01.08.15 West Orange Times & Observer

Times& WEST ORANGE

Observer WEST ORANGE COUNTY’S NEWSPAPER FOR 109 YEARS

THURSDAY

JANUARY 8, 2015

FREE

WINTER GARDEN, FLORIDA

OUR TOWN

INSIDE

IN THIS ISSUE

SPORTS

Lisa Lehmann is the winner of this week’s contest.

PAGE 5B

Times Travelers go abroad with their hometown paper.

PAGE 4B

Young players key to Ocoee’s success.

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cracking down by Zak Kerr | Staff Writer

Windermere enhances its DUI enforcement

UPCOMING

by the Times & Observer staff

Police department made almost six times as many 2014 DUI arrests as 2013.

+ Welcome to the world!

Mayola Ross introduces baby Myah, the first baby born at Health Central Hospital in 2015. She arrived at 11:47 p.m., Jan. 1, weighing 7 pounds, 6 ounces, and measuring 20 inches in length.

+ Preserve needs volunteers for run

WINDERMERE — As the head of the DUI section of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office for almost four years, Windermere Police Chief Dave Ogden was familiar with the nuances and technicalities officers must understand to properly enforce DUI laws, as well as a lack of DUI enforcement nationwide.

During his first six months as chief, Ogden recognized

Looking for a way to start the New Year off right?

Oakland Nature Preserve is hosting its second annual 3-Mile Trail Run Saturday, Jan. 10, at the preserve, 747 Machete Trail, Oakland. This unique trail run takes participants through the diverse nature trails at the preserve.

The preserve still needs volunteers to work behind the scenes at the race.

Volunteers are needed as course monitors, water-station managers and to help with registration. The preserve also invites volunteers to join organizers the night before the race for the runner packet party.

To sign up for the race, visit signmeup.com and search for Oakland Nature Preserve.

For more, contact Taylor Clark at tclark@oaklandnaturepreserve.org or (407)905-0054.

a serious absence of knowledge about DUI enforcement among Windermere Police, as well as daily evidence of DUI putting the people of Windermere at risk, he said.

“Upon my early months here in office, I read a report of a single-car accident where the driver went to the hospital (with) a blood-alcohol content of .20, but no arrest was made,” Ogden said. “Regular-

ly, I would receive phone calls from supervisors requesting assistance with drivers suspected of DUI, yet, at that time, our officers weren’t comfortable with the technical nuances in making some of those arrests. Additionally, we were clearly seeing evidence of individuals driving through our town impaired: multiple street signs were knocked down in the middle

of the night; local trees were struck and run over; and a brick wall to a residential subdivision was demolished by a vehicle running through it.”

All of these suspects fled undetected, despite causing damage to Windermere and endangering the public, Ogden said.

“Our town, which is known

SEE DUI / PAGE 4A

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+ Ocoee opens grant applications

Ocoee Community Grant applications are now available online at ocoee. org. Residents may also pick up an application at City Hall, 150 N. Lakeshore Drive.

The deadline to submit applications is Jan. 30.

The Community Grant program provides financial grants of up to $500. There is $5,000 available for this grant cycle. Eligible groups include Ocoee non-profit organizations and civic groups. In addition, non-profit organizations and civic groups outside the city limits, which benefit residents of Ocoee, also are qualified. For more, call (407) 905-3100.

STORIES TO WATCH IN 2015

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STORIES START ON PAGE 3A

Courtesy photo

John Charles will perform Friday in Winter Garden.

Garden Theatre starts 2015 with two concerts John Charles and Sandy Shugart will take the stage this weekend at the Winter Garden theater.

WINTER GARDEN — The Garden Theatre hopes to kick off the new year on a high note as it welcomes two musicians to the stage this weekend.

Local favorite John Charles returns to the Winter Garden stage Friday, Jan. 9. The next night, the theater will welcome Dr. Sandy Shugart.

Charles, a veteran of the Disney Cruise Line, will bring a unique show full of music, comedy and tales from his travels. For more than three decades, Charles has been performing throughout the United States, Canada and Europe and has established himself as one of the most soughtafter entertainers in the corporate market. He has written, produced and hosted the openings of almost every Walt Disney Resort in the United States and Europe. As a corporate

SEE THEATRE / PAGE 4A

IF YOU GO JOHN CHARLES WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 9 WHERE: Garden Theatre, 160 W. Plant St., Winter Garden TICKETS: $25 PHONE: (407) 877-4736 WEBSITE: gardentheatre.org SANDY SHUGART WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10 WHERE: Garden Theatre, 160 W. Plant St., Winter Garden TICKETS: $25 ($15 with Valencia College ID) PHONE: (407) 877-4736 WEBSITE: gardentheatre.org

This week’s winner is

Lisa Lehmann.

See the photo on PAGE 5B.

INDEX Classifieds..............................7B Community Calendar..............2A

Crossword...............................5B History..................................14A

Obituaries.............................14A Photo Contest.........................5B

Sports.....................................1B Weather..................................5B

Vol. 83, No. 2 , Three sections

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2A

WEST ORANGE TIMES

WOTimes.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

COMMUNITYCALENDAR THURSDAY, JAN. 8 Garden Theatre Volunteer Orientation — 7 to 9 p.m.

Thursday, Jan. 8, at the Garden Theatre, 160 W. Plant St., Winter Garden. Orientation will be held for those interested in volunteering as ticket-takers, ushers, greeters and concession workers. Those in attendance will also take a tour of the theatre. High school community service hours can be earned by volunteering. Those 16 and older are welcome to attend. For more information, email volunteer@gardentheatre.org.

FRIDAY, JAN. 9

Orlando Paper & Postcard International Expo — 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 9, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10, at the Central Florida Fairgrounds, 4603 W. Colonial Drive, Orlando. The show will feature dealers from more than 35 different states and four countries, Belgium, Canada, France and Holland. Visitors can look forward to viewing millions of postcards of every artist, country and topic from any era.

Free appraisals for collections are offered. Admission is $5.

For more information, call (410) 939-0999.

String Beans Live in Concert — 10:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 9, at the Winter Garden Branch Library, 805 E. Plant St., Winter Garden. Children’s music group The String Beans is touring Florida and will stop at the library. (407) 835-7323.

45th Anniversary: Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor and Reed, P.A. — 9 a.m. Friday, Jan. 9, at the West Orange Chamber of Commerce office, 12184 West Colonial Drive, Winter Garden. For more, visit wochamber.com.

SATURDAY, JAN. 10

Book Character Classics — 11:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 9, at the Winter Garden Branch Library, 805 E. Plant St., Winter Garden. Help us bring your favorite children’s book characters to life with stories, games and crafts. Ages 3 to 5. (407) 835-7323.

Money As You Grow — 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10, at the Windermere Branch Library, 530 Main St., Windermere.

This money smart program introduces financial literacy to youth with stories, activities and crafts. Ages 6 to 12. (407) 835-7323.

John Charles — 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 9, at the Garden Theatre, 160 W. Plant St., Winter Garden. John Charles comes directly from Disney Cruise Line, sharing music, comedy and stories from his travels. With just a guitar, a piano and his incredible voice, Charles creates a unique and exciting experience that is tailored especially for each audience. No two performances are ever alike. Tickets are $25. (407) 877-4736, Ext. 0, or gardentheatre.org.

Oakland Nature Preserve Trail Run — registration takes place from 6:30 to 7:45 a.m.

Saturday, Jan. 10, at the Oakland Nature Preserve, 747 Machete Trail. The three-mile race begins at 8 a.m. The cost is $15 for ONP members and $30 for non-members until Thursday, Jan. 8. Race day registration is $35 per person.

A Kids Fun Run will also take place at 9 a.m. and is free for children ages 4 through 10.

To register, visit signmeup. com and click “Find Event” to search for Oakland, FL. (407) 905-0054.

Ocoee Little League Spring 2015 Registration — 6 to 8 p.m. Fridays, Jan. 9, 16 and 23; and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Saturdays, Jan. 10, 17 and 24, at Central Park, 560 Flewelling St., Ocoee. For more, visit ocoeell.org.

Sandy Shugart — 8 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 10, at the Garden Theatre, 160 W. Plant St., Winter Garden. The multi-talented president of Valencia College returns

with his tight-knit group of musicians to create a warm blend of folk-influenced, acoustic coffeehouse-style sounds. Tickets are $25 ($15 with Valencia College ID). (407) 877-4736, Ext. 0, or gardentheatre.org.

SUNDAY, JAN. 11 Affordable Care Act Discussion and Enrollment Assistance — 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11, and Saturday, Jan. 31, at the West Oaks Branch Library, 1821 E. Silver Star Road, Ocoee. For enrollment, you will need to provide applicable documents including a W-2, 2014 tax returns, proof of income and social security cards for all family members, or green cards and naturalization certificates. To schedule an appointment, call (407) 340-0844. Walk-ins welcome. Language line available for non-English speakers.

Winter Garden Heritage Foundation History, Research and Education Center Open House — 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11, at 101 S. Boyd St., Annex Building, Winter Garden. wghf.org.

TUESDAY, JAN. 13 Counsel for Caregivers — 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 13, at the West Oaks Branch Library, 1821 E. Silver Star Road, Ocoee. This series is presented by OCLS and Orange County’s Commission on Aging. Registration required.

Call (407) 836-7446 to register or e-mail officeonaging@ocfl. net.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 14 Body and Books — 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 14, at Southwest Library at Dr. Phillips, 7255 Della Drive, Orlando. Experience the health benefits and rejuvenation of yoga-based exercises and a healing dose of read-aloud literature.

This is a gentle program with emphasis on breathing exercises, stretching and reading to promote better well-being and

To publicize your event in our Community Calendar, please send by mail: 720 S. Dillard St. Winter Garden, FL 34787; or by email: news@wotimes.com.

Photos are welcome. Deadline is noon Thursday.

After lunch, speaker Adrienne Katz will discuss her topic, “Women in History.” The cost is $25 per person. For more information or to make a reservation, contact Dot Ansel at (407) 2588155.

BEST BET Carol Woolgar Book Signing — 1 to 3 p.m. Friday, Jan. 9, at Ocoee Cafe, 29 W. McKey St., Ocoee. Woolgar, a resident of Ocoee, will be available to sign copies of her book, “The Sower’s Trust.” The story details her spiritual growth and journey after the real estate market crash of 2008. For more information, call (405) 458-5642.

Wishing for Winter — 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, at the Windermere Branch Library, 530 Main St., Windermere.

Celebrate the season with cool activities at your library. Ages 6 to 12. (407) 835-7323.

FRIDAY, JAN. 16 relaxation. Dress in loose, comfortable clothing. No prior yoga experience is needed. All fitness levels are welcome. Exercises can be done with the help of a chair if needed or preferred.

Registration preferred. (407) 835-7323.

THURSDAY, JAN. 15 2015 Orange County Economic Summit — 8:30 to 11 a.m.

Thursday, Jan. 15, at the Orange County Convention Center, 9990 International Drive, Orlando. For more, visit orangecountyfl.net.

The Ancient Secrets of Transparent Color with Dan Nelson — 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Thursday, Jan. 15, at The Art Room, 709 Main St., Windermere. Learn the secrets of the old masters. Cost is $150; lunch and supplies included. (407) 909-1869.

For more, visit wochamber.com.

Eco-Night at the Movies — 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, at the Oakland Nature Preserve, 747 Machete Trail. Join the preserve for a DUCKumentary, free to the public. Take to the skies with a flock of green-winged Teal, witness Wood ducks parent their ducklings, learn why Goldeneyes head north in the winter and jump into South American rapids with Torrent ducks. A discussion will follow the film.

For more information, call (407) 905-0054.

Introduction to Essential Oils — 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, at the Windermere Branch Library, 530 Main St., Windermere.

Experience a variety of essential oils with Natural Solutions consultant Stephanie Jorian. (407) 835-7323.

Basics of Vegetable Gardening in Central Florida — 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, at the Jessie Brock Community Center, 310 N. Dillard St., Winter Garden. Learn the basics of Florida vegetable gardening, including soil preparation, adjusting soil pH, fertilizing, irrigation, pests and diseases. This event is free to the public. To register, visit bit.ly/1xM7WZv.

Small Business & Entrepreneur Resource Fair — 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, at the Soiree Event & Conference Center, 6394 Silver Star Road, Orlando. The Pine Hills Neighborhood Improvement District invites all small business owners to attend this free event and talk one-on-one with resource partners in order to help strengthen and grow the local economy. For more information, call (407) 836-6267.

Business After Hours — 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, at Health Central Hospital, 10000 W. Colonial Drive, Ocoee.

West Orange Women’s Luncheon — 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, at Ming Court, 9188 International Drive, Orlando.

Maleficent Movie and Craft — 11 a.m. Friday, Jan. 16, at the Windermere Branch Library, 530 Main St., Windermere. Watch the story of one of Disney’s most iconic villains, Maleficent, and make a magical craft. Ages 11 to 18. (407) 835-7323.

Oil Painting Workshop — 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Jan. 16, at The ArtRoom, 709 Main St., Windermere. Learn the secrets of the Old Masters as Dan Nelson teaches how to use transparent acrylics and transparent oils to create beautiful masterpieces. The cost is $150.

All supplies and lunch are included. For more information, visit artroomorlando.com.

SATURDAY, JAN. 17 Journey Down Under — 11 a.m.

Saturday, Jan. 17, at the Winter Garden Branch Library, 805 E. Plant St., Winter Garden.

Learn interesting facts about Australia’s culture and wildlife with stories, games and crafts.

Ages 6 to 12. (407) 835-7323.

Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration — 1 to 4 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 17, at the Orlando Magic Center, 309 S. West Crown Point Road. Live entertainment, vendors and children’s activities. A community march will travel from East Bay Street to the Mildred Dixon Center. To participate in the community march and for more information, visit the city of Winter Garden website, cwgdn.com.

WEST ORANGE TIMES

WOTimes.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

3A

2015 FORECAST: PLANT STREET MARKET

Head Brewer Kent Waugh, left, and Brewer Chad Holloway bask in the entrance to their cold room at Crooked Can Brewing Co. with Plant Street Market community and event coordinator Suzanne Scott.

THE DETAILS

Photos by Zak Kerr

Construction of Plant Street Market is advancing rapidly.

OFF TO MARKET

Plant Street Market, set to open in March in downtown Winter Garden, will feature gourmet and artisan comestibles, centered on Crooked Can Brewing Company.

WINTER GARDEN — In January 2013, on the last day of a family vacation in Colorado, West Orange residents Jared Czachorowski, Andy Sheeter and Robert Scott were hanging out in Oskar Blues Brewery, a local brewery in Colorado. On their plane ride home, they discussed how much fun they had at the brewery that day.

Their flight discussion evolved into a four-hour strategy talk to open a brewery in West Orange — Crooked Can Brewing Co. When they got home, they consulted a real-estate agent and purchased the site at 426 W. Plant St., the dilapidated Shady Hill Garden Apartments, demolished in summer 2014.

“Since then, we’ve pretty much worked night and day to make this dream happen and came up with the market concept,” Czachorowski said.

With construction set to end in March for the grand opening, that concept is becoming a reality in the Plant Street Market, a destination for local, sustainable, all-natural, handmade and artisan products that supermarkets do not sell.

“The building they purchased was way too big for just a taproom, so I said, ‘Let’s get an indoor market below.’” said Suzanne Scott, Robert’s wife and Plant Street Market community and event coordinator.

“I pretty much am running the market, and the boys are running the brewery. Jared is overseeing the construction. This has been my dream my entire life. I used to live in Seattle and spent my days at Pike Place Market. We’re trying to bring that more artisan market to the area.”

THE MARKET

Suzanne has secured dozens of local vendors for the market, including a wine bar and a tea room, among many familiar local vendors.

“Axum Coffee is going to roast coffee on site,” she said.

“They have the location on Plant Street, but they were interested in a place where they could actually roast coffee. Then we have the Winter Garden Juice Bar. They have a small location now, and they’re moving over here. They’re going to (serve) cleansings, juices, cold-pressed, everything that they offer there.”

The market will house Euro Bake World, which has a commissary in Orlando and attends the farmers market. It will have a German baker producing artisan breads, cakes, pastries, croissants and pretzel rolls, Suzanne said.

Another tenant will be David Ramirez Chocolates, which makes genuine Italian gelato and macaroons, in addition to artistic handmade, gourmet chocolates, she said.

CITY INVESTMENTS • $30,000 in building fee assistance • $60,000 in façade grants from Community Redevelopment Agency • $86,000 in streetscape: sidewalks, streetlights, utilities, benches, bike racks, parking • CROOKED CAN INVESTMENT: $4 million

This 3D rendering represents a seethrough aerial view of the market.

“We have a real butcher’s shop going in, The Butcher’s Market,” she said. “It’s the sister company of The Meathouse in Winter Park, but they’re changing their branding over. They make their own sausages; they have cowboy steaks; they have ribs; they have local meats; they have grass-fed. They’re going to be offering anything your heart desires in the meat aspect of it. They also do sliced Boar’s Head; they’re going to be offering sandwiches and a whole deli case, as if you were going into a deli and you wanted to order a sub or something but want to pick up steaks for dinner.”

Other eateries include Five Vibe, a farm-to-table concept with gourmet, high-end meals; The Sacred Olive, which sells handmade pastas and gourmet salts and peppers; Market to Table Cuisine, which specializes in truffle butters, handmade salad dressings, chicken stocks and demi-glaces; The Pop Parlour, a flash-frozen popsicle merchant using organic ingredients for myriad unique flavors; and The Wandering Wonton, which makes gourmet wontons and noodle and rice bowls.

