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Pasco Community Seeking Resurgence

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: December 15, 2008

LACOOCHEE - The post office and a couple of abandoned storefronts are all that remain of the thriving downtown that anchored this community in northeast Pasco County.

In its heyday, Lacoochee bragged of a 30-room hotel, two train depots and a variety of businesses.

But that was more than 50 years ago, when the Cummer and Sons Cypress Co. sawmill provided jobs, homes and health care to a diverse community of 1,800 residents. In 1923, a year after the mill opened, Lacoochee even welcomed refugees from the massacre in Rosewood. Descendants of those survivors hold a reunion here every year.

All that ended in 1959, when the Cummer mill closed its doors. In the decades since, people such as Eulin Dean have watched Lacoochee decline into poverty and crime. They're waiting for another company to replace the mill and revive the community.

"If they had something out there that benefited people, I could stand a few trucks," said Dean, who moved to Lacoochee in 1951.

As county planners consider the future of Pasco's rural northeastern corner, Lacoochee residents see the potential for change at the Cummer site - one of the county's few remaining sites zoned for heavy industry.

Optimists have pinned their hopes on two curving bands of steel that tie the site to the outside world via the CSX railroad.
Railroad cars are a common site here. Lake City-based Columbia Grain, which owns the Cummer property, distributes chicken feed across the state along the rail line. The company uses about 25 acres and has put the rest up for sale.

The Cummer site's industrial promise lured two curious companies to Lacoochee this year, but the area's poorly kept roads proved to be a deal-breaker.

As the rest of Pasco boomed in recent years, Lacoochee became known more for its poverty and crime. More than three-quarters of the students at the local elementary school get free or reduced-price lunches, according to the school district. Nearly two-thirds of the adults had no high school diploma when the 2000 census was conducted. Today, Lacoochee is home to two public housing complexes and more renters than homeowners.

Residents eager for a change say they are open to just about anything.

"If there's something we don't know, we can figure it out," said Rick Adams, a Lacoochee native. "We can still learn."

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