Times& WEST ORANGE
Observer WEST ORANGE COUNTY’S NEWSPAPER FOR 109 YEARS 2015 PREP FOOTBALL
CAN’T TEACH
PREVIEW
FREE
AT 6-FOOT-8, STONE FORSY THE IS WEST ORANGE’S BIG ON CAMPUS. STORY ON MAN PAGE 6
PREVIEW
Summerport kids enjoy one last summer bash. PAGE 8A
Are you ready for some football? We sure are! SPECIAL SECTION
SPORTS Times& Obs erver WEST ORANGE
INSIDE:
WELCOME TO THE 2015 OUR TOP 10 GAMES OF SEASON ......................................4 THE SEASON ................ .................4
COVER STORY ................ ............................................... WEST ORANGE-AREA 6-7 TEAM PROFILES ................ ......... 8-16
Mount Dora Locatio n 3985 Hwy 19A Mount Dora, FL 32757 (352) 385-0303 * Carpet * Tile * Hardwood * Vinyl * Laminate
Have our Mobile Showro om come to you!
Photo by David Haynes
METRO CONFERENCE PREVIEW ................................ EVALUATING THE DISTRICTS ......17 ...........................................18
Minneola Locatio n: 301 E. Washington St. Unit Minneola, FL 34715 F (352) 394-0303 Follow us on
www.marksfloorsonline .com
BREAK IT DOWN by Zak Kerr | Staff Writer
Demo paves way for Dillard/S.R. 50 project Winter Garden and Intram Realty officials celebrated destruction of the Exclusive Inn office to begin the site’s demolition phase. WINTER GARDEN — Traffic whizzed by on State Road 50, and a loader buzzed between a pile of motel items turned to rubbish and a large waste receptacle. Meanwhile, in the middle of that commotion, Winter Garden officials met Intram Realty heads the morning of
Aug. 21 at the former office of the Exclusive Inn near the intersection with Dillard Street, marking the destruction phase start by demolishing it. District 1 Winter Garden Commissioner Kent Makin began the destruction with a large excavator pounding through the roof before a Pece
LET THE
of Mind construction worker finished reducing the small building to rubble. City and Intram officials took turns bashing the ruins with sledgehammers, as well. “It’s great opportunity — this motel’s been in pretty bad shape for quite a while,” City Manager Mike Bollhoefer
I
WO This week’s winner is
Megan Moore.
See the photo on PAGE 7B.
said. “Now we’re going to tear it down, put in a Wawa and a couple of restaurants, and we’re working very hard to put a high-class new hotel in here.
We’re really excited.” Rashid Khatib, president and CEO of Intram Realty,
SEE INTRAM / PAGE 4A
GOVERNANCE by Zak Kerr | Staff Writer
BACK TO SCHOOL
LEARNING BEGIN by the Times & Observer staff
Commission approves moving Ocoee memorial The African-American Memorial will move to Lakeshore Center Memorial Plaza on Oakland Avenue. OCOEE — Among several items related to the Ocoee Human Relations Diversity Board addressed at the Aug. 18 Ocoee City Commission meeting was the relocation of the African-American Memorial currently located in the right-of-way of Basking Ridge Court. HRDB members have had concerns that the memorial is too hard to find, has insuf-
+ ONP releases gopher tortoises Oakland Nature Preserve recently released three captive educational ambassador gopher tortoises. The gopher tortoises originally were relocated from construction sites and given to the preserve as an educational resource. After the tortoieses reached maturity and tried to escape the enclosure multiple times, the preserve worked with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on a plan to release them. After wildlife rehab work with the tortoises and approval from the FWC, the enclosure the tortoises resided in for the past four years was disassembled, giving them free range of the preserve. For more, call (407) 905-0054.
Zak Kerr
District 1 Winter Garden Commissioner Kent Makin busts through the roof of the Exclusive Inn office to start its teardown.
ficient visibility and sits in a spot potentially conducive to vandalism. Recent HRDB meetings led to District 4 Commissioner Joel Keller, the commission’s liaison for the HRDB, coming up with an idea to move the memorial to the Lakeshore Center Memorial Plaza on Oakland Avenue. Keller
SEE OCOEE / PAGE 4A
DEVELOPMENT by Zak Kerr | Staff Writer
Design firm helps shape with strategy behind Hamlin project
Catherine Sinclair
Friends Mikayla Mansour and Rayna Murillo were glad to start kindergarten at Independence Elementary together.
Boyd Development officials hope to learn from mistakes of other similar town centers.
As students throughout the county began the 2015-16 school year Monday, West Orange celebrated the opening of two new campuses, and West Orange High began its first year as a digital campus. WEST ORANGE — The first day of a new school year is always a unique mix of anticipation, excitement and confusion. For three West Orange-area schools, Monday’s beginning of the 2015-16 school year also included some extra wrenches thrown in for good measure. With a completely new campus, students, teach-
ers and administrators at Independence Elementary School survived some minor bumps on their first day. Across West Orange in Ocoee, Kids Community College welcomed students to its new campus in Lake Olympia Square off East Silver Star Road. And finally, West Orange
SEE SCHOOLS / 4A
HORIZON WEST — A 2013 seminar at Harvard University and conversations with design architects changed the outlook of Boyd Development Corporation officials regarding their plans for Hamlin, a development in Horizon West including a roughly 400,000-squarefoot retail development on New Independence Parkway at Hamlin Groves Trail, just east of State Road 429 Exit 15. President and owner Scott T. Boyd and partner Ken
Zak Kerr
Students in Christina Vicchiullo’s class at KCC Orange shared a few sentences about their summer.
INDEX Arts & Culture.......................11A Classifieds..............................8B
Community Calendar..............2A Crossword...............................7B
324 Moore Rd. Ocoee, FL 34761
Obituaries.............................15A Real Estate.............................4B
Sports.....................................1B Weather..................................7B
Kupp attended that seminar while the corporation developed its relationship with Shook Kelley, a design and planning firm from Charlotte helping to make Hamlin more of an urban development than suburban, said Kevin Meredith, Boyd Development’s sales and marketing specialist. “I think it was really taking some of the experience that (founding Shook Kelley partner) Terry Shook and
SEE HAMLIN / PAGE 6A Vol. 82, No. 35 , Three sections
WOTimes.com
www.GoSmartFitness.com
Total Body Workout
20 minutes, twice a week
RESULTS GUARANTEED OR YOUR OLD BODY BACK! Call to schedule your FREE initial consultation and workout: 407.877.4044
GRAND OPENING SEPT 10TH 530 PM FIRST 50 PEOPLE
GET 1 MONTH FREE
179664WOTO
David and Melanie Stimmell, of Oakland, are the recipients of an Angels in Adoption award, given annually through the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. They were recommended by U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster. The couple has been invited to participate in the awards ceremony in October in Washington, D.C. But with a household of 12, there are no extra funds for a threenight hotel stay and two airline tickets. If anyone in the community is interested in making a donation toward the trip, they can send a check to David and Melanie Stimmell via Mosaic Church, 608 W. Oakland Ave., Oakland, Florida 34760. They have to make their reservations by Sept. 4. Since 2001, the Stimmells have fostered close to 50 children. With four biological children of their own, they are in the process of permanently adopting their sixth foster child. David and Melanie Stimmell have both served on the board of the Quality Parent Initiative, and Melanie Stimmell also volunteers on the Foster Association board with the state.
West Orange-area rowers make waves at national camps. PAGE 1B
179641
IN FOCUS
+ Stimmells earn adoption award
AUGUST 27, 2015
SIZE
WINTER GARDEN, FLORIDA
OUR TOWN
THURSDAY