News Update for 11/15/18

It’s been a long week for Highlands County Supervisor of Elections Penny Ogg. The Highlands County Canvassing Board completed a machine re-count of 40,000 votes yesterday in senatorial, gubernatorial and Secretary of Agriculture races as mandated by the Florida Division of Elections.
It’s not over yet. The board will reconvene at 1:00 today to do the official upload to the State and sign the documents.
Ogg says she will not know about a manual recount until after the 3:00 deadline and the Secretary of State calls the official recount.

It’s the third and final installment of Thanksgiving in the Heartland today, as personalities from 99.1FM WWOJ and Lite 105.7FM travel to Lake Placid in search of cash and non-perishable foodstuffs for the New Testament Church & Mission.
They already have taken in more than $1200 in cash and checks plus two van-loads of boxed and canned goods in stops earlier this month in Sebring and Avon Park. The goods will be used for the less fortunate over the holiday season.
The drive will be at the Heartland Pharmacy on Palm Street in Lake Placid from 10am untL 6P..

Another special meeting has been called for the Avon Park city council. At tonight’s session council members are slated to decide what to do about vacancies in the city manager and city attorney’s positions.
Council fired both City Manager June Fisher and City Attorney Glinda Pruitt Tuesday night. Now, City Clerk Janie Ayala reportedly also has resigned.
Several local names have been circulated as possible interim city manager candidates, while some council members say they want to return to a contract attorney for the city.

Highlands County has a new weapon to fight fires. The West Sebring Volunteer Fire Department has a brand new engine. The Emergency One “Typhoon” was ordered a year ago, and comes at a price of $688,000.
It carries 970 gallons of water and an additional 30 gallons of foam concentrate. The engine has a mounted camera with night vision capabilities as well as other firefighting tools.
It is the last piece of equipment to have been purchased with old assessment dollars.

It appears television once again will be visiting Highlands county. Officials from the Sebring Chamber of Commerce say they have been contacted by the show “American Pickers.” The hosts of the show travel the country in search of extraordinary antiques and collectibles in amongst peoples’ collection of junk.
They have set January or February of next year for their possible stop here. The chamber is looking for willing collectors and hoarders who might want to participate.