Riverview/Apollo Beach
7
November 2021
Volume 19,
Issue 11
ENTRY FORM IN SECTION 3
Ph: 657-2418
CELEBRATING 19 YEARS OF PUBLISHING P OSITIVE COMMUNIT Y NEWS
COMMUNITY GARDEN CREATES A SPACE TAMPA ELECTRIC’S MANATEE FOR GARDENERS TO CONNECT CENTER OPEN & READY FOR TOURS By Makenzie Atkins Staff Report
Tampa Electric’s award-winning Manatee Viewing Center opened earlier this month for the first season since the pandemic started.
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After 19 months, Tampa Electric’s award-winning Manatee Viewing Center opened earlier this month for the first season since the pandemic started. “For the hundreds of thousands of visitors who come to the Manatee Viewing Center every winter, we have missed you, and we are so glad to welcome you back,” said Stan Kroh, manager of Land and Stewardship Programs for Tampa Electric. Since the center closed in March 2020, Tampa Electric undertook extensive renovations and repairs of the education building to include new displays and interactive games. Construction is expected to be complete by the end of the year. The center also is taking extra safety precautions, such as limiting the number of guests inside the gift shop, requiring masks indoors, having enhanced cleaning procedures and getting additional hand sanitizer stations. When the water temperature of Tampa Bay is 68 degrees or colder, manatees gather in the clean, warm water discharge canal of Tampa Electric’s Big Bend Power Station, sometimes by the hundreds. Manatee Viewing Center visitors can see the mammals up close from multiple boardwalks and vantage points. Visitors can also enjoy meeting the stingrays, critical animals that rely on a healthy Tampa Bay ecosystem—and even touch them gently as they glide past in the touch tank. Plus, guests can hike the nature
trail and take in the vistas from the 50-foot observation tower. The manatees have gathered in the canal to find refuge from the cold since the early 1970s. Each season, the center draws nearly 400,000 visitors—for a total of more than 6 million. The Manatee Viewing Center is the anchor attraction for the Florida Conservation and Technology Center (FCTC), which is a public-private partnership to showcase nature and technology. In addition to Tampa Electric, the partners include The Florida Aquarium and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Ultimately, the FCTC campus will include Tampa Electric’s Clean Energy Center, The Florida Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Center and Coral Care Complex and FWC’s Suncoast Youth Conservation Center and Marine Fisheries Enhancement Center. Some buildings will open Monday, and other buildings remain under construction. The grand opening of the 500-acre Florida Conservation and Technology Center will occur in January. Admission and parking at the Apollo Beach facility are free. The boardwalks are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act for our guests’ convenience. The Manatee Viewing Center’s regular hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. every day through April 15, except Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. (The facility closes at 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve.) Comfortable shoes and clothing are recommended. Please note that no pets are allowed, only trained service animals. Visit the center online at www.tampaelectric.com/manatee or call 228-4289 for more information.
ty to connect to one another. “Our gardeners are truly wonderful, sharing people and so welcoming that I never left,” said Jill Conson, a member with the garden club. “I never go there and not learn something.” The garden will also be hosting its annual plant sale to raise funds for projects. The sale will be on Saturday, March 5, 2022, and it will be The Apollo Beach Community Garden club gardens together on selling cuttings, seeds, sapTuesdays and Saturdays. lings and full plants. It hopes Communities all over the world are lookto raise enough money for a ing for beautiful ways to connect, and a shade pavilion where gardeners can take a group of gardeners in Apollo Beach is do- break from the heat. ing just that with its community garden. The garden started from a dreamer and The beautiful community garden in Apollo has grown into a beautiful spot that the Beach has plots available to rent along with whole community can enjoy. many community plants for everyone to For more information, please contact share and is always encouraging gardeners Conson at jillmconson@gmail.com or find to join the club. the garden on Facebook @apollobeachgarThe Apollo Beach Community Garden denclub. rents out small spots for gardeners in the community to grow anything they would like. Some gardeners have things like onions, bok choy, herbs and many other plants in their box. The garden has two raised beds and one ADA bed available for rent. It costs $37.50 per year to lease a bed and $27 a year to join the club, along with 10 hours of community service in the common areas. Along with personal gardening spots, the club also has an area it likes to share. In this area, there are things like strawberry trees, papayas, avocados, neem oil, dragon fruits and many other fruits and vegetables. Recently, the Apollo Beach Community Garden was the recipient of the Placemaking Grant from the National Association of Realtors. In February of 2021, a group of realtors volunteered at the garden to build two picnic tables and two blueberry troughs with blueberry bushes; donated irrigation for the west and south perimeter, shovels, spades hand tools and a new marque; and TOY DRIVE ................................................PG 3 mulched the forest. PG 9 Besides all the fun things the garden WEDDING DRESS GIVEAWAY offers, like holiday decorations and guest EYE ON BUSINESS...................PGS 25-26 speaker events, it also creates a loving and GIFT GUIDE................................. SECTION 3 educational environment for the communi-
IN THIS ISSUE:
Great Gifts That Will Really Start Their Engine!
Busch Gardens’ Christmas Town™ returns! Tampa’s biggest and brightest holiday event, complete with millions of lights, storytime with Mrs. Claus & more. Opening select nights starting November 13. See Story Page 47.
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