Local News Headlines 12-1-23
It’s Christmas Parade season in Highlands County, and the second of the big downtown parades is tonight in Sebring. Lineup will be along the Sebring Parkway just north of Ridgewood beginning at 5:30pm – organizers say it’s a y’all come format for registered units in the lineup – first in line leaves first. The parade itself starts at 7pm up Ridgewood, around the Circle, down South Commerce to the Fairgrounds. Wauchula and Frostproof do their parades tomorrow night – Lake Placid’s downtown parade is next Saturday.
The Sebring Rotary Club’s annual “Circle Of Cans” is on till 3pm today. Nonperishable foods and cash for the Salvation Army – bring some extra along if you drive through the Downtown Circle today.
The track’s “hot” this weekend at Sebring International Raceway with the annual Alan Jay Pistons and Props event on through Sunday. The weekend is being run by Historic Sportscar Racing, meaning you’ll see a ton of cars with a ton of history taking on the famous race track. The “Props” portion of the weekend is tonight when vintage aircraft and warbirds arrive at the track. They’ll taxi down the back stretch, then be on display in the Paddock area.
We’ve got a bit of an algae problem in the County’s lakes after a long, warm summer. Enough so the Florida Department of Health has issued a health alert for the presence of harmful blue-green algal toxins at the Lake Glenada Boat Ramp in Avon Park. The Department looked at samples taken a week or so ago and advises the public to exercise caution in the part of the lake – don’t drink, swim, wade, use personal watercraft, water ski or boat in waters where there is a visible bloom. And, keep pets away from the area.
A local couple is in the clear in that long-running lawsuit over the vacant Kenilworth Lodge in Downtown Sebring. Judge Peter Estrada agreed to drop Mark and Madge Stewart as defendants in the 2014 lawsuit by TD Bank alleging two loans on the historic building were in default and asking for a foreclosure judgement on the properties. The Stewarts gave up control of the business in 2009, after which things went south and came to a head when the building was condemned by the city over fire code violations in the summer of 2016.