“A little bit of everything is what we’re trying to get,” Suzanne said. “We’re not a food court. We’re going to be a destination that’s also going to be like a grocer. You can run in and grab your bulk coffee, your bread, some vegetables, some meats, some salad dressings.

But then, if you want, come on a Saturday or Friday night, stay for a few hours and hang out.

We’re going to be very family-orientated: We’re going to have kids’ games, board game nights, art classes, yoga, drum circles, full-on catered events, weddings, corporate events in the brewery — it’s endless.”

So seems the list of vendors, because Suzanne has not met anyone unwilling to join the market, she said. It includes Our Nation’s Creation, an art-

ist shop of handmade USA products; WoodStone Jewelry, where unique, vintage, nature-inspired accessories are handmade with natural materials; Pedal Pushers, a floral events shop; Coconut Clean, a store for all-natural body care items; and The Fast and the Furriest, dog trainers who invented dog products.

“We are going to be absolutely pet-friendly, and we are going to have lots of events with pet owners, bikers, bicyclists, rollerbladers and art,” Suzanne said. “Meeting with all the potential merchants and community, my main focus was to get everyone on the same vision. The passion that everyone has is part of this, to create something like this that really doesn’t exist anywhere on this side of town.”

The market will be openstyle, with showcases as small as 4 feet by 9 feet across from shops, open Thursdays through Sundays. It is part of a growing movement getting back to where food originates, its seller and personal touches, she said.

“Then we have a big secret,” Suzanne said. “We can’t tell anyone what’s going in — it’s the restaurant concept that’s going to be new to the area.

There’s quite a few of them in New York City, but we haven’t announced what it is yet.”

The overarching concept of the market is to attract visitors to enjoy Winter Garden, a vision the city also sees, she said.

“We wanted to make the building a destination where everyone could come,” she said. “Even if you don’t buy anything, we want to make it a place where you just want to be, this oasis that has everything your heart desires under one roof. Go back to the old roots of being able to bring your kids, do tours and (see) the new heritage museum and the Garden Theatre. We want people to enjoy real Florida, not just Disney World.”

THE BREWERY

The main focus remains Crooked Can, which will mesh with the family-friendly concept, Suzanne said.

“We’re going to have the all-natural sodas from the tap for the kids, just like in the old days, with birch beer, black cherry, orange creamsicle,” she said. “And if they come in in their sports uniforms, they get their first soda for free.”

These will be made in-house along with four flagship beers, said Kent Waugh, Crooked Can’s award-winning head brewer who was brewmaster at Big River Grille on Disney’s Boardwalk.

“Our pilot batch system is a 26-gallon system to tweak in recipes, grain profiles, hot profiles and the balance of those together, our High Stepper Imperial IPA, to match our logo, McSwagger,” Waugh said. “And then McSwagger’s Own Amber Ale is what we’re going to call his go-to drink. Those two first flagships will be going on the canning line. We’ve already ordered the cans. Those will be on shelves all around town.”

Crooked Can had its first public tasting at a brewers’ event Nov. 22, officially introducing itself to the area.

“We’re not competing — we’re building the community up and being part of it,” Waugh said. “I’ve seen that across the country with the craft beer industry. That’s what the craft beer industry does: not creating competition but enhancing the community, in a sense.”

Building that community will include both cooperation with other local breweries and pairing beers with foods from market vendors, he said.

“A good example of it would be Euro Bake (World), for example, if we did a citrus-kicker IPA (India Pale Ale),” he said.

“I’ve talked to the baker about using suspended grains from the beer in his product, and then maybe an orange zest. We might play around with some

SIZE: 12,000 square feet HOURS: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Sundays) TAPROOM: Closes at midnight BORDERS: West Plant Street to the north; South Central Avenue to the east; West Smith Street to the south; and South Park Avenue to the west fresh leaf hops. So you can picture a citrus bread paired with a citrus-style beer, so that combination on different courses working with our local vendors is the greatest part. It’s going to have that festive feeling on a daily basis.”

As for working with other breweries, having more quality breweries helps them all, Waugh said.

“We’ll do collaborations with them, sit down over a pint and say, ‘What do we want to make? Let’s make something cool that we can both put our name on,’” he said. “Then people can have it here or go to their taproom and have that.

People might not know about us and vice-versa.”

Crooked Can will grow slowly around its flagships of the popular IPA variety, Waugh said. The focus will be on tinkering with different flavors and hops, to create something new and exciting, and collaborating with locals. For example, Waugh will use hops from an upstart farm in Michigan as one of his main suppliers. The spent grains will go to three local farmers to maximize reuse and dispose of them properly.

The reuse concept inspired the brewers to use cans almost exclusively, along with the benefits of water-based sealant sustaining flavor, light weight, no light penetration and hermetically sealing packages so no oxygen gets in, said Chad Holloway, Waugh’s brewing partner.

“We’re also going to brew a lot of one-offs exclusive to the brewery itself,” Holloway said.

“You won’t be able to get them in a can or store. We’re going to be doing a lot of seasonal.”

Waugh said the beers on tap would change often, involving many ingredients and techniques, such as fruit and oak-aging.

“We’ll have all kinds of different fun applications, especially for the craft beer community,” Waugh said. “That’s what’s going to keep them coming back: What’s on tap today? We’re extremely fortunate to have this beautiful brewery that I’ve been dreaming about since the mid-1990s. We couldn’t ask for anything more.”

The mid-1990s was the last time a brewery of this size opened near Orlando, which made Central Florida and Winter Garden due for a new brewery, Holloway said.

“You can see in other cities — Asheville (North Carolina) is a good example of this — the breweries went in and the values started going up after, so much that the breweries can’t even keep the properties anymore,” Holloway said.

“That was why a lot of redevelopment projects, as far as breweries go, have been so lucrative. Across the nation we’ve seen this happen, and I think it’s going to be really exciting for Winter Garden.”

With that kind of opportunity, the brewers want to keep Crooked Can perfect.

Waugh said they would keep

it spotless because clean breweries succeed.

“If you don’t see Kent and I eating off the floors in there during lunchtime, there’s something wrong,” Holloway said.

With a grain silo, an outdoor beer garden with a service window, 12-15 taps, plans for fermenting classes and a dinner table for up to 40 people, spotlessness will be a tall order. But the hardest part will be ensuring consistency of recipes and ingredients, Waugh said.

THE PASSION

The local craft concept of the market adheres to the initial passionate vision of high quality from that flight two years ago, Czachorowski said.

“It’s definitely what our beer’s all about,” he said. “It’s what our building’s all about — we’ve got high-end brick façades and old-school details.

We’re paying attention to the traditional neighborhood and urban downtown of Winter Garden and trying to replicate that and be a part of that. Everything we’re doing, from the brewery system we’re buying, to the building, to the furniture we’re going to put in, to the finishes. … We’re creating a place where people can hang out and enjoy a high quality of everything.”

That includes work ethic and values, based on how Waugh and Holloway joined the construction process.

“Here’s how passionate we are: Christmas Eve, we come in and pull all of the metal off of (deteriorated on-site) buildings, reclaim that and then use it inside here, for the taproom,” Waugh said. “You could go to a reclaim warehouse somewhere and buy that, and they’ll charge you a lot for that these days, whereas 15 years ago, they’d give you $100 to take it away. So that kind of stuff really brings the Colorado culture, Colorado being the main craft beer state and environmentally friendly and community-friendly.”

The wisdom and experience of Winter Garden staff helped make a smooth transition from “abandoned problem area” to Plant Street Market, Czachorowski said.

“There’s a reason Winter Garden is the premiere urban traditional area in West Orange County,” he said. “It’s because they care and they really know what they’re doing. I’ve been in development my whole career, and I haven’t worked with a municipality that is as organized and dedicated and passionate for good, smart growth as the team they have here.”

Winter Garden supported the concept as a community asset to jumpstart other developments, he said.

“It was kind of a block for other landowners and this side of the city to develop new projects when you had this eyesore right in the middle of it,” he said. “The city also knows, from a financial standpoint, that it’s not just one set of owners but so many different people and businesses. We got 25 different spaces, so you have the opportunity for 25 new businesses to start, new employment numbers, careers, a whole-production brewery with a canning line and just a small piece of property and a small investment on the city standpoint, to be able to create something much bigger and really benefit this community in jobs and growth.”

— Zak Kerr

4A

WEST ORANGE TIMES

WOTimes.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

2015 FORECAST: SCHOOLS

DUI / PAGE 1A for a high level of traffic enforcement, was being used as a safe haven for people driving through it impaired, and this was no longer acceptable,” he said.

This led to the department beginning a vigorous DUI training enforcement program in October 2013, which continues today. Through the following year, Windermere Police consulted outside experts, heard testimonials from a local family whose relative died via DUI, attended advanced levels of training and hosted a threeday NHTSA-certified DUI enforcement course, which personnel from more than 20 agencies attended, Ogden said.

“We posted articles on social networks to educate the public and participated in all local traffic safety programs to enhance our efforts of providing traffic safety, and the results are staggering,” he said.

The results show almost six times as many 2014 DUI arrests in Windermere as there were in 2013. Windermere Police made only 10 arrests for DUI in 2013, but officers of that department made 59 such arrests in 2014, an increase of 490%. Officers Ryan Miller and Robbie Harrison made almost all DUI arrests, with 33 and 23, respectively.

“Officer Miller’s inspiration was our very own Officer Robbie German, who was killed on March 22, 2014,” Ogden said.

“Officer German and Officer Miller were partners on patrol and scheduled to attend the three-day NHTSA school together, which was also dedicated to Officer German. Officer Robbie Harrison … was motivated to get into law enforcement when a friend of his was killed by a drunk driver. I think the results of our directed training efforts combined with the motivation of our officers has made our streets and our citizens much safer.”

The focus on DUI already has extended into 2015.

Around 10 p.m. Saturday, a Windermere officer patrolling Conroy Windermere Road and Isleworth Country Club Drive arrested Jennifer Garcia, 28, after conducting field sobriety tests. Garcia almost struck oncoming traffic before rear-ending a vehicle. Her charges included DUI, battery on law enforcement and resisting an officer with violence.

Contact Zak Kerr at zkerr@ wotimes.com.

THEATRE / PAGE 1A entertainer, he has performed for most of the Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T, IBM, Kodak, Time Warner and Coca-Cola. He was voted Solo Artist Of The Year by American Entertainment Magazine.

Following Charles’ Friday night performance, Shugart, also the president of Valencia College, will bring his folk-influence, coffeehouse-style music to West Orange. Shugart said he often takes inspiration from his job at Valencia to craft the songs that find their way to the stage. Shugart has released three independent albums, including “Didn’t You Know?” in 2006, which is available digitally on iTunes.

Shugart has served as Valencia’s president since 2000. He earned his doctoral degree in teaching and learning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to his careers in education and music, he is a published poet and author of “Leadership in the Crucible of Work: Discovering the Interior Life of an Authentic Leader.”

Tickets may be purchased by calling the Garden Theatre Box Office at (407) 877-4736, Ext. 0, or online at gardentheatre.org.

CROWD CONTROL

As West Orange County continues to attract more homebuilders and residents, Orange County Public Schools has plans for six new area schools in the next 10 years.

Orange County Public Schools is forever behind the curve when it comes to providing enough educational facilities to comfortably house all the students moving to and living in Central Florida.

It doesn’t take long for newly built schools to become overcrowded, and then OCPS officials are looking for more land to purchase.

West Orange County has a number of schools on the list for renovations and overcrowding relief, and OCPS is tackling the issues one at a time.

TAX RELIEF

In August, Orange County residents voted in favor of extending the half-cent sales tax for 10 years.

This will produce billions of dollars for building and renovating schools.

“It will allow the district to complete the original list of 136 schools identified in 2002 as needing renovation or replacement,” said Kathy Putnam, senior manager of communications for OCPS Facilities. “It will allow renovation of other schools more recently identified as needing renovation; funding technology in schools; and fund capital renewal to schools as needed.”

There has been a steady decline in portable classrooms thanks to the half-cent sales tax approved in 2002. Nearly 24% of OCPS students attend class in portables, and that number is anticipated to drop to 13% by the 2018-19 school year. Since 2006, the number of portables has dropped from 4,337 to 2,493.

The continuation of the half-cent sales tax is estimated to bring in $2.1 billion in the next decade.

GROWTH SPURT

In a presentation to the Orange County School Board on Dec. 16, Basem Ghneim, program manager of facilities, shared a list of 16 relief schools for fiscal years 2014-2024, six of which are in West Orange County. There are two high schools planned to relieve overcrowding at West Orange and Dr. Phillips, scheduled to open in 2017 and 2024, respectively; a middle school for the Bridgewater area of Horizon West, slated to open in 2020; and two elementary schools, near Sunset Park Elementary and in the area of Summerport and Independence.

The Sunset Park relief school will be in the Lakeside Village area west of Reams Road and south of Winter Garden-Vineland Road. It is scheduled to open in August 2016.

The Summerport/Independence area relief school, at 6255 New Independence Parkway in Winter Garden, is currently under construction and will have a student capacity of 832. It will relieve overcrowding at Keene’s Crossing and Sunset Park elementaries.

The $16.2 million project has a completion date of June 2015.

It will be a secure campus with one public entrance, a two-story school building and the latest classroom technology.

MetroWest Elementary also is getting a relief school, but it will be an additional school built on the same site as the current school. Putnam said the two facilities could possibly share efficiencies, such as the cafeteria and central energy plant — similar to the layout of SunRidge Elementary and SunRidge Middle schools.

She also speculated that students could be divided into kindergarten through second grade and third through fifth grade at the two schools. It is scheduled to open in August 2017.

Another elementary school is planned in the Summerlake area of Horizon West. Located south of Lake Hancock, the school is expected to open in 2017.

Work has started on the Lake Whitney Elementary refurbishment project. When completed in the fall, the school’s electrical, plumbing and air-conditioning systems will all be upgraded. The interior is getting new flooring, paint and furniture. The $11.5 million project also includes the newest classroom technology and renovation or replacement of the administration office,

classrooms, multipurpose/ cafeteria, media center, kitchen, labs and outdoor activities areas. The parking lot and student drop-off loop are being expanded, as well.

By spring, the final phase of the $66.6 million renovation of Dr. Phillips High School should be completed. Work is underway on the media center and vocational and language arts buildings. The project has included renovation or replacement of the administration office, classrooms, kitchen and cafeteria, labs, gymnasium and covered walkways; expansion of the Performing Arts Center and student drop-off loop; and updated technology in the classrooms, including new computers and digital projectors. Portable classrooms used during the renovation of other classroom buildings will be removed. The school has a student capacity of 2,866.

William R. Frangus Elementary, which has a modular design, will be renovated, and the new facility should open in August 2018.

Chain of Lakes Middle will undergo a facelift, as well. As part of a functional equity proj-

ect, the school will be brought up to standard with other middle schools in the district with regard to core buildings, cafeteria and auditorium, Putnam said. It is slated for completion in August 2018.

RELIEVING WOHS

West Orange High School, in Winter Garden, is overcrowded. The school — which serves Winter Garden, Oakland, Gotha and parts of Windermere and Ocoee — was built with a capacity of 2,776 and has a student body of 3,873. There are 1,100 freshmen, and District 4 School Board Member Pam Gould estimates that number will increase to 1,250 next year and 1,500 the following year — making a relief school necessary immediately.

In 2004 and 2006, Orange County Public Schools paid a combined $7 million for two segments of a 65-acre piece of land, known as the Beck Property, near the intersection of Winter Garden Vineland Road (County Road 535) and Ficquette Road. A relief high school was to be built on this site. However, the land lies in the West Windermere Rural Settlement, and many nearby

There has been a steady decline in portable classrooms thanks to the half-cent sales tax approved in 2002. Nearly 24% of OCPS students attend class in portables, and that number is anticipated to drop to 13% by the 2018-19 school year. Since 2006, the number of portables has dropped from 4,337 to 2,493.

West Orange Times The West Orange Times (USPS 687-120) is published weekly for $21.50 per year ($35 outside of Orange County) by the Observer Media Group, 720 S. Dillard St., Winter Garden, Florida 34787. Periodical postage paid at Winter Garden, Florida. POSTMASTER send address changes to the West Orange Times, 720 S. Dillard St., Winter Garden, Florida 34787. Opinions in the West Orange Times are those of the individual writer and are not necessarily those of the West Orange Times, its publisher or editors. Mailed letters must by typed and include the author’s signature and phone number. Letters to the editor are subject to editing for space and grammar and become the property of the newspaper. © Copyright 2014 Observer Media Group All Rights Reserved

Courtesy

West Orange High School is located in the top zone, and the two relief school site options are to the south.

residents, as well as members of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, have vehemently objected to a high school being put there. Homes are limited to one per acre in rural settlements.

A second piece of land, called North of Alberts, encompasses 116 acres and has been reserved for a middle school and high school. It is owned by the family of former County Commissioner Fran Pignone and is located in the master-planned community of Horizon West. OCPS officials estimate it would have to spend $20 million on this site.

Nearly a year ago, Orange County’s commissioners and School Board members came together in a rare joint meeting to try to come to an agreement.

Representatives on both sides were given time to speak. No vote was taken at the meeting,.

After many hours of discussion and debate, the meeting ended with the understanding that both sides would appoint negotiators to work together to pursue the two site options.

Mediation discussions, as well as meetings with staff members and the community, continued throughout the year.

A timeline on an Orange County Government Board of Commissioners website dedicated to the topic of the West Orange Relief High School indicates the current status is this: “Final decision remains in the hands of Orange County Public Schools and the judicial system.”

Gould said the School Board is ready to proceed with design and construction of the new high school.

“However, because the application for a special exception in the rural settlement was denied by the County Commission, the School Board has sought relief in the courts to appeal that determination,” she said.

