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Get Geared Up For Outdoors Expo

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 26, 2009

TAMPA - Learn more about living the Florida lifestyle outdoors when the 18th annual Tampa Tribune Outdoors Expo & Boat Show comes to the Expo Hall and Sweetbay Entertainment Hall at the Florida State Fairgrounds Friday through Sunday.

The event will feature fishing and hunting gear, outdoor products, a children's fishing derby, demonstrations and seminars.

Parking costs $5 for cars, $10 for RVs and buses. The show will be open from 1 to 8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

The fairgrounds are at 4800 U.S. 301 N., Tampa. Visitors are asked to enter the fairgrounds at the U.S. 301 entrance. Call (813) 259-8224 for information and ticket prices.

Felix L. Martinez

Free Cultural Festival Fetes Families

BRANDON - A free, family-friendly festival tonight will feature a variety show and a potluck dinner steeped in an assortment of cultural traditions.

Danielle Soler, a support specialist at the Brandon Family Support and Resource Center, 1277 Kingsway Road, said all county residents are invited to a Cultural Diversity Celebration at the center from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

"People are signed up to bring Asian, Puerto Rican and Spanish foods, and anyone can be in the variety show," Soler said. "We have people who are going to play the drums and the guitar and dance, and more are welcome."

The Brandon facility is one of four resource centers funded primarily by the Children's Board of Hillsborough County. Others are in Ruskin, Town 'N Country and North Tampa.

There are no eligibility or financial requirements for people to participate in the services, classes and events offered at the centers. For information, go to www.familysupporthc.org or call (813) 740-4634.

Laura Frazier
Wimauma Ranks High For Library Committee Wimauma and Bealsville, two rural Hillsborough County communities that have never had public libraries, may be a step closer to turning that page.

A citizens board that ranks unfunded county library capital improvement requests boosted the localities' chances Tuesday by pushing the two proposed library projects to the top of a list.

A 10,000-square-foot library to be built at an undetermined site in Wimauma, which is in southern Hillsborough, was ranked the top priority, and a similar facility to be built in Bealsville in eastern Hillsborough was ranked second.

Members of the planning committee of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library Board said they revised the capital improvements list based on the communities' need for full-time library services.

"There is not a library in the Wimauma service area," planning committee chairman Bob Argus said.

The board will decide today whether to accept the recommendations of its planning committee, which reviewed 12 major projects hoping to receive funding from Hillsborough County.

Kenneth Knight

After Wildfires, Pasco County Bans Outdoor Burning

NEW PORT RICHEY - Pasco County joined other Tampa Bay area counties this week in enacting a ban on outdoor burning.

Tuesday's vote by Pasco County commissioners marks the earliest Pasco has ever enacted a burn ban. It comes on the heels of several wildfires that have burned across the county in the past week. Larger fires near Hudson and Holiday forced evacuations of homes.

Pasco and the rest of the region are seeing wildfire activity much earlier this year, thanks to months of low rainfall and an abundance of dead vegetation left behind by cold weather in January.

The state Division of Forestry's drought index for Pasco now sits at 572 on an 800-point scale, with 800 marking the driest possible conditions. That number is growing by three points a day without rain, said the county's fire chief, Anthony LoPinto.

Kevin Wiatrowski

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