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Neighborhood notebook

Two receive award for community service

By ERNEST HOOPER, LETITIA STEIN and MEAGHAN FORBES
Published May 20, 2005

BRANDON - Richard and T.J. Weaver received the Alice B. Tompkins Award for community service this week at the annual President's Roundtable of Brandon dinner.

The couple have been involved in a number of activities over the years, including extensive involvement with the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Richard Weaver may be best known for developing an awards program that recognizes area youths. The program includes certificates for Eagle Scouts, Golden Awards for the Girl Scouts, and academic awards for ROTC students at Brandon, Bloomingdale and Armwood High Schools. He also has worked with the Greater Brandon Chamber of Commerce and the President's Roundtable.

T.J. Weaver is a past president of the Dogwood Garden Club and has worked extensively with the General Federation of Women's Clubs Service League and the President's Roundtable, which consists of the heads of such civic clubs as Kiwanis, Sertoma Club and Lion's Club.

The community service award is named for the late Alice B. Tompkins, who was a community activist and reporter and editor at the Brandon News in the 1960s and 1970s. Past winners include lobbyist Mark Proctor, attorneys B. Lee Elam and Randy Wolfe, and TECO regional manager Earl Haugabook.

Five Buckhorn Elementary second-graders brought home trophies from a districtwide Math Bowl on May 10. The winning team was Corey Kinney, 7, Marty Kinter, 8, Morgan McCarthy, 8, Ben Mathews, 8, and Ian Slamen, 8. They beat out 26 other schools from nine regions during the two-hour competition.

Points were awarded to teams who solved complex math problems the quickest. This is the first year the school participated in the bowl, said Karen Manget, a first-grade teacher at Buckhorn who coached the students.

"It's an exciting, stimulating challenge to keep students seeing that math can be fun," said Manget. "Math is more than the old timey arithmetic."

The students placed third in regional competitions last month. Manget also created a team of five third-graders for the Math Bowl. They won first place in the regional competition, but were out-solved in the district event.

The school also received an engraved trophy, but they only get to keep it for one year; the trophy gets passed on to next year's winner.

Landmark status for a historic grave in Valrico is on hold.

The Historic Resources Review Board this week discussed unresolved legal issues concerning the grave of John Carney, massacred at his farm in Valrico by the Seminole Indians in 1856. He was buried there the next day.

Last summer, Hillsborough County officials discovered the burial site - a lone grave on Stearns Road - wasn't a cemetery. The 1 acre remained on property records under Carney's name. No longer a cemetery, the parcel has begun accruing property taxes.

Historic Preservation Inc., a Valrico nonprofit, stepped in this year to foot the bill, ensuring that the land with delinquent taxes could not end up in the hands of a developer. It is working to persuade two descendants of Carney to sign over property rights for preservation.

For now, the landmarking issue can't proceed. The Planning Commission recently balked at proceeding with landmark status. It was concerned about the ownership issues.

BRANDON - Under pressure from residents, Hillsborough County commissioners will discuss the idea of quiet zones around train crossings at a meeting June 1.

They are scheduled to review a county report on a range of related issues, including safety and cost. The move comes after months of citizen action and an engineering study.

A federal rule, scheduled to go into effect June 24, allows communities to apply for zones where trains would not be able to blow their horns for a given period. Approved crossings would have to be equipped with flashing lights and gates.

Residents with the Railroad Quiet Zone Committee would like to create a zone along a stretch of track from Falkenburg Road to Plant City. They are appealing to county commissioners to address the issue. No workshop on the matter is scheduled at this time.

With the school year officially drawing to a close, Brandon Times is looking for camps parents can send their children to this summer. If you know of a place where kids can learn, explore and have good old-fashioned summer fun, let us know. Send information to Meaghan Forbes at mforbes@sptimes.com or call 661-2439.

[Last modified May 19, 2005, 08:41:13]