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By TIMES WIRES
Published December 24, 2006

High Fives

Pump House dedicated: The Footprint Lake pump house, built in 1996, provided stormwater relief for a major area of Timber Oaks. Jack Smith, the association manager of Timber Oaks, reported that the old pump's Achilles heel always was its dependency on electric power supplied by a public utility and because of its age, parts were no longer in stock. County Commissioner Jack Mariano cut the yellow ribbon Dec. 7, officially putting a new pump house in service. The installation is now independent of public utility electrical power, having a 50-kilowatt back up generator and two electric motor pumps, only one running at a time. Since a pump breakdown during a storm causes serious flooding in this community, a spare pump was put in as a back up. A 1,000-gallon propane tank was added to fuel the generator if power fails. This installation is expected to handle about 80 percent of the flooding problems. Historically, every four or five years, Pasco County supplied large portable pumps, on request, to minimize flooding. As this kind of help may still be needed periodically to supplement the pumping station, future design work will be needed and is under consideration by the Board of Directors of Timber Oaks, who wish to thank Pasco County for its help in the past and look forward to working with county staff in the future as the need arises.

LIBRARY CHAMPION: State Sen. Mike Fasano was named "Library Champion" on Dec. 11 by the Tampa Bay Library Consortium. The award was presented for leadership and support of library services for the people of Florida. Charlie Parker, executive director of the consortium, and local librarians made the presentation to Fasano at his district office. Susan Dillinger, director of the New Port Richey Library, said "Sen. Fasano is the personification of 'Library Champion.' Of all the public officials I've encountered in my long career as librarian, Sen. Fasano is the most consistently supportive of libraries; he has innovative strategies for obtaining funding, he works tirelessly to provide necessary resources and he is not afraid to speak up for libraries across the state. He is a true friend to libraries and a library user himself."

Sen. Fasano said, "The Tampa Bay Library Consortium has united the best libraries in our region to provide the public with great access to materials. I am honored to be named 'Library Champion.' Because of the good work of the Consortium and its members, I will continue to advocate on behalf of public libraries in the Tampa Bay area and across the state."

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[Last modified December 23, 2006, 23:31:59]