In a previous post a commenter mentioned the need to 'support our small businesses'. That got me thinking....yes our area has a good share of chains, but here is a list of the locally-owned restaurants I frequent:
Then you enter the gray area of franchises. Sure they're a 'chain' but they're usually owned by a local resident, so are you supporting local business? I think so, but a small % does go to the parent company.
What are the local restaurants/coffee shops you frequent?
I was in downtown Lakeland on Sunday for another event and happened upon the Florida Criterium Championships. Luckily I had my camera and was able to take a few shots. The full photoset is here.
It's like this: Nicholas Negroponte head of MIT's Media Lab, declared in 1998 that the digital revolution was over. If that's the case, what's up with all this "digital" media around us? How is it shaping the way artists create work? The answer is, in surprising ways!
Polk Museum of Art decided it wanted to find out how artists in the state of Florida were taking advantage of technology, so it created a juried competition that was open to instructors and professors at Florida's public and private universities and colleges. They got the typical digital photography and films, but they also got paintings, prints, and (...get this!...) ceramics!
The show is called Digital Art in the Post-Digital Age: Works by Florida Faculty and it opens for viewing on Saturday, May 24. Don't worry, though. You don't have to rush over to see it THAT DAY. It'll be up through September 7.
Oh, and don't miss the reception on May 30. It's for this show and Karsh, Leonard, and Bagert: A Photographic Legacy. Herman Leonard and Jenny Bagert, two of the artists in that exhibition, will talk about their work at 6:00pm, and then the reception will begin at about 7. Stetson University's Mobile Performance Group will be doing their thing a couple of times before the whole thing ends at 8:30. $10 gets you in the door and it's a cash bar. I know I'll be there!
Whew! It is hot out there, but let me tell you, Volvo Mayfaire is EXCELLENT this year.
People of all ages are coming out and enjoying the great art and the great food to be found around the lake. And a lot of people are wandering into Polk Museum of Art for a few minutes of AC and to see even more wonderful artwork.
So far, the MayFerries have been a big hit. Every time I see one, it's full! And when I was driving one this morning, the people I picked up were really pleased to be able to catch a lift.
We're looking forward to finishing off a great day, and celebrating some more at Mayfaire Saturday Night tonight. Be sure to come on down to Lake Morton in Downtown Lakeland before 5pm to see the art, and then mosey over to Lake Mirror for music by The Rogues and fireworks at 9pm. I'll see you there!
That's probably as close as I'll ever get to commuter rail in Central Florida. It's my son's LEGO train set.
The defeat of the CSX incentive-laden bill has been hailed as a savings to taxpayers. Two quick questions though
When in the next few decades do you think building a commuter rail line will be cheaper?
How do you plan on building a rail line without some sort of involvement from CSX?
Here are a few quick answers:
Now or Never? If there is one certainty other than death and taxes, it's that major public-infrastructure projects don't get cheaper over time. So if you're complaining about the cost now, just wait a few years....especially when we don't have any Federal funds. Throw in a connection to Tampa and watch the cost get even higher. However land is a bit cheaper today than it was two years ago. Perhaps this recession is good for something :-)
Good Luck. They own the major rail lines in the area, so that leaves you with three options: a. build your own, sure....any estimate on what that right-of-way would be? b. deal with the devil, CSX that is....and I bet after this last go around they won't be lowering their price...or c. Use the center of I-4, after all that's what we widened it for right?
Once again regionalism has screwed over the area. Lakeland doesn't want more freight trains, Orlando is sick of them and wants commuter rail, Winter Haven doesn't seem to care as long as their is tax revenue to be gained. South Florida doesn't like funding an Orlando rail initiative with limited immunity, even though they benefit from a similar deal. The Four Corners is growing with residents that work and play in the Osceola/Orange area and we just killed their rail deal, that should go over well. The list can go on and on.
I hope that something good will come out of all this. Hopefully the entire region will begin to think about a good rail system, but it's going to be hard for any Orlando politician to deal with Lakeland for a bit. They'll get over it.....but when?
