PLANT CITY TIMES &
Observer
Plant City busts a move.
SEE PAGE 9.
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 5, NO. 20
YOUR TOWN Strawberry Festival concert lineup The Florida Strawberry Festival released its 2018 concert lineup Monday. Tickets will go on sale at 8 a.m. Dec. 7 and can be purchased online at www. FLStrawberryFestival.com, at the Amscot Main Ticket Office located at 2209 W. Oak Ave. in Plant City or over the phone at 813-754-1996. The new GT Grandstands seating area will accommodate 9,200 total guests but, unlike prior years, admission to headline shows will no longer be free. Beginning in January, specials, discounts and free entertainment will be announced online.
FREE
DNCE 7:30 p.m. $40 FRIDAY, MARCH 2 JERRY LEE LEWIS 3:30 p.m. $30 JUSTIN MOORE AND DYLAN SCOTT 7:30 p.m. $35 SATURDAY, MARCH 3 CAM 3:30 p.m. $20 THE BAND PERRY 7:30 p.m. $35 SUNDAY, MARCH 4 LEE GREENWOOD 3:30 p.m. $20
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2017
Gimme shelter The rusted shelter at the Courier Field’s south end will be torn down in exchange for a new gazebo. DANIEL FIGUEROA IV STAFF WRITER
City Commissioners voted unanimously Monday to fund a new project replacing the picnic structure in Courier Field’s south end. Assistant City Manager Bill McDaniel told the commission rust
had begun to overtake the 18-yearold shelter in Courier Field, home to the city’s veterans monument, and would need to be replaced. “This is a case of need creating opportunity,” McDaniel said. The existing shelter was built in 1999. Since then, the city has made a number of upgrades to the park including the creation of the veteran monument and a gazebo at the north end which has become the staging area for Plant City’s Veterans Day and Memorial Day celebrations. McDaniel said original plans for SEE GAZEBO PAGE 6
Daniel Figueroa IV
The new gazebo in Courier Field will match the aesthetics of the pavilion at the north end of the park.
THURSDAY, MARCH 1 JIMMY STURR & HIS ORCHESTRA 10:30 a.m. Free OAK RIDGE BOYS 3:30 p.m. $20
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Walking among monuments
Let the games
BEGIN
Bob Johnson was sent on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Washington D.C. to be honored with his peers for Veterans Day. BREANNE WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER
When the call came, Bob Johnson was lying in a hospital bed recovering from open heart surgery. Judy Wise, the veterans chairman for the Elks Lodge of Plant City, called in July to offer Johnson, a Vietnam veteran, the opportunity attend the national Parade of Heroes on Veterans Day, just a handful of months following the intensive surgery. “She asked if I would be better, if I would be free to go, and I told her I would clear my schedule and be there,” Johnson said. “It was such an honor to have been nominated to go. The Elks are so good to veterans and I was just so honored to have the opportunity.” Johnson was a helicopter pilot in the war and has been with the Elks for four years. Wise said his animated personality and humble nature made him an obvious pick when the lodge realized they had an opportunity to send a veteran to take part in the event. Without a second thought, the group paid all of the fees to send him on the once-in-a-lifetime trip. She said Johnson has no qualms talking about his exploits overseas but has never once bragged about his service. When Wise called him in the hospital she said she was not prepared for the level of gratitude and excitement Johnson demonstrated.
REBA MCENTIRE 7:30 p.m. $50 MONDAY, MARCH 5 JIMMY FORTUNE 3:30 p.m. $20 JOSH TURNER 7:30 p.m. $25 TUESDAY, MARCH 6 GAITHER VOCAL BAND 3:30 p.m. $25 CASTING CROWNS 7:30 p.m. $30 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7 ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK 3:30 p.m. $30 TRACE ADKINS 7:30 p.m. $25 THURSDAY, MARCH 8 THE LETTERMEN 10:30 a.m. Free DRIFTERS, PLATTERS AND CORNELL GUNTER’S COASTERS 3:30 p.m. $20 I LOVE THE 90S FEATURING VANILLA ICE, TONE LOC AND SALT-N-PEPA 7:30 p.m. $35
SEE JOHNSON PAGE 3
FRIDAY, MARCH 9 CHARLEY PRIDE 3:30 p.m. $20 EARTH WIND & FIRE 7:30 p.m. $40 SATURDAY, MARCH 10 SAWYER BROWN 3:30 p.m. $20 KENNY “BABYFACE” EDMONDS AND ANTHONY HAMILTON 7:30 p.m. $35 SUNDAY, MARCH 11 CHASE BRYANT 3:30 p.m. $20
Turkey Creek Middle School held Olympic Day on Wednesday. SEE PAGE 14
BRAD PAISLEY 7:30 p.m. $50
Courtesy photo Justin Kline
The long jump is one of many events students can compete in.
Bob Johnson salutes the Lincoln Memorial, located near the Washington Monument.