Midway cooperation sought in PSL

PORT ST. LUCIE — The City Council decided to work together with St. Lucie County officials on a mutually beneficial road project, against city staff wishes.

The council voted 4-1, with Vice Mayor Jack Kelly against, to hammer out an agreement with the county within 90 days to widen Midway Road west of I-95 to Okeechobee Road, an area that will see tremendous housing growth in coming years.

"This will be our northern entryway into the city," Mayor Patricia Christensen said. "I don't want to see a two-lane rural roadway 10 to 15 years from now."

City Manager Don Cooper recommended the county do the $50 million project, saying the city could not take on the expansion without hiring more staff.

"This will add another project to a very long list (of 18 major road projects)," he said.
Vice Mayor Kelly sided with city staff.

"It's a county road, let the county build it," he said. "I don't know when they (last) built a road in the city."

Engineer Butch Terpening and lawyer Bobby Klein, who represent some of the two dozen-plus developers with a stake in the area, said the developers will pay for designing and expanding the road, a hurricane evacuation route.

A taxing arrangement called a special assessment district would be set up with developers voluntarily joining because they wanted the road expanded for their projects, with funding set up for extra staff, Terpening said after the meeting.

After the expansion, Midway Road would be six lanes from I-95 about a mile west to an unnamed arterial road, then four lanes west to Okeechobee Road, with bike paths, sidewalks, and landscaping throughout.

Klein said it would be "difficult" to work out an agreement with all parties in the 90 days set by Cooper, but council members said that there shouldn't be surprises because city staff had previous meetings with the developers about the plan.

IN OTHER BUSINESS
The City Council:
• Approved 5-0 a site plan for Lowe's at St. Lucie West, to be across the street from Home Depot. Lowe's Senior Site Development Manager Chris Thalmann said he expected the home improvement store to break ground by April or May.
• Discussed possible road names for City Center, with several north-south and east-west streets to be named at the Council retreat at the end of the month.
By CHRIS YOUNG chris.young@scripps.com

PSL residents wary of planned parkway

PORT ST. LUCIE — As engineering plans for segments of the Crosstown Parkway get finalized in coming months, homeowners near the corridor's edges wait nervously for the earthen barriers to shield them from vehicle traffic.

"We're not too thrilled," said Teri Paisley, who expected a road expansion when she bought her property four years ago but noted the project has gotten bigger since then.

City officials said they have gotten residents' input and made adjustments throughout the planning of the six-lane parkway, on the drawing board since the 1980s.

The segments from Interstate 95 over Florida's Turnpike to Manth Lane should be finished by sometime in 2009, allowing a major east-west route through most of the city. Workers will build berms on both sides of the road with grass, bushes and trees on top through the entire project, although the height will vary, officials said.

Project manager Jim Angstadt, who oversees the segment from I-95 to Florida's Turnpike, said the city will leave in place a berm abutting Lake Charles, a neighborhood in St. Lucie West. Workers will start adding a 5- to 8-foot-high berm on the south side of the Parkway in March or early April to shield neighbors on Southwest Janette Avenue, Angstadt said.

In addition, the city will install a 6-foot-high chain-link fence clad in black vinyl along the property line as an extra barrier on segment two, from the turnpike to Manth Lane, and possibly a similar fence on segment four, from the turnpike west to I-95, he said.

Segment two's berm will be lower — 3 to 4 feet — in places, Angstadt said, but will have more landscaping than in other areas.

Officials sped up constructing a berm along several blocks east of the turnpike between Empire and Hibiscus streets last year after residents abutting the future parkway complained that dirt from immense piles was swirling into their yards.

Teri and Bob Paisley said the city could have kept residents like them more informed on the project. They researched the parkway before they bought their land but said it got bigger since then, including going from four to six lanes.

"I'm afraid (the parkway) will decrease property values of the houses backing up to it," Bob Paisley said.

Residents in Lake Charles have voiced concerns as well, even taking their Councilwoman, Michelle Berger, on a golf cart tour of the areas closest to the parkway. They told her they wanted more berms, but she said, "We want to make sure one neighborhood doesn't get more than others."

