Florida
Duke Energy’s Florida Lineman’s Rodeo qualifies 15 local lineworkers to compete in international event
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Regional Lineman’s Rodeo events test job skills critical to power delivery and restoration
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International Rodeo competition featuring the world’s top lineworkers to be held Oct. 19 in Bonner Springs, Kan.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – At a competition powered by skill and packed with competitors, 15 Duke Energy Florida lineworkers secured spots over the weekend to compete among the most elite lineworkers in the world this fall at the International Lineman’s Rodeo.
Duke Energy’s Florida Lineman’s Rodeo in Winter Garden was one of three regional Lineman’s Rodeos that will take place this spring across Duke Energy’s service areas, displaying the talent and skills of the company’s dedicated lineworkers. Lineman’s rodeos are specialized contests that test job-related skills line technicians rely on daily to restore power day and night – often in unpredictable outdoor conditions. Events take place on de-energized equipment in a simulated environment, but participants are scored based on simulations of on-the-job work, with deductions for mistakes. Competitors are judged on efficiency, agility, technique and safety procedures.
Categories scored included equipment repair, pole climbs and hurt man rescues. Duke Energy holds three regional competitions to qualify lineworkers for the international competition – including in the Carolinas, Florida and the Midwest.
The Florida rodeo this year included one senior team, 11 journeyman teams and nearly 80 apprentices. Team divisions are based in part on tenure. An apprentice is a lineworker with less than four years of utility experience. A journeyman or senior journeyman with Duke Energy has more than four years of utility experience. The senior division in a Lineman’s Rodeo denotes lineworkers who are 50 years old or older.
“Our customers and communities depend on us to keep the power flowing 24/7, 365 days a year,” said Barry Anderson, Duke Energy Florida senior vice president of customer delivery. “We participate in these rodeo competitions to not only sharpen our skills as lineworkers, but to make sure we are working at the highest level of safety, integrity and service for our customers and our peers.”
Elevated expertise
Duke Energy Florida regional rodeo winners will join other top lineworkers from Duke Energy rodeos in Florida and the Midwest to compete in the International Lineman’s Rodeo in Bonner Springs, Kan., on Oct. 19, an international event that attracts the most talented lineworkers from around the world. The best lineworkers at Duke Energy and its legacy companies have showcased their talents at the International Lineman’s Rodeo for more than two decades.
“I got into line work just because of my love of the outdoors, helping people and turning the lights on,” said Eric Polous, Duke Energy Florida lineworker from the Odena Operations Center. “It was a great competition. We came down here and we never competed together. We grew together as a team and won third place. We are going to Kansas, and we are excited to go.”
Duke Energy Florida competitors advancing from regional rodeos to the International Lineman’s Rodeo include:
Apprentice Overall Awards
- First place – Alejandro Guillen, St. Petersburg, Fla.
- Second place – Steele Conlin, Longwood, Fla.
- Third place – Tyler Farmer, Longwood, Fla.
Journeyman Overall Awards
- First place – Brandon Bagley, Buena Vista, Fla.
Zachary Bichard, Buena Vista, Fla.
Ivan White, Buena Vista, Fla.
- Second place – Steven J. Goepfert, Dunnellon, Fla.
Lars Graylin Langlo, Inverness, Fla.
Kyle Metz, Brooksville, Fla.
- Third place – Justin Mathes, Crawfordville, Fla.
Eric Polous, Odena, Fla.
Tim West, Odena, Fla.
Journeyman Senior Overall Awards
- First place – Chet Braden, Walsingham, Fla.
Ed Filor, Inverness, Fla.
Henry Shupe, Seven Springs, Fla.
“For me, it’s extremely rewarding to be able to do this in front of my children and family. To be able to pay back to all the volunteers and everybody who put in for a good day at the rodeo,” said Ivan White, Duke Energy Florida lineworker and lead health & safety professional.
Duke Energy employs nearly 1,000 lineworkers across its Florida service area.
The Florida Lineman’s Rodeo was supported by volunteers and vendors from across the Duke Energy community. A record-breaking number of more than 50 vendors also supported this year’s event and more than 80 volunteer students from four colleges including St. Petersburg College, South Florida State College, Valencia College and Northwest Lineman College attended the event and had the opportunity to meet and speak with Duke Energy leadership.
