News Update for 10/19/23
Some local residents are showing their support for Israel today. The Highlands Tea Party will host a flag wave in front of the Fairmount Cinema Square this afternoon at 5:00.
Organizers are asking those interested in participating to bring their flags, and positive signs of support. The event is expected to run about 90 minutes.
Lake Wales reportedly wants to become “A City in a Garden. To that end, they have hired certified horticulturist Kevin Polk as the new landscape designer and arborist for the City’s parks & recreation department.
Polk will oversee the current plans to revive the landscapes in the city’s historic core – paying homage to the town’s original 1930s landscape architects, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and the Olmsted Brothers, who were commissioned by Edward Bok to do the work at The Singing Tower.
It’s part of the “‘Lake Wales Connected” plan, a community-based vision to revitalize the downtown area and northwest neighborhood.
Officials in Lakeland are trying to reassure residents who are worried the city’s swans will be bothered by the annual Christmas parade.
The city announced plans to change the parade route this year due to construction on Orange Street.
The parade is now set to go around Lake Morton, but a local petition wants the city to avoid the area to protect the lake’s swans.
The woman who started the petition two weeks ago claims the parade will disturb the swans’ nesting sites, cause noise pollution and lead to trash accumulating in the lake.
Over 500 people have signed the petition. A city spokesperson, though, says cleanup crews will take action as soon as the parade ends. He says the crews will hit the Lake Morton area immediately after the parade passess by.