Chipotle adds four Tampa Bay drive-thru stores
Chipotle Mexican Grill will open four Tampa Bay area restaurants this month or next, each with a drive-thru lane for picking up orders placed ahead.
The openings:
• Brooksville, 1185 S. Broad St., Wednesday, Sept. 16.
• Lithia, 16509 FishHawk Blvd., Tuesday, Sept. 22.
• Lakewood Ranch, 16680 State Road 64 E., Bradenton, Tuesday, Sept. 29.
• Land O’ Lakes area, 22820 State Road 54, Lutz, Tuesday, Oct. 20.
All four will be open 10:45 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
The lanes, which the company calls Chipotlanes, handle only orders placed in advance through the Chipotle app or website. Customers pick up their food without leaving their cars.
Each restaurant is hiring about 30 workers. Benefits include a crew bonus that gives workers a chance to earn an extra month’s pay each year, a debt-free college degree program, English as a second language classes and mental health care for employees and their families. Apply at chipotle.com/careers.
The new stores will serve Chipotle’s limited-time Pollo Asado, grilled chicken seasoned with garlic, Mexican spices, cilantro and lime, along with Chili Lime Chips.
New Chipotle Rewards members who sign up at chipotle.com/rewards get free chips and guacamole with a purchase.
Tax collector’s offices raise $7,500 for Pasco students
Pasco County Tax Collector Mike Fasano’s offices raised $7,500 this summer for a school district program that helps students whose families are struggling financially.
Donations collected at the tax collector’s five offices were split evenly among five elementary schools, with $1,500 going to each school’s ABC program. ABC stands for Assist, Believe & Care. The program pays for basics such as food and clothing when a family’s money troubles get in the way of a child’s schoolwork.
The schools are Anclote Elementary in Holiday, Richey Elementary in New Port Richey, Mary Giella Elementary in Land O’ Lakes, Quail Hollow Elementary in Wesley Chapel and Rodney B. Cox Elementary in Dade City. Fasano said the money went to the five schools most in need. Tax collector staff delivered the donations in person.
“Your support has made a meaningful impact on our students,” Mary Giella Principal Tracy Bonnett wrote in a thank-you letter to Fasano’s office.
Donations can be made online at pascotaxes.com or mailed to Tax Collector Mike Fasano, P.O. Box 276, Dade City, FL 33526. For information on the tax collector’s charitable programs, call Assistant Tax Collector Greg Giordano at 727-847-8179.
Lutz teen earns American Heritage Girls’ top award
LUTZ — Summer Lee of Lutz has earned the Stars & Stripes Award, the highest honor from American Heritage Girls, a Christian character development organization for girls ages 5 to 18.
For her service project, Lee raised nearly $10,000 in four weeks to buy, design and install a miniature replica of the Our Lady of Lourdes grotto at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church. She and her team put more than 500 hours into the project, finishing the day before Mother’s Day. The award requires a service project of at least 100 hours.
Candidates also must earn at least 16 merit badges, hold a troop leadership post for six months, earn the program’s highest level award, write an essay, gather letters of reference and pass a board of review. Lee has earned 29 badges.
She received the award July 15. Fewer than 2,000 girls worldwide have earned it, according to the organization.
Lee, a member of Troop TB-2020 in Land O’ Lakes, attends Cypress Creek High School. There she plays golf, runs track, dances in the school’s conservatory program, belongs to the National Honor Society and volunteers with Best Buddies, which pairs students with special education peers. She is also an altar server captain at her church. She has logged more than 1,820 volunteer hours over five years and received the President’s Volunteer Service Award eight times.
She will be honored at a Court of Honor ceremony at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, at Faith Baptist Church, 6300 Oakley Blvd., Wesley Chapel.
She is the daughter of Alan and Susan Lee of Lutz.
29 Pasco schools earn state behavior honors
Twenty-nine Pasco County schools have been named Florida PBIS Model Schools for the 2025-26 school year, a statewide designation for schools that stand out in managing student behavior.
PBIS, short for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, is a schoolwide approach that sets clear expectations for students, rewards good behavior and gives extra help to students who need it. Schools are rated gold, silver or bronze based on how well they carry out the program and the results they get.
Thirteen schools earned gold, three earned silver and 13 earned bronze. The district honored them at its annual PBIS Reflection and Celebration event.
Gold: Connerton Elementary, Cypress Creek Middle, Denham Oaks Elementary, James W. Mitchell High, Longleaf Elementary, Oakstead Elementary, Odessa Elementary, Pine View Middle, Seven Oaks Elementary, Seven Springs Middle, Sunlake High, Trinity Elementary and Wendell Krinn Technical High.
