Martin County Currents Volume 4 Issue #2

FREE

Too much power lies in beat of 'jungle drums' Pg 8

Great American Clean-Up began in Rio. 17

Road projecthelps Lagoon... Pg 7

Pegasus adds elephants to wildlife conservation targets. Pg 10

Florida NOT All Aboard launched petitions, planning protests. Pg 6

Volume 4 Issue 2 • April 2014

BEFORE AFTER

Martin County CurrentsApril 20142

3Martin County CurrentsApril 2014 News Stream

7Railroad AvenueA project

with unseen, unrecognized

benefits. 16

Hobe Sound gathered to say good-bye to ‘Mom’.

Features

All the articles and opinion pieces are authored and/or edited by Publisher Barbara Clowdus,except as otherwise noted. All the typos, mistakes, grammatical errors, omissions, andmisspelled words are hers alone, too. The good photos are taken by someone else. Allcontents are copyrighted 2014 Martin County Currents.

EDITOR BARBARA CLOWDUS772.245.6564 [email protected]@MartinCountyCurrents.com

ANNOUNCEMENTScalendar@MartinCountyCurrents.comSUBSCRIPTIONSwww.MartinCountyCurrents.com click on SUBSCRIBE

10Local environmental and animal welfare

advocates recognized by Pegasus International.

ColumnistsThe Tipster

Tips on Tables....21Maya EllensonArt Kaleidoscope....19Rich VidulichPompano Reporter … 22

Gordon BarlowOutside, Looking In... 9Barbara ClowdusUnfiltered... 9George KleineThe Right Bite …. 18

Get a FREE electronic subscription to Martin County Currents. Go to www.MartinCountyCurrents.comClick on SUBSCRIBE and enter your email address.

That’s all there is to it! You will begin receiving your copy each month sent directly to youremail inbox, along with periodic opinion pieces.

cuRRentsMartin County

Having trouble finding a copy?

NEW

A proposed settlement oflandowner challenges of the county’s comprehensive growth man-agement plan rewrites was tentativelyapproved by the Board of County Com-missioners at its March 18 meeting,thus canceling the administrative hear-ing that had been scheduled to beginMarch 31.

County Attorney Michael Durham,along with outside counsel Linda LoomisShelley, got approval from the countycommission during an executive sessionto proceed with negotiations with fourlandowners, including Consolidated Cit-rus, Lake Point Phase I and Phase II,Becker Holdings and Midbrook 1st Re-alty for Hobe Grove, adding their sug-gested changes to one paragraph.

Prior to the executive session, Shelleyreported that a stipulation with one of theparties (Lake Point Phase I and Phase II)has been filed with the Department ofAdministrative Hearings, (confirming thevalidity of Lake Point mining resolutionsand contracts with the county and theSouth Florida Water Management Dis-trict, as well as with the state Departmentof Environmental Resources), and thatthe attorneys have reached a potentialresolution with most of the other petition-ers; however, the paragraph change bythe county still will need landowner ap-proval in their settlement negotiations.

According to documents filed withthe Department of Administrative Hear-ings, Consolidated Citrus and BeckerHoldings have agreed to new languagefor all the amendments with the excep-tion of the amendments relating to popu-lation density determinations and thecombining of the different urban serviceboundaries covering the eastern and In-diantown areas of the county.

Two landowners, Becker Holdingsand Midbrook 1st Realty, still are chal-lenging the county's method of determin-ing residential capacity and the newcombination of the two boundaries,which they say will be skewed by In-diantown's largely unpopulated urbanservices district.

The hearing before AdministrativeLaw Judge Suzanne Van Wyk that wasscheduled to begin March 31 has been de-layed without a rescheduled date.

The changes being challenged areamendments to Chapter 1, preamble;Chapter 2, definitions; Chapter 4, futureland use; and Chapter 9, regarding con-servation and open space elements.

The county's changes to Chapter 9also would require adding an additionalimpact fee category applicable to new de-velopments.

The amount of the fee and methods ofdetermination are currently being consid-

ered by the county, which voted at itsApril 1 meeting to approve hiring an out-side consultant to assist the Growth Man-agement Department. ■

Circuit Court JudgeJames McCann willhear the Lake PointPhase I and Phase IILake Point Phase I and Phase II project'smotion to compel Martin County Com-mission Chair Sarah Heard to submit to adeposition regarding her private emailaccount May 29.

Attorneys for the Lake Point WaterRestoration Project in western MartinCounty assert they they are entitled tocopies of any email correspondence be-tween Heard and former commissionerMaggy Hurchalla regarding Lake Point.They contend also that those emails shouldhave been preserved as a public record;however, Heard reported to Lake Pointthat her private email account “had beenhacked” and no emails are recoverable.

Heard's private attorney, Scott Zap-polo, filed a motion for Protective Orderbefore a Palm Beach Circuit Court in Au-

772-546-3541www.beckertreefarm.com

Insist your landscapecontractor buys plants

& trees from a reputable Martin County resource!

continued on PAGE 4

SARAH HEARD DEPOSITION

COMP PLAN REWRITES

gust, which was denied, contending thatHeard's private emails are not publicrecord, that she is not a party to LakePoint's case against Hurchalla, who isbeing charged by Lake Point with tor-tious interference (interfering with a com-pany's ability to conduct business).

Hurchalla's attorney attempted tohave the tortious interference charge dis-missed on the grounds that her commentsare protected under the First Amendmentof the U.S. Constitution, but the motionwas denied by Judge McCann.

Lake Point filed suit against MartinCounty and the South Florida WaterManagement District for a breach of con-tract, as well as Hurchalla for tortious in-terference, following Hurchalla's publicassertions that Lake Point had destroyed60 acres of wetlands on their property,among other claims that Lake Point con-tends are false.

Hurchalla's public claims—as well asthose in at least one private email pur-portedly to Commissioner Ed Fieldingthat has surfaced during the investiga-tion—resulted in the county commis-sion's refusal to revoke Lake Point'soriginal Development Order, according toLoeb, which formed the basis for direct-ing the county to take code enforcementaction against Lake Point.

Loeb also contends in his motion thatthe County Commission, acting underfalse information from Hurchalla, pressedSFWMD officials to breach its contractwith Lake Point, which had been desig-nated part of the Northern Evergladesand Estuary Protection Plan.

The Martin County Growth Manage-ment Department staff provided informa-tion to the county commission in a publicmeeting and in staff memos in January2013 that verified Lake Point's stanceagainst Hurchalla's claims, including thatno wetlands had been destroyed and thatthere was no evidence that its rock pitswere deeper than 20 feet below sea level,as required by the county's Comprehen-sive Growth Management Plan; however,the staff was directed to file code enforce-ment violations against Lake Point forconducting mining activities outside ofthe housing development boundaries, in-cluding filling a drainage ditch, not re-moving all exotic plants from thepreserve area, and for not installingproper signage.

Lake Point, which had been reclassi-fied from the residential housing devel-opment, Lake Point Ranches, to a publicworks project by a Martin County resolu-tion in 2008, made a public records re-quest in February 2013 of all emailcorrespondence of Commissioners SarahHeard, Ed Fielding and Anne Scott withMaggy Hurchalla regarding Lake Point.

After examining the public emaildatabase, their attorneys discovered thatHeard had been using her private Yahooaccount routinely to conduct countybusiness, so they expanded their request

to include Heard's private emails fromher home computer, her notes during theJan. 15, 2013 county commission meet-ing, and her calendar of appointmentsfor the previous year.

Judge McCann denied Lake Point's re-quest for the meeting notes, because acommissioner's personal notes taken orbrought to a commission meeting are notnormally considered public records. Therewas too great a delay (three days) betweenLoeb's request (made under the civil rulesof procedure following the filing of a civilsuit) and Deputy Attorney Christa Storey'sinstruction to commissioners to preserveall records from that meeting to know thatHeard's notes still exist.

In February 2013, Lake Point ex-panded their public records request to in-clude text messages, and the public andprivate emails from all commissioners'accounts that reference Lake Point. Afterthe county took no action over the pastyear to fulfill Lake Point's public recordsrequest, Loeb filed an amended com-plaint in January that included a claimagainst Martin County for failing to com-ply with Florida's Public Records Act.

Martin County immediately filed amotion to block the amended complaint,however, in a hearing Jan. 28, Judge Mc-Cann denied the county's motion andgranted leave to Lake Point to file theirsecond amended complaint, thus theirclaim against Martin County for violatingthe Public Records Act will stand untilruled upon by Judge McCann.

Several other motions, including acounterclaim filed against Lake Point, aswell as a suit filed by Homeowner'sChoice Insurance Company, Hurchalla'sinsurance company, which says it is notlegally responsible for paying Hurchalla'sattorney fees in the case. That case will gobefore Judge McCann on May 27 at 9:30a.m. in the Martin County courthouse. ■

Martin County'sbest hope for making an impacton the proposed All Aboard Florida passenger rail serviceappears to be after the Federal RailroadAdministration releases its Environmen-tal Impact Statement sometime in thenext two months. Public comment will be

solicited both in open forums and viaelectronic and regular mail, according tofederal officials.

The EIS report also will divulge moreprecise information than is currentlybeing released by All Aboard Florida offi-cials, or by FECI, Inc., the sister companyof All Aboard Florida.

The passenger rail service is expectedto run 32 trains daily in 16 round tripsfrom Miami to Orlando at speeds of upto 125 mph in rural areas, up to 110 insome populated areas, and around 79mph or less through towns and cities. Attimes, officials have said that the speedsthrough Stuart will be considerably lessdue to the number of curves in thetracks, particularly as the train crossesthe St. Lucie on the single-track bridge,but officials are not saying what speedsare anticipated.

The 235-mile trip between Florida'stwo largest cities, however, include stopsonly at Ft. Lauderdale and West PalmBeach, and will cross three bridges thatwill impact boat traffic on three rivers, theNew River, the Loxahatchee and the St.Lucie. The Coast Guard is responsible forissuing permits in regard to the train'simpact on waterways.

Stuart attorney Jody Foster, of Guy,Yudin & Foster,LLP, and represent-ing the marine in-dustry, questionedAll Aboard Florida VP Rusty Roberts,guest speaker at a recent Stuart-MartinCounty Chamber of Commerce luncheon,about the federal maritime law that pro-hibits blocking waterways.

“How can you consider nine hours thatthe (St. Lucie bridge) will be closed NOTblocking our waterway,” Foster asked.

Roberts insisted that the time esti-mates for bridge closings based on obser-vations and calculations from the MartinCounty Engineering Department do notapply, because the crossings will be “up-graded” with sophisticated timing de-vices, but he could not offer an estimateof actual time that the bridge will beclosed each hour.

Roberts added that All AboardFlorida already agreed to upgrade all thecrossings for safety, “which is a signifi-cant investment that normally would bethe county's responsibility.” He said thatproposed “quiet zones are purely aes-thetic,” and thus are the county's prerog-ative to install.

Quiet zones are double-barricadedcrossings with a concrete median in-stalled between lanes to prevent carsfrom swerving around crossing arms infront of oncoming trains, thus meetingfederal standards for safety for trains thatexceed 79 mph. They also eliminate theuse of train horns in residential anddowntown areas.

Safety improvements at grade cross-ings do not include the installation ofdouble barricades or concrete medians,but pertain to the tracks and how they arelaid within the asphalt roadway; how-

ever, the FRA already has questioned thesafety of the high-speed trains at cross-ings, and may require not only doublebarricades, but in some instances, com-pletely “contain” the train in a tunnel ei-ther above or below ground. If thegovernment agency requires double bar-ricades in order for the project to proceed,those costs will be borne by All AboardFlorida, not the counties.

Martin County has 28 grade crossings,and since the railroad was here prior tothe establishment of cities and roads, thecounty pays right-of-way fees and mustmaintain 18 of those crossing at its ownexpense. The FECI right-of-way is 100feet wide, and an additional track will belaid within its right-of-way throughoutmost of the county to accommodate theAll Aboard Florida train.

Roberts said at the chamber meetingthat the track “probably will remain a sin-gle track through Stuart,” however, be-cause of the logistics and number ofcurves the train will encounter.

The diagnostic field reviews fromMiami through St. Lucie counties havebeen completed and are part of an FRAreport, however, six crossings in Stuart—two immediately north of the bridge andfour south of the bridge—are not in-

cluded, apparentlyindicating thattrain speeds atthose locations fall

below the 79 mph mark that requires fed-eral safety improvements, according tocounty officials.

In a recent email from Mike Busha, ofthe Treasure Coast Regional PlanningCouncil, to Beth Beltran, adminstrator ofthe county's Metropolitan Planning Or-ganization, the Florida Department ofTransportation also is studying the AllAboard Florida project.

“FDOT is in the middle of a freight ra-tionalization study for both the CSX andFEC corridors,” Busha wrote, “which willlikely include recommendations aboutthe distribution of freight and passengersbetween these two lines.”

Because of the state's “heavy invest-ment” in ports, airports, and inter-modal facilities on which the railroadsrely, Busha surmises that the state canleverage its position “to effect talks be-tween the two railroads especially if itimpacts success of accomplishing theAAF proposal.”

Busha also suggested that moving“freight traffic off the FEC to the CSX asthis is the type of rail traffic (2 mile longtrains) that is expected to increase signif-icantly in the future, is most impactful tothe citizens of the Region, and is of leasteconomic benefit locally.”

The Treasure Regional PlanningCouncil’s position on quiet zones also isto insist that the FRA require AAF tobuild them. The cost of a quiet zone is es-timated to be around $250,000.

“I believe the counties and citiesshould be very vocal in this regard,”Busha added. ■

Martin County CurrentsApril 20144 News Stream

continued from PAGE 3

Maggy Hurchalla Sarah Heard

ALL ABOARD FLORIDA

Martin County CurrentsApril 2014 News Stream 5

To lodge complaintsabout the blockingof traffic by AllAboard Floridatrains crossing the St. Lucie River, contact:Gene Stratton, Bridge Management Spe-cialist, Seventh Coast Guard District,Miami, FL 33131, or email: [email protected]; or Evelyn Smart, from theBridge Management Office, currently ishandling the bridge permitting work forthe FEC line. She can be reached at (305)415-6989 or [email protected].• The Federal Railroad Administration,which targets rail safety and noise abate-ment, will announce the contact emailand standard mailing addresses for thecomment period of its Environmental Im-pact Statement; however, prior to thattime, public comment can be entered onthe FRA Facebook page at www.face-book.com/USDOTFRA. Click on “Mes-sage” and identify the project, All AboardFlorida, prior to making your comment,which will be reviewed and recorded byFRA staff during normal business hours,Monday through Friday.• The U.S. Dept. of Transportation utilizesa team of engineers to analyze transporta-tion routes. The issue that has arisen fromAll Aboard Florida's plans not to replacethe St. Lucie River railroad bridge resultsin one Strategic Intermodal System (rail-road) forcing a near-shutdown of a SISconnector, the Okeechobee Waterway/St.Lucie River, a relevant topic for the federalTransportation Industry Analysis team.• The proposed route of All AboardFlorida will severely limit ocean access forlocal, state and international commerce, aswell as for recreational boaters. To contactthe Transportation Industry Analysis team,email John Winkle, transportation industryanalyst, at [email protected]. ■

More than 6,200signatures are nowaffixed to theFlorida NOT ALLAboard petition, which is growing dailyby around a dozen names. The goal is10,000 signatures, according to organizers.

