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HAGAN WINS PRIMARY: Incumbent County Commissioner Ken Hagan, challenged by rivals from Carrollwood and Lutz, easily won the Republican nomination for County Commission District 2 with 61 percent of Tuesday's vote. Hagan's district stretches from Keystone to New Tampa. Challenger Tom Jones scored 22 percent of the vote, and Rod Gaudin finished with 17 percent.
Hagan, of Cross Creek, will face Democrat David Cutting of Carrollwood in the November election.
In races for at-large commission seats, Republican Brian Blair and Democrat Bob Buckhorn will square off for District 6, and Mark Sharpe won the Republican nomination for District 7. His opponents in November are Democrat Denise Layne and independent Joe Redner.
CHAMBERLAIN STUDENT CAUGHT WITH GUN: First, Tampa police officer Terry Sacca had to pick up his 15-year-old son from school because Chamberlain High administrators said they caught him drinking liquor on campus. Then Sacca surrendered him to authorities last week on a more serious charge, police say: bringing a loaded .32-caliber handgun to school.
The Chamberlain sophomore was taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center after he admitted to his father and minister that he brought alcohol and the gun onto campus, said police spokesman Joe Durkin. The boy faces charges of possession of alcohol by a person under 21, a misdemeanor; and possession of a firearm on school grounds, a felony.
School district spokesman Mark Hart said the gun incident was the first such case this year. Sacca's son faced a 10-day suspension, with a recommendation that he be expelled or placed in an alternative school, Hart said.
Durkin said the boy admitted he had gone through his parents' papers to find a combination to the family safe and take the gun. He told his father where to find the gun. "So his father calls the school resource officer and tells him the gun is there, knowing his son is going to be charged with a felony," Durkin said. "He and his wife are just truly disappointed, yet very relieved that it didn't end with tragic consequences."
RACE TO BUILD WESLEY CHAPEL MALLS HEATS UP: A new downtown-style shopping district should alter the lifestyles of Wesley Chapel residents in a little more than a year. Two or three mall-type department stores are planned to occupy the 170,000-square-foot lifestyle center planned on the Wiregrass Ranch at State Road 56 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.
John Dowd, vice president at the Goodman Co. of West Palm Beach, estimates the "mall without the roof" will open in October 2005 with leading department stores (yet unnamed) as anchors. Including future additions, the project's cost could reach $100-million, he said.
An even faster construction schedule applies to a second Goodman shopping center at Bruce B. Downs and State Road 54. There, on pasture behind the Publix supermarket at Hollybrook Plaza shopping center, A 230,000-square-foot commercial complex is planned.
While Dowd remains mum about the tenant, expect a Wal-Mart Supercenter in about a year.