WAFC Local News – December 01, 2025, 8:40 AM
Transcript
I’m Charles Murphy reporting. The Henry County Commission finalized new cemetery regulations. It’ll inhibit what can be placed on gravestones, but also make the cemeteries easier to mow and maintain. Residents mostly complained about removal of their trinkets, mementos, family heirlooms, and solar lights on grave sites. Trinidad Perez wanted to keep benches she installed in 2011 at her loved one’s grave. They said, okay, just bring a brick, a cement bench, and everything will be okay. Now they’re telling me, remove that cement bench, you have to get a contractor to do this and to do that. That was never told to me when I put those benches out there. Henry County is still facing a lot of development pressures. Commissioner Mitchell Wills says he wants developers to build the same quality development in Henry County as they do on the coast. You’re going to come in here and spend just as much time and excellence on this project that you did down there, I don’t even care to see you come in here. And everybody’s like, well, you can’t tell them that. Well, I’m telling them that. And from a personal position, that’s where I am. And right now it’s frustrating because of Senate Bill 180, we’re kind of stuck in a rock and a hard place. He’d like to have more self-contained developments with commercial mixed in. He wants to require interior roads in these developments too, and make the projects pay for the impacts they cause. The city of Belle Glade received $2.5 million in appropriations from the state budget this year. Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies reported homicides are down by one third in the city and shootings 39% this year. Mark Halperin with the PBSO had those statistics. Property crime, probably one of our biggest initiatives as a Sheriff’s office county-wide was to stop burglary vehicles. Out here in the city of Belle Glade, they’re down 78%. Residential burglaries are down 50%. And construction burglaries are down 67%. And every property crime, we have significant decreases with no increase at all. The Glades County School Board honored their employees of the year. Teacher of the year at West Glade School is Stephanie Parrish. School related employee of the year is Isidra Cardona. At Moorhaven, Glenn Ford was the teacher of the year and Rashaun Dacroski, support person of the year at Moorhaven Elementary. Bianca Ross was teacher of the year for Moorhaven Junior Senior High School and Janice Smith was support person of the year. Palm Beach County Commissioners elected Sarah Baxter as the mayor for the next year and Marcy Woodward as the vice mayor. Baxter represents the Glade region on the board. She thanked the County Commission and her family for supporting her. I would like to thank Jesus for helping me get here and stay sane in what can sometimes be a crazy world. I would like to also thank my fellow commissioners for granting me the profound honor of serving as your mayor for the next year. So thank you so much. Baxter says her goal is to keep improving Palm Beach County. I look forward to continuing those efforts, working closely with my fellow board members and our new administrator. I’m Charles Murphy, WAFC News.
Recorded from the WAFC daily newscast (Glades Media).