WAFC Local News – May 13, 2026, 8:32 AM
Transcript
I’m Charles Murphy reporting, Henry County Commissioners are tweaking their specialty license requirements due to changes in state law. Commissioner Michael Atkinson says the county is really trying to help homeowners out. If you can do it without, why would you go through the headache of going to the state for one and getting on a list, because now you’re held under different guidelines, where if you don’t have a license, something happens, you just walk away from it. And the homeowner is the one that’s in bad shape. You know, there’s nothing to fall back on the unlicensed contractor. The LaBelle City Commission held a workshop meeting with the LaBelle Downtown Revitalization Council. They discussed ways to enhance downtown by taking advantage of the Caloosahatchee River, the oak trees, Barron Park, and having a united vision. Alex DeStefano says they should connect with the Captain Henry House. If we’re going to try to rebuild or rehabilitate all these historic structures, we want to make it all connected so that people that come and visit are going to come and visit everything and check out what we have. Hugo Vargas says LaBelle is in the middle of growing up. We have grit. This is the kind of town that we are. We’ve had to endure and we did endure. We do endure, right? I like the thrives part, and I think that’s what we’re working our way to. Carica Mangiello wants to keep LaBelle a small town. We’re growing. Everyone understands that we need to grow and that growth is coming whether we want it or not. And the question is not if, but who’s going to be guiding that. They want to make the downtown more walkable and would like to have farmers markets and more community events while improving lighting. In the courts, a Moorhaven man was sentenced to five life terms after a double fatal traffic crash that occurred in Lehigh Acres on State Road 82 on May 25, 2024. Jimmy Roberts Jr. was reportedly going 114 miles an hour. He was also driving on a suspended license. He killed one of his passengers and the other driver and injured a couple of other passengers in his car. A 21-year-old Henry County man is facing charges of street racing. Fernando Chavez was spotted in the area of State Road 80 and Cullingswood Parkway by Henry County deputies. They heard a loud exhaust of a motor vehicle and observed two vehicles who appeared to be racing at a high rate of speed, about 90 to 95 miles an hour. They were a white pickup truck and a dark colored sedan. The deputies pulled over Chavez in the pickup truck and Chavez allegedly became argumentative, denying he was street racing. He was also charged with resisting arrest. A 39-year-old Glades County man is facing charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in an incident on Green Street in Moorhaven beginning as a disturbance. Police allege that Ja’Quarrel Hale pulled a pocketknife during the verbal altercation and made threats. An aggravated battery arrest in Glades County has been reduced to a misdemeanor by the state attorney’s office. Eric Hood of Moorhaven was arrested on March 15 at the Lakeport RV laundromat. He allegedly had thrown rocks at the victim. Making threats, he allegedly stated, I will rip your head off and I’m a trained killer. The aggravated battery charge again referred to the misdemeanor court. A state attorney dropped charges of fleeing and eluding law enforcement and driving on licenses suspended against 70-year-old Ambrosio Ramirez. He allegedly was speeding through the city of Moorhaven when he was pulled over in March on 10th Street. He allegedly had difficulty speaking and failed to obey lawful commands to place the vehicle in park, attempting to drive off from the traffic stop. I’m Charles Murphy, WAFC News.
Recorded from the WAFC daily newscast (Glades Media).