This weekend Winter Haven is the place for the 32nd Annual Central Park Art Festival. Saturday and Sunday 10 am to 4pm downtown features fine art and craft items, local vendors and talent. Also, don't miss the 2010 Florida Outdoor Sculpture Competition winners stationed around Central Park. photo credit: Tom Hagerty for Metro I4 News
For the second year, over 200 NCAA Division I, II & III, NAIA, Junior Colleges and High Schools baseball teams are converging on Central Florida. From February 20 to April 24, 2010, teams come to Florida to take on others in their division. Playing primarily at the Chain of Lakes Park in Winter Haven, the teams also use fields at Lake Myrtle Park, Henley Field, Polk Community College, Southeastern University, Webber International University, Warner University, Pat Thomas Stadium and some of the area's top high school fields. It's well played Spring baseball without major league prices and Metro I4 News photographer Tom Hagerty has attended many of the games. Here are a few shots...
I talk a lot about regionalism in this space. And, make no mistake, I firmly believe in it. I know that if we do a better job working together we can achieve great things as the world’s super region. Unfortunately, the past two weeks have not offered a shining moment of regional cooperation as we witnessed an unfortunate fight surrounding the location of Polk’s High Speed Rail stop.
photo credit: Tom Hagerty for Metro I4 News
I was disappointed that committee meetings held me in Tallahassee last week for the announcement at Cypress Gardens. As we knew, the news coming from the sale to Merlin confirms: this is a big deal. Initial reports in The Ledger boast 1,000 new jobs, although reports from folks who attended the news conference indicate as [...]
I’ll be writing about this one for a while I think. That’s because LandSouth’s sale of Cypress Gardens to Merlin Entertainments Group is a biggie. Merlin is the British owner of Legoland and other attractions, my personal favorite being Madame Tusaaud’s Wax Museum. My Grandfather took me to Madame Tussaud’s in London when I was [...]
Ed: This is the first in a series of articles from Polk is Florida-Friendly Outdoor water use can account for up to 50 percent of water consumed by households, which means it is where water conservation practices can make the biggest impact. April is Water Conservation Month, so here are a few ways to reduce your outdoor water consumption by inspecting your irrigation system and using a rain sensor....
The Fed's latest rate decision should keep Florida mortgage rates low, and from the looks of the February 2009 home sales data, we could be in for a bit of a dust up come the end of March!
In case you missed it, the Orlando Sentinel has a new series on the commuter rail project. Read the full article for the pertinent links...
I've cross posted a piece I did for Lakeland Local. Now, before you skip it because it's "Lakeland" and you're all about Tampa, Orlando, or Winter Haven, rest assured it touches on the failure of your newspapers to keep their audience. Only the names would change if I wrote it about the Sentinel, Tribune, or News Chief. As a matter of fact, I do mention the Winter haven paper. I promised to count the locally written stories in the same manner as I did for the Ledger. However, I found a mere four local bylines in today's News Chief. That's what you get for your quarter. On to what I wrote about the paper of record for Polk County...and by example...your paper.
As you may have noticed, two of the possible freight realignment routes – seemingly the only available routes – for downtown Lakeland involved reactivating the track that became the Van Fleet Trail between Wildwood and Auburndale. At least one of them would then reactivate closed tracks that run through the very heart of downtown Winter [...]
Bio: Growing up in Detroit, Tom Hagerty dreamed of watching baseball in sunny Lakeland, Florida. That dream came to fruition in 1998 when he moved to Lakeland. Tom has a passion for the Detroit Tigers, the Lakeland Flying Tigers and all things Detroit. His interests include reading, writing and photography. Tom and his wife have two daughters, four cats, one dog and a guinea pig.