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By Melody Jameson melody@observernews.net
Apr 9, 2009 - 12:44:22 AM

Dredging AB Canals
The instruction and documents manual aimed at helping Hillsborough’s canal front homeowners facilitate dredging to improve their boating operation is scheduled for Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) review Wednesday (April 15).
The manual, which outlines the processes for application to the county for help in forming the Municipal Service Benefit Units (MSBUs) that will organize financing of the dredging costs, has passed muster with county attorneys, Project Manager Martin Montalvo said this week.  If approved by the BOCC next week, the application process could begin the next day, he added.  If, however, commissioners ask for any adjustments in the instructions to citizens or in the documentation required for the process, application would be delayed until those changes are made to board members’ satisfaction, he cautioned.
As soon as the BOCC accepts the manual as drafted, copies can be obtained within 24 hours by accessing it through the stormwater section of the public works department on the county’s website,  www.hillsboroughcounty.org  or by contacting Montalvo via telephone at 744-5671.

SCC’s Operation Med Chest
On Friday (April 10), the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office will spearhead the bi-annual Operation Medicine Cabinet collection of outdated and unneeded prescription medications.  Collection of the meds is scheduled for 8 AM to 12 Noon at Community Hall on South Pebble Beach Blvd.   
Such periodic collections have become increasingly important as both public and personal safety matters, pointed out Deputy Sheriff Rob Thornton.  Getting unnecessary drugs out of the home can avoid accidental misuse, can prevent abuse by any teen-agers or young adults with access to them, as well as keep them from any thieves among the various contractors servicing SCC area homes.  And disposal in ordinary trash collection is ill-advised in order to protect pets and other animals.  Flushing drugs into wastewater systems also is a problem because most treatment plants are not designed to filter them out and medicinal toxicity is showing up in marine life.
The collected pharmaceuticals are to be disposed of by incineration at a hazardous waste site.

Ruskin Royalty $
In another “return to roots” move, all monies collected as part of the 2009 Ruskin Tomato Festival King and Queen campaigns are being earmarked for a local college scholarship fund, according to Fred Jacobsen, president of the sponsoring Ruskin Community Development Foundation (RCDF).
The Ruskin royalty will be formally crowned during the May festival, based solely on the largest number of dollar votes each candidate collects.  And the monies raised in this manner will be used for a second year scholarship award to a deserving student at Hillsborough Community College’s SouthShore campus, Jacobsen added.   Many local organizations generously award first-year scholarships annually, he noted, but fewer remember the second year expenses and “it is this need that the foundation would like to help fill.”   
In the mid-20th century years, he added, votes for the festival royalty were priced at one penny per and 1942 Queen Eugenia Exum Holston recalls that era in an essay posted at www.Ruskinhistory.org.   Contributions to the second-year scholarship in the name of a 2009 royalty candidate can be addressed to Alan Whit at the Ruskin HCC campus.

©2009 Melody Jameson

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