NOBLETON

Every foodie knows that teasing the taste buds sometimes involves leaving the beaten path. If you drive east on Lake Lindsey Road to where the Withlacoochee River runs, you'll find a little eatery whose advertising motto is "Where the elite eat in their bare feet."

Okay, the River Ratz Cafe isn't quite that casual. Yet, the shambling, rustic place does invite diners to come by canoe, car, motorcycle, bike or horse — yes, there's a hitching post out front — to experience a little bit of Old Florida.

Perched above the leisurely waterway is an array of outdoor seating scabbed together with tables, benches and chairs on several wood decks where customers can dine and watch waterfowl and other wild inhabitants of the river.

Those who find comfort in simplicity will find plenty to savor at a reasonable price. The menu runs the gamut from pressed Cuban sandwiches ($5.95) to steamed U-peel shrimp ($14.95 for a pound) to the River Ratz's famed "redneck" hamburger ($8.25) that hit the table in quick order.

River Ratz manager Debi Van Oort said that most who visit the little bar and grill tend to find the relaxed, unhurried atmosphere a nice place to unwind.

"People who come here usually are pleasantly surprised," Van Oort said. "Even if they're in a hurry, they seem to want to stay awhile."

And folks do seem to do that, especially on weekends. Sundays often draw lots of action at the cornhole game pit out back. Evenings during the cooler months find visitors drinking beer and chatting in the warmth of an outdoor fire while listening to live local bands perform on the outdoor patio stage.

The storied little eatery has experienced a slow evolution that began in the early 1990s with a tiny snack trailer that primarily served paddlers from the adjacent Nobleton Canoe Outpost. Former owners Corinne Berry and Marsha Warner made improvements and added a furnished bungalow that visitors could rent for vacations.

Lacking the financial resources to weather the economic downturn, Berry and Warner sold the venue to Plant City businessman Ferris Waller three years ago. Since then, Waller has continued to upgrade the facilities, remodeling the indoor dining area and expanding the kitchen.

While the canoe and kayak business has remained Waller's focal point, he has turned more of his attention to luring hungry customers from the nearby Withlacoochee State Trail and neighboring campgrounds. A year ago, the restaurant expanded its hours to include breakfast.

Van Oort said that while improvements and refinements will always be afoot at River Ratz, the laid-back atmosphere that customers have helped to create appears impervious to any change.

"The customers are the ones that make this a fun place to work," Van Oort said. "I wouldn't want it any other way."

Logan Neill can be reached at lneill@tampabay.com or (352) 848-1435.

RIDGE MANOR — C.J. Siller is watching the Withlacoochee River with a wary eye.

A branch of the river made an island out of his neighbor's mobile home in the last couple of days, swamping Tarzan Street in Talisman Estates, just north of the Hernando-Pasco county line. By Tuesday morning, the tea-colored water had crept beyond Siller's fence and across his driveway, ever closer to the mobile home he shares with his wife and five children.

If the water reaches a light post near the corner of the home, Siller said, he will take his family and valuables to higher ground.

"I'm a little worried," he said. "I don't want to wait until the water comes because I won't able to back a U-Haul in here without getting stuck."

Siller probably doesn't have much to worry about this time around. As the National Weather Service predicted, the Withlacoochee reached flood stage — 12 feet — at Trilby on Sunday. By Tuesday afternoon, the river was measured at 12.27 feet.

That level of water typically results in minor flooding of areas including Lacoochee, Talisman Estates, Riverdale, River Heights Estates and Nobleton.

Due to small chances of rain over the next few days, the river was not expected to rise much more, if at all, and will likely fall below flood stage by early Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

"We're not expecting anything worse than what (residents) are currently seeing," said forecaster Tyler Fleming.

There were no reports of flooded homes by Tuesday afternoon, said Hernando County emergency management director Cecilia Patella. The river was lapping at the stilts of some homes, though, and had almost swallowed Riverdale's community park.

Heavy rains from tropical storms Debby and Isaac helped etch another notch in the history books for the Withlacoochee, a river prone to drastic fluctuations, depending on weather patterns: Sunday marked the first time the river has hit flood stage since summer 2004, the year of hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.

