News Cast 3/15

News Cast for March 15th:

Progress on data center

The state announced and $1 million grant for Indian River State College to educate and train workers for cyber security.

Lt. Governor Jeanette Nunez announced the grants in Vero Beach.

“More than 22,000 vacancies exist in Florida for cyber security.  We understand that we need to train today’s students for the industries of tomorrow.  They are high wage and high growth opportunities.  Its estimated that cyber fields will grow by 31 percent.  It is a great industry and a great opportunity for our students.”

The college said once these students are trained they’d like them to work at a new data center in Okeechobee that will pay an average wage of $104,000 annually.

The location would be the former Okeechobee School for Boys.

The legislature is considering a bill this session that would convey the state owned land to Indian River State College.

Okeechobee County continued to have low unemployment in January at 2.7 percent.

That was an increase from 2.3 percent in December.

The workforce remained basically the same.

Glades County had 3 percent unemployment, up from 2.4 percent in December.

54 more residents found work last month in Glades County.

Labor economist Jimmy Heckman said the state continues to do better than the nation when it comes to job growth.

Heckman said people that are unemployed typically have a very, very quick turnaround for finding jobs.

The quickest job growth percentage wise in the state in January was the Sebring metro area.

The biggest areas of job growth continued to be leisure and entertainment.

Two Ontario residents were charged with felony child neglect for leaving a 14 month old infant locked in a car parked outside an Okeechobee bar.

The bar security officer noticed the child and saw the female suspect go to the vehicle several times.  He called police after hearing the child cry for a lengthy period.

The Sheriff’s Office said Victoria Davenport, 29 and Brandon Hennings, 29, were both released on bonds of $7,500.

Glades County wants to negotiate with Hendry County over the costs of sharing the new fire station north of LaBelle.  They agreed to allow a Hendry County ambulance to serve areas north of the river.

The commission terminated an agreement with Big League Construction after delays in the Buckhead Ridge fire station remodeling.

County Manager Marcos Montes De Oca admits it has been a slow go on this project.