Community Bulletin and Business Briefs

Walgreens employees recently “took the lanes” at five bowling locations including Aloma Lanes in Winter Park to raise money for Junior Achievement. At last count, they had raised more than $60,000!

CSX Transportation is scheduling signal construction work at the U.S. Highway 17-92/South Orlando Avenue railroad crossing. Motorists will encounter lane shifts lasting two days, beginning at 7 a.m. Saturday, March 19. Traffic flow is anticipated to return to normal at 5 p.m. Sunday, March 20. Southbound South Orlando Avenue will be reduced to one lane from Orange Avenue to the Railroad tracks. Contact Hal Gibson of CSX Transportation at 904-359-1048.

Ran-Getsu at Lake Lily, a restaurant and club scheduled to open next month, is now hiring servers, cooks and cocktail waitresses, for a total of more than 50 job openings. Visit RanGetsu.com to apply.

The 2011 Orlando Chili Cook-Off was a major success with more than 8,000 attendees, exceeding the 7,000 anticipated attendance and nearly three times last year’s attendance. Nearly doubling the amount given to Special Olympics last year, $27,500 was raised for the charity. The winners are displayed on OrlandoChiliCookOff.com

USDA recently announced the recipes chosen to advance in First Lady Michelle Obama’s Recipes for Healthy Kids competition, aiming to find tasty and healthy recipes for America’s school cafeterias. Locally, Roasted Fish Crispy Slaw Wrap, designed by Liberty Middle School, was selected to advance. For a complete list and to vote on your favorite recipe, visit RecipesForKidsChallenge.com

Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida will be participating in the Summer Food Service Program during the months of June, July and August. Nutritionally balanced meals will be provided to all children during summer vacation when school breakfasts and lunches are not available. Summer feeding sites that are located at schools provide meals to all children in the immediate vicinity in addition to those enrolled in summer school. They will sponsor sites at the Community Center, 718 Margaret Square, Winter Park, beginning June 9 through Aug. 12. Lunch will be provided from 11-11:30 a.m. and a snack will be provided from 2:30-3 p.m.

Members of the Orlando Regional Realtor Association reported a 5.68 percent year-over-year increase in the number (2,085) of home sales completed in February, helping to whittle Orlando’s inventory of unsold homes down to its lowest point since March 2006. The fast-flying condo market alone has 43.40 percent less inventory than this time last year. Orlando’s Realtors will be celebrating the Florida Open House Weekend by opening scores of their listings to visitors on March 26-27. Buyers should look for blue balloons with the Realtor “R” trademark to find participating open homes. Many homes scheduled to be open March 26-27 will also be tagged within the “Property Search” function on MyFloridaHomesMLS.com

Al-Anon Family Groups, a 12-step program of recovery for those dealing with alcoholism, offers free daytime and evening meetings. Call 407-265-7334 (Seminole) or 407-896-4929 (Orange) for English meetings and 407-201-6462 for Spanish meetings.

Volunteer opportunities

Jewish Family Services Southwest Orlando office is looking for dedicated volunteers to help out on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Opportunities will range from receptionist to assisting in the pantry. Visit www.jfsorlando.org

Seniors First is seeking drivers to deliver Meals on Wheels to elderly clients in Orange County. Contact Lorraine Shumaker at 407-615-8982.

Business Briefs

While Greater Orlando’s existing housing market began to show signs of life last year and slowly work its way out of a deep recession, the market’s vital signs literally flat lined over the past decade, according to the 2010 Hillman Report. For a copy, call 407-644-1234 or visit FannieHillman.com

Agents Howard Axner and Syd Jackowicz of Winter Park Land Commercial listed the 10-unit apartment building at 1147 S. Pennsylvania Ave. between the 9th Grade Center and Mead Garden. Known as The Penn Apartments, the building sold and closed on Dec. 29 for $1.05 million. This building sold for $1.5 million in January 2006.

Attorney Rachel D. Gebaide and partner with Lowndes Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed, P.A., has been appointed to serve on the board of directors for Jewish Family Services of Greater Orlando.

Francisco “Chico” Mendonça has been hired as Executive Chef for the new Winter Park restaurant Cocina 214, located at 151 Welbourne Ave.

Winter Springs resident John (Jamie) M. McCandless has been appointed operations manager of D & A Waterproofing Services Inc.

The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $68,778 in back wages for 14 employees of Winter Park-based Quinco Electrical Inc., following an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that found the company violated provisions of the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts and the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act.

Summit Church, lead by Senior Pastor Isaac Hunter, has expanded once again. According to Lamm & Company Partners’ Project Manager, Andre Santiago, the Summit Church build out was completed on time and was a great experience for all involved.

Rollins is proud to announce that Olympia Companies has been named the co-developer and operator for the Alfond Inn. Olympia has strong experience with college/university-related hotel operations.