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Metro review
By SHARON KENNEDY WYNNE
© St. Petersburg Times, Some highlights of the news from around the region for the week just ended: Jays gifts will get a closer lookDUNEDIN -- Dunedin city officials may have to start paying their own way when they take in a ballgame after facing questions over the longstanding practice of taking gifts from the Toronto Blue Jays and the city of Toronto. Dunedin officials have taken baseball tickets, meals and hotel stays, courtesy of the Jays and Toronto, since the baseball team opened a spring training headquarters here in 1977. A review by the St. Petersburg Times showed city leaders had accepted more than $34,000 in gifts since 1991. There is nothing illegal about accepting the gifts unless the officials fail to note them on state-required financial disclosure forms. City Attorney John Hubbard advised the City Commission in a memo about adopting "more stringent rules" on gifts. Hubbard, who himself reported accepting $1,886 in gifts, also said he would study Clearwater's hard-line policy against accepting gifts. Monotubes still draw more groans than grinsLARGO -- To state traffic officials, the large pipes planted over two busy streets are monotubes, structures strong enough to survive hurricanes with highway signs and traffic signals in place. But what they forgot about this fine piece of engineering, a growing list of city and county officials insist, is that the darn things are ugly. In Oldsmar, which doesn't have and doesn't want a monotube, the mayor called them "ridiculous." In Largo, the local monotube has been called a "big green monster." The one in Pinellas Park has been the butt of jokes. St. Petersburg turned up its nose as well, branding them eyesores. And recently the Pinellas Planning Council weighed in with a unanimous resolution sent to the Florida Department of Transportation that described the monolithic tubular structures as "unattractive, obstructive and objectionable" as well as "detrimental to the visual character of our county as a whole." The DOT insists it is sensitive to the outcry. "We are more than willing to work with each municipality," said Kris Carson, DOT spokeswoman. TECO may burn coal linked to black sootTAMPA -- After a slew of complaints between 1998 and 2000 about the accumulation of black soot on homes near TECO's Big Bend power plant, the company was found to have used leftover coal from its Polk County coal-gasification plant, and was doing it without having obtained a permit. TECO blamed it on a mix-up with the state Department of Environmental Protection and stopped burning the leftover coal after county tests showed the plant's emissions had a much higher-than-normal ash content. Since then, however, TECO has applied for a permit to burn the leftover coal. Last week, the DEP said it was ready to give the company the green light to burn it. The permit is expected to be challenged by Save Our Bays and Canals, a local watchdog group. SOBAC members accuse TECO of spewing dangerous pollutants into the air and say the state has been too lenient. Hillsborough County also has some reservations. TECO spokesman Ross Bannister said burning the leftover coal makes economic sense, not only because it still has energy value but also because the company could avoid paying high landfill fees. NOW unhappy with sheriff's domestic violence planNEW PORT RICHEY -- Women's advocates in Pasco County were not happy when the the former domestic violence unit in the Sheriff's Office was combined with the major crimes squad. Sheriff Bob White's plan was to put more emphasis on patrol deputies solving domestic violence cases. Once deputies receive at least 24 hours of training, they will be responsible for solving some cases that they now hand. The Pasco chapter of the National Organization for Women is even more angry that the domestic violence training for deputies has not begun this month as sheriff's officials had hoped. It likely will start in another 30 days. "Every week goes by and then three or four weeks turn into a month and then two months," co-president Doris Rosen said. "We need to get the ball rolling." Maj. Maurice Radford said the delay has been to ensure "we really have some enhanced training that will benefit the deputies, not just some cookie-cutter training." West Nile panic spreads faster than the virusNEW PORT RICHEY -- Pasco County Health Department officials were bombarded with calls last week after announcing that a bird found dead last month in Zephyrhills had the West Nile virus. The Mosquito Control Commission offices also were inundated with calls for more spraying. State and county officials told people not to panic, and the state didn't include Pasco in an expanded medical alert area, which now includes 33 North Florida counties and Monroe County in the Keys. The state added Alachua, Dixie and Gilchrist counties on Thursday, after two birds tested positive for West Nile in Alachua. Dr. Marc Yacht, director of Pasco's Health Department, said Pasco County wasn't included because the case found in Pasco was isolated, more than 100 miles and several counties away from the nearest other case. Yes, West Nile is new to Florida, but it's really a variant of an old problem, said Terry McElroy of the state Department of Agriculture. "The fact is, Florida has had mosquito-borne encephalitis problems for decades," he said. In short . . .BROOKSVILLE -- As if sinkholes weren't bad enough. Residents in one Hernando County neighborhood have contaminated water after a large sinkhole opened up in the bottom of a Suncoast Parkway retention pond last month. Residents in some areas are being told to avoid drinking, cooking with or bathing in water from wells that may have been tainted by fecal coliform after surface water poured into the sinkholes. The construction of the parkway and the sinkhole are probably -- though not definitely -- related, said John Parker of the Southwest Florida Water Management District. The retention pond is on the west side of the parkway, about 3 miles north of State Road 50 and about 8 miles south of the Citrus County line. NEW PORT RICHEY -- Budget cuts are hitting where it hurts in the Pasco County Jail, which has switched from hot breakfasts of French toast, turkey sausage links, grits and fruit to a cold breakfast of peanut butter, crackers, pats of jelly and some cornflakes with milk. Though inmates have complained, jail officials say serving cold breakfasts eliminates the need to run hundreds of large, plastic serving trays through a dishwasher and also eliminates the need for food servers. PORT RICHEY -- A Pasco County man who was asked to leave an all-you-can-eat buffet in April for eating too much is taking his dining talents global. Bob Middleton, 40, passed his audition and will face big eaters from Japan and elsewhere to chow down for a chance at $50,000 on a Japanese game show, the name of which translates to Food Battle Club. Coming up this weekBefore they start to redraw the lines for congressional and legislative districts next year, state lawmakers will hear from people in 20 public hearings. Up first is Tampa on Monday at 9:30 a.m. in the Hillsborough County Commission chambers. Later that day, they will be in Clearwater at 5 p.m. at the Long Center sports complex. The 2nd District Court of Appeal is expected to rule on Michael Schiavo's request to let him remove his wife's feeding tube Tuesday instead of Oct. 9, the new date set by a Pinellas judge earlier this month. Terri Schiavo has spent more than a decade in what some doctors describe as a persistent vegetative state. Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, want more time to fight an end to her life support. -- Compiled by Times staff writer Sharon Kennedy Wynne
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