Rowers place at Nationals
10A
Local synchronized swim team returns from national competition in Seattle
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1B
Vol. 81 No. 28
In brief See our changes
The West Orange Times has implemented a few changes in this week’s edition. You will find our new Community Calendar on 2A. Obituaries are now on 12A. And we have added a Weather feature, which can be found on 13A with our “I Love West Orange” photo of the week.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Winter Garden, Florida
By Tony Judnich
Voters at the Aug. 26 primary election, as well as early and absentee-ballot voters, will determine whether to renew the local-option, half penny sales tax that pays the bulk of the cost of Orange County Public Schools’ construction, renovation and technology upgrade projects. The original, voter-approved half penny tax began in 2003 and is set to expire in 2015 unless voters approve its renewal. If the ballot measure passes, the tax would remain in place for 10 more years
to 2025. Orange County’s sales tax rate is 6.5%. It consists of the Florida general sales tax rate of 6%, plus the .5% from the half penny sales tax. Since 2003, revenue from the half penny tax has paid for the renovation or rebuilding of 94 schools. And by the end of 2015, it will have created more than 81,000 jobs and contributed more than $3 billion to the local economy. That’s according to data from Lynetta Tipton Steed, chairman of the West Orange Chamber of Commerce, which strongly supports renewing the tax.
Gibson sharing country music for cancer cause
Patrick Gibson, a country music recording artist who hails from West Orange County, is returning to the area July 19 for several reasons: to celebrate his 32nd birthday and to raise money for CureSearch.org, which promotes children’s cancer research. He is bringing with him ’90s country music star Wade Hayes. The two are performing at Blue 42 Sports Bar & Grill, in Winter Garden. The price of admission is a donation at the door. VIP passes are available for purchase for guaranteed seating. For more information, go to pgcountry. com.
Inside
Deaths…2A Opinion…4A Business…3A Winter Garden…7A Oakland...8A Ocoee...9A Windermere...10A Social…11A Sports…1-4B Schools…4B.
(See Tax, 12A)
By Tony Judnich
County meetings set in July
The UF/IFAS Extension Service is offering a class on vegetable gardening from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 17. It takes place 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. The class is free, but participants must register online at ocmgs.eventbrite.com. For information, call (407) 2549200.
Many of the schools that have benefited from the tax are West Orange schools, such as Dr. Phillips and Evans high schools; Ocoee, MetroWest, Palm Lake and Windermere elementary schools; and Gotha Middle School, Steed said. Extending the life of the tax by 10 years would provide $2 billion dollars to pay for renovating 59 schools and building four new relief schools, as well as for technology upgrades, according to Steed. She said West Orange schools that would
Ocoee City Hall building receives new support
The Garden Theatre is showing a family-friendly flick, “The Croods,” sponsored by the city of Winter Garden, at 10 a.m. Tuesday, July 15. Tickets are $2 general admission, which includes a Snack Pack of popcorn and juice.
Learn basics of veggie gardening
50 Cents
Voters to decide on sales-tax extension
See a $2 children’s film
The Orange County Commission has planned several meetings for this month regarding property in District 1, which includes West Orange County. The first one pertains to the Buena Vista Cay Planned Development in the Dr. Phillips area. The meeting was set for 6 p.m. this Wednesday, July 9, in the Chain of Lakes Middle School cafeteria, 8700 Conroy Windermere Road, Orlando. The dates for two more meetings are set, but a location has to be determined for both. Up for discussion are the Lake Avalon Planned Development in the Avalon Rural Settlement at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 23 and the Isleworth Four Corner Planned Development in the Windermere/Dr. Phillips area at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 24.
Three Sections, 42 Pages
Photo by Shari Roach
The spirit of America
Tanner Moore, Kane Cook and Tyler Moore hung out with Uncle Sam, of the Winter Garden Masonic Lodge, at the All American Kids Parade on July 4. The event was sponsored by the Downtown Winter Garden Merchants Association, the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation and the Masonic Lodge and included a breakfast, parade and other activities. For more Fourth of July photos, see 6A.
Since 1994, when it was constructed, certain sections of Ocoee City Hall have sunk four inches into the ground. And its back porch has descended even more — maybe by up to six inches, Ocoee officials said. City officials “knew they had some major problems in 2000, and it still continues to sink to this day,” Ocoee Public Works Director Steve Krug said July 3 about City Hall. The building, however, is structurally sound, he said. Providing new support for the city headquarters is a recently completed, $35,000 project performed by the Senatore Firm, of Leesburg, to replace porch columns on the back of the building. “Basically, some of the structural supports made out of cinder blocks were starting to deteriorate, and with the building settling, it started cracking and going off on an angle,” City Manager
Rob Frank said. The Senatore Firm “brought it back to where it should be, replaced the columns and repaired damage caused by the sinking of the building.” Frank’s second-floor office faces City Hall’s back lawn that stretches down to Lakeshore Drive and Starke Lake. Many decades ago, the water in the lake extended over much of the lawn and up to the gazebo that stands outside of the Lakeshore Center, adjacent to City Hall. Muck left over in the area the lake receded from is the culprit causing the City Hall sinking problem, city officials said. Frank and Krug said the contractor that performed the “de-mucking” of the construction site before City Hall was built did not do an adequate job. “They de-mucked down to a certain level, but the dewatering wasn’t accurate,” Krug said. “About 15 feet down, there is a three-foot (See Ocoee, 12A)
Bluegrass coming to Garden Theatre
— The Gatorbone Band, featuring Winter Garden’s Jason Thomas, will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday. By Amy Quesinberry Rhode When Jason Thomas picks up his fiddle at home, his 10-year-old son likes to grab his violin and join his father in playing some tunes. Thomas, now 52 and a professional musician, was just about Jacob’s age when he learned to play the mandolin. At age 12, he picked up a fiddle and mastered that, too, mostly through self-instruction; and by high school, the Ontario, Canada(See Bluegrass, 12A)
Photo courtesy of Gatorbone
Jason Thomas, Lis Williamson, Lon Williamson and Gabe Valla are Gatorbone. The Florida-based band is bringing its bluegrass style to downtown Winter Garden this Saturday.
Death leaves empty space in Marrero family By Amy Quesinberry Rhode
Victoria Marrero seemed to be getting better, overcoming the lung cancer that was slowly taking her life. It was on her birthday last year, May 16, that the Ocoee resident learned that the persistent cough she was being treated for was actually Non Small Cell Adenocarcinoma. The 36-year-old wife and mother lost her fight with cancer — a long battle everyone thought she was winning — on June 25, leaving a young family to mourn her death. Bernie Marrero, 38, knew his wife, Vicky (as she is known to her friends),
was something special the first time he saw her converse in American Sign Language. ASL was important to both of them because his mother and her parents are deaf. It was actually Bernie’s mother who introduced the two; she knew Vicky’s parents from the small deaf community in New York, where they all once lived, and the parents had reconnected in Central Florida. Bernie and Vicky dated and were together for 18 years — 11 of them as a married couple — before her death. “We had a lot of fun,” Bernie Marrero told The West Orange Times on Monday. “We had a very, very playful
relationship. The best part of it was that she was my best friend. We were very cool together. I was very lucky.” He said one of their favorite activities was playing cards and board games with their children: 15-yearold Nathaniel, 12-year-old Alyssia, 9-year-old Natasha and 7-year-old twins Lorenzo and Julius, both of whom have autism and are confused about their mother’s death. On the morning his wife died, Marrero called his good friend, Carl Satterwhite, to share the tragic news. The two men have known one another for (See Marrero, 12A)
VICTORIA MARRERO