You go, girls!
Palm City Dolphins take 3 top spots
A4
A makeover for Molly
Designers lending their services
A10
Goodbye, sir
Longtime OPUS director retiring
B1
PALM CITY/TESORO
YourVoiceWeekly.com VOL. 2/ISSUE 27
YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2014
Sorry for our loss Patrick McCallister Staff writer
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
TREASURE COAST — With bagpipes, eulogies and people dressed black in mourning, the Indian River Lagoon was buried at Phipps Park — 2175 S.W. Locks Road, Stuart, on Saturday, May 3. Speakers had a unified message for funeral attendees — the Indian River was murdered. “The river we love has been (beaten) on the head with a blunt instrument,” environmental activist Maggy Hurchalla told a couple hundred attendees. Hurchalla was on the Martin County Commission from 1974 to 1994. The mock funeral was a protest organized against, among other things, recently slowed progress on the Central Everglades Planning Project. CEPP is part of state and federal efforts to restore the natural flow of waters going into Lake Okeechobee southward.
See LOSS page A12
Mitch Kloorfain/chief photographer Charles Grande, Jo Neeson, Riverkeeper Marty Baum, Mark Perry, of Palm City, Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch and Don Voss served as pallbearers for the symbolic burial of the Indian River Lagoon Saturday, May 3.
Activists aim to derail All Aboard Florida Staff writer
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
TREASURE COAST — Hundreds of folks gathered at Flagler Park, Stuart, on Sunday, May 4. It was a perfect morning for going to the beach, or for a motorcycle ride. Perhaps for doing some gardening. Instead of relaxing, Palm City’s K.C. Traylor stepped onto a platform with a podium and microphone. She looked over the crowd
of sign-carrying protestors. Her lips curled to a smile. Among those waiting to hear her were St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky, and Martin County commissioners Anne Scott and John Haddox. The Martin commission’s chairwoman, Sarah Heard, would speak after Traylor. Traylor started railing against the proposed All Aboard Florida with a great orator’s passion. People cheered. “Big choo-choo thinks they’re
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going to roll though and there’s nothing we can do,” she said. An angry din arose from the gathered protestors. She continued, vividly describing the harsh effects of 32 additional trains traversing the Treasure Coast daily, until hitting a battle cry minutes later. “We can derail big choo-choo,” Traylor said to cheers. U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, took the stage behind Traylor. Yeah, the congressman. Not so amazing in itself — a congress-
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riverwatch www.riverwatchmarina.com
man speaking at a rally — until one considers that the ad-hoc organization Traylor co-founded, Florida Not All Aboard, didn’t exist until the middle of February. In less than three months, the group has garnered about 11,000 or more petition signatures, along with attracting a congressman, commissioners from Martin and Indian River counties, and a South Florida radio personality to
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Patrick McCallister