New Tampa Neighborhood News, Volume 24, Issue 19, September 9, 2016

Volume 24 Issue 19

Inside:

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September 9, 2016

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Mayor Buckhorn Begins Taking The Fight To Mosquitoes & Zika!

By John C. Cotey While the federal government continued to dawdle over additional funding to fight the spread of the Zika virus, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn has taken matters into his own hands.

Or rather, the hands of the city’s code inspectors, who have been tasked with finding abandoned pools and standing water in order to take the fight to the mosquitoes, whether they carry the Zika virus or not.

On Aug. 22, Mayor Buckhorn held a press conference at an abandoned home in the Wellswood area of central Tampa and announced that the city is going on the offensive with bricks, or “dunks,” that can be Standing water like this, at the corner of Cross Creek Blvd. and Kinnan St., can be a breeding tossed into areas where there is standing waground for mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus. ter — prime breeding ground for mosquiwith unusually small heads and underdevel- around the clock to prevent the Zika virus toes — to kill the pesky insects’ larvae. from coming to Tampa, If that means pur“In light of what has been going on oped brains, and lead to growth problems.

Tampa initially purchased 3,600 of chasing an additional 10,000 dunks, we will around the state of Florida, we decided not to wait for politicians in Washington, D.C., the dunks, which cost roughly $5,000. The do just that.”

The dunks have been given to more to act,’’ Buckhorn said at his press confer- dunks contain BTI, or Bacillis thuringienence. “We’re going to take action ourselves. sis israelensis, which is a bacterium that kills than 80 city code inspectors and neighborWe can be proactive in terms of negating the mosquito larvae. It has a range of 100 sq. ft. hood workers to distribute to areas where and can last for 30 days. they are needed. An emphasis is being placed environment in which mosquitoes breed.”

But, a week after Buckhorn’s press on abandoned homes with pools and retenThe Zika virus is spread by certain mosquitoes who become infected when they bite conference, the city announced 5,000 more tion ponds.

Mosquito control is typically handled by a person already infected. It also can be trans- dunks had been purchased, in anticipation of Hillsborough County, rather than the city, mitted sexually, from one infected person to the rainy weather that was coming.

Tampa was hit hard by Tropical Storm/ but Buckhorn decided to take an aggressive another.

Though most people will not feel any Hurricane Hermine, which produced mas- approach to a problem that is growing, aleffects of the virus other than fever, head- sive rains, which, of course, usually leads to though it has mainly been confined to the Miami area, particularly the Wynwood neighaches and joint pain, it is especially hazard- standing pools of water.

“Our residents’ safety is our number borhood north of downtown Miami. ous to pregnant women, causing severe brain Until recently, there haven’t been any defects — or microcephaly — in unborn fe- one priority,” Buckhorn said. “With heavy tuses. The virus can cause babies to be born rain comes standing water and we’re working locally transmitted cases in Tampa Bay.

Also Inside This Issue: News, Business & Sports Updates Costco Opening Delayed Until 2017 Due To Weather, USF Credit Union To Set Up Shop In New Tampa, Primary Clears Up U.S. Senate & Local School Board Picture, Hunter’s Green Unveils Mural, Chiles Goes Hi-Tech, Wharton Volleyball Turns To Youngsters & More Local Business Features!

Pages 3-34

Neighborhood Magazine

Community Rallies Around Joey Again, New Tampa Author Publishes First Book, O’Brien’s Brings New Twist To Irish Fare, It’s Dining Survey Time Again & More Neighborhood Nibbles & Business Bytes!

Pages 35-52

However, a day after Buckhorn held his press conference, Florida Governor Rick Scott announced the first locally transmitted case of Zika during a roundtable discussion about the disease in Clearwater.

According to reports, a Tampa Fire Rescue (TFR) firefighter who lives in Pinellas County has contracted the Zika virus.

“This person did not travel to an infected area with Zika; we are looking at a number of locations,” Gov. Scott said.

“Hopefully, something good will happen and it will just be a single case. But (whatever) we do find out, what we will do is we will be very aggressive.”

The TFR firefighter works out of Station No. 3 on Kennedy Blvd. in south Tampa. Other firefighters at the station tested negative for the virus.

The state has emergency funds of $26 million to help fight the spread of and to treat Zika. However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) & Prevention said late last week it was almost out of money to fight Zika, even as three new state cases here were announced, bringing Florida’s total of infected people to 46. According to reports, the CDC already has spent $8 million fighting Zika in Florida. Congress, which has been in recess, returned to work this week and the $1.9-billion funding request from the White House to combat Zika is still awaiting action.

Zika originated in Brazil in 2015, but there are more than 2,200 cases of Zika to date in the U.S., and more than 8,000 reported cases in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories.

WCCC Seeking Nominations For “Excellence In Business” Awards

By John C. Cotey The Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) is looking for the top businesses in Wesley Chapel and New Tampa.

The WCCC has begun accepting nominations for its 2016 “Excellence In Business” awards banquet, which will be held on Thursday, November 10, at a site still to be determined, at least at our press time.

Nominations for the area’s best small and large businesses and top business leaders will continue to be accepted through Friday, September 16, and can be entered via the WCCC’s website at WesleyChapelChamber.com or by calling the WCCC offices at 994-8534 for more information.

Businesses nominated will then go through an application process, with applications due by Friday, October 7, with finalists in several categories announced at the banquet. The winners are chosen by a panel of their peers.

“This is the culmination of our year, where we celebrate the business accomplish-

ments of our members,’’ says Hope Allen, the CEO of the WCCC. “It’s a great honor and very prestigious just to be nominated.”

Winners are chosen based upon their demonstrated commitment to the advancement of the Wesley Chapel/New Tampa business community and other factors.

There are Excellence In Business categories for Small (0-49 employees) and Large (50+ employees) businesses, Business Leader of the Year (for founders, owners, CEOs and presidents), New Business of the Year and Volunteer of Samantha Taylor of Pure Health Studios won the the Year.

Last year’s “Excellence in WCCC’s 2015 Small Business of the Year award.

(Photo: OurTownFLA) Business” winners were Samantha Taylor and her Pure Health & Fitness Studios (Small), Wesley Chapel Nissan (Large), Troy Stevenson of Wesley Chapel Nissan (Volunteer) and John Jr. & David Williams of Wesley Chapel Toyota (Business Leaders) of the Year.

If You Were Me, You’d Worry More About The Zika Virus, Too An editorial by Gary Nager I believe most Americans today have at least some concern about the possible spread of the Zika virus (see page 1), which can be but is rarely deadly. This mosquito-borne illness is causing health concerns worldwide and although it hasn’t been too prevalent in the U.S. so far, a one-square-mile area of Miami-Dade County has seen most of Florida’s locally-transmitted (not travel-related) cases.

Even so, with Wesley Chapel only 300 miles or so from the U.S.’s “Zika Central,” I may have reason to be more concerned than most, because not only am I allergic to pretty much every kind of venom — my mosquito bites grow three to five times larger than most people’s — but I’m apparently like a gourmet meal to the average mosquito. If yours truly and someone else are both sitting in the same area outside, I feel like I’m ten times more likely to be bitten multiple times by mosquitoes while the other person might not get even one.

We all live in Florida, where the average high temperature in July and August is above 90°F. Although the term relative humidity has given way to “dewpoint” to describe how moist the air is, let’s just say that from at least May through September, Florida is mostly very hot and very humid.

My problem is that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (aka, CDC), the Florida Department of Health (DOH) and the Pasco DOH all agree that the best ways to prevent the spread of Zika and other mosquitoborne illnesses are to do things like: 1) Stay inside - Even though we have so many outdoor events where I usually sweat through 2-3 shirts if the event lasts all day.

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 Advertising Sales & Office Manager Mary Dorey Billing Manager Jillian Reilly Assistant Editor / Photographer John C. Cotey Staff Writer Celeste McLaughlin Correspondents Anu Varma Panchal • Brad Stager • Andy Warrener Graphic Designers Blake Beatty • Georgia Carmichael Sales & Production Assistant Gavin Olsen 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 24, Issue 21, of New Tampa Neighborhood News is Monday, September 26, 2016.

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. New Tampa Neighborhood News will not return unsolicited editorial materials.

New Tampa Neighborhood News reserves the right to edit &/or reject any advertising. New Tampa Neighborhood News is not responsible for errors in advertising beyond the actual cost of the advertising space itself, nor for the validity of any claims made by its advertisers.

© 2016 JM2 Communications, Inc. Neighborhood News

Beware, Gary & other Mediterraneanskinned men & women who wear most kinds of fragrances: the Zika virus may not be here yet, but mosquitoes surely are...in droves.

thrin is not for use directly on skin.

4) Keep mosquitos outside — by using air conditioning, having screens on all of your windows and repairing screens when needed.

5) Stop mosquitos from breeding — by doing everything you can to prevent standing water from accumulating outside your home or office. Boats, tires and structures on your property can all hold standing water and Florida Health says even a bottle cap of standing water can become a mosquito breeding ground.

In other words, if Zika does make its way out of the square-mile area of Miami and up the Alligator Alley to our area, despite the best efforts of our federal, state and local governments, I’m pretty much doomed.

Another WCNT-tv Update!

We are so proud that WCNT-tv has com-

pleted its initial run of six episodes (Episode #6 is available now on YouTube; see page 34) and is in the process of starting its second run of six episodes. Despite the fact you may now see other YouTube or web-based “TV” shows about the New Tampa/Wesley Chapel area, WCNT-tv is still: 1) the exclusive webcast partner of the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce and 2) the only professionally produced webcast provided as a partnership between yours truly and Craig Miller of Full Throttle Intermedia (FTIntermedia.com), a full-service advertising agency and television production company.

With all of the exciting developments still to come to our area, we hope you will continue to turn to WCNT-tv every two weeks and tell your friends to tune in, too!

2) Stay covered up - In other words, wear long shirts and sleeves, hats and, heck, I should probably wear a turtleneck because mosquitoes tend to attack my neck like Pépé Le Pew attacks a black cat with a painted white tail. But, go outside covered up like that during the summer? I simply can’t do it.

3) Use “Environmental Protection Agency-approved insect repellents with DEET, picaridin, IR3535, or oil of lemon eucalyptus or para-menthane-diol. Always follow the product label instructions. When used as directed, these insect repellents are proven safe and effective, even for pregnant and breastfeeding women,” although the CDC says, “Do not use insect repellents on babies younger than 2 months old and do not use products containing oil of lemon eucalyptus or para-menthane-diol on children younger than 3 years old.”

And, all of these repellents smell bad (some worse than others, but still), although I read up a little about permethrin, which is an insecticide in the pyrethroid family. Pyrethroids are synthetic chemicals that act like natural extracts from the chrysanthemum flower, which are used in a number of ways to control insects, including most mosquitoes.

Products containing permethrin may be used in public health mosquito control programs. They may also be used on food and feed crops, on ornamental lawns, on livestock and pets, in structures and buildings, and on clothing. Permethrin is supposedly odorless, especially when clothing is pre-treated with it — and the treatments apparently can last for weeks at a time — so I may have to give this one a try. Please note, however, that perme-

Table of Contents

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

Costco Won’t Open Until February 2017................4 USF Federal Credit Union To Open Off-Campus....5 Stuart Wins Another Term On School Board.............8 Capture Of Fugitive Brings Father Peace................10 Wesley Chapel Fixture “Capt. Jack” Passes Away....12 New Tampa Community Calendar............................16

Local Business Updates.............20-29

Optimal Wellness Brings Care Into Your Home.....20 SPOTLIGHT ON: NutriMost Of Wesley Chapel.......21 Grout Doctor Tackles The Toughest Jobs..............22 Crosby’s Billiards Seeks New Tampa Customers......24 Running Great Provides Honest Car Care............26

Local Education & Sports..........30-32

New Mural Spruces Up Hunter’s Green Elem.........30 Chiles 5th Graders Get Hi-Tech Laptop Learning...31 Strong Freshman Class Fuels Wharton Volleyball....32

Neighborhood Magazine

Joey Still Battling As Locals Pitch In...............35, 50 New Tampa Author Publishes First Book............36 Enter Our 2016 Dining Survey & Contest!..37-38 O’Brien’s Brings Irish Flavors & More To WC.......40 ‘Neighborhood Nibbles & Business Bytes’.........44 New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Classifieds........48 @NTWCNews

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Costco Is Definitely Still Coming; Rain Delays Store’s Opening Until Feb. 2017

By John C. Cotey

Costco manager Hector Mencia had some good news for local business leaders at the Aug. 25 Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) Economic Development briefing held at Pebble Creek Golf Club.

Costco, for one, is still definitely coming to Wesley Chapel Blvd. adjacent to the Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO) off S.R. 56.

And yes, it will offer its usual great prices and bountiful free samples. The largest retailer of fine wine in the world (a whopping $1.2 billion in yearly sales!) and secondlargest auto retailer will continue to sell cheaper and better gas, millions of $1.50 hot dogs and drinks and the company’s highly-rated Kirkland line of products.

Oh, and don’t forget Costco’s commitment to the local community, in addition to well-paying jobs (if you’re lucky enough to land one).

There was, however, one bad bit of news that Mencia, who manages the Costco in Clearwater, delivered: It won’t open near TPO until February of next year.

Though the ground has been broken and the initial work is well under way, Mencia said the planned November opening of the much-awaited Costco has been derailed by bad weather, setting builders back by at least two weeks. And, that was before last week’s tropical storm.

Because Costco doesn’t open stores in December and January, its peak months,

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the new store won’t open its doors until early February.

That is a big bummer for Costco fans, who currently have to drive to Brandon to stock up on paper towels and soft drinks.

But, those fans of Costco, which also is opening a store in the Citrus Park area at the corner of Sheldon Rd. and Linebaugh Ave., are likely still excited by the arrival of the membership-only, wholesale club giant, the second-largest retailer in the world after Wal-Mart.

While Costco will have plenty of competition, with fellow wholesalers Sam’s Club (on S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel) and New Tampa’s BJ’s Wholesale Club (on Commerce Palms Blvd. in Tampa Palms) both within seven miles of the newest club, it is likely to find success, due to its religious-like following.

“We’ve been trying to get in here for quite a bit in this market,’’ Mencia said.

“It’s a great location. It’s amazing what that area is turning into.”

Mencia shared with Chamber members the benefits of Costco, clearly drawing positive reactions from the crowd. He played a five-minute video filled with clips of Costco being mentioned by celebrities, including Rosie O’Donnell saying: “I go in with a list and a mission, and I come out with a trampoline and a case of corn nuts.”

