HNS REPORTS---TUESDAY, JULY 20, 2010
SEARCH ON FOR ARMED DIRT BIKE RIDER WHO FLED TRAFFIC STOP
A Florida Highway Patrol media release says a motorcycle rider fled from a traffic stop on his dirt bike and pointed a firearm at a trooper Tuesday. The release says Trooper Hartzig attempted to conduct a traffic stop on a 1982 Honda Motorcycle along Buck Hope Road near Cortez Blvd. in south Brooksville. The trooper said the motorcycle didn't have a license plate. The release says the suspect failed to stop and while fleeing into a wooded area the operator of the motorcycle pointed a firearm at the trooper. According to the release, the front tire of the motorcycle hit a piece of wood in some high grass. The collision caused the rider to be ejected from the motorcycle. After the suspect was ejected he fled further into the wooded area on foot. Trooper Hartzig lost sight of the suspect.
Troopers described the suspect as a white male approximately 5’ 9” wearing khaki shorts, and a plaid shirt, who should be considered armed and dangerous. The Florida Highway Patrol, Hernando County Sheriff’s Office and Brooksville Police Department are currently looking for the suspect.
Add Comment
SPRING HILL MAN, 68, ARRESTED FOR SEX WITH UNDERAGE GIRL
A 68-year old Spring Hill man was arrested Tuesday after a 17-year old girl said he invited her into his home in February when she was 16 and offered her marijuana in return for oral sex. The unidentified victim reportedly told sheriff's detectives that John R. Hand of 9060 Eldridge Road later had consensual intercourse with her. An arrest affidavit says Hand was interviewed at the sheriff's office and initially denied any physical involvement with the victim. The affidavit says he later changed his story but admitted only to fondling and kissing the victim. Hand was charged with unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.
Add Comment
ACCUSED BANK ROBBER COPS PLEA MOMENTS BEFORE TRIAL
A 38-year old man accused of bank robbery pleaded guilty moments before his Hernando County Circuit Court trial was scheduled to start Tuesday. The plea deal calls for a seven and a half year prison term for Andre Franklin. He's already served almost two years in jail awaiting trial.
Franklin was one of three men involved in two bank robberies in October 2008. The trio attempted a robbery in Hillsborough County and then came to Hernando where they held up the Brannen Bank branch on Cortez Blvd. Franklin was unhappy that he was not offered the same plea deal that the co-defendants got, including a three-year prison sentence. But prosecutors said they could not make that offer, because it turned out the deal was a mistake as being below sentencing guidelines.
Franklin and his attorney Grady Irvin agreed to the seven and a half year deal while a jury panel waited in another room in the courthouse for jury selection to begin. Franklin faced a sentence of up to 20 years on two counts, one for principal to robbery and the other for conspiracy, and that sentence could have been doubled to 40 years, had he been found guilty in a trial.
Add Comment
DRUZBICK STILL MAKING UP HIS MIND ABOUT ROLL-UP VOTE
County Board chairman John Druzbick said Tuesday he still hasn't decided what to do about a possible vote for a roll-up in county tax millage. Druzbick said in a radio interview that he is still waiting to hear what ideas his fellow commissioners have for trimming the county spending plan before he makes up his mind. He said he's looking at furloughs and other salary-saving ideas to keep 29 county workers on the public payroll. One concept he said he wants to explore is requiring employees to contribute something to the nearly $700 per month county subsidy for health insurance that is currently in effect. And Druzbiick said he's also waiting to hear from staff exactly how much those health insurance premiums will increase this year.
The county is facing a $1.2 million general fund budget shortfall. A one-third roll-up could bring in another $2 million in revenue and eliminate layoff possibilities. Two of five commissioners have said they will not vote for a millage roll-up, even though staff officials reported that declining property values would mean that even with a modest roll-up, three-quarters of all taxpayers would still see a lower county tax bill.
