The City of Winter Park, Fl, recently picked DigitalPersona, Inc. to take care of the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) mandates authentication component. The city selected DigitalPersona Pro as well as DigitalPersona Privacy Manager Pro to secure their local networks and programs used at Winter Park’s City Hall.

DigitalPersona, Inc. is one of the word’s leading providers of fingerprint identity and authentication solutions for businesses, program developers, and regular consumers. The company develops software and hardware that secures the sensitive information of people and businesses.

Among the facilities the new systems will “keep watch” over are the department of motor vehicles, electric division, as well as the city’s roster of emergency and police vehicles. Furthermore, confidential and sensitive information is kept secure thanks to digital signing and use of an ultra-sophisticated encryption code for e-mails and important documents.

Before DigitalPersona, Inc. was chosen by the City of Winter Park, they used usernames and passwords to protect networks from intruders and unauthorized personnel. But every hacker worth his gold knows this level of security is too easy to break into. The CJIS mandate however, called for Winter Park to utilize advanced authentication systems. Officials from the city commented that DigitalPersona was the best choice due to their excellent track record.

Beginning the 15th of February, Monday, High Performance Sports Management, Inc. will be the official management company behind Winter Park, Fl’s Azalea Lane Tennis Center, situated right along Azalea Lane.

And to make it official, the popular tennis center will be holding a Meet & Greet Open House on the 27th of February, Saturday, starting at exactly 12 noon, and ending at 4 in the afternoon. Those who attend the celebrations will get the opportunity to meet the pros behind High Performance and marvel at the great improvements made on the tennis center – these include brand new resurfaced courts, as well as a practice wall for lone players who want to hone their game, as well as for squash fanatics.

New services one can expect from the tennis center include a new Pro shop, beer & wine, as well as food service. Busted a racket? You can have it stringed by the center’s employees for you. And if you simply like to watch the game, expect the Azalea Lane Tennis Center to play host to big tournaments for youth and adults.

Indeed, the new and enhanced center offers a brand new experience to current members, as well as to new ones.

Winter Park Country Club’s Golf Lecture Series will be featuring a special PGA® Merchandise Show on the 27th of January, at 6:30 in the evening. The WPCC, located along 761 Old England Avenue in Winter Park, Fl, will be having a lecture with the special participation of Jim McLean, one of golf’s top 5 instructors in the world today.

With golfers and lovers of the sport are rushing to get reservations, it might be a bit difficult to get seats, especially since they are limited. Tickets are priced at $10, and can be purchased at the WPCC. Snacks and refreshments will also be provided by by Tolla’s Italian Deli & Cafe.

For 20 years, Jim McLean has worked with golf’s top professionals, as well as young golfers to help build their skills and talents. Looking to share his knowledge and experience, the winner of the 1994 PGA National Teacher of the Year award founded the Jim McLean Golf School, which is widely regarded as the world’s best golf school.

The special edition lecture is presented by the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and the North Florida PGA.

For more information on the lecture and the WPCC lecture series, you can send an email to winterparkgolf@cityofwinterpark.org or call 407-599-3339.

In the wake of the cataclysmic disaster that claimed thousands of lives in Haiti, the City of Winter Park, together with the Salvation Army Orlando Area Command is presently putting up a fundraiser to help pool money and other supplies used for the relief and recovery efforts for the victims of the massive earthquake that struck Haiti just recently.

Winter Park Fl Mayor Ken Bradley, urged his fellow community members to extend a helping hand to the victims devastated by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake. He pointed out that while America may have its own share of problems today, the lives of those in Haiti literally depend on our assistance.

Winter Park’s residents have stepped up to the plate by donating money and non-perishable food items.

Donations will be accepted through the 29th of January, 2010. You can drop supplies and monetary donations at the Winter Park City Hall, the Winter Park Public Library, and the Winter Park Public Safety Facility.

Officials in the city are encouraging residents to drop by with batteries, children and infant clothes, blankets, powdered milk, bottled drinking water, other clothes, and canned goods.

