Communication Builds Our Community
Communication Builds Our Community
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How do we worship during a pandemic? With our connected world, we are fortunate to have the ability to still connect via the internet or devices such as phones, tablets and computers. While church offices may still be open and operating, social distancing is very important. I thought I'd start by telling how First Baptist Church of Lake Wales, my home church, is still serving The greater Lake Wales community during this unprecedented time. I reached out to Sr. Pastor Dr....
EDITOR'S NOTE: Dover Kohl consultants will present their plans to the Lake Wales City Commission, serving as the Community Redevelopment Agency, at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1 at the City Administration Building, 201 W. Central Ave. You can view and download the plans online at https://www.doverkohl.com/lakewales- The City of Lake Wales has hired Dover Kohl & Partners Town Planning to draft and propose a comprehensive redevelopment plan called "Lake Wales Connected." This plan...
The current health crisis has noticeably altered many of our ideas of what, and who, is most important. Some of the things we would have listed as essential in order for us to have a "successful" life on March 1, may not have made our list here at the end of May. The perspective, words, and interactions we have with others has likely been altered by COVID-19. Upon further reading and reflecting on John 15:13 in recent weeks, (Greater love has no one than this, that someone...
The city's consultants in an online open house Aug. 20 unveiled a design plan for a Crystal Lake Connector Trail that links downtown to the trail around Lake Wailes. City staff will be showing off designs and answering questions from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21 in a storefront at 220 E. Park Ave. About 30 citizens participated in the online open house with city staff and consultants from urban planners Dover-Kohl and design architects S & ME. The consultants are working...
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...
Alfred Charles (Chip) Thullbery, Jr., 67, of Lake Wales died on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020, in Moffitt Cancer Center, from an aggressive melanoma cancer in his liver and bone marrow. He lived fully until the cancer emerged and within three weeks debilitated him and took his life. We, his family and friends, are feeling bereft at losing Chip so suddenly, but are grateful to have had him in our lives, grateful to have known someone who was such a good friend, brother,...
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...
This is the tenth 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. Best Bang for the Buck Trees are the best. Their mere presence improves individual property values. Collectively they improve the town's tax base as a whole. The improved value comes from the purchaser's desire to buy the advantages of appearance and aesthetics. Not only do trees...
This is the ninth 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. Victor Dover and his co-author have poured their careers as town planners into what has become the definitive handbook entitled Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns. The book recounts the history and experience of a wide range of different situations across the globe that...
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...
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...
This is the seventh 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. The Dover-Kohl plan is much more than an update of the well-worn 1973 improvements to Downtown. The plan covers the town's historic core. It is thorough, comprehensive, and doable. The entire plan can be viewed at: https://www.doverkohl.com/lakewales. Appropriately named "Lake Wales...
This is the sixth 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. First, let's talk about where we are headed, and next, about one of the trouble spots we may confront in getting there. Where We're Headed. The Dover-Kohl plan, entitled "Lake Wales Connected," is a comprehensive plan for the revitalization of the Lake Wales historic core. It connects...
Lake Wales City Manager Ken Fields and the city commission agreed Tuesday June 2 to part ways in something akin to an "amicable divorce" but it took a lengthy discussion to reach agreement on the terms for the split. "I hope I am viewed as someone who has made Lake Wales a better city," Fields said, noting leaving two years before his contract expired wasn't his choice but he was resigned that it was time to go. Fields' departure was effective immediately, but everyone made...
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...
I would like to thank Lake Wales News.Net for allowing me to become a guest columnist. The City Commission, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, has unanimously adopted what is known as the "Dover Kohl Plan." The Plan, entitled "Lake Wales Connected," will serve to redevelop the historic core of our town – by connecting the Town and Bok Tower, building connections between Downtown and the Northwest Neighborhood, and between Lake Wailes and the Downtown. I will be w...
Lake Wales lost a special friend when Jerry Miller passed early in the morning of Feb. 24 after a lengthy battle with cancer. The community and government relations manager with what is now Duke Energy, Miller touched countless lives throughout Central Florida and left a lasting imprint. Faith, family, friends and service were Miller's top priorities. His smile, some might call it an impish grin, lit up a room, and he loved to dance. The 61-year-old Miller fought cancer...
Can you see it? Can you feel it? Something's in the air and although the holidays are fast approaching, I am specifically referring to the Dover Kohl "Lake Wales Connected" downtown revitalization plan that focuses our resources and attention to rejuvenating downtown. To keep connected, let's talk about what has happened since the Aug. 13 town hall meeting when Victor Dover unveiled the final plans. In full-speed-ahead mode, Lake Wales Main Street, Inc. posted on Nov. 15 the...
An unofficial advisory committee working toward redevelopment of the city's northwest section is now incorporating as the Lincoln Community Development Corporation. On the heels of the City adopting a Northwest redevelopment plan, recommended by urban planners Dover Kohl and Partners, Lake Wales attorney Sara Jones is organizing the group to help ensure the plan's successful implementation. "Organization and community input are vital to the success of the redevelopment plan...
Downtowns are the heart of a town. To devote time, money, energy and dedication to a city's downtown is to embrace its essence. Therefore, it was with great enthusiasm that we at the Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Council asked the city and the business community to fully endorse the Lake Wales Connected plan to revitalize downtown and the Northwest. Our team from the Chamber/EDC had a large contingent in attendance on Oct. 1, when the Lake Wales Community...
On the heels of his promotion to Lake Wales deputy city manager, James Slaton has completed a prestigious and intensive two-year leadership program conducted by the International City Managers Association. Slaton was in a class of 15 municipal government leaders who graduated from the ICMA program Oct. 23 at the organization's annual conference in Nashville. He became one of only 180 city officials to complete the program since its inception 12 years ago. "This was truly a...
The City of Lake Wales now has an ambitious plan for the redevelopment of its historic downtown and the Northwest business district. City commissioners, in their role as the Community Redevelopment Agency, started their new fiscal year Oct. 1 with the adoption of the Community Connected plan developed by Miami urban planning consultants Dover Kohl & Partners with extensive public input over the last year. "Now the work begins," said Karen Thompson, assistant CRA and Lake...
Urban planner Victor Dover was man of the hour Tuesday, receiving applause and high praise after presenting a draft Lake Wales Connected plan for redevelopment of the city's downtown and northwest business district. About 75 interested persons, including numerous downtown merchants and community business leaders, listened attentively as Dover described the potential to turn Lake Wales into a popular destination, returning to city founders' concept of a city in a garden, as des...
Lake Wales City officials are reviewing the 100-plus page draft "Neighborhood Plan for the Core of Lake Wales" in preparation for its official presentation Aug. 13 by urban planners from Dover, Kohl & Partners. "Lake Wales Connected is more than just a plan for improvements to a single street, district or neighborhood; it is a strategy for revitalization of Lake Wales' historic Downtown and one of its most important close-in neighborhoods. Together, the Downtown and Northwest...
