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Update: He has been found.

Local police need help finding a missing 12 year-old. Jerome D. Williams, of 1520 South Westgate Ave. was last seen by his family Thursday about 5:30 pm. He is 5′4″ tall and weighs about 120 pounds. When he was last seen he was wearing a blue and white striped shirt and blue jeans.

Jerome had been living with his mother in Belize, and recently moved to the United States to be with his father. He has been here for approximately two weeks and has only begun to make friends. — The Ledger

If you have any information please call Detective Andrew Powell at 863.534.6379.

Yes, today’s the day! At Noon today, pitchers and catchers officially report to start Spring Training.

The Tiger’s first game will be February 26th, at 1:05. The team will play their traditional exhibition against Florida Southern. The New York mets will come to Joker Marchant on the 27th for the first official Spring Training game. You can find Detroit’s full schedule here.

Of course, we have a lot planned for the next month of baseball. In addition to helpful links, and a few stories, we’re lucky to again have the fine photographs from Lakeland resident Roger DeWitt.

Here’s a sample of what you’ll find every Spring Training day at the top of Lakeland Local…

• Map & Directions to Every Grapefruit League Stadium
• Hotels Near Lakeland Spring Training Park
• Lakeland Weather
• Detroit Weather
• Roger DeWitt’s Photos
• Absolute Michigan
• Spring Training Magazine
• Unofficial Flying Tigers Blog
• The Detroit Tigers Weblog
• Tiger Tales
• Detroit Free Press
• John Lowe - Free Press

Now, play ball!

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Photo “Tiger Fan” by Roger DeWitt

In addition to our weekly crime map — Jan 28 to Feb 3 — we’re starting new monthly maps. Up first are Jan 2008 Residential Burglaries and Jan 2008 Vehicle Burglaries. Tuesday we’ll turn to the business world for Jan 2008 Business Robberies/Business Burglaries.

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You can subscribe to all Lakeland Local Crime Maps by Email or get the Lakeland Crime RSS Feed.

In addition to our weekly crime map — Jan 28 to Feb 3 — we’re starting new monthly maps. Up first are Jan 2008 Residential Burglaries and Jan 2008 Vehicle Burglaries. Tuesday we’ll turn to the business world for Jan 2008 Business Robberies/Business Burglaries.

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You can subscribe to all Lakeland Local Crime Maps by Email or get the Lakeland Crime RSS Feed.

I had planned my Lakeland.net review for today, but I’ve decided to put it off until the “official site opening” on March 1st. It’s too early to judge the design or operation. Each day it is easy to see they’re doing fixes and updates.

I’ve had a couple of emails with Bart Ross, one of the owners of Lakeland.Net. He help clarify some things about the site:

• Lakeland.net is a for-profit with Ross and a partner as owners. Ross is a lifelong resident of Lakeland.

• On business listings Ross wrote, “Any business that has a brick and mortar location can be listed as long as they are in Polk County. We will not do home based businesses because of the issues with locations.”

• On ad costs Ross wrote, “Job listings and classifieds may be a paid service later, but we are not sure yet. We may just use the free plus model again, but we are really hoping the community responds and will help drive our site and what it has to offer.”

• On possible features Ross wrote, “There are lots of features currently planned, including a community calendar, a new profile system that will allow users to have public or private profiles, searchable restaurant menus, etc. With that said we hope the community will help us determine what THEY want to see. Our site is here to serve them and us as people that live in the community.”

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I have played with the site a few times. I think it’s well-designed and could be very useful. Of course, as they play with the code before the official opening, I have a couple of suggestions:

1) Focus on unique content. The news page is nice, but nothing we can’t find on the Ledger or any of a thousand other websites.

2) Really highlight your planned not-for-profit listings. It would be wonderful to have an easily accessible central place to them.

3) How about a “new since you last logged-in” feature. That site could get so busy you’d miss a lot of new content.

4) My pet peeve — almost anonymous posting. The Ledger already has a huge forum. Make yours different. Insist on real names. People should be able to stand behind what they post.

5) Add the City of Lakeland’s URL to your Lakeland Government re-direct page.

That’s all for now. Look to the first week of March for a full review.

The work on South Florida between Highland and Ariana ended this morning. The barriers were removed and traffic is back to normal. There are a few pieces of equipment left in a parking lot or two, but I don’t think traffic will be affected come Monday.

View Larger Map

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I’m a night owl. I also have a small child. Both facts mean I need to know where in Lakeland there are 24 hour pharmacies. I found only five. If you know of any more, please leave a comment.

Of course, I had to create a map with friving directions to each store. Since there are few points on this map, I plan to add other 24 hour businesses as I find them. (Except quick marts and all night gas stations. Unless they become rare.)

