bserver O
PLANT CITY
You. Your neighbors. Your neighborhood.
UPCOMING
FREE • thursday, SEPTEMBER 27, 2012
NEIGHBORHOOD
SPORTS
Spots are still Families enjoy fun in the sun available for barbecue school. at Play for a Cure. PAGE 7
OUR TOWN
+ Host Star Wars event, library will
Wacky runners endure Blueberry Stomp Mud Run.
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REVITALIZATION
PAGE 19
governance
By Amber Jurgensen | Associate Editor
by Amber Jurgensen | Associate Editor
LONG TIME
COMING
Elijah L. Bing, circa 1967
The Jedi will come to Plant City for Bruton Memorial Library’s Star Wars Reads Day from 3 to 5 p.m. Oct. 6, at the library, 302 W. McLendon St. Star Wars Reads Day is a national event created by Lucasfilm & Publishing partners. The event will include activities, such as a costume contests for children, teens, and even adults. The library also will have Star Warsthemed games, crafts, music and enjoying refreshments, such as Yoda Soda. For more, call (813) 7579215.
Back row, from left: Cecelia Trueman, Patricia Wolff and Phyllis Nead. Front row: Erma Zaiser, Margaret Rodwell, Rhoda Kessler, Christy Linke and Jack Zaiser.
+ Garden Club presents award The Plant City Garden Club presented its September award to Jack and Erma Zaiser. When they moved into their home in 2005, Jack Zaiser got busy landscaping the yard. He enjoys a good card game, so he made four flowerbeds in the front shaped like the suits of a deck of cards. The flower beds feature a different tree for each suit. The “club” garden features a queen palm with salmoncolored balsam impatience, which he grew from seed he brought from Maine. The “heart” bed has a date palm tree with pink vincas around it. The “spade” bed is home to a honey bell orange tree, with a century plant in front of it. Finally, the “diamond” flower bed has a Robellini palm with pink vincas around it.
Amber Jurgensen
The first floor of the Bing Rooming House will feature a museum of African American history.
After a decade of work, the renovation of the Bing Rooming House should be complete at the end of the month. It has been 10 years since the Improvement League of Plant City began its restoration of the historic Bing Rooming House off South Allen Street. Now, the restorations should be completed by the end of September. “We’ll be jumping for joy (when it is complete),” William Thomas Jr., vice president of the league, said. With a recent grant of $65,000, renovations to the interior of the second story, including the living quarters, are being done, by Advantage Restoration Inc. The Improvement League has contributed $400,000 to the project. Bing Rooming House, named after its first owner, Janie Wheeler Bing, is one of two national African American landmarks in Hillsborough County. Built in 1928, it earned the designation primarily because of its role as a
The proposed fiscal year 2012-13 budget sailed through the Plant City Commission. The Plant City Commission approved unanimously the city’s 2012-13 budget during its meeting Sept. 24. “I want to thank the commission for supporting the budget,” City Manager Greg Horwedel said after its adoption. The 2012-12 budget is balanced at $59,749,121 and is about 1% higher than the original budget approved in 2011-12 because of an increase in interfund transfers. The current property tax millage rate of 4.7157 remained the same for the next fiscal year, despite that the Hillsborough Country Property Appraiser has reduced the assessed value of property within the city. Although Mayor Mike Sparkman and Vice Mayor Mary Thomas Mathis advocated for raises for city employees in July, the budget does not allow for any wage increases for the 2012-12 budget. Two positions we were eliminated in the engineering department and community services.
PROSTATE AWARENESS MONTH
Courtesy of the Plant City Photo Archives and History Center
James Washington, right, is the grandson of Janie Wheeler Bing, the first owner of the Bing Rooming House. hotel for African Americans during the segregation period. In 2002, the Improvement League began raising money for the restoration of the house. Upon completion, the facility,
located at 205 South Allen Street, will be operated as a museum to emphasize the Plant City community’s triumph over segrega-
SEE BING / PAGE 6
INDEX Crossword.......... 19
Commission OKs 2013 city budget
Sparkman presented a proclamation declaring the month of September as “Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in Plant City” to City Clerk Kerri Miller. Since Miller’s husband, Tim, learned he had prostate cancer, Miller has been advocating awareness about the disease. Wearing light blue, the color which symbolizes support for prostate cancer, Miller spoke to the commission during a presentation, encouraging citizens to get tested before age 50. “If my husband would have waited until the age of 50, his survival rate would have drastically decreased,” Miller said. “Prostate cancer can have an effect on a man and his family. Cancer does not discriminate.”
SEE COMMISSION / PAGE 6 Vol. 1, No. 13 | One section
Obituaries.......... 12
Opinion.................8
Sports................ 15
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