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PALM CITY/TESORO
YourVoiceWeekly.com VOL. 4/ISSUE 35
YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
‘The whole bay is green’
FRIDAY, JULY 1, 2016
Palm City Mapp plan Patrick McCallister STAFF WRITER
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
Mitch Kloorfain/chief photographer Gary Murphy looked along the canal on his Palm City property at the green and blue algae as it clings to the mangroves while the tide subsides. “It was much worse yesterday.” said Murphy.
Blue-green algae making its way from Lake Okeechobee to local beaches Patrick McCallister STAFF WRITER
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
TREASURE COAST — Palm City resident Gary Murphy is angry. He’s not alone. On Friday, June 24, news broke that the Florida Oceanographic Society found blue-green algae at Bathtub Beach and parts north. “There’ve been scattered reports of it being even north of Jensen
Beach,” Mark Perry, executive director, said. When Murphy talks about Palm City Bay — the St. Lucie River’s South Fork nestled between Palm City and Stuart — he pauses frequently and apologizes for his anger. Then he expresses more anger. “It looks like a sewer,” he said. “It looks like you could walk on it. The whole bay is green.” Not far from his waterfront home the Martin County Health Department has signs warning against contact with the water posted at Charlie Leighton Park telling people that there’re two bacterial outbreaks — enteric bacteria along with blue-green
algae. Murphy said things look far worse than they ever did in the Lost Summer, 2013. That year there was a huge public outcry against Lake Okeechobee water releases and likely related bacteria issues in the St. Lucie and Indian rivers. That outcry culminated in creation of the Florida Senate Select Committee on Indian River Lagoon and Lake Okeechobee. Sen. Joe Negron headed up that committee. Based on the committee’s recommendations, the Florida Legislature appropriated $232 million to help with Everglades and Indian
PALM CITY — Mapp Road work could start in 2017, but both lanes should stay open. Terry Rauth, deputy county engineer, gave the Old Palm City Neighborhood Advisory Committee a report on proposed engineering department work at its last regular meeting, Monday, June 20. “What we’re planning to do is when we widen for bike lanes we’ll widen on one side,” she said. Rauth said that after road crews build the additional width on the western side of Mapp for bike lanes, the road will be restriped. That’ll create two vehicular lanes, along with a 5-foot bike lane on each side. The project will add 11 to 12 feet of road surface. “We’re looking at starting in September, 2017,” Rauth said. That depends on the County Commission approving funding for the proposed project. The day after the advisory committee meeting, Commissioner John Haddox moved that the County Commission, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, add on-street parking to the engineering department’s proposed work that would stretch from Martin Downs Boulevard south to the recently-widened Martin Highway. Haddox said that with the addition of storm-water management elements to the bike lanes, much of the Mapp Road Town Center Design crafted 15 years ago will be done. “That project is probably going to get 80 percent complete,” Haddox
See MAPP page 22
See BLUE-GREEN page 13
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