WINTER HAVEN - Although two new Winter Haven fee policies apply now, the city likely will not see the monetary returns on them until at least the end of this calendar year, city spokeswoman Joy Townsend said.
On Monday night, city commissioners voted to impose new motor-vehicle-crash fees, a new fire-inspection fee and a new security-alarm-system fee.
The Motor Vehicle Crash Emergency Response Service Fee and the fire-inspection fee went into effect Tuesday.
The security-alarm-system fee will go into effect in several months.
The motor-vehicle-crash fee ordinance imposes a series of charges for use of city rescue services.
The fees will apply if fire officials and police respond and provide a service or care for longer than 15 minutes, according to background provided by city staff.
The ordinance applies to city residents and nonresidents alike, and the person found to be "at-fault" for the accident will be held responsible for paying the fees.
The new Winter Haven fees are a conglomeration of charges for hourly personnel, vehicles and equipment, materials, any additional costs to the city and a 2 percent billing fee.
A city meeting is scheduled for today to make final decisions on how bills will be processed and collected by City Hall, Townsend said.
The new fire-inspection ordinance establishes a routine fire-inspection fee that includes a first reinspection fee.
A security-alarm fee, which requires businesses to register their security alarm systems and imposes a monetary fee for four or more false alarms in a one-year span, will go into effect in 120 days from the date of passage, Townsend said.
A business or resident must pay $25 to register an alarm with the city.
The ordinance also imposes a $100 fee for any alarm not registered, a $50 fee for fourth and fifth false alarms, a $100 fee for sixth and seventh false alarms, a $250 fee for eighth and ninth false alarms, and a $500 fee for the 10th false alarm and any more that occur in a year span.
The information required for registration will be public record, except for information like a person's Social Security number, Townsend said.
Although this will mean that everyone has access to which businesses and residences have security systems, oftentimes it is obvious where the are anyway, Townsend said.
The security system information will be no more than what is in the phone book or normally posted on the door of a business, she said.
Blaze damages antique vehicles, structures; no injuries
LAKE WALES - A fire at the Drift-In Resort north of Lake Wales late Thursday afternoon damaged several structures and some antique vehicles housed in one of them, county officials said.
No injuries were reported.
The resort is located on the north shore of Lake Pierce and east of Scenic Highway (State Road 17) at 2700 Drift-In St., Lake Wales.
Polk County spokeswoman Kristin Guira said the call about the fire came in to Polk County Fire Services around 4:45 p.m. and a second alarm was sounded, meaning more help was needed to fight the fire.
Officials said the fire started in a singlewide mobile home and spread to a small shed that was attached to a structure containing two classic sports cars and an antique motorcycle. The fire then spread to the home of Dennis Coder, the resort owner, before it was extinguished.
Firefighters had to pump water from a canal because no fire hydrants were nearby, officials said.
Polk County firefighters were assisted by units from Dundee and Lake Wales. At one point, 10 fire engines were on the scene.
The Drift-In Resort offers boat rides, fishing, basketball, picnic space and themed cottages.
Coder had renovated the resort last year after it was ravaged by Hurricane Charley in 2004. He even created a hurricane-themed cottage using debris from the hurricane to decorate the outside of the cottage.
BARTOW | After a severe budget cut by the state Department of Juvenile Justice, the Sheriff’s Office is closing the doors of the Sheriff’s Training and Respect program, or S.T.A.R, the only remaining boot-camp-style residential program of its kind in the state.
The program’s funding has been cut about 72 percent since February, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Donna Wood. Wood said that leaves the Sheriff’s Office with little choice but to close the facility.
Ten juveniles remain in the building. Wood said it is up to DJJ to determine where and when they will go. The facility will close June 30. Thirty-eight positions have also been eliminated because of the budget cuts. Some of those employees are retiring, some resigning and others are to be placed in vacant Sheriff’s Office positions.
“We sincerely regret having to close the program,” Sheriff Grady Judd said in a news release. “While we worked hard with our legislative and state partners to secure adequate funding for the program, due to very serious statewide budget problems, and a 72% budget reduction, the program cannot be sustained.”
MULBERRY | The State Fire Marshal is looking for the cause of a morning fire that destroyed a home and killed three dogs and a bird in the Willow Oak neighborhood.
The fire department responded to an 8:59 a.m. call to 4035 Johnson Road, the home of Ginny and John Hendricks, their two children and a roommate who has three children.
Ginny Hendricks and four of the children were at home when the fire started in the single-story house in this neighborhood just west of Mulberry.
Reports say Hendricks' 3-year-old son received a burned ear and singed hair but no other injuries are reported.
Polk County Sheriff's deputies arrested a PCSO deputy Sunday and charged his with driving under the influence.
