The Latest Local News

Highlands County commissioners met this morning in regular session. It’s the last couple before four incumbents step down and four newcomers are sworn in. They got an update on Coronavirus. Commissioner Jim Brooks noted that overall deaths in the county don’t seem to have spiked since numbers started being kept. They also got an update Continue reading

Avon Park Vice Mayor Jim Barnard escaped serious injury when he was involved in a two vehicle crash over the weekend. The incident reportedly occurred Saturday at Highway 27 and Lakeview Drive. The force of the impact apparently caused the other vehicle involved to overturn. Barnard said he and his daughter were in the car. Continue reading

Highlands County School Board officials have announced that their board meetings once again will be going up on the web. After cajoling from the public, the board previously piloted streaming the regular school board sessions but then ceased to broadcast them. Authorities now say, since the spring Town Hall meetings, they are prepared to bring Continue reading

One man is dead and four Polk County Sheriff’s deputies are on administrative leave following an incident last night in Frostproof. Lawmen were called to the home on Freedom Drive shortly before 7:PM on reports of a domestic disturbance. There they encountered 28-year-old Yoel Arnaldo Mejia Santel. Crisis intervention officers reportedly talked with Santel, who Continue reading

Sebring police reportedly are investigating a homicide. Officers responded to a call of shots being fired int he area of Highlands and Martin Luther King Blvd. about quarter to six last night. There they found one man who had been shot and killed, and another with multiple gunshot wounds. He subsequently was treated and released Continue reading

Firefighters in Sebring were busy this morning. Units were called to battle the flames at a house on Second Street about 3:AM. Reportedly, the home was fully involved in flames when units arrived. The Fire Marshal’s office has been summoned to determine the cause of the blaze. Two adults and tow children were able to Continue reading

The Highlands County Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Division made another drug sweep this morning. Reportedly it came around 7:AM when deputies served a search warrant on a Mundall Avenue address east of Sebring. Reportedly, neighbors had been complaining about the residence for a while, calling it “a problem house.” Five arrests have been made. No Continue reading

The City of Charm may soon be known as the City of Food Trucks. Avon Park city council members last night held a special meeting to start the ball rolling on rules and regulations for mobile food vendors in the city. Although the trucks would not be able to set up on municipal rights of Continue reading

The Avon Park city council will convene for a special meeting tonight. At issue will be the regulation of food trucks in the City of Charm. Apparently code enforcement officials already have received complaints about the mobile vendors. New state laws say the trucks cannot be banned from the city, however, the time, place and Continue reading

Traffic was tied up for a time about midnight when a woman hit a deer near Lorida. The mishap occurred on Highway 98 near McClellan Road shortly after 11:00 last night. After hitting the deer, the woman’s car reportedly caught fire and burned. Authorities say both traffic on Highway 98 and nearby rail traffic was Continue reading