Meet Amy.  She is a six-year-old resident of the Lakeside Inn for the past 130 years.

One foggy morning in the late 1800s, Amy wanted to join her father in a fishing outing on Lake Dora. He told her to stay with her mother at the Inn. Unbeknownst to her father, Amy followed him down to the lake. She was never heard from again, but there have been sightings.  Read more...

It wasn't the first time.  Or the second.  

In the few short months since Joe Gertis purchased Irene's Lounge, a landmark roadside tavern in Tavares, his business has been vandalized multiple times with gay epithets.  He also received a hate letter.   Read more...
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The community's shrouded atomic bomb shelter is arguably the most intriguing aspect of Mount Dora's past, yet many residents know nothing about it.   Mount Dora Buzz was generously given permission to reprint Bill Sievert's captivating article. "Gimme Shelter", that uncovered the city's secret catacombs, reportedly the largest private bomb shelter in the country.   Read more...

Some early voters at the W.T, Bland Library polling place may have been given the wrong ballots.  Yesterday, District 1 voter, Bill Sievert, was not given the ballot for his district which would have denied him the ability to vote for the council member to represent him.  Sievert realized the election worker's error and had to make several requests to get the correct ballot.   

According to Seivert,  the problem arose because the election workers were not aware of different districts or the corresponding ballots and two employees misread the small print on the ballot.  It took the resident's dogged determination, plus involvement of three election employees, including a call off-site, and a poll worker's review of Sievert's sample ballot before the proper ballot was issued. 

Supervisor of Elections, Imogene Stegall, had not spoken to anyone involved in the incident by this morning, but said poll workers are trained on the different ballots and have them available.  She said the poll worker that handed  out the incorrect ballot was experienced and had been working at that location since 9 am that morning.  Sievert went to the polling place at approximately 1 pm.

"When you go to the bank, don't you check what they gave you?" said Stegall.  "You would think the voter would check their ballot."

The unintentional, yet significant, error does not favor one candidate over the other.   However, Mount Dora residents learned from a tie vote during the last election season that one vote can affect the outcome.  

Stegall said she couldn't determine if this was an isolated incident or if more voters had been affected until she spoke to the parties involved.   Residents that cast ballots on Oct. 19 & 20 can call  (352) 343-9734 for more information.  Meanwhile, voters are encouraged to make certain they are given the proper ballot for their district at every polling place.   ​
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​The community's embrace of Breast Cancer Awareness Month was not lost on two special groups of Mount Dora residents this week.  On Wednesday, Mount Dora High School art students happily joined forces with Mount Dora Police Department and spray-painted large pink ribbons on the driveways of the police station's driveways on Donnelly and Lincoln streets.  The young artists used a stencil bigger than themselves to create the ribbons the demonstrate support of the cause.  Mount Dora's finest and  Mount Dora High School students have a history of working together on community service projects.  Well done!

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There is something uniquely Central Florida about enjoying a meal among the corn fields in the fall.  

After a short drive on country roads in rural Mount Dora, Long & Scott Farms provides an open-air cafe to enjoy both breakfast and lunch.  The limited menu features weekly specials, as well as staples like breakfast sandwiches and biscuits & gravy.  ​ Read more...

Typically, time capsules are buried deep in a hole for a future generation to uncover.  However, one large capsule has sat in plain sight in Mount Dora for 14 years.

On a non-descript corner in this small Central Florida town is a vault of memories where dreams are meticulously stored.   Stepping inside Mount Dora's Museum of Speed uncovers an extraordinary collection of spotless dream cars, as well as perfectly staged vintage vignettes of the time period they represent.  See pics and read more...
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