by Beth Kassab | Feb 26, 2026 | City Commission, News
Electric Rates to Rise in March and Chamber Leader Betsy Gardner to Step Down
Plus the city will host the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade next week
Feb. 26, 2026
By Beth Kassab
Winter Park residents and business owners will see an increase on their electric bills beginning in March to make up for higher natural gas prices brought on, in part, by the January and February cold snaps.
A fountain in front of a Winter Park home froze after temperatures dropped on Feb. 1.
The Utilities Advisory Board heard this week that the average bill for 1,300 kilowatt hours in Winter Park will go up by about $27 to recover the cost of the city-owned electric utility’s purchase of fuel. Unlike other portions of the electric bill, the fuel charge is a direct pass-through to customers that the city does not make a profit on.
The change highlights the volatility of natural gas prices and ends a months-long reprieve on electric bills after the fuel portion of the bill was adjusted downward at the end of the summer. At the time, the City Commission was in the midst of raising the non-fuel portion of rates by about 4% but emphasized that lower fuel costs would actually mean lower bills overall.
But, with the increase next month, that relief will go away and bills will trend higher.
The below-freezing temperatures earlier this year slowed the production of natural gas, which is the largest source of electricity for the city, and pushed prices up.
While city officials worried that increased demand for central heat during the coldest hours would create too much load on the system, there was only one small outage. The city worked with large power customers like Publix and the hospital to use back-up generators to lessen demand.
The new fuel rates will be in place for nine months and reset again based on price trends.
Betsy Gardner to leave Winter Park Chamber
Betsy Gardner, who has led the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce for nine years, announced this week she will step down May 1 and a search is underway for her successor.
At Wednesday’s City Commission meeting, Commissioner Warren Lindsey commended Gardner’s leadership.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio said she has already heard from the search firm that is seeking input on what kind of relationship city officials want to have with the chamber.
City officials and the chamber have butted heads at times, particularly over politics and policy related to growth and development. The chamber’s political action committee has supported candidates for office, occasionally against incumbents.
Most recently, the chamber political committee attempted to help oust Commissioner Kris Cruzada, but he won a second term in the 2025 election in a landslide.
The chamber PAC did not support a candidate in this year’s election. Commissioner Craig Russell, who the PAC supported in 2024, was re-elected unopposed and Elizabeth Ingram, also unopposed, was elected in her first run for public office. She will be sworn in next month as Commissioner Marty Sullivan retires.
Gardner started the chamber’s Relaunch program, which helps women who have paused their careers transition back into the workforce. She also started the B Student podcast in 2025 and led the chamber’s annual “Art is Good Business” trip to Tallahassee to advocate for state matching arts grants.
“I am grateful for nine years at the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce and to our board, staff, trustees, members and partners for all that we have accomplished together,” said Gardner in a news release. “After nearly a decade of leading this organization, I am leaving to start my own business in no small part due to the skills I have learned and connections I have made working with business leaders and entrepreneurs here in Central Florida. I am committed to a smooth transition and look forward to seeing what the chamber achieves under the next generation of leadership.”
Gardner will remain in an advisory role with the Winter Park Ideas Foundation, a new nonprofit affiliated with the chamber as it works to launch the Winter Park Ideas Fest in 2028.
St. Patrick’s Day Parade Next Week
The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency and the Winter Park Rotary Club will host the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Saturday, March 7 at 9 a.m.
The parade will begin at Canton Avenue and move south down Park Avenue to Lyman Avenue. Cathy Quinlivan and Rosemary O’Maisenholder, longstanding members of the Irish American Cultural Society of Central Florida which coordinated this parade for more than 35 years, will serve as this year’s Grand Marshals.
The celebration is made possible by support from the CRA, Winter Park Rotary Club and The Imperial on Park.
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by Beth Kassab | Feb 20, 2026 | City Commission, County News, Police and Public Safety, Schools
New Rules for Electric Bikes and Scooters In the Works for School Campuses
Winter Park residents turned out to a community meeting this week to hear an update on safety as complaints about the fast motorized devices have soared. Orange County schools are considering new rules
Feb. 20, 2026
By Tilly Raij
With new rules at the state and school district levels still uncertain, about two dozen people gathered this week to discuss how to make electric bikes and scooters safer in Winter Park.
