WOKC Local News – January 22, 2026, 7:40 AM
Transcript
WOKC News. Some impressive numbers. With WOKC News, I’m Charles Murphy. Christmas in Okeechobee brought a lot of visitors to Okeechobee. This is TDC coordinator Ja’Kalen Schooley. They did a report on the visitation from November 13th through December 5th. Park Street, we had 101,900 visits. City Hall Park had 3,600 visits. And then in the southeast side of Park Street, over where the businesses are, we had 5,000 visits. Total downtown visits were 110,000. Key insights for that are Park Street served as the anchor of the Christmas experience, drawing the overwhelming majority of our visitors. They’re hoping to make the lighting show an annual thing. The Altebello Family Trust provided donations this year along with TDC funds. The TDC says 12,500 people were at the lighted Christmas parade. 15,800 people attended the Christmas festival. Next year, they may put in grandstands or have large movie TV screens to help visitors see the parade better. Okeechobee County Commissioners are moving into housing development. 75 new homes due to be built on 150 acres south and west of Lazy 7. The land rezoned from agriculture and residential rural to residential single family. The county continues to encourage data centers. The Indian River State College will give an update to the commission in February. Chairman David Hayslie says they’re seeing interest from others who want to bring a data center here. Developers want to do a data center here. Right now we have four different locations in Okeechobee that’s looking to do some. I think we would be extremely fortunate if we were able to get one. Did we get more than one? Probably not. But we’re not looking at just a small increase in your tax assessment. It would be millions. Probably be equal to what, according to Mickey Bandy, probably equal to what we’re currently doing in ad valorem taxes, what he alluded to yesterday. For Pierce Police, naming a new police chief, David Smith, will be sworn in February 1st. He is a captain at the Prince William County Sheriff’s Department in Virginia. Mayor Linda Hudson says she thinks they have a very sound police department. From his observation, this is a sound police department and he is going to build and work with the talent that he has here and the skill and the experience. Okeechobee County Fire Rescue putting out a fire in a residence at 604 Northwest 15th Street. They found light smoke coming from the carport area as they arrived. They say the cause was electrical in nature and about $5,000 in damage was done. There were no injuries reported. Opposition growing to ICE in Central Florida. They’ve been increasing their operations to round up illegals and may put in a detention center there. Congressman Maxwell Frost claims that everyone who lives in Central Florida is legal. Every single American, which is every single person and human in our community, is treated with dignity and respect. I’m Charles Murphy, WOKC News.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).