Florida's Progress Runs Through Polk County

Over the last few weeks many in Florida and our visitors found out how important I-4 is to commerce, tourism and just livin’ in Central Florida.  Over the next few years they will find out how the woefully inadequate are the main highways through Polk County.  These clogged arteries are important to Polk County but they are larger than just the people of Polk County, the progress of Florida is at stake! 

Several years ago there was a movie called, I believe, “A River Runs Through it” or something like that.  Well, for Florida the future of Florida runs through Polk County.  Oh, I’m sure the people of Tampa, Jacksonville, Miami and the like would laugh at that statement.  But the future of the growth of Florida and the ease of travel is almost all related to Polk County.  And every road is inadequate, now and dreadfully inadequate as we grow.

 Let’s look at the major highways that are becoming more clogged than Dick Cheney’s arteries.  The main east west is Highway 60, barely adequate from Lake Wales to Tampa, mostly 4 lane, some 6 lane as you get closer to Tampa.  Just east of Lake Wales it goes to two lanes and becomes an avenue of carnage, and nobody in charge cares! 

The main east-west in the north (I-10) and the south (I-75) are limited access interstates.  The main central Florida east-west is not east west but west-northeast (I-4), is a limited access interstate, but is becoming a bottleneck the closer you get to Orlando. 

I-75 in the south provides another limited access highway from Naples to Miami.  Central Florida is stuck with almost a rural road as it’s main access to the east coast. 

The major north-south is Highway 27.  It is an alternate to the turnpike, but more and more are choosing 27.  It is becoming a north-south parking lot.  True it is mostly four-lane but not limited access.  With the current crowding and cars and trucks coming in every quarter mile, not only is it jam-packed, but again it is becoming another avenue of carnage.  It will get worse fast with more and more development. 

Warner-Southern College has led a losing fight to get another traffic light to allow safe access to US 27.  The Department of Transportation has reacted with a shortsighted solution… no light.  They know how important US 27 is to the future of Florida and they cannot put more obstacles in the way of the volume of traffic.  That may be the best short-term solution, but this short-term, shortsighted solution of a big problem will see more tragedy. 

Not only are the highway the key to progress or a drag on progress, but we have the water that will fuel the progress of the state as a whole.  The coastal cities know this and have their eyes on that valuable resource.  Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint, developers know this too.  They will flock to Polk County for the next wave of expansion. 

As we head into the new millennium now is the time to stand up to the plate on and make changes.  If we don’t, the problem will solve itself.  We will gradually lose appeal, we will gradually lose power and the big cities will continue to dominate.  They will take our growth, they will take our opportunities and they will take our water.  

So what to do?  Respond!  Another drag on our opportunities is the school system.  Our School Superintendent recently changed some top executives.  He said, he look go outside Polk County for replacements.  Won’t work, until we can look outside Polk County for the next school superintendent. 

But we have to make decisions on 60 and 27.  Are they going to be parking lots or arteries of progress? Are we going to let things grow like “Topsey” or are we going to take control of our future? Are we going to let SWFMD control our water?  Are we going to settle for less in quality of life?  The next few years will tell the tale.