Just following-up on my initial myregion.org post from yesterday.... Polk County is part of the myregion.org planning initiative. The seven county group also includes: Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia.

The purpose of myregion.org is to help create a shared vision and align these counties to create a regional powerhouse that can compete on a global scale. In the future we won't be battling Atlanta or Charlotte for economic development projects, we'll be competing against Europe, China and other areas across the globe. Within the myregion.org area we have 86 cities and approx 560 elected officials. Getting them to agree on anything will be difficult.

We're all well aware that growth is a major issue in this area, but we're fortunate that we have growth. In some regions of the country there is negative job growth, and that makes it very difficult to do just about any economic development. Overall the U.S. is growing in population, by October of this year there will be 300 million residents...by 2046 there will be 400 million. The Central Florida region though is growing at a rate three times the national average.

We currently have a net gain of 125,000 new residents per year. In addition we're adding more cars than residents each year. So where do all these new people and cars go? We can't say that it's not Polk's problem because we all share in the burden. Tens of thousands of Polk residents drive out of the county each morning to work somewhere else. The same thing happens across the region. Residents move between Orange/Seminole and Volusia/Seminole. In yesterday's session Jacob Stuart joked that the problem could be fixed, "If everybody just switched homes."

The common misconception is to blame the growth on the people moving here, that's wrong. We're the ones responsible for the planning and how to manage this growth. If things go wrong we're the ones to blame.

In the next few months myregion.org will be holding a series of regional meetings to discuss these issues with local residents. Once the complete meeting schedule is posted I'll list the Polk County dates. I encourage you to attend one of the meetings.

More notes to come.

Add a Comment

It's now known as Historic Bok Sanctuary, but to many it's still Bok Tower. A few weeks ago I went out to this oasis in Lake Wales for a meeting. While I was on the grounds I took some photos. Some of the shots turned out pretty good, but if you've ever been there you know that sometimes photos can't do it justice.

Have you ever visited Bok Sanctuary? What are your thoughts?

Add a Comment

This afternoon I attended one of the 'How Shall We Grow' events put on by myregion.org. I'll post a detailed wrap-up on Friday, but for now here is an MP3 of Jacob Stuart's presentation. It's approximately 35 minutes in length.

The make-up of myregion.org includes Polk County among a total of 7 counties. From their web site:

myregion.org - A Regional Development Program - is designed to bring together the business, government and civic leadership representing the seven-county Central Florida region to develop a regional agenda for thought and action to ensure Central Florida's success in the 21st century global marketplace.

Add a Comment

A loyal EP reader suggested that I remind all you guys out there that Mother's Day is approaching fast, it's May 14th. Start planning now.

Don't haveany idea what to give the mom's in your life? It doesn't hurt to ask them. But it's better to do that now rather than wait till 8 o'clock on Saturday the 13th.

There's nothing more pathetic than seeing all the procrastinators fighting over the last Mother's Day cards at Target five minutes before closing on Saturday night.

Add a Comment

Uncle John's Band will play the Friday, April 21st Music on the Promenade. The FREE Music Series takes place at the Lake Mirror Amphitheater (downtown Lakeland) from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. The group is one of the best Grateful Dead tribute bands in the land. Bring a blanket and enjoy great music under the stars. There will be food vendors on site and there is even the added bonus of a chili cook-off. Chili and Sugar Magnolia on a beautiful night – it just does not get any better.

Add a Comment

As I predicted the faux Cypress Gardens MySpace profile is gone. One of two things happened:

1. The employee that started it realized that it had been discovered and didn't want to get caught, so they deleted it.
2. Cypress Gardens found out and contacted MySpace to have it removed.

My money is on number 1.

Add a Comment

Of course the big news yesterday was Paul Senft's announcement that he won't seek re-election for the Polk County Commission. More on this in a bit.

Add a Comment

Sometimes you just have to love our small towns in Polk County. According to a News Chief article:

The Eagle Lake City Commission decided not to "declare war" on Lake Region High School, according to a Polk County school district employee. The commissioners voted Monday against a resolution asking for Lake Region High School's name to be changed to Eagle Lake High School.

