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Manatee hurt in Citrus is treated at zoo

By TIMES WIRES
Published December 28, 2006

TAMPA

A manatee that was believed to have been struck by a boat in Citrus County is in very serious condition at the Lowry Park Zoo veterinary hospital.

The male manatee was spotted in distress Tuesday afternoon in Kings Bay. It was taken by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to Lowry Park Zoo, where zoo spokeswoman Rachel Nelson said the manatee was being treated for severe trauma.

The manatee could not surface to breathe at the zoo, so it is being kept in shallow waters, she said. More tests and X-rays will be performed today.

LAND O'LAKES

Dropped customers get garbage bills

Waste Management is again saying sorry to Pasco County, this time 9,000 times over.

Over the holiday weekend, the garbage hauler mistakenly sent bills for advance payments to 9,000 residential customers it intends to cut after Monday - many still smarting with the first bad news.

With county staffers prodding, Waste Management made automated calls Wednesday alerting all the customers to ignore the notices.

The affected customers live north of State Road 52 or east of the Suncoast Parkway.

Company president doubles donation

Last year, Randy Sevald, the president of Interconnect Cable Technologies in the Airport Industrial Park, gave $5,000 to Hernando-Pasco Hospice.

This year, he handed a $10,000 check to hospice chairman George Germann Wednesday afternoon.

Interconnect, with 50 employees, makes cables for computers and other electronics. Sevald came to Interconnect in 1997 as a vice president. He took over in 1999 as president. Annual sales have gone from about $2-million seven years ago to $24-million today.

For the 26th year, people are expected to come from all over the country this weekend to re-enact the first battle of the Second Seminole War, which began Dec. 28, 1835.

The event will include period merchants, food and crafts vendors and a narrative museum.

Artisans including soapmakers and blacksmiths will demonstrate arts and crafts of that time period. The re-enactment is produced and organized by the Dade Battlefield Society Inc., a volunteer and nonprofit organization.

The event takes place Saturday and Sunday at the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park, outside Bushnell off Highway 476, between Interstate 75 and U.S. 301. Admission is $6 for adults and $2 for children ages 6-12. Gates open at 9 a.m.; battle re-enactment takes place at 2 p.m. each day.

SAFETY HARBOR

City says it's legal, but nativity scene is out

A small nativity scene on the lawn at City Hall did not violate the separation of church and state, but that doesn't mean it's coming back this year, city officials said Wednesday.

Assistant City Attorney Todd Burbine said he and City Attorney Alan Zimmet studied case law and concluded that if the city is going to allow religious displays, the displays cannot promote one religion over another.

That wasn't the case with a donated nativity scene briefly on display in front of City Hall last week, Burbine said.

But because Hanukkah is over, the city removed two menorahs. And because the menorahs are down, the nativity scene will not go back out, city officials said.

CHATTANOOGA, TENN.

Former Pasco pilot, mother die in crash

Tennessee authorities Wednesday confirmed that a former Pasco County man and his mother died in the crash of a small plane.

Mike Burlingham, 51, and his mother, Gertrude Rutter, 84, died when Burlingham's single-engine Rockwell Commander 114 crashed in Jasper, Tenn.

Burlingham's wife, Carol, and Thomas Ebel, 26, of Macatawa, Mich., were in critical condition at Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga.

Until this year, Burlingham lived in New Port Richey's airport community of Hidden Lake.

[Last modified December 28, 2006, 00:31:00]