FORT PIERCE — Questions about how to revitalize the local economy, the future of Fort Pierce Utilities Authority are among chief concerns for voters entering Tuesday’s Fort Pierce City Commission elections for District 1 and District 2.

In District 1, R. “Duke” Nelson is hoping to return to the City Commission by defeating incumbent Rufus Alexander. In District 2, incumbent Christine Coke faces three challengers: Curtis Boyd, Tom Perona and Rick Reed. District 1 primarily includes citizens west of U.S. 1 and north of Delaware Avenue as well as those along northern Okeechobee Road. District 2 primarily includes citizens south of Delaware Avenue along with those east of U.S. 1 as well as those south of Okeechobee Road.

Unemployment was at 15.3 percent in the county in September, according to the state’s Agency for Workforce Innovation. High unemployment combined with foreclosure rates have led voters to search for elected officials to come up with smart solutions to fix the problems while managing a budget diminished by a 17.4 percent decline in local property values.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — The City Council voted 4-1 at its Monday night meeting to move forward with making Midway Road the dividing line between the city and Fort Pierce.

But officials have just begun ironing out the details regarding utilities and annexations in the joint planning agreement.

The council agreed to assign Midway Road from the Indian River Lagoon to the St. Lucie County Fairgrounds as the boundary. Councilwoman Michelle Berger had requested at the council’s Oct. 19 meeting a follow-up discussion about the joint planning agreement for services north of Midway Road.

“I’m quite comfortable putting a line at Midway Road,” Berger said.
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STUART — A Stuart woman was killed Thursday night as she was attempting to cross the southbound lanes of U.S. 1 in the 1700 block of Northwest Federal Highway.

Stuart police report Martha Clearwater, 42, was airlifted to Lawnwood Medical Center in Fort Pierce with severe injuries following the 7:15 p.m. accident and was pronounced dead shortly after arriving.
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J.J. Taylor Companies, the second largest beer distributor in Florida, plans to start construction this week on a warehouse and beverage distribution center in Fort Pierce.

About 57 employees are working out of a temporary location in the city, said Jose E. Rivera, vice president of finance and administration for the company. Those employees will move to the new 25,000-square-foot center when it opens next year in the Crossroads Park of Commerce on Okeechobee Road, he said. (more…)

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — A 25-year-old Fort Pierce resident was killed Saturday night in a three-vehicle accident in northern St. Lucie County, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report.

Juan Alberto Lopez was northbound on King’s Highway just before 10 p.m. when he lost control of his vehicle about 500 feet south of Palomar Parkway and crossed into the southbound lane into the path of two vehicles, according to the report.

The first vehicle, driven by Port St. Lucie resident Lacy Catherine Mahon, 17, swerved and hit the left front of Lopez’ vehicle. Mahon and her passenger, Fort Pierce resident Taryn M. Horvath, also 17, sustained minor injuries.
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FORT PIERCE — Faced with double-digit unemployment and one of the highest rates of foreclosure in the country, St. Lucie County commissioners created a “local stimulus program” to speed up construction projects and create jobs in an economy desperate for them.

The plan included an ordinance to give local companies an edge in the bidding process and ensure that most workers involved in county projects live in St. Lucie.

But six months into the program, it’s hard to define how successful it’s been.
Economic change comes slowly, and even “fast-tracked” projects can take months to go through the design, bidding and building process. County officials, however, say their efforts have improved St. Lucie’s dire economic situation without raising taxes or increasing long-term debt.

“It’s incremental, but any jobs that we can add to the local economy absolutely has to help,” said Faye Outlaw, the county administrator.

Officials point to these milestones: (more…)

The medical business continues to boom on the Treasure Coast.

Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce announced last week that it plans to expand its intensive care unit.

The $16.8 million project will bring the hospital’s total bed count in intensive care to 54, making it the largest intensive care unit on the Treasure Coast. There are about 40 beds in intensive care now, said Jana Eschbach, a hospital spokeswoman.

The announcement comes just months after HCA Inc.-owned Lawnwood opened a
trauma center. The center, which has seen about 375 patients since opening in May, is the only one between West Palm Beach and Melbourne. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — St. Lucie County Sheriff’s deputies arrested 503 people this summer, seizing about $92,000 in cash, cars, drugs and guns during stepped-up patrols in some of the city’s most crime-ridden areas.

Deputies, who seized 10 guns and three cars during the operation, arrested people on 556 total charges. Of those, about 155, or 28 percent, were felony charges.

“The results were pretty outstanding,” Sheriff Ken Mascara said of the operation.

This is the ninth year that the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s office has increased patrols in the city during the summer months. The Fort Pierce Police Department usually participates in the effort, but couldn’t this year due to reductions in its police force, he said.

The summer operation evolved from the philosophy that “street-level crime (in Fort Pierce) affects crime throughout the entire county,” Mascara said.

“We wanted to target street-level dealers and vice,” he said. (more…)

Photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows a team from the USS Boxer towing the lifeboat from the Maersk Alabama.

Now, a museum dedicated to the SEALs will have a part of that historical day in April.

The National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum near Fort Pierce is expected to receive at 10 a.m. Friday the lifeboat on which Capt. Richard Phillips was held hostage after Somali pirates seized his cargo ship, the MV Maersk Alabama, about 280 miles south of the Somali port city Eyl.

The public is invited to attend Friday when the lifeboat arrives at the museum.

For museum officials, the lifeboat is a rare find and an important moment in the modern history of the SEALs.

“It’s a piece of history that comes in on the heels of the actual event,” said retired Navy Capt. Michael Howard, the museum’s executive director and a former SEAL. “We can’t believe it really. We’re kind of pinching ourselves.”

Over the years the museum — the only one in the world dedicated to preserving the history of the SEALs and their predecessors —has built up quite a collection. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — A new technology provider accidentally sent personal information from employees of the St. Lucie County School District to its other clients, school officials announced today.

Employees were notified about the error today in an email and through an automated phone message. School officials said the breach didn’t expose any of its nearly 5,000 employees to identity theft because the information was on a secure server and was not accessible to Skyward Inc.’s other clients.

The district has been in the process of switching to a new information management system, which includes payroll, personnel, purchasing, student records and other district operations.