Volume 18 Issue 19
Inside: Win A Cruise In Our Annual Dining Contest!
September 11, 2010
See Page 50!
The Direct-Mail News Magazines Serving New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Since 1993! THIS INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY NEWS MAGAZINE IS DIRECTLY MAILED TO: NEW TAMPA: Arbor Greene • Cory Lake Isles • Cross Creek • Grand Hampton • Heritage Isles • Hunter’s Green • Hunter’s Key • K-Bar Ranch • Lake Forest • Live Oak Preserve • Pebble Creek • Richmond Place • Tampa Palms • West Meadows WESLEY CHAPEL: Aberdeen • Belle Chase • Brookside • Chapel Pines • Country Walk • Lexington Oaks • Meadow Pointe • New River • Northwood • Pinewalk • Pine Ridge • Saddlebrook • Saddleridge Estates • Saddlewood • Seven Oaks • Lakes at Northwood • The Villages of Wesley Chapel • Wesley Pointe • Westbrook Estates • Williamsburg
New Tampa Voters Turn Out To Support Their Candidates By Michael Smith Although New Tampa historically has not been known for having a large percentage of its registered voters actually go out and cast votes, especially in non-Presidential election years, some local precincts actually exceeded the countywide average for voter turnout in the August 24 primary election. According to the official final tally from the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office, only 124,675 of the county’s 666,642 registered voters, or 18.7 percent, cast votes in the primary. That includes absentee and early voting, which officials say more people took advantage of than ever before. In fact, Saturday, August 21, the last day for early voting, set a record for the highest single-day early voting turnout in county history, supervisor of elections Earl Lennard said, with 3,614 voters voting on that day alone. The previous high had been 3,374 in 2006. In all, 24,161 voters
voted at one of the 10 early voting sites around the county, including 1,247 who did so at the New Tampa Regional Library. Meanwhile, the highest overall turnout for the New Tampa area, 23.03 percent, came from Precinct 361, which also is at the library, (where poll workers reported a steady flow of voters on Election Day, despite the rain that persisted throughout the day and the fact that August 24 was also the first day of school for Hillsborough County students). That turnout was followed closely by Precinct 358 at Compton Park in Tampa Palms, which registered a 22.17 percent voter turnout. Turnout percentages at the rest of New Tampa’s polling sites were lower than the county average, but still averaged better than 13 percent. New Tampa voters also followed the same general trend as voters in the rest of the county in the candidates that they supported during the primary election. Hunter’s Green resi-
dent Shawn Harrison was one of those who enjoyed strong support in his victory over Trey Stroud for the Republican nomination for the District 60 state House seat that was vacated by Dr. Ed Homan because of term limits. While residents who are registered in only four of New Tampa’s voting precincts voted in that race, Harrison easily won all four by a better-than-2-1 margin, 896 votes to Stroud’s 322. Countywide, Harrison won by a margin of 5,150 to 3,543, and said he was grateful for the show of support. “If we’d have had this kind of support three years ago, we would have had a different story,” he said, referring to his 2006 campaign for reelection to the Tampa City Council, when he was defeated after a poor turnout from the New Tampa area. Following the election, Harrison said that he planned to take the Labor Day holiday off from campaigning to be with his family before hitting the streets once again to continue to build his support base for the Nov. 2 Gener-
ship entertainment included. This casino cruise is courtesy of our new friends, the new owners of what previously was known as Flamingo Florist, but is now actually two businesses — Ameribest Flowers and AmeriquestTravel.com. Kirk Kirkland, the new owner of the florist and travel agency located in the same Shoppes of Amberly plaza in
which our offices are located, walked into our office one day and said he was looking to spread the word about both of his business endeavors. I asked him about a cruise as the Grand Prize of this year’s contest and...voila! We have our biggest Dining Survey Contest prize EVER! We’ll be telling you a lot more about Kirk and Ameribest/Ameriquest in future issues, but until then, we hope you’ll at least turn to page 50, fill out this year’s much more user friendly (at least, we hope you’ll think it is) entry form and send it in to us for your chance to win BIG! Second prize is a $100 gift card to ANY restaurant in the Tampa Bay area and we’ll again have at least ten other free dining prizes worth at least $20 you can win, too!
al Election, where he will face the winner of the Democratic primary, Russ Patterson, who took more than 70 percent of the votes cast countywide in that race to defeat Christopher Cano. In New Tampa, Patterson had a 360171 advantage. “I feel confident that we have a good game plan,” Harrison says, although he adds that the race will be tougher than many people think, given that District 60 includes a majority of Democratic voters. Harrison says he spent a lot of time prior to the primary election going from door to door in different parts of the district and plans to do the same in the remaining weeks leading up to the general election, touting his business background and selling his platform of stimulating the state economy through “creating an environment that will attract new business to the area,” he says, which will, in turn create new jobs. Meanwhile, in the other mostSee “Election” on page 14.
Win A Three-Day Cruise In This Year’s Dining Survey & Contest!
NEIGHBORHOOD MAGAZINE!
Local Bank Robbery Spree Ends With An Arrest; A Lively Debate About The Proposed Transportation Tax, Local Business Updates & Much More!
More Ideas For Your ‘Staycation’ Getaway; A Visit To The New Bella Vita Restaurant (Formerly Circles), Our Dining Sur vey & Contest & More!
See pages 3-42!
See pages 43-60!
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LOCAL NEWS, BUSINESS, SPORTS & EDUCATION
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Also Inside This Issue!
Postal Customer
OK, this year, we’re pulling out all of the stops for our annual Reader Dining Survey & Contest! All you have to do is fill out the entry form on page 50 of this issue and you’ll have a chance to win a spectacular 4-day, 3-night cruise for two adults, with all meals and on-
Dated Material Please Rush!
By Gary Nager
For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 18, Issue 19 • September 11, 2010 • www.NTNeighborhoodNews.com
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