Good morning! The Lake Wales Police are currently dealing with a bear situation. Apparently the bear took in the sunrise from a tree around Lake Wailes Lake on Thursday morning.
Lake Wales Police confirmed the bear has no prior warrants. However, bears will be bears, several calls have come in about a string of crimes perpetrated throughout the evening. You know the typical flipping of trash handles until he finds one left open and lots of goodies inside. Negotiators are using all their training to try and “talk it down” and out of the tree, but it’s not working. During negotiations the Struthers Honey House was mentioned, but we don’t believe the police gave in to those demands.
The Lake Wales Police are working with the Florida Wildlife Commission to get him down and moved safely.
Please avoid the boat ramp area of the lake for now.
#TX#Advisory We're working a fatal crash on CR 640 AKA Homeland Garfield Rd, just west of 80 Foot Rd, in #Homeland (between Bartow & Fort Meade) involving a semi and a car. That road is shut down until further notice. Please use alternate routes. pic.twitter.com/7uNYnlDU1m
— Polk County Sheriff 🚔 Grady Judd (@PolkCoSheriff) May 24, 2023
Imagine being able to escape your 9-to-5 work grind by retreating into the Florida wilderness. Imagine saddling your own horse and riding through hundreds of acres of rugged Florida woodland miles away from civilization. Imagine you, your trusted steed, and your closest companions sharing quality time in the country as you leave all your daily cares behind.
At Creek Legacy Ranch, you don’t need to imagine. You can make this dream a reality. Here, you can board your horse in your own private paddock or stable, pasture them in hundreds of acres of the great outdoors, and ride them through miles of trails in all-natural Florida.
Located near Haines City, Creek Legacy Ranch sits on 1,400 acres of rugged wilderness, teaming with woodlands, Everglade wetlands, and countless Floridian flora and fauna. Of that wilderness, 700 acres are dedicated as an equestrian center where you can board, pasture, and ride your horse.
When it opens, the equestrian center will include a lit arena for horseback riding. They will also rent out eight stables on a full-board basis and pasture up to 40 to 50 horses. Private paddocks and stables will also be available. In this case, the only horse boarded and pastured will be your own.
Owner Reggie Baxter purchased the ranch in May of last year. He has lived in the area for many years, where he owns and operates Lake Hatchineha Resort and RV Park. He has seen the ranch change hands many times over the past few decades, so he decided to take initiative and buy it himself.
“For 19 years, I have seen it change hands many times, so, when I saw it come back on the market, I knew that we had to see what we could do with it,” he said.
Together, with his business partners, ranch manager Darrell Anderson, and his wife, they plan on turning the ranch into a full equestrian center where the horse owners can enjoy the great outdoors of Florida with their faithful steed.
“Best of all, being isolated far from civilization and with trusted individuals residing on property 24/7, clients can rest assured that they and their horses are in good hands”, Anderson explained.
“It is a secure place. The three of us live on this property, so if there is an issue, there is someone to help at the barn. It is a safe place to have your animals and a good place to see and learn about nature.”
More than simply serving as a place for horse owners and their horses, the 1,400 acres of land will also be used to help preserve the natural environment. The ranch will be used to conserve the 700 acres around Lake Hatchineha and even around the conservatory near Walt Disney World.
“If you love Old Florida, there is nothing that compares to the 1,400 acres of this ranch. It is nice and quiet,” Baxter said. “The beauty of the canopy trees, the riding trails, not to mention the deer and other amazing wildlife you see while riding the ranch, compares to none. The ability to ride the ranch and also ride across the street to the State Park (Head Waters of the Everglades) is an added bonus.
Baxter and his staff have high expectations to create something truly unique with their property. They intend on hosting summer camps and even historical reenactments on their property to teach future generations about horse riding and the beauty and history of Old Florida.
“We hope to create a place where families can bring their kids, enjoy working with their horses, and wonder at all the nature around them while knowing their horse is in a safe and secure facility,” Baxter said.