Silver: Kirkland Ranch Academy of Innovation, Pine View Elementary and Sand Pine Elementary.
Bronze: Charles S. Rushe Middle, Cypress Creek High, Cypress Elementary, Dr. John Long Middle, Lake Myrtle Elementary, River Ridge High, Sanders Memorial Elementary, Schrader Elementary, Seven Springs Elementary, Skybrooke K-8, Thomas E. Weightman Middle, Trinity Oaks Elementary and Wiregrass Ranch High.
Hub at Bexley sells for $28.75 million
LAND O’ LAKES — The Hub at Bexley, the restaurant and shopping center at the entrance to the Bexley community in Land O’ Lakes, has been sold to a Pennsylvania real estate investment firm for $28.75 million.
CenterSquare Investment Management of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, bought the 50,300-square-foot center from its Tampa-based developer, Center Connect Development. CenterSquare did not disclose the price. The figure comes from Pasco County property records.
The center at State Road 54 and Bexley Village Drive opened in 2023. It is fully leased, mostly to local and regional businesses, including BellaBrava, Stillwaters Tavern, Taco Bus and Trek Land O’ Lakes. It also hosts live music, fitness classes and farmers markets.
Those events set the property apart, said Patrick Camporini, CenterSquare’s vice president for retail strategy. The firm buys shopping centers filled with restaurants, salons, gyms and other businesses people have to visit in person.
“What really sets this property apart is how it doubles as a gathering space,” Camporini said.
The purchase gives CenterSquare 87 such properties nationwide.
PHSC gets $850,000 to train more nurses
NEW PORT RICHEY — Pasco-Hernando State College will use $850,000 from the state to train more nurses and other health care workers. This is the third straight year the Legislature has funded the effort.
The money goes to the college’s Institute for Nursing & Allied Health Advancement, created in 2024 to ease staffing shortages at hospitals and clinics in Pasco and Hernando counties. The state has now put about $3.1 million into the institute. That includes $1.5 million in 2024, secured by state Rep. Randy Maggard and state Sen. Danny Burgess, and $750,000 in 2025.
The college plans to expand its simulation center, where students practice on high-tech manikins, with virtual reality and with actors playing patients. The funding will also add 12 seats in the dental hygiene program, increase nursing enrollment and send 25 middle and high school students to health care career camps at no cost.
The institute’s programs train registered nurses, surgical technologists, radiographers, medical assistants and phlebotomists. The college says most finish in two years or less and go to work locally.
Pasco County has grown about 15% in five years, to roughly 650,000 residents, according to the college.
Orlando Health gave the institute $500,000 in August 2025.
Pasco mosquito helicopter joins dengue fight
The Pasco County Mosquito Control District has sent its helicopter, crews and equipment to Hillsborough County to help fight a growing outbreak of dengue, a mosquito-borne virus.
Hillsborough had 95 locally acquired cases as of Sept. 5, according to the Florida Department of Health, up from 30 in late August. The state has reported 111 locally acquired cases this year, with others in Pasco, Pinellas, Miami-Dade, Orange and Palm Beach counties. State health officials are investigating whether dengue caused the death of a Hillsborough County woman.
The Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County asked Pasco for help. The district’s helicopter is spraying larvicide to kill young mosquitoes in the small containers where they breed around homes.
Helping Hillsborough protects Pasco residents, said Adriane Rogers, the district’s executive director. People who pick up the virus there can bring it home, where local mosquitoes can spread it further. The district says it still has enough staff and equipment to cover Pasco.
The mosquito that carries dengue, Aedes aegypti, lives close to people and bites during the day as well as at night. The district asks residents to dump, drain and scrub anything that holds water at least once a week, use an EPA-registered repellent, and wear long sleeves and pants outdoors.
“Mosquito control agencies can treat mosquitoes, but we cannot eliminate every container in every backyard,” Rogers said.
Residents may see more ground and aerial spraying, day and night. Updates are at pascomosquito.org.
More Pasco storm victims now qualify for home aid
More Pasco County homeowners whose houses were damaged by hurricanes Idalia, Helene or Milton can now apply for federal money to repair, rebuild or replace them.
The county’s Better Future Individual Housing Program is now open to households earning up to 120% of the area median income, or $96,360 for one person and $137,640 for a family of four.
The program is paid for with a federal disaster recovery grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The county recently handed Dawn Buley the keys to a new manufactured home, replacing the one she lost during the 2024 hurricane season.
Apply at mypas.co/IHPApp or call 727-228-4936. The county will also meet with residents who aren’t sure whether they qualify and help those who started an application finish it. More information is at mypas.co/BetterFuture.