Times& WEST ORANGE
Observer WEST ORANGE COUNTY’S NEWSPAPER FOR 109 YEARS
INSIDE
SPORTS
ARTS & CULTURE
Independence hosts National Night Out bash. PAGE 9A
Jackson Hodor earns invite to USA Football camp. PAGE 1B
Ocoee restaurateurs find sizzling sucess with new taco eatery. PAGE 11A
+ Have you seen this cat? The owners of this cat, named Kookie, need the community’s help in finding their family pet. Kookie is a neutered male. He is gray with hints of brown, with a white chest, white belly and white blaze on his face. He has a bobbed tail; it is shorter than two inches and looks like a powder puff. If you try to pick him up, he will try to swat at you. He’s not comfortable with anyone he doesn’t know. The owners are offering a reward. If you have information about Kookie, call (407) 877-7693.
AUGUST 13, 2015
FREE
WINTER GARDEN, FLORIDA
OUR TOWN
THURSDAY
SAFETY by Zak Kerr | Staff Writer
Ocoee, Winter Garden benefit from combined 911 call center West Orange’s State Road 50 corridor police now all share one dispatch location. WINTER GARDEN — Many years removed from sharing a radio frequency, Winter Garden and Ocoee police have reunited in their dispatching. After five years with the
Apopka Police Department for dispatch services, the Ocoee Police Department has begun a five-year agreement with the Winter Garden Police Department for dis-
patch services from its call center at the police station on West Plant Street, effective as of July 1. Officials from both West Orange departments have
been pleased with the transition and its effects, saying the first month has gone smoothly as a win-win. “We already dispatch for Oakland, so now you’ve got
the three municipalities all in a line being dispatched from the same place,” Winter Garden Police Chief George
CALL CENTER / PAGE 4A
+ Ocoee to host self-defense class
+ You could have unclaimed cash The Orange County Clerk’s Office has released its annual unclaimed-checks list, and citizens should see if their names are on the list. The deadline to collect any monies due is Sept. 1. After that date, the funds will be forfeited to the state. The list consists of people who have unclaimed checks issued by the Clerk’s Office in the course of court-related activities. Visit myorangeclerk.com to search the list.
I
WO This week’s winner is
John Czajkowski. See the photo on PAGE 7B.
WARRIOR NATION Courtesy photo
The 2015-16 West Orange High School Warriorettes Dance Team attended UDA Camp July 9 to 12 in St. Augustine. The team won a Superior first place and qualified for Nationals with the home routine choreographed by coach
Priya Singh, a former Orlando Magic dancer. The squad, which includes 12 girls, also won first place in Team Drill Downs, the Team Spirit Award and the Team Full Out Award. Front row, from left: Elizabeth Victor, Addison Satmary and Madison
TRANSPORTATION by Zak Kerr | Staff Writer
BIG STEP by Amy Quesinberry Rhode | Community Editor
Kidney recipient heads to college
C.R. 535/S.R. 429 interchange among local improvements
Makenzie Whitaker, who received one of her father’s kidneys in 2004, is leaving this week for Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers.
Because she was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease when she was just 2 years old and endured a transplant at age 11, Makenzie Whitaker knows what it’s like to blow out birthday candles from a hospital bed and spend Halloween trick-or-treating along the sterile hallways. She knows how it feels to spend hours hooked to a dialysis machine with such a compromised immune system that she had to spend most of senior year at home with a tutor.
Obituaries.............................15A Real Estate.............................5B
Sports.....................................1B Weather..................................7B
The Central Florida Expressway Authority plans to resurface and add a lane to State Road 429 near Winter Garden-Vineland Road. WINTER GARDEN — The Central Florida Expressway Authority board approved several improvements to State Road 429 at its interchange with County Road 535 (Winter Garden-Vineland Road) and Stoneybrook West Parkway during its
July meeting. The chief improvement will be an added westbound lane from where Stoneybrook West Parkway passes under State Road 429 to a nearby tollbooth, about a
ROADS / PAGE 4A
Hubbart. Back row, from left: Alyssa Williams, Eylul Ucin, Bryanna Williams, Kiera McKeever, Coach Melissa Minock, Emma Meyers, Amy Roesch, Jennie Seamon, Brenna Coheley and Madison Wright.
Courtesy photo
INDEX Arts & Culture.......................11A Classifieds..............................8B
Community Calendar..............2A Crossword...............................7B
Because of these lifelong medical experiences, Whitaker, 18, decided to study art therapy — ultimately working with children confined to a hospital — when she begins classes at Florida Gulf Coast University this week. She’s ready to live in a dorm and join the yoga club and be a “normal” college student, she said. “I’m looking forward to actually being able to start my
WHITAKER / PAGE 4A Vol. 82, No. 33 , Two sections
WOTimes.com
178833WOTO
The Ocoee Police Department is hosting a free, three-hour Self Defense Awareness & Familiarization Exchange for women at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 19, at the police station, 646 Ocoee Commerce Parkway, Ocoee. The class is limited to the first 20 eligible participants, and preference is given to Ocoee residents. Participants must be at least 13 years old. To register, call (407) 554-7204 or email patera. scott@ocoee.org.