The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • B3

Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: OS DESK: LOC DATE: 01-18-2003 EDITION: MET ZONE: MET PAGE: B3.0 DEADLINE: 0.24 OP: rmccrory COMPOSETIME: 00.56 CMYK Orlando Sentinel SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 2003 B3 CENTRAL FLORIDA Ormond Beach Orlando magazine founder Edward Levis Prizer dies at 80 Publishing pioneer. Edward Levis Prizer turned a small publication into Orlando Winter Park Attraction He and his wife ran the publication from their home and changed its content to provide more news about the area's development. Prizer changed the name to Orlando-Land Magazine in 1969. And by the time he sold it in 1988 for about $1.7 million, it had more than 30,000 readers. The magazine subsequently changed ownership several more times, but Prizer remained as an adviser and was listed on the masthead as publisher emeritus.

Artice B. Prizer, who remained as circulation director until 1993, died in June 2001. Friends described Ed Prizer as a friendly man with a vibrant personality. "He was bigger than life, but totally down to earth," Noles said. "He was a regular guy who enjoyed hanging out with regular people." Survivors include a sister, Katherine, of Boston, and 1 1 nieces and nephews.

Arrangements are being handled by Baldwin-Fairchild Funeral Home, Altamonte Chapel. Martin E. Comas can be reached at mcomasorlandosentinel.com or 407420-5719. By MARTIN E. COMAS SENTINEL STAFF WRITER Edward Levis Prizer, a former publisher and owner of Orlando magazine, turned a small tourist guidebook into a slick business magazine that provided readers with news and feature stories about the area's growth and development.

Prizer died Thursday of cancer. He was 80. Under Prizer's ownership from 1962 to 1988, the publication also gave insights into the area's best restaurants, shops, fashions and attractions. "He had a passion for Orlando," said Randy Noles, a close friend and former publisher of Orlando magazine. "He thought his mission was to make this community grow and become better." Noles said Prizer had the vision and acumen in the early 1960s to realize that Orlando was going to grow from a sleepy little town into a major city.

"He saw Orlando as the only major city in Florida that could grow in all four directions," Noles said. "He knew that the city had a bright future, and he wanted to be part of that." Prizer was born and raised in Southern Pines, N.C. In the early 1940s, before the United The Area i in Brief Murderer gets 3 life sentences after 2 years Circuit Judge Frank Kaney on Friday sentenced Frederick Pete Cox to three life sentences, nearly two years after he was convicted for the Orange County murders of three women and the attempted murder of two others. Prosecutors gave up pursuing a death sentence for Cox, 49, after a family member of one of the victims requested an end to the lingering case. Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton said questions about Cox's mental state have held up his sentencing.

Cox, who is disabled, has stopped using his legs and right arm, Ashton said. Medical evaluations have not found neurological or physical causes for the paralysis, he said. "If he's a faker, he's so persistent a faker that there's got to be some mental issue making him a faker for that long," Ashton said. In April 2001, Cox was convicted for the 1997 murders of Mary Ann Voepel, 22, Stephanie Singleton, 28, and Patricia Logan, 40. They were found shot to death, left naked in woods and posed in degrading positions.

Authorities said Cox drove around Orlando picking up women he thought were prostitutes and shooting them. Two women he picked up and shot survived and testified against him. ORANGE Arbitration delayed for union It will be at least a few weeks before the Orlando firefighters union makes its case before an independent arbitrator. At issue is whether the city broke its labor contract with the union by failing to test firefighters for hepatitis among other ailments, and for allegedly failing to inform sick firefighters of their illnesses. The city denies the accusations and has fought the issue for nearly two years.

Meeting for the first time at City Hall, attorneys for the union and the city began working out a schedule for their arbitration. The case could last as long as a year, said Robert Light, the arbitrator who works on government and corporate labor disputes in Florida and New Jersey. Authorities search for shooter The Orange County Sheriff's Office is searching for a man it thinks shot and killed a 27-year-old Miami man during a robbery. Aristides Mi-lian and his wife were visiting relatives at Lake Jasmine Apartments at Orange Blossom Trail and Interstate 4 Thursday night when Milian stepped outside to make a call on his cell phone, spokesman Jim Solomons said. Relatives inside the house told authorities they heard at least one gunshot.

Milian's wallet was missing. He died of a gunshot wound. Witnesses told authorities they saw one or two men run from the scene after the shooting. Anyone with information is being asked to call Crimeline at 407-423-TIPS. LAKE Track-field complex opens CLERMONT The USA Triathlon National Training Center's $1.1 million track and field complex will officially open today.

A ceremony is set for 10 a.m. at the site near South Lake Hospital on State Road 50. Scheduled speakers are state Sen. Anna Cowin, state Rep. Randy Johnson, who both supported a $900,000 state grant for the complex, and two-time Olympic gold medalist Dr.

Dot Richardson, director of the USA Triathlon Training Center. More than 500 athletes are scheduled to train there in March. SEMINOLE Yard gains additional junk ALTAMONTE SPRINGS The junk is piling up again in Alan Davis' yard, but it is unlikely anything will be done about it before next month. Davis, who has had a longstanding battle with Seminole County over his junk-ridden property, has brought in piles of boxes and a large MILES 0 10 VOLUSIA LAKE SEMINOLE Altamonte Springs Clermont 'Orlando ORANGE Kissimmee OSCEOLA Kennedy Space Center BREVARD FLORIDA Map area ORLANDO SENTINEL lift-equipped panel truck. The Seminole County Sheriff's Office contracted with moving crews in December to clean up the front and back yards of Davis' Alpine Street house.