A court hearing with a threejudge panel was held Dec. 22, and both sides are still waiting on a ruling.

There are two pending lawsuits, Gould said, and one of them is heading toward a hearing on Monday.

“While it is unlikely that the judge will issue a decision on Monday, it is possible that a ruling will be issued soon thereafter, within a month or possibly less,” she said. “That determination will either adversely impact the district and require further consideration, or it will be a favorable opinion, which could help result in a final resolution of this matter.”

She said the other lawsuit is still pending and a resolution is not expected until early spring.

A decision must be made soon if a relief high school is to be ready by 2017, Putnam said.

This most likely will be a temporary solution to the area’s overcrowded high school conditions.

Based on future growth projects, Gould said, West Orange High will need two relief schools, and Dr. Phillips High will need one.

— Amy Quesinberry Rhode

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“If we are to build a better world, we must remember that the guiding principle is this — a policy of freedom for the individual is the only truly progressive policy.” — Friedrich Hayek, “Road to Serfdom,” 1944

WEST ORANGE TIMES

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

5A

2015 FORECAST: STATE ROAD 429

DEVELOPING THE BACKBONE Ocoee and Winter Garden are joint-funding a corridor study for State Road 429. Leaders say the route is West Orange’s spinal column and hope its development will create jobs and additional revenue.

A study through a mutual contractor could lead to the creation of an employment hub for Ocoee and Winter Garden along State Road 429, which serves as much of the border of the two cities.

The mutual contractor performing the study, Real Estate Research Consultants, qualified through the Tri-City partnership, which also includes Apopka.

State Rep. Randolph Bracy was able to help procure a $100,000 grant for Ocoee to use for this study, with a goal of finding which businesses would best fit along the S.R. 429 corridor.

“One of our goals for this district is economic development in the area,” Bracy said. “(The study) does a lot of necessary infrastructure planning to get the area ready for business improvement.”

Bracy said plans, such as drawings and architecture, would be submitted in February or March as a result of the study. Based on the number of industrial companies near S.R. 429, there could be something to complement the businesses already developed there, he said.

“Just talking with the Ocoee staff, I know they would like to see something along the lines of Fortune 500 headquarters, along the lines of what Lake Mary has done with AAA and now Verizon,” Bracy said. “There’s different industries, like tech industries, but I don’t want to speculate too much. I wanted to do as much as I can for my district, and I had a conversation with the economic development staff.

Craig Shadrix was telling me about this study. I decided to put it in appropriations.”

Shadrix, the assistant city manager for Ocoee, delivered a presentation about the Department of Economic Opportunity’s $100,000 grant to the Ocoee City Commission Dec. 2, when the commission unanimously approved the grant and this study. That money will pay for just Ocoee’s part of the study, with Winter Garden paying for what the study covers in its territory.

The section of importance for these two cities stretches from Florida’s Turnpike at the south end to Clarcona-Ocoee Road at the north end.

“In general, we’re really blessed because, for all the goals and efforts about to be underway, we have an incredible road network,” Shadrix said. “S.R. 429 will connect to Wekiva Parkway. It connects to 415 with Maitland; you can get on 50; and you can get on the turnpike. It will even drop you off at the back door of Disney. Positionally, you couldn’t ask for a better connected road system than that of 429.

It’s really the spinal column of West Central Florida when you think about it.”

CITY COOPERATION

“We have a lot to gain by teaming up with Winter Garden and with Apopka, because we all have similar interests in that corridor, especially with Winter Garden,” Ocoee Commissioner Rosemary Wilsen said.

Tanja Gerhartz, the economic development director for Winter Garden, said three key interchanges along S.R. 429 would be part of the study: State Road 50; East Plant and West Franklin streets; and West and Clarcona-Ocoee roads.

The first two interchanges would involve Winter Garden to the west and Ocoee to the east, whereas the last interchange would involve Ocoee and Apopka, she said.

“Our boundaries are right up against one another, so when you look at an interchange, you look at a full interchange and what can be done there,” Gerhartz said. “Working together, we can address the whole interchange and try to do the same things, so it’s seamless development and a mixed-use business park.

We’re not going to really know

AREA COVERED Ocoee: Florida Turnpike to Clarcona-Ocoee Road Distance on S.R. 429: 4.2 miles Winter Garden: Florida Turnpike to East Plant Street Distance on S.R. 429: 1.8 miles

Courtesy photo

A business hub on State Road 429 could resemble Lake Mary’s, which has attracted AAA’s National Office and a Verizon Financial Center. for sure until the study is done, but those are some things we’ll be addressing: Is there demand to support a mixed-use business park? What types of businesses? What are the land uses? We believe we could be the next Lake Mary and build a park like that, probably at the East Plant Street-Franklin interchange.”

About 45 acres of parcels at the northwest corner of that intersection, extending north with East Crown Road on the other side, could be particularly significant, Shadrix said.

The business park in that interchange is the aspect Winter Garden’s staff feels strongest about, but each interchange will differ by the surrounding uses and road network, Gerhartz said. Whereas S.R. 50 runs east and west, S.R. 429 runs north and south, which essentially makes it a bypass for Interstate 4, directly into the west end of Disney, she said.

“You could see more retail at the S.R. 50 area,” she said. “Until the study is done and they do the market scan, I don’t know. You could see a little bit of everything: hotel uses, residential, office, commercial.

We’re looking at the economic potential and development potential of those interchanges, how they should work, how big they should be, what the road network should be, what infrastructure is needed. We’re looking at the market viability.

What will the market bear in terms of square footage longterm for the different areas?”

With many variables, true success in determining what is best for everyone will only be achieved through cooperation among the cities sharing the corridor, Shadrix said.

“We have very similar goals as far as the type of quality of environment we want to create in the future in West Orange County,” he said. “I think (cooperation) is critical.

They will be less successful if we’re not there with them, and vice-versa. If we’re in it alone, it’s not going to be as good as if we’re in it together. We’re really excited to be working with our neighbor in this and have the state funding, and we think it’s going to be the start of some very good things in this area.”

REVITALIZING DOWNTOWN OCOEE

The city with the most to gain from the development of this corridor of S.R. 429 is Ocoee, not only because it is the only city involved in all three major interchanges, but also because the study could help to improve and recreate its downtown, much like Winter Garden did.

“Historic downtown is McKey Street,” Shadrix said.

“It looks like a historic old downtown, not even a full city block. Drive the corridor to see our perspective.

Winter Garden has a growing downtown. Ours is not. One of the outcomes of this study will be drawings that help us

promote growth in our downtown. Ocoee is growing faster than any other city in the state. We have an opportunity to promote economic development with an employment center.”

Seeing the revitalization of downtown Ocoee has been one major goal of the city’s commission, Shadrix said.

“It’ll be helpful to get energy going in that corridor,” Shadrix said. “Jobs will make everything happen. That help supports everything we want to do. Our downtown is smaller than Winter Garden’s and has largely remained unchanged for decades. The commission wants to see that changed and revitalize that area. It fits our goals with Winter Garden to develop an employment center. I think we’re going to develop a unique downtown with its distinct character, and I think as we get more quality businesses, we’ll have that.”

Members of the Ocoee community have been involved in questionnaires and other forms of feedback, looking at aspects such as visual preferences with a good response rate, Shadrix said.

“Everyone wants to have downtown spaces with improved quality of life, from restaurants to recreation areas and more,” he said. “Highways and jobs stabilize local economies, which increase income and help drive higher-end housing markets. We’ll be doing a lot of processing of this to come before the public for thought, but we’ve already had a lot of input from the public to make this sector an employment center. I think everyone recognizes it’s key to our downtown. The Plant-Franklin corridor connects downtown Winter Garden and downtown Ocoee, so this is a step in the right direction of bringing a corporate environment to Ocoee in 429.”

But this corridor is only part of the improvements Ocoee has in store. For instance, as part of an effort to make the city prettier, Shadrix and other members of the Ocoee staff are trying to make Ocoee the first city in the state with LED streetlights, he said. Such lights could be added soon along S.R. 50, between Good Homes Road and West Oaks Mall, as part of the completion of the widening project in that section of S.R. 50. The Florida Department of Transportation offered $120,000 to cover the installation of LED lights in this section of road by Duke Energy.

“Anything we’re doing now to beautify the area is good,” Shadrix said. “We’re working with Windermere and Winter Garden to make a regional trail system. It all ties in to the more beautiful we can make it — parks, trails, healthy initiatives we can introduce — makes it more attractive to employees we want to introduce to our employment center. We get tagged a lot for having all these studies sitting on shelves, but

I think with this we’re finally going to see something really special.”

INVESTING IN WEST ORANGE COUNTY

In addition to an investment in the future of Ocoee, Shadrix sees this study as an investment in West Orange County as a whole.

“You have Horizon (West), Ocoee and Winter Garden, Apopka to the north,” he said.

“We’re starting to see a lot of activity, Florida Hospital and Health Central expanding in Winter Garden and Ocoee, industrial expansion in Apopka and, hopefully, class-A corporate space between the two cities. Even from that Plant-Franklin interchange,

you can hop on 429 and go just about anywhere in 15 minutes: Orlando, Maitland, Disney — 20 is more realistic to Disney, but you’re really centrally located. We have some really high-end housing stock. You have downtown Winter Garden, which we hope, really, Ocoee turns into, and we hope it can turn into something faster than a lot of places that are just getting up and running.”

Shadrix thinks the study will give all involved a reality check as to what they must do to accomplish the goals their elected officials have outlined for them, he said. That would involve an action plan, with specifics such as costs and ideal uses for each area, with a concerted effort needed to

make it a reality, he said.

“If we are successful, it could be the beginning of some great relationships with West Orange County and the state,” Shadrix said. “The state tends, over time, to fund areas that tend to get things done. Our elected officials want to get things done. Typically, you see local governments scrambling to get funding for this kind of study at the end of the fiscal year, and hopefully we’ll be able to tackle some of those items on our agenda as an end result. We are tremendously grateful to Rep. Bracy and all who worked with him on that grant at the state level, because it actually shows state investment to West Orange and the overall investment of the state in Central Florida.”

Bracy agreed with Shadrix that this project could be a sign of great things to come.

“I think that 429, when it’s completed, you’re going to get something that’s first-rate,” Bracy said. “Property values will go up. We’re shooting for a world-class city, something along the lines of what Austin, (Texas) has been able to do out there. They’ve got a variety of businesses unparalleled in any other city. You’ve got a lot of cities primed to copy what they’ve done. It’s all about finding businesses that fit this area.

You’re going to have jobs for people, but also an area that is visually appealing and makes the city better.”

— Zak Kerr

6A

WEST ORANGE TIMES

WOTimes.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

2015 FORECAST: METROWEST

COMPLETE CONTROL Late last year, MetroWest residents spent $2 million to buy out developer Carl Shakarian. Now, the residents of one of Orlando’s original master-planned projects control their community for the first time in history.

METROWEST — Last August, residents in MetroWest put their money where their mouths were.

Quite literally.

With 93% of MetroWest members present, the community voted to secure a $2 million loan to buy out developer Carl Shakarian. The move gave MetroWest residents absolute control over their community for the first time in its history.

“Congratulations, you are now in charge of your own destiny,” MetroWest Master Association President Jim Drayton said after the vote.

It also ousted Shakarian, a South Florida businessman who five years ago bought three MetroWest acres — along with controlling interests — from former developer Kevin Azzouz.

The $2 million price tag includes those three acres and, more importantly, community control. Shakarian also was paid $120,000 annually to market the community, and leaders expect to save that amount — as well as $300,000 annually in attorney fees — following the buyout. The association borrowed the funds to purchase Sharkarian’s interest and will pay it back over five years.

Three months after the buyout, the association announced the completion of a $1.5 million irrigation project that includes a complete redesign of

BY THE NUMBERS $22 MILLION

— The price paid for the MetroWest acreage in 1980 and 1981.

18,500 — The number of residents in MetroWest

10,108 — The

total number of homes in MetroWest as of 2013.

1,805 — The size in acres of the entire MetroWest Community.

23 — The number of original landowners who sold parcels that ultimately became MetroWest

18 — The

number of golfcourse holes at MetroWest Golf Club

METROWEST MASTER ASSOCIATION 2015 Courtesy photo

MetroWest was one of the first master-planned communities in Orange County, built around the now-popular live-work-play model. the community’s water distribution network.

And last month, the association elected two new members to its board of directors — longtime MetroWest resident and West Orange Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Stina D’Uva and MetroWest

resident and accountant Neil Morley. D’Uva and Morley join Drayton, Vice President Howard Levene and Director Rudy Bell to constitute the first resident-controlled board.

With these changes finally in place and the calendar freshly turned to 2015, the $2 million

SCHOOLS ELEMENTARY: MetroWest Elementary School, 1801 Lake Vilma Drive, Orlando MIDDLE: Gotha Middle School, 9155 Gotha Road, Windermere; or Chain of Lakes Middle School, 8700 Conroy Windermere Road, Orlando HIGH: Olympia High School, 4301 S. Apopka Vineland Road, Orlando COLLEGE: Valencia College West Campus, 1800 S. Kirkman Road, Orlando

question is a simple one with myriad answers: What now?

CONNECTING THE COMMUNITY

Topping the MetroWest Master Association’s 2015 to-do list is a strong, deliberate effort to keep the community and its residents connected. The association wants to practice the live-work-play mentality upon which MetroWest was founded, and its leaders know that will require active and frequent communication.

To that end, the association has enlisted the help of

Social Media Coordinator Janet Deskins, who manages the community’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. There, Deskins posts reminders about upcoming events, publishes photos and promotes MetroWest businesses.

The community also launched its own app for the Apple iOS and Google Android platforms to give residents yet another way to connect with their community.

The community also is contemplating some significant changes to its quarterly newsletter.

Jim Drayton, president Howard Levene, vice president Rudy Bell, director Neil Morley, treasurer Stina D’Uva, secretary

WEST ORANGE TIMES

WOTimes.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

HISTORY

THE NEIGHBORHOODS SUBDIVISIONS

Nine subdivisions with single-family homes and one townhome complex combine for 1,259 residential units.

SUBDIVISION Fairway Cove Hawksnest MetroWest Unit 5* Palma Vista Stonebridge Lakes Villa Capri (townhomes) Vista Royale Westchester * (Abingdon Hill, Bardmoor

LOCATION S. Hiawassee Rd. S. Hiawassee Rd. Westpointe Blvd.

Westpointe Blvd.

Shallot Dr. Arnold Palmer Dr. Vista Royale Blvd.

Piccadilly Lane and St. Andrews)

UNITS 138 91 367 189 103 141 70 160

CONDOMINIUMS

The property also features 15 condominium complexes with more than 5,387 residential units. Some of these dwellings were previous apartments converted into condominiums during the housing boom.

SUBDIVISION LOCATION UNITS Azur at MetroWest Raleigh St. 311 Bermuda Dunes Westpointe Blvd.

336 Central Park at MetroWest Westgate Dr. 400 The Element at MetroWest Lake Debra Dr. 328 Fountains at MetroWest Westgate Dr. 238 The Hamptons at MetroWest Times Square Ave. 766 Madison at MetroWest Robert Trent Jones Dr. 364 Promenade Buford St. 124 Residences at Veranda Grande Ave. 142 Serenata MetroWest Blvd.

398 Stonebridge Commons* 622 Stonebridge Lakes Shallot Dr. 208 Stonebridge Place^ Tolstoy Lane 310 Stonebridge Reserve Robert Trent Jones Dr. 296 Tradewinds S. Hiawassee Rd. 544 * (Carriage Homes, Mandalay, Ventura and Vistas Ducados Pointe); ^(Horizons and Vistas)

APARTMENTS

MetroWest also includes nine apartment complexes with a total of 2,978 units.

COMPLEX Amara at MetroWest The Estates at Park Avenue Harbortown La Palazza Landmark at Siena Springs Marina Landing Indigo West The Summit Vista Verde

ADDRESS Raleigh St. Biltmore Park Dr. Lake Debra Dr. Lake Debra Dr. Westgate Dr. Westgate Dr. Raleigh St. MetroWest Blvd.

S. Hiawassee Rd.

UNITS 456 432 428 510 252 260 411 280 200

NOTE: Golf Ridge is a 59-unit condominium complex off South Hiawassee Road near Raleigh Street. It is completely surrounded by — but not part of — MetroWest.

“We want to strengthen the social fiber of this community,” said MetroWest Master Association Community Manager Julie Sanchez.

When D’Uva moved from New Jersey 25 years ago, she could have chosen any community in the Greater Orlando area. But she fell in love with her home in MetroWest and has remained there ever since.

“It’s central to everything,” she said. “I can be in downtown Winter Garden in 10 minutes, and I can be in downtown Orlando in 10 minutes. There are great places to eat, great places to shop, ‘A’-rated schools. I love living here.”

That’s why — even with her already-full plate serving as the chamber’s president and CEO — she has volunteered to serve in the at-times thankless role of an HOA board member.

“I want to be able to better my community,” she said.

In 2015, the community will continue doing that through a variety of community events, including its annual Smooth Summer JazzFest, SummerFest and WinterFest parties. It also hopes to further strengthen its resident core through its new public-safety initiative.

OFFICER FRIENDLY

In April 2014, following more than a year of research, the community partnered with Critical Intervention Services Inc. to provide a dedicated public-safety presence within the boundaries of MetroWest. Led by Public Safety Director Patricia Schmitt, the initiative has placed 10 officers in specially marked vehicles throughout the community.

The new program launched a year after MetroWest received the Florida Communities of Excellence Safety and Security Award.

“MetroWest was proud to win the award last year, and we didn’t want to just rest on the success of our laurels,” Drayton said in a MetroWest community newsletter.

