Maintaining the Landscaping

We live in a beautiful area. Our town is surrounded by picturesque orange groves and green pastures, and dotted with lakes and rolling hills. Our town is also enhanced with flower beds along selected streets and in front of buildings such as the JD Alexander Center.

The landscaping along a number of city streets is maintained by three entities, and more landscaping is on the way! Let’s take a look at the ongoing effort to provide landscaping, and what lies ahead.

On-Going Efforts

Caring for the landscaping maintained by the City – including the areas downtown, on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd at Wiltshire, on Central Ave coming into downtown, and at the pier on Lake Wailes – is basically done by one city employee – Helen Gay – with assistance from other city employees, and from persons who have been sentenced through the court system to perform community service.

In addition to the City’s maintenance, there are two other groups that regularly maintain landscaped areas:

• The Northwest Community group, led by Linda Kimbrough, maintains selected planted areas in the Northwest part of town; and


• The Olmsted Neighborhood group, led by Joyce Otte, plants and maintains the annual flower beds on Lakeshore and at Scenic Highway and Central Ave. This group also took it upon themselves several years ago to clear out the heavy growth behind the library that blocked the view of Crystal Lake. What difference that project made! Over many weekends volunteers cleared the brazilian pepper trees, vines, and undergrowth to present a wonderful vista from the library.

What Lies Ahead

There are two major landscaping projects and several smaller projects on the schedule. It is noteworthy that none one of these projects are being funded by the City’s General Fund.

• Providing landscaping in sections of US 27 from Vanguard School to Cypress Gardens Blvd: The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has provided the City with $400,000 for a landscaping project on this widened section of US 27. The City Commission recently approved the plans drawn by local landscape architect Marshall Whidden for Florida-friendly plants that do not require irrigation. FDOT staff has recently approved the plans, and they will now be put out to bid. This project is scheduled for completion by year’s end;


• Re-landscaping Downtown: The City has just been awarded a Community Development Block Grant in the Commercial Re-vitalization category. A portion of the funding from this grant will provide over $300,000 for re-landscaping the curb areas downtown between First Street and Scenic Highway, on Central, Stuart, and Park Avenues. One area of emphasis will be to provide more shade trees.


• East Central Ave: As a part of the land development code prepared by City staff and adopted by the City Commission several years ago, developers who destroy certain types of trees on their site and do not plant replacement trees must pay a fee into the City’s tree replacement fund. These funds are then used to purchase and plant trees in City right of ways and parks. A number of trees were lost in the hurricanes in the past few years on the section of Central Ave between Scenic Highway and Lakeshore Drive. These trees have been replaced recently with high quality trees planted in the right of way.


• Kiwanis Park: The City’s Parks and Beautification Committee has developed a plan to plant trees in this very actively used park. City staff prepared a grant application for the Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program for this purpose, but there were no applications funded this year due to a lack of state funds. A number of trees will be planted with funding from the tree replacement fund. The Kiwanis Club is also interested in planting trees around Barney’s Dream.


• US 27 and SR 60 Intersection: The Parks and Beautification Committee is taking a look at providing landscaping in this area.

The maintenance of our landscaping is truly a community effort, and our town needs more partners for this worthwhile endeavor! Please call 678-4182 extension 225 to volunteer!

More Topics to Explore...

This week we have three topics to explore: the upcoming events to recognize Memorial Day; an announcement by Comcast of channel changes that are scheduled for May 26; and the US 27 landscaping.

Memorial Day, 2009

It is a Lake Wales tradition to have a service to honor our veterans on the morning of Memorial Day at the Lake Wales Cemetery. In addition to that ceremony, we also have an event at the Veterans’ Memorial at Lake Ashton.

This year a third event is being added and it will mark the opening of the Veterans’ Memorial at City Hall. The large pink marble veterans’ monument that had been located in Lake Wailes Park has been moved. It is now the centerpiece of a new Veterans’ Memorial in front of City Hall. The new Veterans’ Memorial is under construction and is scheduled to be completed in time for an inaugural service this Memorial Day, on Monday, May 25.

The event will begin at 3 pm and is scheduled to feature the raising of flags at the Memorial. Our nation’s flag will be raised, as well as flags to honor the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Merchant Marines, and those service personnel missing in action. These service branch flagpoles surround a flagpole and the re-located marble monument in the center. A reception is being scheduled following the ceremony in the lobby of City Hall.

The new memorial features a brick walkway, and bricks will be available for engraving for $35. The engraved bricks will recognize the military service of a loved one or friend and list the name, service branch, and years of service. Bricks can be ordered by calling City Hall at 678-4182 extension 225.

A reception is planned in the City Hall lobby following the ceremony, and bricks will be available for sale at that time as well.

Channel Changes on Comcast

Comcast has recently announced that there are going to be a number of changes in their channel line-up. These changes are scheduled to take place on May 26. One of the changes involves the channel used for “Local Origination”, the broadcast of our Lake Wales City Commission meetings and other city meetings. Currently those meetings are shown on channel 5, and they will move to channel 6. In addition, the “Local Government Access” that is currently on channel 33 will move to channel 5. Additional information is available at http://www.comcast.com/ or by calling Comcast at 941-342-3552.

Landscaping on US 27

An editorial in a recent edition of this newspaper brought attention to the landscaping that has been installed on US 27 at Central Avenue. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) improved that area as a part of the widening of US 27. The concept of improving that intersection above the typical FDOT standards was approved by City Commission over five years ago when the widening project was still in the design phase. FDOT then proceeded to hire contractors to do the project.

Prince Landscaping is contractor responsible to FDOT for the planting of the plant material at this intersection, and by contract they are responsible for the maintenance of the plants for one year. The one-year period ends on December 9, and at that time City staff will take over the maintenance responsibilities.

City staff has notified FDOT that basic maintenance is not being properly performed, and has even offered to provide re-use water for the contractor’s water truck to irrigate the landscaping. At present, the landscaping also has an irrigation system using City potable water.

City staff will continue to notify FDOT of the need for their contractor to properly maintain these plants until they are turned over to the City for maintenance.

While the landscaping for this section of the widening project was planned during the design phase for the project, landscaping on another section of US 27 is now under review. FDOT provided funding for the landscaping of the section from Mountain Lake Cut-off Road to Cypress Gardens/Waverly Road after that section of the US 27 widening project was completed. The City Commission hired local landscape architect Marshall Whidden to design Florida-friendly landscaping for this section, and the Commission approved his plan. Once approval is received, the City will move forward with that landscaping project.