A Manatee County sheriff's deputy was injured after being struck in in her patrol car by a driver who ran a red light at the intersection of State Road 70 and Lakewood Ranch Boulevard Thursday night, according to a Sheriff's report. ...more

May 22, 2009

Beginning immediately and until further notice, Placid View Drive, from Aleutian Street to S.R. 70, Lake Placid, will be closed due to emergency repairs needs. Detours will be posted. ...more

April 1, 2009

Drive south on U.S. 27. Just three miles east of S.R. 70, the country begins to change. The Lake Wales Ridge drops dozens of feet in elevation, and the hilly land becomes flat. ...more

February 22, 2009

Up until 2009, Lake Placid has enjoyed clean, unpolluted air as there are no smokestack industries that I am aware of. This has attracted senior mobile home parks as well as senior assisted living facilities to the area. But now the Highlands County Commissioners have decided to change that by giving permission for an ethanol producing plant to locate near U.S. 27 and S.R. 70 just south of Lake Placid (about six and a half miles.) This is one of the worst polluting industries in the country. Even if they agree to install some anti-pollution measures, as everyone knows it would be cheaper for them to pay fines and-or bribe authorities than it would be to install very expensive, adequate anti-pollution equipment. ...more

January 3, 2009

MANATEE COUNTY - Four drivers had speeding tickets thrown out this week after a judge agreed with their lawsuit that said a school zone on State Road 70 in East Manatee was improperly labeled and had become a "speed trap." ...more

September 25, 2008

More than 1,500 acres of citrus groves about seven miles south of town, off the south side of S.R. 70, could become a top quality, 311-home "equestrian community." ...more

July 24, 2008

LAKE PLACID — Confusion over which gas station was shut down by state inspectors who found water in the tanks and pumps of a former Shell gas station at the southwest corner of U.S. 27 and State Road 70 has hurt business at the Circle K gas station, which now carries the Shell branding. Tom Eaton, district manager for Circle K, said Wednesday that his business on the northwest corner of the same intersection has been devastated due to customer confusion over where the water gas was located and pumps shut down. ...more

July 2, 2008

My name is Randy Gilde. I live in Lake Placid and I am one of the owners of Highlands Greenhouse-Delray Plants. We are the proposed site for the ethanol plant in Venus. This opinion is written with all due respect to Hilary Swain and Archbold in response to her guest column in Saturday's paper. We have nothing but admiration for what they do and represent. We are a green industry and are also good stewards of the land the Lord has blessed us with. Although I am not as educated nor can I write as eloquently as Hilary, I would like to make some positive points about co-locating with the plant. ...more

February 13, 2008

LAKE PLACID — A Florida woman died Friday night in a one-vehicle accident on SR 70, three miles from CR 731. ...more

November 17, 2007

AVON PARK — All this week, April Hartseil has been driving up and down Highlands County's roads in a white, six-year-old, county-owned Ford Ranger, stopping to pick up signs. Four code enforcement officers are joining her and the rest of the state in a statewide cleanup, Hartseil said. On Wednesday, she patrolled Nine Mile Grade and County Road 621, between U.S. 98 and S.R. 70. "I must have pulled up 60 signs," Hartseil said. Which meant Wednesday was not an eight-hour day. ...more

September 28, 2007