Letters to the Editor

Look beyond petty agendas

I never met Fleet Peeples, but it seems that in Winter Park, every one of my generation whoever learned to swim in Lake Baldwin or owns a dog did. His love of the outdoors manifested itself in the land that was dedicated by the city of Winter Park as a recreational area to the public for recreational purposes and today bears his name.

The debate that has surrounded this beautiful waterfront property has centered on how one chooses to use the terms “general public” and “recreational.” Are they combined to create a park offering diverse recreational opportunities for all or separated to create a specific-use facility catering to a single user group? For years, Fleet Peeples Park resembled the former, a passive park with modest facilities that complemented its lake frontage and wooded areas. Currently in response to the lobbying efforts of a countywide “friends” organization, the city has chosen the latter as it considers the implementation of a master plan for redeveloping the existing park as an off-leash recreational facility for dogs.

For a city the size of Winter Park, the proposed off-leash facility is lavish by any standard. The off-leash area contained within its fence is larger than all seven Orange County leash-free dog parks combined. It contains almost 50 percent of Winter Parks’ publicly accessible lake frontage and exceeds the size of the seven football fields that the city operates for its youth.

Winter Park currently collects more than $1.25 million annually in park user fees from residents and non-residents who wish to use city parks for specific purposes. Whether it is pavilions for birthday parties, athletic fields for lacrosse practice or park space for art festivals, user fees make possible the continued maintenance of our outstanding park facilities. The current fee structure for the off-leash facility equates to the price of the Sunday newspaper per week, more than equitable seeing how users get virtually unlimited use of the facility 365 days a year. Choosing to ignore the fact that the friends organization originally proposed comparable user fees when they presented their master plan to the city’s Parks and Recreation Board, they now contend that they should be exempt from all fees. This in my opinion is not fair, just, nor consistent with the policies that govern our city.

That the Orlando Sentinel has considered the exemption of user fees for this friends organization as a litmus test for City Commission candidates in order to obtain its recommendation only promotes the use of political dogma rather than the sound reasoning necessary to address the structural challenges inherent in the proposed facility.

I hope that the individuals elected to serve as commissioners on March 8 will have the courage to look beyond the petty personal agendas that have plagued our public discourse on this subject and will commit to focusing on how best to use this precious city asset for the recreational needs of all the citizens of Winter Park. Our city deserves no less.

—Tom McMacken

Winter Park

I want my park back

Recently I mailed an informational brochure for EQUIPP Winter Park to Winter Park residents. The cover tagline reads, “Fleet Peeples Park should be for all Winter Park residents … and not just for off-leash dogs.” You can read this document by going to www.EQUIPPWP.org

I felt compelled to send this information because our residents have not been provided with the truth. When taxpayers discover the reality and see the condition of Fleet Peeples Park, they are appalled. The city basically allowed a self-appointed, privately funded dog club calling themselves Friends of Fleet Peeples Park to steal the park from Winter Park’s tax-paying residents.

I concluded that my one voice was not enough to convince the majority of our City Commission of the seriousness of this problem. Therefore, I took it upon myself to provide Winter Park taxpayers — the people that are paying the cost of the park — with facts that are on the public record. The intention is to educate and motivate residents to take back control of what once was, and can again be, a wonderful park for their families and future generations of Winter Park. Go to www.equippwp.org and read the facts about Fleet Peeples Park.

As the legal owners of Fleet Peeples Park, Winter Park residents and taxpayers are entitled to full access there. This is our only park providing public access on a non-motorized lake for resident recreational needs, such as novice sailing, crew, beachfront and park activities.

I urge you to become informed. Tell your city commissioners this is your park. Tell them you are no longer willing to pay for a 23-acre public park where your access and activities have been severely curtailed or eliminated completely and which has deteriorated into a place you refuse to take your family. Tell them to refrain from putting the desires of special interest groups and non-residents ahead of yours.

—Herb Weiss

Winter Park Parks and Recreation Board Member

Mailer contains misinformation

This week in my mailbox, along with the usual collection of slick glossy candidate postcards, I received a six-page brochure, which, at first glance, appeared to be an official publication. Upon further examination and reading it, I discovered it was a cleverly disguised political advertisement, which tries to persuade voters to make abolishing Winter Park’s highly popular and controversial dog park a campaign issue.

Herb Weiss and his anonymous fanatic crusaders wrote and paid for this politically motivated fantasy of “scientific fact” in an attempt to incite and influence voters in Tuesday’s City Commission election. This, not-so-cleverly disguised charade attempts to give legitimacy and credence to the hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars of city resources that have been wasted away by candidate Bonnie Jackson, as a member of the Parks and Recreation Board in her personal, unsuccessful, two-year war to shut down the dog park. Herb Weiss and Vice Chair Bonnie Jackson, who currently serve on the Parks and Recreation Board, have been severely criticized for being nonresponsive to the will of the residents of Winter Park.

