Community members confronted Mayor Joe Kilsheimer during the Wednesday, November 1, City Council meeting over his wife’s decision, as president of the Apopka Historical Society, to ban an Apopka historical book from the Museum of Apopkans after her dispute with its publisher, as well as taking down other black historical artifacts off display.
Sales of “The Pennings of Perrine Slim: Stories of Northwest Orange County Florida” by Perrine Slim were discontinued at the museum because Cheryl Kilsheimer, who was appointed historical president in early 2017, had had a disagreement with the book’s publisher Dr. Phyllis Olmstead. Perrine Slim is the pen name of late local historian and The Apopka Chief columnist William Gladden.
Residents said Cheryl Kilsheimer should also not have confronted Belle Gilliam, 96, a 47-year Museum of the Apopkans volunteer, at Wellsprings Residence on Welch Road, to make the demand that the book not be sold at the museum.
Fifteen residents wanted to speak at the council meeting, many of them about the museum. A few of them waived their privilege to approach the podium. Cheryl Kilsheimer was not at the meeting.
“There seems to be an infection that’s spreading not only through City Hall, but over to the museum (of the Apopkans),” Leroy Bell, member of the Apopka Area Concerned Citizens Council (AACCC) told Mayor Kilsheimer concerning his wife.
Bell defended Gilliam when he brought up the Wellsprings incident, calling her “our jewel, not just on the white side of the track.”
“She was a lady who gave – she gave affordable housing to people who worked for her. She was bringing people together,” Bell said.
The museum board – on which City Commissioner Diane Velazquez’s husband Ed Velazquez sits, Bell said – also turned away “a lady of color” from volunteering at the museum, Bell said.
After all the residents addressed had the opportunity to speak at the podium, Mayor Kilsheimer firstly apologized to Gilliam if his family and he offended her.
He also explained that last January, his wife got a phone call request to volunteer as the president following her predecessor’s death, and as the new president, brought in new museum board volunteers.
An expanded version of this story appears in the Friday, November 3, edition of The Apopka Chief.