You can leave comments on the map if you know anything important about any of the stores.

CommunityWalk Map - Lakeland, FL 24-Hour Businesses

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The Lakeland Police Department just released the name of the driver in yesterday’s hit & run on Memorial. Thomas Eugene Simpson, 53, came forward at midnight to give police a sworn statement. The dump truck was taken in as evidence. Police have not charged Simpson and state the matter is still under investigation.

Witnesses are encouraged to call LPD Officer Mike Catalano at 863-834-2507.

The Ledger has a community forum. Polk Voice has locally written blogs. Craigslist has online ads for Lakeland residents. They’re all about to get a new neighbor.

Lakeland.net, a ten year old site, has been redesigned as a community portal. The new look was recently unveiled by the local design firm Blue Marlin Group. The company performed the work for a group of investors, and one member of BMG, Dan Gilbert, has been assigned to spearhead the development of the site.

The new owners of Lakeland.net have changed the philosophy behind the decade old site. Gilbert said the site previously focused on promoting select businesses. The new site will feature free business listings, forums, event calendars, help wanted advertisements, photos, and more. Gilbert said the site will adapt to the requests of the community and will be “family friendly.” Gilbert said his “long term dream is that local people will use it as their homepage.”

According to Gilbert, the news section of the site will carry no original reporting. The site will feature wire news, free news feeds, and possibly local news from the Tampa Tribune’s Polk County News Blog.

The majority of the site will feature user created content. “People can post events, add job listings, and classifieds,” said Gilbert. The base level business listings are free; containing just name, address, and phone number, but Gilbert said additional features can be purchased. He added that while help wanted listings are currently free, the company plans to eventually add a fee. “We’re going to keep it inexpensive. The general public can do it all free, ” Gilbert said.

Lakeland.net hopes to be not only a business portal, but a resident meeting place. Forums have been created on a variety of topics, and the site features an easy method to upload photos. Users can also add reviews of any listed business. Gilbert said he expects some reviews will be negative, but the company wants “constructive criticism.”

Toward that goal, all user-created content will be scrutinized. Gilbert said Lakeland.net will keep a close eye on all advertisers, forum posts, and news feeds. A committee was formed to oversee content. Gilbert said the group will decide what news feeds are carried and will judge the appropriateness of advertisements and forum posts. “We want it to be family friendly. A good reflection on Lakeland,” Gilbert said. He said the committee will pull posting privileges from any user who breaks the guidelines.

Gilbert said the site will have a permanent limitation: no advertising from businesses outside of Polk County. He said that there is also no government website listings, but that “it may happen down the road.”

Gilbert acknowledged that the classifieds and forums are similar to the Ledger’s Polk Voice, forums, and classifieds. “I guess it would be competition. However, that’s not what we’re looking to be. We would like it if the Ledger joined in.”

The site’s official kick-off is March 1st, but registration is already open for residents and businesses. There is no cost for residents and the basic business listings. Gilbert said anyone with questions can contact him at (863) 602-8995.

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Disclaimer: I have not previously worked with BMG. I don’t know if I have worked with any member of the silent investors who own the site. I’ve created an account at Lakeland.net and will post a review of the site this weekend. In the future I may add content to Lakeland.net, but I won’t add Lakeland Local’s RSS feed.

Since this week has had more posts about blogging than Lakeland, allow me to step away from CSX and Commerce one more time. Josh Hallett tagged me with a meme. The beauty of memes is they offer peeks the the life and philosophies of those tagged. While it may cause some concern to school board members, memes also evolve. Josh tagged me with the 4×4 meme. I’m to offer four answers to four questions. Since I didn’t travel much in 2007 and even I don’t find what I eat to be interesting, I’m going to alter a couple of the questions…

Four Jobs I’ve Had:

1) Bartender
2) Cartographer
3) Educator
4) weekly newspaper Editor

Four Careers I Wanted, but Let Life Lead me Away

1) Aerospace Engineer
2) Bookstore Owner
3) Cryptographer
4) Shortstop

Four TV Shows I DVR:

1) Chuck (How could I not?)
2) Dexter
3) Major League Baseball
4) Simon and Simon

Four Favorite Places I’ve Stood:

1) Rue St-Denis & Avenue du Mont-Royal Est in Montreal
2) Haight & Ashbury in San Francisco
3) Beside my Mother in a March on Washington, DC
4) At the foot of some stairs in Louisville, KY watching my bride descend.

Four People Whose Answers I’d Like to See:

1) Lorrie
2) Robert
3) Aaron
4) Tom

Tag, you’re it. Of course, you’re welcome to adjust the questions.

