Your water bill goes up $9.31 on October 1

Good morning, East of Tampa family.

Your water bill goes up on October 1. About $9.31 a month for a typical household, and it is the first bill attached to a $2.44 billion county capital program. The arithmetic is below.

The weekend is also going to be the driest one since spring. Rain chances fall from 40% today to 5% by Saturday, and Saturday night gets down to 68 degrees. First weekend in months you can sit outside after dark and enjoy it.

Fix It Today Plumbing makes a promise that sounds small right up until the night you need it. You get the full quote before anybody touches a wrench, and there is no overtime charge.

They are a family-owned, licensed Florida plumbing contractor based in Brandon, license CFC055692, with more than two decades of combined construction and plumbing experience behind them. Emergency plumbing, drain cleaning, water heaters, leak detection, sewer lines, repiping, water filtration and sump pumps, across Brandon, Riverview, FishHawk, Valrico and the rest of Tampa Bay.

Photo: Fix It Today Plumbing

Here is why the flat rate matters. Most plumbing calls do not happen at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday. They happen at 9 p.m., or on a Sunday, which is exactly when a lot of companies start the clock differently. Fix It Today quotes the job, not the hour, and finances through Affirm if the number comes back bigger than the week allows. They are Brandon Riverview Chamber members, same as a lot of you.

So if there is something you have been listening to for a month, a running toilet, a slow drain, a water heater making a noise it did not used to make, this is the week to have it looked at. Much cheaper now than at 9 p.m. on a Saturday.

Call 813-743-7793, or book a service call at thefixittoday.com.

The pattern changes Thursday night. Today and tomorrow are ordinary late-September afternoons with storms after lunch. Then a northeast wind arrives and shuts the rain off for the whole weekend.

⛈️ Wednesday: High of 91 and a 40% chance of storms after 2 p.m. Heat index to 102, so the morning is the usable part of the day.

🌦️ Thursday: High of 91 and 30%. Same shape, a little less of it.

☀️ Friday: High of 90 and only 15%. Football weather.

🌤️ Saturday: High of 89 and 5%. Overnight low of 68.

☀️ Sunday: High of 88 and 5%.

No advisories anywhere in inland Hillsborough, and nothing in the tropics pointed at Florida.

Winthrop Restaurant Week runs through Sunday. Eight restaurants in one walkable block in Riverview, each running a menu you can only get this week, plus giveaways and gift card prizes. Acropolis, Cali, Cappy's, Donovan's Meatery, Himes Breakfast House, Longshots, Tutto Tavola and The Patio, which just opened. Winthrop Town Centre, 11135 Winthrop Market Street. Free to walk in, and the menus are posted here. Reservations are a good idea anywhere that takes them.

Photo: Winthrop Town Centre

Photo: Winthrop Town Centre

Dog Tales with Rhea is today. Rhea is a very patient dog, and the deal is that kids read out loud to her, which turns out to be an effective trick on a reluctant reader. Wednesday, 3 to 4 p.m., free, no registration, in the children's area at Bruton Memorial Library, 302 McLendon Street in Plant City.

Dear Dolly is Friday, and the date is the joke. A Dolly Parton party on 9 to 5, with crafts, music and snacks. All ages. Friday, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., free, in the Moody Community Meeting Room at Bruton Memorial Library in Plant City.

Legends of Johnny Appleseed, Saturday morning. Storyteller Katie Adams brings hand-carved puppets, a story quilt and traditional music, and kids go home with a coloring page. Saturday, 11 a.m. to noon, free, at the Seffner-Mango Branch Library, 410 North Kingsway Road.

Warby Parker opens at Lithia Crossing this weekend. Saturday 10 to 6 and Sunday noon to 6, with a free sweet treat and 20% off additional pairs. 3470 Lithia Pinecrest Road, Valrico. Chamber details here.

The FishHawk conservation trail closes today. The paved trail between Watercolor Drive and the pipeline work area shuts Wednesday for gopher tortoise relocation and tree removal. Three to four weeks, crews on site 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. The north-side sidewalk on FishHawk Boulevard is still closed too, with crossings at Ridge Drive and Crossing Boulevard.

South Kings Avenue is down to one lane southbound from Ronele Drive to Dali Drive, for barrier wall work on the Buckhorn Creek bridge. That one runs into early October.

Donneymoor Drive at Boyette Road is closed. If you get into Riverglen that way, go around by McMullen Road. All three are on the county pipeline detour page, which is the page to check before you assume a road is open.

Fred's Market Restaurant, 6501 US Highway 301 South in Riverview, and the story is older than the restaurant. Elton and Evelyn Johnson started a Plant City family-dining tradition in 1954, out of Evelyn cooking at a gas station. Their son Fred and his wife Tammy opened Fred's Market in 1998. Fred's sons Owen and Michael run it now.

Photo: Fred's Market Restaurant

What you are going for is the Dinner MarketTable at $22.99, the full rotating southern spread: meatloaf, chicken pot pie, smoked ribs, all of it. One trip is $20.49. Blue Plate Special $17.99.

The detail that gets you in the door with kids is Kids Night, Monday through Thursday after 5 p.m. Children ten and under pay ten cents per inch of their height. Dine in only. Their own motto is "slow food, fast," which is about right.

Photo: Fred's Market Restaurant

Open Monday through Saturday 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. fredsmarket.com, 813-741-9101.

Friday's finals. Bloomingdale 49, Brandon 14. Armwood 43, Sumner 6. Riverview 43, Morgan 7. Lennard 35, East Bay 0. Plant City 19, Wiregrass Ranch 0. Newsome 34, Jefferson 33. Plant 13, Durant 7. Blake 50, Strawberry Crest 40. Steinbrenner 26, Spoto 12. King 8, Mulberry 7.

