EATONVILLE, Fla. – The Town of Eatonville is looking for a new mayor and two new council members.
Early voting is now open for Eatonville’s town council elections and runs through Friday, with Election Day on Saturday, March 7. You can check your voting status and find your polling precinct through the Orange County Supervisor of Elections website.
Eatonville has four council seats, and three are up for election. You can find all the candidates on the Eatonville town website.
Mayor Angie Gardner is stepping down after four years as mayor and has filed to run for the new District 7 seat on the Orange County Commission.
Voters in the oldest continuously incorporated town founded by African-Americans will decide on Gardner’s replacement.
News 6’s Christie Zizo spoke to each candidate about their top concerns for Eatonville, what they thought about the sale of the Hungerford property to Dr. Phillips and how the current mayor handled it, and what they think Eatonville needs to thrive in the future.
[WATCH: What’s next for the Hungerford property after sale]
Below, we shared each candidate’s answers about their top concerns for Eatonville. You can find the full interviews for each candidate by clicking on the names below.
Ruth “Ruthi” Critton
NEWS 6: What do you think the biggest issues in Eatonville are and how would you solve them?
RUTHI CRITTON:
“I personally think that, and I’ll give you two, the two that come to mind first are home ownership and finances. So I’ll start with home ownership because we know that our homestead numbers are a little lower than what we’d like to see in the town of Eatonville, which was established on home ownership. So for me, that’s extremely important.
“I know home ownership... Assist with neighborhood stabilization, which is a big part of our platform and something that we’re very adamant about attacking when we get into office. And I just believe strongly that when you have people in your community that own homes, that have a stake in the community, you can kind of gauge more community feel. You can kind of figure out who’s really invested in the committee, who’s here for the long haul, things of that nature.
[WATCH: 5th-generation Eatonville native shares history, pride at Juneteenth event (from 2024)]
“Just to take it a step further, when I moved back to Eatonville, I purchased my family home. And when I started paying those taxes and when I started paying that homeowner’s insurance, those things really brought value to what it meant to be a part of this community. So I think that that is a big part of what Eatonville faces as far as things that we should be working on and things that should be looking towards. We know we have a huge renter community here. So we’re welcoming of those residents. But we want to make sure that we’re providing resources to the residents that are interested in home ownership. And I think those things will help level us out, help stabilize us.
“I also believe that finances are a big part of some of the struggles that Eatonville continues to face. We’re a really small town, about 2,800 to 3,000 residents. And we know that taxes play a big role in our community dependency. We are heavily dependent upon tax dollars. We do have other resources and revenues that come through, but a big portion of what we depend on is tax-based. So being able to responsibly manage those finances, being good stewards of those finances. I think that that puts us in a position to kind of tackle some of those other issues that we find ourselves. Not being able to handle head-on because finances are an issue. I sat through budget workshops. I watched as the council and department heads worked tirelessly to find ways to spend money wisely, to save money, to substitute with resources and alternatives.”
NEWS 6: What do you think is needed for Eatonville to thrive in the future?
CRITTON: “Unity within the community. A lot of the topics that are discussed at Town Hall could potentially be controversial. But finding ways to advocate for all the voices, again, perspective, I think brings us together. And I think, again, we are better together than we are apart. So being able to foster a sense of unity, I think is the foundation of pushing us forward. It’s the foundation of the next 138 years of Eatonville. I think that that is. The best way to go. That and transparency, being able to say things and mean them and support them. Those things, coupled with unity, I think are the direction that I would go if I were me.”
[WATCH: Howard University swim team visits Eatonville pool]
Wanda D. Randolph
NEWS 6: What are Eatonville’s biggest issues in your mind and how would you solve them?
WANDA D RANDOLPH:
“Well for presently, the biggest issue in Eatonville right now is dealing with the infrastructure of our roads, our sidewalks, addressing the needs to our other governments such as the county, the state, and the federal of the needs of things that we need to do in order to support the infrastructure in Eatinville to dealing with time that has gone in for so many years. The Hungerford property has always been a topic of discussion that we feel is going to be very supportive of the needs of the town. Some of the other things that we have some issues that we’re dealing with, and that is to make sure that we maintain our historic preservation here in the town of Eatonville, and also to be more accountable to the residents and our local businesses here in the town.”
