by Beth Kassab | Jan 15, 2026 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, News, Police and Public Safety, Schools
Have Complaints about Electric Scooters and Bikes? Meeting Scheduled for Next Month
Plus Blue Bamboo’s leader offered a short update on the group’s financial status in the wake of multiple changes at the organization operating at the city’s old library
Jan. 15, 2026
By Beth Kassab
Residents who have questions or concerns about safety related to electric bikes and scooters, which have soared in popularity in recent years, are invited to attend a community meeting at Winter Park Community Center on Feb. 17 at 5:30 p.m.
The meeting comes in the wake of a rising number of accidents and concerns surrounding the motorized devices that are increasingly common in and around school campuses.
Commissioner Craig Russell, who is also a teacher and coach at Winter Park High School, has taken the lead on the topic with a series of safety videos aimed at students and parents and, now, plans for a larger community discussion.
Russell said at Wednesday’s City Commission session that the meeting in February will be about sharing the facts and providing any available updates on the Legislative session, where a proposal (HB 243 and SB 382) is being debated that would put more regulations on e-bikes and scooters and their often young drivers.
“I just want to continue with our public safety effort,” Russell said. “It’s not going to be me telling parents what to do. It’s an informational session.”
The Voice reported last month that Orange County School Board members tossed around potential new regulations such as requiring licenses, training and speed limits at a meeting in November.
Since 2017, electric scooter injuries in the U.S. have surged by 400%, with Florida being a top state in emergency room visits for such injuries, staff told board members, citing data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. These accidents have more than doubled since 2023 for children under 15.
Update on Blue Bamboo
Commissioners heard an update on Wednesday from Jeff Flowers, who is leading the Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts project that is leasing the city’s old library building.
The group’s founder Chris Cortez died last month after a short illness with glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer.
Flowers, a chemist and arts philanthropist who served two stints on the Maitland City Council, noted the challenges the group has faced with the loss of Cortez and difficulty finding tenants for the second and third floors of the building. He said there have been three “very serious” sublease prospects, but no deals yet.
“We are in serious discussions now with another,” he said. “It’s not there yet, but it looks good.”
He said the Blue Bamboo tallied 8,300 people attending shows over the past six months and $180,000 in ticket sales. He said revenue totaled about $340,000 including concession sales and donations.
The Blue Bamboo is required to pay the city $132,000 a year in rent for the building, an amount scheduled to rise to $276,000 next year, according to the lease agreement.
The group has access to a $900,000 grant from Orange County for additional work on the building, but is required to raise matching funds and was counting on help in the form of fundraising and rent from Central Florida Vocal Arts before that group walked away from the deal in August when it was not satisfied by the terms of the sublease offered by Blue Bamboo.
Flowers has loaned Blue Bamboo more than $1 million so far to retrofit the first floor of the building into a performance space and other work.
“The message is look, the Blue Bamboo is here to stay,” Flowers told the commission. “We’ve surmounted every barrier thrown at us.”
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio thanked Flowers for appearing at the meeting and quickly moved on to the next topic after no other commissioners offered any comments or asked any questions.
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CORRECTION: The original version of this story included the wrong location and time for the meeting on e-bikes and scooters. The meeting will be held at Winter Park Community Center at 5:30 p.m.
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by Beth Kassab | Jan 6, 2026 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, News
Construction on Park Avenue Will Begin this Month Starting on the North End
The estimated $8.5 million project will upgrade technology and aesthetics along the busy shopping and dining district
Jan. 6, 2026
By Beth Kassab
Construction will begin later this month on the first major overhaul in 25 years of Park Avenue’s aesthetics and technology — a project known as the Park Avenue Refresh that will include nearly $1 million worth of new streetlights and a total price tag estimated at $8.5 million over the next three years.
Workers began some tasks last year as the city prepared to launch Phase 1 construction this month. (Photo courtesy of the city of Winter Park)
The work on the first of the three project phases is slated to start Jan. 20 on the north end of the avenue and run from Webster Avenue, near the University Club of Winter Park and the city’s nine-hole golf course to Garfield Avenue along the northern border of Central Park.
The stretch includes the Morse Museum, which houses a large collection of glass windows, lamps, jewelry and other delicate work by Louis Comfort Tiffany, and museum leadership has expressed concerns about potential vibrations from construction, Clarissa Howard, the Refresh’s project manager, told the City Commission last month.
Howard said city staff is working with the museum and others along the stretch such as St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, which also runs a school with busy drop-off and pick-up times, to minimize disruptions from the construction.
“Fortunately, our project will not be using jack hammers or equipment that would create that type of severe vibrations that could cause damage to the fragile glass,” Howard said in an email. “We are very sensitive to the fragility of the museum’s pieces so we are working closely with them on our construction schedule and activity. We were asked by the museum team to do our work around the museum during the day so they could have staff on standby to keep an eye out for their pieces during construction.”
