News Update for 1/4/23

It’s been a long, hard road, but officials from Bernie Little Distributing say they are gettng ready to ship their first truckloads of Budweiser from their new 63,000 square-foot warehouse off the Sebring Parkway.
It was in February of last year officials broke ground on the major expansion project that will serve Highlands, Hardee, Polk and Okechobee counties.
They say crews have been moving equipment and furnishings from their former facility south of Sebring for the past few weeks. The first trucks are slated to roll out early this coming Monday morning.

Highlands County Commissioners will meet for their first meeting of the year tomorrow morning. The regular Tuesday session was bumped back to Thursday, due to the government holiday on Monday.
The meeting will beging with Highlands County Supervisor of Elections Karen Healy being sworn in to office.
Most of the meeting will be board housekeeping, including the acceptance of grants and appointments to county board. Also on the table is nearly a million dollars for the county’s State Housing Initiative Partnership – or SHIP program.

Polk County Sheriff’s officials have revealed a Sebring man was killed New Year’s Day in an All Terrain Vehicle accident just outside Lake Wales. According to reports, 36-year-old Christopher Mears was found in a drainage ditch off Lake Kitsa Drive during the early morning hours Sunday.
Deputites say it appears Mears had been riding the Honda ATV in the area with friends, when he failed to make a turn and was thrown into the ditch – where he apparently drown.
Authorities say speed and impairment appear to be factors in the accident.

Polk County is getting help addressing what Sheriff Grady Judd calls a crisis. The county, last month, received the first installment of money it’ll get as part of the opioid settlement reached with major drug companies.
The county got 400-thousand dollars. In total, it’ll get 30 million dollars over the next 18 years. Sheriff Judd said yesterday fentanyl is pouring into communities across the country.
He tells ABC Action News in one case, three months ago, his deputies seized enough fentanyl to kill almost three million people.