Things To Do In SW Florida

Mike King helped persuade skeptical neighbors in Sweetwater West five years ago to sign onto a mammoth sewer project — at their personal expense — to protect the delicate Wekiwa Springs from septic-system pollution.

The gated community of more than 180 homes was the first of 17 neighborhoods in Orange County near the springs to buy into a septic-to-sewer conversion, a multiphase project originally estimated to cost $123 million.

But now, more than two years after bulldozers rolled in, King and many other residents have regrets.

“It’s been a nightmare in so many ways for people who live here and invested here,” he said this week, pointing out a sod-less section of a neighbor’s lawn, an unpaved half-lane of street in front of his home and other shoddy work.

The trouble in Sweetwater West is a black eye for the county’s septic-to-sewer conversion efforts, in a neighborhood which officials hoped would become a “showroom” to persuade other neighborhoods to join in.

The projects are intended to improve water quality in the Wekiva River and Wekiwa Springs, diagnosed 15 years ago as impaired by nitrogen and phosphorus pollution from thousands of septic systems in Orange, Lake and Seminole counties. Homes with septic tanks push those chemicals into the springs with every toilet flush. read more

Elijah, a baby okapi born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in October, is now within sight of theme park visitors.

The young animal has joined his mother on DAK’s Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail. Elijah is the 14th birth of this endangered species at Animal Kingdom and the first since 2012, the company says.

His mom is Zelda, and his dad is Elombe.

Elijah has had a bit of a growth spurt. He was 46 pounds at birth but now weighs in at 165 pounds.

The new Animal Kingdom resident was named after longtime WDW cast member Elijah “Slack” Johnson. He started working at Magic Kingdom in 1974 and moved to Animal Kingdom’s horticulture department when that park opened in 1998.

The striped okapis are native only to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and are rarely seen in the wild, Disney says. (It’s a natural camouflage thing.) The birth of baby okapi Elijah was made possible through cooperation with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan.

Although it’s been more than a decade since an okapi was born at Animal Kingdom theme park, an okapi eventually named Beni was born at the nearby Animal Kingdom Lodge in 2022. Beni and Elijah have the same father, making them half-brothers. Park guests may also spy okapis during the Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction. read more