MOUNT DORA CITY COUNCIL UPDATE: March 15 meeting

By Marc Crail
Mount Dora Vice-Mayor

​I'm providing you with several highlights from City Council's March 15th. meetings. There were 2 meetings, a regular meeting and a brief Community Redevelopment Agency Board Meeting. Please keep in mind that what follows comes from me as an individual rather that from City Council as a whole.

There was a presentation regarding the extension of the Wekiva Bike/Hike Trail. Two segments of that trail will connect in Mount Dora (Segments 1 and 5). When completed this bike/hike trail will be a real economic driver. The trail will replace the railroad tracks with a 14-foot-wide paved trail. Along with our project partners, Lake County and the City of Tavares, we have submitted an application for a RAISE Grant. Fingers crossed that it will be approved.

Related to the trail, we also approved a resolution to approve our participation in a $25 million RAISE grant along with our partners. Building a trail is expensive but the benefits are highly beneficial. Lake County has pledged $15 million to buy the railroad right of way.

We passed a resolution to authorize raising  the guaranteed minimum price for the makeover of Cauley Lott Park. This over due, complete park renovation has been our top park priority. Inflation has driven up the cost of those improvements. We did get a $600,000 grant to help pay for the renovations but we still needed to approve an increase of about $210,000 to keep the project moving forward.

Mayor Stile had put a discussion item on our agenda regarding our City Attorney. The City Attorney is a "contracted service" meaning that for nearly 20 years we have opted to contract with a law firm for their services rather than to hire an "in house" attorney. There have been some criticisms of our city attorney  including a petition signed by 47 residents calling for her dismissal. During our discussion our current City Attorney received the unanimous support of all seven council members. We also asked our City Manager to provide us with some sample City Attorney evaluation metrics so that we can evaluate the attorney's work on a regular basis.

During our CRA Board Meeting we approved a request to make a 3rd. installment in what is called a High Value Job Creation Grant. This has been a real success story because the applicant, Steamroller Studios, a local animation studio located in the  Sunset Building  (3rd. Ave. and Baker)  has already brought 81 employees and contractors to our city. They will be adding another 45 well paying new jobs to our downtown area. These jobs must pay 115% of the median salary in our county. The State of Florida has targeted jobs in thei high tech category. These well paying jobs and Steamroller's excellent record made this a slam dunk for approval.

I'm adding in this next item which was not on our meeting agenda and applies only to residents of The Lakes of Mount Dora neighborhood. LoMD residents are invited to attend a community meeting with Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) officials on Wednesday March 23rd. at 7:00 p.m. in the social hall for an update on the potential traffic light at the neighborhood entrance onto SR 44. The meeting will wrap up no later than 8:30. Pleas plan to be there!

My quote for you today comes from John Steinbeck. "All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal."

Thank you for allowing me to help represent you on Mount Dora City Council

By Marc Crail
Mount Dora Vice-Mayor

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