HNS REPORTS---6/29/09
LISTEN TO THE CURRENT NEWSCAST...
CLICK > ON THE ICON:
ROCCO SAYS SHE WOULD BE A PART OF WORKER FURLOUGHS
County Commissioner Rose Rocco says she would join with County workers if a tentative plan for a once-a-month furlough day becomes a part of the new budget. Speaking after Monday night's Spring Hill budget town hall meeting, Rocco said her position on commissioner pay cuts hasn't been accurately reported by other media. She noted that her pay is set by state law and can't be changed by the County Board she sits with as one of five members, but she also says she works seven days a week at times and on most holidays. She also says she claims a smaller health insurance contribution than other commissioners and most workers due to private insurance. Rocco has been quoted as the only commissioner declining to commit to returning a percentage of the biweekly paycheck to the County general fund but says she prefers to continue making her own decisions about charitable contributions.
SPRING HILL RESIDENTS, LANDFILL WORKERS ASK BUDGET QUESTIONS
County Administrator David Hamilton faced an audience of retirees, regular political gadflies, landfill employees, and even a newly resident former New York state local government official as he held the fifth of seven budget town hall meetings Monday night. His budget presentation was interrupted several times by audience members who wanted to discuss specific issues such as the future of the Bus, solid waste recycling, and the number of positions being cut at the landfill. At least five employees pressed Solid Waste Director Scott Harper about the 22 jobs to be eliminated in tentative landfill budget plans. Harper said he was losing sleep over the issue, a comment echoed by one of his employees, but Harper and Hamilton agreed that the overall budget situation made it necessary to keep all options open. Tuesday Hamilton takes his budget road tour to Hernando Beach before wrapping up with an interactive web-streamed town hall meeting Wednesday night from the Government Center in Brooksville.
COUNTY UTILITY BOND RATING GOES UP
In difficult economic times, it's often hard for local governments to maintain bond ratings as they face lower revenues. That's not the case for the Hernando County Utilities Enterprise Fund. County Administrator David Hamilton announced Monday night that the County has learned its utility bond rating has gone up, from A to A+. That rating comes even as Utilities staff tries to fund a massive capital improvements program with grant money and slightly increased water and sewer rates over the next five years, to avoid borrowing if at all possible. The County is still paying on bonds sold to finance the purchase of Florida Water's Spring Hill utility system five years ago.
DREDGE MOVES CLOSER AS COUNTY SETS MEETINGS
Assistant County Engineer Gregg Sutton says he expects to finalize a series of meetings in the next few days that could mean preliminary work in connection with the Hernando Beach dredge will get underway in two weeks. Sutton says contractor Seagrass Recovery should be on the job the week of July 13 removing underwater vegetation from the area where a new channel will cut through the sand bottom and using a barge and special machinery to replant the same removed grass in another area that won't be affected by dredging. That's because the County's consultant has advised that the Army Corps of Engineers permit for seagrass mitigation plans is in the mail and expected to arrive in Brooksville this week. Sutton says he and other county staff, consultants and the dredge contractor will meet next week with Florida DEP officials on the details of compliance with the DEP permit that was finally approved this spring. He's now in the process of arranging an exact time and place for a mid-July public meeting at Hernando Beach to explain just how the dredge project will impact the beach community. And a formal pre-construction meeting with the contractor is also likely that same day. Sutton says he'll give the Hernando County Port Authority a complete briefing on the project at their meeting Wednesday night.
NEW ELEMENTARY GRADING POLICY HAS PEOPLE TALKING
As Hernando News Source reported almost two weeks ago, school board members are considering a staff proposal for a new draft procedures manual which would eliminate zero grades for elementary schools. Under the proposal, the lowest possible grade would be 40%, and scores between 40 and 49 would automatically be given a grade of 49%. Now that other media have picked up on the story, including USA Today, many citizens are up in arms over what they call lowering standards. Commenters at the USA Today site called the idea "stoopud" and another example of "Flori-DUH." School staff said they believed zero grades unfairly penalized students and created a problem for motivating harder work, since even the best possible work would make raising the zero grade to a passing mark very difficult. They described the theory as giving elementary students a more realistic possibility of reward for hard work to bring the low grade back up. The full board is expected to act on the procedures manual at a meeting in July.
