WOKC Local News – December 17, 2025, 7:40 AM
Transcript
W. O. K. C. News. A change for football with W. O. K. C. News. I’m Charles Murphy. Okay, should be football has decided to leave F. H. S. A. A. Competition in 2026. Instead, they will join the Sunshine State Athletic Conference next year. Superintendent Dylan Tedders is optimistic the move will get football back to pass glory as they play more similar schools. He thinks it might get more kids interested with the new high school being built. It’s something that they’ve been talking about for a while out there. So we’ll go to that and see if they can build something and build, you know, just build the kind of the prestige back in that program, you know, to where kids actually want to play football when they get to high school and want to play for four years. The ongoing drought is impacting the pasture and hay operations in Okeechobee this winter. USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey said the U. S. Drought monitor shows ongoing stress on both cattle and hay production in Florida. Rippy does see some improvement coming in 2026. It may be a tough three or four months here, but if you can just stick it out, maybe get some supplemental feed between now and mid to late spring. Hopefully things will turn out better next year. November was the third driest on record in Florida. The autumn months between September and November were the sixth driest on record. A public hearing for the State Road 70 planning, development and engineering study tonight at Indian River State College. This impacts an 8.6 mile segment between County Road 7 21 in Highlands County to Southwest 128th Avenue in Okeechobee County. The in person meeting at the Dixon Hendry campus begins at 5 30 tonight to be a formal presentation at six p.m. The Florida Highway Patrol is doing better recruiting new troopers. About 2000 troopers are employed in the entire state. The FHP says they’re getting more applicants from out of state with law enforcement experience. Lieutenant Greg Bueno says the troopers appreciate the pay raise given to them by the state this year. For most of us that do this job, we do it beyond the pay. We do it because we’re impassioned for public safety. A Kissimmee man is charged with fleeing and attempting to elude police in two counties. Elaine Fidel was allegedly spotted on State Road 60 driving recklessly and weaving across both lanes of traffic. When an Osceola County Sheriff deputy tried to pull him over at three in the morning, he failed to stop and proceeded to go down 4 41 south for many miles. He finally was arrested in the city of Okeechobee. He was held at the Yugoslavia County Jail in lieu of $15,000 bond. Highlands County commissioners cut the ribbon on a long anticipated expansion of the Laredo landfill on Arbuckle Creek Road. The new facility will process roughly 400 tons of refuge daily. They expect the new sale to last about 13 years. County officials say they’ve been working close to 15 years to plan and get the permits for this expansion. I’m Charles Murphy W. Okay. C. News
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).