Suburbs

Just about everyone in Lakeland from city officials to church members has had enough of a pair of old, rundown motels along the Canada Road corridor.

And it is time to get rid of the eyesores and update the gateway into Lakeland.

At a recent Lakeland Board of Commissioners meeting, members of theRefuge Church on Huff N Puff Road expressed their disdain for the activities at the Econo Lodge, the next-door neighbor to the congregation.

According to theRefuge flock, they have found uncapped needles, condoms, along with other remnants of drug use and prostitution around their property. Hardly the kind of thing you want around your house, much less “God’s House.”

The Econo Lodge and the Relax Inn on the other side of Canada Road, which residents dislike equally, hardly present the “Welcome to Lakeland” atmosphere for those getting off Interstate 40 and heading north on Canada Road.

And there are plenty of folks heading that route based on the normally crowded Cracker Barrel parking lot.

Yes, it is time to clean up that corridor and upgrade the uses in there. Make it better than a couple of motels that charge well under $100 a night. About half the price of a Holiday Inn Express in Dothan, Alabama.

The city has begun the condemnation procedures as part of improving the gateway to Lakeland. A new YMCA is destined for the Econo Lodge site.

“I believe if we don’t take action on this then we have absolutely failed on public safety, and we would be considered soft on crime if we do not proceed with this,” Commissioner Jim Atkinson said.

The story regarding the problems at the church brought about a discussion of the Lakeland street called Huff N Puff. Some of the younger reporters were reminded of H.R. Pufnstuff, the Saturday morning series of the late 1960s and early ‘70s.

But alas, us locals of an AARP age recall Huff N Puff as the train that ran along the southern part of the old Lakeland Amusement Park, the birthplace of the suburb.

The train would chug through the area of Huff N Puff Road, eventually reaching a wooded area where actors as train robbers, also trying to protect their still, would accost the passengers.

The leader of the backwoods moonshiners was Rancid T. Butterball, one of the great character names from around these parts. Maybe not as well known as Sivad on Fantastic Features, but an appropriate name nonetheless. - Suburbs editor Clay Bailey

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