Home grown
Family embraces life on a Palm City farm
2
What’s after the algae crisis?
The economics of tourism, jobs and more
3
Opportunities for artists
Arts Council taking artists’ submissions
26
PALM CITY/TESORO
YourVoiceWeekly.com VOL. 4/ISSUE 36
YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
Algae bloom 135 years in the making
FRIDAY, JULY 8, 2016
Residents protest ‘slime’ Members of the Treasure Coast Rowing Club in Palm City take their place in the top of the letter ‘D” in the words ‘Buy the Land!!’ during a rally at Stuart Beach Saturday, July 2. The rowers at the club have been greatly affected by the recent algae blooms that have invaded local coastlines (see more photos page 5).
Patrick McCallister STAFF WRITER
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
TREASURE COAST — Put a finger on an Orlando map at Sand Lake Road and South John Young Parkway. That’s pretty much where the blue-green algae problems on the Treasure Coast begin. More accurately, the about 100 miles and 135 years of development between south Orlando and Lake Okeechobee are where the problems begin. “It all begins in the 1880s with Hamilton Disston,” Marty Baum, executive director of Indian Riverkeeper, said. More about Disston in a moment. For now, that finger on the Orlando map will cover Shingle Creek. Most who know a lot about these sorts of things say that’s where the headwaters of the Everglades begin — way up in Orlando with Shingle Creek. Baum said if nature is taking its course, a drop of rainwater falling on Shingle Creek takes about three months to make it to Lake Okeechobee. Humans cut that down to less than a week by straightening the Kissimmee River with the canal systems. Drag the finger south on the map to Osceola County, then head a little east. That’s where Lake Tohopekaliga is. That’s where Shingle
See ALGAE page 11
Mitch Kloorfain chief photographer
Joe Sesta vies for tax collector Patrick McCallister STAFF WRITER
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
MARTIN COUNTY — Palm City’s Joe Sesta has a great job at the Sheriff’s Office, but he’s looking for another. He’s running for one of the constitutional offices: tax collector.
“I see an office that’s challenged and needs updates and I think I can bring them,” he said. Sesta is the fleet manager at the Sheriff’s Office. He also had a small business and organized the civilian union at the department. The 50-year-old is a Republican. The other two candidates are also Republican: incumbent Ruth “Ski” Pietrusze-
wski and challenger Caroline Barca. Qualifying is over, so this election will be decided in a universal primary on Aug. 30. Sesta said his boss, Sheriff William Snyder, inspired him to run. “I’ve watched people like the
See SESTA page 8
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