City Commissioner Craig Russell led the community meeting Tuesday and walked residents through a primer on current regulations and etiquette that could reduce accidents and close calls on sidewalks and roads.
“If you don’t know how to operate the device, my suggestion is don’t get it for your 8-year-old,” said Russell, who is also a teacher and coach at Winter Park High School. He said he has seen students injured on the electric devices.
He emphasized that parents often don’t know the rules when their children begin riding.
The meeting followed increasing complaints from residents about people riding bikes and scooters too fast and recklessly on roads and sidewalks, especially near school campuses.
Orange County School Board member Stephanie Vanos, who also spoke at the meeting, said new rules could be on the horizon across the district.
She said options under discussion include requiring parents and students to take a class and sign an agreement related to riding and parking on campus, similar to the agreements high school students sign to drive and park cars on campus.
Vanos, who represents Winter Park in District 6, said students would receive a sticker to place on their device to show they participated in the training. Faculty members also have communicated with students about electric scooters and bikes.
“Right now, no, there is no requirement that students have to take any kind of education, or parents, but I will say that at many of our schools, particularly some of our middle schools and high schools, the principals are sharing information on e-bike safety and scooters with the students,” Vanos said.
Earlier this month, the school board heard a presentation noting survey results that show nearly 12,000 students ride bikes or scooters to school in Orange County. While most schools require students to walk their devices on campus, only about half issue violations to those who fail to do so.
In addition to permit stickers, district staff members recommend adding rules to the Code of Conduct and installing new signs on campuses requiring students to dismount bikes and scooters.
Last year, the school board held a discussion and presentation on the soaring popularity of bikes and scooters. Since 2017, electric scooter injuries in the U.S. have surged by 400%, with Florida ranking among the top states in emergency room visits for such injuries, staff members told the board at a November work session, citing data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Accidents involving children younger than 15 have more than doubled since 2023.
Russell’s presentation this week also covered rules governing e-scooters and e-bikes in certain areas of Winter Park. The devices cannot be ridden on sidewalks in the Park Avenue area known as the Central Business District, Hannibal Square and the Orange Avenue Overlay District.
Carelessly transitioning from sidewalks to roads, crossing crosswalks without looking for oncoming vehicles and ignoring pedestrian signals are among the most frequent safety concerns involving local riders, he said.
Russell shared best practices and described the “Be KIND” acronym for remembering how to properly operate an electric scooter or bike. The letters stand for “keep your eyes up, initiate courtesy, navigate safely and do the right thing.”
Adriana Rodriguez, senior transportation engineer for MetroPlan Orlando, told residents the organization is working with the American Bicycling Education Association to create a series of educational modules aimed at 500 students ages 12-15. Topics will range from safety to road rules and will incorporate graphics and illustrations, ending with a quiz. Students will receive a certificate of completion, and the results will be analyzed by grade level to determine whether the initiative should be expanded.
With about three weeks left in the regular session of the Florida Legislature, officials also are waiting to see whether new state laws emerge.
Proposals — Senate Bill 382 and House Bill 243 — that initially would have required licenses for certain classes of electric bikes have been scaled back to create a safety task force and include provisions such as: “A person operating an electric bicycle on a sidewalk or other area designated for pedestrians may not operate the electric bicycle at a speed greater than 10 miles per hour if a pedestrian is within 50 feet of the electric bicycle.”
Provisions related to motorized scooters were removed from the proposals.
Russell said education will remain essential to improving safety.
“Our goal is simple — to keep our kids safe, our sidewalks safe and our community involved,” he said.
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by Beth Kassab | Feb 19, 2026 | City Commission, News, Taxes
Slash Reserves and Services? Annex Maitland? Winter Park Mulls Answers to Property Tax Cuts
The (some not so serious) suggestions came in response to Legislative proposals to dramatically reduce city revenue and recommendations from Florida DOGE to eliminate some cities
Feb. 19, 2026
By Beth Kassab
The Florida House voted Thursday to ask voters to eliminate all property taxes — except those that fund schools — for people who live in their homes, but the Senate has yet to take up a plan.
