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!

Looking at the Next 120 Days

The next 120 days will be particularly important for our town. Let’s take a look at what is possible, and what is definite:

• It is possible that we will see hurricane activity. Over the years, most of us have been through many predicted hurricanes that were nothing more than a thunderstorm. This experience fueled the popular notion that hurricane force winds always die down by the time they reach us in the center of the state. That thought was “blown away” by the three hurricanes of 2004.

  Everyone who was on the City staff five years ago remembers the seemingly endless hours, being away from our families when there were pressing needs at home, sleeping on the floor in the fire station, and directing sewer lift stations without power to be pumped out well after midnight.

  Forecasters are saying that we may have an active hurricane season, but I pray that they are wrong. Many people suffered terribly when their homes were damaged, and a number of families – including everyone living in the Sunrise Apartment complex – had to re-locate. Hopefully we will not revisit that experience.

• Another possible event is the renovation of the Grand Hotel. City staff continues to make steady progress in the complex contract negotiations with the developer and we are looking forward to a successful conclusion!

• Topping the list of the “definite” events that lie ahead is the preparation and adoption of the City budget for the next fiscal year, which starts October 1. This year will be especially tough, as there have already been two years of tax reforms imposed by the state legislature and Governor. Many areas of the city’s budget have already been trimmed, and this year the city is also suffering the effects of the recession and a shrinking tax base.

  With the tough choices that have to be made, citizen input is needed and welcomed. The schedule for budget meetings will be published once it is finalized, and everyone is invited to attend the budget review meetings.

• The Clerk of the Courts office provides a variety of services, including taking payments for traffic tickets and child support. At the end of this month, our branch of the Clerk of Courts office in the shopping center behind IHOP will close. Clerk Richard Weiss says that budget cuts from the state are to blame, and invites us to visit his branch office in Winter Haven (on Lake Alfred Road) or the main office in Bartow. Mr. Weiss has offered to meet with City representatives to discuss this situation.

• The new branch of the Polk County Health Department is scheduled to be open in July! The new building is located on West Central Ave and is a vast improvement over the crowded and outdated facility on Central Ave at Sharp Street. We are all looking forward to this new facility and we want to thank Dr. Haight, his staff, and everyone involved for this wonderful addition to our community!

• At the June 25 workshop meeting the City Commission will review the results of the municipal swimming pool survey with the group who did the survey, Unity in Community. Several years ago the City Commission set aside $1 million of the proceeds from the sale of the former Cooperative Fruit Property to build the pool, and interest income is building up. However, the annual cost of operating the pool is estimated at over $100,000, with entrance fees not expected to cover even 20% of this cost. Innovative ideas are requested!

• The Florida Department of Transportation is revising their drawings for the medians on East State Road 60. The plans should be completed for distribution well before the July 21 Commission meeting, when FDOT staff is scheduled to present the revised plan.

The Lake Wales Fire Department Has Come Far

Our Lake Wales Fire Department has come a long way since it was established in 1916. Let’s review this critically important department and examine a relatively new service, the department’s paramedic program.

Personnel

The Lake Wales Fire Department has 27 professional fire fighters. Every firefighter is also certified as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), and six firefighters are certified as Paramedics – an advanced level of certification.

Twenty-four firefighters work in shifts – 24 hours on, 48 hours off, which is a fire service standard. There are 8 firefighters assigned to each shift. Three department members typically work a “normal” work schedule: The Fire Chief, the Fire Marshall, and the Fire Prevention Specialist.

Stations

Our Fire Department operates out of two stations. The main station (station 1) is located on Central Ave in front of City Hall at Sharp Street. This station opened in 2000 when the Fire Department moved from the previous headquarters in old City Hall, further east on Central, at Second Street. The Fire Department had been located at old City Hall since in opened in 1928.

In May 2005 the Fire Department opened Station 2 on Thompson Nursery Road, just west of US 27. As soon as funding is available, the City plans to construct a permanent fire station building for station 2 in the northern area of the City.

Services

Our Fire Department answers over 2,700 calls per year. Of that number about 200 are fire calls. The remainder are medical calls, including vehicle accidents and other types of rescue calls. Vehicle accidents sometimes require the use of the department’s specialized equipment to extricate persons who are trapped in heavily damaged vehicles. All department personnel have received special training in this type of rescue as well as other rescue operations. The department’s average response time is between 4.5 to just over 5 minutes.

Paramedic Program

We live in a very large county. Lake Wales accounts for 14 square miles of the 2,010 square miles that make up Polk County. Our county is the fourth largest county in the state, and the ninth largest in population with over 561,000 residents.

Ambulance service is provided throughout the county by the county government. There are 29 ambulances with paramedics responding to over 75,000 events per year. The ambulances serving Lake Wales are not located in the city limits but are stationed east of town and west of town near the airport. For medical calls requiring an ambulance, our Lake Wales firefighters almost always arrive on the scene first.
Prior to March of last year, our Lake Wales firefighter/EMT’s provided basic life support at the scene of a medical emergency until the ambulance arrived. EMT’s are trained and licensed to provide basic life support, which includes patient assessments, taking vital signs, utilizing advanced airway devices to secure an airway, and operating an automatic external defibrillator to correct lethal heart arrhythmia during a cardiac arrest.

