Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News, Volume 27. Issue 4, Feb. 8, 2019 by Neighborhood News

Volume 27

WESLEY CHAPEL

Inside:

NEWS

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Issue 4 February 8, 2019

Now Celebrating 25 Years As New Tampa & Wesley Chapel’s Primary News Source! The Direct-Mail News Magazines Serving New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Since 1993! For the complete list of neighborhoods that receive this publication by direct mail in Wesley Chapel (zip codes 33543, 33544 & 33545), see page 46!

WESLEY CHAPEL IS

First Look Inside:

GOING GREEN!

By JOHN C. COTEY For those in Wesley Chapel who are not wowed by new restaurants, fast food chains, big retail outlets or fancy new intersections, this one might just be for you: Say hello to the area’s first green grocer – Earth Fare. The popular and quicklygrowing organic food franchise will open its doors to Wesley Chapel on Wednesday, February 20, just before 7 a.m., and if the grocer’s previous grand openings are any indication, folks will be lining up long before the sun rises. Virtually everything new that opens in Wesley Chapel gets Hope Allen, the CEO of the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce, excited. But this, she says, is a different kind of buzz. An all-natural organic buzz, perhaps? “It’s our first one, the first or-

ganic grocery store to land in Wesley Chapel,” Allen says. “There’s been a big demand for it. It’s going to be pretty exciting.” Wesley Chapel does boast have Publix and Winn Dixie supermarkets offering organic selections, as well as the Nutrition Smart on Bruce B. Downs, which currently offers the area’s widest range of organic foods, vitamins and supplements. But, Earth Fare is bringing 24,000 sq. ft. worth of the stuff — and roughly 100 jobs — to its new location in the Cypress Creek Town Center on S.R. 56 (at 25535 Sierra Center Blvd., across from the Tampa Premium Outlets). The Wesley Chapel location will be Earth Fare’s third in the Tampa Bay area, joining stores in Oldsmar and Seminole. Overall, ours will be the 12th Earth Fare in Florida. The most recent Florida opening

See “Earth Fare” on page 4.

Jennifer ‘Ames’ To Please Her Wesley Chapel Facebook Fanatics Jennifer Ames is the administrator of the Wesley Chapel Community, Facebook page, one of the most active, humorous and often boisterous online communities around. From talking business, politics and traffic, the group, which recently celebrated it second anniversary, keeps Ames on her toes. Ames sat down with Neighborhood News publisher Gary Nager recently to record the first installment of a new online video series called “Chappie Chatter,” which is available now on the Neighborhood News Facebook page, and at www. youtube.com/c/wcnttv. Gary: I believe you were the first one to use the term “Chappies” for the thousands of members of your Facebook page. Tell us a little bit about those Chappies. How many members of your group there? Jennifer: We have over 16,000 now. I did not come up with the name Chappie, my friend Jen did. We just self-

identified with Chappie, and we ran with it from there. GN: That’s amazing. And I know many of your Chappies are very engaged on that page. What’s been blowing up the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page lately? JA: (There was) a lot of sales tax drama with the new year. The recent sales tax increase in Hillsborough County affected some When you walk into any Sprouts Farmers Market, the first thing you’ll probably notice are the rows of wood containers filled with mostly organic of our local stores. And, we had some tax from seven to 8.5 percent. Pasco had Chappies who were quite upset about no such referendum. But, some shoppers that 1.5-percent tax increase they were at Tampa Premium Outlets and the resnot supposed to be charged. taurants nearby were being charged 8.5. GN: Yes, Hillsborough had two ref- What happened? erendums pass, raising the (county) sales See “Jennifer Ames” on page 5.

Hoops, There It Is?

After some haggling over the choice of the company chosen to build it, the indoor facility at Wesley Chapel District Park Is finally moving forward. Pages 8-9

Beach House Wiregrass

With more residents than expected after its first year, the Beach House at Wiregrass offers its residents top-notch assisted living.

Pages 24-25

The Readers Speak

The results are in from the 2018 edition of our annual Readers Survey, and the favorite Wesley Chapel restaurant is....well, you’ll have to see for yourself, as well as the other favorites in categories for best pizza, burgers, steaks and more.

Pages 35-38

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Here’s Some Of What You Can Expect From The New NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net! Corrections From Last Issue

An editorial by Gary Nager So, now that we’re officially part of the Google News Initiative — one of only 23 U.S. companies to receive financial support for their news operations from the world’s largest tech company — a lot of people have been asking me what to expect in terms of our promised new formats and new online programming. Some of what we’ll be doing with Google’s funding — in addition to making major changes to all of our online content (more on this below) — will be business as usual, there will just be more frequent releases. We will still have News Desks with yours truly and former Bay News 9 reporter Susanna Martinez. I also will continue to provide Neighborhood Dining News and Entertainment segments. We’ll also have more North Tampa Bay Chamber (NTBC) Featured Business segments with our Featured Business host Mollyana Ward (see top right photo), as well as occasional news updates from the Chamber itself. For example, Mollyana recently interviewed Chamber president & CEO Hope Allen (photo below) and those segments have been getting a lot of views, both on YouTube and on Facebook. But, we’re also working on a lot of new stuff, too, the first of which is a really fun new segment featuring Jennifer Ames (see story on page 1), the administrator of the Wesley Chapel

Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News Address: 29157 Chapel Park Dr., Suite B Wesley Chapel, FL 33543 Phone: (813) 910-2575 Advertising E-mail: Ads@NTNeighborhoodNews.com Editorial E-mail: EditorialDept@NTNeighborhoodNews.com Publisher & Editor Gary Nager Managing Editor / Photographer John C. Cotey Correspondents Jarrett Guthrie • Celeste McLaughlin • Andy Warrener WCNT-tv Senior Video Producer/Photographer Gavin Olsen Graphic Designers Georgia Carmichael • Stephanie Vokes Flischel Sales & Office Assistant Janet Levins Billing Assistant Jannah McDonald Nothing that appears in Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News may be reproduced, whether wholly or in part, without permission. Opinions expressed by Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News writers are their own and do not reflect the publisher’s opinion. The deadline for outside editorial submissions and advertisement reservations for Volume 27, Issue 6, of Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News is Monday, February 25. Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News will consider previously nonpublished outside editorial submissions if they are double spaced, typed and less than 500 words. Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News reserves the right to edit and/or reject all outside editorial submissions and makes no guarantees regarding publication dates. Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News will not return unsolicited editorial materials. Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News reserves the right to edit &/or reject any advertising. Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News is not responsible for errors in advertising beyond the actual cost of the advertising space itself, nor for the validity of any claims made by its advertisers.

Community Facebook page, which has more than 16,000 members. This is our first effort to tap into the power of local online resources outside of our own website (NTNeighborhoodNews.com), “Neighborhood News” Facebook page and our WCNT-tv YouTube channel (again, see below). Jennifer’s first segments had just been released as this issue went to press and I think you’ll really enjoy them. Her personality is a big part of why the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page is so popular and it definitely shines through in her first interview with me in front of the camera. Jen’s “Chappie Chatter” segments will be a light-hearted look at what’s been “blowing up” her Facebook page and I’ll be really surprised if Neighborhood News readers and Wesley Chapel & New Tampa Television viewers alike don’t love the “Chatter.” Our senior video producer Gavin Olsen and I also have released the full video of each of the three interviews shown on this page on our WCNT-tv YouTube channel (www.youtube. com/c/wcnttv) and then cut the videos into individual segments for release on Facebook, Instagram and our current website. One thing we really want you to do is subscribe to our YouTube channel and start watching the full-length videos there. As for our other programming ideas, we’re keeping them under wraps for now, but you can expect several more announcements about those new video/online segments in these pages very soon.

25 Years, Eh?

Yes, on February 25, 2019, yours truly will celebrate 25 years as the owner, publisher and editor of the Neighborhood News. Milestone or no milestone, I recognize that the state of the print business is changing and (even though “niche” publications like ours are the ones people will still read today), the fact is that if we don’t change some of the ways we do things, we could go the way of not only the dinosaur, but also of daily newspapers and general interest magazines around the country. As I touched on in my last page 3 editorial, a big part of the changes to come this

In our January 2 issue, there were two mistakes that I felt needed to be corrected. The first was in our story about Samantha Taylor Fitness. Samantha, who also is our most recent North Tampa Bay Chamber Featured Business on WCNT-tv/NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net (see photo, left), loved the story, but we made a mistake in the address of her new Wesley year is that all of our videos, “Neighborhood Chapel location. The correct address is 26908 Ridgebrook Dr., Wesley Chapel, FL 33544. News” Facebook posts and our news magaThe other mistake was a misunderstanding zine’s website will soon fall under one new umbrella — NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net, on our part. We were totally incorrect when we the “Online Network Serving New Tampa & mentioned that Oakley’s Grille was one of the New Tampa restaurants that had closed its doors, Wesley Chapel.” The new website currently but although it was sold for a second time in only has a basic landing page, but we hope 2018, Oakley’s never did close and is still open to roll it out in full to coincide with my 25th anniversary at the helm of Neighborhood News every day but Monday. I apologize for the errors. — GN next month.

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Table of Contents

Local News Updates.....................3-12

Old Pasco Rd. Widening Back On Long Range Plan ...6 New Wesley Chapel Rec Center Proceeding...............8 Maggard Lines Up Support To Replace Burgess............10 Crosswalks On County Line Rd. Face Scrutiny.............10 Pebble Creek Residents Want Better Fire Service...........11 Wesley Chapel Community Calendar.........................12

Local

Business

Updates.....20-27

Berkshire Hathaway For All Your Real Estate Needs.....16 Medi-Weightloss Help Delivers Dramatic Results........18 Check Out The Goddard School Of Wesley Chapel...20 Beach House At Wiregrass Assisted Living............24

Local School & Sports Updates......28

Wiregrass Ranch Bullish On Health................28 WRH’s Dave Wilson: All He Does Is Win..............30 Cypress Creek Girls Soccer Earns 1st Hardware......32 Area Goes 3-For-3 In District Title Soccer Games.....33

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Our Annual Reader Dining Survey Results!..35-38 La Prima Pizza Owner Is Looking To Sell................39 Minerva: A Top-Notch Option For Indian Cuisine...40 ‘Neighborhood Nibbles & Business Bytes’.........42 New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Classifieds..........44 @NTWCNews

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The Heirloom Juice Bar will offer a variety of fresh juices, smoothies & coffee drinks when Earth Fare opens Feb. 20 in the Cypress Creek Town Center development just north of S.R. 56. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

‘Earth Fare’

Continued from Page 1 took place in Viera, FL on Jan. 9, and there are more to come, the company says, as it pursues aggressive expansion into Florida. “We’ve made a concerted effort in recent years to help Tampa-area shoppers have more convenient access to cleaner, healthier foods— the kind of food that will help them live a longer, happier, healthier life,” said Frank Scorpiniti, president/CEO of Earth Fare, in a statement. Earth Fare holds grand openings in the same way popular new businesses like Chick-Fil-A do, with long lines of early arrivers hoping to grab some free swag. Last month, nearly 800 people showed up for the 6:45 a.m. opening of the 11th store in Viera, and the first 500 received a mystery gift card worth as much as $1,000, followed by other giveaways, food samples and contests. Those who show up at the Wesley Chapel opening can expect more of the same thing. Each person who signs up with the Wesley Chapel/Lutz store’s Healthy Rewards program will receive a free re-usable bag, while supplies last. “I think we’ll see a lot of people (at the opening), because eating healthier foods has wide appeal,” Allen says. “I think that will add an extra layer of excitement to this opening.” Earth Fare touts a selection of items that specifically do not contain things like high-fructose corn syrup, artificial fats, colors, sweeteners, or preservatives, or meats that were bred with antibiotics or growth hormones. The chain has a “boot list” — a long list of banned ingredients it does not allow in anything sold in any Earth Fare store. Founded in 1975 and based in Asheville, NC, Earth Fare’s tagline is “healthy food for everyone,” as the green grocer claims to offer “clean” food at prices every shoppers can afford. The company’s 50th store opened last month in Steel Creek, NC, and Scorpiniti has said there could be as many as 100 locations in a few years. Like most green grocers, Earth Fare 4

DISCOVER TRADITIONAL AFFORDABLE CONCIERGE STYLE MEDICINE SAME/NEXT DAY APPOINTMENTS ALWAYS AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS Earth Fare says it only sells meat & fish that hasn’t been raised on chemicals. (Photo: Earth Fare).

offers some distinct goodies to shoppers. The Wesley Chapel store will have an Heirloom Café & Juice Bar, where shoppers can buy smoothies and coffee, and lunch and dinner are offered from selections that include a salad bar, hot food bar, pizza station and sandwich counter. Earth Fare also offers a small seating area with free Wi-Fi for those who want to sit and enjoy their purchase. Painted on the wall is: “Have A Seat, Stay Awhile.” Staying awhile is something you may just end up doing at Earth Fare. The store will carry a substantial selection of craft beers, one of its more popular characteristics, and also offers more than 1,000 private brand food products. There also will be a large offering of Wellness & Beauty products, like self-serve, scoop-your-own body scrubs. “We are passionate about helping our community make the connection between clean food and living longer, healthier, happier lives,” Scorpiniti said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to become the newest member of the growing Wesley Chapel community and to continue to bring the leanest, healthiest options for years to come.” Earth Fare will open in Wesley Chapel first, but construction of a Sprouts Farmer’s Market in New Tampa is under way across Bruce B. Downs Blvd. from Hunter’s Green and will be the second large green grocer to hit the area.

