Volume 17 Issue 23
Inside: Kicking Off The New Tampa Relay & A Visit To Café Olé!
November 13, 2009
The Direct-Mail Newspaper Serving New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Since 1993! THIS INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER IS DIRECTLY MAILED TO: NEW TAMPA: Arbor Greene • Cory Lake Isles • Cross Creek • Grand Hampton • Heritage Isles • Hunter’s Green • Hunter’s Key • K-Bar Ranch • Lake Forest • Live Oak Preserve • Pebble Creek • Richmond Place • Tampa Palms • West Meadows WESLEY CHAPEL: Aberdeen • Belle Chase • Brookside • Chapel Pines • Country Walk • Lexington Oaks • Meadow Pointe • New River • Northwood • Pinewalk • Pine Ridge • Saddlebrook • Saddleridge Estates • Saddlewood • Seven Oaks • Lakes at Northwood • The Villages of Wesley Chapel • Wesley Pointe • Westbrook Estates • Williamsburg
City Officials Moving Ahead On Cross Creek Blvd. Widening By Michael Smith City of Tampa Transportation Department officials held a meeting at the New Tampa Regional Library Nov. 3 to get input from the public regarding the planned widening of the eastern end of Cross Creek (CC) Blvd. The plan calls for the widening of the 2.3-mile section of CC Blvd. between W. Cory Lake Blvd. and Morris Bridge Rd. from two lanes to four, at a projected cost of around $10 million. According to project manager Nina Mabilleau, the public meeting was just one of the requirements that became necessary after the city received a $1.3-million grant for the project from the Federal Highway Administration (FHA). Mabilleau says that the city originally had hoped to be able to apply the federal money towards construction of the project, but instead, federal rules stipulate that the money had to be used for a Project Development and
Environmental (PD&E) study, at a cost of around $500,000, and that the remaining $830,000 can only be used for the design phase of the project. “We don’t necessarily [have to] do a PD&E study for just a city project,” Mabilleau says. “But now, we’re in the federal loop. Once it becomes a federal project, you have to do a PD&E.” Mabilleau notes that the city did Although preliminary studies for the widening of the eastern portion of Cross not do a PD&E study before it Creek Blvd. are finished, the City of Tampa doesn’t yet have the money to build it. widened the portion of CC Blvd. from Clay Gully Creek to Arbor Greene Attendance at the public meeting that all of the questions and comments Dr.,, which was completed in 2007 at was light, with fewer than two dozen from the public will be added to the a cost of around $6 million. That projresidents among the city employees official documentation for the project. ect also was completed relatively quick- and consultants from URS, the firm Mabilleau says that most of the public ly, but the federal requirements have which the city hired to perform the comments she has received are from added significantly to the schedule for PD&E study. Two residents asked people who are anxious for the project widening the remaining portion of the questions about the project, one of to move forward. whom asked about the new traffic sigThe official public comment periroadway, which the city had hoped to nals that will be added, and another od ended November 16, but complete have completed by 2011. But now, asking about potential flooding along details about the project, including the however, since the city still doesn’t the roadway. public comments and the results of the have all of the money it needs to build City transportation manager Jean PD&E and other studies, are available the project, construction is only tentaDorzback, who led the meeting, said at CrossCreekWidening.com. tively scheduled to begin in 2012.
School District Is Offering Swine Flu Vaccinations To Students
NEIGHBORHOOD MAGAZINE!
Arbor Greene Burglar Is Arrested, Local Photographer Jessica Dana Turns Moments Doctor Wins ‘Best In Bay’ Award, A Look Into Memories, ‘Arts & Crafts Under The At A Top Notch Pest Control Company, A Palms’ Wrap-Up & A Visit To The ‘New’ High School Football Update & More! Café Olé On Cross Creek Blvd.!
See pages 3-29!
See pages 31-52!
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LOCAL NEWS, BUSINESS, SPORTS & EDUCATION
Although Health Department nurses will continue to visit high school and middle school campuses during the coming weeks, elementary-level students are being handled differently. Whereas middle and high school students only have to have a consent form signed by their parents in order to receive the vaccination, elementary-age students must actually be accompanied by their parent or guardian to receive it. So, on November 2, the District also began offering vaccinations at several After-School Vaccination Centers, which will be located at rotating sites around the county. The first four AfterSchool Vaccination Centers were at See “Swine Flu” on page 4.
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448 middle school students were vaccinated. That equals only 29 percent of the high school’s student enrollment and 35 percent of the middle school’s enrollment, and School District spokesperson Linda Cobbe says that has been about the average District-wide since the vaccination program began. “We’ve been getting between 25percent and 37-percent participation,” Cobbe says. “Frankly, though, we were hoping for bigger numbers.” Cobbe says that more students being vaccinated reduces the likelihood of a major outbreak after the first of the year, when the regular flu season “officially” begins and the number of swine flu cases is also expected to rise. So, the District will continue the program throughout the fall semester, Cobbe says, until students in every part of the county have had the opportunity to receive the vaccination.
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Although swine flu has not yet manifested itself in the huge number of cases predicted by public health officials when the virus was first identified, the Hillsborough County School District has begun offering swine flu vaccinations to all public school students in the county, hoping to prevent a major outbreak of the potentially deadly H1N1 virus once flu season begins in earnest.
The District began its vaccination program at several exceptional student education (ESE) centers on October 20, with nurses from the Hillsborough County Health Department providing the injections, and then expanded the program to high schools and middle schools on October 26. One of the first public school campuses to offer the vaccines was the Freedom High/Liberty Middle School campus in New Tampa, where 681 high school students and
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By Michael Smith
For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 17, Issue 23 • November 13, 2009 • www.NTNeighborhoodNews.com
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