The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 7

THE TAMPA TRIBUNE 2 Tuesday, December 10, 1996 Apollo Beach Bloomingdale Clair-Mel City Gibsonton Mango Orient Park Riverview Ruskin Seffner Sun City Center Thonotosassa Valrico Wimauma Send comments and tips through e-mail to tribbrandon prodigy.com or write do The Tampa Tribune, 505 W. Robertson, Brandon, Fla. 33511 Charity blossoms in twister's aftermath BrandonSo May SUMMARY: Donations are pouring in for families who lost homes and property to a tornado Saturday. The twister killed one man. By KEITH MORELLI nd NANETTE WOITA8 of The Tampa Tribune Daniel Ruth offered to those displaced by the tornado.

"A couple of truck drivers stopped by this morning to donate some cash," said the Rev. David Douglass, pastor of Summerfield Baptist Church in Riverview. The church building is serving as a clearinghouse for donated items. "They just pulled in off the road," Douglass said. "We don't think they have ever been in the community before." One woman donated the use of a tent trailer; another gave a refrigerator.

Portable storage bins have been donated, so people can collect belongings scattered across the cul-de-sac See VICTIMS, Page 2 Ginnie Carpenter picks through the remains of her house on Cowley Cove Road in Riverview after a tornado ripped it apart Saturday. A I i fvC Ir- RIVERVIEW The spirit of giving is in the air. Donations are rolling in for those who lost their mobile homes to a twister Saturday afternoon that left one man dead. And the donations go beyond the usual cash, clothes and food. Two mobile homes, a pile of furniture, appliances even some services have been ROBERT BuRKETnbune photo 'CutyouT'Own' tree lots cashing in dr.

more closely resembles the traditional fir or northern pine than the other Florida Christmas tree, the red cedar. "People were out there with their umbrellas, toughing it out," said Donna Lloyd, who has operated a Christmas tree farm west of Plant City for 10 years. Monday, growers were looking forward to another big weekend of sales before the Christmas season winds down. Lloyd and the Aliens said they expect this to be their best season ever. For growers, Christmas is the culmination of years of work, training little saplings shipped from North Florida to straighten up and look right.

Ron Allen said he fertilizes his nearly 400 trees and sprays them with pesticides and herbicides twice a year. But the semiannual pruning is the real killer. When Allen trims a tree, he's not talking about decorating. "It's aerobic," said Allen. "Sometimes I think I'm going to die if I have to do another one." Allen takes hand clippers to the See TREES, Page 5 SUMMARY: Christmas tree growers in Hillsborough County say many holiday buyers are opting to chop when they shop this year.

By SUSAN M. GREEN of The Tampa Tribune BRANDON Only God can make a tree, the saying goes. But it takes Christmas tree growers like Ron and Joyce Allen to give it the perfect do. The Aliens spend years snipping, shaping, shaking and otherwise coaxing the potentially scraggly sand pine into a lush, conical silhouette worthy of wearing lights and ribbon in front of someone's parlor window. And if the tree still doesn't look enough like its northern brethren, you can ask the Aliens to give it a dye job.

The Aliens are among a handful of Florida Christmas tree growers in Hillsborough County who say they are enjoying a banner year of sales at their 3-acre, cut-your-own tree lot off Lithia-Pinecrest Road. Despite torrential rains and tornado warnings Saturday, sales were brisk over the weekend, growers reported. The biggest seller was the sand pine, which How would Miami scam play here? You have to hand it to Miami but count your fingers afterward. When they screw up down there, they don't fool around. Apparently, over the course of the past several years, the city fathers have deftly managed to drive the city of Miami right past Third World nation status and onto a level of financial mismanagement that would be the envy of an aspiring banana republic.

And we're sweating a $160 million aquarium boondoggle with fewer visitors than a carbuncle museum. Why, a few lonely fish are but a mere bagatelle compared to Miami's misery. It now appears the overseers of Miami government successfully bungled and burgled their way into bollixing a $275 million budget and plunging the city $68 million into debt. Return on investment That's no easy accomplishment. To turn Miami into a world-class deadbeat required long hours over the course of several years concocting phony revenue projections, bloated bond ratings, raiding reserve funds to cover shortfalls, depressing property values and misleading auditors.