“It’s a good time with good friends, good family and just a great opportunity to show off our trade,” said Zachary Bichard, Duke Energy Florida lineworker from the Buena Vista Operations Center.
Powering the future grid
Lineworkers play a key role in power grid improvement projects that help modernize and strengthen Duke Energy’s system against storms and other impacts, making it more reliable and resilient. This can include work to upgrade lines and poles, underground outage-prone lines where data indicates it makes sense to do so, and enhancing grid reliability through the integration of smart, self-healing technology – which saved more than 35 million minutes of total lost outage time last year in Florida.
Hiring and developing entry-level craft and skilled talent is critical to address the growing needs of residential and non-residential customers, as well as to deploy a cleaner, diverse energy mix to meet current and future needs for these customers and their communities. These vital employees also help enable the connection of more renewables and added protection from cybersecurity and physical threats.
Duke Energy continues to hire lineworker talent and works closely with community colleges across its company footprint to recruit diverse, skilled candidates. Individuals interested in a lineworking career with Duke Energy should contact community colleges directly for more information on their specific lineworker training programs including available funding for tuition.
Duke Energy Florida
Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 10,500 megawatts of energy capacity, supplying electricity to 1.9 million residential, commercial and industrial customers across a 13,000-square-mile service area in Florida.
Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities serve 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 50,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 27,600 people.
Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy transition to achieve its goals of net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050. The company has interim carbon emission targets of at least 50% reduction from electric generation by 2030, 50% for Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 upstream and downstream emissions by 2035, and 80% from electric generation by 2040. In addition, the company is investing in major electric grid enhancements and energy storage, and exploring zero-emission power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear.
Duke Energy was named to Fortune’s 2023 “World’s Most Admired Companies” list and Forbes’ “World’s Best Employers” list. More information is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos and videos. Duke Energy’s illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
Media contact: Audrey Stasko
Media line: 800.559.3853
A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death.
In a deposition from November that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply”.
Bryan died after the botched surgery; and in April, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter.
“I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during difficult circumstances”.
The deposition provided Shaknovksy’s first detailed account of the operation that killed Bryan and eventually garnered national news headlines.
According to Shaknovksy’s deposition, after removing Bryan’s liver, the surgeon instructed a nurse to label the organ as a “spleen” – and he also identified it as a spleen in Bryan’s postoperative notes. Shaknovsky later said he had been “mentally compromised” at the time of Bryan’s death, explaining that he was “devastated, demoralized, crying over his passing, felt that I failed him”.
A lawsuit filed by Bryan’s widow, Beverly Bryan, accuses Shaknovsky of medical malpractice. The suit alleges that he “wrongfully omitted any reference to Mr Bryan’s liver being removed in order to ‘cover up’ his gross negligence/recklessness and to hopefully avoid the embarrassment due to such derelict care”, as NBC reported.
In April, the Walton county sheriff’s office said in a statement that Shaknovsky’s actions inflicted on Bryan “catastrophic blood loss and the patient’s death on the operating table”.
Shaknovsky’s deposition testimony described the chaos in the operating room after Bryan began bleeding extensively, causing his heart to stop. Medical staff performed chest compressions, and Shaknovsky attempted to find where the bleeding was coming from.
“I couldn’t tell the difference because I was so upset,” he said, referring to the organ he mistakenly identified.
“It was like a overflown sink that’s clogged up, and I am looking for a fork at the bottom, trying to feel and find the bleed, and I was not able to do so,” Shaknovsky said. He added: “After 20 minutes of struggling – desperately trying – to save his life, that’s when the wrong-site event took place.
“It’s a devastating thing, which I will have to live with the rest of my life,” Shaknovsky said in the eight-hour deposition reviewed by NBC. “I think about it every single day.”
After the medical team was unable to resuscitate Bryan, Shaknovsky said he went to the hospital’s medical library. “I went there to cry because I was devastated,” he said. “I didn’t want the staff to see me like that.”
Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, Shaknovsky said he believed Bryan’s spleen was “double the size of what is normal” because of a mass on it. Beverly Bryan’s lawsuit, however, states that a medical examiner told her that her husband’s spleen was anatomically “nearly normal”, according to NBC.
Shaknovsky would face up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 if eventually convicted as charged.
Omelet, taco and chicken salad joints are in, while spaghetti gelato, pizza and (for now) wing places are out.
At least when it comes to recent openings and closings on the Southwest Florida foodie scene, that is.
Let’s begin this recap of events in Cape Coral, where a popular breakfast-and-lunch restaurant made its long-awaited debut.
This is where the omelets come in…
House of Omelets
The fourth location of this popular breakfast and lunch restaurant made its highly anticipated debut along Cape Coral Parkway on Monday, May 4.
“It’s amazing,” owner Toni Dedaj said. “I’m very happy. I like this area, the way Cape Coral is growing. And this building is beautiful.”
That building is the eye-catching Bimini Square off Cape Coral Parkway. House of Omelets, which anchors the first-floor northeast corner unit, has a classic European feel. With seating for 89 inside and 40 outside, it’s about half the size of Dedaj’s Pine Island Road location.
“We like it,” he said. “We still have the big menu, but we like the smaller seating area. Service is more personal.”
And speaking of that menu (the same you’ll find at all House of Omelets locations), it is indeed huge, with about 30 signature omelets alone. Add in all the egg dishes (House Slam is a best seller), favorites (like corned beef hash and chicken & waffles), off the griddle dishes (multiple pancake, French toast and waffle options), Benedicts and crepes, and we’re already up to huge without even getting to the lunch items.
Those include appetizers, salads, signature sandwiches (from lobster grilled cheese to Philly steak), burgers & melts, and pitas & wraps. Free parking can be found in the parking garage, shared with neighboring Bimini Basin Seafood.
“It’s easy in and out,” Dedaj said. “Very easy. Come visit us.” Find it at 440 Cape Coral Parkway; (239) 360-8083; there are two locations in Cape Coral and one each in Fort Myers and Naples. Go to houseofomelets.com or follow on Instagram.
Chicken Salad Chick
More than 100 customers were waiting outside when this chicken salad-loving, fast-casual restaurant opened its new Cape Coral location on April 29. Located in the Shops at Del Sol (near Swig!), Chicken Salad Chick has 13 different types of chicken salad, including traditional, fruity & nutty, savory and spicy flavors. Get it in one or two scoops, in a sandwich, in a melt (Bacon cheddar or chicken) or in a BLT. A turkey club is also available. It’s all scratch-made, just like the sides which include broccoli, grape and pasta salads, fresh fruit, mac ‘n cheese and soup. A few desserts (white chocolate layer cake and signature cookies) are also on the menu. Get it all by dining in, driving through, taking out, or by delivery. It’s open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Go to chickensaladchick.com or follow on Facebook for more.
Point Ybel Brewing
We recently checked out this brewery’s new downtown Fort Myers location off First Street in the Fortiner Building, and we love it. It’s all the good things from the original San Carlos Boulevard location plunked down in a lighter, brighter space (and it’s next to another Chocolattes location!!!). With 17 taps, you’ll find all the same award-winning beers Point Ybel is known for — including Sanibel Light, Snook Bite IPA, Sanibel Red and (our favorite) The Full Breakfast stout. Even though it’s only been open since April 11, it’s already right at home with a full slate of events — from live music and yoga to trivia and music bingo.
“This is a new chapter for us,” owner and brewer Jordan Weisberg said. “We’re excited for it. We want to build the same community downtown that we have (in south Fort Myers).”