With just three weeks left in the regular legislative session, Gov. Ron DeSantis signaled Thursday morning that he is in no hurry to finalize a proposal that must be approved by 60% of voters to take effect.
“Given that it can’t be voted on by the people before November, it’s better to do it right than do it quick!” the governor posted on X.
State leaders could call a special session after the annual 60-day lawmaking period ends March 13 to address property tax cuts or other unfinished matters.
The uncertainty over the future of their most important and flexible revenue stream has local governments such as Winter Park contemplating a bleak future if the cuts become reality.
“We’re losing people. We’re losing quality of life. We’re losing services,” Commissioner Kris Cruzada said last week as the City Commission heard staff projections. “You call down to City Hall, and you may not get a live person to deal with an issue.”
A city of Winter Park chart shows how property taxes flow into city services.
Peter Moore, director of the city’s Office of Management and Budget, presented an analysis projecting a $250 million loss over 11 years if a proposal like the one adopted by the House on Thursday is ultimately approved by voters.
While the House proposal aims to protect police and fire funding by prohibiting local governments from cutting those departments, it would impede the city’s ability to expand public safety and meet other local needs, including parks, roads, building permits and inspections, code enforcement, storm-related tree trimming, after-school programs, and playing fields for youth and adult sports leagues.
“This would call into question our ability to grow, and in the past we’ve had plans to expand our police and fire personnel. Those things are certainly not possible under scenarios like this,” he said. “It also implies that any government service that’s not public safety isn’t important.”
The tax repeal proposals address only those paid by property owners with homestead exemptions — those who live in their homes as a primary residence. That means people who own second homes, businesses, commercial properties or rental houses would likely face a higher, shifting tax burden that could be passed along to tenants in the form of higher rent.
“The part that bothers me the most,” Moore told the commission, “is that those who deserve the greatest voice in government — our local citizens — are not going to be contributing anything to it. And — this is tongue-in-cheek, and we don’t mean it — but we would be financially better off as a city if we really upset our citizens, they all left, sold their homes to BlackRock and let them be rented out as an Airbnb. Then we could at least pay for roads.”
Property taxes assessed on homesteaded property make up about $19 million — roughly half of the city’s annual property tax revenue — and more than 20% of total annual revenue, according to Moore.
Commissioner Warren Lindsey called the proposals “objectively one of the greatest threats, certainly since I’ve lived in Winter Park for 35 years.”
DeSantis and other state leaders have argued the proposals are driven by the need to make life more affordable for Floridians as government spending and waste have spiraled out of control.
But city officials across the state argue that state spending is ballooning at the same rate as local governments because both are affected by inflation and higher costs of goods and services, especially wages for police officers and firefighters.
Moore said the city’s general fund spent about $70 million in 2024, up from about $43 million in 2015 — an annualized growth rate of about 5.6%. The state of Florida increased spending during that same period from $30 billion to $50 billion, or about a 5.7% annual growth rate.
City officials also took exception to some of the characterizations and recommendations in the recently released “Report on Local Government Spending” by DeSantis’ Florida DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency.
The report calls out 13 cities and counties, including Orange County, for what it describes as “excessive spending.”
“Property taxes are an expense that is entirely within the control of governments to rein in, and by ending the era of irresponsible spending, Florida and its local governments can give Florida’s homeowners freedom from this burden,” the report states.
The 98-page report is part financial audit and part ideological playbook outlining what the governor considers appropriate local government activities.
In the recommendations section, the unnamed authors predicted their proposals “will spark opposition.”
“Bureaucracies entrench themselves and create stakeholders who will argue that stronger oversight threatens ‘home rule,’ disrupts operations, risks federal funding or undermines public servants,” the report states. “They will highlight some recipient who benefits from every expenditure of public funds — ignoring that every dollar spent must also be taken from a taxpayer who is thereby harmed.”
