MMS Orchestra Ranks Superior

McLaughlin Middle School and Fine Arts Academy Orchestra earned a superior rating during the Polk County Schools MPA evaluations this last Saturday. These evaluations are done to score all the schools music programs. Congratulations to Mr. Monacelli and the MMS students for their hard work and dedication to the program.

2nd Annual District 15 Nature Hike

Hope everyone gets a chance to come out! I didn't put the full agenda on this page. If you'd like more info, email me and I'll send it, or email Laura (info below).


2nd Annual District 15 Nature Hike

Saturday, January 19, 2008
10:00 a.m.

Saddle Creek Park
(Tenoroc Fish Management Area)
Morgan Combee Road, Lakeland , Florida

The Saddle Creek Park Loop Trail is about 2 miles long
and will take about an hour and a half to complete.

* Drinks and refreshments will be provided *


RSVP by Friday, January 18th
Laura Rodriguez – (863) 413-2900
Rodriguez.Laura.S15@flsenate.gov


Hope to see you there!

FDOT Hearing Today

FDOT has scheduled a public hearing today about concerning the widening project of Hwy. 27 north of I-4.
They will discuss the project development and environmental issues.
If you'd like to attend, you'll need some info. Here goes:

Location: Omni Orlando Resort at Champions Gate, North Davenport
Time: Open House 6pm
Public Hearing 7pm

WCR January Luncheon

Today was the first Women's Council of Realtors luncheon of 2008. It's held each month at Cypress Wood Country Club.

Our sponsor for the day was Mike Woodard of Ameispec Home Inspection Service. He's a local owner and I would encourage everyone to use locals if you can. It's just good business.

The guest speaker was Sharon Creedon of Creedon Management Services. She explained that she coaches business plans, life skills and marketing packages for individuals and companies. All in all a very good motivation speaker.

Road Trip To Tallahassee

I know I've been slow at blogging with the holidays. Hopefully now that everything has calmed down more, I can catch up.

Back in December, Julie Townsend, Pam Childers, and myself went to Tallahassee to lobby at the Senate Transportation Committee on behalf of ourselves, our neighbors and Julie for Lakeland. By a stroke of luck we were in the hall in the Senate when one of the Representitives called from the House of Representatives to say that CSX and FDOT were at the House speaking.

That led to a flight of the bumble bee run to the House, which is across a large room into a different building, or it felt like a different part of the same building.

I won't say I'm here to tell you everything that went on, hopefully everyone read that in the newspapers, but I will say that if you have never spoken in a public forum before, you should.

Be it city, county or state level, get involved and go for it.

I had someone recently say to me that government is set up to intimidate, which I will agree. But he also said shame on me for being intimidated. I should stand on my own two feet and speak. I also agree.

I guess the lesson for the new year is go for it, you'll never know until you try and it is very empowering. Be it CSX, taxes, roads or schools, whatever your passion is, speak up. If you don't, you have no right to complain.

Have a great New Year!!!

FDOT Transportation Secretary at Lakeland Meeting

The secretary for transportation, Stephanie Kopelousos, was the guest speaker at the Lakeland CSX/FDOT meeting last Friday. And she was met with a less than warm and fuzzy crowd.
Lakeland was the main focus because their state senator Paula Dockery and representative Dennis Ross had arranged the meeting.

It was a passionate crownd starting with a presentation from Jim Studial of Lakeland. Jim had serious concerns with the project including the fact that an Environmental Impact Study was not being done on the site along with the DRI and that the DRI process was being fast tracked by the state.

Ron Weaver, the state wide well known land use attorney, who was hired to represent Lakeland spoke on the injustices to downtown Lakeland. He always makes excellent points!

I will say the most moving part of the day was when Julie Townsend asked the secretary 10 very hard questions. They were questions on everyone's mind and each one was met with a thunderous applause from the audience.
One such question was if the traffic from the Orlando intermodal site was harmful to Orlando and Orlando has tried to get rid of this thing for years, why does the state think it will be good for Polk County? (More thunderous applause!)

A few of us had time at the end to get up and speak on the impacts to us on the eastern side of the county.
Pam Childers, Johnny Guest, Eldon Tipper, Wayne Guest and others all had very good points and were well received.
My statement pointed out that by having this $500 million in hand and waiting to hand it over to CSX / Evansville railroad, at this point the state and federal governments would be just as liable and criminally negligent for the harmful impacts of this site to myself, my family, my neighbors and the thousands of unsuspecting Polk County residents who have had no representation and would be harmed by this.

I also want to point out that it's amazing that my own state senator, Senator JD Alexander when asked about this topic at last week's delegation meeting, thought it was the next best thing to sliced bread and didn't want to hear any different. Could it be that he would be one of those "fat cats" we hear about who stand to gain the most from this.
He needs the Heartland Parkway to go through so the state will buy all those glorious acres from he and his friends for the road, thus profiting him directly and secondly with a booming parkway in place his surrounding thousands of acres would be worth a fortune instead of just cattle land as it stands now. And what better way to ensure the future of the Heartland Parkway than to justify it's need with the thousands of semi trucks to an ILC site.
Where is Eastern Polk's representation when we need it? Do we not pay tax dollars also?

Any questions on that conspiracy theory?

Today is Pearl Harbor Day

Today is Pearl Harbor Day. Let's not forget this day as it is a reminder to all of us that freedom is not free. Let us not forget that today this great nation is in another struggle where our young men and women are picking up the tab for the rest of us.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1296093/posts

http://www.anysoldier.com/