On Sept. 29 of that year, the river crested at 16.55 feet. Flooding is considered "moderate" between 14.2 feet and 16.5 feet and "major" beyond that.

Eight years is long enough for even longtime residents to become complacent, and for many new residents to move into the area without firsthand knowledge of how quickly the Withlacoochee can rise, Patella said.

Now the river is swollen again and residents need to be vigilant in the coming weeks, she said. Another hurricane, tropical storm, or even several days of heavy rains over the Green Swamp, where the river begins, could result in more serious flooding.

"I would encourage everyone to watch it, at least until we get out of rainy season," Patella said.

Patrick Coney, who lives next door to Siller on Tarzan Street, was hoping to mark the latest flood down as merely a close call. By Tuesday, Coney had to wade to and from his house, the water just two steps below his front door.

"When it gets up to the second step, it's time we start getting stuff up off the floor," he said. "It's time for us to go when it starts easing through the door."

The river isn't the only cause for concern in the low-lying areas of eastern Hernando County. Lakes and ponds that dried up during the drought in recent years are making a comeback.

When William and Lorie Richard bought their single-wide mobile home near the corner of Reynolds Street and Barth Road in January, a nearby pond spanned just 50 feet across and was completely dry a few months later.

Now a full-fledged lake has drowned their fire pit and is seeping toward the corner of their home.

On Tuesday, the Richards were moving some of their valuables to their storage and travel trailers sitting on higher ground.

"We're just going with that good ol' common sense," Lorie Richard said.

Many residents chose to prepare ahead of Isaac, hauling away about 2,400 sandbags from the Ridge Manor Community Center, said center board member John Shoppa.

"Now people have stopped coming to get them," Shoppa said.

Though the county ran out of sand and sandbags at one point after Tropical Storm Debby, the supply has been replenished. The center is at 34240 Cortez Blvd.

Information from Bay News 9 is included in this report. Tony Marrero can be reached at tmarrero@tampabay.com or (352) 848-1431.

The United States Postal Service has temporarily suspended delivery and retail operations in parts of Florida as Hurricane Ian bears down on the state.

USPS announced Tuesday night that it was stopping services in Southwest and Central Florida until further notice. The hurricane was expected to make landfall in Florida sometime Wednesday along the state's Gulf coast.

The move means more than 200 post office locations will be closed.

Hurricane Ian:Locals await Hurricane Ian at Fort Myers Beach tiki bar

AND:Hurricane Ian: Fort Myers is on 'the bad side' of Hurricane Ian, NWS meteorologist says

Cities with offices closed are in: Alturas, Alva, Apollo Beach, Anna Maria, Arcadia, Aripeka, Auburndale, Avon Park, Babson Park, Balm, Bartow, Bay Pines, Bloomingdale, Brandon, Boca Grande, Bokeelia, Bonita Springs, Bowling Green, Braden River, Bradenton, Bradenton Beach, Bradley, Brandon, Brooksville, Bushnell, Cape Coral, Captiva, Carrollwood, Center Hill, Chokoloskee, Clearwater, Coleman, Commerce, Cortez, Crystal Beach, Crystal Springs, Dade City, Davenport, Dover, Dundee, Dunedin, Durant, Eagle Lake, East Naples, Eaton Park, Ehrlich, Elfers, Ellenton, Embassy Crossing, Englewood, Estero, Euclid, Everglades City, Falkenburg, Felda, Florence Villa, Forest Hills, Fort Meade, Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, Fort Ogden, Frostproof, Gibsonton, Glengarry, Golden Gate, Goodland, Gulf Gate, Gulfwinds, Haines City, High Point, Highland City, Hilldale, Homeland, Hudson, Immokalee, Indian Rocks Beach, Intercession City, Istachatta, Kathleen, LaBelle, Lacoochee, Lake Alfred, Lake Hamilton, Lake Panasoffkee, Lake Placid, Lake Wales, Lakeland, Lakewood Ranch, Land o' Lakes, Largo, Laurel, Lehigh Acres, Lithia, Longboat Key, Lorida, Loughman, Lutz, MacDFill Air Force Base, Madeira Beach, Mango, Marco Island, Mulberry, Murdock, Myakka City, Naples, New Port Richey, New Tampa, Nichols, Nobleton, Nocatee, Nokomis, North Fort Myers, Ochopee, Odessa, Oldsmar, Ona, Oneco, Osprey, Ozona, Palm Harbor, Palmdale, Palmetto, Parrish, Pineland, Pinellas Park, Placida, Plant City, Polk City, Port Charlotte, Port Richey, Punta Gorda, Riverview, Ruskin, Safety Harbor, Saint James City, Saint Leo, St. Petersburg, St. Pete Beach, San Antonio, Sanibel, Sarasota, Sebring, Seffner, Sulphur Springs, Sumterville, Sun City, Sun City Center, Sydney, Tallavast, Tampa, Tarpon Springs, Terra Ceia, Thonotosassa, Tice, Trilby, Valrico, Venice, Venus, Wauchula, Waverly, Webster, West Tampa, Wimauma, Winter Haven, Ybor City, Zephyrhills and Zolfo Springs.

