The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 153

a iWHi not lopics, ana not potato, on cimrier cimiiu menu Waterfront dream can become reality Sanford is off to a fine start with its plans for the waterfront, but it can't afford to slow down. Don Boyett OUR COUNTY elected, or become hired hands of the county commission? That will be the hot potato. Some will argue that giving up their right to elect the sheriff, clerk, tax collector, elections supervisor and property appraiser takes away their rights and control. That's baloney. The elected are responsible to the voters, therefore to no one.

And how many cities elect police chiefs, city clerks and the like? Still, there are viable arguments against changing from elected to appointed: Would it vest too much power in the county commission? Would it enhance bureaucratic control? It's important that there be lively debate and thorough examination of ideas. Civic clubs should begin lining up speakers and debaters. As usual, your views will be welcomed for this page. county commissioners and changing the way they are elected, that question likely will be moot. The Seminole County Democratic Executive Committee has filed suit in federal court, asking that the number be increased from five to seven and that commissioners be elected solely by voters in their districts.

Given the history of such court decisions, the wish is likely to be granted. Almost certain to be discussed will be county commission salaries, now $43,612 and subject to annual automatic increases. Given that the job is designed as part-time, most people agree, that's too much. Orange County voters set their commission salaries at $25,000, and some commissioners grumbled they were underpaid. That stopped after they realized where public opinion was: If they didn't like the pay, quit.

Should some or all county constitutional officers continue to be Soon a 15-member citizen panel will begin putting its collective heads to thinking how Seminole County's charter might be changed. Should constitutional officers sheriff, clerk and so forth be appointed? Should county commissioner salaries be reduced? Should their election be by district? Their number increased? Because Florida allows local government to design its structure to suit residents it serves, just about anything can be offered that doesn't conflict with state or federal constitutions. For years, Seminole and most other Florida counties existed under constitutional rules for governing that were drawn up in the 19th century. But problems peculiar to urban growth don't jibe with notions of that era. In 1986, Seminole joined the switch to home rule.

By law, home rule charters must be reviewed periodically, and the time has come for Seminole's first review. Members of a study commission are being named by county commissioners. Next year it will decide what changes should be considered, and voters will act on those recommendations in 1994. Because the study commission will soon start considering changes, now is the time we all begin thinking of what changes, if any, might be desirable. As for increasing the number of sion that emerged: turning Sanford into a lively historic waterfront town.

Such foresight certainly helped steer the city around the bickering and disagreement that occurs when there is lack of consensus. What's more, the public was invited to "dream," too, in a daylong planning session. Public support of any redevelopment effort is crucial. Another indication the city is on the right track is the inclusion of government officials and people representing myriad improvement groups. Coordination and cooperation from Sanford's half-dozen or so civic improvement groups is a must if a redevelopment plan is to succeed.

Most important, any effort to improve the waterfront should mesh with the Main Street program already under way. Again, a wise move: The two committees have several common members, ensuring that one effort does not work at cross purposes with the other. The past two months of planning have been easy. Numerous roadblocks lie ahead. The group needs strong, dynamic leadership to carry it forward.

It needs structure and organization. And, of course, it must find money to do the job. Most important, however, it must not slow down. These leaders have worked hard to build a vision; a lot of people have bought into it along the way. The only way to capitalize on Sanford's assets and resources is to not let what has been set in motion die.

Two dozen people spent Wednesday morning in a Sanford meeting room dreaming about how the city's waterfront should be redeveloped. It's time now for them to start doing. And they cannot afford to lose momentum. The planning is off to a fine start. City and county officials, as well as leaders of community and civic groups, ended a series of imaginative and inspiring sessions with a consensus for a vision of what historic Sanford and the waterfront should be.

