OKEECHOBEE – The Okeechobee County Economic Development Corporation (OCEDC) has been busy over the past three months ...
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OKEECHOBEE – The Okeechobee County Economic Development Corporation (OCEDC) has been busy over the past three months, according to the quarterly report given at the July 22 meeting of the Okeechobee County Commissioners.
Bert Culbreth said a top objective of the OCEDC is to acquire the state property that formerly was the site of the “boys’ school.” The property, on U.S. 441, was originally the site of the Okeechobee County campus of the Florida School for Boys.
The facility was privatized in 1982 by the non-profit Eckard Foundation and renamed the Eckard Youth Development Center. In 2009 the for-profit G4S Youth Services took control of the property.
In 2017 G4S Youth Services was renamed TrueCore Behavioral after being bought by BHSB Holdings Inc.
TrueCore lost the state contract in December 2020. The Department of Juvenile Justice has closed the facility.
“This is a huge opportunity for this county to get this property back in our hands, to do something great for it,” said Culbreth.
In the past quarter, the OCEDC:
• Collaborated with the county on the entryway enhancement project;