NEW PORT RICHEY – Amazon will be building a large facility at the intersection of State Road 52 and Bellamy Brothers Boulevard that will provide about 500 jobs.

Pasco Economic Development Center CEO Bill Cronin told county commissioners that it was “a great day for Pasco” as he ended his presentation with the news.

The facility will be 500,000 square feet, and Cronin said it won’t be the typical sorting facility but a robotics center where local students can work on the machines that will do the work.

“These are not the low-paying jobs,” Cronin said. “This is the good stuff.”

“What a big win for Pasco County and the entire region,” said Commissioner Mike Moore.

Their job is to bring more jobs to the county so fewer people drive to Hillsborough or Pinellas to work, and this is how to do it, he added.

“Can we have more ready sites?” he asked. “What can we do as a board to assure our residents that the jobs are going to be there?”

Commission chairman Kathryn Starkey pointed out that regional traffic is increasing because so many Pasco residents take to the highways to go to work in other counties.

Commissioners were thrilled at the news, but Starkey said that there would have to be housing for the people working at the new businesses opening in Pasco County.

“All those jobs will require housing, and some of it will have to be affordable,” Starkey said. “Or they’ll go to Hernando.”

Cronin cautioned that the announced jobs won’t start until the facility is completed, and that’s expected to be at the end of the year, with a groundbreaking in February.

Moore said that the county needs to be sure it keeps land for businesses, and that’s been an issue in a county where housing needs are growing faster.

“Make sure developers are continuing to commit to those entitlements for employment,” he said. “Jobs come first. If you trade them for housing, it throws an MPUD out the window. Make sure everyone fulfills those employment entitlements.”

Starkey said more effort needs to be made to fill in areas on U.S. 41 and U.S. 19, which have blighted buildings and empty spaces that can be used for offices and housing.

TAMPA BAY, Fla — The extreme cold has sparked several counties to open cold weather shelters.

The National Weather Service has issued a Freeze Warning from 4:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. Monday morning, January 24 for Hernando, Citrus, Levy, Sumter, and inland Pasco Counties.

A freeze warning means widespread freezing temperatures are expected to occur. Sub-freezing temperatures as low as 28 are possible.

COLD WEATHER SHELTERS

HERNANDO

Men’s Shelter Women’s Shelter ‘Mary’s House’

1090 Mondon Hill Road 1163 Howell Avenue

Brooksville, FL 34605 Brooksville, FL 34601

Phone: (352) 799-2912 ext.103 Phone: (352) 799-2912 ext.109

PASCO

Pasco County is coordinating with the Coalition for the Homeless of Pasco County to open a Cold Weather Shelter on the east side of the county Sunday, January 23, 2022, for anyone needing a warm place to spend the night.

The shelter will open Sunday at 5 p.m. and close Monday, January 24 at 8 a.m.

To make sheltering arrangements, you must call the following number by 8 p.m.Sunday evening:

Coalition for the Homeless of Pasco County / (727) 842-8605, Ext. 6

SARASOTA

Sarasota County Emergency Management officials have opened a cold-weather shelter for those in need.

The Salvation Army – Center of Hope, 1400 10th St., Sarasota will conduct their normal cold weather operation plan Sunday, Jan. 23, with intake beginning at 7 p.m. Dinner will be served at 5 p.m. and breakfast will be served at 5:30 a.m.

In south county, a cold-weather shelter will open at 100 Church, 14525 Tamiami Trail, North Port at 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022. It will close the following morning.

HILLSBOROUGH

With limited capacity, Hillsborough County’s cold weather shelters program will be activated on Sunday, Jan. 23, for the homeless and those who live in homes without adequate heat.

The availability of motel vouchers will be limited because of a busy event weekend.

Important changes for this season: Congregate shelters will be at limited capacity and will comply with social distancing recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Each resident who chooses to take advantage of cold weather shelters will be screened upon entry. Residents and volunteers will be required to wear a face-covering while inside the shelter, and one will be provided if they do not have one. Meals will be served in single-serve containers.

Hillsborough County is partnering with The Portico and Amazing Love Ministries to provide limited-capacity cold weather shelters for adults.

The Portico1001 N. Florida Ave., Tampa FL, 33605Opens at 6 p.m. for adults Amazing Love Ministries3304 E. Columbus Dr., Tampa, FL, 33602Opens at 6 p.m. for adults

Metropolitan Ministries and Tampa Crossroads are supplying a limited number of single-night motel vouchers on a first-come, first-served basis. Pre-registration is required by calling the numbers below. Phone lines turned on at 9 a.m., and the deadline to call is 5 p.m.

