5885

New Tampa Dance Theatre — Still Producing Great Students & Performances

By ANU VARMA PANCHAL

It may be housed in a quiet building on a busy suburban street, but the New Tampa Dance Theatre (NTDT) offers dancers a world-class, professional experience that is unmatched in the Tampa Bay area, whether you like to dance for fun or you dream of a career on stage one day.

Located on Cross Creek Blvd. (across from Heritage Isles) in New Tampa, the 7,500-square-foot NTDT is the largest professional dance training facility in New Tampa. Owner and artistic director Dyane Elkins IronWing is in her 23rd season of creating dance memories and futures for her New Tampa- and Wesley Chapel-area students, many of whom have gone on to study dance in college and/or dance professionally.

This year, 2017 graduate Danielle Desruisseaux has joined the faculty of NTDT, while working towards a nursing degree.

Fellow alum Bryanna Rivers will attend the University of Massachusetts in Amherst with a full scholarship as a member of their track team. Gabrielle Barnes will pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance at Florida State University in Tallahassee, while Carolina Rojas will also attend FSU, pursing a Biology degree on the PreMed track.

“I’m so proud of our graduates,” says Elkins IronWing. “Our dancers become excellent college students, with their impressive time-management skills, perseverance and creative thinking.”

Elkins IronWing herself says she started dancing at age 5 and later studied at the Ballet Metropolitan in New York City.

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Dancers of all ages participate in the annual production of “The Nutcracker,” which is the biggest annual show put on by the New Tampa Dance Theatre on Cross Creek Blvd.

She moved to Tampa in 1995 to be near however, our location is much closer to family and friends and almost immediately Wesley Chapel than one might assume,” says opened NTDT in the Pebble Creek ColElkins IronWing. “We are extremely conlection on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. In venient to all of the current growth (there).

2002, she purchased the property on Cross Many Wesley Chapel families are shocked to Creek Blvd., designed her spacious new studiscover just how close we are to them and dio herself, and moved the school to the new excited because of how quickly they can drive building in January 2006. to our school.”

With the bigger location, Elkins IronAll Ages & Experience Levels Wing was off and running, offering smaller Elkins IronWing caters to both the class sizes and larger, more varied schedules. casual dance lover as well as the devoted She says she also has a larger pool of pre-professional, and every level in between. students today, with the explosive growth of NTDT’s leveled curriculum offers Wesley Chapel. multiple art forms for students to explore.

“Our name might say New Tampa;

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Through personal attention and professional expertise, the NTDT faculty provides a positive educational experience based on core principles of respect, responsibility and teamwork.

Teen/Adult classes include four eightweek sessions (from Sept.-May) of ballet, tap and Zumba.

Children ages 3-4 can participate in the Early Childhood Program, ages 5-8 can participate in the Children’s Program, and ages 9-18 can participate in NTDT’s Youth Program.

In addition to classical ballet, the studio offers full programs in creative movement, modern dance, jazz, tap and hip-hop.

Each program has its own directors and specific syllabuses guiding students in a structured manner through their studies.

Dyane’s husband, Troy IronWing, is director of tap, while she will teach creative movement, ballet and jazz this season. Both have continued to tour nationally, now for 13 years, with the Rhythm Extreme Performance Troupe.

In addition, NTDT ballet director Cristy Garcia Tanner started her dance training at age 3 in her native Puerto Rico, and at 13, was invited to join the Ballet Concierto Company in San Juan.

Modern dance director Carla Armstrong, who joined the NTDT faculty in 2005, graduated from the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City with a BFA degree in Dance.

Jazz director Kristine Morgan has been a professional dancer since age 19, and earned her BFA degree in Dance from Point

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Park University in Pittsburgh, PA. Hip-hop director Dreama Davidson, who also has been with the school since 2005, has 18 years of performances to her credit, including participating in the “Katonga” show at Busch Gardens.

The facilities at NTDT are as top notch as the instructors, and include maple flooring for the tap classes, 15-20-ft.-tall mirrored walls, student locker rooms and a large studio space that can accommodate up to 200 people. Sprung floors provide shock absorption to protect the dancers’ joints, and an on-site physical therapist ensures the health of the dancers. NTDT also features a café offering light meals, snacks and drinks.

The Training You Need

NTDT has developed a reputation for creating strong, professional dancers with alumni that have moved on to highly respected companies, Broadway productions and for the Walt Disney Company.

Because NTDT students learn to be proficient in multiple art forms, these students have an edge in the competitive world of dance and many NTDT students have been accepted into prestigious summer intensive programs, including the School of American Ballet and American Ballet Theater in New York City, The Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago and the Boston Ballet.

However, Elkins IronWing also is diligent about providing the same quality of instruction to the roughly 60 percent of the students who are enrolled in NTDT’s popular recreational programs.

“Even though a student doesn’t choose to pursue a career in dance after high school, they can reach a level of artistry to be accept-

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of Tampa (DTT) — in the “Summer Concert Series,” which is held every June at USF. DTT provides more than 300 free tickets to NTDT’s corporate sponsors, local community supporters, alumni members and students. A small costume rental fee for productions is the only cost over the tuition that parents have to pay at any time — there is never a requirement to buy advertising or pay performance fees.

New Tampa residents Paula and Ron Nelson say they enrolled their daughter Malia in Creative Movement classes at NTDT when she was only 3. Eight years later, she’s moved up to the youth program, where she’s enrolled in ballet, tap, jazz, modern and hip-hop.

“As a result of the yearly recitals at the University of South Florida (USF), Malia loves performing on stage and has absolutely no stage Tap, ballet, modern dance and even hip-hop classes are fright,” Paula explains. “This has offered at NTDT, where future dance professionals and carried over to school, where she’s more casual dancers all receive outstanding training. comfortable making presentations to her classmates and participating in ed into college dance programs,” says Elkins yearly school plays.”

IronWing. “Believing in yourself, respecting Every holiday season, Dyane says local the process of working toward a goal, and residents look forward to the community’s having a well-rounded dance education give our students the tools and confidence to con- largest and longest-running interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet, “The Nutcracktinue discovering new passions throughout er,” now in its 18th season. This year, it will their lifetimes.” be held December 15-17 at USF Tampa’s College of the Arts Theater 1.

Great Productions, Too! You can catch free sneak peeks of All students get to perform in the NTDT’s “The Nutcracker” at the Tampa “Spring Production” and — through NTDT’s nonprofit-partner, the Dance Theatre Premium Outlets on November 25-26, and

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at the Shops at Wiregrass mall on December 1-2 and 8-10.

NTDT’s much-awaited Sugar Plum Fairy Tea fund raiser is now in its 13th season and will be held December 3 at USF’s Gibbons Alumni Center. This popular event features a light lunch, desserts (including a chocolate fountain), giveaways, a sneak preview of “The Nutcracker,” and an opportunity to dance with Clara (the lead role of the young girl who receives the beloved Nutcracker as a Christmas gift) and her “party friends.”

Each year, a portion of the proceeds from the Tea is donated to the Ronald McDonald House Charities in South Tampa.

Tickets for both the tea and “The Nutcracker” go on sale on Monday, October 9.

“It’s all about the children at NTDT, always has been and always will be,” Dyane says. “We are a company that enables children to succeed. The key is setting high expectations all while having fun and building self-confidence. With the amazing season ahead of us, we would like to thank all of our trusting and loyal families over the years and the organizations that continually support our vision. Without their recognition and time, NTDT wouldn’t be the magical place it has become!”

The New Tampa Dance Theatre offers year-round free trial classes for prospective dancers of all ages. Classes begin Monday, August 14. To tour the facility or to rent it for a meeting, party or function, visit NTDT at 10701 Cross Creek Blvd. For more information and to check out the exciting lineup of fall classes, visit NewTampaDanceTheatre. com, call (813) 994-NTDT (6838), or see the ad on page 34 of this issue.