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‘Jennifer Ames’

Continued from Page 1 JA: Someone wrote a post, asking “before I go to corporate and get bent out of shape, tell me, is this supposed to be happening?” So we all chimed in with, “Why would the outlet malls in Lutz be charging you 8.5 percent when it’s in Pasco?” And then, from there it was, “well, were not really Pasco, were half Hillsborough. Well, maybe it’s because their corporate office isn’t there, maybe it’s a conspiracy, maybe its fraud.” We don’t know. So...it ended up going all the way up the ladder. GN: So just from that initial post... and the other posts that came out, how many total reactions did you have? JA: We had to be close to thousands, because there were several posts. Some I had to shut off because it became so redundant, but it was also comical. So many theories. It was a big deal. GN: Have people been able to get refunds from these stores? JA: As of now, I think people are going up the chain of command and getting their refunds. There were a couple of days there where someone involved (Pasco) County Commissioner Mike Moore; they were involving corporate, and VPs and the developer for the outlet mall — oh, and At Home is not part of the outlet mall, in case you are wondering— so it was hotly debated. GN: So people have walked into AH with their receipts to get their 19 cents or

Jennifer Ames (far right) and members of her Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page enjoy a recent “Chappie Hour” networking event. Look for the first segment of “Chappie Chatter” on the Neighborhood News Facebook page & at www.youtube.com/c/wcnttv. (Photo: Jennifer Wuest) age, so we’re always looking for ways to whatever refunds? keep people entertained and involved. JA: Yes. Now. Cash. Only. (laughs) GN: What were some of the funniest Monday Night Memes has been a great one. We have an average audience of comments on this, some of the crazier 7-8,000 per post. So that’s tremendous things that people were saying? feedback, and I incentivize people by JA: Well, overall, the idea that it was a conspiracy. They blamed the voters, they giving them gift cards for the winning memes. blamed the cashiers, they had an answer GN: Whoever gets the most votes for everything. I think mostly it was fun, tongue-in-cheek feedback. But people get wins? And, (Memes) is not a place for children, is it? (laughs) passionate about their issues. JA: Some of them are hilarious, GN: Tell me about some of special some of them are nasty. I put a sign on it features (you guys organize), some of that says, “You will be offended. Don’t these things that (your page has) going. JA: One of the things about having a open this post!” But still, people do get group is keeping people engaged, and we offended, but the majority don’t and just have fun with it. do have over 15,000 active members at GN: Talk about having to turn off any given time and that’s a great percent-

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the comments. What does it take for Jennifer to say, “Bing! This one’s done.” JA: If it has been answered ad nauseum. When we get 500 of the same exact answer, then it’s time to turn it off. If people are getting a little feisty, you know, if it has been a bad day in The Chap, traffic is heavy, I’ll turn it off so things don’t get too heated. I have a couple of instigators on the page that like to stir the pot. But, we do have a fun. It’s really a cohesive, fun and friendly group. We do the “Chappie Hour,” so we get together every thousand new members or so that we add to group. We have little get togethers at one of our local venues. We give raffle prizes away, get to meet our neighbors, make new friends. It’s been great. We get to connect business owners with community members, neighbors and friends, so it helps with the cohesiveness of the group. It’s hard to be rude to somebody when you just had a drink with them the night before. GN: Obviously it’s a new year, so what are some other issues that have come up for 2019? JA: It’s always traffic. Everybody hates traffic. GN: And of course we have a diverging diamond being built now. JA: The diverging diamond! Yes, a very hot topic. We don’t have a lot going on in Wesley Chapel, so you know, we have to complain about traffic. We complain about what’s not in the area, what’s coming to the area. We don’t want anymore fast foods, but they keep bringing them so apparently, we do want them.

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Old Pasco Rd. Added To Pasco MPO’s Long Range Transportation Plan By JOHN C. COTEY john@ntneighborhoodAfter being taken off Pasco County’s Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) during the economic downturn in 2008, the widening of Old Pasco Rd. will be getting a fresh look. The county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) voted unanimously last month to put the idea of widening the two-lane road back on Pasco’s LRTP. While still a long way from any concrete design and plans, transportation projects can only be funded if they are on the LRTP, so it’s a start. “Now, we can figure out how to get it funded, what it might cost and look at a newer study of the road,” said Pasco Commissioner Mike Moore, who represents District 2, which includes most of Wesley Chapel. Moore says he has been pushing for an examination of Old Pasco Rd. for the past two years. Old Pasco Rd. is no longer simply a minor roadway that winds through a sleepy part of Wesley Chapel from S.R. 54, past Overpass Rd., into San Antonio, and all the way to S.R. 52. Instead, it is evolving into is a main arterial roadway that goes by the new Cypress Creek High Middle/High School and future performing arts center, new housing developments and a soon-to-be-built business park.

“I personally feel it’s a priority to get it done,” Moore says. “It’s a pretty skinny road the way it is, and with a new school and additional homes, I have concerns about the traffic and the safety of those who live and drive in that area.” It was during the summer of 2018 that Moore and District 1 Commissioner Ron Oakley ignited the debate, following the re-zoning request that cleared the way for 2,250,000 sq. ft. of office and light industrial entitlements to be built on roughly 91 acres of land on the east side of Old Pasco Rd., just south of Overpass Rd., near Cypress Creek Middle/High. With plans already underway to widen Overpass Rd. and the addition of a new intersection with I-75, more traffic on Old Many stretches of Old Pasco Rd., like this one just north of Life Church, Pasco Rd. — including big trucks coming are particularly narrow. The county is considering widening it. to and from the Overpass Business Park, as it will be called — is a certainty. at the intersection of Old Pasco Rd. and and study for Old Pasco Rd., to determine if there is a need for the widening. Country Club Rd. Commissioner Moore says he has That study is looking at the Old Pasco Coming Soon: More Traffic Rd. intersections with S.R. 54, Post Oak While portions of Old Pasco Rd. will met with local residents on a number of occasions over the past two years, Blvd., Foamflower Blvd., Dayflower Blvd., be widened during the construction of and says a large majority of the people Country Club Rd., Bonnie Blue Dr., the soon-to-be-built Overpass Rd./I-75 he’s spoken with want to see the road Deedra Dr., Sonny Dr., Lindenhurst Dr., intersection, Moore would like to see a widened. But they want it done right — and Overpass Rd. plan to widen Old Pasco Rd. all the way with a median and sidewalks and bike It will be years before the project from S.R. 52 to S.R. 54. comes to fruition, and the amount of He says he knows it will be expensive, paths, all things that make it safer for right-of-way land that would need to but adds that the area is quickly growing. pedestrians and vehicles. “They want it done right,” Moore be purchased will make it an expensive In addition to the school, there are 400 says, “and I agree.” endeavor. new homes approved for construction in HDR Engineering, Inc., is currently “It won’t be easy,” Moore admits, Quail Hollow, and a 264-unit Arbours conducting a road safety audit (RSA) “but I really think it needs to get done.” at Saddle Oaks residential development

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Wesley Chapel District Park Rec Center Survives Delay Request By JOHN C. COTEY john@ntneightborhoodnews.com Plans to build a $3-million indoor athletic facility at the Wesley Chapel District Park (WCDP) are moving forward, following some heated debate at the Jan. 22 Pasco Board of County Commissioners (BOC) meeting about whether or not the commissioners should delay it. At the BOC meeting, where commissioners were expected to approve the choice of the construction company tabbed by county staff to build the facility, District 4 commissioner Mike Wells seemed put off by the lack of notes by evaluation committee members in the committee’s final recommendation of Wannemacher Jensen Architects. Comm. Wells said he wanted to see the notes the staffers took to make their final decision, which was unanimous. And, because those notes weren’t available, he suggested, “that all of the proposals be rejected and that the project be re-solicited.” Requiring that every company that submitted bids and presentations do so again would delay the project by as much as six months. The Consent Agenda is usually a list of items that the county staff has recommended for BOC approval. Sometimes, but rarely, items are pulled

Wannemacher Jensen Architects will look to improve on this 2005 proposed model of a Wesley Chapel District Park Community Center. from the Agenda to correct a mistake, or to be debated. Wells pulled the Wesley Chapel facility item from the Consent Agenda, something he said he has done only one other time in his career as a commissioner. “It’d be nice to be able to go back and look at the notes,” Wells said. County purchasing director Stacy Ziegler told the BOC that proper procedure was followed during the selection process, and that tapes of those meetings are public.

“We followed a process that we have been following for the last six months, since we updated our purchasing manual,” Ziegler said. “We feel we’ve done our due diligence and our recommendation should stand.” Wells, as well as District 5 Commissioner Jack Mariano — who originally seconded Wells’ motion to reject the selection — seemed miffed that Spring Engineering, Inc., wasn’t chosen. Spring Engineering and its CEO, Richard Bekesh, each donated $1,000

to Wells’ reelection campaign in 2017. Located in Holiday, FL, Spring Engineering was ranked as the seventh choice out of nine by the county’s evaluation committee, which was made up of assistant county administrator Erik Breitenbach, director of facilities management Andrew Baxter, chief project manager of the facilities management department TJ Pyche, director of parks, recreation & natural resources Keith Wiley and Brian Taylor, the manager of parks, recreation and natural resources. Comm. Mariano said the county should be pushing local companies, and he had a problem with Spring Engineering, a local company, not making the top two, even though he did not attend any of the evaluation meetings. In fact, he and Wells both hinted at including county commissioners on the evaluation committees in the future, and later Mariano even suggested the companies should re-present to the commission. Mike Moore, the commissioner for District 2, which includes most of Wesley Chapel, was visibly frustrated by Wells’ maneuverings, and argued that redoing the entire process would be a waste of time, and unfair to the companies bidding — as well as to the Wesley Chapel residents awaiting the new facility. “If you go through the whole pro-

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cess and they write comments down and the results are exactly the same, then what?,” Moore asked. Moore has been a proponent of building the indoor facility at WCDP, where the Wesley Chapel Athletic Association runs youth leagues in a variety of sports. The WCAA’s basketball leagues are currently held on outdoor courts, a less-than-ideal setting considering Florida’s hot and often rainy climate. An indoor gymnasium would allow the basketball leagues to be played indoors. It also would create an opportunity for gymnastics and volleyball leagues to be played, as well as adult recreation sports like pickleball. The 13,000-sq.-ft. recreation center would also have meeting rooms and offer local residents a place to gather for meetings, exercise classes and parties. Moore said he thinks more than 1,000 local athletes and residents will be impacted by the facility. “There are a lot of people waiting for this to be done,” Moore told his fellow commissioners. “They need this to happen on the timeline we said it was going to happen.” The idea for an indoor facility at the WCDP, which is currently just a collection of lacrosse, soccer, baseball and softball fields, with outdoor basketball courts and three tennis courts, has been bandied about since 2005, but the money hasn’t been available to build it. The county has allocated $2.5-million

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towards the project, which comes from developer impact fees, Moore said, and could be completed by summer 2020. Last October, the county officially solicited bids for the project, reaching out to 551 vendors via email, including 34 from Pasco County. Nine responses were received, and Spring Engineering was the lone bidder from the county. On Nov. 29, the evaluation committee independently scored the proposals, settling on a final four of two firms from St. Petersburg and two from Tampa. On Jan. 3, the remaining firms gave presentations to the committee, and all five members ranked Wannemacher Jensen Architects, Inc., of St. Petersburg, No. 1. Harvard Jolly, Inc., also based in St. Petersburg, was named No. 2 by four of the five committee members. Wells seemed perturbed that there was a wide difference in rating points between some of the firms during the process, seeming to suggest that those results somehow made the process flawed. Mariano hinted at some sort of bias. Spring Engineering, for example, was scored an 82 by one committee member, but only 46 by two others. “This is about picking the most qualified person, and I don’t think we did that,” Wells said. Following the debate, Wells again motioned for the recommendation to be rejected, but Mariano declined to second it and it passed 4-1.

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The Race To Fill Burgess’ Florida House Seat Heats Up, As Moore Endorses Maggard By JOHN C. COTEY

When Randy Maggard, the former chair of the Pasco County Republican Party, filed his paperwork to run for the State House District 38 seat in December 2018, he was the first candidate to file paperwork for the November 2020 election to replace Danny Burgess, who had just won re-election in November of last year. So, when Burgess vacated the seat he had just won after he was appointed by new Gov. Ron Desantis as the Executive Director of Florida’s Department of Veterans’ Affairs on Jan. 24, Maggard became the first candidate to officially file for the special election to replace Burgess, which may include a primary on April 6 (if another Republican files for the seat by Feb. 8), with the actual election to be held June 4. Maggard already has rolled out a series of endorsements from prominent Republican figures, including District 2 Pasco County commissioner Mike Moore, to bolster his standing as the favorite for the June election. Moore, whose district includes most of Wesley Chapel, endorsed Maggard on Jan. 31, capping a week in which the candidate rolled out a new endorsement each day. Maggard’s haul included endorsements from Florida Senator Wilton Simpson (R-Trilby), Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco, Pasco County Tax Collector and former state leg-

islator Mike Fasano, and Moore. “In the special election for House District 38, I’m standing with Randy Maggard,” said Moore via a press release. “Randy and I have known each other for many years. As a sucRandy Maggard cessful small business owner, I’ve sought out his advice and counsel. As a community leader, he and I have spent hours together, working to solve challenges in our community.” Maggard doesn’t have a primary opponent at this time, and his endorsement rollout could deter anyone considering it. Considering that the Dist. 38 seat hasn’t had a Republican primary in years, Maggard’s strategy may be wise. Former Florida House Seaker Will Weatherford (2012) and Burgess (2014, ‘16, ‘18) did not have primary challengers. Moore’s endorsement comes as no surprise. Not only are he and Maggard fellow Republicans, but Maggard’s only Democratic opponent is Wesley Chapel’s Kelly Smith, whom Moore recently defeated in a race for his county commission seat.

