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pasco week in review

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 18, 2009

More Getting Free Lunch
The percentage of Pasco County students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals is on the rise and expected to top 50 percent by the end of February.

Even more families may be eligible, and the school district is encouraging anyone whose finances or family size has changed to fill out an application.

The weak economy is to blame. In September, 43 percent of Pasco students qualified, but that number has jumped to 48 percent and is expected to climb.

Schools that offer free breakfasts to all students also have reported an increase.

Parents or guardians can pick up applications at any Pasco County school. The free and reduced-price meal program is federally funded, and participation is based on family income and size.

Teen Gets 10 Years In Shooting

A 19-year-old from New Port Richey avoided possible life behind bars last week for shooting a man six times two years ago.

Roger Gayle Thompson pleaded no contest to an attempted murder charge and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He also pleaded no contest to assaulting another inmate while in the Land O' Lakes Jail in June 2007.

He agreed to a plea deal minutes before jury selection was scheduled to begin in his trial. Had a jury convicted him of attempted murder, he could have been sentenced to life in prison.

Thompson was accused of shooting Christopher Arnold on Nov. 4, 2006. The Dade City man was shot six times outside a mobile home in Lacoochee and spent a month in a hospital recovering.

Thompson was arrested Dec. 12, 2006.

Ex-Chief Wants To Be A Deputy

Former Zephyrhills Police Chief Russell Barnes, who resigned amid a payroll scandal in August, wants to be a patrol deputy with the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

Barnes, 56, applied online for the job in December.

He resigned from the Zephyrhills force in August, about an hour before the city council was to decide whether to fire him. He was hired in November 2003.

An internal investigation concluded Barnes created a log documenting flex time that allowed the police department's spokesman and head of internal affairs to justify teaching criminal justice courses at Pasco-Hernando Community College while claiming to be on the city's clock.

The city does not have a policy allowing flex time.

Barnes earned more than $74,000 annually in Zephyrhills. Starting salary for sheriff's patrol deputies is $17.82 an hour, but people with experience can be hired at a higher rate.

Decision Delayed On Pasco Landfill

State environmental officials will wait another month to issue a decision on a controversial landfill proposed for eastern Pasco County.

The state Department of Environmental Protection was prepared to issue an opinion Monday on the proposal by Largo-based Angelo's Aggregate Materials but opted to hold off until Feb. 12 to review counterarguments.

Angelo's wants to build a 995-acre landfill on property it owns near Enterprise and Singletary roads, south of Dade City.

The first phase of the landfill would cover about 65 acres. The company owns a construction debris landfill nearby.

The DEP recently received an analysis of Angelo's proposal commissioned by the Tampa law firm Bricklemyer Smolker & Bolves that was critical of the design of the landfill's liner and collection system for leachate, the polluted rainwater that can seep through landfills.

Pasco Lands EDC Business Grant

The state's economic development agency has approved a $3 million grant to help bring financial services giant T. Rowe Price to Pasco County.

The money would go toward building an access road for a site off State Road 54 that may become the new home of the company's Tampa division.

The grant from the state Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development will offset about half the cost of building an access road for a site off State Road 54, between U.S. 41 and the Suncoast Parkway. The county has pledged to pick up the other half of the construction tab.

The company wants to build a complex to accommodate 1,200 employees and relocate its operations in Tampa's Westshore area, where 435 people work.

County officials have offered the Maryland-based firm a combined $13 million in county and state incentives.

Reporters Kevin Wiatrowski, Ronnie Blair and Todd Leskanic contributed to this report.

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