This morning at the National Retail Federation's Loss Prevention Conference in Orlando, two 'locals' received national recognition: Detective Jim Ostojic with the Polk County Sheriff's Office (above) and Ron Averette from Publix (below).

From the NRF's release:

The National Retail Federation announced today the recipients of the distinguished Loss Prevention Retail Partnership Award at its annual Loss Prevention Conference and EXPO at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. NRF also announced new additions to its Ring of Excellence and the 2008 Loss Prevention Case of the Year winner.

2008 NRF Law Enforcement Retail Partnership Award

NRF’s Law Enforcement Retail Partnership Award is given each year to individuals in the law enforcement industry who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to support the retail industry in its fight against retail fraud, organized retail crime and other major incidents that affect the retail industry. NRF presented this year’s award to Detective Jim Ostojic with the Polk County (FL) Sheriff’s Office and Special Agent Telly Sands with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

In June 2007, Detective Ostojic uncovered an organized retail crime group in central Florida he believed to be responsible for several thefts at local retailers. He presented the case to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida State Attorney’s Office. A task force was put together consisting of agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and detectives from local agencies, with Special Agent Telly Sands assigned as the lead investigator. Over the course of the next seven months, Detective Ostojic and Agent Sands identified 18 suspects involved in the crime ring.

On January 24, 2008, they arrested the 18 suspects, with five search warrants being served. All of the suspects were charged under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Through their investigation the task force determined the crime ring was responsible for the loss of up to $100 million to local retailers. This case scored national recognition and brought a renewed attention to the problem of organized retail crime.

Loss Prevention Case of the Year

Publix SuperMarkets’ Loss Prevention Manager, Distribution, Ron Averette was awarded the 2008 Loss Prevention Case of the Year. In June, 2007, Averette began amassing evidence that suggested a major organized retail crime group was operating in the central Florida area. Detective Jim Ostojic of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office contacted Ron to compare the details of a specific arrest with other arrests at Publix stores and they quickly linked the suspect to several other pending cases. With Detective Ostojic’s help, Averette approached Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent Telly Sands to present their findings. A task force was quickly established and over the next seven months, Averette worked hand in hand with law enforcement to uncover the crime ring. The sting operation uncovered the largest (in dollar losses) organized retail crime ring to date and has been a topic of conversation throughout the retail loss prevention community since the arrests were made in January 2008.

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An article in the News Chief talks about the recent growth in restaurants in Winter Haven. There was even a 'study' done about it. According to the article the study was completed by Mainsail Development Group, the builders of Cypress Station. Yes, there has been some growth, but also some closings, Quizno's & Atlanta Bread.

What I found funny was the quote from Mike Byrum of Mainsail on why they conducted the study:

Byrum and others at Mainsail Development Group did the study "because it was interesting," Byrum said.

Hmmm, it doesn't have anything to do with drumming up interest in the large, empty retail space they own?

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When you visit the News Chief's web site you'll notice one thing...or perhaps you won't, since it's not there: Business.

I guess there is no business news in Winter Haven :-)

Oh wait, yes there is.

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Driving by Atlanta Bread Company this morning I noticed an empty parking lot...pulling up there is a sign on the door which says, "This Location is No Longer Open". The store is also removed from the ABC web site. That's too bad, since the closing of one restaurant chain might spook others from opening.

You may have also noticed that the Quizno's near Tijuana Flats and Cypress Gardens has closed....however I would just chalk that up to Quizno's.

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Sebring, FL now has a Starbucks, Winter Haven does not.

I mean come on.

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Just a small note that Winter Haven's cnp_studio just helped launch yet another high-profile web project, this time for eBay. Both Nick and I noted the hat trick that cnp_studio has recently completed with projects for eBay, Yahoo and Sony. Who says we're a 'rural' community?

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A while back I posted about the possibility of Lakeland's Linder Airport becoming a destination for low-cost commercial airlines. As I said then, it might sound far-fetched, but then again, maybe not.

Wednesday's edition of USAToday has a feature story on the growth of mid-size airports located near major cities:

Midsize airports outside major cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, are the fastest-growing in the nation and have seen passenger and flight volumes soar by up to 400% in the past decade, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data shows.

