Catching Up With County Commissioner Seth Weightman!

It’s Been A Busy Nine Months Since Pasco County Commissioner Seth Weightman Took Office In November 2022

By GARY NAGER

When Pasco County native Seth Weightman took over from Mike Moore as the county commissioner for District 2 at the end of November 2022, some people in our area knew his name — Weightman Middle School on Wells Rd. was named for his great uncle, Thomas E. Weightman — but few knew much else about him.

But, that hasn’t stopped the former Board member for the Southwest Florida Water Management District (aka “Swiftmud”) from jumping in with both feet to tackle the issues that are top-of-mind for his family and — as important to him — the families of his constituents.

“It’s been a super-busy nine months,” Weightman told me in his first full-length interview with any local member of the media, “but I am proud of what we already have accomplished and I’m going to keep pushing for the people of District 2 (which includes much, but not all, of Wesley Chapel) and all of Pasco County.

During my interview with Commissioner Weightman and his legislative aide Andy Taylor (who also was Moore’s assistant) at Weightman’s Board of County Commissioners office in Dade City, I let them lead the way in terms of subject matter.

I asked him to list the accomplishments he’s proudest of so far in his nearly nine months in office. Here’s a list (that we hope to update soon) of many of them:

Sidewalks For Denham Oaks

Although I was looking for projects that directly affect Wesley Chapel, Weightman said that his proudest accomplishment to date was bringing in $1.5 million from the state to build and improve sidewalks for nearby Denham Oaks Elementary and Pine View Elementary and Middle Schools.

“Although I originally asked for $2 million,” he said, “I was proud that in my first attempt to procure money from the state for my district, I was the only Pasco commissioner whose budget request was approved by the legislature.”

He added that Denham Oaks, where kids from southern Wesley Chapel went to school until Sand Pine Elementary opened, was originally a school for the deaf and hard of hearing and still has programs to help hearing-impaired children.

“We asked the (Pasco) School District where the greatest needs were” he said, “and these were the schools they came up with.”

He said the sidewalk issue was made loud and clear to him during the county’s budget process for Fiscal Year 2024 because of the statute that ended the courtesy buses for kids who live within a two-mile radius of their schools.

“Sidewalks are never an easy issue,” he said, “because in some cases, a developer, homeowners association or CDD has to pay for them — because there are liabilities associated with sidewalks — but sometimes, the county and/or the state have to step in. But, I plan to continue to work on getting funds for improved sidewalks for our area’s schools, so this was a great first-year success for me.”

Widening Of Old Pasco Rd.

When Commissioner Moore left office, Weightman said, the 99-acre parcel on Old Pasco Rd. now know as the “Rooker Site” was just getting started. Today, that acreage, located south of Overpass Rd., is home to the first 187,000 sq. ft. of a planned 800,000-sq.-ft. Class A warehouse/industrial space (as we reported in our June issue).

“We have a great partnership with Rooker Properties (which bought the land from the county),” Weightman said, “but the segment of Old Pasco Rd. from north of Deedra Dr. to south of Overpass Rd. was supposed to be widened before Rooker received its Certificate of Occupancy for the (warehouse). For whatever reason, the county fumbled the ball on that, but I felt there was a commitment made, not just to Rooker, but to all of the residents who travel Old Pasco Rd. to Cypress Creek Middle and High School (north of Overpass Rd.).”

He added, “This was definitely a failure on the county’s part, but once we saw what happened, we were able to get the Request for Proposals (RFP) done and the bids were received by July 10. The county’s procurement staff is going through those now and our Board of (County) Commissioners (BCC) will vote on the selected bid within the next two months, with construction set to begin shortly after.” He also noted that no right of way needed to be purchased for that project.

Widening Of WC Blvd.