The fact that this was even on the agenda and came up for a vote says something. Of course there is another alternative. We can change the name of Eagle Lake to Lake Region :-)

Since that motion didn't pass the next effort was to question the school's tower:

The commission did decide to question Lake Region High's unauthorized antenna. "The school board is exempt from most city building codes and permits because they answer to a higher code," said City Planner Augie Fragala. "But they are not exempt from zoning requirements," and the microwave tower on top of Lake Region High was quite possibly against Eagle Lake zoning.

Hey Eagle Lake....remember that wifi network you wanted to create? That 'big' tower might just be the perfect place for a Wimax antenna.

Add a Comment

Longtime Ledger veteran Richard Shapiro is set to take over the East Polk division of the Lakeland-based paper. Richard is making the move after former East Polk director Nelson Kirkland took over Steve Schmidt's position as Advertising Director.

I've known Richard for almost ten years and am glad to see him get the position.

Add a Comment

Update: Well this didn't last long as I expected. Commenter Carl Cronan let us know that the profile was no longer available as of yesterday afternoon.

A keyword watchlist alerted me to this MySpace profile for CypressGardens that was created this morning. Is it official? No. Most likely it was created by an employee. For example did you know that Cypress Gardens is a 21 year old female?

So far the profile has three blog posts and no friends. The most recent blog claims that staff turnover is 85%.

As of this posting our turn over rate here at the park is in excess of 85/P>

We know this is high and we have fired GOOD managers and supervisors in hope of changing the rate but to noavail we just cannot understand why. Maybe its because The ride operators have to stand in the HOT sun all day with little to no cover, continue to operate in adverse conditions, (Rain, Lightning, Thunderstorms) all to make the sorry ass guests that dont know any better than to get out of the rain Happy. Food Service well now thats a whole nother ball game, First off there paid like shit treated even worse and we expect them to stay, Ha!! dont blame them for leaving!!Lifguards well where to begin, first off there are not enough of them, Then they dont get thier required amount of breaks,The pay for them suck, The boss well!!! I wont even go there. (Not enough space).Entertainment well I wont say much about there supervisor the Bell Turnover rate says it all.Retail well now that dpet has actualy taken shape.

We'll see how long this profile lasts and what other insider tidbits it provides.

Add a Comment

This afternoon I attended the luncheon meeting of the Tiger Bay Club of Polk County which featured the four candidates for the Polk County Commission District 4. The candidates are: Paul Senft (R) - incumbent (Paul withdrew on April 19, 2006), Bruce Parker (R), Martha Santiago (R) and Jean Reed (D). I recorded the session with my portable MP3 unit so the sounds is not 'stereo-quality' but you can hear all the candidates speak. It's approx 47 minutes in length and you can download it here.

Here are my quick highlights. I think I was the youngest person (if not one of the youngest people) in the room. What do they say about the younger generations becoming involved in politics? Of course many 20-30 year-old's can't take time off work to attend a luncheon in Bartow, FL.

One major division line among the candidates is the MSTU tax that the commission recently enacted. Of course since Senft voted for it, he's still in favor of it, but all three other candidates were opposed and used a number of opportunities to jab when they could. It's always fun to see an answer start civil and then end up with a little barb.

Bruce Parker = Ross Perot. For his opening statement Bruce jumped right in with charts and graphs and discussions of the budget. When you listen to him you know he's very passionate about the subject and he's done his homework, but his delivery needs help. As usual Bruce answers just about every question with a reference to himself, i.e. "When I was on that committee" or "Back in 1977 when I started that". I can understand the point he's trying to get across but it doesn't always sound good.

Martha Santiago has little government experience so she talked up her experience in handling leadership and fiscal issue within the school board. One of the items she stressed was that when her department has a tight budget they prioritize items and determine how to work within the fiscal limits they have. They can't just raise taxes. (Take that Paul). Martha was the most soft-spoken of the candidates so at times it was hard to hear her clearly (and this shows on the audio). I think Martha is the candidate the local Republican party wanted to oppose Paul (since Paul voted for the MTSU), but the dynamic has changed with Bruce in the race. It's not that a huge number of people are going to vote for Bruce, it's just that in a three-way race for the primary, every vote counts.