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 25, Issue 17 • August 11, 2017 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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Attorney Kevin Astl Leads Brandon Legal Group’s New Tampa Office Special to the Neighborhood News

While the shingle outside his office states that he practices family law, Kevin D. Astl is a man who wears many hats.

He’s the compassionate listener who hears it all and gently nudges a box of tissues across the table; he’s the gimlet-eyed analyst who parses statutes to find the perfect legal weapons to argue your case; he’s the family man whose 10-year-old’s artwork adorns his office walls; and he’s the rock-and-roller who goes home and takes the stress of his day out on a drum kit.

Most important is that Astl is an attorney you can trust to fight for your child, your family and your livelihood.

Astl is the managing attorney at the Brandon Legal Group’s New Tampa/Wesley Chapel office, located in the Central Bank building on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. (just south and east of the corner of BBD and County Line Rd.).

He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Political Science in 1996 from the University of South Florida, and in 1999, received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University in Macon, GA. At the local office of his firm (one of the three Brandon Legal Group offices in the Tampa Bay area), Astl handles all aspects of family law cases, but also practices in other areas, including business, contract, criminal defense, music and entertainment, copyright and trade/service mark law.

Astl says that Brandon Legal Group is a full-service law firm. “We have 7 on-staff

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attorneys,” he says, “each very experienced in their own right.”

He adds that, in other words, “If I can’t help you with your legal needs (myself), there almost always is another lawyer in the firm who is able to help.”

Not Your Typical Lawyer

Astl says he was a musician before he was a lawyer and he still enjoys creative writing, songwriting and playing. “Playing drums keeps me sane,” he says.

In addition to belonging to the Florida Bar Association (since 1999), Florida Bar Family Law Section, Florida Bar Criminal Law Section, Florida Bar Entertainment & Sports Law Section and American Inns of Court Tampa Family Law Inn, Astl’s affiliations also include the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Florida Motion Picture & Television Association, and the Florida Association of Composers, Authors & Publishers.

What Astl offers clients that they cannot get on their own is not just nearly two decades of experience, but also a familiarity with case histories and with the vagaries of the various local court systems, courthouses, clerks and judges in the many surrounding counties.

Astl’s disarming friendliness and wry sense of humor help him connect with clients, and they also help him preserve his peace of mind in a field that can often be fraught with tension.

He has to regularly fight client stereotypes about the billing habits of lawyers; and not a week goes by that a client doesn’t want to check Astl’s advice against something out of TV’s “Law & Order” or Google.

“There’s more disinformation out there about what we do than information,” he sighs.

As someone who considered studying sociology or psychology before deciding on political science and, ultimately, the law, Astl enjoys not just the hustle and bustle of the courthouse, but also the more subtle sizing up of witnesses and personality assessments he has to conduct, often within moments.

Bill and Christy Gideon say they hired Astl to represent them in a custody matter, pertaining to Christy’s daughter. “Kevin is so thorough,” says Bill. “So filled with confidence about the kinds of things he has to do.”

Gideon says that when he took a job that would relocate him from Tampa to Bermuda, Astl was extremely helpful.

“He made things happen almost overnight,” Gideon say. “Kevin knows there are a lot of emotions and feelings involved. He’s an attorney who really knows his craft and also is in tune with the emotions of his clients.”

Astl continues his endeavor to meet with and keep introducing himself and Brandon Legal Group to the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel communities to edify them on the wide range of services he is able to provide to those multi-varied communities.

Although he’ll continue to do family law, he’s also interested in growing his representation of small businesses.

As a 17-year New Tampa and Wesley Chapel resident, not only does he frequent local small businesses, he’s also watched numerous companies rise and fall, and would like to be able to help more of them succeed.

He’s already succeeded at winning the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce’s “Small Business of the Year” award for 2016, an honor that, he says, took him very much by surprise. “It really was an honor just

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Kevin Astl is the managing attorney at the Brandon Legal Group’s New Tampa office on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. to be nominated,” he says. “It was amazing that we actually won.”

Having practiced on his own and in a large corporate environment for years, Astl says he loves his present setup.

“I like being part of a boutique firm,” says Astl. “It’s like I work with my friends. The way Brandon Legal Group is set up with the satellite offices, you just have to practice law,” explaining that the head office manages paperwork and finances so that he can do his job. “I can represent my clients…focus on them.”

Astl also says he appreciates the fact that the attorneys at Brandon Legal Group are encouraged to maintain a manageable workload — he handles about 50 cases at any given time — rather than take on every potential client.

A manageable caseload means a reasonable separation between home and work,

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says Astl, which helps create the objectivity that he needs to be able to approach every case with clarity. “A work-life balance is very important,” he says, especially when dealing with family law cases that can sometimes be brutal (except for adoptions; he says adopting parents are his favorite type of family law clients to represent).

Astl (far right) swears in the new Board of the Wesley Chapel Astl works toward that balChamber in Dec. 2016. Photo courtesy of OurTownFLA. com. ance through family and creative Legal Group is located at 20701 BBD endeavors.

Blvd., Suite 202, Tampa. For more inforHe tries to spend as much time as he can with his two sons: the 23-year-old veteran who mation or to make an appointment for a consultation, call (813) 933-7200, email served in Iraq and now attends the University kevin.astl@brandonlegalgroup.com, visit of South Florida, and the 10-year-old who BrandonLegalGroup.com, or see the ad often spends afternoons in dad’s office. on page 35 of this issue.

The New Tampa office of Brandon

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SPOTLIGHT ON...Creative Permanent Makeup By Pam! Pam Edmonson is passionate about eyebrows. She’s been offering Creative Permanent Makeup By Pam since 2011, but moved last year into her new location at Serenity Salon & Spa Suites, located off S.R. 54 in Suite 101 of the Brookfield Professional Park, west of the Walmart at the corner of Eiland Blvd.

There, Pam offers permanent makeup and other aesthetic services, but she says that eyebrows are still her favorite.

“Eyebrows completely frame the face,” Pam says. “They are so important.”

Pam has been a licensed cosmetologist in Florida since 2009. She then studied at the Boca Ta-2 School for Permanent Makeup in Williston, FL. She treats clients of all ages, and eyebrows of all sorts, from those that need to be reconstructed to those that have faded with age and exposure to the sun.

Pam has been doing the popular “microblading” technique since she was trained in it in 2014. She uses a small blade and ink to create each individual hair. Pam’s penchant for detail serves her well, as her steady hands help draw on an eyebrow which she then microblades, with each stroke adding a more natural look to the eyebrow.

“Microblading is a big thing right now,’’ says Pam, who is licensed through the Florida Department of Health for permanent makeup (the same license as tattooing). She encourages anyone who wants permanent makeup to schedule a free consultation with her.

“Do your homework,” she says. “Make sure the person who does your eyebrows does a consultation. They should sit down with you, show you their work before and after, and also after the skin has healed from the process.”

Having your eyebrows done by Pam takes

about an hour and the cost includes a touchup after the first four weeks, to help deepen the color and make them more permanent.

Pam also offers permanent eyeliner, and is now offering permanent lip color, too.

“I used to not like to do lips, but I learned a new technique,” she says. “It’s not as painful and the color stays beautifully. I had mine done, and it looks so natural and full.”

Pam is currently charging $350 for eyeliner or eyebrows, and $450 for lips. She says she will be raising prices later this year, so anyone who wants to take advantage of her lower prices should do so before September 1.

Some of Pam’s other services include scalp therapy (for women with thinning hair) and microneedling, which improves the skin by producing a slight injury to the face, causing new collagen to grow at the “injury” site.

For a free consultation or more info, visit CreativePermanentMakeupByPam. com, see pg. 50 or call (813) 997-6302.

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 25, Issue 17 • August 11, 2017 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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The Doctors Ambay Open Their Transformations Aesthetic Center Off S.R. 56!

