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LAND O’ LAKES/LUTZ EDITION
Charter panel is all white, mostly male By Kathy Steele
ksteele@lakerlutznews.com
A 15-member charter advisory panel that will decide the future of Pasco County’s governing structure is in place. And Pasco commissioners approved a contract to pay a private Tallahassee consultant $60,000 to guide its efforts during the coming months. But the panel’s all white, and nearly allmale make-up came under fire at the commissioners regular meeting in Dade City on March 10. Each Pasco County Commissioner appointed two members, plus an alternate to the panel. Pasco’s five state legislators also weighed in, with one appointment each. Commissioner Mike Moore got some pushback for his selection of a county law enforcement officer supervised by Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco. “I have concerns with a member of (Nocco’s) team being on the committee,” said Chairman Ted Schrader. “I think it would be appropriate to replace him with someone else.” Moore defended Pasco Maj. Mel Eakley as
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B INSIDE, PAGE 1B
the right choice based on Eakley’s credentials in law enforcement and his service as a military veteran. “I kind of take offense to saying we don’t want anyone on the board who is an everyday average citizen,” he said. See CHARTER, page 7A
• Commission Chairman Ted Schrader appointed Billy E. Brown and John J. Gallagher to the panel, with Cliff McDuffie, as alternate • Commissioner Mike Moore appointed Mel Eakley and Gary Bradford, with Joseph Poblick, as alternate • Commissioner Kathryn Starkey appointed Candace Glewen and Dewey Mitchell, with Dominic Scannavino, as alternate • Commissioner Mike Wells Jr., appointed Steve Booth and Tim Holladay, with Jim Driscoll, as alternate • Commissioner Jack Mariano appointed Chuck Grey and Bill Woodard, with Cami Austin, as alternate • Members of the Pasco County legislative delegation appointed Michael Cox, Robert Eckard, John Kinsman, Randy Maggard and Mike Ryan
ksteele@lakerlutznews.com
Donna Fernandez played soccer until she was forced to give it up because she had asthma. She wasn’t too disappointed. “I wasn’t very good at it anyway,” the 14year-old said. Her mother, Andrea Elbrecht, wanted her daughter to find a sport in which she could excel and have fun. She had no idea that would turn out to be bowling. “I didn’t know the first thing about bowling,” said Elbrecht, who lives in Land O’ Lakes. Chance — and a friend’s birthday party at a bowling alley — settled the matter. Fernandez found her niche. The teenager has had the highest average score in Hillsborough County in her age group for the past two years. She currently is topping her own previous records with an average 180 points a game. She and 15-year-old Jacob Kostoff, who lives in Trinity, will test their skills against hundreds of bowlers this summer, when they head to Chicago to compete at the national Jr. Gold Championship. Kostoff eased into bowling naturally by watching his father play in a local league. He rolled his first ball toward the tenpins
FRED BELLET/PHOTO
Hall of Fame bowling champion Lucy Sandelin gets in a couple of frames prior to practice with her students at Royal Lanes.
She can’t beat the commute bcmanion@lakerlutznews.com
Air Conditioning • Heating • Plumbing
— Chairman Ted Schrader
Members of the Pasco County charter advisory panel
By Kathy Steele
By B.C. Manion
Winner 2012, 2013, 2014
“I have concerns with a member of (Nocco’s) team being on the committee, I think it would be appropriate to replace him with someone else.”
Striking up some winning ways
See STRIKE, page 7A
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MARCH 18, 2015
Melissa Huston used to spend 90 minutes each way, getting back and forth from work. She lives in Lutz and was commuting to a job in St. Petersburg. “It was debilitating, mentally,” Huston said. “There were days that were awful driving there.” She and her husband, Doug, have two children. Tyler attends McKitrick Elementary School and Brandon is in preschool. Besides getting stuck in traffic, Huston had the additional stress of not being sure she’d be able to pick up her children from child care on time. “You’re trying to get to your kids at night, and you’re watching the clock and you’re sitting in it (traffic) — and God forbid, there’s an accident and you’re panicking. “I don’t miss any of that,” said Huston, who has been working at home for Dell, since July 2013. Huston had worked for Home Shopping Network in St. Petersburg for many years and made the switch to a Tampa company, which announced that it was moving to St. Petersburg. At the time, Tyler was getting ready to start kindergarten, and Huston decided she would look for a stay-at-home job. “When they’re in preschool, they don’t have homework. They don’t have as many
Working at home is not for everyone
Melissa Huston, a Lutz mom who works at home, offers this advice for people who work at home: • Be sure to establish a routine. • Set up a separate office space — you need to be able to close the door, to work uninterrupted. • Be aware that while you have more flexibility, you still must meet work demands. • Know that working at home is not a good idea if you’re not a good time manager. • Be prepared to make an extra effort to stay in the loop with your colleagues.
activities,” Huston said. But she knew she wanted to be able to help with homework and attend school activities, and couldn’t think of a way to do that and still have a long commute. So, she began looking for stay-at-home work opportunities. She had heard about the scams involving work from home jobs. “That was my big concern: Are they legitimate?” she said. She had reason to worry. The Federal Trade Commission warns
B.C. MANION/STAFF PHOTO
When Melissa Huston wants to get some work done, she steps into her home office to tackle assignments.
consumers to be skeptical when checking out work-at-home opportunities. Many of them require an upfront investment, and many fail to live up to their claims. As Huston was researching stay-at-home jobs, she came across a website called FlexJobs.com. The company, which is a 100 percent, virtual remote company, was founded in 2007 in Boulder, Colorado, by Sara Sutton Fall, according to Kathy Gardner, the company’s PR Manager, who is based in Stamford, Connecticut. FlexJobs.com essentially offers a subscription service to provide information See COMMUTE, page 7A