The growth is primarily fueled by two factors: discount airlines flocking to cheaper secondary airports and population growth in regions located about an hour from New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Washington, airport consultant Mike Boyd said.

Here is the key line for the Polk County/Lakeland area:

"Where you've got a population base and ease of access, you're going to get growth," Boyd said. The trend has helped alleviate strain on major metro airports and stimulated suburban development.

One of the info-graphics with the article shows that the busiest round-trip route is Atlanta-Orlando. While Sanford International Airport also serves Orlando, Lakeland is in a good position to cover Orlando and Tampa.

Would Lakeland build-up the infrastructure at Linder to handle commercial airlines?

The drawback might just be all the residential development that has occurred around the airport/Polk Parkway. I'm not sure local residents would like to hear steady jet-service over their neighborhoods.

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We've heard from a number of people about the closing of the Citrus Festival. The articles in The Ledger and News Chief both quote Winter Haven officials, Citrus Festival officials, and local residents.

However there is one group that we haven't heard from. The citrus industry. After all, it's their festival. I use the word 'their' loosely here. They seem to be conspicuously silent in this matter?

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Growing up I can remember one of my favorite things about going to the doctor was talking to the pharmacist, Dr. Frakes. He was a nice man and pretty much knew everyone that walked into his store. I hadn't experienced his level of service until recently when I went to the Publix pharmacy.

Let me interrupt my story first by sharing with you how I got switched to Publix. I had been a Walgreens customer since I went to college and could have my prescriptions filled at any Walgreens from Las Vegas to New York City. This was quite a convenience but came at a cost of customer service. My last straw was when I has my wife's Z-pack antibiotics filled at Walgreens. A Z-pack is a small package of 6 pills that the pharmacy simply needs to stick the label to and hand to you. I was told at 10AM that it would be ready at 12 Noon. Seemed about par for the course. I returned at 1PM, waited in line of 6 cars for 30 minutes, making it 1:30 when I got to the window to be told that it wasn't ready yet. I asked that since I had waited in line for such a long time if they could just grab the medicine for me, no luck. We returned at 6 PM (time spent NOT getting my wife better) to finally pick up the medicine. The next week my son caught what she had and was put on antibiotics as well. This time I went to Publix, who filled it quite quickly and to my surprise FREE! I had heard about the free antibiotics program Publix had started, but never got to experience it.

Back to my original story, this weekend I fell to what appeared to be the same bug the rest of the family had. By the time I got out of the First Care center, it was 6:40 and the Publix pharmacy closed at 7. We rushed over to see if they could fill it for us (not being very hopeful, but definitely not wanting to go back to Walgreens). The lady was very friendly and said "of course" and we were on the way home with my meds in less than 5 minutes! WOW, what a difference! Needless to say, we've switched our other prescriptions over to Publix now.

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I tried to look up the cost of a single business phone line on Verizon's web site. Here's what happened:

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Somebody has created a set of Publix-themed discussion sites over at PublixForum.com. There is a forum and a blog. The WHOIS on the domain does not reveal any details, but the about page on the blog has this:

The Unofficial Publix Blog is exactly what it sounds like: a blog (mostly) about Publix run by some random part-timer who makes exactly $7.75 an hour bagging groceries and is putting himself through college. Said part-timer isn’t much of a writer, unfortunately, and would be glad to have experienced bloggers help him out.

While I'm all for blogger rights, it might not be long before Publix tries to shut this down since it uses Publix in the domain name. Any trademark attorney will tell you that you need to protect your mark, under any circumstance.

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The Orlando Sentinel has an update that the CSX/State of Florida deal for commuter rail is done:

With one day to spare before losing out on about $180 million in federal funding, CSX and the state of Florida on Thursday finally reached a deal that will turn over 61 miles of tracks from DeLand to Orlando to Poinciana for the region's first commuter rail system.

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Two quick follow-ups to the FIOS item I posted the other day.

1. Lonnie Brown from The Ledger wrote a column about FIOS on November 18th.
2. Tech/Geek Blogger Paul Stamatiou recently wrote a review of FIOS from a friends house.