The grassroots organization has a suc-cinct message: “Stop All Aboard Floridafrom using the FEC train tracks. Theyshould build new tracks or use existingrail tracks west of our towns without theuse of U.S. Government-backed loans orfunds.” To sign the petition, go towww.floridanotallaboard.com.

One of the organizers, Tom Rising,spoke to those who attended the Palm CityTown Hall meeting, encouraging them toattend a rally Sunday, May 4, at 10am atFlagler Park in Stuart to protest the poten-tial impacts caused by AAF's proposal.

“The only chance we have to stopthis,” Rising said, “is to make sure ourvoices are heard.”

Guest speakers will include US Con-gressman Patrick Murphy, Radio TalkShow Host Joyce Kaufman, Martin CountyCommissioner Sarah Heard, and IndianRiver County Commissioner Bob Solari,who proposed that Indian River Countyhire an engineering expert to analyze theeconomic impact of the proposal on thatcounty as soon as the Federal Railroad Ad-ministration's Environmental Impact State-ment is released for public comment,expected within the next 60 days.

Other events include the Save Our CityFlotilla on Sunday, April 27, at 10 a.m. onthe west side of Roosevelt Bridge in Stuart.

Darlene Fuggetta, Republican statecommitteewoman, invites the commu-nity to the Republican social to hear fromPhyllis Frye from All NOT AboardFlorida on Wednesday, April 30, at 5:30p.m. at Pirate’s Cove Resort with cash barand hors d’ oeuvres. For information, callDarlene at 772-285-7447. ■

Not one. Not two.But three three railroad tracks willcross MontereyRoad to accommodate All AboardFlorida, according to Richard Geisinger,president of the Martin County Taxpay-ers Association. He carried a two-inchthick set of engineering drawings to theApril meeting of the Martin RepublicWomen, Federated meeting on Tuesday,April 15, for his address about All AboardFlorida. The drawings also show tracksthrough downtown Stuart.

“I'm like a lot of people; I didn't knowreally know much about this until about

30 days ago,” Geisinger said, “but they(All Aboard Florida) have been workingon this for years.”

Geisinger relayed what he'd learnedfrom Rusty Roberts, vice president of FECI,Inc., which owns All Aboard Florida, at arecent Stuart-Martin County Chamber ofCommerce luncheon. FECI also owns thetracks up the east coast of Florida, alongwith its attendant 100-foot right of way,which the county leases for road crossingsand for parking, in some cases. The countyalso is responsible for paying for the cost ofmaintaining those crossings.

“I knew there had to be another reasonfor this passenger rail service,” Geisingersaid, because the number of passengersprojected to ride the train do not justify the$1.5 billion cost to build. “Just imaginehow many riders, or what each ticketwould have to cost, to pay back a billionand a half dollars, but it's real estate. FECowns nine acres of land in downtownMiami, and they're going to develop that.”They also plan developments around thestations in Ft. Lauderdale and West PalmBeach. In addition, the Panama Canal proj-ect and deepening the Port of Miami toallow larger ship passages will result in anincrease in freight traffic from Miami tonorthern markets, Geisinger added. ■

The City of Stuartauthorized a fireassessment on allcity residents, which was ruled legally sound by a Mar-tin County judge this month, and will gointo effect Oct. 1, unless a proposedmerger between the city and county firedepartments is successful. A new fire dis-trict must be approved by the legislature,however, so time is running short.

The one-year tax would cost the ownerof a $100,000 home $134.35. It would raiseabout $1.3 million to cover the current citybudget deficit. The merger will save$1,000,000 annually, according to RichardGeisinger, president of the Martin CountyTaxpayers Association, the watchdoggroup that volunteered to research theissue, report its findings, and assist in for-mulating a merger plan. The group firstproposed the merger 10 years ago.

At the April 15 meeting of the CountyCommission, Geisinger urged that thecounty continue to indicate its willing-ness to continue the dialog, which hasbeen strained by legal wrangling betweenthe city and the county over $1.5 millionin Tax Increment Funding monies thatwent unpaid to the Stuart CommunityRedevelopment Area due to an error inthe tax appraiser's office.

The disagreement between the cityand county focuses on the length of thestatute of limitations that applies, sincethe error occurred over a 15-year time pe-

riod. The city contents a five-year statuteof limitations, and the county based its re-fund offer on a three-year period.

The county also overpaid othermonies to the city, which will be deletedfrom the total owed.

The settlement of that case will be ad-dressed in an executive session among thecounty attorney and county commissionersduring the County Commission meetingApril 22 at noon, followed by a joint publicmeeting comprising the County Commis-sion, the City of Stuart commissioner andofficials, and the Stuart Community Rede-velopment Agency at 3 p.m. in the Blake Li-brary. It will be open to the public.

The public meeting is a requirementunder the Florida Governmental ConflictResolution Act. ■

The proposed U.S.customs facility atWitham Field inMartin County,which most residents thought had beenapproved by a March 4 vote of the countycommission, has now been delayed afterCommissioner Anne Scott rescinded herearlier vote.

“I don’t think we pulled the trigger,”said Scott, at the March 18 commissionmeeting, “and I don’t know how to makethat clear in the record so this thing does-n’t bootstrap itself into existence.”

Scott still had remaining questionsabout the grants, funding, and an appro-priate “exit strategy” for the countyshould the facility not be sustainable.

Airport officials have been workingon the project for about five years toprocess U.S. entry for air travelers andboaters, who now must clear customs inFort Pierce or West Palm Beach. Grantsand money currently in the Airport En-terprise Fund would cover construction,and airport user fees would cover the es-timated $220,000 annual operating cost.

To show their “good faith” and sup-port of the facility, the members of boththe marine and airport industries,known as the Martin Marine-AviationAlliance--which formed a limited liabil-ity corporation at the request of Com-missioner John Haddox for a more“formal” entity--to contribute $50,000 ayear of private funds for the first threeyears should an unexpected shortfall incollections occur.

Alex Beringer, president of the Al-liance, member of the Airport Noise Ad-visory Committee, and vice president ofoperations for Fair Wind Air Charter saidthe group will continue its efforts, meet-ing individually with commissioners toprovide answers to their questions.

“We think it’s a smart, sound plan forMartin County,” said Beringer. “We’re

continued on PAGE 6

FLORIDA NOT ALL ABOARD

RAILROAD PLANS

FIRE MERGER & CITY LAWSUIT

CUSTOMS FACILITY

WHOM TO CONTACT

frustrated, but hopefully we’ll be success-ful in the long run.”

Although county officials indicatedthe vote probably would be consideredagain on April 15, the Customs Facilitywas not on the April 15 or April 22 countycommission meeting agendas. ■

The long-abandonedMama Mia restaurant in HobeSound may get newlife as a kitchen/restaurant as part of aproposed expansion of an existing drugrehabilitation and treatment center foraddictions.

A design and engineering firm repre-senting the Unity Recovery Center inHobe Sound requested a preapplicationmeeting to seek input from countygrowth management staff April 17 on itsproposed project on US 1, just north of SEChurch Street, where the Center currentlyoperates a residential housing complexfor its clients.

Its classes, treatment center and officesare currently housed on the second floor ofthe Bank America building at FederalHighway and Bridge Road in Hobe Sound.

Two parcels totaling approximately

2.5 acres include a 38-room hotel, ThePalms Inn, which is attached to therestaurant. The applicant proposes thatindividuals recovering from addictionwould stay in the rooms, eat at the restau-rant and obtain treatment from a a pro-posed 12,180 sq. ft. two-story buildingplanned on the adjacent lot. ■

The dreaded healthdepartment signswarning people toavoid contact with the water went up last month atLeighton Park in Palm City by the old PalmCity Bridge after tests revealed higher thannormal levels of enteric bacteria.

Enteric bacteria inhabit the intestinaltract of humans and animals and theirpresence in recreational waters is an indi-cation of fecal pollution, as a result ofstorm water runoff contaminated by pets,wildlife and/or human sewage. Potentialhealth risks for those who ingest or comein contact with the water include upsetstomach, diarrhea, eye irritation andskin rashes, according to the health de-partment, which conducts tests on thewater weekly.

They also sample water from the St.Lucie River at the Roosevelt Bridge,Sandsprit Park and at the Stuart sandbar

in the St. Lucie Inlet, all of which do notshow elevated levels of bacteria.

River and beach water sample resultscan be viewed at www.floridahealth.gov/CHD/Martin/Beach_and_River_Sam-pling.html ■

The most recentdredging of the St. Lucie Inlet, acombined project of the Army Corps of Engineers and Mar-tin County, was completed April 16, at thegreat relief of Martin County residentswho suffered through six months ofaround the clock pumps, heavy equip-ment and floodlights at Peck's Lake, thestaging area for the dredged sand.

The dredging contract was a continu-ation of the Army Corps of Engineersdredging project that concluded Feb. 21, apart of the federal Hurricane Sandy re-covery efforts.

The dredged sand was transportedvia tugboat and barge down the Intra-coastal Waterway to the lake, where itwas pumped via pipeline across the is-land to restore the beaches along JupiterIsland.

A man-made federal inlet that con-nects the Atlantic Ocean to several water-ways, including the Indian River Lagoon,the St. Lucie River, the Hobe Sound Nar-rows and the Intracoastal Waterway, notonly provides access among inland water-ways, centers of commerce, and privateand commercial docks and the AtlanticOcean, but is also critical to maintainingthe brackish estuary's salinity.

Martin County Coast Engineer KathyFitzgerald reported to the County Com-mission on April 15 that the contractorhad dredged an additional 150,000 cubicyards of sand from the inlet's impound-ment basin, thus the inlet will remainnavigable for a minimum of two years,possibly up to three years, depending onweather conditions.

The Town of Jupiter Island proposedan interlocal agreement with MartinCounty at the April 15 County Commis-sion meeting that would ensure regular,timely dredging of the inlet, and also

called for an offshore staging area; how-ever, the agreement, although copies hadbeen supplied to commissioners, was notdiscussed, and neither did any of the fiveJupiter Island commissioners or mayorchoose to address the commission.

Director of Engineering Don Donald-son requested direction from the board asto how to proceed: iron out the differencesregarding the interlocal agreement be-tween Jupiter Island and Martin County;continue to pursue the dredging permitextension from the Florida Department ofEnvironmental Protection; develop aninlet management plan that identifiespartners, and dedicated funding sourcesfor routine dredging; or proceed with all.

After a short discussion in which Don-aldson said that a dredging plan normallywould take two years to develop but thathe felt it could be done in 12 months, theboard requested that Donaldson return in30 days with an interim report, and tocontinue to pursue the permit.

They also identified the primary part-ners as Martin County and the Florida De-partment of Environmental Protection, butthat input would be sought also fromJupiter Island, the Loblolly communityand Sailfish Point, all of which are affecteddirectly by the dredging, or lack thereof. ■

Adding temporarilyto traffic congestionon Martin Highwayin Palm City, theFlorida Department of Transportationbegan the utility work April 8 required tobegin the highway's road-widening proj-ect, expected to be completed in July.

Following the utilities work, construc-tion will begin on two lanes between SWMapp Road at the foot of the VeteransMemorial Bridge and the Florida Turn-pike, according to DOT officials who at-tended a recent town hall meeting inPalm City, sponsored by the Palm CityChamber of Commerce. The utilitieswork will need to be completed prior toroadwork beginning, which will necessi-tate intermittent lane closures between9am and 3pm weekdays only. ■

Martin County CurrentsApril 20146 News Stream

continued from PAGE 5

BEGIN YOURELITETRANSFORMATION

ELITESALONONLINE.COM

WANDA MIRANDA DEBI TARYN

SKIN CARE �Non-Surgical Facelifts & Liposuction, Skin Therapy,Resurfacers, Peels & MachineTreatments, Airbrush Makeupby Taryn, licensed MedicalEsthetician, Master FacialSpecialist, Waxing Expert!

HAIR CARE �Men's and Women's Cut, Color,Style, Highlights, Up-Dos, Perms,Foils & Free Coffee by Wanda,Miranda or Debi.

NAIL CARE �Spa Pedicures, Manicures, Full Gel Sets, Shellac, Pink & Whites, Fungus Treatment,Repairs, Nail Art & Other Specialties.

772-546-010211185 SE Federal Hwy, Hobe Sound (Next to the Old Dixie Cafe North.)

Complete Services List & Pricing www.EliteSalonOnLine.com

THE ORIGINAL ARTSHOWCASED AT ELITESALON & GALLERYWILL ENHANCE YOURSPA EXPERIENCE.

UNITY PROPOSES EXPANSION

MARTIN HIGHWAY

DREDGING ST. LUCIE INLET

HIGH BACTERIA LEVELS

Many residents are not surprisedto learn that the pollution is-sues of the St. Lucie River and

Indian River Lagoon that came to theforefront last summer shifted thecounty's emphasis in the types of proj-ects to be undertaken in the seven Com-munity Redevelopment Areas, but theyare surprised that Railroad Avenue rep-resents that new direction.

“There is much more to that projectthan first meets the eye,” Community De-velopment Director Kev Freeman toldmembers of the Golden Gate Neighbor-hood Advisory Committee during aMarch update. “It's a project that ad-dresses multiple issues; it reduced theamount of pollutants flowing directly intoManatee Pocket, while also reducing theamount of stormwater 'sheet flow' that isa contributing factor in the high rate ofseptic tank failures in Golden Gate.”

Nearly 5,000 tons of contaminatedsoil was removed from what had been adirt road near the FEC railroad tracksfrom Indian Street south for about onemile to Garden Street. Testing thestormwater runoff showed a decline insuspended solids by 78.3 percent, aswell as a reduction in phosphorus by62.5 percent and nitrogen by 56 percent.

An underutilized commercial corri-dor that previously consisted only of adirt roadway was reconstructed and isnow paved, with tree-lined sidewalks,curbs, streetlights and proper drainage,to provide rear access to businesses andon-street parking for those with front ac-cess to the new street. The communityselected the project as a priority in both2002 and 2010 workshops, and wasfunded with a $700,000 Community De-velopment Block Grant from the FloridaDepartment of Economic Opportunity, a$186,000 Florida Department of Envi-ronmental Protection grant, and $25,000from the utilities department.

Golden Gate qualified for the blockgrant in part because more than 60 per-cent of the households are low to moder-ate income. The $1.16 million project wascompleted with less than $250,000 of TaxIncrement Financing funds from the CRA.

