The Fort Pierce Utilities Authority is requesting that all customers located on South Hutchinson Island boil their water for 72 hours — until Sunday — after a contractor damaged a water main on Seaway Drive.

The advisory, issued before 9 a.m. on Thursday, is for 72 hours and began immediately. The boil water notice is in effect until Sunday.

Customers will need to boil all water used for drinking or cooking during this time period. Utilities authority officials said in a statement that they regret any inconvenience to customers.
TCPalm.com

PORT ST. LUCIE — Two months ago, Port St. Lucie Elementary’s writing tests went missing, only no one knew it.

The tests — about 100 of them — languished in the district offices, improperly packaged and grouped with other test materials.

School officials learned of the mistake Thursday when the state released the results of the writing portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and nothing showed up for Port St. Lucie Elementary.

After a frantic 24-hour search and several email exchanges with the state Department of Education, school officials realized today the mistake was theirs, that the tests had never left the district offices. They were found, wrongly placed in a “Scholastic” box, today. (more…)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is hosting open houses next week to answer questions about safety at Florida Power & Light Co.’s two nuclear plants.

NRC staff will be on hand starting at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the St. Lucie nuclear plant’s FPL Energy Encounter building, 6501 S. AIA, Jensen Beach.

The Turkey Point nuclear plant open house is scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday at Homestead City Hall.

In these tight times, pay cuts and layoffs are affecting all ranks of school district employees from office staff to administrators.

But during the 2007-08 fiscal year, more than 61 Treasure Coast school district administrators earned more than $100,000. Now, some of these top earners are bracing for budget cuts.

Treasure Coast school superintendents made top dollar with Indian River County Schools Superintendent Harry La Cava taking home the biggest paycheck at $192,750.

However, for the 2009-10 fiscal year, La Cava is volunteering to take a 10 percent cut from his base salary, which equals about $17,500.

“If everybody is taking some kind of hit, we’re right in the mix of it,” La Cava said.

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FORT PIERCE – St. Lucie County officials, in conjunction with the St. Lucie County Fire District and Florida Division of Forestry, have implemented a county-wide burn ban effective immediately.

The burn ban applies to all non-permitted, outside burning and fireworks. Agricultural burning will be permitted on a case by case basis as authorized by the State Division of Forestry. The drought index for St. Lucie County is currently 672, out of 800. An index reading higher than 550 is considered extremely dry.

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