Sheriff Don Es-linger was acting on a court order authorizing him to seize up to 13,000 in property to sell. A Circuit Court judge in Seminole had ruled in November that the county could begin foreclosing on property left outside the house to satisfy code-enforcement fines against Davis. Those fines, first imposed in January 2001, exceed $300,000. Any new items brought into the yard can be seized by the Sheriff's Office under the November order, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Olson. However, any new seizures will have to wait until after a Feb.

10 sale of items seized in December, he said. If the sale falls short of the $13,000 court order, the Sheriff's Office can collect additional property, Olson said. OSCEOLA Skeleton found in woods KISSIMMEE Workers on a cleanup project found the skeletal remains of what appears to be an adult Friday behind Regal Cinemas Osceola East 6 at the Osceola Square Mall on U.S. Highway 192, police Sgt. Ralph Moore said.

A skeleton was found at 2:30 p.m., about five feet into a wooded area behind the theaters, Moore said. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement sent a team of forensic experts to investigate the scene with Kissimmee officers. The bones will be taken to the FDLE lab in Orlando for analysis, Moore said. Group hired to find manager KISSIMMEE Osceola County will begin negotiating with the Mercer Group, a Winter Haven consulting firm, to help find a new county manager. Osceola has been without a manager since Bob Fernandez was fired on a 3-2 vote in August.

Commissioners met Friday to rank the four companies that bid for the job of helping find potential candidates. Commissioners said they selected Mercer based on its location in Florida and its background. "Just bring us the qualified applicants, no matter where they are from," commission Chairman Paul Owen said. The county will pay a 15,400 fee for work, plus up to $4,600 in travel and expenses. Mercer Vice President Tom Freijo said the search will take 60 to 90 days and will include minority candidates.

Commissioners said they expect to have a group of five or six semifi-nalists to cull through before inviting the top two or three candidates into town for a community social event. VOLUSIA Police looking into burglaries ORMOND BEACH Police here are investigating a string of "smash and grab" burglaries around the city, Ormond Beach police Sgt. Mark Walker said Friday. Walker said six such incidents during which the suspect broke the window to a store, quickly grabbed several items and fled before investigators arrived have occurred since Dec. 27.

The latest burglary was at a gas station near State Road 40 at Interstate 95 early Thursday. Walker said there are no suspects. Investigators here are working with police in surrounding cities that have also had similar events in the past few weeks. Anthony Colarossi, Jon Steinman, Pamela J. Johnson, Alicia A.

Caldwell, Robert Perez, Christopher Sherman and April Hunt of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. States joined World War II, Prizer enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force. As a fighter pilot, he flew Spitfires over the North Atlantic and Europe. He also served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

When the war ended, Prizer headed to the University of Southern California to studyjournalism. As editor of the Daily Trojan, the campus newspaper, he hired Art Buch-wald, who later became a noted journalist and author. In 1947 Prizer joined The Associated Press office in Detroit and was later transferred to AP's New York headquarters, where he rose to the rank of assistant general supervisor of worldwide operations. He married Artice Bissett in 1950. In 1961 Prizer resigned from the AP and the following year purchased for $17,000 a small, pocket-sized guide with 1,700 readers called The Orlando- tions were lifted Thursday.

The Sheriffs Office on Friday agreed to increase patrols at the water plant where the break-in occurred, said Mary Dorn, a community information specialist for the county. That's on top of the increased patrols put in place after the 2001 terrorist attacks and immediately after Sunday's discovery of the security breach at the plant in DeBary, Dorn said. The plant, with a production capacity of 2.5 million gallons daily, is Volusia County's largest water-treatment facility, providing water to about 15,000 people. The county also brought in consultants this week to recommend other security measures at plants county-wide. The measure likely would include additional staff or equipment, Dorn said.

She declined to be more specific, citing concerns about compromising security efforts. Dorn and Utility Director Gloria Break-in spurs tighter PHOTOS BY DENNIS WALLORLANDO SENTINEL Boat dealer arrested In Seminole County, investigators from the Economic Crimes Division of the Seminole County Sheriff's Office search the grounds of Aquamarine, 41 1 5 E. State Road 46, east of Sanford, on Friday. They arrested the president, Earl Marion Smith, at his home on charges of fraud to obtain property worth more than $50,000 and grand theft by scheme to defraud. Smith, 44, 5643 Autumn Chase Circle, Sanford, was released from the Seminole County Jail after posting $50,000 bail.

On Wednesday, a Titusville man filed a report with the Sheriff's Office, complaining that he had placed a boat on consignment with the business in June and it was sold in October, but he had not received any money. That boat was valued at less than $20,000, according to the report. water rules Marwick said they are waiting to get an estimate from the consultants about the potential costs. Gary Davidson, a spokesman for the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, said Friday no arrests have been made in the break-in, which officials think happened Saturday. Intruders got in through a chain-link fence, climbed on top of a water tank and kicked in a screen, all without triggering the plant's security systems.

A utility worker discovered the break-in just before 10 a.m. Sunday and called the Sheriff's Office. County officials didn't call the state Health Department immediately because they said the intruders never gained access to water supplies. The county told the Health Department around 1 1 a.m. Monday, and the plant was ordered shut down about eight hours later.

Kevin Connolly can be reached at kconnollyorlandosentinel.com Security will be increased at plants across Volusia County after last weekend's problems. By KEVIN P.C0NN0LLY SENTINEL STAFF WRITER DELAND Officials said Friday they will beef up security at water plants across the county after last weekend's break-in triggered a shutdown of a water plant in southwest Volusia County. The closure, which lasted nearly three days and ended Thursday, caused inconveniences for thousands of residents in DeBary and part of Orange City, who were told not to drink, shower, bathe or cook with their water. A battery of tests found no problems with the water. No illnesses were reported, and the water precau.