Meadow Pointe II Resident Seeks Safer Crosswalks By JOHN C. COTEY

Kyle Molder has taken his dog on enough walks around his Meadow Pointe II neighborhood and out onto County Line Rd. to know that most times, it’s just best to say on your side of the road. He says cars are driving faster, there is little to slow them down or remind them to, and the crosswalks (photo) have become dangerous. Molder has started a petition in the hopes of rectifying what he feels is a dangerous situation that could one day lead to tragic results. At Change.org, where his petition can be found by searching “Meadow Pointe Community Cross Walks,” Molder is asking neighbors and nearby residents to join him in alerting Pasco County to his cause. “It would basically benefit all of Meadow Pointe,” he says. What Molder is asking for: crosswalks to be restriped to make them more visible, signs that are placed in more visible locations reminding drivers to yield to pedestrians, and flashing lights that can be activated with the press of a button. Molder knows it is unreasonable to expect lights at every intersection on County Line Rd. from Bruce D. Downs Blvd. to Mansfield Blvd. He says there are 14-15 intersections in that stretch. But, by consolidating some of those crosswalks and making a handful (or more) highly visible, it could help slow down the

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traffic on County Line Rd. While the speed limit is 40 miles per hour through most of that stretch, Molder says most cars are going much faster. “I walk my dogs daily and I have seen where kids are standing in the middle of the road in the crosswalk (at the median) just waiting for the opportunity to cross,” says Molder. “There’s no lights or anything to slow them down. They are supposed to yield to those kids.” Molder says he has been told County Line Rd. is scheduled to be repaved, which would result in new striping at the intersections, which would help. But, that won’t be until 2022, he says he was told. “I’m hoping they can make a few changes sooner,” says Molder, who was planning to present his case and petition at the next Meadow Pointe II CDD meeting on Feb. 6, which District 5 Pasco County commissioner Jack Mariano was scheduled to attend.

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Pebble Creek Residents Fighting For Hillsborough To Build A New Fire Station been unhappy with what they call slow service, or sometimes, no service at all. Resident Carolyn Michel says that last Sept. 4, she was having trouble breathing and her neighbors called 911 in Hillsborough County twice and were patched over each time to Pasco, which took her information and said a unit would soon arrive. “I waited and waited and waited and waited, and then called again,” Michael claims. By the time the EMS unit arrived two hours later, she wasn’t there — her neighbors had taken her to Florida Hospital Tampa, where she says she spent two weeks recovering from lung issues. When she had the same health issue in November, she says she didn’t even bother calling. “I knew they wouldn’t come,” she says, and instead got another ride from the neighbor. Corey Dierdorff, the public information officer for Pasco County’s Fire Rescue Department, says a vehicle was dispatched for chest pains on Sept. 4, arriving at 11:33, six minutes after the call. Michel, however, says her neighbors called around 9:30 p.m. She said she spoke to Pasco County Fire Chief Scott Cassin at a recent Pebble Creek town hall, and he admitted the mistake and said it was currently being investigated. Stories like Michel’s, about longer-thanusual waits for fire rescue and ambulances to arrive, have been popping up on sites like NextDoor.com, fueling Lindner and her group. “We kept hearing them, more and more, and decided we have to do something,” she says. Lindner, whose father has a myriad of health issues, says she has had problems with Tampa and Pasco’s inconsistency over the years. Now, she says the stories from others are piling up: She says Branchton residents, who live the

By JOHN C. COTEY

john@ntneightborhoodnews. When Jennifer Lindner looks around, she sees City of Tampa fire rescue stations everywhere. Her home in New Tampa’s Pebble Creek community is seemingly surrounded by them. There’s two on Cross Creek Blvd., a few miles from each other, and a new one up the road on County Line Rd., and she says she could practically walk to all of them. And yet, she says, when she makes a call to 911 from her home, she is likely going to be waiting for an Emergency Medical Services vehicle to arrive from…Wesley Chapel. “It’s crazy,” she says. Lindner thinks it’s time to do something about it. She and a few other Pebble Creek residents have created a Facebook page (search: “Operation Fire Rescue Station”), started an online petition, passed out fliers at local events and intend to attend Hillsborough County Commission meetings to make their voices heard. They think with roughly 5,000 homes in New Tampa’s unincorporated Hillsborough County communities, a county fire station should be built to provide nearby service for those residents. The New Tampa neighborhoods located in unincorporated Hillsborough County — including Pebble Creek, Live Oak Preserve and Cross Creek — currently receive fire rescue service from Pasco Fire Station No. 26 just off Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in front of the Meadow Pointe I community in Wesley Chapel, about six miles away from the easternmost part of unincorporated New Tampa. Fire Stations run by the City of Tampa — No. 20 in Tampa Palms, Nos. 21 and 22 on

Pebble Creek resident Carolyn Michel and her dog Monty are hoping that Hillsborough County will build a fire rescue station in their community. Cross Creek Blvd. and the new No. 23 on County Line Rd. — no longer serve unincorporated New Tampa, following a 2017 dispute over how much Hillsborough was paying for the service. Hillsborough was paying the City of Tampa roughly $225,000 per year; but outgoing Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said the figure should be closer to $1.1 million. Buckhorn told county officials they could go to Pasco County if they didn’t like it, and they did, entering into a $275,000-per-year contract with Pasco. Negotiations are currently ongoing between the counties to renew the deal. But, some Pebble Creek residents have

furthest away from the Wesley Chapel fire station, worrying whether EMS vehicles will reach them in time, and about ambulances getting lost before transporting heart attack victims to the hospital. Dierdorff says in the case of high-priority calls, like a 9-1-1 call for chest pains, Pasco “automatically” requests help from Tampa Fire Rescue, due to a mutual aid agreement between the two counties. In the case of Michel, then, the nearest station would have been Station 22 on Cross Creek Blvd. Dierdorff says the average response time on calls to Pebble Creek is seven minutes. Most of the complaints he has heard are from people who are upset to see a Pasco rescue vehicle show up when they pay taxes to Hillsborough County. The nearest Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Station is the University Area Station No. 5 on E. 139th Ave. Eric Denny, an aide to Dist. 2 Hillsborough Commissioner Ken Hagan, says a new fire station in Pebble Creek is “a heavy lift” and “unlikely.” More likely: a new mayor will be elected in March, and Hillsborough will re-open negotiations to again receive fire and ambulance service from the closer stations run by the city. “That area is relatively small for (a county) fire station,” Denny says. “It’s all built out. All of the growth in unincorporated Tampa is in south county. That’s where the fire needs are.” That is not enough to persuade Lindner and Co. to give up their crusade. “We’re not giving up on this,” Lindner says. “They are putting lives in danger. The county seems disinterested in putting a fire station out here. You can blow us off, but we’re not going away.”

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FEBRUARY 2019 Saturday, February 9

Free Community Boot Camp - New Year, Same Hustle - Camp Gladiator is a fitness movement with dynamic, fun and challenging workouts - This is 60-minutes of amazing at your favorite place to shop. This Free event takes place every Saturday, 8:30-9:30am at Tampa Premium Outlets (2300 Grand Cypress Dr, Lutz) - Participants should bring: exercise mat, 1-2 bottles of water, sweat towel, a smile & great attitude. For more Info, email Christine Iloni at christineiloni@campgladiator.com. Homes for Our Troops (HFOT) Community Kickoff for Marine Cpl Tim Read - Please join Homes for Our Troops as we kick off the building of U.S. Marine Cpl. Tim Read’s specially adapted custom home in Wesley Chapel. Check-in 9:30 a.m.; Ceremony at 10 a.m.; lunch will be provided. Location: Texas Roadhouse, 26409 Silver Maple Pkwy. (off S.R. 56). To get involved, email: coc@hfotusa.org or go to http://www.hfotusa.org/read. Bay Chapel Food Pantry - Free food to help needy families. The Bay Chapel Food Pantry is open every Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m., behind Christian Brothers Automotive on BBD Blvd. in New Tampa (20300 Trout Creek Dr). For more info, call (813) 731-4040.

Monday, February 11

Wesley Chapel Speaks - The Wesley Chapel Toastmasters meet every Monday at 7 p.m. for networking, 7:30 p.m. for public speaking, at the Edward Jones Building Main Floor, Keller Williams Training Roo (18302 Highwoods Preserve Pkwy.). For more info, call Martin at (813) 693-0969.

Tuesday, February 12

North Tampa Bay Chamber: Smart Business Series - This is a monthly educational series with topics related to growing your business. Come network with fellow members and be part of this interactive program, which is filmed in front of a live studio audience. These meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month, 8:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m. Location: Overnight Success Studios (17743 Hunting Bow Cir., Lutz). For more info/fees, call (813) 994-8534. Piano Recital - New Tampa Piano & Pedagogy Academy - The New Tampa Piano & Pedagogy Academy faculty will be performing an all-piano recital from 7:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. at Florida College Puckett Auditorium (119 N Glen Arven Ave., Temple Terrace). Admission is free. Come for an exciting hour of piano music — from solos to 6-performers at once. For more information, call (813) 994-2452 or visit NewTampaPPA.com. Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon - The Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel meets Wednesdays at noon at Lexington Oaks Golf Club (26133 Lexington Oaks Blvd.). First time guests attend free. For more information, call 391-3895.

Thursday, February 14

North Tampa Veterans Association meeting - All armed forces veterans and associates are invited to a weekly lighthearted Dutch-treat breakfast meeting to get acquainted and tell your tales, new and old. Location: Steak ‘n Shake just off BBD Blvd. (17509 North Palms Village Pl.), every Thursday at 7:30 a.m. Bring your spouse and your brag sheet. Open to veterans of all branches of the U.S. military. RGA Network Weekly Meeting - The RGA Networking Group meets weekly for networking at GrillSmith at the Shops at Wiregrass Mall. Networking begins at 11:30am; Lunch is served Noon-1pm. For more info, visit RGANetwork.net.

Friday, February 15

Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Sunrise - The Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Sunrise meets the 1st & 3rd Fridays of each month, 7:15am, at Happy Hangar Cafe, 4241 Birdsong Blvd. For info, call Kathy Schenck at 813-956-4436. Drive-Thru Prayer - Takes place every Friday, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., at Atonement Lutheran Church (29617 S.R. 54, Wesley Chapel). You will find us in front of the church, under the portico. Trained members of the Caring Ministry Team are available to share your cares and concerns in prayer while you stay seated in your car. Everyone is welcome.

Saturday, February 16

Applebee’s Valentine’s Breakfast Scouting Fundraiser for the Entire Family! - Come to Applebee’s (in front of Walmart, 28422 SR 43, Wesley Chapel), 8 a.m.-10 a.m. Breakfast tickets cost $7 per person & breakfast includes: 3 pancakes, 2 sausage links & choice of coffee, tea, juice or soda. Proceeds will benefit Boy Scout Troop 2 & Scout Troop 300, Wesley Chapel. Please note that all tickets are being sold prior to the event date — NO tickets will be available the day of the event. For more info, visit spartantroop300.wixsite.com/events. Fresh Market at Wiregrass - the 1st & 3rd Saturday of each month, you can enjoy the Fresh Market at Wiregrass (28211 Paseo Dr.), 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. Shop for fresh produce, hand-crafted goods, candles, sauces, fresh bread, and so much more. For more info, visit TampaBaymarkets.com.

Tuesday, February 19

North Tampa Bay Chamber: Monthly Coffee Social - This free networking event for Members of the Chamber & their guests takes place at Buttermilk Provisions (2653 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., Suite 117, Wesley Chapel), 8 a.m.-9 a.m.. For more info, call (813) 994-8534. 12

Wednesday, February 20

Central Pasco Democratic Club - The monthly Democratic group meeting for the Central Pasco County area will be held 7:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m., at Mercedes Benz of Wesley Chapel (2383 Willow Oaks Dr., off S.R. 56, Wesley Chapel). For more information, visit Facebook.com/centralpascodemocrats.

Friday, February 22

Special Olympics Pasco County Summer Games - Wesley Chapel High School (30651 Wells Rd.) will host the Special Olympics Pasco County Summer Games, 11:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. The parade & opening ceremony will be held at 11:30 a.m.; the competition starts at 12:15 p.m. More than 600 athletes will be competing in Athletics, Bocce, Cycling, Soccer and Tennis. Everyone is invited to attend the games and cheer on these amazing athletes and volunteers are needed to assist with the Games. For more information, call Val Lundin at (813) 299-4433 or visit specialolympicspasco.org.

Saturday, February 23

American Heart Association Family Walk - Come enjoy a fun family walk in support of the American Heart Association, 9 a.m.-11 a.m., at The Learning Experience of New Tampa (20780 Trout Creek Dr., New Tampa (off Cunty Line Rd.). Please Wear Red! For more information. please call (813) 575-8268. Custom Car Show to Benefit the Sean Bartell Memorial Foundation - See the ad on pg. 13. Battle of the Bowls Chili Cook Off - The Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch Assisted Living & Memory Care (30070 S.R. 56, Wesley Chapel) will be hosting it’s inaugural “Battle of the Bowls” Chili Cook-Off for the Wesley Chapel area, 2 p.m.-4 p.m. You can enter your favorite chili or come to sample each chili and then cast your ballot at this free event. After ballots are counted, enjoy a bowl of chili or a hot dog with all the trimmings. For more info, call (813) 508-6677.

MARCH 2019 Saturday, March 2

Community-Wide Yard Sale - Compton Park in Tampa Palms - Your Junk could be Someone Else’s Treasure — you sell it or we’ll sell it for you or come hunt for your treasure, at Compton Park in Tampa Palms - Sponsored by the Tampa Palms Women’s Club, all proceeds will benefit the USF Scholarship Fund. For more info, call (813) 615-9600 or see the ad on pg. 46.

Tuesday, March 5

GFWC Pasco Junior Woman’s Club - The Monthly Meeting of the GFWC Pasco Junior Woman’s Club will be held 6:30 p.m.-8 p.m., at the Lexington Oaks Clubhouse (26304 Lexington Oaks Blvd, Wesley Chapel). The club is a nonprofit organization dedicated to community improvement by enhancing the lives of others through volunteer service. Women of all ages are invited to attend and see how you can get involved in your community. For more info, call Beth Reed at (813) 380-8124.

Visit NTNeighborhoodNews.com to add your upcoming events that are open to the public to our online calendar. Events that are free take precedence, but as long as the cost to attend is included in the info, they are still eligible. Once approved online, they will appear in the “Events” section on our home page & may also appear in our print editions.

