Good afternoon, East of Tampa family.
It is 94 today with a heat index near 108, and the heat advisory runs from noon to 7. Drink more water than you think you need. Eleven local football teams take the field Friday night across nine games, and seven of them kickoff at 7:30. That is the first real Friday of the school year. Before you get there, the district posted its first A grade in more than a decade, and the leggings rule that took over your group chat last month is already gone.
Here is your week.
Action Karate River Hills holds a 5.0 rating across 55 Google reviews. That is a hard number to hold when your customers are seven years old.
Paul Kuzemka teaches at 4365 Lynx Paw Trail in Valrico. He is a second degree black belt with six years on the floor, he has lived in the Lithia and Valrico area for more than 20 years, and he was named Tampa Bay Best of the Best in 2024 and 2025.
Week two of school is when the after school hours get real. Book the intro at actionkarate.net or call (813) 535-4191.
Photo: Action Karate
🥵 Wednesday: 94, and the heat advisory runs noon to 7 with the index near 108. That is the highest number of the week. Hat, shade, and more water than feels necessary.
🥵 Thursday: 95 and dry, with the index still reaching 106. No rain is coming to save you.
⛈️ Friday: 95, 50% after 2 p.m. A coin flip for a 7:30 kickoff. Take the poncho, not the umbrella.
☀️ Saturday: 96, 20%. The hottest air temperature of the stretch. The Cruise-In starts at 3 in Plant City and it should hold.
☀️ Sunday: 96, 20%. Same story. Get the yard done before noon.
(Source: National Weather Service Tampa Bay)
Florida Friendly Landscaping runs today from 11 a.m. to noon at the Bloomingdale Regional Library, 1906 Bloomingdale Ave. in Valrico. Free. It covers what actually survives a Florida August, scaled to a yard or a balcony. Registration is recommended and it was down to ten seats yesterday.
Dog Tales with Rhea is today from 3 to 4 p.m. at Bruton Memorial Library, 302 McLendon St. in Plant City. Free, walk in, no sign up. Kids read out loud to a German shepherd who does not correct them. In week two of school that is worth more than it sounds.
Cut the Cable Cord is Thursday from 11 a.m. to noon at the Brandon Regional Library, 619 Vonderburg Dr. Free. Library staff walk you through streaming with nothing to sell you. It was down to eight seats yesterday.
Intro to the Pottery Wheel starts Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to noon at the Firehouse Cultural Center, 101 1st Ave. NE in Ruskin. $180 for members, $200 for everyone else, and that covers five Thursdays plus 25 pounds of clay, glaze and firing. No experience needed. Register online or call 813-645-7651.
Upcycle Into Art is Friday from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Ruskin Branch Library, 26 Dickman Dr. SE. Free, ages 13 to 17. Bring a clean container from home and leave with something better. Registration is required and it was down to four seats yesterday.
Plant City Strawberry Classic Cruise-In takes over Historic Downtown Plant City on Saturday from 3 to 6 p.m. Classics, daily drivers and a few works in progress. The Chamber runs it, not Main Street, so the paused downtown calendar does not touch it. No spectator admission price is published.
Hats, Heels, and High Tea is Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the GFWC Women's Club of Plant City, 1110 N. Wheeler St. $25 a head, and it is open to the public, which most people assume it is not. Reservations required, call Arlene at 813-850-4917.
Kickoff Classic, Friday night. Eleven local teams open the season in nine games. Seven kick at 7:30.
Newsome hosts Northeast High School of St. Petersburg, 7:30. Durant hosts Bloomingdale in Plant City, 7:30. Lennard hosts Osceola Fundamental of Seminole, 7:30. East Bay hosts Robinson of Tampa in Gibsonton, 7:30. Plant City hosts Nature Coast Technical of Brooksville, 7:30. Strawberry Crest travels to Gaither in Tampa, 7:30. Brandon travels to Seminole High School in Seminole, 7:30. Armwood travels to Edgewater in Orlando at 7:00, and that is the one to watch. Armwood went 14-1 last year and lost in the state semifinal. Edgewater went 13-1.
