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Pasco briefs
By Times staff writer Traffic lines up as Morris Bridge opensZEPHYRHILLS -- Morris Bridge Road, a popular and speedy link between east Pasco County and Tampa, is open again to commuters after a three-week closure. Mike Garrett, an engineer with the county's Stormwater Management Department, said the road opened at 7 p.m. Wednesday to waiting motorists. "We had them lined up to the Hillsborough County line as we put down the center stripe," he said. As soon as the paint was down, the road opened. The county closed a stretch of the road Oct. 23 to raise the road surface in reaction to 1998's El Nino flooding. Acidic fumes injure two Dade City workersDADE CITY -- Two city utility workers were hospitalized after inhaling fumes from an accidental chemical spill on Wednesday. James Shives and Clifford Matelo were sterilizing a well at Roth Lane and Happy Hill Road about 10 a.m. Wednesday when muriatic acid got mixed with bleach and formed a sulfuric acid gas, Dade City fire Capt. Joey Wubbena said. "When those two came in contact it had a little Alka Seltzer tablet effect," Wubbena said Thursday. Shives and Matelo both were wearing rubber gloves and eye protection but no masks over their mouths, Wubbena said. The men called 911. Sulfuric acid looks for water to react with, Wubbena said, so when it's inhaled it will stick to the lungs. Neither man suffered burns or skin damage, and they still were being treated at Pasco Regional Medical Center on Thursday. Wubbena said the men were recovering.
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From today's Pasco Times Editorial Letters |
