Only a handful of the city's neighborhoods are hooked up to the reclaimed water system and plans to expand distribution lines to other areas are years away. ...more

March 26, 2009

City officials are considering a novel approach to get more reclaimed water onto parched lawns in the drought-plagued Tampa Bay area: give it away. ...more

March 24, 2009

Lowry Park Zoo's board of directors has hired a lawyer to recoup more than $200,000 in supplies and animals the former president and CEO took from the facility, according to a city audit. ...more

March 24, 2009

The first light of dawn had yet to touch the treetops, but parents already were lining up at Kate Jackson Park in South Tampa to enroll their children in the city's summer camps. ...more

March 23, 2009

A city audit of the Lowry Park Zoo confirms that former CEO Lex Salisbury screwed up, and zoo officials are trying to recoup more than $200,000 in supplies and animals he took from the facility. ...more

March 23, 2009

Property owners in Tampa no longer will be able to water their lawns with sprinkler systems under a ban adopted Thursday by the city council. ...more

March 20, 2009

Mayor Rick Baker today announced an initiative to coordinate the city's efforts to get its share of the federal stimulus monies that are available. ...more

March 19, 2009

Is Tampa doing enough to conserve energy and reduce its carbon footprint? Determining that will be one of many tasks awaiting a new citizens task force created by Mayor Pam Iorio that over the next several months will work on implementing a new citywide energy conservation initiative with Tampa Electric Co., the city's main utility. The task force will come up with recommendations for energy conservation, renewable energy and climate-change initiatives for implementation by city officials and TECO. ...more

March 18, 2009

Residents are considering potential names for a retention pond on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard that is being fashioned into a small lake. ...more

March 18, 2009

Nearly five years ago, as ground was being broken on the Main Street Landing construction site, city officials at the time looked forward to March 2009. That's when, if all went as planned, the Community Redevelopment Agency would have happily presented a $1.25 million check to Gainesville-based developer Ken McGurn if the Mediterranean-styled commercial-residential development was significantly built out and half the units leased or sold. March 2009 has arrived, and McGurn met March 10 with City Council, which was acting in its role as CRA board. Instead of a grip-and-grin check presentation, the two sides were meeting to figure out what they might do to restore a now-strained business relationship and get the project moving again. ...more

March 18, 2009