Rep. Kathy Castor will remain as the head of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis in the next session of Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reappointed Castor, a Tampa Democrat, to the top committee role for the 117th Congress, which will convene on Jan. 3. Castor has led the committee for the past two years. In June, the panel unveiled a climate crisis action plan. In the upcoming congressional session, the committee will work with Pelosi and the Biden-Harris administration to turn the plan into a reality, Castor said in a statement.
Largo Medical Center was awarded an 'A' in the fall 2020 Leapfrog Hospital Safety grade, a national distinction recognizing the hospital's achievements in protecting patients from harm and providing safer care. The Leapfrog Group, an independent watchdog organization committed to health care quality, assigns letter grades to all general hospitals across the country and updates the grades every six months. Developed under the guidance of a national panel of experts, the organization uses up to 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals. The methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.
The Florida Department of Health reported another 365 cases of Covid-19 Monday and four new deaths, bringing the county’s total to 955 since the start of the pandemic. As of Monday, the county now has 38,118 positive cases and a rolling two-week positivity rate of 6.76 percent, with a 7.28 percent positivity rate reported Sunday. Statewide, more than 1.13 million cases of the virus have been diagnosed since March, along with 20,003 deaths. The St. Pete Catalyst has a daily update on total cases by ZIP code, which you can find here.
Pinellas County wants to determine how vulnerable the community is to a major disaster, one that could cause massive-scale reconstruction of buildings and infrastructure. The county has launched a disaster recovery survey for residents and business owners; click here to access it. The survey is a part of the county’s post-disaster redevelopment planning efforts, supported by a recent $75,000 resilience planning grant awarded by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The grant also is being used to evaluate the county’s Comprehensive Plan’s Coastal Management Element to identify policies that help address flood.
More than 1,000 newly confirmed cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Pinellas County in the past two days. The Florida Department of Health reported 536 new cases in Pinellas on Friday, one day after the health department reported 543 new cases in Pinellas. Through the end of day Friday, there's been a cumulative total of 36,962 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Pinellas County since the state began reporting on the pandemic in March. A total of 943 deaths in Pinellas have been attributed to the virus since March, including one new death reported on Friday. The positivity rate, or percent of Covid-19 tests with a positive result, was 7.4 percent on Thursday, the last day for which results are available, and have averaged 6.65 percent over the past two weeks. As of noon Saturday, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration said 198 people were hospitalized in Pinellas County with a primary diagnosis of Covid-19. Just over 31 percent of the hospital beds and 19 percent of the adult intensive care beds in the county remain available.
The St. Petersburg City Council agreed to amend a development agreement, allowing a skilled nursing facility to be larger than originally planned. The Council on Thursday voted to allow American House St. Petersburg to add 15,000 square feet to the project at 9th Avenue and 66th Street North, to accommodate greater separation and isolation standards to treat patients with Covid-19. The city's Community Planning and Preservation Commission voted for the change last month, as the St. Pete Catalyst previously reported. Read more about it here. Separately, the City Council voted to add the former Glenoak Elementary School as a local historic landmark to the St. Petersburg Register of Historic Places. The building, at 1900 12th St. S., is being turned into affordable apartments for veterans. Read an earlier report in the Catalyst about the project here.
A new body worn camera program is underway in the St. Petersburg Police department. The first squads began training in the past week, and the first officers with cameras were on the streets Friday. It will take four to six weeks to get all the officers through the training and issued a camera, a news release said. There also will be in-car cameras in 360 patrol cars by the end of 2021. In October, the St. Petersburg City Council approved a five-year, $6.75 million contract with Axon Enterprises, which is supplying the cameras, all associated hardware and unlimited storage of case recordings on a digital evidence management system.
A new appraisal on 44 acres of undeveloped land in North Pinellas County positions the county government and city of Dunedin officials to resume negotiations to acquire the property. The local governments this week received certified appraisals for the Gladys Douglas-Hackworth property in the range of between $5.52 million to $5.55 million, according to a news release from the county. With the appraisals now completed, a meeting with representatives for the estate will take place next week to resume negotiations, the news release said. County and city officials also said they will submit a joint application next week to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for a Florida Communities Trust state grant. They hope that the grant, coupled with an ongoing community fundraising effort, would contribute toward the final acquisition and environmental restoration costs for the property, located on the northeast corner of Virginia Avenue and Keene Road.
Melissa Seixas is ending a three-year term as chair of the board of directors of the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership. Seixas, vice president, Florida government and community relations at Duke Energy Corp., chaired her final Downtown Partnership meeting Thursday. She will be succeeded by Derek Houston, partner and cofounder at Houston Taylor Law in St. Petersburg. Seixas was the first female chair of the Downtown Partnership. During her chairmanship, the Downtown Partnership hired Jason Mathis as CEO in 2018. The organization also grew its membership and its board. "With your vision and hard work we think we've been able to position ourselves very well for the immediate future, to be able to give the thoughtful input our downtown needed That was all part of your vision and plan, the first step being getting Jason here, which has been a great fit," Houston said.
Forward Pinellas has launched an interactive virtual comment board where residents and visitors can share their vision for the future of transportation in downtown St. Pete. This is part of the Downtown St. Petersburg Mobility Survey where residents and visitors weighed in on improving transportation downtown. Through the website and comment board, people can also ask questions and stay updated on ways they can help improve mobility, livability and economic vitality while identifying and prioritizing transportation projects – large and small – throughout the study.
The City of St. Petersburg has adopted an ordinance to allow for an additional homestead exemption on property taxes for low-income seniors who maintain long-term residency at their property in St. Pete. St. Pete will now be the third municipality in Pinellas County to allow this additional exemption that will significantly help eligible residents afford to remain in their current homes. Residents can now apply with the Pinellas County Property Appraiser at pcpao.org for tax year beginning Jan. 1, 2021. The application deadline is March 1 for the tax year in which the applicant wants to qualify. For more details, click here.
The Florida Department of Health reported 543 new cases of Covid-19 in Pinellas County Thursday. There's now a cumulative total of 36,426 confirmed cases in Pinellas since March, when the state began reporting on the pandemic. A total of 942 people in Pinellas have died as a result of the virus, according to the health department, including one new death reported Thursday. The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration said 220 people were hospitalized in Pinellas County Thursday afternoon with a primary diagnosis of Covid, an increase from the 213 people hospitalized on Wednesday with Covid. About 27 percent of the hospital beds in the county remain available. The positivity rate - or percent of people who take a Covid test and test positive - was 6.95 percent on Wednesday and has averaged 6.4 percent over the past two weeks.