Jean Reed, like Martha has no previous government experience. Her main thrust is the environmental and growth groups she works with. Water and intelligent growth are Jean's major issues and it seemed like her only issues. When quizzed on other items she seemed less passionate about them. Is that a bad thing? Who knows, every elected official has to start somwhere. However, with the local builders such a strong lobby it's hard to see her getting much done if she does get elected. Jean's other major pitch is that her campaign is for the 'Hard Working People of Polk County' and not for special interests groups.

Paul Senft is the best speaker of the group so far. You may not like what he's saying but is sounds good :-) Deconstructing his statements later you realize that he might not have answered the question though. Paul's major point is that something had to be done and the current commission did something about it. You may not agree with it, but sometimes governing is not about what's popular. As the incumbent Paul can speak from a more informed position on the issues, but perhaps he's too close.

When asked if they supported Katherine Harris, Bill Nelson, a candidate to be named later, or don't wish to answer - the responses were: Senft - no answer, Reed - Nelson, Santiago - Harris, Parker - Harris

I'll post some highlights later today. On a side note - as of today none of the candidates have a web site (see my previous post about this). PaulSenft.net redirects to SmartLizard, JeanReed.org used to be Jean's site, but the domain has expired (somebody should probably grab that), Google searches for Bruce Parker and Martha Santiago turn up nothing except Ledger articles or other non-campaign sites.

Update: here are articles from The Ledger and the News Chief.

Add a Comment

According to an Orlando Sentinel article the competition for the 2007 and 2008 high school boys basketball championships is between Lakeland and Orlando. Lakeland has hosted the tournament for quite some time, but Orlando is looking to lure the Florida High School Athletic Association event away from Polk County.

Kyle McClanahan said it was a nice road trip with his Winter Park basketball team to the state tournament in Lakeland last month. But he likes the sound of playing at Orlando's 17,000-seat TD Waterhouse Centre a lot better.

Granted the idea of playing on such a big stage is great, but there are some drawbacks. One of which is attendance relative to the space. I'd love to believe that we're in Indiana and that a state high school tournament would fill a major arena but that's not the case in Florida. Each year the tournament draws appox. 2000 people per day session. Imagine 2000 people in the 17,000 seat T.D. Waterhouse Centre. Or you can look below:

Of course in the case of the tournament most people would fill the lower bowl but it's not a packed house. There is nothing more depressing than seeing a half empty stadium. We've all seen the early college bowl games where half the stadium is empty, I feel sorry for the kids playing. It also doesn't look good on TV.

Attendance v Capacity is a known issue for the girls tournament. From the Sentinel article:

Allen Johnson, director of the Orlando Centroplex, said the determination was made that TD Waterhouse Centre is too big a building to make sense for the girls tournament, which drew paid attendance of 9,424 over four days in February.

Add a Comment

What a difference one year makes. After the Sun 'n Fun Fly-In last year there were around 50 photos online at Flickr from the event. This year there are over 2000. The clear winner in photos uploaded is Flickr user JerryC98. Jerry has a photoset for every day of event (sometimes even two).

Other Sun 'n Fun photosets:
- SomeSmokingMonkeys
- Mandyble (some other airshow photos as well)
- Br1ckhouse

Add a Comment

When I was in Lakeland last week I snapped some photos of all the outdoor sculptures that were part of the Florida Outdoor Sculpture Competition. The majority of the pieces were in heavily shaded locations so it made it tough to get decent shots. You can view all of the photos over at Flickr.

Here are some previous posts about the Winter Haven portion of the event:
- Christopher Fennell - Architectural Skeletons from Discarded Objects
- More Winter Haven Sculpture Pictures
- Winter Haven Sculpture Pictures

Add a Comment

According to a Cingular Wireless press release (caution, might contain corporate speak) they have completed their integration of former AT&T cellular towers to add 65% more cell sites in the Lakeland and Winter Haven areas.