The recommendations include giving Florida’s chief financial officer more power over local governments and standardizing local budgeting processes and wages, including freezing hiring and pay levels for city and county employees.
The report also says the state should forbid the use of government funds, facilities or communications to promote diversity, equity and inclusion concepts such as “social justice” or “systemic bias,” along with any phrases “that rely on the concept that mankind is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously, or bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by others based on race, sex or related characteristics.”
In addition, the report recommends changing state law so that state and local governments cannot enforce “green energy” or other “climate initiatives.”
The recommendation that drew the most pushback from Winter Park officials included a proposal to cap city reserve, or rainy day, funds at 10%.
After Hurricane Charley in 2004, Winter Park adopted a policy calling for reserves to stand at about 30%.
Winter Park’s reserve fund is about 27% today, or roughly $23 million.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio said the funds are used to respond quickly to flooding and power outages before state and federal emergency reimbursements arrive.
Cruzada said the state is essentially telling local governments to be “irresponsible” and rely on state and federal assistance rather than manage their own affairs.
“What the state is doing is limiting our ability to raise revenue but, at the same time, reducing our reserves and it’s practically — for lack of a better term — telling us to be irresponsible,” he said.
An image created in jest by city staff to bring some levity to the property tax discussion shows City Manager Randy Knight and Assistant City Manager Michelle del Valle on a quest to annex Maitland, which is not actually under consideration at this time, though the Florida DOGE report recommended some cities should consolidate.
The report’s final recommendation calls for some cities to disappear entirely and be absorbed by larger neighboring cities or counties.
“Florida should review the 411 municipalities for potential opportunities to provide local government services more efficiently through abolition or consolidation, with particular attention paid to small municipalities and highly urbanized counties,” the report states.
That prompted another tongue-in-cheek response from Winter Park officials, who joked about annexing neighboring Maitland.
Moore pointed to what he called a “curious note” in the report suggesting that “perhaps there are too many cities.”
He then showed an AI-generated image of City Manager Randy Knight and Assistant City Manager Michelle del Valle dressed in Colonial-era attire “crossing Howell Creek to invade our neighbors to the north.”
“Never to not be a team player, we are willing to do this,” Moore said, drawing laughter from the chamber.
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by Beth Kassab | Feb 7, 2026 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, Historic Preservation, News
Lot Split Request Puts Future of Gamble Rogers Estate in Question
Lakefront lot splits are against Winter Park policy. But the prospective owner of the largest lot on the city’s esteemed chain of lakes says the alternative could be worse — a residence so large it dwarfs the Library & Events Center
Feb. 7, 2026
By Beth Kassab
The fate of 1020 Palmer Avenue — a once-grand home and among the largest and most ornate ever designed by James Gamble Rogers II (think velvet-covered handrails) and known in recent years as “Merrywood” — appears to hinge on whether a unicorn buyer emerges to save the property.
Such a feat would take not only millions of dollars, but also approval from city officials to break one of Winter Park’s cardinal development rules: No lakefront lot splits allowed.
Tara Tedrow, the prospective buyer who has the property under contract, is asking for an exception to that rule to allow the 3.67-acre lot — the largest property on the picturesque Winter Park Chain of Lakes — to be divided into two lots on Lake Osceola. Each lot, she said, would be at least 150 feet wide and 1.5 acres or larger.
Zillow estimates the property at $12.1 million while other estimates, such as Redfin, list it at $6.4 million.
Tedrow, a land-use attorney at Lowndes who also used to practice cannabis law there, could then potentially sell the lot with the existing home and build a new home for her family on the newly created lakefront lot. The exception would be written in such a way that it would apply only to her lot and no others, according to city staff, because the lot Tedrow wants to purchase is the only one large enough.
The name “Merrywood” at the start of the driveway at 1020 Palmer Avenue.
While she told the Planning & Zoning Board earlier this week that she believes the currently vacant home is beyond repair, she said she is open to talking with buyers interested in restoring the 7,000-square-foot structure, which dates back to 1940.
