DATE: Tuesday, September 2, 1997            TAG: 9709020084

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KATRICE FRANKLIN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   59 lines

ORLANDO RESIDENTS LOOK FORWARD TO BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR THE AREA

They've been meeting for months to discuss their neighborhood.

``Aulander,'' is what they call it. It's Orlando to those who've never lived there.

Month after month, every third Thursday, they gather. They share refreshments, talk about their children and grandchildren, and then get down to business.

The group, made up of residents, those with ties to Orlando, and clergy, are there to develop a plan for how their neighborhood will look in five years.

They call themselves the Orlando Implementation Team.

Last November, the City Council selected Orlando for Suffolk's first community revitalization effort.

And on Wednesday, the City Council and Suffolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority's Board of Commissioners will hold a joint public hearing on the plan they've devised.

``The groundwork has been laid,'' said the Rev. Betty Montgomery, a member of the group. ``Now it's time to move forward.''

After the hearing, both bodies will vote on the proposals at their next regular meetings. If the plan is approved, construction and work on the neighborhood's infrastructure will begin.

Many of the group's members have never even been involved in such a large community task. Some don't like public speaking. A few, before a few months ago, had never set foot in City Hall.

But none of that matters because they are determined to improve their home.

Right now, they're stuck between the past and the future. Orlando is a nine-block, 37-acre community with boarded-up structures, barely standing homes, dead-end streets and drainage problems.

The housing authority has already cleared several vacant lots to make way for new construction.

Fifty years ago, the neighborhood on the outskirts of downtown Suffolk just off of West Washington Street was a community where grandmothers sold Dixie cups of frozen Kool-Aid for 5 cents. Nobody locked doors because everybody was family. And adults could discipline a neighbor's child because everyone was considered a parent.

But many of the local peanut factories that residents worked for closed or reduced their work force. And homeowners either died or moved away.

Under the neighborhood plan, five years from now Orlando would have improved drainage, street lights, nice homes, a park where their kids could run and play, and connecting thoroughfares.

Reaching their goal won't be easy. But the group and the residents are determined not to give up.

``So much needs to be done here,'' said 62-year-old Dorothy Little, who has lived in Orlando since she was 3, ``and this will encourage us all to do greater things.'' ILLUSTRATION: File photo

Clarissa McAdoo, executive director of the Suffolk Redevelopment and

Housing Authority, at the head of the table, meets with the citizens

of the Orlando Implementation Team to discuss goals on improving the

neighborhood.

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