To learn more about Creek Legacy Ranch, visit their website at: https://creeklegacyranch.com/ Or call Darrell Anderson at 863-207-8048.
Mystery, history, and fantasy. These genres and more were showcased at the inaugural Writers Block Party & Street Fair last Saturday in Bartow.
More than a dozen local authors set up booths along Sumerlin Street in Downtown Bartow to promote and sell their books. From Bigfoot hunters to Disney doctors, these authors arrived to share and discuss their work with potential readers.
Other activities that day included author round table discussions, literary costume contests for pets and humans, and even coloring sessions with a Klingon from Star Trek.
Local author A.B. Kayge showcased her debut thriller novel, “The Dicer”, and discussed her writing career during one of the author round tables. While the overall turnout was not as she had initially expected, she nevertheless enjoyed the experience and hopes to come to next year’s event.
“I think next year will be bigger and better,” she said. “All of the vendors and authors were great today. It was a great event. I intend to participate again in the future.”
William Hatfield, a local author of several humorous murder mystery novels, likewise expected a much larger gathering, yet loved the overall experience. He had been invited by the event organizers and agreed to attend because he enjoyed their work at other events so much.
“I like author events,” he said. “It could have been better populated, but, you know what, the first one is always a crapshoot. We can work on marketing and have it indoors next year.”
The Writers Block Party served as a fundraiser for the Bartow Community Service Center. Event organizers Lori and Sean Serdynski are close friends with the owner, Rusty Music. They appreciate what his organization does for the community and wanted to support him.
They presented him with a large check for $1,000. The proceeds will go toward the center’s mission to help the less fortunate in the community by providing them with basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter. Music appreciated the event being hosted as a fundraiser in support of his organization.
“It is truly an honor to be here with Sean and Lori and spend time at the Writer’s Block Party,” he said. “The $1,000 they raised for us is going to be tremendous and be able to feed the community and be longstanding support for other families in our Bartow community.”
Sean L. Serdynski has experience organizing other popular events in Bartow. For the past ten years, he and his wife have hosted SyFy Bartow, the annual outdoor sci-fi festival in Downtown Bartow. They also plan on hosting two more events later this year, both as fundraisers for the Bartow Community Service Center.
The only major problem with this year’s inaugural event was the 91-degree weather, which proved so scorching and unbearable that the event had to be ended two hours early. Otherwise, the turnout proved satisfactory, and many authors boasted of good sales.
“I think it went fantastic,” Serdynski said. “A lot of my authors sold a lot of their writings. I wish I could control the weather, but I cannot. I’m not that evil guy that has a weather control machine. But, hey, it’s Florida, right?”
For more information about upcoming events hosted by Bartow Con, visit their website at: bartowcon.com
LWHS Graduating Senior Receives $1,000 for Medical Scholarship from Culpepper’s Cardiac Foundation
by James Coulter
Taylor Boyte always wanted to go into the medical field. She could not imagine a future career in anything else. She has a heart for helping other people, and she wants to receive a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) to help others, especially those suffering from cardiac disease.
“It is very important to understand the meaning of cardiac health,” she wrote in an essay. “I am passionate about helping people with cardiac disease because it’s an extremely important part of our lives. Our health is super important and I will do anything to help people in need with this disease.”
As someone seeking a career as a medical professional, she has the utmost respect for people working in the medical field, especially first responders. What they do for a living allows other people to continue living–quite literally, she wrote.
“I believe first responders are important because they help/save a lot of people in our communities,” she wrote in another essay. “Without first responders, so many lives would be lost, unfortunately. Everyone should be grateful to have them as people in our community to save our lives.”
Her essay answers allowed her to receive a $1,000 scholarship granted to her from the Culpepper’s Cardiac Foundation, a local non-profit organization dedicated to assisting first responders and EMTs and to installing defibrillators throughout the county.
Taylor received her scholarship at the Senior Scholarship Ceremony at Lake Wales High School (LWHS) on Monday morning. She was one of several dozen LWHS graduating seniors to be presented scholarships at the ceremony, hosted by the Polk Education Foundation & Business Partnership, Inc.
