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Northwest Sees Its Share Of News

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 7, 2009

A look back at some of the events experienced locally in 2008.

Community
Citrus Park got national attention when the Citrus Park Little League team ventured to Williamsport, Pa., for the Little League World Series.

The team qualified when it beat the Westside Little League of Mobile, Ala., on Aug. 8 and won the Southeast Regional Tournament.

The boys played their first World Series game on Aug. 15. Although they would get eliminated by Lake Charles, La., they heard only cheers and applause when they returned home. Friends and family met them at the airport with hugs and welcoming signs.

•Town 'N Country residents hit the streets this year to make their neighborhoods safer. The community got its volunteer Citizens Patrol going. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office struggled to find volunteers to patrol neighborhoods and nearly abandoned the project, but volunteers stepped up and patrols began in August.

The volunteers don't have the full authority of deputies and can't make arrests. But they can direct traffic, fill in as crossing guards and check on homes for vacationing residents.

•The Source Teen Theatre closed its doors. The theater that educated teens about sex, drugs and bullying through performances had to close after nine years due to lack of funding.

Planned Parenthood, the group that ran the theater, decided to cut the program and focus its limited funding in other areas.

•Westchase Golf Club opened its renovated greens this year. The final phase of the course opened in September features SeaDwarf Seashore grass. The new type of grass is drought-tolerant and requires less water and fertilizer than Bermuda grass, the type previously used.

•Residents living along area canals learned this year they'll have to foot a portion of the bill to have them cleaned. The county identified 70 trouble spots where silt has built up, making residential canals difficult for boats to navigate.

The county's solution is to have waterfront residents in the Upper Tampa Bay neighborhoods of Bay Crest, Bayport, Essex Downs and Dana Shores pay for a portion of dredging costs, while the county chips in a portion. County leaders estimate the dredging will cost each community about $1.5 million, to be divided among the waterfront residents. Now residents must decide in the new year whether they have enough support to get the project passed.

•Elizabeth Riegler MacManus, the unofficial historian of the Lutz community, died of a heart attack June 21 in Pikeville, Tenn. She was 84.

Her life was celebrated at a memorial service July 5 at the former Lutz First United Methodist Church, now Hand in Hand Academy. Her nephew, Rick Avriett, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Land O' Lakes, officiated.

MacManus often collected artifacts pertaining to the history of Lutz to add to the compilation she hoped would become part of a permanent museum.

•Lake Keystone homeowners learned in April they would not have to worry about a helipad in their neighborhood. Auto dealer Ernie Haire had applied to build a helicopter pad on his property but withdrew the request after neighbors fought it and the state questioned the zoning.

•In hopes of bringing professional soccer to the area, investors Andrew Nestor and Hinds Howard of Boston and Tampa's David Laxer proposed a 5,000-seat soccer stadium in Town 'N Country for the Rowdies.

The proposed stadium site would be between the Veterans Expressway and Benjamin Road, south of Waters Avenue. The plan also allows the stadium to be expanded to 10,000 seats in the future.

The privately funded stadium would be home to a United Soccer League First Division team called the Rowdies, the same name used by the North American Soccer League club that played in Tampa in the 1970s. The investment group hopes to have the Rowdies on the field in 2010, wearing the same gold-and-green colors as their predecessors. Neighbors are concerned about potential noise, especially if the stadium hosts concerts as well as games.

Schools

A new middle school welcomed about 1,000 Hillsborough County students into its classrooms in August. Sgt. Paul R. Smith Middle School opened behind Citrus Park Elementary on Aug. 18, the first middle school to come to northwestern Hillsborough since Farnell and Martinez in 2002. It was named for a Tampa Bay Technical High School alumnus, who was killed in Iraq in 2003 and posthumously received the Medal of Honor for bravery.

•Another new school will open for the 2009-10 school year. Steinbrenner High School is under construction on Lutz-Lake Fern Road to relieve crowding at Sickles and Gaither high schools. Brenda Grasso, Gaither's principal, will become Steinbrenner's principal in April.

•Gaither is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and Morning Star School of Tampa marked its 50th year.

•Hillel School was one of two schools in Hillsborough County to receive blue-ribbon status this year. The federal Department of Education spotlights public and private schools' academic achievements with the award. Bevis Elementary in Lithia was the only other local school to earn the recognition.

Parks

Northdale residents are getting connected to nearby Lake Park with a 1.5-mile path that will link the community to the park amenities without a trip down North Dale Mabry Highway.

The trail will open in the spring.

Another project eventually will connect the Upper Tampa Bay Trail to the Suncoast Trail, which ends at U.S. 98 in Hernando County.

Hillsborough officials have estimated it would cost $12 million to build the final seven-mile segment of the Upper Tampa Bay Trail, but the county commission rejected lobbying efforts earlier this year to earmark that money.

Instead, commissioners decided to set aside $3 million to build a new trailhead near the Suncoast Trail, to replace a trailhead that will be displaced when an interchange at the Suncoast Parkway and Lutz-Lake Fern Road is built.

Roads

•The county announced plans to build a four-lane divided highway of about 2.8 miles, from east of Countryway Boulevard to Sheldon Road. The $67 million project will create a new way for people living in Westchase and Nine Eagles to get to the Veterans Expressway and to the shopping mall, schools and other businesses in Citrus Park.

•Construction on Gunn Highway, which started in 2007, continued through the year. The original project to extend four lanes on Gunn Highway from Hixon Road through Keystone Crossing Boulevard was expected to be complete this fall but might take until this spring.

Public Safety

Stephanie Ragusa, 29, was arrested March 13 after investigators accused her of having sex at least three times from January to May 2007 with a then-14-year-old Davidsen Middle School student.

As the investigation continued, she was arrested again April 15, accused of having a sexual relationship with another student starting when the boy was 15.

Ragusa is charged with five counts of lewd and lascivious battery, four counts of lewd and lascivious molestation, four counts of unlawful sex with a minor and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

•Edward Allen Covington, 36, was arrested May 15 following the slayings of Lisa Freiberg, 26, and her two children, Zachary, 7, and Heather Savannah, 2, at their Lutz home. The family dog, a white German shepherd, was also killed.

Covington was charged with three counts of first-degree murder. He also faces three counts of abuse of dead human bodies, one count of cruelty to animals and one count of violating probation.

•Keystone lost a historic home to fire in April. The house, at Peterson Road Park, was built by the late Charlie Walker, who pushed the county to build a school for black children in 1924.

Deputy Ray Rembert, a school resource officer at Ben Hill Middle School, lived in the house with his children and fiancee, Debra Turner. The family dog died in the fire. The cause appeared to be electrical.

•A Jesuit High freshman who lived in Westchase died in May from injuries suffered in a water scooter accident. James Francis Parker, 14, swam for the Berkeley Barracudas, was a member of the Key Club, volunteered for the Special Olympics and wanted to become a physician. Hundreds came to mourn him at a service at Incarnation Catholic Church.

•In May, a motorcyclist died in a traffic collision while trying to stop a thief. Jason R. DeMarzian, 25, of Bradenton witnessed a man steal prescription medicine from a woman in a Town 'N Country pharmacy parking lot. He tried to pursue the man on his Suzuki motorcycle but hit a Ford Explorer that pulled out of another driveway.

A staff report

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