“When I was on the governing board of Swiftmud,” Weightman said, “we were negotiating with the county and the property owners on the east side of Wesley Chapel Blvd.(from where S.R. 56 meets S.R. 54 to Old Pasco Rd.) for stormwater relief. That deal is now put together, so we’re working on finalizing stormwater right of way. Once the county has those, we’re going to move forward on getting the expansion of Wesley Chapel Blvd. done.”

He said that until that expansion plan is in place, he doesn’t know if the plan will include addi- tional traffic signals but notes that he expects to advertise for construction bids by September or October of this year, “so construction should begin by early 2024.”

But, because Wesley Chapel Blvd. is a two-lane road, he said, “To quote State Rep. Randy Maggard, ‘The good news for area residents is that there will be road construction. The bad news (at least for a while) will also be that there will be road construction.’”

S.R. 54 Traffic Issues

While the freshman commissioner says he was happy to vote for the redevelopment of the Saddlebrook property on S.R. 54 (see pg. 10), there’s no doubt that, with all the growth in that area the last few years, and with more still to come, the traffic signal situation on 54 from Curley Rd. to the new Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. “is a mess. So, we met with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) secretary in Tampa (since that portion of 54 is a state road) to discuss the traffic light cycles, the timing of them, to make them more fluid and safer.”

He added that, “We’re hoping that when Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. officially opens (which we reported last issue was supposed to already have happened by now, but hadn’t yet at our press time), that will alleviate some of the problems in that portion of 54, but we owe it to the folks who travel that segment of that road every day to figure out a good light timing pattern for them.”

County Aquatics Facility

“Currently, the only county-owned pool in District 2 is at the Land O’Lakes Rec

Center,” Weightman said, “but being part of Florida’s Sports Coast, and with all the new families moving in — many of whom aren’t originally from Florida, so they’re not as used to being around water — we’re trying to find a site east of Land O’Lakes for a true, full aquatics center, with swimming and diving. This would be not only for swim meets, but also for learn-to-swim programs for children and adults — for safety as much as for recreation.”

He noted that the BCC had a workshop on the idea in January, “and there was consensus on having a county aquatics facility.” And, while there wasn’t a location for it yet, “There is a 300-acre ‘superpark’ site — which would be the largest park in the county — in the Villages at Pasadena Hills, which was one possibility mentioned. I selfishly want to see this aquatics facility built in my district, preferably in Wesley Chapel, but Pasadena Hills is just outside of my district.”

He admitted that the facility is “a want, not a need, but maybe because of my age demographic — I have a family with young kids — I am excited about this and will be trying to navigate where we can land with it. This would be a great ‘big picture’ item for Pasco County.”

He added that he encourages his constituents, “If you see a park need, please let us know because that’s a fun part of this job. As the Sports Coast, we want our residents to have opportunities to have fun and be active.”

Fighting Sex Traffickers

“There’s a big group of people in Wesley Chapel, including the Wesley Chapel Rotary

Club, that is really focused on sex trafficking issues,” Weightman said. “It wasn’t long ago that we had one of the strip clubs on U.S. 19 caught having an underage girl that was basically fostered by her family and was being trafficked through there.”

He said that, “If we believe we’re a premiere county, when we look at quality of life issues, something’s not right when we hope families will want to live here but we have this type of underworld environment.”

He added that he understands that although “adult entertainment” businesses have a right to operate, because most of their employees are independent contractors, there are very limited rules as to how to keep tabs on these “employees.”

“The county started down a path of creating its own ordinance to tighten the reporting rules on these businesses, but it wasn’t successful,” Weightman said. “So, we spoke with Rep. Maggard and the legislature wrote up a bill to add reporting rules to these adult businesses — with the age, who you’re working for, etc. (The businesses) have to comply and submit their info to a state database. So, while Pasco wasn’t successful on our level, it’s another example of working with our state government, and the governor signed it into law, to add some teeth and say to these establishments, ‘Hey, we’re watching you. When you’re in this kind of tough business, you need to be more transparent with what you’ve got going on.’

Taylor added, “Even if we were successful on a county level, the penalties we

See “Weightman” on page 6.