Florida Power And Light Fixes LaBelle Problems?

LABELLE, FL. -- Residents in the Port LaBelle area sighed relief after Florida Power and Light admitted they had faulty equipment providing electricity to the rural area east of the city of LaBelle, replacing a large electrical switching unit on Birchwood Parkway near the Laurel Oaks subdivision. After months, and in some cases years of abnormal amounts of electrical outages, customer complaints made to the Florida Public Sevice Commission apparently got FPL's attention in January. In less than two weeks, FPL's Ft. Myers engineer visited the area and ordered new equipment installed.

Residents of Laurel Oaks and the Port LaBelle Ranchettes were experiencing outages as much as twenty time a month. FPL's resaponse to customer complaints ranged from "that's the way the system is designed" to "there are birds on the lines." Since the equipment replacement the northern Port LaBelle residents have had no outages.

Although two Port LaBelle areas are seemingly back to normal electric service, there may be other areas still with abnormal outage problems. If you are an FPL customer in Hendry or Glades county experiencing abnormal amounts of outages as evidenced by your clocks flashing or computers going down and having to be reset more than once a month please send an email to us. More information on how to get complaints to the Public Sevice Commission are at: FPL service complaints.

Estero Ex-Fire Chief To "Volunteer" In Hendry County?

LABELLE, FL. (February 10, 2006) -- After unexpectedly quitting a high
paying job in December as Estero Fire District's fire chief, Dennis
Merrifield is apparently heading to Hendry county. An item on the February
14th Hendry Commission agenda says Hendry's Emergency Services chief Randy
Bengston will be asking to bring onboard Merrifield as a "volunteer Planning
and Special Projects chief." Merrifield turned down an Estero pay package of
$106,500, heading a department with an $8.6 million budget. We suspect some
deal is pending that will pay Merrifield for his services to Hendry county
after a short "volunteer" duty. Hendry county has highly paid "consultants"
galore who do just about everything for the county from seeking grants to
serving as county attorney and land planning. 42 year old Merrifield left
Estero with a $125,670 severance package and $87,925 in accrued personal
time and retirement benefits.

In The Service

CLEWISTON, FL. -- Army Pvt. Kenneth J. Bellew has graduated from the
Light-wheeled Vehicle Mechanic Advanced Individual Training (AIT) course at
Fort Jackson, Columbia, S.C.
The course is designed to train soldiers to perform maintenance,
troubleshoot, and repair wheeled vehicles and related mechanical
components, which include internal combustion engines and power trains,
spark- and compression-ignition engines, wheel-hub assemblies,
hydraulic-power brakes, suspension and steering systems, and learned to
operate a wheeled vehicle crane, hoist, and winch assembly.
He is the son of Kenneth J. Bellew of N. Datil St., and Teresa Carr of
N. Hacienda, both of Clewiston, Fla.
The private is a 2004 graduate of Clewiston High School.

Citrus Growers May Get Canker $$

LABELLE, FL. -- Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner
Charles H. Bronson today applauded U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary
Mike Johanns and the Bush Administration's decision to make an additional
$100 million available to compensate Florida citrus growers who have lost
trees to citrus canker.

The funds come on top of $200 million that USDA made available in December
to compensate growers for losses from the bacterial disease that afflicts
citrus.

"I want to express my gratitude to Secretary Johanns for responding to the
needs of our growers who have been hit hard by this devastating disease,"
Bronson said. "Since USDA announced in January that eradication of canker
was no longer possible, Florida citrus growers are understandably anxious
to know the procedures they will have to implement to sustain citrus
production. While I know there are more questions than answers right now,
I have given the Secretary Johanns my personal commitment to make all
resources of the Department available to USDA so that this information can
be provided to our growers as quickly as possible. I am sure that the
Secretary's announcement will provide many in our citrus community with
some much needed relief and reassurance."

Bronson reiterated his commitment to homeowners who have lost citrus trees
to canker, saying he will seek funding from the Florida Legislature this
spring to reimburse homeowners whose trees have been destroyed.

Author At Ortona Libary

ORTONA, FL. -- Lee Gramling, a sixth-generation Floridian and author of
five "Cracker Westerns," will speak about his book, "Ninety-Mile Prairie,"
at noon to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 8 at the Ortona Library. Free
and open to the public, this presentation is last program of a project
called "Exploring Florida Through Literature," funded by a grant from the
Florida Humanities Council.

"I'm one of those great rarities in Florida nowadays," Gramling said, "a
native whose ancestors migrated here when this was still a wild untamed
frontier."

Although one branch of his family settled in Levy County in the 1840s, it
wasn't until he lived out west that he decided to write frontier fiction
set in Florida. While he spent seven years in Oklahoma, he became an
admirer of the late Louis L'Amour. His books combine lively storytelling
with the historical background of Florida's wild and wooly past.

Gramling lives and writes in Gainesville, where he works for the Florida
Department of Children and Families.

For more information or to register for the reading/discussion program,
contact Fran Way at 675-7880 or franwayrn@aol.com. For more information
about FHC grants, contact Susan Lockwood, Grants Director at (727) 553-3807
or email slockwood@flahum.org.