HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Most of the people who filed into the cafeteria of Pierce Middle School for a Tuesday evening meeting brought with them a worry about future hurricanes, and they want Hillsborough County to do more to calm those fears.
Gerald Mullins is one of those people.
“Put it this way, when I was in the U.S. Air Force, if I had done my job like they’re doing their job, guess where I’d been? I’d have been in jail,” he said.
Mullins thinks his property on Thatcher Ave. in Egypt Lake-Leto flooded during last year’s storms because nearby canals and ditches were overgrown with shrugs or clogged with trash.
“If they would clean the canals, there would never be a problem,” he said.
It’s important feedback because right now, Hillsborough County is studying what went wrong during Hurricanes Helene and Milton and what drainage problems should be fixed.
In the Tuesday meeting, Commissioner Harry Cohen and other county leaders heard directly from people like Mullins who live in and around the Egypt Lake-Leto/Town ‘N’ Country area.
Seven future meetings will examine what went wrong in other neighborhoods across Hillsborough County.
“In some, it was pump stations and generators. In others, it may have been preventative maintenance,” Cohen said. “The only way that you can make intelligent spending decisions is to prioritize based on what the needs are.”
WATCH: Town 'N' Country homeowners urge county to make drainage fixes before future storms
Once the need is known, Cohen said Hillsborough County can likely use federal funds and its Community Investment Tax to start tackling the problems.
But that likely won’t happen overnight.
“We’ve had some people from the county telling us that improvement might be coming, but not ‘til like 2028. We can’t wait that long,” said Russell Habel, who lives in Town ‘N’ Country.
He and Partho Roy want faster fixes because they said their community is vulnerable until change happens.
“We need to clean out these drainage canals, culverts, and get those pumps working, and if you need more money in the budget, put more money in the budget for our district,” Roy said.
According to Cohen, the study will be complete and presented to county commissioners in June.
Here is a list of the remaining seven meetings where you can give your input:
- 6:30 p.m. April 22 -- Riverview Public Library, 9951 Balm Riverview Rd., Riverview, FL 33569
- 6 p.m. April 23 -- Carrollwood Cultural Center, 4537 Lowell Rd., Tampa, FL 33618
- 5:30 p.m. April 29 -- Plant City High School cafeteria, 1 Raider Pl., Plant City, FL 33563
- 6:30 p.m. May 7 -- Jan Kaminis Platt Regional Library, 3910 S. Manhattan Ave., Tampa, FL 33611
- 6 p.m. May 12 -- University Area Community Development Corporation, Inc., 14013 N. 22nd St., Tampa, FL 33613
- 5:30 p.m. May 15 -- Jimmie B. Keel Regional Public Library, 2902 W. Bearss Ave., Tampa, FL 33618
- 6 p.m. May 19 -- Lennard High School, 2342 E. Shell Point Rd., Ruskin, FL 33570
Residents can also provide input virtually from April 15 to May 19 at HCFL.gov/HCengage.
