Communication Builds Our Community
Communication Builds Our Community
Sorted by date Results 326 - 350 of 3217
Two new large residential developments moved closer to reality this month as the Lake Wales City Commission voted to advance their plans. Steeple Chase, a Planned Development Project (PDP) received a Special Exception Use Permit and a preliminary subdivision Plat. The project encompasses 250 single-family detached lots and 68 townhome units on about 98 acres of former citrus land along the north and east sides of Ridge Manor. Lying adjacent to Scenic Highway on the west, the p...
Driving around and through the Lake Wales area is expected to become much easier soon as the massive bridge replacement project at US 27 and SR 60 nears completion. Construction teams are preparing to apply the new "friction" pavement surfaces to both roadways and adjacent parts of Central Avenue. New traffic signals, signage, and street lighting is already installed and began functioning in recent weeks, easing the formerly-confusing passage through the darkened construction...
Four days of observances will be part of the annual observances surrounding the birthday of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in Lake Wales, according to organizers of the events. Monday, January 15 is a national holiday, and will see the closing of banks and most government offices. Many events will take place at the James P. Austin Center, 315 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. in Lake Wales. Also on Monday the MLK parade will wind through the streets of Lake Wales...
UPDATE: Per Polk County officials, "utility construction scheduled to close Hamlin Street in Lake Wales this week has been postponed until Tuesday morning January 9. Work should be finished, and roadway reopened to traffic by noon Wednesday, January 10. Closure is needed to open-cut both travel lanes on Hamlin Street just north of Grove Avenue to install a potable water line." Initial construction of streets and utilities to serve the 600-unit Hunt Club development will...
The Lake Wales History Museum will once again be left without a permanent executive director after this week as Melissa Stoller, PhD, will be leaving the organization on January 12. Stoller took over the reins of the non-profit organization in July, 2022. According to a board statement issued by museum President Brandon Alvarado, Stoller will be assuming a new position leading grant administration for the City of Lakeland. Stoller came to Lake Wales from Tallahassee, where...
A housing boom in Lake Wales is not an unprecedented thing, as 100 years ago the young city was experiencing the same thing as 78 new homes were built in 1923, without filling the demand. During the early 1920s Florida was in the midst of the Great Florida Land Boom, a speculative bubble that eventually collapsed but left Lake Wales and a hundred other towns with an enormous inventory of new buildings, including the unique collection of masonry structures that dominate the...
Colonel James R. (Jim) Bell, 85, of Babson Park, Florida, died on December 12, 2023, after a brief struggle with lymphoma. He was a decorated Air Force fighter pilot and longtime public servant in multiple positions of civil government. Born April 25, 1938 to Tracy and Dorothy Bell and happily raised in Albany, Georgia, Jim began his flying career as a teenager, achieving his pilot's license in high school. Participating in ROTC during high school and college, he graduated...
Eileen Whitman, of Lake Wales, transitioned to heaven on November 10,2023 at the age of 83. A Celebration of Life for her Florida friends and family will be held on Saturday, January 20, 2024 from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM at the La Casa Condominium Community Room (10 La Casa, Lake Wales, FL 33898. Please see this link for her full obituary....
Charles Kiel ("Chuck") Harriman, Jr., 71, of Lake Wales, FL passed away on Tuesday, January 2, 2024, in Winter Haven, FL. Chuck was a lifelong resident of Lake Wales, graduating from High School in 1970 and after attending college at Florida State University, he returned to serve the community with the United States Post Office for 40 years. The residents of the town will remember him as the young, tall mailman that would go the extra mile to help them, while their dogs will r...
Hopes for the compete removal and replacement of the aging Grove Manor public housing complex in Lake Wales took a major step toward reality with the recent awarding of federal income tax credits worth over $21 million that will fund the project. The announcement from City manager James Slaton brought joy to city commissioners and residents attending the weekly city commission meeting. Commissioners had agreed more than a year ago to contribute a million dollars from the...
The new year of 1924 started out with big news in the community of Lake Wales as voters apparently chose to fund a new county hospital, a b ig achievement for the largely-rural county. Roads were being paved and widened to connect the network of small towns that were sprinkled across the more than 2,000 square miles of Polk, while railroad lines were also being extended to allow the quick passage of freight and passengers to and from northern markets. Citrus was the big...
Lake Wales got a good bit greener last Saturday, not only because of welcome rains, but due to the efforts of a team of volunteers from Lake Wales Heritage who braved the damp to landscape the campus of McLaughlin Middle/High School. In a six-hour effort the group planted more than 40 trees on school grounds. "It was a day of bonding for the volunteers, a really rainy day" for the thoroughly saturated group of volunteers, said Heritage Vice President Ron Poller. "It was an...
A previously-denied development proposal was turned down a second time by a 3-2 vote of the Lake Wales City Commission after the engineers and planners failed to meet the city's criteria of a "superior" residential development. Developers of the project, known simply as "Oak Development," applied for status as a Planned Development Project, or PDP, to allow sharply increased density from the underlying R-1 zoning. The PDP approval would allow the developer to define 64 lots...
