Spring is in the air
Celebrate Florida’s seasonal blooms at the free Apopka Art and Foliage Festival at Kit Nelson Park, 35 S. Park Ave., Apopka. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and Sunday, the park will be full of local artists and crafters and offer a kids’ zone, live entertainment, food vendors and more. Details: apopkaartandfoliagefestival.org.
Gov. Rick Scott appointed longtime Apopka community activist Rod Love to the Orange County Commission on Friday.
He will fill the vacancy left on the nonpartisan board by former Commissioner Bryan Nelson, who was sworn in as mayor of Apopka on Tuesday. His term will last until Nov. 13.
Love, 52, a registered Republican, is the president and chief executive officer of Community Synergy Group Inc., and a former probation officer who rose to second in command of Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice.
Since 2016, he has been chairman of the Apopka Community Task Force on Violence, formed by local religious and community leaders along with BethuneCookman University’s Criminal Justice graduate program to study the causes of and find solutions to the violence in Orange County’s at-risk communities.
“I am truly honored with the appointment Gov. Scott made of me,” Love said Friday. “One of the things I said to the governor when we sat down and had a conversation was that I’m not a politician. I’m just looking forward to taking public service to the level I’ve been doing at the grassroots.”
Love said he joined the task force, formed after a series of killings in the Apopka area, to help fight “the root causes of crime, poverty and [lack of ] economic opportunity. You can’t change them on the cheap. You have to invest in the community. And I’m not a spendthrift by any means.”
As for whether he would run in November for a full term, he said he “did not anticipate any announcement from me regarding jumping into this race. I don’t want to play political games and leave it open-ended … I’m looking at this as being a public servant for the short window available to me.”
Five candidates — Antuan Bibbs, Frederick Brummer, Mark Allen Byrd, Christine Moore and Patricia Rumph — have filed to run for the seat.