Add Comment
TENTATIVE CITY MILLAGE RATE UP 14 PERCENT FOR TRIM NOTICES
Brooksville City Council members decided better safe than sorry Monday night and voted for a tentative millage rate of 8.0, up nearly one mill from last year. The rate is subject to reduction when the city holds its September budget hearings and votes on a final millage rate. The TRIM notices to taxpayers go out in August, and taxing authorities set a preliminary rate that can be lowered later. The motion for the higher roll-up rate was made by Vice-Mayor Richard Lewis, and only Mayor Lara Bradburn voted no. The so-called roll-up rate is the rate that would generate the same amount of revenue as last year. Declining property values have put local governments in some budget holes, and Brooksville joins the Spring Hill Fire Board iin voting to put a higher mill rate on the preliminary TRIM notices to reserve the power to lower it later if they can fill those budget holes in other ways.
Add Comment
BROOKSVILLE RED-LIGHT CAMERAS WILL GO LIVE AGAIN
The Brooksville City Council voted 3-2 Monday night to restart its red-light camera fines as soon as four bids are evaluated and a new vendor selected. The cameras have been off-line since a contract with prior vendor ATS was allowed to expire June 30. The vote came after a long debate with an endlessly looping video of a violent rear-end collision playing in the background.
Police Chief George Turner and Sergeant Jeff Brough presented their case for cameras with a slide and video show claiming a 35 percent decrease in intersection accidents that they tied to camera enforcement of ordinance fines against red light runners. They also said they expect to net about $350,000 a year in revenue from fines when four to five new intersections get cameras under a state law that splits revenue among the state, local governments and camera vendors. Turner and Brough also cited statistics showing that 97 percent of violators getting citations under the camera program were non-residents of Brooksville.
Council members Joe Bernardini and Richard Lewis wanted to put a permanent halt to the camera program, but they were out-voted by Mayor Lara Bradburn and council members Joe Johnston and Frankie Burnett. Bradburn said again that the issue was safety, not money, despite protests from citizen speakers who said accidents were down because people aren't coming to Brooksville to avoid the cameras, that increasing yellow light times would have the same safety effect, and that studies show increases in rear-end collisions. All the while the video that ended the police presentation continued to run, showing a speeding Mercedes slamming into the rear of two cars stopped in the outside northbound lane of Broad Street at Martin Luther King Blvd.
Add Comment
SAGER PICKS UP ON NUGENT=SCOZZAFAVA MEME
In a media release headlined "Friends of Nugent, the Incumbents and Washington Elites," the Jason Sager campaign has followed up on opponent Rich Nugent's campaign finance report. The quarterly report showed nine contributions of $1,000 to $5,000 to Nugent from Political Action Committees headed by current members of Congress. Of those nine, seven also contributed to the unsuccessful special election campaign of accused Republican "liberal" Dede Scozzafava last year. The comparison was specifically noted in Sager's release.
Sager is quoted in the release as saying "[i]t appears that the Washington Elite think they know better than the good citizens of District 5 and are attempting to select our next Congressional representative for us."
Nugent said Monday night that he's proud of the 390 individuals who have donated about $86,000 to his campaign for Congress. He said many of those contributions were too small to require listing in the quarterly report he filed last week with the Federal Elections Commission. Nugent reacted after being told about an analysis of the report that showed parallels with the New York Congresswoman condemned by Republican opponents as too liberal in a special election last year.
The analysis by a member of the Restore the Constitution organization was posted at the Free Republic web site.
Add Comment
CITY APPROVES CDBG GRANT APP OVER COMMUNITY CONCERNS
The city of Brooksville will apply for a $750,000 state block grant for new water lines and sidewalks in south Brooksville, despite a complaint that there was not enough input from residents of the community.
Community activist Richard Howell said the fast pace of the last-minute application didn't allow affected residents to review the plans for the money. He also accused the city of speeding through a public hearing process designed to ensure that input.
Mayor Lara Bradburn told Howell that Monday's night's formal hearing provided the opportunity for that input, but Howell complained that neither he nor other community residents had a chance to go over the application. The deadline for submitting the request is this week, and city Community Development Director Bill Geiger said engineering estimates just in showed the money might not pay for the full list of south Brooksville projects being planned.
