WAFC Local News – July 30, 2026, 8:06 AM
Transcript
I’m Charles Murphy reporting. The City of LaBelle has gotten a lot of attention from that large sewage spill into the Igloo-Zahatchee River. Thousands of gallons of septage escaped the sewage plant after an accident involving a lawnmower. The City of LaBelle is expecting a lot of construction projects to improve their water and sewer service in the coming year. They’re not going to pursue a water tower but instead will install a groundwater tank. Commissioner Bobbie Spratt says they paid the consultant a whole lot of money for this work. It just seems like we’re spinning our wheels and we’re paying a lot of money out and to be spinning our wheels. Mayor Julie Wilkins explained the decision not to pursue the water tower. A water tower as much as I would love to have one is too much and you know it’s too involved and too expensive to maintain a water tower. Harlem residents want an update on the Harlem Academy project. $1.3 million was received to upgrade that facility. An engineer recommended two of the buildings be torn down while saving a third. Resident Lovita Holmes says residents would like to know how long this is going to take. Welcoming the progress but I want to see it up and I live a block from there. Sure. We want to actually see the progress. I do. Henry County receiving a $1 million grant from the African-American Historical and Cultural Program. They also received $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. They plan to renovate building D at Harlem Academy into a daycare. They also want to condemn and demolish building C and B. The total cost is up to $9 million. Henry County commissioners approved rezoning of a third of an acre at 1055 Della Tobias Avenue for a triplex. Sentences are beginning for a group of illegal immigrants found trespassing on U.S. Sugar Land in Glades County earlier this year. Diego Morales-Fuarez pled no contest to trespassing charges and received no jail time and court costs of $205. Florida Fish and Wildlife officers located a group north of County Road 720 on April 2nd near the Herbert Hoover Dyke and Langdale Road. The seven men were fishing using a cast net. Only one of the seven had valid immigration status in the country. Two of them were juveniles. One of them was released to the custody of a parent. Among arrest, 25-year-old Diana Lopez of LaBelle is facing battery and criminal mischief charges. It started out as a report of a reckless driver on Albany Road and apparently was an incident of road rage. The two had been at a donut shop in the drive-thru when one of the drivers cut the other off and then followed the other driver onto Bridge Street, tailgated, and the other driver pulled over at the Henry County Road and Bridge. A verbal exchange occurred and the female threw her drink at him through the passenger side window and left. She admitted she had caused the disturbance by cutting the other driver off in the drive-thru. The woman says she felt threatened because the man was bigger than her. At one point she said she told family members go get a gun. I’m Charles Murphy, WAFC News.
Recorded from the WAFC daily newscast (Glades Media).