Winter Haven to be home to USF Polytechnic technology business accelerator.
In a memo distributed today, June 12, to the Mayor and City Commisioners, City of Winter Haven Community
Development Director David Dickey announced the following information:
In April 2009, the Polk County Commission, in conjunction with the Central Florida Development Council, earmarked $1 million in funding to help establish a high-tech business incubator to be located on the USF Polytechnic campus.
The incubator concept has gained momentum so quickly that the decision was made to establish two locations prior to the completion of the Polytechnic campus. An incubator will be established in Lakeland with a business accelerator to be located in downtown Winter Haven.
Benefits to new companies will include proximity to, and resources of, a national research university; access to operational infrastructure including office space, equipment and technology; faculty experts; technology consultants; and training programs.
The decision to locate this facility in downtown Winter Haven is result of a partnership between the 6/10 Corporation and the City. The 6/10 Corporation will provide rent-free space in the Verizon building located at 199 Avenue B, NW. This building houses the Inland Fiber & Data Technology Park which makes the accelerator a great fit. Subject to approval and funding availability, the City’s CRA would provide $10,000 annually to help offset operating costs.
It is anticipated that the facility will be operational by September 1, 2009 and will initially house from five to ten new companies. The proposed accelerator can be distinguished from a business incubator in that it will target more mature start-ups that still require a degree of support. It is hoped that the companies will grow into adjacent office space and maintain a long-term downtown Winter Haven presence.
This development will further advance the developing technology-based business core downtown. Congratulations to both Lakeland and Winter Haven. The County/CFDC/USF/Lakeland/Winter Haven/Six-Ten partnership is a very positive step in economic recovery. The Polytechnic influence will grow the high-skill / high-wage sector critical to the area’s long-term future.
Killebrew, Inc. has been named Contractor of the Year by the Florida Chapter of the American Public Works Association. The company was nominated by Michael Crumpton who noted that “Killebrew, Inc. performed exceptionally on several fronts completing projects ahead of schedule and an average of 10% under budget.” He further noted, “the company produces work of outstanding quality and is available for emergency needs 24/7.
Company CEO, Sam Killebrew said of the award, “It is our staff that makes our business great. You are only as good as the people you have working for you and this award is for them.” The Killebrew team is pictured below.
The company is a one-stop design/permit/build contractor handling everything from pipe lines to pump stations and pipe bursting projects.
Downtown Winter Haven is positively abuzz as Publix Supermarkets films an upcoming commercial for the nation’s finest grocery chain (in our humble opinion). The company was founded right here in Winter Haven nearly 79 years ago (September 6, 1930 to be exact). Ironically the filming of this commercial took place directly across Central Park from George Jenkin’s first “Publix Food Store” (now Score’s Sports Restaurant). Between 1930 and 1941 Winter Haven was home to the only Publix Store. In 1940 Jenkins built his first store from the ground up. The building still stands on Central Avenue at 2nd Street NW across from the First Baptist Church.
Publix reported $23.9 billion in retail sales in 2008. They have 141,000 associates and 1,001 stores … and to think it all began here!
We do not know the story line of the commercial but judging by the side of the Publix truck below, we bet it involves PUBLIX ICE CREAM! All is flavor say aye!
Hats off to Main Street and the City of Winter Haven for a Downtown worthy of a Publix commercial.
Suzanne “Suzie” Moraco has been named the 2008 Leadership Winter Haven Distinguished Alumni. Moraco is a Certified Financial Planner with Morgan Stanley and is also a cofounder and annual planner for the East Polk Economic Summit held each November.
Suzie’s passions include animals and children. She is a native Floridian and involved in many community organizations and is a graduate of Leadership Winter Haven XXIV. She serves as a board member for the Winter Haven Chamber and the Humane Society of Polk County. Moraco is past president of the Kiwanis Club of Winter Haven and also on the Advisory Counciil for the Communithy Foundation of Greater Winter Haven.
She was honored at the Leadership Alumni’s annual holiday luncheon. Suzie and husband Sal reside in Winter Haven. She is pictured above right receiving the award from Steve Warner, 2008-09 Leadership Alumni Liaison.
