To tax or not to tax?
Proposal shouldn’t be taken lightly
A6
SunPass scamming Fake bills in the mail
A10
China Garden
Couple finds American Dream
B1
PALM CITY/TESORO
YourVoiceWeekly.com VOL. 2/ISSUE 24
YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2014
Green Team gets president’s attention Patrick McCallister Staff writer
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
PALM CITY — Acklen Howell hasn’t been on the earth that long, but she’s already seeing and doing something about the results of pollution on her beloved local waterways. The Palm City Elementary School’s fifth-grader is a member of the Green Team, an environmental-science club that meets monthly. A few weeks back, club members expressed their concerns about area water pollution in art and words. Acklen lives by a waterway. She’s been visiting it for her entire life. In those short years, she’s seen something very troubling happening, and wrote about it. “I said, ‘Please don’t dump the dirty water from Lake
See TEAM page A4
Patrick McCallister/staff photo Stuents at Palm City Elementary School’s Green Team wrote letters that went to Congressman Patrick Murphy urging him to stop discharges of Lake Okeechobee waters into the St. Lucie and Indian rivers. The congressman took them to President Barack Obama, who wrote back to the students on a portrait. From left to right front row to back are Lucas Johnson, Everett Kenerson, Acklen Howell, Shane Hunter, Morgan Williams, Caleb Santiago, Beca Witt, Anika Patel, Anna Witt, Sydney Santiago, Gina Fuca, Jonathon Sopher, Jeffery Cook and Calista Morton.
Palm City talks Becker Road development, trains and burglaries Staff writer
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
PALM CITY — At the latest Palm City Chamber of Commerce’s town hall meeting — Wednesday, April 9 — several folks raised concerns to Martin County Commissioner John Haddox about a large development on Becker PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID FORT PIERCE, FL PERMIT NO. 248 ECRWSS
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Road clogging local roads. While some put the number at 3,200 homes, concerned folks appeared to have been talking about DiVosta Homes’ Veranda Gardens, which is slated to get up to 358. “It doesn’t meet the criteria for a (Development of Regional Impact) for some reason,” Haddox said after the meeting. “My question will be, why doesn’t it?”
Florida law has additional rules that can apply to developments if their “character, magnitude, or location, would have a substantial effect upon the health, safety or welfare of citizens in more than one county.” The Department of Economic Opportunity reviews developments that meet or surpass the criteria for what’s commonly called a DRI, and makes
recommendations to local governments after series of public meetings. Valerie Dolenga, a spokeswoman for PulteGroup, which owns DiVosta, said the company is building three to five bedroom single-family homes, along with a clubhouse, swimming area
See HALL page A3
Arati Hammond Realtor®
772-342-5599
www.PalmCityForSale.com www.sewallspoint-realestate.com
10402
Patrick McCallister