News Update for 10/2/20

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 stopped for a time.
The motorist reportedly was transported from the scene. Her name and other details have not yet been released.

Are you worried about air pollution? If you live in Highlands County you probably should not be concerned. A new report by Filterbuy shows that the Sebring metropolitan area shows that the air quality index here has improved over the past decade.
They say the Air Quality Index is up by nearly 8-percent with better than 314 good AQI days per year.
Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency say the reductions in pollution have come despite a growing population, increased energy use and more cars on the road.

Heavy rains are in the forecast for this weekend and water could be heading to flood prone areas. To that end, the City of Frostproof is offering a sandbag fill location at the Frostproof Fire Department.
It’s a self serve location, so city officials are cautioning residents to bring their own shovels. Bags are available only to City residents and are limited to 10 per household.
The sand and sandbags will be available 24 hours per day.

Official recognition of the renaming of the Children’s Advocacy Center in honor of Ruth Handley is slated for ceremonies set for this morning.
Highlands County commissioners took formal action placing the former Superintendent of Schools’ name on the facility in December of last year. However, the formal ceremonies had been postponed due to concerns over the coronavirus.
Activities will be held this morning at 11:00 at the Childrens’ Advocacy Center, It is located off the Sebring Parkway adjacent to Sebring Senior High School.

While Books-A-Million is closing their Sebring store, Bed Bath & Beyond is not. The local bookseller posted a sign last month that the local link of the chain is shutting down.
Bed, Bath & Beyond’s list of stores to close, does have three Florida locations on their first round. However, Sebring is not one of them.
Meanwhile, officials from the Florida Flywheelers say they have cancelled all of their shows through February of next year due to concerns over the coronavirus. The Highlands County Master Gardeners have moved their a plant sale to an appointment affair. That will be held Tuesday, October 13th.