Super eclipsed moon
Celestial event viewing options
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How is your belfrey?
Batman gets into small smaces
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Show your talent
StarStruck annual event is back
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PALM CITY/TESORO
YourVoiceWeekly.com VOL. 3/ISSUE 47
YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
Martin County adopts tentative budget Patrick McCallister STAFF WRITER
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
MARTIN COUNTY — The County Commission had to do two first hearings to adopt a property-tax rate and tentative budget for fiscal year 2015-2016. The first meeting, Sept. 9, ended with a stalemate, because of conflicting 3-2 votes for the tax rate and budget. That forced the commission to a special meeting on Sept. 16. Commissioner Anne Scott, Hobe Sound, inadvertently created the stalemate at the first meeting by voting with commissioners Ed
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2015
Dog cleanse
Fielding and Sarah Heard to approve a slight increase in property-tax rates. Commissioners Doug Smith and John Haddox voted against it. Then Scott voted with Smith and Haddox against the slightly higher budget. Heard and Fielding voted for it. That left county staff scratching their heads. “We’ve never had this issue before,” County Administrator Taryn Kryzda said at the Sept. 9 meeting. By state law counties must advertise meetings and adopt budgets before the new fiscal year, which starts on Oct. 1.
See BUDGET page 11
Supervisor of Elections preps for mail in ballots Patrick McCallister STAFF WRITER
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
MARTIN COUNTY — The presidential debates are under way, and Supervisor of Elections Vicki Davis said it’s time for voters to start thinking about how they’re voting in 2016. In early November the county’s election office will mail about 60,000 postcards with instructions for voting by mail ballot. “It’s to all the registered voters,” Davis said. Households with multiple voters will get one postcard. About 40 percent of Martin’s voters use mail ballots these days. The first of the 2016 elections
comes on March 15. That’s the presidential preference primary. The Florida Division of Elections lists 21 candidates for the job. None of those have familiar names, such as Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, the party frontrunners so far. Seven of the presidential candidates listed with the state are without party affiliation, and five are running as write-ins. However, five of those candidates are Republicans, and four are Democrats. Early voting for that will be March 5 to 12 at two locations, Tequesta and the elections office, 135 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr.
See BALLOTS 9
Photo courtesy Kayla Neyhart/Humane Society of the Treasure Coast Sandi Smith gets all wrapped up with one of her clients during the Carl’s Buick GMC Dog Wash & Adoption Days event benefiting the Humane Society of the Treasure Coast located in Palm City Saturday, Sept. 19.
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