News Cast for November 25th:
Susan Clemons honored at Farm City
Long time agriculture supporter Susan Clemons received a special recognition award at the Farm City Week luncheon for all the work she has done to support agriculture.
Clemons said her biggest accomplishment was working with the PRCA rodeos and the improvement of the Okeechobee Cattlemen’s Arena. That work helped keep the two pro rodeos we host in Okeechobee each year.
She also talked about her work for the Farm Service Agency and how it has helped many farmers and ranchers in Okeechobee in times of disasters.
She also volunteered on numerous committees that impacted agriculture over the years.
She thanked such legends as the late Red Larson and Sonny Williamson for all the advice they gave her in community service projects.
“This is very humbling especially to be included with the people that have been given this recognition in years past. I served on committees with both men and if you didn’t learn something from those two, you weren’t listening.”
She was asked her opinion about the future of agriculture and if Okeechobee can continue to develop but still have farms and ranches.
“I hope so. Hillsborough has a premier crop of strawberries and they are increasing their acreage, so that is good to know.”
Clemons said she has never regretted moving to Okeechobee and making a life here.
“Who wouldn’t want to live in a community where your friends and neighbors are like your family. When we come together in Okeechobee great things happen.”
Florida has launched a statewide hotline for first responders dealing with mental health issues.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said the hotline was developed from several regional ones that have been successful. It is meant to help police, firemen, and EMS seek help for trauma they see and receive on the job.
The hotline is available 24 hours per day and is confidential.
You can call 1-866-4FL-HERO.
“Healthy officers, mentally strong officers, make better officers. Not only in their own lives but in the way they communicate and interact with the public and with suspects,” Moody said.
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said his officers do great things every day but many see horrible things.
“How can you measure the lives you have saved, the lives that weren’t taken.”
He wants to change the culture so more officers will step forward and get the help they need.
“Number one to remove the negative stigma. It is okay not to be okay. It is not okay not to ask for help.”
Buckhead Ridge residents raised some concerns about a lack of hurricane shelter space in the community. This year the county did contract with Maple Grove Baptist Church to open a shelter in Lakeport. Buckhead residents can also come to Okeechobee and use shelters here.
Commission Chair Tim Stanley he is concerned about people who won’t leave their home even though they are close to Lake Okeechobee and the Herbert Hoover Dike.
“You end up with people staying in small trailers. That last storm we had a bunch of people staying in little fifth wheel trailers and thankfully nothing happened to them. They are not going to leave their home.”
Stanley said in the past state officials always issue evacuation orders for anybody living around the lake because they are afraid it will overflow the dike.
“If you have all these people staying in a shelter near the levy and at night it turns into a category 5 storm, you have to transport them far, far away. That is why we try to keep them at West Glades because its far enough away and all the services are there.”