News Cast for March 6th:
IRSC among the cheapest
Indian River State College continues to have low tuition.
They have the fifth lowest cost of attendance for a four year degree in the nation.
They are also back to increasing enrollment. In 2023, enrollment was up six percent. The number of students are up nine percent over the past two years.
The Dixon Hendry campus has 889 students.
Dixon Hendry Provost Russ Brown said they have gotten an excellent response from the Promise Program.
The Promise Program has granted two years free tuition to Okeechobee High School graduates. 203 students have attended under this program from the classes of 2022 and 2023. The retention rate after the first semester was 82 percent of Okeechobee kids.
In a speech to the Chamber of Commerce Brown said studies continue at the Okeechobee School for Boys for the data park. They have evaluated all of the buildings. Some have been condemned but some remain usable including the gymnasium that could be used to host community events.
They are still doing ground penetrating radar studies on the property to look for a possible cemetery or human remains. Brown said so far they have not found any turned dirt or evidence of any grave yard on the property.
The college also wants to bring a train derailment training facility to Okeechobee.
A fatal shooting in Pahokee in the 280 block of Daniels Place Tuesday night. One man found dead and a second man a block away had gunshot wounds. The wounds are considered non-life threatening.
The Palm Beach Sheriff Violent Crimes Division is investigating.
Attorney General Ashley Moody launched the Florida Cold Case Investigations Unit.
10 attorneys and investigators will focus solely on unsolved murders.
Some 20,000 murders have gone unsolved in Florida since 1965.
Moody said you might know something that could help investigations. She noted as years go by it is hard to find evidence and witnesses.
Genealogical DNA has also led to murder cases being solved.
The goal is to bring closure to the victim’s families.
The Glades County School board voted to go to court with the Economic Council over the Chalo Nitka Grounds.
They’ve been trying to get 50 feet of property for a new elementary school.
The council said they aren’t on the lease and have no legal power to give the land.
They’d like to be the successor on the lease.
School Board chair Crystal Drake voted against the court case. She says she’d like to make a deal.
Other speakers said there would be no winners in a court case and they need to find common ground.
The majority on the board would like to reduce the length of the 99 year lease.
They are after $19 million from the legislature this year to help pay for the new school.
The goal was to have the school open in 2026.
Okeechobee deputies arrested two drivers who allegedly burned rubber and did donuts in the parking lot of the Okeechobee Sports Complex Tuesday night.
Both were trespassed from the complex as youth baseball and softball games were going on at the time.
Deputy reports said they saw a cloud of white smoke caused by the vehicles. One of the drivers did not have a driver’s license.
Both were also charged with racing on a highway.
Deputies said one of the vehicles doing the donuts came very close to slamming into a parked vehicle in the lot.