Four area hospitals are once again teaming up to raise awareness about the dangers of opioid abuse and the proper disposal of medications. Largo Medical Center, Northside Hospital, St. Petersburg General Hospital and Palms of Pasadena Hospital announced today that they are hosting the third-annual opioid take-back event on Oct. 23. The “Crush the Crisis” event coincides with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. Community members are invited to safely and anonymously dispose of unused or expired prescription medication at the event. Largo Medical Center will host “Crush the Crisis” at 1551 West Bay Drive from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. This will be a drive-through event.
The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay will perform Saturday at 6 p.m. in Vinoy Park, prior to the Florida Orchestra "Pops in the Park" concert, which starts at 7. Song sheets will be provided for the "Big Sing" event, so that audience members can participate. Free trolleys will be providing service from the Sundial parking garage to Vinoy Park approximately every 15 minutes.
The St. Pete City Council has greenlighted an incentive package for a Fortune 500 company that plans to relocate its global HQ to St. Petersburg. The company, codenamed Project Athena, would lease at least 100,000 square feet in St. Pete and bring 300 jobs that would pay an average annual wage of $120,000, according to city documents. The company can receive a financial incentive of up to $475,000. If the company meets certain conditions, it would receive an initial base incentive of $250,000, it may also receive a one-time hiring incentive up to $125,000.
On Thursday, the St. Pete City Council approved $2 million in tax increment financing (TIF) funds for the Jordan Park redevelopment project. The funds will go towards the $93.3 million revitalization project in Jordan Park, a historic African American housing development in South St. Petersburg. The project involves renovating 206 residential units and constructing 60 new units for the Senior Village.
St. Pete-based Catalina, a leader in shopper intelligence and omni-channel media solutions, has entered a partnership with advertising tech firm Amobee. California-based Amobee, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singtel, and Catalina's strategic partnership will provide advertisers with real-time insights from UPC-level transaction data. Advertisers will now be able to leverage Amobee’s in-flight optimization for CPG brands with insights from Catalina’s real-time point of sale data, the pair announced Thursday.
Following an increase of people participating in outdoor activities during the pandemic, SmartAsset.com set out to rank the best places for outdoor enthusiasts to live and work. The financial advisement website compared 95 cities across several metrics and St. Petersburg claimed the top spot in their rankings. The city ranked 13th-best for air quality and 14th-best for its percentage of parkland. St. Pete also had the 18th-best unemployment rate, and Florida's outdoor recreation economy was ranked second in the country.
The Cross-Bay Ferry will begin its fifth season Oct. 21. Passenger service between St. Petersburg and Tampa will last through May; later evening departures will be available for the first time, with final departure times from Tampa as late as 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. First departures from St. Petersburg will start at 4:45 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. on Saturdays, and 11 a.m. on Sundays. Final departures from Tampa will be at 10:45 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 7:30 p.m. on Sundays. For tickets, schedules and additional information, click here.
Ace Hardware notified the state on Oct. 1 that it plans to lay off all of its workers at the Retail Support Center at 1220 U.S. Highway 301. Ace Hardware, known as a giant corporation in the hardware retailer space, is in the process of relocating its Tampa center to a nearby location in Plant City. The Tampa location will be permanently closed. “We plan to offer equivalent opportunities to all incumbent employees at the new Plant City location in the interim,” the letter read to the state read. The first group of employees will relocate to the Plant City location in mid-December. Over 100 of the affected workers are warehouse specialists. Twenty-two managers/supervisors will be affected, along with 27 drivers and other positions.
The first head coach to lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl victory will no longer be a part of the team’s Ring of Honor. Less than 24 hours after Jon Gruden resigned from his post as head coach of the Oakland Raiders over several years-old offensive emails, the Bucs announced his removal from the Ring of Honor. In a statement, the team said the leaked emails were against their core values as an organization. Gruden finished his tenure with the Buccaneers with a 57-55 record, making him the winningest head coach in franchise history.
Brightline, an intercity rail provider based in South Florida, is now targeting a 2028 opening date for a rail service that would begin in Miami and end in Tampa. The rail operator has continuously evolved its timeline of delivering rail service between the two metros. Brightline would utilize the Orlando International Airport as the main Orlando terminus and connect to a location in Tampa, which the site of the station has not been revealed. The cost of a Brightline ticket between Miami and Orlando would be around $100. There would be a stop at Disney Springs between the two cities. From Disney, it will be an 84-mile extension to Tampa.
There will be no back-to-back trips to the World Series for Tampa Bay, as Boston eliminated the Rays from the playoffs with a 6-5 win Monday night. The Red Sox jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the third inning, though the Rays would once again battle back to tie the game in the eighth. The rally came up short, however, when Boston's Kike Hernandez hit a sacrifice fly ball to score pinch-runner Danny Santana in the ninth inning. After winning a controversial Game 3 in the 13th inning on Sunday night, Hernandez gave the Red Sox their second straight walk-off win, the first time the team has accomplished the feat since 2004. The Red Sox move on to the American League Championship Series, where they will face either the Houston Astros or the Chicago White Sox.
The Tampa Bay Lightning begin their defense of a second-straight Stanly Cup against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night. The regular-season home opener will also feature a new edition to Amalie Arena - a third championship banner. The Lightning lost several key players in the offseason but on Monday the team awarded coach Jon Cooper with a three-year extension that will keep him in Tampa Bay through 2024-2025. Cooper has spent nine years with the franchise, making him the NHL's longest-tenured coach.
