In 2023, The Ledger made an impact with its reporting. Here are some of our favorites

For nearly 100 years, The Ledger has been Polk County's primary source for in-depth coverage of life in our community.

More than 700,000 people call this county home, a number that's growing every day. That's a lot of life. And our goal today, as it was decades ago, is to make a small difference and add to the quality of those lives on a daily basis.

Here's a look back at just some of the work by Ledger reporters that made a difference in 2023.

Homeless plight in Lakeland

There's been a renewed spotlight on the issues faced by individuals who are homeless in Lakeland, all starting with a man who is autistic was trespassed from Munn Park. His rights to visit Munn Park were reinstated after The Ledger's reporting, but it revealed a larger pattern of people who are homeless being banned from the park for arguably trivial reasons, leaving people without a safe, public place to be during daytime hours when homeless shelters close. Two organizations have drafted plans to build day centers to offer services to those who are homeless. Some city officials' calls for more stringent laws against feeding the homeless have yet to materialize into policy.

Increasing awareness of public surveillance

The Lakeland Police Department fully rolled out body-worn cameras to all its public-facing officers in early 2023 after years of intense debate. With this addition came new license plate readers on Lakeland police vehicles. The Ledger's Sara-Megan Walsh wrote about the Polk County Sheriff's Office installing automatic license plate readers roadside in front of residents' homes without notice. The Sheriff's Office would not discuss its surveillance cameras in detail, citing an exemption to public-records law related to police inventory and tactics. And in more reporting from Walsh, the Lakeland department publicly stated it intended to pursue such technology in advance of signing a contract, disclosing it to residents, even if it would not reveal specific sites.

Reporter Paul Nutcher also wrote about the outcry from some members of the public when the Polk County Sheriff's Office asked the County Commission for $5 million to purchase a new plane with more advanced camera systems. Critics said the plane's sophisticated imaging system was a threat to privacy and that the Sheriff's Office had not answered questions about how the data would be stored and who would have access. Sheriff's officials said the new plane had short takeoff and landing capabilities that the old plane didn't have, and the advanced imaging system could operate at up to 10,000 feet, avoiding conflicts with increasing air traffic at local airports, mainly Lakeland.

Endless development in Polk County

This was, time and again, the biggest issue throughout the county in 2023, and no other news outlet examined the pains of rapid growth on a countywide level like The Ledger.

Nowhere is the pain more acute than in the rural eastern part of the county, near Haines City and Poinciana.

The county's biggest development fight of the year centered on the Creek Ranch near Lake Hatchineha and the Kissimmee Chain, known as the headwaters of the Everglades. Nutcher followed the fight from the beginning. In April 2022, Center State Development bought the 1,300-acre Asana Ranch, subsequently returning it to its historic name, Creek Ranch.

The company, run by Reginald Baxter, has applied to have the state purchase development rights for nearly 700 acres — the part closest to Lake Hatchineha — through the environmental lands program. On the rest of the property, plans were submitted, and ultimately approved, for a 1,876-home development with a small commercial strip.

Nearby residents, particularly in the rural enclave of Port Hatchineha, protested loudly every step of the way. In October, residents filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn County Commission approval. The property owner has also applied for Polk County's Environmental Lands Program. The county said in November that if a deal is reached, the entire 1,300-acre could be protected from development.

Nutcher also reported on the annexation of more than 600 acres by tiny Lake Hamilton, also in East Polk, not far from the fight over the Creek Ranch. The annexation increased the town's acreage by more than 20%, and with nearly every inch slated for new homes, it could more than double the town's population. The town sits between Dundee and Haines City, both of which are expanding at a rapid rate. Mayor Michael W. Kehoe told The Ledger, “If we do not allow annexation and development, the Town of Lake Hamilton – we will have our centennial next year – we will disappear. “We have to expand our town to survive."

A developer tried again to build a subdivision on rural Deeson Road in the Kathleen area, scaling down a previously rejected plan from more than 200 homes to 147 homes. At the June 7 Planning Commission meeting, the board voted 5-2 to approve the application by Eric Swanson of  Swan Capital Partners LLC for 147 homes. Nearby residents appealed, and in August, the full County Commission voted to deny the scaled back development plan.