In March of 2008 our fire department started its advanced life support emergency service. Our department has 6 paramedics, with two assigned to each shift. Our paramedics are:

• Paul Byrd


• Lashon Johnson


• Roy Wilkinson


• Dean Copson


• Brian Draper


• Shad Smith

Paramedics are capable of providing a much higher level of medical care and can perform a more comprehensive patient evaluation. Paramedics can utilize more advanced airway devices by intubating patients in respiratory distress, starting IVs to administer drugs and fluids, and treat a wide array of problems such as patients with burns or severe trauma. Paramedics also treat diabetic patients, and monitor, detect, and treat cardiac arrhythmia in the event of a heart condition.

In addition to our Lake Wales Fire Department, several other fire departments such as Winter Haven, Lakeland, and Polk County have begun training their firefighter/emergency medical technicians as paramedics. This is a huge increase in the level of service provided at a fraction of the cost for additional ambulances and staff.

Paramedics are required to complete 16 weeks of EMT training prior to beginning the program. The training program includes one year of college, 470 hours on an ambulance, and 120 clinical hours in an emergency room, followed by a state exam. The tuition cost is $3,600 to attend the program.

As funding is available our department will be training additional paramedics. Congratulations to everyone involved in this progressive, life-saving program!

Note: Fire Chief Jerry Brown assisted with this article.

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.

Workshop Topics

The next City Commission workshop meeting is scheduled for this Thursday, May 14, at 6 pm at City Hall. The agenda includes topics of current interest as well as topics regarding the planning for the future. Let’s review two of these topics:

1919 School Building

At the last workshop the project Construction Manager presented an alternative proposal for the next phase of the work. The City Commission’s direction to this point has been to complete the first floor of the building cost-effectively in order to open and begin using the building as quickly as possible. This has meant stretching grant dollars, which are not as plentiful now as they were a few years ago. A number of items originally included in the design, such as extensive lighting for large dramatic performances and an orchestra pit, as well as expensive finishes such as metal ceilings, had been laid aside. The next phase of the work anticipated using less expensive materials, such as vinyl tile in the restrooms rather than ceramic tile. The alternative plan drawn up by the architect and presented by the Construction Manager proposed to finish a portion of the first floor with the original, more expensive finishing materials in order to attract major donors to the facility.

The Commission will discuss the direction of the next phase of the work at the workshop. The funding for the next phase includes a $350,000 grant from the state historic preservation agency and a $300,000 match from the City’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) funds.

Review of City Growth Policies and the City’s Capabilities to Serve Growth in the Future

City staff is preparing an update to the Capital Improvements Element of the City’s Comprehensive Plan. Every city and county in Florida must have a Comprehensive Plan as prescribed by the 1985 Growth Management Act. These plans include maps indicating the future land uses and zoning for all properties within the City, and a description of how the City will serve the needs of these areas.

In the last six years the City has made far-reaching changes to better prepare for growth. The first professionally prepared impact fee study was completed to ensure that new growth pays for itself as much as possible. The future land use map, the centerpiece of a comprehensive plan, and related growth regulations, were extensively overhauled in 2005 during a period in which the City Commission declared a “zoning in progress” period and stopped the approvals of new subdivisions until plan overhaul was completed. This re-write was long overdue, and was attempted twice in the past by hiring consultants. Those efforts were not adopted. The 2005 revision was prepared by City staff, principally City Planner Margaret Swanson and Assistant City Manager Judy Delmar, and adopted by the City Commission.

An example of the type of subdivision that is produced under the new planning regulations is Whispering Ridge. The first proposal from the developer was a plan with over 500 lots arranged in a grid (square blocks) system. The final plan, after many reviews and suggestions by the planning staff, has 349 lots, a bike/walking trail, and a “spine” road that has “neighborhood node streets” rather than driveways connecting to it. The neighborhoods feature a number of common areas in which the original pine trees were saved.

Those staff members also worked with the City’s Utilities Attorney Jerry Buhr in the preparation of the City’s first Concurrency Management Plan. The key provision of the 1985 Growth Management Act is to ensure “concurrency” – that fundamental public services such as capacity for transportation, water, sewer, garbage disposal, recreation/open space, drainage, and schools are available to serve new developments when the services are needed. The City’s concurrency management system now requires new development to pay a portion of their impact fees up front, in two steps, for the building of these new facilities to serve growth.

City Planner Margaret Swanson will review the staff’s updating of the Capital Facilities Element of the Comprehensive Plan, which projects the City’s ability to serve growth that is anticipated during the planning period.

The workshop will feature seven other topics of interest as well, and the agenda is listed on the City’s website at www.cityoflakewales.com and at city hall. Everyone is invited!