More than three years after Hurricane Wilma tore the roof off Island Water Sports’ building in downtown Jensen Beach, the 27-year-old surf shop is finally celebrating its reopening.

The owners are restocking kayaks, surfboards and skim boards — and slowly watching their customers return to their old location on the shore of the Indian River Lagoon.

“It was very hard,” said co-owner Chris Cea. “We lost a lot of the following.”

In the years since Wilma struck in October 2005, the business has operated out of four different locations.

The moves drained the resources of the owners, who didn’t get any assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the U.S. Small Business Administration, said Kristen Nielander, who co-owns the shop with Cea and her husband, Ted.

“We got turned down completely,” Kristen said. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Cheers, tears and roses were on display before a standing-room-only crowd in the auditorium of Port St. Lucie Elementary Monday night.

The gathering was to say goodbye to the 34-year-old school that is being closed in June as part of the school district’s plan to save $30 million next year.

“We have always been a family,” said Deb Mock, a reading coach who has taught at the school 31 years. “We’ve been there for each other through all the challenges we’ve had — hurricanes, flooding, the deaths of faculty members. We always strived to do the best for our students,” she added.
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Accused of selling hurricane-damaged vehicles without telling customers, the owners of a former Chevy dealership in Stuart have inked a settlement with the state attorney general’s office.

Attorney General Bill McCollum announced last week that the onetime owners of John Jochem Chevrolet Inc. will pay $46,000 in restitution to about 48 customers. Other affected buyers have until mid-July to claim a portion of the money.

McCollum’s office started investigating the company in March 2006, after receiving a complaint from a customer who bought a car without knowing it was damaged during Hurricane Wilma. (more…)

INDIANTOWN — Wildfires had consumed more than 2,000 acres in Martin County by Tuesday morning, and firefighters were working to contain the fires that were burning for a third day, officials said.

There were as many as 10 fires that firefighters had to contend with late Monday and overnight, according to Melissa Yunas, spokeswoman for the state Division of Forestry.

Three single-engine air tankers were called in late Monday to battle the main fire that threatened the Indianwood mobile home community, according to Melissa Yunas, spokeswoman for the state Division of Forestry.
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STUART — The Stuart Jeep and Stuart Volkswagen dealerships on U.S. 1 are going out of business on Friday as a result of the economic downturn and the Chrysler bankruptcy.

The owner of the dealership, Tom Willett, made the announcement Wednesday afternoon to about 70 workers, said Mark Babcock, a Jeep service manager who lives in Port St. Lucie.

Willett attributed the closing largely to the Chrysler bankruptcy, which will result in the closing of dealerships throughout the country, Babcock said. Stuart Jeep was vulnerable because it was a standalone dealership that did not include the auto maker’s Chrysler or Dodge brands.

“We all gave Mr. Willett a round of applause,” Babcock said. “We knew he tried his best for us. Tom Willett was a great owner. You can’t fault the guy. He tried to do everything he could.”

The dealership employed about 70 people, mainly salespeople, mechanics, detailers, officer workers and managers, Babcock said.

“It’s like a family type organization,” Babcock said.

The Jeep and Volkswagen dealerships will close for good at 5 p.m. Friday and the remaining automobiles will be returned to the manufacturers or sold through an auction, Babcock said.

“It’s been a good 14-year run,” Babcock said. “We survived hurricanes. If we had Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge, we might’ve stood a chance. That’s just the way it is. It’s sad, but it’s also business.”

By George Andreassi, TCPalm.com

STUART — A judge Wednesday ordered the former owner of Arthur’s Dockside restaurant to spend a year in the county jail on a tax fraud charge, prompting his wife to burst into tears and break down outside court.

Arthur Dombrose, 71, was also ordered to serve two years of community control and two years of probation.

Standing before Martin Circuit Judge Sherwood Bauer, Dombrose showed little emotion as deputies fingerprinted him and led him away.

Last July Dombrose entered a plea of no contest to a first-degree felony tax fraud charge after failing to pay $187,000 in sales tax collected from customers between March 2005 and April 2006. (more…)

TALLAHASSEE — The long-sought Indian Street Bridge, along with 16 other transportation projects expected to bring money and jobs to the Treasure Coast, got the green light from the state Joint Legislative Budget Commission Wednesday.

The 14-member commission comprised of Senate and House members agreed, without debate, to accept $3.8 billion in federal dollars that will pay for a cornucopia of projects targeting transportation, health and education.

Backers say the package will help the state recover from the worst recession in decades.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — Residents in the city will see their cable, Internet, home phone and cell phones bills increase in six months by a few dollars.

The Port St. Lucie City Council approved more than tripling the city’s communications services tax at its Monday night meeting with only Councilman Chris Cooper dissenting. Nobody from the public spoke on the issue.

The increase from 1.5 percent to 5.22 percent will provide the city with $4.6 million each year as part of the solution for the city to make up for an anticipated $10 million shortfall in next year’s budget, according to the city’s Communications Director Ed Cunningham.
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STUART — Martin County Commissioner Ed Ciampi said he wants County Administrator Duncan Ballantyne to resign on Tuesday to start a makeover of the county government.

“I asked Duncan for his resignation,” Ciampi said. “I think that we need change in our organization and I feel that change starts at the top. I want to get started right away.”

But Ballantyne’s fate remains uncertain because the four other commissioners said they did not want to immediately commit to keeping or firing him. (more…)

ROSELAND — Slabs of stucco-covered clay bricks, which had once held up a U.S. Coast Guard station and then a crab-processing house, lay in heaps around folk singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie’s contractors.

Guthrie and Melbourne builder Joseph Horschel had hoped to preserve the old walls on the outside while making a home out of the 80-year-old building, which overlooks the Indian River Lagoon, in the 13000 block of North Indian River Drive, north of Sebastian.

They were going to add stronger walls inside to stand up under hurricane winds. But they couldn’t save the walls.

“That was a disappointment,” said project designer John Anderson, from Indian Harbor Beach. “We found cracks we couldn’t see until we got all the stucco off … It was too much to work with, so unfortunately we were not able to do what we hoped to do and save the walls.” (more…)