"The Postal Service appreciates its customers and their understanding as we temporarily adjust operations due to inclement weather," USPS said in an emailed news release Tuesday night.

"We will continue to monitor tropical weather conditions and well restore service when it is safe to do so."

Some of the most popular stories of the week

County residents prepared for hurricane that missed us

At the beginning of the week, Citrus County residents prepared as Hurricane Ian seemed to be headed to the Nature Coast. People boarded up windows, bought cases of water and rolls of toilet paper, barricaded their houses with sandbags, some evacuated their homes ahead of a projected storm surge.

But like Hurricane Charley in 2004, the hurricane that was supposed to be “ours” stayed to the south and instead decimated counties below us.

Citrus County Sheriff’s Office deputies tallied over a dozen road closures and blockages from downed trees and power lines Thursday morning, Sept. 29, after Ian skirted by overnight, hitting the county from the east with wind gusts of around 40 mph.

No storm-related injuries or deaths were reported, according to the sheriff’s office.

Sheriff’s office Captain Troy Hess, Citrus County’s interim emergency management director, said the county was “extremely blessed” thanks in part to the coordination of its people and government entities.

Inverness subdivision could see bad roads fixed

For years, people who live in the Inverness Village Unit 4 subdivision have endured some of the worst roads in Citrus County.

The process to improve those roads is underway.

An Orlando attorney, representing a property owner, has filed a petition with the county to initiate the Municipal Service Benefit Unit (MSBU) process. The affected area is roughly between Independence Boulevard and Arlington Street.

Under an MSBU, the entire cost of paving the road is borne by property owners. That includes all engineering and surveying fees, materials and labor.

The roads in Inverness Village are not county owned so they are not maintained by regular grading or drainage clearing.

County Administrator Randy Oliver met with homeowners of Inverness Village Unit 4 to update them about the MSBU petition and assured them the condition of the roads will not prevent emergency vehicles from accessing the subdivision in emergencies.

Right Rudder COO announces 'huge' economic coup for county

The Inverness Airport will soon be the home of 29 new state-of-the-art aircraft as part of a joint partnership between Right Rudder Aviation and Arizona-based Mesa Airlines.

And that partnership is not only an economic coup for Inverness and the entire county but is sure to put Citrus on the national map and help relieve the existing pilot shortage, according to Right Rudder’s chief operating officer Andrew Chan.

Mesa selected the Inverness Airport to not only house the new Pipistrel planes but also to operate them starting in October, with expansion to Arizona over the next year.

The new fleet will be the backbone of the Mesa Pilot Development Program (MPD), a major initiative to close the pilot shortage gap that has been affecting the industry over the last several years.

As part of the program, pilots will be provided with the opportunity to accumulate up to 1,500 flight hours required to fly a commercial aircraft at Mesa Airlines.

At full strength, the fleet will have capacity for up to 2,000 daily hours of flying time and is expected to train more than 1,000 pilots per year – right here in Inverness.

“That means Mesa will recruit cadets who will come to Inverness, stay for about six months,” Chan said.

