The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 70

toe little Volume 8, No. 21, Friday, February 18, 1983 Pine Hills. Winter Garden. Ocoee. Apopka and West Orange A section of The Orlando Sentinel Community service fails to work for Windermere Elevator firm prepares to begin building By Virginia Copeland By Holly Smith OF THE SENTINEL STAFF OF THE SENTINEL STAFF has received only five days of community service from the program.

Two men worked raking leaves and trimming hedges and a woman stuffed envelopes at town hall, said Gary "Dutch" Schaffer, town manager. "We tried to participate but it's not working for. us because most of them have no transportation from DWI offenses and we're too far out of the mainstream," said Schaffer. Schaffer also said the program may not be working for Windermere because most program participants have full-time jobs that conflict with working hours of the city's maintenance crew. Although the county program is averaging 460 participants a week and the numbers are climbing, Windermere is too "far out from everything" to send participants, said Don Bjorn-ing, supervisor of the Alternative Community Services program.

"The majority are here for traffic violations, and the work site assigned must be realistic because most of them have to walk," Bjorning said. Most program participants are assigned to Orlando's street department, Orange County's sewage and water treatment department, non-profit organizations, county parks, the Orlando Humane Society and Good Will, Bjorning said. Please see SERVICE, 6 WINDERMERE The town's remote location may be a blessing for city-weary residents, but for town officials looking for free labor, Windermere's isolation is a drawback. In 1982, Windermere officials said they needed extra manpower to build a drainage system for the city's dirt roads and said they would recruit participants from Orange County's new Alternative Community Services Program. The program sentences people convicted of non-violent crimes such as grand theft, shoplifting and prostitution to work as an alternative to serving time in the county's overcrowded jails.

A growing number of people found guilty for the first time of drunken driving are participating in the program. They are sentenced to 50 hours of community service, a requirement of the law that took effect July 1. Windermere officials had complained that a backlog of road and maintenance work in the town was growing and extra manpower from the program could be used in lawn mowing, trash pickup, landscape gardening, painting and secretarial work. But since September, Windermere OCOEE An Orlando elevator manufacturing company that may hire 100 employees from west Orange County plans to break ground within the next two weeks on a $4 million complex in Ocoee. General Elevator Corp.

of Orlando is marking its 20th anniversary by building a office manufacturing complex on 26 acres on Winter Garden Road. Before construction can begin, however, the city must approve the complex's building plan and issue building permits. No plans have been submitted, said City Manager John Vignetti. Construction is expected to take a year. Bill and Bob Rew, who operate the company on Precision Drive, said they are moving their national headquarters to property in Ocoee where they grew up because there is room to expand.

The company is being "squeezed out" by the tourist industry at its current location on 52 acres in Florida Center. Vice President Bob Rew has said he hopes the business would add 100 new Please see FIRM, 6 RICHARD WELLS SENTINEL Museum gets shuttle flag Gemini and space shuttle astronaut John Young presents to the John Young Science Center on Monday a flag carried aboard the first Columbia flight. Young, a native Orlandoan, commanded the historic mission. Annexation process begins Highrise for elderly will boost Ocoee tax collections By Virginia Copeland OF THE SENTINEL STAFF JJIIIP.Ill ipIMMMMl-T MMWP.i- HI I- mm DENNIS WALLSENTINEL Student engineers compete at fair ment required to operate such a facility. They also are working on a financial study to market $27 million worth of tax-exempt bonds for the project, said Sims.

In December, the city commission appointed a five-member health facilities authority headed by former mayor Bill Breeze, which is required by the state to manage projects such as the retirement home. The authority would float the bonds. While no definite plans have been made on how sewer service will be provided, Sims said developers could build their own system. They hope, however, that they will not have to do that, he said. The city of Ocoee, which has no sewer system, has relied on septic tanks or on developers to build their own systems.

The lack of sewer service to the State Road 50 area has Please see HIGHRISE, 6 OCOEE Ocoee officials have started the paperwork to annex and rezone 13 acres in south Ocoee for a $25 million highrise retirement building for well-to-do elderly persons. Construction of the 11-story home, planned by Temple Towers, a nonprofit corporation sponsored by Tabernacle Baptist Church in Vero Beach, may be under way in four months, said Walter Sims, the developers' representative. The project could boost Ocoee's lean property tax collections by $35,000 a year. The city plans to have first reading on the annexation March 1 and hold the public hearing and final vote on April 5, said City Manager John Vignetti. Developers are preparing feasibility studies required by the state to receive a certificate of authority, a docu University of Central Florida students Gary Coons and Chris Hagan read a gauge Tuesday as weights are applied to a balsa' wood bridge model built by senior Gary Rogers for the Engineering Students' Fair.

Rogers took 3rd place..