The new streetlights, which the commission voted in April to purchase for nearly $1 million, include “dark sky” lamp fixtures that cast LED lights downward, wi-fi receivers, electric hook-ups for cameras and speakers and internal sprinklers for potted plants that will hang from the fixtures. The new cameras on the north end of Park Avenue are for security and will allow law enforcement to obtain footage of incidents for a period of time if needed.
In addition to the new light poles, the avenue will get some noticeable upgrades in the form of new oak trees, new sidewalks, repairs to raised planter beds, new potted plants, new trash and recycling bins and bollards or short posts designed to prevent cars from encroaching on the sidewalks. Other work will be done underground to wire the new lights and irrigation system, help contain tree roots and address stormwater runoff concerns.
A new sign arches above the north end of Park Avenue near where the Refresh project is slated to begin later this month.
Some work will be done overnight to minimize disruptions to shops and businesses, which rely on foot traffic along one of the region’s busiest shopping and dining hubs.
Last year downtown Winter Park logged more than 1.3 million visitors, according to a city count.
Construction on Phase 2 of the project will start in 2027 and run from Garfield to New England Avenue.
Alex Stringfellow, who serves as the urban planner for the project, said the next phase will be mindful of coordinatization around the considerable space occupied by cafe tables along the sidewalks as well as maintaining the health of the oak tree in front of Briarpatch, the largest along the avenue.
Phase 3 will begin in 2028 and run from New England to Fairbanks Avenue.
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by Beth Kassab | Dec 18, 2025 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, Taxes, Uncategorized
Arts Board Backs Off Seven Oaks Sculptures Because of Spending Optics
The decision came this week just days before state CFO Blaise Ingoglia held a press conference in Winter Park on Thursday to call city governments “wasteful”
Dec. 18, 2025
By Beth Kassab
Winter Park’s Public Art Advisory Board this week hit the pause button on spending as much as $175,000 on permanent sculptures for Seven Oaks Park after City Manager Randy Knight appeared at the meeting to warn of bad optics and even a potential budget shortfall if Gov. Ron DeSantis is successful in his drive to reduce property taxes.
“Is that something we’d be criticized for?” Knight asked of the potential expenditure. “Should we wait and see what’s coming before we decide to spend that kind of money on public art?”
The decision by the board, which includes new Commissioner-elect Elizabeth Ingram, is evidence of a chilling effect on local governments brought by the DeSantis administration’s attacks on local spending and threat to significantly decrease local tax revenue.
Without mentioning Winter Park a single time, state Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, who is running for re-election, held a press conference in the city on Thursday morning.
A city graphic shows the proposed location of artwork in Seven Oaks Park.
He repeatedly called cities and counties “wasteful” of public dollars, particularly money collected through property taxes.
But he didn’t cite any examples of cities with bloated budgets that he attributed, in large part, to hiring more staff that far exceeded a city’s need based on its population.
Ingoglia announced a proposal for a new law that would require cities and counties to post their budgets online (which is already required by state law) and to post proposed budget amendments seven days in advance of the hearing. His proposal also would require local governments to identify at least 10% worth of cuts as part of the budget process, though fire and police could not be part of those reductions.
He said the law change would prohibit cities from considering if a business is minority or women-owned when handing out contracts.
Ingoglia called for the end of “the practice of DEI in contracts,” which he said stands for “division, exclusion and indoctrination.”
“Stop with this crap,” he said.
Ingoglia’s office did not immediately respond to a question from the Voice about why the event was held in Winter Park.
The plan for the Seven Oaks Park sculptures came about as part of the city’s public art initiative to promote culture and visitation in Winter Park’s newest public space, which opened earlier this year.
Winter Park is known as one of the top tourism draws in the region and logged 1.4 million visitors to the downtown in 2024.
A plan to bring rotating loaned artwork from Orange County to the park in January is still underway. But the board hit the brakes on purchasing new art to remain in the park permanently.
Arts Board Chairwoman Carolyn Fennell thanked Knight for the information and guidance and noted that the city should “maintain its arts and cultural branding.”
“We all know the importance of arts in our city but others looking in may not have the same value of art as you do or certainly as we do as a community,” Knight said during the meeting.
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by Beth Kassab | Nov 21, 2025 | Arts and Culture, Historic Preservation, News
A Century-Old Lifeline: Welbourne Preschool Endures Amid Loss of Black Landmarks
As change continues on Winter Park’s west side, a preschool that opened in 1927 continues to provide a heartbeat for the neighborhood
Nov. 24, 2025
By Beth Kassab
On Sundays, you can find the Rev. Ronald Critton preaching at Bethel Baptist Church, one of Winter Park’s oldest historically Black sanctuaries.
