by Beth Kassab | Aug 12, 2025 | Arts and Culture, News
Parade of Bands canceled for second year
The future of the Pop-Tart Bowl tradition that brought crowds to Winter Park is still uncertain
Aug. 12, 2025
By Gabrielle Russon
Paul Canchester, a retiree from the Chicago suburbs, has brought his family to Winter Park to watch the Parade of Bands for years as part of their annual Orlando vacation. The memories started when his kids, now adults, were young.
He described the anticipation waiting for the two university bands in town for the Pop-Tart Bowl shutting down the entire Winter Park downtown to play for free to the big crowd.
“Goodness, it was such excitement,” Canchester said. “We got a seat along Park Avenue and you could hear them playing before you could see them. You knew they were coming because you could hear the music a block or two away. And then it gradually got louder and louder, and then they came around the corner, and there they were, lined up with their uniforms on and playing their music. It was fantastic.”
Canchester said he is disappointed and fears it might not return after the city confirmed to Winter Park Voice that the parade is canceled for the second year in a row.
“The residents love it. The tourists love it,” Canchester said. “I hope they can find a time for the bands to play.”
Similar to last year, the parade is a casualty because of the game’s timing in the evolving college football playoffs.
One city official expressed hope the parade might return in 2026 or 2027 and said the Winter Park will always be a happy Parade of Bands host — whenever that may be.
The game’s weekend afternoon start time – 3:30 p.m., Dec. 27 – makes it logistically impossible to transport the bands to Winter Park for the parade, feed them lunch and then send them off for their other responsibilities for the bowl game, Miller said.
“It just makes it a really tight schedule,” said Johnny Miller, Winter Park’s special events manager, adding the kickoff time is decided by the TV networks. “It’s not in our control or the Pop-Tart Bowl’s control. … Sometimes the lower tier bowls, they get what they get.”
Already, Miller’s phone is ringing as people wonder about the parade’s status even though it’s too early to know which teams are playing in the game.
Somebody even called Winter Park last year, inquiring if another city could poach the parade.
“I don’t want them to think Winter Park doesn’t want to do it,” Miller said.
The Parade of Bands became an annual tradition dating back to 2007 and easily drew at least 2,000 or more — especially if a Florida team was playing in Camping World Stadium.
College football underwent a major change when it expanded to a 12-team playoff bracket in the 2024-25 season. There is talk of more bowl games getting added to the playoffs which could potentially shake up the Pop-Tart Bowl so it ends up in a more high-profile, later time slot to bring back the parade, Miller said.
Miller said it’s unclear the timeline for the proposed playoff expansion.
“It could happen next year. It may be two more years,” Miller said. “Nobody knows.”
But he added the city will welcome back the Parade of Bands as soon as it can.
“It’ll always have a home here,” Miller said.
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Gabrielle Russon is a freelance reporter and former reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, where she covered K-12 education, colleges and universities and the tourism industry. She lives in Orlando with her family and writes about politics, education, theme parks and the courts.
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by Beth Kassab | Aug 12, 2025 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, News
Winter Park gives main character energy in 'Happy Wife'
The authors explain how the city and a number of local haunts became a lavish — and sometimes dark — setting for the novel featured by Jenna Bush on the Today Show
Aug. 12, 2025
By Beth Kassab
Kendall Shores writes about Winter Park like a local because she is one.
Her parents met at Rollins College and married in Knowles Memorial Chapel. She attended Park Maitland, Trinity Preparatory and Winter Park High, where she rowed crew.
She’s seen the glitter of Park Avenue and the dirt swept under the rugs in the old-guard historic homes and the ultra modern mansions that surround the central district.
So when Shores talked to co-author Meredith Lavender about a setting for their debut novel “Happy Wife” she felt called to draw on her personal experience.
“I said, ‘Look, I know everyone thinks their hometown is interesting, but hear me out,'” Shores recalled. “… I think we understand that readers really enjoy a strong sense of place. And Winter Park, when you are there, has a strong sense of place.”
Cue the applause from the urban planners and preservationists.
‘Happy Wife’ throttled to the buzzsphere after the Today Show’s Jenna Bush featured it last month and called it a “delicious, fun summer” read.
City Commissioner Warren Lindsey then passed out copies at the next City Hall meeting and declared the mention not only a worthwhile book rec, but also a little atonement for the Today Show’s recent snub of Winter Park.
