Polk County | featured news

There will be much-needed improvements to a facility that first hosted acts such as Genesis, The J. Geils Band, Johnny Cash and Bad Company. Now, 42 years later after it opened, The Lakeland Center will be undergoing its first major renovations since 1996 in order to keep attracting national and international acts. The same venue that was once the site for the filming of Prince's "Little Red Corvette" in 1983 will get 21st-century upgrades as a $14 million renovation project is slated to start in spring 2017.

A sharply divided City Commission on Monday voted 3-2 to offer Amy Arrington the job of city manager. “If I were her, I wouldn't accept it,” said Mayor Horace West, who cast the deciding vote in favor of hiring Arrington, who is the city manager of neighboring Davenport. He agreed with opponents of the action that she should feel uncomfortable about accepting with such a close vote. Arrington could lose the Haines City job in the event any one of the three-person majority, including Commissioners Roy Tyler and Morris West, leaves the commission, Mayor West and others noted.

Dozens of residents living southwest of Lake Hollingsworth woke up this weekend to discover their vehicles had been broken into, some the easy way through unlocked doors and some through busted windows — even when nothing was taken. Most got the bad news with the rising sun but one resident at Manor House Apartments on Beacon Road heard glass break Sunday morning and saw a man rifling through his pickup.