Lake Wales, Florida

C I TY OF LAKE WALES , FLOR IDA set up, because they want to emulate what our school system is doing.” Lake Wales is also home to Warner University, Webber International University, and Polk State College, where students can receive job specific training to work for local companies such as juice producer, Florida’s Natural. With so much opportunity for knowledge and skill development within the school system, keeping the skills in the community is a focus. “Many of our residents work outside of Lake Wales because we’ve not had the development in the city that we needed in order to keep that brain power in the city,” says Fultz. “We are looking to advance our makeup of businesses and industry here in order to keep the people home where they can live, work and play.” Lake Wales is fortunate to have AdventHealth’s 160-bed hospital providing healthcare, including emergency and outpatient services to the community. Fultz recounts, “Advent Health has been one of our biggest contributors in the city as far as guidance in the health areas. For instance, during our crisis with the pandemic, we could call upon them at any time for guidance or any help that we needed.” The city is also home to Central Florida Healthcare, a wonderful asset that provides healthcare to people with no insurance. Fultz acknowledges, “Central Florida Healthcare has set up different areas around Polk County for people to be tested for COVID. They could come in and get their shots, they could come in for various different reasons. Without these medical professionals that we have here, we’d be totally lost. Many of them are overworked, and they are so tired now, because of the things that they’ve had to endure. We are blessed to have the health systems that we’ve got here in Lake Wales.” As the population of Lake Wales is expected to grow, the city is looking to attract new industry. Longleaf, the Lake Wales Commerce and Technology Park, has not been used to its full