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HIGHLANDS NEWS-SUN Friday, August 10, 2018 VOL. 99 | NO. 222 | $1.00 YOUR HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER SINCE 1919 An Edition Of The Sun Deadly dangers of leaving people, animals in cars By MELISSA MAIN Dressel said, “An investiga- STAFF WRITER tion is still ongoing.” Although this child SEBRING — On Tuesday, recovered, the statistics are Frank Olivero Jr., a fire- bleak. On average, a child PHIL ATTINGER/STAFF fighter with West Sebring dies every 10 days from Volunteer Fire Department, heatstroke after being left in Florida Representatives Matt Caldwell, on left, found a 10-month-old a car, according to Safe Kids and Cary Pigman talk about how there is no child left unattended in Worldwide. advantage to putting sewage as a fertilizer until a hot car at Sun ‘n Lake Heatstroke and death are it’s been properly treated. Pigman added that Elementary School’s parking risks when children are left septic tanks add to the nutrient load in surface lot, according to a post on alone in vehicles. In 2017, water because while they remove bacteria, West Sebring Volunteer Fire 43 children died in a hot car, they don’t remove phosphorus or nitrogen from Department’s Facebook according to the National human waste. page. Safety Council. The national Olivero opened the door, average per year for children cooled the child down in dying from pediatric vehicu- Pigman, another car and called lar heatstroke is 37. With last authorities. Emergency year’s total at 43, there was a MELISSA MAIN/STAFF Medical Services arrived 16 percent increase from the A 10-month-old baby was left unattended Tuesday in a hot car that Caldwell talk and checked on the child. national average. was parked at Sun ‘n Lake Elementary School. Frank Olivero Jr., a Fortunately, the child was In addition to children volunteer firefighter, found the child and contacted authorities. not seriously harmed. dying in hot cars, the Highlands County American Veterinary die every year, and cracking “Your vehicle can quickly issues with Sheriff’s Office Public Medical Association (AVMA) the windows makes no Tea Party Information Officer Scott stated that hundreds of pets difference. HOT | 6A Candidates for House, Ag. Commissioner meet Flooding still plagues Silver Fox with local Tea Party County: Can’t fix private roads By PHIL ATTINGER STAFF WRITER By PHIL ATTINGER STAFF WRITER SEBRING — Tuesday became a good night to hear views on preserving SEBRING — In the middle of a pow- Florida’s water resources and agriculture er outage during last Friday’s heavy from two Republican state legislators. rains, Susan Dillow of Foal Path in State representatives Cary Pigman and Sebring got a knock on Matt Caldwell spoke to the Highlands the door from a deputy Tea Party about their views for Florida’s sheriff. future. Pigman (R-Avon Park) is running Her husband for his last term as state representative Maynard’s wearable for District 55. Caldwell (R-Fort Myers) is radio-enabled heart running for Commissioner of Agriculture monitor had picked up and Consumer Services. a heart attack — nine Speaking on Florida’s fiscal, water and and a half seconds agriculture resources, they shared speak- long — and the deputy ing and question time for an audience of was sent to tell them COX to go to the hospital CANDIDATES | 6A immediately. She had to root around in the dark with a flashlight, gathering up and dressing their two grandchildren, ages PHIL ATTINGER/STAFF 7 and 4, who were staying with them. A drainage ditch dug by Maynard Dillow along Foal Path in Silver Fox subdivision, shown here Then they had an extremely hard in October 2017, caught and held some of the stormwater runoff from Hurricane Irma, but time getting out, Susan Dillow said. not all of it. Foal Path is a private road through his property, so other residents can reach The deputy had trouble reaching their homes. He maintains it, but has now visited county commissioners twice about a long- them. term drainage solution. “It was all we could do to get out of the driveway,” Susan Dillow said. digs ruts and deep holes in them after and Stirrup Paths over to the county as Once they were released after four heavy rains — like the ones in the last public right of way, County Engineer days in the hospital, they went to the two weeks. Clinton Howerton Jr. said the roads MARC VALERO/STAFF Highlands County Board of County “The deputy said, ‘This road is need to get built up before he could Commission meeting on Tuesday to unbelieveable,’” Susan Dillow said. put in drainage ditches. There’s also From left: Nayelin Sanchez and Jabdiel Rivera ask for help. Maynard Dillow said the “hills” in the question of where to put the water. sport the firefighter hats they received from the “I’m lucky he’s here,” Susan Dillow, Foal Path are big enough to hide a Green said the water West Sebring VFD. 65, said. “I’m too young to be a widow. small car. In places, they dip down could go to Wolf Lake, He’s too young to die.” three feet or more from the road to the east, but it’s full. Commissioners said they couldn’t surface. Also, if he or Howerton Sunridge do much, not without breaking the Patricia Cox, of Mare Path, said she change drainage and law. had relatives “trapped” at her house cause a problem for “I want to help every single person over Independence Day because of someone downstream, out there,” said Road and Bridge water up to two feet deep. they’re liable for it. Baptist holds Director Kyle Green at Tuesday’s meet- Saddle Path and Mare Path don’t That caused ing. “The county went in and did it really have much in the way of ditches, problems 20 years HOWERTON before (my time). We’re not supposed either. ago, Howerton said. backpack to spend public funds on private To make matters worse, all-terrain The owner of the lands. It’s illegal to do it.” vehicle riders have cut a trail from bayhead dug a ditch to drain it for Foal Path is an easement road Queen Avenue, north of Silver Fox in cattle grazing. The Southwest Florida giveaway through private property, not a public the Wolf Creek area, through private Water Management District said “no,” road, as is nearby Stirrup Path. Both property to Mare Path. made him fill it back in and fined him By MARC VALERO were put in place to solve an access That has let stormwater funnel $10,000, Howerton said. STAFF WRITER problem, and provide the only way in right down Mare Path and Foal Path, If the county takes on the roads or out for residents on those roads and making the road damage even worse. and right of way, Howerton and the SEBRING — Dozens of smiling on two other platted roads. Green said a man with a Bobcat landowner would have to jointly apply kids and thankful parents picked up Silver Fox, a rural subdivision of filled in the exit of that trail onto Mare to SWFWMD to do with the man’s backpacks filled with school supplies unpaved roads off State Road 66, was Path, but it’s washed out several times, property exactly what got him fined Thursday at Sunridge Baptist Church. developed before the county passed and the ATV riders have increased the years ago. Sunridge Baptist hosted its annual comprehensive land development damage. Also, Howerton said, a project to back-to-school backpack giveaway regulations. It should have had five Members of the subdivision visited fix all the problem spots would run event, which included free haircuts and raised shell roads with drainage the County Commission last October, $300,000-$500,000, and the residents a fire engine for the little ones to check ditches heading north into the scrub when post-Hurricane Irma rains had can’t afford to pay that. out from West Sebring Volunteer Fire from Derby Lane, a “frontage road” the same effect. The answer was much Green said he “didn’t want to be Department. West Sebring also gave approximately 500 feet north of the the same then. shot” for saying it, but the county away plastic firefighter hats and pencils highway. “We need something now. We’re might want to consider a countywide to the kids. It has three complete roads instead, living on a road that’s not drivable,” stormwater drainage assessment to The backpacks were filled by church and two broken ones — Saddle Path Isaac Fernandez of Mare Path said on handle such costs. members with the required school and Mare Path — blocked by a bay- Tuesday. While it made sense to handle all supplies for the specific grade level of head/wetland from connecting to He said he was told when he bought the drainage problems as one system, the children who received them. Derby Lane. there that the county maintained the Commissioner Don Elwell said it Sunridge Baptist Pastor Tim Finch None of the roads are maintained by road. However, that road has not been wouldn’t fly with residents in some said, “We are just trying to bring folks the county, Green said. added to the county-maintained road places, like Spring Lake Improvement in and provide free haircuts and get the People who bought property on list. District, where the district supervisors basic school supplies for all the kids.” Saddle Path and Mare Path can only His father, in his 90s, lives on Mare had already paid for and worked with The school supplies and backpacks get in or out on Stirrup Path and Foal Path across from Cox.

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