A hard look back
By TIMES STAFF WRITERS
Published December 31, 2006
- Hernando County's polluted public works depot came under renewed scrutiny after documents showed more than 14 years of inattention by county and state officials. New tests showed toxic pollutants moved into neighboring yards and fouled the Floridan Aquifer. Neighbors say the pollution made them sick. A handful hired the former president of St. Petersburg's NAACP as their attorney and took the first steps toward suing the county for personal injury and property damage.
- The first couple of Hernando County's GOP ran afoul of their party colleagues after calling Islam a "hateful, frightening religion." Mary Ann Hogan - former head of the county GOP, former state committeewoman and former School Board member - wrote those remarks in a late October letter. Her husband, then-Commissioner Tom Hogan Sr., said he agreed. Gov. Jeb Bush, who appointed Tom Hogan to the vacant seat, condemned the couple, who helped found the county's Republican Party. Gov.-elect Charlie Crist, a longtime family friend, criticized Tom Hogan. The head of the state GOP demanded an apology from the state committeeman of four decades. After soundly winning re-election, U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite offered up a scorching three-page letter supporting the Hogans' right to free speech. Some spoke too freely: a Spring Hill blogger went quiet after fierce criticism for condoning the murder of Muslim children as a way to protect Americans from terrorism.
- It was a bad year for incumbents. Hannah "Nancy" Robinson found herself on the short end of votes for the first time in 14 years, losing to Rose Rocco. Robinson sued to get her seat back, claiming Rocco did not live in District 2 on Election Day. But a judge in late December awarded the seat to Rocco, though Robinson vowed to appeal. Former state Rep. Dave Russell took new state Rep. Robert Schenck's old County Commission seat, while Schenck scraped together a lead of fewer than 1,000 votes to take Russell's old legislative district. On the Hernando County School Board, newcomers Dianne Bonfield and John Sweeney ousted incumbents John Druzbick and Robert Wiggins. The Brooksville City Council got three new members: Joe Bernardini, Lara Bradburn and Richard Lewis.
- Four years after a former employee publicly accused the Brooksville Housing Authority of corruption, a federal grand jury indicted its executive director, Betty Trent, and recently retired program manager Joe Ann Bennett, charging them with stealing more than $40,000 in government funds. Housing Authority members continued to defend Trent and allowed her to stay on paid vacation for nearly a month after her November arrest.
- The Hernando County Jail started off the year in all of the wrong ways. By mid February, the facility had seen its third suicide in three months, the escape of an inmate, a guard arrested for allegedly stealing from inmates and a County Commission threatening to sever its ties with Corrections Corporation of America, the company that runs the jail. A new warden, Don Stewart, was brought in to improve the jail. But the jail has still had its hiccups. In September, an inmate escaped by climbing over a wall, and in November, two guards were arrested and charged with abusing two inmates.
- Beginning last spring, the Sheriff's Office was flooded with more than 100 complaints that Steve Bartlett, owner of Coral Bay Construction Inc., had taken money and never completed the houses. In May, he filed for bankruptcy protection but continued to claim that he had just fallen behind and never meant to defraud anyone. Deputies didn't believe him, and in November, he was charged with stealing more than $100,000 from his customers.
- In 2005, Hernando County set a record by issuing more than 4,000 permits for new houses. In 2006, the inventory of unsold houses ballooned, and so did the amount of time they spent on the market. Builders who had their pick of potential buyers were now offering barbecue dinners just to get Realtors to look at their homes. "This thing has almost collapsed," said Per Berglund, a senior economist with Moody's Economy.com.
- Hernando County went 25 months without a murder. But on Oct. 1, that ended with the first of five this year. Anthony X. Viola Sr., 91, shot Athena P. Howell, 82, and then killed himself in their Brookridge home. On Oct. 21, Kenneth LaPointe Sr., 56, was killed by a stray bullet while sitting at his kitchen table in his mobile home just north of Brooksville. James Ray Booth, 57, was charged with the murder. A week later, on Oct. 29, Evelyn DePalma, 79, and Patrick DePalma Sr, 84, were stabbed to death in their Masaryktown house. That case is still unsolved. And on Dec. 4, Jacques Jones, 24, of Brooksville was shot to death. His former friend, Joshua Langley, 30, was charged with the murder.
- The story of Lori and Tommy Allain, the most talkative, most talked-about criminal couple in recent Hernando County history, told in very short form: arrested in June 2004 and charged with starving nearly to death the girl who was in their state-approved care; fled the day their trial was to start in October 2005; started calling the Times from God knows where on the lam; got caught in New Jersey in January and then brought back to Brooksville to go to trial in March. Guilty. The sentence when it was all over was 30 years for what they had done.
- In a state where so much seems so new, and in a county where growth and change keeps on coming, Brooksville is different. It has a history, good and bad, but a real, organic and ongoing story, with brick streets and tall, thick, venerable oaks and old family names that mean something around here and houses with porches and tin roofs and a ghost tale or two. In 2006, the folks who call this place home celebrated its 150th year.
As it does each and every year, Hernando County certainly generated plenty of big news during 2006. From pollution at the public works site to the end of the Lori and Tommy Allain saga, here is a look back at some of the biggest stories of the year:
Brooksville's 150th anniversary Housing boom goes bust Flap over Islam Coral Bay Tommy and Lori Allain DPW site cleanup Incumbents ousted Five murders Hernando County Jail problems Housing authority scandal Brooksville's 150th anniversary Housing boom goes bust Flap over Islam Coral Bay Tommy and Lori Allain DPW site cleanup Incumbents ousted Five murders Hernando County Jail problems Housing authority scandal Brooksville's 150th anniversary Housing boom goes bust Flap over Islam Coral Bay Tommy and Lori Allain DPW site cleanup Incumbents ousted Five murders Hernando County Jail problems Housing authority scandal Brooksville's 150th anniversary Housing boom goes bust Flap over Islam Coral Bay Tommy and Lori Allain DPW site cleanup Incumbents ousted Five murders Hernando County Jail problems Housing authority scandal Brooksville's 150th anniversary Housing boom goes bust Flap over Islam Coral Bay Tommy and Lori Allain DPW site cleanup Incumbents ousted Five murders Hernando County Jail problems Housing authority scandal Brooksville's 150th anniversary Housing boom goes bust Flap over Islam Coral Bay Tommy and Lori Allain DPW site cleanup Incumbents ousted Five murders Hernando County Jail problems Housing authority scandal Brooksville's 150th anniversary Housing boom goes bust Flap over Islam Coral Bay Tommy and Lori Allain DPW site cleanup Incumbents ousted Five murders Hernando County Jail problems Brooksville's 150th anniversary