Communication Builds Our Community
Communication Builds Our Community
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A tasty tour of nearly two dozen downtown Lake Wales businesses will be featured this Thursday, April 10 as Lake Wales Main Street presents their 6th annual Wine DownTown. Food samples from several downtown restaurants, including Melanie's Seafood Company, Mimi's Bakery, Cocoa Cakes Studio, The Thirsty Dragon, and The Peach and Pepper will be offered at each of the participating businesses. The food samples will be accompanied by free samples of fine wines and craft beers...
Two families were left homeless Thursday evening after fire gutted their duplex unit on West Seminole Avenue in Lake Wales. The apartments are part of the Grove Manor public housing complex, which is scheduled for demolition over the coming three years. Lake Wales firefighters and Polk County EMS units responded to a call shortly after 6 p.m. to find one unit heavily involved in the fire, which spread rapidly into the roof structure, Heavy smoke also caused additional damage...
Two new restaurants are among the immediate results of the investment in a renewed downtown historic district by the Community Redevelopment Agency and the City of Lake Wales. The city recently celebrated the opening of the re-imagined Park Avenue which, along with stretches of First Street, Scenic Highway, and the Market Plaza, have been turned into lush gardens lining brick streets intended to create an attractive setting for dining and retail. The Thirsty Dragon, an...
Getting rid of old tires is too often a problem, leading to waste dumping on area road shoulders. They provide an ideal breeding place for mosquitoes as rainwater collects in them but will not drain. They also create a fire hazard and are very difficult to extinguish. Now, Keep Polk County Beautiful, Inc., in partnership with Polk County government and Waste Management., is offering a free solution opportunity by hosting a free Tire Collection and Recycling event. The...
The murder of a 22-year-old Frostproof man Sunday has led to murder and accessory charges against an Avon Park man, his teenage son, and his son's friend. 22-year-old Juan German-Garo, Jr. was found deceased in his vehicle on Washington Terrace in Frostproof shortly after 5 p.m. on Sunday with multiple gunshot wounds. Two large bags of marijuana were found in the victim's vehicle. Witnesses gave a description of two suspects to detectives, who canvassed the area and located...
A pageant of color and music will burst onto the streets of Lake Wales this weekend in the form of the annual city-wide Mardi Gras celebration. Highlighted by a two-day music festival and a traditional parade, the festival is expected to draw thousands to the downtown streets and the lakeshore festival grounds. The Lake Wales Mardi Gras, now in its fifth decade of existence, includes numerous private parties, along with ticketed public events including those sponsored by more...
The death toll on area roads, already very high in recent months, rose again Saturday morning after a fatal crash that occurred shortly after midnight Saturday. The fatality is the second at the same crash in less than four weeks. According to witnesses and the Polk Sheriff's Traffic Homicide Unit, a silver Dodge van driven by a 68-year-old male from Bowling Green, FL, left the Citgo gas station at Sun Ray in Frostproof, turned left onto Charles Street, and then attempted to c...
A wrong-way driver took the life of another motorist in a pre-dawn crash on SR 60 early Saturday morning after two vehicles collided head-on about a half-mile east of Logistics Parkway. First responders, including Polk County Fire Rescue and the Polk County Sheriff's Department, were dispatched to the scene, about six miles west of Lake Wales and 10 miles east of Bartow, at about 4:25 a.m. That location is in the midst of the Peace Creek floodplain. Upon arrival they found...
Prominent Lake Wales business and community leader Edwin Morris Friedlander passed away peacefully in his home on January 19 at the age of 93. Friedlander was well-known among area business and civic circles, having participated in a number of non-profit boards and community efforts, including Lake Wales Hospital, the Chamber of Commerce, and Rotary. He was among a group of business leaders who helped lead a privately-funded urban renewal project in downtown Lake Wales in the...
A fatal crash involving a bicyclist has added to the horrific tally of roadway deaths in southeastern Polk County in recent weeks. According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office and Polk County Fire Rescue, a fatal crash occurred between Fort Meade and Bowling Green Wednesday night. Based on evidence and witness statements, traffic homicide detectives determined that a bicyclist was northbound on US 17 at Bill Bryan Road when he was struck from behind by a motorist driving a...
Lake Wales police have arrested a private school substitute teacher for showing sexually explicit photographs to her elementary students. Park Avenue Private School administrators contacted Lake Wales Police and told them they had terminated substitute teacher Gayle Wessel on November 7, 2024, after students reported that she had shared explicit photos on her phone. Wessel, 60, Wessel of Babson Park, is now facing six counts of showing obscene material to minors and one count...
Restaurant choices for Lake Wales area residents continues to increase as four new operations are poised to begin serving in January. Two are well-known national chains while two are locally-owned. The city's sparkling reimagining of the downtown area, known as Lake Wales Connected, is attracting new investment in the form of two new restaurants, both in an extensively-remodeled building just across from the US Post Office. The Thirsty Dragon will open in a matter of weeks at...