Individuals and couples without children can call (813) 702-0850.

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Conference championship season is upon us.

Over the next few weeks, men's and women's teams across the country will compete for not only conference bragging rights but also automatic spots in NCAA regionals.

Thirty Division I men's conferences offer up AQs while 27 do so on the women's side.

Below is the schedule for AQ-eligible Division I men's and women's conference championships, along with results as each tournament finishes:

(Note: team and individual conference champions earn automatic bids into an NCAA regional.)

SWACApril 18-20, The Refuge GC, Flowood, Mississippi

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SECApril 20-24, Sea Island GC (Seaside), St. Simons Island, Georgia

BIG SOUTHApril 20-24, The Patriot GC, Ninety-Six, South Carolina

IVY LEAGUEApril 22-24, Century CC, Purchase, New York

MAACApril 22-24, Walt Disney World Resort (Magnolia), Lake Buena Vista, Florida

SOCONApril 22-24, Reynolds Lake (Oconee), Greensboro, Georgia

AMERICANApril 22-24, Southern Hills Plantation, Brooksville, Florida

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ACCApril 22-25, Watersound Club, Panama City, Florida

ATLANTIC SUNApril 24-26, University of Georgia GC, Athens, Georgia

COLONIALApril 24-26, Dataw Island (Cotton Dike), Saint Helena, South Carolina

HORIZONApril 24-26, Mission Inn Resort (Las Colinas), Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida

MISSOURI VALLEYApril 24-26, Paducah CC, Paducah, Kentucky

OHIO VALLEYApril 24-26, Dalhousie GC, Cape Girardeau, Missouri

SUN BELTApril 24-27, Mystic Creek GC, El Dorado, Arkansas

Oklahoma Golf

BIG 12April 25-27, Whispering Pines GC, Trinity, Texas

BIG EASTApril 25-27, Callaway Resort (Mountain View), Pine Mountain, Georgia

BIG SKYApril 25-27, Talking Stick Resort, Scottsdale, Arizona

PAC-12April 25-27, Aldarra GC, Sammamish, Washington

SOUTHLANDApril 25-27, Stonebridge Ranch CC, McKinney, Texas

CONFERENCE USAApril 25-28, Texarkana CC, Texarkana, Arkansas

WEST COASTApril 28-30, Reflection Bay GC, Henderson, Nevada

ATLANTIC 10April 29-May 1, Reunion Resort (Watson), Kissimmee, Florida

MOUNTAIN WESTApril 29-May 1, Gold Mountain GC, Bremerton, Washington

NORTHEASTApril 29-May 1, LPGA International (Hills), Daytona Beach, Florida

PATRIOTApril 29-May 1, Steel Club, Hellertown, Pennsylvania

WACApril 29-May 1, Boulder Creek GC, Boulder City, Nevada

BIG TENApril 29-May 1, The Pete Dye Course, French Lick, Indiana

MACApril 29-May 1, White Eagle GC, Naperville, Illinois

BIG WESTMay 1-3, La Quinta CC, La Quinta, California

SUMMITMay 1-3, Sand Creek Station, Newton, Kansas

BIG WESTApril 10-12, San Luis Obispo CC, San Luis Obispo, California

*beat Hawaii in playoff

BIG SOUTHApril 13-16, The Patriot GC, Ninety-Six, South Carolina

LSU Athletics

SECApril 13-17, Greystone GC, Birmingham, Alabama

COLONIALApril 15-17, St. James Plantation, Greensboro, North Carolina

PATRIOTApril 15-17, U.S. Naval Academy GC, Annapolis, Maryland

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ACCApril 14-17, The Reserve GC, Pawleys Island, South Carolina

AMERICANApril 17-19, Pinehurst Resort (No. 6), Pinehurst, North Carolina

SUN BELTApril 17-19, LPGA International, Daytona Beach, Florida

ATLANTIC SUNApril 17-19, Kinderlou Forest GC, Valdosta, Georgia

MISSOURI VALLEYApril 17-19, Greenbriar HIlls CC, St. Louis

OHIO VALLEYApril 17-19, RTJ Golf Trail (Fighting Joe), Muscle Shoals, Alabama

SOCONApril 17-19, Dye GC at Barefoot Resort, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Oregon Athletics

