STUART — More than a century ago, shipwrecked sailors who washed up on the Treasure Coast immediately looked for mile markers nailed to trees and posts to direct them to safety.

These markers were designed to be easily understood by men from every country and education level. Over time they were lost to history, but replicas are currently on display at the House of Refuge at Gilbert’s Bar. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — City officials sent hand-delivered letters to inform the parents or guardians of 280 campers that an individual at one of the city’s six day camps was diagnosed with a “suspected” case of swine flu.

“Because the case has not yet been confirmed, the city has determined that the camp remain open and maintain the same hours,” according to a city press release.

The city is enhancing its cleaning and disinfecting procedures along with educating staff on the symptoms of the swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus.

The city is working with the St. Lucie County Health Department to monitor the situation, city spokeswoman Rita Hart said. Hart said the city would not disclose which camp the individual participated in or whether the affected person was a child or staff worker, due to privacy concerns, Hart said. (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…)

PORT SALERNO — Ann Gunsolus can’t bear the thought of losing her home, even though it’s a makeshift campsite in a privately owned woods a stone’s throw from U.S. 1.

“Cry: That’s what I do so far is cry,” Gunsolus said, while thinking about where she will go when the authorities evict the homeless people from the woods. “When you have nothing, there’s not much you can do.”

Gunsolus and more than a dozen other homeless men and women fear sheriff’s deputies will roust them as soon as Thursday from the patchwork of tents and tarps they call home. (more…)

VERO BEACH — Baseball is scheduled to return to Dodgertown, but it will be primarily amateur level events conducted under the auspices of Minor League Baseball rather than professional players, officials announced today.

The agreement to bring Minor League Baseball here ends months of speculation of what was going to happen to Dodgertown.

History
Photos: Dodgertown’s last hurrah

Gallery: Beginnings of Dodgertown

After 61 years of spring training in Vero Beach, Dodgertown now sits empty
‘Dem bums’

While the facility won’t be hosting Major League Baseball spring training in the near future, officials with Minor League Baseball believe they will still have a major economic impact in the area.

Pat O’Conner, president of Minor League Baseball, said he believes the facility could play host to events for 35 to 40 weeks in the first year of operation alone, which could start as early as spring 2010. (more…)

MARTIN COUNTY — Plans to address zoning and code compliance issues for a western Martin County hunting camp will not include a shooting range at the facility, county planners were told Thursday.

Representatives for J & R Outfitters Inc., which runs J & R Hunting Preserve at 7600 Fox Brown Road near Indiantown, said there are no plans to reopen the gun range that closed at the club in February.

“If a shooting range is ever proposed in the future, that will be the subject of a different site plan,” said Morris Crady of Lucido & Associates land planners. “The shooting range is a concern for several (nearby) property owners, so we’ll have to come back and do this all over again if we decide to have that.”

The hunting preserve leased a portion of its land to South Florida Shooting Sports, which managed a rifle, pistol and skeet shooting range until it voluntarily ceased operations Feb. 3 under fire from adjoining residents and scrutiny of code enforcement officers. (more…)

VERO BEACH — In a rare criminal case, a jury convicted a Vero Beach man of murder and selling drugs in the drug-overdose death of one of his customers.

William McCartney III, of Vero Beach, was convicted Wednesday of murder and illegally selling drugs, including two capsules of methadone that Nolan Adams, 19, took before dying at his home early Jan. 25, 2005.

Adams died in his bed several hours after buying the potent drugs at McCartney’s apartment along Indian River Boulevard. (more…)

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — An oil portrait of Col. Joseph Nine, the medals he was awarded during his 47-year Army career, and the flag which was draped over his casket in 2007 hang on the wall of his son’s home.

They were the first things unpacked when Evan and Rachael Nine moved the family from Palm Beach County last June.

One year later, this coming June, Hayley Nine, the colonel’s granddaughter, will follow his lead into the Army. (more…)

STUART — A Boy Scouts employee accused of illegally dumping a motorboat in a lake at the Tequesta camp where he works will serve one more day in jail after pleading guilty to a felony littering charge.

At a brief hearing Monday, Circuit Judge Steve Levin sentenced Harlan Pierce, 62, of Tequesta to two days in jail, with credit for one day already served. Pierce told Levin he will serve his day on Feb. 17. If Pierce reports to the Martin County jail by 6 a.m., he will be released by 9 p.m., Levin told him. (more…)

Marlins pitcher Scott Proctor (left), plays with his 3-year-old daughter, Mary Elizabeth, and wife, Carrie. Photo by Sarah Grile

JENSEN BEACH — There’s no disputing Scott Proctor’s passion for baseball. After a tough loss, the new Marlins reliever once burned his glove on the dugout steps at Yankee Stadium — “a sacrifice to the baseball gods,” he explained.

Proctor persuaded his wife to name their first child,  5-year-old Camden, after Baltimore’s baseball yard.

Their youngest, 18-month-old Cooper, got his name from the New York town that’s home to the Hall of Fame.

“It helped me understand what really matters,’’ he said. (more…)