The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 95

rm XKDBBN SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1 5 2 0 0 3 PASCO COUNTY, FLORIDA TBO.com iE PASCO Note To Readers Today's Pasco Tri- bune is divided into i two parts, with the I second section beginning on Page 13 I with Pasco Scene. Penny Position State Rep. Ken Lit-tlefield knows supporting a penny sales tax won't be popular with some Republicans. DETAILS, Page 2 Fun For Rent Many canoe trips on the Withlacoochee River begin at Bob Meers' Nobleton Canoe Outpost DETAILS, Sports, Page 23 -M-Y Vi m) i TOM JACKSON Columnist tjacksontampatrib.com Doc Campaigns For Shocking Solution Artists' Paperwork AYONET POINT While the romantics among us have i had thoughts, in recent days, concentrated on Ruger, owned by the K-9 Forensics Recovery Team's trainer, Mary Peter, shows off his olfactory skills during a drill Friday in Brooksviile. A 7i Jf N0S6S li lie xqiif Deafh A retired couple bring the complicated, whimsical art of origami to a new generation By GEOFF FOX gfoxtampatrib.com WESLEY CHAPEL Bill Johnson laughed as the fluttering yellow "whirlybird" flapped around his living room.

Even after making thousands of origami pieces, the whimsy of a paper "bird" attached to a straw was still entertainment to the 78-year-old retired artist "Kids love the whirlybirds," Bill said. Barbara, Bill's wife of 52 years, watched as he waved the whirlybird in figure eights. This spring, like most springs, Bill will spend much of his spare time teaching children how to make origami at libraries and elementary schools from New Tampa to Brandon to Seminole Heights to Ybor City. Barbara, also a retired artist, goes along to help teach the basics. Although origami can be complicated, the Johnsons mainly teach children how to make simpler objects such as paper cups and nesting birds.

When he is teaching, some say the North Carolina native adopts a disposition that makes Mister Rogers seem like an angry codger. "He's so patient, and you have to be," said Priscilla Lakus, a children's librarian for the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System. "One day, he must have had more than 50 people, kids and their parents, sitting around a meeting room. He went to all of them who asked questions. He's just wonderful, and they all enjoyed it." When Bill teaches origami, he brings all the supplies and gives children bags so they can take home their creations.

One of the most popular animals is a tiny frog that leaps when its back is pressed, Lakus said. For several years, the couple also have taught origami classes at Disney's Vera Beach Resort. "We do that as needed," said Barbara, a New Jersey native. "In the summer, there are a lot of kids there, and spring break. They like to offer something different, and we're something different" See ARTISTS PAPERWORK, Page Couple met at art school in 1947.

A TEAM OF VOLUNTEERS FILLS INVESTIGATIVE VOID By CANDACE I. SAMOLINSKI csamolinskltampatrib.com BROOKSVILLE Recent warnings about possible terrorists attacks on malls and apartments have renewed fears about mass casualties on American soil. If the worst happened in Florida, would law enforcement agencies have the tools to find the remains of those killed? The simple answer: no. Most agencies have police dogs on staff capable of sniffing out drugs and tracking down lost people or criminals. Few, if any, have dogs trained in finding human remains, said Pasco County sheriffs Deputy Troy Fergueson, who leads the agency's Homeland Security Unit.

"It's an expensive and complex process to train dogs for this task," he said. "Most agencies are just trying to get funding for the basics like community policing, patrol and investigations. This is a luxury they can't afford." Until recently, detectives have relied on ground-penetrating ra-! dar equipment, usually supplied See FORENSIC CANINES, Page 2 Team doesn't charge for its services. hearts, hearts always are on the mind of Rao Musunuru, Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point's distinguished gentleman of cardiology. Not for Musunuru are the seasonal hearts of chocolate, or those cut from construction paper and decorated with lacy doilies and glitter.

Although his attraction is partlyphilosophical "The heart," he says in a voice that retains the melodic lilt of his southern India upbringing 35 years after he emigrated for stateside medical training, "is the heart: 'heart of the matter'heartofgold'" heis more interested in the heart as the center of life. Long before medical offices had complex, expensive machines that could detect the faintest whisper of infirmity, doctors of the heart were trained to deduce murmurs, flutters, clogs and other troubles with --their senses. The mysteries of no other human system are equally susceptible to the detective work of expert eyes, ears and fingers. Cardiologists gather clues from pale faces, clammy, cold hands, shortness of breath and dizziness. With a listen, they can tell which valve has the murmur, which chamber is threatened by a blockage.