Already, the improvements are revi-talizing the commercial businesses alongRailroad Avenue, which suffered fromthe lack of paving, poor drainage, illegaldumping and overgrowth, Freemanadded. With the increase in economic ac-tivity reported by business owners, aswell as future permit fees for remodelingand expansion projects, tax revenues tothe county are expected to increase.

The most significant impact, however,is attenuation of a portion of thestormwater runoff that flows from west toeast in Golden Gate, from the commercialdevelopment into the residential areas.

“Golden Gate was identified severalyears ago as one of the areas with a sig-nificant number of septic tank failures,”Freeman added. “Septic tanks fail whentheir drain fields are flooded. The keyhere, especially since it's just not eco-nomically feasible to hook up to a cen-tral sewage system for most residents ofGolden Gate, is to ensure the ground isprotected from flooding, so the septictank has a chance to work properly.Even the trees help by taking up water.”

CRAs UNDER SCRUTINYDuring the Community Development

Department's meeting April 14 with theCounty Commission, the board askedthat certain components of CommunityRedevelopment Agency projects be pri-oritized, particularly those pertaining tostormwater drainage projects.

Freeman will present an agenda itemto the Board on April 22, at 4.30pm, thatwill identify possible measurement toolsthat could be used to assess a project's

benefits. A quantification of the benefitgained from investing tax incrementfunds into capital projects can be diffi-cult, particularly since a majority of cap-ital projects are aimed at resolvingimmediate maintenance and repair is-sues, according to Freeman, which is notalways the case with capital projects in aCommunity Redevelopment Area plan.

The intent of the Community Rede-velopment Area Plan is “to stabilize andimprove the underlying property val-ues,” thereby generating a higher qual-ity of life. In Freeman's reports to thecounty over the past few months, his cu-mulative totals from the previous taxyear show that the property values inCRAs increase more rapidly than thoseoutside the CRA.

Rio Civic Club member Julie Preast,a Rio community activist, is encourag-ing members of all seven CRAs to at-tend the Tuesday, April 22, commissionmeeting to demonstrate communitysupport of the neighborhood revitaliza-tion plans. ■

Martin County CurrentsApril 2014 Feature 7

Come to your favorite diner for home-cooked, real food servedby friendly staff in a congenial, happy place in Hobe Sound.

WE'RE OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK11189 SE Federal Hwy

Regular hours: 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.Open Monday nights 5-8 p.m.

OPEN MONDAYS FOR

DINNER!

GOOD

FOOD, GOOD COMPANY, GOOD TIM

ES!

Road project lagoon...

One of the most successful projects to reduce pollutedstormwater flow into the Indian River Lagoon is also one of the most criticized as a road project: the RailroadAvenue project in the Golden Gate community betweenPort Salerno and Stuart.

helps

M

Dear Editor,

I just finished reading Maggy Hur-challa’s commentary on Wednesday’sOp-Ed Page of The Palm Beach Post. Iam not getting into a debate on HB 703.I have always said that our state Legisla-ture rides the short bus. But MartinCounty continues to embarrass itself byblaming absolutely all of its environ-mental problems on Florida Crystalsand the Fanjul family.

There are 270,000 septic tanks thatdrain into the Indian River Lagoon. It issafe to assume that Florida Crystalsdoes not own one of them. The countiesthat border the Indian River Lagoonhave all taken great steps in correctingtheir practices that have for decades hada detrimental effect on the lagoon. Theglaring exception to this is MartinCounty. Their fallback position is, andalways has been: It’s Sugar’s fault!

Do they forget that it was Hurchallathat championed septic tanks over acentralized sewer system when she wason the Martin County Commission? Thelogic being it would control growth. Notvery sound logic. The fact that MartinCounty and Hurchalla fail to accept anyresponsibility for the condition of the In-dian River Lagoon is getting to the pointof being comical.

All of their hollering and screamingthat the state should clean up the IndianRiver Lagoon because it is a $4.5 billioneconomic engine to the area has notgone unnoticed by Tallahassee. I re-cently attended a meeting where a rep-resentative from the Areas of CriticalState Concern in the Florida Departmentof Economic Opportunity laid the blamesquarely on the 270,000 septic tanks

within the lagoon drainage area. Theirposition was that, like Apalachicola Bayand the Florida Keys, the Indian RiverLagoon is too valuable an asset to thestate to leave it up to the five counties tofix the problem. Particularly when itwas those five counties’ land use plansthat contributed to the problem.

One solution is for the state to de-clare the Indian River Lagoon an “Areaof Critical Concern.” This would focusall of the state’s resources on fixing thelagoon. This option was very successfulin saving both the Florida Keys andApalachicola Bay ecosystems from theirseptic tank issues.

Hurchalla and the other local offi-cials are opposed to this because it re-quires them to step up to the plate andface the facts. The sticking point is it willput the state in the driver’s seat. Maybein this case not a bad thing.

J.P. SASSERPahokee

J.P. Sasser is a former mayor of Pahokee.

Dear Editor,

As a businessman and resident in In-dian River County, I would like to addmy voice and some balance, to the dia-logue we’ve been hearing along theTreasure Coast about the All AboardFlorida project.

To anyone following the local news,you would think the vast majority of resi-dents here are against this passenger railproject. Well those voices – while theymay be among the loudest at the momentand as a result getting more of the atten-tion - certainly don’t speak for everyone.

We welcome the return of passengerrail to Florida’s east coast, because thereare more positive outcomes (than nega-tive ones) to be gained for all of us if wetake a long-term view.

Visit Florida estimates that we hadalmost 100,000,000 visitors in our statethis past year and that number willhopefully grow. Think about the addedeconomic benefit to Florida if these visi-tors spend a few more vacation dayshere and travel to other parts of ourbeautiful state, including this area andthe added visitors that we stand to getfrom All Aboard Florida’s nearby Or-lando and West Palm Beach stations –our area’s two primary tourism feeders.I’m sure our local hotels, restaurantsand attractions can get excited about theincreased business they could expect.

How can this be a bad thing for theTreasure Coast?

While we are not getting a stationright now, having passenger rail servicemake a comeback means a future stophere is a greater possibility than it everwas before. Sure, there are more trainsthrough the crossings and over bridges,but from what I understand, these trainsare shorter and run faster than freighttrains, so wait times will be a questionof seconds not hours as some have triedto suggest.

I’ve also read that All Aboard Floridawill be paying for the safety upgradesneeded at the crossings, and are helpingcommunities like ours get access tofunding to cover the cost of quiet zones.And from a recent meeting in Tallahas-see of Treasure Coast business leadersand elected officials, our local legislativedelegation is working with the FloridaDepartment of Transportation to assistin the costs too.

This is an opportunity for our state!We need to look past our own backyardsand think about what sort of dynamic, vi-

brant and economically thriving commu-nity we want for ourselves, our busi-nesses, and our families now and for thefuture. As a Floridian, I want our commu-nity to have more opportunity to grow, becompetitive, and flourish – not less.

So I ask our local press to be fair inhow they report on the All AboardFlorida story from all sides so that we canunderstand both the good and bad im-pacts, not those of a self-interested fewjust because they happen to shout louderthan the rest of us. And to my fellowTreasure Coast citizens I say, let’s remem-ber how blessed we are to live and workalong the Treasure Coast, and that it isbecause of the highways and railroad putin place decades ago, that we are able toenjoy the lifestyle we have today.

Let’s not lose sight of the possibilitiesa project like All Aboard Florida canbring to our area and our state, and riskstifling potential growth and prosperityfor ourselves and for the next generationby focusing on the wrong things.

Sincerely,Jim Rathbun

Vero Beach

Martin County CurrentsApril 20148 Voices

Editorial: Too much power lies in jungle drumbeat We cheered when Commissioner

Anne Scott aptly called the cho-reographed voices of dissen-

sion and doom that play at nearly everycounty commission meeting the “jungledrums.” We thought she was beginningto piece together the behind-the-scenespicture of politics in Martin County withchoreographer Ginny Sherlock designingthe sets, writing the scripts and conduct-ing the music, all the while proclaimingshe's merely a bystander.

Scott's made multiple references tothe jungle drums, not just one time, yethow to explain that she herself is af-fected, so controlled by them wheneverthey begin their drumbeats?

One Sherlock email, followed by thepuppetmeister's 8 or 10 mechanicaldrummers at a commission meeting,and suddenly Scott changes course onthe customs facility—widely sought bya broad spectrum of residents, not justthe fixed-based operators at the airport,not just the very wealthy with big boatsand big planes—but a vast number ofresidents who recognize its potential toadd to Martin County's quality of life—as well as their pocketbooks.

Scott also never questioned why Sher-lock also keeps putting Pitchford's Land-ing in Jensen Beach in her sights,hounding the commission meeting aftermeeting to shut it down, making falseclaims as though they were fact, and whenthey were fact, not telling the whole story.

All those yelling about Pitchford's atthe commission meetings, everyone ofthem, were involved in lawsuits andcountersuits against Pitchford's that didnot go their way, and their attorney?Ginny Sherlock. Could this be retributionthat our county commissioners arechoosing to allow? Shame on them. Com-missioner Doug Smith called it “a witchhunt.” There are no witches at Pitch-ford's, no illegal dumps, no destructionof the shoreline, yet the jungle drummersare allowed to continue their beat.

Now the jungle drummers are goingafter the referendum for voters to con-sider a one-cent sales tax for the next fouryears, which took three or four months ofdeliberation to get it on the ballot. “Vot-ers don't trust us,” says CommissionerSarah Heard, “and they shouldn't. Theyasked for a community pool, and insteadthey got a theme park.”

That's those jungle drums playingagain, because residents love SailfishSplash Park, and it was profitable in itsfirst year...against all odds. That waterpark is not the reason residents don'ttrust their commissioners. Try incompe-tency, instead.

After the Capital Improvement Planworkshop on Monday, commissionerslearned that we're in a crisis in severalareas of our infrastructure, not justroads and bridges. We learned that notonly is the jail's roof leaking, but the jailsecurity system could suffer completefailure due to its age. We learned thatthe county's data center, chocked full ofexpensive computers, has an air-condi-tioner that runs beyond its intended ca-pacity, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,but can barely reach adequate coolinglevels to prevent equipment damage.

Hours and hours of testimony fromdepartment heads describing the effects ofdeferred maintenance since the 2008 eco-nomic bust, followed by the sharp declinein tax revenue not only from lower homevalues, but the state's legislative mandateto lower property tax rates, has resulted inan infrastructure repair and maintenance

backlog that exceeds $350 million, nearly$400 million. And no plan exists to ad-dress that backlog, just as there's no planto fund inlet dredging, and no plan to ad-dress pollution abatement...because thejungle drums are playing.

The county is broke, yet it is spend-ing hundreds of thousands of taxpayerdollars to hire outside attorneys to de-fend what should never have gone tocourt. The vagueness and lack of meas-urable standards that had been part ofthe Comprehensive Growth Manage-ment Plan amendment language in thecommission's rewrites have now beenfixed in the new “remedial amend-ments”--the rewrites of the rewrites. Butit should never have cost taxpayersthousands of dollars to get the kind ofComp Plan that prevents arbitrary, sub-jective interpretation of the rules.

The super-majority vote remains,which means that two votes can stopany commission vote regarding some is-sues; therefore, instead of majority rulesin Martin County, it will be minorityrules. But, then again, we should beused to that, just as we're growing usedto hearing those jungle drums. ■

Letters to Editor

PUBLISHER -- Barbara ClowdusPRINTER -- Southeast Offset, Inc.WEBSITE -- Sonic Fish, LLC

A monthly newspaper, Martin CountyCurrents is distributed free throughout thecounty, including Hobe Sound, In-diantown, Rio, Jensen Beach, Palm City,Stuart, and Port Salerno. All opinions arethose of its authors, and letters to the edi-tor are encouraged. Contact information:

Martin County Currents, 2762 SEJanet Street, Stuart, FL 3497. www.Mart-inCountyCurrents.com. 772.245.6564.

Martin County CurrentsApril 2014 Voices 9

Losing palms akin to losing our banyans

Perhaps the launch of Stuart's Centen-nial celebration in March steered mythoughts lately toward Homestead,

since this city, my birthplace, just finishedcelebrating its centennial in February.

Or perhaps it's the bloom of an emailstring of about 20 former classmates ofmine who also grew up in Homestead.Their funny, delightful, poignant reminis-cences coaxing good memories fromwithin the folds of my brain.

Whatever the reason that Homesteadoccupied my mind, that pleasant reveriewas jolted into coldness when I learnedabout the state's plan to designate and“expand” Krome Avenue in Homesteadas part of its Strategic Intermodal Systemof transportation corridors.

I thought of Indiantown and theirstruggle to humanize Warfield Avenue,also part of the Florida Strategic Inter-modal System, which splits the heart ofthat community with four lanes of majortruck traffic, impeding the normal ebband flow of life in a small town.

I thought of Bridge Road and theirmagnificent banyan trees planted and re-planted by the Reed family as a fittingentrance to Jupiter Island and a gift to allwho live here. What a tragedy if the statedecided to “relocate” them in order to

widen the road as part of its strategictransportation plan. We know it couldnot happen here for a host of reasons, butit also would not be a battle fought byJupiter Islanders alone.

Such trees, unquestionably respectedas an intrinsic part of the ecosystem, en-rich our lives by adding aesthetic andeconomic value to a community, but alsoby allowing us to tap into the aura of his-tory left by time, much like a historicbuilding—except these monuments liveand breathe.

The Royal Palms of Homestead wereplanted by Homestead pioneers, business-men and Rotary Club members in 1924,and the Rotary Club had to replant mostof them again after Hurricane Andrew.Rotarians recognized their value to resi-dents as a symbol of life and beauty andresilience at a time of unspeakable horrorand destruction, the identical motivationbehind building a taller, more magnificentFreedom Tower in New York City.

Americans recognize a collective, in-domitable spirit that sets us apart from somany other peoples of the world, andthat's why it's unimaginable to me thatthese majestic, towering Royal Palm treescould be deliberately removed to makeroom for more asphalt.

Yes, petitions are getting signed, let-ters to the editor and comments on thenewspaper's blog are getting posted, andthe Homestead City Council is consider-ing options, if they have any. Many resi-dents feel the only option is to designateKrome Avenue officially as a NationalScenic Highway, the gateway to severalnational and state parks, including theEverglades. That course, as many here al-

ready know, can become an arduous, bu-reaucratic process taking far longer thanexpected, and there's not a lot of time.The state purportedly already settled onthis route, and the wheels are quicklybeing put in motion.

The petition, which can be found athttp://goo.gl/zkyZUP (you'll need tocopy and paste it) is open to anyone tosign. It asks that you identify yourself asa current, previous, or non resident ofHomestead, south Dade, or southFlorida. (Another contact is Ivette Ruiz-Paz with Florida DOT at (305) 640-7462or email [email protected].)