By BRAD STAGER Skin-related medical care and beauty treatments, as well as body restoration and alteration options, are now available in one location at the new Transformations Aesthetic Center, located about a mile east of I-75, just north of the intersection of SR 56 and Cypress Ridge Blvd., behind the Tower Radiology building in Wesley Chapel.

The Transformations building is a sleek, freestanding structure with an architectural style befitting a fine art museum.

Housed within its 11,000 square feet are two medical practices devoted to your beauty and your health: 360 Dermatology and Ambay Plastic Surgery, employing the skills and talents of Aparna Ambay, M.D., and her husband, Raj Ambay, M.D., D.D.S., respectively.

The building’s signage reads simply as, “TRANSFORMATIONS,” and does not display the names of the two practices, which according to Dr. Raj, work together toward a unified goal.

“The name of the building is Transformations because everything we do around medicine is about only one thing, which is transforming people to better health,’’ he says. “The two practices are separate but we always work together to find ways to benefit the patient and elevate the level of care.”

Dr. Raj cites skin cancer surgery affecting substantial areas of the body as a situation that will sometimes warrant reconstructive plastic surgery and would benefit from close collaboration between the two doctors. He adds that the new facility is equipped with some of the latest technology to optimize patient comfort, convenience and treatment outcomes.

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The husband-and-wife team of Dr. Aparna Ambay (left) and Dr. Raj Ambay has opened the Transformations Aesthetics Center in Wesley Chapel.

These features include computer-conmetic services such as Botox and other dermal Dermatology Services trolled lighting, customized music playlists and fillers, as well as chemical peels. Medical grade While patients will benefit from the techLCD imagery in exam and treatment rooms skin products for home use by Obagi Medical nology the Transformations Center brings to that the patient selects and automated text and SkinCeuticals are available for sale. the local medical community, 360 Dermatolomessaging to update patients about the status “We run the full gamut from medical to gy’s aesthetic services manager Regan Hoefle of their appointments or potential wait times. cosmetic dermatology,” says Hoefle. “What we says the personal touch is still important.

“We’ve paired with technology to find really want to create for people is a destination “We have a larger and more modern, ways of improving the experience for our for medical dermatology, as well as cosmetic state-of-the-art facility at our disposal,” she patients,” Dr. Raj says. says, “but I think what our patients notice most dermatology, so that when someone comes There also is an onsite surgical center into our office, they can not only get their is that the quality and compassionate care we that Dr. Raj says rivals what is available at area annual skin check but if they are interested in deliver is different than what you might find in hospitals. “It’s not like an office space surgery intervening in the aging process, we can offer another medical dermatology setting. We treat center, it’s a full-on surgery center where we our patients very much like family and friends.” help with that. Or, if they need something becan perform all types of services, including yond dermatology, we have the option to send There are many services available at general anesthesia, just like at a hospital,” he them over to Ambay Plastic Surgery.”

360 Dermatology, including treatments for says. “Whatever you could potentially do at Leading the way for 360 Dermatology skin cancer, acne and acne scars, eczema, skin a hospital as an outpatient, you can do at our is Dr. Aparna, who earned her M.D. degree growths and infections. surgery center as well.” from Drexel University’s College of Medicine Dr. Aparna’s practice also provides cos-

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 25, Issue 17 • August 11, 2017 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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in Philadelphia and followed up by interning at the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She completed dermatology residency programs at the Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, WI, and at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Dr. Aparna is Board-certified in dermatology and is trained in Mohs skin cancer surgery, which is considered to be a highly effective and efficient treatment, as it allows patients to have their tumors removed and analyzed in one visit.

Hoefle says Dr. Aparna’s standards for 360 Dermatology are high.

“Dr. Ambay is adamant about high quality patient care, delivered with integrity and adhering to ethical medical standards,” Hoefle says. “We follow all appropriate medical protocols to ensure patient safety and comfort.”

Mechelle Casciotta is a patient who says her experience with Dr. Aparna and the 360 Dermatology team reflects the values that the practice promotes.

“The professionalism and caring of 360 Dermatology is just outstanding,” says Casciotta, who commutes between Wesley Chapel and Warwick, NY, where she owns businesses and is president of the Warwick Valley Chamber of Commerce.

“Because I’m a professional, it’s important to look my best, but I didn’t know about Botox, fillers and needles,” Casciotta adds.

“They were great and do things to put the patient’s comfort first.”

Ambay Plastic Surgery

For patients looking for plastic surgery, whether for reconstructive or cosmetic purposes, Transformations Aesthetic Center also is home to Ambay Plastic Surgery, led by Dr. Raj, who is a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.

In addition to earning his M.D. from Drexel University’s College of Medicine,

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Do you want or need a “Mommy Makeover” Check out Ambay Plastic Surgery’s results!

Dr. Raj also has a Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.) degree from the Northwestern University Dental School in Chicago.

He completed his general surgery residency at the Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education in Rochester, MN, followed by a plastic surgery residency at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

He added to his surgical skills by studying microvascular reconstructive surgery at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center of the University of Texas in Houston. He is Board-certified in plastic surgery and, as part of his military responsibilities, he has served at medical facilities supporting U.S. combat operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

The type of care delivered at Ambay Plastic Surgery reflects Dr. Raj’s mix of education, experience and service.

“Our practice is not a corporation,” Dr. Raj says. “We are a military family and our practice is about family values. Our mission is to build relationships on a foundation of trust and honesty, so we treat people the way we want to be treated.”

Ambay Plastic Surgery also provides a wide range of services.

In addition to breast lift, augmentation and reduction options, Ambay Plastic Surgery offers what it calls a “Mommy Makeover,” a combination of individually tailored cosmetic

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procedures that can reverse some of the effects of childbirth.

Face, neck and thigh lifts, as well as fat transfers and body contouring, are some of the other procedures performed.

Patient care coordinator Jacqueline Sucarichi says patients can expect to get the best care possible at Ambay Plastic Surgery.

“Dr. (Raj) Ambay is very caring and meticulous,” Sucarichi says. “He won’t leave the surgical table until he’s 110-percent satisfied.”

Delivering that kind of care to their patients reflects a choice that both Dr. Raj and Dr. Aparna have made about how they will operate their practices.

“We’ve decided we’d rather take more time with people and really deliver the best experience,” Dr. Raj says. “Quality is more important than quantity.”

While both 360 Dermatology and Ambay Plastic Surgery have benefited from the good work they do for their patients, Hoefle says

community involvement is a big part of the success of both practices.

“We are thriving because of the support of the Wesley Chapel and New Tampa communities, and the surrounding areas as well,” she says. “We are very ingrained in the fabric and are active in the community by participating in health events.”

The Ambays relocated their practices to the Transformations Aesthetic Center in May. A Grand Opening event and Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting are planned to be held in mid-September.

Transformations Aesthetic Center is located at 2441 Oak Myrtle Ln. in Wesley Chapel. For more information about 360 Dermatology, you can visit 360Dermatologytampa.com, call (813) 406-4835, or see the ad on pg. 42 of this issue. Ambay Plastic Surgery’s website is AmbayPlasticSurgery.com and the phone number is (813) 406-4448.

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 25, Issue 17 • August 11, 2017 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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Back To School: Here’s What You Need To Know For The 2017-18 School Year!

By CELESTE MCLAUGHLIN

celeste@ntneighborhoodnews.com After a somewhat tumultuous spring, with several changes being implemented or announced — including new attendance boundaries for many New Tampa schools, busing and bell schedules — things are seeming to calm down as students and parents adjust to new routines.

Here’s what’s new for the 2017-18 school year in New Tampa, with more changes on the horizon for the following school year, including the rezoning of Clark, Heritage, Hunter’s Green and Pride elementary schools.

New Principals At Two Schools

While their official start dates were late last spring, two principals are looking forward to starting off the school year with new schools in our area.

At Turner/Bartels K-8 School, principal Cindy Land replaced Jonathan Grantham, who left to become a deputy superintendent of schools in Marion County. Land had been principal at Pride Elementary since 2009 and prior to that, worked at Chiles.