Newsome won by a point and Mulberry lost by one on the same night. Armwood, Bloomingdale and Lennard put up the three biggest margins. Blake and Strawberry Crest combined for 90 points, which is not a defensive struggle by anybody's definition.

Photo: Osprey Observer

Friday's game is Lennard at Plant City, and it is the best one in the county. Lennard has won four straight, just shut out East Bay 35 to 0, and owns the only loss on Newsome's record. Plant City has won three in a row, including that shutout at Wiregrass Ranch and a 37 to 7 win over Riverview. Both are 6A District 10. The winner is driving the district.

The rest of Friday: Riverview at Durant, the local one and a coin flip. Steinbrenner at Strawberry Crest. Freedom at East Bay. Manatee at Sumner. Spoto at Leto, still looking for its first win. Chamberlain at King. Brandon at Lake Wales. Bloomingdale at Tampa Bay Tech and Armwood at Plant both kick at 7:30. Newsome is idle.

Your water and sewer bill goes up October 1. Hillsborough County Water Resources is raising the base rate 5% plus a 2.91% index increase for every customer in the unincorporated county, which is most of Riverview, Valrico, FishHawk, Lithia, Gibsonton, Apollo Beach, Ruskin, Wimauma, Balm, Dover and Seffner. The base charge goes $13.58 to $14.67, and your first 5,000 gallons goes $1.12 to $1.21. The county's own example is a household using 8,000 gallons a month paying about $9.31 more. It funds a 58-project, $2.44 billion capital program. The full rate table is here.

Photo: Hillsborough County

The stormwater assessment went up too. Commissioners set it at $92.58 per home at the September 2 meeting, a $6.09 increase, to pay for drainage repairs and cut roadway flooding. The same meeting moved more than $800,000 of unused countywide money into bridge and guardrail work and sidewalk repairs in Wimauma.

If you rent a room out, there is a new registration coming. The county adopted short-term vacation rental registration at the same meeting: $200 per unit per year, starting January 1, 2027, with Code Enforcement inspections and a fee if you no-show an inspection. Worth reading now rather than in December.

Plant City has a budget hearing Monday the 28th. The proposed tax levy goes from $29.5 million to $32.4 million, about 9.8%. Same night they take up the capital improvements budget and an ordinance shifting municipal election dates off Memorial Day weekend. 302 West Reynolds Street. Notice on the city clerk page.

Fitness Forge is open on Boyette Road. A semi-private personal training studio at 13456 Boyette Road in Riverview, run by Brett Daven and Taylor Green, who just had their ribbon cutting with the Valrico FishHawk Chamber. Beginners through experienced athletes. 813-654-1313, fitnessforge2025.com.

Photo: Fitness Forge

Eight local businesses pay for this newsletter, and every one of them is a phone call away.

Little Fins Pediatric Dentistry is Dr. Austin Smith, Dr. AJ to the kids, at 16637 FishHawk Boulevard Suite 105 in Lithia, right behind Dunkin'. Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry, 5.0 across 46 Google reviews, and parents are welcome back in the room. Out-of-network benefit and a discount for military families. (813) 454-0821.

Photo: Little Fins Pediatric Dentistry

Glaros Law is Steve Glaros at 350 East Robertson Street in Brandon. A certified family mediator and a member of The Florida Bar in good standing, with more than 30 years of combined experience behind family law, personal injury and estates. Injury consultations are free. 813-854-1234.

Photo: Glaros Law

PattiCakes Custom Cakes is the Official Bakery Partner of East of Tampa. Birthdays, weddings, and the cake bites that disappear off the table before anybody gets a second one. Patti books up, so give her lead time. (352) 942-3455.

Photo: PattiCakes Custom Cakes

Tabatha Pugh runs The Local Team at Keller Williams Realty Smart, working the east side of the county. If you are buying or selling out here, she knows what the last six houses on your street actually closed at. (813) 476-8457.

MVP Orthodontics is Dr. Mayuri Patel at 11573 US Highway 301 South in Riverview, the newest name on this list. Dental degree from Tufts, orthodontic residency at Washington Hospital Center in DC. Braces and clear aligners for kids, teens and adults. (813) 640-0220.

Photo: MVP Orthodontics

Maid Pure Cleaning is Dionne Cona, cleaning houses across Brandon, Riverview, Valrico, FishHawk, Lithia, Bloomingdale, Apollo Beach and Plant City. Recurring, one time and move-out cleans. Call for a free quote. (813) 670-2004.

Photo: Maid Pure Cleaning

Magnolia Soap and Bath Co. is at 3432 Lithia Pinecrest Road in Valrico, next to the new Whole Foods. Plant-based, handcrafted, phthalate-free, and made without the ingredient list you cannot pronounce. Good place to solve a birthday present in ten minutes.

Photo: Magnolia Soap and Bath Co.

Harbor Trust Accounting is Kenneth Sjoberg, CPA, the Official CPA of East of Tampa. Tax and accounting for local families and small businesses. If your books have been a problem you keep putting off until January, this is the month to call. 813-642-4647.

Something happening out here we should know about? A new business, a fundraiser, a team that just did something, a road about to be a problem? Hit reply. A good share of what runs in here started as a reply from somebody on this list.

P.S. We are 0-2. I am a Baker Mayfield guy and I am a Bucs fan, but I am not going to sit here and tell you those first two games were anything other than uninspiring. I do not know what the answer is yet.

The football making me happy right now is in Gainesville. What Buster Faulkner is doing with that Florida offense is worth your Saturday afternoon. Go Gators.