Mutz won’t seek re-election | Police cams record patient ‘dumping’

I had a great conversation with one of LkldNow’s board members earlier this week about why we host in-person community forums. She posed a good question: Community forums as live events aren’t easy to produce; would it be easier to do it as a podcast?

Maybe, but also maybe not. Producing a podcast has gotten easier but attracting an audience to listen to your podcast is hard. And I believe there’s something vital that would be lost if our forums weren’t in-person. 

With these community forums we amplify the voices of local experts but we also increase transparency and make those experts, policy makers and leaders accessible to you, the public, to answer your questions. 

With this in mind, we’re expanding the time for audience questions and answers at the free health care forum we are hosting next week.

We hope you’ll join us Tuesday, March 26, at  6 p.m. in the Campisi Auditorium at the Hollis Cancer Center, 3525 Lakeland Hills Blvd. We’ll have light refreshments and some time to socialize before the moderated discussion begins at 6:30. The focus will be on current and future health care services in Lakeland.

Huge thank you to Laura Rodriguez, executive director of Lakeland Vision, and Alice Koehler, CEO of Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine, for helping to organize the event.

Also thanks to our panelists: 

• Ann Claussen, chief executive officer at Central Florida Health Care
• Dr. Daniel Haight, vice president of community health, Lakeland Regional Health
• Jason Hirsbrunner, chief executive officer at Watson Clinic
• Joy Johnson, Polk County’s health & human services administrator

Theater: ‘Our American Cousin’ | Thursday | 7:30 p.m. | Lakeland Community Theater
A stage read of the play remembered as the one Abraham Lincoln was attending when he was assassinated in 1865. Tickets: $15

Northwest Polk Heritage Day | Saturday | 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Heritage Park, 8950 N. Campbell Road
The event celebrates the history of eight agriculture communities established between 1850 and 1900. It includes live music, breakfast and lunch, vendors and craft items, pioneer skills demonstrations, drawings to win a locally crafted quilt and an original old Florida landscape, cake walk, silent auction, children’s activities, baked goods sale. Free to attend.

Black History Festival | Saturday | 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Jackson Park, 1104 MLK Ave.
The festival, delayed by weather from its initial date last month, will include artisan vendors, food trucks and kids’ activities, dance performances and spoken word. Free.

Punk Rock Flea Market | Sunday | Noon to 6 p.m. | Swan Brewing
Seven bands, 53 vendors and 10 food purveyors will be on hand to celebrate punk rock attitudes. (View a complete list.) Free admission.