But more than 65 years ago, Critton started out just steps across Welbourne Avenue from his pulpit as one of the tiny voices on the playground of the Welbourne Nursery and Preschool, once known as the Winter Park Day Nursery Association for Colored Children.
“I do recall the merry-go-round,” Critton told a group gathered recently at a celebration of Welbourne’s history and a fundraiser for its future. “Back then, being a young Black kid, we weren’t allowed to be in certain environments, and that was the only school for us … I felt that I was loved and cared for.”
The Rev. Ronald Critton speaks at an event for the Welbourne Preschool.
On Winter Park’s west side — where old homes and buildings disappear almost as quickly as parking spots along Park Avenue at Christmastime — the Welbourne has remained a beating heart of the historically Black neighborhood for nearly 100 years.
This year, Hannibal Square, founded in 1881 by free Black families who worked for the city’s wealthy white winter residents, lost the Gardens at DePugh Nursing Center.
The first licensed facility for Black seniors, dating back to 1956, announced in September that it would close — the latest in a wave of redevelopment over the last two decades as land values have soared.
But the Welbourne, which opened in 1927, continues to buck the odds.
Artwork from Welbourne students was displayed at the event.
Executive Director Latonya Pelt said the school’s mission is too important to let go. She is grateful for a group of loyal supporters, including alumni like Critton, who have helped raise about $70,000 toward the school’s $100,000 goal. Local business leaders such as Gary Lambert of Gary Lambert Salon on Park Avenue and Rick Baldwin, founder of Baldwin-Fairchild Funeral Homes and Cemeteries and now operator of Baldwin Brothers Funeral & Cremation Society, were recognized among key supporters at the recent event.
“I tell our teachers all the time — we care beyond the classroom,” Pelt said. “We care if the children are hungry, if they need anything. We are all a village.”
A Welbourne student hands out pens to guests.
The Welbourne provides child care and preschool for free or on a sliding scale based on a family’s income. Full tuition for an infant is $315 per week and decreases to $170 per week for a 4-year-old.
The school currently serves 53 children, from infants to age 4 and is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The fundraising campaign helps provide reduced tuition for qualifying families and increase teacher salaries to reduce turnover. Payroll is the school’s biggest expense but also its greatest asset.
“It’s not a high-paying industry,” Pelt said. “We want to make sure we keep qualified teachers.”
Minnie Woodruff recounts her family’s story and her experience at the school.
Minnie Woodruff remembers one such teacher from when she attended Welbourne before graduating at age 4 in 1943.
Rick Baldwin talks with Mary Daniels, who once worked as a teacher at the school and later served as president of its board, and Mayor Sheila DeCiccio.
At the recent gathering, she recalled Mrs. Richardson, whom she described as “the teacher, the cook, and if you got sick she would blow your nose.”
Woodruff went on to attend Spelman College and graduate school and enjoyed a long career as an educator. She credits the preschool with helping lay a solid foundation for herself and her seven siblings in a segregated world.
That work continues today, though the school now draws families from a broader area than just Winter Park. Many parents choose Welbourne because they work in Winter Park or face long waiting lists for subsidized child care elsewhere.
“The average two-parent working family in the U.S. cannot afford high-quality childcare,” said Sharon Carnahan, who serves on Welbourne’s board of directors and recently retired from Rollins College as a psychology professor and executive director of the Hume House Child Development and Student Research Center.
Critton, the pastor at New Bethel, said he hopes more Welbourne graduates find their way back to supporting the school and the neighborhood, where he recently became a resident once again.
“It’s been full circle for me,” he said.
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by Beth Kassab | Nov 19, 2025 | Arts and Culture, News, Taxes
With Partner Gone, Blue Bamboo Works to Push Ahead on Arts Project in Old Library
The music venue received approval to keep $900,000 of its original grant from the Orange County Arts & Cultural Affairs Advisory Council
Nov. 19, 2025
By Beth Kassab
There are still plenty of questions about who or what will replace a key partner that walked away from the Blue Bamboo project to transform Winter Park’s old library into an arts hub.
In a memorandum to Orange County’s Arts & Cultural Affairs Advisory Council last week, Blue Bamboo’s new leader listed 10 arts nonprofits as “examples of prospective tenants.”
But none of the groups contacted by the Voice — from the Orlando Gay Chorus to Orlando Fringe, Central Florida Community Arts, and Rollins College — said they were in discussions to take on permanent space in the three-story building.
Founder Chris Cortez performs at the Blue Bamboo last month in his final concert there.
Jeff Flowers, a chemist and arts philanthropist who served two stints on the Maitland City Council, recently took over day-to-day operations of the music venue after founder Chris Cortez was diagnosed with brain cancer and stepped away.
“I’m holding my nose above water,” he said of the many aspects of the project he has had to pick up on short notice.
