Florida Orange County Construction

Back in District 5

It’s a privilege to be serving District 5 again!

Since returning to office after a six-year absence, I have had tremendous support and well wishes from existing and new residents throughout the district.

Since taking office in January, my main priorities have been to make government more efficient during these difficult economic times and generally maintain the excellent quality of life we have in District 5.

Although recent census numbers have Orange County experiencing modest growth, our economy has taken a significant downturn and the management of limited and shrinking resources has become our No. 1 priority. It becomes incumbent upon the Board of County Commissioners to maintain stewardship of dwindling taxpayer dollars and preserve necessary services without increasing taxes. The BCC has appointed a streamlining commission to reduce the bureaucracy of county government, and we have already phased out redundant and duplicative regulations that unnecessarily increase costs for small businesses.

The BCC has also reduced impact fees by 25 percent to reflect a reduction in infrastructure costs for roads, schools and other services. This will help foster new jobs and stabilize the construction and related industries, which have been severely impacted by the recession. Orange County has been working hard to create an environment for the private sector to create jobs!

The opening of Woodbury Road within the Central Florida Research Park and completion of Taylor Creek Bridge are also two new infrastructure projects that will help alleviate traffic on the east side of Orange County.

The University of Central Florida and the Research Park continue to grow and expand, with the university now being the second largest in the U.S. The simulation industry at Research Park continues to attract high-paying jobs in the tech industry to our community.

Concerning our quality of life, I am working with our board and municipalities to strengthen regulations prohibiting simulated gambling in our community. We have also been working on cleanup days in our district and sidewalk projects to protect our children. Our next cleanup day will be held in Christmas on Sept. 24.

Long Branch Park in Bithlo will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony in August to welcome the public to enjoy its natural resources and trails. Please come and enjoy this environmental treasure!

It is an honor to serve the citizens of Orange County. I welcome any input and suggestions from you, so please contact me or my staff if we can be of assistance to you.

Lloyd Marcus » Blog Archive » Retired Developer Exposes Government ...

Hi Patriots, I’m president of Deltona Arts & Historical Center. A couple of years, retired developer, Gary Paduch donated plans/architectural renderings for a new arts and performance center. Gary is extremely frustrated by government waste of taxpayers money. He has written the following essay and asked my assistance in getting it published.

Thanks. All the best, Lloyd Marcus

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ESSAY BY GARY PADUCH: 407-415-2718

Big, Ugly and Stupid – the Buildings Cities Build

I’ve seen it for 40 years: Big, ugly, stupid buildings. A prime example is the Ocean Center at Daytona Beach, Florida. I see it over and over. Huge, ugly conference centers, convention centers, performing arenas, art centers, every kind of center imaginable and they are all built “to save” a downtown or commercial area.

They cost the taxpayers millions and they “never” work. If we knew the truth regarding their costs and operations, we would all be sick to our stomachs. And we taxpayers sit there like idiots and let them do it. Once built they require a constant supply of cash, just to keep these projects maintained. They produce not one penny in net revenue, not one penny after expenses. They then make up figures about how the economic impact to the area economy is what they really are there to do.

It is a “bald faced lie”, a total at the very best. I have never seen an operating statement on one of these facilities. Not one! A true statement of gross sales, other revenue from sales and an honest statement of expenses: Light bills, marketing expenses (all marketing expenses) including salaries and advertising, an honest to God reporting of the cold hard facts. All we ever hear about is the “roll over” effects of the visitors or user spending in restaurants, hotels, gift shops, etc.

The truth is the visitors would have come anyway. The hotel and others would have built to fulfill a need “if” there was one. The idea that if you build it, they will come, only works in the movies. Any developer can tell you that the rules of successfully developing any property is to (1) identify a need (2) determine whether you have the demographic numbers (3) design your project accordingly (4) location, location, location.

Politicians with absolutely no understanding of this simple process, project numbers from their imaginations, then they ask an architect what he thinks. Of course, the architect agrees that it should be built and he will pull up examples of other similar projects that have been a great success, yet none of these projects has ever put out a set of hard numbers, operating statements, revenues, management, marketing, maintenance, replacement reserves, utilities, etc.

Southern reporter

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