But wait haven't we heard this story before? Ideas have been born, sputtered to life and then died. Why spend money going through the motions again? Will this latest effort be any different than those that have gone before? Timing is crucial for the city. Leaders must not waste any more time in deciding how to improve the city if they are to capitalize on growth that will arrive with the expressway and a new shopping mall. Fortunately, there are signs that the present effort is indeed different and has a much greater chance of bearing fruit. City Planner Jay Marder recognized that at the heart of successful waterfront development planning lies a simple concept: Strategy should come ahead of design.

So he brought in a Jacksonville consultant to lead a committee of diverse members through "dreaming" sessions. Everyone in the planning group contributed, so everyone can buy into the vi FOR Xdsw BACK IJlWlf) Casselberry's namesake built city on fern foundation 3 ii By Jim Robison OF THE SENTINEL STAFF Neighbors kick soccer in teeth in Seminole OK, I'm sorry. And embarrassed. How could I forget my hometown? Last week, Seminole's Past took a look back at some of the people and events that shaped this county, which last weekend marked its 80th birthday. The idea was to give a quick overview of the county's his Seminole's past HIBBARD CASSELBERRY'S TOWN inghouse.

He later built a huge greenhouse complex for indoor plants at Button Road and U.S. Highway 17-92. After four generations, the Vaughn family business moved to Sanford and sold its Casselberry site to Trammell Crow which built Casselberry Collection, a shopping center that includes a Publix supermarket. Hibbard Casselberry, a Navy veteran of World War I with a mechanical engineering degree from Yale, had little interest in a family hardware business in suburban Chicago. Instead, in the 1920s he headed south to Seminole County, where his mother had a winter home nearby.

He set about buying land where he would grow delicate but thorny asparagus plumo-sas ferns. First, he bought 140 acres of the Haines ferneries near Lake Orienta. Soon afterward, he sold that land to the Hattaways, another pioneer greenhouse and fernery family. Casselberry then bought hundreds of acres surrounding the Triplet Chain of Lakes, where he incorporated his town in 1940. Cold weather and the beginning of World War II brought hard times to Casselberry's fern business.

Along with many others, he put aside his ferns and turned to textile production for the war ef- fort. tory. Well, the story ran a little long it stretched over the bottom of this page and the facing one. While it did manage to hit the highlights from Indians to soldiers, from steamboats to railroads, from settlers to northern tourists it skipped a whole lot of historic stuff. Seminole Soccer Club at the end of Markham Woods Road has a beautiful complex with 12 soccer fields.

Many families have volunteered countless hours over the past 10 to 15 years to have the beautiful complex. Guess what? The neighbors do not like the complex. Old zoning regulations were uncovered that restrict the soccer field use to Saturdays and Sundays only. We have good kids who play soccer with More letters, K-13 the club. It's too bad they cannot use the fields during the weekday afternoons and early evenings.

Is soccer such a horrible way for kids to spend their time? We should encourage such wholesome activity. A few neighbors, most of whom arrived long after the soccer fields, do not want the activities of soccer in their area. Let's encourage the kids to play soccer at every opportunity and we will all be better off in the end. Judy Ncri LONGWOOD each one of the cities was founded. Well, each one of the cities except one the one where I live.

I plumb forgot Cnsselberry. So, to the people of Casselberry, In March the city celebrated the 100th birthday of its founder. I apologize. And to make it up, here's what I would have said Once called Concord, a pioneer settlement between lakes Concord and F'llen, the city of Casselberry is best-known today for its founder, Hihbard Casselberry. Women running sewing machines fashioned huge bolts of rayon and nylon into special parachutes for bombs, tent liners and other products for the military.

When the war ended, Casselberry began building homes to meet the owned a grocery store serving Maitland and south Seminole's farming and citrus community. Residents were struggling to survive the bitter freeze of 1894-95 that left many jobless. Galloway, who as a child had built a neighborhood telegraph line, migrated west, landing a job using those childhood skills. He helped build a telegraph and telephone system between Tulsa, and Beaumont, Texas. 1 After returning to Florida, Galloway started his phone company with a switchboard at the family grocery and 10 used telephones from Texas all on one party line.

