The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 19

The Orlando Sentinel THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 1997 Inside, 1-9 First-ever girls state basketball title adds glow to Jones High 100th birthday. S3 Kudos, 1-3 I Apopka, Ocoee Winter Garden OR1 Eatonville, Pine Hills xtra Orange XX Neighborh News Winter Park building plan on the horizon WEST ORANGE Go with the flow: Join in and help clean up St. Johns City and Rollins College officials will meet next week to discuss nlnns fnr hnsinpss mmnlex. 5 I By Ines Davis Parrish OF THE SENTINEL STAFF WINTER PARK Rollins College has big plans downtown, with a four-story, 810-car parking garage and three-story office and retail complex on Park Avenue. Rollins gave its plans to the city this week, and they will be discussed at a joint work session with Rollins, the city, and planning and zoning commissions March 19 at 5 p.m.

Public hearings will be in April. City officials are not sure how the garage will affect parking for downtown shoppers. The 2.5-acre parcel east of City Hall is between Lyman and Comstock avenues. The land and its former occupant, Winter Park Elementary School, were purchased by Rollins in 1961. The land has been vacant since the school was demolished in 1989.

After years of speculation and negotiation Park Avenue future. An architect's rendering shows the plan Rollins College has in mind for developing the empty acres across from City Hall on Park Avenue in downtown Winter Park. The plans include an 810-space parking garage, retail and office space. Herbst said there are "still a lot of hurdles we have to clear, but the project has been moving along very well." Some of the hurdles involve getting city approval for 13 different conditional uses or variances from the zoning laws. The first step will be to rezone the land from a publicquasi-public designation to the central business district zoning.

A couple of the requests in the proposal may Please see COMPLEX, 1-4 with other developers, Rollins decided to develop the property itself, in part to address the college's growing parking shortage. Construction may begin this fall on the $13 million to $15 million project that is being designed by the Baltimore firm RTKL, said Rollins vice-president George Herbst. Plans show spaces for restaurants, shops and offices, and a small kiosk on the southeast corner of Lyman and Park avenues. Financing the project is still in the works, Herbst said. -fated lot goes back on block Laird said he had no idea what West would bid, denying there was any high-low strategy orchestrated by the church.

Collusion during such a secret bid would invalidate the deal. City Manager Ellis Shapiro recommended the City Commission accept West's offer. However, Glass derailed the sale last week, noting that the city's charter requires an advertised public hearing whenever land with a "fair market value" Please see LAND, 1-4 First Baptist Church of Ocoee at $102,077 and resident Tom West at $84,100. Because the church was the high bidder, it won the right to buy the land. But within a week, the Rev.

Lance Laird rescinded the bid, saying buying the lot would be a financial hardship for his congregation. That left the land for West, a member of Laird's church. West said he intends to give the property to the church, which uses it for parking and several functions. West's bid was $1,700 higher than the city's minimum price. laying the sale of 3.8 acres of surplus city land.

But the city appears to be in no hurry to sell the star-crossed plot of land, scuttling a deal last year and postponing another earlier this month. Controversy has hung over both potential sales. The city once paid $150,000 for the vacant lot on west Ohio Street, which became expendable after the city's plans changed. An appraiser said the land was worth $103,000. Ocoee asked for bids on the property late last year and received two takers: Ocoee seems to be in no hurry to sell the vacant lot on west Ohio Street.

The city derailed a sale last week. By Craig Quintana OF THE SENTINEL STAFF OCOEE Commissioner Scott Glass said he only wants to "make sure all the T's are crossed and the I's dotted" in de Here's your chance to help clean up the environment. A large army of garbage collectors will descend on the St. Johns River and its tributaries March 22 to give it a spring cleaning. The cleanup, called the St.

Johns River Celebration, is also an effort to generate public awareness on the need to protect the 310-mile-long river and its water basin, which covers about 10,000 square miles in 14 northeast and Central Florida counties. Volunteers can meet at 8 a.m. at Barnett Park, on State Road 50 next to the Central Florida Fairgrounds, to help pick up trash along the headwaters of the Little Wekiva River. A post cleanup party with food and refreshments will start at the park at noon. Last year's cleanup attracted more than 5,000 volunteers, who picked up more than 296,000 pounds of trash throughout the St.

Johns River basin. To volunteer or for more information, call Jack Bennett at the Orange County Environmental Protection Department, (407) 836-9580. THERAPEUTIC PLAYGROUND SEN. BOB Graham will help build a therapeutic playground in Pine Hills Saturday as part of his trademark "community work days." The playground will be for children between 5 and 17 years old who live at the Devereux Florida Treatment Center, 6147 Christian Way. The senator should arrive at the center around 9 a.m.

Children who live at the center have a variety of emotional and behavioral disorders, and many have been physically or sexually abused, Graham helped bring the Devereux Center to Orlando when he was governor of Florida. The playground's construction was made possible in part by a $12,500 grant from The Orlando Sentinel Santa Fund, which covered half of the total cost. If you would like to volunteer for the work day Saturday, ealLTimi Nolan at (407)384-5950. THEATER OPENING PUT ON your sunglasses and pretend you're a movie star attending a real Hollywood premiere. It's the grand opening gala of the AMC West Oaks Mall 14 theaters at 6 p.m.

