News Update for 4/26/19

Residents will see a bit of increased air traffic this weekend, especially around the Sebring Regional Airport as planes from the International Aerobatic Club begin to arrive. Their semi-annual competition doesn’t begin until next week, but many of the pilots will take the next few days to practice and hone their skills in the skies over Lorida.
Dozens of single-winged and bi-planes fly into Sebring twice a year to compete in one of five classes to display a wide array of aerial maneuvers.

Avon Park city council members are preparing to shed themselves of some Community Redevelopment Agency responsibilities. Council has been sitting as the CRA board, since their three districts were merged into one, several years ago.
Council now has decided to select members from each of the advisory boards and appoint them to sit as an autonomous group, to oversee community redevelopment agency activities in the City of Charm.
They’ll take the first step next month as they hear the first reading of an ordinance creating the new board.

A 7-year-old Lake Wales girl reportedly was critically injured last night when she was hit by a truck. Police in the Crown Jewel of the Ridge say the mishap occurred near the intersection of Highland Drive and Grove Road about 6:30.
Preliminary reports indicate 48-year-old Jose Mejia-Hernandez was driving north on Highland Drive, when young Jeremisa Wade rode her bicycle into the path of his Ford f-350. They say Wade was not wearing a helmet.
She was airlifted out to Arnold Palmer Childrens’ Hospital in Guarded Condition.

A Polk County man has been sentenced to life in prison for killing another man after arranging online to buy an iPhone. 28-year-old Victor Manns Jr. was sentenced after being convicted of first-degree murder.
Lakeland Police say 21-year-old Jeffery Morrow Jr. and a friend had agreed to meet Manns in a Lakeland parking lot in September 2016. They had met through the online marketplace Letgo.
The friend showed Manns the iPhone, and Manns snatched it and ran away. Morrow grabbed a shotgun from his truck and he and the friend then chased Manns. Investigators say Manns was also armed and fatally shot Morrow.
Defense attorneys argued that Manns had given a false confession to deputies shortly after his arrest.