2018-2019 Polk Vision Annual Report PV AR 2019_web | Page 30

ERIC LABBE
Co-Chair
City of Winter Haven
CHAD TAGTOW
Co-Chair
Citizens Bank & Trust
TINA BARRIOS, PH.D.
Polk County Public Schools
CLIFF BENNETT
Polk State College
AMY BLACK
Polk County Public Schools
BRIAN ROSS
City of Haines City
CHRIS RUDOLPH
Polk County Tax Collector’s
Office
RANDY SCHAMBERGER
Netsync Network
TIANNA SHEPPARD
Frontier Communications
STACY BOLTON
Lakeland Regional Health MARYBETH SODERSTROM
Central Florida Regional
Planning Council
TERRY BRIGMAN
City of Lakeland STEVE SOWARDS
Inland Fiber & Data
RICHARD BROWN
City of Auburndale PAT STEED
Central Florida Regional
Planning Council
FRANK CANOVACA
City of Bartow
TERRI–ANNE CRAWFORD
Polk County Tax Collector
WILLIAM DEWITT
Polk State College
STEVEN ELIAS
Pennoni
ERCAN ELIBOL
Florida Polytechnic
University
JEE HOON KIM
City of Auburndale
DOUG LEWIS
Polk County BoCC
PAUL MEYER
City of Lakeland
STEPHANIE MONK
Polk County Sheriff’s Office
BILL MUTZ
City of Lakeland
HIEP NGUYEN
City of Winter Haven
Before 2030, Polk County will
have growth management and
infrastructure that protect the
environment, enhance quality of life,
promote education and economic
development, and are economically
sustainable.
NICK NICHOLAS
DSM
MARK THOMAS
Warner University
WILLIAM TWYFORD
City of Winter Haven
BILL WARD
Polk County Sheriff’s Office
INFRASTRUCTURE
F O C U S O N S I D E WA L K S
ABOVE: The Smart Communities Team
meeting in February 2019 to discuss the
links necessary to create a connected,
multi-jurisdictional municipal system
and the adoption of technology to
facilitate data driven decision making
and problem-solving efforts.
DID YOU KNOW?
Polk County ranks in the
bottom 25 in the nation for
high speed internet use (358th
of 381)
ABOVE: By walking to school, children
can gain their daily recommended
amount of physical exercise, as well
as gain increased cognitive learning.
Communities can become safe places to
walk simply by starting with the trip to
and from school.
(Source: American Community Survey, 2013)
Bottom 10 in the nation for
STEM jobs (91st of 100)
(Source: WalletHub, 2014)
Bottom 10 in the nation for
households with broadband
subscriptions (94th of 100)
(Source: Brookings, 2014)
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Polk Vision and the Polk Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) have
a shared goal of reducing pedestrian injuries and fatalities. Sidewalks are an
important component of aligning resources to establish pedestrian connections
between developed areas, schools and parks, and provide a healthy and safe
environment.
There are many infrastructure issues we
could probably be discussing as part of this
Team, but right now our top priority and
focus is addressing safe access to schools.
— RYAN KORDEK, Transportation Planning
Administrator, Polk TPO
On a typical school day, thousands of school children throughout the county are
walking along portions of major roads in order to get to and from school or a bus
stop and many of these roads lack sidewalks. Polk Vision’s Infrastructure Team
in partnership with the Polk TPO have evaluated the sidewalk needs surrounding
140 Public Schools in Polk County and identified 179 miles (28%) of major roads
within one mile of a school that do not have sidewalks.
As part of this evaluation, the top 74 schools with the least amount of sidewalk
were evaluated and a list of sidewalk needs for these schools has been developed.
The Infrastructure Team is sharing this list of candidate projects with municipal
and county leaders and is seeking formal resolutions of support for closing these
sidewalk gaps. A number of sidewalk projects included in the school sidewalk
evaluation have been approved and funded by Polk County and the Florida
Department of Transportation (FDOT) and scheduled for construction within the
next few years.  The Infrastructure Team will continue to coordinate with Polk
County and various local governments, as well as the Polk TPO and FDOT in order
to obtain funding for additional sidewalk needs identified within one mile of a
public school.
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