"It's hands-on," says Musunuru. After 30 years in medicine, and despite astonishing technological advances, he trusts the most what he can see, hear and feel, a faith that lends him an almost mystical quality among his peers. Small wonder he seems as much Pied Piper as physician. For his annual Heart Foundation seminar at Innisbrook, open to the first 1,000 applicants, Musunuru will return a nearly equal number of registration forms and checks. The Preacher Wore A Stethoscope But Musunuru is more than a heart doctor.

He is a man of heart Which helps to explain how he at last became president of the Florida chapterof the American Heart Association, adding to a breathtaking resume" of volunteer chairmanships and directorships too numerous to list Tall, angular and kinetic at 54, if Musunuru is not making rounds at Regional Medical, he's making rounds of civic clubs, homeowners association meetings and, rumor has it, busy street corners to preach the virtues of heart health. Take 100 adults, he says, who have no reason by virtue of symptoms, lifestyle or family history to believe they have heart trouble. Within five years, four of them will have significant heart events. Two of them will die. "Their first symptom will be their last symptom," Musunuru says chillingly.

"You think you don't have a problem? I have news for you." With leadership of the state's heart association as his launching pad, Musunuru also accepted the post of honorary chairman of the 2003 Pasco-Hernando Heart Ball, set for May 10 at Saddlebrook Resort, (727) 848-8924. The highlight of the job is getting to ask folks for extraordinary amounts of money. In the process, the man who can't say no is learning that generosity is a two-way street: No one he has asked has given less than double what Musunuru sought. Life-Saving Ambition As usual, Musunuru has a plan. Mobile defibrillators devices that shock stopped or sputtering hearts into useful rhythm are popping up everywhere, from malls and golf courses to airports and airliners themselves.

The heart doc thinks the automated external Set JACKSON COLUMN, Page 2 Minutes count for heart patients. ,9 Tribune photo by SCOTT ISKOW1TZ Several of Bill Johnson's origami works hang throughout the couple's home in Wesley Chapel Dogs, frogs and pigs are among the animals he can make. Ridgewood Coach Goes For No. 400 Church Lot Could Be Split By County Rules By ANDY STAPLES astaplestampatrib.com NEW PORT RICHEY Ridgewood High School baseball coach Larry Beets remembers the young left-handed pitcher. Even though his fellow hurlers had long since left the field, the southpaw would pound a groove into the warning track as he ran sprint after sprint.

Beets, then a second baseman at il" 'i-i i lrr'" ,,2 Anders on the southeast corner of State Road 54 and Bruce Lane. Scott said trees, which are required on 10 landscaped islands spread through the small parking lot, could block drivers' views and endanger his 250-member congregation. He proposes four landscaped islands along the perimeter of the parking lot. Citing concerns about setting a precedent for parking lots to come, Pasco's Development Review Committee rejected the church's request Feb. 6 for a variance from landscaping rules.

"The idea was to break up that look of giant pieces of asphalt," said Michael Nurren-brock, who serves on the committee of top county administrators. "What's to stop the one that is twice the size?" The church plans to appeal to the county commission. Reftorter Andy Reld can be reached at (813) 948-4201. ByANDYREID areidtampatrib.com WESLEY CHAPEL To avoid a sea of asphalt, Pasco County wants a Wesley Chapel church to part its parking lot. The First Baptist Church of Wesley Chapel built a 56-space parking lot without the landscaped islands the county requires.

County officials contend trimming landscaping requirements for the church sets a precedent for new shopping centers and car dealerships looking for exemptions from rules intended to avoid acres of uninterrupted asphalt. But Pastor Frank Scott said his church shouldn't have to cut into its parking lot to follow a rule intended for larger neighbors. "We don't believe a small church should be held to the same standard as a Wal-Mart," Scott said. The new parking lot was part of a renovation at the church Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, knew that work ethic would make the pitcher great More than 30 years later, that pitcher is Beets' boss. Besides being the Ridgewood High athletic director, Gary Anders also is the winningest boys basketball coach in Pasco County history.

At 5:30 p.m. today, Anders, 50, will try for his 400th win as he leads his Class 4A No. 4 Rams (24-1) See WINNING COACH, Page Anders; The season 's more important. Tribune photo by CI IMSTINE DcLESSIO Pastor Frank Scott doesn't think the First Baptist Church of Wesley Chapel should have to bust up its S6-space parking lot to install islands of landscaping Pasco County requires..