She also met with Betsy Owens, granddaughter of Gamble Rogers and leader of the Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum — a Gamble Rogers home and now a popular event space that was famously moved from Interlachen Avenue to just off the ninth fairway of the Winter Park Nine 25 years ago after it was threatened with demolition.
“I’m certain if I’m not in the picture, that the house will get torn down,” Tedrow told the P&Z board earlier this week of the Palmer Avenue home.
The house at 1020 Palmer Avenue is not on the city’s historic register because the longtime owners chose to keep it off. It could be destroyed with a simple demolition permit. However, the property is listed on the Florida Master Site File, a state database of historical and cultural resources, which means the city’s Historic Preservation Board could delay a demolition request for 90 days to allow time to consider alternatives or ways to preserve pieces of the home.
The P&Z board voted 4–2 on Tuesday to grant Tedrow’s request to delay the hearing on the lot split until June — so far, there is no demolition request — to give her time to see whether anyone comes forward who may be interested in restoring the property.
“We appreciate the opportunity to present this case to the city and to hear from our neighbors and members of the historic preservation community,” Tedrow told the Voice. “Having grown up in Winter Park, I appreciate just how unique and beautiful the city is. As I am expecting my third baby in three years, I want more than ever to move back to Winter Park.”
Alex Stringfellow, Bill Segal, David Bornstein, and Charles Steinberg voted in favor of granting the continuance.
Jason Johnson, chairman of the P&Z board, and board member Michael Dick voted against continuing the hearing on the lot split. Both expressed skepticism that a lot split — which would require a change to the comprehensive plan that governs how the city will develop in coming years — should be granted.
The rule states that a property owner cannot divide a lakefront parcel into two and build a house on each one. Such splits would increase density and development along the shorelines of the city’s lakes and decrease the diversity of lot sizes central to the city’s unique character.
The only exception in the plan — which does not apply in this case — is when there is a lakefront lot with a house that is historically designated and older than 1950, and the lot split does not create a new lakefront lot, said Planning & Zoning Director Allison McGillis. In such a case, which occurred last year with another Gamble Rogers house on North Park Avenue, one lot remained on the lakefront while the newly created lot was not on the water.
A view of the home from Palmer Avenue.
McGillis told the board she has heard from residents in the area who have concerns about a potential lot split.
“I’ve gotten questions about the fate of the house,” she said. “Most people I’ve talked with want to preserve the Gamble Rogers house because there are not many of them left.”
While splitting the lot does not guarantee that the home would be preserved, Tedrow said a potentially worse outcome could be on the horizon if a lot split is not granted.
Because of the size of the lot, a buyer could demolish the old home and would be entitled to build a new house as large as 56,000 square feet.
“The largest home in the city has a gross floor area of over 36,000 square feet — this 3.67-acre property is legally entitled to have a home 55% larger,” Tedrow told the Voice in an email. “To further put this into perspective, the city’s new library and event space total around 50,000 square feet. The home that could be built at 1020 Palmer Avenue under today’s Comprehensive Plan would be larger than both buildings combined on the city’s library campus and would dwarf every home in Winter Park.”
Such a house would also dwarf the home of Marc and Sharon Hagle, who spent years constructing the largest residence in Winter Park — the one Tedrow mentioned that is 36,000 square feet — just a few doors down Palmer Avenue.
“I think there are some buyers out there who might do that,” she told P&Z members. “I’m not that buyer. So maybe we flip this to somebody else …”
Owens, who also attended the meeting, said she appreciates that Tedrow came to Casa Feliz and is considering ways to find a buyer who might be willing to restore the home.
“We appreciate her willingness to work with us,” Owens said.
The property was most recently the home of Dr. Raymond Gilmer, an orthopedic surgeon who died in 2020 at age 90, and his wife, Sarah, who purchased it in 1977.
The home is now vacant and owned by the couple’s children. Tedrow said the family decided to keep the property off the historic register in case the land would be worth more with the potential for demolition.
A close-up of the front entrance to the property.
There is no publicly available list price because Tedrow offered a contract on the property before it hit the MLS.
