Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 122

tpetersburg SRmes rsn orSDu PM NORTH PINELLAS EDITION ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. SATURDAY, MAY 13, 1995 DtKOilhrQ: After several years of waiting, North Pinellas' first first-run movie theater opens Monday. -u I i Petersburg. The theater will close for an invitation-only party Thursday, and reopen Friday with new movies.

The next closest first-run theaters are in Countryside and New Port Richey. "Every day, somebody brings in something else wonderful," said Steve Kyler, one of four managers at the theater. He pointed to the neon "Starlite Plaza" sign over the concession stand, which will sell the usual movie fare and a few extras including cappuccino, espresso and non-alcoholic frozen drinks. The Fort Lauderdale-based Muvico touts the theater's Mediterranean design, digital sound system and stadium-style seating. The building at 37912 U.S.

19 has been vacant for years but was bursting with activity this week. The facade has been painted periwinkle and mauve, and customers enter a lobby designed to look like a courtyard. Please see THEATER Page 2 Times photo JIM DAMASKE is in a building that was supposed ago, but that deal fell apart. 'Miss Marion' makes reading fun COSOf W1 v. i By AMY WALSH Timet Staff Writer PALM HARBOR A cast of dozens bustled about this week, transforming a long-vacant building into the area's first first-run movie theater, Muvico's Palm Harbor 10.

"It looks worse than it is," said Deane Hashemi, Muvico's director of publicity. She dodged workers repositioning scaffolding in the theater's three-story lobby while her husband, Hamid, fielded phone calls at the box office. The theater, on the west side of U.S. 19, one-half mile south of Klosterman Road, opens Monday with a flourish of promotions and discount admissions. Proceeds from the first three days will be donated to All Children's Hospital in St.

it -iff- Girls nightclub on U.S. 19, south of Curlew Road, in an unincorporated area between Clearwater and Palm Harbor. The county has repeatedly cited managers at Crazy Girls for operating without a proper license, but the business has never obtained one, according to county records. The most shocking allegation in the draft of the county's proposed lawsuit was that "Crazy Girls also employed a 13-year-old minor as a dancer, and permitted this minor to perform dances inappropriate for a minor, and also to perform lewd acts." "Yeah, but she had what looked to be a EDITOR'S NOTE BOB HENDERSON 1964, the year the Clearwater school moved to its current location at Palmetto Street and Saturn Avenue. It was his first and only teaching position.

He had moved here as a high school sophomore, graduating from Clearwater High in 1960 and the University of Florida in 1964. Now, at age 52, he has decided to retire. His last day will be June 7. By coincidence, this is the last year for eighth-grade history in Pinellas schools. It will be replaced by something called "Florida Challenges and Choices." Students won't get American history until the 11th grade.

Dave said this is not the reason for his retirement, but acknowledges, "I would really miss the American history course." He's retiring, he said, because he can afford to do so, having remained single until a year and a half ago; because the shelves in his Largo home are filled with "history books I Timet photo JIM DAMASKE Seven-year-old Stephanie Cecil of Clearwater works with Marion" participate in The King's Kids, a free after-school volunteer tutor Marion Luethi of Belleair at the Martin Luther tutoring program sponsored by the city of Clearwater and King Center in Clearwater recently. Stephanie and "Miss the YWCA. Story, Pag 3. Timet photo ROBIN DONINA Ursula Hefner, a Michigan native, moved to Florida with her husband in 1968. At home is boring; working is not Ursula Hefner, who helps with meals at Neighborly Senior Services, recently won a Silver Hat Award as the oldest worker in Pinellas County.

By WILMA NORTON Timet Staff Writer SEMINOLE At 90, Ursula Hefner still likes having a purpose when she gets up in the morning. She likes the motivation of getting ready, the independence of driving herself to work and the benefits of a little extra money to spend on her three grandchildren and her great-grandson. She likes the people she meets and the effect of employment on her state of mind. "I like to keep busy," MrSf Hefner said. "I'm bored to death if I have to stay home all the Mrs.

Hefner recently was ree; ognized as the oldest worker in Pinellas County, receiving a Silver" Hat Award from Job Service of Florida and its advisory board. Each weekday morning, she-drives the five minutes from her mobile home in Seminole to the Neighborly Senior Services con-; gregate dining site at Seminole City Hall. "She's a great worker," food aide Eleanor Charleston said; "Very kind to people. Very ener-; getic. Very sharp.

Sharp as a tack. Very active." Beginning at 9 a.m., Mrs. Hefner helps pack lunches for the 16 Meals on Wheels routes delivered from the community room of Seminole City Hall. Each route carries four to 18 meals. She takes individual cartons of milk out of boxes and puts rubber bands around the plastic food containers to keep them from spilling.

