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Retired Marine gets surprise bench
By B.C. Manion bcmanion@lakerlutznews.com
Otis Felder, a retired U.S. Marine, was already having a pretty good Veterans Day — even before he made his daily trek to the dog park at the Land O’ Lakes Recreational Complex, off Collier Parkway. He’d started the day by catching up with some of his fellow Marines on Facebook, and was feeling pretty good about that. Then, when he and his basset hound, Chopper, arrived at the dog park, his day got even better. Patriotic balloons bobbed from the perimeter of the chain-link fence at the compound, and there was a big surprise waiting inside. His friends, Judy Hudson and Leslie Friedel, of Wesley Chapel, shouted out greetings to Felder. “What’s up?” Felder asked, as he entered the dog park’s gates. Hudson encouraged him to check out the new bench there. As he approached it, he realized that the bench was dedicated to him. “In honor of Otis Felder,” it says.“Thank you for 20 years of service.” Below those words there’s an image of a flapping American flag.
“Holy mackerel,” the 84-year-old Felder said. “I’m really impressed.Wow. “I never expected anything like that. “Well, who did this?” he asked. Hudson was not forthcoming: “I guess, God,” she replied. “It’s awesome,” said the veteran, whose 20 years in the Marine Corps included two tours of duty in Vietnam, and assignments in such places as California, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand,Virginia, Hawaii, North Carolina and Michigan. Planning for the Nov. 11 surprise started a few months ago, Hudson said. That’s when she began reaching out to see if she could persuade a company to donate a bench to honor Felder. It took persistence, but the work paid off when Polly Products, a company based in Mulliken, Michigan, agreed to provide the bench. Next,Tommy D’Iorio, a park site supervisor for the Pasco County parks, recreation and natural resources department, made sure his team assembled the bench for the big surprise. They even wrapped it up, to make sure no one sat on it before Felder. Hudson and Susan Bernardino, another See BENCH, page 9A
B.C. MANION
Judy Hudson arrived early at Land O’ Lakes Recreation Complex’s dog park on Veterans Day because she wanted to put up these patriotic balloons along the chain-link fence of the compound.
Otis Felder, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 20 years, tests out a bench that honors his military service. It’s in the dog park at the Land O’ Lakes Recreation Complex, which Felder visits daily.
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Input sought on 301/98 and Zephyrhills Clinton Avenue realignment renews utility By Kevin Weiss kweiss@lakerlutznews.com
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INSIDE, PAGE 1B
Efforts are underway to enhance a busy and sometimes dangerous roadway intersection that passes through Dade City and unincorporated Pasco County. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) District 7 office has developed and unveiled recommended corridor realignment improvements for the U.S. 301/U.S. 98/Clinton Avenue intersection — via the agency’s Alternative Corridor Evaluation (ACE) process. A virtual public information presentation was released on Nov. 4 online.This meeting provided an opportunity to review the corridor alternatives and provide input. Proposed improvements seek to: • Eliminate the current closely spaced intersections of U.S. 301 at U.S. 98 and U.S. 301 at Clinton Avenue • Facilitate east/west travel • Maximize the benefits of the improvements to Clinton Avenue and designation as State Road 52 west of U.S. 301 • Enhance safety along the corridor With those objectives in mind, five proposed corridor options were developed in FDOT’s ACE study, which were shared in detail in the prerecorded online presentation. Each of the proposed corridor routes are 250 feet wide to allow for flexibility in developing proposed alignments that avoid potential constraints. It also is anticipated that a four-lane, expandable to six-lane — in divided sections — will be developed for corridor consistency. From the five alignment alternatives, the state transportation department is recommending the Corridor B option, to proceed to the project development and environmental (PD&E) study. The 1.91-mile Corridor B route begins approximately 485 feet north of Townsend Road, and diverts U.S. 98 to the north along the east side of mobile home parks along
Wilds Roads, until it ties into Clinton Avenue, east of U.S. 301. The corridor, according to FDOT, “will impact primarily rural and farmland properties as well as a few residential properties, concentrated at the northern end of the proposed realignment.”The total cost of the recommended corridor alignment is estimated between $27.8 million and $38.3 million, according to the presentation. Here are the other proposed corridor alternatives studied: • Corridor A — 0.88-mile route begins approximately 3,300 feet southeast of the intersection of U.S. 98 and U.S. 301, and diverts U.S. 98 to the north, and ties into Clinton Avenue, east of U.S. 301 • Corridor C — 3.48-mile route begins approximately 725 feet northeast of the overpass of U.S. 98 and Old Lakeland Highway, and diverts U.S. 98 to the north, mirroring the existing geometry of Old Lakeland Highway until it ties into Clinton Avenue • Corridor D — 0.80-mile route begins approximately 350 north of the entrance to the Grove Ridge RV resort and diverts U.S. 98 to the west, and continues until it intersect U.S. 301 at an existing median opening • Corridor E — 1.47-mile route begins approximately at the intersection of U.S. 98 and Jim Jordan Road, and diverts U.S. 98 to the west, and continues until it intersects U.S. 301
billing service
By Kevin Weiss kweiss@lakerlutznews.com
The state’s presentation summarized the drawbacks of those corridors, as compared to Corridor B. Corridors D and E “do not meet the purpose and need criterion of eliminating the closely spaced major intersections and are proposed for elimination from consideration.” Corridor C “has the greatest involvement with the natural, social, cultural and physical
Utility customers and Zephyrhills city staffers can breathe a collective sigh of relief: For the next year at least, MuniBilling will continue to handle the city’s utility billing. That means customers will be able to continue to view their water consumption and make payments, without switching to another company. The Zephyrhills City Council made that official announcement during the council’s Nov. 9 meeting. Last November, the city had to change its water billing provider after it was informed that Fathom Water Management was going out of business.The notice came from the Arizona-based company in a Saturday email — telling the city it had three weeks to find a different provider to service utility customers. The bombshell — or what city officials describe “a disastrous day” — forced the city to scramble for a new utility billing provider, subsequently requiring the complete overhaul of billing system software and repository information, as well as bill printing. “It was quite an undertaking,” Zephyrhills Finance Director Ted Beason recalled. “I used to be thin and had a lot of hair before that process, so it’s had a toll on the staff.” By December, the city was able to land with MuniBilling, who converted the city’s billing data to their software and offered call center services within a period of days. Customers were able to provide their same username and account number on MuniBilling as they did on Fathom.Also, the company combined 1,700 irrigation accounts on the same bill as household
See INPUT, page 9A
See UTILITY, page 9A
HOW THE CORRIDORS COMPARE