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I had planned to post this question a few weeks ago, but Adam sort-of beat me to it. He received notice that his neighborhood had been wired for FIOS. What is FIOS? It's Verizon's Fiber-to-the-home solution, as in super-high-speed internet access.

I've been on DSL since day one from Verizon and it's getting slow. My Sprint EVDO wireless card is often faster than my DSL at home. FIOS will hopefully give me a nice boost of speed, but I don't know anybody locally that has it.

Are there any areas in Polk County wired and using FIOS yet? If you have it, what has your experience been like?

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Yes, lots of discussion about rail the past few months, but there is another partner with rail......telecommunications firms, aka telcos. Most of the major fiber-optic build-out over the past decade has occurred along rail lines. The main reason is that rail has established right-of-way all over the country, so burying fiber is easy. The telco only has to deal with one source, the rail line, opposed to numerous agencies, locations, etc.

Just look for those orange and white poles, chances are there is fiber below. And more than likely, those orange poles are next to a rail line. The one pictured above is in Auburndale on the main CSX line.

As we've learned via the CSX debate, Polk County is a crucial location in the rail network. The same goes with fiber. If you've even been around Auburndale you might notice a medium-sized building next to the rail lines. It used to have MCI branding on it, but that's been removed. That building is a major connection point for fiber (telco) for the state. Going back some time ago when MCI was the internet backbone, that building was a big deal.

So what's the point? Well when people talk about closing down rail lines or converting them over to other uses, there is a hidden lobby out there that will fight that....the telcos. Just food for thought.

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Remember the movie Coming to America with Eddie Murphy? In the movie Eddi'e character worked at McDowell's a blatant rip-off of McDonald's. The similarities are even part of the storyline:

Cleo McDowell: "Look...me and the McDonald's people got this little misunderstanding. See, they're McDonald's...I'm McDowell's. They got the Golden Arches, mine is the Golden Arcs. They got the Big Mac, I got the Big Mick. We both got two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, but their buns have sesame seeds. My buns have no seeds. "

In Winter Haven near Jan Phyl Village there is a former Hardee's location, now called Georgee's. It seems they took the location and the two ee's on the end of the name.

Each time I drive by it I always think of McDowell's and wonder if the owners of Georgee's have ever been contacted by attorneys from Hardee's? I guess in their defense, they have the chezburger and not the cheeseburger.

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Well it finally happened, the News Chief has been sold. There had been rumors for some time and I had also heard word from an insider that it was on the block.

Morris Publishing Group agreed Tuesday to sell 17 of its newspapers, including the News Chief in Winter Haven, to GateHouse Media Inc. for $115 million.

Morris will use the cash to pay down debt. The sale of its smaller newspapers will leave the Augusta-based company with 10 medium-sized papers.

The other papers sold:

In addition to the News Chief, the Morris daily newspapers to be sold are the Dodge City (Kan.) Daily Globe, The Newton (Kan.) Kansan, The (Pittsburg, Kan.) Morning Sun, the Hillsdale (Mich.) Daily News, The Holland (Mich.) Sentinel, the Hannibal (Mo.) Courier-Post, The (Independence, Mo.) Examiner, The Grand Island (Neb.) Independent, the York (Neb.) News-Times, The Daily Ardmoreite (Okla.), The Shawnee (Okla.) News-Star, the Yankton (S.D.) Daily Press & Dakotan and The Oak Ridger (Tenn.).

The nondaily newspapers include La Estrella (Dodge City, Kan.) The Girard (Kan.) City Press and the Vermillion (S.D.) Plain Talk. Also sold was a commercial printing operation, Flashes Publishing (Mich.), which also publishes The Holland Sentinel and the Flashes Shopping Guides.

So it looks like they're dropping their smaller market papers. Properties like Jacksonville and Augusta, their stronger brands, remain. Here is the official release from Morris.

The new owners, GateHouse Media, own a number of smaller publications across the country. Papers like The Daily Telegram and the Boonville Daily News. Looking around at some of the paper web sites, they're not that impressive which isn't a good thing since the future of all news is online. There are some bright spots like the Taunton Gazette. It features a somewhat decent layout, RSS feeds...but a completely blank blogs page.