Since this week has had more posts about blogging than Lakeland, allow me to step away from CSX and Commerce one more time. Josh Hallett tagged me with a meme. The beauty of memes is they offer peeks the the life and philosophies of those tagged. While it may cause some concern to school board members, memes also evolve. Josh tagged me with the 4×4 meme. I’m to offer four answers to four questions. Since I didn’t travel much in 2007 and even I don’t find what I eat to be interesting, I’m going to alter a couple of the questions…

Four Jobs I’ve Had:

1) Bartender
2) Cartographer
3) Educator
4) weekly newspaper Editor

Four Careers I Wanted, but Let Life Lead me Away

1) Aerospace Engineer
2) Bookstore Owner
3) Cryptographer
4) Shortstop

Four TV Shows I DVR:

1) Chuck (How could I not?)
2) Dexter
3) Major League Baseball
4) Simon and Simon

Four Favorite Places I’ve Stood:

1) Rue St-Denis & Avenue du Mont-Royal Est in Montreal
2) Haight & Ashbury in San Francisco
3) Beside my Mother in a March on Washington, DC
4) At the foot of some stairs in Louisville, KY watching my bride descend.

Four People Whose Answers I’d Like to See:

1) Lorrie
2) Robert
3) Aaron
4) Tom

Tag, you’re it. Of course, you’re welcome to adjust the questions.

If you missed the Polk County Bloggers meeting last night then you missed four meetings. To think our small group has more than tripled in size after just a few meetings. Our first meeting was only a year ago.

Four of the bloggers present that night are still active blogging in Polk County. And we were all there tonight.

Let’s see if I can remember everyone:

Steve, Aaron, Darby, Jess, Barry, Billy, Josh, “Bubba Bog”, Kristen Freaking Jane*, Travis, Emily, Mike, Matthew, Tom, and last, but certainly not least, Lorrie

We also had a couple of attendees looking to start blogs, but I’ll leave them unnamed until they’re ready for their debut.

The group was so large that multiple meetings happened during the meeting. Side conversations and splinter groups quickly formed. We’re normally a pretty laissez faire group, but tonight was like herding cats. Interesting, well spoken cats. I know I missed conversations I wish I could have heard.

We spoke a bit about technology. Josh handled most of those questions. I came home and realized that over the year plus I’ve set up feeds and such, and forgot most things days after doing so. I’m going to do some housecleaning over the next week. I’m apologizing now if I break something you liked.

We bantered some about making money on your blogs. If any reader has figured out how…let us know.

We made snide comments about the bloggers who didn’t attend or left early. Ok, we didn’t. We’re bloggers. We save that stuff for our blogs.

We had swag. (Thanks Darby.)

Generally, I think everyone had a good time.

Finally, if you have blogging questions and are not up to making the group meeting…I can meet you over lunch or after school, and explain what I can.

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Lorrie has a write up and Josh has a photo.

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“Bubba Bog” is the name he uses on his blog, and I’m not going to use anything else here. *Kristen Freaking Jane” is what her husband calls her, and who am I to say different?

Not to be outdone by the Dixieland CRA, the folks around Florida Southern College have new red and white street signs.

I must admit I’m starting to feel ambivalent. I’m getting older. Will I start failing to recognize street signs in unfamiliar neighborhoods? Will we get to the day when every neighborhood has their own styles of signs? I’m concerned someday that some historic district will have to reinstall white on green street signs because that is all that is left.

That lousy cell pic is CC Chuck Welch

I don’t know if the stop sign at McDonald and Success is a new traffic department tactic, a gang tag, or a more subtle Ron Paul sign.

It does lead to another housekeeping post. I have an update on the problem with commenting. It wasn’t fixed. Thanks to some help with my wife, I discovered all Internet Explorer users were not seeing an important error message. That meant they thought their comments had been accepted, and I was sent no notice of an error.

I really do believe I have that problem fixed. Let’s hope I catch the next one much earlier.
Here’s a zoom in on the stop sign if you had no idea what I meant above.

Spring training is just around the corner and our friends from Michigan are going to be here soon. Maybe a Lakeland local can help out Nick B. from Detroit….

Where can I find CHEAP hotel prices in Lakeland, Florida?
I am planning on going to Lakeland Florida to see the Detroit Tigers in spring training. I’m on a tight college budget. Where would you recommend me going/staying? Should I stay outside of Lakeland to cut the cost down?

I can careless if its a “crappy place” I will be flying out of detroit to orlando…*i believe that’s the closest airport to Lakeland)…so I won’t have a vehicle

Every hotel I find either doesnt have those dates available Mar 12-14 or there prices are way to expensive.

Any help is much appreciated.
Thanks,
Nick 21

You can find Nick’s question at Yahoo Answers and his email and IM addresses on his profile.

That reminds me…I have to finish my Spring Training page this week.