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PALM CITY/TESORO
YourVoiceWeekly.com VOL. 4/ISSUE 4
Palm City NAC starts monthly meetings
YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2015
Political Who’s Who attend C-44 reservoir groundbreaking
Patrick McCallister STAFF WRITER
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
PALM CITY — The Old Palm City Neighborhood Advisory Committee is going to begin monthly meetings. Chuck Smith, the committee’s chairman, announced the more frequent meetings at the last regular quarterly meeting, Monday, Nov. 16. Some committee members wondered aloud if the committee is so hamstrung as to make more frequent meetings meaningless. “I’m befuddled as to what we can do,” Jane Lundrum said at the meeting. In a telephone interview after the meeting, Smith said confusion about what role the county’s seven neighborhood advisory committees will play in the county’s planning in coming months and years is part of the reason for going to monthly meetings. “We’re all curious what way the (Community Redevelopment Agency) direction is going to go, and it’s up in the air,” Smith said. The Community Redevelopment Agency, CRA, and its seven community redevelopment areas have been in flux for several months. On Nov. 20 the former community redevelopment director, Kevin
See NAC page 12
Staff photo by Michelle Gentile Numerous dignitaries broke ground for construction of the C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area in Indiantown Nov 16. The 16.5-billion-gallon reservoir will help reduce the flow of nitrogen, phosphorus and other suspended pollutants into the St. Lucie and Indian rivers. Participating are, from left, U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy; Michelle McGovern, regional director for Senator Bill Nelson; Michael Bean, principal deputy assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, U.S. Department of the Interior; Jo-Ellen Darcy, assistant secretary of the Army (Civil Works); Col. Jason Kirk, Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville district commander; Jon Steverson, secretary, Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP); Kevin Powers, vice chair, South Florida Water Management District Governing Board; State Sen. Joe Negron (FL-32); and Martin County Commission Chair Anne Scott.
Patrick McCallister STAFF WRITER
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
MARTIN COUNTY — Republicans, Democrats and independents are united in ending discharges of dirty water into the St. Lucie River and, ultimately, the Indian River Lagoon. On Friday, Nov. 20, Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy and Republican State Sen. Joe Negron were among those at the groundbreaking of the Army Corps of Engineers’ C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area in Indiantown. “I think we’ve come together with one step in the right direction,” Murphy said at the groundbreaking. Negron echoed him. “I’m looking forward to the day when we no longer
have to discharge water east and west when we have a rain,” he said at the groundbreaking. Murphy is vacating his seat in the House of Representatives to run for the U.S. Senate. Negron is the State Senate’s presumptive President Elect. Both stood among local Republicans, such as County Commissioner Anne Scott, independents such as Port St. Lucie’s Mayor Greg Oravec, and Obama Administration representatives — such as Jo-Ellen Darcy, assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works — to hail construction of the 16.5 billion gallon reservoir and treatment area. The project is part of the larger Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, commonly called CERP.
See C-44 RESERVOIR page 5
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