Courthouse getting concessions: machines with food, drinks, ice cream

Published: Tuesday, January 28, 2014 at 4:00 p.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, January 28, 2014 at 4:00 p.m.

Tom Loveday was surprised to find out the way he viewed the world was a little different than those around him.

As a teenager, doctors diagnosed him with retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease.

In 1988 he was declared legally blind, but Loveday continued to work, putting in 35 years as an engineer, supervisor and in manual labor until he was laid off.

Now Loveday has reinvented himself into a successful business entrepreneur thanks in part to the Florida Division of Blind Services' Bureau of Business Enterprise. A business venture by the bureau will soon take Loveday into the Marion County Judicial Center as the operator of a new concession space.

Though he's been declared legally blind, Loveday's illness doesn't leave him disabled. He can see in well-lit spaces and sometimes uses a cane to move around.

"People just don't understand," he said of many misconceptions he has encountered concerning his sight.

"To simplify it, it's basically the retina crystallizes and you basically end up with no periphery (vision) whatsoever," said Loveday, 58, of Ocklawaha.

As for his new business, the Bureau of Business Enterprise is one of the largest vending and food services operations for legally blind people in the United States. It oversees more than 120 licensed vendors who manage about 150 facilities in Florida. These establishment include 23 snack bars, 13 cafeterias, 55 highway vending stations at interstate rest areas and non-highway vending facilities.

The concession stands are typically located in buildings belonging to either the federal, state or county governments and include the Kennedy Space Center and both the Palm Beach County and Hillsborough County courthouses.

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Courthouse getting concessions: machines with food, drinks, ice cream