[Times photo: Maurice Rivenbark]
EXERCISING INDEPENDENCE: David Mandracchia, 5, reaches for balloons last week at the opening of a playground at the Lighthouse for the Visually Impaired and Blind in Brooksville, Hernando County. The Kiwanis Club of Spring Hill presented the center with the $10,000 playground specifically designed for visually impaired children.

By SHARON KENNEDY WYNNE

Some highlights of the news from around the region for the week just ended.

Cell phone fight may be forwarded

LARGO -- Even though many drivers are frustrated by motorists who lose all sense as they chat away on their cellular phones, Largo leaders have been told they may not be the ones who should do anything about it.

City Manager Steven Stanton thinks the idea of banning hand-held cell phones while driving has merit, but the city attorney and sheriff's officials say it would be difficult to enforce such a law when surrounding communities don't have one as well.

"To me, this is not a responsibility of ours at all," said City Commissioner Pat Burke. "It is a state issue and, perhaps, a county issue."

Commissioner Marty Shelby asked the city's staff to study the issue after state Attorney General Bob Butterworth wrote an opinion last month suggesting a city could pass such an ordinance.

In June, New York became the first state to limit cell phone use while driving. But there are no such rules on the books in Florida.

The idea may not go away, Stanton predicts.

"Personally, I think it's a matter of public safety," Stanton said. "At some point, some jurisdiction is going to inject itself in this."

Two counties look at bulldozing growth boards

Boards that oversee planning and growth issues in Hernando and Pasco counties both came under scrutiny last week, with county commissioners calling for streamlining of the development process.

The response to the moves from developers and slow-growth advocates were mixed.

In Hernando County, commissioners agreed in principle Thursday to abolish its Planning and Zoning Commission and reassign its powers, asserting that the time has come to deal with growth more progressively. The all-Republican planning board has not shared the all-Democrat commission's planning philosophy on key issues, such as regulation of large-scale retail design.

But maybe that's a good thing, said Anna Liisa Covell, a planning board member.

"We're an advisory board. . .," she said. "I think we serve as an intermediary between the board of county commissioners and the citizens."

In Pasco County, commissioners tentatively agreed Thursday to dissolve two committees active in overseeing growth and development: the Pasco Development Review Committee and the Land Development Regulation Commission.

The move is an attempt to save staff time and eliminate some of the county's more than 25 citizens committees.

Advocates debate where to draw the lines for manatees

HOMOSASSA SPRINGS -- The Homosassa River's increasing popularity with manatees has prompted state and federal officials to propose new manatee protection regulations in the congested area known as the Blue Waters. Experts have registered more than 200 of the sea cows using the warm water as a resting spot during cool winter nights.

During meetings Tuesday with environmental groups, homeowners, fishing guides and other business interests, Kipp Frohlich, biological administrator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, revealed for the first time the state's rough draft of the areas that might be closed to the public and used as safe havens for manatees.

The idea of closing off areas to provide a place where manatees could escape the crush of boats and divers came under scrutiny by some of the fishing and tourism interests, who questioned whether new regulations were needed.

But in meetings with environmental groups and homeowners, Frohlich heard the opposite: Not only should the proposed areas be closed, they should be larger. And the state should consider banning boat traffic in a wider area.

Both state and federal agencies are trying to satisfy separate lawsuit settlements with environmental groups that sued because government was failing to protect manatees. Tuesday's meetings were a key part of the state's process -- meeting with small, hand-selected groups to begin to sort out the various interests. Public workshops and a public hearing eventually will follow.

Pinellas declines to give more money for Blue Jays stadium

CLEARWATER -- Dunedin struck out in its quest for another $500,000 to renovate the Toronto Blue Jays spring training facility.

"I don't think the public would be supportive of raising taxes to pay for a baseball facility," Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala told Dunedin leaders Tuesday.

"Your time has passed."

Commissioners said if the city had asked, the county probably could have given it more than the $3-million it requested last year.

The commission also agreed then to give Clearwater and the Philadelphia Phillies $7-million to help build their new spring training home.

But that was then.

Among other things, county commissioners now need to come up with $15-million to buy new voting machines, and they have proposed a 4.8 percent property tax rate increase to help pay for them.

Dunedin officials say they can't stop now, so they will complete the renovations with what they have and put up an extra $500,000 of the city's own money -- and hope they can persuade the state to kick in a similar amount.

Judge sets deadline for removal of feeding tube

CLEARWATER -- A Pinellas judge has ordered the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube on Aug. 28, more than a decade after the St. Petersburg woman's severe brain injury provoked an intense family feud.

Following Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer's ruling that Mrs. Schiavo's life support should be discontinued, her parents asked Greer to let doctors evaluate their daughter.

But on Friday, he denied that request.

Mrs. Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and her husband, Michael Schiavo, have accused each other of trying to control Mrs. Schiavo's fate to get $700,000 she received from a 1992 malpractice suit. Only about half of that remains; much of it has been used to pay for Schiavo's legal expenses and Mrs. Schiavo's medical care.

In short

ST. PETERSBURG -- Faced with yearly operating losses of $1.3-million at the Bayfront Center complex, the St. Petersburg City Council agreed Thursday to invite representatives from the Mahaffey Theater Foundation, the University of South Florida and other organizations or businesses to chat about ideas to redevelop the center. One idea is that the university could take over the center and possibly replace the arena with a conference center building.

NEW PORT RICHEY -- A Pasco-Pinellas county effort to cobble together an unbroken wildlife corridor between Brooker Creek Preserve and Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park might have gained a new convert: the Starkey family, owners of 3,000 acres north of State Road 54. The family had once derided the corridor as unworkable, but in recent meetings have said they were willing to forgo development on their part of the proposed corridor if the price were right.

Coming up this week

Parking fines may pack more of a punch in Dunedin soon. At a mere $5 for a parking ticket, the city is a virtual bargain for scofflaws. On Thursday, city commissioners likely will vote to increase the fines, making it $10 for expired meters and $20 for parking in a loading zone. Parking in a space for the disabled will jump from $103 to $258.

- Compiled by Times staff writer Sharon Kennedy Wynne

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