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digital distribution by Michael Eng | Editor
Plant City High students enjoy high-tech yearbooks Plant City High School is the first high school in the county to utilize a mobile phone app to augment its yearbook coverage. Plant City High School senior Beth Pengler focuses her mobile phone’s camera at an image featuring the 2013 Homecoming Court in the school’s 2013-14 yearbook. In less than a second, the phone reacts, bringing the image to life with a video clip of the court’s crowning. Pengler, yearbook editor-in-chief, smiles as the video plays. As students file into the room to grab their copies of the yearbook, released last week, she knows they are taking with them something special. And something no other highschoolers in the area will enjoy. Plant City is the first high school in Hillsborough County to supplement its print yearbook with digital content through an video app
called Aurasma. Much like QR codes, the app recognizes specific images throughout the book and will respond with additional video clips. Currently, the book has about 10 photos that will trigger Aurasma video clips, but Pengler and her yearbook staff plan to add more soon. “We saw it (the app) at some trainings at (yearbook) camp, and we thought it would be really cool,” she says. “So far, we’ve been getting really great feedback (about the yearbook); it’s been received really well.” Last week’s yearbook release was the culmination of more than a year of work for Pengler, her fellow editors and staff, and yearbook adviser Jennifer Hamilton. Planning actually begins at the end of the previous school
ONLINE EXTRA: To see the Plant City High School yearbook’s Aurasma app in action, visit PlantCityObserver.com.
year, and by August, staffers already are snapping photos and gathering content for the annual publication. This year’s theme, “Our Turn,” places the spotlight on this year’s students while paying homage to Plant City graduates of the past century. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the construction of the 1914 Plant City High School Community Building, the staff worked with the Plant City Photo Archives and History Center to include more than 100 historical photos within the book. “Ultimately, our goal is for the students to be happy,” Hamilton said. “It’s a student-run program that’s intended to please students. Fortunately, the administration has been so generous and let us be as creative as we want.” Pengler signed up for yearbook her freshman year — out of necessity. “I wanted to do orchestra, but it
Michael Eng
Editors Emily Peker, Beth Pengler, Kellen Morris and editor-in-training Daytona Dey are proud of the yearbook they helped create for their classmates. wouldn’t fit in my schedule,” she said. But, the experience proved to be a perfect fit. Pengler remained on yearbook staff all four years of her high school career and said she will draw from the skills she learned as she begins studying for a nursing degree at Hillsborough Community College. “I’ve learned so much about time management,” she said. “And also about how to work with different personalities.” Moreover, Pengler said she is particularly proud that she helped cre-
ate books that will sit on classmates’ bookshelves for decades to come. “It’s crazy to think about that,” she said. “It’s an odd comparison, but it’s like having a kid. There’s so much dedication and work put in, and when it’s all done, it really memorializes everybody who worked on it, too.” Now that the 2013-14 book is complete, Pengler and her fellow yearbook seniors will use the rest of the school year to train their replacements. The staff also will begin planning next year’s annual. Contact Michael Eng at meng@ plantcityobserver.com.
WATER WORKS by Amber Jurgensen | Associate Editor
Midtown fountain to add European flair to Plant City The white marble fountain will be the centerpiece for the Village Green amenity. The mechanics and pumping system will go in first. The park, situated between South Wheeler and Evers streets, is important to the Midtown redevelopment vision. Once the fountain is installed, other assets can be added. Brick pavers will serve as diagonal paths from the block corners to the fountain. The park also will include wrought-iron benches, decorative lighting and matching trash receptacles. All the walkways will be lined with trees, which will be chosen for their phytoremediation properties to continue to clean and restore the once-contaminated site where Gro-Mor Fertilizer used to operate. “The park will make the site more sellable in terms of redevelopment,” Collins said. Collins was involved in redeveloping Munn Park, in Lakeland. “It’s really fun to do these projects,” Collins said. “There’s a lot of community involvement. People tell me they’ll drive by to check up on the progress. They’ve seen all the dirty work with the clean up. Now, they’ll get to see the pretty part.” The park won’t only be an attractive asset to potential investors. It also will serve as another recreational area close to the downtown area. Historic Downtown shop owners can enjoy the park on their breaks. And with the launching of new downtown events sponsored by the city, such as a food truck rally and costume 5K, a new park will be an ideal gathering area. Contact Amber Jurgensen at ajurgensen@plantcityobserver.com.
The fountain will be the centerpiece for the Village Green.
fond farewell
by Amber Jurgensen | Associate Editor Amber Jurgensen
In addition to his work as a police officer, Brent Meyers has had a line of interesting jobs, including serving in the U.S. Navy and hitting the squared circle as a professional wrestler.
