Good afternoon, East of Tampa family.
Karen Perez took 48 percent and still did not win. Two of Hillsborough's three school board seats went to a November runoff last night, and more than 193,000 ballots carried a vote in the countywide District 6 race alone. It is 95 degrees today with a heat index up to 110 and a heat advisory in effect. Team trivia at The Alley is tonight at 7, and eight local teams open the regular season Friday at 7:30.
Here is your week.
Maid Pure Cleaning | If you want top notch cleaners, call Dionne.
Let me be straight with you about this one. Dionne Cona is who I would call, and I have watched how she runs it. She was a teacher first. She is a mother of four. She spent 20 years hiring individual cleaners, small companies and big firms to keep up with her own house, and she kept getting the same three things back. Inconsistent service. Missed detail. Unmet expectations. So she quit hiring and built the company she could not find.
Photo: Maid Pure Cleaning Services
More than 250 local households in Brandon, Riverview and Valrico have her crews in their homes now. Every cleaner is background checked. The company is bonded and insured. The products are eco friendly. If something gets missed you call within 24 hours and a crew comes back out, no argument. She also partners with Cleaning for a Reason, which sends free house cleanings to women fighting cancer. That is who she is when nobody is keeping score.
Photo: Maid Pure Cleaning Services
Week two of school is the week the house gives up. Backpacks, cleats, permission slips, and a 110 heat index keeping everybody indoors making a mess. You are not catching up on a Saturday. Hand it to her team instead.
Call Dionne today at (813) 670-2004. Or get a free quote at maidpurecleaningservices.com. The quote costs nothing, the call takes two minutes, and tell her John sent you.
Locals doing business with locals.
⛈️ Wednesday: 95, 60%. Heat index up to 110 and a heat advisory is out. Storms are likely, mostly before evening. Stay inside through 5 if you can.
⛈️ Thursday: 93, 60%. Index near 109 again. Scattered storms from mid morning. Keep the umbrella in the car.
🌦️ Friday: 92, 50%. A pop up shower before kickoff is realistic. Take the poncho, not the umbrella.
🌦️ Saturday: 91, 50%. Coolest day of the stretch. Get the flea market done before the afternoon builds.
🌦️ Sunday: 92, 40%. Best shot at a dry evening. Do the yard before noon.
(Source: National Weather Service Tampa Bay)
Team Trivia at The Alley at SouthShore is tonight at 7 p.m. It runs every Wednesday. The Craiger hosts it, and Sun Cruiser cans are $5.99 while you play. It is at 10221 Big Bend Rd. in Riverview, and the grill and the arcade are right there if you bring the whole crew. (813) 672-8353.
Photo: The Alley at SouthShore
Photo: The Alley at SouthShore
Hope Lutheran runs its mobile food pantry tomorrow, Thursday, at 6 p.m. at 2001 N. Park Rd. in Plant City. Vegetables, meat, dairy and bakery goods, and it goes until the truck is empty. No ID, no paperwork, no income question, and it is open to any Plant City resident who needs it. It lands the third Thursday of every month, per the Plant City Observer. Church office is 813-752-4622.
Morning Yoga at Bruton Memorial Library is Friday at 10:30 a.m., same building, free, and Tai Chi Flow follows at noon in the same room. Bring a mat for both.
Library Resources for Your Job Search runs Friday from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Riverview Public Library, 9951 Balm Riverview Rd. Free, adults only, and it walks you through the career and job hunting tools the library already pays for. Registration is required and eight seats were open at last check.
Plant City Farm and Flea Market opens at 6:30 a.m. Saturday at 708 W. Sam Allen Rd. More than 100 vendors spread across 10 acres of fruit and vegetables, plus the flea side, which only runs Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. It takes SNAP and WIC and it is dog friendly. Go at 7 rather than 11. The shade is better, the produce is better, and the 91 degree afternoon is somebody else’s problem by then. Listing details here.
Zootopia 2 screens at the Riverview Public Library Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at 9951 Balm Riverview Rd. Free, recommended for ages 6 to 12, and registration is required with 27 seats left at last check. Two hours of air conditioning and a movie on a 91 degree Saturday, for nothing, is a hard deal to beat.
