WAFC Local News – November 10, 2025, 8:37 AM
Transcript
I’m Charles Murphy reporting. Kendry County Schools supportive of demolishing the white building. It’s part of the 1940 junior and senior high school campus in Clewiston. It most recently is the Clewiston Adult School located at 475 East Osceola. School board member Stephanie Buesen says there’s mold and other problems in this old building. It is somewhat of an iconic building, but I agree 100% that it needs to go. The district learned that enrollment is down so far this year by an estimated 178 students. They had 7,482 students this year at the first state count. The governor broke ground on the pump station at the EAA Reservoir in South Bay last week. The reservoir will store 78 billion gallons of water. It’s the 80th groundbreaking and milestone event related to the Everglades since 2019 when DeSantis came into office. He says the state has removed 1.8 million pounds of nitrogen and 770,000 pounds of phosphorus from Florida waterways. DeSantis says the state just didn’t take no for an answer. Politicians, oh the federal government, it’s their fault, it’s their fault, it’s their fault. Well yeah, we can do that and point fingers, right? Or we can say, you know what, we’ll step up, we’ll do it. He says they’ve also tripled the amount of storage in South Florida, sending more water south. We’ve tripled the water storage capacity in South Florida since I’ve been governor, including we opened the important C-43 reservoir, which will help mediate discharges. The state’s Rural and Family Lands program has gained in popularity. 428 projects are up for purchase and or conservation easements this coming year. The State Department of Agriculture asking for $250 million. A lot of the properties targeted are in the Florida Wildlife Corridor. John Frady says they had 150 to 200 more applicants this year. So this year we’re aiming to start about 75 projects. I would say every year over the past couple of years, we’re between 30 and 60 acquisitions. And that’s really dependent on the acreage, the area, all of the factors involved with the appraisal process. Rancher V.C. Hollingsworth wants to keep his ranch a ranch. Pine level is my love and I just want to keep it the way it is. I just need help. We’re an important part of the Wildlife Corridor in Florida. We have panthers that come through our land, deer, turkeys, everything you can imagine, a lot of wildlife. I think that’s really good to keep that habitat for the animals. The City of Pahokee hosting their Veterans Day Celebration Dinner tonight. It’s a way to honor veterans and show our appreciation. The dinner will be at the Marina Restaurant at 190 North Lake Avenue from 6 until 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. The event will recognize veterans and provide an opportunity for community members to gather, fellowship and thank them for their service. The official Veterans Day holiday is Tuesday. I’m Charles Murphy, WAFC News. Thanks for watching.
Recorded from the WAFC daily newscast (Glades Media).