NEWS 6: Regarding the roads, any particular roads that you think really are overdue for help and how are you guys working on that?
RANDOLPH:
“Oh, yeah, absolutely. Kennedy Boulevard, which is the main artery in the town of Eatonville. Uh, that road has thousands of cars per day, and it’s a two-lane road. We’re going to be looking into that, that was one of the things that I would like to get with the staff about if I become mayor, is to ensure that we have a relationship with the county so that way we can move the road along. It has been in the engineering process for almost 20 years and it still remains to where it is now. So we wanna be able to make sure that we fulfill the plans of the potential for that road to be widened, so that way, we can attract more people to Eatonville and also grow our town.”
[WATCH: Eatonville resident receives much-needed home renovations through community grant (from 2025)]
NEWS 6: What do you think is needed for Eatonville to thrive in the future?
RANDOLPH:
“We do need a grocery store. We don’t really have an adequate grocery store here. We have to travel three to four miles and even further to get groceries and we want Eatonville to be a one-stop shop here. Residents can go right here down the street from their homes, and patronize these businesses that we have here and get the same services that they get elsewhere. So that’s gonna help our economy grow. It’s gonna bring jobs here and that’s what we’re looking forward to.”
Theo Washington
NEWS 6: What are Eatonville’s biggest issues in your mind and how would you solve them?
THEO WASHINGTON:
"The biggest issue we have now is I’m looking at road projects, that we have a lot of damaged roads in our community. And that’s one of the programs I see around. When I’m around City of Orlando, when I’m in Seminole County, I see every round about November, October, November, they’re doing road projects. We’re paving roads, resurfacing roads. That’s one of the projects that we need to come back, come to Eatonville. We need to get a road project, get our roads done to make them be roads. But because right now our roads are in need of being resurfaced. That’s one of big issues that I have with the town. Of course, infrastructure that’s already been in place. We’ve got things in place for that. We have funding for it. Now it’s time to implement it. So I think it’s on the papers. It’s on a table. Now we begin to get those things done. So that’s not an issue, the infrastructure part. But the main thing I want to get looked at is these roads that we have, that need to be done, that haven’t been done over probably in the seventies."
[WATCH: Eatonville celebrates grand opening of municipality’s first-ever financial institution (from 2022)]
NEWS 6: You had talked about needing a gymnasium and needing outdoor fields. I mean, I know you have a basketball court in Eatonville. Is that also something that’s on your agenda? Is adding more recreational areas?
WASHINGTON: Yeah, definitely. That’s one of the plans for recreation. Definitely add a gymnasium to our community at the town recreation. You know, the Boys and Girls Club has a gymnasium, but that’s the Boys and Girl Club... So we need our own for our own taxpayers who pay taxes to this community.
NEWS 6: What do you think is needed for Eatonville to thrive in the future?
WASHINGTON: "I think what’s on the map, what we have on the table now, bringing in more businesses, bringing in commercial businesses, we already have housing going up, so that’s not a big issue. People talk about housing. That’s not going to be the issue because we have that going up every day. Matter of fact, I think we’ve got three or four houses going up at this moment. So, that’s not going be the issue about housing, but our main thing is getting businesses here. Getting businesses here that can sustain and help the town tax base and bring people to our community. We do do events that bring people here on a monthly basis and quarterly basis. And people see those businesses at these events and those owners that have these vending booths, that some of them wanna move to Eatonville. But we must build something for them to come to. And like, I know that a lot of rent is high. That’s one reason a lot of people fold up and go, you know, to start doing a mobile truck, stuff like that. And that’s what a lot of them do. But my main thing is we build some buildings that could bring those companies, those businesses in, those small businesses that will help Eatonville a lot better to be on the nightlife that either people come to Eatonville to eat, they come walk through things like that."