News Update for 8/15/18

Sebring police are on the lookout for a full sized Florida black bear. It first was spotted near the Sebring Baptist Church on Pine Street around 1:00 this morning. Officers chased it through a nearby residential area, lost track, then found it again at the Sebring Middle School.
They now believe it went over the fence there and has not been seen since. School officials say they have searched the campus and can find no evidence of the bruin.
They do not anticipate that classes will be disrupted.

Florida Hospital soon will be going by a new name – AdventHealth. Officials say it is a change that will be reflected across their 1,000 care facilities.
Locally, our hospitals will be known as AdventHealth Sebring, Lake Placid and Wauchulla respectively.
The change reportedly not the result of a merger or change of ownership – but rather is designed to reflect a unified system.
Officials say it’s more than a name change, the health system also is announcing several initiatives in “whole-person care,” that emphasize better connectivity across the system.
The name change will be effective in January of next year.

It appears that Avon Park could be running their water service outside the county. Negotiations reportedly are underway to extend municipal service into Polk County to the NUCOR steel manufacturing plant.
The $240 million dollar facility is slated to go in at a 400-acre site just over the county line. The so-called “micro mill” would create rebar from scrap metal and provide an estimated 250 jobs for the area.
No final decision has been made. Apparently, Frostproof city officials also are looking at extending their lines to provide that service.