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Berkshire Hathaway For All Your Real Estate Needs — Local & Worldwide! By CELESTE MCLAUGHLIN

With the real estate markets in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel continuing to improve, more and more locals are turning to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group, which opened a new office on S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel last March, moving a couple of miles west from its previous location on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in the Shoppes at New Tampa. President and managing broker Otis Bass, Jr., who joined the company in 2014 from Charles Rutenberg Realty, says the new office was designed with Starbucks in mind. “It has to be comfortable, have the tools our agents need and be a place where they can get their coffee or water and get to work,” Bass explains. Bass says the office designers looked at Starbucks because they know that’s where many of their 80 agents sometimes were going to get some work done. But, Bass says the new office is better than Starbucks because it offers many opportunities for the team to collaborate and participate in training, helping them to fully understand and execute the client-centric culture of their agency. “We look at ourselves as trusted advisors,” Bass says. “We do more coaching and mentoring, helping sellers and buyers make informed decisions. We’re not about the hard close, but about making sure our clients are comfortable with their decisions.” He says Berkshire Hathaway agents guide them through that process, which often ends with a successful sale. “We are full service,” Bass says. “So,

The team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group on S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel is a full-service real estate firm for residential, luxury, & commercial real estate & property management.

we’re doing residential, luxury, commercial, and we even do property management.” That means the agents in his office help anyone with real estate needs, from first-time homebuyers who want to know what they qualify for and need help understanding the process of applying for a mortgage, all the way up to the baby boomers who want to downsize their living space. Berkshire Hathaway also helps people who have commercial real estate needs. “We have a lot of lot of large land listings right now, especially along S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel,” Bass says. “We’ve seen a good spike in land listings, which varies from

working ranches and farms to just large plots of commercial land on S. R. 54.”

Looking To Rent?

Bass says his agents also help landlords find tenants for their investment properties. Berkshire Hathaway’s online portal for rental properties is RentAHomeWithUs.com, which is the site to browse for rental properties and for tenants and owners to conduct business for everything from making payments to reporting maintenance needs. While the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group is a large local firm, Bass says his office is selective

when it comes to choosing employees. “We don’t just bring in a bunch of people and hope they stick,” he says. “We really go through a process with recruits to be sure they fit the culture and will be client-centric.” He explains that culture heavily emphasizes teamwork and collaboration, with roundtable discussions held at the office on legal issues, neighborhoods, builders, construction and commercial properties, among other topics. Bass says he honed many of his own current skills working in the mortgage industry for more than a decade. That experience, he says, has provided him additional perspective when it comes to his real estate management job. “Getting into real estate was second nature for me,” he says. “I already understood contracts, titles, appraisals and surveys, and I pretty much knew what I was getting myself into. Once I got into real estate, I was having more fun than I was with mortgages.”

Satisfied Clients

Lee Otten says he was a real estate agent in Maryland for many years before he and his wife, Patricia, moved to Florida. First looking for a home for his daughter, he began working with Mercy Barragan from Berkshire Hathaway. “Being an agent,” he says, “I was very fussy about who I would work with. Mercy is very good, very efficient and knowledgeable.” He explains that her attention to detail was just like they way he used to serve his own clients, and he appreciated

February 28, 2019

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it. “There was no question I would call her when I got a house for myself,” Lee says. He did call Mercy when he was ready to buy, and she helped him buy a home in Arbor Greene in New Tampa four years ago. Lee called her again when he realized he wanted something “bigger and better,” and Mercy helped him find a different home in Arbor Greene. “I could not have been more pleased,” he says of all the transactions he’s conducted with his agent.

The Buffet Connection

If the name Berkshire Hathaway seems familiar beyond the real estate business, it’s because it is derived from the holding company Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., which is chaired by billionaire financier and company CEO Warren Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group is one of the companies that make up HomeServices of America, Inc., which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway Energy, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. The HomeServices group of companies, of which the Florida Properties Group is one, provides all of the resources involved in supporting real estate transactions and investments under one roof, such as mortgage originations, title and closing services, insurance, home warranties and even relocation services that span the globe. The company is a strong presence in the local market, as well. What is now called Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group was originally founded in 1959 as Tropical Realty. Dewey Mitchell and Allen Crumbley acquired the business in 1984, then aligned with the

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Prudential Real Estate Network in 1988. In 2012, Berkshire Hathaway purchased that group. There was a two-year transition period between 2012-14 for the change to become complete. This 60-year history has coincided with the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel areas evolving from scrub land and cow pastures into vibrant, active communities. Bass, a Florida native, is quite familiar with the market and its transformation. “I grew up in Wesley Chapel before it was Wesley Chapel,” he says. “I’m one of the very few people you will meet who is actually from the area.” Bass and the agents who work in the office are committed to serving the community around them. He says they held a successful food and toy drive for Metropolitan Ministries this past holiday season, and they support a charity called Sunshine Kids, which gives kids who have a terminal disease a week in Orlando to go to Disney and Universal. Some Berkshire Hathaway volunteers even go with the children as chaperones or to help push wheelchairs, or whatever they can do to make it the best possible experience for the kids. “It’s being part of the community and giving back and being of service to the community,” Bass explains. “We help buyers buy homes and help sellers sell homes. How else can we contribute?” Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group is located at 26771 S.R. 56, in the same shopping plaza as Buffalo Wild Wings, near I-75. For more info, visit BHHSFloridaProperties. com, call (813) 907-8200, or see the ad on page 27 of this issue.

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Medi-Weightloss In Lutz Can Still Help You Keep Your New Year’s Resolution! By ANDY WARRENER

According to a survey done by Statista, the top three New Year’s resolutions for Americans in 2019 were: diet or eat healthier, exercise more, and lose weight. An earlier survey, conducted in December of 2018, said that just 16 percent of respondents stuck to some of their 2018 resolutions, while 13 percent said they kept none of them. Those three resolutions are obviously intertwined — in order to make lasting changes to one’s health via weight loss and diet, one must adopt lifestyle changes. Those changes can be easier to make and keep when you have the help of professionals. Since 2006, the Medi-Weightloss Center of Lutz, one of more than 100 locations nationwide, has helped clients make lifestyle changes that stick. To date, the office located on S.R. 54, two miles west of S.R. 56, has helped patients lose nearly 108,000 pounds. “I started going to Medi because I couldn’t stick with a diet longer than a week,” client Danielle Crowley says. “I have now been going to Medi for two months, and have lost 20 pounds and nine inches from my waist.” The professionals at Medi-Weightloss focus on three phases. The first is the acute phase, also known as the weight loss phase. The initial visit is a 60-90 minute consultation. Professionals will take weight measurements, do blood work, take an electrocardiogram (EKG), present informational handouts that go into a binder and start a detailed journal where the client will log their eating, drinking and sleeping data.

(L.-r.) Angela Wild, Patty Pinson, Dr. Andrew Weitzman & Erin Jones can help you keep your New Year’s resolutions when you sign up for a program at the Medi-Weightloss Clinic on S.R. 54 in Lutz.

During the acute phase, clients come in once a week until they hit their target weight. Medi-Weightloss has many ways to help during this difficult phase. You’ll get two injections, one called a Methionine Inositol Choline (or MIC Combo) injection that puts B12 vitamins and amino acids right into your bloodstream. The lipotropic substances help with fat metabolism, liver function and fat excretion. “The MIC injections are good for everyone and we never charge for them if you’re on the program,” Lutz Medi-Weightloss owner Gerri Willett says. “While you’re on the program, you can come in twice a

week and get the MIC Combo for free.” The second shot is a Vitamin B6 and B1 injection that helps reduce water retention and helps keep your energy up while battling food cravings. In the first phase, clients also will have help with vitamin supplements, a good multi-vitamin as well as calcium and Omega 3 supplements. You’ll also receive a food scale to help with portion control and ketone sticks to detect your level of ketosis. “Ketosis is a state where your body burns fat faster,” Willett said. “The ketone stick will reveal what level of ketosis you are in. Some don’t get there but it’s okay if they just get close.”

Once you reach your target weight, you’ll move on to Phase 2: the maintenance phase. Clients meet with Andrew Weitzman, M.D., who is Board-certified in Internal Medicine. Dr. Weitzman will try to slowly take you off any medications you may be taking. “One of my favorite things is getting someone off of blood pressure medications,” Dr. Weitzman says. “You lose 20 pounds and all of a sudden, your blood pressure goes down.” Phase 3 is the wellness phase. At this phase, clients need only come in once a month. Shannon Terkoski (photos on next page) says she came to the Lutz Medi-Weightloss weighing 250 pounds in Jan. 2018. She now weighs 143 lbs., for a loss of 107 lbs. “Week-to-week, they were encouraging but also made real suggestions on what I could do to improve things, like the way I go grocery shopping and not just pushing their own products, even though I still take some of their proprietary products,” Terkoski says. “I stopped going on a weekly basis, but I continue to maintain what they have shown and taught me about making better lifestyle choices” And, it’s okay to come back later. Medi-Weightloss has clients return after completing the program, sometimes 10 years later, sometimes to share their success, sometimes because they are in need of additional help. “They can always come back,” Willett says. “If it’s 10 years or 13 years later, I want them to be able to come back in. I want success for my patients. They shouldn’t feel guilty about coming back in. Losing weight is a lifestyle change. If it was easy or just a pill you could take, no one would be overweight.”

2/28/19

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A Staff That’s There for You

Some clients are so happy with their results, they join the Medi-Weightloss team, like Erin Jones. “I lost 25 pounds in the first monthand-a-half and ended up losing 50 pounds overall,” Jones says. “I liked the program.” Jones, who affectionately goes by “The” Erin Jones in the office, lost her husband in 2010 and then, “I ate for a year” she said. She started coming to Medi-Weightloss in late 2011. By April of 2012, not only had she met her goals but she took a job interview at the clinic after her weight loss appointment. She started off working 10-12 hours per week and is now a full-time medical assistant and the office manager at Medi-Weightloss of Lutz. “Patients can take comfort in knowing that we’ve been down their road before and that we can truly say we know what they’re going through,” Jones says. Medical assistant Patty Pinson has been with Medi-Weightloss for a decade and is a retired Registered Nurse (RN). “This is a good place to work,” Pinson says. “Everyone gets along, we get to know the patients and it makes us feel good when we’re able to help them — it’s a win-win all the way around.” Medical assistant Angela Wild is the newest member of the staff, but comes with 14 years of experience in the radiology field. “This is definitely a happier field than radiology,” Wild said. “People come here because they want to be here and I don’t dread coming to work. I really enjoy it.” Dr. Weitzman earned his Doctor of Medicine Degree from Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv, Israel, and completed his residency in Long Island, NY. He operated a

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Congratulations to Shannon Terkoski, who started the Medi-Weightloss program a year ago weighing 250 pounds,. She now weighs 143.2 pounds, a total weight loss of 106.8 pounds.

primary care practice in New York for three years and ran one out of Manatee County prior to coming on board at Medi-Weightloss two-and-a-half years ago. “There aren’t as many dissimilarities as you’d think (between primary care and weight loss clinics),” Dr. Weitzman says. “The main difference is with primary care, you’re already treating a patient’s disease. Here, we’re working strictly with prevention.” He says he always stresses the three legs to the weight-loss process: diet, exercise and appetite suppression. “The diet we choose for you is sensible,” Dr. Weitzman says. “It’s not some newfangled

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diet. It should be possible for you to eat this way for the rest of your life.” Dr. Weitzman and the staff at MediWeightloss also will help develop an exercise program that fits your capabilities, and he also has a lot of experience prescribing appetite suppressants. “You must do all three in order to succeed,” Weitzman said. “Journaling helps a lot with diet. We also have supplements to help you.” In the office and also in the startup bag clients receive is a menu of different supplements. From flavored powders for shakes, to snacks and vitamins, you’ll have all the tools

for success right at your fingertips. While not at the Lutz location, Medi-Weightloss also employs a full-time Registered Dietitian who works at the corporate office in Brandon. Dietitian Jeff Cervero is available for consultations and has added valuable information to the company website, like recipes, exercise tips and information. Cervero even went through most corporate restaurants’ menus in the area and came up with a list of options that fit with the Medi-Weightloss program. “We have no competition that does all the things we do and we do them very well,” Willett says. From the research and development coming out of the corporate office, to the experienced and well-trained staff, to the emerging technology in the field like a step counter called the Fit-Stik that you’ll receive in your initial bag of goodies, all of the tools you need to reach your weight loss goals are available at Medi-Weightloss of Lutz. “I have done lots of other diets before and none of them worked for me,” Terkoski says. “It has been exciting to follow a plan that actually works. They helped me get over the physical symptoms early in the process and were proactive in dealing with issues. It was all very smooth” New Tampa and Wesley Chapel residents are invited to stop in at the Lutz Medi-Weightloss Clinic at 24420 S.R. 54. The office is open five days a week: 6:30 a.m.-noon on Monday; 9 a.m.-6 p.m. on Tuesday, 6:30 a.m.-2 p.m. on Wednesday; 1 p.m.-7 p.m. on Thursday; and 6:30 a.m.1 p.m on Friday. For more info, call (813) 909-1700, visit MediWeightloss.com/locations/lutz/ or see the ad on page 9.

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Goddard School Of Wesley Chapel Celebrating Two Years Of Getting Kids Ready By ANDY WARRENER

Running a textile business in Baroda, India (500 kilometers south of Bombay), Dinesh Patel never considered a career in early childhood education. He loved children, their smiles and their laughter. But, aside from the joys of raising his own children, the possibility hadn’t crossed his mind. He moved to the U.S. in 1987, by way of Fort Pierce, FL, and got into the retail business, running a convenience store and later a motel. Then, a close family friend invited him out to Houston to look at a franchise he’d just obtained — The Goddard School. The rest, as they say, is history, as he now owns The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel, located on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. across the street from the AdventHealth Wesley Chapel hospital. Patel says his business experience and his love of kids made him a natural fit for a Goddard School, which uses a dual management system, incorporating both a business manager and an education manager at each school. Also to Patel’s liking was the school’s track record — The Goddard School is a 30-year old national franchise with 500 schools in 37 states (and in Washington, D.C.). “(Goddard) gives you knowledge

The team of (l.-r.) Christie Lemar, Dinesh Patel and Faye Adams help make learning fun at The Goddard School on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. The Goddard School is a 30-year old national franchise with 500 schools in 37 states and Washington, D.C. (Photo: Andy Warrener)

and all directors have to go through the training,” Patel says. “Goddard (corporate) even assigns someone to your school for support.” The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel opened in May of 2017. Patel brought on his second education director, Christie Lemar, in August of 2018.

