NEW PORT RICHEY -- How dry is it? It's so dry winter residents are coming back to find the brown, brown grass of home. It's so dry, the Hillsborough River is becoming the Hillsborough Trickle. And most gravely, it's so dry, three counties in the North Suncoast will sock you with a $500 fine and even jail if you light a match outdoors.

Authorities in Citrus, Hernando and Pasco counties last week voted to ban outdoor burning. And that was before thousands of acres in the Green Swamp went up in smoke in Polk County on Thursday and Friday, covering much of the Tampa Bay area in a haze.

With dried underbrush, scarce rain and high winds, the woods have become ripe for wildfires.

Forestry maps show that the area including Pasco, Hernando and Citrus is the driest in the state, though Hernando has slightly more "red" zones, those nearest to desertlike conditions, than the rest.

So campfires are out, fireworks are out and forget about burning yard waste. Outdoor grills are still allowed in some areas as long as they are contained.

Risque business goes online from Tarpon Springs

TARPON SPRINGS -- First there was Voyeur Dorm, the modest stucco house in Tampa where cameras broadcast images of six young -- and often naked -- women on the Internet.

Next came Dude Dorm, a Pinellas Park condominium where games of naked Twister were shipped into cyberspace.

The latest entry to the Tampa Bay area's online pornography business is in a 7,000-square-foot waterfront home in Tarpon Springs, where cameras follow 10 to 14 women as they shower, sunbathe and play pool, as well as engage in more risque activities. Subscribers to the site ucanwatch.com pay to watch videos featuring nudity.

And as in the previous cases, city officials are concerned.

"I think it sends the wrong message as to what our community is about," said Commissioner Beverley Billiris, who asked police to investigate. "We don't have room for it in our community."

Michael Schriver, who has operated the Web site since May, described it as a "good, clean legal business."

But he may be facing zoning problems. Records show that no occupational license is listed for the home, and the home is in an area zoned as residential/single family.

Hillsborough public schools will mark Jewish holiday

TAMPA -- For the first time in Hillsborough public school history, all students will be given the day off this fall for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

The county, where roughly 2.5 percent of the population is Jewish, is the first in the Tampa Bay area to recognize a Jewish holiday with a day off. Board members approved it without comment Tuesday, but have said they are following the lead of Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.

Jewish leaders welcomed the holiday recognition, saying it was a symbolically important gesture, albeit overdue.

"The school district has a long way to go in recognizing the diversity in the district," said Rabbi Joel Wasser, the chairman of the Tampa Rabbinical Association. "But this is a very nice step."

Pagans' resort project worries some neighbors

DADE CITY -- The peace and quiet of pastoral life is becoming tense as neighbors try to stop work on a pagan retreat on 31 acres of rural Pasco County land.

Jim Blake and Dottye Anderson of New Port Richey want to open Dragon Star Grove, a pagan retreat where they will invite fellow worshipers of the earth and nature, gods and goddesses.

Neighbors worry it will be a de facto festival park and campground that will flood the area with traffic, noise and nudity.

Now the issue has reached county government. Pasco County Code Enforcement Officer Mike Nastasuk said the county issued a stop-work order because workers cleared trees without a permit.

County Commissioner Ted Schrader said he is also keeping an eye on the property.

"If it's a business, that's not allowed there," he said. "It doesn't have anything to do with religion."

Plan for cement plant near Brooksville on hold

BROOKSVILLE -- Plans to build a $100-million cement plant north of Brooksville have been softened by the weakening national economy, Florida Rock Industries announced last week.

"We will be inactive on that in the coming year, with the economy slowing," John Baker, president of the Jacksonville-based company, said Thursday.

The project, loathed by some environmentalists, is far from dead, though. Over the long term, Baker said, the economics of the plant are justifiable for Florida Rock, and the company wants to build it.

Several residents have argued against the proposal, claiming the plant would damage air and water quality.

Tiny bird gets DOT to sing a new tune

NEW PORT RICHEY -- The state Department of Transportation plans to spend $100,000 on a little blue bird in the hopes of defeating a lawsuit challenging the soon-to-open Suncoast Parkway.

The Sierra Club insists the DOT destroyed Florida scrub jay habitat when it sliced the parkway across Pasco and Hernando counties. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Feb. 5 in federal court in Jacksonville.

But the DOT announced last week that it would spend $100,000 to create scrub jay terrain on the 7,000-acre Serenova preserve in Pasco. It will give the money to the Southwest Florida Water Management District, which will burn and clear brush to accommodate the birds, protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Coming up this week

The Suncoast Parkway, promoted as a high-speed, north-south alternative route to Interstate 75 and U.S. 19, officially opens next weekend. The four- to six-lane toll road stretches 32 miles from the Veterans Expressway in Hillsborough County to State Road 50 in Hernando County. Another 10-mile section to U.S. 98 is to be finished by summer. Parkway opponents, however, are keeping up their battle against any more road building. They charge that the next leg of the parkway is based on bogus projections and will destroy the pastoral qualities of Citrus County.
The governing board for the Southwest Florida Water Management District, or Swiftmud, will be asked by its staff on Tuesday to deny the permit for a controversial proposal to bottle and sell water from Three Sisters Spring in Crystal River. The idea was rejected by experts for the agency who said the project would threaten a vibrant manatee habitat.
The Pinellas County School Board on Tuesday will hold a workshop on the idea of holding a referendum to create single-member districts to elect board members. Proponents say it could create a more diverse School Board.

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