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By Times Staff WriterWEDDING BELLS SILENCED ON A LUTZ LAKE: Wedding bells have fallen silent at Lake Hobbs. So have the Funky Chicken and rap tunes.
That's because Camelot at the Lakes, a lakefront wedding pavilion in Lutz, agreed Wednesday to a 60-day court order banning nuptials. Camelot's neighbors, who sued to stop the weddings, agreed to try mediation, said their leader, Meredith Wester.
Camelot's attorney, Ralph Hughes of Lutz, declined to comment.
The neighbors object to loud music from the wedding receptions spreading across the 65-acre lake.
After two years of complaining, Wester's group persuaded Hillsborough County in February to outlaw the weddings as a business operating in a residential zoning. So David Barnett, one of the owners, vowed to conduct them for free.
But two weeks ago, an investigator working for the neighbors signed an affidavit quoting a wedding consultant as saying weddings cost $1,850 - in cash. The neighbors filed suit the next day.
CARROLLWOOD HOSPITAL WORKERS SPLIT LOTTO JACKPOT: Forty-four. A lucky number indeed.
It was one of six winning numbers in a recent $10-million Florida Lotto jackpot. It was also the number of local winners - 44 workers at University Community Hospital-Carrollwood.
The fortunate 44 struck it big Nov. 19, but waited until Tuesday to claim their lump-sum prize of nearly $5.9-million, which breaks down to nearly $134,000 per person.
To claim their winnings, they formed a group called the Surgical Services Lottery Trust. The winners want to remain anonymous, even after the Florida Lotto released a list of their names.
"Even with their names out there, they still don't want to be interviewed or want their pictures in the paper or anything," said Priscilla Neils, the hospital's director of surgical services. Although Neils wasn't one of the winners, she works with many of them.
The winners are trying to steer clear of gold diggers, estranged family members and other opportunists, Neils said. "Plus they don't want to get robbed in the parking lot," she said with a chuckle.
Even with the group being wary of publicity, Neils said there has been a joyous mood at the hospital. Calling the group of winners hard workers, she said "they're all very happy" about the win.
"It's not enough (money) to quit your job," said Neils, "but it's enough to make you happy."
The payday was a long time coming for the workers, who have been pooling their money to play the lottery for years.
GROUP HOME FOR FOSTER CHILDREN TO CLOSE: The commotion caused by two runaway teens in Oldsmar on Tuesday night led a nonprofit social services agency to decide to close a group home just a week after it opened.
The decision to close the home for six foster kids was made by Lee Scharrer, executive director of Gift of Life, the social services organization running the home.
Scharrer had previously assured residents that the home would not disrupt the neighborhood along Shore Drive, but he said that's what happened Tuesday night.
"That these two teens left isn't that big a surprise," he said Wednesday. "It's that their leaving created far more commotion in the neighborhood than I - and I know the neighbors - are comfortable with."
Tuesday night, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office dispatched 13 patrol units, a helicopter and a police dog to look for a 17-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl who ran from the Shore Drive home.
They were found about 5 miles from the foster home.
The home has been a hot topic among Oldsmar residents, especially those living on Shore Drive, ever since they learned that six foster kids would be living in the neighborhood. Last month, opponents of the home gave the City Council a petition saying they feared for the safety of their children.