By Marc O'Crail
District 4 City Council Representative
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I've selected several items to report on from City Council's relatively light meeting agenda. Please keep in mind that I am reporting to you as one individual council member.

Our Wastewater Treatment Plant #2 needs to be expanded and updated to maintain adequate treatment capacity due to increases service demands. Expanding capacity will ensure that we can maintain reliable wastewater service to existing customers and meet state regulatory requirements. Staff has been authorized to negotiate with the top ranked firm, Wharton-Smith Inc.

We approved a request from our Arborist to approve persuing a $20,000 grant which will allow the City to plant new trees. Once the trees are planted, they will be watered and cared for by our partners, the Mount Dora Friends of the Environment.

We discussed and eventually approved a compromise Code Lien Violation Reduction for a residential property at 1450 Hilltop Dr.

The owner will need to pay $9,735.76 in a timely manner or he will face higher fines for safety violations that have recently been corrected.

City Council is beginning the process of building our budget for the upcoming FY 26-27. That is always an important job that may well become more difficult as our Florida State Legislature contemplates property tax reductions that would negatively impact every city and county in Florida. Legislators are planning a Special Session because they failed to reach an agreement as to how to proceed. Stay tuned on this process as it moves through the Legislature.

On Saint Patrick's Day I thought it would be a good idea to provide an Irish Blessing  as our quote. "May your troubles be less. And your blessings be more. And nothing but happiness come through your door."

By Marc O'Crail
District 4 City Council Representative

​For more news and events in Mount Dora, Tavares & Eustis, visit the area's website and download the area's free mobile app.  ​​Be sure to follow Mount Dora Buzz's Instagram  and Facebook page for more local info.

By Marc Crail
Mount Dora City Council District 4 Representative

As usual, I'm reporting to you as one individual city council member and not on behalf of city council as a whole.

We held a city council work session on the agenda titled, "Special Events/Festivals Workshop".

I thought our city staff did a good job gathering and providing information regarding City-hosted special events highlighting their community and economic value including an estimated $10,338,000 in local economic activity. This $10 million provides revenues to Mount Dora based stores, businesses and eateries that helps them flourish. It helps us maintain our reputation as a tourist town and supports our vibrant local economy.

The discussion was good with event sponsors, merchants and citizens participating. Here are some facts about the economic & community impacts of City-hosted events. Please keep in mind that there are other privately hosted events not included in this discussion.

  1.  The $10,338,000  economic activity estimated figure comes from Lake County.

  2.  Mount Dora's special events are designed to support economic vitality and a strong sense of community.

  3.  The 19 City-hosted special events include; 5 festivals, 4 holiday season events, 3 patriotic events, 2 parades, 2 shows and 3 Northeast community focused events.

  4.  The City spends about $495,000 putting on these 19 events and generates about $222,000 in revenues from them.

This information and discussion will be relevant later in the fiscal year as we build our budget for next year.

Our quote of the day comes from Booker T. Washington. "A lie doesn't become truth, wrong doesn't become right and evil doesn't become good just because it's accepted by a majority."

Thanks again for your interest in the town we all love and the City-hosted events we enjoy.

By Marc Crail
Mount Dora City Council District 4 Representative

​For more news and events in Mount Dora, Tavares & Eustis, visit the area's website and download the area's free mobile app.  ​​Be sure to follow Mount Dora Buzz's Instagram  and Facebook page for more local info.

The City of Mount Dora, through its Urban Forestry Department, announced the launch of its Community Canopy Program, a new initiative designed to expand the city’s urban forest while making tree planting easy and accessible for residents within the city limits. The program launches on January 5, 2026, in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation.

The Community Canopy Program provides free trees directly to residents, supporting private-property tree planting while advancing Mount Dora’s sustainability and resilience goals. Through a simple online process, residents can reserve a tree that is well suited to their property and local environment.
Through the Community Canopy Program:

• Residents visit a dedicated website to select a tree and complete a quick reservation process.
• The Arbor Day Foundation coordinates delivery of trees directly to participating households.
• Participants plant their trees, helping grow a healthier, more resilient urban canopy throughout Mount Dora.

The program also includes built-in mapping tools, planting guidance, and long-term environmental impact metrics. These features help ensure the right tree is planted in the right place while allowing residents to see how their participation contributes to cleaner air, reduced heat, and a stronger community forest.

“Trees provide lasting environmental, aesthetic, and community benefits,” said City Manager Vince Sandersfeld. “This program empowers residents to play an active role in protecting and enhancing our urban canopy.”

Residents can learn more about the Community Canopy Program and reserve a tree by visiting www.MountDora.gov/UrbanForestry. 
​The City of Mount Dora is encouraging residents to take part in these Arbor Day–related activities and join in celebrating the many benefits trees bring to neighborhoods and the community as a whole.

By Marc Crail
Mount Dora City Council District 4 Representative

Our regular November 18, 2025 city council meeting was fairly brief. I've selected some items to comment upon. Please remember that I'm reporting to you as one individual city council member and not on behalf of city council.

