The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 8

4 The Lake Sentinel, Tuesday, September 9, 1997 Recycling boosts Humane Society coffers Mascotte may seek help with planning Bed and Breakfast, downtown Clermont. The songwriter, a resident of St. Augustine, will sing folk music. The free event is one in a series of outdoor concerts, "Music at the Mulberry." Refreshments will be available. For more information, call (352) 242-0670.

DINNER SHOW THE TRUCKERS Love Children and the Road Knights a nonprofit corporation, will present "Memories," an evening with Ronnie Jay, at 7 p.m. Saturday at Vic's Embers Supper Club in Leesburg. Jay will perform a variety of songs from the 1950s and '60s. Cost for the show is $25 a person, which includes supper. To make a reservation call (352) 753-9245.

CRAFTS FOR KIDS THE TAVARES Public Library children's department will sponsor a back-to-school crafts program from 3:15 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday for pupils in kindergarten through fifth grade. There is no charge. For free tickets, call Zita Wenzel at (352) 742-6473. Mail items for community news to The Lake Sentinel, 720 W.

Burleigh Tavares 32778-2397 or fax to (352) Mount Dora. This 1928 film stars a young William Powell and Academy award-winner Emil Jannings. The Sept. 24 presentation will be Umbrellas of Cherborg, 1964, restored in wide-screen color with music by Michel Legrand. CHAMBER BREAKFAST LAKE EYE Associates, Eustis, will sponsor the Eustis Chamber of Commerce's monthly recognition breakfast at 7:30 a.m.

Thursday at the Eustis Community Center, 601 Northshore Drive. Drs. Roger Rath, Scott Goodson and Michael Kutryb will talk about state-of-the-art eye care. Cost is $5 in advance or $6 at the door. To make a reservation, call the chamber at (352) 357-3434 by today, VETERANS' SERVICES VETERANS WHO need assistance with any VA claims or information about benefits may stop by Wednesday at one of the following locations: the Senior Center, 1211 Penn Leesburg, from 9 a.m.

to noon; and the Clark Gable Room in the Villages of Lady Lake off U.S. Highways 441-27, from 1:30 to 4 p.m. BACH CONCERT SINGER ROBIN Bach, is scheduled to perform from 8 to 10 p.m. Friday at the Mulberry Inn The mayor pro-tem suggests using a land consultant to deal with future growth. By Parker Lee Nash OF THE SENTINEL STAFF MASCOTTE Gun shy after a four-year community battle over a housing development, the City Council might consult a professional land planner before it grows another inch.

"It's fixing to explode with growth here, and I figure we need to get somebody a professional in line to help us before we grow any more," said Clyde Sampson, mayor pro-tem, recalling the council's four-year struggle to approve the city's largest housing development, Mascotte Hills. In 1993, a group of community members opposing the development began accusing the City Council of violating Mascotte's comprehensive growth plan and making decisions to grow that they said would harm the city. Last month the council, exhausted from defending itself from the accusations, granted conceptual approval in a 4-1 vote of the 180-home Mascotte Hills development. Several council members since have suggested consulting a land-use attorney or a land planning specialist when expansions and developments are proposed in the city of nearly 2,400. The topic was on the agenda for discussion at Monday's council meeting.

Mascotte has not annexed new land in two years, according to city officials, but future annexations and development are almost a given considering south Lake County's growth. Since 1990, Mascotte's population has increased by about 35 percent, according to the latest figures from the University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research. Managing that growth is the council's challenge. "I can get plenty of advice about planning from everybody, just by walking around the corner, but what the council needs is legal advice," Sampson said before the meeting. "Our attorney is a good attorney, but maybe he needs some help with that." Mayor Stanley Sloan said no immediate issue requires special counsel, but he supports the idea of a land planning consultant available to the city as needed.

"Whenever we come up against the sort of thing we've been in with Mascotte Hills, then we might need to have somebody in place to call," Sloan said. Tax plan denial upsets mayor wins again TAX from 1 School Board members said they went with Marriott because a school district committee that examined the two companies' bids unanimously favored Marriott. Smith said his personal research showed Aramark was the better choice. While several people spoke in favor of the sales tax during the board meeting Monday night, the board took the advice of Ron Phillips, chairman of the Lake County Republican Party, who said Smith was moving too fast toward spending too much. The 15-year sales tax would have raised $116 million toward a projected $576 million in school construction needs over the next 20 years.

