Winter Park City Talk

Post storm - Hurricane Matthew stats

On behalf of the city of Winter Park, I would like to say thank you to the community for working with city staff as we prepared for Hurricane Matthew’s arrival and continuing to work together after his departure to restore our city. We are all breathing a sigh of relief as we saw Matthew wobble slightly to the east, which prevented the hurricane force winds from blowing through our city.

Your city staff and elected officials worked around the clock, behind the scenes, to ensure the safety of residents, facilities and infrastructure.

The City of Winter Park was the first municipality in Central Florida that restored 100 percent of its electric customer’s power by 10:15 a.m. Saturday morning. We know this is in large part due to the undergrounding efforts and implementation of the Urban Forestry Management Plan that have happened for the past 10 years and the pre-planning we did to prepare for the storm.

Here are a few preliminary statistics from our after-action review:

• 33,387 people reached via Facebook posts

• 31,000 impressions made on Twitter

• 8,370 sandbags distributed

• 259 calls recorded by the Winter Park Police Department

• 120 outages affecting approximately 1,800 customers at the peak of the storm

• 38 large limbs blocked a road/sidewalk or city right of way

• 35 outages caused by trees

• 30 cases of downed wire

• 27 whole trees fell

• 21 lift stations without power, and connected to back-up generators

• 5 homes reported significant damage equaling approximately $235K in damage

• 4 suspects arrested for vehicle burglaries

• 2 traffic signals damaged

• 1 water leak due to a downed tree

• 0 sewer overflows

• 0 flooding problems reported

• 0 damage to city-owned buildings

If you have tree debris on your property:

• Please bag, bundle and/or containerize debris.

• Waste Pro had a yard waste pick up on Wednesday, Oct. 12, and will have an extra yard waste pick up on Saturday, Oct. 15.

• 15-bag limit per household each day.

• If you don’t want to bag, bundle, or containerize your debris, please call Waste Pro at 407-774-0800 to schedule and pay for a special pick up of your tree debris. Tree debris still needs to be piled along the curb for Waste Pro pick up.

• Recycling and garbage services will resume on your next regularly scheduled pick-up day.

• If you hire a contractor to take care of your large tree trunks or limbs, they are responsible to haul away the debris.

Thank you to our city family for your cooperation, understanding, and patience during the storm. Let’s hope this is the last one for many years to come.

Oct. 10 City Commission meeting highlights

Mayor’s Report

• The third quarter 2016 Business Recognition Award was presented to Chez Vincent.

Non-Action Items

• The Financial Report for August 2016 was presented.

Consent Agenda

• The minutes for Sept. 26, 2016, were approved.

• The purchases and contracts were approved (for a complete listing visit cityofwinterpark.org/ccpackets).

• The Monday, Dec. 26, 2016 City Commission meeting was approved to be cancelled due to the holiday.

Action Items Requiring Discussion

• The settlement agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice, city of Winter Park, and Winter Park Scenic Boat Tour Inc. regarding boat launch access was approved with the city attorney changes.

Public Hearings

• Request for acceptance of offer to purchase city property:

— The second reading of the ordinance authorizing the conveyance of the city-owned property located between 652 and 700 W. Morse Blvd. was approved.

• The resolution designating 1167 Lakeview Drive as a historic resource on the Winter Park Register of Historic Places was pulled and will be heard at a future meeting.

A full copy of the Oct. 10 City Commission minutes will be available at cityofwinterpark.org/ccminutes the week of Oct. 24, pending approval by the City Commission.

Welcome Chief Deal

Chief Michael Deal was officially sworn in Oct. 10, at 10 a.m. at the Winter Park Community Center. Prior to coming to Winter Park, Chief Deal’s most recent service was as chief of police in Atlantic Beach, and 33 years of service for Altamonte Springs as deputy chief. Chief Deal has the experience, expertise, confidence, and ability to continue to keep our city safe, and we are excited about the advancements he will make in our agency and for our community. Congratulations, Chief Deal, welcome to the city of Winter Park! For more information regarding the Winter Park Police Department, please visit wppd.org.

For more information regarding the city of Winter Park, please visit the city’s official website at cityofwinterpark.org. Like, follow and watch us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vimeo, and YouTube.