Communication Builds Our Community
Communication Builds Our Community
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Hopes for the compete removal and replacement of the aging Grove Manor public housing complex in Lake Wales took a major step toward reality with the recent awarding of federal income tax credits worth over $21 million that will fund the project. The announcement from City manager James Slaton brought joy to city commissioners and residents attending the weekly city commission meeting. Commissioners had agreed more than a year ago to contribute a million dollars from the...
A previously-denied development proposal was turned down a second time by a 3-2 vote of the Lake Wales City Commission after the engineers and planners failed to meet the city's criteria of a "superior" residential development. Developers of the project, known simply as "Oak Development," applied for status as a Planned Development Project, or PDP, to allow sharply increased density from the underlying R-1 zoning. The PDP approval would allow the developer to define 64 lots...
Lake Wales has once again been featured in a major publication citing the pioneering planning work contained in Lake Wales Envisioned. That document, funded by the city of Lake Wales, is a comprehensive road map to a future that promises less impact from growth and a more habitable city. An article that in the online magazine Public Square says that "Lake Wales, Florida, has adopted a plan that puts active mobility at the heart of day-to-day life." Entitled "Planning a City...
December of 1923 saw plenty of changes happening in the growing town of Lake Wales, then with a population of perhaps 2,000. A bit of a land-rush had been initiated weeks before when the "Knee Deep" club laid claim to an island in Crooked Lake. The group hoped to build a clubhouse on the land. New claims were filed that month on two other islands located in Lake Easy. The state "School Land Selecting Agent" responded by ordering the islands surveyed, thus removing them from...
The realization of a "Big Green Network" of environmental lands that will forever form limits to the potential urbanization of the Lake Wales area drew a step closer this week. Lifelong Lake Wales resident and member of a pioneer family, Edwin Friedlander has offered his 749-acre ranch property for acquisition through the Polk Forever program, approved by voters in 2022. The property was assessed by a "technical advisory team" before being approved by the Conservation Lands...
The Highlander from 100 years ago noted the rise in fruit shipments from area groves, noting that more than 11,000 railcars of fruit had been shipped north.. At that time mostly only fresh fruit could reach northern markets aboard the two railroads that served the area. Canning and sectionizing fruit was a new process. The fruit business was a growing industry as noted by the sale of the Thullberry's grove management business to Jay Burns Jr. Meanwhile the Lake Wales Woman's...
The big news from 100 years ago included the sale of the historic first box of fruit from the Orphan Grove for $1,000, which was enough to purchase some homes in the city at the time. Other news stories told of an exploratory "oil well" being bored near Polk City. The area is now well-known to be the deepest region of the Floridan Aquifer, which is the source of the area's drinking water. Also in the news was word of yet another expansion to the growing network of paved roads...
Webber International University, located just south of Lake Wales near Crooked Lake, has a new president and CEO following action by the school's board of directors. Dr. Nelson Marquez was named during the semi-annual meeting of the Board of Trustees on December 1, when the board unanimously approved the appointment of Dr. Marquez effective that date. Dr. Marquez replaces Dr. H. Keith Wade who has served as the University's President/CEO since 2008. Dr. Marquez had served as...
Music fans from around the country are expected to gather in Lake Wales Friday and Saturday, December 1 and 2 as a local non-profit hosts the "Orange Blossom Revue." The annual "celebration of music, community, and nature" is returning the city for a ninth year and is expected to draw crowds of music-lovers to the shores of Lake Wailes. The two-day event features a lineup of top musical acts in a wide range of genres ranging from "R&B to country to folk to jazz," according to...
In nothing less than a transformation, the formerly dreary stretch of Park Avenue west of First Street is swiftly becoming an attractive green oasis intended to help draw pedestrian traffic to the heart of Lake Wales. The three-block-long stretch of the street west of Scenic Highway is the heart of the $20 million investment being made by the Lake Wales Community Redevelopment Agency to reinvigorate the city's urban core. Conceived as "Lake Wales Connected" by a team of...
The Lake Wales Highlander of 100 years ago offered stories about the very active Lake Wales Woman's Club's hiring of a landscaper to beautify railroad park surrounding the passenger depot at Park Avenue. The group also cooked 800 chickens to feed a touring group of railroad men dinner in an effort to promote better railroad service for the growing town of about 2,000 residents. In other news the town was organizing a band with assistance from the director of the existing band...
Lake Wales voters were facing three election sin a 60-day span 100 years ago, with the first of the separate ballots to decide the burning issue of whether to require the fencing of livestock, thereby ending the "open range" era of life in this part of the state. The decades-long battle between advocates of open range livestock and those who opposed the practice had sometimes led to violence due to incidents including fence-cutting. Those clashes were referred to as "range...
