PORT ORANGE
YOU’RE ON TV! PAGE 9
Observer YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 3, NO. 2
FREE
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THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2019
INSIDE REZONING LEADS TO TRAFFIC FEAR Ashton Lakes could be getting an assisted living facility nearby. PAGE 2
TACO BELL OPENING SOON
Taco Bell set to open in September. Also, news on Copperline and Jimmy Hula’s. PAGE 4
DINOSAURS NEED YOUR HELP Sugar Mill Gardens is accepting donations to save the dino sculptures. PAGE 6
NATIONAL TENNIS CHAMP
THE TROUBLE WITH SAFE ZONES
HOMELESSNESS AND PANHANDLING
Port Orange native brings home second national collegiate wheelchair tennis championship for UCF. PAGE 8
First Step Shelter rejects $425,000 safe zone proposal. Where does that leave Port Orange? PAGE 3
SPRUCE CREEK GIRLS GOLF
Online at PortOrangeObserver.com
Fighting Alan Assistant city manager takes first in forms at Taekwondo World Expo TANYA RUSSO STAFF WRITER
Port Orange Assistant City Manager Alan Rosen took first place in forms at the world expo in an A Songahm Taekwondo tournament in Little Rock, Arkansas, the week of July 8. It was Rosen’s first tournament. Despite the first-place win, Rosen is a world champion in points only, because those with black belts are the only ones
who can hold world championship titles. Rosen has earned a brown belt and is in the process of testing for his red belt. Taekwondo is appealing to Rosen because much of the discipline focuses on the art of combat fighting, which is why he chose to compete in forms at the world tournament. Training for competition is easy for Rosen. His wife, Jodi, and son, Michael, also participate in Taekwondo. They each hold the same level belt, and Rosen and his wife often spar with each other. At one of the school tourna-
Photo courtesy of Alan Rosen
Assistant City Manager Alan Rosen shows his first place medal in sparring at the Taekwondo World Expo in Little Rock, Arkansas.
ments held at The Karate Kids school in Port Orange, that’s exactly what Rosen had to do. Right before the signal to start, the ref leaned over to him and said, “Alan, all I can say is, happy wife, happy life.” Alan Rosen took his chances. He came in first. Jodi Rosen was not defeated, however. “I kicked you in the head, and that’s all I wanted to do,” he recalled his wife saying. The world championships are sponsored by the American Taekwondo Association, first established by Eternal Grand Master H. U. Lee, who came to America from Korea, where he trained many soldiers in handto-hand combat during the Korean War. SEE TAEKWONDO PAGE 5