“So, we sought out ways to elevate our community to an even greater level, and our choice to partner with Critical Intervention Services was because CIS was based on that same recognition for excellence that we are. When we were seeking just the right partner, whether by industry-leading experts or local police, the overwhelming consensus kept leading us back to CIS.” Utilizing a concept called the Community and Character Based Protection Initiative, the new program seeks to build relationships and trust between residents and officers. Although the mission is to provide an added sense of security, the officers also serve as liaisons between the residents and the community’s leaders and governing agencies.

Often, the officers say hello to children waiting for the school bus. In June, the MetroWest Master Association celebrated an act of kindness by CIS officer Maj. Shaun Fogarty. Fogarty was the winner of a raffle for a 50-inch flatscreen TV at the community’s Summer Smooth JazzFest. Instead of collecting the prize, Fogarty donated it to Edgewood Children’s Ranch, the beneficiary of the event.

“It’s the return of Officer Friendly,” Schmitt said.

— Michael Eng

Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, MetroWest is one of the first master-planned communities to take root in Orlando.

Before MetroWest’s single-family subdivisions, condominium complexes and apartment homes dotted the land bounded by Kirkman Road to the east; Pembrooke Pines development to the south; Florida’s Turnpike to the southwest; and Steer Lake Road, Edgewood Children’s Ranch, Lake Hiawassee and Orlo Vista to the north, rows of orange groves lined the land between the city limits of Orlando and West Orange County.

Between 1980 and 1981, Aaron Dowd, vice president of Debra Inc., the company created to develop MetroWest, bought the land for $22 million in cash from 23 landowners.

Debra Inc. was owned by Debra N.V. of the Netherlands Antilles. The real owners of the corporation were never revealed.

The Orlando City Council approved the $500-million-plus development on Nov. 15, 1982, and the developer’s agreement was accepted by the city on Feb. 28, 1983. After five years and an estimated $50 million in preparation, tracts of land were sold to developers and builders for residential and business projects.

The MetroWest Master Association was established by Debra, Inc. on Feb. 17, 1986, and thereafter, all construction and design plans were first examined by the association’s Design Review Board before approval.

The original master plan for the community included up to 4,500 residential units; 6 million square feet of office space; 2.5 million square feet of retail, restaurant and industrial space; and 3,700 hotel rooms. Like other master-planned communities, the development was designed as a place where people can live, work and play.

Work on the MetroWest Golf clubhouse started in 1986; it opened the following year.

Work on the 18-hole golf course began in 1987. The award-winning golf course was designed by course architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. and has been managed since 2010 by Marriott Golf.

By 1989, about 700 single-family homes and villas, along with 1,300 apartment units, had been built or planned. Development also started on the community’s most exclusive residential area, Palma Vista, a 200-lot subdivision that surrounds the 13th and 14th holes of the golf course on the highest land in the community. The crest of the property, at an elevation of 198 feet above sea level, is one of the highest points in Orange County and offers views of downtown Orlando’s skyline to the east.

The community’s first shopping center, MetroWest Village, located on the corner of South Hiawassee Road and Westpointe Boulevard, opened in fall 1990.

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WEST ORANGE TIMES

WOTimes.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

2015 FORECAST: STATE ROAD 50

Currently, there isn’t much along State Road 50 in Oakland. Town leaders hope to change that soon.

BLANK CANVAS The town of Oakland has a new set of standards for development.

It is making plans for sewers and is ready for new retail and restaurants along its stretch of State Road 50.

OAKLAND — When Oakland residents want to fill their gas tanks, they have three convenience stores from which to choose. If they want to enjoy a sit-down meal or go shopping, though, they have to drive either west to Clermont or east to Winter Garden, Ocoee or Orlando.

But major changes are coming.

The Oakland Town Commission has spent the last 21 months rewriting its 16-yearold Gateway Corridor Overlay Ordinance, updating the language and the rules originally established to control reckless development along the town’s main avenue.

The town is also in the midst of a major infrastructure project that will bring sewers — and, officials hope, businesses — to Oakland.

CONTROLLED DEVELOPMENT

Mayor Kathy Stark said she is pleased with the new GCO, which she calls the town’s blueprint for the future.

The old rules — written before the town had plans to implement a sewer system — stipulated that the design of commercial buildings on S.R. 50 be restricted to the one-story Florida Cracker style.

The intent was to create in the small town — population: 2,700 — an attractive thoroughfare that maintained a structurally cohesive look.

This is still the town’s intent, but now there are expanded options.

Currently, there is just a handful of businesses along S.R. 50: three gas stations/ convenience stores, a motel, a storage unit, a shed company, an outdoor-furniture business, a car and RV dealership, motorcycle dealership and a bus sales and service business; as well as a cemetery. Two more commercial buildings are in the process of being repurposed.

Many of these were developed before the GCO was written, so they were grandfathered in and not subject to the strict guidelines.

A two-day visioning session was held in April 2013 to discuss the scope of S.R. 50. Residents and town leaders came

together to look at how to control development along the highway and how the growth could best suit the town.

The GCO regulates details such as architecture, signage, landscaping and merchandise displays.

When updating the overlay district rules, the town looked at acceptable architectural styles, the intensity of the buildings along the highway and how all of this will connect with the community, which boasts the West Orange Trail, the Oakland Nature Preserve and the Oakland Town Center.

“The overall vision is to maintain and apply characteristics such as architectural style consideration and scale, the asset of our existing tree canopy and the continuity of uses that encourage a safe environment, which make up the charm of Oakland while encouraging the development that will help support the growing local economy,” Spann said.

“I think mostly in good ways, change is inevitable, and we have an opportunity that most towns/cities do not have,” Stark said. “Our commercial corridor on (S.R.) 50 is mostly a blank canvas, and we have worked very hard to develop a vision and supporting ordinances for the development that is coming. It will be consistent and will fit into our culture and community. In addition to local needs and services, this can also serve the region and travelers, including ecotourists.

“This will also bring additional tax revenue, which will be good, too,” she said. “In the future, we hope to be able to look at reducing the tax burden to our residents.”

SETTING THE STAGE

Houses and subdivisions are sprouting up all over Oakland, but commercial development has been slow to follow, even before the moratorium was put in place. One of the problems has been the town’s lack of a sewer system; septic tanks couldn’t handle restaurants, hotels and other large facilities.

Oakland officials are remedying this now with a 30-year infrastructure project that will ultimately bring sewers to the town. Oakland has entered

an agreement with the city of Clermont, which will handle all of the town’s wastewater. A master pump station will be located near the Orange-Lake county line. Then the sewer lines must be laid.

Oakland Public Works Director Mike Parker said the first projects to tap into the new sewer system upon completion will be a new residential development in west Oakland and commercial development west of the turnpike on S.R. 50.

Once the sewer systems are in place, the landscape of S.R. 50 will change considerably.

Said Max Spann, Oakland’s Planning & Zoning director: “The town would like to see

design specifications.”

Town Manager Dennis Foltz said citizens can expect an abundance of trees and bushes and more pedestrian trails and walkways intermingled in the design.

“We’re talking about doing things that are appropriate in specific areas,” Foltz said.

“The S.R. 50 corridor will encompass a mix of uses both active and passive, large and small,” Spann said. “The town is positioning itself to encourage the development of a framed corridor east of the (Florida’s) Turnpike interchange and west of the turnpike interchange to have architectural massing that is organized to provide some framing characteristics but also allow relief for multimodal connectivity, ingress and egress to commercial developments, existing public infrastructure easements and design speed and capacity of S.R. 50.”

The highway, which was recently expanded to six lanes, stretches for 2.3 miles through Oakland. Florida’s Turnpike splits the town nearly in half,

munity pride. … Conversely, we will be looking to the potential developers to invest the same type of pride in being a part of our business community. The interchange developments will be the catalyst for what is expected of S.R. 50 development within the town, the same way an older sibling is expected to be an example to its younger siblings.”

COMING SOON

While officials were rewriting the guidelines for the 50 corridor, the commission suspended the processing of applications and plans relating to development. The moratorium was lifted Dec. 15.

Already, several projects are in the planning stages, including a 24-pump RaceTrac gas station at Remington Road and S.R. 50 and a 106-acre planned unit development called Killarney Village/Oakland Trails.

“Where are we going to be in five years, 10 years?” Foltz said.

“We’re probably going to double our population.”

Oakland has such a unique setting, Foltz said, and “we

An aerial view of a suggested layout of buildings along State Road 50. retailers and service providers dedicated to convenience of the local population, as well as local, regional and national retailers and services. We also see ecotourism related entities as a specific market focus but not the absolute nexus of development.”

Stark is excited to see what will unfold along the highway.

“I envision development on (S.R.) 50 fitting into the fabric of our already-established town. We want to keep the development small to medium in size with buildings framing the corridor, lots of landscaping, low lighting, etc. I would like to see walkability and services that residents of the town can use.”

She said she would like to see independent businesses, coffee shops, restaurants, gourmet food and wine shops “and perhaps an inn or a hotel at the interchange that fits into our

with 1.3 miles of the highway to the east and one mile to the west.

“We have an amazing opportunity with the turnpike interchange that we can develop with easy access in and out,” Stark said. “I really want to do something that draws people off the turnpike to take a rest, eat, shop, etc. Our intent is that Exit 272 will be seen as a special and unique place that travelers will want to return to and will tell their friends about.”

Spann said citizens would play an instrumental role in having a voice in what is developed near the turnpike.

“The asset provided to the town in the reconstructed interchange is immeasurable,” he said. “The town now has an opportunity to put its mark on the Florida’s Turnpike. A lot of what will determine the outcome of the development near the interchange is really com-

have the components in place — overlay with standards, Appearance Review Board, residents who care, a commission with their thoughts of how they want it to look — to make it happen.”

This is an exciting time for Oakland, Stark said “We are putting the infrastructure in to realize our goals for (S.R.) 50,” she said. “We must prepare for the future without sacrificing our unique character and identity. Without this preparation, we expose the Oakland commercial corridor to development that would not be the town’s best interest.

The next few years will be busy ones, and I cannot wait to see how we evolve in our objectives to achieve our community vision.”

Added Spann, “We are working to cultivate another great destination in Central Florida.”

— Amy Quesinberry Rhode

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WEST ORANGE TIMES

WOTimes.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

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2015 FORECAST: HORIZON WEST

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ON THE HORIZON The Horizon West area of West Orange County is progressing from orange groves to urban villages. Plans include a Sportsplex project with Little League fields, soccer fields and, possibly, a health and wellness campus.

Property owners and area residents, with the support of the county, created a detailed community vision for Horizon West. When completed, Horizon West will include 42,000 residential units, five residential villages and a town center to serve these villages with commercial office workplaces and higher-density residential areas.

Each village includes two to four residential neighborhoods surrounding a village center. Each village center includes an elementary school and a park as the central focus, “with pedestrian trails to make it safe and easy to access schools and recreation,” according to the website, live horizonwest.com.

“Horizon West provides a meaningful alternative to the leapfrog development pattern of sprawl by creating self-sustaining villages that provide housing close to regional workplaces and community services,” it states.

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www.drbrianramski.com WHERE IS HORIZON WEST? Horizon West encompasses nearly 23,000 acres of land north of Walt Disney World, west of the Butler Chain of Lakes and south of Johns Lake. State Road 429, the Daniel Webster Western Beltway, runs through Horizon West, connecting Ocoee to the north, with Four Corners and Interstate 4 to the south.

HORIZON WEST VILLAGES Lakeside: Established 1997; 5,202 acres Bridgewater: Established 1999; 4,223 acres Town Center: Established 2004; 3,624 acres Village F: Established 2006; 2,551 acres Village H (Hickory Nut): Established 2006; 2,975 acres Village I: Established 2008; 2,129 acres The master plan has won numerous state and regional awards for planning, including recognition from the state of Florida as a Sector Plan.

THE BEGINNING

In 1997, the Lakeside Village plan was adopted, and the Lakes of Windermere neighborhood was the first to open. This village includes the neighborhoods of Lake Burden, Lake Reams, Lake Sawyer and Summerchase and will have more than 10,000 homes upon completion.

A second village, Bridgewater, was adopted in 1999.

It will have more than 7,200 homes when completed.

Neighborhoods in this village include Isles of Lake Hancock, Signature Lakes, Stillwater Crossings, Center Bridge, Summerlake and West Lake Hancock.

The first homes were sold in Horizon West in 2002.

More than 1,400 new homes were sold in 2006. By 2007, the Horizon West population reached 10,000 residents.

When all of the villages are completed, it is estimated that more than 60,000 people will live in Horizon West.

In 2012, development of the 600-acre mixed-use community of Hamlin began along the shores of Lake Hancock.

This is the first development

in the Horizon West Town Center. A Valencia College campus is proposed in the area west of State Road 429. A hotel is planned, as well.

A year later, the New Independence Parkway extension opened, making Horizon West more accessible.

In 2014, six new communities were under development in the Seidel Road area.

Village F includes the Latham Park community. Village H includes the planned developments of Springhill and Waterleigh.

Lakeside Village’s development program included three neighborhoods, with a fourth neighborhood added in 2000, and a village center on 5,194 acres.

The Village of Bridgewater is composed of four neighborhoods and a village center in the 4,859-acre community.

Waterleigh is a new 3,600home, lifestyle-focused lakefront residential community.

It is located on more than 1,400 acres and more than a dozen lakes and clear-water ponds.

Independence, which encompasses more than 1,300 acres and has frontage on lakes Hancock and Speer, is the signature community in Horizon West. It includes hundreds of acres dedicated to parks, recreation and conservation areas.

Horizon West provides a meaningful alternative to the leapfrog development pattern of sprawl by creating self-sustaining villages that provide housing close to regional workplaces and community services.

— livehorizonwest.com

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Last year, Jon V. Weiss, director of Orange County’s Community, Environmental and Development Services Department, presented a Horizon West update to the Orange County Board of County Commissioners.

He provided development highlights: • There are currently two village centers, Cornerstone at Summerport and Lakeside Village Shopping Center; and one neighborhood center, Lake Burden. There are 36 businesses and approximately 300 employees in these centers.

• Recent multi-family approvals include Citra at Windermere (Lakeside Village), which has 360 units, and The Retreat at Windermere (Village of Bridgewater), with 332 units.

• The Town Center (Hamlin) will have more than 1,500 single-family and multi-family residences in Overlook at Hamlin and Hamlin Reserve.

It will also have more than two million square feet of commercial development, including retail stores and services, restaurants, office buildings, a corporate campus, hospital and healthcare, hotels and the Valencia campus. The Orange County National Golf Center is located within the Town Center, as well.

• A trails study has been conducted with the goal of creating overall connectivity trails plans for the Horizon West community.

• A Sportsplex project is planned near Bridgewater Middle School and will include Little League fields, soccer fields and, possibly, a health and wellness campus.

In December 2010, phase one of the Sportsplex Park opened off Tiny Road with horseback riding and hiking trails. When completed, the entire project will cover 260 acres.

— Amy Quesinberry Rhode

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HAVING THE VISION

Craig Martin

BRIAN RAMSKI, DMD

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West Orange County was a mecca for citrus growers for decades — until several devastating freezes in 1983, 1985 and 1989 marked the beginning of a changing landscape.

Treetops gave way to rooftops as growers learned to be developers.

One area — nearly 23,000 acres of former citrus groves in southwest Orange County north of Walt Disney World — lay dormant until 1994, when a group of property owners in West Orange County discussed details for the elaborate and master-planned Horizon West while dining together at a local restaurant.

The idea was to incorporate dozens of neighborhood parks throughout the area — so many that every home is within walking distance to a park. And all of the neighborhoods would have walking and biking trails, and schools would be just a short walk away, too.

Originally, the Horizon West plan called for nine villages and a town center on 38,000 acres, but thousands of acres were removed because of municipal annexations and the creation of the Lake Avalon Rural Settlement.

The not-for-profit Horizon West Inc. was formed in 1993.

The organization hired the land-planning firm of Miller, Sellen, Connor and Walsh (now VBH MillerSellen) to create a concept that state and county officials would accept.

Then-Commission Chairwoman Linda Chapin was supportive of the initiative.

Then-County Commissioner Bob Freeman, whose district encompassed Horizon West, pushed hard for the project, as well.

Today, the members of the Horizon West Coalition are carrying out this vision with the neighborhoods, schools, parks and retail centers that will define this portion of West Orange County.

Coalition members are Boyd Development, D.R. Horton, Starwood Land Ventures LLC, Ashton Woods Homes, Bio-Tech Consulting Inc., Columnar Holdings LLC, Ford Properties, June Engineering Consultants Inc., KB Home, Lennar, Meritage Homes, M/I Homes, Park Square Homes, Pulte Homes, Ryan Homes, Royal Oak Homes, Standard Pacific Homes, Taylor Morrison Communities, Tramell Webb Partners Inc., VBH MillerSellen, Holston Properties & Windsong Realty, Commercial Realty of Central Florida, Titan Properties, Colliers International and West Orange Chamber of Commerce.

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WEST ORANGE TIMES

WOTimes.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

2015 FORECAST: REAL ESTATE

MARKET WATCH All West Orange communities — from Winter Garden and Oakland to Dr. Phillips and Windermere — enjoyed a wildly successful year in 2014. Experts expect that real-estate trend to continue in 2015.

WEST ORANGE COUNTY — It doesn’t take a ton of driving around for one to see the growth in West Orange County.

Drive through any of the cities or areas that make up the region, and you’ll see neighborhoods and shopping centers being constructed and homes being placed on the market — and quickly sold.

If an outside observer were to reason that the real-estate

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There are a variety of factors that go into each and every family’s decision on what home to by.

While school systems are always a big part of decisions, one trend longtime West Orange County Realtor Pat Sharr has noticed is that families are looking for those good schools — and more.

