The Official Unofficial Seminole Heights Blog

We believe that, as an OSHNA member, you will agree that the success of any organization lies in the dedicated functions of its committees. Certainly, our association’s lengthy respected community impact has proven this to be true. Unfortunately, today we find ourselves facing double indemnity. Two of our committee chairs are vacant, which is an unusual simultaneous occurrence. The Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association needs committee chairs for Code Enforcement and Historic Preservation.We offer below job descriptions for each of the vacant chair positions for your information.

Code Enforcement Committee:
The basic purpose of this committee is to encourage the proper care and maintenance of commercial and residential properties in the Seminole Heights area through the enforcement of applicable building, zoning and minimum housing codes.
 
Pridefully promoting Seminole Heights because of its beauty, would be an important qualification for serving as chairperson of this committee. A willingness to speak in person with code violators, encouraging them through your positive suggestions to achieve compliance. Taking time to assess the true reason for their failure to maintain their property to an acceptable standard. This could be due to illness, finances or feeling overwhelmed by too much responsibility. Become familiar with neighborhood organizations or City government resources that you could suggest as possible help for them. When necessary, offer to contact these resources on the resident’s behalf. Always encourage rather than threaten. However, if “friendly persuasion” is not successful, your committee will have no choice but to report the resident/owner as being unwilling to comply with City Codes, and report them as violators.
 
A positive approach can make chairing this committee both challenging and deeply rewarding. You will need several dedicated OSHNA members to serve on your committee.
 
Historic Preservation Committee:
The primary purpose of this committee is to protect Seminole Heights as an area of historic significance. 
It will be helpful to have knowledge, or to gain knowledge, of the history of Seminole Heights. Your primary focus will be to appreciate the architecture and greenspaces preserved for us by our early residents. You will need to have the dedicated commitment to publicly protest the willingness of our State and local governments to allow the destruction of our historic areas in order to replace or modernize them for financial gain. This is an extremely important committee which requires its members to fearlessly fight to preserve the history of our long-revered neighborhood.
 
If, after reading the preceding job descriptions, you feel that you would like to be considered for one of these chairmanships, please email OSHNA’s President, Jeff Harmon at jharmon@tampabay.rr.com or call (813) 231-9102, to express your interest. Also, if you know of someone who you feel would be interested in any of the described positions, please approach them and ask that they contact Jeff Harmon.

Please join this large group of dedicated folks at our very first meeting on Wednesday, February 4th at The Tampa Metro Center located at 6412 N. Florida Avenue, at 6:30pm. Please RSVP as the space is small and we may relocate the meeting. I’ll need to have your contact info to make sure we can notify you if the location changes. If you have a location for a garden you would like to recommend, please email me, Robin Milcowitz at robin@greenerpixels.com or call me at (813) 298-5518. And if you have any other ideas you would like to express, contact me as well or just bring them to the meeting! (I will send you the detailed email I have sent out to the group.) I hope you’ll join us! Warm Green Regards, Robin Milcowitz robin@greenerpixels.com (813) 298-5518

I had originally said that this site would not be for lots dogs. However, when the story about this dog ran in the papers it was so unusual, I posted the article. For those of you wondering, here is the follow up. From the Tampa Tribune:

TAMPA - Kaiser, the 4-year-old male Basenji who scooted away from his Seminole Heights home during a recent burglary, is back safely, owner Lauren Lewis said. A couple looking for their lost dog Thursday night found Kaiser on Waters Avenue west of North Dale Mabry Highway, fed him and called Lewis, who had put up more than 200 fliers about her dog. “He’s a little shell-shocked but won’t let myself or my husband out of his sight,” Lewis said this morning. The dog has lost 8 pounds and has worn his paws raw, so he’s resting and on antibiotics. “He was sleeping all wrapped up in his blanket on the couch,” Lewis said. Kaiser escaped from the couple’s Lambright Street home Jan. 20 after someone broke in and stole their 40-inch Toshiba television and a plasma television. The burglar left the front door open. Lewis said she didn’t care about the televisions; she just wanted Kaiser. “We are so lucky to have him home and so thankful to everyone who called and e-mailed with advice or just thoughts and prayers,” she said. Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jan/30/dog-bolted-during-burglary-back-home-safe/

Effective today, you decide what our weekend topic will be. On average, our blog is now getting 350-400 unique visitors per day. However, on the weekends, traffic drops 75%. Since the traffic is so light, each Friday, we will begin having an open forum. This will replace any weekend topics. I am not sure how this will work, but hopefully, neighbors will share interesting ideas, concerns and topics.  This can be your chance to to discusss any topic that has been on your mind that has not be previously discussed, or did not quite fit in with the general topics of the prior week. This can be your opportunity to ask questions, find contractors, discuss issues, commend a local business, etc. You ask, we answer! (Hopefully!)

From the Tampa Tribune:

SEMINOLE HEIGHTS - Owners of a proposed German-style deli and tavern won initial approval from the city council Thursday to sell beer and wine.

A final vote is scheduled Feb. 5.

Veronica and John Vellines have a contract to buy a 1935 masonry building, 5016 N. Florida Ave., from owner James Ciaccio, pending final approval of alcohol sales. Ciaccio remodeled the former gas station several years ago and opened Van Gogh Signs Displays and Graphics.

The tavern would be similar to The Independent in St. Petersburg, also owned by the Vellines. It would seat about 40 people inside and 18 outside, and serve mostly Belgian and German drafts and imported and micro brews in the bottle.

Veronica Vellines said July would be the earliest date for opening in Seminole Heights. The couple likely will also call this tavern The Independent.

The license being sought is for beer and wine on premises, with no package sales.

A joint land-use committee of three Seminole Heights neighborhood groups supported the application if closing hours are no later than midnight Sunday through Wednesday, and 1 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Any music would have to end one hour before closing.

