News Cast for March 27th:
The Okeechobee City Council considered and approved a $16.2 million five year capital work program for the city.
The plan includes $1.6 million for new pavement, $2 million in funds from the state for road projects, $3 million for asphalt overlays of streets and $1.6 million for SE 8th Avenue for drainage and stormwater improvements.
Other projects included $120,000 for the downtown parks, $50,000 for a local tree program and $30,000 for the Primitive Baptist Church and Museum.
They are also interested in selling one lot in the city commerce center. The proposed sale price is $570,000. A realtor told the city that a concrete plant is interested in the property.
In other actions the council finalized approval of an ordinance to close the downtown parks each night at 10 pm with the parks opening at 6 a.m.
-The council also honored maintenance foreman Willie Hall for 10 years of service.
-Mayor Dowling Watford issued a proclamation for March as “Irish American Heritage Month.”
The Florida legislature is considering Lucy’s Law, House Bill 289 that would increase educational requirements for boat operators.
Lucy Fernandez, 17, was killed in a boating accident in Key Largo two years ago.
The bill would require anyone who has not lived in Florida for more than five years, regardless of age, to complete a boater safety course.
Current law requires boat education only for those born after 1988.
The bill also would increase penalties for reckless operation of a boat on the water. It would align the penalties and offences of leaving the scene of a boating crash or operating the boat in a reckless manner with compatible driving offenses in the state.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife maintains that a majority of the boating fatalities in our state involve operators with no boating education.
Central Florida congressman Darren Soto raised concerns about federal government cuts and worker layoffs.
He spoke before the Natural Resources subcommittee on water and the environment.
Soto said he think the cuts will impact the cleanup of Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades, and the effort to make the Kissimmee River a wild and scenic river.