PLANT CITY TIMES &
Observer YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 3, NO. 31
FREE
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FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2016
Do you know a winner? Check out our list of winners from the 2016 Florida Strawberry Festival. Pages 10-11
THIS ONE IS FOR THE BIRDS
Palin takes the cake
Learn the best ways to feed the birds. See page 8
YOUR TOWN
Easter preparations Hopewell Baptist Church has been sprucing up its grounds for Easter thanks to some helpful and goodhearted volunteers. A Lakeland Home Depot brought mulch and plants to help with a “Walk for Life” at the church, and volunteer Richard Bonnet completely redid the Golgotha for Easter. Hopewell Baptist Church will be having a kids’ Easter event beginning at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 19, and Easter services from 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Sunday, March 27, at Hopewell Baptist Church, 6001 CR 39 S. For more Easter events, check out our calendar on Page 14 or go to PlantCityObserver.com.
Al Berry bids Sarah Palin goodbye after she visited the 2016 Florida Strawberry Festival Sunday, March 13.
AMBER JURGENSEN MANAGING EDITOR
I
t’s official: Sarah Palin likes her shortcake with cake instead of biscuit. Palin stopped by the 2016 Florida Strawberry
Festival to endorse presidential candidate Donald Trump Sunday, March 13. “He’s candid and what he says is not memorized or teleprompter-fed rhetoric that a typical politician does, and I think that, you know, that’s something America is ready for too,” Palin said.
SEE PALIN PAGE 5
Photos by Amber Jurgensen and Emily Topper
Sarah Palin visited the Parkesdale booth then made shorcake at St Clement’s booth.
The box is back
SPORTS
After years of asking, Walden Lake has its mailbox back. EMILY TOPPER STAFF WRITER
Emily Topper
Post officer in charge Mark Barnes, WLCA President Bob Hunter and Jack Wolff cut a ribbon on the new mail drop-off box Tuesday, March 15.
The Walden Lake community once again has a mail drop-off box. The box, which was removed about four years ago because of incessant vandalism (it was even lit on fire) was restored to its former post last week. The box, located just before the guard house on Timberlane Drive, will service the nearly 2,400 homes in the Walden Lake community. The restoration of the box was made possible by the continued efforts of Walden Lake resident and former
Walden Lake Community Association director Jack Wolff. In January, Wolff told the WLCA board that he had submitted papers requesting the box for processing but frequently faced challenges because of constant post officer circulation. “I’ve lost count of the number of months I’ve spent trying to get this back,” Wolff said. WLCA President Bob Hunter, along with Wolff and the Mark Barnes, the officer in charge of the Plant City post SEE MAILBOX PAGE 5
Baseball coach inducted into hall of fame. Page 16