Not a word about the city was spoken during multiple unrelated segments filmed at Central Park for the Today Show’s third hour, which only promoted neighboring Orlando. The May appearances, coordinated by Visit Orlando, prompted Mayor Sheila DeCiccio to question the city’s future cooperation and waiver of park rental fees with the taxpayer-funded tourism marketing agency.
“They made up for it,” Lindsey said. “And we have to be able to make fun of ourselves a little bit.”
Is it any wonder the city lends itself so well to fiction?
The book is filled with local references from Interlachen Country Club to Fiddler’s Green Irish Pub and the condominium Enron’s Kenneth Lay called home when he was still with Florida Gas Co.
“Do you not like living here?” the main character, Nora, a 28-year-old whose marriage is at the center of the thriller, asks a friend.
“I like tax breaks. I like boat rides and sunsets on the lake and summer all year. But people like Autumn act like this place is $%&ing Paris or something. It’s Florida, not the %&* center of the universe.”
“You’re spicy this morning. Who hurt you? Did someone at the party try to tell you the Morse Museum is better than the MoMA again?”
Lavender and Shores, who both live in Atlanta, say they’ve heard talk of people wondering if any of the characters are based on specific individuals, but they aren’t.
All of the characters formed organically as the authors said they explored the dangers of “romanticizing your life, your partner or even your community too much” through a mystery with a number of turns.
Lavender, a television writer whose credits include “Nashville,” grew up on the north shore of Chicago and hadn’t spent much time in Central Florida.
Now, though, she’s had a proper introduction to Winter Park via Shores including, of course, the Scenic Boat Tour.
“People really have Florida in their minds as one thing and, for me, it had touches of Wisconsin and lake country and I loved that,” she said.
The co-authors expect to be in town again soon for events related to the book. Stay tuned for dates.
And there’s already another story in the works that builds on the last.
Winter Park, Shores said, continues to be the “anchor.”
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by Beth Kassab | Aug 5, 2025 | City Commission, News, Taxes, Uncategorized
Winter Park to keep property tax rate the same for 18th year
The city’s $233.5 million budget accounts for 7% growth in property tax revenue based on higher values as well as increases in utility fees
Aug. 5, 2025
By Beth Kassab
Winter Park City Commissioners will keep property tax rates the same for the 18th year in a row despite pressure from two commissioners to consider increases.
With a 3-2 vote to hold the line at the July 23 City Commission meeting, officials signaled that the increase in property values will drive a 7% increase in property tax revenues — from $36.2 million to $38.9 million — will be enough to cover expenses along with significant proposed increases in utility rates.
The city’s overall budget is proposed to increase by 8.9% or $19 million to $233.5 million.
City Manager Randy Knight cautioned that its likely he will ask commissioners to raise the property tax rate next year on top of the utility increases that are being proposed this year.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio along with commissioners Warren Lindsey and Kris Cruzada voted to keep the millage rate the same. Commissioners Marty Sullivan and Craig Russell dissented.
Sullivan began talking about a potential increase months ago in a letter to residents, citing growing costs and changing economic conditions. He said he wanted to raise the millage rate by a quarter mil with the intent of revising it back down in September after receiving reassurance from the city’s share of revenue from the state sales tax and other sources wouldn’t plummet.
“That’s a big unknown,” he told the group, citing needs like a new fire training center and continuing to build the city’s reserve fund, which would prove crucial in the event of a major hurricane or other disaster.
Russell surprised some observers by going even further, proposing a half mil increase.
He was elected as a first-time candidate in 2024 and was championed by local business interests and even campaigned on cutting taxes and targeting waste.
But he said he’s learned a lot about what it takes to keep the city running with the high level of service that residents have come to expect.
“How long can we provide the level of service we do without addressing that taboo subject?” he asked.
He proposed earmarking any increase for specific needs like roads or sidewalks to provide residents with “transparency” about how the dollars will be spent.
Russell said he knows most elected officials shy away from raising taxes because it could cost them their jobs the next time voters got to the polls.
“Anybody sitting up here is afraid of not getting elected the next time,” he said. “I’m a liar …” he said referring to his own campaign materials last year that called for reducing taxes. “But when you dive into it and sit here and you take on fiscal responsibility for thousands of people you have the ability to learn what that really means.”
The seats belonging to Sullivan and Russell are up for election next year.
DeCiccio expressed some doubt about how much longer the city would be able to maintain property tax rates, even with higher appraised values. She attributed the city’s growing values to the level of service residents receive when it comes to quick police and fire response, parks, roads, electricity and other services the city provides.