Friday night football is back for real. Week 1 kicks off across eastern Hillsborough on Friday, August 21, and every local game on the board starts at 7:30.
Last Friday settled a few things. Bloomingdale beat Durant 36-14 in the Kickoff Classic. That is a preseason exhibition and it counts toward nobody’s record, but it is the form the Bulls are carrying into Friday. Riverview edged Spoto 20-19, a one point game the Sharks had to hold at the end. And Armwood tied Edgewater 14-14 in Orlando, which is a fine result against a team that went 13-1 last season. Full Kickoff Classic scoreboard is here.
Here is Friday. Brandon travels to Wharton. Hillsborough comes to Bloomingdale, which puts the Bulls at home for the opener. Newsome travels to Land O Lakes. King visits Durant, Chamberlain visits Spoto, Sumner visits Strawberry Crest, Riverview visits East Bay, and Lennard goes to Armwood. All eight are 7:30 starts per the Week 1 schedule and the schools own listings. Plant City is on an open week and does not play again until August 28 at Fletcher.
Gates open about an hour before kickoff and the student lots fill first, so give yourself twenty minutes on top of the drive.
East of Tampa Local Sports covers these schools all season. Game cards, final scores, Athlete of the Week and school calendar posts, some of them hitting 10,000 to 50,000 impressions. One school, football and volleyball plus school calendar and admin posts. It is $250 a month for about six posts, $500 for about twelve, three month minimum. Details at eot-advertise.netlify.app.
Got a score, a photo, a student journalist or a coach who will talk? Reply to this email. That is how the sports section gets better.
FishHawk Sports Complex gets construction traffic starting today. Crews building the South Hillsborough Pipeline begin cutting an access road in the TECO easement at 16112 FishHawk Blvd. as early as today. The road runs about 900 feet west from the sports complex entry, and construction vehicles will be using the same entrance and exit your kid uses for practice. It is a restricted work zone, not a shortcut, and flaggers will stop foot and bike traffic on the sidewalk when heavy equipment crosses. The pipeline project has the alert and the map.
Ronele Drive is closed and stays closed. Work started Saturday, August 15, and both the road and the sidewalk are shut. Residents get in from John Moore Road while crews work near South Kings Avenue, and the road gets a temporary drivable surface as the work moves east. Through traffic detours on South Kings, Bloomingdale Avenue and John Moore Road. Crews are on it Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
North Kings Avenue is still closed at Victoria Street. Get to Brandon High from the west, using Limona Road and Meade Street. Students walking or biking from the east side should stay on the sidewalk on the south side of Victoria Street, which now has fence panels between it and the work area. This one is not clearing up this month.
SR 60 has nightly lane closures tonight and Thursday night. Between Buckingham Place and Lithia Pinecrest Road, 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., part of the repaving job. If you come home from a Tampa shift after 10, plan on losing a lane.
US 301 at Big Bend Road closes lanes nightly tonight and Thursday night too, 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. That is the intersection rebuild, not a repave. Asphalt is being replaced with concrete and travel lanes are being added on Big Bend from Simmons Loop east to US 301, and the job runs into late 2027. Build the detour into your routine rather than checking every week. The FDOT closure list has the schedule.
Two more for the radar. US 301 from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard south to SR 60 has the same nightly 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. closures tonight and Thursday night. And pipeline crews have been working Balm Boyette Road south of Woodland Spur Drive since August 10, which matters if you cut through there to reach FishHawk from the south.
Smokin Aces BBQ and Steakhouse, 2509 N. Park Rd., Plant City.
Robert Jordan runs it with his sons Robbie and Josh, and his wife Patricia. They started in May 2012 out of a food trailer with almost nothing, got pushed off their first spot by a zoning problem, and landed at Keel and Curley Winery in January 2014. That partnership is what turned a trailer into a steakhouse.
Order the BBQ Frito nachos at $12.49 to start, pork or chicken under nacho cheese, BBQ beans and sour cream, and pay the extra $2.99 to put certified Angus brisket on it instead. Then go one of two directions. The 12 ounce rib eye is $29.49, hand cut, two sides included. Or stay on the pit side and eat what the smoker did all day.
Why tonight. It is 95 degrees with a heat index near 110, and nobody in your house wants to turn an oven on. They take reservations, so the wait is a decision rather than a surprise. (813) 704-1374.