Not too surprising, the most signa-tures on both the electronic and hard-copy petitions being circulated havecome from former residents, probablythose like me whose best childhoodmemories are framed by those RoyalPalm trees.

Many of us attended kindergarten atthe First United Methodist Church onKrome Avenue, where my first-born sonalso attended decades later, in theshadow of Royal Palms.

The aptly named Royal Palm DrugStore sits at the corner of 8th Street andKrome, the first stop after school every-day for dozens of kids let loose fromHomestead Junior High. The place be-came entrenched in our minds not onlyfor its sodas and fries, but as the site ofmany budding romances, frolickingpranks and bonded friendships...underthe Royal Palms.

We know that trees are essential to theeco-system, both above ground andbelow. They absorb carbon dioxide,

shield us from sun, capture free-floatingpollutants, and create the oxygen weneed to live. Below ground, their rootshold soil in place and fight erosion, aswell as absorb and store rainwater, reduc-ing runoff and sediment that ends up inour waterways.

But Homestead's palms need moresignatures than they're getting. Theyneed signatures even from those with noattachment to the place, including thoseprofessional designers and urban plan-ners who have studied their successesand failures over the past half century,who could tell the state that their actionsfly in the face of all that we now know isessential to creating safe, livable, high-quality-of-life communities.

Homestead needs petition signaturesfrom those refugees of Andrew who havesettled here, and from Martin County res-idents who may never have seen Home-stead and its Royal Palms, butunderstand the vital role of trees in ourenvironment and the awareness requiredto create a desirable place to live.

How is it we must still demand thatour state government pay attention?

A tree-lined Krome Avenue is asgrand an entrance to Homestead asBridge Road is to Jupiter Island. Four-laned highways in either place are the an-tithesis of what we know provides happy,vibrant communities. It's unimaginablethat these majestic, towering Royal Palmtrees, so important to so many people inso many ways could be so arbitrarily dis-missed to make room for more cars.

We know better, and now we must actupon that knowledge. To do otherwisejust is unacceptable. ■

“The death of Lady Mondegreen”

Things aren’t always what they seem,in the English language. They say(“They”!) that English is the easiest

language in the world to be understood in,but one of the hardest to speak well. Withonly 800 words (They say), a total strangercan get by, but years of practice will usu-ally leave him a bit short of perfection.(Surely German is fifty times more diffi-cult. It’s a wonder anybody speaks it well.And actually, when you think about it, weonly have their word for it that anybodydoes speak it well.)

English spelling is a hodge-podge offolk-etymology and class eccentricities.Who else but the English upper classwould identify one’s nightly sleep as a di-etary “fast” to the point of calling the firstmeal of the day “break-fast”, while abbre-viating it to “brekkie”? Well, until recentCenturies only upper-class clerics were lit-erate, and claimed to know everything

there was to know about the language. An infinitely more plausible specula-

tion is that the word we pronounce brek-fust is but a dialectal variant ofScandinavian frukost, which means a mealcomprising fruit (fruk) and cheese (ost).Fruit and cheese is a man’s brekkie. Unfor-tunately, that might be folk-etymology,too. A friend of mine has reminded methat a common German word for breakfastis frueh-kost, which translates as “earlyfood”, and which is even more plausible.

In any case, men have traditionallybroken their “fast” when they get up inthe middle of the night for a pee and raidthe fridge on the way back to bed. I know,I know – the Vikings didn’t have fridges.But they would have shared the same noc-turnal habits.

Reportedly, it was an 18th-Century Eng-lish Earl of Sandwich who introduced hishandy snack to his aristocratic chums at theroulette wheel. That much is true. But hisserfs had been munching pieces of breadwith bacon + a wedge of cheese for manygenerations before. One can picture thechums laughing at his adoption of suchpeasant fare: “A sarney-wedge, my lord?More of a Sand-wich, what, what? Hahaha!”“Oh, jolly good, Cholmondeley! Hahaha!”

Next: why is “cupboard” spelt the wayit is? A cupboard is a cubby-hole with a

door, and a cubby is simply a variant of acabi-net. All cupboards have doors. A cup-board without a door is a pantry. A boardthat you keep cups on is a shelf. Sheesh! Thebizarre spelling “cupboard” is folk-etymol-ogy deriving from upper-class eccentricity.

My personal term for this sort of rot is“muster-bin”. The imagined origins ofEnglish surnames present a long list ofmuster-bin falsehoods. The first personbearing the surname Smith must ha’ bin asmith by trade. The first Mr Brown mustha’ bin brown in skin or hair or eyes. Thefirst Jones and Johnson were the sons ofmen named John. And so on. They simplymust have been. Actually, as we say in theCaribbean, “they don’t must.” There aremore plausible alternative explanationsfor those names. But plausibility finds ithard to beat out facile assumptions.

And, finally, to Lady Mondegreen. Notan example of folk-etymology, this one. Itwas first published by an American writer– one Sylvia Wright – in 1954, as the sub-ject of an essay specially written for amagazine. She had remembered the wordfrom a verse her mother used to read toher as a child, from an 18th-Century col-lection of ballads:

Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,Oh, where have ye been?They have slain the Earl o' Moray,

And Lady Mondegreen.The young Sylvia used to feel desper-

ately sad for the poor lady who died withone of Scotland’s most famous martyrs,and she (Sylvia) resented the poet’s failureto mention the lady again in his story. Itwas one of those childhood memories thatsticks in the mind forever. Several decadespassed before the adult Sylvia actuallyread the poem for herself, where shelearned to her great disappointment thatthe killers of the Earl o’ Moray had in factlaid him on the green. Unaccompanied!

Wikipedia tells the story, and gives otherexamples of what are today called Monde-greens. We all have our favourites. BobDylan sang “the ants are my friends”,Creedence in Bad Moon Rising sang “there’sa bathroom on the right”. And, at NumberOne, for me, the last verse of Psalm 23,which begins “Surely good Mrs Murphyshall follow me all the days of my life”. ■

Australian-born Gordon Barlow is a formermanager and sometime director of the CaymanIslands Chamber of Commerce, and an occa-sional commentator on the Islands’ public af-fairs. He has lived in several countries duringhis career, and visited more than 70. His per-sonal website, “Barlow’s Cayman,” is athttp://barlowscayman.blogspot.com.

BarbaraClowdus

Unfiltered

Gordon Barlow

Outside,Looking In

The intent of the awards cere-mony was to acknowledge thework of local animal advocates,giving them “the recognition

they deserve for helping animals inneed and protecting the habitats of sur-rounding wildlife,” according to a Pega-sus release.

The major consideration for havingDownes address the gathering, how-ever, was to raise public awareness ofthe threatened extinction of a species ofelephant found in central Africa, re-

cently adopted as one of the animals toreceive the special attention and supportof the international Pegasus Foundation,based in Hobe Sound.

“Elephants are in crisis,” accordingto Downes. “One elephant is killedevery 15 minutes for its ivory. It’s timeto stand up and say that we value livingelephants more than ivorytrinkets...IFAW is committed to breakingevery link on the trade chain—from ele-phant poaching to ivory trafficking tomarket demand.”

Once named by PresidentClinton to lead Peace Corps ef-forts in the Eurasia and MiddleEast Region, Downes is creditedfor helping expand IFAW’s opera-tions to more than 40 countriesthrough his worldly expertise andskillful coordination,.

Special guests Dr. John W.Grandy, executive director of PegasusFoundation, and Mark Perry, execu-tive director of the Florida Oceano-graphic Society, attended this year’sceremony to recognize animal advo-cates and environmental stewards inthe community, as well as to receiverecognition themselves.

Grandy, who served as masterof ceremonies, is the currentwildlife counselor to the CEO ofThe Humane Society of the UnitedStates. He advises senior staff on animalwelfare issues domestically and abroad.The wildlife authority, who specializesin the protection of sharks, African ele-phants, mute swans and nationalwildlife refuges, brought attention to theU.S. government's stepped-up efforts toprotect wild elephants, including thecrushing of seized ivory imports.

In addition, the US Fish & WildlifeService recently announced that theywill be halting all imports into the US ofsport-hunted trophy tusks from Tanza-nia and Zimbabwe, heralded as “a boldand commendable move” by the U.S.

According to the FWS press release:“Questionable management prac-

tices, a lack of effective law enforcementand weak governance have resulted inuncontrolled poaching and catastrophicpopulation declines of African elephantsin Tanzania. In Zimbabwe, availabledata, though limited, indicate a signifi-cant decline in the elephant popula-tion. Anecdotal evidence, such as thewidely publicized poisoning last yearof 300 elephants in Hwange NationalPark, suggests that Zimbabwe’s ele-phants are also under siege.”

The protection of African elephants

as been added to the list of priorities ofthe Pegasus Foundation, which alsoseeks, through its partnerships with es-tablished organizations, the protectionof sharks, horses and other domesti-cated animals, and marine mammals.

The Wings Award recipients included:Future Animal Advocate: Caroline

Nolan. An eighth-grader at Stuart Mid-dle School, Caroline Nolan not justquestioned the cause of the toxic algaein the Indian River Lagoon, but shedemonstrated the tenacity to develop apossible solution for the problem by ex-ploring whether a filter made of a cer-tain kind of mushroom could removenutrients from wastewater discharginginto the lagoon.

Journalist for Animals: ShannonBorrego provides helpful caretaking ad-vice for pet owners in her "Catty Com-ments" column every week in ScrippsTreasure Coast newspapers. Her articleshave been described as entertaining, aswell as educational and informative.

Foster Family of The Year: AndreaRinder and Barbi Moline. AndreaRinder and her husband, Matt, take inupwards of a dozen animals everyyear, nursing them back to health untilthey are ready to be adopted. Andrea

Martin County CurrentsApril 2014News Feature10

Pegasus Foundation making a difference

Even with the picture-perfect views of the Indian River Lagoon as a backdrop, the Indian RiverSide Park's Tuckahoe Mansion was transformed into an African landscape through the artwork of Kathy Mayr Britton in honor of Azzedine Downes, president and chief executive officer of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, guest speaker for the Pegasus Foundation's Wings Awards ceremony March 27.

T

honors those

also blogs about some of her experi-ences as a foster mom. Barbi Moline,founder of Nala’s New Life Rescue,has taken on the responsibility of car-ing for abused, neglected, or aban-doned dogs for more than 20 years.Last year, Barbi saved 100 animalsfrom being put down and placed themin loving homes throughout the Treas-ure Coast. TC Palm recently coveredher arrival at Witham Field after shetraveled across the state to rescue sev-eral dogs from a high-kill shelter inChipley, Fla., that were scheduled to beeuthanized Feb. 28.

River Rescue: Mark Perry, the execu-tive director at the Florida Oceano-graphic Society, testified before the U.S.Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nu-trition and Forestry explaining the cata-strophic impacts the sugar cane industryhas on the Everglades, Lake Okeechobeeand Florida’s coastal estuaries. Active inthe Rivers Coalition, he is the voice be-hind the movement to move water

south out of Lake Okeechobee, insteadof down the St. Lucie and Caloosa-hatchee rivers.

Public Safety Beyond the Call: De-tective Ben Fennell with the MartinCounty Sheriff's Office for saving nearlyone dozen neglected, malnourished andabused horses in three separate cases.

Advancing Unique Human-AnimalPartnerships: Susan Hargreaves, withAnimal Hero Kids, provides free, inter-active humane education presentationsin schools and at events along the Treas-ure Coast encouraging youth to be kindto all species.

2014 Friend of Wildlife: Dr. DeniseHerzing with The Wild Dolphin Project,a scientific research organization thatstudies and reports on a specific pod offree-ranging Atlantic spotted dolphins,is developing innovative techniques forcommunicating with the species.

The judges, Martin County Supervi-sor of Elections Vicki Davis; returningjudge and local veterinarian, EnriqueBorrego; and two of last year’s winners,volunteer Carol Dippy and Sewall'sPoint Commissioner Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch, selected one Pegasus WingsAward recipient in each category.

The Pegasus Foundation, created topromote animal welfare around theworld, has nearly 50 “Pegasus Partners”based locally and around the world helpcreate “a more compassionate society bylaboring on behalf of animals and thepeople who help them” through volun-teering, service and education. Their of-fice is on Bridge Road in Hobe Sound,and their website is: www.pegasusfoun-dation.org. ■

SUCCESS FEE SPECIAL

Commission will be discounted to 4.25%with 6 month listing agreement

and sold by Debra Parker

Martin County CurrentsApril 2014 News Feature 11

Barbara Birdsey, founder of the PegasusFoundation, with Mark Perry, on left and John Grandy.

Caroline Nolan Shannon Borrego Mat and Andrea Kinder with Barbi Moline

Detective Ben Ferrell with John Grandy Susan Hargreaves Dr. Denise Herzing

Area businessesare chipping into help send thegirls of the 14-U Cruisers travel team of the MartinCounty Fastpitch Softball League tothe World Series this summer.

“They played in the World Seriestwo years ago and qualified again lastsummer,” said their coach, Chris La-Bella, who helped organize MartinCounty's all-girl league, “but the costwas just too great for parents, and wejust couldn't hold enough car washesto get it done!”

This year, the team is taking a newapproach with the help of MartinCounty Currents. For each $250 dona-tion toward one MCFPS League player'sWorld Series fees, a business receivesa free 1/4 page, full-color advertise-ment in Currents. With one donation, a

business becomes a Bronze sponsor.For three $250 donations, the busi-

ness becomes a Silver sponsor, andwill receive a team plaque, in additionto three, free Currents advertisements.

For five $250 donations, the busi-ness becomes a Gold sponsor, receiv-ing a team plaque, its company logoon the team banner displayed duringtournaments leading up to and duringthe World Series, and five free adver-tisements in Currents.

All sponsorship levels will receiveemails and photos regarding theirplayers' progress on the road to theWorld Series.

“We want to thank these busi-nesses for sharing the faith our girlshave in themselves to be able to reachtheir dreams,” LaBella added. Onehundred percent of the donations goto MCFPS.

Individuals or businesses may par-ticipate by emailing: [email protected], or contacting any memberof the Cruisers team.

Local Businesses Support Girls 14U Dream

STONEY'S AUTOMOTIVE IS YOUR COMPLETE

AUTOMOTIVE CENTER.

ROCK SOLID AUTO SALES & REPAIRS

GET ON THE ROAD!

STAY ON THE ROAD!

Auto SalesAccessoriesConsignments

RestorationsTransmissionsOil ChangesTire Rotations

11305 SE Federal Hwy, Hobe Sound

www.stoneysautomotive.com

CALL US TODAY!772-545-3805

SILVERSPONSOR

12 13

DO YOU KNOW?We produce home-grown renewable energy in South Florida. We own and operate NorthAmerica’s largest energy facility that’s poweredby sugar cane fiber and recycled urban woodwaste. Our facility generates clean, reliable energy for our sugar operations and tens ofthousands of Florida homes.

Because of our renewable energy supply andearth-friendly farming, we make America’s onlyCarbonFree® certified sugar products, whichguarantees the sugar you buy on the shelves has a carbon neutral footprint.