A Sunday evening crash at Sun Ray Homes near Frostproof took the life of a St. Cloud motorcyclist. According to Polk County Sheriff's Traffic Homicide Unit investigators, a 48-year-old Frostproof woman was driving a silver 2017 Nissan Quest van when she attempted to make a left turn onto southbound US 27-98 from Charles Street. She entered directly into the path of a black 2006 Kawasaki Vulcan motorcycle, which was being driven northbound by 37-year old Kevin Loring. Based...
The new year started with a tragic accident and two motorcyclists were left with serious injuries after crashing their sports bikes at 1 a.m. on New Years Day. According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office Traffic Homicide Unit's preliminary investigation, the two men traveling on motorcycles eastbound on Tindle Camp Road northeast of Lake Wales, approaching the intersection with Lake Mabel Loop Road. For unknown reasons the first rider, a 30-year-old Haines City man, lost con...
A five-day-long undercover human trafficking operation which began on October 2, resulted in the arrest of 157 suspects involved in illegal acts related to soliciting prostitutes, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office Vice Unit. Those arrested were allegedly offering to commit prostitution or aiding and abetting prostitutes. Three other suspects were arrested for traveling to sexually batter juveniles. Detectives identified and arrested one suspect for human...
The fourth local traffic fatality in a week took the life of a 24-year-old woman, who died following a head on crash on on Hatchineha Road Saturday evening. The crash happened after she attempted to pass another vehicle. The woman was reported by law enforcement to have been driving a a 4-door green Nissan Sentra on Hatchineha Road just east of Jennings Road at approximately 7:22 p.m. Saturday evening when she entered the eastbound lane into the path of a a white Nissan...
A foggy morning is likely to have contributed to the third traffic fatality in a single week in the Lake Wales area after a crash at SR 60 and Boy Scout Road east of the city. Traffic was blocked in four directions following the early Thursday smash-up. According to Polk County Sheriff's Office Traffic Homicide Unit investigators, a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck driven by a 61-year-old Lake Wales resident was travelling southbound on Boy Scout Camp Road. At the intersection if...
A Lake Wales teacher is facing three felony charges after a violent assault at a local home. Polk County Sheriff's deputies arrested 51-year-old Thomas Griffin, a middle school teacher at McLaughlin Middle-High School in Lake Wales, charging him with burglary with assault, false imprisonment, and battery by strangulation. According to witnesses, on December 14 Griffin arrived at the residence of a woman with whom he had a prior romantic involvement and began banging on the...
Two men were killed Monday after entering SR 60 into the path of a Freightliner tractor-trailer rig at the intersection of West Lake Road just west of the Lake Wales city limits. First responders responded to the crash scene at around 9:38 pm, where they found two men deceased in a white 2002 Chevy 2500 work van operated by Florida Degreasers, a restaurant service company. The preliminary investigation, based on evidence and witness statements, indicated that the Chevy van...
The annual Orange Blossom Revue brought praise from hundreds of attendees from across the nation, many of whom spent the weekend in area hotels or camped in temporary campsites adjacent to festival grounds on the shores of Lake Wailes. The annual charity fundraiser features popular touring bands, many of which draw their own fans to the two day event. This year's show was the 11th in the series, and the event has grown during that time from its origins as a Rotary barbeque...
Flames rapidly engulfed a camper parked on a lot in the Lake Garfield area east of Bartow Monday afternoon, claiming the life of a 53-year-old man, despite the heroic efforts of neighbors who pulled the victim from the flaming trailer. Polk County Fire Rescue responded to the 3:43 p.m. call of a fire on Pipes Road, reportedly arriving at the scene only two minutes later and finding the camper engulfed in flames. They provided immediate first aid to the victim who was lying...
Motorists passing through Babson Park are warned to exercise caution as work crews will be conducting a major reconstruction of Scenic Highway through the heart of the village. The Florida Department of Transportation has begun a Full Depth Reclamation (FDR) Project on SR 17 (Scenic Highway). The project zone includes about one mile from 5th Street to North Crooked Lake Drive. That zone include the Polk Fire and EMS station as well as Webber International University. In...
Bringing a plane to Bartow for an inspection was supposed to be a routine flight from Fort Myers for Robert Mosier, 45, of Winter Haven. When the plane in question began to lose power near Homeland with no airport in sight, Mosier proved his worth as a pilot. At about 11:05 Thursday morning Mosier guided the small replica war plane to a safe landing on the northbound lanes of US 17 near Homeland Garfield Road in Bartow. Mosier is a commercial pilot but also works part-time...
Motorists traveling on city streets around Lake Wales will find the going much smoother as work progresses on an aggressive program of improvements being conducted under city contracts. Portions of 12 roadways are presently being resurfaced with either a cape seal or a double-micro slurry of liquid asphalt as part of the city's Pavement Management Program. Both processes are preservation treatments to extend the life of the roadways for several years, creating a smoother...
Two people who broke into a home on on Fast Trot Trail, allegedly to "escape" during Hurricane Milton, were arrested and charged with burglary and criminal mischief in additional to other charges. The Polk County Sheriff's Office arrested the two suspects on Thursday, October 10, for burglarizing the vacant home in the aftermath of the storm. Deputies responded to a 9:40 a.m., call about a residential burglary in progress and found the rear door pried open. The two suspects we...