“We support this whole-heartedly,” said Gary Ellsworth, president of South Seminole Heights Civic Association. “We appreciate their efforts to keep this a viable building.”

Other neighbors spoke in support of the alcohol license.

But owners of Bungalow Bistro questioned the council’s consistency in awarding alcohol licenses. Michael and Elizabeth Graham were approved several months ago for alcohol sales at their Florida Avenue restaurant, which is within a block and a half of the proposed tavern.

Michael Graham noted his restaurant was approved to stay open until 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, while The Independent owners have the same closing time on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The Grahams raised similar objections when council earlier discussed beer, wine and liquor sales at Ella’s, a restaurant under construction on Nebraska Avenue at Shadowlawn Avenue. Council members continued the hearing on that application until Feb. 19 to allow owner Melissa Deming to revise her site plan.

“I’d just like some consistency,” Michael Graham said. “I don’t want my business affected because someone can stay open later and I wasn’t allowed to.”

Councilman John Dingfelder said each application is different. “If we don’t treat you exactly the same, there might be some reasons for it.”

Reporter Kathy Steele can be reached at (813) 259-7652.
http://centraltampa2.tbo.com/content/2009/jan/28/couple-aims-open-seminole-heights-tavern/

SEMINOLE HEIGHTS - Sandwiched between the Seminole Heights Post Office and Mauricio Faedo’s Bakery, Paula Cortez and her husband, Angelo Ortiz, last month opened a vegetable and fruit stand called Angelo’s Produce. The couple, who moved from Fort Myers to Tampa two years ago, likes the location because of regulars who visit the post office and bakery, and the steady traffic on Florida Avenue. When business slows during cold and rainy days, Cortez, 55, passes time playing hand-held video games. On a recent cold day, Ortiz, 64, settled into the driver’s side of their truck to try to keep warm. They generally both are on hand at the vacant lot from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and on Sunday. They set up a few miles north on Saturday, at Florida and Linebaugh avenues. Customers regularly stop by the Seminole Heights stand to check out and buy fruits - tangerines, pears, oranges and bananas - and vegetables - onions, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, corn and bell peppers. Cortez took five minutes to talk about their business:

Q: How long have you been here?
A: “We have been here since the second week of December. Someone told us that an old man used to sell produce here. He hasn’t been here in a long time. We decided to ask the owner (of the bakery) if we could set up here and how much he would charge us. He said no charge, just set up here. He said make sure we keep it clean.”

Q What sells well?
A. “Blood oranges. They are called navel red oranges. They are our number one sell. People love them because they are sweet.”

Q. What else is popular?
A. “We always keep bananas. People like them. … Sometimes they come here and buy a bunch. They eat one or two before they leave the stand because it is so good.”

Q. What do you do on your off time?
A. “Mondays, I have to clean the house. I have to cook, do laundry, go to the store and get a few items. Monday night is the only night I get to go to Bingo. It’s the only time I have to relax.”

Q. Where do you get your produce?
A. “Sometimes we go to Plant City or Tampa Market, just around the corner.”

Q. Do you enjoy working at the produce stand?
A. “This is fun. I like it. I like retail. I like helping people.”

Q. What’s your future at your current location?
A. “I think we are going to be here for a good while. I wish a million people would come by. It would give us a week to rest.”

From the Tampa Tribune: http://southtampa2.tbo.com/content/2009/jan/28/st-providing-fresh-fruits-and-vegetables/

From TBO.com

TAMPA - Mayor Pam Iorio confirmed this morning that she is considering running for the U.S. Senate next year.

If she ran, Iorio would enter a Democratic primary in which there are already two announced prominent candidates – U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami and state Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach – and more expected.

“It was not something I was considering when there was a possibility that Alex Sink might run,” Iorio said this morning. “But since she bowed out, I have had people talk to me about it. So I am analyzing it, and that’s where I am right now. I have not ruled it out.”

Sink, also from Tampa, is Florida’s Chief Financial Officer and was considered the most powerful potential Democratic candidate. But Sink announced two weeks ago she won’t run and instead will run for re-election as CFO. Gelber had held off his own announcement, he said, because he didn’t want to run against Sink.

Republican Mel Martinez will leave the seat vacant when he retires in 2010.

Iorio said she has no self-imposed deadline for making a decision.

“I don’t want to declare any specific timeline,” she said. “I’m gathering info and facts and analyzing it.”

She didn’t want to say whom she’s talking to about the race, but said there are no major family considerations in her way.

“Both of my children are in college, and my husband and I are empty-nesters,” she said.

Iorio said she hasn’t previously talked about her interest in the race because “I have not wanted to have my name out there just for the sake of having it out there.”

Iorio is now in her second term as mayor and would leave office because of term limits after the 2011 election. If she won the Senate seat, she would miss only the last year of her tenure as mayor.

Florida Democrats have speculated that Meek and Gelber may split up the huge Democratic voting bloc in Southeast Florida, where about one of every three Florida Democrats live in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. That could create an easier path to a primary victory for candidate from the Tampa Bay area.

Iorio didn’t deny that calculation is part of her analysis of the race.

Iorio was elected mayor, a nonpartisan post, in 2003. Previously, she served as Hillsborough County elections supervisor from 1993 to 2003 and as a county commissioner from 1985 to 1992 - at the time the youngest commissioner ever elected.

Her husband, Mark Woodard, is an assistant county administrator in Pinellas County.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jan/27/iorio-considers-running-us-senate/c_2/#comments

From SESH Email Group:

This came from the SESH email group. Snipe signs have always been illegal. However, the city has done very little to enforce the ordinance. What are your thoughts on the issue? Should we ignore or enforce? How could the city enforce? Read On:

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