Welcome to Tuesday … here are the 5 Things You Need to Know In and Around Osceola County today.

1. The Osceola County School District will close six of its 20 sites providing students and families meals over the summer.

The district will stop serving meals on Thursday at Osceola High School, Highlands Elementary, St. Luke’s Missionary Baptist Church and Cameron Preserve in Kissimmee, Deerwood Elementary in Poinciana and New Faith Community Church in Holopaw.

Other sites will continue to serve meals as they have since schools closed in March every Monday through Thursday through July 16. For a list of the other 14 meal sites, check out the Osceola Schools section of Positively Osceola.com.

2. The number of coronavirus cases in Osceola County is up a bit. But so is the amount of data coming in from testing.

According to the Florida Department of Health, Osceola County recorded 38 new cases over the weekend, the highest back-to-back reporting days here since the height of the wave in April. But that was based on 1,135 lab tests returned, also the highest number of tests in back-to-back days. Of those, 3.3 percent were positive tests, still lower than the 4.54 percent rate for Osceola County since March and the 5.4 percent rate for the entire state.

Those stats tell us a couple of key messages:

  • The coronavirus is still present in our community
  • It is NOT currently spreading out of control in our community
  • We should still be wearing masks when in close presence of public, keeping our social distance where possible and washing hands and using sanitizer at every opportunity.

 

3. Qualifying for political candidates has ended, so the races for local and state office and the primary elections for Aug. 18 are now clear.

The biggest change in Osceola County is that there will be three new School Board members come this November. Two are running for other positions, and a third is not seeking any re-election. The city of Kissimmee elects a new mayor this year, and two of the six candidates are current commissioners, so their seats are up for election as well. The city gets a new mayor because he’s running for the County Commission. Aren’t elections fun?

We’ve broken down all of the city, county and constitutional officer races in the Osceola News section of Positively Osceola.com, so go check it out.

Anyone running in a three-way election or more must win by 50 percent plus one vote, or the top two will move on to a run-off during the Nov. 3 general election.

As a reminder, you must be registered to vote in Osceola County by July 20 to vote in the primary. All election and voting information, including how to arrange to vote by mail if you would like, can be found at the Supervisor of Elections Office website at Vote Osceola.com.

4. Gas prices and demand are on their way back up slowly.

Florida has gas prices under the national average, and Osceola County has them under the state average, even as more people leave their homes and head out of their driveways in their cars and fill up their tanks more.

Osceola County is paying just under $1.99 per gallon according to a AAA report. The Florida average is just under $2.02 per gallon, and the national average is now $2.10 per gallon, which is the cheapest it’s been in at least three years. This time last month the national average was $1.86, but it was $2.69 this time last year.

One AAA leader said higher demand will contribute to increasing gas prices in the coming weeks, but they aren’t going to spike to typical summer prices. That’s because demand won’t be sufficient enough to drive down the supply on hand.

5. Sea World is still pricing tickets at “Welcome Back” prices through June 21.

SeaWorld is continuing its Welcome Back pricing deals. Single day SeaWorld tickets are as low as $53.99, the Fun Pass, which gets you all of 2020, is priced down to $79.99 and there are deals for annual passes available to shop online at Sea World.com / Orlando. Aquatica tickets go for as low as $39.99, with big savings for two-park passes as well. Shop online to also get pre-paid parking and dining deals to eat and drink all day for one price.

Remember, you must order tickets online and reserve a reservation to go to SeaWorld or Aquatica, so the parks can manage its smaller capacity percentages. SeaWorld is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and closed Tuesdays and Thursdays for sanitization; Aquatica is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed Mondays and Wednesdays.

Today’s weather will be mostly dry, sunny and warm. Drier air means it won’t be so muggy. It will be warm, with a high of 89 degrees, and just a 20 percent chance of rain.

with just a 30 percent change of rain, partly cloudy skies, and a high right around 90. There will be just a few clouds and a light breeze tonight, with a low around 70. Expect a little higher humidity and chance of rain Wednesday, but we’ll be here to tell you about that tomorrow.