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At issue was a sign owned by a Realtor on land the school was buying for a Spring Hill campus.
By RYAN DAVIS
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 26, 2001
NEW PORT RICHEY -- The Pasco-Hernando Community College billboard controversy is apparently over.
In about 10 years, when the school opens its Spring Hill site along U.S. 19, it will have full control of the billboard on the property front, PHCC President Robert Judson told the board of trustees during its monthly meeting Tuesday night.
College officials had sought to own the billboard so it doesn't display advertising for alcohol, adult shops or competing schools, Judson and trustees said. They also wanted to use the sign to advertise PHCC once the site opens.
"The bottom line is for the college to own the billboard. Once we accomplished that, the problem is solved," said trustee Dr. Rao Musunuru.
While digging through records, school officials discovered the land around the billboard is owned by former PHCC trustee Tom Hogan Jr. He told them he has an unwritten agreement with Realtor Gary Schraut, who in turn owns the billboard.
Trustees got angry.
Schraut has been representing the family selling PHCC most of the Spring Hill land. The trustees said he should have divulged his ownership of a billboard on the site.
They blasted him at their March meeting, which he did not attend.
On Tuesday, school officials, Hogan, Schraut and Schraut's attorney, Bob Morris, met at Hogan's office and arrived at a deal, both sides said. They agreed that shortly after the college closes on the property -- perhaps in the next month -- it will also pay Schraut $50,000 for the billboard. For the next 10 years, it will lease the billboard to Schraut for $1 a year.
On Tuesday night the board unanimously endorsed that deal.
Before a conclusion, the saga took one final twist.
Trustee Judy Gavish recused herself from voting on the deal because of the recent revelation that her ex-husband, Jack Gavish, co-owns the billboard with Schraut.
"I'm humiliated," she said.
Gavish said she had no notion of her ex-husband's involvement until Schraut said so. There is no written record of her ex-husband's involvement, she said, and the 3-year-old billboard was built after she filed for divorce.
-- Ryan Davis covers higher education and social services in Pasco. He can be reached at 800-333-7505 ext. 3452 or by e-mail at rdavis@sptimes.com.