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Shekinah Glory Cathedral hosted its first back-to-school bash in its new home after doing the inaugural event at Snowden Park in 2018. The church had games and giveaways for the kids, plus free hot food, school supplies, clothes and access to its food pantry for anyone in need.
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A groundbreaking ceremony for the incoming Sadye Gibbs Martin Recreation Center Aug. 12, one day after commissioners voted unanimously to name the new center in her honor. Martin was well-known in Plant City for her two careers: one as an important educator, one as a trailblazer in local government (as well as state government, as she was Florida’s first-ever female African-American mayor). The rec center is expected to open this year.
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Rhett Rollyson won the Plant City Family YMCA’s 2019 Strong Leader Award. Rollyson, a longtime Plant City Y Advisory Board member and its 2011 chairman, is well known for his tennis acumen and has helped many young players from Plant City and other areas take their game to the next level. He has been involved with the USTA as a tournament director since 1994 and is an assistant coach for the University of South Florida. The Plant City native is also a Florida Strawberry Festival director, Sunday school teacher, board member for Plant City Little League and the South Florida Baptist Hospital Foundation and chairman of Plant City High School’s Raider Champions Foundation and its Booster Club.
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The city’s decision to alter a longstanding downtown alcohol ordinance helped give way to the creation of Roots Tap Room & Wine Bar, giving Plant City a family-friendly place to go out for a fun night. Roots was the first business to open since the ordinance changed and has become a downtown hotspot.
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For the first time since Durant High School’s freshmen were born, the school started a new year with a new principal. Gary Graham, one of the original staff members who helped open the school in 1995, started serving as the high school’s principal this year. He’s the fifth principal in the school’s history.
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The Greater Plant City Chamber of Commerce’s annual New Teacher Coffee event welcomed Plant City’s newest educators to a new year with a special breakfast event highlighted with a round of trivia.
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Heavy summer rains created a slew of problems for residents and city workers alike. They contributed to a section of South Collins Street collapsing on Aug. 1, a sewer main on Sydney Road failing on Aug. 14 and a drainage culvert further down the road failing the next day. The city approved the emergency use of more than $100,000 for those repairs.
The start of the 2018-19 school year was also a busy time for Plant City even beyond the ridiculous amount of rains that caused flooding and other problems.
Results from the Walden Lake Resident Advisory Council survey were released to the public, starting up a lengthy wave of discussion. City commissioners announced the XFL would come to Plant City, which would host the Tampa Bay Vipers at Plant City Stadium starting in December. Mt. Olive Baptist Church kickstarted the Ginger Jewelz Group program to help local students with a school supply giveaway event in honor of late educator Ginger Bennett Forté. Ground broke for the new Sadye Gibbs Martin Recreation Center, which will replace the old MLK Recreation Center that was damaged during Hurricane Irma. Gary Graham took over as Durant High School’s principal after Pam Bowden, then the longest-serving principal in Hillsborough County, retired. The Crossing Church started up a Plant City location near Midtown and Roots Tap Room & Wine Bar opened its doors as the month came to a close.
The Florida Strawberry Festival also announced the official theme of its 2020 event: “Our Perfect Vision.”
