The week in review

By Compiled by Times staff writer SHARON KENNEDY WYNNE

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 4, 2000

Officer quits amid inquiry into scandal

LARGO -- One of four Largo police officers facing discipline in the youth Explorer post scandal resigned last week, the second employee to leave in the wake of an investigation into alleged sexual improprieties.

His superiors think Sgt. Steve LoRicco knew or should have known of rumors about officers having sex with youth Explorers but failed to report them. LoRicco is not accused of having any improper relationships. He was an adviser to the Explorer post in 1992, when one of the youths claimed she had sex with two officers.

Now LoRicco says he will have a "private industry" career. A police union official said LoRicco, who recently completed pilot's training, is headed for aviation.

Last month, department spokesman Mac Williams resigned in lieu of being fired by police Chief Jerry Bloechle. Williams said Bloechle did not like the way he handled the media during the Explorer investigation.

The chief has refused to discuss either Williams' or LoRicco's resignations.

Costly USF art studio may be recast as campus pub

TAMPA -- A University of South Florida art studio isn't drawing enough people to justify the $38,000 it will cost the student union. Its likely replacement: a pub.

Centre Studios, where classes in pottery, photography and jewelry-making have been offered since the early 1970s, will close in July.

"To replace something where people can be creative and productive with a place people can drink doesn't seem like a good trade-off to me," said David Hendricks, a school teacher and pottery buff who visits the studio twice a week.

Other options for the 2,500-square-foot space include meeting rooms or retail outlets, but the pub is a long-desired project of the student center and a favorite idea of student body president Tyvi Small.

Pinellas put on alert after rabies is found

ST. PETERSBURG -- A rabid raccoon has Pinellas County authorities trapping critters, baiting the woods with rabies vaccines and warning residents to protect their pets.

A woman found two baby raccoons near the tennis courts of Lynn Lake Apartments off 54th Avenue S. One died, and after the other one bit or scratched the woman's friend, it was tested and found to be rabid.

Rabies has rarely been found in Pinellas County in the past few years, but authorities take no comfort in that. In 1995, after 27 years without a reported incident, an outbreak involving 30 confirmed cases led to public alerts, quarantines and 145 people being treated.

County officials have littered the apartment complex and surrounding neighborhood with fish-meal bait containing oral rabies vaccine.

Any animal that eats the bait is inoculated.

"The big key is for people to just vaccinate their pets," said Dr. Welch Agnew, assistant director of veterinary services for Pinellas County Animal Services.

"And don't mess with the wildlife."

State pulls plug on plans to make parents buy laptops

BROOKSVILLE -- Attorneys from the state Department of Education have advised Hernando County school officials that their ambitious plan to equip every middle schooler with a laptop computer is likely illegal if parents are required to buy them.

School officials had hoped to ask parents to pay $30 to $45 a month for the $1,620 units. Then the students could call on the Internet while doing research at home. And parents, teachers and students could communicate through e-mail.

Now the question is whether the School Board is willing to pony up the more than $200,000 to buy laptops for 180 students -- half as many students as originally hoped. Board members will take up that issue at a June 13 budget workshop.

Historic Anclote lighthouse survives budget process

TARPON SPRINGS -- The battered cast-iron lighthouse on Anclote Key has survived years of neglect and vandals. On Tuesday, the lighthouse survived the governor's veto pen, and $500,000 in restoration money is headed its way.

The project to restore the 113-year-old lighthouse to its original glory was axed last year by Gov. Jeb Bush, using his line-item veto power.

But the half-million is only the first step. Restoring the lighthouse is estimated at $1.5-million. A citizens support group has applied for grants from the state Bureau of Historic Preservation and the Department of Transportation.

"(The lighthouse) has been at the mercy of anyone who wanted to kick it over the years," said Lary McSparren, president of the Gulf Islands Alliance Citizens Support Organization, which is overseeing the restoration effort. "It's a giant step forward if we get the $500,000."

Housing scandal suspect pleads guilty to bribery

TAMPA -- A construction manager accused of paying thousands of dollars in bribes to the former Tampa Housing Authority executive director has pleaded guilty.

Bill Williams Jr., a contractor who did work for one of authority Executive Director Audley Evans' companies, won several contracts from the housing authority. He admitted paying Evans $9,000 in December 1995 in return for Evans' influence in awarding a contract to Williams' company.

Evans, who guided the Tampa Housing Authority from 1988 until he was forced out by a scathing federal audit in 1996, was indicted on April 12 on 92 counts of bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. He is accused of misappropriating $4.5-million in federal funds. Evans has pleaded not guilty and is free on bail.

Coming up this week

The state is scheduled to execute Bennie Demps on Wednesday for stabbing a fellow prisoner. Demps survived his first two death sentences for 1971 murders when the U.S. Supreme Court stopped capital punishment across the country in 1972. But a few years later, not long after the nation's high court approved Florida's new death penalty law, Demps was condemned a second time for stabbing another inmate.

Organizers behind the Tampa Bay area's Olympic hopes will make an announcement at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort in St. Petersburg of their plans, including a new tank for a diving competition at St. Petersburg's North Shore Pool and an 85,000-seat Olympic stadium in Tampa that would become the home of the University of South Florida's football team.

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