{"id":611,"date":"2019-07-03T15:44:26","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T15:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=611"},"modified":"2019-07-03T15:44:38","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T15:44:38","slug":"section-of-i-4-to-be-named-after-a-state-trooper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2019\/07\/03\/section-of-i-4-to-be-named-after-a-state-trooper\/","title":{"rendered":"Section of I-4 to be named after a state trooper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"238\" height=\"298\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 238px) 100vw, 238px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/AR-190709264.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-612\"\/><figcaption> Trooper John C. Hagerty <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Almost 50 years after his death, a fallen state trooper who\nserved the Lakeland area will be honored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lakeland commissioners on Monday unanimously supported the\nstate&#8217;s request to designate a section of Interstate 4 as &#8220;Trooper John C.\nHagerty Memorial Highway.&#8221; Hagerty served as a state trooper for nearly 14\nyears prior to his death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It&#8217;s definitely a really tragic story behind Mr.\nHagerty&#8217;s passing,&#8221; Chuck Barmby, Lakeland&#8217;s transportation and\ndevelopment review manager, said. &#8220;This was something closely tied to\nI-4.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hagerty was killed in the line of duty March 18, 1970 at age\n44. He was flying a plane over I-4 to monitor traffic when his plane collided\nwith a U.S. Navy A-7 and a second Navy plane near the intersection of State\nRoad 33 and I-4, according to Sgt. Steve Gaskins, public affairs officer for\nFlorida Highway Patrol&#8217;s Troop C, which covers Polk County. The two military\naircraft were en route to a practice bombing mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tail section of Hagerty&#8217;s plane was severed and landed\non or near I-4. The main body of the aircraft was found in a cypress swamp\nroughly four miles away. Hagerty died in or shortly after the collision,\naccording to Gaskins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We&#8217;re very proud of all our troopers, especially our\nfallen troopers,&#8221; Gaskins said. &#8220;We&#8217;re grateful the state and local\ngovernments recognize the sacrifices of people like Mr. Hagerty.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The memorial road renaming, if approved, would stretch along\nI-4 from mile-marker 36, near State Road 33, east to mile-marker 44, near State\nRoad 559 in Auburndale. It is one of approximately 40 sections of roads,\nhighways and bridges dedicated to honor mostly state troopers in legislation\napproved by the Florida Legislature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Florida Department of Transportation spokesman Brian Rick\nsaid once the roadway designation is approved by all necessary local\ngovernments it will go to Gov. Ron DeSantis for his approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gaskin said pending approval, FHP will work with FDOT to\nhave the mile markers installed and plan commemorative ceremonies. The state is\nworking to contact any of Hagerty&#8217;s surviving family members or relatives. His\nmother was Thelma Elizabeth Hagerty, of Crystal River, and he had a son, Paul\nConrad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We&#8217;re thankful for the recognition (fallen troopers)\nget, even sometimes years later, like this,&#8221; Gaskins said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Almost 50 years after his death, a fallen state trooper who served the Lakeland area will be honored. Lakeland commissioners on Monday unanimously supported the state&#8217;s request to designate a&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}