One day the planning will start and then the finger-pointing will resume all over. What's that...you want to build a high-speed rail connection between Orlando and Tampa but bypass downtown Lakeland and Winter Haven? No way!
Will there ever be decent rail in Central Florida? In the past year I've seen a number of great commuter rail systems, but alas I don't think we'll ever get there.
I am often in San Francisco/San Jose/Palo Alto for business and I often use CalTrain when I'm there. I don't know the political/financial back-story on CalTrain, but I know it works for me and works well. If I'm at my Palo Alto office, I can get on CalTrain and be in the city within an hour and thanks to EVDO, I can work the entire way...or I can just relax. Something a car never allows. If only we had something like this in Florida.
I experienced something similar in the UK recently. Work had me staying in Windsor, but London was just a short/reliable train-ride away. The SouthWest Trains service was great and I ended up using it for three round-trips in 4 days. On two occasions I used it during rush hour. It's hard to imagine folks in Florida switching to a train-commute lifestyle, but I enjoyed it. Part of this is the make-up of our urban centers.......or perhaps more specifically our lack of urban centers. It would be nice to live in the English countryside and have work be a nice train commute.
Of course, once I arrive in San Francisco or London there is a good subway/transport system in place there to get me around the rest of the city. Something Orlando and Tampa are missing.
That's one of the often cited issues related to subways/rail systems. Cities like London/New York/Chicago had systems in place that allowed development around them. Trying to build after the fact is difficult and expensive, just ask MARTA about that.
When FOX, that's Florida Overland Express to you newbies, or whatever it was going to be called was a glimmer of hope I was just that, hopeful. I was traveling to Jacksonville quite a bit and the drive was killing me. I looked forward to sitting back, relaxing and doing some work while somebody else took care of the transit. Ah yes, dreams of the TGV and Thalys from my honeymoon in Europe.
So I'll repeat the question, will there ever be decent rail in Central Florida?
Neither the intermodel center nor the ILC were dependent upon the commuter rail plan getting through the Legislature, said Sease, the CSX spokesman. If anything, it was the other way around, he said, adding that the commuter rail system will not work without the Winter Haven terminal.
That's the quote in the News Chief from CSX's Gary Sease. Is this true? Perhaps. If it is, things are about to get much more interesting, after all, we're just finishing season one.
Lakeland was upset with increased train traffic brought on by the ILC, or was it the commuter rail plan? Either way, they lobbied hard and won, at least they think they did. After all the CSX deal is dead. Well at least the commuter rail portion of it. But CSX says they're not related.
If the ILC goes through, then Lakeland will have their cake and eat it too, except the opposite...what's that? Losing your cake and paying for it too?
If the ILC is built, expect more freight traffic. What's stopping CSX from running more freight traffic through Lakeland/Polk County? After all, they own the tracks, can they do what they want? Actually that's a good question, Billy/Tom? Can they just do what they want, does it require any government approval to increase the number of trains, or can they just do it?
If so, then let's look at the recap: Lakeland helps defeat the commuter rail bill and manages to upset most of the Orlando area in the process. Then, at the end of the day it still might see more train traffic.
What's the next step?
What's that....the Van Fleet trail? Sure, that's easy for Lakeland....make it Polk City's problem, after all they're a bit below the lower-middle-class status and won't mind more trains.
What's the solution for commuter rail? Will we ever see a commuter line from Tampa to Orlando? And can that be done without involving CSX? Ask Dennis Ross (from The Ledger):
"They still hold all of the cards," Ross said, referring to the railroad corporation's ownership of the tracks.
In Part 2 I'll look at some recent commuter rail experiences I've had and in Part 3...well, we'll see.
In one corner we have Lakeland the other Orlando. One is for the Commuter Rail/CSX project, the other against. With that backdrop it's interesting to read the two headlines talking about the same story, the on-going debate in Tallahassee:
Chuck Welch has a quick post and some photos from the Anti-CSX rally today in Lakeland. Just an outside observation from 2,000 miles away in Casper, WY. Do you think holding an anti-CSX rally in Lakeland is preaching to the choir? After all, Lakeland is the biggest opponent to the deal/project.