All five board members are Re miles north of Eustis off State Road 19); American Allied Aluminum Recycling Center, 15940 Old Highway 441, Tavares; Umatilla Recycling Center, 38035 State Road 19; and Hertzberger Printing 535 Umatilla Umatilla. Donors are requested to inform collection personnel at the recycling locations that the receipts should be marked for the Humane Society of Lake County. For additional information, call (352) 589-7400 or (352) 589-1772. SHIP-TANK ASSOCIATION THE U.S. Landing-Ship-Tank Association will meet at 9:30 a.m.

today at the DeBary VFW Post 8093 on U.S. Highway 17-92. All former Navy and Coast Guard personnel who served in the amphibious forces are invited. Details: (407) 574-5021. BPW MEETING THE TRIANGLE Business and Professional Women will meet at 12:30 p.m.

today at the Golden Corral Family Steakhcuse, 1520 Bay Eustis. Ruth Harvey, executive director of the Haven, will be the guest speaker. CLASSIC FILM THE LAST Command film classic will be shown at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the W.T. Bland Public Library, 1995 N.

Donnelly Leesburg's LEESBURG For the second election term in a row, Mayor David Connelly faced no competition for his seat on the City Commission, meaning he has automatically won re-election. Vippy's sports bar TAVARES The owner of a former downtown grocery store has received permission to open a sports bar there. The Tavares City Council has approved Mohamed Ali Aha-med's request for a special use permit to convert the old Food-way store at 115 E. Main St. into Vippy's International Sports Bar.

Concerns that the tavern might produce loud noise at site agreed. Rose Kimbler, a clerk at the 7-Eleven, sold the beer to Fronczak. She said he is a regular customer at the store and was not drunk on Monday. "That MS takes a toll on people," Kimbler said. ing, Moore said, some cities expressed serious reservations about the contract.

Clermont and Fruitland Park have approved the library contract with the county, Breeden said. Still pending are contracts with Tavares, Mount Dora, Lady Lake and Umatilla. Deadline for approving the agreements is Sept. 30. Moore stressed that withdrawing from the county's library system would be a last resort for Tavares, but he added the city "should prepare for the potential." If the city does ditch the county system, it could see whether Mount Dora and Eustis want to form a Golden Triangle library group, said Moore: "The opportunity for that kind of cooperation is out there if it comes to pass." ills! Pleated Shades Buy 3, Get 4th at 12 Price.

Many Colors and Styles. Expires 93097 Mini I 1 Pleated Plantation Aluminum By Debbie Mania and Anita Hardin OF THE SENTINEL STAFF The Humane Society of Lake County Inc. is collecting recyclable aluminum cans to raise money for the shelter's operating funds. The communitywide drive is part of the Humane Society's participation in Paws to Recycle, a nationwide recycling program that benefits animal shelters. NCWS collec-r tion drive, irOm yOU which began Sept.

1, ends Nov. COMMUNITY 30. MHTFQ The Hu" IjlJ mane Society is competing with other animal shelters to win one of five $3,000 grand prizes. It also will receive free Friskies pet food for its participation. "By recycling aluminum cans, we hope to raise extra funds for needed programs, including low-cost spaying and neutering and medical treatments for abused animals," said Bobbe Love, president of the Humane Society.

Aluminum cans may be dropped off at the following locations: the Humane Society's Resale Shoppe, 11 N. Eustis Eustis; the Humane Society's shelter, 16435 McKinley Road, Eustis (two backers ports the tax. "No one wants to bite the bullet." Robert Short, a Eustis retiree who headed a residents committee that studied school construction needs and recommended the half-cent sales tax, said he was disappointed in the board's decision. He said growing segments of the community were behind the tax and voters could have been persuaded to approve it. "This is a tragic mistake," Short said.

"The longer we wait to build schools, the further behind we get." George Pringle, a real estate developer and president of the Leesburg Chamber of Commerce, told the board that the chamber stood behind the tax, unless some other means could be found to pay for school buildings. C.R. 452 and narrowly miss a pole. "I told Kathy, 'That man is going to wreck', McCarty said. Aurigemma said the officers who helped Fronczak to his truck did not smell alcohol on him and said he did not appear drunk.

Emergency workers at the crash have the automated system, so they may have a hard time operating without that," she said. Cash could be another problem: Tavares Public Library currently gets $25,000 each year from the county, as well as $13 per library patron. The library is set to receive a total of $85,814 from county government next year. Tavares resident Alvin Beech said he's worried the city library won't offer as many services as well as use of other county libraries if it leaves Lake's system. "I have a much, much broader system than the books that are in the Tavares library," he said.

"I will no longer be able to use Umatilla's library, Clermont's library, Mount Dora's library, which I have used constantly." Some other cities that belong to the library system also don't like the proposed agreement, said Moore, president of Lake's League of Cities. At a recent league meet But one of two commissioners who opposed the tax increase, Chairman Bill Good, said Monday he had planned to cut the budget so tax rates remained steady anyway. Last month, Good and Commissioner Richard Swartz voted against a measure to set the property tax rate at $4.80 per $1,000 of taxable value. Instead, they supported using the rollback rate the level that would raise about the same amount of revenue as this year. The rollback rate is $4.73 for every $1,000 of taxable property value.

