Plant City Observer
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2020
YO UR NEWS PAP ER . CITY MOVES TO UPGRADE EQUIPMENT VOLUME 6, NO. 121
Monday’s city commission meeting saw commissioners commit to improving service performances around town.
BREANNE WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER
City commissioners had a hefty consent agenda Monday evening that inevitably helps keep the city up-to-date. Most of the items are designed to improve the city’s service performances and will be replacing aging equipment. Commissioners agreed to purchase two replacement generators for Utilities Maintenance using funds already
included in this fiscal year’s budget. The generators will replace the two current ones, which Utilities said have “exceeded their useful life.” The generators are used to provide auxiliary power for the City’s sewage lift and well stations. Using a Florida Sheriff’s Association Bid the city will purchase the two new generators from Tradewinds Power Corp. The total purchase price is at $110,122.
SEE PAGE 5
HONORING HENRY DEMPS
On Tuesday afternoon, Henry Van Demps got the headstone and military honors he needed in 1966. JUSTIN KLINE SPORTS/ASSOCIATE EDITOR
United States Army Pfc. Henry Van Demps, born and raised in Plant City, deserved better than he got 54 years ago. Demps started a tour of duty in Vietnam with the Army 503rd Infantry on April 18, 1966 at age 22. A little more than three months later, he was killed in the Long Khanh Province of South Vietnam. On September 3, 1966, the son of Robert N. and Thelma C. Demps was laid to rest in his hometown at Garden of Peace Cemetery.
But if you didn’t know Demps personally, you wouldn’t know anything about his service just by looking at his gravesite. For reasons unknown to the City of Plant City’s Cemetery Operations Unit, Demps spent the last 54 years in an unmarked grave and was not given full military honors at his funeral. SEE PAGE 7
SEE PAGE 7
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