NEWS 1/27/21 BF
AP//SCHRADER
Avon Park City Manager Mark Schrader has finally recieved his first evaluation. It was supposed to have come at the six month mark, but was put off due to the coronavirus. At their meeting Monday evening, the city council gave him an average 80-percent ranking which is considered “very good.”
While tabulating the results, all four of the current council members had words of praise for Schrader.
The council will meet for a special session this evening, where they will get a presentation from Florida Airport Management. They have been looking for someone to run the fixed base operation at the Avon Park municipal airport there.
NEWS 1/27/21 BF
SCHOOL BOARD DRUGS
Highlands County School Board members last night got an update on their prescription drug program for employees. A representative of audit firm Clifton-Larsen-Allen told the council their review had found there had been medications that were over-purchased and some drugs that were ordered and never picked up.
School Board member Donna Howerton raised questions about exactly who was getting the medications as well as the nature of some of the prescriptions.
Last year, the program administered some 8,000 different prescriptions.
NEWS 1/27/21 BF
POLK GRAVE VANDAL
A Fort Meade man has been charged with vandalizing the gravesite of the victim of a Frostproof mass murder. Polk County Sheriff’s detectives have charged Kevin John Wheeler with removing solar lights from the grave of Damion Tillman.
Tillman was one of three friends gunned down while on a fishing outing in an incident last year in Frostproof. According to reports Wheeler told officers he was taking the solar lights because he “thought they were pretty.”
NEWS 1/27/21 BF
POLK COVID
A Polk County paramedic has been charged with helping a supervisor steal coronavirus vaccines meant for first responders. 31-year-old Joshua Colon has been charged with forging paperwork to help cover up the theft of 30 doses of the Moderna vaccine.
Colon – who recently was named “Paramedic of the Year” – since has resigned from the fire department. He told investigators a captain with the fire department had asked him to take the vaccine.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd says the captain will be arrested when he returns home from a work assignment. The investigation began when a battalion chief noticed discrepancies in the vaccine paperwork.