PLANT CITY
Observer YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 6, NO. 1
FREE
Charger Wrestling Club.
SEE PAGE 8. •
THURSDAY, JULY 5, 2018
Keeping our schools secure PCPD and Hillsborough will have officers at all school campuses starting this August. See Page 4.
YOUR TOWN
RETURNING TO THE
Observer turns six
EARTH
The Plant City Observer celebrated its sixth anniversary on Wednesday. For six years the Observer has covered everything from nail-biting elections to heartwarming features on those who make this community so dear. We love this community and we cherish every moment we get to spend making sure that our neighbors are informed. Thanks for coming along with us for the ride. We’re looking forward to another news-filled year.
The Plant City Commons Community Garden hosted a Wild Weeding Medicines class Saturday on health benefits of plants found in the wild. BREANNE WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER
E
arly Saturday morning, 13 nature lovers gathered at the Community Garden and File photo
watched as a clinical herbal-
Parks and Recreation month
ist turned ripe elderberries into a medicinal beverage that can be used to improve cold and flu symptoms and is high in antioxidants.
Breanne Williams
SEE EARTH PAGE 3
Herbalist Carol Jones demonstrated the health benefits found in local plant life.
City Commissioners recently announced July would be known as Parks and Recreation month to honor everything the Recreation and Parks Department’s staff does for the city. Spend your summer adventures at one of the many neighborhood parks and playgrounds found throughout the city.
Making downtown bloom Evers Street will soon be filled with colorful paintings as Main Street unrolls its new program to beautify vacant spaces around downtown. BREANNE WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER
Evers Street is getting a colorful transformation next week as nine artists work together to beautify the empty windows of the vacant stores along the roadway.
The window art is the first stage of Main Street’s newest venture. Jane Waters, executive director of Historic Plant City Main Street, said the hope is increasing the art in the city and utilizing the empty space will help draw more people downtown and economically benefit the community. “Our hope is to reduce vacancy,” Waters said. “We’re really looking for business owners who have vacant store fronts. With their permission, we can go in and add art to the location and draw a lot of attention to it. Hopefully, SEE EVERS PAGE 7
RAISE THE ‘RUFF’
Photo courtesy of Vicky Saunders
Vicky Saunders paints snowmen in a Christmas scene downtown.
Bonnie’s birthday party. SEE PAGE 12.