The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • B3

Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: OS DESK: LOC DATE: 02-10-2006 EDITION: MET ZONE: MET PAGE: B3.0 DEADLINE: 0.24 OP: apinkston COMPOSETIME: 00.48 CMYK Orlando Sentinel FINAL FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2006 B3 CENTRAL FLORIDA The Area i in Brief MILES 0 10 3rd Legionnaires' case is confirmed in Volusia flush the system again. Ocean Waters, a hotel ownership and management company with 30 beachfront properties, bought the Seagarden Inn at 3161 S. Atlantic Ave. just a few weeks before the outbreak. Doug Kosarek, senior vice president with the company, said the hotel closed voluntarily on Feb.

3, and hotel guests moved to other company-owned hotels while the testing continued. Kosarek couldn't be reached Thursday. Preliminary tests of water samples taken from the whirlpool, spa and air-conditioning drain pans haven't confirmed the presence of Legionnaires' disease, Coleman said. Other tests are pending, though Coleman said that a positive test result doesn't necessarily mean that was the source of the illnesses. During their investigation, health department officials identified 12 people with symptoms that match up with Legionnaires' disease.

Two of those people did not have pneumonia, according to chest X-rays, while a third person didn't have Legionnaires' disease, based on a urine test. Urine tests are still pending on two people, a blood test is pending with another person. The other three people have been informed about the investigation. Meantime, Port Orange officials have shut down water service to that location, said Port Orange spokesman Kent Donahue. The city has also checked that "backflow preventers," mechanisms to prevent water from the hotel from re-entering the water system, are working.

Ludmilla Lelis can be reached at 386-253-0964 or llelisorlandosentinel.com. Others with symptoms are still being tested, and a hotel where victims stayed is closed for disinfecting. By LUDMILLA LELIS SENTINEL STAFF WRITER DAYTONA BEACH With a third case of Legionnaires' disease confirmed in Volusia County, a Day-tona Beach Shores hotel will remain closed until the hotel management completes a thorough cleaning and disinfection of the beachfront lodging. Dr. Tom Coleman, director of the Volusia County Health Department, said Thursday that the remediation work at the Seagarden Inn is voluntary and is not being done under an order from the health department.

Although Coleman emphasized there is no definitive proof linking the hotel with the pneumonia-like disease, he did say: "The only known connection with these confirmed cases is that they stayed at the Seagarden Inn last month." Of the three confirmed cases, one of the patients has died as a result of contracting Legionnaires' disease, he said. Still, the health director stressed that the public shouldn't be alarmed, saying, "There is no imminent public health threat." Legionnaires' disease is a lung infection named after the first recognized outbreak of the disease in 1976 during a convention of the American Legion. It is not spread from person to person, but is contracted when a person inhales contaminated water vapor or mist. Symptoms include a high fever, chills, a cough, muscle aches and headaches and the disease is easily treated by antibiotics. Other outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease have been reported on cruise ships and at prisons and nursing homes, with the bacteria typically growing in spas, hot-water systems, decorative fountains or large-scale heating and air-conditioning systems.

People most susceptible to the disease are the elderly, smokers and people with chronic health conditions. Two of the Volusia cases involve men older than 60, according to statistics from the Florida Department of Health. Health officials would not provide any information about the people who contracted the disease. Though the investigation of the Volusia cases is continuing, Coleman said the three people had stayed at the 144-room hotel from early to mid-January. After confirming the third case Wednesday afternoon, health department officials met with the Seagarden Inn's owners to discuss the latest findings.

Hotel officials have agreed to conduct a thorough cleaning of the hotel, based on guidelines issued by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Coleman said. "I commend the Seagarden for taking this proactive approach," Coleman said. Those federal guidelines describe the step-by-step disinfection of a building's heating, ventilation, air conditioning and water systems. For example, the federal agency recommends that for a hot-water heater, someone should raise the water temperature to at least 158 degrees for at least 24 hours, flush each faucet with hot water for 20 minutes, clean the system with chlorine, then WINTER GARDEN Fitness club's hours will go under review A move to change the operating hours of a fitness center in a proposed shopping center will head back to city planners for review, commissioners voted Thursday. Lifestyle Family Fitness, a new tenant in Winter Garden Village at Fowler Groves, wants to open at 5 a.m., an hour earlier than allowed by a city ordinance.

