WAFC Local News – August 14, 2026, 8:06 AM
Transcript
I’m Charles Murphy reporting. Clewiston City looking to keep their animal control budget at $171,000 this year. City officials say coyote attacks on the cats in the community continue. Two of them reported during July. Police have been getting more support from the Florida Highway Patrol in enforcing traffic laws. The commission also reviewed the proposed fire rescue budget. Chief Kevin McCarthy says it takes a long time now to get new fire trucks. It didn’t really matter in the past, I guess, but it has gotten to the point now where it’s insanity. He’s developed a 10-year fire plan, capital improvements included. They’re also changing their fire boat. Vice Mayor Hillary Hyslop would like to see a contract with Glades County to get them to pay for some fire and EMS. I don’t mind that we have to help them. I’m not advocating by any stretch that we just let people die in Glades County. However, that burden should not fall on the taxpayer. McCarthy says he understands the taxpayer concerns as they look for an increase in the fire assessment. You’re still going to have a fairly substantial increase. Again, it’s not in the grand scheme of things. Nobody’s going to say, I’m not paying another. I don’t think anybody’s going to say, I don’t want to pay another $74. I don’t want to pay another $74 for anything, but if it’s for the fire department. The Palm Beach County Zoning Board approved recommending a one-year moratorium on data centers of over 50 megawatts of power. It gives staff more time to investigate the actual proven impacts of these facilities. Residents spoke out against the data centers at the public hearing. Lisa Johnson worried about drinking water. For those of us in the Western community, water is our lifeline. Thousands of families rely on private wells. We respectfully ask that groundwater protection, aquifer sustainability, and the interests of our well-dependent communities be central to these new regulations. Sue Masell says this sort of facility impacts a lot of stuff and people. For energy capacity, infrastructure, water resources, emergency planning, neighboring communities, and long-term growth policy. It also gives data centers more time to improve their technology so they don’t use so much water and electric. City of Clewiston Police Department, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, and Restoration Bridge International able to provide food for approximately 500 families in Clewiston this week. Volunteers went to Palm Beach County to pick up the food, brought it back here, and then placed it into the hands of the needy families. A third person has died in that terrible crash on US-27 in South Bay that occurred August 1st. Two of them were children. We had learned earlier that 37-year-old Tiffany Narcissus Lafayette Silas of Deerfoo Beach had died. She was the driver of the Cadillac that collided with a tractor trailer. Also dying that day was 14-year-old Malia Silas, and the latest to have passed away is 13-year-old Zion Alexis Moore. Glades County deputies are stressing safety, patience, and alert as school returned this week. Lieutenant Gary Johnson says, be alert. In Moorhaven, we do have the new elementary schools, so traffic patterns have changed a little bit in that. We just ask for you to pay attention to the kids as they’re walking to school and home and stuff. Please pay attention to the school zones. It is very, very important. He says they don’t have school zone cameras, but they are researching school bus arm cameras. He says there was a stopped school bus problem years ago, and they stopped that with increased visibility. Come a point that we had deputies following school buses as well as myself to and from, and we slowed it way down. It’s just, that’s something we need to think about is the safety of our children. They’re our future. Without them, we have no futures. I’m Charles Murphy, WAFC News.
Recorded from the WAFC daily newscast (Glades Media).