Winter Haven Hospital is awarded prestigious nursing Magnet designation
As Polk County’s first healthcare organization to achieve Magnet status, Winter Haven Hospital joins 305 hospitals across the country – about 5 percent of the nation’s total – to be recognized for excellence in patient care. Hospital staffers have worked for more than five years to meet the program’s rigorous requirements.
Winter Haven Hospital has been recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) with the prestigious designation of Magnet status for its nursing program. The Hospital is the first in Polk County to achieve Magnet status, which has been granted to about 5 percent of the nation’s hospitals.
According to the ANCC, the“Magnet Recognition Program® recognizes healthcare organizations that provide the very best in nursing care and professionalism in nursing practice … Recognizing quality patient care, nursing excellence, and innovations in professional nursing practice, the Magnet Recognition Program provides consumers with the ultimate benchmark to measure the quality of care that they can expect to receive.”
“All of our nurses and staff at Winter Haven Hospital have been working hard toward this day for more than five years,” said Mary Jo Schreiber, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer. “We are, of course, very proud of our nurses and of the outstanding level of care that they provide to our patients.”
Although the designation is an American Nursing Association standard, it is awarded to the hospital organization as a whole because the excellence in patient care outcomes that the award represents is achieved through the efforts of every staff member, volunteer, and physician on staff at Winter Haven Hospital, Schreiber said.
She noted that an ANCC credentialing team visited Winter Haven Hospital in September and solicited public commentary on the Hospital’s application for Magnet status.
Schreiber said: “On behalf of everyone at Winter Haven Hospital, I would like to express my thanks to the east Polk County community, which so strongly supports our not-for-profit healthcare mission. We are aware of that support on a daily basis, which contributes to the morale and the dedication that our nursing staff have for their profession.”
Lance Anastasio, president and CEO of Winter Haven Hospital, said: “I want to offer my congratulations to our nursing organization for achieving this distinguished national recognition. And I want to emphasize that as an institution, we have made a commitment to remaining on the Magnet journey. We think it’s a vital commitment to our patients from throughout the region.”
A formal award ceremony will be announced in the near future. Representatives from the Commission on Magnet Recognition will travel to Winter Haven to officially present the designation certificate to Hospital officials.
Charles McPherson, chairman of the Winter Haven Hospital Board of Trustees, said: “Everyone in east Polk County should take a measure of pride in the awarding of Magnet status to Winter Haven Hospital. Our commitment to serving our patients with the highest standard of nursing care has been certified to be among the very best in the nation. There simply are not many communities who can say that.”
The Chamber adds it congratulations to the staff and management of Winter Haven Hospital.
City of Winter Haven officials today dedicated a redesigned and upgraded Advanced Wastewater Treatment (AWT) facility at Wastewater Treatment Plant #3 south of the city. The $15+ million upgrade is one of 60 such projects underway throughout the state and the first in Polk to become operational. (Update: 9-12-08: Jacksonville-based Haskell Co. built the $16 million project and Peter Haskell shocked city officials with a $300,000 refund of money his company didn’t spend.) Mayor Nat Birdsong noted, “It is unheard of to receive a refund of this magnitude. It just doesn’t happen.”
It did today.
Birdsong added, “We all watch wastewater go down the drain and, for the most part, would rather forget about it.” He went on to explain that the new AWT capability actually enhances Winter Haven’s sustainability in that the treated wastewater can be used to replace up to 60% of the potable water currently used in irrigation. And with every million gallons of AWT product used for irrigation — there’s a million gallons of potable water available for resident consumption. In the end, something we’d rather forget becomes an invaluable resource to sustain our community.
The AWT project eliminates the spray fields that were previously used at WWTP #3 and allows some 1200 acres to now be used for economic development purposes including the new CSX inter modal rail terminal.
The city’s successful conversion of the plant to AWT status raises the bar once more on their commitment to becoming a “green” community.
The photograph at right shows a structure designed to introduce chlorine into the wastewater to help clean it. The chlorine is later removed in another structure.
The Central Florida Regional Planning Council has approved the Development of Regional Impact (DRI) for the Evansville Western Railway Inter-modal terminal on 318 acres of land south of Winter Haven. The 10 - 1 vote sends the matter on to the Winter Haven Planning Commission and ultimately the Winter Haven City Commission for final consideration of a development order.