“It’s definitely a blessing to be promoted to this position,” says Land, who lives in Live Oak Preserve and whose three sons will all attend Turner/Bartels this school year. “This is the neighborhood school for my children.”

She says that while her new school includes middle school grades six through eight, she sees a lot of similarities between Turner/Bartels and Pride.

“We have a diverse population,” she says.

“Parents are very interested in their children’s education, they participate and volunteer and are supportive. I also see that the community seems to really embrace the school. I’m excited to be

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here and to bring the school and community together,” she says.

Land’s departure from Pride left a vacancy there that has been filled by Amy Zilbar.

For the last four years, Zilbar was a principal coach for the school district, working with new principals and supporting them and others in leadership development. She Amy Zilbar (above) replaces Cindy Land (right) as principal at Pride says her position at Elementary. Land is now the principal at Turner/Bartels K-8 School.

Pride is a homeing even more partnerships and traditions there. coming, of sorts.

“Early in my career, I worked at Hunter’s Courtesy Busing Ends For Some Green teaching first grade and as an administraAs school is getting under way, more New tive resource teacher,” she says. “Back then, the Tampa students will be walking and biking to only schools in the area were Hunter’s Green, area middle and high schools.

Clark and Tampa Palms.”

Many middle and high school students While Zilbar says she loved working as who have received courtesy busing (a bus to a principal coach, she’s happy to be back at a school site, “to put into practice all the things we a school that is less than two miles from a student’s home) in the past will no longer have have been working on,” she says. bus transportation provided by the Hillsbor“This school has been absolutely wonough County School District. derful,” Zilbar adds. “Everyone has been so The responsibility of transportation is welcoming, from the teachers, to the PTA, to the community, and especially the students have now on the parents, so expect further crowding of the roads, as parents who don’t want their been amazing.” children walking or biking will be driving to She says she looks forward to continuing and from school, too. the level of academic excellence already in place However, for Wharton High students at Pride — a consistently A-rated school by the State Department of Education — and to build- who live across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd.

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from the school, bus transportation will still be available for this school year.

Jamie Warrington, transportation and safety manager for Hillsborough County Public Schools, says that now that BBD is under construction to go to eight lanes in front of the school, it is considered a hazard for students to cross. Once that construction has been completed, BBD’s eight lanes will still be considered a hazard, so the bus transportation for those students will continue.

At our press time, the affected students had not yet been notified of the change, and the school district’s website has not been updated to reflect it, but Warrington says parents will be notified by email before school starts.

To find out if your child will be provided bus transportation to their school for this school year, visit http://www.sdhc. k12.fl.us/doc/445/transportation/resources/ busroutes/.

It also is expected that the School Board will end courtesy busing for elementary school students for the 2018-19 school year.

New Bell Schedule For Turner/ Bartels K-8 School

All of the schools in our area will have the same school hours as last year, except for Turner/Bartels K-8, where the school day will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. this school year.

Back in the spring, school officials proposed changing the bell schedules countywide to allow more time for buses to get students to school on time, but were met with such backlash that they put off the change for all schools countywide until next school year, 2018-19.

Through Friday, August 25, the school district is again accepting feedback on adjusting the school schedule ahead of the School

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Board’s final vote on the matter, which is expected to be held on Tuesday, October 17.

The District is asking parents, students, employees and members of the community to download and use an Excel spreadsheet “simulator” to “try out” different school start and dismissal times (using formulas in the spreadsheet that ensure each scenario meets appropriate number of minutes in the school day, along with not starting too early or late).

Then, people can submit their suggestions for start and end times by emailing their completed spreadsheet back to district staff.

To check out the start time simulator,

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SPOTLIGHT ON...Panda Hugs Learning Center!

click the link on the school district’s home page at SDHC.k12.fl.us or go directly to SDHC.k12.fl.us/doc/1985/administration/ resources/bellsimulator/.

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With road construction on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in front of Panda Hugs Child Care Learning Center finally complete, it’s now easy to get in and out of one of New Tampa’s longest established, most beloved child care centers, which has been serving children ages six weeks through preschool for the last 20 years.

“Our entrance is all new and improved,” says Tom Driscoll, who owns Panda Hugs, along with his wife Andrea, and mother-in-law, Sue Anne Allbaugh, who serves as the center’s educational director.

As this issue is reaching your mailbox, Panda Hugs starts its school year for students in Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten, or VPK. If your child will be four years old by September 1, he or she may be able to attend Panda Hugs at no cost to you.

“It’s not too late to sign up for VPK,” Tom says. “Just because it started, doesn’t mean that you’ve missed it.”

At Panda Hugs, VPK is offered five days a week (9 a.m.–noon), or three days a week (Monday, Wednesday, & Friday), 8 a.m.-3 p.m.

There is no cost to parents for the part-time VPK program, and parents have the option to choose extended care so their children can attend Panda Hugs full-time.

Elsa Espinosa, the school’s director (pictured), says that in VPK, teachers are focused on preparing kids for kindergarten. Plus, Panda Hugs offers extras parents might not expect.

“We teach sign language and also implement Spanish into the curriculum,” says Elsa.

It’s a natural fit, she explains, since each classroom has one teacher who is Latin American.

This diversity is reflected in the school’s students, too. “Our kids are very multicultural,”

she says. “We are close to USF and have kids who are Asian, Arabic and Latin.”

Sue Ann, Tom and Andrea point to the longevity of many of the school’s teachers as an example of what makes Panda Hugs special.

Of the school’s 20 employees, six have worked there for more than 15 years, including Elsa.

“The most important thing we emphasize is that children learn through playing,” Elsa.

“We provide an introduction to language, writing, the alphabet, phonics, reading and math.”

Panda Hugs also offers after-school care for elementary school-aged kids, offering transportation from five local elementary schools: Chiles, Clark, Hunter’s Green, Pride and Tampa Palms elementaries, Kids in kindergarten through fifth grade are picked up at their respective schools at the end of the day and arrive at Panda Hugs around 3 p.m. Their afternoons include homework, arts & crafts, a snack and time outside on the playground.

Panda Hugs Child Care Learning Center is located at 15051 BBD Blvd. It is open Mon.–Fri., 6:30 a.m.–6:30 p.m. For more info, visit PandaHugs.com, call (813) 977-8195 or see the ad on pg. 40.

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Benite 7th Grader Aubrey Raile Scores A Flag Football TD With Her Persistence

By JOHN C. COTEY

john@ntneighborhoodnews.com For the first time ever this school year, middle school girls in Hillsborough County can play flag football, and middle school boys can play volleyball.

Both sports have been added to the calendar, and Benito Middle School seventh grader Aubrey Raile played a big role in making it happen.

It was Aubrey’s carefully researched crusade that led county administrators to take a closer look at the middle school sports calendar. While the Hillsborough County School District couldn’t legally stop Aubrey, or any of her friends, from trying out for the boys flag football team, concern about letting girls play a physical contact sport with much bigger boys led to the addition of two new middle school sports.

Aubrey started playing flag football in the sixth grade last year during PE class. She had never played before, but found that her speed made her an excellent pass rusher and that she enjoyed the other aspects of flag football – passing, catching, dodging tacklers, and pulling flags.

Flag football is 7-on-7, with all of the players wearing a belt with three flags on them (one in the back, one on each side). Everyone on the field is a receiver, and the game is played on an 80-yard field with first downs for teams every time they advance the ball 20 yards.

“As soon as I played, I found an enjoyment in the sport and wanted to play for my school,’’ Aubrey says.

When the middle school flag football season rolled around last March, however, she was told she couldn’t try out for the Jaguars’ team. Boys only, they said. Aubrey didn’t think that was fair.

She marched right to the library, and starting reading about the rules, and specifically, Title IX, a federal law that ensures that no one can be excluded from participation in any school program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

Basically, if a school offers a program just for boys, it needs to offer an equal opportunity for girls.