But instead of approving the request by center developer The Sem-bler Co. of St. Petersburg, commissioners voted 4-1 to return the proposal to the Planning and Zoning Board, which originally denied it. Commissioner Mildred Dixon voted against the measure, saying the commission should decide the issue, even though the planning board voted unanimously Monday to deny all time changes. The developer originally asked to extend opening and closing hours by an hour for the gym and the operating and loading-dock hours for Lowe's home-improvement store.

Sembler withdrew all requests except for the gym's opening time. The company says the gym would not lease at the shopping center unless it could open at 5 a.m. Now, planning-board members will be asked to consider another change, by Commissioner Rod Reynolds to let Lowe's remain open 24 hours a day during a hurricane threat to give customers time to buy supplies. ORLANDO Cops: Clothes may not be light The clothing of a person pictured in grainy images released by Orlando police of a person sought for questioning in the Jennifer Kesse case may be darker than they appear, a spokeswoman said. Some people assumed that the person pictured walking along a fence is wearing white or light-colored clothes, Sgt.

Barbara Jones said. Jones said light-to-medium colors might appear white or light gray in black-and-white pictures. Investigators released the pictures Saturday after nearly two weeks of searching for the 24-year-old woman. Kesse was last seen Jan. 23.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Orlando Police Department or Crimeline at 1-800-423-8477, Jones said. ORLANDO POLICE DEPARTMENT MELBOURNE Boy dies after basketball game A 13-year-old student collapsed and died Thursday after playing basketball during a physical-education class at L.B. Johnson Middle School, police said. The boy, whose name was not released, was shooting hoops before 2 p.m. near about 60 other students when he suddenly sat down, vomited and passed out, schools spokeswoman SaraT.

Stern said. "The child was part of the physical-education class but was off to the side and not actively participating with the rest of the class when it happened," she said. A teacher tried to resuscitate the boy and said he was breathing when paramedics arrived, Stern said. He was rushed to Wuestoff Hospital in Melbourne, where he died about 2:35 p.m., according to police. Officers would not comment on whether the student had a pre-exist- ing medical condition.

Grief counselors will be at the school today to help students and faculty cope with the loss. OCOEE Teen driver killed in crash A teenage motorist died early Thursday after first pulling over and then speeding away from an Ocoee police officer. Sgt. William Wagner made a U-turn rather than chase the vehicle shortly before it crashed near Clar-cona-Ocoee Road and Laurel Blos-H som Circle, Ocoee police said. A pursuit policy adopted by all Orange County police departments prohibits officers from chasing mo- VOLUSIA DeLand Deltona Tavares Sanford SEMINOLE Orlando ORANGE Kennedy Space Center LAKE Kissimmee -Haines City POLK BREVARD OSCEOLA FLORIDA ORLANDO SENTINEL torists for traffic violations.

The motorist was identified Thursday afternoon by police as Darrell O. Culver, 16, of Apopka, who was driving with a suspended class restricted license. The incident began about 3 a.m. when Wagner clocked the blue sedan heading north at 57 mph in a 35 mph zone on Clarke Road, near AD. Mims Road, police said.

The motorist apparently saw the patrol car's flashing lights and stopped on the side of the road but then sped away, police said. Several seconds after Wagner complied with the pursuit policy by heading in the opposite direction, he saw an explosion in the dark behind him, police said. The flash may have been an electrical transformer exploding on a power pole hit by the motorist's car, police said. SEMINOLE COUNTY Man, woman jailed after chase A Sanford man and woman face charges of robbery by home invasion after they led Seminole County deputy sheriffs on a short car chase Wednesday afternoon. Paul Knight II, 18, of Locust Avenue and Catherine Zayas, 20, of Petunia Terrace were being held without bail Thursday in the Seminole County Jail in Sanford.

Knight also is accused of fleeing and eluding a law officer and cocaine possession. Two brothers told deputies they returned to their Stratford Road home in Fern Park, where they were confronted by two people and fought with them before the suspects fled in a red van. Deputies spotted a red van leaving the area and chased it nearly three miles into Altamonte Springs, where it crashed into a tree. Guns and ammunition were in the van. SANFORD Tip leads to discovery of body Tipped off by an anonymous caller, Sanford police early Thursday found a man's body on a sidewalk in the Goldsboro area.