Another clip showed massive crowds at various openings, including places like South Korea, Spain and Australia, and long lines for jobs at many locations.

Clearwater store manager Hector Mencia tells the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce that Costco’s opening near the Tampa Premium Outlets will be delayed until Feb. 2017, due to rainy weather.

If you’re wondering about your chances of landing a gig at Costco — where Mencia said the average pay is $21 an hour and cashiers start between $13 and $13.50 an hour — well, they aren’t great.

According to one clip, an Indiana store received 22,000 applications for 200-275 jobs. You might have a better shot finding a Willie Wonka Golden Ticket.

Mencia, who has been with Costco for 27 years, said there is a low turnover at the wholesaler, and that the store will begin marketing six weeks prior to opening for

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those looking for memberships.

Those members will have a ton of choices, he says. Costco carries roughly 3,800 products, and rotates 1,500 or so to create a “treasure atmosphere” at least 14 times a year.

And last year, on a single day, three days before Thanksgiving, Costco sold more than 70 million dinner rolls, 1.6 million pumpkin pies, 471,000 apple pies and 252,000 pecan pies.

For more information about Costco, visit Costco.com.

Neighborhood News

@NTWCNews

USF Credit Union’s First Standalone Off-Campus Branch To Open In New Tampa

By John C. Cotey

For the first time in its nearly 60-year history, the USF Federal Credit Union (FCU) is venturing off campus to open a new branch in New Tampa.

On August 29, USF president and New Tampa resident Judy Genshaft, USF FCU President and CEO Rick Skaggs, Tampa City Council chair (and USF grad) Mike Suarez and a number of other school dignitaries stuck ceremonial shovels into a pile of dirt during a ground-breaking ceremony at the northwest corner of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) and Imperial Oak Blvd., in the Trout Creek area near Winn-Dixie.

“It’s a fabulous location, and we know that the population is growing soooo fast in this area of our region and of our state,’’ Genshaft told the crowd. “(The branch) is modeled after the Marshall Center (branch) that has been fabulous and so well-received.”

The first-ever standalone off-campus branch of the USF Federal Credit Union, which boasts 52,000 members, which will be located in front of the plaza that houses Winn Dixie and LA Fitness and across Imperial Oak Blvd. from Burger King, is expected to open in mid-2017.

“It’s the first off-campus building of the credit union,’’ said Skaggs. “We’ve had other offices (off campus), but this is the first one that will be a standalone facility, so it’s a big day in our history.”

The new credit union will go up just

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a few hundred yards from its current location in the same plaza.

The impetus for acquiring the land to build the two-story, 12,300-sq.-ft. credit union, in fact, is due in part to the success of that New Tampa office, Skaggs said, as well as the knowledge that this area is home to many USF grads and employees.

“We have a lot of faculty and staff that live in this area as well, and going back from here to the university might as well be like going to St. Petersburg, so this is going to be a nice hub for USF president Judy Genshaft and USF Federal Credit Union CEO Rick us,’’ Skaggs said.

Skaggs toss the first dirt at the future site of the New Tampa branch of the He noted that credit union, off BBD Blvd., near the Burger King. there have been The new facility will allow the credit numerous studies union to expand the services offered at done on the membership base located in other off-campus locations, like in mortNew Tampa, and those studies also reveal that many graduates settle in the area after gage lending and wealth management.

There will be a large community room attending USF and would like to remain available for meetings and functions, members. Suarez, for example, said at the Skaggs said, equipped with a large TV for groundbreaking that he still has the same presentations and multi-media capabilities. account he started 30 years ago when he There also will be drive-through tellers was a USF student.

@NTWCNews

and “universal service reps,” who according to Skaggs, are like bank tellers of the future.

Since many patrons use electronic banking and don’t bother with the brick and mortar building for simple tasks like deposits and withdrawals anymore, universal service reps will be equipped to handle not only traditional teller duties, but also all of the other services offered by the credit union.

“The concept is like an Apple Store,’’ Skaggs said. “In the Marshall Center, the design we put in there has been very well-received. The open architecture feel, as well as all the electronic services, remote access, all of it, will be a totally different environment than a regular bank or credit union drive-through.”

In July, the USF FCU, which was chartered in 1959 for the staff and faculty and began serving students in 1990, was named as the 2016 Credit Union of the Year by the League of Southeastern Credit Unions & Affiliates (LSCU) in the “$500 Million in Assets or Above” category.

Its merger with Darden Employees Federal Credit Union, the renovation of the Marshall Student Center Branch and the executive internship program, which allows students to work at the Marshall Center location and earn college credit, were cited in earning the award.

Skaggs said USF FCU has more than $500 million in assets, 135 employees and lends in excess of $100 million per year.

For more info, visit USFFCU.org or call 569-2000.

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Local Primary Winners: Rubio, Murphy & Stuart; James & Gray Advance

By John C. Cotey Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Patrick Murphy are headed for what should be a fiery general election battle for the all-important Florida Senate seat on Tuesday, November 8, while Hillsborough County School Board member Cindy Stuart won a second four-year term in District 3, which encompasses the New Tampa area, by a comfortable margin.

Stuart defeated Alicia Toler 67 percent to 33 percent in the primary election on August 30.

Elected in 2012 when she upset 12year incumbent Jack Lamb, Stuart received 18,792 of the 28,115 votes cast and is in line to be the next School Board chair

Stuart was one of the to victory on November 8,’’ four School Board members James said to her supporters who voted to fire superinvia Facebook. “We all get a tendent of schools MaryElfew days off, so enjoy Labor len Elia in January of 2015, Day because beginning and was on the committee Tuesday, September 6, we that chose to hire current labor.” superintendent Jeff Eakins.

There were eight In the School Board candidates running for the Cindy Stuart (l.) and Cathy James. District 7 seat, and they race with the most candidates — District 7 — Cathy combined to raise more James and Lynn Gray won the right to face than $160,000 during the campaign. off for the countywide seat on the Board That didn’t help Alan Clendenin, on Nov. 8. though. A member of the Democratic James received 31,413 votes, or 23 National Committee and former air traffic percent, while Gray had 26,771 votes cast controller, he was one of the last candidates in her favor, for 19.68 percent. to enter the race (in May), but still raised “We have the momentum as we march $71,120, almost more than all the other

candidates combined. But, Clendenin finished a disappointing third, with just 11.5 percent of the vote.

Local candidate Joseph Caetano, 82, put up a spirited effort but finished sixth with 7.9 percent, or 10,785 of the 136,064 votes cast.

“Of course, I wasn’t happy that I didn’t win,’’ Caetano said. “I’m disappointed. But hey, I’m still alive.”

In New Tampa’s nine voting precincts, however, Caetano finished second to James in four of them. In Precinct 315, Caetano received 215 votes to James’ 224.

The former Tampa Palms and current Grand Hampton resident also ran unsuccessfully for the Hillsborough County School Board in 1996.

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Fugitive Who Killed A Wesley Chapel Man In A DUI Captured In Spain

By John C. Cotey

Wade Angel walked his wife to the garage around 5 a.m. the morning of August 9, kissing Lynn goodbye as she slid into the driver’s seat.

Wade returned to his computer, where he has spent almost every free moment the past three years in his Wesley Chapel home, and checked his email. One had just popped in, from the State Attorney’s office.

Just one line: “Mr. Angel, we have good news, Christopher Ponce has been arrested.”

He started yelling for Lynn. Even above the din of her car engine, she could hear him, and hopped out of the car, meeting him at the garage door. He told her what the email said.

They started crying, and held each other’s shaking bodies in their arms.

“Three years of bottled-up emotion,’’ Wade says. “One minute we were crying, the next minute we were laughing and jumping up and down, and the next minute we’d be crying again.”

Christopher Ponce, accused of killing 20-year-old William Brooks Angel in 2012 while driving drunk, was arrested in Spain on Aug. 9 after a three-plus-year manhunt.

Ponce was driving the wrong way in the northbound lanes of I-275 near downtown Tampa when he hit William Angel’s 2000 Ford Mustang, also seriously injuring passengers Jay Davis and Robert Newberry.

On May 9, 2013, Ponce slipped off an electronic monitoring bracelet he had been wearing while awaiting trial for DUI manslaughter. He has been on the run ever since.

In 2014, CNN’s “The Hunt,” hosted

by John Walsh of “America’s Most Wanted” fame, profiled the case.

Wade has spent the last three years hunting his son’s killer. Until this year, he had been doing it on a full-time basis, leaving his job building and customizing wheelchairs at Shriners Hospital for Children in Tampa, to set up a website — FindChrisPonce.com — dedicated to the search and asking for tips.

He received many, but they all proved fruitless. New York City police interviewed someone in a bar there based on a tip. In Chicago and California, police visited houses they were told Ponce might be.

Wade, however, never lost his drive.

“If William were here, he would say, ‘Dad, let it go,’” Wade says. “But, I made a promise. I did this for him, not for me. I wasn’t going to stop.”

He scoured the internet for 15 hours a day, and blogged often about Ponce. Wade was in constant touch with U.S. Marshals and

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(l-r)Wade, Wade Jr., William & Lynn Angel.

FBI agents, hopeful they were closing in on the fugitive.

For these last three years, the search consumed him. He says Lynn became concerned.

“But, she understood that the day we went to the funeral home to see my son’s body, I promised him that I was going to make sure that justice was done,’’ Wade said.

“I thought by that I meant I was saying I would stay on top of the attorneys and get a proper trial and a lifelong sentence. But then, (Ponce) takes off. So, before I can get justice (for William), I have to find him.”

Although he continues to devote every free hour to the hunt, Wade finally returned to work in January, but not before posting this on Jan. 15, 2016: “I truly feel that this is the year we get him.”

And now, it is.

Wade says a reporter for Ideal, a newspaper in Granada, Spain, who broke the story, told him that Ponce had been acting suspiciously in a bus station in nearby Almeria, in the southeast of Spain near the Mediterranean Sea, when police asked for his identification.

Ponce supplied a forged Mexican passport, and the name on his bus pass was not his. After fingerprinting him, Spanish police discovered he was listed in an Interpol fugitive database.

Ponce currently is awaiting extradition.

The Ideal reporter told Wade that Ponce is currently being held in one of the area’s tougher prisons. That made Wade happy.

He is not surprised at all that Ponce was caught in Spain. He received a tip through the website shortly after starting it in 2013, that Ponce was headed for Spain. So, he began tracking Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses, which are the numerical labels assigned to any device on a computer network that uses Internet Protocol, to see if anyone was checking his site from Spain.

Every month he would download all the IP addresses in a spreadsheet and email them to U.S. Marshals.

Someone was definitely checking his

website from Spain. Once in a McDonald’s, but usually on public wifi from bus stations.

Wade says, “When he was arrested in Spain, I said ‘I knew it!,’” adding that Ponce and his family are too narcissistic to resist the chance to see their names in print and wonder what people were saying about them. That’s one of the reasons, he says, that he started the website, hoping to catch Ponce electronically.

He would try to raise Ponce’s ire — “to get his dander up” Wade says — by posting negative things, hoping to bait him into commenting or trying to contact him.

“Since Christopher is a drunk and an addict, I thought maybe one time he would be drunk and high and he’d make a mistake,’’ Wade says. Ponce may not have been directly captured because of any leads from Wade’s site, but because he was captured in a bus sta-

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tion, where so many IP address hits had come from, he could have been on his way to use the station’s public wifi.

Either way, it doesn’t matter, Wade says.

Ponce will have plenty of time to read the site dedicated to putting him away for life from prison, where he will end up.

Wade’s last website update read, in part: “Christopher Ponce has been arrested in Spain! That’s right, the POS is finally in jail.”

Wade promises it won’t be his last post, however. “The website is still up, and I will continue to write,’’ Wade says. “I will take him (Ponce) through the extradition and then, the trial. I’m not done yet. The day he is sentenced, that will be my last post.”

You can follow Wade’s journey at FindChrisPonce.com, or on Facebook at Facebook.com/findchrisponce.

@NTWCNews

Wesley Chapel Mourns The Loss Of A True Legend — ‘Capt. Jack’ Whalen!

By Celeste McLaughlin It was a frequent sight in front of one local Publix — a golf cart dressed up with fire-engine red paint, diamond plate bumpers, and even a fire truck-style bell. Sitting in that golf cart was “Captain Jack,” the nickname John Joseph Whalen, Jr., had since his days as Captain of the Fairview Fire District in Poughkeepsie, NY. Capt. Jack was known to many as a kind, friendly man, ready with jokes and endless stories for anyone who would take the time to listen.

His golf-cart-turned-fire-truck is missing from the Publix parking lot now. Capt. Jack died on Saturday, August 13.

Shortly before he passed away, the mileage on that golf cart rolled over to 10,000 miles. The round-trip from his home in Meadow Pointe to the Shoppes of New Tampa on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. at S.R. 56 is just over seven miles, so he must have made it more than 1,300 times. That makes sense, considering he made the trip every day he could for the past 10 years.

For years before that, when he was driving his Buick decorated with many stickers supporting his fellow firefighters, he dreamed up that golf cart. When it was time to have it made, because he wasn’t able to drive anymore, his grandson Jason designed it with him. By then, the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, had happened in Capt. Jack’s home state, and it had a deep impact on him. He lost friends and comrades that day, so he designed his own “fire truck” as a tribute.

Then he used that golf cart to connect with people here in Wesley Chapel. ### John Joseph Whalen, Jr., was always called “Little Jacky” as a child to distinguish him from his father. He was born January 31, 1925, and celebrated his 91st birthday surrounded by his family earlier this year. He was a father of three — Greg Whalen, Sue Ann Yero, and John Joseph Whalen, III — with four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. One of his greatgrandchildren carries his name, John, and his youngest great-grandchild is Skylar, who is just seven months old. ### As a young man, Jack joined the Navy and fought in World War II. His children remember that he had nightmares about the time his shipmate was killed right next to him on the U.S.S. O’Bannon. After three years of service in the Navy, he returned home to New York, where he began working for the Fairview Fire District.

“Whether it was in the Navy, or as a firefighter, he always served people, and saved lives,” says his son, John.

“He had been through a lot,” John continues. “The fires he was involved in, with those old, wood structures in New York, two or three

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John Joseph Whalen, Jr. (in golf cart & photo, right), passed away on Aug. 13, at age 91.