Customers used the phones to place or-ders or just gossip among themselves. A year later, he added 10 phones and took over a rural line to Orlando, then Hibbard Casselberry asked Galloway for phone service to his rural home. Galloway balked. At least six new customers were needed before another line could be extended. Casselberry, or so the family story goes, turned right around and identified six trees near his estate as customers and got the phone line and equipment he wanted.

The other tale involves Casselberry's feud with his neighbors in Fern Park. Before the city was incorpoT rated and the city limits established, a rivalry developed from the two fern-growing communities' difference of opinion about just where Casselberry ended and Fern Park started. Between the time the sun set and the time the roosters crowed at daybreak one day, the U.S. Highway 17-92 sign telling drivers they were entering Casselberry somehow had moved. By the next morning, late-night rivals had moved the sign again.

In March the city celebrated the 100th birthday of its founder. Jim Robison began the Seminole's Past history column in April 1.988 to mark the county's anniversary. He never planned to write more than a month's worth of columns, but later found out the. county had plenty of stones about its early days. After five years and lots and lots of tales of pioneers, entrepreneurs and historic places and events, he's still looking for stories to tell.

Anyone with suggestions, comments or complaints can write him at The Orlando Sentinel P.O. Box jTO, Orlando, Ha. 92802. 0 The Orlando Sentinel LISA F. LOCHRIDCE, County Editor JIM ROBISON.

County Coordinator EDITORIAL OFFICES CASSELBERRY 4580 Hwy 17 92, 32707; 830 2450 SANFORD 541 Palmetto Ave Suite 105, 32771; 322-3513 OVIEDO Alafaya Square, 21 Alafaya Woods 32765; 365-86SJ6 demand for new homes for returning servicemen and the retirees settling in Florida. In an article written the year Casselberry died, retired Orlando Sentinel columnist Charlie Wadsworth said Hibbard Casselberry could be overbearing and overwhelming and prone to "shouting and shoving." Still, Wadsworth and others said he had a clear vision of how his city should be developed and a deep sense of civic duty. His son, John Casselberry, said his father poured most of the money he was making from the sale of homes and utility services back into the town. He started the utility system to provide water and then sewage treatment, donated land for a city hall, established the town's cemetery when his mother died and formed a volunteer fire department with a truck donated by his mother. Just about anytime folks talk about the city's founder, they mention two stories that have become legends.

Casselberry, who was 76 when he died in built the city around his Brightwater estate on the Triplet Chain of Lakes and the family ferneries started by Charles D. Haines. Haines, a former congressman from New York, with help from his son, B.F. Haines, established south Seminole County as the home of the world's largest ferneries. Beginning on the north shore of Al-tamonte's Lake Orienta and later reaching into what became Casselberry and the adjoining community of Fern Park, the Haines ferneries held that distinction for nearly three decades before 1940.

The family's ferns provided jobs for 200 workers who lived in company houses. The company also built a church, school and store. Fast of Altamontc Springs on 40 acres near Lake Concord, Haines started another fernery in 1921 that would become Fern Park. Two decades later, the northern portion of the area became incorporated as Cas v. CARALYN BESS, Advertising Manager ADVERTISING OFFICES 4580 S.

U.S. Hwy 17 92, Casselberry, 830 2400 CLASSIFIED WANT ADS 1 800 669 5757 CIRCULATION South Seminole. 420 5353 Sanford, 628 5164 The first is about how Casselberry helped Carl Hill Galloway founder of Winter Park Telephone Co. now part of United Telephone of Florida drum up customers for his fledging phone company. In the late 1000s, Galloway's father, B.A.

Galloway, Frank Vaughn, who had come to the area from Kansas in WW, started his fernery by buying a small fernery on Ballard Street. After expanding that to 10 acres, he bought Haines' Fern Park enterprise, Standard Fern where he moved his offi- and paek-.