TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

While You Were Gone

ADVERTISEMENT

By LOIS KINDLE

lkindle@tampatrib.com

Published: November 19, 2008

SOUTH SHORE - You can always tell when our winter friends are home every year by the volume of out-of-state license plates seen on our streets. Despite the increased traffic, it's a good time for South Shore, as the population swells and more dollars are poured into the area economy.

Much has happened in the community since last April, when the second wave of snowbirds head north for more tolerable weather. So here are some of the highlights reported in the South Shore News & Tribune while you were gone:

May

The Ruskin Junior Woman's Club selects Lauren Butts, 18, as the 2008 Ruskin Tomato Queen.
Riverview High School Principal Bob Heilmann receives the 2008 MetLife Foundation Ambassadors in Education Award.

About 8,000 visitors attend the 2008 Ruskin Tomato Festival.

The Redlands Christian Migrant Association announces plans to expand the RCMA Wimauma Academy.

Hillsborough County gives Ruskin's historic Lamb House a 10-year property tax exemption.

Environmental scientists plan what may be the last major coastal recreation project on Tampa's shoreline at Rock Pond on the south side of Cockroach Bay.

Riverview residents express concern over a downtown development plan that would allow commercial development in nearby neighborhoods.
Apollo Beach Racquet & Fitness Club owner Mary Beth Sultenfuss invests more than $1 million in renovations.

June

Former Busch Gardens' zookeepers Kendall Frazier and Angie Duncan open Canine Cabana in Riverview.

By a 4-3 vote, the county commission approves Little Harbor's request to convert 158 condos to daily rentals.

The United Methodist Church of Sun City Center takes over operations of the United Methodist Church in Gibsonton and asks Daystar Faith Center to relocate.

The Community Foundation of Sun City Center awards almost $65,000 in grants to nine nonprofit groups that help South Shore residents.

July

Christie Granowicz, owner of Circles Waterfront Restaurant, is named Apollo Beach Business Person of the Year. Meg LaLonde becomes the Apollo Beach chamber's new president.

The Greater Riverview, Greater Sun City Center and Ruskin chambers of commerce meet to consider merging.

More than 200 Sun City Center residents turn out to voice their concerns that the Hospital Corp. of America will close South Bay Hospital in Sun City Center to open a new facility on Big Bend Road.

Mosaic Fertilizer LLC purchases the Giants Fish Camp in Gibsonton to make it a green space with a memorial to its history.

Hillsborough Community College opens a 55,000-square-foot, environmentally friendly building - the first of six - at its new SouthShore campus.

Longtime residents, environmentalists and big landholders wrangle over the future look of South County.

August

Community groups host benefits at a variety of South Shore venues to raise money for the care of an East Bay High School teen who was attacked and raped at the Bloomingdale Regional Library.

Ruskin turns 100.

Doris Ross Reddick Elementary School opens in Wimauma.

Sun City resident Pat Milam sells a 53-acre tract at the south end of Cockroach Bay to the Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program to be added to the Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve.

Long anticipated, a 46,000-square-foot Sweetbay Supermarket opens near MiraBay.

September

The 23-acre Summerfield Soccer Park opens in Riverview.

Ruskin's Big Draw begins with the opening of the Big Draw Studio on U.S. 41.

Dorothy Renshaw is honored by the Ruskin Woman's Club for 50 years of service to the club and the community.

Maxcy Development Group asks the county for the option to build a big-box store in the Riverview Towncentre on Gibsonton Drive.

The United Methodist churches in South Shore partner with the community to start a new mission in Gibsonton.

South Shore waterfront property owners learn the county will not cover the cost of dredging their canals for clear passage to Tampa Bay.

Beall's announces it will open a new department store in Riverview in March.

October

Plans are announced to revitalize the South Hillsborough Community Cupboard.

Resurrection Catholic Church in Riverview celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Landowners with 173 acres on Balm-Riverview Road ask the county to rezone their property for a proposed suburban village.

The Big Draw ends.

Thousands attend a Pops in the Park concert by the Florida Orchestra at E.G. Simmons Park.

About 5,000 people attend Trick or Treat Street.

Big Lots opens at the Sun Point Shopping Center in Ruskin.

The Taste of South Shore, a fundraiser for Mary and Martha House, takes place at Little Harbor.

Reporter Lois Kindle can be reached at (813) 865-1553.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT