City of Lake Wales Authorizes $192,950 to Expand Lake Wales Memorial Gardens Cemetery by 5 Acres
by James Coulter
The Lake Wales Memorial Gardens Cemetery will soon undergo an expansion of five additional acres now that the city has approved a task order for engineering services by a local firm.
At their regular meeting last Tuesday evening, the Lake Wales City Commission approved a consent agenda item for a task order on the expansion of the Lake Wales Cemetery expansion.
The task order (referred to as Master Consulting Agreement #20-471 Task Order #8) was made with Hoyle, Tanner & Associates, Inc. to provide engineering services to expand the Lake Wales Cemetery by five additional acres.
In 2007, the City of Lake Wales purchased approximately fifty acres of land located at Hunt Brothers Road and Lake Bella Road. Since then, 20 acres have been set aside for the creation of Lake Wales Memorial Gardens cemetery.
“The first five (5) acres were designed and constructed for use in July 2013, with the site being ready to receive internments in 2015,” Mark Calvert, Public Works Operations Manager wrote in a city memo. “Staff is now proposing to begin the design for the next proposed five (5) acre expansion. The City has asked Hoyle, Tanner & Associates, Inc., who is currently under contract with the city for engineering services, to propose services for the next five (5) acre expansion.”
These expansions have been underway because the city’s other cemeteries are either at capacity (Willow Lawn Cemetery at approximately ten acres) or near capacity (Lake Wales Cemetery approximately twenty-eight acres).
The engineering services for the new Lake Wales Memorial Gardens Cemetery will be provided by Hoyle, Tanner & Associates, Inc. for $192,950. The City had placed $250,000 in this fiscal year’s Capital Improvements Plan “to begin the design for the next five (5) acres associated with the phase 2 expansion,” Calvert said.