Among those who loved “Capt. Jack” were the firefighters at Pasco County Fire Rescue Station No. 26 in Meadow Pointe, the community where Whalen had lived since 1996. blocks would go up in flames.” Whalen also helped fight a big chemical fire, when the chemical tanks blew up. Many years later, his injuries from that fire caused him to lose one of his legs.

But, that didn’t get him down. Always the jokester, if he bumped his prosthetic leg into something, he’d grab a Band-Aid and put it on his “leg.”

In 2014, Jack lost his wife Louise, whom he had loved for 65 years, to Alzheimer’s. She had been a registered nurse, which is how they met back in the early 1950s. He was a patient being treated for smoke inhalation in the hospital where she worked.

His children say his health was poor and he never expected for her to pass away before him.

But, even with his disability, he cared for her at home as long as he could, until she moved into assisted living for the last couple years of her life.

“He has lived alone these last two years,” says John. “He didn’t want any help from us.”

So, he would drive his golf cart up to Publix — and sometimes Walgreens at the corner of BBD and County Line Rd. — to visit with people. He would park the “street legal” vehicle, complete with a license plate and handicapped sticker, in the same spot.

There, he would talk with anyone who approached him, whether it was kids wanting to pet his gigantic stuffed Dalmatian, which he af-

fectionately named “Sparky,” or people wanting to pose with him for pictures.

“He loved to let kids ring the bell on his golf cart,” says John. “He loved to tell jokes and to tell stories about the war, and stories about the fire department.”

Even after the decades of hearing his stories, his children say they never tired of them, and they didn’t feel like they were hearing the same ones over and over again. The jokes, yes.

“He’d always ask, ‘Want to see my pride and joy?,’ and you’d think he was going to show you a picture of his grandkids or something. Nope,” says John, showing off a little card with a picture of a bottle of “Pride” cleaning product and “Joy” dishwashing detergent. And, if anyone asked for “his card,” he showed them a business card sized paper that just says “HIS CARD” in large letters.

Greg, Sue Ann and John saw him make people smile with those two cards quite a bit.

“He was a character,” says Sue Ann. “He was truly larger than life.”

Capt. Jack loved the celebrity that came along with his unique mode of transportation and his willingness to spend time and share stories with his neighbors, his children say, but not because of an ego. He had always served people, and being friendly was his way to continue serving.

That’s how Meadow Pointe resident Sa-

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sha Lash met him. She was walking into Publix one morning with her son — still young enough that she referred to him as a baby, but he was big enough to spot Capt. Jack’s “fire truck” and wanted to go see it.

It caught his attention because his daddy — Sasha’s husband — works for Tampa Fire Rescue.

“We said ‘hi’ and he loved that I had a little one,” Sasha remembers. “Capt. Jack let my son pet Sparky and ring the bell on the cart, and he showed him all the stickers.” After that first meeting a couple of years ago, Sasha says she saw him often, introducing her older son, now 8, to him, too.

As they got to know each other, Capt. Jack had quite a bit of advice for the firefighter’s wife.

“One thing stands out,” she says. “He told me to always be open to listen to my husband when he wants to tell stories about the job. First responders sometimes see the worst of the worst, so if he’s in a horrible mood, it may be because of something he’s experienced. He told me to be slow to anger, loving and always kind.”

Sasha says she considers it, “profound advice” and is grateful for it. “It’s very true and poignant, and it’s just one of the things I learned from Capt. Jack.”

She adds, “It’s like a bright light in Wesley Chapel has gone dim,” Sasha says. “We need more people like him who aren’t afraid to get out into the community and be kind, and spread joy, and make the best of life.” ### Capt. Jack got up early every morning, a habit he developed when he was promoted out of shift work at the fire department and began a steady 5 a.m.-4 p.m. shift. His children remember hearing the scanner in the middle of the night, causing him to jump out of bed and race to a fire. The equipment he had was crude — his son Greg says we should be thankful firefighters have much better technology today — and his kids think Whalen’s health problems were related to all of his years fighting fires without any real protection.

They recall that he always rode in a fire truck with an open-air cab, even in the middle of winter. When calls came in, the firefighters knew the general location of the fire, but they had to watch out the top of the open vehicle to see the column of smoke that would indicate the exact location of the fire. Sue Ann recalls a particular fire, in the middle of winter, when it was so cold the water was freezing as her father and the other firemen tried to use it to put out the fire.

Capt. Jack retired from the fire department

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in 1979. Louise worked for five more years, then they retired to the warmer weather of Pine Island, FL. Once while living there, Jack had to be airlifted to the hospital. So, he and Louise decided they would move closer to family and closer to more modern facilities. And, in 1996, they bought a house in Meadow Pointe.

When Capt. Jack passed away, he had been in poor health for quite a while. “His heart and lungs were bad from his firefighter days,” says John, as he and his sister, Sue Ann, rattle off a list of problems he was experiencing. “But, he went when he was ready. He waited until I got down here. I was stuck in Georgia and he waited until I got here to say good-bye.”

Sue Ann calls him a “consummate fireman,” and says he had a special relationship with the firefighters from Pasco County Fire Rescue Station No. 26, which is located on Aronwood Blvd. in Meadow Pointe. A whole bunch of them came to visit Whalen

Neighborhood News

in the hospital shortly before his death.

Greg says Capt. Jack sat up and smiled.

“My brothers are here,” he said. ### Although we did not attend, Capt. Jack’s memorial service was held on Aug. 30 at Whitfield Funeral Home in Zephyrhills. A formal ceremony also will be held at Bushnell National Cemetery, where Louise already is buried. One of Jack’s grandsons currently serves in the U.S. Army, and he honored his grandfather by presenting a U.S. flag to the family at the ceremony.

Through tears and laughter, Greg says, “He loved his family, he loved kids. But, most of all, he loved people.”

“He was always larger than life, over the top,” says Sue Ann. “He left a mark wherever he went.”

“You hear about legends – and most of the time they’re fiction,” adds John. “But, he was a true legend.”

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For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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SEPTEMBER 2016

every Wed. for lunch, noon, at Mulligan’s Irish Pub at Pebble Creek Country Club. Guests are always welcome. For more info, call Valerie at 317-8886

Monday - September 12 - 6:30 PM

Saturday - September 17 - 10 AM

Saturday - September 10 - 7:30 AM

Thursday - September 15 - 7:30 AM

Christian Business Connections (CBC) - The Christian Business ConnecNew Tampa Tri Club - The New Tampa Tri Club is open to runners, swimmers, tions (CBC) networking group meets every Thur. at 7:30 a.m. at St. Andrew cyclists & triathletes across the New Tampa/Wesley Chapel area. The club hosts Presbyterian Church (5338 Primrose Lake Cir., off Commerce Park Blvd. in group bike rides/runs leaving from Flatwoods Wilderness Park (13330 Morris Tampa Palms). For more info, email Shawn@TPACorp.com.

Bridge Rd.; not from the BBD entrance) every Tues., Thur. & Sat., 7:30 a.m. For more info, join the Facebook group or e-mail NewTampaTriClub@gmail.com. Friday - September 16 - 7 AM Rotary Club of New Tampa - The original New Tampa Rotary Club meets Saturday - September 10 - 9:30 AM every Friday for breakfast at 7 a.m. at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club BayChapel Food Pantry - Free food for needy families. Open every Saturday (TPGCC, 5811 Tampa Palms Blvd.). For additional information, contact from 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. behind Christian Brothers Automotive at 20300 Trout Kim Payne at 388-6299 or visit NewTampa Rotary.org.

Creek Dr. (off BBD). For more info, visit BayChapel.com/foodpantry.

GFWC New Tampa Junior Woman’s Club - The GFWC New Tampa Junior Woman’s Club meets the second Monday of every month at the New Tampa YMCA at 16221 Compton Dr. For info, visit GFWCNewTampaJuniors.org.

Tuesday - September 13 - 9:30 AM

Beauty Pageant Preview - Be the first to know all of the pageant details for the 2016-17 pageant season for Miss Wesley Chapel and Miss New Tampa. Held at MidFlorida Credit Union Community Room, 20401 BBD Blvd. Free facials and makeovers with new color looks for fall. R.S.V.P. to 714-6513.

English As A Second Language (ESL) - The ESL group meets Tuesdays at TamMonday - September 19 - 6:30 PM pa Bay Presbyterian Church (19911 BBD Blvd.), 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Classes Wesley Chapel Speaks - The Wesley Chapel Speaks Toast Masters meet on the are taught by a native English speaker. The cost is $40 each semester for the first and third Monday of every month at 6:30 pm at Wesley Chapel Hyundai (2700 workbook & class materials. For more info, call Heather at 753-8567.

State Rd 54) to teach the community public speaking and leadership skills. Arrive Tuesday - September 13 - 7:30 PM at 6pm for networking Opportunities. For more info, call Martin at 813-693-0969.

Zen Meditation Group - Looking for a new way to relax? Check out the FREE Zen Meditation Group that meets Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. People of all faiths are welcome. For info, visit MindfulnessSangha.com or contact Parker at 813-382-2216 or mindfulnessmeditation@verizon.net.

Wednesday - September 14 - 7:15 AM

BNI Millionaire Makers - Check 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 for info.

Wednesday - September 14 - 7:30 AM

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 the Cory Lake Isles Beach Club clubhouse (10441 Cory Lake Dr.). Call Lee Hoffman at 545-2656.

Wednesday - September 14 - 11:30 AM

Keep It Local - This new seat-specific networking group emphasizes small, local businesses. Meets meets every Wed. at Dash of Salt ‘N Pepper, 10353 Cross Creek Blvd. For more info, call Marino Cecchi at 513-9001.

Wednesday - September 14 - Noon

New Tampa Noon Rotary Club - The New Tampa Noon Rotary Club meets

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OCTOBER 2016 Friday - October 7 - 11:30 AM

Women-n-Charge - Join the vibrant ladies of Women-n-Charge on the first Friday of every month from 11:30 am-1:15 pm at Pebble Creek Golf Club (10550 Regents Park Dr.). Includes lunch, a feature speaker, and time to network. We share our talents, build relationships, and share our resources with other women in business. The cost is $15 for members and $18 for all guests. Please register at Women-n-Charge.com. For more information, please contact Judy at 813-600-9848 or admin@women-n-charge.com.

Visit NTNeighborhoodNews.com to add your upcoming events that are open to the public to our online calendar. Once approved, they appear in the “Events” section on our home page. With enough advanced notice (at least 3-4 weeks), events that happen in our readership areas may also appear in print, as space allows.

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For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 •Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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When Your Loved One Needs Care At Home, Optimal Wellness Can Help provide supplemental care during ‘down times’ at the ALF. The patient needs extra attention, so the family pays out of pocket.”

For now, Andre says all of the company’s clients are self-pay. Optimal Wellness has gone through the application process to be able to accept Medicare, and has received confirmation that the company meets all of the stringent regulations, but a moratorium is currently preventing them from being approved as a Medicare provider.

Optimal Wellness is in the process of working with several insurance companies to be approved providers with individual companies and expects to begin accepting insurance soon.

By Celeste McLaughlin

Andre and Monique Hikel own Optimal Wellness Home Healthcare, which has been located in the Tampa Palms Professional Center off Commerce Park Blvd. since August 2014. The company cares for patients in their homes in New Tampa and Hillsborough County, as well as in Manatee, Hardee, Highlands, and Polk counties.

Monique earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree from the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa in 1994, and has been a practicing Registered Nurse (RN) for 22 years. She also earned a combined Master of Science in Nursing and Master of Business Administration (MSN/ MBA) degree from the University of Phoenix in 2004.

Monique also has worked as a clinical instructor for students earning their BSN degrees at both the University of Tampa and at USF. Monique works at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC) as a labor and delivery nurse, which she says helps her to keep her nursing skills current as she also runs Optimal Wellness.

Andre was a tennis professional whose career took an unexpected turn when he was injured in a car accident.

He started working in the financial industry, and ended up continuing in that career for the past 11 years, until leaving recently to focus on building Optimal Wellness Home Healthcare with Monique.

They consider this business a merger of their skills. Monique’s title is Director of Nursing and Administrator, and she oversees the clinical and records-keeping side of the business. Andre handles the financial and marketing aspects. “This business allows us to combine our strengths,” says Andre.

“It’s both of our passions to give back and to make a difference.”

Monique & Andre’s Story

Andre and Monique have lived in Wesley Chapel for 16 years and are now raising their three kids – Joshua, 7; Alexandrea, 9; and Alivia, 11 – along with their niece, Phylecia, who is 15.

“Based on our history, we want to make sure we are always giving great care to our patients,” says Andre. “Quality of care is very near and dear to our hearts.”

That history includes losing both Andre’s dad and Monique’s mom to cancer, and Andre’s mom being diagnosed as schizophrenic when he was a young boy in

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Optimal Wellness Home Healthcare owners Andre (2nd from left) & Monique (2nd from right) Hikel, with their children (l.-r.) Alexandrea, Joshua & Alivia. proach them. For example, sometimes they his native Trinidad. And, there’s this: The become aggressive, so you have to stay calm couple’s son was diagnosed with cancer in and not take it personally. It’s part of their December of 2015 when he was five, but disease.” now he is in full remission.

If a patient needs full-time care but “Joshua’s diagnosis of cancer gave us doesn’t want to live in an assisted living confirmation of the great need for home facility (ALF), Optimal Wellness can provide health care,” says Monique. “We started 24-hour care in his or her own home. the business in August of 2014 and Joshua “It’s a good option for someone who was diagnosed in December. It was hard to continue the business at that time, but God doesn’t want to go into an ALF,” says Monique. gave us the strength to forge through and Some of the company’s clients are leavopportunities presented themselves that ing the hospital or rehab facilities and need gave us further confirmation during that temporary care in their homes. difficult time.”

“We also have long-term clients in In-Home Specialists assisted living facilities who need 24-hour “We can take care of anything in the care, seven days a week,” says Andre. “The home,” says Monique, explaining that families of these clients have hired us to Optimal Wellness provides health care professionals such as CNAs (Certified Nursing Assistants), home health aides, or RNs, depending upon what level of care is needed.

Currently, the company specializes in care for patients with Alzheimer’s, hypertension, diabetes and COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, an umbrella term used to describe progressive lung diseases), and also offers respite care, to give caretakers a break from their responsibilities.

Another area of service is infusion care, such as antibiotics or other medications that needs to be administered via injection.

Monique says each condition requires specific training and care, which Optimal Wellness provides. For example, for patients with Alzheimer’s, “We go through extensive training to be sure our providers are equipped for these patients,” she says.