If they really wanted to make an impact they should hold a protest in downtown Orlando, or other stops along the proposed commuter rail line.
When The Ledger purchased the News Chief, one of the benefits I hoped for was improved reporting, specifically around the CSX story. The News Chief has long ignored the CSX story from an investigative standpoint. Looks like things haven't changed much. Great case-in-point this morning. Shown below are the front pages of the News Chief and The Ledger.
The Ledger has a 'Special Report' on the CSX deal. Big news, with an investigation into the secrecy surrounding the state's deal with CSX. Surely this story has impact on Winter Haven? After all we're the proposed location of the ILS.
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.
When Bob posted his little hint about something going on in the local newspaper market, my thoughts were:
1. The News Chief is shutting down.
2. Somebody was going to buy them.
Truth be told, I figured option #1 was going to happen a long time ago. I thought when Wayne Ezell left and they didn't announce a full-time replacement that the writing was on the wall. I thought that since Wayne had been at the helm so long, they (being Morris) didn't want to shutter the paper while he was there. Better to let him move-on to Jacksonville, then let the paper die a few months later. People could always say, "See....once Wayne left, the paper was never the same."
Truth is the paper has never been much of anything for a while. That leads to option #2
If somebody was going to buy them, at first for me, the two choices were another outside group (as in outside of Florida) or either the Orlando Sentinel or the Tampa Tribune. Buying the News Chief would give them a beachhead into the Polk market. But of course what would they be buying? A dismal circulation and poor facilities? In the long run it would be cheaper to compete them to death, then buy them.
- Nelson Kirkland is the man for the job. I've worked with Nelson on projects and chamber dealings (both Lakeland and Winter Haven) for a number of years. He's direct when it comes to business. Some people don't like that, but it's what gets the job done. He's also very connected (and concerned) about this community, something none of the previous two News Chief publishers were.
- Was it a mercy buy? Did they really need to buy them? Terms are not public, but could you spend the same amount of money improving the features/services
and just crush the News Chief? Or was it easier and cheaper just to buy them?
- With the end of the East Polk edition will Lakeland finally get their paper back? By this I mean will the Ledger become a Lakeland-focussed paper and the New Chief the Winter Haven/East Polk paper? Will this mean less Winter Haven news in the Ledger? It will be interesting to see how the content shifts in the coming months.
- The Ledger indicated that they intend to keep the News Chief masthead. Sounds good now, and makes everybody feel good about the purchase. But what about one year from now, will it still make sense for The Ledger to dilute their brand across the county with competition from the Sentinel and Tribune on opposite sides? The Ledger didn't acquire the facilities, just the titles/mastheads and some staff. Shutting down the 'paper' a year from now won't require much effort, compared to selling a building/presses/equipment, etc.
- I know many advertising folks were scared about a Ledger purchase of the News Chief since it would impact print ad rates once competition was gone. The Ledger indicates that the rates will remain the same for now. But, like the point above, let's see what happens one year from now.
- Is there a place for an afternoon paper? Thinking about the logistics....the News Chief will be printed by the Ledger at their main facility in Lakeland. How does this
impact the production of the Ledger. A few options:
1. The News Chief is printed first and thus has an earlier deadline. This would actually be status quo, since PolkOnline is usually updated around 11pm with tomorrow's stories.
2. The News Chief is printed after the Ledger and thus we have a tight delivery schedule.
3. The News Chief goes back to an afternoon paper. Think about that, it might be interesting.
- I can't wait to see better reporting in the paper. That's one thing the Ledger will bring to the News Chief.
- I'll have to ask Barry what the plans for PolkOnline are. I have some ideas, but I gave up working with newspapers last year. Barry lunch sometime soon?
Anyway, the next few months should be interesting.
Disclosures: In the past two years I have done paid consulting work for The Ledger and the Orlando Sentinel. Many years ago with a previous company I also did work for the News Chief. As far as the Tampa Tribune is concerned....I know Billy :-)
Of course the tragic crash on I-4 yesterday is the big news in all the local papers. However, it's interesting to note the difference in the 'lead' story for the two papers, The Ledger and the Orlando Sentinel.
