Bartow News

Cliff Lewis, the city's Community Development Coordinator and the president of the Neighborhood Improvement Corporation, urged people to attend a workshop on Saturday, June 1, on a study being done on the east side of Bartow in order to improve it.

"The Bartow High School and IB Class of 2003 has planned its 10-year class reunion from 7 p.m.-midnight Saturday, June 22 at Curly Tails BBQ, 330 Old Winter Haven Road, Bartow.

After educators, scientists and concerned people on social media spoke out in support of Kiera Wilmot , 16, the student at Florida's Bartow High School who caused a small explosion inside of a water bottle and faced felony charges, the State Attorney's Office announced this afternoon that she will not be prosecuted, reports The Orlando Sentinel.

Although the City of Bartow public meeting agenda was slim, with the overall majority of it devoted to the issuance of eight proclamations, the Monday, May 20 meeting was not without controversy.

If you sweated in the early evening humidity Sunday night, it was due to an osprey flying into a pole and damaging a fault current.

There is a focus on trying to improve people visiting Main Street and strengthening not only the living environment, but also the economy of Bartow.

PHOTO PROVIDED Jennifer Blum Stewart , formerly of Bartow, received the Educator of the Year award in ceremonies recently.

PHOTO PROVIDED Leo Longworth is presented with a plaque marking his year as Bartow mayor in the last year by the new mayor for Bartow, James Clements.

PHOTO BY JEFF ROSLOW Virginia Condello, from the Chamber of Commerce, gives Pam Renew a hug Thursday at the Spirit of Bartow ceremony as she was awarded for her dedication to the community.

The on-campus arrest of her 16-year-old daughter and the classification of her would-be science project as a "destructive device" has left Polk County mother Marie Wilmot exhausted, frustrated and eager for a return to a life of "just me and my girls," she said today.

A central Florida teenager who was accused of igniting a chemical explosion on school grounds - and who became the subject of a grassroots social media campaign on her behalf - will not face criminal charges, authorities said Wednesday.

The State Attorney's Office announced Wednesday afternoon that it will not formally charge Kiera Wilmot who was arrested last month on felonies for mixing household chemicals in a small plastic bottle outside Bartow High that then went off on school grounds.

In Bartow, Florida, public school and law enforcement officials are committing a horrible injustice against an exceptionally gifted African-American teenager.

Few things make a parent prouder than to see a child or grandchild recognized as one of the top performers among his peers, be it for academics, athletics, artistic prowess, citizenship, or any of a host of other laudable achievements.

PHOTO BY PEGGY KEHOE Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd spoke to area fifth graders during the Just Say No rally Tuesday morning at Bartow High School.

PHOTO BY AL PALMER Rob Clancey, Corporate College Director shows where labs will be located at the Clear Springs campus.

Ketrina Walker Yes because right now there's only two. Mine works fine but it's so expensive.

Describing it as "just unbelievable conduct," "immoral," "unethical" and "improper," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd had two questions for the school bus driver who allegedly drove students from Bartow to her home in Lakeland and staged a fight between two teenage girls.

PHOTO BY CASSIE JACOBY In addition to the FPRA Fill-A-Bag campaign to collect hygiene products for homeless students, Lake Wales churches pack 110 backpacks filled with "a little something extra" to students in Lake Wales Charter Schools every Friday.

As with everything, there's good and there's bad. The good? Amazing technological advances makes information on anything literally at your fingertips.