Week in Review

WILD DOGS SLAUGHTER SHEEP IN LUTZ: A small flock of sheep Joelle Miller and her husband Randy Miller care for in Lutz has twice been attacked by marauding dogs. But while the Millers think they know at least one of the dogs responsible, Hillsborough County Animal Services investigators were unable to positively identify them.

"The first time (Jan. 2) they killed six of our sheep, and three of them were pregnant," Mrs. Miller said. "And one lamb was prematurely born. They literally took a bite out of every other sheep. At that time we had 18 sheep."

Mrs. Miller said the dogs slipped under the pasture's fences again March 2 and killed 10 more sheep. "We just put the 11th down because she couldn't overcome her wounds," she said. "We didn't have a gun to shoot them (the dogs) or we would have. These dogs are bloodthirsty. They're not eating the sheep, they're just biting them."

CAMBRIDGE SCHOOL HOPES TO BUY IDLEWILD CHURCH: In a move designed to meet the needs of private school patrons in north Hillsborough, the Cambridge School plans to move from its central Tampa campus to the former Idlewild Baptist Church complex in 2005. After nearly a year of negotiations, the Cambridge School, formerly Seminole Presbyterian School, announced this week that it will buy the Idlewild property for $10.9 million.

Idlewild is building a $60-million religious and recreational compound on Van Dyke Road near N Dale Mabry Highway. When completed in the fall of 2004, the 900,000-square-foot structure will be nearly the size of the Citrus Park Town Center mall.

NEW PASCO ROAD HELPS NEW TAMPA COMMUTERS: A string of cars, drivers drooling with anticipation, lined up at 3 p.m. Thursday as State Road 56 finally pened. The 3-mile, six-lane highway, the newest addition to the state highway system in the Tampa Bay area, will connect State Road 54 in Land O'Lakes, Interstate 75 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in Wesley Chapel.

For New Tampa residents, who had to brave traffic and stoplights on Bruce B. Downs and Bearss Avenue, it's a faster way to get to Interstate 275. Transportation officials expect about 25,000 vehicles a day to use the road now and expect that number to grow to 46,000 each day by 2020.

The original completion date of the $30-million project was June 2001, but weather and construction delays kept pushing back the opening.

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