LOCAL NEWS

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

Each year, The Florida Recreation & Park Association highlights the phenomenal facilities that serve its residents while bringing innovative designs and opportunities to their communities. The City of Winter Haven is thrilled to announce that two of its facilities will be presented with the Excellence in Sports Tourism Award. The DiamondPlex Softball Complex and AdventHealth Fieldhouse & Conference Center were recognized. As a city in relentless pursuit of excellence, this award comes from the staff’s efforts to maintain the highest standards, look after small details, and go the extra mile.

LEGO MASTERS

In celebration of LEGOLAND® Florida Resort’s 10th birthday, LEGO® MASTERS official winning LEGO® model, along with the second and third place models from Season Two will be on display at the theme park built for kids. The third-place model was the first to be displayed on September 16. The first and second-place models will go on display at the park on October 1. These masterpieces will be showcased in The Big Shop, located near the front entrance of LEGOLAND® Theme Park. Open displays will encourage park guests to explore 360-degree views of the colorful builds.

STAYBRIDGE SUITES

MPH Hotels, Inc. announced its plans for a 108-key Staybridge Suites Hotel coming to Downtown Winter Haven. Staybridge is an IHG Hotel, one of the nation’s largest hotel groups. The new six-story, 75,000 square foot hotel will be located on 5th street, next door and to the north of Gram Parsons Derry Down, a nationally recognized historic music venue. It will have 110 on-site parking spaces. The Hotel will be managed by Waterview Hospitality, LLC, an affiliate of MPH Hotels. It is anticipated that the construction of the hotel will begin in the first quarter of 2022, with the hotel being open for business in the summer of 2023.

RITZ THEATRE

Following a months-long national search, the Historic Ritz Theatre of Winter Haven has selected Alyssa Garber as its new executive director. She comes to the theatre from her current position as recreation coordinator for the Four Seasons Resort at Walt Disney World in Orlando. Garber graduated from the Rosen College of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida with a degree in event management. She is a Polk County native with experience in sales and design who previously attended Polk State College, where her interest in performing arts venues incubated. Garber takes over from interim director Beth Kingham, who has overseen the theatre for the past several months.

STREETSCAPE ENHANCEMENT

On August 23 the Winter Haven City Commission approved a bid award to Tucker Paving to commence on planning for the Downtown Streetscape Enhancement project. This project, totaling $1.6 million, will tie the streetscaping elements of the downtown core to the improvements made in the northern portion of downtown. It achieves this by reconstructing the City-owned parking lot east of the Chamber of Commerce using a piazza approach, and by adding brick paver sidewalks to the block of 4th Street between Ave. C NW and Ave. D NW. These improvements beyond enhancing the aesthetics will also bring this area up to modern standards in terms of drainage and ADA accessibility.

GOOD MORNING WINTER HAVEN

ABC Action News’ Good Morning Tampa Bay team spent the morning broadcasting live from Downtown Winter Haven on Sept. 3. This was part of a new series discovering cool gems you may not know about in Central Florida, and uncovering the big news events impacting those areas including Winter Haven. They interviewed several local businesses, City of Winter Haven officials, artists, and community activists. The crowd of Winter Havenites grew as the morning went on, and were showcased in between segments. Watch the clips and read the transcripts from the morning’s show at abcactionnews.com

F.A.S.T.

Announcement from the Florida Department of Education: “On September 14, 2021, Governor DeSantis announced that the state will file legislation to eliminate the common-core based, end-of-year Florida Statewide Assessment and create the new Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (F.A.S.T.). By creating the F.A.S.T. plan, Florida is becoming the first state in the nation to fully implement progress monitoring instead of end-of-year standardized testing, and will fully eliminate Common Core.” They would hope to have this plan active for the 2023-24 school year.

WAKES OF GRAIN

Congratulations to Grove Roots Brewing Company for winning gold! At the Great American Beer Festival, a total of 170 judges evaluated 9,680 entries from 2,192 breweries from all 50 states. The awards given are among the most coveted in the industry and heralded by the winning brewers. Grove Roots won gold for Wakes of Grain in the American Amber/Red Ale category. This is the largest commercial beer competition and was held in Denver, Colorado. Congrats!