She said the price of the existing house would depend on the exact configuration of a potential lot split, if approved, and other factors.
The house was featured as one of about a dozen properties in a 2004 book celebrating the architecture of Gamble Rogers in Winter Park by Patrick and Debra McClane.
“The initial series of interior spaces is unusual for a residence and more closely resembles a hotel or theater entry in that a lobby is provided, which is flanked by a coat room and a powder room,” reads the section on the property, referred to as the Plant House for its original owner. “Stepping up from the lobby, one then enters a large entrance hall nearly 45 feet in length. Triple arched openings on the south wall of the hall — with a fixed window in the center and double-leaf, multiplane doors on the sides — lead to the loggia and then the sunken patio, with Lake Osceola beyond.”
The house boasted features such as “floor buttons” in the dining areas that rang to wait staff in the kitchen, as well as “ornate wrought-iron railings and balusters [that] lined the staircase, and a velvet-covered handrail … provided on the interior wall.”
Jack Rogers, architect and son of Gamble Rogers, told the Voice last year that there are fewer than 10 true examples of his father’s work left in Winter Park as more are torn down every year.
“There’s probably 15 or 20 left, and eight or 10 are absolutely precious, and we seem to be losing them at the rate of one or two a year,” Rogers said. “We still have several wonderful examples.”
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Update: The original version of this story noted cannabis law as a part of Tedrow’s law practice. She no longer practices in that area.
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by Beth Kassab | Feb 2, 2026 | City Commission, News
Winter Park Officials Report No Major Power Disruptions During Prolonged Cold Snap
The city, which runs its own electric utility, asked major power users like AdventHealth and Publix to conserve and use generators as usage soared to heat homes and businesses
Feb. 2, 2026
By Beth Kassab
Winter Park Mayor Sheila DeCiccio alerted residents on Monday evening that the city appeared to be through the worst of the impacts from two consecutive days of below freezing temperatures with few disruptions.
An email from DeCiccio relayed a message from Randy Knight:
Ice appeared across the city on Sunday morning such as on this plant off Palmer Avenue.
“Well, we made it through the worst of the cold weather without any brownouts or blackouts,” he wrote. “We had a few minor outage events that impacted approximately 40 customers.”
Winter Park, which owns its owns electric utility, relies most significantly on power produced by natural gas through purchasing agreements with the Florida Municipal Power Agency and the Orlando Utilities Commission.
Knight said he and other officials called big customers in the city such as Publix and AdventHealth and asked them to use generators during peak hours to free up capacity needed to heat homes and businesses.
“… We were cranking out 2.1mw at our Interlachlen Substation Feeder 159 and when Winter Park Hospital turned on their generators it took 1.4mw off that demand,” he said. “That is a good community partner.”
Publix also placed stores across Florida on generators, Knight wrote.
“That went a long way in helping the state utilities make it through this event,” he said.
The city also used generators to power some of its own facilities and temporarily closed some buildings. For example, the Winter Park Library did not open until noon on Monday.
A resident’s pond froze off Via Tuscany not far from the shores of Lake Maitland.
Running central heat for prolonged periods consumes more power than air-conditioning. That caused concerns about whether the utilities had capacity to manage the loads over the weekend and into Monday when temperatures dropped below 30 degrees.
The cold weather was brought on by a major winter storm that impacted multiple states and drove natural gas prices to temporarily sky-high levels as production of the gas decreased during the storm.
Knight told the City Commission last week that if prices remained high it could increase the amount Winter Park residents and businesses pay for electricity.
In October, customer electric rates increased 4%, in part, after the City Commission determined high prices were justified to help raise enough capital to finish the city’s long-running project to underground every power line.
But customer bills actually dropped because the costs associated with fuel (which, again, is mostly natural gas) were low, though fuel prices tend to be volatile.
Knight said last week he expected the commission to have a discussion this month about whether the city will need to up the amount customers pay for fuel beginning in March to recoup some of the higher expenses brought on by the storm.
“Fuel is a pass through to the customer, we don’t make a profit on that part,” he said at the Jan. 28 meeting.
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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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