In a response to a request by the City Commission into the accuracy of the brochure, city of Winter Park Environmental Resource Manager Tim Egan replied the information was mostly “someone’s opinion” with the exception of “two glaring misrepresentations” — the photograph of clean up depicted was not a result of the park and “The graph on the same page was intentionally altered in a way that makes the bacterial level look much higher.” It is shameful that Herb Weiss, as a member of the Parks and Recreation Board, has used his official position to intentionally sway public opinion with misinformation in order to justify Bonnie Jackson’s opposition to our highly popular, nationally ranked dog park. I can only hope the voters of Winter Park will not be manipulated by this blatant assault on their intelligence.

—Charles S. Namey

Winter Park

Vote Callahan, Jackson

I’m one of those “little old ladies in tennis shoes” that attends Winter Park City Commission meetings and has listened to four different candidate forums. Hearing words from the candidates and knowing the issues facing the city makes it easy for me to support Scott Callahan and Bonnie Jackson in this election.

I want open-minded people with no set agenda. People that did not take on special interest issues just to get votes. People that want to enforce all the city ordinances fairly and equally. People that want to listen to all residents but understand it will be their responsibility to make the hard decisions that will be in the best interest of our entire community. People that believe happy employees make for an efficient workplace, but realize we need a balanced budget each year and the taxpaying residents come first. This is why Scott Callahan and Bonnie Jackson are my candidates, and I hope you agree.

—Nancy Shutts

Winter Park

Special interests shouldn’t control city

Friends of Fleet Peeples Park is a special interest organization with an agenda to control our only 23-acre lakefront park in Winter Park. Their mission (www.ffpp.org) is to change the intended use of our park and make it the best regional dog park in the state. This park was deeded to city residents for the expressed purpose of providing recreational opportunities, including lake activities, picnicking, boating and sailing, for all our residents. However, these activities are no longer possible, as an off-leash dog park is not compatible with these uses. It keeps our residents away but our taxpayers must pay.

This organization is registered as a non-profit 501(c)3 that, by law, may not engage in political activities. However, this group has engaged in recent elections to influence commissioners by garnering votes in exchange for their control of the park. This repeated political activity violates IRS law and, as a result, several complaints have been filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

In the March 8 election for two city commissioners, the FFPP organization is actively supporting Steve Leary and Sarah Sprinkle, candidates who have promised to support the goals of this special interest group.

Commissioners should never put special interests ahead of the interests of the Winter Park residents. And, commissioners should never use our parks to elicit votes in order to obtain a seat on the dais. For these reasons, my support must go to Bonnie Jackson and Scott Callahan, candidates who put the residents first.

—Marti Miller

Winter Park

Restore Fleet Peeples Park

I recently moved to Winter Park City for the obvious reasons. I received a flyer in the mail in reference to Fleet Peeples Park. I researched it, talked to people, read up and this is what I found: I believe there is a difference between a dog-friendly park and one that precludes any normal use due to the contamination of the ground, tables and lake by dogs.

There is a sign on the fence at the park warning you to enter at your own risk, with health warnings saying the water could spread infections, don’t let it touch you. Will the Winter Park city government/us/taxpayers continue to pay for people to bring 160,000 pounds of dog waste a year into our city so we can pay to have it hauled away — with an unknown remainder left on the ground and in the water? It took three years for this park to go from a beautiful community park with numerous city activities to a filthy dump. Return the park to its original condition before it was given away. Read the deed — this park is for resident lake access.

You may recall the old TV ad for oil filters, “You can pay me now, or you can pay me later.” We can fix this now, at a minimal cost, or city taxpayers can fix this later at greater cost.

I stopped by the park Feb. 21 and recognized what a poor, dirty reflection it is on our city. Amazingly, on a holiday, there were only about 20 people and 30 dogs, but I did not go in because of the filth, the dangerous dogs and then I noticed the irony of the sign, “we are not responsible.” The most interesting thing is that there was not one person having a picnic or eating anything, not one group doing anything on a holiday.

I took a picture of a large dog on the table where people might have wanted to eat, but the filth everywhere would preclude any reasonable person from eating or even entering. I saw several dogs relieving themselves two feet from the water. Zero owners cleaned it up. We need to get the state and EPA to come in here and clean this up. This simply cannot go on, and Baldwin Park residents should know that these bacteria will infect the whole lake, impacting our property values.

