Other headlines included census figures, weather

Editor's note: During the course of a year, there are a number of news events that don't fit into any particular category when doing a year-end wrapup. The following is a compilation of such events that made headlines in Citrus County in 2001.

By JIM ROSS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 1, 2002

CENSUS: Figures from the 2000 Census were released piece by piece during 2001. Among the findings:

The county's median age was 52.6, up 3.5 percent from where it stood just one decade ago. The median is the middle point, so half the Citrus population was older than 52.6 and half was younger. Only one Florida county, Charlotte, had a higher median age.

Citrus County's population increased 26 percent during the 1990s.

Citrus was home to 118,085 people in 2000, compared with 93,515 people in 1990, the figures showed.

The census tract that includes Pine Ridge, Lecanto and the surrounding area between County Road 491 and U.S. 19 was the fastest-growing part of Citrus County during the 1990s. The population there increased almost 59 percent, from 7,371 to 11,700.

Almost 86 percent of the occupied housing units -- houses, mobile homes, condominiums and the like -- were filled by their owners. Only four Florida counties registered a greater percentage of owner occupation. One of them was Hernando, which was tops in the state.

SUNCOAST PARKWAY: The 32-mile parkway stretch that starts in northern Hillsborough County, runs through Pasco County and ends at State Road 50 in Hernando County opened early in 2001.

Later, during summer, the stretch between SR 50 and U.S. 98 near the Citrus border was cleared for traffic.

Meanwhile, the state started its second formal study of a proposed Citrus leg, which would extend from U.S. 98 north to U.S. 19 at Red Level. Florida still hasn't decided whether it will build the Citrus portion; the study, expected to last three years, will help planners decide whether to move forward or shelve the idea.

WEATHER: In September, just days after the horror of the terrorist attacks, Florida braced for a hit from Tropical Storm Gabrielle. Thousands of Citrus residents spent a weekend without electricity because of Gabrielle's gusting winds and driving rain.

The county later estimated that Gabrielle, which downed numerous tree limbs as it swept through the county, cost Citrus government $50,140 in cleanup expenses.

DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES: State leaders have long worked to shift some duties away from the Department of Children and Families and toward the private sector.

That shift got a big boost when the DCF district that serves Citrus agreed to pay an Illinois company, Central Baptist Family Services, $5.2-million to oversee adoptions and work with at-risk families in Citrus, Hernando and surrounding counties.

The contracts will be up for renewal in June 2002.

VOTE RECOUNT: The St. Petersburg Times and a consortium of other news organizations conducted a comprehensive review of ballots cast in the 2000 presidential election.

The review showed that Citrus' optical scan election equipment produced a relatively low number of fouled ballots: of 57,000-plus vote cards, only 163 registered undervotes and 54 registered overvotes in the presidential race.

If the county's canvassing board had continued finding and manually tallying undervotes Dec. 9, as the Florida Supreme Court ordered it to do, the board would have added 23 votes to the state presidential vote count, according to the review.

Thirteen of those votes would have gone to former Vice President Al Gore, according to the standard that county officials planned to use during the manual recount. President George W. Bush would have added 10 to his vote total.

Those undervotes never did count. The U.S. Supreme Court stopped the manual recount Dec. 9, just as election workers had started sifting through the ballots seeking the 163 undervotes.

Even if the undervotes had been registered, Bush would have remained the winner in Citrus. And if the undervotes had been counted statewide, Bush still would have taken Florida, the review found.

But the review also showed that more Florida voters clearly intended to vote for Gore. Their intentions were thwarted by imperfect voting machines, confusing ballots and fuzzy state law.

VIETNAM WALL: The Moving Wall or Tribute Wall of Names was on display at Rock Crusher Canyon in February. Hundreds of people walked the length of the wall, which is a half-size model of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

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