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I'm on a long business trip that brought me to Atlanta on Sunday. While driving to meet a friend for breakfast in Atlanta I looked up and saw this:

It's the entrance to the CSX Hulsey Yard, aka Intermodal Atlanta. Small world :-) I didn't have a chance to do any other looking since I was late for me meet-up.

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Traveling northbound on highway 27 in Haines City I've witnessed a few close calls and one accident all in one location. The location is directly in front of the new Lowes in Haines City just north of Wal-Mart Supercenter. The situation is the same every time, a semi-truck is pulling out of the Lowes parking lot, turning left to head south on 27. The semi crosses the northbound lanes and stops in the median turn lane waiting for southbound traffic to clear. While he is waiting, his trailer is blocking part of (or in some places completely) the far left northbound lane. The close calls that I’ve seen are when cars following the semis out of Lowes see that the northbound lanes are clear, and they also think that it’s a great idea to pull out into the left turn lane. This totally blocks the left turn opportunities for southbound traffic, and the braking noises are thunderous. The accident occurred when one semi followed another into the turning lane on Hwy 27, and totally blocked all northbound traffic. I'm not a big fan of adding MORE lights to 27, but something needs to be done about this. Is it possible to make it a "no left turn" out of Lowes and make drivers make a U-turn at the next lighted intersection?

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Well everybody who was anybody was there. CSX folks, City of Winter Haven folks, Anne Furr of the LDDA, Kathleen Munson of the LACC. If you had a stake in the CSX debate you were there.

The purpose of the meeting is to allow regional/state/public agencies to put forth their case with respect to the DRI application. Contrary to what was in the paper, this is not a public hearing and does not offer the ability for public input, that will come at a later process. The discussion is also centered on the applicant's application and is not a discussion of regional decisions regarding rail, etc. Agency comments are limited to five minutes a piece.

I think after the intro, a number of citizens who were expecting to speak were quietly upset.

Neil Frazee with MSCW gave a brief project overview, nothing new to many of the folks in the audience who have been following the process. The proposed project is a one phase project. Construction starts in 2008, completed in 2009. The project will employ up to about 200 employees once completed.

Anne Stokes with Southeast Archeological Research then spoke about the archeological survey completed. No major archeological sites/structures have been found on the site.

Dale Dowling then reviewed some of the ecological findings. (sorry I was uploading photos so didn't get all of it) The next presentation dealt with traffic, didn't catch the guy's name. I think everybody here was interested in traffic. There will be only one primary access point which will connect to SR 60. All traffic coming in/out will then head East or West on SR 60. There are no plans to extend the connector

The Taft rail yard is often mentioned as a good example of how the site will operate site. The Winter Haven facility is going to be a combo of automobile cars and traditional container cars, no tankers.

The next portion of the meeting was a request to eliminate questions about the DRI. These are things like issues with on-site wells (there are none), per-capita issues (there are no additional home units being built). Much of this was inside-baseball.

So what did we learn today? If you've been following the CSX project, then not much. Remember this was a DRI pre-application hearing, so that actual application wasn't really being debated. From what I can gather, much of it was, "Here's what we're going to submit....what do you think?"

Things will get interesting once the actual application is submitted. That will be the middle of December when the actual application will be submitted. Neil Frazee said the tentative date is December 9th. Once submitted, the application will be made available to the public.

A hearing has been scheduled for October 24th to discuss the specifics of the traffic impacts. Need to get more details on that.

Next up was comments from other agencies/cities, while this is not part of the official DRI pre-application review it was allowed today. First up was the City Manager of Lake Wales. His major concern is the traffic issues. The City of Lakeland submitted some questions but did not review them publicly. Need to see if I can get a copy of those.

Jean Reed, spoke and said her comments were her own, since she can't speak for the BOCC. She thanked the participants for bringing forth the DRI process. Also, since the project is surrounded by county residents, it will impact Polk County.

Jim Studial, City of Lakeland spoke some more on behalf of Lakeland. Jim said they would be disappointed if the DRI process did not address the increased rail traffic in the county. The project also needs to be reviewed from a comp plan perspective within the county. Although it's a Winter Haven project and within their comp plan, it impacts all of the county.

Prior to the application and public hearings, public comment can be sent to csxdri@cfrpc.org.