"This is the single largest increase in coverage that our customers in Lakeland and Winter Haven have ever experienced," said Dan Norman, VP/GM for Cingular's North Florida market, which covers southwest Florida across the state north to Panama City and just over the Georgia line. "Almost overnight our network was transformed, giving our customers access to more cell sites."

This upgrade has been in the works since the Cingular/AT&T merger a few years ago. It's nice to see the improvements actually happening. So many times during a merger the companies will say, 'our combined forces will offer more opportunities for our customers...' or something like that and then nothing happens.

Add a Comment

The News Chief has published the first installment of a two-part interview with U.S. Congressman Adam Putnam. The initial installment doesn't go too deep, but we'll see what part two has in store.

EDITOR'S NOTE: U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, a Republican from Bartow, met in Winter Haven this past week with News Chief Publisher Robin Quillon, Managing Editor Joe Braddy and reporter Heidi A. De Vries for an unscripted discussion about a variety of current political topics. What follows is Part 1 of that discussion, in a question-and-answer format. Part 2 will be published in Monday's issue of the News Chief.

Reporter Heidi De Vries also publishes the transcript on her MySpace blog.

Right now I have only one question for Adam.

Update: Part 2 is now online.

Add a Comment

A major issue in the internet/telco world is net neutrality, generally speaking everybody that connects their network to the internet shares and shares-alike. It's one of the founding principles of the internet.

Some of the major telco's (AT&T, Comcast, etc) want to start charging for access to certain content. For example AT&T says to Google... "you know the overwhelming majority of people on our network visit your site everyday, in fact about 40% of our network traffic is to your site, you'll need to start paying us some additional fees for that." Or there would be a similar scenario to the end user, perhaps like the package pricing of premium channels on cable..."You want to visit MTV.com? That's an extra $5/month." This is a reason why Google opened up a lobbying office in Washington D.C. They want to make sure the net is always free and open.

In the Jacksonville area Carl is trying to spark interest in the issue. It's one of those things that the majority of people don't know anything about so it slowly and quietly moves along, until it's too late. I try not to be a political activist, but it is too important an issue to ignore.

Locally, I am wondering what are Adam Putnam's thoughts on the issue?

Add a Comment

For some reason the Blogdigger account I created to track all the candidates for Florida Governor is not updating often enough so I created a NewsGator account that features the same information. Go to: http://www.newsgator.com/ngs/subscriber/WebEd2.aspx and use the following information to login: U: FloridaGovernor P: fl2006

Yes we're sharing here, so be nice :-)

Add a Comment

Over in Winter Haven at the corner of 9th Street SE and Cypress Gardens Blvd there is a new retail area under development. The sign on the corner says it's a Sofran Group project. Sofran is an Atlanta-based firm, but they have projects all over Florida and Georgia. Checking out their site you can view the details of this project.

Looking at the photo above the main retail building doesn't look that appealing since it's almost completely cement block and is devoid of any windows (so far). At first I was thinking CVS or Walgreens but the lack of windows doesn't match their usual store design. You can view the siteplan below and click on it for a larger version.

Add a Comment

Update: For some reason Blogdigger is not updating often enough so I created a NewsGator account that features the same information. Go to: http://www.newsgator.com/ngs/subscriber/WebEd2.aspx and use the following information to login: U: FloridaGovernor P: fl2006

To help all the candidates for Florida governor avoid situations such as this I have created a Florida Gubernatorial Race Blogdigger account. This single page collects and displays all recent blog posts and news articles for the following searches: "Charlie Crist", "Jim Davis", "Tom Gallagher", "Rod Smith".

As you will see it's a very powerful tool. Any time one of the 30 million+ blogs (in addition to the millions of MySpace pages) that Technorati monitors mentions one of the candidates you'll know, and perhaps so will every journalist.

