EcoFest 2012

Learning Gate Community School is hosting its 3rd Annual EcoFest.

EcoFest 2012 is a community event organized by Learning Gate Community School to celebrate the many businesses, organizations, and individuals in the Tampa Bay area dedicated to the principles of sustainability – Ecology, Equity and Economy.

EcoFest 2012 will be held on April 14, 2012 on the school grounds  at  16215 Hanna Rd in Lutz, Florida. The event will be open to the public from 9:00 A.M. until 3:00 P.M. Admission to the event is free.

There will be live music, workshops (including building rain barrels and creating container gardens), demonstrations, informational booths, green living products and services. Some local artists, green businesses, environmental organizations, alternative health practitioners, renewable energy specialists, organic farms and gardens with produce. EcoFest at Learning Gate Community School is Saturday April 14 from 9a to 3p. It’s a free event for the community and will feature over 100 green vendors as well as some relevant workshops like building rain barrels and collecting rain water, creating a container garden and a presentation by Tampa Electric.

Presentation	Speaker
How to Conserve and Store water as our natural resource	Virginia Overstreet - Water Wise
Making a difference, Recycle, Garbage, reusing.... Keep our County Beautiful	Pat Deplasco - Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful
Growing Scientists Hands-On Environmental Projects	Jim McGinity - Learning Gate
What is composting, and how nature processes organic materials	Monica Ragukas
Project Based Learning at Learning Gate Middle/High	Summer Solomon - Learning Gate
Garden Containers- easy gardening for everyone	Kray Funch
How to effectively store rain water and how it benefits us	Shelly Stein
Greening Your Environment - How you can inspire others to be more eco-friendly and earth conscious.	Lisa Custer - Going Green Tampa

I know Virginia Overstreet. She has a fantastic Florida Friendly Yard in Seminole Heights.  Her workshop will be very good.

Lutz Dog Park

I've created a new website for the Lutz Dog Park, to show you what the park looks like, the amenities and nearby dog businesses including recommended dog and cat trainers. http://lutzdogpark.weebly.com

Southern Brewing and Wine Making is going up for their wet zoning tonight 12/8/11 at Tampa City Council.  They are the first item on the 6 PM agenda. Please post this information on the blog.
We need as many people there as possible.

The wet zoning restricts the sale of distilled liquors to before 11 PM.  No package sales of distilled liquors.  No amplified music outside and doors must be closed if amplified music inside.  

One Hundred Reasons to Mourn the Loss of Ink on Paper - from Word Weaves

On her blog, Susan is creating a list of One Hundred Reasons to Mourn the Loss of Ink on Paper

"I’m dedicating one post a week to the value of ink and paper books. My goal is 100 posts; 100 reasons they shine over e-books. My intention is not to trash e-books. I accept the digital future. But I don’t prefer e-readers and I mourn the downfall of print books. I only have 25 reasons on my list, so the Quest is to grow that list. If you’d like to share your reasons, please leave them in comments. If yours is one I don’t have, I’ll use it and credit your name.

Reason # 1. Paper books are physical treasures. When you pull them from your shelf to read again or to enjoy leafing through, you remember where you got them . . . ." (more)

If you have a reason of your own, go to Word Weaves and add a comment.

Kelly Benjamin's Seminole Heights video

Tampa City Council Candidate Kelly Benjamin released his second viral campaign video today, this one focused on creating a better quality of life in Seminole Heights.

You can watch the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1FqXkI7rus

The first video, released 2 weeks ago, focused on West Tampa and can be viewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAbBnkS3RUQ

www.votekelly.org

Kelly Benjamin runs for City Council

Kelly Benjamin is running for the District 6 seat on the Tampa City Council on a pragmatic, common sense platform based on neighborhood revitalization, small business support, and improved transit (including making Seminole Heights a station if the light rail proposal passes in November).

He just filed on Monday so he does not have a website up and running yet, but he will in the next week or so. He will be qualifying via petition again and canvasing all over Seminole Heights and West Tampa in the coming weeks.

Although I'm not living in the area, I throw my support behind Kelly Benjamin. This is his second try for this office. He has a lot of interesting life and work experience since then and I think he will do a good job as a city council member.

For more details read the Creative Loafing article and TampaBay.com Bay Buzz blog

Electric fence,barbed wire and razor new rules

An email I received from reader Wendy who asked that I post this:

> The new rules for installation of electric fences, barbed wire, and razor
> wire are going before City Council on Thursday evening at 5:30 PM. The
> proposed rule states that any business that can show they had criminal
> activity on their property can be allowed to put in an electric fence,
> barbed wire or razor.
>
> A more comprehensive proposal was put forward but, apparently, City Council
> did not put it forward.
>
> This ordinance will be sent to the Planning Commission as it is written
> unless we can get City Council to either
> a) continue this to allow public input or
> b) modify this.
>
> The proposed verbiage that was set forth originally but was not approved
> was:
>
> A variance can be had allowing an electric fence, razor wire, or barbed wire
> if the applicant can:
>
> "1) provide documented police reports that clearly demonstrate criminal
> activity occurred at the property during the two years prior to the variance
> request, Reports of false alarms cannot be used to demonstrate a
> significant security need.
>
> 2) Provide evidence that, at the time the criminal activity occurred other
> means of security protection devices were installed and in proper operating
> condition. Other means of security protection devices include, but are not
> limited to, alarm systems, guard dogs, security personnel, and/or adequate
> chain link or sold wall fencing, when allowed.
>
> In applying the variance criteria, the VERB,, ARC, or BLC shall balance the
> applicant's need for the variance with the visual impact to the surrounding
> community. The purpose of the provision is to ensure that any use of
> electric fencing barbed wire or razor wire should be used only as the
> extreme last resort of property protection."
>
> Based on what is currently being proposed, any business that is broken into
> can get a variance for barbed wire, razor wire or an electric fence.
>
> If you cannot attend Thursday night, please send an email to
> Tampacitycouncil@tampagov.net asking them to change the ordinance as
> originally proposed. If ou want to send me your email, I will read it into
> the record.
>
> The more people that show up, the greater the impact.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Susan Long

Highlights Win…Oh My!

Good news. Susan was one of the 3 winners of the 2010 Highlights for Children Fiction Contest with her story "The Fog Lifts" Read more about it on her blog Highlights Win…Oh My!.

Pitbull Bans

This week in the Mutt Report I focused on PitBull Bans. The St. Petersburg Times had a recent article on the topic.

“For the past three years, Edna Elijah has carried a baseball bat when she walks because her neighbors have been attacked by dogs. Once, she had a run-in with a dog “that looked like a pit bull.” She wasn’t injured, but her words resonated with the right people. So recently, legislators in Tallahassee have been considering a bill to regulate dogs by breed . . .The bill proposed by Rep. Perry Thurston, D-Plantation, passed a senate committee last month. It would not outright ban any breed, but it would give communities the ability to require muzzling, neutering or additional insurance for certain dogs, measures that critics say would have the same effect as a ban.” (more)

Dog Dies at Curtis Hixon Dog Park

On my Mutt Report blog I write about how a 1o pound Shih Tzu was killed at the new Curtis Hixon dog run It is so small there is no way to separate the big and small dogs. Seminole Heights has a dog run at Frierson and 12th St., just south of Hillsborough, in SE Seminole Heights. It also is too small for dogs to be separated. I wonder if there have been any negative encounters there?