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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.
ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Proposed cuts to the St. Lucie County School District athletic budget have coaches and athletes alarmed.
The proposed $1 million decrease in the county athletic budget for next year announced Thursday means coaches will be working with less funding.
But what is even more alarming to coaches, is the elimination of feeder programs, which help develop players before they hit the varsity level. (more…)
FORT PIERCE — City officials Monday night shut the door on the mayor’s idea to consolidate the Police Department with the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office.
Mayor Bob Benton could not get the support he needed from at least three commissioners to move the idea forward.
Commissioners Rufus Alexander, Christine Coke and Reggie Sessions did not want to disband the police department. And Commissioner Eddie Becht didn’t express an opinion on how he felt about the idea.
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INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A law enforcement officer is accused of punching a woman, sitting on her head and threatening to kill her while they were arguing, according to an arrest affidavit.
Robert Szoyka, 44, has worked for the North Palm Beach Public Safety Department for 2 ½ years, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He posted $500 bail at the Indian River County Jail Thursday.
Deputies were called to Szoyka’s Indian River home at 10 p.m. Wednesday, his arrest affidavit said. He told the deputies there wasn’t a problem, and a woman inside the home refused to talk, the report said.
However, the woman called deputies back to her home at 12:30 a.m. Thursday after Szoyka left, authorities said. She told deputies Szoyka had punched her, sat on her head and threatened to kill her, the affidavit said. She said Szoyka had removed batteries from the phones in the home before he left, the report said.
Deputies took Szoyka into custody after they found him sleeping in his car, which was parked in the 2600 block of Fifth Street Southwest.
Officials in North Palm Beach could not be reached for comment Friday.
By Lamaur Stancil, TCPalm.com
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — After driving in and out of John’s Island to clean homes through most of February, Charles Sereika said he was surprised to learn of a new policy the wealthy gated community had recently put in place.
According to a statement from the John’s Island Property Association, all contractors and subcontractors who show up to work on homes in the beachside community must have a valid driver’s license or identification. The policy became effective Feb. 1.
“If you have an employee that is an illegal alien, do not send them,” the letter said. “If you have an employee that is unable to obtain a U.S. driver’s license or I.D. card, please do not send them to work on John’s Island, as they will be turned away.”
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ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Learning about safety and roaming the streets of the county alongside local law enforcement is now just a click away.
For the past year, the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office has been uploading to its own YouTube Channel crime prevention videos, messages from Sheriff Ken Mascara and episodes of “10-8 St. Lucie,” the Sheriff’s Office’s TV show.
Sgt. Rich Ziarkowski said the Web site was created for more visibility.
“This way, anyone, anywhere in the world can see what we do here locally,” he said.
In addition to running the office’s Crime Prevention Unit, Ziarkowski has hosted “10-8 St. Lucie” for the past three years. The show, named after the police code for availability, consists of “COPS”-like ride-a-longs with local deputies.
The Sheriff’s Office began by running the show and public service announcements on the county’s public access channel, SLCTV.
Because people with satellite or without cable can’t view the channel, Ziarkowski said deputies put their heads together to come up with the idea of using YouTube.
The show has included SWAT team training, a tour of the St. Lucie County jail and a drug bust. Other videos have touched on carjacking, ATM-use safety and mail theft.
Posted before school began, the most popular video explaining when to stop for a stopped school bus was viewed about 5,000 times.
Expenses, mainly tapes, are minimal. Ziarkowski shifts responsibilities around his unit, so deputies volunteer to be filmed in between their regular duties. He said they have received all positive feedback from the community.
“We thought we could do a better job than the videos that were produced by these big companies and wanted to charge a lot of money,” said Deputy Gary Gonsalves, who works in Ziarkowski’s unit.
St. Lucie County’s media department began doing the camera operating and video editing, but Gonsalves taught himself how to shoot and edit video by researching on his own time. Now, as the show’s producer, he said they plan to move the videos to the office’s Web site.
Gonsalves said the show gives the community a chance to get behind the Sheriff’s Office doors to see its inner workings and how tax dollars are being spent.
When he films the deputies, they ignore Gonsalves and perform their normal duties. Some even have been recognized in public.
“We’ve got several who have been on that show numerous times,” he said, “and they really enjoy it. I think their friends and family get a kick out of it because it is on YouTube.”
Neither Indian River nor Martin county sheriff’s offices have a show or site like St. Lucie’s, according to the offices’ spokesmen. Both offices run public service announcements on TV.
Indian River County Deputy Jeff Luther said his office is upgrading its Web site to stream video, including some from dashboard cameras.
“The public has a right to know,” he said. “The more we keep the public informed, the better we can do our job.”
By Laurie K. Blandford, TCPalm.com
The economy is so bad, St. Lucie County officials are thinking about declaring a state of emergency.
St. Lucie County commissioners explored creative methods to lower unemployment and stave the foreclosure mess, including the possibility of declaring a state of emergency to help local companies and laborers find work. (more…)
WEST PALM BEACH — Rob Murphy loves talking about his spearfishing adventures. Since earning his scuba diving certification last year, he estimates he has made almost 400 dives.
But Murphy will never forget his last dive on Jan. 9 when while surfacing in waters northeast of the St. Lucie Inlet, Murphy was struck by a passing boat. The boat operated by Roger Nicosia, an emergency room physician at Martin Memorial Medical Center North, severed Murphy’s legs.
Murphy lost nearly half his blood. He was lucky to escape with his life, and doctors couldn’t save his legs. (more…)
FORT PIERCE — Whether it’s for a local New York Mets game or the Super Bowl in Tampa, Indian River State College and the federal government are training security agents from across the country in national defense.
The college joined with the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Energy this week for a 3 1/2-day course at the college’s new Vernon Smith Public Safety Education Building at the Treasure Coast Public Safety Training Complex on Kirby Loop Road.
Thirty students in law enforcement, emergency management, public safety, and medical and fire rescue from the state and across the country searched for radioactive materials throughout the 50-acre complex on Thursday in what college officials hope to be the first of many national defense seminars.
They are being taught by 25 federal instructors, learning to prevent a catastrophic radiological or nuclear attack. Officials from small agencies, as well as those going to work the presidential inauguration next week and the Super Bowl on Feb. 1 are part of the group. No one from the Treasure Coast in the group are attending those events.
By Laurie K. Blandford, TCPalm.com
PORT ST. LUCIE — Police are giving out special ID kits for kids to use on their helmets to help rescue workers in case of an emergency.
Paid by donations from the Elks Club and the Lions Club, the kits include a sticker of a check mark to place on the outside of a helmet to alert emergency personnel that there is medical and contact information inside.
Inside will be the child’s name and age, contact information for the child’s parents and notices of allergies or special medical conditions, crime prevention Officer Steve Camara said.
Police have already handed out helmet kits at Northport Middle School and will be handing out more at other schools throughout the city, Camara said.
Port St. Lucie residents can obtain helmet kits for their children by calling police at (772) 871-5027.
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