News Update for 9/10/18

As Hurricane Florence bears down on the Carolinas, many Florida residents are remembering a year ago when her sister, Hurricane Irma, devastated Highlands County and the rest of the Sunshine State.
Locally, there was tens of millions of dollars of property damage done, trees were downed, a number of homes and buildings were destroyed and an estimated million cubic yards of debris left in its wake.
A year later there still are blue roofs and other hurricane damage that has not yet been repaired.
Meanwhile, Isaac has become the fifth named hurricane of the current season. That storm is out in the Atlantic continuing to gain strength. At last report Isaac was about 1,230 miles east of the Windward Islands with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.
The storm was moving west at 13 mph.

Avon Park city council members will gather this evening for their first meeting of September. Among other things, Councilman Jim Barnard will be quizzing staff about the city’s “retention policy” for employees, and the council will look at amending their rules for consumption of alcohol on municipal property.
In other action, the council is expected to adopt the millage rate for their upcoming fiscal year. That’s expected to remain at .3 mills – or 30-cents for each 1,000 of taxable valuation for property inside the City of Charm.

A homeowner in Buttonwood Bay almost barbecued moire than burgers yesterday when a fire in his grill got out of control. The flames apparently burned siding on the home and threatened the roof, but did not spread to the interior of the building.
According to reports, both the homeowner and first arriving EMS units used a fire extinguisher to knock down the flames. N injuries were reported in the incident.
Desoto City volunteers arrived and cleared the scene.
Homeowners are reminded to keep burning grills at least six feet away from combustibles and never leave them unattended. Authorities say that without the fire extinguisher, the situation was seconds away from being much worse

Months of investigation by the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office have paid off with what’s described as the arrest of “a major methamphetamine dealer” in Highlands County.
28-year-old Jackson Payne Sloan has been charged with multiple counts of possession, sale and trafficking in drugs. Among the counts were marijuana, methamphetamine and opium.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Glades County Sheriff’s Office worked on the case.