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Text your zip code to ERTIME for ER wait times and locations. Why rush to a competitor’s ER just to sit and wait? Now you can text us and get our ER wait times in advance. It’s simple. Just text your zip code to ERTIME (378463) and get instant ER wait times and locations near you. You can rely on high-quality care at every ER Extra® location. Our accreditations and awards are evidence of our quality standards: • Accredited Chest Pain Center • Top Performer on Key Quality Measures™ for heart attack and heart failure • Designated Primary Stroke Center • Joint Commission accredited
APRIL 30, 2014
Drumm takes final stand By Michael Hinman mhinman@lakerlutznews.com
Jim Drumm likely saw the first cracks in his tenure as Zephyrhills city manager last July when councilmen Lance Smith and Ken Burgess both gave him low marks on their evaluations of his job performance. Drumm had communications issues, according to the evaluations, especially when it came to city employees and the public as a whole. He wasn’t getting out to meet enough people.The city’s relationship with Pasco County was troubled, at best. Yet Drumm wasn’t worried about his job.While he knew there was room for improvement in his own job performance, he
received high marks from the three other council members.And as far as Drumm was concerned, there were nowhere near the four votes required to remove him, if that’s what Smith and Burgess were aiming for. That all changed, however, in March, when Drumm found himself fighting for his job — the voices of two councilmen suddenly gaining the power of the majority. Despite three legal opinions against him, Drumm maintains his position that no matter what his contract says, the city’s charter — the constitution of the local government — requires four votes to remove him. The security of that belief encouraged See DRUMM, page 8
MICHAEL HINMAN/STAFF PHOTO
Zephyrhills city manager Jim Drumm goes over some last-minute details with city finance director Stacie Poppell ahead of a special city council meeting last week.
New skydiving sport swoops into Zephyrhills with nationals
BayfrontDadeCity.com This hospital is partially owned by physicians.
By Michael Hinman mhinman@lakerlutznews.com
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COURTESY OF HELENE RUBENSTEIN
Italian lunch connoisseurs Chris and Jerry Buckley at Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant.
More Grand Horizons, page 15
The LAKER
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QUALITY Fast Emergency Care
Text your zip code to ERTIME for ER wait times and locations. Why rush to a competitor’s ER just to sit and wait? Now you can text us and get our ER wait times in advance. It’s simple. Just text your zip code to ERTIME (378463) and get instant ER wait times and locations near you. You can rely on high-quality care at every ER Extra® location. Our accreditations and awards are evidence of our quality standards: • Accredited Chest Pain Center • Top Performer on Key Quality Measures™ for heart attack and heart failure • Designated Primary Stroke Center J C d d
EAST PASCO EDITION
APRIL 2, 2014
Superintendent pushes new standards By B.C. Manion bcmanion@akerlutznews.com
As the Pasco County school district shifts to a more rigorous set of educational standards, Superintendent Kurt Browning has been making the rounds to explain the changes to parents. During his most recent stop at Wiregrass Ranch High School — the final of 13 community meetings — Browning told parents that the district must change the way teachers teach and students learn. He also called for greater involvement by parents to help prepare students for entering school and to reinforce learning at home. The district’s current performance must improve, Browning said, especially since the district is ranked 34th out of the state’s 67 districts. “I’m not the least bit happy with 34,” Browning said. Society has changed and the district must change too to meet its goal of produc-
B.C. MANION/STAFF PHOTO
At a series of community forums, Pasco County Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning explained the Common Core State Standards. The system defines what students should know as they proceed through school so they can graduate from high school fully prepared to enter college and the work force
ing students who are ready for college, careers and life, Browning said. “We’ve got to make a connection between what’s happening in the real world and in the classroom,” Browning said. Along those lines, the district is shifting to Common Core State Standards and raising the bar on expectations.The standards define what students should know as they proceed through school in order to graduate from high school fully prepared to enter college and the work force. “We’re embracing a new way of teaching and learning,” said Rayann Mitchell, a senior supervisor in the division of curriculum, assessment and instruction. The new standards are causing teachers to think differently about the way they teach, Browning said. Instead of standing at the front of the classroom lecturing, teachers are now pushing for more collaboration between students See STANDARDS, page 8
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COURTESY OF JOE ABELN
Canopy piloting, more commonly known as ‘swooping,’ forces skydivers to pick up speed as they approach the ground, rather than slow down. Then they have to navigate obstacles, typically over lakes and ponds since water is more forgiving in high-speed impacts than the hard ground.
It’s quite easily one of the newest sports out there, and something many people have never heard of. For the second straight year, Skydive City in Zephyrhills will host the U.S. Parachute Association National Skydiving Championships of Canopy Piloting May 2224. And whenever drop zone owner T.K. Hayes shares that with someone outside of skydiving, he can almost anticipate that first question:What is canopy piloting? “It’s a fairly new sport that has come around in the last 10 to 12 years, and it’s grown into its own discipline of skydiving,” he said. Simply, skydivers jump from a plane that’s just 5,000 feet in the air (compared to the normal 12,000 feet for typical skydiving), and instead of slowing down before hitting the ground, these jumpers actually speed up — some as fast as 90 mph — swooping through a ground-level course that’s exciting for spectators, and dangerous for the jumpers. And Hayes knows all about that danger. He has a spinal fusion to prove it. “When we built the first swoop pond out here in 2000 or 2001, it wasn’t even a sport then,” Hayes said.“It was a windy day, and I got down too low and caught me See SKYDIVING, page 8
Saint Leo grads to learn something new from speakers By Michael Hinman mhinman@lakerlutznews.com
Last year, Huntington Ingalls Industries earned more than $6.8 billion. Chances are, you’ve never heard of this Virginia-based company. But you should definitely be familiar with its products — nuclear-powered aircraft carriers that are more than 1,000 feet long and weigh 100,000 tons — and you may even know its president and chief executive officer. C. Michael Petters has led Huntington
Ingalls since before it was spun off from Northrop Grumman. Petters is a preeminent shipbuilder who learned his skills through the U.S. Naval Academy and the College of William and Mary, but the C. Michael Petters foundation of his success goes back even further — all the way to the small German Catholic St. Joseph
community in Pasco County. There, Petters and his siblings worked hard on the family’s orange groves, but still remained focused on education and service. So it’s no surprise that not only has Petters been invited to speak at upcoming commencement exercises at Saint Leo University, but so has his sister — U.S.Army Brig. Gen. Susan Davison. The Class of 2014 graduation marks a milestone in the Petters’ family history See SAINT LEO, page 8