BROOKSVILLE -- Faced with angry students who don't want to lose driver education classes and not a few parents who don't want the job of teaching Junior to drive, the Hernando County School Board put the brakes on its plan to end the popular elective.

A month ago, the board was ready to end daytime driver education, saying the class time and expense would be better spent on more academic pursuits.

Then the phones started ringing.

School Board member Robert Wiggins said no other issue has prompted so many phone calls and comments, all in favor of the course.

But driver education doesn't come cheap. Staffing alone costs the district $189,000, and that doesn't include the cost of fueling and maintaining the minivans used at each high school.

Candidates now have to rely on luck to win council seat

PORT RICHEY -- After a neck-and-neck vote on April 10, the winner of a Port Richey City Council seat may have to depend on heads or tails.

The ballots were counted by hand on Wednesday, and for the second time ended in a tie between Bill Bennett and Dale Massad.

A coin flip, drawn straws or a name from a hat will decide who Port Richey's fifth council member will be. The council will decide the method at the beginning of Tuesday's meeting.

"I'm going to practice drawing straws or flipping coins," Bennett joked after the results were announced.

This may be a first for Pasco County, certainly in recent memory. Supervisor of Elections Kurt Browning said he couldn't remember an election in Pasco that ended in a tie.

Mines agree to tougher air-quality tests

BROOKSVILLE -- A mining association last week agreed to more sensitive testing to help determine whether Hernando County cement plants are polluting the air with fine soot particles that can cause respiratory ailments.

After months of negotiations, the Hernando County Mining Association has agreed to pay more than $100,000 for the air-quality tests for three years.

The County Commission and residents raised the issue after Florida Crushed Stone unveiled plans in 1999 to build a second cement kiln, which was approved later that year but remains in the engineering stage. Critics also pressed the matter in January 2000, when commissioners considered and approved a comprehensive plan amendment to allow Florida Rock Industries to expand its operations in northern Hernando County.

Its decision comes less than two months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency can enforce tighter standards on particles that come from industrial plants. The EPA has not set any new requirements for monitoring small particles, although it is expected to do so.

Officials give hopeful look to aquifer storage plan

Plans to inject untreated water from rivers and creeks into the Floridan Aquifer won praise from some Tampa Bay area officials seeking relief from water shortages that bedevil the region.

A bill approved Monday by the state House of Representatives would let Florida utilities, assuming they met safeguards, pump untreated water into deep, isolated pockets of the aquifer. Some environmentalists wasted no time in condemning the plan, fearing fecal coliform bacteria present in some river water could contaminate the mostly germ-free drinking water supply.

Some of the best candidates for suitable underground reservoirs are in southern Hillsborough and Manatee counties. Geologically, Pasco County is considered a transitional area between the inappropriately porous Hernando County and the plentiful water pockets of Hillsborough and Manatee counties.

In Pasco, where residents have complained for years about their water tables being sucked dry by thirsty neighboring counties, many officials were decidedly upbeat. And Hillsborough's top water official lamented his county's inability to store fresh water.

"I think it's a good bill and it's Florida's salvation," said Water Department director Dave Tippin. "As far as the state is concerned, we have very little means of storing this water."

Arsenic-treated wood still a thorn in the side

The debate over arsenic in the treated wood used in playgrounds shows no signs of waning.

On Tuesday, Oldsmar officials said tests of soil and sand around wood equipment show arsenic levels too low to threaten the health of kids at Friendship Playground. But in Crystal River, mulch at the city's playground contains 17 times the amount of arsenic the state considers safe for neighborhoods, according to independent laboratory tests released Thursday.

Neither playground will be closed, but in Crystal River signs will be posted to draw attention to chromated copper arsenate, a powerful pesticide that contains arsenic, which can cause cancer and health problems.

CCA is injected into lumber to make it resistant to insects and humidity.

State officials, meanwhile, have few guidelines to go on.

"As we look at the data, some of the data suggests there's not a problem, and some of the data suggests there is," University of Florida researcher Steve Roberts, an expert hired by the state who has recommended that playgrounds to switch to other materials or choose wood that's treated with an arsenic-free preservative. "Until we have a better handle on this, it would make sense to reduce exposure."

As part of a special report published last month, the St. Petersburg Times commissioned independent tests of playground soil near five wooden playgrounds in the Tampa Bay area. The tests revealed arsenic in every case, at levels higher than the state allows when polluters have to clean up contaminated neighborhoods.

Tampa to put its foot down, emphasize new sidewalks

TAMPA -- From now on, builders who avoid putting sidewalks in front of new properties must either throw money into a pot used to repair crumbling pavement or build new sidewalks elsewhere in the city.

In addition to stemming Tampa's persistent spot at the top of the list of cities that are hazardous to pedestrians, planners expect the change will make the city a more pleasant place to live.

"We believe that sidewalks are one of the best features of a neighborhood," said city transportation head Elton Smith, who spoke at Thursday's City Council meeting on behalf of the plan. "They are places where our children learn to ride bicycles and neighbors stroll and meet each other."

The ordinance, passed Thursday by the City Council, seeks to remove the financial incentive for builders to apply for sidewalk waivers. Previously, if builders persuaded the city no sidewalk was necessary in front of property, they were off the hook for those costs.

"I don't expect this to make a lot of money," Smith said. "The primary purpose is to make sure there's not a strong economic incentive for people not to build sidewalks."

Coming up this week

The American Cancer Society's annual Relay for Life fundraiser will be taking place around the bay area next week. To get involved, call the cancer society at (727) 812-7363.

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