Deputies found Jesus Contreras Jr., 22, unresponsive behind the wheel of his 2006 Nissan Pathfinder on Sunday around 6 a.m,, according to a Sheriff's Office report. The truck's engine and headlights were on, and it was facing east in the westbound lane of Old Polk City Road.
Deputies woke up Contreras, who admitted that he had been drinking with friends at the Paddock Club Apartments, according to the report.
The report stated that he failed a field sobriety test and was then arrested and charged.
He was booked into the Polk County Jail on a $500 bond
Contreras was hired in September 2006 and was assigned to Northeast District patrol. He has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation.
The ScanPolkCounty server is hosted by SoftLayer Technologies in their Dallas, Texas data center.
The server, running Linux, contains the following hardware:
A 3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Processor
6 GB of RAM
A 100MB/s network card
A SATA RAID disk controller
Two 250GB Western Digital Caviar hard disks setup as a RAID 1 mirror for data redundancy. These disks contain the operating system, a failure of one disk will not result in any loss of data.
One 150GB 10,000 RPM Western Digital Raptor hard disk. The database resides on this high-speed disk for increased web site performance.
One 1000GB Seagate Barracuda hard disk. This large disk is where the audio from the scanner feeds is archived. I'm able to save almost 20 days of audio from all of the feeds.
The cost of the above configured server is $434 per month.
As of June, 2008, the server is using around 6005 GB of bandwidth per month at a cost of $0.10 per GB after the first 2000 GB which comes out to a cost of around $400 per month. As more and more people listen the amount of bandwidth used increases.
I use Amazon S3 to back up the server offsite in case something catastrophic happens at the data center.
You can help me pay the hosting and bandwidth costs for this site and its sister sites by making a small donation.
Donate button on Left.
Posted on Sunday, June 15
Fire station will hold its grand opening
WINTER HAVEN - The newly located and constructed Jan Phyl Village Fire/EMS station 15 will have its grand opening Friday at 9:30 a.m. The station is at 333 American Spirit Blvd. in Winter Haven.
It is equipped with a large cleaning and sanitation room used by Emergency Medical Services staff to disinfect instruments and equipment.
The facility is also equipped with a ventilated gear storage room designed to allow for the free flow of fresh air, minimizing carcinogen build up on the firefighters' protective gear.
Most people who want to be in the military are ready to answer the call to become heroes, but for one Summerlin Academy graduate and National Guard member, that call came a little earlier than anticipated.
On Tuesday, while enjoying some relaxing time at home watching television, Angel “Eric” Lopez, heard screaming from outdoors.
“I rushed outside and saw three girls,” he said. “I asked them what was wrong, but they wouldn't respond.
“Just a second later (my neighbor Tiffany Priest) came outside holding her baby, Nolan, who wasn't breathing.”
New to the neighborhood, Miss Priest was caring for the three girls and her baby that day.
“Nolan and the girls were playing in the pool, and Nolan was in his little yellow float,” Miss Priest said. “I just walked back into the house for a second, to get something, now I don't even remember what, and when I came back out the girls were screaming and Nolan's float was flipped.”
By the time she spotted Lopez, he was on his way to the Willow Oak Fire Station, which is a volunteer station very close to the house. Unfortunately, the neighbors found the station unmanned.
“I saw the baby was getting worse, his lips were turning blue, and I just decided to do CPR,” Lopez said.
Within a minute, the baby was revived, and back to the happy, healthy 10 month-old he was before the swim.
“He saved my baby's life,” Miss Priest said. “I know CPR as well, but I was so upset, I didn't even think of it. He just did it and saved Nolan.”
Lopez, 18, said he learned CPR about a year ago as part of his National Guard and ROTC training and was shocked how quickly the skills came back.
“I was just so surprised and shocked that I was able to save a life,” he said.
DAVENPORT | Three people were taken to the hospital after a Polk County sheriff's deputy's patrol car collided with another car on U.S. 27 near Florida Camp Inn Resort.
Deputy Sheriff Victor Diaz, who is 34 years old and has been with the Polk County Sheriff's Office since December 2006, was heading north when his Ford Crown Victoria hit the rear of a white pickup truck that was also northbound, according to Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Carrie Rogers.
Diaz was treated for his injuries at Heart of Florida Hospital. The driver and passenger of the pickup truck were both hospitalized for their injuries, Rogers said. The driver, Alan Silva, 49, of Winter Haven, was taken to Heart of Florida Hospital. His passenger, Alan Marion, 61, of Kissimmee, was taken to Celebration Hospital.
Polk County firefighters from Station 34 are on the scene of a house fire at 600 Tiger Road near Koaka Dri ve in Poinciana.
The fire was reported at 6:45 a.m. Further details on the extent of the fire damage is not available, but emergency officials said no one was injured in the fire.