Photo: Smokin Aces BBQ and Steakhouse
Presented by WeWed.
Meet Yolonda Young. Around here she is Coach Lovey.
Twenty years of prevention and wellness work, a research background in Marriage and Family Studies, and one clear position. Most couples wait until the damage is done to ask for help. She is not a therapist and she tells you that first. Sessions run on Zoom, and in person when she is available. Couples sessions are $150.
Photo: WeWed
Start with her free guide and see if the way she thinks fits how you think. The 10-Minute Check-In is here.
Two school board seats are going to a November runoff. Nobody cleared 50 percent in District 2 or District 6 on Tuesday, so both races move to the November 3 ballot. In District 2, Daniela Simic finished first with 17,472 votes, 38.73 percent, and Brittany Lyssy took 16,617, or 36.84 percent. Chris Taylor finished third at 24.43 percent and is out. District 6 is countywide, so it sat on your ballot wherever you live. Karen Perez led it with 93,563 votes, 48.27 percent, short of the majority she needed. She faces Kenneth Gay, who took 27.23 percent. Sally Harris Williamson finished third at 24.50 percent. District 4 never made the ballot at all, because Patti Rendon drew no opponent and keeps the seat. These are unofficial results from the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections and the canvassing board has not certified them.
Photo: Hillsborough County Public Schools
A sitting county commissioner lost her seat. Stacy Hahn beat incumbent Donna Cameron Cepeda 47,122 votes to 38,706 in the Republican primary for County Commission District 5, 54.90 percent to 45.10 percent. All 446 precincts reported. Those numbers are unofficial until the county certifies.
Plant City commissioners got an earful last week. At the August 13 meeting, residents asked the city to suspend its Flock license plate camera program over privacy concerns. Another resident said the city identity is disappearing as farmland turns into subdivisions, and the Chamber raised affordable housing. Mike Sergeant told commissioners his group has pulled 4,526 pounds of trash out of the city and asked for help on illegal dumping. Nine resolutions passed 5-0 and Matt Newton was appointed to the Planning Board. The whole meeting took 40 minutes. Next one is August 24, and the Plant City Observer has the recap.
Buddy Brew opened a cafe inside the Valrico Sprouts. It is at 3315 Lithia Pinecrest Rd. and it runs 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Dave and Susan Ward started roasting in a Hyde Park garage in 2007 and named the company after their dog. This is their first move into eastern Hillsborough, after years of people in Brandon, Valrico and Riverview asking for it. The Osprey Observer has the details.
Photo: Buddy Brew Coffee
Align Right Realty in Valrico is now Elevated Realty. The rebrand is effective immediately. Broker owner Lisa Tackus keeps the same team and the same office, and she has 21 years in real estate with seven of those running the brokerage. Nothing changes about where they are or who answers, but if you were about to search the old name while selling a house in the FishHawk and Valrico corridor, search the new one. elevatedrealtyfl.com or 813-563-5995.
Hillsborough County Public Schools earned an A. It is the district first A grade in more than a decade. Seventy four schools rated an A, more than 53 rated a B, 40 schools improved by a full letter grade, and no school in the district finished with a D or an F. Third grade English proficiency climbed 8 points year over year. More than 200,000 students are in the buildings, and this is week two. The district news page has the breakdown by school.
Photo: Hillsborough County Public Schools
Brandon Legacy Labor Day Family Picnic tickets are on sale now. The second annual picnic runs Monday, September 7, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Winthrop Barn Theatre, 11349 Bloomingdale Ave. in Riverview. It is $20 in advance, $25 at the door, $10 for ages 6 to 16 and free under 6. The money goes to the Timberly Trust and its work on the Moseley Homestead, a 14 acre property on State Road 60 in Brandon built in 1886 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Email [email protected] or call 813-230-4680.
The businesses that keep this free.
Environmental Protective Solutions was founded in Lithia on May 5, 2005, which makes this year 21. Adam Key runs the Tampa side and he is a certified mold remediator. Mold and mycotoxin removal, water damage, leak detection, odor removal and crawl space encapsulation, plus the repair work afterward. One year warranty on remediation and a 24/7 line out of the Brandon office at 2708 Broadway Center Blvd. (813) 438-5937.
