News Cast for November 20th:
The Okeechobee County Board of County Commissioners will continue to help fund the Okeechobee Economic Development Corporation. This year’s contribution is $150,000.
President Kaylee King gave her quarterly report to commissioners. She noted they continue to strive to bring business and industry here.
“The purpose of what we do is to have projects choose us. We want projects to choose Okeechobee as a destination.”
They have worked with 29 businesses in the last year. They also intend to work more with existing business this year.
Last year there was $63.2 million in capital investment and 184 new jobs created.
The county approved a nine-lot industrial park out on NE Berman Road. The 400 acres had been zoned agriculture.
Commissioners also agreed to accept a payment from Bautech USA who have had trouble making lease payments on the lots they lease in the county industrial park. The $206,000 will catch them up on payments and end any eviction proceeding the county had considered pursuing.
Florida is celebrating 75 years of NASCAR car racing this year.
The nearby Sebring Raceway annually attracts 300,000 fans to this part of the state for 175 events.
President of the Daytona International Speedway Frank Kelleher said they always are trying to add to their fan base in Florida
“Part of the effort in creating unique experiences is driven by the goal of finding new fans. Taking the races to new markets has allowed us to introduce us NASCAR to audiences who otherwise might not have been able to experience the thrill of a NASCAR race.”
They are trying new things like racing at the LA Memorial Coliseum and also on a street course in Chicago.
Western Martin County schools are getting closer to capacity.
Mark Seacrest Director of facilities and planning with the Martin County School board said Warfield Elementary welcomed back fifth grade this year adding to their space crunch.
“In the next 24 months we are doing administrative, media and classroom additions to Warfield. We are going to be looking at enrollment numbers and capacity and what we need to do with that school.”
Indiantown Middle school has plenty of capacity left after the move of the fifth grade. They are at 49 percent of capacity. Nearly 13 hundred students attend public school in Indiantown, with 798 at Warfield and 486 at the middle school.
Okeechobee deputies participated in Operation Okeechobee Slow Down for eight hours on Friday. They got a grant from the Florida Department of Transportation to have 10 deputies focus on only traffic on major state roads, 70, US 441, 710, US 98 and Berman Road.
They made 84 traffic stops and made four arrests. The biggest problem was speeding with 41 citations written and 37 warnings issued for speed.
Deputies gave out 16 other citations.