34

Gabby Allen (left) and Aubrey Raile after the first day of boys flag football tryouts at Benito Middle School on March 21.

(Photo courtesy of Christy Raile) “When the coaches told her she couldn’t play, she went to the school library and found some books that explained the law,’’ said Christy Raile, Aubrey’s mother. “She put sticky notes all over the pages and gave it to me. She found the law, and highlighted it.

“Mom, is this right?,” Aubrey asked Christy. “Am I right?”

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“I’m not an attorney, but I think this is right,’’ Christy replied. “I think they have to let you play.”

Emboldened by the support of friends like fellow sixth-graders Alexa Evans, Suhani Rana, Sannvi Prasad and Gabby Allen, the Railes continued to fight.

The people she talked to at the school district, Christy said, tried to dissuade Aubrey from trying out. She said she was told their rules overrode the state rules, although the county athletic office denies ever having said that.

Both sides continued to talk, but Aubrey was determined to show up to tryouts with a stack of books to argue her case.

An hour before the tryouts began at 3 p.m. on March 21, Christy says she was told Aubrey could trade those books for cleats and try out for the boys team.

While the school district does not consider it ideal for boys and girls to participate in contact sports like flag football, “We were directed by our attorney and our compliance officer that we needed to let that individual tryout,’’ said Jennifer Burchill, the county’s assistant director of athletics.

“And, girls in general.”

Aubrey competed that day with roughly 75 boys, many of whom came up to her at tryouts and offered encouragement.

Emery Floyd, one of the boys, was especially supportive, says Christy, picking Aubrey for his team and making sure she got as many opportunities to impress the coaches as everyone else.

Aubrey scored a touchdown during tryouts, produced several first downs and pulled four flags. Christy gets choked up when recalling that day, and how the other boys started chanting Aubrey’s name as she walked off the field.

“She played her heart out,’’ Christy said. “Maybe she wasn’t good enough to keep up with those eighth grade giants, only 5-feet tall and 95 pounds, but her heart was.

And they knew it.”

Benito decided to create a sixth grade team for those who didn’t make it, and Aubrey played on it. The team had three practices, and played one game, against a sixth grade team from Turner/Bartells. Some of the opponents laughed at her, she says.

“I expected it,’’ Aubrey says. “But, it only made me more determined to show I had as much right to be out there as they did.”

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So, What About This Year?

The district, however, still had a problem to solve for the upcoming 2017-18 school year.

“It was felt in our department, amongst our district and upper administration, that we really did not want to combine boys and girls (on a flag football team),’’ said Burchill. “It really was not to our advantage for boys and girls to play together in flag football. We needed to find a solution.”

One principal from each of the county’s eight areas came together to form a committee. Instead of cutting sports to meet Title IX

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compliance, they came to the decision in May to reduce the track and field season, making room to add a boys team to volleyball, which previously only had a girls team, and a girls team to flag football, which only had a boys team.

It was the perfect compromise. The two sports are both low cost and open up a number of athletic opportunities that didn’t otherwise exist. It also keeps the county Title IX complaint.

“A win, win, win, all the way around,’’ says Christy, proudly.

While very few high schools have boys volleyball teams — Berkeley Prep and Brooks Debartolo are two of them — girls flag football has taken off at the high school level.

Last year, the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA), which has offered a high school state championship since 2003 when it had 70 teams playing, expanded its playoffs from one classification to two.

There are now more than 200 girls flag football teams playing statewide, and Tampa Bay is one of the hot spots. Last season, Tampa’s Robinson High captured the Class A flag football title, while Plant High in downtown Tampa took home the Class 2A title.

For the first time, the teams at Wharton and Freedom high schools will now have feeder programs.

And, they can thank Aubrey, who saw something she thought was wrong and fought to make it right.

“I think this has been a great experience,’’ she says. “It opened up a lot of new opportunities and new possibilities. I think its great to know that kids and people like me can make a difference. That’s pretty amazing.”

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Wharton & Freedom Cross Country Teams Running Towards Bigger Things In 2018

By ANDY WARRENER Although the high school cross country season doesn’t begin in earnest until the end of the month, the local squads at Wharton and Freedom High have been logging big mileage numbers all summer in preparation for the 2017 season. Here’s how the Wildcats and Patriots stack up.

FREEDOM GIRLS

Head Coach: Christopher Biernacki (3rd year) 2016 Results: 13th at county championships.

Key returning runners: Morgan Kugel (Jr.), Lessi Millington (Jr.), Miranda Berlin (Sr.), Lauren Blair (Jr.) This year: The Patriots do not have a ton of depth and they will have to deal with the absence of Mercedes Mendoza after the team’s top 2016 runner graduated. However, both Kugel and Millington are in their third year on the team. Last year, Kugel finished seventh in the county in the freshman/sophomore division, and along with Millington, the Patriots have some experience to bring along newcomers like sophomore Lauren Batcho.

Batcho is a softball player who batted .282 last season with 11 RBI as a freshman, and Biernacki thinks she’ll compete for one of the top three spots on the team.

Senior Schuyler Rutherford returns after a one-year hiatus, but Biernacki also expects her to be one of his top five runners.

Key meets: Sept. 23 Don Bishop Invitational (Brandon), Oct. 6-7 Disney Cross Country Classic

FREEDOM BOYS

Head Coach: Biernacki (3rd year)

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Freedom cross country coach Chris Biernacki (left) with the Patriots top runner Alejandro Michel, who set two school records in track last season. (Photo: Courtesy of Chris Biernacki) 2016 Results: 13th at county championships.

Key returning runners: Alejandro Michel (Sr.), Kevin Jefferis (Sr.), Samuel Burson (Sr.), Cole Rodgers (Sr.).

This year: The boys squad has a bit more depth than the Freedom girls and a bonafide No. 1 runner in Michel. Michel’s school record in the 5k (16:36) and 3200m (10:06) are accolades he could build on in 2017.

Michel will go up to Tallahassee to run at the FSU Pre State meet in early October.

The Wharton girls cross country team is missing many of its top runners from a year ago, but doesn’t lack for possible replacements. (Photo: Courtesy of Anthony Traina) Senior Evan Castro is a welcome addition, Bryanna Rivers (University of Massachusetts) -coming over from the soccer team. Biernacki will punch the reset button on the odometer. predicts he’ll slot into the number two or three That being said, the sheer numbers and spot early. the work ethic of this year’s team has Triana Key meets: Sept. 23 Don Bishop Inexcited. vitational (Brandon), Oct. 6-7 Disney Cross “We’ve had no less than 16 girls at every Country Classic practice this season,” Triana says. “This year might not have the talent of years past but this is the hardest working group I’ve had in years.”

WHARTON GIRLS Varsity newcomers Amanda Brake (Jr.) Head Coach: Anthony Triana (6th year) and Nicolina Otero (Jr.) have shown a lot 2016 Finishes: 3rd in county, of promise in early season workouts and will 3rd in Class 4A, District 6 form a core around Lettiero for the Wildcats Key returning runner: Rachel Lettiero (Sr.). to rally around.

This Year: Triana insists 2017 is a Key Meets: Sept. 2 Wiregrass Ranch Run re-loading and not a re-building year, but with the Bulls, Sept. 23 North Port XC Invitalosing six of your top seven runners — including your top two in Rania Samhouri (USF) and tional, Oct. 6-7 FSU Invitational (Pre State).

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WHARTON BOYS

Head Coach: Kyle LoJacono (4th year) 2016 Finishes: 3rd in county, 9th in state, runner-up in Class 4A, District 6 Key returning runners: Nehemiah “Tre” Rivers (Jr.), Sahil Deschenes (Sr.), Frankie Godbold (Sr.) This Year: Long in the shadow of the girls team, 2017 could be the year that the Wharton boys break out. The Wildcats were within eight points of county champ Steinbrenner last season, posting their best finish ever at States, and aim to climb the state ladder.

