News Update for 7/26/18

Final preparations are underway for tomorrow’s opening ceremonies for the Caladium Festival in Lake Placid. It’s the 28th such event in the Caladium Capital and will feature a wide array of Arts & Crafts vendors, food booths,live music, exhibits, displays and of course – plenty of caladiums.
Bus tours of the caladium fields also will be available over the course of the three-day event.
Opening ceremonies are set for tomorrow morning at 10.

A new performance may be coming to the Alan J. Wildstein Center for the Performing Arts at South Florida State College. Power & Light Productions of Hardee County reportedly is moving from the Cattlemen’s in Wauchulla, where they have staged such large productions as “Moses” and “The Story of Jesus” for decades.
Spokesman Mike Graham said it would be a scaled-back production than what they have done in the past. The presentation is slated for April of next year and will be a narrative of the Bible, encompassing a dozen different stories.
Auditions for the program are slated for mid-August.

A lasting memorial has been set in memory of Highlands County Sheriff’s Deputy William Gentry. A spot outside the Sheriff’s Office headquarters now is home to a magnolia tree planted in his honor.
Many will remember the space is where Deputy Gentry’s patrol vehicle sat in the week following his death. Gentry was shot and killed this past May while responding to a neighborhood dispute.
The tree was donated by Marmer Construction and it was installed by Edgewood Landscaping.