Plant City Observer
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VOLUME 6, NO. 69
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019
FIRE STATION 3 ROUNDS THE CORNER It’s been a long road to bring Fire Station Three from a dream to a reality. A presentation Monday evening updated the community on the project and set a new timeline for its completion.
BREANNE WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER
If you’ve been driving down Park Road over the past year, you more than likely have noticed the construction site that seems to have rarely evolved despite the months of work. Nestled near the Mike E. Sansone Community Park the site is set to become the location for Fire Station Three. However, a slew of problems bumped back the completion date from June 2019 to April 2020.
During Monday night’s commission meeting, City Manager Bill McDaniel updated the community on the details of the project as he said many people have inquired as to what was going on at the location. West Construction, Inc. was initially awarded the contract to tackle the project. Then issues like supply shortages, which they had to wait quite a while on to obtain the red block needed for the original design, and a lack of skilled construction workers in the industry led to both a wait and an increased budget for the project.
Then the City learned West Construction was having internal issues of its own. The men on the ground were not up to par. West Construction went through three superintendents and two project managers during this project alone, which led to several delays. While every issue addressed was promptly taken care of, the slow pace has set everyone on edge. Quality has never been the issue, McDaniel said, but promptness has so far eluded the project. “The quality of the job has been the most important factor to us,” McDaniel said. “It
PLANT CITY EMBRACES THE
BREANNE WILLIAMS JUSTIN KLINE STAFF WRITERS
A variety of Halloween events around town last week offered families the chance to either celebrate All Hallows’ Eve early or double up on their festive events so their kids got more than one fun night in their new costumes. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
was quite obvious we were not going to be able to control the timeline with the problems that West was running into with subcontractors and more particularly with some of the management team they had in place. But quality has remained paramount in our focus, and I have to say they have been quick to address every item that has been brought to their attention to the point of even having to completely redo some elements of the work that had been done to ensure it was done correctly.”
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Halloween came early to Plant City last weekend as the community rallied to throw parties local youth won’t soon forget. Everyone knows that major subdivisions, like Walden Lake, are packed like sardines in a tin on All Hallows’ Eve. Parking is a nightmare and children hit the streets in nonstop waves of trick-or-treaters. To get around the stress of gallivanting around for candy on a Thursday night, many local families decided to take part in some of the near dozen events around town. The Plant City Family YMCA's event wasn't a "true" trunk-ortreat this year thanks to Mother Nature, but moving the whole operation inside the gymnasium made it no less fun. As the rain came pouring down the attendees packed up shop and transferred the festivities to the inside of the ‘Y. More than 20 booths lined along the basketball court closest to the welcome desk as a horde of costumed kids and adults came through on Oct. 26 for candy, games and family-friendly fun sponsored by Hope Lutheran Church and GracePoint Church.