Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Looking for buried treasure, a 16 year old boy drilled a hole into an ammonia pipeline over the Alafia River in Riverview. The resulting leak of ammonia has caused hundreds of residents to be relocated while officials monitor the dangerous ammonia cloud and repair the damage to the pipeline. Some Riverview residents have not been home for two nights now.

The leak has also closed area roads and schools, sent a couple people to the hospital, may be killing fish in the river, and raised questions about all pipelines throughout Tampa Bay,

So far, the St. Pete Times / TampaBay.com has the most information available in an easy to read and easy to find format. Check out the special report: Riverview Ammonia Leak.

TBO has a quiz you can take about the effects of ammonia, a link to the CDC’s ammonia page, and NewsChannel 8 has a video report on the company that owns the pipelines.

The Times also has comprehensive maps of the area, along with school closings and the evacuation zone. TBO’s map contains some errors - the markers for Spoto High School and Children’s First Academy are incorrectly on the bridge where the ammonia leak occurred.

We received an email from Alvin Wolfe:

The Times editorial, “A foster care challenge” (Nov 10) demands comment.

Both the Times and DCF Secretary Butterworth seem to blame the people of Pinellas County for the failures of the child welfare system. Butterworth says: “we don’t have the people here taking ownership in the child welfare system.”

In fact, under the leadership of Governor Jeb Bush and legislators Sandra Murman and Ginny Brown Waite, the legislature of 1998 privatized the system, effectively removing it from the people’s “ownership.” Then, in 2000, that separation of the system from the community was effectively sealed by the legislature’s abolition of all the local district health and human services boards that had been composed of citizens appointed by the county commissions. Freed from local control, the new privatized system was nonetheless labeled “community-based care.” The legislature ordered the establishment of “community alliances” but gave those alliances neither funds nor, worse, any authority to influence the DCF regarding state contracts.

Having been an active participant in trying to save some semblance of local control, some of us former members of the Statewide Health and Human Services Board, including Dr. David Buby from Pinellas County, organized the Florida Health and Human Services Board, Inc We are still fighting this uphill battle to help communities toward some involvement in what is disingenuously called “community-based care.”

The Times editorial mentions the Florida Coalition of Children as a potentially positive influence in “community-based care.” That coalition is a corporation composed of lead agencies and service providers. It in no way represents community interests. Their inner workings and policies are available only to members, and membership is expensive. Annual dues run from $10,000 to $25,000, those costly dues considered a cost of doing business, paid for out of the public funds allocated in their state contracts. Remember, almost all of these lead agencies around the state are new corporations established uniquely for the purpose of getting the lead agency contracts. That was true also of Sarasota Family YMCA, established separately so as not to risk assets of the traditional “Y.”

So far as I know, there is only one statewide advocacy organization that is truly independent of the current privatized system. That remains the Florida Health and Human Services Board, Inc. (http://www.fhhsb.org). Check it out.

Alvin W. Wolfe, Ph.D.
Chair, Florida Health and Human Services Board, Inc.

Pinellas County school board member Nancy Bostock made a couple of anguishing decisions recently. First, after months of trying unsuccessfully to find affordable inpatient mental health treatment for her emotionally disturbed adoptive son, she and her husband Craig are relinquishing custody of the boy to the state so he can hopefully get the intensive care he needs.

The child had been in a theraputic group home, but the state would only pay for 18 months of care. He needs more - he has been violent to Nancy and the Bostock’s fear he will harm their two daughters - but the couple can’t afford the $70,000 a year tab.

On Monday, Bostock stepped forward at a meeting of the state Senate Committee on Children, Families and Elder Affairs and spoke publicly about the devastating situation.

Under the supervision of Department of Children and Families Secretary Bob Butterworth, foster and adoptive care in Florida is better than it used to be - but that isn’t saying much.

Many adoptive and foster families discover almost immediately that the system can be more fractured, neglectful and dysfunctional than the families that produced their scarred children.

And Florida’s limited interest in taking care of throw-away kids wanes when headlines of death and/or abuse fade.

Granted, such care is expensive. Overwhelming. Frustrating. It takes an enormous amount of time, money, community involvement and support to provide for these kids.

Politicians and bureaucrats are not heartless, but they are often spineless when confronted by an electorate that wants its taxes lowered at all costs, be damned the consequences. In the case of some of these kids, the consequences will be dire: a life of dysfunction, drug and alcohol abuse, promiscuity, more unwanted babies, more uneducated, unproductive citizens. Some will end up in prisons, on the streets or worse.

What makes this particular case so unnerving is that it’s so common. Through the years I’ve heard more harrowing stories than I can recount from adoptive and foster parents - most of whom were afraid to come forward because they were afraid of retribution, afraid of losing the kids they love.

Bostock should not have that concern. After all, she is a public figure, an elected official who has not only a tender heart, but political clout.

Taking on a child so troubled came with more problems than the couple expected.

“We naively thought our love and our stable home would be enough,” Bostock told the committee.

It wasn’t.

So now the couple has made what is certainly an anguishing decision.

Bostock can’t feel good about this. She must be humiliated, mortified. But she came forward anyway to try to change things.

The terrifying part of all this is that if someone with political savvy and influence - she is a conservative Republican, by the way - can’t get services for a seriously disturbed child, who can?

Is that anchovy on that pizza?

You might want to check, if it’s pizza from Papa Roni at 7013 North Himes in Tampa. What Florida restaurant inspectors say they found there is probably not what you have in mind when you order pizza with “everything.”

