The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • K10

Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: LK DESK: LK DATE: 07-04-2004 EDITION: FLA ZONE: LK PAGE: K1 0.0 DEADLINE: 14.30 COM POSETIME: 11.55 CMYK K1 0 Orlando Sentinel SUNDAY, JULY 4, 2004 OPINION Orlando Sentinel Tavares: 1898 E. Burleigh 32778 IT. CIRCULATION 1-800-359-5353 I tiff APPLE PtP EDITORIAL JOHN A. CUTTER County Editor KELLY GRIFFITH Assistant County Editor 352-742-5920 ADVERTISING DENISE LEWIS Advertising Manager Display: 352-742-5900 Classified: 352-343-5550 "THE PLAMT Reader Views school. Two birds with one stone.

Do the math. ROBERT FOLEY MONTVERDE school-enrollment calculation, an estimated 6,000 children will need classrooms. When will they be built? Probably not within three years. By that time, Minneola and the county will have approved most of this development. Why can't the county be proactive and develop a phased road-construction plan that will accommodate the needs of these schools? Sullivan Road can be initially upgraded for much less than the $20 million quoted, and will suffice to provide the basic access that these schools can use.

As development increases on Grassy Lake Road and Turkey Farm Road, those roads can be updated as well, with the adjacent developments footing most of the bill. Three years is not a long time before getting behind the eight ball again. If you live in south Lake, you know that there is not much land available for school construction that is immediately adjacent to an existing road or highway. This property will accommodate two schools, perhaps a high school and middle No road money available There's nothing new on the south Lake scene. There are hundreds of new school kids, and no place for them.

The Lake County School Board has for the past year attempted to locate a parcel of property on which to construct schools. It finally decided on a parcel north of Minneola. What does the illustrious board of county commissioners do to support this decision? An ill-conceived and hastily submitted plan could it be deliberate? to spend $20 million on access roads. Of course, there is no money and no thought of building the roads in long-term plans. Therefore, the location does not comply with Lake County's growth plan.

But then what does comply with its growth plan? The area in question will be the scene of rapid development in the near future. Possibly more than 10,000 residential units will be constructed over time. At the current Jazz great remembered Thanks go to Lake columnist Ramsey Campbell for acknowledging the death of jazz legend Elvin Jones, who died recently at 76. The story of the Jones family is amazing and not unlike another great jazz family, namely the Marsalises. Growing up in Cleveland, I was exposed to loads of good jazz, live and on the "left end of the dial." At age 40 when most of my peers are reveling in Tom Petty or, God forbid, Creed, I dig deeper to learn all I can about my favorite era, the '50s and early '60s.

I've recently taken up swing dancing, mostly because the music is so good and so timeless. J0HNJ.T0M0R0WITZ ORLANDO SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS Cooperation pays off with great project Our position: Disabled children will benefit from a community-led effort to build a park. Handicapped children who live in Lake County are getting a playground that is designed for them to have a blast, thanks to a partnership between motivated residents, county government and the state. The facility planned for Lake Idamere Park, off State Road 19, is a dynamic example of what can be accomplished when people in the community identify a need and step forward to fill it. That's what real leadership is all about.

Lake officials announced Monday that they had won a grant from the state for $200,000 to build a playground in partnership with the National Center for Boundless Playgrounds, which designs fun places so kids who are disabled can play with those who do not have physical limitations. Boundless Playgrounds' designs work for all sorts of disabled children, but they are particularly suited to those in wheelchairs. For example, the pathways are made of a latex material that kids in wheelchairs can negotiate, rather than chunky mulch, which is a chair-stopper. They have raised sandboxes that youngsters can reach without getting out of their chairs, plus what are called "transfer points" places a child can get out of a wheelchair and onto a slide, for example. What a great idea for kids who otherwise would be left sitting on the sidelines.

The playgrounds exceed requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which guarantees access to public places. It's nice to see Lake County going beyond minimum requirements for a change. Of course, the playgrounds are not cheap. This one is projected to cost about $500,000. But Lake County government must match the grant, and County Commissioner Jennifer Hill, who has been actively fund-raising for the project, has said that the county will do so.

Some of the match may be in property, for example, which is an excellent way to contribute. The 45-acre park just south of Tavares near Tavares Middle School, with its big shade trees lining the lakefront, is a perfect choice. The park is centrally located in the 67-mile-long county. The county also will contribute site work and possibly build restrooms rather than put up cash, but that's OK. All those things are needed to move the project toward a time when children of all abilities have a place to play together in Lake County.

Gov. Jeb Bush took a personal interest in the playground when he traveled to Lake several months ago to speak at the fund-raising kick-off. The governor is working with the center to establish 50 such playgrounds in Florida, and this is one is slated to be the first public one in Central Florida. The project came alive when Candi Giddens, mother of a toddler born with spina bifida, approached Mrs. Hill with the idea.