Rivers leads the way for the Wildcats after winning a district title, finishing fourth at the county championships and taking ninth overall at States. He ran a personal best of 16:16 last season, within striking distance of the school record of 15:56.

Deschenes and Godbold add some veter-

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an leadership for the Wharton boys.

Fellow senior Eric Jurgensmeyer is new to cross country, but has track experience. LoJacono is impressed with Jurgensmeyer’s early ability to handle the 5k distance.

Finding that fifth runner to step up will be instrumental to the 2017 team’s success, although LoJacono claims that his growing team and its hungry mentality are changing the culture for Wharton boys cross country. It will be tough sledding as the Wildcats compete in a very tough district with the likes of Steinbrenner, Plant, Wiregrass Ranch and Sickles.

Both the Wharton boys and girls cross country squads are still getting help from former coach and distance guru, Wes Newton.

Key Meets: Aug. 26 Jim Ryun Invitational (Lakeland), Sept. 23 UF Mountain Dew Invitational, Oct. 6-7 FSU Invitational (Pre State)

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37

Deacon Blues Band Concert Raises $1,700 For Juvenile Diabetes Research Another day, another benefit concert, another $1,700 raised for yet another great cause for my friend and long-time New Tampa resident Bernie Desrosiers and his friends in the Deacon Blues Band.

The incredibly talented group of doctors and businessmen by day continue to rock the house every time they show up to raise money by night.

The band’s most recent show, held July 21 in The Palms Lounge at Peabody’s Billiards & Games (in the Shoppes of Amberly plaza in Tampa Palms), was attended by about 100 people and raised $1,700, which will be donated to help band member and baritone saxophonist Dr. Kelly O’Keefe’s participation in the upcoming “El Tour de Tucson” Ride to Cure Diabetes for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) in November of this year. El Tour is one of the largest “century” (100-mile) rides in the U.S., with more than 9,000 cyclists, 2,000 volunteers and 27,000 spectators and the stated goal of the JDRF is to “Create a World Without Diabetes.”

Desrosiers, the Deacon Blues’ goofy-hatted (“I’ve got more than 200, Gary,” he says in his Rhode Island/New

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England accent) keyboard player whose daughter Nicole (see below and photo, right) is a Type 1 diabetic, invited yours truly to come up on stage to sing “Brown Eyed Girl” with the band at the end of the show. Truth be told, I was a member of the group for a couple of gigs, so I had practiced the song with them multiple times, but I truly felt honored to be on stage again with these guys.

The show itself featured everything from the smooth finger-picking guitar stylings of Michael Marth to front man (and longtime New Tampa music teacher and church music director) Todd LeBlanc’s outstanding vocals and the “Blues Brothers”-styled two-saxophone horn section.

Stealing the show, despite all those earlier accolades, was Bernie and his wife (and backing vocalist) Anne’s daughter Nicole, who absolutely brought the house down with her spectacular voice. Nicole, a professional performer at Busch Gardens, belted out some Aretha and some Whitney and left the crowd wanting more.

To book the Deacon Blues Band or for more information, visit TheDeaconBlues.com or call (813) 361-2808. — GN

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Noble Crust Is Wesley Chapel’s Best Restaurant From Its First Day Open!

By GARY NAGER

About a year ago, when we first started our seemingly neverending updates about the anticipated opening of the new Noble Crust in the Shops at Wiregrass mall, my fiancé Jannah and I started visiting the original Noble Crust location on 4th St. in St. Petersburg.

We were hooked from the moment we walked in. The vibe...the buzz...the enticing aroma of fresh garlic in the air inside owner TJ Thielbar’s not-fancy-but-nice creation had everything we’ve been looking for in a true mom-and-pop addition to the Wesley Chapel dining scene.

I was fortunate that Noble Crus Wiregrass managing partner Will Perez — who worked his way up the ranks in St. Pete — is a longtime Wesley Chapel resident who pushed his friend and business associate (Thielbar) into expanding so close to home I can almost taste it from my apartment. It also was Will who sought me out — as the restaurant coordinator for the recent Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel, to make sure Noble Crust would participate in that event.

I feel lucky just to know these guys, much less get to sample the incredible Italian cuisine with a Southern flair given life by Noble Crust’s Chef Rob Reinsmith.

Here are some of the dishes we already love at Noble Crust — the too-tasty-to-be kale Caesar, topped with a deep fried soft-boiled egg (Will says he spent most of his first day at the St. Pete location carefully hand-peeling those eggs); the Southern fried chicken parmigiana (with al denté bucatini, or hollow spaghetti); the current grouper special (served with succotash, mashed potatoes, a frise salad and the best chimichurri sauce ever); the beef,

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(L.-r.) Manager Colin & Chef Rob Reinsmith, Will Perez & TJ Thielbar of the new Noble Crust at the Shops at Wiregrass mall. pork and veal meatballs; the Noble Pig (with dinner on Sundays house-made sausage and incredible pepperoni) and please tell them and Margherita pizzas; and our surprise current that you read about favorite special — the cauliflower gratin with Noble Crust in the crumbled bacon.

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Yes, although I still can’t get an amazFor reservations ing Cowboy ribeye at Noble Crust, the fact & more information, its prices are less than half the cost of dinner please call (813) 703for two at Dempsey’s Steak House at Saddle2602 or visit Noblebrook Resort (my other favorite), make this Crust.com! hot new eatery my #1 favorite restaurant in Wesley Chapel!

Now, I just have to convince them to open for lunch, at least for me!

Noble Crust Wiregrass (28330 Paseo Dr.) is open every day except Mon. for dinner at 4 p.m. (3 p.m. on Fri.), and at 10 a.m. for brunch on Sat. & Sun. It stays open until at least 10 p.m. every day (til midnight on Fri. & Sat.). Ask about their “Sunday Gravy” early

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41

Wok Chi Brings Its Unique Chinese Concept To The Shops At Wiregrass

By GARY NAGER

As a native New Yorker,

it’s been a major challege for me to find what I would call great Chinese food anywhere in the Tampa Bay area, much less here in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel.

Therefore, I’m not going to try to convince you that the new (it opened in February) Wok Chi, located in the Shops at Wiregrass mall, is the best Chinese food I’ve ever tasted or that it’s authentic New York style, even though this hip, young five-location chain now has two stores in the Big Apple (as well as the original, yearold location in Brandon).

What Wok Chi is, however, is delicious, fresh and with something of a Zen vibe, with philosophical (pink) fortune cookies, free tea (because it is good for your “chi” or life force, also spelled “qi”), according to the signs on the walls in this fast, casual, healthy concept eatery.

The primary focus at Wok Chi is that you get to customize your meal the way you want it. “Our wok masters craft the meal you choose from scratch,” boasts the “About” section at WokChi.com. And, it’s true. Plus, if you’re a wok-sautéed veggie lover like I am, Wok Chi is truly paradise.

Whether you choose the regular- (starting at just $8.45 for skinless chicken breast, up to $10.95 for the regular-size shrimp) or large-size ($15.95-$20.95) stir-fry, you get to choose your meat (there’s also pork loin, flank steak, organic firm tofu and veggieonly options), up to three of the amazing selection of veggies (see below), as well as anything from plain white rice to fried brown rice, quinoa, egg or wheat noodles and even kale beds for your “base,” plus your favorite of Wok Chi’s nice variety of sauces (all without artificial ingredients or MSG, which another sign on the restaurant’s wall says, “disrupts our chi”).

My favorite sauces are the spicy Szechwan and Kung Pao (the latter has peanuts), but there are several other sauces, ranging from sweet & sour and black bean to sesame ginger and “General-Not-So-Tso’s” sauces, so you can pick your own favorites.

