ZEPHYRHILLS - City Council member Celia Graham called renaming Sixth Avenue to Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue "a precious gift of unity."
But the community was anything but united Monday as a crowd of nearly 250 either leapt to their feet and clapped or left angry after the 3-2 vote.
Council member Cathi Compton tried to rescind the board's original resolution renaming Sixth Avenue after the slain civil rights leader. She said the council acted too quickly last month and failed to get input from residents when it voted 4-1.
Reactions had been strong. Nearly 500 people signed a petition in recent weeks to block the name change. About 50 people, in a largely symbolic gesture, tried to recall the council members who voted for it.
But after hearing talk of falling property values and King's antiwar stance, the council voted down the motion and upheld the resolution renaming the street.
"Do we want to, in some small way, help make our world less divided and more united?" council member Graham asked.
Deputies should get traffic tickets, too, judge says
TAMPA - Police around the state offer one another a little perk: no traffic tickets even when they clearly run a stop sign, Hillsborough sheriff's officials say.
But Hillsborough Circuit Judge William Levens on Monday declared unconstitutional the Sheriff's Office policy against ticketing law officers.
Lawyer Matthew Jowanna of Tampa Palms is suing the Sheriff's Office on behalf of his wife, Camille, who says Deputy Preston Hollis ran her car off the road by driving through a red light Aug. 6, 2002, at Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and Amberly Drive.
Jowanna said his wife accumulated $20,000 in medical bills because of neck and back problems. During the lawsuit, he said, he learned the Sheriff's Office had a practice of not issuing tickets to on-duty law officers who run traffic signs or commit other civil traffic violations.
Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Rod Reder said deputies involved in crashes must face a crash review board, with possible discipline that includes taking away a deputy's car, so it would be redundant to ticket them.
"The majority of police agencies in the state have the same policy," Reder said.
Reder said the judge has stayed his decision pending the outcome of the Sheriff's Office's planned appeal.
Wetlands quarrel bubbles up over plans for Pasco mall
LAND O'LAKES - Two years after applying to build a major mall at Interstate 75 and State Road 56, Tampa developer John "Hi" Sierra Jr. declared he has had enough with plan reviews.
At issue is the 76 acres of wetlands the Cypress Creek Town Center project would destroy on the site's 511 acres.
Planners at the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council have raised concerns about possible damage to Cypress Creek, which makes up a large volume of Tampa's drinking water.
It's also listed as an Outstanding Florida Water, meaning it's illegal for development to degrade its water quality.
But the developer says he already has redrawn his plans to spare as many acres as possible.
In an unusual move for developers in Pasco, Sierra, after two years of review, declared he's done answering the planning council's questions.
He now will take it to Pasco County commissioners and to Swiftmud to get his permits.
Pasco officials haven't hidden their hunger for the sales, property taxes and jobs the mall would generate.
To reduce wetland destruction, regional planners and Swiftmud have urged Sierra to design a multistory mall with a stacked parking garage.
Sierra's representatives rejected the idea as impractical in the current mall market.
"These shopping centers will have impacts for years to come," said Avera Wynne, planning director at the regional planning council. "Making a hasty decision on an Outstanding Florida Water is a generational decision. It's not just a churn and burn development."
Staff urges board to reject charter school proposal
BROOKSVILLE - Following the lead of neighboring districts, the Hernando County Schools administration is recommending that the School Board reject charter applications from Ormond Beach-based Academies of America.
The same firm tried to win approval for charter schools in Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties this fall. It withdrew in Pinellas and Pasco, where criticism of the proposals was harsh, and was rejected by the Hillsborough School Board.
Hernando board members, though hesitant to commit their votes in advance of Tuesday's their meeting Tuesday, said they leaned toward doing as their staff suggested.
Past arguments from Academies of America that the charter schools could ease crowding in existing schools fell flat.
Hernando officials have said the elementary and middle schools Academies of America wants to open offer nothing innovative or new for students. They also have raised concerns about the group's lack of ties to the area and its finances.
The firm and its sister organization, Academies of Excellence, had peppered 10 counties with 19 applications in an effort to gain a foothold. Currently, the groups have no open charter schools.
In short ...
PORT RICHEY - The City Council on Wednesday made it possible to add a little punch to your brunch by passing an ordinance allowing bars and restaurants in Port Richey to sell alcohol two hours earlier on Sundays. By permitting sales at 11 a.m., Port Richey followed a handful of other area governments, including Tampa, St. Petersburg and Pinellas County.
TAMPA - Hillsborough School Board members took a dizzying look into the future Tuesday and saw 80,000 more students and a need for 61 new schools by 2025, if the class size reduction amendment is enforced and the county's growth rate keeps soaring. Even without reducing class sizes, the district would need 30 more schools.
ST. PETERSBURG - City leaders are reviewing their concert policies after noise and a string of obscenities flowed from a concert by top-selling rapper 50 Cent on Nov. 2 at Vinoy Park. The question is a little tricky because the event was co-sponsored by the city and drew more than 5,300 people to the park. Also, a park typically is considered a public forum, where it would be difficult to restrict freedom of speech.
Coming up this week
The Southwest Florida Water Management District board will meet Monday to take a look at the Weeki Wachee Springs lease. Swiftmud, the mermaid park's landlord, has said park managers need to put promises for repair work in writing to satisfy them.
The Safety Harbor City Commission will hear a presentation on expansion plans for the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport on Monday that airport officials hope is reassuring. The City Commission is poised to become the first elected body in the county to formally oppose a proposed $223-million expansion plan. Critics, mostly residents from Feather Sound and Safety Harbor, have expressed concern that too much noise will accompany expansion.
Pasco sheriff's deputies will receive ballots next week asking whether they want to unionize. Ballots will be mailed Monday, and the votes will be tallied by Dec. 15. The deputies have three ballot options: unionize under the Fraternal Order of Police, unionize under the Police Benevolent Association or not unionize at all.
- Compiled by Times staff writer Sharon Kennedy Wynne.