Since then, the two have been working to raise money without knowing exactly how much would be needed. Now they know: $100,000. They've raised nearly a quarter of it so far. Not enough can be said of Mrs. Giddens' dedication to ensuring that children like her daughter Ashton have equal access.

Lake County should be proud of the partnership that's sprung up to make this happen, and residents who volunteer on the project are to be commended. Every Sunday, we present our views on the Opinion page of the Lake section. This page also gives you an opportunity to express your opinion through letters to the editor and essays in the My Word column. We encourage you to submit letters on topics of general community interest to the Orlando Sentinel, 1898 E. Burleigh Tavares, FL 32778-4366.

Please include your full name, address and daytime telephone number so we can verify that you wrote the letter. Letters may be e-mailed to lakeorlandosentinel.com. Please put the words "Letter to the Editor" in the Subject line. Please understand that there is sometimes a waiting list and not all letters will appear the week they are submitted. We also sometimes receive more letters than we can publish.

Indianapolis sailor reveals personal demons band" in an attempt to drive them away, Hershberger said. It worked for his group, but not for others who were out of Hershberger's sight but not his hearing. 'We knew when a shark was attacking because he a sailor would let out a bloodcurdling scream, like nothing you've ever heard before," Hershberger said. "Every time you'd hear that bloodcurdling scream you would think, 'Uh-oh, the sharks hit another The sharks usually picked off stragglers, men who became delirious from dehydration and would swim off toward an island or a ship only they could see. Later, Hershberger would hear the story of a sailor who, wanting to take his turn sleeping, tapped his buddy on the shoulder to wake him up.

The man flipped over like a cork, the bottom half of his body bitten away by a shark. Nearly four days after the Indianapolis went down, an American pilot on a routine mission spotted some survivors purely by chance. Still more time passed before rescue ships could arrive, which meant Seaman Clarence Hershberger would end up spending more than 100 hours in the water before he finally was hauled aboard a Navy vessel. Of the 900 men who went in, 3 1 7 came out. The others died of thirst, exposure, drowning and shark attacks.

Now 78, Hershberger will not go in a pool. He will not dip his toes in the ocean. He will not take baths. He has seen enough water for one lifetime. Mike Lafferty can be reached at mlaffertyorlandosentinel.com or 386-851-7921.

Remember the scene from Jaws where Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss are comparing scars aboard the Orca? Shaw is asked about a scar on his arm, which used to be a tattoo of the USS Indianapolis. Dreyfuss, who had been laughing, grows quiet and Shaw begins to tell the tale Here at Clarence Hershberger's kitchen table, inside his small trailer in DeLeon Springs, I have come to hear the story from a real Indianapolis survivor, one who lives in a county known as "the shark capital of the world." Which, when you think about it, must be a real joke to someone who was on the Indianapolis. But first, there is something Hershberger wants me to know. It is this: He was not always able to recount what happened after the Indianapolis was sunk by two Japanese torpedoes. Hershberger left the U.S.

Navy on Feb. 19, 1946, crawled into a bottle of Old Granddad the next day and stayed inside for nearly half a century. He worked a variety of jobs in and around his Indiana hometown but nothing lasted very long. It was the booze. Hershberger met his current wife, Juaneta, in 1990 and she finally got him to stop drinking in 1995.

Then he began talking to people and then to groups about what happened a few minutes after midnight on July 30, 1945. Now, dressed in a white polo shirt with a Purple Heart pinned to the pocket, and the doomed ship's name stitched above it, he starts to describe the hot, humid night nearly 59 years ago. Nineteen-year-old Seaman 1st Class Clarence Hershberger had decided to sleep on deck that night to escape the heat below. Mike LAFFERTY SENTINEL COLUMNIST A few days earlier the Indianapolis had delivered its cargo, key components for the atomic bomb that would fall on Hiroshima on Aug. 6.

Its secret mission complete, the heavy cruiser was headed for the Philippines when Japanese torpedoes tore into the ship, sinking her in just 12 minutes. About 900 of the crew's 1,200 men including Hershberger found themselves floating in the Pacific. They thought help would come soon but a distress signal never went out, escaped the Navy's attention or was ignored. The men gathered in knots and buddied up in pairs. At first it was for moral support.

In the coming days, it was to protect each other from sailors so desperate or crazed that they accused shipmates of hoarding secret stores of water and food. The first morning, Hershberger saw dorsal fins about a football field away. The sharks mostly kept their distance from his group. But on the second day Hershberger saw something in the clear water right below him. It was a shark, maybe 8 or 10 feet long.

It seemed to just hover in place. When the sharks got too close the men would scream, holler and kick "to beat the 1 COLORSTRIP: I.