WOKC Local News – November 09, 2026, 7:41 AM
Transcript
WOKC News. Coasts already worried with WOKC News. I’m Charles Murphy. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects the levels of Lake Okeechobee will range between 14 and 1 1⁄2 feet and nearly 19 feet when the next rainy season comes around in May. Eve Samples with the Friends of the Everglades is predicting they’ll blow out the estuaries. 1998 was the year the Rivers Coalition was formed because of that crisis. So there’s a very haunting element to what we’re hearing right now. The group is pushing for more reservoirs and storage south of Lake Okeechobee. A vehicle versus a train accident south of Lareda on 621 at US-98. A 36-year-old female from Sebring apparently was traveling east at the railroad crossing. She allegedly drove around the active railroad crossing gate, stopped the vehicle on the tracks, and exited the vehicle. And it was struck by the CSX train with several rail cars in tow. There were no injuries, but the road was closed down for some time. Okeechobee will celebrate the 100-year birthday of City Hall next Friday. The event will go on from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. at City Hall and City Hall Park. Administrator Denise Whitehead explained that some Okeechobee High School students have been doing a project to improve the event. We just recently had one of the construction classes from the high school come in, and they measured every single inch of City Hall so that they can recreate the floor plan of what the building would have looked like back in its early days. So we’re really excited that we could bring the high school kids in, let them have a class project, and understand the importance of this building and the role it’s played in our history. The event will include local vendors, live music, food, family activities, historical tours, a 1926 clothing theme, and community displays. Port St. Lucie approving the site plan for a new Costco store, and the city applied for a new industrial park west of McCarty Road and Glades Cut-Off Road. Mary Savage Dunham presented the plan to the City Council. It supports business and industrial uses, including industrial operations, logistics, business parks, and related employment uses. The minimum lot area is 30 acres. An Okeechobee contractor being investigated for failing to perform renovations of an Okeechobee residence. The woman says she gave the contractor a $5,000 down payment. The contractor said he would return on a scheduled date, but has failed to show up and has not done any work for several months. An Okeechobee man went to a Jehovah’s Witness gathering, bought some booze on the way home, and then started yelling, cursing, and arguing loudly with family members, waking them all up, including small children. Deputies say they calmed the situation down, but then Lewis got started again. He’s facing charges of disorderly intoxication, resisting arrest, and a breach of the peace. An Okeechobee man tried to break up a bar fight that spilled out into the parking lot and then got struck, and then allegedly caused a disturbance. He allegedly started beating on the window of a vehicle and causing a disturbance as deputies were trying to break up the incident. Charges against Cameron Avant is disorderly intoxication. I’m Charles Murphy, WOKC News.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).