PAC-12April 18-20, Eugene CC, Eugene, Oregon

CONFERENCE USAApril 18-20, PGA National Resort (Champion), Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

BIG SKYApril 18-20, Talking Stick Resort, Scottsdale, Arizona

WACApril 18-20, Riverhill CC, Kerrville, Texas

SOUTHLANDApril 18-20, Panorama GC, Conroe, Texas

SJSU Athletics

MOUNTAIN WESTApril 18-20, Mission Hills CC, Rancho Mirage, California

NORTHEASTApril 21-23, LPGA International (Jones), Daytona Beach, Florida

BIG EASTApril 21-23, Callaway Resort (Mountain View), Pine Mountain, Georgia

BIG 12April 22-24, Houston Oaks, Hockley, Texas

MACApril 22-24, Stone Oak CC, Holland, Ohio

IVY LEAGUEApril 22-24, The Ridge at Back Brook, Ringoes, New Jersey

MAACApril 22-24, Walt Disney World Resort (Magnolia), Lake Buena Vista, Florida

BIG TENApril 22-24, TPC River's Bend, Maineville, Ohio

SUMMITApril 24-26, Sand Creek Station GC, Newton, Kansas

HORIZONApril 24-26, Mission Inn Resort (Las Colinas), Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida

The men’s conference championships got underway this week at various sites across the country, and GolfChannel.com will keep you updated as the champions are crowned.

When World Woods opened in 1994, it marked the apex of the public golf boom of the 1980s and 90s. The 36-hole complex in west-central Florida represented a golf ideal, with two diverse, evocative and affordable golf courses completely devoid of surrounding development built by the game’s top designer on land perfectly suited to the game.

The two Tom Fazio-designed courses near Brooksville, 50 minutes north of Tampa, were gorgeous, critically acclaimed and highly accessible. Pine Barrens, densely wooded with swaths of deep bunkers gashed into the site’s native sandy base, spent several years on the Golf Digest America’s 100 Greatest Courses ranking. The more pastoral Rolling Oaks, with broader holes that trundle from high to low and back through groves of moss-draped live oaks, became a mainstay on our Best in State list. Pine Barrens even hosted a televised Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf episode with Phil Mickelson and David Toms. The only thing World Woods seemed to be missing was a suitable maintenance budget that could match the course conditions to the quality of the design. In the past 20 years in particular the turf at both courses has perennially suffered.

The future, however, looks bright again with the official announcement today that the Canada-based Cabot group has acquired the property.

The new name of the development will be Cabot Citrus Farms, and it becomes the latest addition to the company’s expanding golf and real estate portfolio that also includes Cabot Cape Breton in Nova Scotia (home of Cabot Cliffs and Cabot Links, courses ranked one and six, respectively, on Golf Digest’s Best in Canada survey) and two under-construction projects, Cabot Saint Lucia and Cabot Revelstoke in British Columbia. Cabot Citrus Farms plans to begin a major, property-wide transformation this summer with the addition of a new clubhouse, cottages and villas, nature paths and a housing component. Also projected is a re-imagined practice area and a family-friendly short course in the mold of others such as The Nest at Cabot Cape Breton, The Sandbox at Sand Valley and The Cradle at Pinehurst.

More significantly, both Pine Barrens and Rolling Oaks will undergo renovations, though how comprehensive they’ll be is yet to be determined.

Ben Cowan-Dewar, Cabot founder and CEO, says he first saw World Woods about two decades ago, and over the past 10 years has been thinking seriously about the courses and ways to revive the golf.

“That land is just like an enchanted forest,” he says. “What we want to do first and foremost is to get the golf back to where it was when the place first opened.” Cabot purchased more than 1,200 acres for development, but the initial phase of the plan will be to focus attention on the roughly 500 acres that currently comprises the golf courses.

Cowan-Dewar is still mulling over who to hire to oversee the work at each course—he intends to have that decision made by the end of March. He won’t reveal who he’s considering, only that there are “a slate of people we love working with and a slate of people we’d love to work with,” and numerous architects have visited the site over the past several months and submitted their ideas.

What is clear is that there will be separate designers for each course, and that the facility will remain open for play until June before it closes for approximately 18 months while the reconstruction and additions take place. The target re-opening is December 2023.

