With a federal court challenge behind them, the Lakeland City Commission today directed City Manager Tony Delgado to proceed with plans to move a 109-year-old Confederate monument from the center of Munn Park downtown to its new home, a gentle slope overlooking Veterans Park and Lake Beulah. More
Lakeland’s next assistant city manager will be a woman who currently works in the Tampa Bay area and has spent her professional career in Central Florida. That profile fits both remaining candidates after the other two finalists dropped out of consideration today. More
On a day when City Manager Tony Delgado announced he was promoting from within to fill the position of police chief, he revealed the names of four finalists — all from outside of Lakeland — for the No. 3 position in city administration: assistant city manager. More
The much-debated city saga of the fate of the 109-year-old Confederate monument in Munn Park continues to drag on: most recently, a U.S. District Court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by groups and individuals who want it to stay put.
City Attorney Tim McCausland said Tuesday afternoon he and City Manager Tony Delgado will brief city commissioners soon so that they can decide how and when to proceed..
In November, commissioners voted to move the statue by Jan. 31 using money the city draws in from the use of red-light cameras to pay for the monument to be relocated. Plans were to pay an estimated $225,000 to move it to Veteran’s Memorial Park and install security measures.
But the day after the final city vote, a group called Save Southern Heritage filed a federal lawsuit to stop the city from moving the monument. The group was joined by other individuals and some Confederacy-related organizations in suing Delgado and several commissioners.
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The suit trying to stop the moving of the Confederate statue has been dismissed. The United States District Court has dismissed the lawsuit with an 18-page report reprinted below.
Previous LkldNow coverage of the lawsuit.
LkldNow will have a report on the story later today. More
The 2019 Dangerous By Design report was released yesterday, and Lakeland was listed as the fifth most dangerous American metro area for pedestrians during the years 2008 to 2017.
That didn’t come as a shock to Lakeland city planners and transportation officials as the metro area finished sixth in the 2016 report. Chuck Barmby, the city of Lakeland transportation & development review manager, said that when the 2016 report was released the state was “already in the process of doing safety audits, neighborhood mobility audits, and major intensive funding efforts that led toward investments in bike and ped infrastructure.” He added that the report helped focus the state toward getting those investments in place as quickly as possible.
Barmby noted that the state studied the city from Memorial Boulevard north to Interstate 4 and recommended projects out of that study. He added that in 2016 city staff walked Memorial Boulevard, Kathleen Road, Lakeland Hills Boulevard, and U.S. 98 to look at the streets from the view of the pedestrian.
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Lakeland city commissioners got updates this morning on a range of subjects, from a march planned for next weekend to protest police activities to the latest on the searches for a new police chief and new assistant city manager. More
A lawsuit is slowing, but not halting, preparations to move Lakeland’s Confederate monument from Munn Park to Veterans Park, City Attorney Tim McCausland told city commissioners this morning. More
Sara Roberts McCarley was elected to a nearly-three-year-term on the Lakeland City Commission, capturing 74.2 percent of the vote in today’s three-candidate special election.
She will represent southwest Lakeland on the seven-member board, serving out the term that was vacated when former Commissioner Michael Dunn resigned in October. More
While the Hospital Corporation of America sees an opportunity to hop into the local health-care market by building Polk County’s first free-standing emergency room, some residents say the planned site on South Florida Avenue signals danger for their quiet neighborhood. More
