MOUNT DORA CITY COUNCIL UPDATE: mARCH 16 mEETING

​By Marc Crail
Mount Dora City Council Representative, District 4

We had a very full agenda today so I have selected several items from the agenda and from discussions to share with you. Please keep in mind that I am reporting not on behalf of City Council as a whole but only from my own perspective.

• There are several major construction projects underway. Cauley Lot Park is being completely renovated at a cost of just under $700,000. A new Municipal Service Complex (Public Works facility) is in design and will be located on Limit Ave. That project will cost about $8,000,000. A much needed storm water drainage project costing about $322,000 is about to begin on Helen St. where there have been serious flooding problems for years. That project will be completed this summer. Two new fire stations are currently being designed. One new fire station will be located on Co. Rd. 19A and the other will be next to the Public Works Complex on Limit Ave. The total cost of those stations will be about $13,000,000. Our library needs additional parking spaces. This problem will be solved in stages. Stage 1 is to add 20 new spaces to the existing parking lot. A second phase will follow in a couple of years.
• Speaking of construction projects, the City is trying hard to partner with the Lake County Board of Education to build a state of the art playground on the campus of Triangle Elementary School that would greatly benefit both Triangle Elementary students and the entire neighborhood. There are currently no real parks for kids in that part of town. In my estimation the problem is that the Board of Education's attorney is dragging her feet thus stalling the project. I am greatly concerned that this unnecessary delay will doom this wonderful partnership which would only harm the girls and boys who deserve a decent playground in their neighborhood. I think that would be a real shame.
• We'll be repaving about 3 miles of city streets this summer and constructing about 10 "speed tables" to slow down speeders.
• Improvements to both of our waste water treatment plants are also in the works. Our city staff will be working very hard to complete all of these much needed projects on time and on budget over the next couple of years.
• Our meeting wasn't all about construction projects. We also discussed how best to implement recent changes to our City Charter that were approved by our voters. This year we need to change the configuration of your City Council from 4 district representatives and 2 at-large representatives to 5 district reps. and 1 at-large rep. We will continue to have a mayor just as we have had in the past. Since more than half of the new residents moving into Mount Dora between 2010 and 2020 have moved into District 4, my district has gotten too big. Ordinarily we would use the 2020  Census data to redraw the district boundaries but due to COVID-19 the census results have been delayed by several months. Our plan will be to use the population data we have to revise district boundaries on an interim basis and then tweak them again whenever we receive the official census numbers later this year. City staff has been working on this project and have come up with a good interim plan.

My quote for you today is from General Colin Powell. "All children need a laptop. Not a computer but a human laptop. Moms, Dads, Grannies, and Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles - someone to hold them, read to them, teach them. Loved ones who will embrace them and pass on the experiences, rituals and knowledge of a hundred previous generations. Loved ones who will pass to the next generation their expectations for them, their hopes and dreams."

Amen to that!
Thanks for your interest in Mount Dora.

​By Marc Crail
Mount Dora City Council Representative, District 4

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