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Not too proud to beg for homeless By B.C. Manion bcmanion@lakerlutznews.com
Orthopedic care that’s close. So you can go far. To help you get back to your active life, we provide services ranging from general orthopedic care and sports medicine to minimally invasive hip, knee and shoulder replacements. To find an orthopedic surgeon, call 877-DOC-5321 (362-5321) or visit BayfrontDadeCity.com.
13100 Fort King Road Bayfront Health Dade City is directly or indirectly owned by a partnership that proudly includes physician owners, including certain members of the hospital’s medical staff.
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In her previous role, Carol Scheckler delivered warm greetings to people when they dropped in at the Greater Zephyrhills Chamber of Commerce. But she stepped away from her job as administrative assistant at the chamber in May, and has since become president of The Samaritan Project, based in Zephyrhills. The chamber job, she said, was her paycheck. The Samaritan job doesn’t pay Scheckler a dime.
“Now, I don’t have a paycheck, just a passion and a mission,” Scheckler told members of the East Pasco Networking Group at its July 8 breakfast meeting. In fact, there are no paid positions in The Samaritan Project organization, she said. “None of us get anything other than the reward of knowing we are helping some people,” said Scheckler, who became acquainted with the charitable organization when she was working for the chamber. See HELPING, page 8
B.C. MANION/STAFF PHOTO
Carol Scheckler, president of The Samaritan Project, said helping the homeless is her passion and mission.
Dade City hospital readies $3M surgical expansion By Michael Hinman mhinman@lakerlutznews.com
With a new owner and a new name, change has been a constant for Bayfront Health Dade City. But while some may say too much change is bad, Shauna McKinnon knows that what the Dade City hospital has experienced in recent months will only make it better. And that includes planned major changes coming up this winter. McKinnon, who has led the hospital as its chief executive since January 2013, has been making stops around the community sharing news of a $3 million expansion planned to start later this year that will expand the five existing operating rooms, and make some much-needed updates to the pre-operation area and recovery rooms as well. “We have five rooms there right now, but they are quite small,” McKinnon said. “Everything in the medical field evolves over time, and it creates more of a demand for space.We’re simply responding to that demand.” The renovation and expansion could take close to a year to complete, but McKinnon is not anticipating any interruptions in service. Enough space will still be made available during construction to keep surgeries going, and the hope is that seeing contractors will build excitement instead of creating any inconvenience at the 13100 Fort King Road facility.
COURTESY OF BAYFRONT HEALTH DADE CITY
Change has been the order of business at Bayfront Health Dade City over the past year, but hospital chief executive Shauna McKinnon feels the community has embraced all those changes as positive, including the recent announcement to expand surgical services.
Renovating the surgical areas was next on McKinnon’s list once a $3.5 million expansion of the hospital’s emergency room was completed in 2012. McKinnon, however, didn’t lay out the plans with her parent company until after Community
Health Systems Inc. completed its $7.6 billion buyout of previous hospital owner Health Management Associates last year. “When I talked to them about it, they See HOSPITAL, page 8
Don Porter: A forward-thinker, with deep community roots By B.C. Manion bcmanion@lakerlutznews.com
When Don Porter was growing up in Wesley Chapel, he attended elementary school at a one-room schoolhouse and rode a bus to Dade City for high school. Much has changed in the Pasco County community where he grew up — and Porter and his extended family have played a considerable role in creating that change. The memorial service to honor his life was July 12 in the conference center at Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch, a satellite campus of Pasco-Hernando State College, on land the Porters donated. That campus is just one tangible sign of the forward-thinking and big picture approach that the entire family has used in making decisions regarding the development of thousands of acres they have owned for
decades, Porter’s son, J.D. Porter, said in a recent interview. The Shops at Wiregrass, a regional shopping mall, and Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, an 83-bed facility, are two other projects built within the 5,100-acre development of regional impact approved in 2006 on the Porters’ land. Porter, the eldest son of the late James and Martha Porter. He died on July 1, at age 73. The Porters moved into Wesley Chapel in the 1940s, long before development hit the area.They bought land from the Rockefeller Land Trust for Wiregrass Ranch after being forced to sell the land now occupied by Zephyrhills Municipal Airport. The Porters were forced to sell that land at the beginning of World War II, to make way for an Army Air Force training station. In personal interviews and during the me-
morial, family and friends described the kind of man Porter was. They characterized him as a passionate fighter for justice, but also a patient listener. They said he was a deep thinker, a loving father and a faithful friend. Porter enjoyed single malt scotch and Little Debbie snack cakes. He had musical tastes that ranged from Pavarotti to Dave Brubeck, and was a man with his own sense of style. State Rep.Will Weatherford said he was 26 and making his first run for state office when he met Porter. Over the years, Weatherford had numerous roundtable chats with Porter, his brothers, Tom and Bill, and his son, J.D. The men didn’t talk about what Wiregrass would look like in the next five to 10 years, but took a longer view. See PORTER, page 8
COURTESY OF THE PORTER FAMILY
Don Porter was described by state Rep. Will Weatherford as a ‘giant of a man.’ Porter died July 1 at age 73.