At the beginning of today’s public hearing, Evansville Western Railway and CSX officials presented a video animation of what the proposed inter-modal rail terminal will look like. It explains how the site will be laid out, buffered and accessed. Forward your email notification with this link to your friends and neighbors so they may see the potential for this great new Winter Haven project. The video is less than four minutes long. Just click on the arrow to view.
The Central Florida Regional Planning Council will conduct a public hearing on the inter-modal rail terminal planned for south Winter Haven on August 13 beginning at 9 a.m. in the pool side room at the Southwest Complex.
The Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce has made it our business to do a comprehensive assessment of the potential for this project. Our due diligence has included two visits to Alliance, Texas to view first hand the operations of the BNSF Railway Terminal and the related Hillwood Gateway/Alliance Business Park. In May of this year the Chamber led a fact-finding visit of 20 Polk elected officials, government leaders and business interests. That visit included a comprehensive itinerary that reviewed the rail terminal and business park operations as well as visual, noise, traffic and lighting impacts.
Winter Haven, Polk County and Central Florida stand on the threshold of a tremendous economic opportunity.
State Senator Paula Dockery wants it relocated.
If you own a business in Polk County and especially Winter Haven, you owe it to yourself to review the following facts about this project. It will change the economic dynamics of this county and your business. It will provide good jobs and great opportunities for our citizens and our children. We also believe we have the brains, resources and creativity to make it a model distribution hub.
That is why we believe it deserves one more close look …
1. How many employees will be on the CSX site during construction of the inter-modal terminal?
800-1000 jobs (estimate)
2. How many employees will work on site when the inter-modal terminal is operational?
100-110 depending on the number that relocates from existing Orlando/Tampa facilities for automotive and inter-modal
This would be among Winter Haven’s mid-sized companies
3. How many trucks will enter and leave the inter-modal facility on an average day?
750 – 1000 truck trips on the high side (375 – 500 actual trucks) spread out over a 24 hour period. Traffic will be relative to train schedules which, at present, have not been finalized.
This is approximately twice as many vehicles as the estimates for the Winter Haven Wal-Mart Distribution Center on Lucerne Park Road
4. How many trains will arrive at the inter-modal terminal on a daily basis?
The number of trains arriving each day is directly related to the number of “lifts” done in the inter-modal facility. A “lift” is the process of putting a container of consumer product on or off of a railcar carriage. BNSF Railway (Alliance, TX) uses inter-modal trains that are 140 cars long plus power. Those trains haul double-stacked containers. To determine the number of trains per day you take the number of lifts per day divided by 280 containers on each train divided by the number of days the facility will be operational. Every 100,000 lifts require approximately one train per day to transport. If the Winter Haven ILC were to do one-third of Alliance’s annual volume, that would be 200,000 lifts per year or approximately two trains per day 365 days per year. Shorter trains would require more than two per day but actual length for the CSX facility will be dictated by the length of the shortest siding available (for allowing trains to pass) as well as the curve radius on the train route (the sharper the radius the shorter the train that can safely negotiate it). The Winter Haven facility will also receive automobiles. Including those trains, initial rail traffic could average three to four trains per day.
5. How will the terminal operation affect air quality and noise levels.
Based on findings of extensive computer modeling the combined effect of trucks, cars and locomotives operating at the inter-modal facility will have a negligible impact on local air quality. (Both particulate matter (PM) and carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations are predicted to be extremely low.) – Central Florida Regional Planning Council Staff Report and Recommendations, August 2008, Page 97.
In comparison with City noise limits, facility-related noise levels were not predicted to exceed the allowable daytime (61 dBA) or nighttime (50dBA) noise limits within the Winter Haven Noise Ordinance. The highest predicted facility-related noise level at the residential property line is 42dBA (comparable to the noise created by a dishwater operating in an adjoining room of a residential facility). – Central Florida Regional Planning Council Staff Report and Recommendations, August 2008, Pages 98, 99.
6. What about the concerns of the Lakeland community?
Winter Haven and Lakeland Chamber officials and other Polk entities have come together with the Tampa Bay Partnership and Central Florida Partnership to address overarching regional issues affecting a super region from Daytona to Tampa. The group has had two meetings and two more have been scheduled for fall. This open and cooperative dialogue has given birth to One Polk – a forum for addressing countywide issues and representing those positions in discussions with our neighbors to the East and West.
