2
Transit woes
No one’re riding the buses
Meet the Wildcats
Girls softball team in third year
6
Shop and dine
Jewelry store and bistro is a gem
29
PALM CITY/TESORO
YourVoiceWeekly.com YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
Palm City dedicates Sept. 11 memorial Patrick McCallister Staff writer
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
PALM CITY — The 22-foot steel beam stands erect on a pedestal aimed slightly north by northeast. Toward New York City. Toward the World Trade Center. About 100 gathered on Flag Day, Saturday, June 14 to help dedicate the World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial at the Cummings Library. “I’m grateful,” Palm City resident Gerard Somerville said after the ceremonies. “It kicks up a lot of memories.” Somerville was a captain in the Fire Department City of New York in 2001. He was among the first responders to the infamous terrorist attack on Sept. 11 that year, and he spent eight months helping to find those killed in it. He said the Peter & Julie Cummings Library, 2551 Matheson Ave., is a fitting place for a memorial. Representative Patrick Murphy, Jupiter, was among the speakers at the dedication. “Today we remember those we lost that day, and how our nation rallied together after the attack,” Murphy said. Joe Ferrara, chief of the Martin County Fire Rescue, said he was in a firefighters’ meeting when word of the terrorist attack came. He said the group turned on news coverage of the event and visibly went through stages of grief together. “We must never forget the heroism of that day,” he told dedication attendees.
See MEMORIAL page 5
Treasure Coast property values rising Patrick McCallister Staff writer
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
Mitch Kloorfain/chief photographer Hoss Wiggins, Martin County Fire Rescue battalion chief embraced Maria Chrostowski following the dedication of the World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial at the Cummings Library Saturday, June 14. Chrostowski’s husband, Dennis, was a first responder in New York City and died here in 2013 of Sept. 11 attack injuries.
TREASURE COAST — Ken Pruitt, St. Lucie County Property Appraiser, puts it simply. “The real estate market has definitely made a comeback on the Treasure Coast,” he said. This month the state’s property appraisers are getting reports ready for taxing bodies, such as school boards and county commissions. Pruitt and Laurel Kelly, Martin’s Property Appraiser, are both reporting better than 2 percent rises in their counties’ taxable values. St. Lucie’s taxable property value increased 2.5 percent since last year. Martin was very close. “(Property values) are up by 2.4 percent from last year,” Kelly said. “This is the second year in the row that the county’s taxable value has increased.” In 2012, Kelly reported that Martin’s taxable value was about $16.9 billion. Last year she figured it at about $17.1 billion. A slight increase — about .88 percent — but an increase. “This is the first year we’ve seen an increase since 2007,” Kelly
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VOL. 2/ISSUE 33