A new financial disclosure requirement that has caused hundreds of municipal officials across the state to resign their offices is also having impacts in the Lake Wales area. The state law, which takes effect January 1, requires every elected official in cities, towns, and villages across the state to complete a comprehensive disclosure of income and assets that many consider draconian. The form will replace the simpler, and less invasive, Form 1 previously required. The...
Marilyn J. Cook Reid Noecker age 84 of Lake Wales Fla. died Dec. 22, 2023. Born Sep 20, 1939, at the age of 84. Marilyn was born in Gowanda, NY. The daughter of Stanley G. Cook and Marion D. (Quinnan} Cook, Marilyn married David Reid of Gowanda in 1959. David went home to be with the Lord in May 2020. Marilyn then married Casimir (Paul) Noecker on Sep 10,2022. Marilyn was a member of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Gowanda and St. Matthews Roman Catholic Church in Winter...
As 1923 drew to a close the growing Lake Wales area was documented by the writers of the Lake Wales Highlander, led by editor and publisher J. E. Worthington. A major topic of the time citrus fruit quality as some growers were picking the fruit too soon and shipping green fruit to northern markets, damaging the reputation of the state's product as a whole. The lack of enforcements mechanisms for quality standards was a hot topic for the burgeoning citrus industry, which was...
Improvements to the Lake Wales Northwest Recreation Complex on Florida Avenue are on the way after the city received a $50,000 recreation grant from the state. The sports facility is the home of Frasier Field and hosts a variety of other recreational activities along with picnic facilities. The grant from the Florida Recreational Development Assistance Program, known as FRDAP, will pay for improvements to basketball and tennis courts, two new picnic tables, and fencing at the...
Lake Wales has once again been featured in a major publication citing the pioneering planning work contained in Lake Wales Envisioned. That document, funded by the city of Lake Wales, is a comprehensive road map to a future that promises less impact from growth and a more habitable city. An article that in the online magazine Public Square says that "Lake Wales, Florida, has adopted a plan that puts active mobility at the heart of day-to-day life." Entitled "Planning a City...
With only four months to go before Lake Wales voters will choose two candidates to serve on the city commission, the first challenger has announced his intention to win a three-year term on the five-member board. Lifelong resident Brandon Alvarado will seek the district two seat currently held by Daniel Williams. Alvarado, 27, is deeply engaged in civic organizations and in his announcement, he touts his experience as an example of his commitment to the city. "My experience wo...
December of 1923 saw plenty of changes happening in the growing town of Lake Wales, then with a population of perhaps 2,000. A bit of a land-rush had been initiated weeks before when the "Knee Deep" club laid claim to an island in Crooked Lake. The group hoped to build a clubhouse on the land. New claims were filed that month on two other islands located in Lake Easy. The state "School Land Selecting Agent" responded by ordering the islands surveyed, thus removing them from...
A passion for helping people overcome health challenges and a will to reach as many in need as possible has led Dr. Kulmeet Kundlas to fulfilling his dreams in Lake Wales, even as he provides funds to educate the next generation of doctors. His work has also led him to fall in love with the community. Dr. Kundlas, a board-certified physician, operates the Shield Medical Group, a general medical practice on US 27. He came to Lake Wales directly from his residency at Cornell...
This is not the best Disney movie ever. Not even close. Frozen it is not. However I enjoyed it very much. This movie seems to be a tribute to 100 years of Disney. One of the characters is 100 years old. The movie is filled with nods to other popular Disney movies. While "Wish" might not be an instant Disney classic, it offers a charming exploration of the power of wishes, both granted and ungranted. I especially loved how the film emphasized that the journey toward your...
Roberta ("Bobbie") Freeman Harriman, 92, formerly of Lake Wales, FL passed away on Wednesday, November 15, 2023, in Orlando, FL, where she resided with her daughter, Cheryl ("Sheri") Sherman since 2014. Roberta was born in Cordova, AL and enjoyed a childhood filled with adventures on the family farm. She moved to Frostproof, FL in 1942 and graduated from Frostproof High School as salutatorian of the class of 1949. She loved Polk County and moved to Lake Wales where she met...
The expansive Ridgecrest development took a step forward recently with the approval of a "developer's agreement" by the Lake Wales City Commission that provides for the costs of infrastructure for the 312 acre project. The previously-approved planned-development project includes 1,020 single-family and townhomes located south of Russell Avenue and north of Hunt Brothers Road, between US 27 and SR 17. Included in the design is a new multi-purpose trail that will extend from...
The Highlander from 100 years ago noted the rise in fruit shipments from area groves, noting that more than 11,000 railcars of fruit had been shipped north.. At that time mostly only fresh fruit could reach northern markets aboard the two railroads that served the area. Canning and sectionizing fruit was a new process. The fruit business was a growing industry as noted by the sale of the Thullberry's grove management business to Jay Burns Jr. Meanwhile the Lake Wales Woman's...