Spoto at Riverview is on for Friday, and the Sharks host.
East of Tampa Local Sports covers these schools all season. Game cards, final scores, Athlete of the Week and school calendar posts, with some hitting 10,000 to 50,000 impressions. One school, football and volleyball plus school calendar and admin posts. $250 a month for about six posts, $500 for about twelve, three month minimum. Details at eot-advertise.netlify.app.
North Kings Avenue at Victoria Street closed yesterday morning and it is a school route. The full closure went in at 6 a.m. Tuesday. Get to the school from the west using Limona Road and Meade Street. This is the South Hillsborough Pipeline work, so it is not a one day thing.
South Kings Avenue is closed overnight through Saturday from Ronele Drive to Bloomingdale Avenue, 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. Denham Road residents go through the Kingwood Elementary car circle. Dali Drive residents use Bloomingdale Avenue. The same stretch from the JC Handy Sports Complex to Dali Drive has been down to one lane each way since July 29.
Ronele Drive at South Kings Avenue closed Sunday night for about a week, so it is shut all week. Use John Moore Road to get around it.
US 301 at Big Bend Road is a $58.4 million rebuild, not a repave. They are replacing the asphalt at the intersection with concrete and adding travel lanes on Big Bend from Simmons Loop east to US 301. Nightly closures ran 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. through Thursday. The project started in August 2025 and finishes in late 2027, so build the detour into your routine rather than checking every week. Details at FDOT Tampa Bay.
Three more for the radar. SR 60 from Buckingham Place to Lithia Pinecrest has nightly lane closures 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. through Thursday. Bloomingdale Avenue at Robert Tolle Road has flagging operations on the same schedule. And the lane diversions on Boyette Road and FishHawk Boulevard at Bell Shoals are a 12 to 16 month job, not a summer one.
Fred's Market Restaurant sits at 6501 US Highway 301 South in Riverview, and kids 10 and under eat free tonight.
Elton and Evelyn Johnson started it in Plant City in 1954. That is 72 years, and there are three locations now. The food is already out, which on day three of school with a 107 heat index is the entire argument. No ticket wait, no melting seven year old.
The dinner MarketTable is $22.99 and runs 5 to 9 p.m., with fried chicken, crispy catfish, rainbow trout, Black Jack Oak smoked ribs, the vegetables, the salad bar and the dessert bar. Get the sweet potato souffle. The Blue Plate is $17.99 if you want less of a project.
Kids 10 and under eat free Monday through Thursday after 5 p.m., one kid per adult meal. Eleven and twelve year olds are $5.99. If leaving the house is too much, the Ready Freddy Family Pack is $64.99 to go and feeds four.
Photo: Fred's Market Restaurant
The leggings rule lasted about five weeks. The school board voted 5-1 to go back to last year's dress code, undoing the restriction adopted in July that would have required leggings to be worn as an undergarment or covered to mid thigh. Patti Rendon was the only no. A petition and a lot of loud parents got there first. The board takes up the dress code again at a policy workshop on September 29.
Hillsborough County Public Schools earned an A for the first time in more than a decade. 74 schools rated an A, more than 53 rated a B, 40 improved a full letter grade, and no school in the district earned a D or an F. Third grade English proficiency went up 8 points year over year. More than 200,000 students went back Monday.
The county commission voted 7-0 to draft a data center moratorium and to study what they would do to local water supply, infrastructure and wildlife first. Commissioners floated five years and settled near one. There are currently zero data center applications pending in the county, so this is a fence being built before the horse arrives, which is unusual enough to note.
340 homes are back on the table at Walden Lake. Walden Lake, LLC refiled a rezoning for roughly 319 acres of the dead golf course inside the 2,080 acre Plant City community. The plan is 280 single family homes plus 60 villas, a new nine hole course, a clubhouse, parks and trails, with a 40% minimum open space commitment. The applicant says it generates 1,286 fewer daily car trips than the version the city rejected in 2023. There is a community open house on August 27 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Walden Lake Elementary, and the Planning Board takes it up October 28.
