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Ernest Hooper: Hillsborough transportation initiative needs some super heroes

 
Published Oct. 19, 2015

Hillsborough's latest foray into creating a comprehensive transportation plan remains perilously close to faltering, and while time, reason and positive results from a series of investigations may help, Go Hillsborough needs a super hero boost.

Transportation Avengers may emerge from the business community just in the nick of time. Columbia Restaurants owner Richard Gonzmart and Lightning owner Jeff Vinik have expressed an interest in transportation, with Gonzmart saying he's willing to help pay for mass transit.

I'll let Gonzmart and Vinik figure out who'll be Captain America and who'll be Iron Man, but this community needs them to suit up and a few others to join them. . . .

Seen on a T-shirt: Me? Sarcastic? Never!

Seniors in Service tabbed me to deliver the keynote at its annual breakfast on Oct. 30 at the Renaissance Hotel International Plaza. Come out and salute those who grace us with dedication and awe us with wisdom. Go to seniorsinservice.org/events or contact Robin Ingles at ringles@seniorsinservice.org to purchase sponsorships and tickets! . . .

I get the honor of introducing not one, but two authors at Saturday's Times Festival of Reading at USF St. Petersburg: Dewayne Staats and Ersula Knox Odom. If you get high on intellectual stimulation, you need to be at this festival. . . .

We love to tell teachers we're entrusting them with our most precious commodity, but we pay them like we're asking them to guard a junkyard. Money isn't the only motivator, but it's time to get real. Give them support, understanding, innovation and more pay, or risk losing the most dedicated among them.

That's all I'm saying.