News Update for 10/22/18

The Avon Park city council will look at expanding the City of Charm when they meet tonight in regular session. At issue will be the annexation of a nearly 110-acre tract located Southeast of Lake Lotela, Northwest of Lake Letta and North of Little Bonnet Lake. The property already is adjacent to the city limits.
In other action, the council will hear about the extension of city water into the Avon Park Lakes area.

While officials prepare to begin work on the downtown Sebring location of the Childrens’ Museum of the Highlands, fundraising efforts continue to finance that project. Officials have converted the Children’s Museum location at the Lakeshore Mall into a seasonal pumpkin patch.
Photo locations have been established for pictures, with the proceeds to go to the Children’s Museum.
The downtown location has been shuttered since 2016, due to structural damage to the building on Ridgewood Drive.

A Lakeland city commissioner is being held in the Polk County jail without bail, accused of fatally shooting a man he accused of shoplifting a hatchet from an Army-Navy surplus store.
A grand jury indicted 47-year-old Michael Dunn on a second-degree murder charge Friday.
Surveillance video shows the Lakeland commissioner shooting 50-year-old Cristobal Lopez on Oct. 3. The video shows Dunn holding a gun in his right hand while trying to keep Lopez from carrying the hatchet out of the store. Dunn grabs Lopez’s shirt, and Lopez is partly out the door, raising the hatchet, when Dunn fires and Lopez falls, mortally wounded.
Dunn’s attorney, Rusty Franklin, has previously said the shooting was justified because Lopez was holding the hatchet.

Health workers say they are seeing signs of mental stress in residents more than a week after Michael, and problems could continue through a long-term recovery that will take years. Tony Averbuch, who leads a disaster medical assistance team that’s seeing as many as 100 patients daily, says some people are showing signs of fraying. Indications of trauma aren’t surprising to those who studied people after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. One post-Katrina study found widespread problems in children.

Authorities say six people have been wounded in what possibly was a gang-related shooting blocks from the NFL stadium in Jacksonville where the Jaguars were hosting the Houston Texans. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office says the shooting erupted about 12:35 p.m. Sunday and five men and one woman were shot and wounded, some seriously. Authorities reported no link to the game, in which Houston won 20-7 on Sunday afternoon.

A Florida park was renamed after iconic rocker Tom Petty, who played at that park as a boy. Hundreds turned out in Gainesville to celebrate the star’s birthday with his music and the dedication of the former Northeast Park as Tom Petty Park.