That was it, not much excitement. December is when the real fun begins :-)

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Yes we all know that DayJet air taxi service is now officially launched in Lakeland, but how about a real commercial airline? Sound far fetched? It might not be.

Recently SkyBus announced jet service to Punta Gorda, FL. You read that correctly, Punta Gorda. (Photo above is a SkyBus Airbus A319 in San Diego. Photo by So Cal Metro)

They're flying into Port Charlotte Airport starting Dec 5th. SkyBus COO, Ken Gile said this to the Charlotte Sun:

Punta Gorda is a great destination for our nonstop flights on full-size jets and our outrageously low fares," Gile said in a statement. "Southwest Florida is a major destination for people in Columbus and all over Ohio, and we think Charlotte County Airport will provide a very attractive alternative for travelers going to and from Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, Port Charlotte and all of Southwest Florida.

SkyBus is a low-cost carrier that has a limited number of routes. You might compare them to Southwest or Airtran. SkyBus has some low fares, how low? From the Charlotte Sun article:

Skybus is offering at least 10 seats on every flight at a base price of $10, first-come, first-served. Taxes and fees add about $10 more to the price.

A more apt comparison for SkyBus is not Southwest, but EasyJet or Ryanair from Europe. Those two European carriers are ultra-low-cost like SkyBus. One way EasyJet/Ryanair can offer low fares is to use regional airports near large destinations. You don't really fly to Milan, but 'near' Milan. Of course your definition of 'near' may vary.

SkyBus is using Port Charlotte Airport to serve the Southwest Florida area. In that model, an airport like Lakeland Linder would 'serve' Tampa.

Regional airports can offer tremendous savings over traditional hubs. If you're not familiar with the industry, large airlines pay for the use of gates are major airports. Often regional municipalities will offer considerable incentives (read FREE) to bring a commercial carrier to their airport. Those savings can be passed along as lower fares.

I can't speak for the Lakeland City Commission, but I think that if a commercial carrier expressed interest in Lakeland, they'd be all ears...and open their checkbooks. Sure some major updates would have to happen to the airport, but if Punta Gorda can do it, so can Lakeland.

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Next Tuesday, October 16th I'll be part of the Florida Public Relations Association's local media breakfast event. Yep, you guessed it, I'll be playing the part of the 'blogger'. The event is from 7:30 am (that's early) till noon. The round-table discussions, of which I'll be a part of, start at 9:00 AM.

Check the FPRA web site for more details.

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A recent comment on an old post on my other blog from Crispers' IT Director indicates that all Crispers locations now have free wifi. Nice.

We have just completed a technology revamp at all our locations including new POS Systems and WIFI. All Crispers locations are now a WIFI hotspot, Crispers loves its customers and wants them to enjoy their visit. Whether on business or with friends and family, come in for the great food and bring your laptop or PDA..!!

I'll need to swing by the Winter Haven location to check things out.

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The new Publix plaza under construction across from Heart of Florida Hospital now has a a Crispers sign on the marquee. The store is not listed on their locations page yet. I'll have to check a menu next time I'm in a Crispers since they always list the 'Coming Soon' stores on the back.

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The Orlando Sentinel has a large feature piece on Frostproof: Frostproof struggles with growing or disappearing.

There is no Wal-Mart or Publix here. No Chili's or Burger King. No mega subdivisions of cookie-cutter homes.

For years, Frostproof's isolation has been its shield against unwanted growth.....

....But the present has brought challenges to the heart of Florida's citrus country.

Frostproof's largest employer and utility user, the Cargill juice plant, is closing. The Police Department has disbanded. The city's only grocery store is for sale. And the 2004 hurricane season devastated the city's finances.

The Sentinel seems to have a fascination with Frostproof since it profiled the area in September of last year as well.

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Well, it appears that a Quizno's is going to be put into the new shopping center "Towne Center" adjacent to Cypress Gardens. I have nothing against Quizno's (except for one small case of food poisoning that pretty much guarantees my avoidance), but do we really need 3 different locations withing 5 miles? There is another one 2 miles down Cypress Gardens Blvd across from State Farm and yet another in the Eagle Ridge plaza just south of Home Depot on 27. Is there really that much demand for the "Q"? Is the volume at the other CGB location just too much to handle?

