OKEECHOBEE — A Martin Luther King Jr. parade will be held on Saturday, Jan. 16, 2027, from 10 to 11 a.m.

Parade plans were approved during the Oct. 6 meeting of the Okeechobee City Council.

The parade will be hosted by DGWS Outreach. Director of the organization, Patience Washington, spoke with the council regarding the plans for the parade.

Washington said that she, along with the Ladies of Elegance organization, want to honor the life of Reverand Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“He spoke up just not for people that look like him, but who spoke up for humankind,” she said. “We would like to have a parade.” She explained she knew they needed permission from the council to hold a parade and that there would need to be some street closures, so they were bringing it to the council early.

Mayor Dowling Watford said he thought it was a great idea.

As the council discussed the idea, they noted that there were costs involved in holding parades, and the city budgets for them in advance. Mayor Watford said the costs are approximately $5,000 to $6,000 per parade, and they did not budget for this parade.

“This is not a parade that we budgeted for, so we would have to make some adjustments, work a little magic to make it happen.”

He said parades create quite a bit of overtime for both the Public Works department and the City Police department, because of all the road closures. He said they have discussed having the parade use an alternate route, but that is difficult in terms of safety and would increase overtime costs.

He asked Washington if they would know in advance if there was not going to be enough participation to hold the parade. He said he knew that happened once before, and they did not have the parade. “We’d just ask if say, a few days before, you realize, if you’ll just let us know.”

Washington said they would be able to let the city know a month in advance.

The council voted to approve the request.