News Cast for April 4th:
The city of Okeechobee said it will consider giving up right of way they own in the Okeechobee Estates Mobile Home Park on SE 6th Avenue.
The park is under new ownership and the group would like to renovate and redevelop the park.
Currently five of the older mobile homes are placed on city rights of way.
The park first opened in 1961 and has a number of aging mobile homes.
City Administrator Gary Ritter wanted to get direction from the council before starting the process of redeveloping the park.
Owner Tristan Thomas said they want to modernize the park. He said they have done this in other states and have been successful.
“We want the park to transition from an old 1960s park to a ‘modern day’ park. It would also increase the cities taxable land and guarantees over time that this would be a new park.”
Mayor Dowling Watford said technically the land is owned by the city. He said the city could tell them they are not in compliance and tell them to move the homes.
“I would not want to make that call, but technically I think we could do that.”
No final decision has been made.
The Okeechobee County Board of County Commissioners approved the dark sky ordinance.
They decided not to amend the proposal and include the entire county.
The area impacted will be northwest Okeechobee County west of 441 and north of CR 724.
The ordinance only impacts new developments and replacement lights.
The group supports the dark sky ordinance to help the Kissimmee Prairie State Preserve that has a dark sky designation that encourages tourism for star gazing and sky watching.
The next step is approaching neighboring Highlands County to put in a dark sky ordinance in eastern Highlands County which borders a portion of the park.
Polk County and Osceola County also border the park.
Osceola County Commissioners said they support a bill that would require hands free cell phones in Florida.
There is an effort to curb the number of distracted driving deaths on our roads.
The bill sponsor is local Senator Erin Grall ® of Vero Beach.
Commissioner Viviana Jahner said implementing hand free cell phones and devices can reduce the incident of distracted driving, saving lives and promoting safer roadways for all.
Highlands County Commissioners imposed another burn barn.
The rising drought index and an increase in wildfire activities in Highlands County prompted the move.
The rains Sunday night in Venus and southern Highlands County did not provide much relief to the drought.
The ban could last as long as 60 days.
It impacts all outdoor burning like bonfires, campfires, warming fires, fires in outdoor fireplaces, fireworks displays and open cooking fires.