“Schools play a very important part for all the families, but they want that family atmosphere (in the community) also,” Sharr noted, citing Winter Garden as a prime example.

In terms of trends in newer homes recently constructed or being built, Orlando Regional Realtor Association Chairman Zola Szerencses said buyers are favoring more open floor plans.

Accessibility to highways is another key factor, with State Road 429 standing out as an example as growth continues to pop up along the corridor.

market in West Orange County — or in Central Florida as a whole, for that matter —must be on an uptick, that outside observer would be right.

Just ask Zola Szerencses, the chairman of the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.

“It’s been 41 consecutive months that the (median) price has risen (locally); almost 45% since July 2011,” Szerencses said. “Your area is actually one of the better areas. It’s been very good in Central Florida, overall — especially the Winter Garden, Ocoee, Windermere, Dr. Phillips and MetroWest area. It’s been growing continuously.”

Szerencses said the growth was so encouraging, based on what has happened in 2014, where sales picked up significantly in October, November and December to close the year, that one of the bigger problems he and his colleagues in the real estate field are having to contend with as 2015 arrives is simply needing more homes to sell to meet the demand.

“We need as much as we can — we need more inventory, and we need more available homes for sale,” Szerencses said.

GROWTH IN THE GARDEN

Winter Garden, a historic citrus town and the largest municipality in West Orange, continues to grow and carve out a niche as an under-the-radar place that is attracting new residents from throughout the region.

“I think it just has to be like discovering the value of the area; (Winter Garden is) kind of like a best-kept secret,” Szerencses said. “The Winter Garden area, we see close to a 19% increase in sales (in 2014)

compared to 2013 — that’s really good.”

Pat Sharr, the owner of Pat Sharr Realty, has nearly 40 years of experience in West Orange County and parts of Lake County and said Winter Garden’s ability to retain its identity, even through tremendous growth, has been key to its success.

“Winter Garden has grown in that area of being in a smaller town but having all the conveniences, too,” Sharr said. “Still, even though it has grown, it hasn’t lost its family feeling.”

The numbers back up her assertions. According to the ORRA, 70 homes were sold in Winter Garden in November — up from 59 homes sold in the same month in 2013. The inventory is also increasing, up nearly 31% from a year ago, according to the group, another encouraging sign.

In addition to the great schools and all the amenities that the Winter Garden market offers, there is also plenty of choice. Prospective buyers can chose from new and more recent builds to some of the city’s historic, older homes near the downtown area — an area that has been one of the great catalysts for the area’s growth.

“Traditionally, more people are interested in being downtown in the Winter Garden area, where they can walk to downtown because downtown Winter Garden has changed in so many ways,” Sharr said. “Being able to go downtown to all the restaurants — whether you walk or you have a golf cart — they like the convenience. A lot of the old homes are being remodeled. Just for the atmosphere and the convenience

PUBLIC NOTICE NOTICE OF MUNICIPAL ELECTION AND CANDIDATE QUALIFYING Pursuant to Florida Elections Laws, Chapter 100, Section 100.021 and Ocoee Code of Ordinances, Section 5-13, notice is hereby given by the City of Ocoee, Florida that an election will be held Tuesday, March 10, 2015, in the City of Ocoee for the purpose of electing two City Commissioners for three year terms, one (1) Commissioner from District Two and one (1) Commissioner from District Four. Candidates for these offices must Qualify by filing qualifying papers and fees with the City Clerk during regular office hours (8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.) beginning at noon on January 15, 2015, and ending at noon, January 23, 2015, at City Hall, 150 North Lakeshore Drive, Ocoee, Florida. The fee for qualifying for the office of Commissioner is $90.00. There will be two polling locations in the City of Ocoee, at Jim Beech Recreation Center, 1820 A. D. Mims Road and the Ocoee Lakeshore Center, 125 North Lake Shore Drive. Polling places will be open between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 10, 2015. Those electors who need to cast an absentee ballot for this election must contact the Orange County Supervisor of Elections either online at http://www. ocfelections.com or by calling (407) 836-2070 and requesting an absentee ballot. City of Ocoee residents who currently are registered to vote in general elections are registered for this city election. However, those citizens who have recently moved into the City of Ocoee (or who have moved within the City) should check with the Orange County Supervisor of Elections to be sure their registration shows a current address.

All eligible citizens are urged to take part in this election process. If you are 18 years old, a U.S. citizen, a resident of the City of Ocoee and of the specific District of any office being sought, have not been adjudicated mentally incapacitated with respect to voting in Florida or any other state, have not been convicted of a felony without your civil rights having been restored pursuant to law, and do not claim the right to vote in another municipality, please be aware that you have a right to be registered to vote in this election and the books will close for such registration on February 9, 2015, at 5:00 p.m. Please contact the City Clerk’s Office for more information at 407-9053105.

Beth Eikenberry, CMC, City Clerk, City of Ocoee

Thanks for your support in 2014!

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Help your school earn money in 2015!

Please call Sarah Zhou for details 407-656-2121

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WEST ORANGE TIMES

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

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Construction is ongoing in The Cove at Hamlin, part of Horizon West, an area where real-estate sales are expected to continue to boom in 2015.

MARKET TRENDS

As the market trends upward, it merits an assessment as to whether the growth favors buyers or sellers. While things are encouraging for either side of the equation, Szerencses said there is little doubt as to who is favored currently.

“Definitely this is a buyers’ market,” the ORRA chairman said.

Another trend, though,

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With the Horizon West area being the most noticeable example, construction is on an uptick again as 2015 gets underway.

This is good news for construction, and home builders are optimistic that there is room for more growth within the market.

“We still see an industry that it is under-producing (on a national scale), given the population growth that has occurred over the last six or seven years,” said Fred Cooper, a senior vice president for luxury home builder Toll Brothers. “We believe there is still significant, pentup demand that is waiting to be released. We’re producing a million homes a year as an industry right now, compared to throughout the last 40 years where normal, average production has been about 1.5 million a year.

“We think that there is going to be a continuing recovery,” he said. “As the economy gets stronger, hopefully mortgage availability gets more flexible for the first-time buyer — which will help the whole of homebuilding price points.

So we’re optimistic that 2015 is going to be a strong year.”

Toll Brothers has multiple properties in West Orange County, including Casabella at Windermere and Royal

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Quietly, it would seem, sales in West Orange County are actually strongest in Dr. Phillips and MetroWest — areas that are also considered parts of southwest Orlando.

“Dr. Phillips actually has been the winner,” Szerencses said. “I would say MetroWest and then Dr. Phillips, in the sales, they are close to a 24% increase compared to last year in MetroWest and close to 20% in Dr. Phillips, which is also a good indication.

Those are two major areas (of growth).”

BUILDING BOOM

Cypress Preserve off County Road 535, and Andre Vidrine, the vice president of the builder’s Central Florida operation, said the local market is encouraging.

“We’ve had some really good, strong sales (since 2012),” Vidrine said. “The good thing about West Orange County and the Horizon West area is they have a solid school system. Commutes to shopping, access to interstates — it’s well positioned within Orange County. You have State Road 429 — that’s a huge, brand-new highway that is producing a lot of growth out there.”

Of course, anytime there is so much building going on, current residents may have concerns about whether there is an adequate demand for such construction, lest they have half-filled neighborhoods and shopping centers. Sharr said the demand to be in West Orange County these days likely even exceeds the current rate of construction, though, and that more growth is on the way.

“Yes, definitely,” Sharr said.

“Over in Avalon, off of (State Road) 545. They’re going to put up more houses there, and I think that contributes to the 429 because of easy access. The 429, I think, has brought a lot more families in.”

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SOLID SALES IN THE SOUTHWEST

Proximity to downtown Orlando and the heart of the metropolitan area has boosted these two areas, which, like Winter Garden, have also done well to maintain family-friendly images.

“The economy of Central Florida, I think, is just driving the market toward the centralized places,” Szerencses said. “Dr. Phillips and MetroWest are easily accessed.”

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Local growth isn’t limited to Winter Garden, either.

For Oakland and Ocoee, though, neighbors of Winter Garden to the west and east, respectively, some growth may be tied to proximity.

Ocoee, for instance, has the distinction of being near enough to the shopping and dining offered in Winter Garden while having a market that — while trending up — isn’t nearly as expensive.

“The median price in the Ocoee area, it was approximately $170,000 last month, and in Winter Garden, it was close to $275,000 — so it’s a huge difference,” Szerencses said. “It’s been growing, so it’s changing for a positive. In November 2013 the median price in Ocoee was $162,000, and last month, it was $170,000. So it is an increase; but it is more like a moderate increase compared to the Winter Garden area.”

ORRA numbers show growth in Oakland, too.

“Oakland is in similar shoes to Winter Garden,” Szerencses said. “We’ve had such a low inventory the past few years, and there is tremendous growth going on there. …

There is also growth expected for the years to come — moderate growth, I should say.”

Sharr, who also works in both of those markets, attributes the growth in all three cities to the aggressive commercial growth locally. Places such as the outdoor mall at Fowler’s Grove and the renewal of downtown Winter Garden, along with shopping springing up in Clermont and elsewhere, represent a level of growth that longtime residents of the area find remarkable.

“Who ever thought Winter Garden would ever have anything like that?” Sharr said.

“It’s just amazing to me, the growth that has happened in Winter Garden, Ocoee and Clermont. Oakland used to be a sleepy little town, and it’s not that way anymore. I’ve seen quite a change.”

Within the home building industry is a subindustry of luxury home builders, some of whom have a foothold in West Orange County.

Toll Brothers, a Philadelphia-based luxury home builder with a presence in 50 markets nationwide, has experienced great success in Central Florida and has two properties in West Orange County — Casabella at Windermere and Royal Cypress Preserve off County Road 535.

So what sets luxury builders like Toll Brothers apart from other builders?

“A buyer who chooses to build a home with Toll Brothers selects from a variety of base houses and then, typically, our average buyer has about 20% in customization features to the house,” said Senior Vice President Fred Cooper.

“And it’s not just upgrading the carpeting, cabinetry and flooring — they can make structural changes to the house.

They can very significantly alter the physical footprint of the house through structural options as well as the upscale options.”

and one that favors sellers, is that as the median price continues to rise, Szerencses and his colleagues are finding that would-be sellers that have been on the fence about putting their home on the market are becoming more likely to do so. There also has been a noticeable rise in prominence of rentals — both in terms of people buying or renting out properties and the prices of rentals, which are also on an upward trend.

A study released by the National Low Income Housing Coalition in March found that Florida was the 15th-most-expensive rental market, given the relationship between rising rental rates and stagnant median income. The coalition found that foreclosures have forced more families into the rental market, driving up rates.

“The reason for that (rising rental rates) is because of the inventory and the people that aren’t able to get into the mortgages,” Szerencses said.

“Eventually it has to level off so it can be affordable for people who cannot purchase … the market is going to adjust itself.”

— Steven Ryzewski

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2015 FORECAST: LAKE APOPKA

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THE RELATIONSHIP BEGINS HERE

RETURN TO FORM Courtesy photo

Friends of Lake Apopka, now in its 25th year, hopes a focus on ecotourism will exponentiate interest, and raise funds and awareness for the county’s largest lake.

For 24 years, the Friends of Lake Apopka have generated grassroots interest and dedication for the restoration, conservation, exploration and education of Orange County’s largest lake.

In its 25th year, this society of volunteers has resolved to focus on ecotourism as a means of expanding its reach.

“We have now reached a point where we feel there is

no danger in pesticides here, and we now need to focus on ecotourism ideas to generate some funds,” said Jim Thomas, president of FOLA. “Our kickoff meeting was Dec. 30, and we’ve involved every town around here and the counties. We’re just going to put together a coalition to figure out what we can do to get people to use it.”

One of the primary draws FOLA has worked on is birdwatching, making use of the historic migratory bird flyway on the lake’s northern shore.

“Hundreds of thousands of birds come here every winter,” Thomas said. “They either stop over or stay here.

Birdwatchers — a big part of ecotourism — they come here for that. That’s going to be a major thing, and we’ve already tried to make it more open for them to get in here.”

Even within birdwatching, there is an array of possibilities to explore.

“We’ve designed a drivethrough trail, with all of the different cells that have different birds doing different things,” Thomas said. “When you think about 20,000 acres, that’s a lot of land, and so we’ve designed a trail that people can drive and stop at the different pods. That will open in January or February.

It’s going to give us an access, and the trail has been good.

We have a festival every year in Magnolia Park to raise interest, called the Birdapalooza, on Feb. 7. We get a lot of people for that festival. We do

guided tours to watch birds and that sort of thing.”

COMING ATTRACTIONS

In addition to expanded birdwatching, FOLA is working with local governments and environmental groups to build on established and former attractions around the lake, as well as propose new elements, such as a plethora of tours, classes for all ages, an acquisition of Hull Island and Crown Point and a rehab center for native species.

“Friends of Lake Apopka has promoted some things over the years,” Thomas said.

“One of the things we’ve gotten at Magnolia Park is a hiking trail that goes all the way around the lake, and it comes to this side, and we have a trailhead now on the other side. You can hike or bike 18 miles. The trailhead was just opened, and it’s beautiful.

Our goal is now to connect it with Ferndale Preserve (in Clermont), and then eventually come around and connect to the West Orange Trail.”

Orange County agreed to connect the West Orange Trail to Magnolia Park, as well, covering about three miles of gap, which could introduce more trail-goers to trails around Lake Apopka, Thomas said.

Thomas’s biggest personal goal is to get a deepwater boat ramp in Oakland, so that West Orange residents have an easier access point for fishing.

“One of the problems we have with fishing is that this (east) side of the lake is very

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shallow compared to the other side, and some boats can’t get out there,” Thomas said.

“And the only public boats are at Magnolia Park and the city of Winter Garden. A boat of any size you can’t get out. It’s a real problem now — people like to fish, and we’re always getting a lot of people saying nobody’s using the lake. Well, nobody’s using the lake because they can’t get there on the available boat ramps.”

Thanks to Gourd Neck Springs in the southwest part of the lake, just northwest of Oakland, a flow to the lake provides a depth of 18 feet, a prime location for such a ramp.

“So we get the trails hooked up and a usable boat ramp here and the north shore, but we would like to see other things,” Thomas said. “We would like to see another nature center. We’d like to see even a bird-oriented hotel or something, and just all kinds of ideas that we want to promote and get everything going that we possibly can to bring back the economy of this area.”

That includes bringing back fishing, for which the lake was once famous.

“It’s going to be important to get the fishery back — that was the original fame of Apopka,” Thomas said. “I used to come here when I was 10 years old to fish in Lake Apopka. It’s been pretty amazing to remember how great it was and then see how terrible it was, but the whole lake is 31,000 acres.

That’s a huge lake.”

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Other attractions center on the Oakland Nature Preserve, which is used a lot for children’s programs in particular, such as environmental education and summer camps, Thomas said.

“The preserve was finally able to hire a part-time staff, and we’ve scheduled a lot of events and things like a partnership with the charter schools so all the charter school students come here to study science,” he said.

“It’s built the reputation.

PRESERVATION FOUNDATION

FOLA established the Oakland Nature Preserve in 1999 with a primary purchase of 95 acres.

“After we saw the lake was going to be restored, Friends of Lake Apopka needed a place to keep the public involved, because in advocacy you’ve got to have public access and public support,” Thomas said. “We said, ‘Let’s just build a small nature center somewhere and use it to promote the lake restoration and keep people updated.’”

Much of the land purchased for the nature preserve was frozen orange groves with nothing native, so volunteers started taking out orange trees and planting native trees, with restoration of land near the lake becoming as important as lake restoration, Thomas said.

“The Oakland Nature Preserve is an important part of the history of Lake Apopka,” he said. “It’s extremely unusual in that all of it was done by volunteers, with no government subsidy. We just had really good support from the community and volunteers. We wanted this thing and got it.”

The preserve has helped FOLA’s mission of keeping people in touch with Lake Apopka, with all of its programs focused on that or natural history of the area.

Grants have helped, too, although local governments have not formally contributed money in such a way until last year, Thomas said.

“We just got our first grant from a local government: We got $15,000 a year from Orange County for the time being,” he said. “Everything else has been fundraising — that’s it. We did everything from bake sales to begging and whatever it takes, but we’ve gotten what we wanted.”

POLLUTION PROGRESSION

The combination of voluntary and financial support has had a measured effect on the pollution that made Lake Apopka nationally infamous as the most polluted body of water in Florida, however gradual or tough to notice.

“It wasn’t long until the thing was so green that the light couldn’t penetrate it to get to the bottom plants, so they died, and then the fish died,” Thomas said. “The one thing we have to keep making clear to people is that the magnitude of this pollution is greater than anybody’s ever tackled, trying to restore the whole thing. You just can’t expect fast action.”

Even so, the level of phosphorus in the lake has steadily diminished since FOLA

formed in 1991.

“The real goal began with getting phosphorus out of the lake,” he said. “That’s what’s making it green.

That’s come a long way. It’s still green, but it’s not as green as it once was, when we started. The chemistry graph shows the phosphorus steadily dropping. We’re getting there. It’s just hard for people to see, and that’s why we need publicity on it: People are still upset, because it still looks green.”

The phosphorus issue began in 1941, when 21,000 acres of marsh became vegetable muck farms.

“They built a dike and sealed it off from the lake and farmed it,” Thomas said.

“One of the problems they had when they started farming was it’s all organic soil.

In the summer, it would oxidize because of the heat. So they developed a process of flooding the marsh through the summer and then pumping it back in the lake with hundreds of thousands of pounds of phosphorus.”

This pollution worsened for 50 years, until FOLA began its mission 24 years ago.