How about a Panera or a First Watch? Is that too much to ask?

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An enterprising individual has posted some old Publix Training videos on YouTube. The series, How to Deal with Old People was made in the 80's and is posted in parts. The first segment is the story told from the elderly point of view, the second part trains new hires on how to appreciate the elderly:

What's frightening to me is that the woman in the video is played by Phyllis Gilbert my 9th grade English teacher from Denison Middle School....those are memories I don't want to relive.

Also make sure you listen to the Publix radio commercial playing in the first part. In part two, check out the old-style Publix uniforms.

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It seems like so far away, but this time last year we were right in the middle of election season for county commission. On Sept 18, 2006 I attended the Tiger Bay debate in Bartow, FL. It was there that Randy Wilkinson, Robert Connors, Jean Read and Bruce Parker squared off.

What else happened in September of 2006?

- Randy had his DUI/non-DUI in Lakeland
- Cypress Gardens Filed Chapter 11

I also asked, "How Divided is Polk County?" That post seems somewhat timely given the recent battles of the CSX project. Take a look at this quote:

In politics and local issues, folks in Lakeland just don't care/worry about what happens politically or growth-wise in Winter Haven and vice versa. In the mean time, nobody seems to pay too much attention to the Four Corners area, which just happens to be the fastest growing part of the county.

People care now :-)

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Just a quick reminder that the auction of Cypress Gardens will be held tomorrow in Valdosta, GA. I assume that the Ledger might send somebody up there to cover the proceedings.

Sunday's Valdosta paper had an editorial concerning the sale of the two parks (CG & Wild Adventures):

In two days, Wild Adventures in Valdosta and its sister park, Cypress Gardens in Florida, will be auctioned. The parks will be sold individually to different companies, bringing a premature end to what could have been the beginning of an entertainment dynasty.....

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The Sun-Sentinel has an article about the new Publix Greenwise store that is scheduled to open next Thursday in South Florida.

Publix GreenWise Market, Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets' first health, natural and organic store, will debut next Thursday offering shoppers gourmet prepared foods with curbside pickup service and thousands of grocery items that aren't sold in traditional Publix supermarkets.

You've seen the Greenwise sections in your local Publix, but this is a whole 39,000 sq/ft store dedicated to that concept.

Why the specialization? It's called competition. The Sun-Sentinel article mentions Whole Foods, but there are also stores like Fresh Market and Trader Joe's to contend with in other markets.

GreenWise Market will compete with Whole Foods Market and others who sell higher-margin natural and organic foods. With a concentration of more than 100 prepared-meal options — ranging from pizza to churrasco steak — the grocery store also aims to give patrons an alternative to upscale restaurant dining at similar prices.

The Sun-Sentinel has published a photo gallery and a video of the new store. For a comparison, here are some photos I took in a Whole Foods store.

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DayJet has announced an event on Oct 4 in Lakeland to officially launch their air taxi service. Well known blogger Jon Udell recently talked to the CEO of DayJet about the operations/logistics of their company. There is also a podcast of their talk.

In this interview, Ed describes how he worked through a false start, realized that on-demand air travel would require a platform, decided that Eclipse Aviation’s line of precision-engineered, mass-produceable, and affordable jets would be the platform’s equivalent to the personal computer, and then conceived and created its network operating system and software service infrastructure.

There were two major research and development challenges. First, how do you find an optimal routing solution when there’s no fixed schedule and when every new reservation ripples through the entire network?

What's interesting in the comments of Jon's post is that two people talk about rail as an alternative to travel for distances under 500 miles. I don't care it it's rail or air taxi, I'd love to have an easy solution to get from this area to Tallahassee or Jacksonville. In each of those two cases, driving is a huge pain and saps a bunch of time. Too bad that commuter rail thing won't extend to Polk County :-)

As for DayJet, I know I'll be taking a few trips via their service. Once I do I'll post review of the experience.

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When I picked up my mail on Saturday I had to do a double-take. At first I thought either the Tampa Bay or Orlando Business Journals were printing a Polk County edition. It turns out that it's the Lakeland Ledger. The debut issue of the Polk County Business Journal should be in your mailboxes now. Business mailboxes that is.

