HomeMy WebLinkAboutSelling of Original City Hall-1995 The Voice Page 3
Winter Springs may sell
its museum building
By Darrell Johnson ment for bids was discussed and had not been approved as office
Marvell Johnson
a night of ups and ppaasssed,but not without some Mc- space. The city's insurance does
downs for s honorary Winter cover the facility, so the two of
rY Winter Springs Public Works them will work out some kind of
Springs historian John Baker.He Director Kip l.ockcuff said the city agreement for its use,at least tem-
proudly invited city commission- wants to find out what someone porarily.
ersto the new Winter Springs His- will payfor it.The bid process will McLeod worried that the city
torical Society museum. Then he take about 60 days. was letting a prime historical site
found out the building may be Commissioner McLeod asked slip through its fingers. He sag-
sold. if the intent was to get bids and
The oldest public building in then decide whether to keep Bested looking into using half rent-
the city is the old utilities eep the ing it the other half. andrmt-
ty 8 building ing out property erty half.
at the intersection of Fairfax Av- City Manager John Govoruhk The property was,by law,of-
enue and SR434.Built in 1960,it prompted hearty laughs when he fered to each city department be-
housed the Village of North said the intent was to go for bids fore the notion of bids was enter-
Orlando's village hall, Winter with the idea of rejecting them. mined Nobody wanted it The city
Springs'first city hail and the util- McLeod countered that it was a could not find a valid use for it at
ity company.When theutilitycom- bad idea.Any investor will spend this time.
pany left and then returned to city a lot of money in legal and ap- The bidding process was ap-
control the building went with it. praisal fees before even submit- proved.When the numbers are in
Nowitisvacant,and Baker was ting a bid. a final decision will be made.
given a room to store historical Govoruhk explained that they Neighborhood improvements...
mementos. He filled six glass- wanted to look at the numbers and CommissionerGennell opened
topped cases donated by city corn- then decide whether to sell,rent, the subject of the neighborhood
missioner David McLeod with or keep the structure.The current behind"the museum."The area is
items of interest. appraisedvalue is around S75,000. filled with homes,allrentals,many
Alargestackofnewspaperdip- "Man," said commissioner of them quadmplexes,which are
pings has been photocopied and Cindy Gennell, "that would bug surrounded by dirt yards with no
filed in consecutive order. The me" place for children to play.
originals have been placed in ar- As for the museum,Govoruhk She asked the commission to
chival storage.Every issue of the said Baker had permission to store consider converting a piece of city
Winter Springs Bulletin is avail- materials there,but the building Continued on Pa e 5
able for perusal,as well as things 8
like a 1959 ad for the new$8,000
homes on sale in the Village of
North Orlando.
"We're ready to open,"Baker
told commissioners,"but there is
no toilet paper in the bathroom,
and!figured I could not open until
that was provided."
City Attorney Frank
Kruppenbacher said his office
would donate that important com-
modity.
Later in the meeting what John
Baker "loosely refers to as 'the
museum"'was put up for bids.An qa--0 / °q
agenda item to approve advertise- I �
Winter Springs museum Continued from Page3
property adjacent to the area into was time to make a new selection copy. He said that,following the
asmallparkwithplaygmundequip- from the commission to serve on release of the 44-page document
meet,basketball hoops,a place to the Council ofLocal Governments. in October, each commissioner
sit and relax. He nominated Larry Conniff. received a copy.
It may prompt the owners of the Conniff declined, saying his Commissionerlangellotti com-
property to start taking better care work took him out of town too plained that the reporter did not
of it, she said,adding that many often. notify the commission that the sta-
owners are from out of state.Some Ferring said, okay, how about tus of the railroad had changed,
live in Winter Springs and Gennell John Langellotti. and that he did not provide the
said she considers themtobe slum- Langellotti declined. commission with documentation.
lords. Ferring then tried David
"This looks like the most dete- McLeod.
riorated area in the city,"she said. McLeod declined.
"I just hink that we...can do bet- Then l'II leaven for someone to
ter.I think it has potential." nominate me,Ferring said.
Mayor John Bush asked the Cindy Gennell,the current rep-
city managerto look into possibili- resentative, pointed out that the
ties. position did not need a new per-
Districting Committee._ son each year.Ferring grudgingly
Commissioners were asked to nominated her. The board voted
nominate members for a new her in for another term.
Districting Committee,which will The Voice is questioned
be charged with looking at the The Oviedo Voice was ques-
city'spolitical district boundaries tioned publicly about its coverage
and making changes ifnecessary. of the possible abandonment of
Each commissioner can name one the CSXRailroad line from Winter
person, and the mayor gets two Springs to Winter Park. The last
choices. mention of the issue in a commis-
But there was some mud-sling- sion meeting had been several
ing before any work could be done. months ago after CSX had stated
Commissioner John Ferring criti- in a letter that it had no intentions
cizedanothernewspaperfor print- of closing the track in the foresee-
ing that anyone interested in sent- able future.
ing on the committee should call Apparently, nobody on the
the city clerk's office.He said his commission (except those inter-
phone had been ringing with viewed for the initial story) had
people wanting to serve. seen the Petition.for Exemption
Then he chose Ken Haines as (abandonment of-a track still in
his nominee.Commissioner John operation)filed by CSX with the
Langellotti selected Gene Lane, Interstate Commerce Commission.