She also helps clean up. Her next duties begin before noon. As the 50 or 60 seniors who eat lunch in the community room line Please see WORKER Page 7 I PINELLAS DIGEST Neurologist faces sex abuse charges A Pasco doctor was arrested at his office and accused of improperly touching two female patients during treatments. Story, page 3 Correction Letter carriers will be collecting food for the needy today. You can leave your donations (non-perishable items) either in or near your mailbox.

Food collected in Palm Harbor will go to the FEAST food pantry. Donations collected in Tarpon Springs will go to three food banks there. In Clearwater, eight charities, including food banks and soup kitchens, will benefit. A story Friday fused which areas and groups would benefit from today's drive. The story also misspelled the name of John Bourlon, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers Local 1477.

1 shut adult club Muvico's Palm Harbor 10, 37912 U.S. 19, to open as a movie theater several years Hospital dispute leaving wounds Conflict over the future of Helen Ellis Memorial is straining friendships and even families in Tarpon Springs. By DEANNA BELLANDI Timet Staff Writer TARPON SPRINGS At Easter dinner, City Commissioner Cindy Domino found out just how personal the debate over Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital and ColumbiaHCA Healthcare Corp. had become. "All of a sudden, my dad and my mom start laying into me," she said.

Domino has been the lone commission voice willing to support a possible partnership between the city-owned hospital and the nation's largest hospital chain. It's a position her parents don't Criticism from agree with, she said, loved ones "You want your hurts, City parents to be sup-Commissioner porting and under-Cindy Domino standing but then said. when they come up and take the opposite stand of you, it hurts," she said. But that can happen in a small town when a controversial subject fractures the community and strains relationships, often pitting relatives and friends against each other. It's happening in Tarpon Springs, with the City Commission squaring off against the hospital's foundation board over what should be the future course for Helen Ellis Memorial.

The commission with the exception of Domino has wanted nothing to do with Columbia. But the foundation board has wanted the hospital to latch Please see HOSPITAL Page 7 Timet photo SCOTT KEELER Retiring history teacher Dave Byers stands in front of Kennedy Middle School in Clearwater, where he has taught since 1964. 7) 1Uit! Xr a club By TbnM try County considers lawsuit to Managers of the Palm Harbor have been cited repeatedly for operating without a license. CURTIS KRUEGER Staff Writer valid ID," said Al Norris, who said he is a "management consultant" for Crazy Girls. "We did not condone that act," Norris added.

Norris said Crazy Girls' owner, William Ward, changed management at the club after that incident. Norris was hired since then. Ward could not be reached Friday. The proposed lawsuit charges that Crazy Girls is a public nuisance and that it has violated the county's law governing adult businesses. In arguing that the business should be shut down, the proposed suit pointed out that: Please see CLUB Page 5 PALM HARBOR The county is about to to shut down an adult dance club that has operated for years near a residential area without the proper license.

County Commissioners will vote Tuesday whether to file a lawsuit against the Crazy Teacher made history live for students I've never even opened I've got years of reading ahead of and because he wants more time to travel throughout the United States and Canada, not abroad since he doesn't like to fly. His traveling companion will be his wife, the former Sarah Porter, who taught physical education at Kennedy for 30 years until retiring four years ago. "We dated for 28 years," Dave said. "We knew the marriage would work." He'll also continue attending high school and junior college basketball games every weeknight during the season and doing the public-address announcing at Clearwater High games. He loves the sport, except for the NBA version, although he never played basketball in school.

"I was more a nerd than a jock," he said. Dave recalls with fondness his earlier years of teaching when the students "always called you sir, always did their homework and never questioned authority. They did whatever you wanted them to do." He said the percentage of students in his classes who are troublemakers and who are "not at all interested in learning" has steadily increased. "I still love teaching, but it's harder. It's not quite as much fun anymore." Nobody kept count, but a good many Kennedy Middle School kids during the past three decades actually enjoyed learning about American history in Dave Byers classroom.

That may be hard to believe unless you've heard stories about this upbeat teacher wearing a firefighter's hat while discussing the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, or a replica of the Statue of Liberty crown when discussing this gift to America from the people of France; about how he hangs a large Nazi flag on the wall and passes around a hand grenade and machine gun bullets while studying World War II; how he leads his students in singing old political campaign songs; and so much more. "I'm kind of fairly lively," he said, something most of his students would agree with, even those who still think history is a bore. "I put them right there in history," he said. Earlier this week, for example, Dave's students listened to a recording of Dwight Eisenhower's "I shall go to Korea" speech from his 1952 presidential campaign. And, of course, his bulletin boards and most other spaces in his classroom are filled with photos, buttons, newspaper clippings and maps from whatever period they are studying at the moment.

Dave has been teaching at Kennedy since A ,4.