2020-05-05 News Article2020 Lake Okeechobee News - merger of Okeechobee News, Clewiston News, Glades County Democrat, and The Sun 11
Senior students to be honored in Flagler Park
By Cathy Womble
Lake Okeechobee News
OKEECHOBEE —The Okeechobee City
Council met May 5 for the fast time in almost
a month, after their last meeting was unex-
pectedly canceled One of the items on the
agenda was a surprise that has been planned
for the high school seniors of Okeechobee.
Each senior will have his or her own snipe
sign (see definition below) displayed in
Flagler Park with thea name and picture on a.
After the signs have been up for two
weeks, the students will be given their signs
to take home. "I guess the cat is out of the
bag now," said City Administrator Marcos
Monies de Oca. Some of the local businesses
Drive-thru testing planned
and organizations wanted to do something
special to recognize the seniors, and this was
what they came up with.
In other business, the council unanimous-
ly decided to send a resolution, similar to the
one sent by the county commissioners, to
Gov. Ron DeSands, requesting he consider a
speedier reopening of Okeechobee County
and city businesses. During the discussion,
Mayor Dowling Watford explained that the
city council, the county commissioners, the
sheriff and the police chief are obligated to
follow the governor's order regarding the
opening of businesses whether they agree
with them or not.
"Please don't put them in that position,"
he said.
at Okeechobee Walmart
Special to the Lake Okeechobee News
OKEECHOBEE—A COVID-19 drive-thru
testing site will open Friday, May 15, in the
parking lot of the Walmart store, 2101 S. Par-
rott Ave. in Okeechobee. The site is support-
ed by Walmart, Quest Diagnostics and state
and local officials and will test adults who
meet CDC and state and local guidelines on
who should be tested, including first respond-
ers, health care providers and others with
symptoms of COVID-19 and those in high
risk groups without symptoms. Please note,
testing is not available inside Walmart stores.
"Vvaknart is proud to help support the ex-
pansion of COV1D-19 testing in Okeechobee
during this unprecedented time," said Mo-
nesia Brown, Walmart public affairs director
for Florida • The site will be open Monday,
Wednesday and Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.,
weather permitting.
• Testing is for adults who meet CDC and
state and local guidelines on who should
be tested, including first responders, health
care providers and others with symptoms
of COAD -19 and those in high-risk groups
without symptoms.
• Individuals must be 18 years and older.
• The testing site will require an appoint-
ment through Quest's MyQuestTM online
portal and app, online at MyQuestCOVID-
TesLcom, which will screen and schedule
appointments for those Individuals that meet
medical eligibility for the testing sites.
• Once on site, those being tested will
need to wear a mask and stay in their cars
for verification of eligibility criteria, ID check
and self-administered test For the safety of all
those on-site, the test site is not available to
those who walk up.
• The site will use a self-administered
nasal swab test that will allow those being
tested to swab thew own nose on-site while in
their vehicles, observed by a trained medi-
cal volunteer to ensure the sample is taken
correctly, and drop the sealed sample into a
container on thea way out of the dm•e-thru
site.
• Quest Diagnostics will handle process-
ing test samples and communicating results
to those tested and applicable departments
of health.
• Any questions regarding testing and
appointments, please call Quest's dedicated
COVID-19 fine at 866448-7719, Monday
through Friday, 7 am. to 7 p.m. Eastern time.
• The site will be staffed by Walmart
pharmacists and associates. White individuals
who are tested are awaiting results, please
follow CDC guidelines and take steps to help
prevent the virus from spreading to people in
your home and community.
Hair salons and barbers to reopen
By Richard Mahon
Lake Okeechobee News
TALLAHASSEE—Gov Ron DeSantis
announced May 8 that personal service busi-
nesses such as cosmetology salons, barber-
shops and nail salons will be able to reopen
on May 11 under certain conditions.
If the business is located in a county
currently under phase one of the reopening
plan, they can open with a guideline to limit
occupancy to 50 percent of building capacity.
Other guidelines published by the gover-
nor's task force include:
• Accepting patrons by appointment
only and avoiding group appointments that
increase occupancy during the same time
periods. Regularly sanitizing working stations
and equipment between interactions with
customers to the greatest frequency feasible.
• Requiring all employees to wear face
masks, cloth face coverings and other PPE
while inside or within close proximity of
members of the public. Encouraging custom-
ers to wear face masks or doth face coverings
when entering the premises, and providing
face masks or cloth face coverings upon
request, V available.
• Posting signage to direct customers
against congregating outside of the premises.
• Removing all unnecessary, fre-
quent -touch items such as magazines,
newspapers, service menus, any other
unnecessary paper products and decor from
customer service areas.
City Police Chief Bob Peterson said they do
not have the manpower to go door-todoor
constantly to check on each business, but
they are responding to complaints, and there
have been a lot of those.
"People are calling and telling on each
other," he said. They are also responding to
obvious violations such as 20 cars parked
in front of a business that is supposed to be
closed.
Tiffany Collins of the Okeechobee County
Health Department said the expansion of
testing is one of the health department's top
priorities. The state received over 200,000
of the antibody lest kits, but those will be
reserved for use in health care facilities to test
health care workers. The testing criteria has
been expanded to include not only cough-
ing, fever and shortness of breath, but also
chills, muscle pain, new loss of taste or smell,
vomiting or diarrhea and sore throat. If you
have any of those symptoms, you can call the
health department to be screened and evalu-
ated before an appointment for free testing is
scheduled. Some pharmacies will be able to
administer the test as well.
She said there were three new positive
tests at Okeechobee Health Care Fadfity, one
resident and two staff members; also, that
everyone in the facility, along with those at
Grand Oaks, will be retested on Friday, May S.
Ms. Collins also reminded everyone that
school-age children who need thea physicals
or vaccinations in order to enter school next
year should go ahead and get those done.
Mayor Dowling Watford Jr. proclaimed
the month of May 2020 as "Mental Health
Awareness Month" and as "Building Safety
Month." He proclaimed the week of June 1-5
as "Code Enforcement Officers' Appreciation
Week," and Okeechobee City Police Sgt
Dawn Wendt was presented with a longevity
service award for 20 years of service to the
department
A snipe sign is defined as a sign made
of any material when such sign is tacked,
nailed, posted, pasted, glued or otherwise
attached to trees, poles, fences or other
objects, and the advertising matter appear-
ing thereon is not applicable to the present
use of the premises upon which such signis
located.
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