Geiger was given the go-ahead to revise the application as necessary to keep the projects within the estimated costs. They told him to make new water lines the top priority, to improve fire flows in the community. The planned sidewalks along Martin Luther King Blvd. and Main Street could also be funded later by state transportation grants.
Some in the community have raised concerns about whether the city's late entry in the block grant competition could undercut a similar application from the county for other south Brooksville projects. That request was in the works for three months before the announcement of Brooksville's grant plans two weeks ago.
Add Comment
JAIL BUDGET DISCREPANCY CLARIFIED BUT CONCERNS REMAIN
County officials say they're still concerned that the proposed jail budget submitted by Sheriff Rich Nugent is inconsistent with an interlocal agreement pledging to hold the line on costs. They say they've discovered that a discrepancy spotted in last week's County Board meeting was caused by a budget assumption that proved incorrect, but the agreement still commits the sheriff to the same amount budgeted for last year.
The pact calls for the sheriff to run the Hernando County Jail with the same budget as private operator CCA for the past budget year. But commissioners spotted what looked to be almost a half-million dollar increase when reviewing budget documents and asked for an explanation. Budget Director George Zoettlein said after review that the discrepancy, which actually totaled $380,000, resulted from an incorrect assumption in last year's budget. The sheriff figured his budget based on the same CCA per day prisoner costs as used in last year's calculation. The county's jail budget was $380,000 less because officials had assumed a cost savings from implementing an ankle monitoring system which was expected to lower the jail population. But that program is still being reviewed and was never put into effect. Nugent has vowed to use the ankle monitoring once it's signed off on by Hernando's judges as a legal substitute for jail time.
Despite the clarification of the discrepancy, county staff say they will press for strict adherence to the sheriff's commitment in the agreement.
Note---A previous version of this report said that county officials were "satisfied"...that report needed clarification itself, because they say they were "satisfied" that the source of the discrepancy had been pinpointed, not that they were satisfied with the sheriff's budget amounts.
Add Comment
TRANSPORTATION PLANNERS SET PUBLIC HEARING ON WORK PROGRAM
Spending watchdogs may want to mark their calendars for next Tuesday afternoon. That's when county commissioners and the Brooksville mayor sitting as the Metropolitan Planning Organization hold a public hearing on a five-year transportation plan. In addition to the usual projects, such as advance right-of-way acquisition for County Line Road widening, the plan's fine print includes some eye openers for residents concerned with future budgets.
Page 79 of the agenda made public Monday lists five years of spending on a fixed-route transit system which totals more than three million dollars between now and 2015. And page 75 describes expenditures of $235,000 in the 2011 budget year for designing a trailhead facility in the Cypress Lake Preserve and $240,000 two years later to construct an access drive, parking, restroom, picnic pavillion and kiosk. The preserve is land in Ridge Manor that was acquired mostly with sensitive lands money.
Most of the rest of the agenda package is previously reported bad news, with actual construction on County Line Road and Cortez Boulevard between Mariner and the Parkway not included in the five-year program. Most of Cortez between U.S. 19 and Brooksville would get only resurfacing between now and 2015.
Add Comment
BROOKSVILLE BEAUTIFICATION AWARD GOES TO SHERIFF
Hernando Sheriff Rich Nugent was honored Monday night by the Brooksville City Council with a beautification award for the new sheriff's substation and community center on Martin Luther King Blvd. Nugent was joined by County Commissioner Rose Rocco, the chair of the south Brooksville Community Initiatives Team, in accepting the city's honors, along with Mayor Lara Bradburn and Beautification Committee chair Sally Sperling.
Ironically, the community center was closed Monday, with yellow crime-scene tape blocking the entrances. Nugent and city Public Works chief Dick Radacky said a mishap during a sewer line inspection had backed up wastewater into the facility. Radacky said the sheriff's substation was the only sewer customer affected by the problem.