The Ledger's main headline is 4 Dead, 38 Injured in Massive Pileup and the story focuses on the wreck and the rescue operations. There are interviews with crash survivors and rescue personnel. Only at the end is there a short discussion about the conditions that lead to the poor visibility.
The Orlando Sentinel's main headline is Warning Signs Began Nearly 20 Hours Before Polk Crash and the story focuses on who could possibly be at fault for the accident. Should FHP have closed the road? etc. The story features segments like this:
Before sunset Tuesday, National Weather Service meteorologists issued a fog alert based on a scale of one through 10. Experts consider seven or higher to be risky for drivers. The forecast for north Polk County was a 10.
A few hours later, the state Division of Forestry told the Florida Highway Patrol to expect dangerous conditions because of a particularly stubborn and smoky wildfire at I-4 and County Road 557....
...The warning was not a routine call. Only once or twice a year do forestry officials, who rely on sophisticated computer models, tell FHP to be on guard for a smoked-in highway.
In all, those and other warnings of horrendous visibility caused by smoke, fog or both were unmistakable. Yet as it turned out, FHP troopers would find little to be concerned about, and the state Department of Transportation installed just one warning sign in each direction
The Ledger does have a sidebar story about the role the smoke played in the accident, but it's not the main, above the fold story. Perhaps because the Ledger is more 'local' to the story they're still focusing on the immediate/human aspect of the story, while the Sentinel is moving beyond the initial story.
I expect in the coming days the Ledger's focus will shift from the events of the accident to the events that caused the accident. It's a natural progression of the story and the details will emerge as the investigation continues.
Anyway, I just thought it was interesting that two major papers would have those different angles on the story one-day out.
Update: The Orlando Sentinel has posted two items looking and the varying coverage:
This past Saturday, my wife, son and I went to the Lakeland Center to see the Ringling Brothers Circus. My 3-year-old son had a blast and we had a good time watching him. Here are some photos from the event:
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.
There were some big snakes at Polk Museum of Art today. And I mean big. Like sixteen feet and 140 pounds big. There were a couple of smaller ones too, but that big one is the one that caught everyone's attention.
Bruce Shwedick from Reptile Discoveries was here today to talk about snakes and show off a few of them. We figured that since the current exhibition, Robert Stackhouse: Swimmers & Floaters, has so much snake imagery in it, having someone bring some live ones to talk about would be great. And it was!
Shwedick discovered his love of reptiles as a young boy growing up in Maryland. He and his brother shared this passion, and spent most of their childhoods learning about snakes, crocodiles, lizards and turtles. So they have dedicated their lives to caring for and teaching about reptiles. Not only does Shwedick give lectures for students and children, he also helps teach US military doctors and medics about poisonous snakes and what to look for in snake bites. And, at one point, he was in charge of the reptile habitat at Cypress Gardens.
He gave everyone a lot of good information and interesting facts about snakes in the wild and in captivity. But the things that kept everyone enthralled were his stories and his snakes as he brought them out of their custom made boxes. One of the most interesting things I learned was that a snake's head can continue to bite - and inject venom - for several hours after it has been decapitated! So don't just cut its head off and assume you're safe.
So, if you missed it, you missed a great show! The kids in the audience all got a chance to hold one of the snakes, a 4 foot long Royal python named Bashful. Everyone walked away with a little more knowledge about these beautiful reptiles.
Driving through downtown Lakeland today I saw a Mercedes Benz A-Class in front of City Hall. What's interesting about this is the A-Class is not on sale in the U.S. The car I saw was a beige or champagne color. I didn't get a chance to see if it was badged to Central Florida Eurocars or another local dealer. Has anybody else seen this car? (The photo below is stock)
For a while Mulberry of all places was also a good place to see European cars being tested in the U.S. One of the testing firms used U.S. 37 south of Mulberry as a test route. I remember seeing one of the first VW Beetles in the U.S. there, along with an Audi TT way before it was for sale state-side.
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.
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?