Commissioner Cindy Gennell It was this document that started
chose Vernon Rozelle and Mayor the Voice's coverage of the-pos-
Bush picked Kathleen Roy.Bush sible closure, which could occur
held off on his second choice,and as early as June 1.
Commissioners Larry Conniff and The distribution list on the
David McLeod also delayed their document does include the city of
selections. Winter Springs, and Winter
Council of Local Governments Springs Land Development Coor-
John Ferring announced that it dinator Don LeBlanc does have a
9 5' 0 .2.co
��/� town
Around town decided buil they are they find do t
wieh the buisding until they find out
thew options.
COMMUNITY NOTES •
Oldest public building Sort of public records
in city is up for sale Federal labor investigators recently
WINTER SPRINGS—City released a breakdown of how much
W former
commissioners INTE want SPRINGS know how money 84 current and foer Winter
much someone will offer them for Springs tiw workers should recreation
the oldest public building in Winter r department olve a w we-ands sour probe.be paid to
resolve a wage-and-hour were giv co
Spy' hat as were rep were given a copy of the
Commissioners decided to go out list,as were rep,xtere.
for bids on the city's old North But copies of the four-page report were
Orlando Utilities building on the not given to many of the people who
corner of Fairfax Avenue and State might benefit—the workers.
Road 434.City Manager John So where did the police department
Govonihk said his departments turn to get its information?Not the City
have no need for the 1300-square- Hall. More than a half dozen officers
foot structure appraised at$75,000. called The Orlando Sentinel to find out
The building was the original how much they might be paid.When told
sales office for the North Orlando that the list should be a public record,
Company,the town developer,and several said they did not want to make
later became the town hall and waves.
utility department. The city is still negotiating whether to
The city's honorary historian, pay the workers a total of$184,385.
John Baker,asked commissioners
last week to keep the building and
use a portion of it for a city
museum.Historical items for
Winter Springs,founded in 1959 as
North Orlando,are stored in an 7: WINTER SPRINGS
office.
Commissioners,however,haven't Thefts/break-ins
• Devon Avenue, between 11 p.m.
Jan.22 and 9:23 a.m.Jan.23. Someone
broke into a shed and took tools valued
at$110.
• Inkwood Court, 200 block, 4:40
p.m. Jen. 23. Sansone sale a grill val-
ued at$25 from a yrd.
• State Road 434, 1300 bock, be-
tween 8 a.m.Jan.21 and 3:30 p.m. Jan.
23. Someone stole a radio valued at
$100 from a pawnshop.
Harassing phone calls
• Sybilwood Circle, 700 block, be-
tween Dec. 26 and 8:30 Jan. 23. Some-
one made several threatening phone
calls.
9soid
A little building fights for its place in history
•BY DARRELL JOHNSON
SWr Raoery OF THE OVIEDO VOICE
"I would like to take you back and Where would Baker like to dis-
help you visualize what it was like in play the collection?Right where it is.
the early'60s,"Ruth Mewes told Win- The building is the most historically
ter Springs Commissioners on the important structure in town, and to
evening of Monday,April 10. lose it would be tragic,he says,at least
She was talking about the origi- from an historian's point of view.
nal Village of North Orlando City At the meeting almost two weeks
Hall, a small gray building with ago Commissioner John Ferring
cramped rooms that the city of Win- pointed out that it is the city's inten-
ter Springs recently offered for bids. lion to find the best use for the build-
It's where people went to vote, ing, not to have it destroyed.He sug-
where they went for information. A gested that the museum might stay
judge used to come by and hold court there for two years until the police
in that building. It was the center of depapigeut moves out of its offices in
everything,Mrs.Mewes says. the current city hall, at which Rime
"Across the street was one mar- Baker and company could-move in
ket and one laundromat. That was there.
downtown North Orlando.From that Baker scoffed at that idea. The
point houses were being built in ev- idea is to keep the museum in an his-
ery direction," she continued. "The torically authentic atmosphere, he
roads were not paved. Once we had said, not to place it in a sterile mod-
guests and took them around.We had em building.
to be pulled out of the road by a tow The question of control of the old
truck" structure arises as the possibility of a
That small gray building on the sale draws nearer. The city can ap-
corner of SR 434 and Fairfax Street prove or reject permit requests,but it
is history, says John Baker,who was has to be done on a legal basis,not on
appointed by the commission more whether citizens are somehow at-
than a year ago as Winter Springs' tached to a building.
"honorary official historian." If it is sold it will likely become
Baker has one room of the old
city hall filled with donated display office space. However, nothing is in
cases stuffed with donated items of place to prevent it from being torn
city history. His goal is to form a down by a private owner.
mostly self-supporting historical so- Supporters of the museum,future
ciety and place items from the city's members of the future historical soci-
past on permanent display. etc,want to take no chances with the
He urges anyone who has relics oldest public building in the city.The
and momentos of life throughout the maximum of$75,000 the city expects
area's history to consider donating to receive from a sale will be used
them. He is also looking for a core quickly and forgotten, they say. 9S Q y z.7
group to serve as a fledgling histori- If it is kept as a museum, desig-
cal
society• noted as an important landmark, a
large piece of history will remain in-
tact for future generations to enjoy.
e e a ,
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John Baker stands watch in front of the building that would be Winter Springs' historical museum.
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