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Garcia Makes Switch To Safety

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 22, 2009

SULPHUR SPRINGS - Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jeff Garcia took on a new role Wednesday: pedestrian safety coach at a clinic for Sulphur Springs Elementary School students.

"We're going to preach about it all day today," said Garcia, who will need a new contract to retain his job with the Buccaneers.

The day kicked off at 7 a.m. with about 150 students walking to school with parents and teachers. The school plans to recruit volunteers for "walking school buses" to promote safety for students, almost all of whom walk daily to the elementary school.

Garcia later surprised about 550 students at Wednesday's outdoor safety clinic, offering safety tips for bicyclists and pedestrians.

The event was part of the fifth annual FedEx Air & Ground Players of the Week program. FedEx made weekly donations in NFL players' names to local Safe Kids coalitions. On Wednesday, Safe Kids Tampa accepted a $25,000 donation, a portion of which will pay for speed tables next to the school on 12th Street between Yukon Street and Waters Avenue.

The money also paid for items such as T-shirts, backpacks, bicycle helmets, locks and reflective wristbands. Garcia helped give away 12 bicycles and autographed footballs to students who won an art contest.

Kathy Steele

Bay Pines Opens Much Larger ER

BAY PINES - Bay Pines VA Medical Center in southern Pinellas County is unveiling its newly expanded emergency room today.

At 15,647 square feet, it is nearly three times the size of the old one, said Faith Belcher, spokeswoman for Bay Pines VA Healthcare System. The project cost $5.5 million and will be staffed by 32 employees.

The aim of the new emergency department is to provide quality health care to Pinellas area veterans and to give them quicker access to emergency care, she said.

The hospital, at 10000 Bay Pines Blvd., will unveil the new department at 9:30 this morning.

The hospital is Veterans Affair's fourth largest in the nation, with nearly 21,000 visits to the emergency room each year. About 25 percent of those result in admission to the hospital.

Stephen Thompson

Developers Eye Second Chance

BALM - Developers want a second chance to persuade a county hearing officer that their plans for a suburban village off Balm Road are sound.

The rezoning request includes plans to run an access road to the 537-acre development alongside Balm Scrub, a Hillsborough County-owned tract of rare and fragile habitat.

Turfgrass America took its plan to build up to 1,087 homes on the acreage to the county's zoning hearing master in November, after which a hearing officer recommended denial.

The company requested a second hearing, which is set for 6 p.m. Feb. 17 at the County Center, 202 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa.

Yvette C. Hammett

Festival To Aid Farmworkers

LAND O' LAKES - A nonprofit organization that provides emergency assistance to migrant farmworkers and their families plans a three-day music and arts festival in St. Augustine in March.

The festival is March 6-8 at the Saint John's Fairgrounds.

Proceeds from the festival will benefit the Harvest of Hope Foundation, which helps migrant workers throughout the country with numerous needs, such as car repairs, housing, utility payments, rent, medical services, clothes, food and funeral expenses.

The foundation, based in Gainesville, also has provided college scholarships to the children of migrant farmworkers.

Tickets for the festival are already on sale and available through the organization's Web site at www.harvestofhope

fest.com.

More than 100 bands are expected to perform over the three days, the foundation reports.

A staff report

Commission Gets Courthouse Update

PLANT CITY - Construction of a new courthouse could begin by July, the architect for the Hillsborough County project told Plant City commissioners at a recent meeting.

Design of the 60,000-square-foot courthouse is nearing completion, and construction bids will be solicited next month, said Duncan Broyd, senior vice president of HOK, the Tampa architectural firm for the project.

Under that schedule, and allowing two years for construction, the courthouse could open in the summer of 2011, Broyd said.

The two-story structure will be built on the grassy parking area across the street from the existing county complex, 302 N. Michigan Ave.

That building of about 40,000 square feet has portions dating to the 1950s. It will eventually be demolished and the site converted into a parking lot.

George Wilkens

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