Communication Builds Our Community
Communication Builds Our Community
Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 177
Lake Wales attorney Sara Jones has spent hundreds of hours volunteering to help redevelop the city's Northwest business district. On Tuesday Feb. 9 she took the first step to, as she said it, "put her money where her mouth is." Sara Jones Law submitted the successful proposal to purchase two city Community Redevelopment Agency lots on Lincoln Avenue to build a multipurpose professional office building and event venue. City commissioners, who serve as the CRA Board, accepted...
Darrell Starling already has an ambitious agenda in place following his recent hiring as the Lake Wales Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Coordinator. In particular, Starling will work closely with the city[s Northwest neighborhood, one of two areas specifically targeted by the city's ambitious and award-winning "Lake Wales Connected" revitalization plan which also covers the historic downtown business district as well. City leaders expect to break ground on the early...
Lake Wales city officials were hopeful the foreclosure sale of the historic Seminole Hotel would be ordered Feb. 12, but instead Circuit Judge Dana Moore agreed to allow current owner Harout "Henry" Kebabjian to continue his fight to develop the property. The city now will have to produce a large volume of documents related to the Seminole. Just a week before the foreclosure hearing Kebabjian's lawyer asked the court to have the city produce five years' worth of documents,...
City leaders are anticipating shovels in the ground this summer in what will be the first project in its award-winning "Lake Wales Connected" revitalization plan for the historic downtown and northwest neighborhood areas. The Lake Wales Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) approved several measures this month which set the wheels in motion on several projects in both areas. The board approved an agreement with Chastain-Skillman Inc. that will provide construction documents...
This is the 13th installment in the Lake Wales Renaissance series. Lake Wales City Commissioner Robin Gibson serves as Deputy Mayor and Chairman of the city's Community Redevelopment Agency. 2020 is been a bummer. It's time for some good news for 2021. We've got it. Dover-Kohl's "Lake Wales Connected" plan is coming off the drawing boards. It will be going out for bids this Spring. The pretty pictures you've seen -- in reality they are only promises. This summer the shovels...
The Lake Wales Community Redevelopment Agency has approved spending $10,000 to purchase two vacant lots on B Street to help jump start a new affordable housing initiative in that area. The city is expected to partner with Keystone Challenge Fund, a non-profit organization, to build two houses on lots currently owned by the Green and Gold Foundation across the street from the B Street Center. Officials said the homes would have an estimated value of $170,000, with mortgage...
Bright sunshine broke through the dreary morning Saturday, Jan. 23 as friends, family and history buffs gathered to celebrate the opening of the Mimi Hardman Collections and Research Center. Named for the city's most noted historic preservationist, the center is located on South Scenic Highway in the newly restored 1916 Seaboard Airline Freight Station. Known for developing the historic Depot museum, bringing millions of dollars in historic preservation grants to the city and...
Hello my name is Curtis Gibson, I am a Lake Wales city commissioner in district 19, seat 2. I never thought about getting into politics. In fact, I used to say I am not a politician. The fact of the matter is I am. When I jumped into this arena it was in 2015 when I ran for mayor of Lake Wales. I was terrified and didn't know what the outcome was going to be. I had so many people from both sides wanting to know who pushed me to run against the mayor and I simply told them I...
Lake Wales City commissioners in a workshop session Dec. 9 indicated support for continuing with their foreclosure action on the historic Seminole Hotel. Only Commissioner Curtis Gibson expressed interest in holding off on the foreclosure and working with Henry Kebabjian, who purchased the hotel in August at a bargain basement price of $10,500. "Here's the deal," Gibson said. "We want to be pro-business. We want entrepreneurs to come into our city and work with us." But City...
Design team members for the Lake Wales Connected downtown revitalization plan on Nov. 18 unveiled concepts for turning Market Plaza into a community gathering place. About 30 people participated in an online open house to see two concepts for the central square between Stuart and Park avenues. Attendees were told the 1931 historic clock, designed by the famed Olmsted Brothers Landscape Architects and relocated to the marketplace as part of the downtown revitalization in the...
The Lake Wales Community Redevelopment Agency has been presented with the prestigious Florida Redevelopment Association Award for outstanding "Planning Study for Small Cities." The FRA annual awards program recognizes the best in redevelopment in the state of Florida. Selected by a statewide jury of community development professionals involved in economic development, winners demonstrate originality and positive impact on their communities and serve as a shining model for...
City commissioners will be getting a bump in pay next year after a salary increase was approved at the group's meeting Sept. 22. It is the first raise in commission salaries since the last one was approved in the fall of 2013. Currently commissioners are paid $4,917 a year, while the mayor's post pays $7,310. The new annual salary will be $6,323 for commissioners and $9,484 for the mayor. The raise brings salaries in line with what other local cities of similar size pay their...
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was updated by Executive Editor Chevon Baccus after the Sept. 16 CRA meeting. City commissioners agreed to invest $460,000 to help finance a proposed redevelopment of the 140-unit Grove Manor public housing complex. Pantheon Development, which in 2018 formed a partnership with the Lake Wales Housing Authority to do the work, requested the money from the city's Community Redevelopment Agency as part of a plan to help finance the construction of six...
