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"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning."
Benjamin Franklin
Our role as a City Commission is to set policy that will deliver to future generations a community that is as desirable as Winter Park is to today's residents. I wanted to share with you some of the many projects currently underway in the City of Winter Park that will benefit our community for generations.
Library/Civic Center: Voters approved the project this past election and we will be approving a design/build team this month. We are conducting additional soil borings, traffic studies and survey work on the approved location, the site of the existing Civic Center. The library continues to engage the public to create the programming options and we plan to begin construction in January of 2017.
Winter Park Country Club: We expect to be playing golf on our renovated course in the 3rd quarter this year. The course is aesthetically pleasing as well as challenging and fun to play. The renovation has received much attention and positive feedback from both local golfers and industry professionals. Please come play the course and consider joining the Club as an annual member!
Showalter Field: The City of Winter Park has partnered Orange County Public Schools and Rollins College to refurbish and operate Showalter Field. We will be laying artificial turf on the field itself and resurfacing the track. Special thanks to Vice-Mayor Sarah Sprinkel, OCPS Board Chairman Bill Sublette and Rollins College's Jeffrey Eisenbarth for their involvement.
Electric Undergrounding: In 2015 we laid another 4 miles of our electric system underground. We maintain our commitment to the program and are on schedule to complete the project as planned. The aesthetic and reliability benefits of this program continue to deliver and our rates are lower than our regional competition.
In addition to the projects underway in the City, to maintain relevance in our rapidly changing region, it is important that all groups are respected and heard at City Hall. We need to especially engage the younger generation to plan for their future stewardship of our community. There are multiple ways to engage the city either directly or through the Chamber of Commerce, some of which I have listed below:
The Winter Park Community Center offers year round volunteer opportunities and has the Junior Counselor Program offered to high school students 9th through 12th grades during the summer season to assist with the summer camp programs (contact for these is Daus, Chief, Parks & Recreation Facilities at cdaus@cityofwinterpark.org).
I hope you will encourage your family members to become more involved with the City as we continue to plan for the future. If I can be of assistance in any way, please contact me directly.
Best - Steve
Steve Leary
Mayor, City of Winter Park
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