INDIANTOWN - Two men received minor injuries after the plane they were in made a hard landing Saturday at the Indiantown Airport, according to a Martin County Sheriff’s Office news release.

Shortly before noon, deputies were called to the airport after a single engine 2008 Cirrus plane crashed, the release states.

The two men on board were taken to Martin Memorial Medical Center with what appeared to be minor, non-life threatening injuries, according to the release. The men told deputies they were flying to Boynton Beach when they made a hard landing at the airport.

The names of the men were not released. However, Federal Aviation Administration records show the plane is registered to Outfitter Rotary, LLC of Jacksonville, Ore.

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INDIANTOWN — Martin County Sheriff’s officials Wednesday morning are investigating the “suspicious death” of a man who has what appears to be a gunshot wound to the head, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.

The man was in the back yard of a home in the 15000 block of Southwest Jackson Street with what appears to be a gunshot wound to the head, sheriff’s spokeswoman Rhonda Irons said. The man is thought to be in his 30s.

Martin County Fire Rescue officials were called about 5:15 a.m. to a report of a man down, who possibly was intoxicated, Irons said. Rescue officials arrived and found the man dead, and notified sheriff’s officials.

“Detectives are conducting interviews with the residents of the home,” Irons said.

Eight people were there when sheriff’s investigators arrived. Seven of the eight live at the single-family residence and one person was visiting. One of the residents reported the incident to 911.

Sheriff’s officials haven’t recovered a gun.

No other information was immediately available.

TREASURE COAST — Manuel Guerra Casas may soon be deported.

The 26-year-old from Indiantown has been forced to withdraw from Kaplan University and was denied scholarships at a seminary. And if pending court proceedings don’t go his way — he’ll also be heading back to Mexico.

So Guerra Casas plans to start walking to Washington D.C.

On Jan. 1, four young people will lace up their sneakers and head north from Miami toward the nation’s capital along U.S. 1. The group hopes that each step will bring more attention to the fact that thousands of undocumented individuals, many who have lived in the U.S. since they were small children, are barred each year from continuing their education in the U.S.

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Workers build pieces of FPL's new solar plant near Indiantown.

These frames will eventually hold mirrors to collect the sun's energy.

With the first mirrors set to arrive this week, that promise is starting to take shape.

“We want to harness all that free energy,” said John Gnecco, FPL’s director of project development.

The idea of solar-thermal energy sounds easy enough, and it is. Kind of.

In the most basic terms, the process works like this: The sun’s light strikes a mirror and is beamed into a pipe, which “catches” the energy and moves it, via molten liquid, into a power plant where it boils water into steam. The steam is used for power.

Jose Suarez, a spokesman for FPL, explains it this way: “When the sun comes up every day, you’re able to take your foot off the gas and let the sun generate steam.”

What seems simple on paper, though, is far more complex on the ground. (more…)

INDIANTOWN — Beyond the taqueria and past the cattle ranches here, more than 700 workers are busy building the largest solar-power plant in Florida.

They’re assembling giant aluminum frames that stretch 40 feet long and weigh 2,800 pounds apiece.

When the frames are finished, they will fit them with 192,000 mirrors.

And, eventually, they will attach steel pipes to hold liquid that the sun will heat to 700 degrees Fahrenheit.

To see the scene at Florida Power & Light Co.’s solar-thermal plant in western Martin County is to think that a new era of clean energy has finally dawned in the Sunshine State.

But not so fast.

Despite lots of talk about the need to be green, state lawmakers dragged their feet on proposed legislation this year. They never managed to pass a renewable-energy bill.

FPL says it has more solar projects ready to go — but it can’t build them until the state approves a law allowing it to recover the costs of construction. (more…)

Land doesn’t get cheaper than this.

Two years ago, Martin County commissioners approved plans for a 139-acre industrial park in Indiantown under rules that allow for quick development.

Now, Venture Park is still empty — and a developer is offering 2.6 acres for free in a bid to jump-start the local economy.

The parcel has a value of about $679,000, or about $6 per square foot. (more…)

INDIANTOWN — For years, the owners of J&R Outfitters ran a hunting lodge featuring exotic game such as Asian water buffalo, Nilgai antelope and Pere David deer thinking they had all the required Martin County permits.

But several code violations were discovered at J&R Outfitters last fall after the opening of a shooting range that outraged nearby homeowners with incessant gunfire.

Now Bill Richey and Joe O’Bannon are aiming to keep their hunting lodge open by jumping through all the regulatory hoops that apply to their business at 7600 S.W. Fox Brown Road.

“We never dreamed that what we were doing was illegal and we never tried to get away with anything,” said Richey, a former state prosecutor. “We have been no secret in Martin County. We have been here for 20 years.” (more…)

Charges that a Buffalo Bills player exposed himself outside a woman’s home in Port St. Lucie have been dismissed, authorities said today.

Corey McIntyre, 30, who played football at South Fork High School in Stuart and lives in Indiantown, was arrested on a warrant charging him with indecent exposure related to a March 20 incident in which a woman said she saw him performing a sex act on himself.

The State Attorney’s office dismissed the charge because the woman who reported the incident now says she didn’t see the man exposing himself and couldn’t give other details, said Officer Tom Nichols, a spokesman for the Port St. Lucie Police Department. (more…)

Detectives with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Unit in partnership with the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco conducted an undercover operation on Thursday, when they checked 17 convenience stores throughout Martin County to see if they sold alcohol to minors.

One-hundred percent compliance was reported on that date. No sales were made to the concerned citizen volunteer that worked with detectives.

This operation was the second conducted in the past thirty days. Two arrests were previously made on May 7, 2009. These operations continue year-round.

INDIANTOWN — A 14-year-old boy is accused of animal cruelty after his dog was dragged by a vehicle the boy had left him tied to, sheriff’s deputies say.

An officer with the Martin County Sheriff’s animal control unit spotted the injured dog Sunday morning by Mac’s Grocery in the Booker Park area.

A sheriff’s deputy recalled seeing the dog, uninjured, the day before, tied to a vehicle parked outside the teen’s home.

After interviewing the boy and his parents, the deputy learned the boy had left the dog tethered to the vehicle.

Later that day, the teen’s father gave a family member permission to borrow the vehicle and the relative drove away without realizing the dog had been tied to the vehicle. Several relatives use the same vehicle, the family said.

The dog was dragged nearly 530 yards before it was able to break free, deputies estimated.
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