Chance Cook, LWHS Assistant Principal IB & Operations, commended the students during his opening remarks for being able to graduate and to receive scholarships that, in his own words, “will no doubt assist them as they go on to the next chapter of their academic careers.”
“To those of you who are receiving a scholarship today, it is my hope that you will continue to pursue education as you have here at Lake Wales High School,” Cook said. “It is no accident you are being acknowledged today. The foundation that has been laid for your education is not meant to be the end. Rather, it is meant to be the face for a lifelong love of learning that will change your lives and the lives of those around us.”
Melanie Brown Culpepper, the founder of Culpepper’s Cardiac Foundation, was one of several scholarship presenters to confer their respective scholarships to the receiving students. Melanie chose Taylor specifically because of her vocal support for EMTs and concern for cardiac health.
“Reading her essay, I really liked her remarks about helping other people, and I am really honored to be doing this,” she said.
Melanie started her foundation two years ago following the tragic passing of her late fiancée, Michael Culpepper, who passed away after suffering cardiac arrest. Since then, she has raised proceeds to donate nearly a dozen AEDs across Polk County and to confer scholarships to medical and EMT students for the past two years.
“I owe my success to the community for coming and supporting me,” she explained. “Without them, Culpepper’s Cardiac Foundation could not make this happen. I could not make this happen. That is why it is very important to sponsors and donate and show up to all the events for CCF so we can get AEDs out and give out these scholarships to help save someone’s life as it could be one of our loved ones or ourselves that we could be saving. Because we all matter and our loved ones matter. and it could be our loved ones. That is why I do this.”
Culpepper’s Cardiac Foundation will be conferring two more scholarships to graduating seniors at Bartow High School. She also plans on donating an AED to Victory Ridge Academy. To learn more about her foundation, visit: https://honoringculpepper.com/
Glancing at Bill Dirienzo’s art will remind you that it’s always 5 o’clock somewhere, and it will have you wish to be wasting away in Margaretville. His tropical beachside landscapes and portraits of Key West locations certainly make people imagine steel drums playing in their heads, if not the occasional Jimmy Buffet tune.
Dirienzo has painted plenty of pictures set in the Caribbean, Bahamas, and Key West. Fittingly enough, these art pieces are framed in beach wood frames he crafted himself. With so many of them invigorating the senses of the Florida beachside, it’s no surprise that many of his most faithful clientele is at Mayfaire-by-the-Lake.
For the past 12 years or so, Dirienzo has been frequenting the outdoor art festival hosted annually along the scenic shores of Lake Morton. The overall relaxed atmosphere and loyal customer base keep him returning every year.
“I love the atmosphere and around the lake and the community,” he said. “It is a nice community.”
Dirienzo was one of nearly 100 artists from across the state and country who attended the annual Mayfaire-by-the-Lake last weekend near Lake Morton in Downtown Lakeland. The event was hosted by the Polk County Museum of Art and sponsored by Citizens Bank and Trust.
Hugo Cruz was one of the photographers who showcased his photography skills. He specializes in inferred photography, not only allowing him to show his natural subjects in a different light but in an overall different wavelength not visible through the naked eye.
“I love seeing nature, and inferred has a way to really make it pop,” he explained. “It really opens a whole new dynamic. It alters perspective through a very surreal and ethereal feel.”
He has attended Mayfaire-by-the-Lake many times before. He loves the Lakeland community, and he loves the overall organization of the event.
Meanwhile, Tracey Womack attended the event for the first time this year. She is a jeweler who specializes in creating colored glass ornaments through “flame work”, or “lamp work.” She has been making her art for 38 years and she decided to attend Mayfaire to showcase it.
While she felt the setting around the lake was “too long and far” for people to walk, especially in the summer heat, she nevertheless remained impressed by the overall execution of the event. She felt it was pulled off flawlessly much to her satisfaction.