Police would not say how 63-year-old Bonnie Williams died until the cause is confirmed by an autopsy, police spokeswoman Cleo Cohen said. The body was found on 13th Street near Olive Avenue. PORT ORANGE Ex-dance coach faces sex charge A former dance and cheerleading coach was arrested Thursday amid allegations that he had made inappropriate sexual comments to some of the girls he once taught, Port Orange police said. Bradford Weyman Meehan, 27 who worked at Power Cheer, a Port Orange cheerleading and dance gym owned by his ex-wife, Penny Niles was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail on charges of lewd and lascivious behavior. Records show Niles and Meehan finalized their divorce in December a little less than a year after Niles learned that her then-husband asked a 13-year-old girl to "show her underwear and pubic area." The girl was a member of the gym and often baby-sat for Niles and Meehan, according to a police account of the incident.

Meehan propositioned the girl in July 2004, when she was at his house to help with chores, authorities said. She did not tell her mother until January 2005. Nothing was reported to authorities until February 2005. Meehan's arrest Thursday stemmed from a lengthy investigation by the State Attorney's Office, prompted by those complaints, spokeswoman Linda Pruitt said. Niles said Thursday that Meehan's arrest is between him and the court system.

personally, and my gym have nothing to do with him or this case," she said. Sandra Mathers, Laurin Sellers, Henry Pierson Curtis, Gary Taylor, Willoughby Mariano and Erin Ailworth of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. -1 PHOTOS BOBBY COKER ORLANDO SENTINEL Parents describe near-drowning ordeal Home is lost, but no one is injured Katie Robinson (left) watches with her sister-in-law Phyllis Scott as her home burns Thursday in the Bookertown area west of Sanford. Seminole firefighters, who were called about 10:40 a.m., couldn't save the 2-story house. A space heater caused the blaze, Battalion Chief Steve Thiebauth said.

at the nearby Ronald McDonald House. The couple described their son as a typical little boy who loves to talk about the dump trucks at his dad's business, Professional Site and Transport. "He could walk. He could run. He could climb up and down stairs, and obviously he was a fast little guy 'cause he got away from us," Chris Linsley said.

"We were just relieved on Monday his personality just shined back through, and we knew we had our Dillon." Chris Linsley said he is unsure about what Dillon remembers of the accident but hopes it isn't much. The toddler has recovered enough that he is "holding his head up and looking around" and using some of his 10- to 20-word vocabulary. The Linsleys said they are thinking of putting a fence around their backyard to protect against future accidents. "We were both frantic for the first three days of the ordeal," Chris Linsley said. "It truly is the worst feeling you could ever experience." Erin Ailworth can be reached at 386-851-7925 or eailworthorlandosentinel.com.

Lifeless when pulled from the Indian River, their son is making progress. By ERIN AILWORTH SENTINEL STAFF WRITER Watch your children at all times, the couple warned Thursday as they stood hand in hand outside the hospital where their sandy-haired toddler was recovering from a near-fatal fall in the Indian River. "Children are so fast," Chris Lin-sley said. "In a second, it can happen to you. A split second.

Never take your eyes off your children." His son, 20-month-old Dillon Lin-sley, rested unseen in a room at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children that was described as filled with toys and good wishes from friends, family and caring strangers. Chris Linsley and his wife, Colette, spoke at a news conference Thursday, more than a week after the accident, in what they said was their attempt to help others learn from their mistake and to let everyone know how their son is doing. Dillon was only missing for a few minutes Jan. 30, but when rescue workers arrived that day they found the boy's maternal grandfather, Stephen Beeman, cradling the blue and lifeless child. Chest compressions and rescue breathing from New Smyrna Beach police Officer Rick Hupp and New Smyrna Beach paramedic Thomas Lee revived the child, who had wandered away from his grandparents' house and fallen into the Indian River.

The boy was hospitalized at Bert Fish Medical Center in New Smyrna Beach, then flown by helicopter to Arnold Palmer in Orlando. He was sedated and placed on a breathing machine because of the water in his lungs. The Linsleys said Dillon has been taken off the ventilator but is still being fed through a tube. Doctors are "impressed" at his recovery, and Dillon is expected to begin rehabilitation soon to work on his motor skills and balance, Chris Linsley said. The family is looking at inpatient facilities in Jacksonville, Miami and Tampa.

"When he came off the sedation on Monday morning he looked at his mother and mumbled the word Chris Linsley said. He and his wife have been staying COLORSTRIP: I.