Lemar was the Director of Youth Development at Brandon Sports & Aquatic Center’s child care center, where she ran a Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) and after school programs, which consisted of roughly 180 children. The skill set lined up perfectly with the direction Patel was already taking the school.

The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel added VPK classes in 2018, and recently acquired a small bus in order to expand into after-school care. “This spring, we hope to have three VPK classes,” Patel says. “VPK is important to prepare a child for kindergarten. It helps make for a soft transition. They go (into kindergarten) with computer time, sight words and math (knowledge) already.” VPK is a free program for any family in Florida. All parents need to do is fill out an application with the Department of State’s Office of Early Learning. Patel also has applications at the school. “The classes are for three hours, Monday through Friday, and the state pays tuition for anyone,” Patel says. “Normally, middle class people don’t qualify for any benefit, so this is a great opportunity.” The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel offers three different times for VPK classes to accommodate parents’ schedules. There’s also a wraparound program that offers hours beyond the VPK time. There are even full-day options, that go from 6:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. The school also is open during many public school holidays. Patel says the summer camps, which were offered for the first time by The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel in 2018, will be expanded in 2019.

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The Education Side

“I believed in the quality of the instruction and I saw the activities that were planned,” says homeroom mom Faye Adams. “I saw how well organized they were. They had fun things for the kids to do. It’s not just child care; you know that they’re learning.” Adams’ son Christian, who is 5, took VPK at The Goddard School last fall. Even as a third-grade teacher with more than a decade of experience and teacher ambassador & spokesperson for the Foundation for Excellence in Education, Adams was impressed with what Christian got out of his experience at Goddard. Now, Adams is the local Goddard School’s education specialist. “I help teachers with their lesson planning, and help make sure they are hitting their standards,” Faye says. “There are seven domains, including

science, math, motor skills, art, music and movement and our task is to find engaging activities, books and resources that will help target those skills and meet state standards.” There are 14 teachers at The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel, and every lead teacher must have a Child Development Associate (CDA) credential, and oversight from the The Goddard School’s Quality Assurance program can be rigorous. The program stays in contact with the school on a weekly basis, assisting in every aspect, from the building to staffing to curriculum. Goddard representatives also stop by to ensure corporate standards are being met and to offer hands-on assistance. “At any level, if we have a problem or need guidance, they (Goddard) can always help us get through it,” Patel says. Additionally, there are bi-annual assessments from the state for the VPK program. Three months ago, Patel joined the Accredited Professional Preschool Learning Environment (APPLE) program, a national early learning program accreditation. In Florida, APPLE

is accepted as one of Florida’s Gold Seal Quality Programs. “APPLE has monthly training for teachers, helps with restructuring classrooms and also strengthens academics,” Patel says.

Having Fun With It

Enrichment programs specific to Goddard include Spanish, sign language, yoga and B.A.S.E. (Balance, Agility, Strength and Endurance) for Fitness, which is specifically designed for preschool children with those four curricular goals, all of which address physical fitness. Lemar and the teachers come up with fun ways to teach the programs. “You wouldn’t even know we’re working on it,” Lemar says. “For instance, in our 12-to-18-month-old class, we use the word, ‘agua’ instead of ‘water.’ We use signs for, ‘more food’ or ‘I’ve had enough.’ This works particularly well for those who are non-verbal.” It works well for those in between verbal and non-verbal, as well, she adds. “Four months into the program and I’ve already noticed the progression,” Goddard Wesley Chapel mom Brittany Williams says. “She (daughter Savannah) was pretty much non-verbal when she got here. Now she knows all her colors and numbers.” The FLEX Program, a Goddard standard, stands for Fun Learning EXperience. In the program, teachers are given the

freedom to create their own lesson plans. “They can create fun activities to achieve those goals,” Patel said.

Extras...

The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel also uses the Tadpole app, an application parents can download to their computer or smartphone that shows lesson plans, snapshots of what their child did during the day, even on down to what they ate for lunch. “The parent can still ask how the child’s day was but now they can actually look at the report,” Patel says. For additional costs, Mr. Tommy’s Mobile Music Bus comes to the school every Tuesday. Soccer Shots, a soccer program that is, according to its website, consistently recognized by Entrepreneur magazine as the top Children’s Fitness Franchise in the U.S., also comes in once per week. And, this past December, the school hosted its first Angel Tree Program, providing gifts for nearly 20 needy children. The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel is located at 2539 Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. The school’s hours are Mon.-Fri., 6:30 a.m.-6 p.m. and prospective parents are welcome any time during business hours to schedule a tour of the school. For more information, call (813) 603-6100, or visit http:// www.goddardschool.com/Tampa/Wesley-Chapel-Bruce-B-Downs-BoulevardFl. Or, see the ad on pg. 28.

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The Beach House At Wiregrass — The Residence For Assisted Living & Memory Care! By CELESTE MCLUAGHLIN

The bright and spacious halls of Beach House Assisted Living & Memory Care at Wiregrass Ranch are coming to life, with an influx of new residents calling it home since the community opened in April 2018. Located just two miles east of the Shops at Wiregrass on S.R. 56, the 93,000-sq.-ft. facility offers 100 residential units, ranging from studio-type apartments of 450 sq. ft. to two-bedroom/two-bath units of up to 796 sq. ft. Homes at Beach House can accommodate single residents or couples, living in either the assisted living or memory care areas. In the eight months since it opened, 59 residents have moved in so far. Callie Sears, the director of community relations for the Beach House at Wiregrass, says the number of residents who have already chosen to call Beach House home is well above what they had anticipated at this time, and that those residents are already shaping the programs and features that make it such a special place to live. “We tailor and cater activities and social aspects of the community to the residents who live here,” says Sears. “The innovative, out-of-the-box thinking, and catering to residents’ wants and needs is how we’re able to really make it their community.” She says this includes bringing the surrounding Wesley Chapel community into Beach House, with volunteers from Wiregrass Ranch High, for example, and other events designed to draw people in. This month’s “Battle of the Bowls” is a chili cook-off on Saturday, February

At the Beach House’s grand opening in 2018, community relations director Callie Sears (left center) and executive director Linda Mena (right center) are joined by regional marketing and sales director Kim Hayes (far left) and regional operations manager Kim Nadwodny. 23, 2 p.m.-4 p.m. There will be live raffles, and their guests meet at the Beach House on chili, hot dogs, beer and desserts. Sears says the first Friday of each month at 7:30 a.m. everyone is welcome to enter their own chili WOW chair Mollyana Ward says, “They in the cook-off. say great minds think a like and both (NTBC “Our philosophy is to bring the outside CEO) Hope Allen, myself and Linda Mena community into these walls,” Sears explains. were all on the same page when it came to “We want to embrace Wesley Chapel and New hosting WOW at the Beach House. When Tampa and bring them in to understand what Linda gave Hope and I a tour, we were in we’re about. Our residents are vibrant and awe. Not only is the facility beautiful and have things to look forward to every day.” classy, but so accommodating. The staff preAnother way the Beach House brings pares a light breakfast for the ladies of WOW in local residents and business leaders every on the first Friday of every month. We love month is by hosting Women of Wesley Chapel having a place to call home!” (WOW) meetings. The group of as many as Meanwhile, Sears says the Beach House 100 North Tampa Bay Chamber members community also includes the family members

— and even furry friends — of its residents. Pets up to 30 pounds are welcome, and visiting family members often bring pets to the facility’s dog park. “We have a good rate of family involvement,” Sears says. “We want them to be here and give them 24/7 access to come and go.” She says mealtimes are often when families gather. “We see a family member sitting with three or four residents, or a couple of families sitting together,” Sears says. “Some families are drawn to those residents who don’t see their families as often. They almost have adopted grandparents.” Residents eat restaurant-style for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with chef-created recipes to accommodate any dietary needs. In fact, a monthly Chef’s Showcase gives residents the opportunity to sample new recipes or submit their own favorite recipes for the chef to try out. Then, the residents get to vote on which items they want added to the menu at the Beach House. With its location close to shopping and dining, families often embark on multi-generational outings. Residents also choose where to have a weekly “lunch bunch” in one of the area’s many local restaurants. There’s also plenty to do without leaving the Beach House. There are indoor and outdoor gathering spaces for wellness activities, games such as shuffleboard or pool, movies, arts & crafts, and a salon. Happy hours, which used to be once a week, are now three times a week, and include weekly live entertainment. “Our happy hours are so popular,” Sears

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From shuffleboard to swimming, movies, dining and more, residents at the Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch Assisted Living & Memory Care on S.R. 56 can enjoy the ‘attrition of life’ in style.

laughs, “we need to order more furniture.” She also says that the memory care residents have group kitchens where staff members lead activities such as baking cookies, which many residents have enjoyed doing all their lives. “It’s a shared activity, where one person measures and one person mixes,” explains Sears. “We can always smell it when they’re baking cookies.”

Like Home, Only Better

Sears says people are attracted to the name Beach House, which is intended to evoke fond memories of years gone by, such as summers on the beach. “People come in because they like the name, and then they see that Beach House has a calming sense to it,” says Sears. “Some places almost feel sterile, but they did a great job here of creating a sense of warmth and an

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inviting atmosphere. People feel drawn to it.” As the first full-service assisted living and memory care facility located in Wesley Chapel, the Beach House offers many different accommodations and services to its residents. For assisted living residents, the Beach House staff provides help with a variety of daily activities, such as shopping and medication management. The separate memory care area is available for those who need it, such as for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. The Wesley Chapel location joins two existing Beach House facilities in Jacksonville and Naples, FL. They are all owned by Prevarian Senior Living, LP, which is based in Dallas, TX, and also has similar communities in Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona. Day-to-day operations at the Beach House are managed by employees of Life Care Services, a Los Angeles, CA-based company

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serving the needs of more than 33,000 senior citizens at facilities throughout the U.S. To deliver services to residents of a wide range of abilities, the Beach House is licensed as an Extended Congregate Care (ECC) facility. That means a spectrum of care is offered, from limited assistance to total help with many basic needs. “We have nurses around the clock,” says Sears. “That sets us apart from most places.” Overseeing all aspects of the Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch’s daily operations is executive director Linda Mena, who has more than 25 years of experience working in senior housing. She explains that the range of care helps Beach House residents of all abilities, and as their abilities change over time. “They truly can age in place in our community and that’s important to residents,” Mena says. “With the attrition of life, their

needs become much greater and they don’t want to have to move or make a transition at that frail part of their lives.” Residents at the Beach House pay privately, as insurance plans and Medicaid are not accepted. However, if families have long-term care insurance, a staff member will assist with providing billing information to the insurance company for reimbursement. To learn more about upcoming events at the Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch, including the “Strut Your Mutt” doggie fashion show, go to Facebook.com/BeachHouseatWiregrassRanch. To enter your chili or RSVP for the Battle of the Bowls, or, for more information about the Beach House (30070 S.R. 56), visit BeachHouseWiregrass.com, call (813) 508-6677, or see the ad on pg. 16 of this issue.

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Third Time’s The Charm For Wiregrass Ranch Health Stampede By CELESTE MCLAUGHLIN

At Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH), the Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) club has partnered up with the school’s health and safety committee to teach kids that it’s not too early for them to take charge of their health and start making good choices in all area of their lives. On January 25, hundreds of students filed through the school’s gymnasium, stopping at tables set up around the room for WRH’s third annual “Health Stampede.” A registered dietitian and nutritionist from Publix quizzed the kids about how much sugar they should eat in a day. The school’s Psychology Club taught about caring for mental health issues, while its Academy of Medical Professions students had three tables full of students teaching peers about how to keep their bodies healthy. Southeastern Guide Dogs also brought in puppies at various stages of training to be therapy and service dogs. Other vendors, including the Florida Department of Health Pasco, Nutrition Smart, and the Poison Control Centers, spoke to a constant stream of students for two hours, whether they were visiting with their class or popping in to check it out during their lunch breaks. “This is the third year we’ve done this, and it’s the biggest one we’ve had,” says WRH principal Robyn White. “Each year we have more and more participants, and more and more vendors.” Diamela Vergne is the assistant principal who leads the school’s health and safety committee, which is made up of parents, teachers, support staff and students, and puts on the event each year. She says in its inaugural year, the health fair included six vendors. Last year, there were eight. This year, the committee was able to bring in 16 vendors. “There are new topics this year,” says Vergne, “hard topics that we tend to move away from, but that we need to address, such as suicide prevention.” Vergne says there’s an important relationship between the school and the community, and the number of vendors willing to come in to share their expertise reflects the community’s support for students. To encourage students to visit all 16 ven-

Maeghan Priest, a senior in Wiregrass Ranch High’s Academy of Medical Professions, demonstrates how to perform CPR to fellow senior Kirsten Yeomans. Students from Wiregrass Ranch High’s SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) club loved playing with Stanley, a black Lab puppy from Southeastern Guide Dogs. Stanley will one day serve as a service animal for a person with medical needs.

dors, they were given the opportunity to have a paper stamped at each vendor table, solve a riddle, and turn it in to be eligible to win prizes in a drawing at the end of the event. Freshman Shaina Finkel, an officer in the school’s SADD club, says the health fair is beneficial for those who attend. “Teenagers’ eyes aren’t always open to the bad things that happen,” she says. “I don’t think they really understand the negative effects, but today they’re learning from the vendors.” Shaina is the daughter of the school’s SADD sponsor and driver education teacher, Greg Finkel. “The health fair is all about making good decisions,” he says, “which is exactly what we’re trying to teach kids in SADD.” Lauren Allison is a senior in WRH’s Academy of Medical Professions. She is among a group of students who take medical-related classes each year and earn their certification as a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) in their final year of high school. “A lot of people know something is bad, like eating junk food or vaping, but

don’t understand the long-term effects on their bodies,” Allison explains. “People think vaping is safe, and a lot of kids do it, but it has the same nicotine as 20 cigarettes.” She explains that nicotine is a vasoconstrictor, which narrows the blood vessels and can lead to heart attacks and stroke. While

there’s no smoke to burn the inside of the lungs, the risk of heart attack and stroke may be even higher or may affect kids sooner than smoking because there’s so much more nicotine in e-cigarettes. Finkel says he can tell the information has an effect on the kids at the school. “We hear rumblings in the hallways afterwards,” he says. “We know that it’s hit home if they’re talking about it after they leave this room.”