The Mount Dora Kiwanis Club is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Kiwanis clubs for the past century have worked to promote youth and programs for young people. What a great history.

Small business Saturday is coming up. Please choose to shop locally and support our wide variety of Mount Dora businesses.

We adopted a resolution approving the 2024-25 year end budget amendment reflecting about $4.5 million of FEMA reimbursements that we will eventually receive to help cover city expenses from last year's Hurricane Milton. FEMA is notoriously slow to reimburse but eventually they will send us a check.

You might recall that we are implementing school-zone speeding fines. We are now concluding our 45 school day fine warnings. For safety sake and to save yourself from getting fined $100, watch your speed in school zones.

 I'm getting lots of questions about when Donnelly Street will get rebuilt and other flood related questions and concerns. Our staff has been working extremely hard to take all the right steps to get roads reopened and repair damaged infrastructure. Here some updates.

We are now about 3 weeks out from the flash flooding event that has been categorized as a "1,000 year" event.

The washed out area along and under Donnelly Street won't have more heavy equipment work until a contractor has been selected. That won't be until early in 2026. Here's what has been done so far on the Donnelly St. washout rebuild project.

Emergency Relief funding from the Federal Highway Administration should cover 80% of the estimated $4-5 million cost. We are currently completing our LAP (Local Agency Certification).

FDOT (Florida Department of Transportation) certification is required for getting Federal-Aid Highway Program funds. FDOT will be submitting the Sub-Recipient Compliance Tool (SCAT) for us. The Governor's required Executive Order for Emergency Relief was signed on October 29th. The Damage Survey Report (DSSR) has been completed and sent to FDOT. City staff have completed required Detailed Damage Inspection Reports (DDIRs). Engineering Drawings are being drawn up and should be ready in 3-4 weeks for biddable plans.

The pedestrian walkway grant that we had already been awarded (formerly replacing the boardwalk) along the washed out section of Donnelly Street is still viable. Our staff is talking with FEMA staff to enable us to keep that grant and build the sidewalk at the same time as the roadway is being rebuilt. This seems possible but isn't yet a sure thing. That would provide an additional $1.3 million.

The best guess on construction start date of the rebuild roadway project is likely be early 2026 based on design and an abbreviated 14 day advertisement time.

The Highway 441/ Fiddler Drive traffic light could be installed as soon as the first week of December.

A bunch of things are moving ahead at warp speed. it's all complicated and driven by excellent interagency cooperation and hard work by our city staff and our partners.

Our quote of the day is from singer and actress, Reba McEntire. "To thrive in life you need three bones. A wishbone. A backbone. And a funny bone."

Thanks for supporting our wonderful town as we recover together from a thousand year flood event.

By Marc Crail
District 4 City Council Representative

By Marc Crail
District Four, Mount Dora City Council Representative
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I've selected several items from the September 16, 2025 Mount Dora City Council meetings to comment upon today. As you probably know, I'm reporting to you as one city council member and not on behalf of city council in any official capacity.

During the meeting of our Downtown Community Redevelopment Agency Board we voted to renew our Freebee shuttle service agreement. You've likely seen the Freebee electric vehicles zipping around the downtown area on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Freebee has transported about 23,000 riders over the past year and achieved over 99% satisfaction ratings. We have applied for a state grant that may help reduce our costs. If you haven't tried Freebee, you'll soon be hearing more about how, when and where you can get shuttled to the downtown area and back again. Freebee is one way we can free up parking places downtown.

This is Hispanic Heritage Month. We recognized the many contributions of our citizens of Hispanic descent in a proclamation. I for one enjoy celebrating our many diverse ethnic, racial and religious groups, America at its finest!

You've been following the multi-stepped city budgeting process for several months now. We approved a series of resolutions this evening setting the final millage rate at 6.3000, approving the city budget for FY 2025-26 and approving an updated master fee schedule which will go into effect on October 1.

One annual budget related item is City Council members' evaluation of our city manager, Vince Sandersfeld. He is responsible for virtually every aspect of the workings of our city, our hundreds of employees, not to mention our $200 million budget.

I've been on city council for almost 10 years and I can say without question that our city manager doing an very good job. Staff morale is better than I've ever seen. Vince has our beloved city moving in the right direction and has been a skilled and hardworking leader for a year and a half now. His salary has been below average for comparable sized cities in our area so we set his new salary to reflect his worth to us and recognize his skills and effort. His new salary will be $201,300. That is certainly not the highest city manager's salary in Lake County but it is more in line with his peers.

I've heard from several people who enjoyed our "Advice From an Old Farmer" quotes from our last meeting. As it turns out, that farmer has lots more advice for us. Here are a few more of his admonitions;

"You can't unsay a cruel word."

"The best sermons are lived, not preached."

"Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never gonna happen anyway."

"If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging."

"Good judgement comes from experience and a whole lot of that comes from bad experience."

Thank you for your interest in all things Mount Dora.

By Marc Crail
District Four, Mount Dora City Council Representative