It's a monthly publication unlike Tampa and Orlando which are weekly. According the the article today, it will be mailed to 7,000 businesses. I wonder if they'll ever start inserting it in the Monday paper like Orlando does with their Monday business feature???

I read through the first issue while having lunch at Mama Dilo's on Saturday. It's your standard business content, with ads of course :-).

As of this post, the web site: http://www.polkcountybusinessjournal.com/ was not working. Probably just a DNS thing.

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Billy Townsend and Lindsay Peterson have an extensive story/report concerning the CSX project. While the CSX deal has been quite the topic in the Polk County area, their report looks more from a statewide level.

Polk County has always touted themselves as being the 'center of it all' from a tourism and business development perspective, it's certainly the case in this massive commuter-rail/freight project. The report is a good overview of the years of dealings between the DOT and private railroads in developing a plan for Florida's passenger and freight rail traffic.

With more focus coming to the project, another sleeping giant may awake, Tampa.

The likely loser is the Tampa Bay area, particularly Lakeland.

Under the state's new plan, commuter rail isn't likely to come to Tampa for decades - if ever - because of CSX's plans for unlimited freight increases in the area. That freight traffic will be routed through downtown Lakeland, where local officials fear years of expensive redevelopment efforts will be ruined.

The Lakeland area has a strong ally in Tampa.

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With the recent news of the impending sale of Cypress Gardens, obviously our focus in Polk County has been local. We need to remember though that Cypress Gardens is not the only park impacted by the bankruptcy proceedings. Kent Buescher's other (and first) park is Wild Adventures in Valdosta, GA.

The September 25th sale also made front page news at the Valdosta Daily Times. While their article offers few additional details, it does have more quotes from Buescher:

“There are still many options for the company. I can’t tell you for certain what’s going to happen, but I expect to have new financial backers. I would like to still be involved in the company, but all is to be determined.

“My job is to take care of our guests,” he said. “We are managing through the process, and are looking forward to the day that both of these parks emerge from these clouds, which will happen in early October, one way or another. Both parks have an extremely bright future.”

Hopefully our local media (and residents) will look to the Valdosta media for additional information.

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Today's News Chief has a story about the new 'Garden Days' promotion at Cypress Gardens. At first read it looks cool, park admission has been lowered to $19.95 for select days in September. But then you read on:

During "Garden Days," the rides and Splash Island Water Park will not be available, with the exception of one of the park's most notable rides, Sunshine Sky Adventure.

That's like Disney saying, sure come on by, but don't expect to get on any of the rides. Speaking of that, they just sunk all that money into the Starliner (not to mention the promotion) and you can't ride it on the weekdays.

I guess focusing on the reduced cost is one way to look at things, here are a few others that aren't so good:

1. Attendance is so low during the weekdays it doesn't make sense to staff a full crew.

2. They can't afford to pay their part-time staff to work during the weekdays. Perhaps the show performers are on salary so they get paid whether they work or not...so might as well make them put on a show.

Workforce has always been an issue for the park. My family went yesterday, a Sunday, and there are still a number of rides that aren't staffed at all.

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On Friday I had lunch with Billy Townsend. Once of the topics of conversation was CSX of course. Billy's been working on a rather comprehensive CSX piece that was supposed to run today (Sunday). Billy updates us this morning that the USF student story has pushed this back.

Now we'll have to wait another week :-(

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Lakeland's first Starbucks is finally getting T-Mobile wifi access. Working today at the South Florida and Beacon store, a few Verizon techs walked in and asked for the manager, "We're here to spec out the T-1 install." Finally.

The Beacon location opened many years ago, but it's never had wifi. I remember when they first opened I asked the manager when they would be getting it and they said 6 months. I think that was 4 years ago :-)

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Over at Lakeland Local, Chuck Welch has some good commentary about the Lakeland Chamber letter. Chuck brings up a few good points, one of which I'll quote below:

Please don't lump all of "Lakeland" with the Chamber.

I was going to mention this in my post about the letter. The Lakeland Area Chamber Letter stated:

I am writing on behalf of the Board of Directors and 2,100 member businesses of the Lakeland Area Chamber of Commerce.