Diane Allen at The Ledger recently blogged about the battle between Brighthouse and the City of Lakeland regarding utility pole fees. She references a fact sheet from the city in her post. Kevin Cook from the City of Lakeland recently sent out the sheet, here it is in full:
Bright House Networks is in the process of notifying customers that they will charge a monthly fee of $1.47 to cover the entire pole attachment fee imposed upon their Lakeland operations. This effort by Bright House Networks is based on the ordinance that was passed by the Lakeland City Commission on September 17, 2007 that established pole attachment fees. There are some inaccuracies that must be addressed regarding this direct mail piece.
Before the Pole Attachment Ordinance, Bright House Networks paid an annual attachment fee of $20.28 per pole. The newly established
ordinance stipulates an annual fee of $20.70 per pole. This is an increase of about 2% as opposed to the 200% figure quoted in the Bright House direct mail piece.
One reason the pole attachment ordinance was created was so that all service providers using Lakeland Electric utility poles would be treated equally - so there is no discrepancy between cable or phone service providers.
After the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Federal Communications Commission established methods for setting reasonable rental rates for poles. Although exempt from FCC orders, many municipalities including Lakeland Electric used the FCC telecom attachment rules as beginning guidelines.
There was a contract that expired about seven years ago and since that time the City has tried to reach a new contract for pole attachments.
During this seven year period Lakeland Electric turned to the American Public Power Association's (APPA) industry recognized pole attachment agreement and formula to establish pole attachment fees.
The APPA formula takes into account such factors as safety standards set by the National Electrical Safety Code, permits required for new attachments, engineering compliance, dispute resolution, attachment modifications and related cost recovery.
Also during this time a pole audit was conducted and it was discovered that Bright House Networks had not reported nor paid for 9,210 poles that they had attached to. This represented 22% of the Lakeland Electric poles used by Bright House Networks. Bright House is currently attached to a total of 40,942 poles.
Failure by all parties to renew a pole attachment agreement resulted in the City of Lakeland adopting an ordinance on September 17, 2007 that establishes the current $20.70/pole annual fee. Before the ordinance was put in place, Bright House Networks could and would attach to poles without notifying Lakeland Electric.
The current pole attachment rate set forth in the ordinance is based on the APPA formula and the rate is consistent with what other Florida municipal electric utilities are charging. A few examples include:
- Clay County $23.09/pole
- Gainesville Regional Utilities $21.38 - 34.59/pole
- Lakeland Electric $20.70/pole
- New Smyrna Beach $24.10/pole
- Orlando Utility Commission $17.85/attachment*
- Peace River Electric Cooperative $29.34/pole
- Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative $21.65/pole
*Some utilities use the definition "attachment" as a lead to a pole being attached to multiple times by any singe company and the fee quoted being per attachment.
Bright House is currently attached to 40,942 Lakeland Electric poles. The new fee established by the ordinance ($20.70/pole) ensures an annual payment of $847,499.40. The prior pole fee equated to an annual payment of $830,303.76. This is a difference of $17,195.64 yet Bright House is going to charge customers $1.47 per month. If Bright House Networks had to build out their own infrastructure it would cost them about $15 million in the poles alone. This does not include installation or maintenance.
Bright House Networks attaches to utility poles in all of their territories and they pay pole attachment fees to the entities that own
those poles. Is Bright House Networks going to correspondingly reduce their cable rates to Lakeland area subscribers as part of their new itemized billing initiative? With the cable network backing out pole attachment fees from their cable rates as a separate line item, Lakeland subscribers should see base cable rates reduced by at least $1 per month.
According to Back Channel Media Research, Bright House Networks has 60,150 subscribers on the Polk County, Lakeland system. In the direct mail piece being circulated to their customers Bright House outlines a monthly fee of $1.47 to cover the entire pole attachment fee imposed upon their Lakeland operations. Based on the number of subscribers supplied from Back Channel Media Research, this means they will collect $88,420.50 per month or $1,061,046 annually from their current Lakeland subscribers. This is a windfall of $213,546.60 over their current pole attachment fee.
