Thirteen candidates who want to represent you on Hillsborough County's Board of County Commissioners were invited to introduce themselves here on Sticks of Fire. Not all of them have taken advantage.
Located on the southeast edge of St. Petersburg, Tropical Shores is a beautiful waterfront community consisting of 216 homes. And the latest hangout of Tampa Bay’s favorite elusive monkey. the creature sidled through an open screen door and swung onto a tree in the pool enclosure… the monkey “freaked out” a bit before he found his way [...]
Holy CRAP! It was so cold this winter, I forgot all about my annual self-congratulatory anniversary blog post! Sticks of Fire turned six years old on February 6 – a month and a half ago! There have been nearly 5,000 posts on Sticks since we started, and almost 25,000 approved (non-spam) comments. We’ve gone through more than [...]
Meteorologists and other weather geeks are all confirming what we already knew – it got freakin’ COLD! St. Petersburg: The average temperature was 56.9 degrees, the coldest in 96 years of tracking. The next coldest year, by a fraction of a degree, was 1940. Tampa: The average was 55.6 degrees. Only 1978 was colder in 120 years [...]
It seems that the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office has recently updated their website while jumping on the self-publishing bandwagon, and even has a HCSO YouTube channel. They have posted Public Service Announcements (PSAs) for gang activity, locking your car, and playing safe, as well as profiles of the SWAT team, dive team and the [...]
We often complain about the lack of pedestrian safety here in the Bay area. But it doesn’t do much good. After we learned that Tampa Bay ranks second in pedestrian danger, and we noticed that the top four most dangerous places are in Florida, USA Today breaks out a state-by-state graphic with an unsurprising headline: Florida remains the [...]
You’ll remember that cold spell in January. It caused lots of problems, especially out in eastern Hillsborough County. Farmers used over ten billion gallons of water to save their crops. This led to residents’ wells running dry and some serious sinkhole activity. Nearly 750 people reported dry or damaged wells after the cold snap. And as [...]
The search is beginning for talented teen musicians to compete in the 13th Annual Teenage Battle of the Bands hosted by the Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department (PRC). The event is usually held in early November at the Hillsborough County Fair. The bands are judged on guitars, drums, vocals, showmanship, originality and preparation. [...]
The most ambitious desalination project in the U.S. is in the works on the Flagler County coastline. The plant, called Coquina Coast, is part of a push to find alternative water sources, to protect the aquifer where much of Florida’s east coast gets most of its water. Recently, the DeLand-Deltona Beacon interviewed Tampa Bay Water Operations Manager [...]
