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Lutz's Guv'na fundraiser again hailed as a successBy BILL COATS © St. Petersburg Times, published July 7, 2000 LUTZ -- Vince Arcuri may be Lutz's new guv'na. But at heart, he's a hard-charging real estate salesman. The key to raising the $4,343 that made him guv'na? "It was most of the people in the real estate industry." His reason for running? "I make a lot of money out of Lutz. I just wanted to give something back." His plans as Lutz's mock chief of state? "I just want to get back to work." So Arcuri, 36, is back selling houses. He was recruited by the Lutz Civic Association in May for an impromptu campaign that interrupted the summer job-transfer season, the peak period of home sales. "If I was a mall, this would be Christmas for me," Arcuri said. The guv'na is the winner of a fundraising competition for community causes, and becomes Lutz's mock chief of state for a year. In fine guv'na tradition, Arcuri had made a grandiose campaign promise: He would install a dome over the community's Oscar Cooler recreation complex. His first act as guv'na was to confirm what everyone suspected: He was reneging. Dozens of outrageous guv'na promises have suffered the same fate. This year's guv'na competition did break a pattern. It raised less money than last year's $17,050, ending three years of dramatically escalating fundraising. But the total haul of $11,086 this year still was the third-most in the 10-year history of guv'na. "I'm not at all unhappy," said Auralee Buckingham, organizer of Lutz's July Fourth events and one of the originators of guv'na. "If every year, it has to be more and more and more ... I don't want it to get out of hand...I don't want people so intimidated we can't get them to do it." "You can't be on top all the time," said Phyllis Hoedt, president of the Lutz-Land O'Lakes Woman's Club, which sponsored the first eight years of the competition. Participants cited several factors that limited fundraising this year. Most candidates were recruited in May. Guv'na Danny Neeley, who set records last year, began his money raising early in the year. But early this year, guv'na was upstaged by Lutz's successful efforts to rebuild its old train depot. "We took a lot of money out of the community for this train depot," said Buckingham. Candidate William Nehls, who had only 13 golfers at a tournament he sponsored, said, "I think Lutz is tired of it." Connie Bowen, who was recruited at the last minute to represent the Lutz Volunteer Fire Department, scheduled a barbecue but couldn't pull it off. Perhaps the worst luck befell Larry Solomonson, who scheduled a $5 picnic between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon. A storm blew rain horizontally through tents. "It started raining at 4 o'clock and quit raining at 7 o'clock," complained Solomonson's wife, Aniko. Yet Solomonson fell only $284 shy of Arcuri's total. "It's not a life ambition to be guv'na of Lutz," Solomonson said. "But it's good to be part of a fund-raiser for this community." Bill Coats can be reached at (813) 226-3469 or coats@sptimes.com. THE WINNERSParade
Cake-baking, adult
Cake-baking, youth
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