And then there was the really corrupt stuff, too! A few years ago, then-Hillsborough County Commissioner Joe Kotvas was convicted for accepting a $5,000 bribe in a zoning matter. At least in Miami, local officials have a higher self-regard for their larcenous tendencies and, if they are going to sell their soul to the devil, they darn well better get a return on the investment. Five grand probably wouldn't get you past a receptionist in some government offices in the Chicago of the subtropics. To date, a number of city officials have been indicted on a rich cornucopia of miscreant behavior, from former Dade County Commissioner Miller Dawkins, who has pleaded guilty to soliciting $300,000 from a city contractor; to former City Manager Cesar Odio, who is accused of taking $5,000 a month in kickbacks from an insurance company; to former city Finance Director Manohar Surana, who is charged with accepting $2,500 a month in the same insurance scam. Thurber was right Now, the city is facing the dire prospect of declaring bankruptcy.

That action could have a ripple effect on the bonding capabilities of other Florida cities, including Tampa, tainted by mere association for being in the same state as Miami although you might get an argument on that point. One way to stave off the city's creditors, some financial experts have suggested, would require some Draconian financial moves, which is good since it's always fun to use the word "Draconian" in a sentence. Massive layoffs, huge increases in fees for city services and a whopper of a bump in property taxes are among some of the financial Castor Oil remedies being bandied about to reduce Miami's $68 million debt. However, last week, when city commissioners had a chance to in- crease revenues by as much as $10 million with a garbage collection fee hike, they voted no. After all, they're up for re-election next year.

Well? Did you expect a political body stupid enough to get into a $68 million fix suddenly would become smart enough to figure a way out of it? And, you have to wonder if the Miami crisis holds lessons for communities everywhere. You have to wonder how our own pols would react in Hillsborough County if confronted with a similar debacle. You have to wonder if you really want to know the answer to that question. Maybe the Miami experience simply and sadly reaffirms James Thur-ber's old axiom about politicians, which is all too often true: "You can fool too many of the people too much of the If ROBERT BURKETribune photos Above, Ron Allen hauls two trees bought by Shara Watts, 10, and Ronald and Diane Stevens and daughter Elea, 4, check out the merchandise at Allen's farm, right. awst-j.

Sun City Center library fee plan raises dispute SUMMARY: The Sun City Center library may begin charging some non-residents $12 a year and excluding others altogether. By CINDY RUPERT of The Tampa Tribune NAACP chapters merge SUMMARY: The new Hillsborough County NAACP branch elects officers including three vice presidents during a meeting Saturday. By MICHELE DRAYTON of The Tampa Tribune TAMPA It's official. The merger of the Tampa and Plant City branches of the NAACP is complete, and officers of the new Hillsborough County branch are ready to get to work. The new Hillsborough County chapter took its first official action Saturday, electing officers to two-year terms.

The national board of the civil rights organization approved the merger in October. Ann Porter, former Tampa branch president, ran unopposed in her bid for branch president. Sam Cooper, former Plant City branch president, is first vice president. Sam Horton and Paul Matthews are second and third vice presidents, respectively. Patricia Baptiste was elected secretary and Ruby Williams was elected treasurer.

"A lot of the problems Tampa faced as a branch are the same problems that Plant City and other SeeVjAACP, Page si-- Of the library's 6,000 customers, 88 percent are community association members and 12 percent are not, said Yvonne Ponsor, who heads the volunteer library committee, which raises funds and handles library operations. "I have the feeling that some people want to put a wall around Sun City Center," Ponsor said. "I think that's bad for the community. Our committee has voted to resist it." Calling the fee proposal a "drastic" change in policy, Ponsor said that it would keep nonresidents from reading a newspaper or a magazine in the library. She also cited a potential legal problem.

Since the community association has nonprofit status, the library must be open to the public and free of charge, she said. SUN CITY CENTER -Sun City Center library volunteers are hitting the books to study how they can keep the community-operated library open to all county residents. The Sun City Center Community Association board of directors is scheduled to consider a plan Wednesday that would charge residents of nearby Kings Point, Lake Towers and Freedom Plaza $12 a year to use the library. Under the plan, Sun City Center Community Association members could continue to use the library free, but residents outside the four communities would be excluded. Current library policy allows all residents of Hillsborough County to use the library free, except fyr temporary residents, who mus't pay $3 a year.

The committee favors a plan DAVE geigert ribune photo to keep the library open to all SnOODV SOarS county residents and charge a fee to those who do not belong The Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. blimp flies high above an to the Sun City Center Commu- American flag at the Clayton Plaza shopping center on State Road 60 recently. The blimp features a picture of Snoopy the See LIBRARY, Page 2 comic strip character on its nose..