And, we supply the only organic sugar 100%made in the USA. Our organic sugar is grownon Florida’s largest organic farm and is har-vested and milled right here in South Florida.

FLORIDA CRYSTALSPROUDLY SUPPORTSTHE 14U CRUISERS'TEAM TRIP TO THEWORLD SERIES OF GIRLSFAST PITCH SOFTBALL!

GOLDSPONSORwww.edwardjones.com

Silence May Be Golden,But Not When It

Comes to Your Estate.It’s a topic people tend to put off or ignore, but one of the most important things you can do is to develop a sound estate plan.

Join us, along with a local estate-planning attorney, for our freePreparing Your Estate Plan seminar.You’ll learn more about:• What to consider when creating your will• The benefits of trusts in estate planning• How to help reduce taxes on your estate• How insurance can help protect your family

Edward Jones, its employees and financial advisors are not estate planners and cannot provide tax orlegal advice. You should contact a qualified tax or legal professional regarding your specific situation.

When: 04/23/20145:30pm - 7:00pm

Where: Champions Club, 3400 SE Summerfield Way, StuartRSVP: to Kim Toth by 04/21/14

Refreshments and light snacks will be served.

Seating is limited, so reserve your place today.

You’re Invited

MKD-3231-A-AD Member SIPC

Andy Andersen, CFP®

Financial Advisor8950 SE Bridge Rd Ste 1Hobe Sound, FL 33455772-545-9638

Paul F NunleyFinancial Advisor8950 SE Bridge Rd Ste 1Hobe Sound, FL 33455772-545-9638

Kristina FeilFinancial Advisor6060 S E Federal HighwayStuart, FL 34997772-219-1732

EdwardJones®

MAKING SENSE OF INVESTING

BRONZESPONSOR

Come taste our fresh seafood, beef, chicken and pork, scrumptious ricenoodles, or any of our other mouth-watering dishes. Our chefs are

renowned for their creative combinations of spices and sauces.

Call for Reservations772-546-9022

Not required, but recommended

Our warm and charming atmosphere will instantly relax you while our staff spoils you.

Weekly menu specials offer unique flavors and pairings, and our Take-Out Menu is online at www.manli.biz!

Under New Management!

Now an easy drive from Palm City to Hobe Sound, as well as from Stuart, Port Salerno, Indiantown and Tequesta!

8847 S.E. Bridge Road, Hobe Sound(in the Winn-Dixie Plaza)

Monday - Thursday 11am - 9pm • Friday - Saturday 11am - 9:30 pm • Sunday 4 - 9pm

VOTED Favorite Fine

Chinese Cuisine in

Martin County!

BRONZESPONSOR

Sidelined before theseason even beginsBy Devon ClowdusFirst Baseman, 14U Cruisers

The first batter of a tough team step-ping into the batter's box, cheeringfans (yeah, moms!), playing on a

freshly groomed field, the adrenalinepumping through my veins all make meplay my heart out. When the spring soft-

ball season started, those things cameto an abrupt stop (well, not my

mom's cheering) with a small hole.More on that in a minute.

My name is Devon Clowdus(Big D) and I play first base for

the Martin County 14U Cruis-ers fastpitch softball team.

The Cruisers are on a cru-sade this year to win theUSSSA FastpitchWorld

Series, and March kicks off our one-day tour-naments. Now about that small hole...

After weeks of grueling practices, just be-fore our first tournament, I stepped in a hole.A tiny, little, practically microscopic divot inthe ground that sent my world into a down-ward spiral. Running across the field, look-ing up to catch a fly ball, that hole, perfectlyplaced, caused my knee to buckle, the painso intense I could not walk or even stand,causing a scare that left family, friends, andmost importantly my team worrying whenor if I would ever be able to play again.

The diagnosis would take a while. “Wehave to let the swelling subside,” said my doc-tor the next day. “Two weeks on crutches, icetherapy and then we will see.” In this world ofinstant everything, waiting is hard. In themeantime, I raced around on my crutches,picking up another nickname, Baby G, becausemy dad says I looked like a baby giraffe goingacross the parking lot. I was not amused.

A torn meniscus is the initial diagnosisonce the swelling subsides, although uncer-tainty exists as to how bad the tear is and

whether surgery is required to repair it. Hav-ing to tell my team I will probably be out thesummer is hard. A lot of work and sacrificefrom parents, coaches and players goes intoplaying at this level, and I keep going topractices and games to cheer them. I feelcommitted to help however I can, but I amheartbroken I can't be on the field.

And then a surprise. No surgery! Just restand physical therapy. Finally after fiveweeks the news we had been hoping for: Itwas time to dust off the uniform and playball! I have never been so happy to hear myreal nickname, “Big Ddddd,” ring out acrossthe field on my first day back. I'm definitelyrusty, but I'm getting stronger everyday.

Our journey to the World Series is just be-ginning and it won't be easy, but nothing isimpossible for the 14U Cruisers. Just watchout for those little holes. ■

DestinyYoung fieldsa grounder

Cruisers Travel Softball Road to World Series

Barbara CookPitcher, 3rd Base

Tequesta

Lauren BostwickOutfield

Okeechobee

Destiny YoungOutfieldStuart

Shayne HewittShortstop

Vero Beach

Devon Clowdus1B, OutfieldHobe Sound

Ashley GamacheCatcher

Palm City

Pitcher Barbara Cook puts some smoke behind her pitches.

The 14U Cruisersstart their journey

The Cruisers 14U team, comprising girlsfrom throughout the Treasure Coast andOkeechobee, spent three weekends in

March launching tournament play on the girls'road to the World Series.

They earned a berth last year, but were un-able to attend due to the cost. This year, they aredetermined not only to earn a berth in theWorld Series event, but also to earn sufficientmoney for the team to make the trip for fourdays in July.

As of April 1, the 14U Cruisers have playedUSSSA sanctioned tournaments in Sunrise, WestPalm Beach and Wellington against 10 to 15teams in each tournament with visiting teamsfrom Miami to Fort Pierce. They placed third inone tournament, and in fifth place in two others.

Later in the summer when the tournamentslast two days, the Cruisers will take on teamsfrom Key West, Tampa and Vero Beach. Theroad is long and will be tough. ■

Coach Chris LaBella fires up the Cruisers.

Lori LaBellaLeftfieldStuart

Hannah Toth1B, CatcherHobe Sound

Breezy LaytonPitcher

Palm City

Samantha Williams2B, RightfieldHobe Sound

Gillian CrosbyCatcher, Pitcher

Okeechobee

Kalli Kossick2B, Shortstop

Stuart

Alex BattonShortstop

Jensen Beach

14 Martin County CurrentsApril 2014What ’n Where

Tuesday, April 25-26Women in the Outdoors in Okeechobee

Women in the Outdoors, sponsored by theNational Wild Turkey Federation, is dedi-cated to providing interactive educationaloutdoor opportunities for women age 13and older. Registration fee is $85 with norefunds after April 5, and the event will be

held rain or shine. (That's what happens when you're outdoors!) The FridayEvening Event , becoming legendary for both guys and gals, may be at-tended separately, at a cost of $25 per person for dinner, silent auction, liveauction, gun raffles, and live entertainment...much more exciting than deadentertainment. Call Holiday Inn Express Okeechobee at 863-357-3529 for spe-cial rates if you want to spend the night in a real bed and take a hot shower.Choice of classes include Basic and Advanced Archery; Beginning BirdWatching; Boat Safety; Buggy Ride; Canoe/Kayak; Camping, not Glamping;Concealed Weapons ($10 extra); Cooking with a Hottie; Cowboy Roping;Duct Tape Tote; Fire Side Cooking; Florida Cracker History; Fly Fishing;Gator Hunting; Handgun Safety ($10 extra); Hunting She Will Go; Intro toOil Painting; Jewelry Making; Basic and Advanced Outdoor Photography;Self Defense; Basic and Intermediate Shotgun/Sporting Clays ($10 extra);Soap Making; Swamp Cabbage; Trailer Backing. For more information, con-tact Event Coordinator Denise Helms 772-475-1158. Instructor coordinatorKelli Hilterbrand, 772-370-3885, or [email protected].

Saturday, April 26Kids Fishing Clinic & Festival in Port St. LucieBring your kids to River Park Marina, 500 Prima Vista Blvd., Port St. Lucie,on Saturday, April 26, for the Kids Fishing Clinic & Festival. Registrationstarts at 8 a.m and the fishing runs from 9-11 a.m. The first 50 children tocomplete all the learning stations receive a free rod and reel. FREE to chil-dren ages 5-17, who can participate with a guardian’s permission. For moreinformation contact David at [email protected].

Saturday, May 3Cinco de Mayo in Stuart!Downtown Stuart will come alive in celebration ofCinco de Mayo with a block party at the RiverwalkStage on St. Lucie Boulevard on Saturday, May 3. Liveentertainment, margaritas, taco stands, a tequila bar,Chihuahua races, a “best-dressed” contest, a kids’ cor-ner, and much more make the event special. Tacos will be provided by theTaco Shack. Orange Theory Fitness is sponsoring an arm wrestling table –participants can challenge a friend and the winner receives a free beer! Theparty kicks off at 5 p.m. and lasts until 10 p.m. Tickets are available for $5 atwww.kaleidominds.com, and tickets purchased in advance include a freedrink ticket. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Moustache March for theMilitary. To learn more, visit www.kaleidominds.com.

Saturday, May 3Aquarium Traveling Exhibit Grand OpeningThe South Florida Science Center and Aquar-ium’s newest traveling exhibit mazes, opensto the public on the evening of Saturday, May

3, and will remain on display through September 14. To celebrate the grandopening of mazes, the Science Center will host Food Truck Fusion, a food truckevent, on Saturday, May 3, from 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. In addition to exploring mazes,which leads guests on an adventure through a series of interactive brain-teasers, 3-D puzzles and full body games, guests also will have the opportunityto explore local food vendors and live music and activities for the entire family.Admission to the Science Center for the special grand opening celebration willbe reduced to $10 for adults and $7 for children ages 3 to 12. Science Centermembers can enjoy the special event for free. The science center is at 4801Dreher Trail N, West Palm Beach. Call for more info: 561-832-1988

Month of MayTurtle Walk Reservations NowOpen at Hobe SoundGet your reservations in early with theHobe Sound Nature Center for its sea-sonal Sea Turtle Walk in May. Reserva-tions can be made from midnight onMonday, April 14 – Tuesday, April 15 bycalling the nature center at 772-546-2067 or by registering online at hobe-soundnaturecenter.com. Numbers arelimited to 30 spots per walk; a waitinglist is available. Spots fill up quickly somake reservations early. A $5 per at-tendee donation is requested.

Saturday, April 26Hobe Sound NatureCenter's Fishing ClinicCelebrate the earth on Saturday, April26, at the annual “Hook Kids on Fish-ing Clinic” co-sponsored by Anglers forConservation and the Hobe Sound Na-ture Center from 9-11 a.m. The clinic isopen to all kids ages 5-14 accompa-nied by a parent. Students receive fish-ing poles, tackle and attendmini-sessions to learn fishing basicsfrom local experts. Their newly ac-quired skills are then put to good useby fishing along the banks of the IndianRiver Lagoon. At 12:30 p.m. explorethe sea grasses with hand nets andseine. Participants will catch and re-lease small marine animals that callthe estuary home. This popular get-wetactivity is recommended for ages 4 andup. The Center’s exhibits and gift shopwill also be open all day for this freeevent. Reservations are required andcan be made by calling 727-546-2067or go to: hobesoundnaturecenter.com.

Saturday, May 319th Annual Golf Classic Presenting Dow FinsterwaldA signature event of the Hibis-cus Children’s Center, the “19th Annual GolfClassic Presenting Dow Finsterwald” will beat Mariner Sands Country Club will be Satur-day, May 3, with registration at 11:30 a.m. fol-lowed by a barbecue lunch and a 1 p.m.shotgun start. The tournament is a two-personscramble format and entry fee is $175. Golfawards, cocktails and heavy hors d’oeuvreswill follow the tournament. There will bechances to win Chinese auction items andgreat drawing prizes including a flat-screentelevision and a mini iPad. Drawing ticketsare $20 each, $50 for three or $100 for seven.You can register to win by mailing or droppingoff your tickets to Hibiscus Children’s Centerby May 2 or purchase them at the event onMay 3. You do not need to be present to win.The golf tournament benefits abused, aban-doned and neglected children with 100 per-cent of the proceeds directly impacting thelives of children in our community. Heartfeltthanks to our tournament host, Dow Finster-wald. Dow, also known as “Finsty,” is a formerPGA champion and 2006 PGA Hall of Fame In-ductee, 2007 Memorial Tournament Honoree,PGA Player of the Year and has played on fourRyder Cup teams among receiving many otherprestigious golf awards. Dow has stated thathe is “committed to this tournament as longas he’s alive.” Visit Hibiscus Children’s Cen-ter, 2400 NE Dixie Highway in Jensen Beach,or visit online at http://HibiscusChildrensCen-ter.org or call 772-334-9311, ext. 404.

April 18 - May 4'Deathtrap' at The Barn Theatre

An ingeniouscomedy-thrillerby Ira Levinabout a deviousmurder plot goneawry, “Death-trap,” will be pre-sented by TheBarn Theatrefrom April 18through May 4

with performances at 8 p.m. Wednesdaythrough Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday.“Deathtrap” holds the record for the longest-running comedy-thriller on Broadway and wasnominated for a Tony Award for Best Play.Playwright Sidney Bruhl desperately wants tobe the toast of Broadway once again. He andhis wife cook up an unthinkable scheme to in-vite fellow writer Clifford Anderson over fordinner, kill him and steal his script. But thingsare not at all what they seem. Tickets are $20and are available Mondays through Fridays atthe Barn Theatre box office, 2400 S.E. OceanBoulevard, Stuart from noon to 4 p.m. Ticketscan also be obtained by calling 772-287-4884or online at www.barn-theatre.com.

15Martin County CurrentsApril 2014 What ’n Where

Thursday, May 15Bingo Italian Night at St. Luke's

An Italian dinner that includes salad, garlic bread,pasta, and dessert will be Thursday, May 15, at

5:30 p.m. as part of the Bingo Italian Night atSt. Luke's Episcopal Church. A bingo card

costs $10. Doors open at 5 p.m., dinneris at 5:30 p.m. and bingo is at 6:30 p.m.St. Luke's Episcopal Church is at 5150SE Railway Ave, corner of Cove andA1A. Call 772-286-5455. There will be aspecial jackpot of $100. Tickets are onsale at the door and at the church of-fice, which is open mornings, closed

on Wednesday.

