Public buildings, mall plan to be open today

By Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 12, 2001

Insulated by hundreds of miles and a handful of states from the trauma in New York and Washington, D.C., Pasco County officials vowed to keep public buildings open today.

Even on Tuesday, after jets crashed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, the government centers in New Port Richey, Land O'Lakes, Dade City and Zephyrhills never shut down.

City buildings in New Port Richey, Port Richey, Dade City, Zephyrhills and San Antonio planned to remain open. Saint Leo's City Hall is closed all week, although it's unrelated to the disaster up North.

Within hours of the disaster, Pasco's emergency management director Michelle Baker put emergency workers on standby.

But when terrorist acts failed to materialize near Florida, Baker never had to mobilize her forces further, mobilization that typically occurs during hurricanes.

"We have no threats locally. We are just monitoring the situation," Baker said Tuesday afternoon. "Some counties have declared states of emergency but we have not."

Commerce, however, did take a mournful break on Tuesday.

Gulf View Square mall started closing at 1 p.m. "out of respect for the losses suffered by American families," mall spokeswoman Kelly Lowrey said. Gulf View planned to resume normal hours this morning.

County commissioners met as normal on Tuesday morning, although they rushed through their agenda in light of the tragedy. Dade City commissioners met Tuesday night.

Port Richey, just hours before their regular meeting was to start, announced that the meeting was canceled because of the tragedy, and a makeup date hadn't been determined yet.

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