“I thought it might be a good show,” she said. “I am enjoying it very much. I say it is an average show for me…[and] they [the event organizers] do a good job of putting on the show and taking care of the artists.
Yogi is an 11-month-old pit bull-lab mix. He’s 25 percent pit bull, 75 percent Labrador, and, as his owner claims, 100 percent cute and cuddly. No wonder then that this lovable big pup won first place at the Lake Wales Rotary Club BBQ & Dog Show.
Yogi was one of the two dogs that participated in the dog show last week. He won first place with a ribbon, a trophy, and a basket full of treats. His owner, Lauren Brown, wanted to get him out into the community more, so she figured the dog show was the best opportunity. Winning first place proved to be the icing on the cake—or rather, the dog biscuit.
Her dog loves to cuddle with her on the couch and play in the lake near their house. He goes swimming many times. Last week, he had the opportunity to swim in the pool.
“It feels really good,” Brown said of her dog winning first place. “It is cute to have a dog that won…I love that he is a very loving and gentle dog. He loves to cuddle and be around people.”
The other participating dog that morning was Bentley, a mixed terrier, and the only existing dog in the line of terriers raised by Edward Bok himself: The Bok Terrier. His owner, Thomas McCane, loved attending the event that day, though, admittedly, winning second place, “feels very secondary.”
McCane appreciates everything that the Rotary Club does for the local community, especially expanding its outreach to serve the people of Lake Wales. Most of all, he especially appreciates the American Legion, which prepared the barbecue that day. In his own words, “Without the American Legion, nothing would have happened.”
The annual dog show and barbecue were hosted last Saturday at Nelson-Gill Funeral Home. Nearly two to three dozen people attended the event to enjoy a barbecue prepared by the American Legion and a dog show hosted by the Rotary Club.
“It was a good turnout,” said event coordinator Joy McCartney. “We had some great people here today, we had a good time, and that is all that matters.”
Proceeds from the event will go toward scholarships. The Rotary Club offers two a year, one through a speech contest, and the other through a general scholarship contest. Six students will be conferred scholarships on Monday at Lake Wales High School.
McCartney plans on hosting the event next year in the fall when the weather is cooler and the June Bugs are not active. Overall, she has great expectations for the club and its future functions moving forward.
They say truth is stranger than fiction, and perhaps no truth in history is stranger than the mysterious explosion of the USS Marine in 1898, which instigated the Spanish-American War. Who or what caused this explosion remains a mystery to this day. However, one local author has proposed one possibility in his latest historical romance novel.
In Love and Terror in Havana, award-winning Sebring author Mark Barie combines suspense, mystery, and romance all against the backdrop of the rising tensions between the Spanish and Americans during the turn of the 20th Century—tensions which eventually explode with the explosion of the USS Marine, sparking the ensuing Spanish-American War.
The story involves the budding romance between two teenagers who remain divided by political divisions. Isabella loves Roberto, but with Roberto being a Cuban rebel and her uncle being a general out to stamp out the rebel army, their love remains more than complicated. Matters become even more complicated when an unstable sailor threatens to blow up the USS Marine.
Mark Barie considers himself to be a methodical historical fiction author, someone who meticulously researches a subject before writing about it to ensure it remains authentic to its historical setting. However, the best thing about writing about the USS Marine is that its explosion remains a mystery to this day, so he could more easily exercise his creativity by creating his own explanation for it—albeit corroborated with his own research.
“The more I delved into it, the more curious I got because, even today, 125 years later, there is still a very hot debate as to what exactly and who or what caused the explosion of this USS battleship,” Barie said. “The more I got into it, the more I realized that I am not sure that the conventional and accepted theories for its destruction were correct, and as a result of my extensive research which involved dozens of books and hundreds of articles and scientific treatises, I have uncovered evidence that suggests an altogether different explanation for the explosion of the ship. It is revealed in the book, and sufficed to say, the so-called experts from 125 years ago were in the right church but the wrong pew. I have come up with another reason for that explosion.”
