Category: News Roundup

CATALYST: The City of Lakeland development staff presented economic development ideas to the City Commission. The focus was on asking the commission to consider investing in certain projects to jump start downtown development. CHAMBER: The Lakeland Chamber of Commerce chairwoman, Michelle Ledford, was profiled in Tuesday’s paper of record. Ledford is a partner in Lakeland’s […]

BAND: Lakeland band leader and professor Roger Hewitt died last week at 87. Hewitt taught at Polk State College and led the Polk State College Jazz Band. He founded the Over 55 Show Band for local musicians in 1988 to bring area musicians together to play swing and jazz standards. The big band played regularly […]

IN WITH THE NEW: Lakeland City Commissioner Scott Franklin is asking city staff to revamp the budget process. Traditionally, a workday is spent with each department explaining its long and short term goals. Commissioners are then asked which goals the departments should pursue. This year, Franklin wants the day to put more focus on the […]

FIRST: The Lakeland Dreadnaughts cheerleading squad took home their first state championship with a win of the FHSAA Class 2A Large Non-Tumbling division. The team finished second last year in the Medium division. LAST: After close to 30 years working for Polk County, Jim Freeman is retiring in August. Freeman has been the county manager […]

REJECTED: Governor Ron DeSantis announced he was signing an executive order to remove “Common Core” standards from schools. He has not designated a new curriculum. Local officials expressed surprise and asked questions about how the order would affect Polk County schools. RATIFIED: More than two years after forming a union, Florida Polytechnic University’s faculty ratified […]

SCHOOL: Polk County School Board members Lisa Miller and Billy Townsend have questioned the motive for a staff proposal to do away with buses for charter schools. Rob Davis, the district’s head of transportation, said the elimination of the service would save money and get some other students to school on time. Miller and Townsend […]

LEGISLATION: Lakeland’s city commissioners and Mayor Bill Mutz met with area legislators to discuss Lakeland’s requests for the 2019 legislative sessions. The gist: don’t take money away or ask the city to pay for new initiatives. K-9: A Polk County Sheriff’s Officer shot dead a K-9 officer who was biting him. Master Deputy Scott Cronin […]

CITYMAKER: Jenna Cherry, a 20-year-old Southeastern University senior, was recognized for her artistic contributions to Lakeland in the monthly award given by Mayor Bill Mutz, former Mayor Howard Wiggs and Linda Bagley-Wiggs. BIKELAKELAND: Dichotomous Lakeland bicycling news as one bicyclist, Richard Joseph Arenda, was critically injured in an early morning collision while another, 70 year-old […]

PROTEST: Hundreds of protesters marched from Salem’s Fresh Eats on Memorial Blvd. to the Lakeland Police Department to protest the December shooting of Michael Jerome Taylor. (Turnout estimates varied; WFLA pegged it at “more than 100.”) WRESTLING: The Lake Gibson Braves wrestling team captured their second straight HSAA Class 2A Duals state championship yesterday in […]