“At that time, the lake was very polluted,” he said. “All the farms on the north shore were in function, and nothing was being done. They had passed some rules about funding some restoration, but there were no plans ever given, and so nothing ever happened. That’s when we just got really angry, and the thing that finally triggered us off was when we had chemical data published by the Legislature about what was happening there and had to be changed. We got a lot of people together in West Orange County, and we started Friends of Lake Apopka, with the whole purpose of getting that lake restored somehow.”

The timing of FOLA’s formation fortunately coincided with a set of new, young legislators who supported the group’s mission.

“We got funds for buying out all of the farms,” Thomas said. “We tried a number of things to save the farms and work with them. They just would have no part of it.

So we bought them — $100 million — and started the whole process. There was a lot of bloodshed, but it came across. We’re still dealing with a huge piece of land.

Our goal is to get eelgrass on the bottom of the lake, which provides a lot oxygen and supports fish.”

Although farmers’ phosphorus is a diminishing problem, a new challenge faces Lake Apopka.

“One of the biggest problems we have here is a lack of water … because the drainage basin that drains into the lake when it rains is so tiny,” Thomas said. “The lake is so big, and the evaporation rate in the summer is so fast, that it takes a long time. After all of the rain we’ve had, we’re a foot below the minimum height. We used to have lots of hurricanes in this area, and those are the only times we got it filled up. We can’t pump it from anywhere. We have to depend entirely on rainfall, so that slows down the restoration a great deal.”

— Zak Kerr

13A

LAKE APOPKA TIMELINE For years, Thomas has been updating FOLA’s Lake Apopka timeline.

“It starts with the early history, and we have done a lot of study on the archeological,” Thomas said. “When we bought this place, one of the things we didn’t realize was it’s a very significant archeological site. So we’ve done a lot of research in archeology to show what went on before we got here. We had the Timucuan Indians since 10,000 B.C., and then in the 1500s they died out, probably because of diseases coming from the Spanish, and then the Seminoles took over.”

The first settlers of the lake arrived around the 1840s, settling Oakland around 1840, before Winter Garden or Orlando, Thomas said.

“There were six tribes of Seminoles around the lake,” he said. “We have tons of archeological finds. We started out with a mission to help understand the restoration of Lake Apopka, but then we had to add in there to study and teach cultural history, as well as natural history.”

10,000 B.C. to A.D. 1500s: Native tribes thrive around Lake Apopka.

1880: Construction begins on the Apopka-Beauclair Canal by Apopka Canal Co., creating a waterway for navigation and agriculture.

1883: Levels drop 3 feet and expose sediment surfaces of marshes. Small farms spring up around the lake.

1893: Delta Canal Company completes 12 miles of canal, connecting Lake Apopka to lakes Beauclair, Dora, Eustis and Griffin, as well as the Ocklawaha River. This lowered Lake Apopka’s surface by a meter, exposing most sawgrass marsh on the north shore.

1942: Farms begin discharging into the lake.

1948: A hyacinth eradication program using chemicals begins.

Winter Garden Citrus Products produces citrus concentrate, with effluent discharged into the lake. Enormous game fish population increases are documented through 1955.

1950: Winter Garden’s sewage treatment plant grows, discharging 1 million gallons of effluent into Lake Apopka each day. Game fish comprise 60% of the fish population.

1952: A lake stabilization program begins, including regulating lake levels. Trash fish are poisoned; 30 million pounds die in the lake. The game fish begin to deteriorate.

1962: Fish kills become widespread.

1963: Farmers spend more than $1 million on pesticide programs.

1964: Winter Garden’s sewage treatment plant serves 5,000.

Effluent enters a mile-long ditch, channelized Lulu Creek, which serves the Winter Garden Citrus Products plant.

1967: The Lake Apopka Technical Committee is established to study and coordinate restoration plans. A governor’s aide says the lake is restorable within four years.

1969: Winter Garden Citrus Products adds a treatment process, reducing strength of effluent discharged to Lake Apopka.

1972: An outbreak of bacterial disease kills thousands of fish and many birds, alligators, snakes and turtles, garnering national attention. The state reveals a $2.3 million restoration plan, including a 50% drawdown, not funded.

1977: Peat mining begins on the southwestern shore, with effluent and stormwater collected in a man-made lake connected to Lake Apopka. University of Florida researchers say the lake is “not getting any dirtier” after deteriorating a half-century.

1978: A $14 million restoration plan is proposed, including drawdown. A public hearing of 100 begins the Environmental Impact Statement process.

1979: Restoration plans rise to $20 million. Citrus growers object from possible freeze damage.

Another restoration plan, worth $2 million, proposes dredging the lake to make an island and northsouth causeway across the lake, with an airport on the island.

The final Environmental Impact

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1980: Winter Garden finishes its percolation/evaporation system for sewage, removing most effluent from the lake.

1981: Massive fish kills occur. A revised restoration plan includes a $3 million partial drawdown.

1985: Passage of the Lake Apopka Restoration Act of 1985 establishes a council and advisory committee with a $2.265 million budget. To stop farm discharges, St. Johns River Water Management District issues Intent to Deny and requests cease and desist orders and criminal charges.

1987: Surface Water Improvement and Management Act passes the Florida Legislature, naming Lake Apopka among seven restoration priorities.

1991: FOLA organizes.

1996: The Lake Apopka Restoration Act of 1996 sets phosphorus criteria for the lake, allowing SJRWMD to set phosphorus limits and receive $20 million to buy north-shore farms.

1997: A full-scale marsh flowway is approved and initiated with $35 million. The Legislature approves $45 million to buy muck farms.

1998: Almost 15,000 acres of muck farms are bought for $100 million, via funds from Florida and 25% from the U.S. Federal Wetlands Reserve Program.

Farming and pesticides end in June.

1999: More than 175 bird species migrate to the area, many suddenly dying. Accumulation of pesticide is suspected.

Restoration is delayed for scientific investigations. Oakland Nature Preserve is established with an initial purchase of 95 acres.

2008: Wetland restoration occurs by flooding 1,200 acres of former ZDWCD farms.

2009: The marsh flow-way removes 62 million pounds of suspended solids and 37,300 pounds of phosphorus from November 2003 to December 2009.

2010: Lake phosphorus concentrations average 76 parts per billion, near the target of 55.

2011: The north shore hosts 346 bird species, more than anywhere in Florida. Magnolia Park has an August trailhead ribbon-cutting for 18 miles of North Shore Restoration Area activity, once restoration finishes.

NOTICE OF MUNICIPAL ELECTION AND CANDIDATE QUALIFYING Notice is hereby given that the City of Winter Garden, Florida, is scheduled to hold a municipal election on Tuesday, March 10, 2015 from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., at which time the following three officials are to be elected to serve a 3-year term:

Commissioners for Districts 2, 3, and 4

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Individuals may announce their candidacy and open a campaign account by completing forms provided by the City Clerk at City Hall, 300 W. Plant Street, Winter Garden, anytime prior to the qualifying period.

The candidate qualifying period will begin at noon, Tuesday, January 20, 2015 and will close at noon, Tuesday, January 27, 2015. Additional qualifying forms and the qualifying fee will be required at that time.

If you should have questions or require additional information, please contact the City Clerk at 407-656-4111, extension 2254.

Kathy Golden, CMC City Clerk/Supervisor of Municipal Elections

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TIMES&OBSERVER

from the archives

OBITUARIES OLD TIMES 80 YEARS AGO

SHERRI BRISTOL, 54, of Ocoee, died Dec. 29, 2014.

Compass Pointe Cremation Services, Orlando.

JAMES CAMPBELL, 90, of Winter Garden, died Dec. 27, 2014. DeGusipe Funeral Home and Crematory, West Orange Chapel, Ocoee.

GAIL CURTIS, 79, of Winter Garden, died Dec. 27, 2014.

Baldwin Brothers, a Funderal & Cremation Society, Winter Park.

JEAN DAVIS, 88, of Ocoee, died Dec. 24, 2014. Woodlawn Funeral Home, Gotha.

BETTY JANE FUERTSCH, 92, of Winter Garden, died Dec. 30, 2014. Baldwin-Fair-

child Funeral Home, Winter Garden Chapel.

JOHN MARTIN GEORGE, 63, of Ocoee, died Dec. 30, 2014. Woodlawn Funeral Home, Gotha.

MILLARD WALTER RICE, 96, of Winter Garden, died Dec. 30, 2014. Woodlawn Funeral Home, Gotha.

JOSEPHINE E. SANTINI, 91, of Winter Garden, died Dec. 27, 2014. Robert Bryant Funeral & Cremation Chapel, Orlando.

SILAS C. WOODS JR., 55, of Winter Garden, died Dec. 21, 2014. Baldwin-Fairchild Funeral Home, Winter Garden Chapel.

Murfee Tilden was installed as president of the Winter Garden Welfare League at the annual banquet held in the Edgewater Hotel. Outgoing president was Ann Harrell. A beautiful centerpiece was the Christmas gift of Angilee and Billy Bob Davis and Donald Biggers. Fran Irrgang was in charge of the program, and a musical theme was carried throughout. Grace Zimmerman gave two violin selections with Margaret Story as piano accompanist.

45 YEARS AGO

Ted Snell of “Wonderful World of Signs” in Winter Garden has placed on display at the new First State Bank on Dillard Street a collection of his oil paintings recently moved here from New York.

Gov. Claude Kirk will take the spotlight when he speaks to the annual meeting of the Winter Garden Chamber of Commerce at the Winter Garden Inn — his first speaking engagement in West Orange County. Joe Valdes, the outgoing president for 1969, will install Lew Warden, the newly elected president for 1970.

30 YEARS AGO

West Orange High School swimmers and divers celebrated their successful 1984 season at an awards banquet. Members of the boys medley relay team — Peter Schuyten, Ross Lenhardt, Jack Jackson and Alex Fishberg — received special recognition for their first-place win in the district meet. Rena Heckman and Doug Bullman were recognized as Most Valuable Divers, and Most Valuable Swimmers were Angela MacFarland and Jack Jackson. Warrior coaches were Fred Tyler, Pat Moran and Tom Zumberg.

20 YEARS AGO

Ocoee has set two public hearings on the biggest project ever proposed for the city — the Lake Lotta Project. The project consists of the Lake Lotta Mall that includes a 1,250,000-squarefoot regional mall and 250,000 square feet of related space at the corner of West Colonial Drive and Clarke Road. It is expected to include five large anchor stores (including Gayfer’s), theaters and about 125 specialty shops. This ultimately became West Oaks Mall.

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Winter Garden Heritage Foundation This photo depicts the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation’s History Center when it was first established at 32 W. Plant St. in Flip Sterns’ former Western Auto store after he sold the space to Jerry Chicone in 2001.

Chicone donated it to the foundation for three years rent free, and it was used to house the historic collection and foundation offices. In the window, a small mannequin wears the military uniform made for former WGHF Executive Director Rod Reeves by his mother, Mae, when he was a child.

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The new WGHF History Research and Education Center at 21 E. Plant St. opens officially during a celebration from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11. The public is invited to stop by and see the beautiful new space constructed to collect, preserve and display the heritage and history of West Orange County.

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YOUTH | HIGH SCHOOL | GOLF | COMMUNITY

WOTIMES.COM

2015 FORECAST: PARKER DAVIS

SIDELINE SCENE

Winter sports hit stride following holiday break One of the most interesting times of the year on the high school sports calendar, the return from the winter holiday break marks a period where teams in all of the winter sports get to jump back into the thick of things after some down time.

District tournaments are just around the corner, depending on the sport — days for some, weeks for others — adding to the reasons why teams are embracing busy schedules over the holiday STEVEN break like RYZEWSKI never before.

Jumping right back into the thick of things, here are some storylines to keep an eye on in each sport, as district tournaments approach.

BOYS BASKETBALL

Who is going to emerge from Class 8A District 3?

It’s a fair question, especially with regard to the runner-up spot that will be available. Evans (14-4) is 4-0 in the district so far, but that means Ocoee, West Orange, Olympia and Apopka likely will be duking it out for that runner-up spot in the district tournament, barring someone upsetting the Trojans. Also, it can’t be understated how good Ocoee has been this season, and the Knights might have the best player in Central Florida in senior guard Grant Riller.

All four teams have shown flashes of potential, and we should have a better idea of the true hierarchy by the end of the month.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

How good is Olympia?

The Titans are having a breakout season under Robert Carmody and had a strong showing in the Florida Prospects Christmas Invitational. Olympia is 13-4 coming out of the holiday break and, with a deep roster, the Titans are looking to return to the state playoffs after missing out a season ago.

BOYS SOCCER

The Class 5A District 4 tournament figures to be an exciting one — West Orange, Ocoee and Olympia have all had strong seasons. The Warriors (5-1-3) are probably the favorite of those three programs but are young and inconsistent. West Orange has played the Knights and Titans both to a draw already, adding to the sense of unpredictability ahead.

GIRLS SOCCER

Is Dr. Phillips for real?

There are several area girls soccer teams having good seasons, but the Panthers are the most improbable. DP’s 12-game winning streak, which ended with a draw against University on Dec. 18, was one of the biggest surprises of the season, and it will be interesting to see whether the confidence the Panthers accrued during that time translates to big wins as district tournaments start Jan. 12.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

Photos by Steven Ryzewski

Parker Davis, a junior at Windermere Prep, is a star for the Lakers in both football and basketball.

BIG MAN ON CAMPUS 2015 will be a big year for Windermere Prep’s dual-sport star Parker Davis, who likely will receive scholarship offers in both football and basketball.

WINDERMERE — Jacob Doss still remembers the day the skinny sixth-grader outran all his varsity players.

It was five years ago, before the Windermere Prep football program had played its first down, and stormy weather one afternoon had forced Doss, the program’s first and only coach to date, to move practice inside for both his fledgling varsity program and the school’s new middle-school program.

Working out of the gym, Doss had both teams run suicides, a popular drill combining speed and endurance, and had the winners from each team run against one another.

When a scrawny sixth-grader beat his fastest runners on varsity, Doss wasn’t sure whether to be angry that his runners had been beaten or excited that he had a youngster with such promise.

That is one of the first memories Doss has of Parker Davis, his star junior quarterback, who just this past season helped lead the Lakers to an undefeated record and Sunshine State Athletic Conference championship.

“I didn’t think that was a good thing that our varsity kids were losing to a sixth-grader,” Doss recalled. “But then, I’m kind of feeling like maybe I’m asking my varsity kids to beat one of the quickest kids around. You could tell right then that he was going to be special.”

Davis, who is fielding interest from a number of Division I programs on the gridiron, celebrated with his teammates after the Lakers secured the program’s first SSAC title back on Nov. 15; but the next morning, he was right back at work.

The talented junior is also the starting point guard for Windermere Prep’s basketball team — a program ranked No. 8 in the state in Class 3A — and with his natural ability to score, he is also fielding interest from several well-known Division I basketball schools.

In a day and age in which gifted athletes are specializing in one sport earlier and earlier,

Davis is a throwback to a different era. Davis could choose to specialize in either sport, and it has been suggested, but to the Winter Garden native, that would entail ending his career in one of his great passions — and that isn’t an option.

“People have thrown (specializing) out there, but I just like those sports too much that I wouldn’t be able to give one up,” Davis said.

Now, with more than a month still left in the current basketball season, coaches from high-profile programs in both sports knocking on the door and a chance to repeat as SSAC champions on the football field in the fall, Davis is ready to embrace 2015 for what it very well may be — the biggest year of his young life.

THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT

The freedom of playing multiple sports is one of the main reasons Parker is a Laker in the first place.

“One of the reasons we came here (to Windermere Prep) was the opportunity to play two sports or more,” Parker’s father, Charles Davis, said. “At one point, he was running track (in addition to basketball and football); and his first letter here at Windermere Prep was in tennis.”

Parker, who also considered attending Lakeview Middle School, for which he was zoned, and Lake Highland Prep, in Orlando, said he knew he wanted to be somewhere where he would be able to play basketball and football.

So, Parker enrolled in Windermere Prep as a sixth grader, along with his older sister, Taylor, who had previously been at West Orange and is currently at the University of Florida studying telecommunications.

It ended up being a great decision for Parker, especially with the success he has enjoyed as an athlete.

As opposed to other settings, in which Parker’s talents might make him more of a “big man on campus” cliche, the atmosphere on campus at Wind-

ermere Prep allows for him to mostly be just another student during the school day.

“It’s a little bit different here,” Parker said. “Some people in school are just (focused on being) students. I wouldn’t say they don’t care about sports, but it’s just not as big of a deal.”

Indeed, Charles, a former NFL player and current college football analyst for Fox Sports, said he admired that the school values a championship in football only as much as the academic achievements of its other students.

“The beauty of this place is … the atmosphere here reminds me of Stanford,” said Charles, who was previously an assistant athletic director at Stanford University in California. “Is it important to be good at athletics? Yes, it is. But you have kids, at the same time, who are winning robotics competitions — they’re going across the world to compete in other things.”

THE RIGHT COACH

Parker wasn’t tabbed as a quarterback right away when he started playing football. At first, he played wide receiver and defensive back for the school’s middle-school team.

When the team’s quarterback moved up to the varsity level, though, middle-school coaches decided to take their best pure athlete — Parker — and see what happened when he started taking snaps.

Although his skills were raw at first, having Doss available as a mentor proved to be a blessing. Doss was a quarterback and played Division I football for the University of Wyoming.

“I really like that, seeing that he went to Wyoming and was the quarterback in some big games,” Parker said. “He tells me about it sometimes.”

Doss recognized Parker’s eagerness to improve years ago, when, as a seventh-grader, he sought out extra coaching.

“This kid was in middle school and wanting to come work on his quarterbacking

game,” Doss recalled. “That, right there, told me that he wanted to be a quarterback and that he was going to be good. His footwork was better than all of (the varsity quarterbacks) when he was in seventh and eighth grade.”