Another developer, twice rejected by the County Commission for a large development along the Peace Creek, is attempting annexation into the city of Bartow. A slew of officials from the city and the county have opposed the annexation. As of October, no action had been taken on the request, according to Bartow officials.

You'd think getting a new Publix store nearby would be cause for elation. But that wasn't the case for these Auburndale residents, who complained throughout the process that construction of the store at the Lake Juliana Shopping Center along County Road 559 was disrupting their lives. They said dirt and debris littered their yards, construction activity rattled their homes and equipment blocked their views. Publix met with residents and made an effort to mitigate most of their problems. Not all were happy.

Florida's judicial circuits

The Ledger's Gary White reported in July about a proposal to consolidate the state's 20 judicial circuits. In August, White and John Kennedy of USA Today Network-Florida's Tallahassee bureau followed that story up with another on the growing concerns about the consolidation of judicial circuits after a second state attorney was removed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. In December, the Florida Supreme Court decided not to diminish the number of circuits.

Hemp industry regulations

Sen. Colleen Burton, R-Lakeland, proposed new regulations for the hemp industry that aimed to regulate all hemp-derived cannabinoids, including Delta-8 and Delta-9 dosing levels; require production in food-safe facilities; and set stricter regulations for its packaging, marketing and sales while also prohibiting sales to people younger than 21, among other provisions. Proponents said child and consumer safety were the reasons for the bill. But critics said it was unnecessary regulation that would limit suppliers and make products more expensive and hard to find for patients. The bill passed, but not before some of the elements were removed.

Abortion debate

White provided ongoing coverage of different facets of the abortion issue, including a feature on a Lakeland woman whose medical center denied her wishes to terminate her pregnancy despite a diagnosis of a fatal fetal abnormality. We reported on two Polk County residents arrested with a state senator outside the Capitol in a protest for abortion rights and chronicled local efforts supporting a constitutional amendment to make abortion legal in Florida, as well as the opposition arguments against the amendment.

White also broke the story of a local abortion activist's heckling of a state legislator at the dedication of a pregnancy care center and her subsequent arrest after she allegedly threw a pair of women's underwear that struck a sheriff's deputy in the leg. We followed up with an article exploring the question of when public criticism of an elected official becomes a crime.

LGBTQ issues

White reported extensively on issues affecting LGBTQ residents, interviewing drag queens and transgender people considering a departure from Florida over laws and policies they considered hostile to their lives and medical care. We delved into the complexity of a murder-suicide in which the pregnant victim identified as a transgender man.

Raucous Fort Meade

The city of Fort Meade produced more than its share of drama, and The Ledger covered the resignation of a city commissioner, the reprimand of a city manager for his purchase of a fire truck, the departure of that city manager after 2½ tumultuous years and the contentious sale of a city-owned mobile home park.

Polk's Jan. 6 defendants and fugitives

Six of the people indicted for actions in the U.S. Capitol attack have ties to Polk County, including three who were fugitives until Saturday, the third anniversary of the riot. White continued his intensive coverage of their legal cases, with stories on a guilty plea and a conviction at trial. The reporting reminded readers of Polk County's connection to the historic breach of Jan. 6, 2021. On Saturday, the FBI announced that three fugitives, siblings Jonathan and Olivia Pollock and their friend Joseph Hutchinson III, were arrested at a ranch in Groveland.

Inmates in Florida prisons

The Ledger helped bring attention to the plight of inmates in Florida's state prisons. White reported this year on the lack of air conditioning in prisoners' living quarters. The reporting quoted inmates and the wife of an incarcerated man, providing a sense of how difficult life is for prisoners during the summer months. A funding proposal for the Department of Corrections would provide money to install air conditioning at prisons.

Even the swans benefitted

The city of Lakeland changed its traditional Christmas parade route because of construction on Orange Street, circling Lake Morton. In October, White reported about a petition asking the city to change the route again to avoid harming Lake Morton's wildlife, including the city's iconic swans. A couple of weeks later, the city changed the parade route again to avoid all but a small section of Lake Morton.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: The Ledger aims to make an impact with in-depth coverage of Polk