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A new home for neurological care.
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6751 Gall Blvd. • Zephyrhills
BayfrontDadeCity.com Member of the Medical Staff of Bayfront Health Dade City.
OCTOBER 5, 2016
Zephyrhills opts to build new City Hall By Kevin Weiss
kweiss@lakerlutznews.com
The city of Zephyrhills is getting a brandnew City Hall after all. Following several weeks of dialogue, the Zephyrhills City Council unanimously approved a motion to build a new structure at the existing City Hall site, at 5335 Eighth St. The new facility is expected be about 5,000-square-feet larger than the current 11,000-square-foot building, It likely will have a modernized brick and stone exterior. The interior may feature more open workspaces and multifunctional meeting
rooms, which can flexibly be used to accommodate public events. The council had considered the feasibility of housing the city’s headquarters at the 20,000-square-foot SunTrust bank building, at 5435 Gall Blvd. But, council members decided a new building was the best option after cost estimates showed the two projects have roughly the same price tag of $6 million. Additional costs—including architect and contractor fees—could bring the entire project’s price tag to about $7.7 million. Councilman Lance Smith said evaluating the two options was a “good exercise,” but noted the 44-year-old SunTrust building had
too many red flags. “Obviously, we can’t have cost overruns, but on an unknown building like that, you just don’t know what they’re going to be. That scares me quite a bit,” Smith said during the Sept. 26. council meeting. Smith added a new City Hall building is more likely to “last the test of time,” compared to an older, refurbished building. “I think a civic building should be something that you build...for a lifetime,” Smith said.“I think there’s something to be said for having a civic building the community looks to and has pride in.” See CITY HALL, page 13A
School shooting threats now a felony charge By Kevin Weiss
kweiss@lakerlutznews.com
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B INSIDE, PAGE 1B
The consequences just got tougher for Florida students who threaten to shoot up a school. The Anti-Terroristic Threat and Public Servant Protection Law.The law, which went into effect Oct. 1, makes false reports about using firearms in a violent manner a seconddegree felony. Bomb threats have carried a second-degree felony, but only charges of “disrupting a school function”—a seconddegree misdemeanor — could have been brought against someone making a gun threat. The law also makes it a first-degree misdemeanor to threaten with death or serious harm a law enforcement officer, state attorney or assistant state attorney, firefighter, judge, elected official or any of their family members. In the Pasco County School District, there already have been three incidents of students making gun threats through the first six weeks of the 2016-2017 school year. Pasco County Superintendent Kurt Browning described such threats — regardless of the degree of seriousness — as being “incredibly disruptive” to the community. “When someone makes what they consider a joke to shoot up the school, people panic,” Browning said during a Sept. 30 press conference. “I’ve pleaded with students, and I’ve asked their parents to plead
KEVIN WEISS/STAFF PHOTO
Pasco County Superintendent Kurt Browning address the new Anti-Terroristic Threat Law during a Sept. 30 press conference. The law, which took effect Oct. 1, makes false reports about using firearms in a violent manner a second-degree felony.
with them, to think before posting an idle threat on social media, or to make any kind of verbal threat to carry out a shooting at any of our schools.” He added:“When kids and their parents see these things, the fears spread quickly.” Such threats, Browning said, often cause Pasco schools to become “half-empty” the following day. “Students and parents are not going to take any chances when they hear rumors or see the posts on social media,” the superintendent said. “It means that students who do show up are not going to learn much that day. It means that some teachers may decide not to teach the lesson that they had planned, because half the class will miss it,” Browning said. Ava Cahoon, a junior at Land O’ Lakes
High, said fellow classmates oftentimes become “very scared” when they hear such threats. “We have to go into lockdown, and we don’t learn at all,” Cahoon said.“We have to sit in the dark, and the teachers don’t get to teach at all.” Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said many of the threats are discovered via social media, including Twitter and Facebook. “The sad reality,” Nocco said,“is a lot of times these are kids that are just playing a game or just messing around. “If the kids in our own community realize they’re now going to have a felony charge...they’re not going to play with this game anymore.” State Rep. Jimmie Smith, the house sponSee SHOOTING, page 13A
‘Dear World’ gives storytellers a voice By Kathy Steele
her – “I’m Not Broken.” She didn’t give into depression, despite the trauma Everyone has a story to tell. of losing her stepmother in a Not everyone has a listener. death by suicide. But, Dear World gives voice “Instead of being held to the storyteller in each of us, back by the past, I want to with social media as the look to the future,” she said. forum. “It inspires me every day.” Black markers — which The Dear World project the nonprofit organization dehelps people be honest with scribes as “messages-on-skin” themselves, Cowart said. — open dialogues through “It starts asking questions personal stories that are uniand it gets a dialogue going,” versally shared. she said.“It helps the commuDear World brought its colnity.” lege tour to the campus of Dear World started as a Saint Leo University on Sept. nonprofit fundraising event 21 and Sept. 22. in the destructive aftermath More than 300 Saint Leo of Hurricane Katrina in 2009. students and faculty picked up Founder Robert X. Fogarty, markers to write messages on then working in the New their face, arms or other body Orleans’s mayor’s office, parts. With a few words – less asked residents to write a than a 149-character tweet – “love letter” to the city – Dear they defined the emotions and KATHY STEELE/STAFF PHOTO New Orleans. experiences in their lives. Since then, Dear World Lawson Jolly, left, director of counseling at Saint Leo University, writes a In the next week, partici- Biblical message on the arm of his daughter, freshman Justine Jolly. has taken its portrait project pants will receive emails with worldwide, sharing 50,000 their portraits. Some have portraits in the languages of been posted onto Dear World’s Facebook Across her arms, Justine Jolly chose the the world as of spring 2016. Stops have inpage. words “Forgiven/Romans 5:8.” cluded Boston after the marathon bombing, Collectively, all of the stories from the in“God shows his ultimate love for us by India with victims of child slave trade, and a teractive portrait project touched on sacrificing his life even when we are all sin- special project to ask people around the themes such as love, friendship, racism, bul- ners,” she said. “I feel God is the most world,“How to Say I Love You.” lying, depression, a lack of self-esteem and important part of my life.” People are empowered by telling their the death of family or friends. Lawson Jolly, director of counseling at stories, Greenman said. There is greater understanding when sto- Saint Leo, made his message, “Love God, “We don’t change the world,” she said. ries are shared, said Katie Greenman, Love Others.” “We take the pictures of those who are.” storyteller, photographer and facilitator with “I think about maybe one of the most imDear World. portant beliefs I hold, it’s my faith,” he said. STORYTELLER SESSION “They are speaking not just for them- “Jesus asked, what is the greatest commitFostering understanding and common selves, but for others,” said Greenman. ment? It was to love God and love thy ground were among the goals of the visit to “You’ve got to know you are not alone.” neighbor as thy self. It sums up what I Saint Leo. should be trying to do.” A special storytelling session on Sept. 22 WORDS HAVE MEANING Senior Baylie Cowart looked into the highlighted five stories from students and Freshman Justine Jolly, 18, and her father, camera and held up her arms as Greenman faculty. In a press release, Greenman said, Lawson Jolly, shared similar messages of snapped her portrait.Three words, one each See VOICE, page 13A faith. on her arms and one at her throat, spoke for ksteele@lakerlutznews.com