Sanford, FL – May 12, 2017 – Wharton-Smith, Inc., one of Central Florida’s largest locally based general contractors, joined with Orange County Government, Orange County Public Schools, students and staff of Windermere High School, and members of the West Orange community on May 10 to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new Deputy Scott Pine Community Park. The park is named after Deputy Scott Pine who was killed in the line of duty in 2014, and will be home to the football stadium for the new Windermere High School, located about a mile away.

Deputy Pine’s widow, Briget Pine, and three kids were in attendance to hear Mayor Teresa Jacobs, Former County Commissioner Scott Boyd, District 1 Commissioner Betsy VanderLey, and Sheriff Jerry Demings honor her husband. “This park will be a tribute to [Scott Pine’s] life,” said Mayor Jacobs. “It will serve as a place of gratitude, a place where kids can play and families can gather, a place where his heroic story and his memory will live on and inspire generations to come,” she added.

In addition to the football stadium, the 19.5-acre park will serve the community with multi-purpose fields, a playground, and green space.

Orange County Public School (OCPS) Board Member Pam Gould praised the partnership of Orange County, OCPS and the community in making this project a reality. “This was truly a community effort,” remarked Gould. “As Henry Ford said best, coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success. I think this is a perfect example of all of those things,” she said. “This is only the beginning of our success. Not only for our community to have great green space where I can already hear the band and cheers from sporting events…kids playing on the playground, and weekend soccer events. It’s a very exciting time.”

As general contractor, Wharton-Smith will oversee all construction efforts for the new park and stadium. The 19.5-acre community park is estimated to cost $9.7 million and will open in 2018. The new high school, also being built by Wharton-Smith, is expected to open for the 2017-2018 school year.

Photos from the event are located on our Flickr site here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskWGrERj