News Cast for May 15th:
Okeechobee County Public Safety Director/Fire Chief, Earl Wooten announced today that the county wide burn ban has been rescinded effective immediately. This decision comes after significant rainfall last week, which has alleviated the drought conditions.
Okeechobee County residents can now resume outdoor burning, but must follow all safety guidelines:
• The pile must be 25 feet from forest and your house, 50 feet from paved public roads, and 150 feet from other occupied buildings.
• The burn pile must be less than 8-feet in diameter or fit into a non-combustible container. Burning is permitted after 9:00 A.M and must be extinguished 1 hour before sunset.
• Burning must not be left unattended.
• Keep a water hose or shovel handy in case your fire escapes.
• Piles large than 8-feet in diameter require a permit from the Florida Forest Service.
“We appreciate your cooperation during the burn ban. As a reminder, always exercise caution when burning outdoors,” said Okeechobee County Public Safety Director/Fire Chief Earl Wooten. “
For more information, please contact Okeechobee County Fire Rescue at (863) 763-5544, Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm.
Okeechobee County Commissioners began discussion on the county budget this year.
They supported a three percent raise for county employees with another two percent merit raise possible.
Finance Director Lisa Ridley said there is a lot of uncertainty this year due to the state budget debate.
The state is arguing over whether to support an elimination of property taxes, which voters must approve.
The state house wants to reduce the sales tax rate from six percent to 5.25 percent.
Ridley said the tax base did increase by $400 million in the past year.
She did report they are looking at increases for fire assessments and EMS assessments.
The Okeechobee County Farm Bureau will host their annual youth speech contest tonight at 5:30 pm at the farm bureau offices.
The topic is what obstacles threaten Florida agriculture’s economic viability and how do we address them.
Each speech is five minutes long. There are two age divisions, ages 11-13, and ages 14-18.
There are prizes awarded to winners. The local winners also compete in district and state competitions.
A 23-year-old Okeechobee man died in a multi vehicle crash on I-75 in Georgia Tuesday.
The Georgia State Patrol said Christopher Powell and two others died in the crash near exit 306 in Gordon County.
The vehicles involved included tractor trailers. Photos of the crash appeared to show vehicles on fire.
The Highlands County Board of County Commissioners issued a proclamation naming May as Orange Juice Month or OJ month.
The Citrus Growers Association is working on a plan to revive and increase citrus groves and citrus production.
Executive Director Ray Royce said citrus canker cut the tree population way down in Highlands County.
“Growers stopped replanting and we had a bunch of trees that got old at the same time. We had kind of a perfect storm that
greening and canker created and we were unable to reset the trees.”
He said there has been a commitment to plant new trees.
“We see millions of new trees in the ground. We are all aware of the challenges our industry is facing but there is hope out there. There are a lot of good young trees in the ground.