AdventHealth Riverview goes from 82 beds to 150 in December. The hospital opened in October 2024 and its first expansion finishes this year, with room to reach 202 beds later. It also gave about $20,000 and a van to the Sun City Emergency Squad and sends 13 dozen eggs a week to ECHO.
Two moves worth knowing. Chill Cawfee and Quig's Kava Lounge left Valrico for 16741 FishHawk Blvd. in Lithia. Karma Yoga and Fitness opened a second location at 13224 Boyette Rd. in Riverview with Pilates, barre, cycle, boxing and step.
The businesses that keep this free.
Roof Rejuvenate SH is Jeff's veteran owned shop out of Lithia, and they treat asphalt shingle roofs instead of tearing them off. A replacement runs $15,000 to $30,000 and rejuvenation is a fraction of that. The formula is 96% bio based and USDA certified, the warranty is five years and transferable, and they cap the calendar at 15 to 20 roofs a month. The 21 point inspection is free and they value it at $350. (813) 652-2777.
Photo: Roof Rejuvenate SH
Stoner's Pizza Joint is Allison Hardy's place at 3428 Lithia Pinecrest Rd. in Bloomingdale. Pizza, wings and calzones, and the Pick 2 deal is $6.99 each. Friday night after the game is exactly what it is built for. (813) 436-0016.
Photo: Stoner's Pizza Joint
Madison Patron sells residential real estate with Foundation Realty Group across the same east side towns this newsletter covers. If you are trying to time a move around a school year that just started, she is the call. Cell 813-955-9092, office 813-729-6000, [email protected].
Maid Pure Cleaning is Dionne Cona, a former teacher and a mother of four, serving Brandon, Riverview and Valrico. More than 250 local customers, bonded and insured, and a 24 hour satisfaction callback if something is not right. They also partner with Cleaning for a Reason. The first month of school is when the house goes sideways. (813) 670-2004.
The #1 Meat Man is Shawn McCranie, and the Premium Family Meat Box is $220. That is 24 steak burgers at 12 pounds, 24 all natural chicken breasts at 9 pounds and individually packaged, and a 10 pound box of Duroc pork tenderloins. It is a freezer full of weeknight dinners you do not have to think about again.
Brandon Crossroads Bowl has been at 609 Crater Ln. since 1990. Forty lanes across 40,000 square feet, plus an arcade, billiards and a full pub and grill. It is air conditioned, which this week is the whole pitch. Youth Blast Off is Saturday, September 5 from 9 to 11:30 a.m., free, pre-registration only, and the first 75 kids get a goody bag. (813) 621-2363.
Glaros Law is Steve Glaros at 350 E Robertson St. in Brandon. Family law, personal injury and estate planning. Florida Bar number 16027, admitted in September 2005, and he is a Florida Supreme Court certified family mediator. Consultations are free on personal injury. (813) 854-1234.
Photo: Glaros Law
K&D Law is Kou Jacobo in Riverview. General practice with a focus on immigration and asylum. Licensed in Florida since 2019 and in good standing. (786) 496-2918.
Journeys by Jess is Jess, out of Riverview. Cruises, all inclusives, Disney and group travel, and she is a Certified Family Travel Advisor. Florida Seller of Travel ST15578, independent affiliate of A.S.A.P. Cruises Inc. Fall and winter trips are being booked now. [email protected].
Team Plumstead is John Danielle with Red Sash Realty, covering FishHawk, Lithia, Valrico, Brandon and Riverview. Florida licenses SL3649778 and SL3655402. If you want to know what your house is actually worth in this market rather than what a website guesses, ask. (813) 495-2136.
Got an event we missed? Send it to us and we will run it. Here is the form. Scores, photos, student journalists and coaches, we want those too.
See you Friday.
John
The East of Tampa Guy
P.S. This isn’t me as a 2LT in Afghanistan in 2010, this is actually me preparing for carline this week…
