News Update for 1/17/23
A local resident has won big in the annual American Library Association awards. Vicki Brown, who is athe manager of the Highlands County Library System and the coordinator for the Heartland Library Coopertative, is one of 10 recipients of the ALA’s
Love My Librarian competition.
She’ll get $5,000 cash plus another $750 in travel expenses to pick up the hardware at the award ceremony in New Orleans.
Brown was recognized for the establishment of a mobile library that travels to cities throughout the cooperative’s service area.
The Highlands County commission meeting – usually held on Tuesdays – will again be pushed back to Thursday morning. This time it’s because county offices were closed yesterday due to the government observance of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King.
However, one county commissioner will be working. Don Elwell will host another town hall-style meeting. That will be this evening from 6-8pm at the University Center Auditorium of South Florida State College.
The event will include county updates and a question-and-answer time. As always, refreshments will be served before the session.
Hot on the heels of the observance of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, a pair of African-American activists will address the Highlands Tea Party this evening.
Known collectively as the “Disciples of Truth,” K. Carl Smith and CS Bennett will discuss “The Great Reset” and what they term an “endless series of engineered crisis here in the United States.”
The Tea Party meets Tuesday evenings in the Vietnam Veterans Hall on Grand Prix Drive behind the Sebring Walmart. Doors open at 5pm.
It appears there will be an election this March in the city of Sebring, with five candidates filing for three seats on the council. Incumbents Lenard Carlisle and Tom Dettman will face challenges from citizens Harrison Havery, Dr. Bobbie Smith-Powell and Josh Stewart.
Josh Stewart is the son of Mark Stewart, a Sebring councilman who decided not to run again this time, calling for new blood on the council.
Both Mayor John Shoop and City Clerk Kathy Haley were returned to office without opposition.