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Week in review

By Times Staff Writer
Published January 1, 2006

GAINESVILLE LANDMARK EYES CARROLLWOOD: An outpost of Burrito Brothers, Gainesville's trusted taco stand, could open in Carrollwood as soon as March, with a South Tampa location to follow. Though Burrito Brothers has operated in Gainesville for nearly 30 years, this is the first attempt at a franchise. Investor Ryan McDonald said the idea hit him while reminiscing in California with an old college friend. "What I miss is Burrito Brothers," the friend said.

A lease was signed Dec. 22 to open the first franchise in Carrollwood at Dale Mabry Highway and Hudson Lane. McDonald hopes for a mid-March opening.

WORKER SUES AIRPORT AUTHORITY: Joan Benjamin said she also didn't like the racially charged remarks of a fellow Hillsborough Aviation Authority employee, nor the laughter of her workplace colleagues.

Adam Hughes was a self-proclaimed redneck who commented frequently about Benjamin's hair weaves and wigs, she said in a discrimination and harassment lawsuit filed Wednesday against Hughes and the Aviation Authority, her former employer. A former 911 call dispatcher, Benjamin, 37, claims that when she complained about the harassment, supervisors at Aviation Authority laughed, dismissed most of her concerns and then transferred her to a lower-paying shift, where she worked in an environment that seriously inflamed her asthma.

Benjamin worked for the Aviation Authority from October 2001 until she was fired Nov. 25, according to her lawsuit. After complaining to her supervisor at least 15 times about Hughes' actions, Benjamin said, she was transferred two summers ago to a shift that paid 50 cents less per hour and exposed her to flying debris, wires and filaments.

Benjamin is seeking punitive damages of more than $5-million, plus attorneys' fees, general damages and other costs associated with the lawsuit.

CARROLLWOOD CONSTRUCTION WORKER KILLED ON PASCO JOB: A construction worker was run over and killed by a curb-making machine Tuesday morning in Wesley Chapel's Country Walk neighborhood. Tommy Lee Coomer, 19, of Carrollwood's Four Oaks section was pronounced dead at East Pasco Medical Center in Zephyrhills shortly after 8 a.m. Coomer worked for Ripa & Associates, the Tampa contractor developing Country Walk, a community of about 800 homes southwest of State Road 54 and Meadow Pointe Boulevard. A co-worker accidentally ran him over with the curbing machine, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office said. Such equipment inches along roads, molding wet concrete into curbs and gutters.

[Last modified December 31, 2005, 09:28:04]