TWO LAWSUITS FILED IN RECENT HERNANDO ACCIDENTS
Lawsuits have been filed in two recent car-pedestrian accidents. Friday the widow and estate of Carl Puckett of Spring Hill filed a negligence suit against 50-year old Charles Quinter, also of Spring Hill, and the owner of the car Quinter was driving. According to highway patrol reports, the 77-year old Puckett was hit and killed by a car driven by Quinter while Puckett tried to cross U.S. 19 in April. The report said Puckett failed to yield the right of way to the Quinter vehicle, suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene of the crash. Earlier last week the victim and her family sued the parents of a teenager who killed himself after his vehicle hit and seriously injured 22-year old Alicia Anderson in northwest Hernando County in February.
JUVENILE CHARGED WITH LEWD BATTERY ON NINE-YEAR OLD
Sheriff's detectives arrested a 14-year old male juvenile over the weekend and charged him with lewd and lascivious battery on a nine year old girl in Brooksville which allegedly occurred last week. The suspect, who was identified as Trenton Magg with an address in Ohio,was turned over to juvenile authorities. According to the arrest affidavit, Magg forced the victim to perform oral sex upon him and also digitally penetrated the victim while the pair lay on a bed. The affidavit also says Maag admitted some of the victim's allegations but denied the more serious ones. Sheriff's arrest records also identified the suspect as Trenton Mason.
BAD WEEKEND FOR SHERIFF'S CARS, TWO ARRESTED IN INCIDENTS
Two Hernando sheriff's cars got their windows shattered in two separate incidents over the weekend. Early Sunday morning deputies stopped a car driven by 17-year old Joseph Michael McKenzie of Brooksville after another driver spotted him weaving along Spring Lake Highway and Cortez Blvd. Deputies watched him turn onto the truck bypass and stopped the vehicle near Emerson Road. After failing sobriety tests, he was arrested and placed in a sheriff's car. That's when his 16-year old passenger Star Crystal Johnson allegedly became agitated and reportedly pushed two deputies trying to restrain her. Then the deputies say they noticed McKenzie kicking out a side rear window of the cruiser he was in, and they had to restrain him as he allegedly tried to run away. McKenzie was charged with DUI, criminal mischief, resisting without violence and having no drivers license. He was transported to jail. Johnson was charged with assault and battery and resisting and released to home detention.
The other incident occurred Friday during a domestic battery arrest. Twenty-six year old Danielle Nicole Mullins of Weeki Wachee allegedly kicked out a driver's side rear window. Glass fragments reportedly hit and cut a deputy, and Mullins was charged with criminal mischief and batttery on a law enforcement officer.
GAS PRICES FALLING FOR FOURTH OF JULY
It looks like last week's AAA prediction of peaking gas prices was correct. Auto Club South spokesman Gregg Laskoski says that "All the indicators reflect that the peak price is behind us and we can now expect retail gasoline prices to edge downward, even as we approach the Independence Day weekend." The average statewide price for regular unleaded is down three and a half cents from last week, and the Tampa Bay metro average is down almost three cents.
CLICK > ON THE ICON:
ROCCO SAYS SHE WOULD BE A PART OF WORKER FURLOUGHS
SPRING HILL RESIDENTS, LANDFILL WORKERS ASK BUDGET QUESTIONS
COUNTY UTILITY BOND RATING GOES UP
In difficult economic times, it's often hard for local governments to maintain bond ratings as they face lower revenues. That's not the case for the Hernando County Utilities Enterprise Fund. County Administrator David Hamilton announced Monday night that the County has learned its utility bond rating has gone up, from A to A+. That rating comes even as Utilities staff tries to fund a massive capital improvements program with grant money and slightly increased water and sewer rates over the next five years, to avoid borrowing if at all possible. The County is still paying on bonds sold to finance the purchase of Florida Water's Spring Hill utility system five years ago.