“The level of service and higher property values go hand in hand,” she said. “It truly amazes me that we are able to maintain the same millage rate and still maintain that … I don’t know how long we will be able to do it, but we can definitely do it this year, make this the 18th year we don’t raise property taxes.”
Residents will, however, see other proposed changes that are likely to hit their wallets.
The average resident will pay an extra $23 for electricity, water and stormwater is the proposed changes are approved.
The next budget hearing will take place next week on Aug. 13 where residents can sign up to speak on the budget.
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by Beth Kassab | Jul 21, 2025 | City Commission, News
Winter Park looks to weigh in on Orange County redistricting maps
As Orange looks to add two more districts, how the map is drawn will decide how Winter Park is represented
July 21, 2025
By Beth Kassab
Winter Park officials appear poised to endorse an Orange County redistricting proposals that group the city with Maitland and Eatonville along with portions of Orlando and Apopka rather than the vast eastern rural section of the county that stretches to the Brevard County line.
A discussion about the proposed maps that will decide how the county of 1.5 million people is carved up and represented at the Board of County Commissioners is scheduled for Wednesday’s City Commission meeting.
The county districts must be redrawn after voters decided last year to grow the County Commission from the mayor plus six seats to the mayor plus eight seats.
Winter Park is currently part of District 5, which is represented by Commissioner Kelly Semrad, and stretches some 30 miles from from Orlando’s College Park neighborhood east to Christmas and the Brevard County line. As a result the district mixes urban neighborhoods and cities like Winter Park and Maitland with the eastern section of the county where large swaths of land are still undeveloped.
Meanwhile, Eatonville, the historically Black town of 2,200 people sandwiched between Maitland and Winter Park is carved out of District 5 and grouped with Apopka, the county’s second largest city at 60,000.
A memo from City Manager Randy Knight said it would make sense to group Winter Park with Maitland, Eatonville and area to the west rather than the eastern section of the county.
“That portion of Orange County is more rural and its needs and priorities are much different than those of Winter Park,” the memo read. “Staff believe Winter Park would be better served by a district made up of other more urban areas that are largely built out, like Maitland, Eatonville, College Park, north Orlando and southeast Apopka.”
Commissioner Marty Sullivan said he agreed with that idea.
“To have nearby municipalities grouped in one district I think makes a lot of sense,” he said.
Sullivan said of the 18 maps under consideration by the redistricting committee, he like the map known as Callan-1, which stretches east to capture the campus of Full Sail University, but is compactly centered on Winter Park. That proposed district runs north to Lockhart and Fairview Shores and south to downtown Orlando.
Knight’s memo cautioned that one of the proposed maps groups Winter Park with all of Apopka and cuts out Eatonville and College Park. Given the size of Apopka the city could potentially “dominate the representation,” it said.
City officials said they would like to provide input at the next redistricting committee meeting scheduled for July 30. The process is slated to be complete by September, when the County Commission will finalize the new map with eight districts.
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by Beth Kassab | Jul 17, 2025 | City Commission, News, Police
Federal Lawsuit Against City and Police Over Killing of Unarmed Man Ends
Winter Park Police shot the man seven times at his niece’s wedding in 2022
July 17, 2025
By Gabrielle Russon
In a lawsuit settlement, the city of Winter Park won’t pay anything to Daniel Knight’s fiancée nor admit any wrongdoing after police shot and killed the unarmed man at his niece’s wedding in 2022.
The federal lawsuit filed by Mellisa Cruz, the mother of two of Knight’s children, against the city of Winter Park and the police was settled and dismissed in May, according to court records.
The agreement came just months after a partial victory for the family when a federal judge ruled her claim could proceed against one of the officers, who fired his weapon seven times. The judge called the shooting “so far beyond the hazy border between excessive and acceptable force that the official had to know he was violating the Constitution even without case law on point.”
Cruz will not receive any money from Winter Park nor its insurance company nor the officer nor his insurance company, spokeswoman Clarissa Howard confirmed to the Voice.
The probate court must approve the settlement agreement, Howard added.
However, it appears that Cruz could still get some compensation even though no other additional lawsuits have been filed.
“The city is not party to any other settlement with the plaintiff that may have taken place, however, we understand there may be discussions regarding other settlements,” Howard said, declining to comment further.
Cruz’s attorney Paul Aloise Jr., declined to comment for this story.
