text: Mike Easterling: Let's continue 'phenomenal' job - News - The Ledger - Lakeland, FL
  Mike Easterling: Let's continue 'phenomenal' job
  WINTER HAVEN - Mike Easterling has watched the city of Winter Haven grow and change during his three decades of service to the city as he worked his way up from a wastewater treatment plant trainee to the public services manager and, after retirement, a city commissioner and mayor.
  But he is particularly proud of the accomplishments made by the city during his two terms on the Winter Haven City Commission. He said he wants to remain part of the commission team that revitalized downtown and Florence Villa, started the Chain of Lakes Trail, built the new bus station and brought the CSX rail-truck terminal to town.
  "I want to be a part of what has been going on over the last nine years. It has been phenomenal for the city of Winter Haven," Easterling said. "The job is not half done yet; we have a long way to go. We have a great team and we work well together."
  Easterling faces retired police officer Steven Hunnicutt and retired Kmart manager Bob Jardine in the Sept. 8 election in his quest for a third term in commission Seat 5. He was first elected in 2000 and re-elected in 2004.
  Commissioners serve four-year terms and are paid $11,590.28.
  Easterling, 73, was hired by the city of Winter Haven as a wastewater treatment plant trainee in 1979 and had served as the public services manager for 15 years when he retired in 1999. He stayed retired 3 1/2 months before he ran for office the first time.
  After 20 years as a city employee and nearly 10 as a policy maker, Easterling believes he has a good perspective on things.
  "Having been a city employee and having been on the political side, I feel I have looked at both sides of the coin, as an employee seeing that the job got done and being on the political side and setting those goals," he said.
  He was on the commission when David Greene was hired as city manager eight years ago, and he sees that as a turning point in the city's growth.
  "We wanted to see the city progress. We hired an aggressive, progressive city manager and basically we haven't looked back since," Easterling said.
  He runs down a list of improvements made under the current administration, including expanding the city from 27 square miles to 40 square miles.
  "$130 million has been spent to improve the quality of life," he said, specifically mentioning the $3.5 million streetscape project on Central Avenue, the $5.4 million downtown library, the $5.8 million police station overlooking Lake Silver and the $3.1 million revitalization of Florence Villa.
  "There's a lot going on in Winter Haven," he said.
  And there's the CSX terminal, which, Easterling said, has the potential to bring in 2,000 jobs - 8,000 when the surrounding industrial area is developed - and $10 billion in revenue.
  "It is a very strong economic indicator of what can happen in Winter Haven and Polk County," he said of the CSX project. "These are revenues that are going to help the city and the county."
  Rail - commuter, freight and high speed - is a reality, he said.
  "As for the bullet trains along the I-4 corridor - bridges (overpasses) have already been raised and Doc Dockery has purchased right of way," Easterling said, adding that this will spin off into light rail and a bus system.
  "As far as transportation is concerned, Florida is beginning to pick it up," he said.
  Continuing projects include a $10 million downtown parking garage, the mixed-use development of the old Vigoro fertilizer plant property on U.S. Highway 17 and the nearby Chain O' Lakes Complex property, the Chain of Lakes Trail projects and additional lakefront recreational facilities that also serve as water treatment areas for stormwater.
  "Those things are still going to happen," Easterling said.
  He is heartened by the improved relations between the city and the Lake Region Lakes Management District, also known as the Canal Commission.
  "The city and the Canal Commission are working together so we can move forward," he said, specifically mentioning the locks between lakes Conine and Hartridge and the boat ramp project on Lake Otis. "Everything we do is in the best interest of the community at large."
  With renewed cooperation between the two entities and the prospect of lakefront development on the current Chain O' Lakes Complex property, Easterling envisions a lakes transportation service in the future.
  Easterling smiled when asked about critics of the current commission who said commissioners act more like Greene's employees than employers.
  "Since I'm his boss, I don't see how I can work for him," he said.
  And he explained that commission meetings are brief - and commissioner comments sparse - because elected officials arrived armed with enough information from the city staff to make decisions.
  "We used to have four- to five-hour workshops and four- to five-hour meetings," Easterling explained. "But today the agenda comes out and is self-explanatory. If we don't understand, we can ask."
  There is no intention to prevent public access to information or prevent residents from making their opinions known, Easterling said. Information is available on the city's Web site, www.mywinterhaven.com, and in a monthly newsletter distributed in water bills.
  "City Hall is always open," he said. "The flow of information is always there."
  Easterling said decisions made by the commission and staff are determined by the Winter Haven vision plan written 10 years ago.
  "We've been fulfilling the stakeholders' vision ever since 2000," he said. And each year at the city's staff retreat, goals and accomplishments are checked and revised.
  This makes the city's plans transparent, Easterling said.
  "There shouldn't be any surprises down the road. The city doesn't have anything to hide," Easterling said.
  Nat and Jane West have known Easterling for about 10 years and have worked with him on the Interlaken Neighborhood Association. "We feel very good about Mike being solid," Nat West said.