WOKC Local News – March 26, 2026, 7:41 AM
Transcript
WOKC News. The last hurrah with WOKC News, I’m Charles Murphy. The Okeechobee High School farewell tour begins Saturday. Former students can visit the campus one last time before the buildings are demolished. The first visit can be this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1. The others are April 9th, a Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, April 18th from 11 to 1 p.m. and Tuesday, April 21st from 5 to 7 p.m. Visitors will not be allowed to take any bricks of the demolished buildings due to asbestos concerns. Superintendent Dylan Tedders expects the demolition to begin on or around June 1st. He says a lot of people do want to have one more chance to walk on the campus. People ask, are they going to be able to get and walk around and just kind of check the place out? So that’s what we’ll give them. We’ll give them the opportunity to go through. We’re not going to go into individual classrooms, but they’ll be able to get through hallways and see some of the bigger spaces. An Okeechobee jury convicts Harvey Barr Jr. yesterday at his trial of abuse of the elderly, aggravated fleeing, reckless driving and grand theft auto. He had been charged with a carjacking on April 1st, 2024. He allegedly struck a disabled person and drove off in the vehicle, trying to elude law enforcement at a high rate of speed. The victim had driven Barr up from West Palm Beach as a favor. Harvey wanted to drive the vehicle, but the victim refused. He then started striking him in the face with a closed fist and got his way. They haven’t set the date for sentencing. Deputies used a pit maneuver on Northeast 15th Avenue to end the chase. Harvey then started to run on foot. During the chase, he allegedly ran five stop signs and drove 75 miles an hour in a 25 mile per hour zone. Almost $200,000 in property damage was done after a fire on Northwest 144th Drive, the home of total loss. Firemen say it is a suspicious fire as they found multiple apparent ignition points. No one was home at the time, and the state fire marshal is investigating. Highlands County Fire Rescue also put out a large residential structure fire on US 98 near Lareda near the Dollar General Store. Five people live in the home and have been displaced. The Red Cross coming to their aid. Fire crews from across the county, including Lareda, DeSoto City, Lake Placid and Sebring, battled the blaze. Things aren’t getting any calmer in Pahokee. The commission has had a feud worsening between the mayor, Keith Babb and interim city manager Tammy Bussey. He doesn’t want to hire her to be the full time manager, and her family has come to meetings threatening and insulting the mayor. Bussey claims that Babb is ignoring her calls and texts even when she was trying to help the community. We were able to move nine families, 26 children total to Horizon Inn. The county immediately came over to me and Ms. Boulay and said, we are going to take your residents from here. We’re going to make sure that they have a place to stay and they’re going to help them find jobs. She also got into it with the finance director. No, no, no. Your minute is up. You’re not going to stand there and lie. A steward man wanted for questioning in burglaries in Okeechobee was found sleeping in a vehicle in a carport at 1748 Northeast 3rd Street. Debbie to say it was hard to wake up Edward Costin Jr. and that he fought with them when they tried to arrest him. He was pepper sprayed and treated at Rollerson Hospital. I’m Charles Murphy. WOKC News.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).