If you are a RSS junkie you can subscribe to the Florida Gubernatorial Race RSS Feed. I can understand if you don't want to monitor all of this, so you can also subscribe to the individual RSS feeds:

Charlie Crist - Technorati / Google News

Jim Davis - Technorati / Google News

Tom Gallagher - Technorati / Google News

Rod Smith - Technorati / Google News

Add a Comment

Head on over to blog search tool Technorati and do a search for "Charlie Crist". Scroll down a little bit and you'll find a few interesting posts. One of which is from a girl that claims to be a regional data coordinator for Charlie's campaign. Please note that some of the content is Not Safe For Work (NSFW). Charlie's opponents will probably want to get some screen captures of this since it will most likely be gone very shortly.

Ever since Technorati started to index MySpace blog posts the results have been pretty interesting for a number of searches. Like I've said before any campaign that isn't using blog/CGM monitoring tools is going to always be behind the curve.

So far a few other Florida blogs have picked up on this, let's see if any of the media's political blogs bite.

Add a Comment

The News Chief cover story Tuesday was about the growth of residential spaces in downtown Winter Haven. I think this is great, Lakeland has added a number of residential spaces over the past few years, but WH has been lacking. From the article:

New development opportunities are taking place within the city, such as three condominum-style apartments above downtown businesses, which will be available May 31, according to Crosby and Associates Commercial Realtor Nancy Schafer's Landqueen.com.

Schafer said she knows a lot of people that would like to live downtown because of things like its great history and buildings.

"It is the hottest trend in the United States and in the downtowns," said Ronni Wood, the city's Main Street executive director.

Schafer's properties are located at 270 E. Central Ave. The largest apartment will be 2,200 square feet, and the other two will be about 1,200 square feet. All but one 1,200-square-foot space is rented. The larger is $2,200 and the two others are $1,200 monthly

For many years there were only a few places to actually live downtown, and I lived in both of them for a while in my younger days (1998-2000). Like the article mentions one big attractor is restaurants. In my time downtown there was nothing to do past 6 p.m. All the restaurant (and I mean single, restaurant) were only open at lunch.

Not counting 'The Haven' which sits next to McDonald's, currently the largest set of condos downtown are next to the Chamber of Commerce and were designed by Gene Leedy. The 10 units called Haven Place are often referred to as 'the caves' since they appear to have no windows, but they do. As with many of Gene's structures there is an outside privacy wall separated by a courtyard/green space and then the internal structure has large windows. Some are privately owned and a few are leased. The other hidden feature is the pool, it's there at the very end and is a hidden secret in downtown Winter Haven.

I lived in one of 'the caves' for about a year and loved it. Each of the units are 2 bedroom - 2 1/2 bath with the bedrooms upstairs and living/dining/kitchen/half-bathroom downstairs. The upstairs bathrooms feature a bidet, which for many Florida residents is an unusual sight. I love the minimalist interior design that Gene has, but not everybody does. The unit I lived in kept much of the original look, while others have made interior modifications. At the time my lease was approx. $600 a month which is a far cry from the $1,200 a month that the new units will command.

My other downtown home was the loft above Bill Bell's Carpets. That place was great. If you drive on Avenue B, NW past the Chamber look for the spiral staircase behind the glass, that's the loft. The second floor unit is one large room sub-divided into a bedroom, living/dining area, kitchen and bathroom. The only issue was moving in and out. You need to rent a material lift to get stuff into and out of the second story entrance, ugh. You couldn't beat the price though, I think I paid $300/month, which included some utilities. Like I said you couldn't beat the price.

In both cases my 'home' was a short walk to the 'office' which was the iThink/Webcode office at 505 on the Park. It's actually less than a block away. Being that close to work has pros and cons, but overall I really enjoyed my time downtown. I'm glad to see more development on the residential front.

Add a Comment

Prices might be cheaper at Kroger but Ryan says the men are hotter at Publix. I am not sure which Publix Ryan shops at, but I am guessing it is not in Polk County.

It was 7:30 p.m., and we were two gay guys entering the store directly behind a trio of gay guys.

It was Happy Hour at Publix.