“There’s a way to speak to them and to ap-

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 •Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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Quality, Personalized Care

“We are quality people giving exceptional care, and we want to treat everyone as family,” says Monique.

To ensure each patient receives exceptional care, Monique and Andre say Optimal Wellness follows a specific routine with the family and caretaker, and has a weekly “quality call” to ensure everything is going according to plan.

That call helps to makes sure everyone is on the same page. If a caregiver was a few minutes late, or if there was a minor issue that needs attention, it can be dealt with immediately. “We want our clients to be assured they’re getting the best care possible, and these calls seem to put them at ease,” explains Andre.

Optimal Wellness creates an individual care plan that is gone over with each patient’s family. “We address specific, indi-

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vidual needs and match each patient to the caretaker who suits them the best,” he says.

Monique explains that the company is accredited through CHAP (Community Health Accreditation Partner), which is a many-months-long process that ensures compliance with stringent standards. While accreditation is required for home health companies, it is not required for all staffing companies or registries.

“We want to be known as a company that gives exceptional quality care,” says Monique, and she knows that starts with the professionals who are in their patients’ homes, providing that care.

“We ask our professionals to look at their patients and see their own mom or dad, and proceed accordingly,” Monique adds. “Treat them the way you would want someone to treat your mom or dad.”

They start with hiring only well-qualified, experienced caretakers. Monique says CNAs and home health aides must have at least one year of experience, and RNs must have at least two years of experience.

The company also does a “Level 2” background check, which means that the new employee’s background is searched in all 50 states, not just Florida. Monique says they will not send a healthcare professional out to a home until that background check comes back clear.

And then, they are trained. “Prior to going out to any of our homes, the nurses, CNAs and home health aides that work for us receive training,” says Monique. “Even if a health care provider is an RN with years of experience, we ensure they are trained by us and understand the specific care plan of the patient they will visit before they are sent out to someone’s home.”

Neighborhood News

Optimal Wellness provided care for Celsa Villanueva, who lives in Cross Creek.

She is a diabetic with multiple health issues, and her nephew, Carlos Velazquez, says Monique provided great care for her during a time when she was in need.

“She taught my aunt a lot about what to do when her sugar was low, or high, and helped her organize her medication,” he says. “She explained all the medications and their side effects, and taught her how to tell the difference between pills that look alike.”

Carlos added, “I would recommend her in a heartbeat. She was very professional and caring, and very good to my aunt.”

Optimal Wellness Home Healthcare is available for care 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Office hours are Mon.–Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information, see the ad on page 46, call 381-5415 or visit OptimalWellnessHomeHealthcare.com.

@NTWCNews

SPOTLIGHT ON...NutriMost Of Wesley Chapel!

NutriMost of Wesley Chapel, located inside Cypress Creek Chiropractic & Wellness, opened in August of 2015 and has been having great success with helping clients lose weight and feel their best ever since!

Since everyone gains and loses weight differently and has different metabolic function, NutriMost scans your hand with a computer using biofeedback to set a personal protocol specifically for you. All supplements used at NutriMost are natural, whole food- and herbal-based to support your body while you are in fat-burning mode. A typical female client can expect to lose between 27 to 32 pounds and male clients lose between 40 to 45 pounds in just 40 days!

One of NutriMost’s recent clients, Deb Pullen (pictured above), had the following to say about her experience with the program. “NutriMost has been a life-changing

experience for me! I have lost a total of 45 pounds and 27 inches so far. My health has improved in numerous ways- I have more energy, my skin is brighter, my hair is shinier, I sleep better and enjoy a more positive outlook on life! I have been able to come off of all the medications prescribed to me (blood pressure, thyroid and anti-inflammatory), with my primary care doctor’s blessing.”

She adds, “I highly recommend NutriMost to anyone who is interested in a better quality of life. The ease of the program and the constant support make this something doable for anyone!”

If you would like to schedule a consultation with owner Mitze Richeson or Jill Fischer at NutriMost, please call 241-7098, or you can go to their website and schedule directly online at DropItIn40.com.

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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The Grout Doctor Is In & Making House Calls In New Tampa!

By Brad Stager Bill Porter travels the paved arteries of New Tampa and Wesley Chapel healing the distress that homeowners experience with mold-infected and broken grout and tile.

Porter is The Grout Doctor.

But, instead of working in a clean, well-lit operating room, a typical house call for Porter involves a long day on his hands and knees in a cramped, moldy shower stall, scraping and cleaning away accumulated soap, shampoo and mold. He is succinct in describing the task “It’s a very labor-intensive job,” Porter says.

Porter has been a Grout Doctor franchise owner for eight years — one of more than 85 in the U.S., including seven in Florida — following a career as a heavy equipment operator in the Florida phosphate industry. He says lessons taught to him by his father and grandfather growing up in Canisteo, NY, have served him well in both careers.

“It’s like my father told me,” Porter says, “‘if you’re going to do something right, do it right the first time.’”

Routine services Porter provides are grout cleaning or regrouting, repairing or replacing broken tiles as well as caulking.

He applies his skills to a variety of tile surfaces, including marble, terrazzo, travertine and limestone.

When you take a good look at most homes in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, there’s usually plenty of tile, from interior spaces like bathrooms, kitchens and hightraffic floors to outside lanais and pools.

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Bill Porter, who has owned his local Grout Doctor franchise for eight years, can handle even the hardest grout cleaning jobs, as well as offering many other services, like tile repair.

Porter will work on all of it, wherever it may be located. “There’s a lot of tile everywhere,” Porter says.

Since people tend to take tile and grout for granted — until neglect and sometimes even abuse becomes all too apparent — Porter is often confronted with a substantial professional challenge.

“People don’t do anything for years and years, until the work needs to be done,” Porter says. “You go to some jobs and it’s learn as you go.”

Elbow grease and sweat may be the main ingredients for successfully completing any assignment, but knowledge and focus also are required, Porter says.

“You have to mix the grout properly, you have to apply the grout properly and you have to take your time.”

It’s not just a diminished sense of ownership pride that occurs as a result of dingy showers afflicted with soap scum and mold. One of the most common molds that finds tile grout to be a hospitable medium is

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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cladosporium, which is olive-green to brown or black in appearance and has been associated with allergies and asthma, according to the website for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) & Prevention website.

In addition, GroutDoctor.com identifies other potential grout-related problems besides mold. Cracked and missing grout can lead to damaged walls from leaking water and underlying floor surfaces also can be damaged. Checking for those kinds of problems is one of the first things Porter does when he starts a job.

“I go around and touch the walls and if I feel sponginess, that means the wallboard has gotten wet,” Porter says, noting that replacing small sections of wallboard and wood framing are part of his services.

While Porter cleans and repairs grout and tiles and refreshes the appearance of tiled spaces, he does not perform complete tiling jobs, although he will replace small sections if the correct tiles are easily available. He says people should hang onto any extra tiles they may have after construction or a major tile installation since they are produced in limited runs and generally not available afterward.

Porter also suggests taking a good look inside your boxes of leftover tiles, as he has often opened them only to discover nothing but a pile of broken tiles inside. He says trying to repair broken tiles usually yields disappointing results.

“It just never really looks that good compared to an unbroken tile,” he admits.

A full work day is usually needed to

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If your grout looks like the left photo, call The Grout Doctor to make it look new again (right). replaced the grout and some broken tiles clean and regrout a routine shower assignand sealed all the grout when he was done. ment, followed by a 48-hour dry period, so He got it looking like new again.” customers need to plan accordingly, Porter says. Time to complete other projects will Franchise Opportunities, Too! vary, especially when it comes to pools, Porter says there are franchise opsince outdoor assignments are weatherportunities with Grout Doctor available for dependent. Before leaving your home, people who are willing to apply themselves Porter will take the time to explain how to toward being successful. properly care for the rehabilitated surfaces. “(The company) is always looking He also will leave samples of Grout Doctor to expand and there are opportunities in cleaning products, like the Grout Doctor Florida,’’ Porter says. “But you better be Shower Cleaner and the Grout Doctor prepared to work hard and go the extra Neutral Cleaner, for customers to use. mile. The phone isn’t going to ring by itself, “They’re very good products,” said you have to make it ring.”

Porter. “They’ve done the research and As for compensation, Porter says it’s a know what works.” good way to make money, and more.

Porter has earned an A rating on the “It’s a good feeling when I’ve done consumer website Angie’s List and the a good job,’’ he says. “I want to see them endorsement of customers such as Live Oak smiling when I walk out the door.”

Preserve resident John Martel, who called Call Bill Porter for a free estimate upon Grout Doctor to work on his home’s at 782-2277, or visit GroutDoctor.com, pool. “Bill did a really nice job,” Martel where you also can find out about fransays. “My pool was 10 years old and had chise opportunities and Grout Doctor a lot of grout that needed replacing. He products. Or, see the ad on pg. 37.

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Spring Hill-Based Crosby’s Billiards & Darts Seeks New Tampa Customers

By Brad Stager

The “billiards tabletop-green”-painted building that is home to Crosby’s Billiards & Darts stands as a testimony to Spring Hill’s not-so-long-ago status as the center of the professional pool competition universe.

Located on Spring Hill Dr., 45 minutes west of New Tampa and Wesley Chapel (about 25 miles north of S.R. 54 and U.S. 41 in Land O’Lakes), Tony Crosby’s business covers all aspects of billiards — he sells pool tables and a complete line of accessories, such as balls, cues, cue holders, retip kits, racks and even overhead table lights.

He also provides related services to customers, like maintaining and repairing tables, moving them in a safe and professional manner and properly setting them up.

Crosby’s customers include suburban homeowners with rec rooms, community centers, resorts and military installations around the U.S. He says one reason his customer base is so varied is his philosophy of giving everyone the same high level of service. “As a customer, you’re going to be treated the same, whether you buy a $500 or a $5,000 pool table,” Crosby says. “I have a table for everyone’s budget.”

A lifelong player, Crosby (photo) says he learned the sport growing up in his family’s pub in Manchester, England. After establishing himself as one of the top snooker players in his home country, he came to the U.S. in 2001 to compete professionally in the American style of billiards. Crosby established a professional reputation in the

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Tampa Bay area and eventually made Spring Hill his home.

With major tour sponsors like the Seminole Hard Rock Casino nearby, so did a lot of other pros.

“In 2007 and 2008, Spring Hill was the hotbed of professional pool in the United States,” Crosby says. “You had probably 10 of the top 16 players in the country living in the area.”

At that time, if someone who considered himself to be the 21st Century incarnation of Minnesota Fats or Cornbread Red stopped off in Spring Hill thinking the local crowd at Capone’s Billiard Hall offered a chance to make some quick cash in a “friendly“ game or two, he would probably go home disappointed and lighter in the wallet.

“If you went into a pool hall on a Monday night, it was like being in the U.S. Open,’’ Crosby says. “This was not the place to come if you were looking to hustle pool.”

Crosby’s own playing achievements include being named 2001 U.S. Pool Association Rookie of the Year, Florida’s State Champion in 2010 and 2011, Top-10 world rankings in 2009 and 2010 and Seminole Pro Tour Player of the Year in 2011.

His professional moniker is “The Sniper,” as a result of his sharpshooting playing style.

“When I first came over (to the U.S.), I was used to playing on the 12-foot tables in England, so making the long shots on a

nine-foot table was easy,” Crosby recalls.

As the recession forced American companies to end pool sponsorships, the tournament action and money moved to Asia. Preferring the comforts of home with his wife Natalie and their growing family, Crosby began devoting more time to the business of buying used tables and fixing them up for resale.

Refurbishing a pool table can involve replacing the table’s slate top, felt covering and bumpers, as well as refinishing the wood. The result is a piece of recreational furniture that plays well and, just as important, says Crosby, also looks good.

“Most of the guys I talk to would love to have a pool table but they have to compromise with the wife and get a nice-looking table that doesn’t look like it belongs in a bar,” Crosby says.

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One of the refurbished tables in Crosby’s showroom that looks like an exceptional piece of home furnishing is an eight-foot American Heritage model with carved features and leather pockets with tassels that is in mint condition. Crosby is selling the table with accessories, delivery and setup for $2,000.

If the designated pool room is your garage, man cave or kids’ play room, Crosby says, a durable Valley Bar table, known as a workhorse of entertainment venues, might be the perfect addition, for about $1,100.

There’s even a bit of billiards history to be found at Crosby’s.

A restored Brunswick Centennial 10-foot table made in the early 1940s, with aluminum sides that harken back to the time when a chrome look was a designer’s best friend, is available for $13,000.

Crosby says the Centennials were poolhall favorites until the need arose to direct aluminum supplies toward making airplanes for the military in World War II. At the time of manufacture, the tables sold for less than $1,000, but are now considered antiques and are highly sought after, according to Richard Broumpton, who helps Crosby manage the business.

“They (sell for) up to 25-grand,” says Broumpton, who, like Crosby, is an Englishman who came to America to ply his trade as a professional pool player. “They’re pretty expensive to buy, even in bad shape.

That kind of retro look has a lot of appeal.”

Crosby says tables available at any particular time will vary, and popular models

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Township here in Wesley Chapel. Mitchell also says Crosby has been very pleasant to work with from Day One. Refurbished pool tables are the biggest sellers for Crosby, but he also sells new ones, especially models manufactured by Diamond Billiard Products, Inc.

Darts, Anyone?

or bargains are usually quickly sold.

While Crosby has customers all over the country and says he even recently shipped a pool table to Australia, he’s interested in serving pool and dart players closer to home. In order to help attract customers from the Wesley Chapel and New Tampa areas, Crosby is offering a special deal to Neighborhood News readers. “I’ll give a 10-percent discount if they bring in this story from the paper,” he said.

One Wesley Chapel businesswoman and professional billiards player who speaks highly of Crosby’s work is Stephanie Mitchell, owner of The Corner Pocket billiards parlor on Starkey Rd. in Largo. She counts on Crosby to maintain her establishment’s 10 pool tables in tournament-level condition, since she often hosts high-level competitors, as well as neighborhood players.

“He buys tables and restores them, so in my opinion, somebody who can completely break them down and refinish and redo every aspect of them has to have a lot of knowledge to make them work correctly,” says Mitchell, a resident of New River

Neighborhood News

For people who prefer a game of darts over pool, Crosby’s has a wide selection of boards, soft and steel-tip darts, shafts, flights (the fins, or wings on the back of a dart) and cases. Broumpton says the inventory available to dart enthusiasts is plentiful.

“We’ve probably got more dart supplies than anybody else in the Tampa Bay area,” Broumpton says.

