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LAND O’ LAKES/LUTZ EDITION
MARCH 23, 2016
Crusading for sidewalk safety By Kathy Steele
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Leonard Road is drawing a lot of attention, but not the kind that most residents want. Developers have ambitious plans for large tracts of wooded land along the curvy two-lane road that winds from U.S. 41, almost to State Road 54. More than 300 single-family homes, an assisted living facility, medical office and retail are on the drawing board. Though Leonard dead-ends just shy of State Road 54, the road eventually will be paved and extended, according to site plans on file with Pasco County.Area residents in this Lutz neighborhood are bracing for a future as a cut-through road from U.S. 41 to State Road 54. See SIDEWALK, page 11A
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Leonard Road residents want the county to build a sidewalk to protect pedestrians and bicyclists. On a recent afternoon, a car drove past, from left, Mike Benjamin, David Haynes and Ed Klaameyer.
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Pasco Animal Services wants higher fees By Kathy Steele
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A program to spay and neuter pets, and to educate the public on the value of the surgeries, is facing a financial crunch. Reserve funds to keep the program afloat could be depleted within three years — unless new revenues are found, and some expenses cut. Pasco County commissioners got a preview of recommendations to add money to the coffers of Pasco Animal Services at a March 15 workshop. Those recommendations include a mandatory $5 fee for a cat license, an increase in an unaltered dog license from $35 to $40, and adoption fees of $85 for small breed dogs and puppies. Kittens younger than four months could cost $55. Other adoption fees would be unchanged, with dogs costing $70 and cats, $40. No fee increases are anticipated for the county’s low-income program for reduced-cost sterilizations for qualified applicants. Those rates are $10 for cats and $20 for dogs. No decisions were made. Pasco County staff members are expected to bring the issue back to commission- Jack Mariano ers later. In some ways,Animal Services is suffering from too much success. Since 2012, more than 10,000 dogs and cats have been sterilized.
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“That’s pretty significant,” said Mike Shumate, the county’s animal services manager. The county currently contracts with the nonprofit Spay Pasco to manage the spay and education program, as well as the trapneuter-return program to sterilize feral cats. That contract expires in February 2017. Animal services is recommending that the county takes over the programs, estimating potential savings of $18,000 annually. Over the years, the growing demands for sterilization, and for educational presentations at schools and elsewhere, have strained finances, and drained reserve funds. Deficit spending for the program is ongoing annually, and the coffers could be empty by 2019. As an example, the trap-neuter-return
program cost about $48,000 in 2013, but two years later cost more than $136,000. One solution would be to renegotiate contracts Pasco has with area cities, and increase fees for the surgeries. The current contracts are with Dade City, Zephyrhills, New Port Richey, Port Richey, San Antonio, the town of Saint Leo and Safety Harbor. Animal services also is recommending that the county adopt an ordinance to codify rules for trap-neuter-return programs. “We want to make sure people participating in community cat programs have some standards,” Shumate said. The cat licenses could add about $68,000 to the department’s revenues, based on an estimate of cat-owner households of more than 13,600. See ANIMAL, page 11A
County and state team up on land deal By Kathy Steele
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Pasco County Animal Services frequently seeks the community’s help to give pets at the shelter a permanent home.
Pasco County and the state of Florida have teamed up on a $6 million land deal to designate a large swath of a former cattle ranch in Land O’ Lakes as a conservation easement. The county and the state each will pay $3 million for two parcels totaling nearly 620 acres, located west of Old Pasco Road about a half-mile south of State Road 52. The purchase is an acquisition for the county’s Environmental Lands and Acquisition Management Program, also known as ELAMP.That program is partially funded with revenues from the Penny for Pasco program. There’s a provision in the deal that could result in a portion of the northern half of the site being used as the right-ofway for a planned trail system that generally will follow along the former Orange Belt Rail Line. Pasco County Chairwoman Kathryn Starkey persuaded commissioners to postpone a vote on the contract until after their lunch break at the March 8 meeting in Dade City. She wanted to add language to the contract that would clear the way to negotiate the trail’s easement and public access through the site. Without that provision, Starkey said the county could be forced to eventually negotiate a separate, costly deal to buy privately
owned land for the trail. “This is one of our most important trails in the county,” Starkey said.“We need to be able to build a trail there. This should have been part of the discussion before it was brought to us.” The initial deal struck between sellers, the state and the county didn’t allow public access. Four generations of the McKendree family operated the cattle farm. Sellers of the conservation easement are Neil Mathis and Christine Phillips. Negotiations took about two years for an agreement that is the first partnership between Pasco and the state to buy conservation land. The state usually strikes such deals with federal agencies, said Keith Wiley, the county’s natural resources manager. Members of the Florida Cabinet are scheduled to approve the deal on March 29. With time a factor, Pasco County Commissioner Ted Schrader didn’t want to continue the vote to the next commission meeting. “I don’t want to jeopardize the state’s participation. I’m confident we’ll secure this (easement).This is a win-win for everyone,” he said. But, after a representative for the property sellers agreed to the contract’s new stipulation, commissioners gave their approval to a revised agreement. The exact route of the trail isn’t deter-
FILE PHOTO
Pasco County Chairwoman Kathryn Starkey held out on a land deal to be sure that a swath of land could possibly be used as the right-of-way for a planned trail that will generally follow the old Orange Belt Rail Line.
mined, but it generally will run diagonally across the county from Lacoochee through Land O’ Lakes to Odessa. The county owns portions of the rightsSee LAND, page 11A