Vice Mayor Michael Smith is a Florida and Largo native, a graduate of Osceola High School, Class of 2000, and attended St. Petersburg College. He is also a Class of 2011 Largo Citizens’ Academy Graduate and Florida League of Cities - Institute for Elected Officials, Graduate I, II, III. For the past 17 years, Commissioner Smith has worked in the Pinellas County libraries as a Library Assistant for the City of Pinellas Park. Commissioner Smith was elected to the City Commission in 2011 and serves on the Largo Public Library Advocacy Board. He also serves as a board member on Forward Pinellas, the land use and transportation planning agency for Pinellas County.

The church at 13301 Walsingham Road received a Development Order in March of 2020 for an additional building on their site with appropriate landscaping buffer on Walsingham Road. Questions have come up about the sabal palms and power line proximity. According to the City’s Comprehensive Development Code (Section 10.5.2), Sabal Palms are classified as “understory” trees and understory trees may be substituted for canopy trees when there are overhead powerlines in close proximity. Canopy tree substitutions limit future pruning issues because canopy trees have larger spreads than understory trees. In this case however, due to site constraints, including a mandatory stormwater retention pond, the property owner chose to place the palms at the top of the bank between the power lines and the pond slope. If any necessary pruning of the palms due to powerlines causes damage to the health of the palms, the property owner would be required to replace/relocate them to meet buffer requirements. In the future, Community Development staff will review the City’s existing landscape requirements to determine if any revisions would be appropriate. Please feel free to contact the Planning Division at 727-587-6749 extension 7301 should you have questions about the City's site plan review process.

The City of Largo Recreation, Parks, and Arts Department presents Touch-A-Truck and Playing Unplugged on Saturday, March 5^th from 10am-2pm. Explore the various city, county, and business vehicles during our family favorite event, Touch-A-Truck. Our horn-free hour for our sensory-friendly guests is from 11am-12pm. Once you have explored the trucks, take on a nerf battle, pick up a game of laser tag, or tree climb, all with the mindset of unplugging from technology and playing. We hope you join us for this family fun day in Largo Central Park.

Gather up the family, grab your blankets and or chairs and join us for a movie on the big screen on Friday, February 11, 18 & 25 starting at dusk. On-site parking and snack concessions are available. No alcohol is permitted. Sponsored by Roadrunner Digital.

The Largo’s Got Talent Show was held on Thursday, February 3^rd at the Community Center and had over 150 people in attendance. The Largo Palooza Shows performed by the Encore Performers Group have also continued to grow with 85 in attendance on Friday, January 28^th. The next Largo Palooza Show will be on February 18^th at 7:00pm and will be a post Valentine’s Day Show.

Congratulations to our very own Highland Family Aquatic Center which recently took home the General Programming Award from Aquatics International! This award was presented at the Association of Aquatics Professionals Conference on Wednesday, February 9th. HFAC was selected as the winner from a variety of aquatics facility nominations throughout the country. Way to go, team!