While there was plenty for Osceola County to talk about in 2022 at its State of the County address Wednesday at Osceola Heritage Park, there was a major announcement about 2023.
The Osceola Prosper program, paid for by federal American Rescue Plan relief funds, offered free tuition to Osceola County grads last school year who pursue Associate Degrees or career certificates at Valencia College or Osceola Technical College. That has been extended to this spring's 2023 graduates, who now don't have to lament about being born a year too late.
"We heard from many students from the Class of '23, 'What about us?' So we were able to extend it," said Commissioner Brandon Arrington, who served as Wednesday's event emcee. “We continue our Commission’s commitment to our residents and we’re changing lives with this investment of more than $8 million.
“I’ve always felt a well-educated workforce can create better opportunities. We want to make sure people have opportunities to expand and grow their wealth right here in Osceola County. A lot of the kids I grew up with and went to college didn’t come back. That brain drain had a serious impact on our community. That’s what’s so significant about our investment. We’re giving every kid an opportunity that is really going to be impactful to their future.”
That talk of the "brain drain" of the exodus of bright Osceola students factored much into talk of the county's investment in NeoCity. Whether its the work of students at NeoCity Academy, a $50.8 million federal grant through the Build Back Better Challenge that will help groups like imec and Skywater Technology lead a micro-electronics revolution. That grant is designed to help NeoCity's tech tenants make it an American leader in advanced packaging — a technology where chips talk to each other, work currently done in other parts of the world. It's work that will make things like "digital twins", "green boards" and "cluster management organization" domestic, rather than foreign terms.
"Advanced packaging involves computer chips talking to each other.We want to make NeoCity the advanced packaging campus of the United States," Arrington said. "We'll be making next-generation microchips in the United States rather than in 'foreign advisories,' like China. It's one way we're diversifying our economy, developing industries for the next century."
The county also highlighted agreements that went into the design of City Center at NeoCity, a place for industry, business and entertainment to come together, and a $6 million state grant to built Neovation Way, a direct connection to Neptune Road.
"It gives our next generations a reason to come home after they graduate, a way to slow the 'brain drain' from Osceola County," said Arrington, who noted the median age of the county's 400,000 residents is now 36. "The word for 2023 is 'Transformational.' A year ago I stood here debuting our new county branding. We're a year into, 'Be first to what's next.' In 2023 it's our goal to be bold, innovative and genuine."
The county announced that Tourist Development Tax collections for the 2021-22 fiscal year, which ended this fall, were $76.6 million, the best in county history by $15 million over the next-best year. And, with $2 billion in upcoming road projects on the books, a simulation of what Neptune Road, on which construction will begin next year, will look like after a widening and expansion. Work on roads like Partin Settlement, Boggy Creek, Simpson, Poinciana Boulevard and a Bill Beck Boulevard extension are also in the works. Fire stations near Austin-Tindall Sports Park and Calypso Cay will be completed in 2023, and Station 65 will move from the Polk County side of Poinciana to the Osceola side.
At Wednesday's event, the county gave out awards. Clarence Thacker, a former School Board member and Silver Spurs Rodeo Big Boss, and current board member of BRIDG, which is leading the micro-electronics revolution at NeoCity, received the 2022 Chairman's Award.
"There's no mistaking his devotion to this community," Arrington said.
The Central Florida Semiconductor Coalition, which applied for the Build Back Better grant and was one of just 21 out of 500 applications — and the only one in Florida — to receive funding, won the Organization of the Year award.
And 2021 Employees Of the Year, Christopher Palmer and Crystal Peterson-Barthel, who helped create the infrastructure for many employees to work from home in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic, finally earned their recognition.
