WINDERMERE
Observer Serving Windermere, Horizon West and Dr. Phillips
Team moms rock at local Little Leagues. PAGE 15.
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VOLUME 2, NO. 36
ARTS & CULTURE
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6-year-old musical prodigy Windermere suggests alternate routes during Park Avenue closure
Artist Kathy Bee has come up with a way to create stainedglass art.
BY DANIELLE HENDRIX STAFF WRITER
PAGE 7.
YOUR TOWN WINDERMERE GARDENER AWARDED
Courtesy photo
Abigail Huang, 6, is a musical prodigy who can play classical piano pieces after hearing a song once.
Abigail Huang, 6, can perform classical piano pieces by Beethoven, Bach and Liszt after hearing the song once.
Vicki Hearst, a Windermere Garden Club member, received an “Inspired Gardener” Award from District VII of the Florida Federated Garden Clubs of Florida at its spring luncheon May 4. Hearst was honored for her extraordinary work helping Windermere Garden Club. She planned the landscaping at the Historic Schoolhouse, coordinates the maintenance of the butterfly garden at Windermere Elementary School, organizes the decorations for the club’s annual fundraiser and the Crazy Card Party and plans the decorating of the Christmas tree in Town Hall.
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THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 2017
BRITTANY GAINES STAFF WRITER WINDERMERE No one ever played the grand piano that sat in the front hall. No one in the family was musically inclined. And no one ever expected 4-year-old Abigail to sit down at the keys and begin playing Beethoven. Abigail’s mother, Chris Huang, still remembers that day vividly. She was in the kitchen when the sounds of “Für Elise” filled the house. At first, she thought it
was someone playing music on a phone or iPad. Then she looked around the corner and saw her daughter perched on the piano bench, her small hands flying across the keys. Initially the family thought it was a phase she would grow out of. But in the last two years, Abigail hasn’t stopped playing. “This is what she was born to do,” Huang said. SEE LEARNING PAGE 4
WINDERMERE Drivers traveling through Windermere might have to plan an alternate route for the next four to five weeks. Starting June 19, town officials closed a segment of Park Avenue to local traffic only, between Maguire Road and the pass-through street to Lake Butler Boulevard. The road closure is in effect to expedite the construction of new turn lanes, sidewalks and a drainage system in front of Windermere Elementary, Public Works Director Scott Brown said. “This is a corridor enhancement,” he said. “It’s not only a road widening; it’s also adding pedestrian features in that didn’t exist before. When done, we’ll have eastbound and westbound turn lanes into the school. In the past, it was just a two-lane road,
SEE SEGMENT PAGE 4
Windermere seeks public input for police department relocation Starting in July, the town will host a series of workshops to gather residents’ opinions on how to approach the issue of the town’s police department building.
GABBY BAQUERO NEWS EDITOR WINDERMERE Windermere
police officers and council members are well aware that the former schoolhouse currently housing the town’s police department is not suitable as a facility for a law-enforcement agency. But reaching a consensus on how to resolve the situation involving the inadequacy of the police department’s current building is easier said than done, as the issue has been an ongoing challenge spanning several years that all boils down to money. Despite the lack of significant progress so far, Windermere Police Chief David Ogden holds hope the town will soon come up with an option all can agree with
and that the town will commit to a plan that can help the agency reach national accreditation. “Everything in the building needs to be upgraded,” Ogden said. “It’s a nice, quaint little building, but it’s simply not a police department. Five years ago, I was hired to rebrand, rebuild and re-image the agency, and I was specifically asked to bring in a level of professionalism and seek accreditation measures for the police department … but we simply can’t do that because 90% of accreditation measures is through policy procedure – and we certainly can do that – but a strong 10% is about building security measures that we can’t make there. It’s not a police department. It was never designed to be a police departSEE POLICE PAGE 5