MOUNT DORA UPDATE: Recap of Aug. 20 City Council Meeting

Marc Crail
Mount Dora Vice Mayor and District 4 Representative
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Mount Dora City Council met for its August 20th regular meeting. I've selected a few items of interest from the agenda and discussions.  Please keep in mind that I'm reporting to you as one individual and not on behalf of City Council as a whole.

We heard a presentation from Police Chief Mike Gibson about the possible installation of School Zone Speed Cameras near Triangle Elementary School, Round Lake Charter School, Mount Dora Middle School and Mount Dora High School. The state legislature approved the use of school speed zone cameras last year. I was stunned to learn that hundreds of motorists exceed the 20 mph speed limits by 11 or more mph during the opening and closing hours of our local schools every day. This creates a daily danger for thousands of our students and school staff.

City Council authorized the Police Chief to look into an ordinance that would need City Council approval. There would be no cost to our tax payers. The cost would be covered by $100 school zone speeding tickets. Chief Gibson expects that this would result in significant decreases in school zone speed violations.

We also heard from our health insurance broker and an actuary regarding anticipated increases in the cost of our employee medical insurance premiums. FYI, city employees pay about 14% of the cost of their health insurance. That leaves 86 %  coming from the city's budget. Not unexpectedly, claims are more costly than in previous years and our costs have increased over the last few years. We asked our experts to give us their best thinking on options that could help control this expense.

Council approved contracting with Redzone Robotics for manhole and sanitary main inspections. It makes good sense to me to use a contractor like Redzone that has the proper equipment and expertise to scope out our underground pipes.

That's about it for today's meeting agenda. I'm switching subjects now to talk a bit about development in and around Mount Dora. I've been fielding lots of questions recently about all the new development going on in and around Mount Dora. Including:
Why is so much development happing now? What are the rules for approving proposed projects?  Why can't we just stop development and keep Mount Dora the way it is?  What are the benefits and downsides of growth in and around Mount Dora?

In order to help folks understand development in Florida and answer their questions about what's going on, our Economic Development director, Misty Sommer and I have put together a presentation that we call "Development 101". We've presented "Development 101" twice so far for residents at Waterman Village with large crowds and lots of great questions. We're scheduled to make a similar presentation for Lakes of Mount Dora residents at 2:00 p.m. on Monday September 16th in the LoMD social hall . All Lakes of Mount Dora neighbors are invited to attend. Mark your calendars now.

If you don't happen to live in Lakes of Mount Dora but have a group (your Mount Dora neighborhood, a club, etc.) that would be interested in scheduling a "Development 101" presentation please contact me and we'll try to accommodate  your group.

Our quote for the day comes from C.S. Lewis the British author and theologian who said: "You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending." Here's to new beginnings!

Thanks for allowing me to serve as your District 4 Representative and Vice-mayor.

Marc Crail
Mount Dora Vice Mayor and District 4 Representative

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