CHIPZ Receives $11,000 From Mayor’s Youth Council
By JOE POTTER
Several members of the Mayor’s Youth Council attended the Dec. 8 meeting of the Zephyrhills City Council during which $11,000 they raised was presented to the Community Hope and Intervention Project of Zephyrhills (CHIPZ).
Mayor Melonie Bahr Monson praised the members of the Mayor’s Youth Council for the significant amount of money the organization had raised through a BBQ Chicken Dinner that was held on Nov. 20 at East Pasco Meals on Wheels. She said it was the largest fundraiser that the Youth Council had ever held.
CHIPZ has been working with the Zephyrhills Police Department (ZPD) for nearly two years to help homeless people who live in the city. Kathy MacKenzie is CHIPZ’s coordinator.
The 70th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ historic act on Dec. 1, 1955, was then recognized through a proclamation read by Mayor Monson that was presented to some members of the Echebucsassa Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution. The proclamation said in part that on that date in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks made a courageous and transformative stand for equality by refusing to relinquish her seat on a segregated bus - an act of peaceful resistance that ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott and became a defining catalyst for the American Civil Rights Movement.
The proclamation also said in part that Parks was being recognized for the profound impact her actions have had on civil rights, civic engagement, and the ongoing advancement of American society.
The City Council also approved on its first reading a resolution regarding the City’s intent to use the uniform method for levying, collecting, and enforcing non-ad valorem stormwater utility assessments within the City’s corporate limits. This was the first necessary step in the process of being able to collect non-ad valorem stormwater utility assessments. The resolution will be sent to Pasco County. Council members were informed that this process has been started three times before, and it hasn’t gone through.
Meanwhile, a proposed ordinance to extend the temporary moratorium on the opening of new medical marijuana treatment centers within the City’s boundaries for 12 months was rejected by a 3-2 vote of the City Council on its first reading. A temporary moratorium on this, which was adopted earlier in 2025, will cease to be effective on July 23, 2026.
Finally, an easement had been granted for a shelter for the Pasco County Public Transportation (PCPT) buses on Gall Boulevard near Culver’s of Zephyrhills. The shelter will be colored blue when it is constructed instead of the usual green color that’s used by PCPT. This will be done so people will be aware that they are in Zephyrhills when they are at that shelter.
