By Marc Crail
Vice Mayor
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Today's regular City Council meeting was quite brief. I got home so early I'm pretty sure my wife thought that I'd been fired! None the less, I've selected a few items from our unusually short agenda to tell you about. What follows comes from me as an individual not on behalf of City Council as a whole.

The Mount Dora Center for the Arts is selling it's building at 138 E. 5th. Ave. The building is 99 years old and two different surveys identified two different boundary pins on the east side of the property. This is not uncommon with older properties. To eliminate any doubt about the true boundary an agreement was written and approved by City Council so that the sale can proceed as planned.

By a unanimous vote Council approved the location for the proposed Resource and Recreation Center on the corner of Lincoln Ave. and Highland St. where our former Public Works facility was once located.

Over the next several months we'll begin to see a transformation from unsightly overhead utility lines to underground lines on Royellou Lane between 5th. Ave. and 3rd. Ave. Not only will this improve the looks along Royellou but it will also result in better reliability. Poles and wires will disappear. In addition to electric lines, both Cable Vision and Century Link wires will be hidden. The project should be completed by January 2023.

Marc's quote of the day is brief just like our meeting. It's by Henry Kissinger. "What must be done eventually should be done immediately."

Thanks for your passion for Mount Dora, Someplace Special indeed.
By Marc Crail
Vice Mayor

By Marc Crail
Vice Mayor

Please keep in mind that Mount Dora City Council meetings now begin at 6:00 p.m. That change took effect in January in an attempt to enable more community members to attend after their work hours. Today's meeting was fairly concise. I've selected several action or discussion items to share with you today. As you probably know, I'm reporting as a individual and not on behalf of City Council as a whole.

We heard a presentation about revisions that have been made to our plans to rehab our 40 year-old Wastewater Treatment Plant #1. As construction and materials costs have accelerated over the past year our Public Works team has worked with project managers to reconfigure (value engineer) what must be done to help make sure that we are using every available dollar to its best advantage. We were assured that once completed, this project will meet the city's needs for 30 years and at the same time will meet or exceed the requirements of the Florida EPA for reducing nitrogen and phosphorus levels. We will be submitting a Wastewater Improvement Cost Share Grant for $3 million to St. Johns River Water Management District to help defray the project's hefty price tag. Kudos to our city staff for actively pursuing grants like this one that ultimately save our local taxpayers money and allow us to move forward with needed projects.

I've mentioned 2 proposed new mostly residential developments that were approved after first readings last month. They were both approved in final readings today.

Donnelly Woods will be a 164 unit apartment complex catering to "active 55 +" residents. It will be located near the intersection of Donnelly St. and Limit Ave. It will also house 6 office buildings on 16.69 acres.

The Villages of Loch Leven will be located on S.R. 44 near the intersection of Meadenhall  Blvd. One hundred and thirteen townhouses will be constructed. A small area will remain for potential commercial/office development at a later date. The developer has committed to dedicate 2.01 acres to the City for a small public park.

Don't forget that this Saturday, 2/5 and Sunday 2/6 Mount Dora will be hosting our 47th Arts Festival in the downtown area. This is one of the top outdoor art festivals in the United States. Please plan to check it out!

City Council will hold a Work Shop on February 14 at 10:30 a.m. to review our Strategic Plan. This meeting is open to the public and it is important because we have several "new" members whose voices and suggestions need to be heard.

I'm not sure who S. G. Tallentyle was but my quote for the day is attributed to him/her in a publication titled, The Friends of Voltaire.  "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Thanks for allowing me to be your District 4 City Council representative!

By Marc Crail
Vice Mayor