Since then, working so closely with Doss as his head coach and quarterback coach has allowed Parker to have a keen mastering of the Lakers’ offense and understanding of his role.

“It’s been really helpful with him being the head coach; that’s helped me a lot because we’re on the same page, and he knows what I need to do to help this team,” Parker said.

GROWING INTO A STAR

Despite his natural speed, Parker — named Windermere Prep’s starter at quarterback as a freshman — didn’t run much his first two years under center.

Recognizing he wasn’t taking advantage of one of his greatest strengths, Parker went to work on bulking up during the offseason before this past season, so he would be durable enough to run the ball more.

“He spent the entire offseason in the weight room and, all of a sudden, he goes from being a skinny little fella to one of the strong guys on our team with his legs,” Doss said. “He was asking me this summer if he could get in on the hitting drills. He’s like, ‘Coach, I need to get used to being hit because I’m going to run the ball this year.’”

Parker, who runs a 4.4-second 40-yard dash, not only improved his athleticism but also his mastery of the position — something that became apparent over the summer.

“It really clicked for him this summer in 7-on-7; we didn’t lose a 7-on-7 game all summer,” Doss said. “He was putting on clinics all summer.”

Along with those improvements came another change in the signal-caller’s demeanor — Parker became a leader on the team.

Isaiah Curry, a senior wide receiver who played football for the Lakers for the first time this past fall, has played basketball with Parker for four years. Seeing his teammate and friend in his element on the football field, though, was a new experience.

“With football, it was different. Out here (playing basketball), he’s not really that talkative,” Curry said. “With football, he talks a lot — even in the locker room, I feel like he felt more relaxed.”

The change in Parker’s demeanor and confidence wasn’t noticed only by teammates. As his father, Charles said he enjoyed watching Parker’s growth

Parker Davis is a dynamic scorer for the Lakers basketball team.

Parker Davis has been quarterback for Windermere Prep since he was a freshman. this past season as a leader within the program.

“He’s always been ‘the kid’ — he’s had good mentors around him,” Charles said. “The growth of going from being ‘the kid’ and just playing to being someone who should have some leadership responsibilities and roles — that’s been fun to watch him grow into that.”

NEW HEIGHTS

The growth Parker experienced entering his junior season was timely — thanks to some talented newcomers, the roster around him on offense was better than ever.

Parker was surrounded by senior running back Chris Granjean, standout receivers Michael Stones and Curry (both new additions from the basketball team) and tight end Kevin Babich.

“My role was to get them the ball in any way possible,” Parker said.

SEE DAVIS / PAGE 2B

2B

WEST ORANGE TIMES

WOTimes.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

DAVIS / PAGE 1B Add in Granjean’s breakout rushing season to the Lakers’ suddenly loaded receiving corps, and Windermere Prep suddenly had one of the area’s most prolific offenses.

“This was our first year of having just really good wide receivers,” Doss said.

The result was remarkable.

The Lakers finished 10-0 and had no close games. For his part, Parker performed his main role of distributing the ball to the team’s talented playmakers while also following through on his plan to use his legs to make plays more often.

The two roles often intersected, as Parker’s ability to elude pass rushers often gave receivers extra time.

“He runs a 4.5, so, I mean, he’s really fast; he’s a great scrambler,” said Stones, who is committed to Dartmouth for basketball. “I had three or four touchdowns this season off of him scrambling, me making a play and then him throwing it.”

CONTROLLED CHAOS

Two days after the Lakers won the SSAC championship at Pennington Field in Oviedo, Parker, along with a few other teammates like Curry and Stones, was back at it — on the basketball court.

The Winter Garden native, who said he has played basketball since he could walk, admitted that, even with a championship game looming for football, he was eager to get back onto the hardwood in the final weeks of the fall season.

“You know you have a job to finish,” Parker said. “That’s where I tried to keep my mind, on ‘just finish this (football) and then start worrying about basketball.’”

Although an adjustment period could be expected for any athlete switching between sports so suddenly, Windermere Prep basketball coach Ben Wilson said that was not the case.

“He doesn’t really have any kind of setback or dip because, if you follow Parker, he trains for football and basketball year-round,” Wilson said.

“When he’s in football season, he still finds time to work

on his basketball game, and vice-versa. It takes him a day or so to get his feet under him.”

If that transition seems chaotic, Parker’s summer schedule — one that often involves balancing 7-on-7 passing leagues for football, AAU basketball and strength training for both — has it trumped.

“That’s just a way of life, and he’s used to it, and I think he gets a little antsy if he’s not really busy,” Parker’s mother, Lisa Davis, said.

ROAD TO LAKELAND

Crazy as it sounds, Parker’s summer schedule is far from his main focus right now.

Currently, Parker and his basketball teammates are locked in on finding their stride. Windermere Prep is 9-7 at the time of publication, in the midst in one of the toughest schedules in the area.

“Our biggest issue is ourselves,” Wilson said. “If we can get over ourselves and really buy into each other, then I really don’t care who we play.”

Of course, the play of Parker will be an important part of that equation. A natural scorer, Windermere Prep is looking to the junior to grow as a distributor on the hardwood — much like he is on the gridiron.

“He’s come a long way with that (distributing the ball),” Wilson said. “But, at the same time, since we’ve had him in sixth grade, he’s always been a phenomenal scorer. So we don’t want him to get away from what’s kind of helped our program and helped him make a name for himself.”

Even now, Parker is playing through a shoulder injury suffered during football. If one might think that such setbacks would mean Wilson isn’t a fan of Parker’s other sport choice, one would be wrong.

“I’m there every home game (for football). For one, kind of making sure he doesn’t get hurt,” Wilson joked. “Growing up, I only played basketball.

But, looking back, I told Parker, ‘Look, man, I’ve always wished I could go back and play three sports.’ I respect him for choosing to do both.”

EXCITING FUTURE

Windermere Prep’s football

team will be short 12 graduating seniors when it takes the field for the spring season.

It means that if the Lakers hope to approach last season’s absurd success — and scoring output — new faces will need to step up.

“Replacing Chris (Granjean) — I think that is going to be the biggest problem with us,” Parker said. “But I know we have some guys that will be able to step up and carry the load. We’ll be alright — every year someone steps up. You just don’t know who it is yet.”

With those departures, Doss is pretty open about what he will expect of his rising senior quarterback. “(Parker is) the glue,” Doss said. “I’m going to ask him to come out of his shell even more. We’re going to put more on him; it’s just as simple as that.”

The spring will be important for Parker in more ways than one, though. The quarterback has had interest from football programs, including Missouri and Kentucky, and has taken a visit for football to Arizona.

There are no offers as of yet, though, and Doss said college coaches likely are waiting to see how he performs in the spring.

In basketball, Parker said he has interest from Division I programs, including West Virginia and Iowa. Still, much like in football, he has not received an official offer, though he is optimistic one is on its way.

The senior-to-be said he had no idea which sport he would play if given offers for both, but he has an idea for his major.

“I take a film class — that’s something I like to do,” Parker said.

Parker’s parents think their son might be onto something with his interest in film.

“I feel like he’s got a nice artistic eye and a technical eye,” Lisa said. “I think it’s a great fit for him.”

And as for being patient waiting for that first offer, Charles — who knows a thing or two about college sports — said he was optimistic about his son’s prospects.

“Bottom line is, you just need one (offer),” he said.

— Steven Ryzewski

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WEST ORANGE TIMES

WOTimes.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

3B

2015 FORECAST: WOHS TURF

TURF TROUBLE WINTER GARDEN — There is a nightmare scenario looming over several sports teams at West Orange High School — most notably affecting the Warriors football team, a program fresh off its best season in history.

But this scenario would present adversity to West Orange’s programs in boys and girls soccer, boys and girls lacrosse and it also could affect a pair of area youth football programs.

At about eight years old, the synthetic turf playing surface at Raymond Screws Field is nearing its end, and, as the school scrambles to raise funds for a replacement, the possibility that the field could be deemed unplayable — without a replacement in the works — has never been more real.

That nightmare scenario could mean all off-site games for those sports for a prolonged period of time, something Warriors football coach Bob Head believes would be a significant setback for his program.

“It would be extremely tough,” he said. “Everybody talks about having a homefield advantage. Just being at Raymond Screws Field; it’s important. It’s important for your community.”

According to West Orange Athletic Director Adam Miller, the school is in the process of getting a second opinion on the status of the field and whether it will be playable for sports like boys and girls soccer that are in season now.

Miller and others associated with the school are canvassing local businesses and residents for donations to pay for a replacement and the school is also looking to sell the naming rights for the stadium. And, though donations have started to come, there is still a long way to go.

“We have over $60,000 (pledged) and need over $300,000,” Miller said. “The target date would be now — it’s only a matter of time be-

Steven Ryzewski

Members of the West Orange football team warm up on the school’s synthetic turf field before a game this past fall. The field is in danger of being deemed unplayable, and funds have not yet been procured for a replacement. fore we are told we cannot use our current field, and a new field installment would take two months.”

And so, for a school where seemingly every athletic program seems to be on an upward trend, the calendar year has started off in a rather frantic manner.

HOW WE GOT HERE

For those unfamiliar with the history of West Orange’s turf field — the first turf field for a high school in Central Florida — the first question that comes to mind is likely, ‘How did this happen?’

The school and its athletic department decided in 2006 to purchase a synthetic turf field, with 60% of the costs to have been covered by five donors. According to Miller, when it was time for those donors to remit their portions of the payment, the nationwide economic downturn had begun and the donors backed out of their agreement. That left West Orange financially responsible for the installed turf field. The school was left to turn to the Orange County School Board to cover the remaining balance.

Because OCPS stepped in, the money that the school would otherwise be using to save for the replacement it now needs — the average

life of such fields is generally eight years — is being used to repay the county.

“We have been making money on (field) rentals, and this money has been paying downtown back for when our donors eight years ago didn’t come through,” Miller said.

“The money we are spending is the money we planned to save for the replacement.”

BENEFITS OF TURF

The turf field has been a welcome addition since it was installed eight years ago — especially financially.

Although expensive up front, the turf’s maintenance is cheap compared to that of natural grass fields. Other schools, including Lake Mary, Lake Brantley and The Master’s Academy, also have installed the synthetic surface at their respective stadiums.

“Maintenance of the field is easy,” Miller said. “We sweep every two weeks and cleanse with groom every year. The total cost is about $2,000, annually, for this; the cost to properly maintain a grass field annually is $40,000.”

From a coach’s standpoint, the field also provides some safety benefits.

“Overall, it’s safer due to the fact that it’s always a level surface,” Head said. “When it rains, there’s really no mud.

HUSTLE POINTS by Emilee Jackson | Contributing Writer

Growth of young players key to Ocoee’s success The Knights look to underclassmen starters to support senior stars Grant Riller and Vaughn McCall as the team makes playoff push.

OCOEE — With an undersized team, and two integral seniors shouldering most of the workload, Ocoee boys basketball is looking to its younger players to step up.

Two players developing into key role players on the varsity team include Elie Cadet and Eisley Porter. Cadet, a freshman, has an average of 3.6 points per game. Porter, a sophomore, has averaged 4.6 points per game, and coach Rob Gordon said he is growing into his position nicely.

“Elie is really coming into his own as a freshman; we’re relying on him more and more now that we’re getting into January,” he said. “And Eisley is not just a sophomore playing varsity any longer; he’s a varsity starter who is giving us quality minutes and production.”

Another player with potential is junior Demerit Brown, who is averaging 10.7 points per game. In the past seven games, he has scored 75 points.

The Knights hosted and won the Great 8 Holiday Tournament over the holiday break, defeating Leesburg in the championship, 88-80, and doing so without Brown.

According to Gordon, Brown has been going through a difficult time and declined to comment any further.

Senior Grant Riller has been the Knights’ undisputed leader and has an average of 26 points per game, while

West Orange High School’s synthetic football field is in need of replacement, and the school is calling upon the community to help with the costs.

senior Vaughn McCall has been scoring an average of 14 points.

Riller, recently breaking the school record with 53 points in the win over Leesburg, feels confident about the team’s abilities as district tournaments draw nearer.

“I feel like we have a good chance to get the 20 wins if we keep playing like the way we’ve been playing,” Riller said.

Gordon said that having an undersized team — Ocoee usually plays without a center or a true power forward — makes playing as a team even more important. He said that even though they have two exceptional guards, it takes a collective team effort; the pressure can’t be on two players alone.

“When you have an undersized team like ours, you can never get satisfied, because it takes an unbelievable effort to be able to compete against the teams in our area, in our district, in the Metro Conference night in and night out,” Gordon said. “The minute that you relax, somebody just sneaks up on you and beats you.”

Winning the Great 8 Holiday Tournament put the team in a position to now look ahead to the goal of being district champions. With recent success on the court, Ocoee is looking toward their key role players to grow and create a tight-knit team.

HOLIDAY HOOPS RESULTS The West Orange boys basketball team placed third at the highly competitive Kingdom of the Sun Tournament in Ocala.

The Warriors defeated LaSalle (Ohio) in the third-place contest, also defeating East Bay and host Vanguard along the way while losing to eventual champion Cardinal Gibbons. West Orange is 9-5 on the season.

The Olympia girls basketball team placed second in the Silver Bracket of the Florida Prospects Christmas Invitational.

The Titans are now 13-4 coming out of the break.

Windermere Prep finished as runner-up in its The Rock Holiday Classic, falling to Winter Park in the championship. The Lakers are 9-7 coming out of the holiday break.

The Dr. Phillips boys basketball team dropped two-of-three contests at the Victor Oladipo Christmas Invitational, which it hosted. Coming out of the holiday break, the Panthers are 7-7 this season.

— Steven Ryzewski

It’s more consistent.”

Adding to the long-term financial benefits, that would otherwise help offset the upfront costs, is the ability the school has to rent out the field.

“Before the turf, West Orange only rented out the stadium field once, to a college band,” Miller said. “Now, we rent it out to two AUU youth football programs, an adult football program, bands, ROTC, Fields of Faith, middle-school soccer, lacrosse, all-star games, Nike camps, college recruiting camps, pro combines, and, most recently, the University of Missouri’s football team,” he said.

“Basically, our community businesses surrounding Winter Garden and West Orange High School have all thrived because of our synthetic turf field. Our goal is to install a rubberized track and host something at West Orange every weekend, which brings families to the Garden every weekend.”

SENSE OF IDENTITY

Financial benefits aside, the field, in its eight years of exis-

tence, has added a great deal of pride both for the players who play on it and the fans who cheer them on.

“That’s what gives us our identity,” Head said. “People say, ‘Those are the guys that have the turf field,’ and I think people really enjoy playing on it.”

Principal Doug Sczinski, who was previously at Wekiva High School as an assistant principal, said athletics are imperative to a school’s culture and the combination of West Orange’s turf field and the school’s stadium-style bleachers makes the game experience in Winter Garden unique compared to most other schools in Central Florida.

“We’re so blessed to have the old-time stadium … the atmosphere is so much greater, and I think a lot of that is just facilities,” Sczinski said.

“It’s not just West Orange’s stadium — it’s Winter Garden’s stadium. There’s so much pride in that school; from the academics to the athletics.”

NO SIMPLE ALTERNATIVE

If replacing the turf field seems a costly endeavor, it should be noted that returning to a natural playing surface may be even more so.

“I was verbally quoted that it would cost us close to $500,000 to reinstall a grass field with irrigation along with the removal of the synthetic turf foundation,” Miller said.

With no easy solution, if the money is not raised for a replacement field, then the school’s programs that utilize the field would be faced with options of playing all away games or perhaps using Walker Field in Winter Garden.

As the situation becomes dire and the school awaits final word on the playability of

the field, it has become a top priority for more than just Miller and the athletic department.

“Now, with the situation we’re in, it’s become a violent shove into reality and this is a top priority,” Sczinski said.

CALLING ON THE COMMUNITY

In trying to raise the remaining $240,000 for the replacement turf field, West Orange is calling on the community.

“If everyone donated a small amount to our site we will reach our goal and our students will continue to have the ‘nicest’ field around,” Miller said.

Donations can be made online by visiting http://goo.gl/ NcgKb8.

In additions to canvassing Winter Garden and surrounding areas for donations, the school also is trying to sell naming rights for the stadium, as it recently did for the baseball field (now known as Heller Bros. Ballpark).

“Dennis Bondy, Bob Head, Jesse Marlo, Terry Riddle and Pam Gould are just a few names I would like to personally thank for their help in trying to find a stadium sponsor,” Miller said. “Our field is named after Raymond Screws, and we are looking for someone to buy our stadium’s naming rights.”

The city of Winter Garden and West Orange have a strong relationship, and administrators and coaches alike are optimistic that the community will rise to the occasion.

“I think they will,” Head said. “I think that the Winter Garden community — it’s a big family. I feel like there’s a whole lot of people that want to see West Orange High School do good things.”

— Steven Ryzewski

4B

WEST ORANGE TIMES

WOTimes.com

WINTER GARDEN FORECLOSED HOMES MUST BE SOLD!!

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

CONTEST by the West Orange Times staff

Priced $125K-$299K

Free list w/pics, addresses, & details just go to: www.WinterGardenForeclosures.com Keller Williams Heritage

ST. MAARTEN. Tamie, Randy and Kayla Shoener traveled to St. Maarten to visit their son, Austin Shoener, and his fellow medical school students for the Thanksgiving holiday. The West Orange Times traveled to the famous Sunset Bar and Beach, which is well known for the jet blast of the airplanes.

It also came along on the family’s journey to Loterie Farm, where there Shoeners ziplined down the mountains, traveled up to the top of Fort Louis, and finally enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner with family and medical school friends.

