Details are sketchy, but there was an accident on Highway 27 near Golfview last night shortly after eight. One victim was transported to an area hospital by County EMS crews … public reports described a single-car rollover with quite a bit of effort required to get the driver out of the vehicle.
The Black Friday rush is on – and with most major stores bowing to tradition and closing Thanksgiving Day, the rush started early with chains like WalMart opening at 5 am this morning, Bed, Bath and Beyond at 6, Home Depot and Lowe’s at 6. At the Mall, Beall’s opened at 6 and Belk at 7am. Many of the retail giants were advertising Black Friday prices online yesterday so you could order yesterday and pick up today, so expect a crowd. National figures say we could se an 8 to 10% jump in Holiday sales this year after the more subdued pandemic season last year.
Highlands County’s Christmas Parade season begins Monday with the Avon Park Downtown Christmas Parade – but with one recent year tradition missing. The Avon Park City Council this week voted to throw the High School Cheerleaders off the city’s fire trucks, where they’d been perched in recent years at each year’s parade. City Manager Mark Shrader said it was the city’s insurance carrier wearing the grinch suit … Councilperson Bernice Taylor added that she didn’t know what girls in miniskirts were doing riding high atop a fire truck anyway. All three downtown parades are scheduled to be back in full force this year beginning with Avon Park’s on Monday, Sebring next Friday, and December 11 in Lake Placid.
Speaking of Avon Park, the city’s downtown Christmas lights are up – with all the street lights changed to blue bulbs. Why blue? It’s Main Street in Avon Park, but also Highway 64, and the State Department of Transportation said that red and green Christmas-colored street lights might get mistaken for a traffic signal. So, they went with blue.
Sebring’s Blue Streak Football Team won their District Championship last Friday, so even with school’s closed the kids are moving on up tonight. This one’s on the road – the 5-A Regional Finals at Clearwater High School, game time 7:30pm. Tickets are available online only – find the link on the “Sebring Football” page on Facebook.