In case you hadn’t noticed, a cold front swept through here last night with a little weather to along with it. Highlands County was under a tornado watch a good part of the afternoon and evening, but nothing heavy was reported beyond a stiff breeze and some good downpours around the area. There WERE a few tornados to our north and west – in New Port Richie and Spring Hill north of Tampa, EF-1 tornados were confirmed.
Maybe it’s pent-up demand, but the County is going to be jumping for Halloween weekend. The Sebring Downtown Circle hosts Halloween on The Circle tonight from 5-8pm … a safe, tended time for the kids. That’s followed by another free concert at the Champion For Children Circle Theatre – Hard Candy is on stage at 7pm. Trick or Treating is set for Saturday in Sebring, Sun ‘N Lake and Avon Park, and Sunday in Lake Placid. The Highlands Shrine Club is serving breakfast tomorrow morning from 8-10, and the Avon Park Depot Museum along with the Heartland Cultural Alliance’s Peter Powell Roberts Museum have a kids costume event, Haunted Train and more beginning at 4pm Saturday.
The bicyclists are going to be out and about this weekend – the GFNY Cycling event comes back to Sebring with up to a thousand cyclists competing in races through the weekend. The kids’ event begins Saturday morning at 9am, which means road closures downtown. Adult events are centered on Sunday with the Sebring Civic Center serving as headquarters for the event.
Big football game in town tonight – the Sebring Blue Streak football team takes on Port Charlotte at Firemens Field at 7:30. The matchup determines the 5A District 12 Championship. If the Streaks win, this’ll be the school’s first ever District Football Championship. Game time is 7:30 tonight – the Sebring Touchdown Club will be handing out noisemakers, thundersticks and towels to make sure the team knows whose side the crowd is on.
This week’s Sebring City Council meeting made it official. The former Girl Scout House on South Commerce Avenue has been donated to serve as the Florida Medal of Honor Memorial. The monument as designed is a five-sided star visible to traffic off the corner of Eucalyptus and South Commerce in Downtown Sebring.
County retail cruisers get a new dock this week – the new Burlington store is set to open today uin Shelby Crossing, off the corner of Thunderbird Road and Highway 27 in Sebring. The off-price retailer sells clothing for men, women and kids and home décor.
If you were expecting to see Memorial Drive in Avon Park open between Ernest E Sims and East 5th Street this morning, sorry. The weather yesterday delayed the reopening until later today. Florida Gas Transmission is restoring a portion of damaged roadway.
Up to our north, a multi-agency investigation into activities related to prostitution and human trafficking in Polk County ended with more than 100 people under arrest this week. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the six-day undercover online investigation, where 38 people were charged with prostitution and 62 with solicitation, began Oct. 20 and involved police departments in Auburndale, Haines City, Lake Hamilton, Lake Wales and Lakeland.