HILLSBOROUGH

Published: Mar 27, 2008

Teacher Removed From Class Amid Text Message Inquiry

TAMPA - A Middleton High School teacher was removed from the classroom Wednesday while the district investigates her text messages to a student.

"We don't know the volume or the nature," district spokesman Steve Hegarty said late Wednesday of the text messages. "We took the teacher out of the classroom today."

The teacher is Jenna Happel, 27, an exceptional education teacher of students who are hearing impaired, he said. She has been working for the district since July 2006.

Teachers are not prohibited from text messaging or e-mailing students, he said. Removing a teacher from a classroom is not that unusual if there are any allegations, Hegarty said.

"This is very early on" in the investigation by the district's office of professional standards, he said. The school resource officer is with the Tampa police and that agency has been advised of the investigation, he said.

Marilyn Brown

Iorio To Welcome Design Firm To Space In Ybor Square

TAMPA - When Ybor City was named Florida's third national historic landmark district in December 1990, the neighborhood's 1,349 buildings - cigar factories, cigarworkers' casitas and ethnic clubs - included the granddaddy of them all.

The 89,000-square-foot Ybor Square, consisting of an 1886-built cigar factory, a warehouse and the "stemmery" building for tobacco leaf processing, once was the world's largest cigar factory.

Thanks to a $6 million renovation in 2002 by owner ZOM Development of Orlando, the red-brick complex has new life as offices. The latest tenant is Florida Business Interiors, 1300 E. Eighth Ave. The company plans its open house, with a ribbon cutting by Mayor Pam Iorio, at 5:30 p.m. today.

Business Interiors President Kevin Baker has a longtime respect for Ybor City. His father owned a few buildings here in the 1980s.

After signing a five-year lease for 5,300 square feet in the 1902-built stemmery, Baker's first chore was to rid the space of its tobacco smell. For the rest of the area, Baker wanted the floor raised 18 inches above its original slab so utilities could be placed under the floor.

Janis D. Froelich

Workboat Pulled From Water, Fuel Spill Contained At Marina

TAMPA - A 22-foot workboat that sank overnight at a South Tampa marina was pulled from the water Wednesday morning, the Coast Guard said.

A state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman estimated about 20 gallons of gasoline leaked from the vessel, owned by Misener Marine, and a vessel tied to the sunken craft. Emergency responders put down absorbents and booms to contain the fuel, which evaporated in the sun, spokeswoman Pamala Vazquez said.

The sunken vessel was being used for piling repairs at the Howard Frankland Bridge, Misener safety adviser John Rider said. The vessel was docked at Tampa Bay Marina, 205 S. Hoover St.

A staff report

Architects Still Planning To Use Federal Courthouse

TAMPA - The American Institute of Architects is moving forward with its plans to move in to the old federal courthouse on Florida Avenue.

Nothing is final, but the institute's executive director said the group thinks its plans will work.

Late last year, the city gave the institute six months to consider moving in to the building. The group wants to put its headquarters in the building and use the main courtroom as gallery space for the building's occupants. Several organizations, including the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, the Tampa Downtown Partnership, a law firm and architecture firms have expressed interest in moving in, the institute said in a statement.

The city for years has been trying to find a tenant for the historic structure. Ideas have included relocating the Tampa Museum of Art to the building or putting a campus of the Savannah College of Art and Design in the structure. The Hillsborough County School District also was interested, but plans never materialized. Parking constraints in the area have been one of the biggest hurdles.

The institute plans a reception and exhibition for 7 p.m. April 4 at 200 N. Tampa St.

Ellen Gedalius

Keystone Park's Arts Festival Fails To Draw Artists

KEYSTONE - Organizers for the community's inaugural arts and music festival have decided to slim things down.

The weekend event, set for April 5-6 at Keystone Park, 17928 Gunn Highway, will be pared down to an evening of music.

The concert, free and open to the public, will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. April 5. The R&B group the Dukes of Juke, whose band leader lives in Keystone, will perform.

Barbara Dowling of the Keystone Civic Association said the group couldn't sign up the necessary number of artists to proceed with an exhibition and decided instead to hold only the concert.

Jan Nelson, recruited by the association in fall to run the event, had hoped to enlist 30 artists for a two-day festival.

Stephen Hammill

Plant High Turns Back Clock With Play Performance

TAMPA - All her life, Doris Jean Elarbee heard her mother talk about the time she played Cora in Plant High School's first senior class play, Booth Tarkington's "Clarence."

That was 1928, and to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the drama club - and the school - current Plant High thespians will restage the play tonight, Friday and Saturday. Elarbee will be recognized as a guest of honor.

Elarbee wishes her mother, Phyllis Griffin, who died at 93 in 2001, could have attended.

"She would have had a fit. She would have been so excited," said Elarbee, 68, who comes from a family of Plant High graduates.

Elarbee responded to a notice in the newspaper that Plant's drama instructor, Teryle Traver, had invited original cast members or their relatives to be recognized.

The play starts at 7 p.m. each night at the school auditorium, 2415 S. Himes Ave. Tickets cost $5 and are available at the door.

Philip Morgan

Early Voting In Plant City Election Starts Monday

PLANT CITY - Early voting begins Monday in a nonpartisan race to fill a seat on the five-member Plant City commission.

Early voting for the April 8 municipal election will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through April 5 at City Hall, 302 W. Reynolds St.

Mike Sparkman, a former mayor and city commissioner, and businessman Dean Snyder are running for the Group 4 seat.

The winner, who will take office June 2, will assume the seat held by Robert Brown, who announced in January he would not seek a second three-year term.

Commissioner Bill Dodson, whose current term also is expiring this year, did not draw opposition.

George Wilkens

PASCO

Engineers Say New Wellfield Won't Meet Demand

PORT RICHEY - When city officials unveiled plans to tap a new wellfield three years ago, they predicted it would be enough to quench the thirst of its growing population.

The project was as much about providing for the city's residents as it was declaring aquatic independence from New Port Richey, which for decades has supplied Port Richey with 40 percent of its drinking water.

But as city officials prepare to turn on the four new wells, they've learned that the 1.2 millions gallons of water they will provide every day won't be enough to go it alone.

A recent study from the city's engineering firm, U.S. Water Services, indicates that the wellfield "will not be able to meet future water demand" based on growth projections.

So the city council has extended the 10-year bulk water purchasing contract, set to expire in 2009, with New Port Richey's utilities department. The reduces the amount of water Port Richey will buy to 100,000 gallons per day.

Mayor Richard Rober said extending the agreement would make the water available if the city needs it but the city wouldn't be dependent on it.

Christian M. Wade