2019

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HE JUST WINS Tennis players Kanishkh Ramesh and Destiny Okungbowa (left) and soccer players Jake Bierhorst and Malcom Lewis (right) flank their coach, Dave Wilson (center). By JARRET GUTHRIE

Tampa Bay is littered with high school coaches who have built sports dynasties, at places like Plant and Armwood for football, Tampa Jesuit for baseball and St. Petersburg Lakewood for basketball. Rare, however, is the coach who not only builds one dynasty, but simultaneously builds two. In fact, the only boys soccer and tennis coach Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) has ever known, Dave Wilson, may be in a class by himself, especially in Pasco County. Wilson, who also is the school’s athletic director, has guided the boys soccer team to the state playoffs this season and the Bulls haven’t dropped a regular season

game to a Pasco County opponent since January of 2013, a streak of 50 games. That run includes five trips to the Regional playoffs, including a State semifinal appearance in 2015. Last month, Wilson’s Bulls beat Steinbrenner 2-0 for the 200th win of his career. Meanwhile, the tennis team, which opens its season Feb. 12 against Cypress Creek, has been even better. The Bulls are currently on a 125-match regular-season winning streak, including 96 straight wins against Pasco County competition since a loss to Land O’Lakes in 2010. That run includes State championships in 2014 and 2015, as well as a runner-up finish in 2017. When it comes to playing its local competition, the taste of defeat is an unfamiliar one for Wilson.

“I think about it, but I don’t think our guys think about it all that much,” Wilson says with a chuckle, adding, “except for the fact that I don’t think they want to be the team that has that first loss to a Pasco opponent.”

An Athletic Background

Wilson is a Falls State, NY, native, who grew up as a multi-sport athlete and attended the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Cortland (aka Cortland State) in Cortland, NY, where he was a regional All-American soccer player, played basketball and competed for the track team in the triple jump. Competition has always been a part of Coach Wilson’s life. But coaching? He says that is, and always has been, where his true passion has burned.

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“I never wanted to do anything other than coaching,” Wilson says. “My brothers both took great jobs and make lots of money, but that was never a draw for me.” He adds, with a chuckle: “Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to be rich and everything. But, I enjoy every day of my life, coming to practice and going to the games. When you’ve been an athlete all your life, and you still get to wake up in the morning and say, ‘Alright, it’s game day,’ there is nothing better than that.” Wilson, 54, got his first coaching experience as a senior in college, when he joined the Tompkins Cortland Community College (in Tompkins, NY) basketball staff as an assistant, he moved from there to SUNY Binghamton (in Binghamton, NY) where he was the head women’s basketball and soccer

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coach for 10 years, before moving to Florida to serve as the head women’s basketball coach at Saint Leo University outside of Dade City beginning in 1999. However, after a few years at Saint Leo, with a wife and young children, the travel for games, long hours and recruiting trips started to wear on Wilson. He knew he wanted to make a change, so he stepped down from coaching at Saint Leo in 2002 and spent four years as an elementary school physical education teacher. The itch to coach competitively, though, never went away, and when WRH opened in 2006, he jumped at the chance to get back into coaching. For someone who sees coaching as a calling, there can be no bigger challenge than launching a program, building a tradition and finding success. Wilson got that chance when he took the job as both the boys soccer and boys tennis coach at the new school. And success? That has not been a problem for Wilson and his team at WRH. He says that winning never gets old. In the Bulls’ dramatic 3-2 District 5A-7 semifinal win Jan. 30 against secondseeded Plant, Wilson got caught up in the celebration after Justin Amis scored the winning goal with roughly 30 seconds remaining. “I think I hurt my ribs,” he said, laughing. “I’m getting old.” The next night, the Bulls gave Wilson his first district title since 2015 with a 1-0 overtime win over No. 1-seed Steinbrenner.

Off The Field Success, Too

Success for Wilson isn’t just what happens on the field — it comes in the legacy of a program, its growth, its traditions. The biggest point of pride, according to Wilson, is seeing those early players return to give back to their former programs, while his current players buy into the athletic culture they are helping to shape. “The continuity of our program and the consistency started with the first group, that group being around for four years, set the bar,” Wilson says. “They started coming back after they graduated for summer stuff and supported the guys they left behind.” “That’s so important having those players come back and let the younger guys know what this time here meant to them. Letting them know that the memories they had of high school (athletics) was the most fun they had and that’s trickled down. Every group after them has tried to raise the bar another level.” Chris Madden, a member of Wilson’s first soccer team at WRH in 2006 and the current Competition & Development Director for the United Soccer League, remembers the first year of soccer at the school, playing without a senior class, and the struggles that squad had to overcome. Even then, Madden noted, the players knew Wilson was preparing them for successes ahead. “We had a rough go that first year, but Coach Wilson, in all the years I played for him, always instilled a desire to be our best,” Madden says. “I think that is rare these days. I think he really understood the desires of

(l.-r.) Devi Ndrita, Jori Ndrita, Malcom Lewis, Maurice Lewis, Camilo Torres and JP Torres pose with the District Championship trophy the Bulls won on Jan. 31. It was the school’s first district title since 2015, a team Devi, Maurice and JP all played on. (Photo courtesy of The Wiregrass Ranch Stampede school newspaper.)

young players and how to make them want to play and become better players.” Four years later, the Bulls soccer team won 18 games, finished as the District runner-up and made the program’s first state series appearance. For Madden, it was Wilson’s dedication to the kind of people his players would become, that shines over their successes on the field or courts. That, he says, is what has brought him back to his alma mater for the last 10 years to help out as an assistant coach for the Bulls. “Getting to coach with him for about the last 10 years has been really important to me, because if I were to give credit to someone for helping me in my career in soccer today, I’d credit Coach Wilson, for sure,” Madden says. “You can tell he cares

about you off the field, and when you are looking for someone to be that mentor, that’s very important. He made us want to play for him.” Wilson’s third “coaching” job at Wiregrass Ranch comes as the school’s athletic director, and he approaches that position the same way he does his role as leader to his student-athletes. “My belief, and what I preach to all of our other coaches here at Wiregrass Ranch, is that the experience has to outweigh the outcome,” Wilson says. “You can win a state title, but if you are being screamed at and made miserable the whole time, then it’s really not worth doing. We really focus on things so when these kids look back on their high school athletics in 10 years, this really was the best time of their lives.”

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Cypress Creek Girls Soccer Ends Second Season With First Trophy By ANDY WARRENER

The Cypress Creek girls soccer team played its inaugural season last year, and like you might imagine any first-year program with a first-time coach working with a roster of freshmen and sophomores would, struggled and won only three matches. While that first season may have created modest expectations for this year, the Coyotes blew those to smithereens this past season, which they put a stamp on with a regular-season ending win over a 16-4 Wiregrass Ranch squad. That win gave the Coyotes the county’s Sunshine Athletic Conference East championship. It is the first title, and sports trophy, for the second-year school. “We just kept winning and the stakes kept getting higher,” says Coyotes coach Jennifer Richardson. “We were hoping to have something to put in the trophy case.” Right now, the trophy case at Cypress Creek has a picture of the team and a ball in it. Thanks to goals from juniors Abby Murphy and Sophia Mitchell, who combined on a corner kick with two minutes left to beat the Bulls 2-1, that is about to change. “Becoming conference champions wasn’t an expectation for us in the beginning of the season,” said Mitchell, who scored nine goals this season. “I honestly would have been happy with just a winning record. We started out our season with an 8-1 win over Gulf, and both Emily Dominguez and I had hat tricks in the game. There couldn’t have been a better season opener. After that,

(Left) Congratulations to the Cypress Creek Middle/High girls soccer team, which won the Sunshine Athletic Conference East Championship. (Right) Sophia Mitchell battles for a loose ball during a game this season. we just kept on winning.” The Cypress Creek girls were 7-0 in conference games — including a 3-2 win over Wesley Chapel and the 2-1 title clincher over Wiregrass Ranch — and 13-4 overall. It was a 3-2 win in December, over county powerhouse Land O’Lakes, which had advanced to the state final four the previous three seasons, that convinced the young Coyotes something special might be in store for this season. “That was a tough, physical game,” Richardson said. “After that, we realized that we could really accomplish something this season.” While expectations were low to start the

season, they grew quickly, as the wins piled up and Regan Bourne (team-high 13 goals), Mitchell (9) and Dominguez (9) began to rack up goals. The team’s success in Pasco County, however, couldn’t be duplicated elsewhere, due to the misfortune of being placed in a brutal district, Class 2A District 9, with the likes of Berkeley Prep, Academy of the Holy Names and Clearwater Central Catholic. The Coyotes lost to all three during the season by a combined 15-1 score, but took Berkeley Prep the distance in the district playoffs, falling 1-0. Of the 17 players on the varsity roster, only three are seniors and only senior Kate-

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lyn Leavines was a starter. The Coyotes are hoping to jump out of 2A-9 and into 3A-7 with Wesley Chapel and Pasco, or even 3A-8 with Land O’Lakes and Sunlake. “I’m hoping they re-do the numbers and move us out of the classification,” Richardson said. “We’re sitting at around 1,100 students now for high school, and we’d like a chance to be more competitive in 3A.” An FHSAA meeting in March will determine re-alignments for winter sports teams. Currently, the parameters for student population in 2A are 432-1,199 students. Class 3A’s range is 1,200-1,720. “I can’t wait to see what next season will look like,” Bourne said.

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The Wiregrass Ranch girls beat Palm Harbor University 2-1 for the district title. (Twitter photo: @HSSportsFL)

Locals Score A Clean Sweep Of Soccer Titles! The WRH boys & girls & the WCH girls give ‘The Chap’ a 3-for-3 night. The Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) girls soccer team didn’t have just a tough challenge facing them when they hosted Palm Harbor University (PHU) in the Class 5A-7 District Championship match. It was more like Herculean. PHU came into the final ranked No. 3 in the state by MaxPreps, sporting a 13-0-1 record, and the five-time state champions had allowed only four goals all season. But the Bulls (18-4) needed to score only one — a second half goal by Avery Damjanovic, her team-leading 31st of the season — and lean on the defense and keeper MacKenzie Spurling to pull off a stunning upset. It was the Bulls’ third district title, and first since 2013. Meanwhile, the WRH boys (16-2-4) needed a penalty kick in overtime from junior midfielder Malcom Lewis to beat

top-seeded Steinbrenner 1-0 for the District 5A-7 title, their first since 2015. Lewis also converted a penalty kick the night before in the semifinals, helping spark the Bulls to a 2-1 win over top-seeded Plant. And the Wesley Chapel girls, the topseed in the Class 3A-7 district, squeaked by No. 2-seed Nature Coast Tech 2-1 to win their second straight championship. The Sharks’ goal was the first one allowed by the Wildcats (17-3-2) in more than 500 minutes, spanning seven games. All three local teams hosted State playoff games after our press date. The girls teams played on Feb. 5, but whoever won is playing tonight (Feb. 8) in the Regional semifinals. The Bulls boys played Feb. 6. If still alive, they would play again tomorrow (Sat., Feb. 9) night. - JOHN C. COTEY

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Stonewood & Grillsmith Named As Our Readers’ Favorite Restaurants! By GARY NAGER

So, as you can see from the top-10 lists in the far right columns on this page, there were new favorites and old on the list of the restaurants voted on by a smaller-than-usual number of Neighborhood News readers (and ballot stuffers) as their favorites in our 2018 Reader Dining Survey & Contest. Even so, there were more than 200 ballots submitted, some of which had to be disqualified because they either didn’t put their name or other information on their ballots or they simply voted for one place as their favorite in every category. I say it every year, but if you think you’re helping your favorite place (or the place you work for) win this contest by only putting their name down in either every category or as your favorite restaurant in both markets, all of those votes are deleted from that restaurant’s totals. In fact, the only votes that count when people try to “pad the ballot” are their votes for any other restaurants they put on their disqualified ballots. Last year, we didn’t divide the favorite restaurants by market and Stonewood Grill & Tavern grabbed the top spot overall, with Bonefish Grill in Wesley Chapel finishing second (Bonefish was #4 in Wesley Chapel this year). This year, we went back to the old way of naming favorites in each market, and the top-10 in New Tampa and the top-10 in Wesley Chapel are both shown here. The competition in Wesley Chapel was particularly tight, as more than 50 restaurants had at least a few votes each. Congrats

to 2018 newcomers Bahama Breeze (2nd) and Chuy’s Tex-Mex (7th), which both made our readers’ top-10 in Wesley Chapel. I thought it was impressive that Grillsmith was able to ascend back to the top spot in “The Chap,” despite all of the new restaurants that opened in 2018 on S.R. 56 alone. Meanwhile, in New Tampa, Stonewood Grill & Tavern repeated its first-place finish as our readers’ favorite in that market and Ciccio Cali moved up to our readers’ second favorite in New Tampa (it was 11th in last year’s combined balloting, but restaurants 2-9 were all located in Wesley Chapel and #10 was Burger 21, which finished at #8 in New Tampa this year). Two categories were omitted by accident in this year’s balloting — Favorite Italian and Favorite Mexican Restaurant in New Tampa & Wesley Chapel. This was not an intentional attempt to slight any eatery, it was a mistake on our part, due in part to the fact that I have become too busy to create and “score” these contests myself, as I did most every year before 2017. On that note, I also want to thank our Mr. Everything, Gavin Olsen, who did a great job with this year’s tabulations, in addition to his ever-expanding duties (see page 3) as our primary video and photo producer and our backup graphic designer. In an era when you really need employees who can wear multiple hats, Gavin also is the guy who troubleshoots any issues with our computers, networks and pretty much anything else than can and does go wrong here. Thanks, Gavin!

