News Update for 2/16/22

It now costs less to set up shop in Avon Park – especially if you’re a big water user. City council members there have voted to drop their capacity fees back to what they were before a 2020 ordinance.
At that time, the council had boosted the charges to help to finance a planned new wastewater treatment facility to handle growth in the City of Charm.
However, instead of being user-funded, council members say they now will look for grant funding to help finance any such construction.

Highlands County Sheriff Paul Blackman gave county commissioners a primer on All Terrain Vehicles at their regular meeting yesterday. While in the grand scheme of things, ATV complaints are not a big problem, they still are a problem.
Calls range from Avon Park Lakes and Avon Park Estates in the north, to Orange Blossom Estates, Sebring Lakes, Leisure Lakes and Placid Lakes.
Blackman told commissioners there are no public roads in Highlands County where ATVs are allowed to operate.
When asked if a taxpayer-funded area for riding would help, Blackman said some people might use it.

Every year a special "Sprit of Sebring" award is presented at the Amelia Island Concours D’Elegance. This year, the 12 Hours will have another bump as the world-famous car show displays race cars from the 70th anniversary of the Grand Prix of Endurance.
Among the vehicles on display will be the 1952 Cunninghan C4-R and a 1955 Type 550 Porsche Spyder. The Amelia Island show runs the week before the Sebring 12 Hours.

Think tourism is up locally? Well, apparently it’s up statewide. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says the number of tourists coming to the Sunshine State in the last quarter of 2021 surpassed the visitor count in the same quarter before the start of the pandemic.
Florida had 30.8 million tourist visits between last October and December, a slight increase over the fourth quarter in 2019. It was the second consecutive quarter in which Florida tourist visits surpassed those from before the start of the coronavirus’s spread in the U.S. in early 2020.
DeSantis has campaigned against mandates that other states are employing to fight COVID-19. On Tuesday, he credited that policy with the influx of tourists.