Energy & Marine Center

Pasco County Schools, Port Richey, FL

Located on ten acres at the north end of Old Post Road in Port Richey, Pasco County School’s Energy & Marine Center (EMC) is situated on a coastal hammock on the Salt Springs Run estuary bordered by Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park. The parcel includes several mangrove islands.

Founded in 1975, and originally known as the “Energy Management Center”, a full history of the EMC requires that we go back a bit further in time. Up through the 1940s, this area was virtually untouched by civilization. Life-long resident and historian Terry Kline says that he and his friends had a campsite there in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The future of the site would be forever changed with the help of a man named Newt Gehring, who lived in Pinellas County. He fancied himself to be a scientist and inventor, even though he had no formal education in those fields. In April of 1962, the St. Petersburg Times published an article about his latest venture. He claimed to be able to convert salt water into potable drinking water, along with numerous other chemicals, through a “secret” process he developed called “electro-dialysis”.

In January of 1962, Mr. Gehring created a corporation named Ocean Resources, Inc. to put his plan into action. Local stockholders bought into his idea of a de-salinization plant in Port Richey along the banks of Salt Spring Run – allowing Newt to raise $50,000 to get things off the ground. A business office was established on West Main Street in New Port Richey in the rear of William Grey’s real estate office.

Officers of the corporation were Newt Gehring as president, New Port Richey attorney Sam Y. Allgood as secretary, St. Petersburg engineer John M. Zobec as treasurer and plant manager, First National Bank of New Port Richey president Richard A. Cooper as assistant treasurer, Morris Erickson of Largo as assistant secretary, and vice-presidents H.A. Summers, Richard Schoenbaum, Anthony P. Coryn, and Pauline Gehring (Newt’s sister).

Ocean Resources, Inc. purchased the 10 acre parcel and began work building the de-salinization plant. Gehring claimed the plant would process up to 50,000 gallons of salt water every day – turning it into 40,000 gallons of fresh drinkable water, along with various chemicals. They had no idea what they were going to do with the fresh water, and planned on concentrating on generation of the chemicals, which they said would generate a good deal of revenue. Mr. Gehring said he could extract 34 different chemicals from the sea water, including potassium, calcium, sulphur, sodium, chlorine and magnesium. Des Little Paving Company would be digging a small inlet canal on the south side of the property, as well as filling low areas, and building the access road. The plant was expected to be complete and operational within two months.

Newt Gehring was an ambitious man who believed in his ideas. As a side note, it is also worth mentioning that he developed a similar process using “ionic-dialysis” to process waste in a sewage treatment plant. He sold this idea to the city of Madeira Beach in Pinellas County in 1968. This venture was also funded in large part by private investors who bought shares in his company.

By early 1970, things were beginning to fall apart for Newton Gehring. As it turned out, even though his “secret” processes could be demonstrated to work in his garage laboratory, they were never commercially feasible for large operations. The Madeira Beach sewage treatment idea came tumbling down when the city discontinued attempts to use the new process in 1969, claiming it didn’t work. Newt was sued by shareholders. In January of 1970, he was charged with 22 counts of violating state securities law. He was found guilty in November of 1970.

The de-salinization plant in Port Richey had ceased activity in the late 1960s and had fallen into disrepair by 1971 when shareholders insisted on answers. The plant had been vandalized and there was no sign of business activity. Even so, the laboratory and settling tanks were of concrete construction and remained intact. They would eventually be incorporated into the plans of the Energy Management Center when the Pasco School Board purchased the property several years later.

When the de-salinization plant was abandoned in the late 1960s, Ocean Resources, Inc. was dissolved, and the property sat vacant for several years. A short interim agreement was made with the Pasco County Mosquito Control District to use the holding tanks on the property for research purposes. They reportedly kept minnows in the tanks and fed them mosquito larvae.

Shortly after 1970, a marine science station was established in Crystal River for use by school students. Funded largely by grant money, it was operated as a multi-county facility. In 1972, Pasco County contributed $10,000 to the operation of the Crystal River Marine Science Station. But due to the problems of transporting students all the way to Crystal River, they decided not to participate in the program in the 1973074 school year. Instead, they developed plans to create their own marine science center for Pasco County students.

On June 18, 1974, the Pasco County School Board purchased the ten acre de-salinization plant property from Ocean Resources, Inc. for $50,000. The grantors of the deed were the last board of directors of the previously dissolved corporation. They were Newton P. Gehring, Anthony E. Coryn, Harry A. Summers, Meredith Dobry, John Zobec, Richard Schoenbohm, William F. Baker and R.H. Francasio.

Plans for the new education center had to be slightly modified before they even got underway when it became clear that grant money for a marine science center was no longer available due to the previously established Crystal River Marine Science Station. Not discouraged, the Pasco County School Board changed the focus of the planned center to be an energy management center. Instead of focusing primarily on marine science, it would be used to teach students about energy management and conservation. Now named the “Energy Management Center”, plans moved ahead with a planning grant of $46,172 from the Federal Education Act’s Title III funds.

By 1975 plans were essentially finalized for the new Energy Management Center at the site of the old de-salinization plant. With Dick Endress as a science coordinator, and Rose Fernandez as federal projects coordinator, federal grants were obtained totaling $225,000. Fourth and ninth grade students would receive nine weeks of classroom instruction coupled with trips to the energy center to do research and hands-on experiments.

During the first part of 1975, the five large holding tanks at the site were connected and fed with running seawater to hold marine specimens. A dock was built, and a boat was obtained for use by the center. An electric turbine was installed for generating electricity, and an observation deck and classrooms were built for students.

Thomas Baird was named project director of the Energy Management Center. Much of the curriculum and day-to-day operation of the center was the responsibility of science teacher Mike Mullins. In addition to energy management topics, students also had the opportunity to study marine life in a manner similar to instruction at the Crystal River marine center.

This article was published 30 Mar 2025 by Paul Herman, digital media archivist, West Pasco Historical Society