Armand Moniz, 80, a resident near the parkway's southern edge, said he was fine with the road as long as the berm was put up.

"Anything to stop the congestion and traffic," he said.

By CHRIS YOUNG chris.young@scripps.com January 15, 2007

Port St. Lucie debates tax relief for poor elderly

PORT ST. LUCIE — In eight years, Florida voters have twice enthusiastically supported property tax breaks for poor senior citizens, but 3,556 eligible city residents haven't seen their city tax bills drop by one dime as a result.

Mayor Patricia Christensen would like to rectify that, especially since the city has never complied with the first voter referendum in 1998 that authorized local governments to extend an additional $25,000 homestead exemption to residents 65 and older whose household income is less than $20,000 yearly.

Voters in November ratified a second $25,000 shield to elderly residents, meaning local governments that enact both measures would extend a $75,000 homestead exemption to low-income seniors. Although past city councils declined to extend the initial $25,000 tax shield to eligible taxpayers, fearing it would rake too much money from their annual coffers, Christensen said she wants to explore the impact and afford the greatest tax cut possible to those most in need.

"It's the least we can do now that the second exemption has passed," Christensen said. "To some people it would mean a lot."

St. Lucie County commissioners in 2002 ratified the 1998 voter amendment, voting to gradually phase in the full $25,000 exemption over five years. Property Appraiser Jeff Furst told Christensen there are 3,556 low-income seniors in Port St. Lucie who receive the exemption on county tax levies.

If all 3,556 eligible city residents received an additional $25,000 homestead exemption on the city portion of their tax bill, it would reduce the city's property tax revenues by $391,160, given a tax rate of $4.44 per $1,000 of taxable property value.

Extending the additional $50,000 exemption would double that loss to $782,320, assuming all eligible residents owned property with taxable property values of at least $75,000 each.

Other city council members are mixed on the plan, with Councilman Christopher Cooper opposed and Councilwoman Linda Bartz undecided. Councilwoman Michelle Berger supports both tax breaks, and Vice Mayor Jack Kelly said he'd like to phase in the breaks, much as the county is doing.

"There's a small portion of people who fall into that category," Berger said. "I don't need to be hit over the head three times. I'm a proponent of actually listening to what the voters want."

Cooper said granting special interest groups tax breaks simply shifts the burden onto other taxpayers, some of whom may be needier than the ones receiving the benefit.

"We need to go back and revisit the entire homestead exemption program to make it fair for everyone," Cooper said. "For us to grant people exemptions based on their age, income, military status and everything else, is not the answer."

Christensen said she will schedule a council discussion on the topic after receiving more information about the financial effects.

City Manager Don Cooper said he considers the tax loss minimal given the city's $62 million general fund budget, which depends largely on property taxes. "It never helps, but it's not the end of the world," he said.

By Teresa Lane
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 14, 2007

PSL to open pet-friendly hurricane shelter by June

PORT ST. LUCIE — City emergency operations officials are planning to open a pet-friendly shelter by the start of hurricane season in June.

It would be the first shelter in St. Lucie County available for pets and their owners.

Emergency Management Coordinator Don Freedland said the city had a tentative agreement with a church to use its community room to house dogs, cats and birds.

"I don't want St. Lucie County to go through another year without a pet shelter," he said Friday.

Other counties in South Florida such as Broward and Miami-Dade have pet-friendly shelters available for their residents, Freedland noted.

"We have a lot smaller population than some other counties; there's no reason we can't accomplish this," he said. In past hurricanes, some special-needs residents were hesitant to leave their pets behind because there wasn't an appropriate shelter for them, so they stayed home, he said. After past storms, homeless animals fled buildings and roamed city streets disoriented and possibly injured, he said.

The shelter would be staffed by city animal control officers to feed and exercise the animals, and would be free of charge. Residents should expect to give proof of proper vaccinations and sign a waiver that the city is not liable for the animals, Freedland said.

Owners would need to bring their own cages. Preregistration with the city would ensure a spot.

City residents would have first priority, then residents in St. Lucie County.