But, the veggies are what really sold me on Wok Chi and, while they’re not all what you’d call “traditional” Chinese vegetables (for example, no Napa cabbage or water chestnuts), you can choose from

42

zucchini, squash, green beans, snow pea pods, onions, bell peppers, carrots, celery, broccoli, kale and baby bok choy. Best of all, Wok Chi does add different veggies seasonally — for example, sugar snap peas were available on my most recent visit. And, these veggies are so green and beautiful and they sautée up so perfectly in the hands of Wok Chi’s wok masters (like Wiregrass location general manager Jeremy Vazquez, pictured at this year’s Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel, which was held at Florida Hospital Center Ice only a month or so after Wok Chi opened here, on the next page) that once you find the sauce that suits you best, you’ll be hooked, too.

Note-I’ve mentioned many times in these pages that I have a major shellfish allergy, especially to shrimp, so I was a little concerned about the fact that Wok Chi’s chefs sautée shrimp in the same woks with the other ingredients, which can be enough for me to get my reaction without even eating any shrimp. Since the day this location opened, however, all I’ve ever had to do was mention that fact to Jeremy or whoever was cooking my food, so they always start with a thoroughly clean wok to do everything they can to prevent such contaminations. And, eight or nine visits later, I’ve yet to have my reaction to anything I’ve ever eaten at Work Chi.

Chi-licious Ribs

What About Dim Sum?

Considering that the woks are the stars of the show at Wok Chi, I am happy to tell you that I also love the dim sum (appetizers). My favorites are the chicken spring rolls (I’ve yet to try the duck confit spring rolls, but they sound awesome), the spicy pork & chive and chicken & chipotle pot sticker dumplings (served with an excellent sweet chile sauce) and especially, the Chi-licious pork spare ribs. They usually come with the black bean sauce, but try ‘em Gary’s way — with the spicy Szechwan sauce — and you’ll thank me.

And, if you’re up for something a little different, try the non-traditional pork sliders. I forgot to ask what the “bread” portion of the sliders is made out of (it looks a little like a soft taco shell, but it’s different), but the pork is very tasty, as is the unique, creamy sauce served on top of the sliders.

Also popular at Wok Chi, although I’ve yet to try them, are three varieties of summer rolls, — large-burrito-sized rolls that are filled with lump (real) crab, shrimp or avocado and

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Pork Sliders

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Spicy Pork & Chive Pot Stickers

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Chicken Spring Rolls

Large Chicken Stir Fry

basil. I’ve also yet to try the hot & sour soup, although it looks very good, too.

Wok Chi also features not only one of those magical Coca-Cola “freestyle” soda fountains filled with every possible soft drink flavor you can imagine mixed together, but also the aforementioned free, hot tea, with two different (and rotating) flavors always available. I’ve enjoyed the pineapplecoconut, mint basil and even jasmine green tea to date and look forward to trying other flavors soon. Other organic teas are available for sale, but taste the free stuff first.

I’m even impressed with Wok Chi’s new honey cruller dessert and creamy vanilla

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ice cream, a true bargain at just $1.

Wok Chi also has a Loyalty Club, so you (and I) can earn rewards points every time you dine there. Wok Chi also offers delivery of your food through GrubHub, Mobile Meals and Uber Eats.

Fast, fun and delicious make for a really nice combination at Wok Chi! Wok Chi of Wesley Chapel is located at 28152 Paseo Dr., in the Shops at Wiregrass. Or, visit 2420 W. Brandon Blvd. in the Regency Square shopping center in Brandon. For info, see the ad on pg. 41, call (813) 8622315 or visit WokChi.com.

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The Latest & Greatest News About Dining, Retail, Health Care & More In New Tampa & Wesley Chapel!

Chamber Ribbon Cuttings

I’m so glad that our outstanding new sales and marketing rep Tom Damico (email him at Tom@NTNeighborhoodNews.com) is now going to many of the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) ribbon cuttings these days because, quite honestly, I just can’t go to as many of them as I once did (which was pretty much all of them).

The Chamber, fresh off its second acquisition of/merger with another Chamber (the Greater Pasco Chamber, as we reported in our

46

last issue), continues to cut ribbons all over New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. Among the recent free events either myself or Tom attended were: • July 12 for Mosquito Hunters (right) • July 15 at The Goddard School for Early Childhood Development of Wesley Chapel (top left) • July 20 at The Learning Experience of New Tampa.(far right; see ad on pg. 31) • July 27, VIP Travel • Aug. 2 at Cry-X • Aug. 5 at KidsPark of Tampa, celebrating its one-year anniversary Upcoming WCCC events where you might find me, Tom (or both of us) include: • Sat., Aug. 12, 10 a.m.-noon — Ribbon cutting at Creative World School of Tampa Palms (5365 Primrose Lake Cir.) • Tues., Aug. 15, 8 a.m.-9 a.m. — Free Monthly Coffee Social at Chick-fil-A of New Tampa (17513 Bruce B. Downs {BBD} Blvd.)

• Thur., Aug. 17, 4 p.m.-7 p.m. — Free One-Year Anniversary Celebration at Bay Der-

matology (2653 BBD, Wesley Chapel) For more info (including all start times for its events), call (813) 994-8534 or visit WesleyChapelChamber.com. — GN

Have You Tried Fat Rabbit & Precinct Pizza?

Although S.R. 56 (see page 10) and the Shops at Wiregrass get the most attention, the New Tampa area has had two pretty good restaurants open since our last issue reached you.

The Fat Rabbit Pub, located near Vallarta’s & Cappy’s Pizza in the City Plaza at Tampa Palms shopping center, has a great menu with outstanding blackened wings (above), great burgers and a premium liquor bar with great drink prices and a more upscale atmosphere than you might expect. For info, stop in or visit FatRabbitPub.com.

• I also really like the new Precinct

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Pizza, located in the space formerly occupied

by Zaytoun Mediterranean Grill on Cross Creek Blvd. at Morris Bridge Rd. Featuring a huge menu of Italian favorites, in addition to very good NY-style ‘za and décor, owner Rick Drury and his family are proud to bring the 2nd location of this Channelside favorite to New Tampa. Visit PrecinctPizza.com.— GN

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DINING SPOTLIGHT ON: Oakley’s Grille!

If you’ve been reading this publication for any period of time, you already know how much I love Oakley’s Grille, located at 17631 Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. (next to Dairy Queen), in the North Palms Village plaza in New Tampa (near Chili’s).

Oakley’s has been home to my favorite flame-grilled burger in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel every year since owner and long-time restaurateur Keith Oakley and his chef/son Ryan opened it more than five years ago.

Although Ryan moved away for a while, he came back a few months ago, “to make sure that the burger you eat here today tastes like and is the same quality as the burger or sandwich you loved five years ago,” according to Keith. The Oakleys (photo, right; you can figure out who’s who) keep introducing great new menu items, like the ghost pepper

Neighborhood News

burger and blackened bleu burger pictured in the ad on page 43 of this issue, and the amazing one-pound slab of barbecue pork ribs (with fries) shown below.

Ryan (who also owns the Dr. Junk trash removal service; search “Dr. Junk” on Facebook) created the ghost pepper burger, which features bacon, a bunch of spicy ghost peppers and a tangy barbecue-style sauce. The blackened bleu burger features Cajun spices and melted bleu cheese. The ribs are supertender and meaty, with just the right amount (at least for me) of sweet-and-slightly-spicy BBQ sauce and are served with amazing golden-brown fries (or sub the sweet potato fries in the pic for just 50 cents more).

And best of all, Keith and Ryan are offering $2 off any sandwich or entrée at Oakley’s Grille throughout August, with the coupon on pg. 43. That’s like getting the fries for free with your sandwich or enjoying a full pound of ribs with fries for just $12.99!