The direct mail piece also implies that the City of Lakeland imposed and collects Communications Services Tax. Bright House Networks mentions that this tax is itemized on customer's bills and paid to the City. In fact, this tax is imposed by the State of Florida. In 2001, a law
established the Communications Services Tax as a way to restructure taxes on telecommunications, cable, direct-to-home satellite, and
related services. The law replaced and consolidated several different state and local taxes with a single tax and it is collected by the Florida Department of Revenue. The Florida Department of Revenue disperses the money to municipalities based on the revenues collected to
compensate for the use of right of ways.
Disclosure: Brighthouse Networks (nationally) is a client of my firm, Hyku, LLC.
Anyway it's a sad day since the only 'real' media covering the story is The Ledger (don't get me started on the News Chief). Tom Palmer submits things from time-to-time on the print side of things, but his blog is where all his CSX action is at. However as Chuck recently pointed out, Tom can turn into Mr. Snarky McSnarksalot on his blog.
The only other major source of CSX coverage is Chuck Welch at Lakeland Local, a blog, imagine that :-)
If you're Puerto Rican, or into Puerto Rico, or maybe just into learning more about other cultures, then I have the event for you. Una Noche de Estrellas will be held Friday, November 9, at Polk Museum of Art. It's a partnership between the Museum and the Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce of Polk County, and it looks like it's going to be an exciting night. $40 per person will get you a cocktail hour sponsored by Rums of Puerto Rico, great Puerto Rican food, a Bomba y Plena showcase by Florida Dance Theatre, a screening of the movie "Cayo", and the chance to meet a real live foreign dignitary, the Honorable Velda Gonzales, former Vice President of the Puerto Rican Senate. Visit www.PolkMuseumofArt.org and click "Una Noche de Estrellas" for more details or to buy tickets.
On a different note, I know it's entirely too early to be thinking about the Holidays, but I've been thinking about them off and on since June. Now, I'm going to share the joy by putting a little bug in your ear:
The Museum is hosting its annual Holiday Festival, formerly known as the Festival of Trees, November 16 - 19. It's a weekend full of beautiful decorations and many great events, some of which are specifically for kids. There's a lot of information on our website: www.PolkMuseumofArt.org, so mosey over and click the button that says "Holiday Festival."
It's only three weeks away, but I'll post more as we get closer to the event!
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 :-)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If you spend some time traveling around the country to 'small' towns you'll eventually see another Kress building like the one in downtown Lakeland. For a quick refresher, Explorations V is housed in the Kress Buildng on Munn Park. Kress was a large chain of five & dime store
I am in Mobile, AL today for business and walked by a Kress Building in their downtown. The first picture below is the name-plate of Lakeland's Kress Building, below is the one in Alabama.
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 the article states, I think some local folks hoped Fred would be doing something, err...more positive in the area.
It's not the big sit-down dinner and speech at the Yacht Club that local Republican Party planners had hoped for, but the former U.S. senator from Tennessee and now presidential candidate, Fred Thompson, will be in Lakeland at 11 a.m. Saturday to speak to those attending a gun show at The Lakeland Center.
I imagine that the national media will be covering Fred's Florida tour. What will be shown about Lakeland in the national spotlight? A gun show.
I often get into a routine for lunch and really don't have a problem eating at the same restaurant a few days in the same week. Here are my usual hangouts:
Winter Haven
- Mama Dilos Deli: I've been going to Mama Dilos for almost a decade and I usually get the same thing each time. As an added bonus there is a sandwich on the menu named after me.
- Cafe Latte: This little coffee and sandwich shop in Orchid Springs is always good. It's small, but cozy. They change the menu almost daily so there is always something good.
Lakeland
- Mitchell's Coffee Shop: It's always a toss-up when I'm in the downtown area. At Mitchell's I get the veggie burger and a side of macaroni and cheese. Plus Mitch has free wifi
- Black & Brew: The other coffee shop in downtown Lakeland also has some great food. I order the veggie panini. Like Mitchell's they also have free wifi.
- Moe's: I'm a sucker for Moe's and as I've often lamented on this blog, there is no Moe's in Winter Haven (yet).
The only other one I'd add would be Peeble's BBQ in Auburndale, but they are only open seasonally and even then only Thursday-Saturday.