The Public Works and Animal Control departments will present specifics at the City Council retreat at the end of January.

City officials would entertain other private groups' facilities to use as pet shelters, said Freedland, who is also the city Public Works director.

More hurricane preparedness information will be offered at an expo at the Community Center May 19.

By CHRIS YOUNG
chris.young@scripps.com
January 7, 2007

Dredging delays are unacceptable

Thousands of boaters who use the St. Lucie Inlet in Martin County have been waiting more than a year for a major dredging project to begin.

Unfortunately, they'll have to wait a little longer.

Illinois-based Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, the lone company that bid on the project, was scheduled to start work Dec. 6. However, faulty equipment and bad weather pushed the launch date back to Jan. 1.

Well, it's now Jan. 8 and the long-overdue, much-needed dredging project still hasn't begun.

This is unacceptable.

Great Lakes Dredge and Dock has a $10 million contract in hand from the Army Corps of Engineers. The company needs to honor the contract by solving its equipment problems and completing the project ASAP.

Time is of the essence — for various reasons.

The first is public safety.

Channels are being buried under piles of drifting sand. Consequently, the inlet has become an increasingly hazardous stretch of water for boaters to navigate. If you're a boater who hasn't used the waterway in recent months, exercise extreme caution.

There's also an economic reason to start and finish the project in a timely manner. Poor conditions in the inlet have forced organizers of some fishing tournaments to move events to Fort Pierce. These hazards are likely to discourage other boaters from launching their watercrafts in Martin County.

The marine industry has an enormous financial impact on the local economy: $688 million in Martin County, according to the Marine Industries Association of the Treasure Coast, a Florida not-for-profit trade association.

The nesting season for sea turtles starts April 30. If the dredging project isn't completed by then, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock will have to pull its equipment off the beach — another reason to get the project under way right now.

Just how bad is the St. Lucie Inlet? In January 2006, the waterway was given the dubious distinction of being named the "most treacherous inlet" on the Atlantic Coast by Saltwater Sportsman magazine. That's bad.

Equally bad is the fact Great Lakes Dredge and Dock has failed to uphold its contractual agreement with the Corps of Engineers — and the taxpayers of Martin County.

Port St. Lucie finally will help Prima Vista

Port St. Lucie residents who live in neighborhoods near a 40-year-old wastewater pumping station could predict the sewage backups.

After heavy rains or especially, during holidays, just when the neighborhoods near Prima Vista Boulevard wanted to look good for the annual influx of visiting friends and relatives, the pump station would fail. Raw sewage would spew into streets, stream into canals and inundate yards. The latest spill happened on Christmas Day, filling the neighborhood with foul odors and leaving lawns covered with caked sludge and toilet paper.

That spill, one of at least six that has occurred in the same neighborhoods in the past 19 years, was triggered when a temporary bypass pipe at a lift station failed. About 1,500 gallons of raw sewage frothed up out of manholes along Prima Vista Boulevard, Naranja Avenue, Serenata Court and Floresta and Sandia drives. Waste filled yards and streets and poured into a nearby canal. Neighbors angered by the frequent failures and backups called the federal Environmental Protection Agency to complain, and local officials sent an employee out to sprinkle disinfecting lime around one of the manhole covers.

But finally, after years of the same scenario playing out again and again, the neighborhoods will get some relief. Though city utility crews have repaired the old pumping station and vacuumed spills for several years, officials finally budgeted a replacement unit, which crews will begin installing this month.

The Port St. Lucie City Council had to buy a house and lot to make room for the larger pumping station, and also had to demolish the house so construction can begin. Another spill Dec. 17 affected four homes on Westmoreland Boulevard, where raw waste backed up into the houses after an old underground pipe became clogged. The city has filed claims with the utility's insurance carrier to pay for damages to residents' carpets, walls and furniture and to pay for temporary housing for residents until the mess is cleaned up.

For the Prima Vista neighborhood, help is in sight. But the city's utility should review all its frequent and recent trouble spots, list them in order of urgency and start making repairs - well before the next holiday.

Palm Beach Post Editorial