WOKC Local News – September 28, 2026, 7:40 AM
Transcript
W.K.C. News. Funding plenty of events with W.K.C. News, I’m Charles Murphy. A banner year for the Tourist Development Council, receiving 44 requests for funding. They budgeted one hundred and thirty five thousand for promotions. Bed taxes were a little bit down this year. The county will host a Bassmasters fishing tournament this winter. The host fee is seventy five thousand dollars. The county is also looking at an advertising campaign to promote the health of Lake Yucatobe nationwide. County Commissioner and Chairman Brad Goodbread says they’ve got to turn around all this bad press. One of our biggest issues is misinformation, you know, that the lake is dead. That’s our biggest battle, I think, is battling this information that is negative towards the lake. They also agreed to fund various fishing tournaments, including the Cracker Boys Fishing Tour and the American Anglers Fish League. David Desai, another TDC member, says hotels are seeing less impact from most of these fishing tournaments. Now, I’m not saying that we don’t see an impact. We do, but not to that. I see more impact in festivals, the music festival, the bluegrass. I see more impact there. I see more hunting guys than even fishing guys. There used to be a time in Okeechobee that we would have boats everywhere in Okeechobee and they would stay in hotels. I don’t see that anymore. The Battle of Okeechobee received $1,800. The Florida Airboat Unity weekend was approved for $2,000. Okeechobee schools in October could discuss their health services plan. School board member Dr. Christina Bishop had concerns about not having diabetes medication immediately available in school clinics. Florida’s Attorney General James Oothmire, since the Office of Election Crimes and Security was created four years ago, many arrests have been made. This takes us over 100 total arrests and prosecutions since the office was created. We have dozens more investigations that are ongoing, so we anticipate more arrests to be announced soon. 20 arrests announced yesterday at Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth during a press conference there, including 57-year-old Melin Johnston of Okeechobee. She’s accused of registering to vote in 2022 and casting a vote in 2024. She’s an Indonesian national, a lawful permanent resident, but ineligible to vote in elections. All horses and residents are saved, but some equipment and a pole barn took a beating in a fire on Allapattah Road, 609 north of Indiantown yesterday. Six vehicles, including a side-by-side and a small front loader tractor, were destroyed. The state fire marshal will determine the cause. Indiantown, contributing over $52,000 to help fund Martin County transit trips to Indiantown. Chris Stevens, the director of the program, says state funding cuts have cut down on the number of trips. TD clients can only use us for for medical trips and they can no longer use us for going to the grocery store or going to work or going to education. So it’s it’s been unfortunate, but that’s what we’ve had to do in order to make the numbers work this year. The transit board voted to eliminate all non-medical trips from Indiantown. I’m Charles Murphy, WOKC News.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).