WORLD TRAVELERS We always are amazed at how far our little paper goes in the hands of our readers, and this week’s batch of submissions — all from outside of the United States — does not disappoint!

Any photo submitted in 2014 has been entered into our Travelin’ Times photo contest, and any submitted after Jan. 1 will be eligible for this year’s contest, which

will run through Dec. 31, 2015.

Send us a photo of you with our newspaper at a destination of your choice for a chance to win a variety of prizes. Two winners will receive a $250 gift card.

Entering is easy! Just email your photo to Community Editor Amy Quesinberry Rhode, aqrhode@wotimes. com. Emailed photos should be at least 200 dpi.

Include the names of everyone in the photo, where it was taken and a phone number at which we can reach you.

You also can mail or drop off the photo to: the West Orange Times, 720 S. Dillard St., Winter Garden, Florida 34787.

Call the newspaper office at (407) 656-2121 with questions.

Good luck!

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA. Al and Sharyn Davidoff caught up on all their West Orange news while touring the famous Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia.

BAHAMAS. Winter Garden Commissioner Bobby Olszewski and his wife Allison celebrated her birthday weekend in the Bahamas bringing along the latest edition of the West Orange Times.

ANGKOR WAT, CAMBODIA. Lisa McIntyre and George Houston II took their favorite community newspaper with them on a recent tour of the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia.

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CARIBBEAN SEA. Winter Garden resident, Maurice Bender and his grandchildren, Jordon and Katie Bender, searched for West Orange High School news as they waited for Thanksgiving dinner aboard the Regal Princess near St. Maarten in the Caribbean. This was part of a week on the Princess Lines’ newest ship.

WEST ORANGE TIMES

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

RAIN

WEST ORANGE

(INCHES)

0.23

WED.

TEMPERATURES

Dec. 31

0.16

Thurs., Jan. 8 Fri., Jan. 9 Sat., Jan. 10 Sun., Jan. 11 Mon., Jan. 12 Tues., Jan. 13 Wed., Jan. 14

THURS. Jan. 1

0.00

FRI.

Jan. 2

0.00

SAT.

HIGH 56 60 71 79 78 76 73

Jan. 3

SUNRISE/SUNSET TIMES

SUN.

Thurs., Jan. 8 Fri., Jan. 9 Sat., Jan. 10 Sun., Jan. 11 Mon., Jan. 12 Tues., Jan. 13 Wed., Jan. 14

0.00

Jan. 4

0.00

MON.

Jan. 5

0.00

JAN.

TO DATE 0.00

I WO

WEATHER

TUES.

Dec. 30

SUNRISE 7:19 a.m.

7:19 a.m.

7:19 a.m.

7:20 a.m.

7:20 a.m.

7:20 a.m.

7:20 a.m.

FRI.

SAT.

SUNSET 5:40 p.m.

5:41 p.m.

5:42 p.m.

5:42 p.m.

5:43 p.m.

5:44 p.m.

5:45 p.m.

LOW 45 48 58 64 63 61 56

Lisa Lehmann, of Winter Garden, submitted this incredibly rich shot for this week’s I <3 West Orange photo contest. She calls it, “Delicate Flower.”

MOON PHASES

The West Orange Times & Observer is hosting the weekly contest, and winners will have their photograph featured and receive a $20 prize.

To enter, email your photo, along with your name and city and a caption, to aqrhode@wotimes. com; put “I Love West Orange” in the subject line.

Winners can pick up their prize at the Times office.

Jan. 4

Jan. 13

SUN.

(2014: .45) Jan. 20

YEAR

TO DATE

0.00 (2014: .45)

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

LOW

LOW

LOW

60

71

48

58

5B

79

Jan. 26

64

A BIT OF HISTORY

By Jill Pepper | Edited by Timothy E. Parker ACROSS 1 Change to fit one’s needs 6 Meat in a can 10 Animal “in the grass” 15 Night twinkler 19 Submarine detector 20 Hourly pay 21 Poison 22 How sailors say “Hi” 23 Hitter of 755 homeruns 25 Legend of the 1936 Olympics 26 Coney Island’s ___ Park 27 The Big Band, for one 28 Sound made by a pig 29 “___, poor Yorick” (“Hamlet”) 30 Oscar winner Sophia 31 Teeth holders 32 Waste time 34 It covers a cake 36 It has a tail in space 39 Like a creepy film 40 Prefix for profit or dairy 41 10th mo.

44 Noted man in a garden 45 First African-American mayor of Detroit 49 Miners dig for it 50 The “P” of mph 51 They expect to reap later 52 Get something through work 53 Family room, or a place for lions 54 NYC’s zone 55 Not dead 56 San ___, California 57 “Famous” cookie man 58 Antiseptic in a first-aid kit 60 Peter and Paul 62 “Hot” Mexican dish 64 Billie Holiday activity 66 ___-link fence 67 Went back and forth 68 Taking a nap 69 It lives under a bridge in fairy tales 70 Morning prayer 71 Sad color?

72 This, that or the ___

74 75 78 79 80 81 82 83 86 87 88 89 90 91 93 94 96 98 99 100 103 104 106 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116

Jonas E. Salk created a vaccine for it “Little Bo-Peep ___ lost ...”

Allow You’ll do this in a long line Ribbon worn as an insignia of honor “___ we there yet?”

Suffix for ordinal numbers Founder of the Rainbow Coalition Thin, narrow opening Birmingham-to-Montgomery dir.

Farthest or highest (Abbr.)

Oscar night host Book of maps Esther of “Good Times” Rhino relative Gent’s mate “Home to Harlem” author Claude Birds that give a hoot Song sung by one Sound a sheep makes Colored portion of the eye Small part played by a big name Former NAACP leader Indian princess Goodbye, in France “Green Gables” girl Type of tea They can be cracked early in the morning Annie of “Designing Women” Baron or earl, e.g.

Carnivorous scavenger

DOWN 1 Tennis great Arthur 2 Opposite of a slacker 3 “___ and the King of Siam” 4 Good score for a golfer 5 Compete for a position 6 Beautiful aquatic birds 7 Place to picnic 8 “A long time ___ in a galaxy far ...”

SUDOKU PACIFIC Complete the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains every digit from 1 to 9 inclusively.

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 24 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 42 43 45 46 47 48 51 56 57 59 60 61 63 64 65 66 67 69

What boys will be German fruit bread similar to strudel “In your dreams!”

Lumberjacks swing them Brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, etc.

Nanny has three Beauty shop First African-American Supreme Court justice Top-of-the-line Strikeout king Nolan Goal or intention Inter ___ (among other things) Ending for duck or dump Diamond or ruby Big name in farm machinery They fill your sleeves Become accustomed (to) Idea that is implied It’s part of Superman’s outfit Poems of tribute “I Have a Dream” speaker Student, in France Certain Louisiana native Became jittery First African-American secretary of state Being in debt Long (for) Horse chow The Beatles’ “Sexy ___” Some is junk Word said at the end of a prayer ___ arch (molding type) Superhero with a hammer Baseball’s Maglie or actor Mineo “Par ___” (airmail stamp) Valuable furs Tiny spots of land in the water A Greek 65-Down “The Great ___ Pepper” (1975 movie) Not that

© 2013 Universal Uclick

70 73 74 76 77 80 83 84

Telegraph code inventor Samuel Type of bud Game for gamblers Leontyne Price opera highlight Match divisions for Serena Williams 301, Roman-style Hot month Envious

85 86 90 92 93 94 95 96 97 98

Rock projectors?

Place fit for a pig Caesar of “A Soldier’s Story” Fertile area in the desert Use Twitter Bring down “The Greatest” Muck’s partner High, rugged rock Skip over

99 100 101 102 104 105 106 107 108

“Auld Lang ___” (New Year’s song) Cycler’s need Soon, poetically Away from land 23-Across wore one “Much ___ About Nothing” Certain music genre The loneliest number Lock opener

C RY P T O G R A M S 1 . Z QWYG OZVUGYLGV RZT UEZYYWYS LF GYC Z CZLG RPGY PWT SWVE TZWC TPG EFNGC PWT OPWTGEGC QZOG ZYC FVCGVGC Z TOVGRCVWNGV. 2 . U JZMKDUDZL ULCRQPZ UXBAC U DLBCZKC XE U XUJN BO TRPRCUJCK LZUPPE QBJOAKZN LZUNZLK MRCS CSZ SZUNPRJZ, “TULQS DPUJJZN OBL BQCBXZL”.

6B

WEST ORANGE TIMES

WOTimes.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

Here's My Card BUSINESS DIRECTORY

Bill Straugh

JP TREES AND LANDSCAPING, LLC

Broker Associate

Tree Trimming, Tree Removal, Landscape Installs FREE Estimates

Cell 407-716-3010

John Freeman

Plumbing Problems?

Owner/Operator

5/15/15

Call 407-905-0014

cell: 321-229-1958

Licensed and Insured

email: jptrees09@gmail.com

CFC 056690

TFN

Windsor Realty Group, Inc. 160 S. Main Street Winter Garden, FL 34787 407-877-FIND (3463) TFN

CRAWFORD TIRE SERVICE, INC.

2/5/15

TFN

110 Taylor St. • Ocoee • (407) 656-4575

MORE THAN JUST

TIRE VALUES

-FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED –

• Bridgetone • Michelin • Toyo • BFG Tires

407.296.9622 407.877.6268

www.gsairsystems.com email: gsairsystems@cfl.rr.com Licensed & Insured - State License #CAC1814407

• Quality • Service • Sales • Installation • Commercial • Residential M/WBE Enterprise since 1980

407.656.8920

We offer financing with approved credit

Winter Garden Grassing Inc.

• •

Bobby Swindle, Jr. Owner

Call for a FREE estimate on Equipment Replacement.

SOD

MV03215

Mobil 1 Oil

FREE ESTIMATES

12/25/14

Amsoil Synthetic 2/12/15

Ocoee, FL

Danny Motes

• Residential Pick Up and Delivery

Cell 407-466-4738 Tel 407-654-2395 Fax 407-654-2986

532 N. Bluford Ave, Ocoee, FL 34761 www.WinterGardenGrassing.com

4/30/15

Branch Manager

Your Ad here! Call

(407) 654-9516 Office (407) 491-0355 Mobile (407) 654-0145 Fax pcm050@sunbeltrentals.com

sunbeltrentals.com

TRAYWICK'S

Cyndi Gustafson (email Advertising@wotimes.com)

407.614.5962

or Rose Blankenship

Email: keithksj@cfl.rr.com Ocoee, FL 34761

407-656-1817

"Your Complete Service Center" 10 West Story Rd. Winter Garden, FL 34787 TFN

407-656-2121

720 N. Dillard St, Winter Garden, FL 34787

Phone: 407-877-3841 Email: highlinecarsalesinc@gmail.com

00 COMPLETE OIL SERVICE

With service message reset.

Full synthetic (up to 7 quarts) and oil filter.

Offer expires 1/30/15. Environmental, disposal fees and tax not included. Not valid with any other offer. This ad must be presented to receive this offer.

TFN

Your ad here! Call

TO SCHEDULE AN APPT. TODAY CALL US AT

407-877-3841

We are your European/Foreign car auto Repair/Sales alternative dealer.

President CCC1325778

& Service, Inc.

TFN

75

Keith Keller

(email RBlankenship@wotimes.com)

TFN

1045 S. Vineland Rd. •Winter Garden • New and Used Tires • Alignment • Complete Auto Repair • A/C Serv. & More

$

TFN

Residential • Commercial • Tile • Metal

1081 9th Street Winter Garden, FL 34787

GARAGE

TFN

www.Firetechextinguisher.com

Travis Hamric

your rental

FIRE TECH SERVICE

Ph: 407-877-0709

• Pine Straw • Seed • Bahia • St. Augustine • Bermuda • Zoysia • St. Augustine, Zoysia and Bahia by the piece

10% OFF

TFN

EXTINGUISHER

Commercial Seeding and Sodding

Mention this ad for

• ALIGNMENT • BRAKES • SHOCKS • OIL & LUBE SERVICE • NEW & USED TIRES • REPAIR & BALANCING • ROAD SERVICE • WE INSTALL LIFTS!

Licensed & Bonded Licensed #RC29027533

407-656-2121

720 S. Dillard St, Winter Garden, FL 34787

REG# MV-01095

Phone (407) 656-6646

Richard Hudson • Reggie Hudson

WEST ORANGE TIMES

WOTimes.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015

Classifieds 160 GENERAL EMPLOYMENT

To place a classified ad, email classifieds@wotimes.com

7B

CHECK OUT OUR CLASSIFIEDS ONLINE @ WOTIMES.COM

Subscribe today for $21.50

Call 407-656-2121 or email classifieds@wotimes.com

or call 407-656-2121

Custodial help. Seeking responsible, reliable individual who must be able to pass a background check.

Apply within Montverde Academy, County Road 455 in Montverde.

1/8gh MOLLY MAID HOME CLEANING SERVICE, no nights or holidays, company car provided, call 407-8770184.1/15sh Professional Housecleaning. NOW HIRING! If you love to clean this job's for YOU! 4 openings. M - F, no nights.

Fast paced, attention to detail, positive attitude. English required. No criminal history. Each applicant needs their own vehicle. $9-$12/hr + gas$. Call 407-877-7738 after 9 A.M. 1/29nk Federated Tax Services Inc, is hiring a fulltime/partime front desk/receptionist during tax season. Bilingual preferred. Please call 407-877-0001 for details. Located in downtown winter garden.

CHURCH DIRECTORY

240 GARAGE SALE 20 Strollers, 15 Car seats, 2 Toy autos, 3 Star flea market. Babylady 407731-4243 1/15bl

BAPTIST FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH

Double stroller $19.95, Toddler bed and mattress $19.95, Pink walker $14.95, Highchair $14.95. Babylady 407-731-4243 1/15bl Dog House $14.95, Playpen $19.95, Shell/toy box $19.95, Toddler car seat $14.95, Wagon $19.95. Babylady 407-731-4243 1/15bl

The City of Winter Garden is currently seeking applicants for various positions

Multi Family Garage Sale. Friday & Saturday, January 9 & 10, 8AM. Old Bottles, Clothes, Truly Something For Everyone. Traditions Dr, North of W Bay St. 1/8mb

Job descriptions and applications are available online.

Yard Sale - Saturday, Jan 10th. 8AM until 2PM. 925 Burland Circle, Winter Garden. 1/8js

www.wintergarden-fl.gov Phone:

620 APARTMENT & DUPLEXES

Fax:

WINTER GARDEN - 1BR $695, 2BR $745, 3BR $935 on Lake Apopka. Water/Sewer included. 407-656-7162.

9/25tfn

NOW PURCHASING

SCRAP

BATTERIES 13178 W. Colonial Dr

Winter Garden

407-656-3495

407-656-4111

407-877-2795

The City of Winter Garden is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

S.E. Dollen, LLC.

Winter Garden longest established electrical contractor serving Central FL since 1983.

All Service Techs are LICENSED Journeymen and Master Electricians.

For professional results and competitive rates

call 407-656-5818 EC 13001719

125 E Plant St., Winter Garden 407-656-2352 Sundays 8:30 am Traditional 9:45 am Bible Study 11:00 am Contemporary Awana - Wednesdays - 6pm Pastor Tim Grosshans www.fbcwg.org 2nd Campus:

To advertise in the Church Directory plase call 407-656-2121 or email rblankenship@wotimes.com

EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH 241 N. Main, Winter Garden Services: 8, 9:30, & 11am, 7pm www.churchofthemessiah.com

CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION

4950 S. Apopka-Vineland Rd. Orlando Sun.Serv 8:30am, 10:30am, 6:30pm. 407876-3480 www.ascension-orlando.org

“FOUNDATION WORSHIP”

Sundays 9:45 am - All Ages at Foundation Academy High School 15304 Tilden Road - Winter Garden www.FoundationWorship.com 407.730.1867

STARKE LAKE BAPTIST CHURCH

611 West. Ave., Ocoee Pastor Jeff Pritchard (407) 656-2351 Email: starkelakebaptist@gmail.com

CATHOLIC RESURRECTION CATHOLIC CHURCH

1211 Winter Garden-Vineland Rd. Winter Garden. 407-656-3113

CHRISTIAN WEST ORANGE CHURCH OF CHRIST 1450 Daniels Road Winter Garden 407-656-2770 www.cocwo.com

CHURCH OF GOD OCOEE CHURCH OF GOD

Pastor Thomas Odom 1105 N. Lakewood Avenue, Ocoee 407-656-8011

METHODIST FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

125 N. Lakeview Ave Winter Garden Service Times: 9:00 AM & 11:15 AM Blue Christmas Service: Dec. 21, 4pm Christmas Eve Services: 5, 7 & 11pm www.fumcwg.org 407-656-1135

PRESBYTERIAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF THE LAKES, USA

Conroy-Windermere Rd. @ Lincoln Ave. Sunday School 9:00AM, Worship 10:30 407-291-2886 Worship on Wed. 7:00 - 7:30 PM “Come hear the Gospel” Rev. Ferdinand Brits www.pcol.org

UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST WINDERMERE UNION CHURCH 10710 Park Ridge-Gotha Rd. Windermere, FL 34786 407-876-2112 Worship times: 9:00am Adult Sunday School 10:00am Worship www.windermereunion.org

This week’s Crossword answers

Check out our next tab coming up

Jan. 29:

The Bucket List

All about your new year resolutions for 2015!

Like to advertise in this special section?

Ad submission deadline is Jan. 22. Publish date Jan. 29.

2015

For more information contact 407-656-2121 or Cyndi Gustafson advertising@wotimes.com

8B

WOTimes.com

WEST ORANGE TIMES

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015