By Daphne Sashin
The Orlando Sentinel
MAITLAND, Fla. — A group of activists fed up with waiting for a new City Hall and fire station approved five years ago are staging a citizens revolt to demand what they were promised.
The group, known as Concerned Citizens for a Better Maitland, will hold a “tea party” at 7 p.m. today at the Maitland Civic Center to rally the community in advance of a City Council vote Monday on fire-station construction.
“Enough is enough. Let’s build our fire station and our City Hall,” said Pat Williamson, 74. “It’s just ludicrous that we have the property, we have the money, we have some sort of a plan, but nothing happens.”
Maitland residents voted in 2004 to raise property taxes to back $18.5 million in bonds for a City Hall and public-safety complex on city-owned property. Three years later, the city signed a deal with developer Bob Reese’s Brossier Co. The deal calls for the city to give Reese four acres where the current fire station, City Hall and police station sit for development of a mixed-use town center. Under the agreement, Maitland also would pay him to build a City Hall at the center of the new downtown and a fire station elsewhere, with Reese covering any cost overruns. The city is building a new police station on Fennell Street.
Rally organizers want the city to renegotiate the deal with Reese and proceed with both public buildings now while construction costs are relatively low.
The City Council agreed in April to let Reese build a new fire station at its existing Packwood Avenue site while he seeks financing for the town center, but more recently has considered putting the construction out to public bid. The council is expected to decide Monday whether Reese should proceed with construction.
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