There's still time for you to be one of our 26 winners who get a free "all-the-works" pizza just by sharing a news story on your social media feed. Yep, you can earn the large pizza of your choice from Pizzano's of Lake Wales just by sharing the important stories we publish about our community. Pick an impactful story from our sections about Schools, Fun, Ridge Life, Business, it's all up to you! Just know that you could very well be enjoying one of our delicious prizes. Two...
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. has officially confirmed that it will build a new, state-of-the-art pipe manufacturing facility in Lake Wales. The company plans to break ground in 2024 on a 100-acre site with frontage on both South 11th Street and Hunt Brothers Road. The plant will manufacture corrugated plastic pipe, adding to the company's existing manufacturing presence in Florida. "This advanced manufacturing facility is an important investment in a key region for ADS,"...
The big issue before the voters in the Lake Wales area in 1923 was whether Polk County should opt in to the new state policy of requiring that farm animals be fenced in. Prior to that time in most of Florida, residents fenced their yards and gardens to keep unwanted animals, especially cattle, out. The issue became more serious with the popularity of the automobile after hundreds were killed in crashes involving cattle wandering onto highways. Trains were equipped with "cow ca...
The extension of a local rail line to reach the east coast of Florida was all the talk of Lake Wales residents in November 100 years ago. Many were undoubtedly hoping that the line would be the spur that already extended to Nalaca on the Kissimmee River. That line, which served logging, cattle, and mining interests, passed through Hesperides and Sumica before ending along the river. Today a portion of that former line is the Lake Wales Trailway on the north side of Lake Wailes...
More than 80 community leaders and interested citizens were present Thursday night for the premier showing of the documentary film "Lake Wales Envisioned," which lays out the case for changes to development codes that may redefine future development in the rapidly-growing community. The film is among the final work products of the city-funded project known as Lake Wales Envisioned, an effort to guide the city through a future fraught with both opportunities and perils. The...
In 1923, 100 years ago this week, the Highlander was celebrating the "paving" of three-foot wide rock shoulders on Scenic Highway from Haines City to Frostproof. That primary road, which extends south to Sebring, will be made even more valuable when the new bridge over the Kissimmee River is completed on the Conners Highway, linking the east and west coasts of the state. Officials from Tampa to West Palm were celebrating the impending completion of the new road. Elsewhere,...
1 years ago the young Highlander newspaper celebrated the area with a 24-page special edition of "Who's Who and What's What" in the Lake Wales area. The edition was packed with facts about the growing community. The Lake Wales area already boasted some 20,000 acres of citrus plantings by 1923, according to the front page of The Highlander's "Who's Who and What's What" special edition. The annual Florida citrus crop was estimated to have reached 20 million boxes of fruit,...
A continuing rise in readership and community reach is evidence of the growing awareness and trust of LakeWalesNews.net among residents of the Ridge area. The expansion of readership and advertising is powering an expansion of news coverage as well as the News increases coverage of events in Frostproof, Babson Park, Indian Lake, and surrounding communities through the hiring of new staff and correspondents. Analytics provided by Google indicate that LakeWalesNews.net is the to...
Major improvements are underway at the Lake Wales History Museum that are expected to make the facility a center of community activity as well as a draw for residents and visitors alike, according to Executive Director Melissa Stoller. The ongoing project includes needed repairs to the 98-year-old building as well as reimagined and refreshed exhibits. The non-profit museum is seeking volunteers with carpentry skills to help with the ongoing reconfiguration. Stoller promises...
As Lake Wales was going about its rapid spurt of growth between 1917 and 1927, area real estate agents gathered to create the city's first board so thasat they could exchange listing information and conduct social activities. The city and state were then in the midst of a great surge of development and land speculation. Most of the city's historic downtown masonry buildings were constructed during that time as the city's population increased 10-fold in only a decade....
Winners of the first week of a 13-week contest sponsored by Lake Wales News.net and Pizzano's Pizza and Grinderz have been have announced, and tasty awards await, ideal for that football gathering, birthday party, or other get-together. Susan Coyne and Samantha Bourke were chosen as winners of a large pizza of their choice, enough to feed a family of four. The winners gained entry simply by sharing a story from LakeWalesNews.net on their social media. To be sure that we don't...
Only 100 years ago the young town of Lake Wales was kept up-to-date by stories shared on the pages of The Highlander. This week the buzz was about a pair of men who had made the drive all the way from Indiana in only five days, covering a distance of 1,214 miles on "fair" roads, "with the exception of over the mountains," where no doubt things remained rather sketchy for automobile traffic, since most locals there preferred mules at the the time. In other local news, local res...
Pathways leading to college or directly to highly-paid careers are open to students at Lake Wales High School thanks to the seven "Career Academies" offered at the school. Assistant Principal Jasmine Ansley heads the career academy program and was happy to report that 1,039 of the school's students are now enrolled in one of the pathways. The program helps keep students engaged in what they like to do at school, resulting in a lower drop rate, she said. A recent special...
