LEESBURG The Leesburg City Commission said goodbye to two long-term members at Monday night’s meeting, Mayor Elise Dennison and Commissioner Jay Hurley.
Both had reached term limits and were replaced by two newcomers elected in November Jimmy Burry and Jay Connell.
“It’s been a great eight years,” Hurley said. “The city of Leesburg has obviously been through a lot of things but if there’s anything I’m proud of it’s what we’ve accomplished over the last eight years. I still think Leesburg is the greatest city in Lake County and I’m proud that I’ve been able to do some small part in serving you, the residents. I hope you’ll keep on working toward making the city of Leesburg better and better.”
Leesburg Airport debuts new storage hangars
Cindy Peterson
LEESBURG The Leesburg International Airport officially opened two new storage hangars on Tuesday, making it the first new construction hangars built by the city since 2005.
“Today marks another day where Leesburg has been on the move,” City Manager Al Minner said at the ribbon cutting ceremony. “It’s a big day for us to finally get some hangers up as part of our masterplan.”
Each hangar contains five units each which will accommodate aircraft wingspan of up to 45 feet wide. Each hangar features a hydraulic door, LED lighting, fire suppression system and utilization of the existing taxi lanes for ingress and egress to the airfield.
Leesburg breaks ground on wastewater facility expansion
Cindy Peterson
LEESBURG On Thursday, Leesburg city officials broke ground on the new expansion of the Turnpike Wastewater Treatment Facility which will upgrade the existing infrastructure at 1600 County Road 470 in Okahumpka, and add an additional facility that will increase the capacity from 3 million gallons per day to 4.5 million gallons per day.
The $21.6 million project is said to keep up with the growing population of South Leesburg as well as The Villages expansion.
“This plant provided opportunity because it was designed and built in 2000 to catch a bunch of growth happening but the plans sat on the table for 10 to 15 years,” City Manager Al Minner said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “Not only were we able to help the economy, we designed the facility to improve the environment. We can have a strong, healthy, vibrant economy and create something that helps our rivers and lakes at the same time.”