WAFC Local News – August 13, 2026, 8:06 AM
Transcript
I’m Charles Murphy reporting. Henry County Sheriff Steve Whitten left no doubt about his political future. Yes, I am running for sheriff again in June 2028. Whitten says growth has been changing Henry County and the population is growing and he’s ready to tackle those changes. I wouldn’t want to be sheriff anywhere else, but Henry County is changing. You don’t have to look very far to see it. Just look at all the new construction coming in. Look at the traffic. Look at the new homes and businesses. More people are discovering what we have known for years, that Henry County is a great place to live. He noted when he was first elected, he made big changes in the crime in Harlem and Clewiston. I remember what the east side of the county looked like during those years. Gangs, gun violence were almost a daily concern. We had shootings almost every day. When I took office, we confronted those problems with an aggressive enforcement and strategies that sometimes required us to think outside the box. We went after the gangs and the violent criminals who were hurting our communities and we sent them off to prison. He’s also added law enforcement in rural areas. Montura is another example of how far we’ve come. Back then, Montura could feel like the wild, wild west. There wasn’t a deputy assigned there permanently, but since I took office in 2009, Montura has had a full-time deputy assigned to that community. And as our agency has grown, we have also been able to assign deputies to zones. So now that our outlying communities receive regular deputy patrols and a law enforcement presence. Witness says they also have one of the lower crime rates in the state of Florida. He’s also pushing the county to replace their county jail, which is now 42 years old. The city of Clewiston informing residents about some roadway work on US 27 next week that’s going to disrupt traffic. 27 between Lewis Boulevard and Berner Road will be the subject of these improvements. During the daytime, the inside eastbound and westbound lanes will be closed one direction at a time. Motorists should expect lane closures, exercise caution, and allow additional travel time through the work zone next week. A 40-year-old Clewiston man, Stephen Chamberlain, is facing charges of dumping litter on private property of over 500 pounds. Henry County Sheriff Deputies say they found an abandoned home trailer left on the side of the road at State Road 80 near the US 27 bridge in Clewiston. It had been left there for over two weeks. Chamberlain says he got a flat tire as he was delivering the mobile home to a friend’s house. He attempted to change the tire with a U-Haul rental vehicle but was unsuccessful, but promised to come back and remove the trailer but never did. The trailer was tagged on three different occasions. He was taking the trailer from Horseshoe Acres in Glades County to a residence on Oak Drive in Clewiston. He told deputies once he had the money, he would move the trailer. It was there several weeks before deputies took action. With this arrest, deputies say the suspect did not comply when they attempted to arrest him. He did not leave the yard but kept shouting at deputies unseen. He also allegedly armed himself with a metal pole and threatened deputies. He was eventually tased and taken into custody. Candidate for governor, Republican Byron Donald, promises to finish the work in the Everglades and Lake Ogoechobee if he is elected this year. Let’s get the central Everglades restoration plan done. And then once it’s finished, we can actually test the full impacts of it. But then when it comes to ecology and our environment, we want to look at other areas, but you got to finish the work. Glades County trying to solve the man living in a tent on 7th Street in Buckhead Ridge. They’ve now gone the criminal route. William Stimely was recently booked into the Glades County jail on a charge of creating a public or neighborhood nuisance. It is a second-degree misdemeanor. I’m Charles Murphy, WAFC News.
Recorded from the WAFC daily newscast (Glades Media).