W E ST O RA N G E T I M E S &
Observer Celebrating 110 years in West Orange
Warriors two games away from state title.
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YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 82, NO. 49
FREE
POT SPOT
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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2015
Knox Nursery in Winter Garden has become Central Florida’s first licensed grower of Charlotte’s Web, a type of medical marijuana. Page 4.
Bus route connects South Lake to W.G.
TRAVELIN’
TIMES
CATHERINE KERR STAFF WRITER LAKE COUNTY
Lake County’s Transit Division has opened a new bus route, Route 50, to provide service between Mascotte and Winter Garden as of Dec. 1. Route 50 is a response to a growing need for connectivity between Lake and Orange SEE ROUTE PAGE 4
YOUR TOWN POSTMASTER RETIRES
Renee Adams Stockdill and Timothy Stockdill, of Winter Garden, spent their honeymoon in Athens, Greece. While there, they caught up on their hometown news with a copy of the West Orange Times.
ARTS+CULTURE
Oh, the places you’ll go! See where our readers have traveled this year. And yes, there’s still time to enter our Travelin’ Times contest! PAGE 20
Ocoee selects new mayor City Commissioner Rusty Johnson won the runoff election by just 17 votes. He is the first new mayor in 23 years. AMY QUESINBERRY RHODE COMMUNITY EDITOR OCOEE For the first time
Puppeteer has a hand in producing faith-inspired show.
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in more than two decades, Ocoee has a new mayor. Voters selected longtime City Commissioner Rusty Johnson to lead the city — at least until March 15, 2016, when the regular election takes place. Johnson won the seat in a Nov. 24 runoff election by just 17 votes over opponent Jim Sills. AccordSEE OCOEE PAGE 4
Courtesy photo
New Ocoee Mayor Rusty Johnson hopes to lead the city into a new era of growth. He will run for the seat again in the March election.
Dean Mongold’s retirement celebration last week included many faces from his past. The Oakland postmaster has decided it’s time to retire from the U.S. Postal Service, and the town of Oakland held a party for him last week at the Oakland Meeting Hall adjacent to the post office. Current and former postmasters from Groveland, Winter Garden, Windermere and Oakland were there for Mongold’s sendoff. He was presented a gold clock, among other congratulatory items. “I’m not sure what we’re going to do without you,” Mayor Kathy Stark said. “If we ever needed to know what was going on in the town, all we had to do was ask Dean. This is the essence of a small town.” Town Manager Dennis Foltz said of Mongold: “You are a real icon in this town. … It will never be the same without you.”