WOKC Local News – April 10, 2026, 7:40 AM
Transcript
WOKC News. Water management purchasing 5,000 acres. With WOKC News, I’m Charles Murphy. Executive Director of the South Florida Water Management District, Drew Bartlett, told the governing board they recently closed on the former Rio Ranch property near the Kissimmee River. They’re moving ahead with plans to build the lower Kissimmee stormwater treatment area there. Okeechobee County has been against the project, as well as many residents. They worry about impacts on property values, adding mosquitoes and even impacts on small planes. Okeechobee County commissioners issued a proclamation to salute our school district with Public School Month. County Commission Chair, David Hazelleaf, says they have a great relationship with the school board. The school system and the commission has always worked so well together, whether it be a land swap or maintenance at the sports complex and the pool. And we’re glad to be, well, I call it a partnership. You know, whether it’s the city, the county, the school board, and all, we’re all in this together. And thank you so much for what you do there. Superintendent, Dylan Tedder, says 88% of Okeechobee students currently attend public schools, but student enrollment continues to decline. Okeechobee County landfill has been benefited. Miami-Dade sending them 5 million cubic yards of trash per year by train and truck. Miami, though, is thinking about building a new trash incinerator, but it has been quite controversial. Florida Power & Light and FCC Environmental Services proposing plans for that new facility earlier this year. County Commissioner, Roberto Gonzalez, would like to get the deal done. The most important thing is the rate to the taxpayer. And so the worst case scenario here would be for us to come back here in April for the negotiation to have happened, for nobody on this board to have been informed of big key decisions, and then the board decides that there’s gonna be no deal. The price tag, though, is stunning. They need 65 acres, but want over a million per acre. Florida’s newly created Cold Case Task Force announced by Attorney General James Uthmeyer. Florida has logged over 21,000 unsolved murder cases since 1965. They’ll look at cold cases in Miami Gardens and across the state. Uthmeyer says grieving families deserve closure in these cases. Just because a case is cold, that does not mean it’s forgotten. Time does not erase the need for justice, and it does not erase our duty to pursue it. The Okeechobee County Planning Board recommended approval of a rezoning for the Iron Eagle Bar to expand their parking lot. One single family home would be removed. The zoning would change from residential single family to neighborhood commercial. The small parcel at 9381 State Road 78 West. An Okeechobee woman is charged with battering a nurse inside a hospital at a pediatric intensive care unit. Fort Pierce Police say Christina Hannon apparently was upset with how the nurse was treating her son who was in that hospital bed. She also allegedly resisted arrest when police tried to take her into custody near an elevator. I’m Charles Murphy, WOKC News.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).