Add Comment
SIX DAYS LEFT FOR VOTER REGISTRATION, PARTY CHANGES
Voter registration books for the August 24 primary election will close on Monday, July 26, according to Elections Supervisor Annie Williams. Although most of the attention so far has been captured by party primary campaigns, there are also four nonpartisan races on the ballot for all voters. Fifth Circuit electors will decide on a new circuit judge in a race between Denise Lyn and Robert Hodges. The winner will likely sit in one of the circuit's other four counties. There are also three Hernando School Board races, and two of those with only two candidates will be decided in August. Incumbents John Sweeney and Dianne Bonfield are opposed by Nilsa Colon Toro and Keane Chapman, respectively. Incumbent Sandra Nicholson has two challengers, Cynthia Moore and Mike Bainum, with the potential for a general election decision if none of the three gets a majority in the AUgust 24 balloting.
Absentee ballots were arriving in the mail this week for most Hernando voters. Eearly voting doesn't begin until August 9.
Add Comment
HEALTH DEPT. OFFERS "FAST TRACK" SCHOOL PHYSICALS
The Hernando County Health Department announced its "Fast Track" program Monday. In a media release, department spokesperson Ann-Gayl Ellis said the annual program is designed to make getting back to school physicals quick and affordable. Fast Track will be open Tuesday, August 10, Wednesday, August 11 and Thursday, August 12 at the Spring Hill clinic location at 7465 Forest Oaks Boulevard. Appointment times are from 8:00 am until noon and can be made by calling 352-540-6800 (ext 82299). Callers should mention “Fast Track” when making appointments or leaving a voice message. Fast Track back to school physicals are $35.00. Cash, check and credit card accepted. No Medicaid, insurance or vouchers will be accepted.
Ellis said Fast Track school physicals are available for all children entering school for the first time for grades K thru 12 and are intended for children with no pre-existing medical conditions or prescription needs. Sport physicals are not offered through Fast Track. The Health Department continues to offer traditional school physicals for all Hernando County children throughout the year.
Add Comment
There is no way that the sheriff can run the jail as efficiently as CCA. While I'm not a great fan of privatizing correctional institutions, CCA had been running the jail effectively for 22 years. Nugent on the other hand has been on a spending spree up until last year. His department has has one complaint after another against its officers, all cleared by "internal investigation," even the death of one poor 38 year old black man that was abused by the helicopter into drowning. Very efficient! Had they waited for the boat to begin with they wouldn't have had a dive team in Hunter Lake for 2 days looking for the man's body.
Reply to this
Mayor Bradburn seemed to have her mind made up before any of the presentations. While none of the public had access to any of the chief's accident figures, we did get to see his example of an accident, very likely made worse by the red light cameras. The studies presented showed that red light cameras typically result in a 35 percent decrease in T-bone collisions but an increase in rear-end collisions with more serious injuries. Studies also showed that a 1.5 second increase in the time of the yellow light would result in a 97 percent reduction in violations and accidents. But Mayor Bradburn clames they don't control the timing of the lights.
I find her facts less than truthful as it has been reported that cities with redlight cameras have typically lowered yellow light times by about .9 seconds. Mayor Bradburn has proven to my satisfaction that the redlight cameras are all about money, not at all about safety and I will now actively pursue a boycott of the city of Brooksville until the redlights are extinguished, Chief George Turner is fired and Mayor Bradburn gets a face transplant.
Reply to this
Why should the people vote for Nugent after he was an accomplice with Brown-Waite to a dirty political deal and prevented other qualified republicans to run against him?
Reply to this
I wonder if Jason even looks at his own reports. We don't even know how much he has raised cycle-to-date. His report is wrong! So, either he doesn't review his reports before they are submitted, or, he doesn't know how to add! Shame on him for not seeing this on the last 2 reports submitted to the FEC.
Reply to this
It is impractical, if not illegal, for the City of Brooksville to obtain grand funds for water lines that generate revenue. It is not theFederal Government responsibility to repair or install water lines that generate revenue for the City of Brooksville. additionally, the city of Brooksville receive over $4,000,000 from Ginny Browne Waite earmarked for water and sewer. What happened to these funds. Also, approximately, two years ago, the city of Brooksville raised the water fees to cover for installation of new water lines and other maintenance to its water system. Why the increase, and what is happening to the funds from the increase we all saw in our water bills?
Reply to this