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One of Pasco County’s most popular doctors has a new home.
We are proud to announce Joseph Nystrom, M.D., will be joining Bayfront Health Medical Group on August 31. To schedule your appointment, call 352-567-6763.
AUGUST 5, 2015
Retail jobs on the rise But more jobs are needed to diversify Pasco’s economy
The volume of people who commute daily to jobs outside Pasco is about 46 percent, according to county data. But flipping that trend is the goal of the county’s Planning and Development Department, and its marketing partner, the Pasco County Economic Development By Kathy Steele Council. ksteele@lakerlutznews.com There are good signs in the job market especially in retail, but county officials say Heading south on Interstate 275 into Pasco needs higher paying jobs and a diTampa, and points beyond, cars stack up verse employer-base to shed its bedroom and slow to a crawl as commuters in the community status. morning rush hour out of Pasco County’s And that could take years of steady, pabedroom communities hit the brakes. tient marketing. Motorists going north, mostly zip along For now, dirt is flying especially along the at a steady clip. prime corridors of State Road 56 and State In the afternoon the traffic flow reverses. Road 54, around the Interstate 75 interIt’s all about where the jobs are and where they aren’t. See JOBS, page11A
KATHY STEELE/STAFF PHOTO
Holiday Inn Express is one hotel ready for construction with an opening in 2016. The hotel is next to Florida Hospital Center Ice, an ice rink and sports complex that is under construction, off State Road 56. Both will be job producers.
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BayfrontDadeCity.com Member of the Medical Staff at Bayfront Health Dade City. 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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PHOTOS COURTESY OF BENJAMIN WATTERS/SAINT LEO UNIVERSITY
Sixty-one girls, ages 10 through 14, attended summer camps to learn about robotics at Saint Leo University.
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Saint Leo University hosted three, weeklong day camps during July called “Girls Can! Robotics.” Girls, ages 10 through 14, learned how to build and program small robots. Sixty-one girls attended the camps, directed by Dr. Monika Kiss, an associate professor of mathematics at the university, with the assistance of Saint Leo undergraduates Samantha Kern and Hope Swaim. The girls learned the programming skills needed to build the robots, and were coached on confidence-building skills and the essentials of teamwork. For information on upcoming outreach programs on math for school-age students, email monika.kiss@saintleo.edu. Saint Leo University is located at 33701 Girls proved they were up to the challenge of making robots during summer camps at Saint State Road 52, four miles east of Interstate 75. Leo University during July.
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INSIDE, PAGE 1B
New PHSC president drafts game plan for success By B.C. Manion
bcmanion@lakerlutznews.com
As a very young boy, Tim Beard would walk a mile each way to buy a newspaper at the store so he could devour stories about his beloved St. Louis Cardinals. He admired such players as Lou Brock, Joe Torre and Bob Gibson — and delighted in reading about their pursuits. He recalled that he was only 5 or 6 years old when he was making those treks to the store. Literacy and athletics were twin loves in his life, until Beard decided he would spend less energy on athletics and give his full attention to education. He grew up in poverty in the Panhandle town of St. Joe — and now he leads PascoHernando State College. Before becoming president of the college on July 1, he served as a vice president at the college for eight years. He claimed the role vacated by Katherine Johnson, who retired after a decade at the helm. Beard is clearly excited about the possibilities. As an internal candidate for the post, Beard said he had the advantage of under-
B.C. MANION/STAFF PHOTO
Tim Beard is dressed casually during a summer day at his office at Pasco-Hernando State College. But the new president of PHSC is anything but casual in his ambitions for the college.
standing the college and knowing its pulse. “I know the institution. I know the flow. I know the community,” Beard said. As PHSC’s new leader, he’s already starting to carry out his game plan. He’s identified key focus areas. Those include increasing student retention and degree completion rates, expanding partnerships, and securing more funding to support programs. To help retain students, Beard is launching an initiative called Retention Behavioral Inventory, or RBI, for short. He plans to have weekly conference calls with PHSC administrators to keep the goal of improving student retention and degree completion rates at the forefront for the college’s leadership team. Together, they’ll review the data to see how the college is doing. And, they’ll discuss the numbers, talk about why students withdraw and examine if there is anything they could have done to prevent the withdrawals. “The big piece is going to be a referral piece,” the college president said. “If we find out that a student withdrew because of finances, can we find a financial source See PHSC, page11A