Every time I stop by any gayborhood grocery after work, the place is fully stocked with guys shopping for dinner — and cruising for dessert. The Publix my friend and I were walking into that night is only a couple of blocks from my apartment, but I never do my large-scale grocery shopping there.

Ryan also recalls how he met is current beau:

One year ago this week, I was waiting in line at Publix during what I now know as Happy Hour, and I made eye contact with a divinely gorgeous guy buying grapes. After exchanging a series of glances and smiles, we acted like 7th graders trying to work up the nerve to speak, but 30 minutes later, the guy with the grapes was giving me a call.

I imagine a number of people have met their boyfriends/girlfriends at Publix, either working of shopping. "Mom, Dad, how did you meet?" ... "Well son I had 11 items in the express lane and your mother asked me to pick another lane..it was love at first site"

So how many Publix marriages have there been?

Add a Comment

One way you can truly contribute to this area is to help support the United Way of Central Florida. For the 'youth' crowd they have a great program called Young Leaders.

Young Leaders are individual investors are 40 and under who pledge a three year commitment to United Way of Central Florida. They invest $500 the first year, $750 the second year, and $1,000 the third year. Their commitment to furthering United Way's mission of impacting community needs is recognized at the Leadership level the first year of their commitment. By actively participating in annual campaigns, volunteering and community building projects, these Young Leaders are making a lasting, positive impact in our community.

Starting with $500 a year is a great introduction to the United Way. You can choose to pay all at once, monthly or have it payroll deducted. If you can do it, payroll deduction is the way to go. For example if you get paid every two weeks it's only a $20 contribution per check.

Add a Comment

Grabbing a quick iced coffee at Mitchell's Coffee in Lakeland this afternoon I spotted a laptop user typing away on Blogger. He was deep in thought so I didn't bother him, but it was interesting to see another blogger in the area besides Robert.

Add a Comment

Brian O'Connell posted a photo of an old abandoned Publix location. Looking at the architecture you can definitely see the 'old style' Publix look. In some cases Publix is refurbishing locations like this or taking visual cues from the style. The College Park location in Orlando comes to mind. However looking at the rest of the stores in the picture below I don't expect Publix to move back to that location.

You can keep an eye out for other Publix photos on Flickr by looking here....but watch out for those apron shots.

Add a Comment

The City of Lakeland will play host to the Grateful Dead tribute band, Uncle John’s Band from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. on Friday, April 21, 2006 during the Music on the Promenade.

The monthly music series takes place at the Lake Mirror amphitheater which is between Hollis Garden and the Lake Mirror Center. The event is FREE to the public and families are encouraged to attend. There will be food and drink vendors on site so bring a blanket and enjoy the lake setting with music under the stars.

Uncle John's Band was formed in 1990 in Clearwater Florida from a combination of talented musicians who love to play the music of the Grateful Dead. The purpose of Uncle John's Band is to recreate the atmosphere and musical adventure of a live Dead show. Over the past many years, Uncle John's Band has performed hundreds of shows full of musical energy and pleasure for all those who have attended. Over the last fifteen years the band has developed a loyal fan base in the thousands who enjoy the music, atmosphere, and experience of the Grateful Dead.

Lakeland Electric’s Music on the Promenade is proudly sponsored by The Ledger, the City of Lakeland, Lakeland Parks & Recreation Department, Center Door Productions and Lakeland Electric. Parking is available at the Lake Mirror Center's parking lot and in the Iowa Street parking garage. No glass bottles within the park please.

Add a Comment

Over at the St. Pete Times political blog they ask if Adam Putnam is the next Tom DeLay? Not from an illegal activity standpoint, but in a ranking Republican way.

When the Washington Times asked who might be the House's "next Tom DeLay," DeLay named three Republicans: Putnam, of Bartow, Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana and Rep. Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina.

