News Update for 8/28/19

With Tropical Storm Dorian churning through Puerto Rico and up the Caribbean, current tracking maps put central Florida in the middle of the cone of influence.
Here in Highlands County, sandbags are being made available. They will be –

At the intersection of CR 17, Isabelle Lake Road and Old Bombing Range Road in Avon Park
On South George Blvd., just north of the EOC at the Highlands County Road & Bridge Dept. south of Sebring and
At the intersection of CR 621 and Highlands Lake Drive in Lake Placid.

The Highlands County Sheriff’s Office will have personnel at each location to assist with the filling process for those who need it. Wet weather already has caused flooding in some areas of the county over the past couple of weeks.

Highlands County School Board members met in a special session yesterday and approved a pact with the non-instructional employees union. The contract had been turned back at their meeting last week by a 3-2 vote. The vote yesterday approves a number of controversial issues – board members say they hope to iron those out with a memorandum of understanding. That will be developed in ensuing weeks.

Looking for some Livestock? Highlands County Animal Services is putting some on the auction block today. Set to go are a potbellied pig, a boar hog, and a nanny goat with her two kids. Authorities say that family will go together.
The auction will be held this morning at 11:00 at the Animal Services office on Haywood Taylor Boulevard out by the Sebring International Raceway.

A prosecutor in Polk County says he is dropping criminal charges against an estranged couple known after the wife’s arrest for taking two guns from the husband’s apartment and turning them over to the police.
State Attorney Brian Hass said Courtney and Joseph Irby agreed to participate in a 12-month program that includes anger management classes.
Courtney Irby was originally arrested in Bartow, Florida for theft and burglary, but later charged with trespassing . Joseph Irby faced an aggravated battery charge for hitting his wife’s vehicle with his. The couple is divorcing.
Hass says the offer came after prosecutors found Courtney Irby illegally installed a tracking device in her husband’s car. He says contradictions in her testimony have affected her credibility.