You can order online at OakleysGrille.com or through Mobile Meals, or call (813) 523-5075 and please tell Keith and Ryan that you read about them in the New Tampa Neighborhood News! — GN

@NTWCNews

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 25, Issue 17 • August 11, 2017 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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New Tampa & Wesley Chapel CLEANING SERVICES

Classifieds

HELP WANTED

B CLEANING SERVICES: Over 16 years experience! Commercial & residential; Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly; New house & post construction clean-up; Window cleaning; Move-in or move-out cleanings; Pressure washing; FREE estimates; References available. Call today: 813-531-0154 or e-mail: bcleanings@hotmail.com

SQUEAKY CLEAN Help wanted. Looking for motivated people with an eye for detail to join Squeaky Clean, a residential cleaning company.

We are an Owner Operator company with over 20 years experience. Experience preferred, must have transportation. Call Gail at 813-625-6045 or email SqueakyCleanHomeServices@gmail.com.

D-ULTRA CLEANING SERVICE We have our own supplies and more than 400 clients in New Tampa!

For more info, Call 758-9710.

WANTED: PIANIST/ACCOMPANIST Trinity Church of Wesley Chapel is seeking a talented pianist/ accompanist to play for the traditional worship service, accompany the choir, soloists, special programs, etc. Contact Julie Pearson, Choir Director, music@trinitychurchwc.com.

R HOUSE CLEANING SERVICES To Keep Your House clean, call Marlene!

Working now in Wesley Chapel and the New Tampa areas. Monday through Friday, 8 AM - 4 PM. We can help: Call 562-637-5974 or email kolungaa@ hotmail.com. FREE estimates.

LAWN & LANDSCAPING

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JASMINE’S LANDSCAPING. Complete lawn maintenance, Tree, palm and hedge trimming, Planting, mulching, stones, Sod replacement, Pressure washing, Gutter cleaning and more. Cited by your HOA for violations? Need to comply for: Pressure washing, Trimming, Mulching, Sod replacement, Sprinkler repair or Mailbox repair or replacements?

Ask about our HOA SPECIAL & FREE ESTIMATE! For more info, call (813) 420-4465.

HOMETEAM LAWNCARE LLC High-quality professional Services: Weekly or bi-weekly year-round full-service lawn care starting at $90/month: Mow, edge, trim, blow, mulch-bed maintenance, hedge and low-tree trim. Additional Services: Sod, Mulch, & Rock Placement; Hedge Trimming, & Tree Trimming; Landscape Installation; Fall/Spring Clean-Up. Family Owned & Operated, Licensed & Insured, Background Checked, Call or Text (813) 817-9554.

COMPUTER/BUSINESS SERVICES PROFESSIONAL TECH SUPPORT in your home or small business. A+, Certified computer tech with 20 years exp. Maintenance & repairs, upgrades & tutoring. More affordable than large chains! Friendly, personalized svc. Technical jargon explained. Remote assistance available. References available. Call (813) 957-8342 for a free estimate.

DO YOU HATE YOUR COMPUTER?!? WE CAN HELP YOU! Troubleshooting, installation, networking & virus removal. WE COME TO YOU! Residences & businesses, more than 25 years exp.

Contact Jeffrey Blank at (813) 973-4507, visit WSICA.COM or email Wsica@wsica.com

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HIRING PERSONAL TRAINER. Private Women’s Studio with Boot Camp & Personal Training in Wesley Chapel & Land O’ Lakes owned by Samantha Taylor. Please no phone calls or walk ins.To apply part time: www.lolfitbodybootcamp.com/hire-pt.

PHYSICAL THERAPIST (PT). An established New Tampa outpatient clinic is hiring a part-time PT to provide custom, one-on-one care. Fax resume to (813) 994-3080.

POOL SERVICES TRANQUILITY POOL SERVICE. New Tampa owned & operated. Great Pricing with outstanding customer service! LICENSED, BONDED & INSURED. See why we are New Tampa and Wesley Chapel’s #1 Choice!! Call Chris today @ (813) 8575400 or visit TranquilityPoolService.com. New customers get ONE MONTH FREE! AllStarPoolsofTampaBay.com Highest quality salt and ozone generators, pumps, motors, filters.

Marcite, quartz and pebble finishes. Pool cleanups and acid washes, paver and river rock sealing.

Paver decks and driveways. Mention this ad for $69 pool service. Call or text 813-244-7077. Visit AllStarPoolsofTampaBay.com AQUATEC POOL SERVICE has been keeping pools clear & swim safe since 1994. WE DO POOLS RIGHT! Commercial & Residential. CPO #33-303052 Licensed & Insured. Service guarantee. Call 813-312-5694 TODAY and get 1 MONTH OF QUALITY SERVICE FREE. www.aquatecpool.com

SPACE AVAILABLE SERENITY SALON & SPA SUITES Wesley Chapel. 1 suite available for rent. Call for details: 813-312-5247 or 813-997-6302. Great location!

HOME IMPROVEMENT

PET SERVICES

WESLEYCHAPELPRESSUREWASHING.COM Soft pressure exterior house cleaning, screen enclosures, pool decks, driveways, sidewalks, fences, roofs, paver sealing and deck staining. We clean everything. No job too big or small. Experience the difference when you hire a pressure cleaning professional. Licensed and insured. Owner operated. Call for a free estimate or visit our website.

813-433-6015.

CAT SITTING Tampa Cat Lady Professional CatSitting Service. Cats are happiest in their own home, surrounded by familiar sights, sounds and smells.

When you are away, we feed, cuddle and play with your kitties and clean and dispose of litter. Insured, bonded, and Red-Cross certified in pet first aid/CPR. You may visit TampaCatLady.com and submit a service inquiry or call 813-994-9449.

DAVID BRIDGES PRESSURE CLEANING Complete exterior cleaning of your home or business with a professional & personal touch. - Pool decks and screen enclosures - All fencing/ driveways and walkways/roofs - Gutter and downspouts.

Find your happiness in a fresh, bright clean home.

Your neighbors will love you for it! All work guaranteed. Licensed and insured. Call 813-215-1177.

MISCELLANEOUS RESUME UPDATES - CAREER GUIDANCE HR professional offering local and affordable assistance with resume updates, overall career guidance, and interview preparation.

Email to inquire. norm.patry07@gmail.com

GREG’S PAPERHANGING. For all of your wallpapering needs. Licensed and insured, clean, quick and reasonable. Call 973-2767 for a free estimate.

RAYMOND PAINTING. Exterior & Interior Services.

Exterior: Painting, pressure washing, clean & seal pavers, stucco, roofing, leaks & wood rot repair.

Interior: Painting, plastering, ceiling & wall repairs & tiles. Licensed & Bonded. References avail. Free estimates. Your Neighborhood Arbor Greene Resident! We work 7 days. Call 813-994-5124.

DRY WALL SPECIALIST. Not a handyman. Affordable Quality Work repairing water damage, ceilings and walls, retexturing, popcorn removal, room additions, cracks, holes, plaster and stucco repair. 26 Years Experience. Wesley Chapel resident. State Certified. Call Ron for free estimate: 813-7845999.

MILLENNIUM HOME REPAIR.Professional Handyman. Cabinet Installation, dry wall repair, tile installation & repair, some plumbing, laminate flooring, light fixtures, interior painting, appliance installation, pressure washing, paneling, window repair, awning installation, carpentry, garbage disposal, fence repair, crown molding, window blinds, seal baths & showers, TV mounting & more. Call 813-400-1408 or email TYCOONUNION@YAHOO.COM.

REAL ESTATE CERTIFIED ORGANIC VEGETABLE FARM in Central Florida! Enjoy pastoral views from every window and complete privacy on this 42-acre farm w/4+2 2398 sq.ft. Whether you continue Organic Farming, Farming of Your Choice or just enjoy living on this beautiful property, it’s a must see! Call to schedule your private tour. MLS #G4833016.

Beth Atalay Cam Realty and Property Management (407) 929-1852.

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 25, Issue 17 • August 11, 2017 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

Neighborhood News

@NTWCNews

Neighborhood News

@NTWCNews

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 25, Issue 17 • August 11, 2017 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 25, Issue 17 • August 11, 2017 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

Neighborhood News

@NTWCNews