9 &10
Meet the candidates PSL hopefuls Rich & Howell
Dinner theater murder
Centennial combines 2 departments
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Music to their education Jazz Society offers scholarships
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ST. LUCIE WEST • TRADITION
YourVoiceWeekly.com VOL. 2/ISSUE 26
YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
Nail in lagoon’s coffin Nicole Rodriguez Staff writer
nrodriguez@YourVoiceWeekly.com
TREASURE COAST — The Army Corps of Engineers has pulled the plug on the lagoon’s life support. That’s what a resounding number of Treasure Coast residents say the Corps did when they refused to sign off on the Central Everglades Planning Project last week, making it impossible for projects inside to receive funding from Congress. “Without the river, we’re burying a way of life,” said Nyla Pipes, one of the founding members of One Florida Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to advocating for clean water in the state. Pipes vowed river warriors will forge on with the fight, despite the stunning upset. The Port St. Lucie resident was among thousands of other locals who staged mass protests last summer, demanding Lake Okeechobee discharges stop. “That’s the thing with this group and this community,” said Pipes,
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2014
Run for the CASTLE Lisa Cassese, 51, of Port St. Lucie and Sam Monroe come through the home stretch of the CASTLE Stomp Out Child Abuse 5K Run/Walk around the warning track of Tradition Field in St. Lucie West Saturday, April 26. CASTLE raised $40,000 for the child abuse prevention programs through the participation of the running community. Cassese earned the women’s master’s title for the event.
who pleaded her case in front of members of Congress last year. “We’ve reached a level where we won’t put up with this. We have to fix this.” The goal of the Central Everglades Planning Project, most commonly referred to as CEPP, is to deliver a final plan, known as a Project Implementation Report, for a suite of restoration projects in the central Everglades and Indian River Lagoon to prepare for congressional authorization. CEPP identifies and plans for Army Corps projects on land to send more water south to the central Everglades. The Army Corps Civil Works Review Board in Washington, D.C., put the brakes on the project last Wednesday, citing a slight difference in terminology in a small portion of the report and the South Florida Water Management District’s final resolution. The Corps review board has not finished sifting through all 8,000 pages of CEPP, Corps planning and policy division chief Eric
Mitch Kloorfain chief photographer
See LAGOON page 4
Crime down in state, Port St. Lucie and Martin, up in St. Lucie County Patrick McCallister Staff writer
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
TREASURE COAST — The Florida Department of Law Enforcement released its 2013 Uniform Crime Report last week, and the numbers look good for the state, Port St. Lucie and Martin Coun-
ty. However, St. Lucie County edged up almost 10 percent in reported crimes. “You don’t want to live and die by statistics,” Port St. Lucie Chief John Bolduc, said. “It’s just another way of measuring our success and failures.” Nevertheless, the chief has something big to celebrate. Port
St. Lucie took an enviable top spot this year after having the second year with a nearly 20 percent reduction in reported crimes. “It is the lowest crime rate for any city with a population over 100,000 in the state of Florida,” Bolduc said. He added, “We have less crime now than we had in
2002 and the population then was 96,000.” Martin County saw a more modest drop in reported crime. “The overall crime rate reduction is 3.4 percent in this county,” Sheriff William Snyder said. The FDLE reports that Florida
See CRIME page 13
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