Communication Builds Our Community
Communication Builds Our Community
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More than 80 community leaders and interested citizens were present Thursday night for the premier showing of the documentary film "Lake Wales Envisioned," which lays out the case for changes to development codes that may redefine future development in the rapidly-growing community. The film is among the final work products of the city-funded project known as Lake Wales Envisioned, an effort to guide the city through a future fraught with both opportunities and perils. The...
A new "circulator" bus route that will serve the city six days a week on a frequent schedule began this week, making getting around town without a car a much simpler task. Lake Wales should be very proud of the new service, according to Tom Phillips, executive director of Citrus Connection, which operates the buses. "This is only the second city [in Polk County] to have a real circulator route," he told Lake Wales News.net. The circulator will stay within the city limits,...
In a major step toward addressing the challenge presented by an enormous wave of growth, the Lake Wales city commission voted to adopt a resolution in support of the Lake Wales Envisioned plan. Facing development proposals that would readily triple the population of the city, the board had agreed to fund the planning study in January, leading to months of effort by planners, residents, and city staff. The project included numerous public meetings, open workshops, webinars,...
A fire in a Waste Management refuse truck has caused the closure of SR 60 this morning just east of Rifle Range Road and near Logistics Parkway west of Lake Wales. The flaming material was ejected from the vehicle onto the roadway where it has continued to burn furiously, leaving traffic snarled in a growing backup. Motorists are advised to find alternate routes as Polk County firefighters combat the flames, which are likely to have damaged the roadway surface. Traffic was...
It's time to start digging out the jackets and sweaters. The long-awaited seasonal cooldown after the end of an exceptionally hot summer will arrive in earnest next week after the passage of a series of reinforcing cold fronts. Heavy rains are expected over Florida beginning Wednesday night, and rain will linger for several days before a series of fronts sweeps in a colder air mass that will leave morning lows in the 50's for the Lake Wales Ridge area. The potential for...
A public hearing to present plans for the next five years of work by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) District One, has been scheduled for Wednesday, October 18. The "Draft Tentative Work Program" lists transportation system improvements scheduled for fiscal years 2024/25 through 2028/29. There are three ways to participate in the hearing. FDOT District One will conduct -n-person and virtual presentations at its Bartow office at 801 N. Broadway Avenue from...
Thursday afternoon travelers on Hesperides Road found themselves caught in a lengthy backup after three vehicles tangled at the intersection of Ninth Street. Emergency responders worked to investigate and remove vehicles from travel lanes to clear the street, but no major injuries were reported. The crash was apparently triggered by an illegal right-turn attempt from a left-hand travel lane. A vehicle with two occupants driven by an employee of Edgewood Landscape crossed into...
A weeklong sewer extension project in Lake Hamilton will require the closure of a stretch of Lake Hatchineha Road for several days. According to Bill Skelton of the Polk County Roads & Drainage Division, the closure will affect a portion of the road just east of Scenic Highway. The project was previously scheduled to begin on September 26, but has now been rescheduled to start Tuesday morning, October 10, with an expedited reopening no later than Friday afternoon October 13....
The vast Peace Crossing development long-planned for a large tract of land between US 27 and Lake Ashton is now moving forward under new ownership following the sale of the property by Winter Haven Corporation. The 1,943-acre Master Development Plan (MDP) Lake Wales Mixed Use Project was approved by the city commission in 2021. The site has long been used as pasture and consists of a mix of uplands and wetland areas spanning the Peace Creek Drainage Canal. With 6100...
Community civic leaders and interested citizens are expected to gather Thursday evening to view the premiere screening of what is expected to be an influential documentary film introducing the work product of the Lake Wales Envisioned process. The event will begin at 7:00 at the Lake Wales Woman's Club Auditorium. The Envisioned planning effort grew from a desire by city leaders to better shape and guide the impact of dozens of development proposals that will include some 14,0...
The multi-million-dollar reconstruction of Park Avenue is proceeding close to schedule, as evidenced by the hard-working crews who have been seen laying the thousands of bricks that will eventually form the surface of the new street and parking spaces. The new high-quality clay-brick pavers were selected as the most durable and traditional surface for the project after a study by engineers and architects involved in the design of the project, an early phase of the multi-phase...
The nearly five-year, The $45 million construction project to reconstruct the intersection of US 27 and SR 60 in Lake Wales is progressing as crews prepare to resurface a stretch of West Central Avenue that has been disrupted during the process. Motorists should expect a northbound lane closure on US 27 near Central Avenue, according the the Florida Department of Transportation and the general contractor The massive project to rebuild the former obsolete bridge and...
Local fitness buffs may be well advised to skip the outdoor routines today due to the unhealthy levels of particulate matter in the air. The cloud of smoke which has drifted south from Canada has cast a gray pall over most of the state. It's the result of smoke from the vast wildfires which have devastated forests in what would normally be the chilly north woods. According to AQCIN.org, which monitors air quality globally, the air over Florida is rated as "unhealthy," with...