New Tampa’s Top 10 Restaurants

Wesley Chapel’s Top 10 Restaurants

1. Stonewood Tavern & Grill

1. Grillsmith

2. Ciccio Cali

2. Bahama Breeze

3. Liang’s Bistro

3. Noble Crust

4. Olive Garden

4. Bonefish Grill

5. Kobe Japanese Steakhouse

5. Yamato Japanese Steakhouse

6. The Fat Rabbit Pub

6. Capital Tacos

7. Koizi

7. Chuy’s Tex Mex

8. Burger 21

8. First Watch

9. Acropolis

9. BJ’s Brewhouse

10. Red Lobster

10. Longhorn Steakhouse

To find out which readers won prizes in the 2018 Dining Survey & Contest, see pg. 36!

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Best Breakfast in NT & WC

Best Bar in NT & WC

The lines are long throughout the weekend, but First Watch has won this category multiple times due to its fresh food.

When Wesley Chapel’s Brass Tap went to full liquor a few years ago, it became much more than just a fun place to drink craft beer.

1. First Watch

Best Pizza in NT & WC

The several month wait for the new Amici to open in a brand new location closer to Wesley Chapel was well worth it.

2. Wolf’s Den

1. Brass Tap

Best Burger in NT & WC 2. The Fat Rabbit Pub

3. Batter and Dough

3. Prime Bar

4. Noble Crust

4. O’Brien’s Irish Pub

5. Happy Hangar Cafe

5. BJ’s Brewhouse

Tarek’s Cafe (OOB) Bonefish Grill | Brunchies

Both Burger 21 & Burger Monger revamped their respective looks and both stayed on top of the list with Neighborhood News readers.

1. Amici Pizza

1. Burger 21

2. New York, New York

2. Burger Monger

3. Precinct Pizza

3. The Fat Rabbit Pub

4. Marco’s Pizza

4. Five Guys

5. Pizzamania

5. Ford’s Garage

900 Degrees Wood Fired Cappy’s Pizzeria | Brunchies

Peabody’s | Mr. Dunderbak’s Noble Crust | Irish 31

Congratulations to the Winners of our 2018 Reader Dining Survey & Contest: Amy Huynh Lewers, West Meadows — $100

Dining gift card to the restaurant of her choice

Oakley’s Grill | Culver’s Glory Days | BJ’s Brewhouse

Sandy Dose, Magnolia Trace at Cross Creek — $50 Dining gift card to the restaurant of her choice Bruce Atteberry, Villages of Wesley Chapel — $35 Dining gift card to the restaurant of his choice Thanks to everyone who submitted a ballot this year. Look for my 2018 Dining Favorites in the March 8 edition of the Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News! — Gary Nager

Thank you, Readers, for naming us your favorite Pizza Place in New Tampa & Wesley Chapel! DINE IN • TAKE OUT

26602 Wesley Chapel Blvd (CR 54) Lutz, FL 33559 • Amici-Pizza.com • 813-973-9734

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Best Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt in NT & WC

Best Chinese in NT & WC

Our readers gave Wesley Chapel’s Ray Perez a repeat as Favorite Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt in NT & WC, despite new competition.

No Chinese restaurant other than Liang’s has won the ‘Favorite Chinese’ category since its opening. ‘Nuff said.

1. Happy Cow

1. Liang’s Bistro

2. Cold Stone Creamery

2. China Wok

3. Menchie’s

3. Asian Buffet

4. Brusters’ Ice Cream

4. Gonna China

5. Ice Dreammm Shop

5. China Gourmet / New China

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Best Steak in NT & WC

After finishing 4th in last year’s ‘Favorite Steak’ category, Longhorn ascends to the top spot for the first time.

Congratulations to Sukhothai, which returned to the top spot, previously held by last year’s winner, Arroy Thai.

Best Wings in NT & WC

Best Sushi in NT & WC

Although this category was brought back after it was left off the survey last year, the vote was so divided we could’ve put three or four more Honorable Mentions!

Sushi Cafe moved up from 2nd place last year, as last year’s winner, Bonsai, dropped down to third.

1. Longhorn Steakhouse

1. Buffalo Wild Wings

1. Sushi Cafe

2. Stonewood Grill & Tavern

2. Beef O’ Brady’s

2. Koizi

3. Dempsey’s Steak House

3. The Fat Rabbit Pub

3. Bonsai Sushi

4. Grillsmith

4. Wingstop

4. Yamato Japanese Steakhouse

5. Outback Steakhouse

5. BJ’s Brewhouse

5. Kobe Japanese Steak House

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With coupon only. Expires 2/28/19

Pizza

Sukhothai | Umu Ginza | Hibachi Express

Pasta

Salads

Wings

www.BoscosItalianFL.com | 813-907-2440 38

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La Prima Pizza Celebrates 16 Years In The Chap & Counting...Down!

FROM THE FIRST TIME

I tried the true New York-style pizza at my friend Willie Lopez’s La Prima Pizza (it was called by another name at that time), I felt it was the closest thing to the pizza places I grew up with in Long Island and Manhattan, NY. Since then, in addition to a few first-place finishes in our annual Reader Dining Survey & Contest (see pages 35-38 for this year’s results), La Prima has been named my Favorite Pizza Place in New Tampa & Wesley Chapel all 16 years it has been in business. It also has been one of my favorite restaurants in Wesley Chapel and one of my favorite Italian restaurants in either of our distribution areas. It therefore isn’t easy for me to say — or even think — that Willie would even consider

selling his place, but the former executive at Salomon Bros. and his wife Lucretia say they are tired and want to be able to retire, so Willie can concentrate on his thriving baseball memorabilia business. The lifelong New York Mets fan has adopted the Tampa Bay Rays as his American League team and he has had Rays season tickets for as long as I’ve known him.

Here’s The Skinny

Established in 2003, La Prima Pizza has been family owned and operated and a staple in the Wesley Chapel and New Tampa communities for the past 16 years. Willie and Lucretia also say they are prepared to provide an “opportunity of a lifetime” to any individual/family dreaming of owning and operating their own business. This turnkey establishment offers a huge existing customer base and tremendous future growth opportunities for the appropriate fit. La Prima Pizza only uses the best ingredients on the market. The pizza dough is made fresh daily and offerings include chicken and veal entrées (like the tender veal parmigiana in the photo above right; I order it with extra sauce) made eight different quality ways, as well as many seafood dishes. There’s also homemade lasagna and dozens of other menu items — and all sauces are made from scratch, includ-

ing Alfredo, vodka, pink and red or white clam sauce. Appetizers include great calamari, fresh mozzarella and tomato and Buffalo wings, amongst many other choices. And, just because there are really so many very good pizza places in our area, I felt I owed it to myself and my staff to order the amazing meat lovers pizza (left) before writing this story. Senior video producer Gavin Olsen also raved about his pepperoni calzone and sales/office assistant Janet Levins loved her cheesesteak. In other words, if you’re not going to

buy La Prima Pizza (1211 BBD Blvd., next to Super Target), you should stop in, call (813) 907-2878 or visit ThatsGoodPizza. com and place an order today. But, Willie says if you are interested, you should call him at the restaurant — whether or not you have any prior restaurant experience. Willie says he will help in the transition of the business and transfer all of his knowledge to any qualified party. But, do it soon so Willie and Lucretia can retire and I can continue to enjoy the pizza I love!

5.00 OFF

Any Order of 25 or More

(with NN coupon only; restrictions apply) Expires 3/31/19

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For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 27, Issue 4 •February 8, 2019 • WCNeighborhoodNews.com

Minerva Has Mastered The Art Of Creating Outstanding Indian Cuisine By GARY NAGER

WHEN I FIRST MET

Venkat Reddy, the owner of Minerva Indian Restaurant (located in the Publix-anchored New Tampa Center plaza on Bruce B. Downs Blvd.), I told him up front that Minerva was probably never going to make my list of favorite restaurants in New Tampa because I really wasn’t a big fan of Indian food or even most types of curry. I also told him, however, that I’ve always been at least a little adventurous when it comes to food and that I would keep coming back to Minerva to sample as many of his (and his customers’) favorite dishes as possible. Nearly three years later, I’ve sampled not only Minerva’s extensive and very reasonably priced buffet but also many of the specialties

I probably would never have considered sampling when I was younger. So, today, whether it’s because my taste buds have “grown up” or because Minerva’s authentic cuisine from every region of India is just that good, I really do enjoy visiting there — and not just because I also enjoy cutting the spice of the food with the truly delicious beers of India, including Taj Mahal, Hunter and others (Minerva also serves some good and popularly priced wines). I always include an order of naan bread when I visit Minerva and my favorite had been the garlic naan, but on my most recent visit, I loved the savory butter naan (below, left) even more. As for starters, I really enjoy the vegetable, lamb and chicken varieties of Minerva’s samosas, which are fried, wellspiced triangular-shaped appetizers. But, my favorite appetizers are the vegetable spring rolls (photo on next page), served with mint and tamarind dipping sauces, and the Minerva Special Soup (bottom right photo on next page), which is sort of a blend of traditional New York-style Chinese egg drop soup and my mom’s homemade chicken soup. It’s loaded with white meat chicken and a variety of fresh veggies.

Going Off-Buffet

Venkat agrees that most people who like Indian food go for the butter chicken, Masala or Tikka Masala dishes and biryani (rice) dishes (all of which are Specialties of

the House at Minerva), but my favorite entrée at Minerva is still the Tandoori lamb shish kabab (photo on next page, with beer), which is actually ground lamb served with a crispy edge outside and tender inside on a sizzling fajitastyle dish, only with better onions and peppers than at any Mexican restaurant. And, even though the lunch buffet is an amazing deal at just $9.95 Mon.-Fri. and $12.95 Sat.-Sun., full orders of the entrées I’ve mentioned all cost just $14.95 or less. I also really enjoyed the Minerva Special Chicken (photo above), which features deli-

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 27, Issue 4 •February 8, 2019 • WCNeighborhoodNews.com

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cious veggies with boneless chicken pieces in a sweet red curry tomato and basil sauce that has no bite at all. Another new favorite of mine is the goat curry, which is tender goat on the bone, again with a light curry sauce that was excellent when paired with the vegetable biryani (basmati rice) from the buffet. And yes, for you vegetarians out there, Minerva offers nearly two dozen veggie entrées, plus hand-made dosas (crepes), a South Indian favorite served with sambar, coconut and ginger chutney and a variety of veggiebased fillings. I still haven’t sampled any of

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*Higher price prevails. Only at the Lutz location. Cannot be combined with any other coupons.

the dosas, but Venkat says they are definitely among his most popular dishes. I’ve also never sampled any of Minerva’s desserts, but they are very popular, too, especially the rice kheer (pudding) and the gulab jamun (milk-based balls in a sugar syrup). Be adventurous...visit Minerva...and please tell Venkat I sent you! Minerva Indian Restaurant (19050 BBD Blvd.) is open for lunch every day from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., and for dinner from 5 p.m.-10 p.m. For more info, call (813) 978-8586, visit MinervaTampa. com or check out the great coupon specials in the ad on pg. 43 of this issue.

Still smoker friendly!

Vegan, Vegetarian, & Gluten Free Options Taco Bus proudly delivers a healthy, fresh authentic Mexican taste experience to our Florida fans. Just one bite of a burrito, tostada or quesadilla and your taste buds will be singing traditional Mexican folk songs.

• Full Liquor Bar! • Watch all the games here! • Karaoke & Entertainment

(813) 973-8336 27429 County Rd 54 Wesley Chapel, FL 33544

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Exp 3/31/19

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25195 State Rd 54, Lutz, FL 33559 • 813-949-4012 (Inside the Shell gas station)

www.Taco-Bus.com

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 27, Issue 4 •February 8, 2019 • WCNeighborhoodNews.com

Nibbles & Business Bytes The Latest & Greatest News In Dining, Shopping & Business In New Tampa & Wesley Chapel!

Sweetea Café Opens On S.R. 56; Blaze Pizza Is Next!

So, with all of the restaurants and stores that have opened across S.R. 56 from the Tampa Premium Outlets, a lot of people (including yours truly) have been interested to see what the Sweetea Café (located at 25704 Sierra Center Blvd., next to Great Clips, in the same plaza as Mellow Mushroom) is all about. Well, the wait is over and so far, in one reporter’s opinion, the Sweetea Café is all about delicious. I like hot and cold tea and I’m OK with the Boba (bubble) tea featured at the Sweetea Café, but the most pleasant surprise on my first visit was the delicious, authentic Vietnamese cuisine. I only had time to visit once before I went to press with this issue, but I really

enjoyed the grilled pork rice plate shown in the photo above left and, especially, the crisp, overstuffed egg rolls and sweet dipping sauce. The egg rolls are filled with chicken and veggies, including sweet potato, onions, cabbage and more, but they’re very dense and delicious — a must-try, especially for only $1 as an add-on to any of the three “House Specials,” or for just $2 when purchased separately. I wouldn’t mind some stir-fried veggies to go with the pork (there’s also grilled chicken), but the steamed rice, pickled daikon, carrot, cilantro and jalapeño are nice sides, too. And yes, the variety of tea drinks is extensive. I enjoyed an iced peach tea with my order, but for me, it’s all about the food. Meanwhile, in the same plaza as Chipotle a little bit west of Mellow Mushroom,

Blaze Pizza looked ready to open as we went to press, but we had not been given an open date by anyone from the area’s second fast-casual pizza place, which is located almost directly across S.R. 56 from MOD Pizza, its biggest fast-casual competitor nationwide. For more info about the Sweetea Café, visit SweetTeaFL.com or call (813) 406-5961 and please tell any member of the family that owns the café that you read about them in the Neighborhood News!

