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APRIL 22, 2020
Pandemic keeps students home
Status of graduations remains unclear By B.C. Manion bcmanion@lakerlutznews.com
Florida’s elementary and secondary campuses will not reopen this school year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on April 18. Instead, students and teachers will continue with the distance learning model,
which began in March.That approach began as a way to limit the potential spread of coronavirus disease-2019. (COVID-19). The national death toll for the pandemic reached 37,202 as of April 20, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The economic meltdown has resulted in the loss of more than 22 million American jobs, according to national reports. In explaining why he decided to close school campuses, DeSantis said “We spoke with a lot of folks throughout the state. “There was some differing opinions.
Some parents were not interested in their kids going back. Some others — it’s been tough around the house, they would have liked to have seen them go back,” the governor said, during a news conference that was carried live on WTSP 10 News. “We’ve got pretty good momentum for distance learning. It’s obviously not the ideal situation, but given where we are in the school year, we felt that was the best decision to go forward,” he said. DeSantis said he asked if there would be See STUDENTS, page 7A
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Celebrating Earth Day, in the midst of a pandemic On April 22, we celebrate Earth Day, which originated in 1970, as a national day to focus on the environment. Take a drive out to the edge of Pasco County and it won’t seem like we’re in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Rather, there’s a sense of peace and tranquility — while the fields of rye and the garden crops grow, and cows congregate contentedly in a pasture. There’s a splash of color, too, in the wildflowers popping up along the side of the road. Above, when it is ripened, this field of rye, on a farm belonging to the Melton family, reminds Steve Melton of the amber waves of grain, which are celebrated in ‘America the Beautiful.’
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City purchases land for airport runway extension By Kevin Weiss kweiss@lakerlutznews.com
The City of Zephyrhills has taken another step forward in its quest to expand the capabilities of the Zephyrhills Municipal Airport. The Zephyrhills City Council on April 13 unanimously approved the purchase of 1.29 acres of vacant land from Chancey Properties LLC for $122,657.22 — to make way for the airport runway 119 extension project. The runway is being extended by 1,500 feet south to create a total length of 6,500 feet, to accommodate larger passenger and corporate aircraft, and encourage aviation and industrial development.The extension project currently is under design and engineering phases. The purchased industrial land — addressed as Lot 11 on Park Place Center in Zephyrhills — is needed to facilitate the project’s required runway protection zone.That zone is a trapezoidal area off the end of the runway that serves to enhance the protection of people and property on the ground — in the event an aircraft lands or crashes beyond the end of the runway. The city budgeted $120,000 for the land purchase, so the additional $2,657 will be absorbed within the city’s airport capital outlay budget. The closing costs go into effect May 1. Zephyrhills last year received $5.9 million in state appropriations for the entire runway extension project, and to construct a 3,000-foot service road to access infield site development and runway connectivity on the west side of the airport. See RUNWAY, page 7A
Pasco expanding film production footprint By Kevin Weiss kweiss@lakerlutznews.com
Pasco County’s tourism office last year rebranded to Experience Florida’s Sports Coast with the idea of becoming a destination for youth and amateur sports. But, the county doesn’t want to be pigeonholed simply as a playground for various athletics tournaments and festivals. The county’s tourism department is now expanding its brand portfolio to include film production — aiming to further boost economic development. The production of “Death Cast,” a feature horror film, showcases the potential for the county to become a filming hotbed. “Death Cast” is about six young, hopeful actors who are looking to land roles in an experimental horror film. Roughly 90% of the movie was filmed in Pasco, including Dade City. Filming took place with a 30-member crew within a twoweek period in January 2018. “Death Cast” writer and director Bobby Marinelli pins the picture as “a really unique take on a classic horror story.” He added:“It’s essentially a horror flasher film, by the numbers, but pulled in like a found footage, reality television-style that we’ve been told that’s it’s not been seen before.” The independent, low-budget movie is set to be premiered on the film festival circuit this fall. It’s run time is 75 minutes. The film’s main set piece takes place at a two-story house on Hanlon Terrace in Dade City, which has since transformed into a cattle ranch and wedding venue. Set on a large property accented with a long, gravel driveway and shadowy tree canopy, the home helped “establish the look and feel of the rest of the movie,” Marinelli said. An added bonus — the property featured a mother-in-law suite adjacent to the house that became the production office and base camp for most of the film. “It worked out really well for us,” the director said.
Zephyrhills employees taking precautions By Kevin Weiss kweiss@lakerlutznews.com
Another central location was Crews Lake Wilderness Park in Shady Hills, offering an “amazing rural landscape” for other scenes, he said. “It was honestly another keystone to the film,” Marinelli said of the park,“because we needed just this vast-like endless piece of property.” Marinelli, who grew up in Hudson, was well-acquainted with the county’s landscape beforehand. The Hudson High graduate studied filmmaking at Florida State University. Making a movie in his hometown county required less red tape than other counties and states, he said. The filmmaker cited a streamlined permitting process and accommodating nature from county officials and local residents. He mentioned Crews Lake Park was all but “handed to us on a silver platter” for their use. “When you shoot in other states, particularly like big production states, there’s a lot of hoops to jump through to have that kind of access to a piece of property like that,” Marinelli explained. “Other places, if you were shooting something like that, it would be a big task to stop the regular traffic of the park. …These
Work inside Zephyrhills City Hall proceeds, but additional safety precautions have been instituted among city staffers, in response to threats posed by the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Most all city departments and employees have begun working in split shifts, or A-B shifts, to create more separation among each other, Zephyrhills City Manager Billy Poe explained during an April 13 virtual city council meeting. Poe said city employees have begun a “day on, day off” schedule model — working Monday,Wednesday, and Friday one particular week, then Tuesday and Thursday the following week. The scheduling change, which affects more than 100 city employees, is expected to continue “for the foreseeable future,” Poe said. The change won’t really impact the city’s police and fire departments and dispatchers because they already follow a split-shift schedule, Poe said. The city manager explained the reasoning to cut daily work crews in half, particularly for areas such as the city’s maintenance yard: “We wanted to split those crews basically in half, so that God forbid somebody comes down with it (COVID-19), they don’t infect the entire department, they only potentially affect only half the department, so that we can continue to operate.” Meantime, most department heads are still working full shifts, Poe said,“because they’re able to be in their office and keep the separation,” though large staff meetings are being held via virtual conference call. Some city employees have been able to work remotely, accessing desktops and answering phone calls from home.The city’s IT department is trying to issue more laptops and the necessary software for more employ-
See FILM, page 7A
See PRECAUTIONS, page 7A
COURTESY OF TRAVIS CLAYTOR
From left: ‘Death Cast’ director Bobby Marinelli, Experience Florida’s Sports Coast program manager Consuelo Sanchez, and ‘Death Cast’ producer Melissa McNerney.