Times& WEST ORANGE
Observer WEST ORANGE COUNTY’S NEWSPAPER FOR 109 YEARS
THURSDAY
APRIL 23, 2015
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WINTER GARDEN, FLORIDA
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SPORTS
ARTS
Windermere Rotary celebrates spring at annual festival. PAGE 13A
Olympia girls water polo team makes history, Final Four. PAGE 1B
Winter Garden restaurateur stars in Netflix series. PAGE 17A
OUR TOWN
just a tweak by Zak Kerr | Staff Writer
Officials examine trail adjustment About 160 feet of the West Orange Trail could be redirected through the Winter Garden City Hall roundabout.
+ Teacher wins contest Mary Beth Evans, a firstgrade teacher at Westbrooke Elementary, was one of the winners of the Orlando Solar Bears contest. Evans will receive a fourpack of playoff tickets. The winner of the “Find the Solar Bears Logo” contest was announced on our Facebook page and website, wotimes.com. Congrats to the winners!
+ Ocoee to host memorial service The Captain Bluford M. Sims camp Sons of Confederate Veterans will host its annual Confederate Memorial Service at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 25, at Ocoee Cemetery, 368 E. Geneva St., Ocoee. Refreshments will be served at the close of the ceremony. Seating is limited; please bring a chair. For more information, call Glen Richardson, (407) 877-7472.
+ We’re looking for the best mom! Do you have the best mom in West Orange? If so, we want to hear from you for a chance to win fabulous prizes in our Mother’s Day Contest. Entering is easy! Just submit a handwritten letter that states why your mom is the best, and she will have a chance to win a $100 gift card, dinner for two at The Big Easy, a bouquet of flowers from Shaw’s Florist and a spa gift certificate from Asian Retreat. The contest is open to kids ages 5 to 12. Submit your entries by 9 a.m. Monday, May 4, to the West Orange Times & Observer office, 720 S. Dillard St., Winter Garden. For more, call (407) 656-2121.
WEST ORANGE — With big projects such as the Coast-toCoast Connector in the works for a system of trails throughout Florida, tiny adjustments to existing trails might not be atop the minds of even the staunchest trail advocates at the state level.
But in downtown Winter Garden, an adjustment to about 160 feet of the West Orange Trail could have a significant impact on trail users and drivers passing through. “About six weeks ago, we heard about the opportunity for trails,” said Andrea Vaughn,
Winter Garden community relations manager. “The Florida Department for Environmental Protection was doing a grant for $200,000. We started thinking about the different opportunities we have.”
SEE TRAIL / PAGE 4A
upcoming by Amy Quesinberry Rhode | Community Editor
WHY DID
MILFRED CROSS THE ROAD? Could the answer be for fame? Oakland leaders honored the town’s wandering rooster by proclaiming April 14, 2015, as Rooster Day.
WINTER GARDEN — Everyone participating in this weekend’s Relay for Life of Winter Garden has been touched by cancer in some way — and that includes the Bean Counters, a team formed by West Orange Tax & Bookkeeping that will Relay in memory of Hazel Harris, a co-worker who died last June of breast cancer at age 61. The team’s captain, Joyce Thomas, is a 10-year breast cancer survivor, and her co-captain is a neighbor and part-time co-worker, Cecelia Pruett, whose husband, Gene, died of colon cancer
M
aureen Jacobson felt the urge to write a children’s book in the fall of 2013, but she didn’t have a topic in mind — at least, not until her family’s pet went missing two months later and his story ended up in a weekly newspaper and on the local evening news. Now, the celebrated rooster is the subject of
IF YOU GO RELAY FOR LIFE OF WINTER GARDEN WHEN: 6 p.m. Friday, April 24, to 8 am. Saturday, April 25 WHERE: Downtown Winter Garden, 300 W. Plant St. INFORMATION: relay. acsevents.org three years ago. Thomas and her family participate annually in
SEE RELAY / PAGE 6A
COMING SOON by Zak Kerr | Staff Writer
Dr. Phillips Charities to construct $75 million senior living campus
MILFRED / PAGE 6A
The new complex will include 80 independentliving apartments, 70 assisted-living apartments and 30 memory-care apartments. DR. PHILLIPS — The ever-burgeoning health care community in West Orange will welcome another addition to the fold within the next couple of years. Dr. Phillips Charities will break ground on its $75 million, 26-acre Spring Lake Health and Living Campus this summer, just off Dr. Phillips Boulevard between the Southwest Branch of the Orange County Library System and Spring Lake, charity officials announced.
Milfred the rooster examines his book and mayor’s proclamation, held by his owner, Maureen Jacobson.
WO
Photos by Amy Quesinberry Rhode
This week’s winner is
Michael Benedict.
DON’T POKE BEAR
Co-worker inspires Bean Counters Relay for Life team The 2015 Relay for Life of Winter Garden will carry a game-show theme. It begins at 6 p.m. Friday in downtown Winter Garden.
by Amy Quesinberry Rhode | Community Editor
I
See the photo on PAGE 7B.
Courtesy photo
This aerial photo shows the island outside City Hall on Plant Street that a new trail segment might run through.
“This is an important project for Dr. Phillips,” said Kenneth Robinson, president of Dr. Phillips Charities. “We are committed to sustaining the sense of community that has been built here since Dr. P. Phillips arrived here in the early 1900s. “By creating the Spring Lake Health and Living Campus, we can provide residents of the close-knit community of Dr. Phillips, along with the sur-
CAMPUS / PAGE 4A
INDEX Arts & Culture.......................17A Classifieds........................... 10B
Community Calendar..............2A Cops Corner............................7A
Crossword...............................7B Obituaries.............................19A
Sports.....................................1B Weather..................................7B
Vol. 82, No. 17 , Two sections
WOTimes.com
solar bears home playoff games
vs
round 1 presented by Thursday, April 23, at 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 25, at 7:00 p.m.
PLAYOFF TICKETS ON SALE NOW FOR TICKETS AS LOW AS $15 VISIT ORLANDOSOLARBEARSHOCKEY.COM
(if necessary)