Since his appointment June 2, Interim City Manager James Slaton has worked closely with Lake Wales Police Chief Chris Velasquez to address commissioner and city concerns. Slaton recently emailed an update to commissioners along with a more detailed report from Velasquez, which he said described "positive changes and improvements that are now taking place." Slaton also said he would in the near future be bringing forward for commission consideration an agenda item with costs an...
Henry Kebabjian wants to redevelop the historic Seminole Hotel in downtown Lake Wales, but his timing may be a little off. Kebabjian bought the three-story hotel Aug. 19 at a bargain-basement price of $10,500, two months after the city's Code Enforcement Board voted to foreclose on the property. The city in 2017 declared the building unsafe, emptied it of tenants and condemned it for multiple code violations. Recent owner Cardiff Howell of Orlando was unable to submit an...
This is the eleventh installment in the Lake Wales Renaissance series. Lake Wales City Commissioner Robin Gibson serves as Deputy Mayor and Chairman of the city's Community Redevelopment Agency. Nations strive for a positive trade balance, where they sell more products than they buy, thereby receiving increased capital and creating a higher standard of living for their citizens. The same holds true for any economic unit. Let's take Lake Wales downtown for example. It's a...
A vision of restored brick streets and sidewalk cafes under the shade of umbrellas and spreading Live Oaks changed many viewers' ideas of the future of downtown Lake Wales Thursday evening. Those images were among many shared during a 90-minute presentation by consultants and engineers hired by the Lake Wales Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) to create the "Lake Wales Connected" plan. The plan is designed to attract crowds, and thus business investment, to the neighborhood...
The initial unveiling of drawings for the proposed Park Avenue Streetscape in downtown Lake Wales has been postponed three weeks but the public will have multiple opportunities for input. "We are bending and swerving and I think it's actually going to turn out better," said Lake Wales MainStreet Director Karen Thompson. An in-person open house originally scheduled for July 9 was postponed due to concerns about the COVID-19 virus. Thompson said an online session now will be...
Lake Wales City Commissioners have given the green light to fund two positions largely concentrated on improving the quality of life in the city's northwest community. Acting as the board members of the Community Redevelopment Agency, the group unanimously approved the hiring of a police community liaison officer for District 3 of the CRA, which covers the northwest area, as well as a CRA coordinator for that district. The action came during the CRA meeting on July 14. The...
Lake Wales Interim City Manager James Slaton has hired certified planner Mark Bennett to become the city's new Development Services director. "I'm coming home so to speak," said Bennett, who has been a Lake Wales resident since 1998. In addition to being a certified planner, Bennett is a certified redevelopment specialist with more than 20 years of public and private sector experience. For the last eight years he has served the City of Haines City as Deputy Director of...
The Lake Wales City Commission, in its role as the Community Redevelopment Agency, will consider at its July 14 meeting offering $150,000 in incentives for two proposed downtown restaurants. James Ellis of Ava Properties in Heathrow is asking for a $100,000 grant - double the amount specified in the city's restaurant incentives program – to help him fund the Corner Café at One Scenic Central, a combination coffee shop and fine dining restaurant. His company purchased the tw...
This is the eighth installment in the Lake Wales Renaissance series. Lake Wales City Commissioner Robin Gibson serves as Deputy Mayor and Chairman of the city's Community Redevelopment Agency. It is impossible to overstate the importance of the private enterprise segment of a successful community redevelopment effort. Florida's Community Redevelopment Act illustrates the point. The very first section of the Act is entitled "Encouragement of private enterprise." The Community...
Shock, stunned disbelief blanketed Bartow last Sunday, June 7, as the community learned Ken Riley, 72, died suddenly from a massive heart attack. Heartbroken tributes posted on Facebook paying tribute to the NFL all-star demonstrated how beloved and well-respected he was, and showing the fragility of life. "He was at the Solemn Assembly yesterday and seemed fine," wrote Richard Dreyer on his Facebook page, as Riley was among the more than 100 people gathered. "Yes, a great per...
Lake Wales Finance Director Dorothy Abbott tried to calm commissioners' fears at the first 2020-2021 city budget workshop June 3. She said she's been preparing city budgets for 19 years and if she's not panicking over the likelihood of reduced revenue, neither should they. "Everybody just stay calm, tell us what you would like to see and trust your staff to bring back a budget document," Abbott said. "If I'm not too worried yet, please don't be too worried yet." Abbott said sh...
This is the fifth installment in the Lake Wales Renaissance series. Lake Wales City Commissioner Robin Gibson serves as Deputy Mayor and Chairman of the city's Community Redevelopment Agency. Dover, Kohl & Partners is an internationally known town planning firm working out of South Miami. Among their many achievements are nationally recognized revitalizations of traditional communities much like Lake Wales. Victor Dover is co-author of the definitive work on the subject...