Barie was inspired to write historical fiction following his retirement. His wife, a genealogist, made an amazing discovery that he had relatives who fought the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. Discovering that history in his family tree sparked an interest in learning about history and writing fiction about it. Barie previously wrote three other historical romances about the Civil War, the American Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812. His newest book came full circle with him writing about the Spanish-American War.
His books have earned him national and international acclaim. His first book, War Calls, Love Cries, earned him is first book earned him a gold medal from the Florida Authors and Publishers Association for Historical Fiction, and it was designated a Finalist in the prestigious Eric Hoffer
book awards. His third book, The Commodore and the Powder Monkey, received a third-place bronze medal for military fiction in the Annual Independent Publisher Book Awards.
To hear more about Barie and his newest book, listen to his interview on our podcast, Chattin on the Ridge, available on Spotify: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/kepLJ3KVtzb
Love and Terror in Havana is available on Barnes and Noble and Amazon. To learn more about Barie and his work, visit his website at: https://www.markbarie.com
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office a semi-tractor trailer fire has Northbound lanes of Hwy 27 shutdown in Frostproof since 3:14am.
No one was injured according to PCSO.
#TX#Advisory The NB lanes of US Hwy 27 in #Frostproof are shut down from Hwy 98 to CR 630-A while crews work to tow a semi-truck & clean up diesel fuel on the roadway. The semi was fully engulfed in flames @ 3:14 a.m. but the driver made it out safely. Pls use alt routes. pic.twitter.com/qZTKGC0Nx6
— Polk County Sheriff 🚔 Grady Judd (@PolkCoSheriff) May 24, 2023
Lake Wales Police have obtained an arrest warrant for 40-year-old Aljerune Brooks of Haines City on two counts of DUI Manslaughter. The investigation confirmed Brooks was the driver of the Cadillac and he was intoxicated, well over the legal limit. This investigation also revealed Brooks was traveling 87miles per hour prior to braking before impact and he ran the red light, which had been red for approximately 16 seconds.
Brooks is being charged for the death of Gary Faniel Jr. and Javarcea Morton. This in not Brooks’ first encounter with breaking the law. He has been to jail multiple times for drugs, weapons and suspended driver’s license violations. Officershave attempted to locate Brooks’ to arrest him but have been unsuccessful.
Our hearts go out to the families of Mr. Faniel and Mr. Morton in their time of loss. The Lake Wales Police Department is requesting the community’s help in locating Brooks.
Two Dead Following Early Morning
Crash in Lake Wales
Two Haines City men are dead and a third hospitalized following an early morning crash on US Highway 27 at the intersection of Washington Avenue. Lake Wales Police and emergency personnel were notified and responded to the scene at approximately 2:51 AM this morning.
Lake Wales Traffic Homicide Investigators determined that awhite 2017 Cadillac driven by Aljerume Brooks, age 40 from Haines City failed to stop for the red traffic light while traveling North on Highway 27. Also in the vehicle was Gary Faniel Jr, age 24 and Javarcea Morton, age 23, both of Haines City.
The Cadillac collided with a 2009 Kalmar Industries semi-truck type vehicle, commonly referred to as a “yard dog” that is owned by Florida’s Natural and was driven by Dewey Hadden, age 62 of Frostproof.
Both Faniel and Morton were pronounced dead at the scene. Brooks was transported to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Hadden was not injured.
This case is still under investigation. Portions of Highway 27 were closed until 11:15 AM this morning while police investigated. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office provided assistance with traffic control and Crime Scene services during the investigation.
If you have any information regarding this crash, please contact the Lake Wales Police Department at 863-678-4223. Or, if you would like to remain anonymous and be eligible for a CASH REWARD through Heartland Crime Stoppers, call 1-800-226-TIPS (8477) or from your cell phone, dial **TIPS. You can also visit the website www.heartlandcrimestoppers.com and click on “Submit a Tip” or download the free “P3tips” app on your smartphone or tablet to provide information.