Weekend, May 16-18 Ladies Let’s Go Fishing at Pirate’s CoveLadies, Let’s Go Fishing will hosta fishing event the weekend ofFriday, May 16, at Pirates CoveResort & Marina, 4307 S.E.Bayview Street in Port Salerno.The event kicks off Friday nightwith a networking social from 6-8p.m. Saturday brings a day ofclasses and hands-on skill prac-tice from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. The week-end caps off on Sunday with anoptional charter boat fishing be-ginning at 7 a.m. and ending at 1 p.m. Registration is $99 a person (charterboat fees are additional) and can be made by calling 954-475-9068. For moreinformation, go to www.ladiesletsgofishing.com.

Saturday, May 17Stuart Sailfish Regatta at Stuart Causeway Feel the Rush, Hear the Roar! The FASTEST event on the Treasure Coast re-turns May 16, 17 & 18 at the Stuart Causeway and Ernie Lyons Bridge! Getready for an adrenaline pumping weekend filled with hydroplanes, race boats,powerboats, and bragging rights. Organizers are planning an event filled withspeed, excitement, and community involvement. The races will once again beheld on the Stuart Causeway on a 1.1 mile oval racecourse in the Indian RiverLagoon on the northern side of the Ernie Lyons Bridge. Ticket Prices rangefrom $10-$50.

Friday, May 17 - June 28Fine Art Photographer exhibit in IndiantownFunded by the Women Supporting the Arts of Martin County and supported bythe Martin County Library System, the photography of Kevin Boldenow will beexhibited May 17 through June 28 at the Elizabeth Lahti Library in Indiantown.As a fine art photographer in Palm City, Boldenow has been creating a pictorialhistory of Indiantown. The reception will be Friday, May 17, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.To preview some of Boldenow’s art, go to www.krbphotoimagery.com.

Sunday, May 4Little Miss and LittleMister StuartNot your typical pageant (after all, Stu-art is not your “typical” city), the LittleMiss and Little Mister Stuart contestis open to children ages 0-18 years tocompete for the title on Sunday, May4, at the Flagler Place in downtownStuart. Categories include prettiestsmile, most photogenic, prettiesteyes, best dressed, prettiest hair, mostpoised, and the titles of Miss Stuart,Mini Miss Stuart, and Mr. Stuart. Noglitzy clothing, heavy makeup, or pag-eant experience is needed, and all arewelcome. The age divisions are 0-4years, 5-11 years, and 12-18 years.Winners will receive a crown and cashprizes, and will be featured in the Cen-tennial Parade on May 10 in downtownStuart. The pageant is open to the gen-eral public and tickets are $5. The par-ticipant entry fee of $30 includes onecontestant and two parent admissiontickets. Applications can be down-loaded at www.flaglerplace.net andcompleted applications should beemailed to [email protected] portion of the proceeds will benefitFriends in Pink, a local non-profit or-ganization dedicated to providing fi-nancial support to individuals whohave been diagnosed with breast can-cer and who are uninsured or under-in-sured. Flagler Place is at 201 SWFlagler Ave. in Stuart.

Saturday, May 10City of Stuart’s Birthday Celebration The City of Stuart will officially be 100years old Wednesday, May 7! To cele-brate, the City of Stuart will host ahuge, family-friendly Centennial Cele-bration free to the public on May 10.The festivities for the day include apancake breakfast, parade, car showand party in the park. The event alsowill include nostalgic festivities suchas Mason jar lemonade, an apple-pie-eating contest, police and fire tug ofwar, a water balloon contest, wheel-barrow races, carousel rides and a per-formance by the Stuart Middle Schoolmarching band.

Saturday, May 17Reasons to golf in Hobe Sound's tourney The Hobe Sound Chamber of Commerce's exec-utive director, Angela Hoffman, recently gavechamber members, residents and friends fivereasons for golfing in the Chamber's annualtournament May 17 at the Hobe Sound GolfClub. “Well, we have had 31 years to perfectgolf tournaments,” she said. They've figuredout how to do it right. And her other reasons?

Contribute to a Chamber fundraiser by sim-ply playing your favorite sport, and becausethis is a Hobe Sound Chamber event, you willparticipate in the best, top-notch networkingto meet potential clients and referral sources.

In south Florida, the golf course is equiva-lent to the board room when it comes to get-ting business done!

By playing in the tournament you show-case your company to Chamber members andtheir guests. This is the “Who’s Who” of tour-naments and you won’t be remembered if youaren’t there to play!

This year’s tournament, presented by MetzConstruction Company, will be at Hobe SoundGolf Club, ranked one of Florida’s top courses,and their service, facility, and catering is sec-ond to none.

The 31st Annual Hobe Sound Chamber GolfTournament is a 4-player scramble with a shot-gun start at 8 a.m. The cost is $150 per player.Players will have chances to win a brand newcar, as well as a round of golf for three withCarl Domino, Candidate for U.S. Congress, atyour choice of either Medalist, Orchid Island,or The Loxahatchee Club golf courses. Guestscan join us for networking and lunch. Browsethe eclectic silent auction while enjoying foodand beverages. Register to play at www.hobe-sound.org or call 772-546-4724.

Friday, May 30 Stuart Police OfficersGolf Tournament The 3RD Annual Stuart Police Officers Assoc.Golf Tournament at Willoughby Golf Club in Stu-art. Registration will begin at 11am. Lunch willbe served at 11:30.Tee-off at 1 p.m. Four-some fee is $150.Cocktail hour andawards immediatelyfollowing. For more in-formation, contact772-220-3914.

Remembering 'Mom' with songs, poems, love

Martin County CurrentsApril 2014Hobe Sound Neighbors16

New Hobe Sound mural creates tricky illusionHobe Sound’s 14th mural, painted

on the south side of the HobeSound Retail Center building on

Federal Highway at Pine Circle, likelywill be a favorite illusion of residents:glass-paned doors opened partially to atropical beach scene.

The building, recently transformedwith a bright coat of orange paint and ateal roof, had already caused a buzzaround town, but the new mural topsoff its appeal with an unexpected flour-ish—the doorway looks real.

Owned by Suzi Realty, and managedby Nick Cioffi, Hobe Sound Retail Cen-ter houses Hobe Sound Deli, Sweet Tiersand Quick Lube. Also located in thetwo-building complex are MatthewStone Photography and Katrina’sKreations Inc.

The mural titled, "Sea to ShiningSea," came to life under the brushes of

local artists, including Katrina Gracon, afaux-finish painter whose artistic sensi-bilities brought a life-like touch to the

surface illu-sions, artist andproject coordi-nator NadiaUtto, and artistEddie Drake ofEddie DrakePainting, Inc.,who created thepalm trees.

The HobeSound MuralsProject firstbegan trans-forming thedowntown areain 2009, in-stalling creativemurals on

Bridge Road with its stated mission of“Creating an outdoor gallery of beauti-ful walls, honoring our past history,

present vitality and future promise.”Four years later, 14 unique murals

along Bridge Road, Dixie Highway,Federal Highway and in Banner LakePark are complete through the sponsor-ships of building owners and tenants,general public support and the effortsof 32 local artists.

The Mural Projects intend to focusprimarily on Federal Highway this year,working towards visually connectingthe main business corridors and, ulti-mately, offering mural tours, accordingto organizers. Hobe Sound Murals ispart of Landmark Arts, Inc., a non-profitorganization dedicated to “CreatingCommunity Culture.”

For more information, or to make acontribution, contact project coordinatorNadia Utto at 561-762-9202, or email [email protected]. The organization'swebsite is: www.landmarkarts.us. ■

Still weaving through tables to fillpatrons' cups with coffee at age 95,Pauline MacArthur often dumb-

founded first-time customers of Harryand the Natives, an iconic restaurant inHobe Sound, by the number of childrenshe had.

The hostess called her Mom, a coupleof cooks in the kitchen called her Mom,the servers called her Mom, and evensome customers called her Mom.

What they soon learned was that halfthe town called her Mom—not just herown five kids—so it was no surprisewhen, four years later, more than 300people filled the pews of the HobeSound Bible College chapel to celebrateher life and to say good-bye to “their”Mom. She died March 10 at 99.

“Some knew her as a teacher, aneighbor, a friend, an employer, and allknew her as Mom,” said her daughter,Sally McNeilan, “....and I know...I hit thejackpot in the Mom lottery.”

Pauline and her late husband, JackMacArthur, met and married in Michi-gan, eventually settling in Hobe Sound

in 1952 with their threedaughters, establishing a one-stop hub called The Farm--amotel with rooms of peckycypress, a Western Unionpost, a Greyhound bus stopand a gas station. Later, theyhad two sons, the younger ofwhom now is the restaurant’snamesake, Harry, who trav-eled the world, became ahotel executive chef before re-turning to his birthplace in 1986, threeyears after the death of his father.

He convinced his mother to remodel,add a kitchen to tackle Harry's re-vamped menu, change the name toHarry & the Natives, and with Mom athis side, they fashioned a business thatbecame part of the everyday life andtexture of Hobe Sound.

“We were open for breakfast andlunch, and we tried to be open for din-ner at one time,” Harry said, with achuckle, “but Mom would tell diners tohurry up and finish, 'cause I've got to beback here at 5 a.m.'” It would be nearly

two decades later that therestaurant successfullylaunched dinner hours.

Mom came to work sixdays a week until she wasnearly 95, keeping thebooks, manning the registerwith the help of her daugh-ter, Paula Cooper, and serv-ing sunshine and songs withthe coffee.

“She was a classic exam-ple of the old truth that hard work neverkilled anyone,” said Father AidanHynes, of St. Christopher's CatholicChurch directly across U.S.1 from therestaurant. “She raised a family, taughtschool, ran a restaurant and still foundtime to visit the old and lonely.”

Full of energy and life, she volun-teered at The Manors in Hobe Sound onher one day off each week until she was94, earning numerous volunteer serviceawards, setting the bar of service high asan example to her children and to hercommunity.

She wore flowers in her hair so often

they became her trademark, along withher soprano voice that lilted abovethose in the Hobe Sound CommunityPresbyterian Church choir each Sun-day, and over tables at Harry & theNatives, where she unabashedlycrooned for customers...or anyplaceelse for anyone else she felt needed alittle sunshine.

Her biggest regret, according toHarry, is that she never got that call fromWillard Scott to be on the Today Show.

“She wanted to live to be 100,” hesaid, before his voice broke and exposedhis deep grief...Composing himself, headded: “She just texted me to 'get itgoing.'” He did.

The service—the celebration—con-tinued, featuring many of her favoritesongs sung by the Finney family ofHobe Sound and others, and althoughher voice is now silent, Hobe Sound willlong remember Mom, with a red hibis-cus in her hair, singing a tune that epito-mized her life: “When you’re smiling,when you’re smiling, the whole worldsmiles with you…” ■

Mario Mangone Architect, P.A.

Mario Mangone

1931 Commerce Lane, #4Jupiter, FL 33458561-743-5111

Lydia Sudick

8958 SE Bridge RoadHobe Sound, FL 33455

772-932-7988

Jobe Insurance Agency(pronounced Hobay)

Pauline Lucas

8876 SE Bridge RoadHobe Sound

561-329-9725

NEWEST MEMBERS

OF THE HOBE SOUND

CHAMBER

Artists Eddie Drake, Katrina Gracan and Nadia Utto put the finishingtouches on the 14th Hobe Sound mural.

Pauline MacArthur, 99

Lydia Sudick Fine Art

Martin County CurrentsApril 2014 Rio/Jensen Beach Neighbors 17

Rio volunteers lop brush, clean debris from trailThe largest group of volunteers

ever organized to clean up RioNature Park, a semi-annual proj-

ect of the Rio Civic Club, came togetherMarch 29 for the Great AmericanCleanup organized by Keep MartinBeautiful. Thirty-two volunteers pickedup debris and trimmed vegetation formore than six hours.

“The Rio Civic Club has been hostingthese cleanups since the park was dedi-cated,” said Julie Preast, a Rio CivicClub member. “Thanks to the participa-tion of the members of Torch SouthChurch recruited by Jessica Layne ofKeep Martin Beautiful, we accom-plished a huge amount of work.”

The stack of tree limbs and vegeta-tion was estimated to be 40 feet longand five feet high, according to Preast.Volunteers also collected eight bags of

debris, an abandoned laundry tub and aboat/dock bumper.

“The focus was to open up the pathfrom the street to the gazebo/shoreline bytrimming vegetation and removing deadvegetation and vines along the path andthe park's street frontage,” Preast added.“The Rio Civic Club adopted Rio NaturePark, and volunteers have been almost to-tally responsible for its maintenance.”

Rio Nature Park, off Alice Street inRio, is the only public waterfrontpark/preserve on the north shore of theSt. Lucie River. The park's next cleanupwill be Nov. 22, and club members haveasked for donations of garden clippersand loppers for these events.

OTHER CLEAN UPS Keep Martin Beautiful has been encourag-ing neighborhood groups, civic clubs,

schools, businesses and individuals to bea part of the Great American Clean Up.They may organize their own cleanup ac-tivity or sign up for a site already identi-fied by Keep Martin Beautiful. All cleanupprojects through May will be providedwith supplies that include trashbags,water and T-shirts (while supplies last).Other cleanups conducted by communitygroups and organized by Keep MartinBeautiful were held in Banner Lake, EastStuart and Golden Gate communities onApril 12. A beach cleanup will be at StuartBeach in Stuart on May 3.

EXTREME MAKEOVERIn addition to community cleanups thatoccur during the three-month campaign,KMB hosts the Extreme MartinMakeover, a series of projects that focuson litter removal, revitalization and

beautification efforts in specific neigh-borhoods throughout Martin County.This year the Extreme Martin Makeoverwill focus on the New Monrovia neigh-borhood in Port Salerno on April 5.

“It is our goal to beautify and im-prove our community but we can’t do itwithout our dedicated volunteers,” KMBPresident Jim Dragseth said. “We are for-tunate in Martin County to have such astrong community of volunteers whosupport the Keep Martin Beautiful mis-sion and we’re hoping they’ll join us forthe Great American Cleanup this year.”

Keep Martin Beautiful was recog-nized during the Keep America Beauti-ful national conference in WashingtonDC on March 1 as the “Best of the Best”affiliates nationwide, earning the presti-gious Keep America Beautiful Presi-dent’s Circle Award. ■

Community help needed to build playground

Volunteers are being recruited tohelp build the new communityplayground at Jensen Beach Ele-

mentary School from April 29-May 4.Morning, afternoon and evening shiftsare being arranged for those who want

to help, including children from 10-13(with an adult on site). Children 14-17may volunteer independently, but maynot use power tools.

The playground got a major boost onMarch 18 when the Martin County

Commission voted unanimously to pro-vide $151,755 to the project, after theJensen Beach Community PlaygroundCommittee pledged to pay for addi-tional maintenance above the county'scurrent budget of $19,000 annually. Thecommittee is planning more fund-rais-ing events for maintenance funds, whichare relatively insignificant compared tothe $300,000 they targeted to raise overthe past year. With the county's contri-bution, the group was only $5,000 shortof its goal.