Crosby’s business has grown to the extent that it sells just about anything a home or commercial game room might need, including bar furniture, memorabilia and even its own line of new poker tables. But, whatever goods or services he provides to a customer, Crosby has one guiding principle: “We stand behind everything that we do.”

Now a business owner, with membership in the Hernando Chamber of Commerce, Crosby’s career has evolved to where he now sponsors events like the Florida Pool Tour for players who are competing, much like he did 15 years ago when he first came to America following his dream of playing professional pool.

Crosby’s Billiards & Darts is located at 10551 Spring Hill Dr. It is open Mon.-Sat., 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m., and by appointment on Sun. For info, visit Facebook.com/Crosby’sBilliardsandDarts, call (352) 556-4855.

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Running Great Automotive Of North Tampa Keeps Your Car On The Road

By Brad Stager

The quest for reliable bumper-to-bumper auto repair services has led many drivers to consumer dead ends, or back to dealerships. Glen Yudman, the owner of Running Great Automotive on N. Nebraska Ave., just south of Skipper Rd., stakes his reputation on providing comprehensive, dealer-quality automotive repair and restoration services at neighborhood mechanic prices.

Yudman’s guiding principle is straightforward. “Staying honest,” he says. “Everybody will say that, but we truly are. My guys do not work on commission. They are on salary, so it’s not like the more repairs they do, the more they make.”

Whether your ride is a homemade swamp buggy or a late-model Mercedes Benz, Yudman and his crew of mechanics will do their best to keep you Running Great. The shop has 14,000-sq.-ft. of work space to provide services ranging from oil changes to complete overhauls of derelict and inoperable classic cars. That includes repairing and replacing transmissions, electrical systems, engines, brakes, air conditioning services and more.

“We do regular daily repairs and maintenance on any automobile and classic auto restoration,’’ Yudman says. “We have a full paint and body shop and collision center.”

As a National Automotive Parts Association (NAPA) auto care center, Yudman says repairs from Running Great carry a nationwide warranty.

Yudman’s mechanics have diverse specialties but one thing they share is lengthy experience in the auto repair trade. Many

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Technician Eddie Lee Gant of Running Great Automotive works on a car engine, one of the many repair services the North Tampa auto repair & body shop can handle for almost any car. of them started working on cars before they were old enough to drive legally. Yudman found his life’s calling at age 13, working in his family’s New York City gas station.

“I pretty much have always been in this business,” says Yudman, who came to Florida and bought the existing Running Great Automotive repair shop in 1997.

Most of the mechanics have been employed at Running Great for 10 years or longer. Chris Bach is certified as a Master Mechanic by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) and has been working there for 32 years, starting out when Nebraska Ave. was a two-lane road and

the business was called Mad Hatter Mufflers, Brakes & Transmissions. He’s witnessed how the business has evolved over three decades and three owners.

“The cars are so advanced now, you can go a hundred thousand miles before you need a tune-up,” says Bach.

The technicians are seeing a lot of cars with six-figure mileage at Running Great.

Bach says people are keeping their cars longer and that vehicle longevity actually depends as much upon routine maintenance as any other factor. “The key to driving the same car for a long time is lots of (on-time) fluid and filter changes,” he says.

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Yudman concurs, with what could be considered a car owner’s mantra: “Change your oil, change your oil, change your oil.”

He also recommends fixing leaks and investigating strange noises as soon as they start.

“The longer you wait, the more it will cost,” says Yudman.

Kay Prudente of Tampa Palms likes to drive Toyota 4 Runners and get the most mileage possible out of them. Her current vehicle is a member of the 100,000-mile club a few times over.

“My first Toyota 4 Runner, I got 300,000 miles out of it, thanks to Running Great taking such great care of it,” she says.

Prudente adds that she is on her second 4 Runner and expects to get just as much mileage out of it.

“I faithfully bring it in every 3,000 miles and they stay on top of preventive maintenance,” she says. “I will not take my car anywhere else. They’re upfront, honest and not going to pull a fast one on you.”

Besides long-time customers, Yudman says a lot of Running Great’s business comes from car owners who want to get another opinion on a recommended repair.

“We get people who come in to ask us to take a second look at things after they’ve been to the dealership,” Yudman says.

Running Great Automotive also has the facilities to perform post-accident repairs.

The body and paint shop can restore a car’s appearance and the collision center is equipped with a frame rack that applies up to 11-1/2 tons of pressure to straighten anything that gets bent out of shape.

Often it’s Steve Theis, a mechanic with

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Owner Glen Yudman of Running Great is usually on-hand to check in your vehicle.

40 years of experience, operating the rack.

He says it takes knowledge, skill and an acute awareness to apply just the right amount of pressure for any collision repair.

“If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll ruin a car,’’ Theis says. “The harder it is to pull, the more stoked I get.”

Theis also takes pride in the welding performed at Running Great. “When we do a weld, we do a solid weld,” he says.

With a humid, subtropical climate like Tampa’s, Theis and his body shop colleagues encounter a lot of rust damage.

“We try to eliminate any kind of rust we see,” he says. “We don’t paint over anything.

We always take it back to clean metal.”

Keeping Classics Classy

Classic car restoration is another service at Running Great. The definition of “classic car” has evolved with time and can now include anything from a 1978 AMC Gremlin

Neighborhood News

to a 1957 Cadillac Eldorado or 1922 Ford Model T Roadster. Eddie Lee Gant works on a lot of the restoration projects at Running Great, and says a common factor is that owners will start working on a car themselves and discover the task is bigger than they thought.

Gant, who has been working on cars since he was, “knee-high to a grasshopper,” says a classic car can be restored to reflect its original design and components or be updated with modern comforts and accessories like new air conditioning or sequential turn signals. To him, the reward is more than a paycheck.

“It’s great seeing the customer’s face when you’re done,” Gant says, adding that he appreciates the variety of projects that come through the garage door. “It’s always something different. It’s never he same old routine here.”

When customers come into the shop, they’re usually greeted by Yudman himself or service manager John Persing, Sr., who says he started his own auto repair business almost six decades ago, when he was 13 years old. He emphasizes paying attention to what the customer says as the first step in resolving any car problem, and then following up as needed.

“I ask them what the car is doing and I write it down as they explain it,” Persing says. “If we find something else is wrong as we’re working on the car, I’ll tell them.”

While there’s a lot of experience employed at Running Great, another generation of mechanics is already at work as well.

David Amman, with about 10 years of automotive repair experience, works alongside Persing at the front counter. Like a lot of the other mechanics, he started out

@NTWCNews

Got a classic? Running Great can repair anything from a Model T to a classic Corvette. sweeping the floor and doing oil changes.

His interest is in classic car restoration and he handles much of the detail work customers want done.

“I change out the carpets, headliners, clocks and a lot of weird stuff people bring in, like replacing the emblem on a car,” the Wesley Chapel High graduate says.

Yudman says Running Great truly is a family business, as he has the satisfaction of sons Robby and Danny working with him.

Robby Yudman is a graduate of Hillsborough Community College’s Automotive Repair & Technology program and handles brake and suspension tasks, among others.

He says solving a mechanical problem is akin to being a detective and a successful repair brings a true sense of accomplishment.

“When you fix a car, you feel like you did something,” Robby says. “You get to see it leave better than when it came in.”

His brother Danny is a junior at the University of South Florida and is studying

economics while still working six days a week at Running Great, where he does welding and classic car restoration. While he’s eager to apply both his financial knowledge and mechanical skills to the business, Danny says customer service is his top priority.

“It’s a family business and we treat the cars like they’re our own,” Danny says.

“We’ve been around for as long as we have for a reason.”

Service at Running Great Automotive is on a first-come, first-serve basis according to Glen Yudman. Oil changes come with a free inspection and topping off of fluids.

Running Great is located at 14513 N. Nebraska Ave. in Tampa, and is open Monday-Friday, 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., and 7:30 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturday. For more info about all available services (all insurance plans are accepted), and a coupon for a discount on an oil change, please visit RunningGreatAuto.com. Or, call 9710642 or see the ad on pg. 24 of this issue.

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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New Mural Spices Up Media Center At Hunter’s Green Elementary

By Celeste McLaughlin As students returned to school on August 10, they probably couldn’t help but notice that the media center at Hunter’s Green Elementary (HGE) had undergone a major transformation.

Previously, the walls were decorated with banners, representing books that had been enjoyed by students during the school’s 25-year history.

“They were nice, but they were kind of old and dated,” says PTA president Jamie Priest.

It was the vision of HGE principal Gaye Holt to transform the walls to come alive with pictures that would inspire students as they visit the media center.

“The media center is the hub of the school, and we want our kids in here,” said Holt during her remarks at the official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the school’s newly painted mural on Thursday, Aug. 25.

“The media center has been transformed into a warm and inviting area for students as they choose a book, learn new things and explore their world through technology,” said HGE media specialist Nancy Elliott during her remarks.

From fiction and fantasy to science and math, the mural represents many different genres of books that can be explored in the media center.

“Nonfiction is a big part of reading,” Elliott explained later. “Math and science are a big part of our curriculum and I felt that they should be represented in our mural.”

Priest added, “Every time I look at the mural, I feel like I see something new.”

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(Clockwise from above): Hunter’s Green Elementary (HGE) media specialist Nancy Elliott celebrates the unveiling of a new mural in the school’s media center.. The ribbon was cut by (left to right) Hillsborough Country Public Schools supervisor of library media services for K-5 John Milburn, Elliott, HGE PTA president Jamie Priest and principal Gaye Holt. Pandas, giraffes and other animals are all part of the mural.

“I love the variety of it,” agreed Elliott, pointing out a kid investigating, a dolphin that looks like it’s about to swim right off the wall, a space ship soaring through outer space and realistic-looking animals such as a giraffe, panda and elephant.

Elliott is just the second media specialist in the school’s history and has been in the position for 10 years. She helped to design the mural with local artists J.P. and Vanessa Parra of CAP Murals, who worked all summer on ladders and scaffolds to create it. It was finished the day before school started.

“It was the shortest summer,” said Holt, “but it was my favorite. I came up to

the media center to visit three times a day because it amazed me.”

The process of painting the mural was commemorated in a media center display that shows the before, during and after of creating such a significant piece of art.

The mural was funded in part by the PTA, by the media center budget and by the school budget. The PTA contribution included a legacy gift from the class of 2015, and a large butterfly was painted in the mural as, “an extension of the memorial butterfly garden” planted outside in memory of Nick Wolf, a fifth grade HGE student who passed away shortly before he

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would have graduated from the school.

“Our school is taking big steps forward,” says Priest. “This is another step, and something I think the kids are going to remember, even after they leave this school.”

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‘Project Innovate’ Brings New Laptops & Ways To Learn To Chiles

By John C. Cotey

Chiles Elementary fifth-grader Aaron Back has his notebook open, and his laptop charged up. Instead of doing his research by paging through a book — and good luck finding a book on sand boils, which he currently is studying — Back is able to peruse the web, scribbling his findings and ideas on paper.

“I like that you have more than one option,’’ says Back, who is 10 years old.

“When you’re reading, you only have one option, but (on the computer) you have lots of options you can go to.”

Back is one of 146 fifth-graders at Chiles, which is located in Tampa Palms, taking part in Hillsborough County’s “Project Innovate,” which provides students with a Hewlett Packard x360 laptop for a completely different — and a little more advanced — learning experience.

“The concept is to prepare our students for the digital age they are growing up in and to increase engagement with their teachers, as well as meeting the needs of students by differentiating instruction in a more confidential way,’’ says Chiles assistant principal Ashley Galfond.

The county has provided 150 of the laptops to Chiles, with the hope of changing the learning landscape and getting kids comfortable with more high-tech means of taking notes and producing projects.

Schoolwork is done using Microsoft products, and the work is all held in OneNote, a digital note-taking app. If insurance issues can be worked out, the students may even be able to take those laptops home during the second semester, but for now, they can still access their work on their families’ home computers.

Back and the4 other students will be able to ultimately file their assignments to English Language Arts (ELA) teacher Nancy Erickson in many different media. “They can do their projects however they want,’’ Erickson says. “If you’re passionate and an artist and want to make posters, that’s a great thing. I can’t draw to save my life, so I might be more comfortable doing something digital-oriented. The nice part is, they can look at the info and say, ‘This is the best way I can present my information, so I’m going to present it in a brochure, make a poster or make a movie trailer.’”

Galfond is in her second year at Chiles, after coming over from Turner-Bartels, the

their work, and the only sound is the (L.-r.): Chiles fifth-graders Drew Moose, Ava Campbell, De’Vantae Jack- tappity-tap of son and Paige Duffield research on their school-issued laptops. To the right, a keyboard or students softAaron Back, 10, works on his project about sand boils. ly whispering grades K-8 school in Live Oak Preserve. as they share their work with one another.

At Turner-Bartels, Galfond was part As for Erickson, she likes the options of preparing the first “cohort,” or group the project gives her as a teacher. of students working together, for Project Instead of collecting papers and taking Innovate, before coming to Chiles last year them home to grade, she can look at quizzes to prepare the students for being the second and assignments immediately and provide cohort, which started this new school year. feedback while the topic is still fresh in the “We’ve been doing it on a small scale to students’ minds. She also can make suggeslearn as we go and to be able to support the tions and help privately instruct individuals students so there is a successful implementa- who might have questions they wouldn’t tion,’’ Galfond says, adding that the intent is normally ask in front of the whole class. to include other grades in the near future.

“I can post something and ask them, The current laptops have keyboards, ‘Type in your reactions to this,’” Erickson but also can be flipped to work as a tablet. says. “I can take polls, and I can do really But, Erickson said the goal is to get kids used quick, down-and-dirty assessments that way. to the more traditional laptop form. In fact, We can do quiz-like games, and (the stushe says, so many kids have iPads and other tablets that this has been their first work, for many. on a regular laptop computer.

“They don’t have the basic computer skills that, I guess, I use every day,’’ Erickson says. “They are not users, they are players, if that makes sense. So, things like editing, and copying and pasting things like URLs (Uniform Resource Locators), or typing and moving the cursor up and down, they didn’t know that.”

Erickson adds, however, that she expected the transition to be a learning process — even for her, since she is primarily an Apple user.

The students are enjoying their new tools. Their class, part of a daily “Genius Hour” afforded to students to work independently and on whatever they choose, is quiet. The students seem more earnest in

dents) are having a blast doing that, too.”

