Communication Builds Our Community
Communication Builds Our Community
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City lakes will soon have a cleaner, and perhaps healthier, appearance, thanks to an ambitious weed-harvesting effort that began on Thursday. The work is being performed by a contractor working under an agreement approved by the City Commission in April. Clearing started on Lake Weader, also known as Lake Weaver, where the city operates a large fountain. The lake borders US 27 and Central Avenue in Lake Wales. Shifts in wind direction have recently been moving a large mat of...
The Polk County Public Schools district is recruiting bus drivers and attendants for the next school year, hoping to prevent the driver shortage that resulted in bus delays at the start of last year. The district operates a fleet of 511 buses traveling about 61,000 miles per day, transporting about 50,000 students to 121 schools, making 9,200 bus stops along 2,700 routes, according to the transportation department's website. That travel totals nearly 11 million miles per...
Lucille Wagner of Lake Wales passed away Monday, May 27, 2019 at Water’s Edge in Lake Wales, where she was a resident for 9 years. She was born October 14, 1922 in Todd, NC to the late Julius L. and Laura (Tatum) Miller. She has been a resident of the area for 9 years coming from Haines City. She was a homemaker. Lucille loved her family, all her friends and staff at Water’s Edge and enjoyed cooking. Her family really appreciated the care she received at Water’s Edge and through Good Shepherd Hospice. She is preceded in de...
Hope Ramsey, 49 of Ocoee, formerly of Babson Park, died May 27 at the Orlando Health Regional Medical Center in Orlando, Florida under Cornerstone Hospice Care. She was born Oct. 21, 1969. Services are incomplete. Epps Memorial Funeral Home in Lake Wales is in charge of arrangements....
As Lake Wales area schools are preparing for summer, we are reminded that not all education takes place in the classroom. Here is a story about students participating in experience training programs. Just like every other student at Lake Wales High School, Ellis Allanson boards a bus and heads to Highlander Hill ready to take on his daily assignments. But unlike most who spend their days in classrooms, the cafeteria and media center, Ellis spends most of his day at Sweet...
One hundred thousand tons of coal ash being hauled from Puerto Rico to a Central Florida landfill have resulted in a raging controversy that affects Lake Wales, as a candidate tied to the project seeks to represent the city in the Florida House. The coal-ash controversy led to more than an hour of agitated public comments at a recent County Commission meeting in Osceola County. At that meeting Commissioner Fred Hawkins Jr. found himself the target of much of the ire. Hawkins,...
A team of Kairos Prison Ministry Weekend volunteers is headed to the Avon Park Correctional Institution to bring light into the darkness of prison during the annual event that begins Friday, May 25. The mission of Kairos, a Greek word meaning in "God's Special Time" or in the "Fullness of Time," is to share the transforming love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ to impact the hearts and lives of incarcerated men, women and youth, as well as their families, to become loving and p...
James Ros Welborn, 63, of Quincy, Florida, passed away on Monday, May 20 surrounded by family and friends, after a long battle with cancer. Ros was born September 9, 1955, in Lake Wales to Clayton "Poncho" Welborn and Margaret "Peggy" Welborn. He attended Lake Wales High School. Ros was employed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in 1983. He worked more than 30 years with the "Game Company" as he loved to call it and retired in 2014. He previously served...
To continue focusing on its mission and to promote brand awareness the Lake Wales Museum and Cultural Center has been renamed the Lake Wales History Museum. The Lake Wales City Commission Tuesday, May 21 approved the name change, recommended by Museum Director Jennifer D'Hollander. "As an established resource in the Lake Wales community, the museum has included many different activities over the years. Today, the museum looks to the future as a focused, vibrant center focused...
Developer Ray Brown took his frustration with city staff directly to the Lake Wales City Commission Tuesday May 21 and left the meeting with a commitment to at least discuss how to move forward his plans to restore the historic Seminole Hotel. After some "he said, she said" banter that left commissioners expressing their own frustrations, City Planning and Development Director Kathy Bangley assured the commission "we will do everything to accommodate their team." Vice Mayor Ro...
Clinton Gilbert Morrison, 98, of Lake Wales passed away Sunday, May 19 at Water's Edge in Lake Wales. He was born October 8, 1920, in Great Neck, Long Island, New York, to the late Charles E. and Marie D. (White) Morrison. He was a World War II U.S. Navy veteran, having served as a Pharmacist Mate, First Class, (Corpsman), attached to the Marine Corp in the Pacific Theater. He spent his career in the medical supply field and was the owner of Hazleton Medical Supply in Hazleton...
