July 2018

132 133 than it was in 1991.We’ve retired all our debt and don’t owe anyone anything. That combination of being self-sufficient and fiscally responsible has put us in a position where we can have low taxes, no debt, and strong services. The fifth thing is that we’re intensely innovative; constantly challenging ourselves to come up with and vet new ideas and make them happen. By getting all our employees ingrained in our long-term mission, we’ve had incredible success coming up with home-grown ideas as extraordinary as purifying water to sur- gical cleanliness, all the way down to modifying a pontoon boat to harvest invasive species from lakes, rather than paying someone else.” The city created a STEM education program for middle and high schools in Seminole County, ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FLORIDA where students can discover science, tech, engi- neering, and math out in the field. They travel to rivers, lakes, bogs, and the reclaimed water plant, and conduct experiments in the city-owned, nationally certified environmental lab, where USB wristbands allow them to take data back to the classroom. “We’ve had 13,000 students go through what we call the Altamonte Springs Science Incubator (AS2I),” Martz reports. The City created AS2I then found partners who could see their vision. Seminole County Public Schools, Duke Energy, Adventist Health System, and other private sector businesses all joined the program. “What’s really cool is we can teach students about AFIRST and pureALTA, and they are less intimidat- ed by alternative methodologies. By doing that, we’re growing our future employee base with stu- dents who come through the program and could potentially be hired by the city.We want to help our community by preparing the next generation who may live and work here.” Altamonte Springs has proven you can make a difference, leave a footprint, and do it with low taxes and no debt. They’ve recently started an electric company to produce energy for their own buildings. The entire city operation is service-ori- ented; every innovative idea evolves into a ser- vice that’s delivered to customers. And no idea is out of the realm of possibility. As Martz recalls, “Two years ago, when everybody on the planet was fighting with UBER, we reached out to UBER and said, “Hey, we’d like to partner with you to see how you can serve our residents’ transportation needs better than traditional transit models that