DREDGE MOVES CLOSER AS COUNTY SETS MEETINGS
NEW ELEMENTARY GRADING POLICY HAS PEOPLE TALKING
As Hernando News Source reported almost two weeks ago, school board members are considering a staff proposal for a new draft procedures manual which would eliminate zero grades for elementary schools. Under the proposal, the lowest possible grade would be 40%, and scores between 40 and 49 would automatically be given a grade of 49%. Now that other media have picked up on the story, including USA Today, many citizens are up in arms over what they call lowering standards. Commenters at the USA Today site called the idea "stoopud" and another example of "Flori-DUH." School staff said they believed zero grades unfairly penalized students and created a problem for motivating harder work, since even the best possible work would make raising the zero grade to a passing mark very difficult. They described the theory as giving elementary students a more realistic possibility of reward for hard work to bring the low grade back up. The full board is expected to act on the procedures manual at a meeting in July.
TWO LAWSUITS FILED IN RECENT HERNANDO ACCIDENTS
Lawsuits have been filed in two recent car-pedestrian accidents. Friday the widow and estate of Carl Puckett of Spring Hill filed a negligence suit against 50-year old Charles Quinter, also of Spring Hill, and the owner of the car Quinter was driving. According to highway patrol reports, the 77-year old Puckett was hit and killed by a car driven by Quinter while Puckett tried to cross U.S. 19 in April. The report said Puckett failed to yield the right of way to the Quinter vehicle, suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene of the crash. Earlier last week the victim and her family sued the parents of a teenager who killed himself after his vehicle hit and seriously injured 22-year old Alicia Anderson in northwest Hernando County in February.
JUVENILE CHARGED WITH LEWD BATTERY ON NINE-YEAR OLD
BAD WEEKEND FOR SHERIFF'S CARS, TWO ARRESTED IN INCIDENTS
Two Hernando sheriff's cars got their windows shattered in two separate incidents over the weekend. Early Sunday morning deputies stopped a car driven by 17-year old Joseph Michael McKenzie of Brooksville after another driver spotted him weaving along Spring Lake Highway and Cortez Blvd. Deputies watched him turn onto the truck bypass and stopped the vehicle near Emerson Road. After failing sobriety tests, he was arrested and placed in a sheriff's car. That's when his 16-year old passenger Star Crystal Johnson allegedly became agitated and reportedly pushed two deputies trying to restrain her. Then the deputies say they noticed McKenzie kicking out a side rear window of the cruiser he was in, and they had to restrain him as he allegedly tried to run away. McKenzie was charged with DUI, criminal mischief, resisting without violence and having no drivers license. He was transported to jail. Johnson was charged with assault and battery and resisting and released to home detention.
The other incident occurred Friday during a domestic battery arrest. Twenty-six year old Danielle Nicole Mullins of Weeki Wachee allegedly kicked out a driver's side rear window. Glass fragments reportedly hit and cut a deputy, and Mullins was charged with criminal mischief and batttery on a law enforcement officer.
GAS PRICES FALLING FOR FOURTH OF JULY
Florida Average Prices
| Regular | Mid | Premium | Diesel | |
| Current Avg. | $2.679 | $2.902 | $2.956 | $2.673 |
| Yesterday Avg. | $2.683 | $2.906 | $2.960 | $2.673 |
| Week Ago Avg. | $2.714 | $2.940 | $2.994 | $2.678 |
| Month Ago Avg. | $2.464 | $2.669 | $2.719 | $2.380 |
| Year Ago Avg. | $4.039 | $4.375 | $4.456 | $4.781 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater | Regular | Mid | Premium | Diesel |
| Current | $2.634 | $2.854 | $2.906 | $2.646 |
| Yesterday | $2.640 | $2.860 | $2.912 | $2.646 |
| Week Ago | $2.662 | $2.884 | $2.937 | $2.651 |
| Month Ago | $2.393 | $2.592 | $2.640 | $2.346 |
| Year Ago | $3.975 | $4.306 | $4.385 | $4.746 |
Comments