by Janan Talafer • Jvt916@tampabay.rr.com

Location and room to expand is also what drew Micron PharmaWorks (www.pharmaworks.com) to its new home near the Suncoast Parkway and State Road 54. The privately held company designs and manufactures blister packaging machinery and equipment for the pharmaceutical packing industry.

“We design and manufacture our machines and rebuild outdated machines, retooling them with new technology,” says Peter Buczynsky, president. “Our growing reputation for our ability to compete with the big boys in the design, manufacture and support of blister packaging machinery is part of the reason for our move – we needed more space to expand.”

The four-year-old company currently sells blister machinery throughout the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico and has been steadily increasing its growth by approximately $2 million a year, says Buczynsky. Expected revenue for 2006 is $8 million.

Dais Analytic Corporation (www.daisanalytic.com) relocated to Pasco from New York in 1998, thanks to recruitment efforts by the Pasco EDC, a HUD grant from Pasco County to help pay for the build-ing and state incentives for hiring, says CEO Tim Tangredi. Now the company has gone public (November 2005) and Tangredi says the short-term and long-term plans are “growth, growth and more growth.”

He projects a 500-percent annual growth over the next three years as the company expands its niche in nano-technology polymer products and more aggressively markets ConsERV™, a poly-mer product for heating and air condi-tioning systems that reduces energy costs and improves indoor air quality.

Nanotechnology polymer, according to Tangredi, is a membrane-thin film that looks like Saran Wrap and allows certain molecules to get through, but not air. Still in R&D are products that can be used to recycle heat exhaust from dryers, mixed into paint and applied to the bottom of boats to prevent barnacles from forming, used in clothing to keep military personnel warm or cool or to prevent hazardous waste from leaking through to the body, and even polymers used for water desalination.

The Pasco EDC has also been busy securing employee training dollars for local companies like VLOC Inc., which makes lasers and crystals for the commercial and military markets; Lumedyne, a manufacturer of portable electronic flash equipment; Zephyrhills Spring Water Company; and Designer Golf Company.

Lumedyne’s $17,000 grant for train-ing is being used for classes in lean man-ufacturing to help the company “work smarter not harder,” says Lori Rhoden, the company’s accounting manager. “We’re a small manufacturer and with-out these funds this type of training wouldn’t be possible.”

Don Morrison, president of Designer Golf (www.designergolfcompany.com), has also used training dollars for lean manufacturing and supervisory training classes, as well as classes in painting with gold leaf, an important part of the com-pany’s business niche, which includes creating decorative signage for residential communities and signage and score cards for golf courses. In addition, last year Designer Golf picked up Disney as a client.

Educating Amid Fast Growth

Thanks to a state grant to help address the shortage of teachers in public schools, Pasco-Hernando Community College is one of eight schools in Florida approved by the Dept. of Education to provide alternative teacher certifi-cation. Traditionally, individuals had to be employed by the school district prior to receiving certification train-ing. The new PHCC program waives that requirement for people interested in kindergarten through 12th grade teaching careers who already have a bachelor’s degree or higher but in a non-education major.

The success of the initial program – more than 100 people enrolled last October – prompted PHCC to develop a new weekend alternative that began in Janu-ary. Grant money is also enabling the school to devel-op programs for substitute teacher training, degree programs for paraprofessionals and in-service train-ing for Pasco and Hernando public schools.

PHCC is also gearing up to train future high-skilled science technicians. The college is partnering with Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) and the Univer-sity of Florida (UF), both in Gainesville, on a new pro-gram to train students for the biotechnology industry. The Biotechnology Joint Degree Program has students taking general education and science courses at PHCC and transferring to SFCC for intensive hands-on train-ing in the field and in UF biotech labs.

International College, a Southern Association of Colleges-accredited school offering degree comple-tion programs, is also based at PHCC. International College offers bachelor’s degrees in management, inter-disciplinary studies and criminal justice, and a master’s of science in management.

“We get a lot of adults who want to return and finish their degree,” says Mike Smith, a professor at the col-lege. “In addition, students can graduate from PHCC with an AA degree and stay here at this campus to get a bachelor’s and master’s degree in business through International College without having to leave the area.”

Also in Pasco, Saint Leo University is experienc-ing significant growth with last fall’s enrollment of 13,018 students. To accommodate that growth, two new residence halls opened last August and plans were announced for a new Student Community Center.

Saint Leo’s School of Business Hospitality and Tourism Management has also developed a unique partnership with prominent leaders of the Tampa Bay hospitality and tourism industry. According to Stan McGahey, Ph.D., associate profes-sor of hospitality and tourism manage-ment, the new Industry Liaison Council reflects the “best of the hospitality and tourism industry in Florida with top-notch professionals who have excellent educational backgrounds, a great work ethic and a vision for the future. There’s a giant leap after graduation to go from the academic world to the business world,” says McGahey. “The Industry Liaison Council will help smooth that transition for our students.”