The new playground, designed byLeathers & Associates, was createdbased on sketches submitted by JensenBeach children. The elementary schoolis a hub for Martin County’s AutismSpectrum Disorder Unit, and the play-ground will incorporate features thatmeet the Americans with DisabilitiesAct (ADA) regulations, includingwheelchair accessible ground cover,therapeutic swings, activity panels, ac-cessible parallel bars and telephone sys-tems. Once constructed, the playgroundwill be open to the public after schoolhours and on the weekends.

Childcare will be available for thechildren (age 2-9 years) of volunteers,and volunteers will be provided bever-ages, snacks, and a meal. To volunteer, goto www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0B4.For more information about the JensenBeach Community Playground Project,visit www.JBPlayground.com. ■

Real Estate SalesReal Estate RentalsEstate Management

Charlene D. Oakowsky, REALTOR®Licensed Real Estate Broker

9073 SE Bridge RoadHobe Sound, FL [email protected]

Real Estate Sales and Management Services

The volunteers who assisted in the Rio clean up. Photo: Jessica Layne Brush was cleared along the path from Alice Street to the gazebo Photo: Julie Preast

Martin County CurrentsApril 201418 Lifestyle

The answer is, yes. Yes, it is on my diet, by golly!Iam frequently asked: “Is that on

your diet”? “Can you eat this orthat”? The whole key to eating a

healthy, balanced, lower-calorie diet isavoiding restrictive constraints. Rather,you should try to be selective and awareof what you are eating and HOWMUCH you are eating. If you are any-thing like I am (that is a scary thought)you immediately crave any food you aretold you can’t have.

I have seen articles warning me ofthe dangers in eating bananas; the hor-rific consequences of eating the dreaded

carbs; the after effects of artificial sweet-eners; and the ever-changing menu ofdos and don’ts that are thrown at us by“experts,” gurus and “diet plans.” Ihave heard the endless and often contra-dictory words of wisdom thrown at meon those interminable infomercials onlate night TV or Sunday morning TVslow-time.

I may not know everything aboutdiet and nutrition, but I do know whatworks for me: eat light, eat right, eatsmart. Move my body. Cook good, sen-sible food. Eat sensible portions. Enjoyit! Balance the plate using these “MYPLATE” guidelines:

• Balance Calories • Enjoy your food, but eat less. • Avoid oversized portions.• Make half your plate fruits

and vegetables. • Switch to fat-free or low-fat

(1%) milk. • Make at least half your grains

whole grains• Compare sodium (salt) in foods

like soup, bread, and frozen meals, and choose foods with lower numbers.

• Drink water instead of sugary drinks.

Remember this, no matter whatMom or Dad or whomever said it, youdo NOT have to “clean your plate,” “eatit all up” like a good boy or girl, or re-member “the poor starving children” insome third-world country. All you needto do is THINK. Think about your ownhealth. Think about your own heart.Think about how much better you willfeel when you are not lugging thoseextra pounds around on sore feet withaching knees and a sore back.

One thing I have learned (the hardway) is this: Everything your doctorsays about being overweight is true.Take my word for it. Plus you’ll lovethe new you that emerges. Try thisrecipe tonight.

ROAST PORK SIRLOINwith Braised Cabbage & Tomatoes

Quarter and chop a small head of green cabbage.One (14.5 oz.) can diced NSA tomatoesOne (8 oz.) Can Tomato Sauce

Place cabbage, tomatoes and sauce inmedium sauce pan on medium heat,covered, and allow it to simmer (checkto keep from cooking dry) while youprepare the roast.

Pre-heat oven to 450 degreesPurchase one, small pork sirloin (avoid the pre-packed heavily salted, flavor “ENHANCED” brand).Three small carrots, quarteredOne yellow onion, quarteredOne stalk of celery, cut in several pieces.1 Tbs. Mrs. Dash Garlic Herb Seasoning.

Spray a small roasting pan with non-

stick spray, layer the onions, carrots andcelery in the pan. Season the roast withMrs. Dash and place in pan atop thevegetables. Put pan in oven, uncovered,and immediately reduce the oven tem-perature to 400. Roast for 20 minutes perpound until internal temperaturereaches 145 on an instant read ther-mometer.

While the roast is roasting and thecabbage is braising, prepare a salad (I usesliced tomatoes and pickled cucumbers)and add a vegetable or starch. I usedbroccoli (a mistake that made me glad Ilive alone, even the dog was unhappywith me). A small portion of rice or twosmall boiled redskin potatoes would havebeen better.

Allow the roast to stand for 10 min-utes before slicing. Trim off any fat be-fore slicing into thin slices (portionshould be 3-3½ ounces). Use pan drip-pings for au jus. Serve with your veg-etable/starch choice and 1-1½ cupscabbage and tomatoes, with sparklingwater to drink. Enjoy! ■

George Kleine, a professional chef, writer andentrepreneur in Hobe Sound, recently lost afew tons of extra weight. He won't say howmany pounds, but enough to make him anexpert on healthy cooking and eating. Sendyour questions, comments and recipes [email protected].

GeorgeKleine

The Right Bite

9025 SE Bridge Road,Hobe Sound

THERE'S ONLY ONE DEANNA ROTHGEB!

Call or Textfor appointment

772.634.2571

DEANNAat THE HAIR COMPANY

from EXPERT COLORISTSAAVY STYLIST

COOL COSMETOLOGIST

BRAZILIAN BLOWOUTS and

SPLIT END TREATMENTS

GET THE LOOK YOU WANT

After two days of intense competi-tion. S.P.A.M., along with robot-ics teams from Cocoa, Florida,

and South Carolina, won the FIRST tour-nament in Orlando, and will be advanc-ing to the FIRST Championship in St.Louis, Missouri, on April 24-27. Thisyear, S.P.A.M. comprises 67 studentsfrom Jensen Beach High School, MartinCounty High School, South Fork High

School, Clark Advanced Learning Centerand home schools. The team is depend-ent on donations and is supported bybusinesses and individuals throughoutthe community. For more informationabout making a contribution to help withtravel expenses, contact S.P.A.M. BoardMembers Nancy Peavler, 772-285-9249,or Richard Brooks, 772-341-1973, or [email protected]. Robots competed in teams of three to win the FIRST tournament in Orlando.

S.P.A.M. robot, studentshead to St. Louis after win

Martin County CurrentsApril 2014 Lifestyle 19

Acreative fire works in mysteriousways, confirmed by Dante: “Amighty flame follows a tiny

spark.” The state-of-the art Elliott Mu-seum on Hutchinson Island in Stuartunveiled to art lovers precisely this kindof metamorphosis in a recent exhibition,“The Spark,” which showcased threeGenerations of artistic ex-pression in one family.

The works of JohnCalderwood Whorf, NancyWhorf, Julia Whorf Kelly,voices of three epochs ofAmerican impressionism,were selected that ex-pressed each artist’s uniquepictorial style and tonality.And yet in spite of differ-ences, there is some inneralchemy they all shared,and its name is . . . a key.

This simple, mysteriousand intriguing symbol, sosemantically diverse and atthe same time so all-embrac-ing, reappears from painting to paintingas a meaningful leitmotif. It beckons usto open the door to the very source fromwhere the first burst of creativitysparked the complete work.

As Julia Whorf Kelly, both the fea-tured artist and curator of the art show,explained, “a key is an initial impulsethat inspires the artwork. While a sketchsuggests a certain planning in capturingthe object, a 'key' is the first spark thathas to be recorded immediately on any-thing handy, like a piece of paper, nap-kin or shopping list, so that the artistcan go back in time and re-ignite it.” Toillustrate, she ushered me to her grand-father’s penciled “keys” displayedalongside his paintings that heraldedthe appearance of complete watercolorsof luminous beauty and clarity.

One of the best American watercol-orists of the twentieth century, JohnWhorf was inspired by the works ofJohn Sargent and Winslow Homer. JohnWhorf started as an oil painter but even-tually became particularly attuned towatercolor.

“Strange how it happened," JohnWhorf said, recalled by journalist FrankCrotty in his memoirs, ProvincetownProfiles and others on Cape Cod.

“I was living in Paris at the time andhad decided to go down to Pamplona,Spain, for the bull fights,” Whorf added.“Instead of oils, I took watercolors alongbecause they were light and easy to carry.And since then it's been watercolors."

Diaphanous and fluid, flowing inperfect balance of lucid and opaquetones, John Whorf’s seascapes and land-scapes, nudes and still lifes, spill out thevery soul of watercolor, drifting be-tween the immaterial and visual in afluid melody of colors.

Influenced by her father and the artinstructor, Vollian Burr Rann, NancyWhorf finds her own keys and developsher own painterly technique. A dense,highly vibrating impasto, laid mostly bya palette-knife, has an amazing capacityto open up like a flower -- petal afterpetal – or to spread wings like a bird as

we step back to see in order to allow thespace to tell the whole story.

Both Nancy Whorf’s oil and water-color palettes appear reminiscent of thatof fauvists, whose vivid colors hijack theobject to create emotionally charged im-agery and composition.

“I wanted to simplify, to suggest,”said the artist, who captured the veryessence of Provincetown with its rainy-and snow-clad streets, secret gardensand landscapes, wrapped in a mysteri-ously enchanting light.

Julia Whorf Kelly, a prolific andwell-known in Stuart, explores herown dimensions in impressionism,adding to the immediacy of its poeticlyricism and mystery. A native ofProvincetown, Julia, since an early age,tapped into a creative and artistic am-biance of the Provincetown art colony,being encouraged by her grandfatherand mother to manifest her talent.After graduation from Boston Art Insti-tute, she taught at the Brookline Centerfor the Arts. A member of The OilPainters of America and The AmericanWatercolor Society, Julia Whorf Kelly'swork has been widely exhibited na-tionally and abroad.

She utilizes both oil and watercolor,depicting scenes from New England,Tuscany, Florida and various places shevisits. She prefers to create the “keys” enplein air, and later redesigns them in herstudio into large formats.

“I have a deep passion for color Icannot put in words,” she says. “What Ifeel for it can be expressed only in pagandance and ecstasy.”

If Nancy Whorf’s landscapes re-quire space to appreciate the atmos-phere and visual narrative, wherewholeness emerges from the emotion-ally magnified objects, Julia’s texture ismuch lighter, and the plane is moreaerial. The vector of our perception,therefore, shifts to a “bird’s eye” per-spective, where the landscape is nolonger pinned to the earth but appears

floating with every breath we take. While “La Strada de Val D’Orcia” or

watercolor “Tuscan Road” stun the spec-tator with their high-key lucid tones,

“The Long Row Home” is apurely nocturnal masterpiece.

The day her mother,Nancy, died, Julia sketched thekeys, loaded with her grief.Six month later, she created acomposition reflecting cathar-sis rising in her soul, in a ten-der music of colors. As thefigure rows through a sooth-ing shroud of night towardsthe unknown, the light startsemerging from the dusk. Acrow, representing Nancy’sthree pet crows, escorts the

rower, like a wise harbinger of solaceand acceptance.

As our illuminating tour throughThe Spark exhibit came to an end, Juliaconcluded, with a dazzling, contagioussmile, “Sterling Elliott also had his ownkeys, materialized in his mind-blowinginventions, which, in their turn, sparkedthe Elliott Museum where history, artand technology come together. It’s allabout the spark. As long as we keep ourkeys alive, we are all artists.” ■

Russian-American Maya Ellenson, who holdsM.A. and PhD degrees in Russian languageand literature from Moscow State University,has lived in Martin County for eight years. Afree-lance writer, she has a particular interestin world culture and art.

The Whorf family's 'spark' explored, celebratedMaya

Ellenson

Art Kaleidoscope

"Daggett Lane in the Snow," an oil paintingby Nancy Whorf

"Brittany, France," a watercolor by John Whorf

"The Long Row Home," an oil by Julia WhorfKelly of Stuart

Boost Your Image withQUALITY PROMOTIONALS AT AFFORDABLE PRICES!

Call Smart Source Today tosee how much you can SAVE

in 2014! 772.321.5849

A Team of Professionals to Help You Get a Better Return on Your Marketing Dollars

ASK FORMARTINCOUNTYCURRENTSDISCOUNT

GEORGE KLEINE, Authorized Representative

What can churches do to help ourenvironment, and, indeed, whatare they doing now that we

may be unaware of? These are questions Ioften ask myself as I think about ourdwindling resources and their importance.

Churches carry a responsibility. Theyoften occupy large buildings and ownlarge pieces of land. In Hobe Sound,where I live, the Hobe Sound BibleChurch sits on 21 acres of prime space.St. Christopher's Catholic Church is on acorner (Federal Highway and BridgeRoad) of some of the most desirablecommercial land in this area, as are boththe First United Methodist Church andthe Chrysostom Greek OrthodoxChurch, which also command FederalHighway frontage.

The Hobe Sound Community Pres-byterian Church is nestled among thehistoric homes of the Olympia Plat on

Zeus Circle, and on Jupiter Island, theEpiscopal Church occupies its center.

All of these houses of God can makea real difference in their environmentalimpact and in the example they chooseto set for their neighborhoods, I think tomyself on my early-morning walks. In-stead, I frequently am dismayed when Isee sprinklers using excessive amountsof water, which runs off into the street,as well as poisons and pesticides beingsprayed on lawns only as preventativecare. Often the land is being used formassive parking lots that are rarely

filled, adding even more to ourstormwater runoff issues.

With all this in mind, I decided tomake a few inquiries, asking whatchurches are doing to help our environ-ment. I found that most of them are in-different, unconcerned. and notinterested. A few are trying to be goodstewards of the environment, but theycould do much more!

St. Christopher's reported that they cuttheir water usage, and they planted treesin the parking lot; however, they also re-moved most of the limbs from the Floridaoaks on their property, which provideshade during the hot summer months.

Hobe Sound Presbyterian celebrates"Earth Day" each April to raise environ-mental awareness, and yet uses a mas-sive amount of water for irrigation.Palm City Presbyterian reported thatthey have adopted a recycling program,and Grace Place reported having no pro-grams in place.

Many of my calls were not returnedor went unanswered, including Beit HaYam Temple by the Sea, Hobe SoundBible Church, Trinity United MethodistChurch in Jensen Beach, and the Com-munity Baptist Church in Stuart.

All of my dreams came true, how-ever, when I found the GenerationChurch in Jupiter! This wonderful groupof people reach out to help the commu-nity and to help the environment aswell. Some of their programs includehelping to start a mini-community gar-den project. Members are compostingand sharing plants, organic fertilizers,and have a seed bank. The project pro-vides worm farming and starting a farmproject for children.

The Generation Church use minimalprinting, they recycle, the use LED light-ing, and use only eco-friendly cleaningproducts. Most of their staff will share acar. As they expand, they plan to use anempty storefront, rather than acquireland for a new building.

This church also has an outreach pro-gram in inner city Broadway (West PalmBeach), and they host a communityEaster egg outreach in Jupiter. (They are

at 401 Maplewood Drive, Jupiter. Phone561.745.3035.)

