Council to host holiday meal
To help residents in the community who find themselves alone or unable to prepare a family Thanksgiving dinner, the Osceola County Council on Aging will host its annual free Community Thanksgiving Dinner on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Barney E. Veal Center, 700 Generation Point, Kissimmee.
“We invite elderly and disabled adults who are alone and families in need to join us to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday,” Dorie Croissant, president of the Council on Aging’s board of directors, stated. “A traditional Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings is just the recipe to make your day happier and certainly much healthier.”
The dinner is an annual event sponsored by the Council on Aging for more than two decades. Staff and volunteers will work to ensure the meal is prepared on time and no one goes hungry on Thanksgiving Day, a tradition long valued in our nation, Croissant stated.
Any individual or business interested in contributing to the dinner with shelf-staple canned goods, pies or turkeys, can contact the council at 407-483-1493. To volunteer to deliver meals, contact Connie Bellanceau at 407-933-9525.

Homeless meal to be Wednesday
On Wednesday, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Physicians United Plan and Hands of Love Outreach Center in Kissimmee, 1499 John Young Parkway, will offer the fourth annual Thanksgiving Feast, feeding hundreds of people in the homeless community in a pre-holiday luncheon.
The center provides food, clothing, family counseling and Medicare and Medicaid application assistance to members of the community in need. The center is expecting around 500 people to attend this year’s pre-Thanksgiving event.
“PUP is incredibly thankful for organizations like Hands of Love, who prove to be such an important resource for Medicare beneficiaries. In what can be a confusing process, they provide people with the resources and guidance needed to learn about valuable health care options. We’re looking forward to celebrating the many accomplishments of the Hands of Love Center this Thanksgiving,” Gigi Henry, spokesperson for Physicians United Plan, said.
For more information, contact Nicole Weiss at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Center Lake DRI recommended
The proposed 2,013-acre Center Lake development of regional impact – with 2,201 single-family and 1,172 multi-family units – passed through the Osceola County Planning Commission Nov. 4 with a recommendation for approval.
The development of regional impact, or DRI, was expected to go before the County Commission Dec. 6 for a public hearing but the date could be changed to an evening meeting to allow more residents to attend.
The property, owned by Pineloch Management Corp., an Orlando-based company, is east of Narcoossee Road, south of Jones Road and northwest of Nova Road. The development, if approved, also would include 170,000 square feet of retail, 70,000 square feet of office, 10,000 square feet of civic and 30,000 square feet of community space. The DRI would also set aside acreage for an elementary school.
The mixed-use development would be within the urban growth boundary. The application for the development was first submitted in December 2008. The County Commission approved a land use amendment for the property in August, changing it from low density residential to mixed use.

Pioneer Paddle & Festival set for Nov. 27
The city of Kissimmee Parks and Recreation Department is partnering with Kissimmee Outdoors, a private Kissimmee company, to host the Pioneer Paddle & Festival.
The festival will be at Shingle Creek Regional Park from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 27. The event is an opportunity to reflect on the history of the area and celebrate the pioneers who called Kissimmee home. Parking, admission and entertainment are free.
Activities are geared toward the entire family to include music, dancing and on-site demonstrations. Guided canoe tours along Shingle Creek will give participants a chance to see firsthand the view experienced by Kissimmee’s first residents. Food and beverages will be made available by participating vendors.
The festival will be an ideal way to visit the park, which officially opened earlier this year. It will also provide a fun way for those who have already visited the pristine park to see it from a different perspective, organizers stated in a press release.
Shingle Creek Regional Park, also referred to as the Babb Property, is at 2491 Babb Road, Kissimmee.
For more information, visit www.kissimmeeparks.org or stop by one of Kissimmee’s Parks and Recreation facilities to register for the guided canoe tours.

County to be closed Thursday and Friday
Osceola County Administration offices, the Osceola County Courthouse and the Bass Road Resource Recovery Site will be closed Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
For residents of unincorporated Osceola County, there will be no curbside garbage collection on Thursday; the next pickup will be Monday, Nov. 29. There are no other changes to the schedule.
County offices, the courthouse and the recovery site will re-open Monday, Nov. 29.
Contact the Osceola County Public Information Office at 407-742-0100 for more information.

City to be closed two days for holiday
The city of Kissimmee will close its offices in City Hall on Thursday and Friday in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Additionally, there will be no trash pickup on Thanksgiving Day. Sanitation trucks will resume trash collection on Friday.
City Hall employees will return and resume regular business hours Monday, Nov. 29.

SWAT team takes fourth at round-up
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team last week participated in the 28th annual SWAT Round-Up International Competition in Orange County.
The eight-member team placed fourth out of 51 teams worldwide. In addition, the team took first-place in the hostage rescue and third place for tower scramble.
The annual event combines education and training with head-to-head competition. Special operations teams from law enforcement agencies internationally compete in five team and several individual challenges.
Members of the team competing this year were: team commander Rob Olesen; and team members Danny Diloreto, Michael Dahl, Richard Adair, Glenn White, Corey Griffin, Tate Wilson and Aaron Young.

Seat belt operation planned
Osceola County Sheriff’s Office deputies beginning Sunday will participate in Click It or Ticket, a nationwide campaign to crack down on seat belt non-use and to reduce highway fatalities.
The campaign is conducted by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration in conjunction with hundreds of law enforcement officials, highway safety representatives and safety advocates.
Local motorists should be prepared in the coming week for stepped up Click It or Ticket activities that will take place around the clock.

Local nurses voted to go with union
Registered nurses at Osceola Regional Medical Center in Kissimmee voted by 92 percent Monday night to join the National Nurses Organizing Committee-Florida, an affiliate of National Nurses United.
In a press release, Charles Idelson, communications director for National Nurses United, said that in a secret ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that oversees labor relations, the local registered nurses voted 354-30 to join the country’s biggest union and professional association of registered nurses.
Some 550 RNs at the hospital, which is part of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), will be represented by the union, Idelson stated.
Osceola Regional is the first of several HCA hospitals in Florida where registered nurses will be voting in the coming weeks on affiliating with the National Nurses Organizing Committee. Their votes follow election wins earlier this year by HCA nurses in Texas, Missouri and Nevada who also cast ballots for their state nursing organization affiliates, which have won representation elections for more than 6,500 RNs this year.
Local registered nurses will now focus on choosing nurse leaders to represent them in contract talks and targeting such issues as RN-to-patient staffing ratios, a patient care monitoring committee chosen and run by direct care RNs and improved health coverage and retirement benefits.