Poke Point Opens On BBD!

One of the really fun things about my job is when I have no idea what a new eatery is all about and I get to tell 125,000 or so of my closest friends in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel about the new place in these pages

— especially when the place is a really unique addition to our area and I really enjoy it. A case in point is the new Poke Point (middle photo) which also opened the week we went to press with this issue — and also to some pretty impressive crowds. Poke Point is located in the same plaza as NY NY Pizza and Dunkin’ Donuts on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., less than a mile south of S.R. 54, and I see what people like about it. The concept, which (according to the restaurant’s menu) originated in Hawaii, is to combine all of the ingredients of a delicious sushi roll into a quick-and-easy menu option. To me, the concept is more like a Chipotle or Moe’s, with vats of pre-made imgredients, but everything definitely looks, smells and (best of all) tastes fresh and delicious.

(813)527-6940 900pizza.com

™ The Shops at Wiregrass

New York & Neapolitan-Style Pizza Plus Pasta Wings and More 42

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You start with a base of white or brown rice, noodles, salad or sushi rice with a seaweed wrap. You add one, two or three proteins — including sushi-grade ahi, marinated or spicy tuna, salmon or spicy salmon, shrimp, chicken, calamari or tofu. You add veggies like thin shreds of cucumber and carrots, sweet onion, cilantro, edamame (soybeans), hijiki seaweed and jalapeño, top it with “krab” or seaweed salad, pickled ginger, wasabi, avocado (upcharge of $1), pineapple, masago or mango and a dozen sauces, plus sesame seeds, tempura flakes, shredded nori, crushed cashews, wonton crisps and crispy onion. Poke Point (3747 BBD) also has bubble tea, smoothies, Japanese sodas and other soft drinks. For more information, stop in or call (813) 528-8464.

Are You An Uptown Cheapskate ?

If you like great deals on beautiful clothes, shoes, hats and accessories for men, women and children, you owe it to yourself to visit the new Uptown Cheapskate store (photo, above left) in the City Plaza at Tampa Palms shopping center off BBD in New Tampa, between Publix and Vallarta’s. Uptown Cheapskate buys and sells gently used designer clothing at amazing prices.

Neighborhood News

Case in point: I always find great deals at the Tampa Premium Outlets, but on my first visit to Uptown Cheapskate, I bought two wicking-style Ralph Lauren polo shirts and a button-down, long-sleeve Izod shirt for $15 and change! How? Well, my shirts were sticker priced at $14 or less, but not only was I there for the 60-percent-off all “stickered” items sale, I saved an additional $5 with the coupon that appears in the ad on page 10 of this issue. Uptown Cheapskate (16031 W. Tampa Palms Blvd.) is open seven days a week (Mon.-Sat., 10 a.m.-8 p.m.) and noon-6 p.m. on Sun.). For more info, visit UptownCheapskate.com or call (813) 287-8696 — and please tell owner Amber Watt and her friendly staff the Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News sent you!

Chefs Of Napoli To Open In Mar.

For those who have been asking about what’s going into the former Beef O’Brady’s location on Cross Creek Blvd. near Morris Bridge Rd. in New Tampa, the answer is Chefs of Napoli (photo on this page), which has existing locations in Spring Hill, Wildwood and Ocala (and one that is temporarily closed while searching for a new home in Inverness). According to the mini-chain’s website, New Tampa diners can expect the “true, authentic tastes of Italy” when Chefs of Napoli opens, hopefully sometime in March. The menu for the Spring Hill location is extensive, so we’ll see if authentic dishes like orecchiette Barese (ear-shaped pasta with broccoli rabe & sausage), saltimbocca di vitello (veal topped with prosciutto & provolone in white wine sage sauce) and cernia alla Francaise (egg-battered grouper in white wine and lemon sauce) will be on the New Tampa menu, too. If so...yum! — GN

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Dinner Menu Only. Expires: 02/28/19

Expires: 02/28/19 Dine in only.

For Advertising For Advertising Information Information Call 813-910-2575 Call 813-910-2575 • Volume • Volume 26, Issue 27, Issue 20 • 4September •February21, 8, 2019 2018 • WCNeighborhoodNews.com

New Tampa & Wesley Chapel HOME IMPROVEMENT WESLEYCHAPELPRESSUREWASHING.COM Soft pressure exterior house cleaning, screen enclosures, pool decks, driveways, sidewalks, fences, roofs, paver sealing and deck staining. We clean everything. No job too big or small. Experience the difference when you hire a pressure cleaning professional. Licensed and insured. Owner operated. Call for a free estimate or visit our website. 813-433-6015. DALE’S HOME MAINTENANCE Pressure washing, screen repairs, garage cleaning and organizing, shelving, re-grout tile and caulking, and more. Call: 813-727-2582. DAVID BRIDGES PRESSURE CLEANING Complete exterior cleaning of your home or business with a professional & personal touch. - Pool decks and screen enclosures - All fencing/ driveways and walkways/roofs - Gutter and downspouts. Find your happiness in a fresh, bright clean home. Your neighbors will love you for it! All work guaranteed. Licensed and insured. Call 813-215-1177. DRY WALL SPECIALIST. Not a handyman. Affordable Quality Work repairing water damage, ceilings and walls, retexturing, popcorn removal, room additions, cracks, holes, plaster and stucco repair. 26 Years Experience. Wesley Chapel resident. State Certified. Call Ron for free estimate: 813-7845999. MILLENNIUM HOME REPAIR.Professional Handyman. Cabinet Installation, dry wall repair, tile installation & repair, some plumbing, laminate flooring, light fixtures, interior painting, appliance installation, pressure washing, paneling, window repair, awning installation, carpentry, garbage disposal, fence repair, crown molding, window blinds, seal baths & showers, TV mounting & more. Call 813-400-1408 or email TYCOONUNION@YAHOO.COM. Tjs Pressure Washing LLC. Driveways, Houses, Fences, Lanais and Screened Enclosures. Most residential 2 car driveways or vinyl fences starting at $60. House washing prices start at $100 for a 1 story home and $150 for a 2 story home. Looking for an instant quote? Just text me a picture of the job you need done. Call Tj at 727-808-7775 CHARLES POPPE ELECTRIC. Electric of all kinds pools, spas, service changes, new circuts, low voltage, repairs, upgrades, changes to existing, trouble shooting, GFCI performance testing, generators. Expert in the field - over 40 years experience. Discount for retired people 50%. Licensed and Insured Master Electrician EC 13002399 - free phone estimates. Call 813-477-9068.

Classifieds

PHOTOGRAPHY

PHOTOGRAPHER AVAILABLE! Retired Professional Photographer with more than 45 years of experience in the Tampa Bay Area. Corporate Events, Personal Occasions, Portraiture, Pets, Comercial Photography, and Real Estate Reasonable rates. Call or Text (813) 748-3901. Visit: russellleprephotography.com

COMPUTER/BUSINESS SERVICES

PROFESSIONAL TECH SUPPORT in your home or small business. A+, Certified computer tech with 20 years exp. Maintenance & repairs, upgrades & tutoring. More affordable than large chains! Friendly, personalized svc. Technical jargon explained. Remote assistance available. References available. Call (813) 957-8342 for a free estimate. DO YOU HATE YOUR COMPUTER?!? WE CAN HELP YOU! Troubleshooting, installation, networking & virus removal. WE COME TO YOU! Residences & businesses, more than 25 years exp. Contact Jeffrey Blank at (813) 973-4507, visit WSICA.COM or email Wsica@wsica.com.

CLEANING SERVICES

B CLEANING SERVICES: Over 16 years experience! Commercial & residential; Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly; New house & post construction clean-up; Window cleaning; Move-in or move-out cleanings; Pressure washing; FREE estimates; References available. Call today: 813-531-0154 or e-mail: bcleanings@hotmail.com D-ULTRA CLEANING SERVICE We have our own supplies and more than 400 clients in New Tampa! For more info, Call 758-9710. Squeaky Clean Home Services LLC. - is a residential cleaning company offering weekly, biweekly, and monthly services. We also specialize in Move-in / Move-out cleanings. All supplies and equipment provided. We are an Owner Operator company with over 20 years experience that is Licensed, bonded and insured. Call us for your Free in home estimate today! 813-625-6045 www. squeakycleanhomeservices.com

JUNK REMOVAL FIRST CALL JUNK HAUL Do you need items removed or clutter cleared? Let First Call Junk Haul be your best call! We offer appliance removal, furniture removal, foreclosure clean-outs, garage clean-outs, yard waste removal and more! Affordable prices and professional service gurranteed! Call or Text 813-970-6440 for a FREE ESTIMATE!

POOL SERVICES

TRANQUILITY POOL SERVICE. New Tampa owned & operated. Great Pricing with outstanding customer service! LICENSED, BONDED & INSURED. See why we are New Tampa and Wesley Chapel’s #1 Choice!! Call or Text Chris today @ 813-857-5400 or visit TranquilityPoolService. com. New customers get ONE MONTH FREE!

HELP WANTED

HIRING PERSONAL TRAINER. Private Women’s Studio with Boot Camp & Personal Training in Wesley Chapel & Land O’ Lakes owned by Samantha Taylor. Please no phone calls or walk ins.To apply part time: www.lolfitbodybootcamp.com/hire-pt.

SPACE AVAILABLE

SERENITY SALON & SPA SUITES Wesley Chapel. Booth rental for Stylist available. Can be either full time or part time. Give us a call!: 813-312-5247 or 813-997-6302.

LAWN & LANDSCAPING

A.T.B. Landscaping & Lawn Service. Licensed and insured serving the Tampa Bay area over 20 years. Family owned and operated. Quality work at affordable prices. We provide services in pressure washing and sprinkler repair. Landscaping and property maintenance including: sodding, trimming trees and hedges, and clean ups. Other services are available. CALL 813-907-LAWN (5296) Jasmine Landscaping, Inc. Complete lawn maintenance: Tree, palm & hedge trimming, planting, mulching, stones, sod replacement. Gutter cleaning, leaf removal & more. Cited by your HOA? Ask about our HOA Compliance Special, our Fall/Spring Special & FREE ESTIMATE! Licensed & insured. Accepting new residential & commercial accounts. We accept Visa, MC, PayPal, Zelle, AmExp. Call or text 813-420-4465. Now hiring full-time workers.

NOTICE UNDER FICTITIOUS NAME

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: Notice is hereby given that the undersigned pursuant to the Fictitious Name Statute, Chapter 865.09, Florida Statutes, will register with the Division of Corporations, Department of State, State of Florida upon receipt of this notice, the fictitious name, to-wit: Redline Enterprises under which I am engaged in business. Address that the party interested in said business enterprise is as follows: 4539 Mapletree Loop, Wesley Chapel (Pasco) Florida. Date: 08-February-2019.

MISCELLANEOUS RAYMOND PAINTING. Exterior & Interior Services. Exterior: Painting, pressure washing, clean & seal pavers, stucco, roofing, leaks & wood rot repair. Interior: Painting, plastering, ceiling & wall repairs & tiles. Licensed & Bonded. References avail. Free estimates. Your Neighborhood Arbor Greene Resident! We work 7 days. Call 813-994-5124. DOWNSIZING? SPRING CLEANING? HANDLING AN ESTATE? We pay cash for CDs, vinyl records, Blu-Rays, DVDs, cassettes, turntables, vintage receivers, reel-to-reel tape decks, stereo speakers in pairs, non-fiction books, and more. Learn more about Sound Exchange, locally owned since 1987, at soundexchangetampabay.com or call (813) 978-9316. Two locations, including North Tampa at 14246 N. Nebraska Ave. (between Bearss and Fletcher). HUGE GARAGE SALE - Saturday, February 16, 2019 – 9:00am-2:00pm – 28708 Lindenhurst Drive, Wesley Chapel - Household Goods, Furniture, Seasonal Decorations, Dolls, etc.

The Neighborhood News Features The Color Classified Ads

That Your Neighbors Actually READ!

Call (813) 910-2575 or go to

ntneighborhoodnews.com/ classified-listings/ to order yours today!

MAINTENANCE SERVICES “An Umbrella Over Your House” • Handy Man • Light Commercial • Grout/Ceramic Cleaning

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Pressure Washing House Cleaning Carpet Cleaning Window Cleaning

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We Don’t Cut Corners, We Dust Them

“Residential and Commercial’’

Family Owned Business with 20Years of Experience We are your all-purpose cleaner with: • High Quality Services • Competitive Rates • Great References • Always the Same Crew

(813) 381-1430

Protect your children and pets with Tampa Bay’s only organic monthly fertizilation and pest control • Courteous, friendly customer service • Monthly service from $40 per month • State licensed spray technicians • Organic/natural fertilizers • On-time service • Amazing results • No contracts • Special discounts on irrigation repairs and inspections

Organic Safe Lawns COMMERCIAL & RESIDENTIAL

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For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 27, Issue 4 •February 8, 2019 • WCNeighborhoodNews.com

COMMUNITY-WIDE YARD SALE Your JUNK could be SOMEONE ELSE’S TREASURE

YOU SELL IT OR WE’LL SELL IT FOR YOU! OR COME HUNT FOR YOUR TREASURE

SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2019

Location:

Compton Park in Tampa Palms

Benefit:

USF SCHOLARSHIP

Sponsor:

Tampa Palms Women’s Club

More Information: 813-615-9600

“I love Fit 4 Life! This is the best place. I love the staff, they are well trained and they are experts.” –Shaila G.

Personal Training & Physical Therapy, Inc. 17419 Bridge Hill Court, Tampa, FL 33647 Office: (813) 907-7879 | www.Fit4LifeTampa.com

For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 27, Issue 4 •February 8, 2019 • WCNeighborhoodNews.com

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Certified By IAPMO R&T to NSF/ ANSI Standard 42 for the reduction of Chlorine Taste & Odor, structural integrity & NSF/ANSI 61 for material safety.

CALL NOW TO SCHEDULE YOUR APPOINTMENT!

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For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 27, Issue 1 • January 2, 2019 • NTNeighborhoodNews.com