by Wesley Wright
Lakeland Vice Mayor
As you may know from a previous article there was recently a big change at public works, and it is now official, Matt Brown is the new city of Lakeland Public Works Director. He brings a lot of experience and insight from working for the city of Lakeland for many years at various positions. The Spring and Summer of 2023 have not been the brightest spot for highly visible landscape. The lack of attention did not go unnoticed, especially in our Gateway areas, Lakeland signs and along the main thoroughfares such as Canada Road. The hiring of a new landscape-specific position also recently taken place and you will notice that the list of improvements needed is long but a change for the better has started with greater attention to detail and hopefully sustained higher quality.
As the weather cools this month it will help the crews catch up some more after sweltering heat. Other items may be on the checklist such as trash pickup but that leads us to another topic, volunteerism. We have all seen the sponsored road signage, many youth need to record volunteer hours and if you would like to play a part in keeping Lakeland clean reach out via email or phone call to city hall and they will get you in touch with the right people. The appearance of a town has many consequences, positive or negative depending on the maintenance. For many, if well maintained, it gives citizens pride, security, stability and often curbs the propensity for crime to occur. Let’s all do what we can to make sure the place we call home is beautiful.
