Lakeland Regional Health is getting rent relief after city commissioners agreed Monday to suspend annual rate increases for five years.
The amendment to the hospital lease agreement removes the annual 2.75% increase in rent through fiscal year 2024, freezing the price at $14.4 million. The annual rent increases had been set under a 25-year agreement between the city and the hospital signed in 2015. More
The scope of a possible city-owned internet service provider became more focused Monday as the City Commission’s broadband committee set a goal to build a fiber optics network to cover all of Lakeland city limits. More
A plan by the city’s staff will reduce the pressure to raise the property tax rate if a request for rent relief by Lakeland Regional Health is granted, but it won’t be pain-free, City Manager Tony Delgado said. More
Lakeland police are happy to get home surveillance video to help solve crimes, Lakeland Police Department Chief Ruben Garcia said, but the department can’t and won’t endorse a particular brand of camera.
LPD was identified in a Vice article as one of many departments throughout the country that has signed an agreement with Amazon-owned Ring Inc., a manufacturer of doorbell cameras and other home automation and surveillance devices. More
The release of estimated costs to build a city-owned internet service utility brought millions of dollars of good news for Commissioner Justin Troller and other “gigabit city” advocates Friday.
The new $80 million estimate to build a network that covers the area within the city limits cuts $30 million from a 2016 ballpark estimate prepared by Magellan Advisors, the city’s broadband consultant. The Colorado-based company was hired by the city this year to create a business plan for a proposed retail internet service. More
Prosecutors will not pursue felony charges against a Lakeland woman who was accused of entering her estranged husband’s home and taking two firearms before being arrested while trying to turn them over to Lakeland police.
Instead, Courtney Taylor Irby, 32, will be charged with misdemeanor trespass, State Attorney Brian Haas announced at a news conference today. She had originally been arrested by Lakeland police June 15 on two allegations of grand theft of a firearm and one allegation of armed burglary. More
The internal doubts of a young woman coming to understand her roots and her place in the world inspired the external drama in a short film being shot in Lakeland today and Saturday.
Pamela Rodriguez, 22, was born in Puerto Rico but moved to Lakeland when she was very young, she said, but it didn’t take long to realize she was a little different than the majority of her peers. More
The race for Lakeland’s open at-large commission seat has produced a rare split among Lakeland’s business leaders.
BusinessVoice Inc., the political action committee affiliated with the Lakeland Area Chamber of Commerce, endorsed Carole Philipson for the open seat. Her equally-funded opponent in the five-way race, Chad McLeod, has been endorsed by Lakeland First, a PAC created by a smaller group of area business owners and executives. More
Urgency inflected a meeting of the city’s broadband task force Thursday, and though little new information emerged about the ongoing process to create an internet service business plan, the city’s consultant assured commissioners it was on schedule to meet the Aug.5 deadline. More
A woman arrested Saturday on allegations she stole two firearms from her estranged husband’s home was granted bail Thursday for the most significant crime she is accused of committing.
County Judge Robert Fegers granted Courtney Taylor Irby’s request for bail Thursday morning at the Bartow courthouse as more than two dozen of her supporters — family and friends, church members at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Lakeland and her pastor, Tim Rice — sat inside and outside the courtroom. More