Add a Comment

Over on one of the many Disney forums wdwgal posted a write-up of her recent visit to Cypress Gardens. She was impressed with the park as well as the crowds:

On Tuesday, we went to CG all day ... open from 10-7. Had a blast! They have several shows and lots of rides. The park itself is very pretty. Lots of green grass, trees, topiaries, etc. But you would not believe how low the crowd were. To give you an example, we could see our car from the front gate! There were people there, just not the multitudes you see at WDW.

They also have a water park included in your park admission that we spent alot of time in ( wave pool, lazy river, kiddie play area, water slides).

On Wednesday, we went back to CG and did some things we didn't have a chance to do on Tuesday. One thing I wanted to do was the paddle boat cruise, but DD6 wanted to spend her time in the water park area, so we'll do that next time.

One more thing that surprised me.... I overheard one of the workers say that this time of year is their slow time! He said that their busiest time was the winter time when the snow birds came down.

There are also some interesting comments below the original post.

Add a Comment

Picking up The Ledger this morning and reading the headline: Fly-In Concludes Without Fatalaties would probably cause mixed reactions among the Sun-N-Fun staff. Yes it is a good thing that there were no deaths this year. It seems that in the past few years there was always at least one fatal accident at the event. Put that many airplanes in the air at once and the odds of an accident go up.

However, the headline could have been a bit more positive. How about: Fly-In Concludes Safely or Fly-In Concludes On Upbeat Note.... any other ideas?

Add a Comment

Patriot Xeno provides a quick online review of a Crispers location in Jacksonville.

Food quality, taste: 7
It's pretty hard to screw up a ham, cheese and lettuce sandwich. Frankly, it would've been an 8, had they had mozzarella or provolone cheese. Seriously, what kind of sandwich shop doesn't have either of those? Regardless, 7 is a very respectable score.

Value: 2
I basically had 2 pieces of white toast, with some ham in between, leaf lettuce and American cheese. $7. By itself, not as part of a meal or drink combo or anything. It was about $1.50 worth of ingredients, and THAT is being awfully generous. A cup of soup (A CUP!) was $3.

You can read the rest of the review here. More and more of these citizen's reviews of restaurants are popping up. How long before this one hits the front page of Google when searching for Crispers?

Crispers has always had a strong foothold in Lakeland for obvious reasons, but it's interesting to see how they are perceived around the state. In most of my Florida travels they're seen as 'another Panera' since they might not have been first to market in that area.

Add a Comment

Here's an unusual source for you, CattleNetwork.com. The story though is locally based: Citrus Peels: A Cheaper Way To Fill Up The Gas Tank? The article is about research being done in Winter Haven to convert citrus peels to ethanol.

In 1992, Karel Grohmann, then research leader of the Winter Haven lab, began researching the feasibility of converting citrus peel waste into fuel ethanol. Citrus waste materials are rich in pectin, cellulose and hemicellusic polysaccharides, which can be hydrolyzed into sugars and fermented into alcohol. Most of this dried peel residue--a total of 1.2 million tons annually in Florida alone--is currently marketed as low-value cattle feed, despite its relatively high processing cost.....

...In 2004, Bill Widmer, an ARS chemist at Winter Haven, picked up where Grohmann left off, with the help of a cooperative research and development agreement partner, Renewable Spirits LLC of Delray Beach, Fla. ...

...A 10,000-gallon pilot facility is currently under construction, and should be finished by sometime this year. With further research, according to Widmer, Florida's citrus peel waste could yield up to 80 million gallons of ethanol per year.

Add a Comment

The St. Pete Times has an article about the Polk County Sheriff's Internet Crimes Unit in today's paper. The article gives an overview of the department and talks about some of the higher profile cases they've been involved with.

Hat tip: I4Jamming

Add a Comment

Lemon Street Celebration honoring the Sixth Annual Florida Outdoor Sculpture Competition will take place on Friday, April 7, 2006 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in downtown Lakeland. The public is invited to this FREE event to see the new sculptures that have been installed along the Lemon Street Promenade.

Prize winners for the sculpture competition will be announced during the event and the public will vote for their favorite piece of artwork. The piece that receives the most votes is awarded the coveted People's Choice Award.