Photo: Environmental Protective Solutions
Fix It Today Plumbing is the sister company, same family and same people. Leaks, drains, water heaters, sewer lines, repiping and water filtration across Tampa, Brandon, Riverview, Wesley Chapel, Valrico and Plant City, with flat rate pricing and financing. The pairing is the point. The crew that stops the leak is the crew that dries the house out. (813) 743-7793.
Tabatha Pugh is a broker associate with Keller Williams Realty Smart, and she has held an active Florida broker associate license since January 30, 2017. Plant City is her city of record. 813-476-8457 or [email protected].
The #1 Meat Man is Shawn McCranie, four generations and more than 60 years in the Tampa meat business. The Premium Family Meat Box is $220 for over 31 pounds delivered free locally, which works out around $7 a pound. That is 24 six ounce steak burgers packed two to a package, 24 all natural chicken breasts individually packaged, and a 10 pound box of Duroc pork tenderloins. Delivery runs Monday through Friday and weekly slots are limited.
Photo: The #1 Meat Man
Madison Patron sells residential real estate with Foundation Realty Group across the same east side towns this newsletter covers, Brandon through Riverview. If you are trying to time a move around a school year that just started, that is a conversation worth having in August rather than November. Cell 813-955-9092, office 813-729-6000, [email protected].
Photo: Madison Patron
Stoner's Pizza Joint is Allison Hardy place at 3428 Lithia Pinecrest Rd. in Bloomingdale. Pizza, wings and calzones, and the standing Pick 2 is $6.99 each. Friday night after the game is precisely what it was built for. (813) 436-0016.
Photo: Stoner's Pizza Joint
Team Plumstead is John and Danielle with Red Sash Realty, covering FishHawk, Lithia, Valrico, Brandon and Riverview. Both are licensed Florida real estate agents. If you want to know what your house is actually worth in this market rather than what a website guesses, ask. (813) 495-2136.
Brandon Crossroads Bowl has been at 609 Crater Ln. since 1990. Forty lanes across 40,000 square feet, plus a pub and grill. Bowlapalooza is $6.99 plus tax weekdays 3 to 5 p.m. with shoes included, which is exactly the gap between the last bell and dinner. Wednesday Cosmic runs 9:30 to midnight for $10.99. With the heat index touching 110 today and 109 Thursday, indoors is the whole pitch. (813) 621-2363.
Glaros Law is Steve Glaros at 350 E. Robertson St. in Brandon. Family law, personal injury and estate planning. He has been a member of The Florida Bar in good standing since September 30, 2005, and he is a Florida Supreme Court certified family mediator. Consultations are free on personal injury. (813) 854-1234.
Photo: Glaros Law
Journeys by Jess is Jess, out of Riverview, and she plans the trip you will still be talking about in five years. Picture the seven year old seeing the castle for the first time. Picture a balcony over the water while somebody else cooks every meal for a week. Picture the whole family in one place, phones down, nobody asking what is for dinner. That is the job. Cruises, all inclusives, Disney and group travel, and she is a Certified Family Travel Advisor, which means the dining reservations, the park days, the flights and the excursions become her problem instead of yours. She is a registered Florida Seller of Travel and an independent affiliate of A.S.A.P. Cruises Inc. Winter break and spring break are closer than they look, and the good cabins go first. Start the conversation at [email protected].
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
K&D Law is Kou Jacobo in Riverview. General practice, with immigration and asylum work at the center of it. He has been licensed in Florida since 2019 and is in good standing. (786) 496-2918.
Free to list. In front of 5,000+ local inboxes. Send it here.
Scores, photos, a business opening, a fundraiser, a kid doing something worth knowing about. Reply to this email and it gets read.
Some of you do not know we do video too. The one that keeps getting shared is the story of how Riverview got its name. It was called Peru first, and US 301 is the reason that changed. It runs about a minute, it was shot right here, and close to 6,000 people liked it. Watch it on Instagram, and follow along there between issues.
See you Friday.
John
The East of Tampa Guy
P.S. Who is your bet to make the Pro Bowl for the Buccaneers? It is very hard to make it as a quarterback. Baker Mayfield is betting on himself this year. My vote is Baker Mayfield to make the Pro Bowl. #TimeToBake
