Spirit of Jimmy Council Honors Jimmy Oswain with Spirit of Gulfport Award

By Monroe Roark

Jimmy Oswain had a big smile on his face as he sat up front before the start of the Gulfport City Council’s Mar. 7 meeting. Oswain attended at the City’s invitation, and for a special reason.

Mayor Sam Henderson awarded Oswain the Spirit of Gulfport Award at the meeting’s start. Henderson suggested the move at a previous council meeting, and all of the councilmembers agreed that it was an excellent idea.

Henderson pointed out how the meeting started on a good note, then began reading from the plaque: “With the representative symbols of STAR, your value to Gulfport, the sailboat, Gulfport’s ties to the sea, the rising sun ever looking toward the future, and winging birds, the soaring concept of spirit … we hereby present the Spirit of Gulfport Award to Jimmy Oswain, who has demonstrated the true spirit of Gulfport.”

Henderson added, “And if we were going to amend this a little bit, I’d put a bowling ball on there for you.”

As the two men met in front of the dais for photos, Henderson also presented a bag containing a small amount of swag that came with the award.

“We’ve got a bag of goodies for you,” said Henderson. “It’ll keep that sun off your head when you’re riding that bike.”

As Oswain turned toward the exit, Henderson added, “Good luck bowling tonight, buddy,” a reference to Oswain’s appointment that night with his favorite sport.

“Yes,” he replied. “I’ve got to go.” He walked straight out of the meeting room after that comment.

Oswain has been a fixture in the city for decades. The Gabber featured him in a 2010 article. At that time, he’d worked at the former Sweetbay supermarket for 15 years. When the Sweetbay became Winn-Dixie, Jimmy kept working there.

People know Jimmy around town for riding his trusty bike anywhere he needs to go – except during bad weather. He learned to bowl from his father and has an outstanding record, including several perfect scores (300.) Numerous people inside and outside City Hall consider him a friend.

As many have often said – including at recent City Council meetings – Jimmy Oswain is Mr. Gulfport.

Save the (Feral) Cats

MEOW Now Joins Friends of Strays

By Cameron Healy

One cat and her kittens, left un-altered, can create almost 5,000 cats in seven years. MEOW Now and Friends of Strays want to change that.

Friends of Strays welcomed MEOW Now to the shelter’s programs to enhance their Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Release (TNVR) efforts in St. Pete and Gulfport. The shelter received a grant to continue these efforts.

Both nonprofits came together to help spay/neuter and vaccinate free-roaming cats so they can live healthier lives.

MEOW Now began their TNVR efforts in 2015. The program’s helped more than 10,500 cats receive treatment. Friends of Strays has a similar program, but the two programs have underlying differences.

Friends of Strays has ‘Pinellas Cats Alive!’ which is a TNVR program “designed for an individual who may have one or two free-roaming cats around their neighborhood that they would like to have spayed or neutered.” MEOW Now does the same thing, but for colonies of community cats. A “colony” refers to four or more cats in one group.

What Is a Community Cat?

Jessica Salmond, Communication & Marketing Manager of Friends of Strays, explained “a community cat is an unowned, free-roaming outdoor cat, not someone’s pet. Sometimes people call them strays or feral, but ‘community cat’ kind of includes all of that in one.”

MEOW Now works with the caregivers of these community cats in order to strategically trap them for vaccinations. Caregivers are people who tend to feed the cats on a schedule, which makes it easier for volunteers.

“We go out, we work with these people and we trap them. Then we always return them back to the field because that’s where they live,” said Athena Kemske, MEOW Now volunteer.

Volunteers receive information from caregivers about the community cats. Kemske said she talks with the caregivers to figure out a plan to trap every weekend, which timing varies from early in the morning or early evening.

Volunteers use humane live traps that lure cats with food. Over the weekend, they trap the cats, then on Monday or Tuesday, the cats go into Friends of Strays for their surgeries.

MEOW Now and Friends of Strays help fix and vaccinate free-roaming cats so they can live healthier lives.

They cannot return to the field until their left ear gets clipped.

“This means like a little part of their ear’s clipped off and that’s to let everybody know that cat has been through our program so it doesn’t need to be bothered again,” Salmond said.

MEOW Now is a program only for caregivers, which they can request assistance online, and others cannot request this program on the caregiver’s behalf. With Pinellas Cats Alive! you don’t have to be a caregiver to have one or two cats in your neighborhood go through the program.

“There’s no cost to the general public. We only take donations. So if they have a lot of cats or even just a couple of cats that are around that they feed, we would do more than happy to come in and trap them,” Kemske said.

Elections continued from cover

Christine Brown, but congratulated O’Hara before addressing the crowd. He pledged to stay involved in Gulfport.

“I have a loud voice and plan on using it,” Jones said shortly after conceding the election. He then called Brown to congratulate her.

While O’Hara sipped a mocktail at what became his victory party, Brown spoke to The Gabber as she and her husband collected campaign signs from around the city.

“Thanks Gulfport, for the birthday love,” Brown, whose birthday is Mar. 14, said, adding: “I can’t wait to get back to work.”

Brown estimates she spent roughly 40 hours a week campaigning during election season. She said she wants to get Butler-Jones – whose campaign signs read simply “Jonesy” – involved in city boards over the next two years.

“I like him. He’s doing it for the right reasons,” Brown told The Gabber.

Fridovich told The Gabber he had “not a thing” to say about the election.

Past Election Results in Gulfport

Fridovich and O’Hara faced off once before – in the 2021 race for Ward IV. Fridovich won that race with 48.58% (1,319) of the votes cast to O’Hara’s 40% (1,086). A second challenger for Ward IV, Richard Fried, took 11.42% (310) of the votes.

Fried opted not to run in the 2023 election.

In that same election, Brown had only one challenger: Mike Bauer. She defeated him by a scant 130 votes. Brown had 1,435 votes cast for her in that election, or 52.37% of the votes, while Bauer had 1,305 votes, or 47.63%.

2023 Gulfport Election Results

Overall, 2,315 voters cast votes in

Ward II. Brown took home the lion’s share, with 1,405 votes (60.69%). Christopher Butler-Jones came in second with 507 votes (21.90%), and Greg Simek finished third with 403 votes (17.41%). In Ward IV, 2,323 voters cast ballots – 1,286 for O’Hara (55.36%) and 1,037 for Fridovich (44.64%).

The Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections has only released unofficial results; the SOE will certify the elections at a later date.