Volume 22 Issue 25
Inside:
Did You Win A Clearwater Beach Stay?!
December 6, 2014
See Neighborhood Magazine!
Named The 2014 ‘Small Business Of The Year’ By The Wesley Chapel Chamber Of Commerce! THIS INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY NEWS MAGAZINE IS DIRECTLY MAILED TO: NEW TAMPA: Arbor Greene • Cory Lake Isles • Cross Creek • Easton Park • Grand Hampton • Heritage Isles • Hunter’s Green • Hunter’s Key • K-Bar Ranch Lake Forest • Live Oak Preserve • Pebble Creek • Richmond Place • Tampa Palms • The Hammocks • West Meadows WESLEY CHAPEL: Aberdeen • Belle Chase • Bridgewater • Brookside • Chapel Pines • Country Walk • Lexington Oaks • Meadow Pointe • New River • Northwood • Pinewalk • Pine Ridge Saddlebrook • Saddleridge Estates • Saddlewood • Seven Oaks • The Lakes at Northwood • The Villages of Wesley Chapel • Watergrass • Wesley Pointe • Westbrook Estates • Williamsburg
Hillsborough Approves Agreement To Install Signal On County Line Rd.
Improvements that will benefit both drivers and pedestrians are on their way to County Line Rd., which serves as the border between New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. And, one of those improvements could be completed as early as January. On November 13, the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners approved an Interlocal Agreement from Pasco Country (sent to Hillsborough in September) that will allow for a new traffic signal at County Line Rd. and Northwood Palms Blvd. Under the agreement, Pasco will design and construct a temporary, wooden-pole traffic signal at the busy intersection at no cost to Hillsborough. Pasco Traffic Operations manager Robert Reck says that the plans for the light have been completed and the next step is sending the design to Hillsborough for approval and to obtain right-of-way use and lane closure permits. “Once the permits are issued by Hillsborough County, we should be starting construction within two weeks,” Reck says, adding that his department already has all of the necessary materials to construct the signal and will be erecting it using an inhouse crew. Reck also notes that, since the signal is technically a temporary one, it only will take
about two weeks to put into place, which means the entire project could be completed by early January 2015, depending upon how quickly Hillsborough issues its permits. A traffic study by Pasco engineers found that the intersection warrants a signal, meeting several Federal requirements, with nearly 14,000 vehicles using the intersection during an average 24-hour cycle.
Pebble Creek residents should see some relief on their future utility bills, as Hillsborough County has approved a deal to purchase the community’s private water utility service, Pluris, which proposed enormous rate hikes in 2013. After months of negotiations, a deal has been reached between the county and Pluris to convert Pebble Creek residents to county water customers. The
By Matt Wiley
deal was approved 7-0 at the November 13 Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting. “The deal has been approved and we are moving forward in a positive direction,” says recently re-elected (see our election recap on page 4) Dist. 2 Comm. Victor Crist, who was reelected on Nov. 4 to represent the New Tampa area on the BOCC. “Pebble Creek residents can look forward to see-
Local News, Business & Education Updates
Neighborhood Magazine
Foot Traffic Improvements
In addition to the new signal, a multiuse path that currently dead-ends along the north (Pasco County) side of County Line Rd. soon could be extended, allowing for uninterrupted pedestrian traffic from Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. to Northwood Palms Blvd. On November 18, the Pasco BOCC approved an agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to pay for and construct an eight-foot-wide multi-use path from Northwood Palms Blvd. (located east of the entrance to The Hammocks townhomes) east to where the current eight-foot-wide path dead-ends, just west of Big Creek Dr. (the entrance to The Lakes at Northwood community), on the north side of County Line Rd. County documents indicate that the path extension originally was named as a
possible project that could be funded with the Penny for Pasco program (a one-cent sales tax used to fund county projects). However, since the 1,600-foot project to connect the paths doesn’t require the purchase of any rightof-way, the Pasco Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) submitted the project to FDOT two years ago to see if the agency would foot the bill. In the map above, the future traffic signal at County Line Rd. and FDOT has funding set aside Northwood Palms Blvd. is indicated with the red circle, while the footpath extension on the north side of the road is outlined in yellow. for the project in its five-year plan, but to cost about $25,000, with actual conto secure those funds, the Pasco BOCC first struction estimated at more than $260,000. had to approve a Local Agency Program Pasco is responsible for submitting the (LAP) agreement with FDOT, which it did project’s design to FDOT by no later than at the Nov. 18 meeting. December of 2015 so that construction can The design for the project is expected begin in 2016.
Hillsborough County To Acquire Pebble Creek Water Service For $14M
Also Inside This Issue!
Shawn Harrison Wins Rematch Of New Tampa Residents, Pasco Approves Final Extension For Wiregrass Baseball Facility, Plus Lots Of Local Business Features & More!
Reviews of Little Greek & City Grill, Our 2014 Dining Survey & Contest Results & More Neighborhood Nibbles & Business Bytes!
Pages 3-42
Pages 43-60
ing some relief. Help is on the way.” Back in June, the BOCC moved to enter into “good faith” negotiations with the Dallas-based private water and waste water service to acquire the service in Pebble Creek, as well as the East Lake neighborhood (located near the Tampa Hard Rock Casino). During the Nov. 13 meeting, Hank Ennis from the county attorney’s office told the BOCC that the combined appraised value of the two services was $13.2 million and offers from both parties arrived at a negotiated price of $14.1 million. Originally, Pluris had countered with a selling price of more than $22 million. Hillsborough County Public Utilities director George Cassady told commissioners that, depending upon how quickly the agreement is signed by
both parties (which had not yet been completed at our press time), Pebble Creek residents could become Hillsborough County water utility customers by as early as January 2015. “We tried to make every effort to make this transaction happen quickly,” Cassady said, adding that his department also is looking into providing a credit to customers for the difference of what they could’ve been paying as Hillsborough customers for the past several months. If not for the legal process, he said, Pebble Creek residents could have become Hillsborough customers much sooner. See “PC Water” on page 10.