As the Class of 2019 at Lake Wales High School counts down to graduation May 24, school officials are still celebrating the stellar accomplishments of the Class of 2018. Despite a nearly 71 percent poverty rate - students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch - Lake Wales High School graduated more than 92 percent of its seniors in 2018 – the third highest rate of all high schools in Polk County. The State of Florida defines graduation rate as the percentage of s...
Ronald Toombs, 62 of Lake Wales, died at home. Born in Lake Wales. He was born August 05, 1956. Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 25 at Mt. Zion Progressive Missionary Baptist Church, 12 B. Street, Lake Wales. There will be no public visitation. Epps Memorial Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements....
A friend of mine, Gene, died on May 4th about one in the afternoon. His brother called to tell me of his peaceful passing. We had been friends for a long time, although we hadn’t seen each other in person for 15 years. Sometimes we talked on the phone multiple times a week; sometimes a month would go by before we talked. We knew this was coming. Lung cancer. He was a smoker. He didn’t call me for a while last fall and when he finally did, he said he hadn’t wanted to worry...
Derek Nathaniel Wolford, aged 24, passed away at his home on Friday, May 17 in Lake Wales, Florida. He was born on July 8, 1994 in Winter Haven to Dewey and Wendy Wolford. He was employed by Bald Peak Colony Club in Moultonborough, NH. He attended Lake Wales High School and Job Corp in St. Petersburg, Florida. He was a member of Impact Church in Lake Wales. Derek loved listening to all genres of music, playing drums with his band mates, cooking, and helping his Mimi and Poppaw do odd jobs. His respectful and caring nature...
Lake Wales High School's boys baseball team can take it to the bank that closing out Spring 2019 with a won-loss record of 21-7 reflects a season well done. Imagine. Three quarters of the time spent playing, the Highlanders were on top, and only a quarter of the games found them on the losing end. That made for a successful run that took them deep into the FHSAA playoffs, losing only in the Regional finals. Except for a one run difference on the scoreboard both Lake Wales and...
Constance E. Jones, 80, of Babson Park passed away Saturday, May 18, 2019 at Grace Healthcare in Lake Wales. She was born October 3, 1938 in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania to the late Richard A. and Bernice (Brown) Wood. She lived in Hillcrest Heights Florida for 56 years. She retired as the secretary of Babson Park Elementary school after 36 years. She is preceded in death by her parents, first husband Howard Fink, second husband Harry W. Jones, her brother Dick Wood, and her...
Flora S. Gooch passed away peacefully on Tuesday, May 14th in Winter Haven of natural causes. She was blessed to have lived for a full 94 years. She was born March 25, 1925. She was first married to Capt. Homer E. Scheets with whom she had 2 daughters. Following his death in 1958 from a military plane accident, she moved with her 2 little girls to Lake Wales, where she was close to her family. She remarried in 1962 to Roy J. Gooch who worked at Florida Power and Light, and...
The Polk County School Board Tuesday May 14 approved enrollment increases for Victory Ridge Academy and Bok Academy North for the 2019-20 school year and to hold the capacity at 1,650 for Lake Wales High School. Bok Academy North got approval to increase enrollment from 200 to 400, so they can roll up their 6th graders and serve grades six and seven for the next school year. Bok North presented a plan to house 200 seventh grade students at First Presbyterian Church in addition to 200 sixth graders at First Baptist Church,...
The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship and the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network, the state's principal provider of small business assistance, will host the 2019 Small Business Leadership Conference. Held June 26-28, 2019 at the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes, the Small Business Leadership Conference is the premier professional development and networking opportunity for small business owners, managers, executives, economic and community...
A familiar face at Long's Dry Cleaners, a virtual Lake Wales landmark, is counter attendant Maria Garcia. Back in 2001 Garcia was walking along Central Avenue when she happened upon owner Jim Brow standing inside the door at his dry cleaning business. After a brief conversation she was instructed to return the next day at 9:30 a.m. Assuming she was meeting Brow for a follow-up interview, Garcia was pleasantly surprised to find she was hired and would begin her new job right...
1 cup corn 1 cup unsweetened almond milk or milk of choice 1/16 teaspoon garlic powder 1/16 teaspoon onion powder 1/8 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon sriracha sauce 2 drops liquid smoke Pulse 5 times in a high speed blender. Pour into a pan and heat over medium stirring or into a bowl and microwave stirring and testing after each minute. I ate at the Blue Corn Café in Santa Fe many years ago. I've been making versions of this soup ever since. It is still on the menu described as...