Figuring between four to eight cadets per airplane, that means around 200 people will be traveling to Citrus County every six months, renting homes or staying in hotels and spending money during their time here. It also means Right Rudder will be hiring new staff to meet the needs of this new program, another economic spurt, Chan said.

County to offer administrator contract to Steve Howard of Georgia

And then there was one as county commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to negotiate a contract with Steve Howard as new county administrator.

Howard is currently the county administrator in Camden County, Georgia – a post he’s held for 15 years.

If talks fail, commissioners will negotiate with their second choice: Tobey Phillips, assistant county administrator in Hernando County and long-time Citrus Countian.

Howard was praised for his strategic plan expertise, economic development contacts and longevity (15 years) in government.

Current administrator Randy Oliver is retiring after seven years with Citrus County. His last day is Nov. 8 and he plans to be around long enough to help in the transition.

Hot topic of the week: Hurricane Ian was THE central topic of everyone’s conversation this week, from the “must have” hurricane snacks to the serious concerns about potential storm surge.

Culled from this past week’s Chronicle stories and Facebook page, here’s what some said:

Quote of the week: “You can’t take anything for granted ... we’re extremely blessed.” — Captain Troy Hess, Citrus County interim emergency management director, about Citrus County being spared Hurricane Ian’s wrath,

Good news item of the week: Crystal River has painted manatees, Ocala has its horses, Cincinnati, Ohio, has painted pigs, and Inverness is about to get bicycles as its city-wide public arts project. Six local artists are each in the process of creating a bicycle made of materials of their own choosing to be displayed outdoors for a year throughout Inverness.

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Hillary Sanford is the first female to become a driver engineer and fire captain in the history of the Brooksville Fire Department.

In her 11 years with the department, she has created several community fire and safety programs -- including the Firehouse birthday Party Program which allows families to have birthdays at the fire station for free. She also hosts all school visits.

“I go beyond my normal duties by reaching out to the community. It’s my job to put a face to what a firefighter is supposed to be,” Sanford said.

Hillary started as a reserve firefighter. Her promotions to captain are a reward for her hard work. Last month, her dreams for a future within the department came crashing down.

“This is what I’ve spent my entire adult life preparing for, working towards, obtaining certifications to progress and move up the chain... and they took it all away from me in a matter of minutes," Sanford said.

According to documents Sanford showed us, she was fired for getting what’s known as a “Refusal of Care” document. This is the document signed by a patient who refuses to get taken by ambulance to the hospital, even though it's available.

Sanford said she could have lost her EMT license if she didn’t get that document signed.

“We work under a medical director that oversees the Brooksville Fire Department as well as Hernando County Fire Rescue. It is protocol that we are to get a Refusal of Care form on these we run on. In this case, the patient didn’t want to go to the hospital. I followed protocol to a T. "

But in October, Brooksville Fire Chief David Freda announced a new protocol which stated a Brooksville firefighter could only get a Refusal of Care form if the Hernando Fire Department wasn’t there.

In this case, the Hernando Fire Department was there. The two agencies respond to most calls together.

“I thought that what I did was exactly what he wanted me to do. I was freeing up an advanced life support unit for the next call that would come into the city,” said Sanford.

The chief disagreed and fired Sanford. Sanford said out of the 11 years she’s been with the department, this was her first disciplinary action.

She took the case to the city manager, who upheld the decision. One of the reasons cited was that Sanford "intentionally violated an administrative order."

Now, she’s filing a wrongful termination case, and the community is helping pay her legal fees through a GoFundMe page.

“I think it's testament to what I’ve done in the community. They wouldn’t be showing support for someone who hasn’t been out there and that they know personally,” Sanford said.

Sanford said she was up for a promotion and planned on applying for next district fire chief in June.

We reached out to both the fire chief and the city manager, and neither returned our calls.

In addition to the GoFundMe page, members of the community have put together a fundraiser for Sanford at the Riverside Restaurant at 29250 Lake Lindsey Rd. in Nobleton, Florida.

It will be held on Sunday, May 22 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Members of the community are asked to wear lime green, which is the same color as the shirts made supporting Sanford.

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