WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — Winter Haven is one of the fastest-growing cities in Florida, and city officials are trying to get ahead of demand.
The city recently opened a new public safety complex and expects to hire three new police officers and four new firefighters this year.
WATCH Winter Haven expands public safety to keep up with demand
Their new public safety complex is a "Safe Neighborhoods Operation" which combines police, fire and code compliance under the same roof.
"We talk about quality of life, we talk about strong education systems," T. Michael Stavres, Winter Haven city manager, said. "We talk about a strong economic background or backbone within the community. None of that matters if the community doesn't have a sense of safety. And for us, that is job number one. We have to be able to provide police, fire, you know, emergency medical services, we have to go respond to emergency situations, natural disasters such as hurricanes and weather events, man-made emergencies."
The city is also planning to break ground on another fire station in the northwest portion of the city later this year.
"The past 25 years, we've more than doubled in population, over 60,000 people now. And where that development is happening is farther out from the traditional core center of downtown. So where you place your assets is really gonna be driven by where the population growth is," said Stavres.
And their mission goes far beyond that.
"The programs that we offer to the community in recreation, when you go to a park and that playground is safe and it's been inspected, that's community safe," Stavres said. "We teach thousands of children swim lessons every summer. That's about giving them a great recreational activity, but the foundation of that is community safety. We've got over 50 lakes in this community, and with all those bodies of water, having children that know how to swim is critical. The prevention of drowning is a top priority for us. So public safety folds into everything."