New details are slowly emerging after the huge pileup crash Thursday evening at the intersection of US 27 and Chalet Suzanne Road in Lake Wales. "Several people were injured" in the crash, according to police, with at least one with injuries described as "life-threatening." The intersection remained closed for several hours as investigators and emergency medical personnel worked the scene. According to investigators and eyewitness accounts, a Chrysler 300 attempted to make a...
Two young Lake Wales residents found themselves quickly in the custody of police after one attempted to rob a man near Polk Avenue Elementary school. According to police, the incident "does not appear to be a random act, as the victim was an acquaintance of the suspects." No shots were fired during the encounter, which was apparently an attempt to frighten and rob the victim. Minutes after receiving the call, a Lake Wales Police response led to the arrest of Joemil Olivers of...
A manhunt for a suspect who was seen on video violently assaulting a Haines City woman and two men who came to her defense was successfully concluded when the man was arrested by the Lake County Sheriff's Office. The Polk County Sheriff's Office has been notified that 35-year old Jose Chaidez of Haines City has been arrested in Lake County. a warrant for Chaidez's arrest had been issued, leading area law enforcement agencies to alert to track him down. Chaidez was captured on...
As the City of Lake Wales faces an onslaught of development proposals totaling more than 14,000 residential units, a responsive city government is making the needed adjustments to meet the challenge. Veteran planner Brian Herrmann has recently been hired to head the city's Growth Management division, a department formerly known as "Development Services." The department name change is reflection of the determination of city leadership to cope and direct the unstoppable pressure...
On a split vote, Polk County Commissioners refused to overturn the narrow approval of a sprawling development on a rural two-lane road in eastern Polk County about ten miles northeast of Lake Wales. The Creek Ranch development required the approval of a binding site plan for the 1,289 acres of rural land to accommodate 1,876 homes plus commercial uses off Hatchineha Road. The site is mostly surrounded by conservation lands and lies north of Lake Pierce and east of Dundee. The...
An early-autumn bout of very soggy weather has left the Lake Wales Ridge area with as much as nine inches of rain in some locations, raising lake levels and saturating marshes. Now long-range models are beginning to depict a weather pattern favorable to tropical storm development in the western Caribbean. The wet weather has generally been welcomed across central Florida after a drier-than-normal year, and the various models are in agreement that the pattern will remain in...
Police are seeking the help of the public in locating 35-year-old Jose Chaidez of Haines City, who is accused of battering his 64-year-old former girlfriend and then severely beating another man who tried to intervene in his attack on the woman. Chaidez is facing charges that include attempted second degree murder, armed burglary with battery, burglary with battery, criminal mischief, and stalking for the purpose of domestic violence. The attacks occurred at J&S Food Mart...
After a two-day spell of autumn-like weather to mark the official start of the season this weekend, summer-like rains are expected to return to Florida, but the threat of a tropical storm or hurricane remains distant. Computer models are showing a benign pattern remaining over the central Atlantic basin, with protective upper-level winds deflecting storms northward and away from Florida. After the rapid pop-up of Tropical Storm Ophelia just off the east coast of Florida last...
A 37 year old Tampa resident was arrested following quick action by Lake Wales Police officers who responded to a reported robbery. The suspect was charged with stealing a $6,000 necklace from Kay's Jewelers in the Eagle Ridge Mall Wednesday. Officers from the LWPD were dispatched to Kay Jewelers mid-afternoon following a reported robbery. Officers were told that a woman, later identified as identified as Shaneka S. Webb, entered Kay's Jewelers and asked to see a gold...
Lake Wales will become a healthier city if traditional neighborhood design standards are applied to future development proposals here, according to studies shared by Dr. Joanna Lombard of the University of Miami. Lombard, who has dual appointments to the university's medical school and the school of architecture, was the lead panelist on a webinar hosted this week by 1000 Friends of Florida to discuss the health and wellness impacts of where we live. The significant increases...
The City of Lake Wales plans to spend nearly $80,000 on renovations of the former Family YMCA on Burns Avenue as it steps into control of operations there. The facility is being rebranded as the Lake Wales Family Recreation Center. After purchasing the facility in February 2020 for $900,000, the city had entered into an agreement with the West Central Florida YMCA to operate the center. The 25,790-square-foot recreation facility and swimming pool on 9.45 acres of property was...
Owners of the rapidly-growing number of electric vehicles in the Lake Wales area, as well as travelers passing through the city on SR 60, will be pleased to find four new electric vehicle chargers in a handy location. A project of AdventHealth Lake Wales Medical Center and Duke Energy EV Division, the chargers have been installed in the hospital parking lot immediately behind the Lake Wales Arts Center at 1099 SR 60 East. They are readily accessible from 11th Street. A large...
