The Osceola County Commission Feb. 15 accepted agreements for $222,497 worth of Community Betterment Grants, money going to local charitable or community organizations.

Organizations receiving help and the amounts earmarked from the latest round of grants include: $50,000 to Community Vision for its Teen Leadership and Leadership Legends program, and $50,000 to the Community Vision organization; Children’s Advocacy Center for Osceola County, $24,247; St. Cloud Community Pantry, $35,000; Help Now Of Osceola, $21,250; Boy Scouts of America-Osceola District, $20,000; Helping Others Make The Effort, $10,000; Heavenly Hoofs Therapeutic Riding Center, $9,500; and Florida Cattlemen’s Foundation, $2,500.

Community Vision as an organization will use the $50,000 to complete a comprehensive needs assessment for the county called the Community Report Card, with a publication date expected in the fall.

The report card, according to documents submitted by Community Vision, will measure as a whole the county’s successes and shortfalls on whether it ensures residents’ needs are met, how new partnerships might open doors to new resources and how to increase the community’s capacity to address future needs.

Community Vision’s Teen Leadership program involves high school students during the summer participating in a 10-week learning curriculum that promotes service to the local community. The program educates youth about the community and helps youth determine how their talents could be put to use in helping to organize for improvement or change.

Students will visit a variety of sites, including those related to the criminal justice system, law enforcement, youth social services, Osceola County and city of St. Cloud and city of Kissimmee government offices, colleges, universities and utility facilities.

The Leadership Legends program is a collaboration between Community Vision, the Osceola County Council on Aging and the Senior Resource Alliance whereby seniors learn about social, economic and political issues facing the community. Participants, when they finish the program, generally have the knowledge to volunteer in an agency that appeals to their interests and talents. This program is to begin this month yet, with the group meeting on Wednesdays to travel to various sites, just like the teens do in the summer.

The Boy Scouts of America-Osceola District is a newcomer to the grant program and the organization will use the money to purchase uniforms and equipment and to pay for various activities for the newly formed Boy Scout Troop 808 and Cub Scout Pack 808 in Kissimmee’s Marydia neighborhood.

Turner Wallis, unit commissioner for the Osceola District, said the district chose to get involved in starting the new troop and pack in the predominantly black neighborhood as a way to help some of the youth of that community develop into good citizens using the character development emphasized by participation in Scouting. Wallis, president of Johnston’s Surveying, also is a mentor for the new troop and pack.

In other news, the commission on Feb. 15:

• Approved rezoning for the 33-acre Osceola Flea Market, owned by Osceola Market Place Inc., to allow a commercial development at the site, which is north of U.S. Highway 192 and east of the Florida’s Turnpike. This project, being proposed by St. Cloud Investors Inc., will include a community development district as a way to help pay for infrastructure.

A transit stop on U.S. Highway 192 will be required and the project could include a realignment of Simmons Road through the new development.

• Approved the rezoning from agricultural to planned mixed use development the 1,596 acres that comprise the Toho Preserve development located north of Lake Tohopekaliga, south of Neptune Road, east of Kings Highway and west of Macy Island Road.

This D.R. Horton development at build-out (estimated to be in 2027) would have 2,976 single-family homes, 639 multifamily dwelling units (with a minimum of 339 condominium units), 350,000 square feet of retail, 100,000 square feet of office and 100,000 square feet of institutional/civic uses.