—David Hidy

Winter Park

Break down iron curtain

There is something uncharitable about the fact that Winter Park has placed its first two red-light cameras at the intersections of Temple Drive and Temple Trail at Lake Howell Road.

Is this due to thousands of Winter Parkers taking a northern route out of the shire? Unlikely, for the minimal native traffic usually involves residents from the neighborhood going to pick up a bottle of Veuve Clicquot at the local ABC liquor store. A more likely reason is that these cameras were installed to collect revenue from the poor souls of Seminole County who have to trek through Winter Park and Maitland in order reach Orlando Avenue or Interstate 4 during the week.

Along the southern border, we will have guards patrolling Fleet Peeples Park at Lakemont Avenue. Why? To prevent Orlando’s illegal-immigrant mutts from stealing park playtime from native-born Winter Park canines who can prove their citizenship with American Kennel Club pedigrees. That and someone at City Hall must have reasoned that Park Avenue is doing so well, we can afford to lend our neighbors in Baldwin Park some extra paw and foot traffic.

Why stop here? Winter Park could deploy landmines around Orwin Manor and dig a moat along the city’s eastern march. I mean, who can trust those miscreants from UCF and that College Park neighborhood, anyway?

Who’s worried about Obamacare and Chinese currency manipulation? I’m more worried about the courtiers at 401 S. Park Ave. The most the president can do is attempt to have us subsidize his health insurance and union pensions. Our local killjoys are surrounding my city with an Iron Curtain of nuisance.

—Bryan Stewart

Winter Park

Why change?

Winter Park’s present Comprehensive Plan calls for a 4-1 vote of the City Commission to change land use. This seems good to me.

Winter Park is such a special place. Shouldn’t our commissioners have to put their heads together very carefully in order to change our neighborhoods? If it really benefits a neighborhood, it should easily pass 4-1.

When a 3-2 vote is required to change land use, less care in the decision may take place. Either three stick together to change use, or a 2-2 split occurs with the fifth person deciding.

Wouldn’t it be best to keep our present requirement of 4-1?

—Valerie Anderson Burke

Winter Park

City needs to refute mailer

Since the heinous brochure seemingly authored by Herb Weiss concerning the alleged conditions at Fleet Peeples Park hit the mailboxes of the citizens of Winter Park, I have been waiting for a disclaimer, a refutation, any comment from our city saying that the brochure is not an official Winter Park publication. I have been waiting to hear any city representative say that it is filled with inaccuracies and pure fantasy, beginning with the size of the park — 11 acres, not 24 — and the fact that Fleet Peeples (who was not a wealthy man) gave the property to the city (he would have gotten a chuckle from that one)!!

When a private individual, such as Herb Weiss, uses his position on the city Parks Board to misrepresent something to this extent and has his name all over something that looks alarmingly like the city logo, you need to say something! Because the publication gives every impression that it was produced by the city. Is this legal? Can anyone do it? Only city board members or city commissioners? This is outrageous!

This brochure/web site is just the latest of a very long list of exaggerations and lies and surely has been generated for the express purpose of justifying the fact that city government officials, providing entertainment for people for miles around, have spent 200+ hours of city time discussing a dog park.

Now, thanks to that highly informative and educational brochure that looks like an “official” publication of the Parks and Recreation Department, public perception of the park could change, and it doesn't deserve to.

Citizens who do not use the dog park have probably been affected by the Herb Weiss brochure. People who were only sympathetic to the dog park because their attitude was “I don’t use that park, but I don’t see any reason why the people with dogs should not be able to use it” now believe that the dog park users are indifferent to the safety of their pets and are frequenting a cesspool that is harmful to people, pets and the environment.

I am also concerned that the brochure and website have been created for the benefit of Bonnie Jackson, who is currently running for Winter Park City Commission. She is the only candidate who has proclaimed that one of her primary goals is to close the park to dogs and the timely mailer and web site successfully justify her position for people unacquainted with the park.

This a very expensive mailer; the graphics, multiple colors, licensed photographs, the size, postage, the professional web site had to have cost at least $15,000. Mr. Weiss has already stated in private conversations that it was paid for by individuals who want to remain nameless — it has to have been paid for by people with very deep pockets, and I'll bet they aren't devoted environmentalists!

Mr. Knight, we all know and appreciate how difficult your job is and how hard you work for so many bosses, however, you, representing the city, need to explain to the citizens who have been royally duped that the brochure is a sham and that the city has had nothing to do with it. Please, also, publish some specific information about the true condition of the park.

This needs to be done before the election on Tuesday!

Thank you for your attention.

—Sally Simmons

Winter Park