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Copter saves the day when baby won't wait

By TIMES WIRES
Published August 11, 2007

BROOKSVILLE

Deverie Leach, 20, was scheduled for a caesarean section on Aug. 20 because their son has a defect in the abdominal wall that allowed several internal organs to develop outside his body. But she went into labor on Tuesday, and her husband, Jonathan, 21, started the two-hour drive to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg.

But when they got on the Suncoast Parkway, he had to call 911. Spring Hill Fire Rescue paramedics quickly arrived, but no local hospitals were equipped to handle her delivery.

The Florida Highway Patrol held up traffic along the parkway to create a landing zone for a Bayflite helicopter. Less than 30 minutes later, she delivered Tristen Lee Leach, a 7-pound, 2-ounce son, by caesarean section at Bayfront.

PORT RICHEY

City manager quitting for advisory job in Iraq

City Manager Jerry Calhoun is resigning to go to Iraq as an adviser to local governments. Calhoun, 53, will be in Iraq on a one-year contract, working in the Babil province.

He was hired by North Carolina's RTI International, a company that has a $290-million federal contract to help Iraqis improve how their local governments are run.

His base salary in Iraq will be $97,000, compared to the roughly $90,000 he receives as Port Richey's city manager and director of finance and utilities. He said he'll also get hazard pay.

Calhoun said he had been unsuccessfully trying since 2004 to get a job with the State Department. In April, he told the International City/County Management Association he'd like an advisory position in Lebanon.

LAND O'LAKES

Pasco teachers object to staffing shelters

The Pasco school employees union has filed a unfair labor relations charge with the Florida Public Employees Relations Commission over a memo telling workers they might be called to work at emergency shelters.

Union leaders said in their filing that superintendent Heather Fiorentino had, in telling employees they could be forced into service, unilaterally changed the terms of their employment. They contended that several attempts to get Fiorentino and her administration to take it back until after negotiations had failed.

Fiorentino reiterated her position that her leadership team was simply following Florida law in informing employees that the district legally must open and staff shelters if an emergency arises.

BROOKSVILLE

More than 55 apply to be police chief

More than 55 candidates filed applications to be police chief by Friday's 5 p.m. deadline. Two of them are former Brooksville police captains who have histories with Ed Tincher, who was ousted from office earlier this year.

One is Ray Schumacher, who left in 1999. He reported Tincher to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in 1993, saying Tincher was selling confiscated guns to friends and collectors - charges prosecutors declined to pursue. After the incident, one officer reportedly heard Tincher say he wished Schumacher was dead.

The other is Terry Chapman, who resigned in 2000 while on medical leave after being shot. He was Tincher's replacement from the time the chief was fired in May 1994 to the next year when he was reinstated.

[Last modified August 10, 2007, 23:54:25]