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W E ST O RA N G E T I M E S &
Observer Celebrating 110 years in West Orange
INSIDE
Friendship emerges between Legacy’s two QBs. PAGE 17
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 82, NO. 43
FREE
YOUR TOWN GET IN TOUCH WITH HISTORY
File photo
Did you know there were four American Indian trading posts and six villages set up in the Oakland area in the 1850s — nearly four decades before the town was incorporated in 1887? Learn more about the 128-year history of the town of Oakland, as well as its cultural and natural heritage, at the 18th Annual Oakland Heritage Festival from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, at Speer Park, 331 N. Tubb St. Saturday’s event will feature Lake Apopka boat tours, hay rides, live entertainment, a drum circle, wildlife and cultural presentations, children’s art show, vendors, a silent auction with more than 50 gifts, petting zoo, children’s activities and a costume contest. Guests are asked to bring canned goods to the Young Christian Musicians Band booth; donations will be given to the West Orange Christian Service Center’s food pantry. Admission is free; other proceeds benefit the Oakland Nature Preserve. For more information about the festival, visit the preserve’s website, oakland naturepreserve.org or call (407) 905-0054.
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2015
Schools, WGPD settle dispute The Winter Garden Police Department will receive about $83,000 to cover 2014-15, its final year providing security for public schools. Story on 10.
Ultimate Warriors
Facebook shows Axum Coffee a ‘whole latte love.’
PAGE 11
Developers introduce Walkers Pond proposal Most of the site would need to be annexed into Winter Garden before the project could begin. ZAK KERR STAFF WRITER WINTER GARDEN
SEE YOUR TOWN PAGE 6
Oakland considers Meritage project
Photos by Jennifer Nesslar
The West Orange High School marching band performed its 2015 show during halftime at the 2015 Homecoming Game Oct. 16.
West Orange High School celebrated its 2015 Homecoming with a week full of activities bursting with orange and blue.
Oakland Trails is proposed on 108 acres on the town’s west side just east of the Lake County border.
Story on 8.
ARTS+CULTURE
Photos on 4. Loukas Charalambous and Aubrey Clevinger were crowned West Orange High School’s 2015 Homecoming king and queen.
A preliminary community meeting primarily intended for residents near the area under consideration turned into nearly full Winter Garden City Commission Chambers Oct. 12. City staff had invited such citizens around the 90-acre portion of the Walkers Pond property, which stretches from Lake Roberts to Walker Pond Road, with Windermere Country Club immediately south. Developers wish to see Winter Garden annex this piece of land. But the other 6 1/4 acres abut the western side of Windermere Road and would remain unincorporated Orange County, so many received notification from the office of District 1 Orange County Commissioner S. Scott Boyd about the meeting. Thomas Daly, president of the Daly Design Group that provided landscape architecture for Key Isle in Ocoee, presented a first draft of the 120-lot and fourSEE ANNEXATION PAGE 6