Erickson’s group is currently studying Crystal Springs, which is located in the southeastern corner of Pasco County, since the class will take a field trip there Sept.

14-15. The students have been tasked with producing reports on various aspects of the springs, from why they exist to the wildlife that lives nearby, to, well, even sand boils (which, according to Wikipedia, occur when water under pressure wells up through a bed of sand. The water looks like it is “boiling” up from the sand, hence the name).

For other things they study where a field trip is not possible, the students will be able to use their laptops to Skype with experts on location.

“The great things about (the laptops) is they (students) can take this as far as they want,’’ Erickson says, adding that one student already has asked if he can do coding for a Nintendo game. “I think you’ll see a lot more great things as we go forward.”

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31

The ‘Kids’ Are Alright For Wharton’s Outstanding Volleyball Team Wharton High 6th Annual Harvest Volleyball Tournament

By John C. Cotey

Wharton volleyball star Kathryn Attar poses for a picture, with a freshman to her right, and two others to her left.

“My babies,’’ the senior says, only half-jokingly.

This year, the Wildcats’ outside hitter might just be feeling like the team mother, as she adds a larger leadership role to go with her prodigious talents at the net.

Not that leadership is a new thing for Attar. The past three seasons, she has led the way for Wharton on the court, with 1,110 kills, including 358 last season, and established herself as one of the top players in the state. She previously was, however, always younger than other players.

But, now that three starters — setter Tyler Sroufe, middle blocker Lindsey Schaible and libero Chanelle Hargreaves — from a team that went 43-12 the past two seasons are off playing Division I-A college volleyball, all that remains from that experienced and cohesive group is Attar.

She does have her babies, however: the freshmen trio of hitter Jeanette Henderson, middle blocker Jamie Koopman and setter Ella Hileman.

“It’s great for Jeanette or anyone in that position that every day, she gets to see and learn from the best in the game, in the state, at that position,’’ Barber says. “Kathryn is very much like an assistant coach this year. She’s always been the youngest on the team, so this is her year to really kind of be the leader not just physically, but also from a maturity level.”

Barber says having Attar, who has verbally pledged to play college volleyball at Yale University in New Haven, CT, makes the Wildcats instantly competitive, but they will need more. The team does return sophomore setter Gracie Viloria, who played a lot last season after Sroufe got hurt; senior Allie Schneider, who transferred in last season, her first with Wharton, and junior Devyn Kettner, who was called up from junior varsity late last season but only saw limited action.

What could push them even deeper into the playoff picture, though, will be the development of the youngsters.

“It goes in waves,’’ Barber says. “We were in this situation (losing a lot of starters to graduation) 3-4 years ago. Now we’re

32

WHEN: September 30-October 1.

WHERE: Wharton High gymnasium, 20150 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.

TEAMS: Wharton, Brandon, Durant, Freedom, Sunlake, Gaither and two teams to be named.

OUTLOOK: This annual event is also a food drive, with fans urged to help fill a large box outside of the gym with canned or boxed food items which is used to help feed people at three local food banks.

Wharton volleyball players (l to r) Jamie Koopman, Kathryn Attar, Jeanette Henderson and Ella Hileman could mesh this season to form a formidable group.

Hileman agrees. “Kathryn can teach back to a new start. To me, that’s what keeps it fun in coaching. The challenge will because she knows how everybody’s posibe getting them far enough along to make tion is played,’’ she says. “I’m a setter, and she knows what I do. It’s good, because a push at the end of the season and take she’ll help all of us, not just one of us.” advantage of having Kathryn.”

While Barber says Hileman, KoopBecause Wharton is changing from a man and Henderson — all starters — will 5-1 alignment (with one setter) to a 6-2 play the biggest role among his freshman, (with two setters), Hileman will play a key they won’t be the only ones making their role. “She is going to be a really good setmark in the next few years. He says he has ter,’’ Barber says. a dozen first-year prepsters playing this Henderson, who plays the same position as Attar, is only 5-6 but has the kind of vertical leap that would make a lot of basketball players jealous. “She has great jumps,’’ Barber says. “She’s already has some good kills against some tough teams.

I’ve been impressed.”

Koopman will try to step into Schaible’s role in the middle. Last year, Schaible had a team-best 180 blocks to go with 229 kills. Koopman, who is 5-foot-10, won’t be expected to put up those kind of numbers her first season, but Barber expects her to improve and become a force under the tutelage of Attar.

“Even though she doesn’t play the middle (blocker position), she knows everything,’’ Koopman says about learning under Attar. “She just knows what to do.

It’s great, I love playing with her.”

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year, some of whom he will reveal later this season when they get called up to varsity.

“Overall, our freshman group is outstanding, it’s the best we’ve had,’’’ says Barber, whose team was 2-1 heading into a Sept. 6 match with Robinson High.

Attar thinks that talent will develop enough by the end of the season to make the Wildcats a team to be reckoned with come playoff time in October.

A player of her All-State talents can carry a volleyball team to a successful season, but the kind of help the freshmen can provide could mark the difference between good and great.

“I’ve seen noticeable improvement already, and there should be more noticeable improvement by the end of the year,’’ Attar says. “You wouldn’t look at us and think we haven’t played together before. We should be really good by the time Districts (begin).”

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For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

33

Despite A New, Functioning Kidney, Joey Still Facing Challenges

By John C. Cotey Dana Richman’s son Joey waited months for a kidney donor, and finally found one. Joey was on the mend after New Tampa resident and former MMA fighter Mike Miller stepped forward and donated a kidney, but then, he got sick again.

This time, though, it was cancer.

And, in the middle of a series of touchand-go stays in the hospital, with Dana unable to work due to the volume of her son’s doctor’s appointments and wondering if Joey would even make it through the night, she received news that the home she shares with her sons Joey, Jason and Jake was headed for foreclosure.

“Can you give me five minutes to catch my breath?,’’ Dana wondered aloud.

Once again, Joey, a Wiregrass Ranch High grad and hopeful University of South Florida student, is in a life-altering battle, and his mother and brothers stand firmly in his corner, along with a good number of New Tampa and Wesley Chapel residents.

Joey, 22, whose #AKidneyForJoey hashtag campaign to help him find a donor, drew a lot of attention earlier this year, including a story we wrote in our Apr. 8 issue.

Joey got his kidney, thanks to Miller, who at the time was a New Tampa resident and fledgling mixed martial artist.

And, for a few days — especially the first few days after his April 20 surgery — Joey was feeling terrific, hopeful that he had beaten Allport’s Syndrome, a genetic condition that causes hearing loss and kidney failure. In fact, his new kidney had started functioning immediately, even before doctors had a chance to close him up.

But by June, he had started feeling fatigued again. His esophagus was bothering him, and he thought it might be related to ulcers. According to Dana, she was told that her son was fine, and that his body was still

Neighborhood News

adjusting to the new kidney. His medications were tweaked, he was no longer on dialysis and Joey continued to recover, still confident he was inching closer to normal.

But, after helping his brothers fix a hole in the roof of their home, Joey says he felt dehydrated and weak.

“He spent the weekend curled up on the couch from pain,’’ Dana says.

He was taken to the hospital on July 5, where doctors found lesions on his esophagus. They were sent off for biopsies and Joey was sent home.

On July 9, the phone rang. “They just said he needed to get back to the hospital immediately,” Dana says.

When Dana and Joey returned to Tampa General, the news was bad — he had lymphoma, a form of cancer that affects the immune system.

Dana says the doctors told her the cancer was a quick and aggressive form, and a direct complication of the kidney transplant.

Joey remained in the hospital the rest of the

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believing he was getting closer to being in the clear.

It was during this time that Dana says she was told a forbearance agreement she had gotten, which would have delayed the mortgage payments on her family’s home while she went through the kidney donation process, was no longer approved. The mortgage company told her she was $15,000 behind and in foreclosure. She says a lawyer stepped forward and is currently helping her resolve the legal issue.

Friends and family came out to 900 Degree Woodfired PizThe home, she said, means za in the Shops at Wiregrass to help support Wesley Chapel’s a lot to her and the boys. That’s Joey Richman, just one of many events the local community why Joey was repairing the roof put together to help in Joey’s battle with lymphoma. ahead of a big storm. She is going through a difficult divorce, month, and he had to be taken off the imshe says, and this is where Dana and the boys mune suppressants he was on that prevented have decided to rebuild a new life. his body from attacking his new kidney.

Dana claims the kidney transplanted into her son was not a perfect match after all, It Takes A Village Dana wouldn’t want to be anyplace and that it had the virus that causes monoelse, she says. The outpouring of support she nucleosis. Because Joey was on immune received when Joey was in need of a kidney suppressants, there was nothing to stop the was breathtaking, but this time, it has been mono from spreading. even greater.

“One doctor told me there was a 1 perOrganized mostly through the cent chance of something like this happen11,000-member Wesley Chapel Community ing,’’ Dana says. “She said she hadn’t seen Facebook page, a number of fundraisers this in 20 years.” have been held by the likes of 900 Degrees Joey was crestfallen. “The diagnosis Woodfired Pizza (photos on this page), with was pretty traumatic for him,’’ Dana says. owner Steve Falabella giving 25 percent of all He told me, ‘No matter what I do, I keep sales on Aug. 23 to the family. winding up on death’s doorstep.’’’

“We raised right around $1,000 to help Dana says his condition quickly worsened, and it was “hour-by-hour” — his white that day,” Falabella, a New Tampa resident, says. “We plan to do more...maybe give a blood cells had bottomed out and he wasn’t portion of our proceeds for a week, instead responding at one point. of just for one day.”

The few moments of peace he and Other Wesley Chapel businesses, some his family had enjoyed immediately after See “Joey” on page 50! the surgery was now gone, after months of

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

35

New Tampa Author Publishes First Book, The Dark Hurts

By Celeste McLaughlin

John Phillips has lived in Cross Creek for more than 10 years with his wife, Cristy, and their two dogs, Princess and Zack.

After a career that included quite a bit of international travel, he finally checked a long-standing item off his bucket list.

He’s now the published author of a novel, entitled The Dark Hurts.

“About 14 years ago, when I was

Cross Creek resident John Phillips has inked his first novel, entitled The Dark Hurts.

36

doing a lot of international travel, the story developed in my mind,” says Phillips. “I wrote the first three chapters one night in Japan when I couldn’t sleep.”

It’s a fictional book, set in San Francisco, and Phillips describes it as being about the many different emotions in life. He says it’s the story of what a disaster can do, not only to a city, but also to a particular family.

In the process of promoting his selfpublished book, he was contacted by Focus on Women magazine, a Baltimore-area publication. He says his book was chosen to be featured on the magazine’s website by a panel of its readers. The Dark Hurts will be featured in the magazine’s online bookstore, and proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to the Afghan Women’s Fund, a charity the magazine supports with its sales.

“I’m pleased they’re using my book as a tool to raise money for a good cause,” says Phillips. “I’m more than happy to have a part in helping these women who have been through horrific experiences – they’ve been raped, mutilated, kidnapped and taken

away from their families. It’s my understanding that the Fund has returned several Afghan women to their families.”

Phillips is originally from Southern England and has a son and grandchildren in England. He says he moved to the U.S. in 1998 and is now a U.S. citizen.

His life is now dedicated to being a full-time author. He has two more books in the works, including The Piano Man, which will use the Polk County Sheriff’s Office as a setting. Phillips has met with Polk Sheriff Grady Judd to learn about the agency, and Sheriff Judd even sent Phillips a picture of himself with The Dark Hurts.

“I’m delighted with the response to my book,” says Phillips. “It was released

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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six weeks ago, and has several five-star reviews on Amazon.com in both the USA and the UK.” He says the reviews help him to see that his book is having its desired effect on readers, including one that says, in part, “[Phillips] has a gift for writing emotion onto the story. He is descriptive and thorough, without stalling out the story. There are layers here that intertwine into an awesome tapestry, solid and masterful. It is a great read and I look forward to more.”

To learn more about the book, or to enter the author’s selfie contest to win prizes such as a travel voucher and an Amazon gift card, visit Facebook. com/authorjphillips.

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Updating The Restaurants Listed In Our 2016 Dining Survey & Contest Sadly, and it’s totally my own fault, the Dining Survey & Contest form that appeared in our last New Tampa issue had some mistakes in it. In New Tampa, we neglected to include one of our regular advertisers — Ginza Endless Sushi & Hibachi — on our list, neglected to change the name of the old Biagio’s Pizza to its proper new name — Capri Pizza — and didn’t know that the former Sushi Raw had changed its name to Fong’s Sushi. And, in Wesley Chapel, we did not change the name of the old City Grill to its proper new name — O’Brien’s Irish Pub & Grill (see story on page 40). We have fixed those problems in this issue’s survey, so you can either send us an updated survey if you already submitted one, or just keep the choices you previously selected. And yes, we will continue to accept additional surveys, whether you fill them out here and mail them to us or fill this form out at NTNeighborhoodNews.com, until Friday, October 28!

Just for filling out the entry form on these two pages (37 & 38) and sending it by mail or email or filling it out online, you can win $50, $100 or even $200 in absolutely FREE dining at the restaurant of your choice, whether it’s located in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel or not!

To be eligible to win our Grand Prize (or either of the other two big dining prizes), you MUST vote for FIVE (5) restaurants in BOTH of the two categories on this page, and at least ONE (1) restaurant in AT LEAST HALF OF THE CATEGORIES ON THE NEXT PAGE or your entry will be disqualified and your votes will not count!

