Commission task force talks Where oh where shall go the fair
3
PSL vies for Costco
Costco sticking to Palm City bid
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Lyric season unveiled
New theatre treats for 2016-2017
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PALM CITY/TESORO
YourVoiceWeekly.com VOL. 4/ISSUE 32
YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
Graduation not an end, a beginning
FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2016
Citrus Hall of Fame Staff Reports
INFO@YOURVOICEWEEKLY.COM
PALM CITY — Before Palm City resident Jack Norris was inducted into the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame in March, he wondered what he had done during his 44-year career in the industry to earn the distinction. Looking over the crowd of 250 during the 54th Citrus Celebration Luncheon on March 11 at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, the 81-year-old Norris remembered why as he spotted at least a dozen of the many citrus industry executives he mentored. “Seeing so many people I’ve known and worked with in the
past, I saw about 15 that had worked with me, and so many others in the industry that had moved up the ladder to leadership positions with growers and corporations,” Norris said. “I’m proud to have been a part of the citrus industry,” said Norris, who was preceded in the Citrus Hall of Fame by his uncle, Robert E. Norris, who was inducted in 1973. “I was very fortunate to have worked with outstanding people,” he said. “It gave me a wonderful feeling to see this (hall of fame induction) happen.” From the comments submitted with his nomination for the
See CITRUS page 10
Possible pay raises for county employees Patrick McCallister STAFF WRITER
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
Mitch Kloorfain/chief photographer Martin County High School graduate Jordan Bessette of Palm City hugs Principal Al Fabrizio during her graduation walk across the stage with 522 of her senior classmates during ceremonies held Thursday, June 2 at Martin County High School.
MARTIN COUNTY — The county is competing to find and keep good help. Paying a bit more to more than 600 workers would help a lot, according to a 14-month study by Evergreen Solutions. The county commission considered the draft report of the study at its May 31 meeting. “Folks need to have raises,” Commissioner Ed Fielding said at the meeting. Wages for most of the county’s about 860 employees have been largely stagnate since 2009, according to the report, and attribution has been increasing in recent years. The report rec-
ommended about $1.2 million in raises for about 650 county employees to help combat the attrition. “I’m very skeptical about this,” Commissioner Sarah Heard said at the meeting. “We need a fix and this is not it.” In an interview after the meeting, Commissioner John Haddox — who was a county employee until 2012 — said stagnate wages, inflation, and adjustments to employee benefits are reducing county employees’ real incomes fast. “We obviously have problems,” he said. “I’ve brought this up many times over the past year — probably in 10 years we’ve had only one pay raise. We’ve also
See PAY page 13
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