WOKC Local News – April 30, 2026, 7:41 AM
Transcript
WOKC News. Good marks for senior services with WOKC News. I’m Charles Murphy. Okeechobee County Commissioners say a survey of the seniors that take advantage of senior services showed 98% like the home meal program. The overall satisfaction rate was 97%. 27% polled said they struggled to feed themselves on a regular basis. Senior services coordinator, Debra Austin, says it’s an important service the county provides. The challenges that we face and our clients face is clients are declining and families need breaks. And so this has allowed us to provide that to those caregivers and to the clients in general. Lobbyist Gil Smart spoke out against a bill that would make surplus land in the state possibly used for agriculture. Smart says the state is trying to ruin rural Florida by eliminating property taxes and taking away local control. A lot of focus on revitalizing rural Florida. Yet at the same time, we’re passing these pro-development bills which effectively are going to pave parts of rural Florida, are gonna make it much easier to do so. He spoke to the Rivers Coalition. The lake bed fire on Okeechobee Lake turned out to be a great environmental benefit this year. Paul Gray with the Audubon Society says they would like to see about 80 days of the lake below 12 feet this year. He says we’re headed in the right direction as far as Lake Okeechobee health. This is really, really good. The drawdown last year got us about halfway to the goals for SAV coverage. I think this low water this year will get us there. South Florida Water Management in Glades County sued for negligence claims by Ronald Blum of Lakeport. He sued over an incident August 12th of 2024 at the Lakeport boat ramp on State Road 78. Blum’s lawsuit claims he was walking in a normal manner on the property when he tripped over a cracked, broken, and uneven walkway. He says the situation was unreasonably dangerous with no visible warning signage or barricades and insufficient lighting. He alleges the government’s allowed this dangerous condition to exist. A large brush fire burning in the Everglades this morning, the National Park Service and Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue have been battling it in West Miami-Dade. Coopertown airboat driver Thomas Rodriguez says they were told to evacuate. He says conditions are so dry out in that part of the Everglades that there are mud patches where water and swamp used to be. You can just see that there’s a lot of mud patches where there’s not supposed to be mud. Right now, we are supposed to start getting into our rainy season. However, it hasn’t happened yet. We haven’t had rain, and it’s just very dry out there. A gun incident lands an Ogochuy man in jail. Pedro Mongre is facing aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Use or display of a firearm during a felony and improper exhibition of a gun is a crime. His bond was $22,000. Sheriff deputies say a victim claimed that he pulled up to a dollar store on 70 West when he saw the subject with his wife. When he approached them, the subject allegedly pulled out the handgun and waved it in a threatening manner, making threats. I’m Charles Murphy, WOKC News.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).