Officer reflects on 25 years with Tampa Police Department Plant City resident Brent Meyers retired April 11, from the Tampa Police Department. What’s next? A barbecue food truck, of course. When police officer Brent Meyers got a call about a sixfoot rattlesnake in a back yard, he didn’t believe it. In his 25 years at the Tampa Police Department, he had taken numerous calls about vermin and alligators — all larger than life. But, he prepared himself anyway, making a noose out of a broomstick at the fire department from which he was stationed. When he arrived at the home, kids who were attending a birthday were staring at the snake through a glass door. The homeowner, who, incidentally, was his assistant chief, wasn’t exaggerating. The snake measured six feet, and it looked like it had just devoured a rabbit. Its venomous eyes squinted at the children inside. Meyers took the opportunity to snag it with his makeshift noose. “They still talk about that to this day at the department,” Meyers said. After a long run, Meyers, a Plant City resident, retired April 11, from the Tampa Police Department. During his time, Meyers served in a variety of roles with the department and preferred to be out on the streets rather than in the office. His hard work and dedication earned him numerous awards throughout his career. With a taste for danger, he was on the X-Ray Squad in the 1990s, for which he patrolled
the government housing areas. In a short period of time, the squad was able to bring in hundreds of drug users and dealers, as well as confiscate money and cars. Meyers received an award for his work. In another perilous position, Meyers and some other officers ran into a burning apartment to save a family’s children. It was so hot, the ceiling had begun to melt onto them. “As an officer, your first instinct is to get in there and save the kids — not think about the dangers,” Meyers said. “Then after, you realize how dangerous it was.” For his efforts, Meyers was recognized for his courage. On the safer side, Meyers founded the Ask a Cop program, after noticing at meetings with the public that they still had many questions about police work. Meyers traveled to grocery stores, safety days at schools and even shopping malls with his booth and banner. And yes, Meyers’ efforts garnered him yet another award. Meyers also received four safe-driving awards for having no accidents over a five-year period, was a Master Shooter for 25 years and was one of the first on the bicycle squad. He also is an original member of the Mass Instant Response Team, which was deployed during riots, and, toward the
end of his career, served as a school resource officer. “That’s what I love about law enforcement,” Meyers said. “You can do something for five years and then you can do something else without moving jobs.” But Meyers is no stranger to random, exciting vocations. After he graduated from high school, he joined the U.S. Navy. But, motion sickness put an end to his service, and he returned home and worked at Mosaic. That’s when he met a friend, who suggested he go to wrestling school in Tampa. Meyers tried out the school and was hooked. “I didn’t like the behindthe-scenes stuff too much, but the actual wrestling really interested me,” Meyers said. “You learned all the holds and punches without killing each other.” Under the monicker “Sam Lee,” named for his daughter Samantha, Meyers had his first television appearance fighting Lex Luger. To this day, he still gets recognized by faithful fans. Just a couple weeks ago, while he was directing traffic at his
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school, a truck pulled over and asked for an autograph. And students are completely captivated with his glamorous past. “When I do presentations at school, no matter how much I talk about law enforcement, they want to know about wrestling,” Meyers said. Meyers’ life has been full of hazardous careers. “I want to make sure I give all credit to God,” Meyers said. “The Lord has guided me through all of my dangerous jobs.” But retirement will give him an avenue to practice something a little less treacherous — barbecuing. Meyers is a master judge with the Florida Bar-BQue Association. This year, he plans to open a food truck and travel under the new name of Brent’s Barbecue. Retirement also will give him a little more time to spend with his wife, Paula, and his grown children, Samantha, Hayley and Jay, and continue recovering from his five-year battle with pancreatitis. “The love my wife has shown — it’s gotten me through,” Meyers said. “Because of her, I’ve been able to keep going.” Contact Amber Jurgensen at ajurgensen@plantcityobserver. com.
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Work already has begun to carve Plant City’s newest park — Midown’s Village Green — out of a piece of vacant land just south of downtown. City officials hope to complete the project by October, but before landscaping and other features can be added, a fountain — the centerpiece of the park — has to be installed. Although no date has been set, the fountain — which was ordered from a company in South Florida and originally crafted in Europe from white Italian marble — should arrive in the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World any day now. In a unanimous vote in February, city commissioners voted for the fountain out of two different options. The rejected fountain had a 12- to 18-inch-tall solid wall around the base. The approved fountain has a decorative chain with safety bollards around the base. The three-tier fountain is designed not to have any standing water. Its outer edges will feature a pebbleladen surface that would slope toward a central drain, and the only pooling of water would be about onehalf-inch deep and occur only at the base of the fountain’s center. It costs about $160,000. “We looked at what they wanted and presented them with the two designs,” Director of Community Services Karen Collins, said. “They had a clear direction in their minds. They had been discussing it for a long time.” Because the fountain has six separate pieces, it will have to be assembled in the park using a special truck.
‘I want to make sure I give all credit to God. The Lord has guided me through all of my dangerous jobs.’ — Brent Meyers