It’s off to a great start. Drop by 2451 First St., Fort Myers; (239) 603-6565; pointybelbrew.com and on Facebook
Turco Taco
With three locations in Naples, this fast-casual taco joint has finally come to downtown Fort Myers. It opened April 24 at 2451 First Street. In a former office space, it’s across from Fort Myers Regional Library, on the northwest corner of First and Bay streets. Turco Taco is known for its fresh and bold gourmet Mexican-Turkish fusion tacos, gourmet quesadillas and organic salads. We can’t wait to check it out. (239) 344-7732; theturcotaco.com or on Facebook
Capriotti’s
We’ve already reported that this popular Delaware-founded chain opened a Cape Coral location on April 28 in the Shops at Del Mar off Pine Island Road. But can we just say that The Bobbie — billed as the original Thanksgiving sandwich — lives up to the hype? The slow-roasted turkey (cooked overnight and hand-pulled in the morning), house-made stuffing, cranberry sauce and mayo combination won us over on the first bite. Order it hot or cold, in 4, 8, 10 or 18-inch sizes. And if you’re not feeling Thanksgiving-y, Capriotti’s has plenty of other options, including cheesesteaks, tuna, classic Italian, BLT, meatball, Capastrami, Wagyu beef sandwiches and more. Find it all at 327 SW 10th Place, unit 202, Cape Coral; (239) 471-0469; capriottis.com or follow on Facebook.
Closings
The Fat Apple: The sign is down and the doors of this pizza joint in North Fort Myers are locked. After nine years, this staple in the Publix-anchored Eagle Landing plaza off Bayshore Road has permanently closed. It steadily built a loyal following after Guy Beekman, who owned the legendary Birdie’s Pizza in Fort Myers for 20 years, opened it in July 2017.
Spaghy Gelato: This small Cape Coral shop in Chelsea Place off Del Prado Boulevard has closed. “Cape Coral … thank you,” an April 28 post on its Facebook page read. “Because of your support, your love, your energy … we’re taking the next step. We are officially relocating to the East Coast.” It was known for its viral spaghetti gelato — handcrafted gelato shaped into spaghetti form and topped with a variety of toppings. “Thank you for the memories, the laughs, and for believing in something a little different,” the post concluded.
Wingnuts: After spending the last 15 years at 231 Del Prado Blvd. in Cape Coral, this popular chicken wing restaurant is closing. For now, anyway. “Our time at this location has come to an end,” an April 30 post on the Pub & Grub’s Facebook page read. “Our last day will be May 16th. HOWEVER, we will be moving to a new location soon.” It’s currently in Moderna Plaza, north of Cape Coral Hospital and south of Hancock Bridge Parkway (where the recently closed Misto Bar & Grill was). “Although it will take us time to relocate the restaurant, we will keep you posted, EVERY STEP OF THE WAY,” the post continued. “… We look forward to seeing you in the very near future. Our thanks again for all your support.” Follow along on Facebook for updates.
Robyn George is a food and dining reporter for The News-Press. Connect at rhgeorge@fortmyer.gannett.com
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Florida
Florida man arrested for tossing away newborn kittens accused of threatening family member: ‘Dead man walking’
Tyler Holtz is accused of threatening a family member days after being arrested on animal cruelty charges. Courtesy: Putnam County Sheriff’s Office
HAWTHORNE, Fla. – Less than a week after a Florida man was accused of throwing five newborn kittens in the trash, he ended up back in jail after deputies said he threatened to kill a family member.
The backstory:
On April 25, 2026, deputies with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office went to a Hawthorne home after a witness told them she had removed two plastic bags containing five kittens from a trash can after hearing the animals whining inside.
The deputy said that the kittens still had umbilical cords attached and were not thriving.
Putnam County Animal Control went to the home and determined that the kittens were about five hours old. The mother cat was not located.
According to PCSO, the person who found the kittens tried to get them emergency medical help, but four died. The fifth kitten was being treated at a veterinary office in Ocala.
A neighbor who lived on the property said that he caught Tyler Holtz, 36, placing the bags in the garbage can.
Holtz was arrested on May 1 and charged with five counts of animal cruelty and abandoning an animal to die.
He was released on a $12,500 bond, on the condition that he wouldn’t commit another crime.
Dig deeper:
Approximately three days later, deputies said Holtz sent text messages to a family member stating that the victim was “a dead man walking” as well as giving details of firearms and access to weapons.
The victim reportedly told deputies he was scared for his life and that Holtz was known to have a firearm.
Deputies located Holtz during a traffic stop. He was charged with sending a written threat to kill. He is being held at the Putnam County Jail on no bond.
The Source: This article was written with information posted on social media by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
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