And yes, you can still write-in the names of the larger chain restaurants in any category, but we only provide the names of the “Mom&-Pops” because they don’t have the benefit of being able to afford regional and national TV, national magazine and local radio ads that the large chains have running all year-round. Please do not write in or vote for any restaurant more than once in any category, it just disqualifies every one of your votes. Please also do not write in a restaurant located in Wesley Chapel (zip codes 33543-45) as your favorite in New Tampa (zip code 33647) or vice-versa, as those votes will not count. Entries without enough categories filled in or with the same restaurant voted in every category will be disqualified. No purchase of any kind is necessary to win. — GN

Your FIVE Favorite Restaurants In New Tampa (NT) Your FIVE Favorite Restaurants In Wesley Chapel (WC)

(Number your 5 favorites #1-#5; You also may write-in your favorites not listed here in the spaces provided) (Number your 5 favorites #1-#5; You also may write-in your favorites not listed here in the spaces provided)

__Acropolis Greek (BBD/Oak Ramble) __Big Papa’s Pit (E. Bearss Ave., off BBD) __Burger 21 (Trout Creek off BBD) __Café Olé (Cross Creek Blvd.) __Cappy’s Pizza (City Plaza, Tampa Palms) __Capri Pizza (formerly Biagio’s; CC Blvd.) __Casa Ramos (Shoppes of Amberly, TP) __China City (City Plaza, TP) __China Wok (County Line Rd. off BBD) __Ciccio’s Cali (The Pointe @ Tampa Palms) __Cross Creek Deli (inside Shell station) __Fong’s Sushi (formerly Sushi Raw, TP) __Full Circle Pizza (Pebble Creek Coll.) __Fushia Asian (Shoppes of Amberly, TP) __Ginza Endless Sushi (County Line Rd.) __Hawkeye NYS Pizza (CC Blvd.@BP Gas) __Ho King (BBD/Highwoods) __Hoosiers Grille (in Heritage Isles CC) __Hunter’s Green Country Club __Kobé Japanese (Pebble Creek Collection) __Koizi Hibachi Grill (The Pointe @ TP) __Lanna Thai (Cross Creek Center) __Las Palmas Café (BBD/PC Coll.) __Liang’s Bistro (North Palms Vlg./BBD) __Little Greek (New Tampa Center) __Minerva Indian (New Tampa Center) __Mr. Dunderbak’s (Oak Ramble Plaza) __Mulligan’s Irish (@ Pebble Creek CC)

Neighborhood News

__New China King (CC Blvd. @ MB Rd.) __Amici Pizza (Grand Oaks Plaza, SR 54) __Arroy Thai (Pinebrook Plz/54) __Oakley’s Grille (North Palms Village) __Asian Buffet (BBD/Shoppes @ New Tampa) __Orchid Thai (The Pointe @ TP) __Peabody’s Billiards (Shoppes of Amberly) __Bagelicious & More (Freedom Plaza/54) __Petra Mediterranean (Highwoods Psrv.) __Best NY Pizza (Pinebrook Plaza/SR 54) __Pita’s Republic (County Line Rd. off BBD) __Bonsai Sushi (BBD/Shoppes @ New Tampa) __PJ Dolan’s Irish (E. Bearss Ave. off BBD) __Bosco’s Italian To Go (Freedom Plaza/54) __Saffron Indian Cuisine (Cross Creek Ctr) __Buttermilk Provisions (BBD/ FHWC) __Seasons Fresh Café (E. Bearss Ave./BBD) __Burger Monger (BBD/Shoppes @ New Tampa) __Chick & Peas Grill (Freedom Plz/54) __Señor T’s (Out of Business!) __China Taste (BBD/Shoppes at New Tampa) __Stonewood Grill (The Pointe @ TP) __China Wok (Village Market/BBD@54) __Sushi Avenue (E. Bearss Ave./BBD) __CineBistro (The Grove/Off Oakley/54) __Sushi Café (Highwoods Preserve) __Dempsey’s Steak House (Saddlebrook) __Sukhothai (Across from Muvico) __Tabla Indian Cuisine (BBD/Live Oak) __Dempsey’s Too Lounge (Saddlebrook) __Takara Sushi & Sake (Oak Ramble Plaza) __Don Pan Int’l Bakery (Shoppes @ NT ) __Gonna China (Hollybrook Plz, BBD@54) __Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club __GrillSmith (Wiregrass Mall) __Tarek’s Café (Shoppes of Amberly, TP) __Taste of NY Pizza (Highwoods Preserve) __Hibachi Express (Village Mkt/BBD@54) __Ho Wok (BBD next to Target) __Thai Ruby (Shoppes of Amberly/TP) __Hot Wok 88 (Town Centre/SR 54) __Top Thai (BBD/Live Oak) __Hungry Greek (across BBD from FHWC) __Vallarta’s (City Plaza, Tampa Palms) __Woodfired Pizza (E. Bearss Ave. off BBD) __Kwan Ming Bistro (SR 56) __Zaytoun Mediterranean (CC Blvd @ MB) __La Prima Pizza (BBD, next to Target) __Write-In (must name)_______________ __Latin Twist Café (across BBD from FHWC) __Write-In (must name)_______________ __Lexington Oaks Golf Club (off SR 54) __Write-In (must name)_______________ __Little Italy’s (SR 54/Lutz) __Write-In (must name)_______________ __Meadow Pte Café & Deli (C.L. Rd./MP) __Write-In (must name)_______________ __900º Woodfired Pizza (Wiregrass Mall)

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__NY NY Pizza (BBD in Seven Oaks) __O’Brien’s Irish Pub (WC Village Mkt) __OTB Café (Across BBD from FHWC) __PDQ (SR 56) __Pinchers Crab Shack (Wiregrass Mall) __PizzaMania (BBD/Shoppes @ New Tampa) __Poolside Café (Saddlebrook Resort) __PrimeBar (Wiregrass Mall) __Quail Hollow Country Club __Shang Hai Chinese (Eiland Blvd./off 54) __TD’s Sports Bar (Saddlebrook Resort) __365 Caffé Italiano (Wiregrass Mall) __Tokyo Grill/Sushi (Eiland Blvd./off 54) __Vallarta’s (Village Mkt, BBD@54) __Woody’s Pizza/Wings (Village Mkt) __Wolf’s Den (SR 56) __Yamato Japanese Stkhs (Wiregrass Mall) __Write-In (must name)_________________ __Write-In (must name)_________________ __Write-In (must name)_________________ __Write-In (must name)_________________ __Write-In (must name)_________________ Note- Please only put each numeral (#s 1-5) on each of the two lists on this page only once each, including any write-ins. Only one entry per person will be accepted.

We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to independent restaurants in NT & WC we somehow still forgot to include here (see story above).

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

37

Your Favorite Chinese Restaurant In New Tampa & Wesley Chapel (NT & WC; Pick or write-in one)

__Asian Buffet (Shoppes @ New Tampa, WC) __China City (City Plaza, TP) __China Taste (Shoppes @ New Tampa, WC) __China Wok (County Line Rd., off BBD) __China Wok (Village Mkt/BBD@54, WC) __Fushia Asian Bistro (Shps of Amberly, TP) __Gonna China (Hollybrook Plz, BBD@54) __Ho King (BBD/Highwoods)

__Café Olé (Cross Creek Blvd.) __Cantina (Cross Creek Blvd.) __Casa Ramos (Tampa Palms) __Don Pan Int’l Bakery (Shoppes @ NT ) __Las Palmas Café (BBD/Pebble Creek)

__Write-In (must name)_________________

(Pick or write-in one) __Meadow Pointe Café (County Line Rd.) __Acropolis (BBD/Oak Ramble) __Petra Mediterranean (Highwoods Prsv.) __Chick & Peas Grill (Freedom Plaza/54) __Hungry Greek (across BBD from FHWC) __Pita’s Republic (County Line Rd.) __Zaytoun Mediterranean (CC Blvd.) __Kabob House (BBD/Live Oak) __Little Greek (BBD/New Tampa Center) __Write-In (must name)_________________

(Pick or write-in one) __Sushi Café (BBD/Highwoods) __Asian Buffet (Shoppes @ New Tampa, WC) __Sukhothai (Across from Muvico) __Bonsai Sushi (Shoppes @ New Tampa, WC) __Fong’s Sushi (Shoppes of Amberly, TP) __Takara Sushi & Sake (BBD/Oak Ramble) __Ginza Endless Sushi (County Line Rd.) __Tokyo Grill/Sushi (Eiland Blvd./Publix) __Hibachi Express (Village Mkt/BBD@54) __Yamato Japanese __Kobé Japanese Steakhouse (BBD/PC) Seakhouse (Wiregrass Mall) __Koizi Hibachi Grill (Tampa Palms) __Sushi Avenue (E. Bearss Ave.) __Write-In (must name)_________________

Your Favorite Thai/Indian Restaurant In NT & WC

(Pick or write-in one) __Tabla Indian Cuisine (BBD/Live Oak) __Arroy Thai (S.R. 54, WC) __Lanna Thai (CC Blvd.) __Thai Ruby (Shoppes of Amberly, TP) __Minerva Indian (New Tampa Center) __Top Thai (BBD/Live Oak) __Saffron Indian Cuisine (CC Blvd.) __Write-In (must name)_________________ __Sukhothai (Across from Muvico)

Your Favorite Pizza Place In New Tampa & Wesley Chapel (Pick or write-in one)

__Little Italy’s (SR 54, Lutz) __900º Woodfired Pizza (Wiregrass Mall) __NY NY Pizza (BBD in Seven Oaks) __Peabody’s Billiards & Games (Amberly) __Taste of New York Pizza (Highwoods) __Woodfired Pizza (E. Bearss Ave.) __Woody’s Pizza/Wings (WC Village Mkt) __Write-In (must name)_________________

Your Favorite Hamburger In New Tampa & Wesley Chapel

(Pick or write-in one) __Burger Monger(BBD/Shoppes @ New Tampa) __Peabody’s Billiards & Games (Amberly) __Burger 21 (Trout Creek/BBD) __PJ Dolan’s Irish Pub (E. Bearss Ave.) __Dempsey’s Too Lounge (Saddlebrook) __Quail Hollow CC (Old Pasco Rd., WC) __GrillSmith (Wiregrass Mall) __Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club __Hoosiers Grille (@ Heritage Isles CC) __Tarek’s Cafe (Shoppes of Amberly, TP) __Hunter’s Green Country Club __Poolside Café (Saddlebrook) __Lexington Oaks Golf Club __TD’s Sports Bar (Saddlebrook) __Mulligan’s Irish Pub (Pebble Creek CC) __Oakley’s Grille (BBD/North Palms Vlg.) __Wolf’s Den (S.R. 56) __O’Brien’s Irish (Village Mkt/BBD@54) __OTB Café (Across BBD from FHWC)

38

(Pick or write-in one)

__Ho Wok (BBD next to Target) __Hot Wok 88 (Town Centre of WC) __Kwan Ming Bistro (S.R. 56) __Liang’s Bistro (North Palms/BBD) __New China King (CC Blvd. @ MB Rd.) __Shang Hai Chinese (Eiland Blvd./Publix)

Your Favorite Japanese/Sushi Restaurant In NT & WC

__Amici Pizza (Grand Oaks Plaza, SR 54) __Best NY Pizza (Pinebrook Plaza/S.R. 54) __Bosco’s Italian To Go (Freedom Plaza/54) __Cappy’s Pizza (City Plaza, TP) __Capri Pizza (CC Blvd.) __Ciccio’s Cali (The Pointe @ Tampa Palms) __Full Circle Pizza (Pebble Creek) __Hawkeye NYS Pizza (CC Blvd./BP) __La Prima Pizza (BBD, next to Target)

Your Favorite Latin/Mexican Restaurant In NT & WC

__Write-In (must name)_________________

__Latin Twist Café(across BBD from FHWC) __Señor T’s (Out of Business!) __Vallarta’s (City Plaza at Tampa Palms) __Vallarta’s (Village Mkt, BBD@54) __Write-In (must name)_________________

Your Favorite Greek/Mediterranean Restaurant In NT & WC

Your Favorite Bar, Tavern or Pub In New Tampa & Wesley Chapel

(Pick or write-in one) __Acropolis (BBD/Oak Ramble) __Peabody’s Billiards & Games (Amberly) __Heritage Isles CC Rest. (off CC Blvd.) __PJ Dolan’s Irish Pub (E. Bearss Ave.) __Ciccio’s Cali (The Pointe @ Tampa Palms) __Poolside Café (Saddlebrook) __CineBistro (The Grove/54 off Oakley) __PrimeBar (Wiregrass Mall) __Dempsey’s Steak House (Saddlebrook) __Quail Hollow Country Club __Dempsey’s Too Lounge (Saddlebrook) __Skinny’s Sports Bar (SR 54, WC) __GrillSmith (Wiregrass Mall) __Stonewood Grill & Tavern (Tampa Palms) __Halftime Sports Lounge (NT Center) __Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club __Hunter’s Green Country Club __TD’s Sports Bar (Saddlebrook) __Lexington Oaks Golf Club __The Brass Tap (Wiregrass Mall) __Linkster’s Tap Room (Highwoods) __Mulligan’s Irish Pub (Pebble Creek CC) __Write-In (must name)_________________ __O’Brien’s Irish (Village Mkt/BBD@54)

Your Other Favorites

(Write-in only one restaurant in each category below) Your Favorite Bakery In NT & WC Your Favorite Lunch In NT & WC _______________________________________ _______________________________________ Your Favorite Chain Restaurant In Your Favorite Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt/ Dessert Place In NT & WC New Tampa & Wesley Chapel _______________________________________ _______________________________________ Your Name _______________________________________________________________________ Your Community (Tampa Palms, Meadow Pointe, etc.) _____________________________ Your Mailing Address ____________________________________________________________ Your Daytime Phone #____________________________________________________________ Your Valid Email Address _______________________________________________________ Please submit BOTH pages by mail or at NTNeighborhoodNews.com by Friday, October 28, 2016!

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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O’Brien’s Of Wesley Chapel For Food, Fun, Football, Entertainment & More!

Cheeseburger & Pub Tots

Revamped bar area — Ask for Cherish

By Gary Nager

HOW MANY

restaurants have come and gone from the dining scene in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel? Too many (and too painful) to count is the easy answer.

So, whenever a new restaurant opens in our distribution areas, one of the first things I find myself asking myself is, “Do I really think this place can make it here?

Well, in the case of O’Brien’s Irish Pub & Grill — which opened a few months ago in the location in the Wesley Chapel Village Market previously occupied by City Grill (and Winners before that) — I believe the answer is a resounding yes. O’Brien’s, which is more than just an Irish pub, more than just a sports bar and more than just an entertainment venue, is a reasonably priced real restaurant with both traditional sports bar food and some Irish fare you can’t get anywhere else in our area. Unfortunately, even though I’ve now sampled most of O’Brien’s menu, I’m

40

just not happy with the pictures I have of the Irish dishes like the excellent fish & chips (I always order it with red cocktail sauce instead of the tartar sauce that is served with it), the Shepherd’s pie and the bangers (Irish sausage) and mashed potatoes with onions, mushrooms and O’Brien’s Guinness gravy.

One of my favorite dishes is the Murphy’s chicken sandwich, which you can get grilled or blackened. It comes with crisp bacon, melted Swiss, lettuce, tomato and onions, a split-top bun and served with your choice of homemade pub chips with Guinness gravy, pub fries or O’Brien’s soon-to-befamous pub tots — which are the best tater tots I’ve had recently.

