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By Times staff writers
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 2, 2000
Fumes force dispatchers out of building
TAMPA -- For the second time in two weeks, dispatchers working in the old police headquarters had to be evacuated twice Thursday after complaining of fumes that burned their eyes and throats.
About 5 p.m. Thursday, 20 911 dispatchers left their posts in the 40-year-old building on the north side of downtown. Three of the dispatchers had experienced burning sensations in their eyes and throats. All the dispatchers reported smelling something like paint thinner in the air, said police spokesman Joe Durkin.
Tampa's 911 calls were rerouted through the county's facility while Tampa Fire Rescue worked to detect the source of the fumes and air out the building. The Hazardous Materials team found nothing, and the dispatchers went back to work in the building about 6:30 p.m.
A few hours later, the dispatchers again suffered eye irritation and burning throats, this time so severe that three of them were taken to the hospital, where they were treated and released, Durkin said. Again, the source of the fumes could not be pinpointed.
On Aug. 23, the dispatchers were evacuated because chlorine fumes from outside cleaning crews entered the building's air systems and permeated their work space. The workers were sprucing up the facility for a visit by Florida A&M University's law school selection committee, who toured the site Monday.
However, both Durkin and Tampa police Chief Bennie Holder, who spoke with dispatchers after the first evacuation, said they suspect Thursday's irritation might have been caused by chlorine residue still in the building's air systems.
APOLLO BEACH -- Hillsborough County commissioners unanimously approved an ordinance aimed at protecting the endangered manatee from potentially fatal boat-related accidents.
The safety ordinance approved Wednesday details speed zones and boating speed limits in an area off Apollo Beach to E.G. Simmons Park, where the animals are likely to congregate.
The ordinance is subject to approval by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, which is expected to consider it within 60 days, said Susan Fernandez, senior assistant county attorney.
The local ordinance would take effect 15 days after state approval, she said.
Manatees, also called sea cows, are slow-moving marine mammals that frequent warm coastal waters around Florida, sometimes straying up the East Coast or into Gulf of Mexico coastal waters. About 2,200 remain in Florida.
The number of boat-related manatee deaths in Florida continues to climb each year. Through the first seven months of this year there have been 61 boat-related manatee deaths, according to state figures.
Most manatees hit by boats bleed to death from massive internal injuries after the hulls of speeding boats slam into their bodies, even though the docile creatures can weigh more than 3,000 pounds.
Another danger is cuts from boat propellers. Sometimes they can slice deep into the manatees, which have little protective fat between their skin and vital organs.
LARGO -- It might be a first for Pinellas and Pasco counties -- a medical examiner who, before his professional career, once fainted at the sight of blood.
Those days are long behind Dr. Jon Thogmartin.
Thogmartin, Palm Beach County's medical examiner, cleared his biggest hurdle on Thursday to becoming the circuit's next medical examiner after a local search committee recommended that he replace Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Joan Wood.
After interviewing five candidates to replace Wood, who retires on Sept. 30, Thogmartin was the near-unanimous choice of a committee made up of local law enforcement, prosecutors, the public defender and county officials.
But Thogmartin doesn't have the job yet.
The Florida Medical Examiner Commission must approve the choice, which it is widely expected to do no later than its next meeting on Oct. 25. The commission then will make a recommendation to Gov. Jeb Bush, who appoints the three-year post.
Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe will appoint an interim medical examiner if a replacement isn't selected before Wood's retirement.
Though Bush can override any recommendation, local officials expect the governor to approve the selection. Thogmartin must still formally accept the job.
Thogmartin acknowledged that Palm Beach officials offered him a $10,000 pay raise to drop out of the running, "but I didn't pull my name out."
TAMPA -- A grease fire in a resident's kitchen at the Epiphany Arms apartments led to an evacuation Friday night, but the fire was quickly contained and nobody was injured.
District Chief Anthony Ziemak of Tampa Fire Rescue said the fire started in a pan on the stove of a woman cooking dinner about 6:30 p.m. She moved the flaming pan over to the sink, where it triggered a sprinkler in her apartment and an alarm throughout the building. About 100 residents left their apartments until firefighters determined it was safe for them to return.
LARGO -- A circuit judge has rejected a bid by prosecutors to force a former St. Petersburg warehouse manager to repay $260,000 he stole from the city.
Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Dee Anna Farnell signed an order on Thursday saying she would not reconsider an earlier decision that Erroyl C. Bing Sr. not be forced to repay the money. Bing pleaded guilty to three grand theft charges on July 17.
She ordered Bing to surrender himself at the Pinellas County Jail by Sept. 14 to begin serving a three-year prison sentence imposed after his plea.
Bing, 45, was accused of bilking the city of about $260,000 in a two-year series of thefts ending in 1999. Bing used his position to fool the city into paying for supplies it never received, from picnic tables to plumbing supplies.
Bing blamed the theft on alcohol problems and his $400-a-day cocaine habit.
The city's loss from the theft was actually the amount of its insurance deductable: $10,000. Its insurer covered the rest.
Farnell refused to order full restitution, ruling after Bing's plea that the city, or its insurer, could recover any additional loss by filing a civil suit against Bing, which incensed prosecutors.