Flowers said he is in talks with a couple of potential tenants but declined to name them. He has not yet reached out to the organizations listed as examples in the memorandum he provided to the advisory council when he won approval last week to retain most of the $1 million grant awarded to the original project last year.
Under revised terms, the new grant amount is $900,000 and will likely be disbursed in two payments, he said, after the project reaches certain milestones and provides documentation for construction and other expenses.
Central Florida Vocal Arts, which stages a variety of musicals and operas, was originally slated to occupy the second floor and help Blue Bamboo pay the rent on the building as well as raise the $500,000 in matching funds required by the grant, which comes from the Tourist Development Tax collected on hotel rooms in Orange County.
CFVA withdrew from the project after Executive Director Theresa Smith-Levin said she was unable to reach a lease agreement with Blue Bamboo.
Blue Bamboo will now be responsible for raising $450,000 in matching funds under the new grant terms.
The organization currently pays the city $132,000 a year in rent for the building, an amount scheduled to rise to $276,000 next year.
Flowers said he hopes to secure tenants for the building along with shared spaces for costume design, lighting fabrication, recording suites, back-office support, and more. He added that he still has time to solidify those plans.
“Our revised leasing plan will allow a more diverse group of subleases to support the ongoing costs in our master lease, and the Shared Space plan will provide a new income stream that is responsive to the expressed needs of the community it serves. Finally, our capital campaign efforts will integrate Blue Bamboo into the local business community to ensure continued financial support,” Flowers wrote in the memo to the county.
Flowers is not only a longtime supporter of the venue and now its leader, but also the person who loaned Blue Bamboo money for the initial round of construction and other expenses needed to open this summer in the old library building.
He said he has loaned the project about $1 million so far.
“I’m going to make sure this project succeeds,” he said.
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by Beth Kassab | Nov 7, 2025 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, Events, News
Veterans Honored and Shared Stories at Annual Veterans Day Event
Two veterans were gifted Quilts of Valor and a local mother who lost her son in the U.S. Army earlier this year shared his story and legacy
Nov. 7, 2025
By Beth Kassab
A 28-year employee of the Winter Park Library and the city worker who runs both Winter Park-owned cemeteries were awarded Quilts of Valor on Friday as part of an emotional ceremony honoring locals who have served ahead of Veterans Day.
Sarah Williams, who is acquisitions manager at the library, served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1982 to 1994 during the Cold War, Persian Gulf War, Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
Sarah Williams, a Marine Corps veteran and Winter Park Library employee, is presented with a Quilt of Valor on Friday.
At one point, she was deployed when her daughter was about 8 months old and returned when she was 2.
“It means the world,” Williams said after she was presented with the colorful quilt bordered in a red, white and blue floral pattern that Melissa Mathews and other representatives from the Quilts of Valor Foundation wrapped around her shoulders.
Michael Webb, who served in the U.S. Army from 1994 to 2015 and joined the city’s Parks & Recreation Department in 2017, was also moved by his quilt as it was placed around him. He served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. (Webb, second from right in the photo at the top of this page, receives his quilt from the foundation.)
“I’ll definitely keep this in the family forever for my sons,” said Webb, who runs Palm and Pineywood cemeteries, after the ceremony. “It will become a family heirloom.”
Quilts of Valor was founded in 2003 and has comforted more than 400,000 veterans with handmade quilts, according to its website.
The crowd at the city’s 15th annual Veterans celebration at the Community Center also heard from Laurie Houck, a Gold Star Mother and vice president of institutional advancement at Rollins College.
Laurie Houck, a Gold Star Mother and a vice president at Rollins College, addresses the crowd at the city’s Veterans Day celebration on Friday.
Houck lost her 22-year-old son David, a U.S. Army Supply Specialist and company armorer stationed at Fort Eisenhower near Augusta, Ga. He was killed in a vehicle accident in January just outside of the base.
Houck remembered how her son struggled when he first enlisted and didn’t care much for bootcamp. But in the military, she said, the tiny malnourished 2-year-old she adopted from China 20 years ago “had found his second home.”
She recalled how he worked to overcome his earliest years in an orphanage where he was left in his crib so long the back of his head was flat to his days in Boy Scouts and, later, as a camp counselor. Skills — she said — that eventually helped him in the Army.
“He belonged and he mattered,” Houck said. “David was known for the way he made people feel valued.”
Ben Mack-Jackson, founder of the WWII Veterans History Project and a Winter Park resident, displays a uniform that belonged to Tuskegee Airman Richard Hall Jr.
The ceremony was emceed by Pastor Troy East of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church and also featured a number of city officials, including Mayor Sheila DeCiccio and a performance by Maria Bryant and the VFW Post 2093 Community Band.
DeCiccio noted the lineup of events the city has planned beginning in January to celebrate the nation’s 250th year. For more information click here.
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