Our office orders our tots extra, extra crispy, but you might want to start slowly and just order them extra crispy the first time.

Either way, they’re awesome.

I also really enjoy the pub club sandwich, which adds ham to the traditional turkey, bacon and cheese; both the Irish Cobb and traditional Greek salads, the prime rib and pub French dip sandwiches, the Rueben-like

Murphy’s Chicken Sandwich

Emerald Isle sandwich piled high with your choice of corned beef or turkey with melted swiss, sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing (I order the dressing on the side), and the flaky fisherman’s sandwich, which I usually order extra blackened (or try grilled or fried).

O’Brien’s also makes great hamburgers, from the no-frills Wesley Chapel burger to the Florentine burger with spinach and artichoke dip, blue cheese crumbles and bacon bits and the new shamrock burger, which is a grilled burger topped with corned beef and Swiss — and many more.

For starters, O’Brien’s has extra-crispy jumbo wings tossed in your choice of many different sauces, from Celtic tiger hot to sweet Thai chili to the new spicy honey sriracha.

Also available are Cajun and jerk wings.

There also are a couple of new starters on the menu, including the crispy Santa Fe chicken rolls, which are served with a spicy remoulade dipping sauce.

For dessert, my favorite item is called the “chocolate bombe,” which is an amazing iced chocolate mousse cake. Decadent.

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Some History & A Look Ahead

The first local O’Brien’s Irish Pub opened on N. Dale Mabry in Carrollwood 25 years ago, according to Mike Goodwin, who owns and operates the Wesley Chapel location with his brother Randy Goodwin and partners Randy Fairchild and Sean and Liz Lewis. Not really a chain, today there are four locations — each with its own tweaks of the basic menu — in Brandon, Northdale, Wesley Chapel and the Plant City location Mike Goodwin purchased three years ago.

The Wesley Chapel O’Brien’s should be your pro and college football headquarters, with its recently revamped bar area serving a variety of craft beers on draft, and one of my favorite Irish whiskeys — Powers — always on hand (all at lower prices than you’ll find at most other local restaurants, especially at the Shops at Wiregrass mall), plus 26 big-screen TVs strategically situated around the place and food and drink specials during every game.

Speaking of specials, O’Brien’s has something different for you just about every day.

On Monday, regular burgers are just

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Chocolate Bombe Dessert

Irish Cobb Salad

Blackened Fisherman’s Sandwich $6 and specialty burgers cost $8. Tuesday is Team Trivia night (7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m.), with 60-cent wings all day, $8.99 Miller Light, Coors Light & Yuengling pitchers.

Wednesday is Karaoke Night (starting at 8 p.m.) and Cheap Beer night ($2.50 domestic pints and $1 off imports), plus one kid 12 & under eats free with each adult meal purchased. Thursday is Ladies Night, 10 p.m.-close, where ladies pay only half their bar tab. There’s also $1 off Irish beers (like Smithwick’s) and $3 Fireball shots. And,

Neighborhood News

Santa Fe Chicken Rolls

there’s live music every Friday and Saturday night. Check the board inside O’Brien’s for the upcoming entertainment schedule.

O’Brien’s also is planning a week-long “Half Way to St. Patty’s Day” event the week of September 12-17. Call or stop in for details, but the partners agree it’ll be awesome.

O’Brien’s Irish Pub (5429 Village Market) is open Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-2 a.m., and 11 a.m.-midnight on Sun. For more information, please call 973-9988, or visit OBriensWesleyChapel.com.

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

Señor T’s Closes!

I was stunned to find out that Señor T’s, located in the former Romano’s Macaroni Grill building, suddenly shut its doors in August, after less than a year in business.

We originally heard that Senor T’s was closing temporarily, but the restaurant shut down instead. Calls to Señor T’s are now directed to a voicemail that does not identify the restaurant, just the phone number.

And, speaking of those mom-&-pop places, help out as many as you can by entering our properly updated 2016 Reader Dining Survey & Contest, where you can

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win a $50, $100, or even $200 gift card to the restaurant of your choice in the Tampa Bay area! Turn to pages 37 & 38 to enter this year’s contest!

VOM FASS Opens!

The first VOM FASS store opened in Rensenburg, Germany in 1994 and today, there are 280 locations in 33 countries around the world — including the new store in the Shops at Wiregrass mall. That location hosted a well-attended (photo, above left) Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) ribbon-cutting on Aug. 13.

The VOM FASS concept is “Look.

Taste. Enjoy.” the finest vinegars and oils, wines, selected liqueurs and spirits – drawn straight from the barrel, clay jug or glass bottle for each customer. The VOM FASS brand is known for the consistently outstanding quality of its regionally-sourced products and has been putting a smile on customers’ faces ever since.

I was sad I missed the opening, but VOM FASS is definitely a unique concept and a welcome addition to the mall, especially the fact that there are so many unique whiskey options — with the single-

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

Neighborhood News

malt Scotches and Irish whiskeys being my favorites so far — and, even though it’s all a bit pricy, I know you can’t find much better gift ideas for anyone who enjoys not only whiskey, but vodka, rum, wine and VOM FASS’s huge variety of flavor-infused liqueurs. Plus, the infused balsamic vinegars and oils will definitely combine to make your best salad dressing ever!

VOM FASS Wiregrass is located at 28249 Paseo Dr. For info, call 907-2167 or visit Wiregrass.VomFassUSA.com.

White Pear Consignment Now

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Open In The Fancy Frock!

Congratulations also go out to Nanette Del Valle, on the Grand Opening and WCCC ribbon cutting of The White Pear Formal Consignment Boutique, located inside The Fancy Frock Bridal & Formal Boutique, at the corner of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. and County Line Rd., in the same plaza as Verizon (right photo on the previous page by Steven John Photography).

The White Pear ribbon-cutting event was unique because Del Valle had several local ladies modeling many of her spectacular formal dresses that are suitable for weddings and other formal occasions.

“So many of us have dresses in our closets that we’ve worn once and never worn again,” Del Valle told an attentive crowd of more than 100 people who crammed their way into The Fancy Frock for the unique fashion show and refreshments.

The White Pear Formal Consignment is located at 1045 BBD. For info, call 995-

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1732 or visit WhitePearBridal.com.

Ginza Cuts A Ribbon!

Although it actually has been open for several months, we also were on hand for the official Grand Opening and WCCC Ribbon-Cutting event on Aug. 25 at Ginza Endless Sushi & Hibachi, located between Winn-Dixie and LA Fitness in the plaza located off County Line Rd. at BBD. There was plenty of delicious food on-hand, as well as more than 50 Chamber members (photo above), many of whom stayed for dinner.

Lebanese Food On The Way!

Although we didn’t have any additional info at our press time, a sign in the former Subway location in The Walk at Highwoods Preserve plaza on BBD in New Tampa says that coming soon is Paramount Lebanese Kitchen, which will be the New Tampa/ Wesley Chapel area’s 10th Middle Eastern restaurant. Look for details soon. — GN

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For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

45

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For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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Licensed in Florida, Virginia and Pennsylvania NMLS#247859

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New Tampa & Wesley Chapel CLEANING SERVICES ICARE HOUSE CLEANING Free estimates. We use our own supplies, excellent references, cleaning New Tampa and Wesley Chapel for 15 years, affordable & reliable, satisfaction guaranteed!!! Family operated, affordable & reliable, local business. Call today for your free, no obligation quote, (813) 531-1917.

POWER HOUSE CLEANING SERVICES. Residential cleaning weekly, bi-weekly, monthly & occasional. One time, deep cleaning, move in/move outs, real estate, holiday and events. Owner operator with personal care! Licensed and Insured. For free in-home estimate, call 813-356-8287 or e-mail powerclean16@ gmail.com. You will be powerfully pleased!

B CLEANING SERVICES: Over fourteen 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 D-ULTRA CLEANING SERVICE. We have our own supplies and more than 300 clients in New Tampa! For more info, Call 758-9710.

ANNA’S HOUSEKEEPING. $68 introductory special, Mon-Wed. Cleaning, Laundry, You Name It! Make your list, put us to work! We have private housekeeper rates with agency backup coverage! A BBB-Accredited Business Servicing Florida since 1991. Licensed and all housekeepers are background checked.

Call (813) 985-1150.

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) 857-5400 or visit TranquilityPoolService.com. New customers get ONE MONTH FREE! ALL-STAR POOL SERVICE & REPAIR. Expert repairs and installations of pumps, motors, filters, timers, salt and ozone generators. Marcite for $2,400. Tile repair and acid washes, paver and river rock sealing, pressure washing and deck repair, paver and eurocote decks. Mention this ad and receive $69 pool service.

Call or text for details: 813-244-7077. See our display ad. www.allstarpoolsoftampabay.com

SPACE AVAILABLE Serenity Salon & Spa Suites, Wesley Chapel. 1 suite available for rent. Call for details: 813-3125247 or 813-997-6302. Great location!

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Classifieds

HOME IMPROVEMENT 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.

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 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: 813-784-5999.

MILLENNIUM HOME REPAIR.Professional Handyman Service. Services include: 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 installed, Re-sealing baths & showers, TV mounting & more. Call 813-400-1408 or email TYCOONUNION@YAHOO.COM. CONTRACTOR. Kitchen and bathroom remodeling or any major repairs. Floor, windows & door installation.

Licensed, insured & bonded.

LICENSE # CRC 1331258 Call Pablo for a free estimate: 813.391.9644. www.innovativeresidentialremodeling.com

PET SERVICES CAT SITTING. Tampa Cat Lady Professional CatSitting Service. Cats are happiest in their own home, surrounded by familiar sights, sounds, & smells. When you are away, we feed, cuddle, & play with your kitties & clean & dispose of litter.

Insured, bonded, & Red-Cross certified in pet first aid/CPR. You can call 813-994-9449 or submit a service inquiry at TampaCatLady.com.

HELP WANTED $HOME CLEANERS NEEDED$ Earn $252 weekly part time up to $400+ full time. Work your area and schedule. Car and phone required.

Anna’s House Keeping since 1991.

Call 813-985-1150.

NOW HIRING SERVERS. Call 813-907-1688 for more information. Or apply in person at Ginza Endless Asian Cuisine & Sushi Bar, 6417 E. County Line Rd. #104.

AWARD WINNING REAL ESTATE TEAM with an overflow of serious prospects. Seeking professional full-time real estate agents who want to expand their horizons, make more money and have a fulfilling life.

Great training available. Keller Williams Tampa Properties. Contact Annette Bohannon - 813-431-2840.

SPANISH-SPEAKING MEDICAL BILLER wanted for New Tampa med. equip. company. Gathers billing info; checks if complete. Bills insurance carriers. Resolves disputed claims, discrepancies. Data entry skills, Microsoft Office proficiency, time mgmt, organization, professionalism, cust. svc & attn. to detail. Send resume: Richard.Jones@solarusmedical.com.

ROUTE SALES, MEDICAL. Fills customer orders by driving to customer accounts within FL; unloading & shelving product, inventory verification. Increase sales volume by providing cust. service and suggestive selling techniques. Overnight travel 2 nights/month. Send resume to: richard.jones@solarusmedical.com.

MEDICAL RECEPTIONIST with computer experience in intergy (greenway) practice management system.

Knowledge of insurances. Busy phones. M-F 9-6, 35 hours. Also, L.P.N. or M.A. for allergist office. Please fax resume to 813-558-9421 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.

PIZZAMAKERS & LINE/PREP COOKS WANTED (exp’d. preferred) at New Tampa’s favorite authentic Chicago-style pizza place. Bring Resume during business hours to Full Circle Chicago Pizza at 19651 BBD Blvd. (in the Pebble Creek Collection).

PART-TIME HOME HELP-ELDERLY (New Tampa).

We need part-time home help (12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Mon., Tues., Fri., and Sat.) for light housekeeping, making meals/organizing, light assistance of ederly person with slight disability. Must have reliable transportation. Criminal backgroud check required. Email resume to s.mesaros@yahoo.com.

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.

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

Neighborhood News

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.

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.

AMERICAN PRIDE LAWN CARE SERVICE, LLC. Our services include weekly lawn maintenance with mulching decks on all mowers, precision edging, string trimming, hedge, shrub, palm & tree trimming. We also offer landscaping, pruning & sod replacement. Free estimates. Licensed and Insured. We are an Owner/ Operator Company built on service and trust. References available. For more info, call (813) 458-4778.

HOMETEAM LAWNCARE LLC High-Quality Professional Services: Weekly or Bi-Weekly Year-Round FullSvc LawnCare 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.

ERRANDS & PERSONAL SERVICES GET A RIDE. Don’t Have a Ride? Don’t Want to Leave Your Car? Shouldn’t Drive? We Drive You & Your Car Home! Night Clubs, Corporate Events, Sporting Events, Concerts, Appointments, Airport or stranded. Call Jay at (813) 966-1530.

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TURN YOUR CLUTTER INTO CASH! Estate sales, inventory liquidations & appraisal services. We evaluate & appraise your treasures, then get you top dollar!

We’ll sell your stuff onsite or online. We do the work & you get the cash. Contact us today @ 813-4285793 to find out how!

Call (813) 910-2575 to order your Classified or Display Ad today!

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For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 •Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

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“Joey”

Continued from pg. 35 selling jewelry, massages, clothing alterations, shirts and aesthetic treatments, donated portions of their sales during August to the Richmans.

Pinot’s Palette on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in Wesley Chapel, hosted an event on Aug. 27, with 20 percent of sales donated.

There is a GoFundPage at GoFundMe. com/akidneyforjoey, and the community has pitched in to organize a “meal train” to bring daily meals to the family through the TakeThemAMeal.com site. “It’s been amazing,’’ Dana says.

And the news is getting better.

Joey now is undergoing chemotherapy.

He is halfway through a six-round dosage,

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receiving one every three weeks. The tumors are shrinking; his hair has started to fall out.

“He’s doing good,’’ Dana says.

His new kidney is functioning at 100 percent. He is back on low-dose immune suppressants, and the mono is gone. Dana says the doctors tell her that there is a good chance he will keep the kidney, and a 7080 percent chance they will kill the cancer, although there is a higher risk from here on out he may redevelop it in the future.

Joey’s spirits are up and he hopes to take some online courses this semester at USF. “He just wants to be healthy and normal again, it’s all he wants,’’ Dana says.

“He’s one tough cookie.”

To donate, visit GoFundMe.com/ akidneyforjoey. Also, check out the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page for more about those who have helped.

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 24, Issue 19 • September 9, 2016 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com

Neighborhood News

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