7. What is the potential for a business park?
There is a potential for five million sq. ft. of ancillary development in the future adjacent to the terminal. In addition there will be interest in surrounding development as a result of creating an industrial base – such developers as First Industrial, Liberty Trust, etc. The terminal will provide a high volume lower cost freight transportation solution for a state that will continue to grow into the future. By comparison, the Lakeland Economic Development Council Web site notes there is twenty-six million square feet of industrial/warehouse space currently in the Lakeland area. The LEDC site also notes that Lakeland has absorbed more than 1 million sq. ft. annually since 1987.
8. How many jobs may be associated with the ancillary development?
Once the terminal is completed and upon completion of the Development of Regional Impact findings, it is estimated than over the next decade up to 2,000 jobs could be created in the surrounding business park. CSX has projected 2,000 direct jobs.
9. What types of companies might locate in the area surrounding the inter-modal terminal.
Looking to Alliance, Texas for an example, here is a sampling of the companies that center attracted: County Workforce Board, AT&T, Bell Helicopter, Cardinal Health, Coca-Cola, Daimler Chrysler Services, Ford Motor Company, a branch of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Fidelity Investments, Fortuna Pizza Pasta Subs, General Mills, General Motors, Hampton Inn and Suites, The Home Depot, IHOP, Kraft Foods, Manpower, Motorola, Phillips Electronics, Pitney Bowes, Ryder System, Snooty Pig Cafe, Texas Instruments, a US Customs Office and numerous other offices, retail operations and distribution facilities. The dynamics of the Winter Haven site may attract a different mix but similar results could be reasonably expected.
10. What potential tax revenues may be generated by the project.
The actual experience for Polk County and Florida will depend on our taxing structures and the development that occurs with regard to the inter-modal terminal. Looking to the Alliance Texas experience, that center has generated more than $535 million in taxes over the past sixteen years. While impossible to predict with certainty it seems reasonable to believe that an ILC one third the size of Alliance would produce significant tax revenues over time.
We believe this project of Evansville Western Railway, an affiliate of CSX Transportation, holds great potential for your business growth and success.
Take a moment and let Senator Dockery know you want it built where it is currently planned. You can send her an email:Senator Paula Dockery
While you are at it you can thank Senator J. D. Alexander for his support of the project by sending an email here: Senator J. D. Alexandar
Bond Clinic, P.A. is featured in the July issue of Exec US digital magazine. The article explores the clinic’s strategy on technology, patient care and customer service.
Exec US magazine is a digital Business-to-Business magazine focused on organizational strategies and operational management techniques. Published by White Digital Media, Exec US targets industries such as construction, energy, food and beverage, healthcare, manufacturing, etc. The magazine has an average of 260,000 subscribers in the US and Canada who receive the magazine through e-mail communications and blog postings. Sixty-eight percent of the publication’s subscribers are companies with more than $50 million in annual revenue.
The photographs in the article are by local photographer, Mike Potthast of Potthast Studios. Founded in 1948, Bond Clinic is currently celebrating its 60th Anniversary.
At the link provided, you can read the article in plain text or click on the thumbnail of the cover of the magazine to view the digital version of the article with photos. To view the entire Exec US magazine, click on Magazine in the left side column.
Recent decisions to brand the new Polk County USF Campus with the “Polytechnic” term were followed by the release today of a new logo for the facility shown below in the horizontal format.
The campus received preliminary funding from the legislature this year and, to date, the Central Florida Development Council, City of Lakeland and Lakeland Regional Medical Center have announced approximately $10.5 million in additional support. The campus will be Florida’s first polytechnic center within the state university system. Considering this focus it seems reasonable to expect that industry looking for graduates from this curriculum will seek to locate in this area.
USF Polytechnic should serve as an exciting new addition to Florida’s public university system and wonderful asset to Polk and Central Florida. We look forward to the Phase I ribbon cutting and welcome the development of this outstanding new educational asset.
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Suzanne “Suzie” Moraco has been named the 2008 Leadership Winter Haven Distinguished Alumni. Moraco is a Certified Financial Planner with Morgan Stanley and is also a cofounder and annual planner for the East Polk Economic Summit held each November.
The Official Website of the Greater Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce
