WOKC Local News – May 06, 2026, 7:41 AM
Transcript
WOKC News. How much land? With WOKC News, I’m Charles Murphy. The Okeechobee Utility Authority board earlier this year agreed to donate some land to Okeechobee County for a fire station on Farrell Road. They are now questioning if the county really needs five acres. Certain members of the OUA board said that the main station is under two acres and questioned the need for five. They want the land to revert back to the utility if it is not used as a fire station. Executive Director John Hayford said, in his opinion, three acres should be plenty of land. Their current parcels are only around one acre. So if we give them three, they have plenty of room for expansion and stormwater. And we can always give them more if it really develops. The OUA tonight holding a town hall meeting on the Southwest Sewer Area Septic to Sewer Project. It’ll start at 7 p.m. at the Gathering Church on Southwest 24th Avenue. Again, that starts tonight at 7 p.m. The Florida legislature passed a bill to tighten voter ID rules and add some citizenship checks this year. Governor DeSantis has promised to sign the bill. The sponsor was our Senator Aaron Graw. Democrats were opposed as they say it’ll prevent legal residents from voting and add time-consuming and expensive hurdles for certain voters. Senator Angie Nixon wants to make it easier to vote. She’s a Democrat. There has been data that has shown that one in 10 Latinos, Floridians and Black Floridians actually use third-party voter registration. And so I really believe that every eligible United States citizen should have access to actually getting registered. We should be expanding access to them. Democracy works best when everyone who is eligible to vote is actually voting. An estimated 9% of American citizens who are voting age do not have readily available proof of citizenship. In Florida, that would be about 1.4 million voters. In Lareda, the Army Corps of Engineers and Water Management District are deciding whether to lower the levels of Lake Istopoca. President Lori Melton told county commissioners that people have concern and she sums it up in one word. The word drawdown somehow entices anxiety, especially with stakeholders on Lake Istopoca. An Oogachooee woman was arrested by police when she mistakenly thought she owned a property, but didn’t. An Oogachooee police report said the woman wanted the rightful owners trespassed and she ended up herself charged with trespass. The properties both had the same numbers but were one street apart in the Southeast section. A dog that was with the woman at the time of her arrest was taken by animal control. A bystander refused seven times to back away from an Oogachooee deputy making an arrest in Douglas Park. The deputy report quoting the suspect as stop playing with me cracker. A loud music complaint led to the arrest on the new halo law. The man who owned the vehicle with the loud music playing had a warrant out of Pinellas County and the observer objected when he was taken into custody. I’m Charles Murphy, WOKC News.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).