Haiti needs our help. If you want to know more, logon to www.salvationarmyusa.org, or dial 1-800-SAL-ARMY (725-2769).

Even if it’s still a few months away, tickets for the City of Winter Park’s 9th annual Dinner on the Avenue have officially been sold out. The yearly event will be happening on Saturday, April 17, 2010.

Tables were sold out only 2 weeks after they were officially put on sale on January 4 – an amazing response considering over 140 tables were made available during the first day. Organizers have counted 1,300 heads to participate in the event, made up of both locals and tourists. Undeniably, the dinner has become the biggest social event in Winter Park, Fl, since it was first started in 2001.

It’s a massive collection of family, friends, tourists and newcomers, and more. All of them will be dining under the stars and the moonlight from 6 to 10 in the evening at the picturesque Park Avenue. Each set of diners will be provided with of course, a table, linen tablecloth, and chairs. The rest is up to their imaginations.

Each year, the event draws in dozens of people looking to show off their creativity by designing their tables. Designs range from the unique, to the extremely elegant. Judging begins at exactly 7 on that evening.

Residents from the City of Winter Park, FL, may have been a bit disappointed to learn that part of the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art was closed to the public, but that’s bound to change when the museum finally fully opens before the year ends.

Regular visitors will delight in knowing that the museum will be better and more importantly, bigger. The Morse—as it is more commonly known—will also house collections from Louis Comfort Tiffany’s long-demolished estate in Long Island, Laurelton Hall.

The renovated and expanded Morse—which took around $5 million to pull off—will also be putting on display Tiffany’s famed Daffodil Terrace, something never-before seen in Winter Park. Aside from paintings, antiques such as lamps, windows, furniture, and more can also be found in the new Morse.

The expanded section of the Morse will include a library, a conference room for meetings, and an additional 6,000 square feet of exhibit space.

According to the Morse’s curator Lawrence Ruggiero, he and his staff are nervous and excited at how things will turn out – whether it will draw in visitors or not.

The museum is expected to fully open in winter this year.

Fate was kind enough to let Winter Park resident Gina Denny watch the movie Sherlock Holmes from beginning to end, for the moment she stepped out of the theater, she knew it was time for her baby to come out.

She and her husband immediately dashed—a quick walk for a pregnant lady like Gina—to Winter Park Memorial Hospital, where she gave birth to a baby boy they named Ryder.

The very healthy 9-pound and 3 ounce baby also happened to be the year’s first baby for the entire Central Florida region.

Although he was scheduled to be born on January 6 through a C-Section, Gina Denny was happy—and relieved—that the process was normal and the baby healthy. The fact that he arrived during the first few minutes of 2010 is an added special bonus though, she adds smiling.

On the other hand, the thought of Ryder being Winter Park’s first baby did cross her husband J.D.’s mind at one point, given her due date and all.

Hospital officials have confirmed other New Year’s births, but none are as close to 12 midnight as Ryder’s.

Special gifts from the hospital and celebrity-treatment by the media made the occasion even more special for this family.

If Winter Park, FL, takes one developer’s offer, the city just might have a brand new post office situated near West Lyman Avenue, for the price of $4 million. The development of the site for the office would also give Central Park a chance to expand by as much as 2 acres, essentially meaning that the deal hits two birds with one stone.

Dan Bellows’ proposal—which was put forth only last week—piqued the interest of city officials who had only a few options to choose from when it came to transferring the post office to another location outside the park. If city council agrees to the deal, another proposal will then be sent to the United States Postal Service office for approval.

Even if the city still needs to find additional funding for construction of the post-office building itself, having the site developed beforehand is a significant bonus and something officials are very interested in. So far, Winter Park officials have recorded receiving $280,000 from private donors, and over $1 million from 2007 pledges.

If the U.S. Postal Service gives its stamp of approval, the decision to move forward with the proposed plan lies once again in the hands of Winter Park’s officials. Designs for the project are expected to be finished (if things proceed as planned) by June, while the new post-office is targeted to be completed in May of 2011.