Wednesday. It will feel just like a grand Hollywood party, with limousines, spotlights and a red carpet. It all benefits United Cerebral Palsy of Central Florida. A catered reception will begin at 6 p.m., followed by the grand opening ceremony at 7:30 p.m. and a premiere screening of a movie.

Tickets for the event are $20 per person, which includes food, drink tickets, entertainment and the movie. To buy tickets, call the West Orange Chamber of Commerce at (407) 656-1304. The West Oaks Mall is at 9401 W. Colonial Drive, Ocoee. Compiled by Martin Comas.

To submit an item, call Martin Comas at '(407) 420-5719, ore-mail him at MComas(5 tribune.com 2 agencies offer support gold mine for nonprofits By Sandra Mathers OF THE SENTINEL STAFF First response. Former Winter Park paramedic Rusty Scala shows his new book, 'Critical to his niece, Kelly Ann Kennelly, 2, of Winter Park. The book, which grew out of a writing assignment in a Rollins College class, teaches parents how to respond during emergency situations and keep a cool head until help arrives. An organization that teaches illiterate adults to read needs information on staff benefits. An agency that feeds senior citizens and repairs their homes is looking for more volunteers.

Where do they go for help? Nonprofit organizations used to look long and hard for information on everything from fund raising and sound accounting practices to building better boards. Now, a gold mine of information is just two phone calls away. Both the Heart of Florida United Way and the Edyth Bush Foundation oper- DENNIS WALLTHE ORLANDO SENTINEL Nonprofits are big business. They should be run like businesses Sherry Abbott Ex-paramedic's book may save kids' lives By Joann Steinforth SENTINEL CORRESPONDENT seems like hours," he said. "I want to train them like a crew member next to me, like the first respondents that they really are." The book, which grew out of a writing assignment in a Rollins College class, advocates behavior modification rather than learning first aid.

During his 20 years as a paramedic, Scala has watched children die, knowing that action taken by parents in a few precious moments may have helped saved the child. He often talked with parents after a crisis. Some realized they Please see BOOK, 1-4 Indoors: Have in home and car a kit with scissors, tweezers, gauze pads, adhesive tape, cold pack, disposable gloves, adhesive bandages, flashlight, blanket and antiseptic ointment. Outdoors: Remove from garage lawn mower, gas cans, insecticides, fertilizers, tools, and store them in a protected or locked area. Lock workshop area.

Keep children away from power tools. To child-proof a home, call Rusty Scala, (407) 679-7343. Internet address: www.webworx.comcritical seconds ate support groups ready to offer struggling nonprofit groups everything they need to become leaner, faster, more efficient service providers. In fact, United Way's Community Involvement Department and Bush's Center for Non-Profit Management are competing aggressively for the chance to serve Central Florida's 1,300 nonprofit organizations. "Nonprofits are big business," said Sherry Abbott, director of Bush's center.

"They should be run like businesses. That's not always the popular thing to say people don't look at it as a business. They work from the heart." These days, however, "heart" is taking a back seat to good management as nonprofit groups struggle to Please see SUPPORT, 1-4 Seconds count. That is the message Rusty Scala wants parents of young children to remember during an emergency. The former Winter Park paramedic has published Critical Seconds, which he wrote to help parents react with a cool head in the few seconds before an emergency rescue team arrives.

"Parents don't like to wait two or three minutes for us to arrive on the scene. They don't know what to do, and every second Inside Extra 1-10 Public record 1-10 Births I-5 I-5 Sampler Datebook I-9 Helping hands I-3 Sports State Vocational Rehabilitation program prepared to help disabled with job training. Page 1-2 With city's help, South Street neighbors feel safer at intersections By Sherri M. Owens OF THE SENTINEL STAFF along Bumby and Primrose avenues south of East Colonial Drive. At 2113 E.

South the church is in the neighborhood. "Just trying to make a left turn without getting bashed in, or a pedestrian trying to cross it was dangerous," she said. But now, a year later, Butts, her church members and nearby residents are celebrating a victory. They gathered Monday at the church to celebrate improvements such as the left-turn arrow that was add- ed and the "No Right Turn on Red" sign that was erected at Bumby Avenue and South Street. In addition, "Pedestrian Crossing" signs have been placed at Bumby and Anderson Street.

Handicap access curbs have been installed at both intersections and school crossing guards are present when children are going to and from school. The improvements cost the city about $7,000, said Tom Allen, director of traffic engineering. He said it is not unusual for residents to see neighborhood improvements in a year after bringing need to the city's attention. "We would have been done a lot sooner if we had not run into problems with the contractor and materials," Allen said. "We try to work with them residents all the time, whenever they call and request assistance.

We take a look at what they are asking for and make a determination of whether it's going to work or Although statistics show only 14 accidents at Bumby and South within the past year, Allen said engineers noticed Please see VICTORY, 1-4 This time last year schoolchildren and elderly residents near downtown Orlando crossed major intersections with fear and trepidation. "It was very hectic, especially during rush hour," said Jewel Butts, a 57-year member of Trinity United Methodist Church. The church worked with residents and Education Cypress Springs Elementary is a model for what most schools want to be with education technology. How have computers changed the classroom environment? Find out on the Education page. The Orange Extra city officials to improve traffic conditions.