Against Knight’s estate, creditors have filed claims for more than $100,000, including about $44,000 for a 2019 Chevrolet Suburban and $47,000 for a 2019 Dodge Ram 1500, according to Polk County Probate Court records.
The probate case became inactive in November 2023 because of the pending wrongful death lawsuit.
A Winter Park Police Sergeant shot and killed Knight, who was unarmed and intoxicated, less than two minutes after arriving at the Winter Park Events Center on Feb. 19, 2022, records show.
Knight’s niece was left in a bloody wedding dress while wedding guests screamed in horror.
The family accused the police of escalating the scene and acting aggressively after a city employee called 911 and complained Knight was behaving in a “violent” manner. The family told police he had too much to drink and they had taken him outside for some air, where he was standing with his sister as police arrived.
Knight got into a scuffle with police after they tried to separate him from his sister and he refused. Knight struck one of the police officers leading up to the shooting, the records also said.
U.S. District Judge Roy B. Dalton Jr. noted Knight had been defending his sister when the police, who did not announce themselves, arrived in the dark at the wedding reception.
Dalton ruled Sgt. Kenton Talton, who killed Knight, was not immune from Cruz’s lawsuit.
Knight’s family had “sufficiently pled that the use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable under these circumstances,” Dalton wrote in his February ruling. “… Shooting an unarmed man seven times at point-blank range within just a few minutes of arriving on scene, without first trying to de-escalate, investigate, or use less-than-deadly force, is also ‘so far beyond the hazy border between excessive and acceptable force that the official had to know he was violating the Constitution even without case law on point.”
The officers involved at the shooting were cleared of any wrongdoing by the Orange County State Attorney in 2023.
That decision, authorities said, was because Knight did not follow the officers’ commands and Knight hit one of the officers who fell backward and was knocked out. A second officer tried to use his taser on Knight but that failed.
Winter Park leaders celebrated their legal victory in May after the lawsuit’s end.
“I know we were successful with the Knight lawsuit,” Mayor Sheila DeCiccio said when asking the city for an update during the May 28 city council meeting.
“That case has been dismissed, it was really our insurance attorneys working on that,” City Manager Randy Knight said.
Knight’s sister, Katrina Knight, who witnessed the shooting, had spoken out at city council meetings to raise attention about her brother’s death and excessive police force.
“My family has the right to see Daniel remembered for who he truly was, not for the false narrative that was created to justify his killing,” she wrote city officials in a February email.
She declined to comment for this story because of the pending settlement.
Correction: An earlier version of the story stated the incorrect date for a City Commission meeting in May. The date was May 28.
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by Beth Kassab | Jul 11, 2025 | City Commission, Library, News, Uncategorized
Winter Park has a Long List of Complaints over Library and Events Center Construction
City officials and the contractor are meeting to try to resolve the problems
July 11, 2025
By Beth Kassab
Note: This story has been updated to include a statement from the contractor received on Saturday.
During the nearly four years since the more than $42 million Library and Events Center opened, Winter Park officials have compiled a list of what they say are construction concerns such as fracturing glass in some of the large panoramic windows, roof leaks, problems with the elevator and even the port-cochere, the grand covered entrance to the structure.
City Manager Randy Knight recently told the City Commission that the city is frequently meeting with representatives from contractor Brasfield & Gorrie to resolve the problems.
“Right now, we think they are going to resolve these issues,” Knight said. “But we’re going to go ahead and preserve our rights” before the statute of limitations runs out on filing a lawsuit over the claims.
This week the city notified the construction company and insurers of what it considers to be a “default” on the job to preserve the city’s right to sue if the problems aren’t fixed.
A spokeswoman for Brasfield & Gorrie, a national construction firm with offices in eight states that reported $6.4 billion in revenues last year, confirmed on Saturday that the firm is in talks with the city.
“We are discussing the city’s concerns and seeking resolution,” said a statement from the company.
Voters narrowly approved a bond referendum for $30 million in 2016 to pay for the project designed by British architect David Adjaye. Then, in 2020, the City Commission approved spending $41.7 million on the project. But, so far, the final tally is even higher at $42.3 million after the city added another $300,000 in 2022 from the American Rescue Plan Act, the federal stimulus package spurred by the pandemic.
The letter to the contractor lists 12 items that “has not been performed per plans and specifications” from the doors, lighting, air-conditioning and even the bathroom faucets along with the doors, windows, roof leaks and other concerns.
City spokeswoman Clarissa Howard said on Friday the contractor is continuing to meet with the city and working to resolve the matter.
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