Lock the locks river rally
Locals want their river unsweetened
3
PC man sees blue-green gold Algae for fuel, medicines and more
8
Rita Rudner coming to Lyric
Rudner shares about family and career
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PALM CITY/TESORO
YourVoiceWeekly.com VOL. 4/ISSUE 40
YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
Steppin’ into Tiger season
Mitch Kloorfain/chief photographer Jacob Rodriguez, 14, of Palm City high steps through the opening day of drills for the Martin County High School football team Monday, Aug. 1 at home. The Martin County Tigers open their season at home on Friday, Sept. 2 against Fort Pierce Westwood High School.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 2016
Martin commissioner calling for change.org Patrick McCallister STAFF WRITER
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
TREASURE COAST — Politicians frequently call for change, but Martin County Commissioner John Haddox is calling for change.org, At the Martin commission’s last regular meeting — Tuesday, July 26 — Haddox used his comment time to ask other commissioners to support a pitch to get presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to visit the Treasure Coast to see the destruction of the ongoing bluegreen algae bloom firsthand. After all, one of them will be the President of the United States for at least four years. Part of the pitch was for commissioners to all sign a letter that’ll be sent to both campaigns asking the candidates to visit the Treasure Coast to see the cyanobacteria almost certainly coming from Lake Okeechobee discharges. The other part was for the commission to put the letter on change.org for others to join the chorus. “I think if we get 30,000, 40,000 signatures on a petition, it’s likely (one or both with visit),” Haddox said in an interview after the meeting. Commissioners unanimously agreed to have county staff compose a letter to the candidates that all would sign. The change. org proposal just didn’t get any commission discussion, despite Haddox repeatedly mentioning it. He figures that’s a go-ahead. “By virtue of the fact they did not say, “No,” I’m going with the assumption I didn’t get a negative
John Haddox therefore it’s a positive,” Haddox said. But getting presidential candidates on blistering campaign trails to stop by the Treasure Coast to look at our cyanobacteria? Wishful thinking? No, St. Lucie Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky answered. He thinks Trump and Clinton are likely to pay attention to the request if the petition signatures are there. He suspects if the Martin Commission posts an electronic petition online it’ll get those attention-grabbing numbers. “I would not be surprised if both of them showed,” Dzadovsky said. That’s, of course, because the importance Florida has taken in presidential elections. Remember 270. That’s the number of votes a candidate must get in the Electoral College to win the White House. Florida holds 29 of those
See CHANGE.ORG page 12
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