What do you think we could suggestto our churches to become part of the so-lution? Really, many simple steps canmake a major impact, such as using dripirrigation when possible, instead ofshooting sprinklers that allow far toomuch water to evaporate, as well as sim-ply to run off into our streets. Theycould plant native trees and vegetationon their properties, and encourage theirmembers to share rides.

If they don't already have low-flowtoilets, they could place a brick or twointo the toilet tanks to reduce the waterrequired to flush.

They need to repair water leaksquickly, use solar energy when possible,use LED light bulbs, and print on bothsides of the paper, as well as limit howmuch and how often they print. They alsocan make church land more productive bycreating a community plot to grow veg-etables. an ideal way of motivating youngpeople, not only to become more aware ofthe environment, but to eat healthy foods.

Churches also could install birdboxes on church sites or in local parks,and of course, they should recycle thepaper, ink cartridges, and toner used inchurch offices.

Instead of using plastic bottles,which wind up in our landfills 90 per-cent of the time, they could encouragethe use of glass bottles, refilling themwhen needed. Their members couldtake part in litter clean-up along roadsand streets, creating a synergy betweensaving people and saving the planet.

Would it not be wonderful if eachchurch prepared its own environmentalpolicy or a statement of values to suittheir situation. This would encourageyoung people to take part, as this is thefuture world they must live in. Remem-ber that "faith without works is dead."(James 2:17)

Spring in England, where I lived formany years, is a time of shared beauty.Quite a few of the church graveyards areleft deliberatly untended, wild and over-grown with brambles and uncut grassesproviding shelter and a habitat for smallcreatures like hedgehogs, rabbits andbirds. During the autumn, churches arefilled with local produce for HarvestFestival, a celebration of the harvest anda time to share with the less fortunate.

This is a time to praise and ... a timefor "food for thought," about what ourvery own church can do and what weourselves can do to make a difference inour world. ■

Suzanne Briley, who lives in HobeSound, is an artist, author, entrepreneur, en-vironmentalist and world traveler. She maybe contacted at hopscotch@ hscurrents.com.

Martin County CurrentsApril 2014Lifestyle20

Churches can make an environmental statementSuzanne

Briley

Hopscotch

As Martin County's environmental awareness increases, so does residents' attention to regulating the amount of water runoff from lawn irrigation.

Kelly Bond Pelletier, of the EnvironmentalStudies Council, presented a $50,000 donation to the Mar-tin County School Board at the April 15school board meeting to support a teach-ing position at the Environmental StudiesCenter (ESC) in Jensen Beach.

The Environmental Studies Council, anot-for-profit organization established in1978 that supports the EnvironmentalStudies Center’s programs and operations,also has raised nearly $190,000 toward the$247,000 cost of a new sea turtle tank.

The existing 8-foot by 4-foot tank ac-commodates only one turtle, Scuttle, butthe new tank will be large enough to ac-

commodate a second turtle and includes awater filtration system. A team of teachers,biologists and contractors associated withthe Environmental Studies Center designedthe turtle habitat, which will be sunk intothe ground for easy access. Construction onthe tank and filtration system is expected tostart in July and end in September or Octo-ber, according to school officials.

The Environmental Studies Center isoperated by the Martin County SchoolDistrict. Students in kindergartenthrough seventh grade and high schoolmarine biology and environmental sci-ence classes visit the Center each year toparticipate in hands-on field investiga-tions. Students explore the St. Lucie Estu-ary, Indian River Lagoon, HutchinsonIsland’s beaches, mangrove swamps andfreshwater ponds and wetlands.

The Environmental Studies Center isat 2900 NE Indian River Drive in JensenBeach. ■

TEACHERS & TURTLES

Martin County CurrentsApril 2014 Lifestyle 21

New column to explore area's culinary delightsNo doubt about it: Martin County

residents enjoy an abundance ofdining options. Whether you

prefer grab-and-dash fast food in thefront seat of the trusty pick-up truck, orfive-star cuisine in a posh salon, ourarea offers you an array of choices. Whatand why we choose to dine at a particu-lar establishment is a matter of personaltaste, dictated and controlled by manyfactors, including financial, the occasion,and of course personal food preferences.Undoubtedly you want—and deserve—the best possible dining experiencewithin the style and the price you haveselected, regardless of your diningchoice. That's the purpose of this newestCurrents column.

We intend to help you make in-formed decisions to increase your enjoy-ment of all your dining experiences, andperhaps to uncover an unknown gem ortwo along the way. With today’s steadilyincreasing menu prices and “creativepromotions,” diners are bombardedwith tempting choices. After the tab ispaid—taking a chunk from your enter-tainment budget—we often go homedisappointed, but just as often, we find aplace to cheer about. We intend to maketo let you know about the ones thatmake us cheer.

Tips on Tables will offer advice to fel-low diners based on the results of theTipster's anonymous visits to local eater-ies to see, sample, savor and report onfood preparation, restaurant ambiance,price, value, and service—an overallsensory response—to share with resi-dents, guests and visitors. You also maygive feedback on your own experiencesat Tipster's reviewed eateries.

Categories of restaurants include finedining, casual, fast casual, and fast food.Fine-dining restaurants are full-servicerestaurants with specific, dedicatedmeal courses, and they almost alwaysare small businesses with generally sin-gle or limited locations. The chef andkitchen staff are, or should be, formallytrained, assigned specific preparationduties, and usually are formally attiredin traditional garb. The meals are usu-ally prepared to order or on demand,and the presentation on the plate is visu-ally appealing. The fine-dining restau-rant also features higher-quality decorwith a nod toward an elegant ambiance.

The wait staff also is usually highlytrained and often wears more formal at-tire than in any other restaurant. Theserestaurants abide by particular rules ofdining, which visitors are generally ex-pected to follow, and often include adress code. Cloth or linen table cover-ings and napkins are de-rigueur. Serversare formal, well-versed in the menu of-ferings, knowledgeable of food in gen-eral and prepared to offer suggestionsregarding menu choices and appropriatewine choices.

A casual-dining restaurant servesmoderately priced food in a casual at-mosphere, and they typically providetable service. Casual dining establish-ments are a step down from fine-diningrestaurants, but often have a full barwith separate bar staff, a larger beermenu and a limited wine menu. Theycan, but are not necessarily, part of awider chain.

Table service is not formal; usually atable top placemat is accompanied bylighter weight tableware and paper orlight fabric napkins. Servers are casuallyattired or wearing a “corporate” uni-form. The menu is designed to appeal toa wide spectrum of tastes, and the foodis often prepared in the restaurant to astandard recipe with corporate-ap-proved or provided ingredients.

Fast-casual restaurants are primarilychain restaurants. More of the food isprepared at the restaurant than is thecase at fast-food chains. Fast-casualrestaurants usually do not offer fulltable service; usually an “order-pick-upsystem” serves the customer, as well asnon-disposable plates and cutlery. Thequality of food and prices tend to behigher than those of a conventional fast-food restaurant but may be lower thancasual dining. The menu is usually stan-dardized and the prices set at the corpo-rate level.

Fast-food establishments typicallyplace emphasis on the speed and ease ofservice. Food is ordered from a short,preset menu, served in and on paper,often at a drive-through window. Fast-casual and fast-food restaurants expectdiners to carry their food to the tableand clear the table when finished.

General categories are intended asguidelines for ease only, are not rigidlydefinitive, and are the categories inwhich dining experiences will be listedand compared in future columns.

Ratings will be on a scale of 1 – 5,poor to excellent, for Service (friendli-ness, knowledge about menu anddishes, and accuracy in filling order),Food (freshness, skill in preparation, asatisfying presentation, and the overalltaste experience for each dish, from ap-petizers through dessert), Ambiance (afitting décor, cleanliness of tables, floor,and tableware, and comfort whileseated), Wait Time (time from beingseated to being waited upon; time fromplacing order to receiving it).

The price of entrees will be indicatedby dollar signs based on a restaurant's“average” price. Only entrees will beconsidered: $ (One dollar sign meansthat the average price of an entree is lessthan $10.); $$ - (average is less than $18);$$$ (average is less than $24); $$$$ (av-erage is greater than $24). Each issue ofCurrents will include a synopsis of pre-viously reviewed restaurants that willbe printed each month to become a con-venient dining guide.

The Tipster, a professionally trainedchef, will visit area restaurants only

during routine hours of operation andcannot be arranged. The reviews,which are intended only to expandCurrents readers' sense of adventurewhen it comes to Martin County's din-ing scene, will be based on one per-son's visits. (Yes, if we feel that weneed to make an additional visit tomake a fair assessment, we will dothat.) We also welcome readers' ownobservations and recommendations,which may be sent to [email protected]. We can hardlywait for the next issue of Currents! ■

T H E B E S T I N C O M M U N I T Y T H E A T R E

2014 SEASON

Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks

MAY 30 -JUNE 15

Tickets can be purchased at www.barn-theatre.com or 772-287-4884or at the box office at 2400 East Ocean Blvd. in Stuart

Monday-Friday 12-4pm or one hour prior to shows.

Deathtrap, a play within a play written in 1978,holds the record for the longest-running comedy-thriller on Broadway. With many plot twists, theplay also was previously a Tony-award nominee for Best Play, and is popularly chosen for revival by theatre companies.

DeathtrapApril 18 - May 4 Tickets are

$20Times are 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays

T I P S O N T A B L E S

Dining Reviews by “The Tipster”

Martin County CurrentsApril 2014Outdoors22

Zoom! Bam! Out of nowhere, thesilver nuggets show in hugenumbers! No lack of pompano

in our backyards. Yessir, they foundour coastline, and are feeding on everyreef and sand bar that exists. Bag lim-its were too easy to fill, and no one leftthe beaches without at least an exqui-site dinner. For the first time inmonths I was spending time handingout recipes.

In fact, it's time that I reveal a gour-met recipe that the local high-endrestaurants have used for years. I don'tprofess to be a cook, but this one iseasy! The ingredients are as follows: abottle of a solid grade Chardonnaywine, a stick of natural butter, someplain ole flour, sliced almonds, pars-ley, lemon and the desire to eat a greatfish meal!

First, fillet the pompano and leavethe skin on. Cut out the stomach bonesand “V” cut the bloodline out of thecentral part of the fillet. Get the skilletout and melt some butter, along with alittle virgin olive oil, at a low heat. Nextheat the oven to 400 degrees and keepit on standby for step two. Man, I'm al-ready wanting this in my tummy!Okay, focus, Rich. Stop drinking thewine; you're gonna need it!Next, drythe fillets and lightly flour them. Whenthe pan has reached a medium heat,place the fillets skin down in the sauté-ready skillet. Lightly cook one side butnot golden, just a light tan shade. Nowflip them onto meat side down and re-up the fluids if necessary. Removewhen flesh assumes a light tannish

color and place onto an aluminum pan.Step two is ready for launch pro-

vided you have enough wine left overto cook with. Place fillets skin sidedown and douse with the Chardonnayjust enough to cover the bottom of thepan, approximately a 1/4 of an inch.Don't use too big a pan or you won'thave any wine to drink with the meal!(Sometimes my problem!) Top off thepompano with almond slices, parsleyand any garnish or herb you reallyenjoy, and slip this madness into theoven and bake for 4 minutes.

At this point, call me (or maybe callBarbara Clowdus, a pompano fanatic),and we will be there exceptionally fast,almost like there's an emergency.

Personally I can't describe the taste,

but I can assure you I always buy twobottles of wine and try not to entertainanyone, so I can greedily eat all thisand watch the "March Madness NCAABasketball" finals. Not really true atall...but a very good thought.

Now that I have positive data, I feelpretty good about the futureApril/spring pompano run. Nor'easterswill prevail the first few weeks of April,thus maintaining cooler surf temps.This will push the fish south and comeback on every south blow we get for thenext four weeks. It's a healthy problemthat only exists once a year.

If you missed last year's run, youshould dust off the spinners, clean andreline the reels and spike in the firstavailable fishing moment. Hobe Soundbeaches will require medium to hightide and the first three hours of the out-going tide for the optimal bite. Just be-cause you didn't get up this morning,doesn't mean you missed the bite.Watch the tides and go whenever thesefacts match up! Don't worry, SpringBreak will be over no matter where inthe country it's happening, and parkingat Hobe Sound will be instantly easier.NO EXCUSES, NOW. GO FISHING!

Possible negatives, though, alwaysexist with all this goodness. One wewill be encountering is a ton of sea-weed and Portuguese Man O' War jel-lyfish on the beaches. Step on one ofthese, and it will become a second de-gree burn. The answer? Carry someammonia with you (or...yeah, I knowthis is disgusting, but it works: Menwith weak bladders will already havestorage and can counter immediatelyon the sidelines.) You can consider thissome real “Doc Oz” stuff, huh?

Over the past two weeks, the bigshark migration also is approachingPalm Beach County. The shark charterboats are seeing them recede backsouth on every cold front we get, sopray we get as many as Nature willbless us with. When the sharks do ar-rive, the bite maybe become virtuallynon-existent for the extent the sharksmaintain their offshore position. Thisresults in the widespread posture thatthe pomps are gone...but keep read-ing this column, and the truth shallbe revealed! ■

Rich Vidulich, a commercial pompanosurf fisherman who traverses the beachesof Martin County and points north for his"golden nuggets," lives in Jupiter. Sendcomments or questions to [email protected].

Rich Vidulich

Pompano Reporter

At 92 years of age, Emmanuel Palermo of Jupiter sets an example for all of us by hitting thebeach to fish for pompano, instead of sitting in an easy chair at home.

Finally, the time to fish for pompano is...NOW!

Carolina Cast Pro Series Graphite Rods"Cast further than you ever thought possible"

Akios Long Cast Reels"Engineered to last and cast smoother

than any reel around"

Surf Fishing Charters targeting POMPANO Casting and Surf Fishing Seminars.

RICH VIDULICH, AUTHORIZED DEALERwww.pompanorich.com

[email protected]

www.akiosfishingtackle.com

FREE DEMO OF CCP SURFRODS AND AKIOS REELS AS

SEEN IN FLORIDA SPORTSMAN"GEAR AND TACKLE FORUM"

SPECIAL:

POMPANO FISHING MADE EASY!

NO JOB TOO BIG OR TOO SMALL!

STEVEN LOFSTEDTLawn Service

772.781.1022 • Stuart

RESIDENTIAL • COMMERCIALLICENSED • INSURED

Martin County CurrentsApril 2014 23

Martin County CurrentsApril 201424 Hobe Sound Moment

Sunrise at Hobe Sound BeachHobe Sound Photographer Matt Stone captured this iconic scene at sunrise on Hobe Sound Beach, a favorite site of surf fishermen whohave enjoyed a resurgence of migratory fish offshore with the recent onset of cold weather in the Northeast.

Martin County Currents Volume 4 Issue #2

Documents

Transcript of Martin County Currents Volume 4 Issue #2