Prosecutor Fred Schaub argued that citizens still lost, perhaps through higher insurance rates. He filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider the decision.
Had she ordered full restitution, Farnell said she would have allowed Bing to withdraw his guilty plea, since he tendered it with the understanding he wouldn't be forced to pay full restitution.
Sheriff's deputies are searching for a missing woman from south Manatee County after her daughter told them she fears her mother has been slain.
The daughter of Violet Watzulik, 84, called the Manatee County Sheriff's Office because she had not heard from her mother for several months. Watzulik's son, Carl, who lives with his mother, told detectives she is with a South Florida man, David Richardson. Sheriff's spokesman Dave Bristow called her disappearance "extremely suspicious," but detectives have yet to investigate it as a homicide.
Watzulik's daughter, Eileen Mager, has not heard from her mother since spring, including Easter and Mager's birthday, April 28. Carl Watzulik told detectives that his mother and Richardson showed up at the house on June 10, got some clothes and left on their trip. That is the last time they were reported to have been seen. Detectives haven't been able to find Richardson,Bristow said. Anyone with information may call sheriff's Sgt. Oscar Perez at (941) 747-3011, Ext. 2557, or Crimestoppers at (941) 747-COPS.
TAMPA -- A disabled man from Clearwater has filed a lawsuit against Busch Gardens, alleging that the theme park fails to comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
Johnny Long said Friday that when he visited Busch Gardens about three months ago, he was denied the chance to park his van with a wheelchair lift in a space for the handicapped, even though he has a membership card entitling him to free parking.
He was told the park was closed because of crowding. But after parking elsewhere and entering the park, he said he saw spaces for the handicapped that weren't occupied.
He also had trouble using a bathroom because its door was too hard to open and the stalls too small to accommodate his wheelchair, he said.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Tampa. Gerard Hoeppner, director of public relations for Busch Gardens, had not seen the lawsuit. But he said, "We meet and in some cases exceed all ADA requirements."
The lawsuit asks that Busch Gardens be ordered to comply with Title III provisions of the ADA.
ST. PETERSBURG -- The University of South Florida has appointed a new facilitator to coordinate its economic development efforts in the city's poorest neighborhoods.
Terry K. Bradley, a math, social studies and English teacher at Lealman Discovery School in St. Petersburg, will head up the university's Urban Initiative, focusing on economic equity, community renewal, literacy and public safety.
He will continue Urban Initiative efforts to attract small businesses and collaborate with an after-school tutoring program to promote reading, according to a release from USF.
He succeeds Doug Tuthill, who left the $65,000-a-year job in August to become president of an Internet start-up company.
Bradley brings an education and business background to the job. He has worked for the state's Department of Business and Professional Regulation as a senior management analyst and investigator, as well as for the Department of Education. He holds a bachelor's degree in sociology from Florida A&M University and is working on a master's degree in vocational education.
Bill Heller, USF-St. Petersburg's acting vice president, could not be reached for comment Friday. He started the program three years ago after civil disturbances in St. Petersburg in 1996.
The city contributes $50,000 a year to the initiative, which had been criticized by some City Council members after Tuthill helped the National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement apply to open a charter school.
TAMPA -- If Mayor Dick Greco has his way, patrons of Tampa's nude clubs will be treated to a warning sign that contains some racy material of its own.
"Notice of prohibited acts," the signs will say in inch-high letters. Posted outside each club and at least 18 by 24 inches in size, they'll describe which exposed body parts dancers must keep at least 6 feet from patrons and what sexual acts are prohibited.
City Attorney James Palermo said Thursday the idea is to warn out-of-towners about the city's law banning lap dances.
TAMPA -- Water Department officials asked the City Council on Thursday to ease some water restrictions imposed in March because of drought.
If the City Council takes the suggestion -- and it is expected to -- residents will be able to wash cars, houses, boats and trailers any time they want as long as they use a hose with an automatic shut-off nozzle. Restrictions on watering plants, shrubs, trees and other landscaping also would be lifted, as long as a hand-held hose is used.
The changes would go into effect Sept. 14.
Residents with even-numbered addresses still would be allowed to water their lawns only on Tuesdays, while those with odd-numbered addresses are limited to watering on Sundays. No watering is allowed between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on those days.
TAMPA -- The City Council voted Thursday to impose a special tax on property owners who will be within walking distance of the Ybor City streetcar stations along Eighth Avenue, Channelside Drive and Ice Palace Drive.
The streetcar is expected to start running late next year. It will cost $1.2-million to operate annually, with one-third of that coming from fares and advertising, another third coming from tax revenue and interest on the $6.7-million endowment raised for the project, and the final portion coming from grants and other government sources. The fare for the streetcar has not yet been set.
TAMPA -- University of South Florida president Judy Genshaft has hired longtime Miami Herald reporter Jack Wheat to serve as her special assistant.
Wheat, 46, will replace Patrick Riordan, who will become interim director of the Resource Center for Florida History and Politics in the USF library.
Wheat's duties will include speechwriting and policy research. He will be paid $92,000 a year.