Plant City Times &
Observer YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2015
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SHINE TIME
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ON STAGE
Local makeup artist primps Bucs cheerleaders.
Mystery dinner theater is a hometown hit.
Marco Martinez gets his chance on the field.
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OUR TOWN
GOVERNANCE by Emily Topper | Staff Writer
Tentative Plant City budget allocates funds for chamber At the Sept. 15 City Commission meeting, city leaders reviewed the tentative budget for the FY 2015-16.
+ Festival selects 2016 theme The 2016 Florida Strawberry Festival has its theme: Royal Fun for Everyone! The Florida Strawberry Festival released the theme for its 81st annual event Tuesday, Sept. 15, “Our festival and the city of Plant City hold the strawberry in high regard,” General Manager Paul Davis said. “So we thought it would be fitting to play off of that with a theme portraying the strawberry as royalty.” A new theme is created for each year’s festival to offer patrons a glimpse of the experience they will have at the 11-day event. It also unifies vendors, FFA chapters, organizations, corporate partners and exhibitors who create parade floats and displays throughout the event, Davis said. “We feel like this is a theme that our community will really enjoy,” Davis said.
If the tentative budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year is approved at the Monday, Sept. 28, City Commission meeting, the Greater Plant City Chamber of Commerce will continue to be financially supported, in part, by the City of Plant City. “We think the chamber’s doing an outstanding job in our community,” Mayor Rick Lott
said. The tentative budget was reviewed at the City Commission meeting Monday, Sept. 15. The funds set aside for the chamber total $65,000. They are part of $116,000 from the general fund that will be awarded to different Plant City organizations, such as
the Improvement League of Plant City and the 1914 Plant City High School Community Building. The City Commission will review the funding for the chamber each fiscal year as the city prepares the budget. An additional $175,000 will be awarded to Plant City’s Economic Development Corpora-
tion for marketing purposes. This summer, Commissioner Mike Sparkman asked for a breakdown from the chamber on how the money it receives from the city is spent. If the chamber hadn’t focused the funds on economic development, he wanted to put the funds into the EDC instead. The chamber was not able to provide a line-item budget of the funds.
Fancy Farms owner Carl Grooms grew up on a strawberry farm. He started Fancy Farms with 74 acres and named it “Fancy” for his wife.
I PC
This week’s winner is
Jim Todd
See his photo on PAGE 17.
(same as 2014-15)
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL: $175,000 AID TO ORGANIZATIONS (INCLUDING CHAMBER):
$116,000
CITY EMPLOYEES SALARY INCREASE: 2.5% (non-
step pay plan employees)
TUITION REIMBURSEMENT FOR CITY EMPLOYEES: $10,000 TOTAL CITY WORKFORCE:
417
Red Rose rezone meeting rescheduled Because a sign was not posted to let residents know about the Sept. 10 meeting, another one will be held Oct. 8.
Photos by Amber Jurgensen and Karen Berry
Grower Carl Grooms has hired about 50 H2-A temporary agriculture workers to help with the bed making process. He plans to hire 50 more when its time to plant and 50 for picking.
Bed shaping is just the beginning of strawberry season.
F
MILLAGE RATE: 4.7157
by Amber Jurgensen Managing Editor
Start of the
elix Ramirez keeps both hands on the wheel of his John Deere tractor as he sits above the rows of dirt at a 15-acre Fancy Farms field in east Plant City. The field is tucked in the back corner of the 110-acre strawberry operation, and on Friday, Sept. 11, it is the focus of the farm.
$27,235,168
UPDATE
+ Christmas Lane needs performers Christmas Lane is now accepting applications for singers and groups to entertain the crowds each night of Christmas Lane. A large stage and professional crew will support the acts. Interested applicants may download forms at Christmas Lane’s newly designed website, ChristmasLane. org, and return forms to ChristmasLaneEntertain ment@gmail.com. The final performance schedule will be announced Friday, Oct. 9. Performer and chaperone tickets will be mailed Monday, Nov. 9. Christmas Lane will be at the Florida Strawberry Festival Expo Hall this holiday season. The lighted tradition has been held at 2091 S. Wooten Road in Dover for decades by strawberry grower Lane Wetherington.
TOTAL PROPOSED BUDGET: $66,312,812 GENERAL FUND:
SEE BUDGET / PAGE 4
AGRICULTURE by Amber Jurgensen | Managing Editor
SEASON
FAST FACTS
Strawberry season has started — or at least the preparation for it has. Ramirez, 28, bumps up and down the flattened field to make beds, two at a time, with his tractor. Unlike some of the tractors in farm owner Carl Grooms’ fleet, Ramirez’s tractor doesn’t have a satellite to ensure
the machine is rolling in a precise, straight line. Ramirez has to do it the oldfashioned way. “I love my job, man,” Ramirez says. “Playing with big toys. Getting paid to drive these big tractors.”
SEE SEASON / PAGE 4
The City of Plant City Planning Board has rescheduled a meeting for Thursday, Oct. 8, to decide whether or not to recommend rezoning the Red Rose Inn & Suites so that a drug rehabilitation center may operate there. The Planning Board held a meeting Thursday, Sept. 10, and voted 3-1 to make a recommendation in favor of the rezoning. But after an investigation into a statement made by a resident during public comment, it was found that signs were not posted with information about the meeting, as is protocol. “Why wasn’t there ever a sign posted on the (Red Rose) property to let the residents know?” Robert Willaford asked the board. Willaford passes the Red Rose everyday while he goes
SEE RED ROSE / PAGE 4
QUESTIONS? Residents can contact the City of Plant City’s Zoning and Planning Division with their questions at (813) 659-4200 ext. 4125. MEETING WHEN: 8 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 8 WHERE: City Hall, 302 W. Reynolds St.
STRAWBERRY GROWING TIMELINE Shape the beds, lay plastic SEPTEMBER Fluff and flatten fields
Bulk of berries come in
Finish planting OCTOBER Punch holes, plant seeds
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
Start picking
MARCH
Florida Strawberry Festival
INDEX Calendar........................2
Vol. 3, No. 7 | One section Crossword....................17
Obituaries....................12
Sports..........................14
Weather.......................17
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