This year's event includes the pop sounds of Blind Ambition on the stage and there will be street performers strolling along Lemon Street adding to the festive atmosphere. Local restaurants and vendors will have food and drink samples available for purchase. The sculpture competition winners, including People's Choice will be announced shortly before 7 p.m.

Lemon Street will be closed from South Florida Avenue to Massachusetts Avenue to accommodate the event. Portions of Tennessee Avenue and Kentucky Avenue will also be closed from Lemon Street to Preservation Alley.

The artists and their artwork on view this year are:
Andrew Arvanetes (Colleyville, TX), City Mouse
Carl Billingsley (Ayden, NC), Three Graces
R.F. Buckley (Miami, FL), Sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care
James N. Burns (Santa Fe, NM), Tastego
David J. Eisenhour (Port Hadlock, WA), Dandelion
Ted Sitting Crow Garner (Chicago, IL), Uppercutted
Ralph Provisero (Miami, FL), Rider
Derek C. Riley (Buzzards Bay, MA), Lash
Edwin C. White (Siler City, NC), Game of 12 Ball
Glenn Zweygardt (Alfred Station, NY), Verde Voyager

The exhibit is a joint project between the City of Lakeland and the Polk Museum of Art. Sponsors include Heritage Plaza, MIDFLORIDA Federal Credit Union, Publix Super Markets Charities, Inc., Peterson & Meyers, P.A., Smith Barney, SunTrust Bank, The Ledger and Watkins Motor Lines.

Add a Comment

Red Trail Racing of Lakeland will host an Urban Mountain Bike race in downtown Lakeland this Saturday April 8, 2006 from 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. The race will take place in the Iowa Avenue parking garage and along Lake Mirror. Iowa Avenue will be closed between Lakeland’s City Hall and Lakeland Electric. A portion of Lemon Street will be closed at Massachusetts.

Spectators are admitted free and can view the outlined course along Iowa Street and the Iowa Street Garage from designated positions. Ray Wells, promoter of the event said, “There is no other mountain bike event like this in the country that we are aware of. In fact, I am not aware of any other urban mountain bike race in the nation.”

StreetX will take place between the Urban Mountain Bike heat races. StreetX is a combination of dual slalom and motocross that takes place over a 200-yard course laden with obstacles.

Prizes for the Urban Mountain Bike Race include: Medals for the top three finishers of each round, prizes for top three series finishers and cash prizes for the top five expert division winners: 1st $150.00, 2nd $125.00, 3rd $100.00, 4th $75.00 and 5th $50.00.

For more information and to get a diagram of the course visit www.redtrailracing.com.

Add a Comment

Here is the Wikipedia entry for Brian Doyle. Somebody already has his mug shot up.

Add a Comment

Garmin, the makers of all things GPS are blogging from the Sun 'N Fun Fly-In. Their first post invites folks to stop by their booth at the show. Today they check in with the launch of a new Mooney aircraft.

We'll keep an eye on their blog to see what else they have to say about the event and perhaps Lakeland.

Add a Comment

The chart below is from Technorati and shows the daily average number of blog posts that contain the term 'Brian Doyle'. That's a good jump there today:

Of course the story is at the top of Memeorandum. Other links: Talking Points Memo gets a logo on CNN.com, Wonkette is asking readers for dirt on Doyle, Captains Quarters wonders who is doing the background checks at DHS, so does Shakespeare's Sister.

Add a Comment

Homeland Stupidity asks if there was even a crime committed in the Brian Doyle case (in all quotes the bolds are his emphasis):

The sheriff’s office has accused Doyle of sending hardcore pornography to the nonexistent 14 year old, having sexually explicit conversations with the nonexistent girl, and giving the nonexistent girl his office and wireless phone numbers.....

As much as it bothers me that someone this high up in the federal government likes having sex with children, it bothers me even more that anyone can go to prison for nothing more than the thoughts inside his head. For that’s all Doyle has done. He only thought about sex with children. There were no actual children involved.

Perhaps somebody more familiar with the Florida/Polk County laws can comment on this.

Add a Comment