WOKC Local News – May 15, 2026, 7:40 AM
Transcript
WOKC News. County pushing FDOT with WOKC News, I’m Charles Murphy. The political push to widen State Road 710 to four lanes between Indian Town and Okeechobee appears to be gaining momentum. Okeechobee County sending a letter to the FDOT secretary asking him to schedule the work sooner. The earliest stretches will be in twenty twenty nine. There are constant crashes, most of them serious on that thirty three mile stretch of road. A study showed one person dies every three months on 710 between Okeechobee and Indian Town. County Commissioner Terry Burroughs says they can’t afford to be quiet on this issue. It’s time for rural commissioners to step up and start saying what what’s really needed for our communities. Muck from Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucy River remain a problem. The Rivers Coalition heard presentations from the Lake Okeechobee Restoration Initiative and the Indian River Keeper. Both groups are optimistic about six different pilot programs this summer designed to try and remove muck by using oxygen and other means. Joe Gillio with the Lake Okeechobee Restoration Initiative says this muck is not very attractive. You end up with this greasy, slimy, black ooze. Ooze, muck, basically the same thing. He thinks the Kissimmee River restoration has helped, but they need to restore more parts of the river. Highlands County commissioners hearing a complaint from a Kissimmee Shores resident, a fish camp off Nine Mile Grade. He says they’re in need of more police patrols and a lot of drug deals are going on there. Sheriff’s spokesperson Scott Dressel says they never ignore calls for service no matter what time of day. And they have been working that fish camp with more than 40 calls at the camp this year. We can’t have a deputy that’s assigned just to patrols 721 all day long. Dressel says they always respond no matter what. We try to keep on drug activity anywhere in the county. You know, it’s a big county. We got 1,100 square miles to cover and over 100,000 people to service. And places that are far out like that, it’s just a function of geography. When you call us, it’s going to take us longer to get there. A domestic in Buckhead Ridge lands a man in jail. 64-year-old Danilo Herdado de Mendoza facing a host of charges, including battering a woman, depriving her the use of a cell phone to call for help, barricading her from getting out of the home, tampering with evidence and criminal mischief. Okeechobee deputies investigating an assault on a woman. Three people apparently jumped the woman as she was walking in an area of 1200 Northeast 12th Street. Deputies say they found the woman covered in blood and EMS was responding to the scene. For a new homeowner, the construction expected to begin in the fall. Habitat is now in St. Lucy and Okeechobee County. They have repaired over 180 homes in St. Lucy and Okeechobee and built or rehabilitated more than 100 in the past 30 years. I’m Charles Murphy, WOKC News.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).