WINDERMERE
Observer Serving Southwest Orange County
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 1, NO. 18
YOUR TOWN Dr. Phillips High to go all digital Dr. Phillips High School Principal Dr. Suzanne Knight announced last week that the school will be going digital beginning the 2016-17 school year. “We are joining the remaining high schools in the district who will transition to digital instruction next school year,” she said. “It is exciting to have technology play an integral role in the teaching and instruction of our students.” Parents will be able to learn more at community meetings, which will be held in the spring.
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Serving from the Pacific to the pulpit The Rev. Roger Seidner served aboard an amphibious unit and later a seaplane tender while in the Pacific Theater of World War II.
AMY QUESINBERRY RHODE STAFF WRITER
T
o hear the Rev. Roger Seidner tell it, he didn’t
World War II. However, the devastation he witnessed in Japan left
ZAK KERR
SEE ON PAGE 4
Amy Quesinberry Rhode
Right: Roger Seidner’s aunt wears his Navy hat during a postwar visit.
“That’s the hope I have at age 90, for the millennial generation, that we might come to some peace from the devastation that we experienced 70 years ago, that we might stop the tension and strife that exists in the world.” — Roger Seidner
County clears path for greener roadways
and sharing His word.
Before returning home from the war, Roger Seidner grabbed a bayonet from a pile of Japanese weapons.
Postal Customer
Windermere Prep’s expansion plans include a 700-seat performing-arts hall, which would stand 48 feet tall at its peak.
lifetime of serving God
a path that led him to a
ARTS+CULTURE
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TALL ORDER
Orange County will spend $9.2M to add trees to road medians. About one-third of those roads are located in West Orange.
an impact and carved
Fans of comic books, collectibles and nerd culture will flock to the Orlando Toy and Comic Con, scheduled for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31, at the Holiday Inn, 5905 S. Kirkman Road, Orlando. The event will feature more than 100 vendors, a costume contest and several comic artists. For more, visit orlandotoy andcomiccon.com.
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THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2016
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play a very big role in
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DR. PHILLIPS
Nerdists unite!
3D model of Garden Theatre will help set designers create.
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Who will win gold at the Big Orange Awards?
STAFF WRITER ORANGE COUNTY
You had better like trees in your medians, because you’re about to get a lot of them. At its Jan. 5 meeting, the Board of County Commissioners approved $9,215,309 for tree landscaping on 92.3 miles of Orange County roads — $3,055,502 of which will go to 30.6 miles of West Orange County streets. “I was going to do this with some of the district funds to try to promote this a year or so ago,” District 1 Commissioner S. Scott Boyd said. Through Public Works, this program will affect 19.1 miles of Dr. Phillips roads, 7.5 miles of roadway in the vicinity of Ocoee and four miles of Horizon West streets. Jennifer Cummings, Orange County environmental program supervisor, presented the median landscaping program to the Board of County Commissioners. “Our goal is to landscape 92 miles of roadway median over the next six years,” Cummings said. “We’ve worked with a landscape architect to … ensure that the trees selected will be suitable for the medians.” These trees, including species such as eagleston holly, southern magnolia, bald cypress, ligustrum tree, fringe tree, crape
Courtesy photo
SEE TREES PAGE 4