Let a state inspection report from June 20, 2007 speak for itself:

Observed dead roaches on premises. Observed over 20 dead roaches on food storage shelves, prep table shelves, inside food storage boxes, inside reach-in cooler, in butter used for food preparation. Establishment has no licensed pest control at the current time.

Observed rodent activity as evidenced by rodent droppings found. While conducting a joint callback, Chris Damico and Rich Decker noted rodent droppings in establishment. Over 100 rodent droppings were observed on food storage shelves, utensil storage shelves, on top of newly delivered food boxes, on floors, prep table bottom shelves, on single use take-out items.

Notice the words “joint callback?” According to state records, inspectors gave Papa Roni the once over about a month earlier when they issued a warning for 28 “critical violations.” For instance? Handwash sinks missing from restrooms and inaccessible to employees at all times; food stored on the floor; paint and chemicals stored next to food.

Still hungry? Inspectors said there was no thermometer easily visible in the reach-in cooler. They reported soil residue in storage containers, “build up of soiled material on mixer head,” “potentially hazardous food held more than 24 hours not properly date-marked after opening,” and the list goes on.

We called Papa Roni on Friday. A man who identified himself as Brian hung up on us the first time. We called back. He didn’t dispute state inspection results but said any building as old as the one occupied by Papa Roni is bound to have rodents and insects crawling about.

In the butter, Brian?

He invited us to come see for ourselves that the place is not filthy. Thanks, but no thanks. We certainly hope the place is cleaned up, but we aren’t restaurant inspectors, just eaters. And even though the latest entry on Papa Roni’s state record indicates compliance, we’re inclined to let history be our guide.

Papa Roni’s inspection history is long and unappetizing. Look it up at Fined Dining on GoToTell.com. Here’s the search tool. Then check the map of 50 most-fined restaurants since 2005 to see how it compares with other heavily fined places around the state. You don’t have to look far. Want more details? Go to the state search tool and look up Papa Roni in Tampa by name.

State records show total fines against Papa Roni since Jan. 1, 2005 roughly tripled in September. That’s because the state landed hard with a jumbo fine of $13,950. Records show the fine was ordered Sept. 25 for 30 violations on June 21.

Brian said the state’s listed fine is inaccurate. “Normally, when you respond they knock it down.”

Oh! Well, in that case make it a large with the works. Hold the roaches and no rodent dots, please.

“It’s really hard to put the genie back in the bottle, and that’s what we’re doing here.”

So said Pinellas County Commission Chairman Ronnie Duncan after the commission banned Bowser and Budweiser from Shell Key and its environs on Tuesday.

Of course in this case the genie looks more like David Hasselhoff than Barbara Eden.

The move took some spine since it will surely raise the hackles of some of the boaters who visit the key just north of Fort DeSoto. One of Shell Key’s major attractions, of course, is that, as a wildlife preserve, it is uninhabited by humans so humans want to flock there in great numbers like the birds the preserve tries to protect.

Yahoos ruined the idyllic harborage for the responsible folks.

It wasn’t just a matter of a few people having a couple of beers while the kids played in the water and the dog snoozed on the beach.

The party atmosphere at Shell Key, particularly on weekends, is all too often like a frat orgy that oozed out of the fraternity house into the streets, mucking up a pastoral neighborhood. Drunks do what drunks do: scream obscenities, pee off the side of the boat. They puke, too. They also throw bathing suits, used condoms, used feminine hygiene products, dirty diapers, fast-food wrappers, bottles, cans, cigarette butts and other detria over the side and onto the island.

And all this in a public place frequented by others who prefer a more sedate good time.

As for the dogs, when they run free they upset the birds who nest on Shell Key.

At least the dogs can’t be blamed for doing what dogs do.

What about the people?

It’s amazing how many supposedly sane human beings behave as if they were born in a barn.

I didn’t have time to look deeply into this, but there are some interesting statistics about all of us folks who live here. Check out the Florida Department of Health county by county health reports. Pull up your favorite county, and tell us which stat worries you most.

The shortest distance between the Ford Amphitheater and the Hard Rock Casino is not a straight line:

If you are going to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino after the show at the Amphitheater, please use the route in blue. The route shown in RED is dangerous…

When it’s dark, and rain is coming down in sheets, it’s probably not a good idea to attempt to run across an interstate. You’ll die for your stupidity, and not many will care because you’ve caused traffic jams for hours.

Last Sunday’s big story in the Tribune was about uninspected fire hydrants.

collecting hydrant maintenance fees of about half a million dollars annually, the Tampa Water Department hasn’t inspected some hydrants in as many as five years - a violation of not only city standards but state law.

Those Trib editors must be prophets. On Thursday, the lead story was about a failed fire hydrant.

At any rate, hydrants should be inspected year, and the Fire Department pays the City of Tampa Water Department to inspect each of them. TWD gets $40 per year for each of the city’s 9,000+ hydrants in city limits - over $360,000/year. In addition, Hillsborough County pays TWD $60 to inspect and maintain about 3,700 hydrants in unincorporated Hillsborough - over $220,000. That’s over half a million dollars altogether being paid for a service that is not being performed.

This is the kind of wasteful spending that has citizens irritated. I don’t think any of us mind paying for these sort of safety issues, but the government agencies MUST perform the work. Why pay for something that is not being done? As always, it is us citizens that lose out.

Are you contemplating a move anywhere? Usually, if you are thinking about moving to another part of the country, you might check into a few things about the place where you are going. Typically, your research would include answering these three questions:

• What’s the job market like?
• Can I afford the house, the insurance, the taxes, AND the utilities?
• Will the kids get a decent education?

However, when moving to the FLA, you would think folk would add just one more question:

• What’s the deal with these hurricane thingys?

But apparently, they are not.