I know a few businesses in Lakeland that might not share the Chamber's views on this issue. Plus there are a few Winter Haven firms that belong to the LACC.

I think folks that worked in the transportation, commercial real estate (think warehouses) or construction might welcome things. Then again, those same folks welcome just about any development :-)

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The Tampa Bay Business Journal has news of a distribution center being built in the Haines City area.

First Industrial Realty Trust Inc. plans to start work next week developing 160 acres into a distribution center with as much as 1.6 million square feet. The Chicago-based real estate investment trust has scheduled a groundbreaking ceremony at 10 a.m. Monday near the southeast corner of County Road 544 and State Road 17.

First Industrial (NYSE: FR) has prelease agreements for the first 200,000-square-foot building at FirstPark @ Haines City and is close to signing additional leases for two buildings with approximately 1 million square feet and 400,000 square feet each.

At the end of the story is this little tid-bit:

Approximately 900 distribution, service center and manufacturing jobs are expected to be created by way of the FirstPark @ Haines City development.

Wow, sounds like a lot of trucks and folks coming-and-going. I wonder who will pay for the roads and infrastructure improvements? Oh wait, we all do.

I'll expect a protest from Lakeland soon (joking there).

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The Lakeland Area Chamber of Commerce recently sent a letter to Thomas Pelham, Secretary, Florida Department of Community Affairs over the CSX project. The letter is CC'd to just about every other person of importance, from Gov. Crist all the way down to Mike Herr at the county. The three-page letter is dated August 23, 2007 and is signed by LACC President, Kathleen Munson. You can download a PDF copy of the letter here.

The letter starts off with the standard....

I am writing on behalf of the Board of Directors and 2,100 member businesses of the Lakeland Area Chamber of Commerce. We respectfully request that the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) require that the proposed CSX Integrated Logistics Center (ILC) project in Winter Haven undergo a full Development of Regional Impact (DRI) Review and that the DCA decline an expedited permitting process request to make it possible for CSX to begin construction before the review can determine the impact this project will have on Polk County and the State of Florida....

The letter then cites research done by the Chamber:

Our research has confirmed that, while the project will generate a positive economic impact for Winter Haven and our county with an increase in jobs and tax benefits, it will create a major adverse impact on Lakeland and other municipalities surrounding the project with the dramatic increase in truck and rail traffic it will generate through our communities.

Now before I start to discuss details, let me state my position on the CSX project. I am for the project if it is properly planned for. Should it be a DRI? Probably, but CSX planned the initial project to fit just under the DRI limit. Things like this happen all the time. If you think that CSX is the first firm to figure out if the limit is X then just submit X-1 to bypass regulation, then you don't know development. Is CSX the best corporate citizen? I'll let you fill in the blank on that one.

However I have to point out a bit of hypocrisy on the part of Lakeland here. As I pointed out in an earlier post, there are more distribution centers that cause more truck traffic in Lakeland than the CSX facility will generate. It's interesting that suddenly truck traffic is a major issue with Lakeland.

In addition to the truck traffic, CSX also projects the ILC terminal will create 1,000 to 2,000 new jobs and that workforce will add severely to the traffic congestion.

The Phase I projection is 200 jobs, not 1000 to 2000. Billy Townsend picked up on the job 'exaggeration' some time ago. The majority of CSX's promises (jobs, economic development, etc) fall in the second phase of the project, which might never be built. However, everybody, on both sides of the issue like to point to the 'big' numbers. After all, they look better :-)

I really don't think there is anything that the DCA can do. One DCA official I talked to said that often development groups will come in just under the requirement for any project. That could be acres, units per acre, etc. That's the problem with drawing a line, it sets a boundary that can often be skirted. While the DCA enforces it, they don't set it. Our local legislators do. We all need to take it up with them.

I think if anything the CSX project has made us all look around and say, 'Hey why don't we change this?"

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I swung by the Downtown Lakeland Partnership Anti-CSX rally/protest downtown today. Photos from the rally are here.

I stopped by the tent at the corner of Main and Kentucky on three different occasions. There was a slow/steady stream of locals downtown that stopped by the tent, but never a huge crowd (The Ledger says it was 'sparse'). The largest group I saw numbered around 6 or 7 not including media (and one gorilla)