That means a homeowner with a house assessed at $100,000 and a $25,000 homestead exemption would pay $354.75 in Couple unharmed as truck rams into house CRASH from 1 could be tested for alcohol. A neighbor of Fronczak's said she saw him buying two 12-packs of beer at a 7-Eleven convenience store just minutes before the 3:14 p.m. crash. Carolyn McCarty of Tavares may leave system over controversy The deadline to register as a candidate for the District 2, Seat 2 slot the only Leesburg seat up for election this year was Aug. 22.

Connelly was the only contender. The story was the gets Tavares OK night prompted city leaders last month to postpone voting on the bar until noise regulations could be imposed on the project. Live or recorded music from the bar cannot "create a nuisance" to adjacent residents, according to the resolution approved by council members. "Gaorga of the Jungle" PQ 4:30 7:00 "Exeat Baggage" PQ 13 4:30 7:00 9:15 "Money Talka" 9jpO Cranes Roost Golf Club at the Plantation at Leesburg 18 Hole Green Fee Cart Included Tax Included Smile Included $15.00 After 4:00 pm Just $13.00 1-4 PlayersCoupon required expires 9-30-97 SLEEP SETTEE! THAU EVER! You spend 13 of your life in bed, where else should you be more comfortable? 12 MODELS ON DISPLAY! Blinds i aWlii same in 1994, when Connelly was automatically re-elected with no opposition. Besides saving him money on a campaign, Connelly said the lack of opponents "showed a confidence" in the job he is doing on the commission.

I Familv Care Specialists Health care for your entire family Board Certified 504 N. Grandview St. Mt-Dora 383-7183 Family Care Specialists on staff at Florida Hospital Waterman FREE Estimates Home Consulting Installation SAVE ra 70 off mfg. list price will beat written estimates Saturday Evening Appts. Available 90 Days Same As jg iasn nu.

I fih H- I Practice MB i ZjJ Internal 1 Medicine i fljjgjff 11 in mil i publicans. "I just don't see how our school system, which is run by you fine Republican individuals, can fastly jump aboard bringing in revenues before you know how to spend them," Phillips said, adding a construction plan lacked details. Critics complained that Phillips had strong-armed board members in private conversations. Phillips acknowledged that he had spoken with each board member before the meeting but said "I did not threaten them." Supporters of the tax said the School Board erred in dropping the sales tax flat. "This takes us back to square one where we are working on immediate school needs and not planning," said former board member Sandra Green, who sup Eustis said Fronczak had bloodied knees and was being helped to his truck by two Eustis police officers.

McCarty and her sister, Kathy Stivale, offered to drive Fronczak home, but he said he was OK. They watched him pull out onto However, the funding rule is set by the state, which funnels money to Lake's library system, Breeden said. That means member cities must follow that rule if Lake is to continue receiving state library aid, she said. If the city insists on changing that clause, Breeden said the county may not go along with it. "I can't recommend the county sign anything that's going to jeopardize our state aid grant funding," Breeden said.

That could prompt Tavares to leave the county library system. "To me, that would be like a death in the family to have any of the member libraries pull out," Breeden said. "But, the library system would go on: It would just be different." Withdrawing from Lake's library system would hurt Tavares, Breeden predicted. "Right now, we handle the cataloging for the libraries and we plan for the 1997-98 budget year. Knupp asked commissioners for the new deputies to speed up response time.

"We are certainly convinced that this is our No. 1 priority for this year," said department spokesman Lt. Chris Daniels, who added that it takes deputies as much as half an hour to get to remote areas. Daniels said an acceptable wait is about nine minutes, the county-wide response time about eight years ago. "The sheriff certainly believes that it's unacceptable to have a 30-minute response time to an in-progress call, and the only way to attack that is through additional LIBRARY from 1 and mat's what I want to maintain: level of service and that level of control," he said.

Lite's director of library services said the city's gripes are baseless. "I think their complaints are unfounded, but they have to do what they feel is best for their city," Wendy Breeden said. City leaders don't like proposed clauses that ban the city from cutting funding to the library and limit how the city may spend the library funds it gets from the county. The contract states the county money can be used for operating expenses such as buying books and paying workers but not for capital projects like construction. Meanwhile, Tavares Public Library is slated for nearly $1 million in renovations that will begin this year.

I Public hearing on budget is today A Shades Shutters BUDGET from 1 into a law enforcement trust fund. This is the first year the county will dip into the cash, Whittle said. The new revenue sources were detailed in an updated budget plan released Friday. "I think we were lucky to find this stuff, and it just worked out, and I had hoped that it would," said Commissioner Rhonda Ger-ber, who, along with two other commissioners, voted Aug. 4 for a higher tax rate to fund Knupp's request.

Commissioners will have the first of two hearings at 6 p.m. today to listen to what residents have to say about the county's nrnrwicprl 1RR mil" 'I Toppers iHEHi Esses rnnntv taypd manrvwifoi".