World Woods has always possessed a unique “feel” due to its rural, sleepy location atop the ancient dune ridges that give this section of the state its surprising elevation changes and deep sandy soils. Even though Pine Barrens and Rolling Oaks sit side by side, their topographies and ecosystems are quite different. Pine Barrens is tightly routed and shrouded in pines with smaller-scale rolls and undulations. The Rolling Oaks parcel, much more open, tilts from a high point next to Pine Barrens 50 feet down to lower pastureland.

One scenario is to merely renovate and upgrade both courses as they are. Each are strong designs—Pine Barrens in particular possessing rhythmic energy and an intense motif of sand and isolation that was particularly captivating when it was built in the early 90s. Certain holes are slightly claustrophobic, particularly the weak 17th and 18th, and the par-3 third across a reflection pond is sorely out of place, but the land movements, the rugged caverns and standout moments like the par-4 eighth with a fishhook green perched over a swath of sand and the drivable par-4 15th with alternate fairways make the case for it to be flexed out and cleaned up rather than torn apart.

On the other hand, is there an even better course to be made from the Pine Barrens material? Such invigorating golf terrain and natural tree cover is a rare thing, and World Woods is perhaps too good a site not to turn over to the current generation of designers who have proven their ability to create masterpieces in sand. Rolling Oaks, at the least, seems primed for a major remodel, though the routing of the course might be too difficult to change much.

“As you can imagine, when you ask three different people what they would do they tell you three different things, and they’re all variations that range from modest to major proposals,” Cowan-Dewar says of the design input he’s heard. “That’s what we’re working through, to come up with a vision that really lets the land sing. Where we’ve had success in the past is when we let the land be the star, and here we have a special piece of property. Whatever we do will be about highlighting that.”

The rest of the undeveloped land, some 700 acres, is just as intriguing. Portions of it will be devoted to real estate, but there’s enough room for at least one future course as well. The palette will be similarly rich, with pine forests, live oak, sandy soils and 60-foot elevation changes. As good as World Woods has always been, there has always been the sense that there’s more potential to be tapped. There will be much to keep an eye on in the coming months at Cabot Citrus Farms.

They allegedly stole from puppies and kittens.

A Hernando County couple is in custody after a joint investigation by the Hernando, Pasco and Pinellas sheriff’s offices, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Secret Service found more than $1.5 million missing from the nonprofit Humane Society of the Nature Coast over the course of more than two years.

Susana Arneson, 38, and her husband, Douglas O’Berry, also 38, allegedly were part of a scheme called “Operation Heartless,” Sheriff Al Neinhuis said.

They are in custody and are being held on $750,000 each on three first-degree felonies. Each count has a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, said Bill Gadsen, state attorney for the Fifth Circuit.

Nienhuis said at a press conference Thursday morning that the board of directors of the Humane Society had noticed improprieties in a bank account that “should have had a lot more money.”

Unlike many nonprofits that are victims of thefts by employees, the Humane Society reported the theft, and that set off an investigation that is still ongoing.

“The Humane Society may not be the only victim in this kind of case,” Nienhuis said.

The sheriff said they received the case on Jan. 21 and initially found that Arneson had funneled more than $300,000 into her personal bank account, and was able to buy items, property and even a business.

Since that time, they identified more than $1.2 million as having been taken.

Arneson had begun working at the Humane Society in November 2018, Nienhuis said. In April 2020, there was a burglary at the facility, and Arneson was recorded saying through tears that whoever had stolen from the place was “heartless.” He emphasized that there does not appear to be a connection between Arneson, O’Berry and the burglar, who was arrested and sentenced to eight years in prison.

At that time, Nienhuis said, she had already taken $300,000.

Among the items Arneson and O’Berry bought were a $22,000 Seafox, a $43,000 2020 Jeep Wrangler, a house for $220,000 cash, international travel, a Dodge Ram and the Precision Tackle store on U.S. 19, south of Toucan Drive.

The couple bought the house five days after the burglary.

Arneson quit the Humane Society on Aug. 26, 2021, and opened a business called Vibes by SQ next to the tackle shop.

She had allegedly diverted $800,000 in checks to the Humane Society and even allegedly took a six-figure donation, the sheriff said.

He added that they’ve seized bank accounts and recovered assets but it’s not likely that all the money can be returned. It’s not uncommon in these cases to only recover pennies on the dollar.

Nienhuis said there still is a lot of work ahead, but he knows that the IRS filed liens against Arneson for the 2012 and 2013 tax years for about $400,000.