Vero polo thrives at Pointe West
It is a modern-day Seurat sprung from its canvas – a deep blue winter sky, a ten-acre expanse of manicured lawn, 60 families or more picnicking from tidy rows of cars lining either side on a Sunday afternoon. Suddenly, horses and their uniformed riders gallop onto the field, jerseys numbered and emblazoned with team names known to all: Charley Replogle’s Ocean Grill; Michelob – Peter Busch’s team; Rocking K, for the Kahle family; and Shamrock, John Walsh’s team. Thanks to a core group of a dozen well-known Vero families, who combine sense of community with addiction to the sport, polo here has thrived. An ever-evolving league has managed to endure the tough economic times by volunteering to do chores it formerly hired out, and has ensured continued interest by encouraging younger players. READ MORE
Elizabeth Brooker: Ready to take on ‘Old Boys' over Vero utility
The hired gun of former Vero Beach City Councilman Charlie Wilson in his bid to get a referendum on the fall ballot calling for the sale of the Vero power plant is a longtime local attorney who has taken on City Hall before. Elizabeth Brooker was on the legal team that successfully represented her father, an employee of the Vero utility, in an age-discrimination lawsuit against the city in 1996. When Wilson introduced her at a recent City Council meeting, it was clear she was no stranger to the faces in the room. Brooker’s inside knowledge of the city and its electric utility can’t hurt. “I know the city has had issues at the power plant for years,” Brooker said. “My partners and I are not part of the old boys’ club, I don’t belong to country clubs and we’re not afraid of losing our friends.” READ MORE
Rare edition: Vero Beach Book Center
It is the era of Kindles and eBooks, Amazon. com and Wal-Mart. The technology is changing, the competition is fierce. The economy is weak, the discounting a nightmare. Chain booksellers like B. Dalton’s are closing. The Waldenbooks in Indian River Mall is gone. Book superstore operator Borders is flirting with bankruptcy. Then there is the Vero Beach Book Center, now celebrating its 35th anniversary as a locally-owned independent bookseller. It seems almost unimaginable. How is this possible? How does an indie bookseller not only survive in a town of 30,000, but become so highly regarded in publishing circles that more +writers include it on their book tours than almost any other book store in Florida? The answer lies in the story-book life of Tom and Linda Leonard. For four decades, they have been making what turns out to have been all the right moves. In the process, they have turned their Vero Beach Book Center into a rare edition: a success story. READ MORE
Hacked!: A beachside resident’s emailed plea for money to get home
Long-time Vero Beach psychologist Lynn Williams is known for her relaxation therapy. So when hundreds of her island friends, clients and associates received a desperate emailed plea for help with multiple exclamation points, it seemed a bit out of line for the otherwise composed mental health professional. The message line read: “Please – I need your help as soon as possible!!!!” The email went on to describe her plight -- stranded on a surprise trip to London for a program, wallet missing, no phone where she could be reached right now, urgently asking for 950 British pounds (about $1,500) to be wired to a UK address to pay her hotel bills and enable her to return home. What those among her friend who are less tech savvy might not have guessed was that Lynn Williams had been hacked by e-mail scammers who had somehow gained control of her password and blasted the note out to her entire contact list in hopes of making some easy cash. READ MORE
Vero seen facing big cut in municipal employees
Two years into a recession, the City of Vero Beach may finally have to make serious cuts in staffing to keep property taxes low and to attempt to bring city electric rates closer to Florida Power & Light rates. While other local governments for more than two years have been making staffing cuts and other reductions as growth slowed and real estate values plummeted, Vero instead sought to hold on to staff. And it did in a big way. Vero employs about 22 staffers per 1,000, compared to the more populous Sebastian which has a 5.7 per 1,000 ratio. Vero has an even higher per capita staffing rate than Indian River County, which inclusive of the fire department and Sheriff’s office, still employs only 10.1 employees per 1,000 residents. But in preparing the 2009-2010 budget, Vero managers and department heads clearly did not expect the utility issue to become so important in the mind of voters. Now, in an election year and with a new utility contract failing to produce promised reductions in electric costs, city leaders are grudgingly looking at making staff cuts. READ MORE
The Pied Piper of Miracle Mile
For beachside residents who drive across the bridges a couple of times a week to stock up on groceries, or to hit Panera or TooJays for a noontime sandwich, the name Miracle Mile conjures up a vision of large, crowded parking lots. Little has changed in the basic character of the strip over the past decade. The old Winn Dixie has been succeeded by the new Publix, the old Publix has become the new Fresh Market, and traffic and congestion seem about the same as they were 10 years ago. All around the area, major renovations are underway. Yet Miracle Mile as a whole is languishing, dreary parking lots its defining visual element, and cohesion -- both in terms of style and access -- the last thing on landowners’ minds. Enter Keith Kite, native Floridian, real estate investor, University of Florida graduate in construction, whose development firm is honing in on a specialty in hotel franchises around Florida and Georgia. Kite, who is planning to build a Hampton Inn on Miracle Mile, has a very different vision of the Miracle Mile of the future – the vision of a pedestrian-friendly urban village. READ MORE
Vero plan to cut services unsupported
While City of Vero Beach top staffers have been talking to citizens about possibly providing water and sewer services only to city customers in the future, they have not conducted a single financial study of what such a move would mean, Vero Beach 32963 has learned. At present, the City of Vero Beach’s water and sewer system serves thousands of barrier island customers who live either in Indian River Shores north of the city limits, or in the unincorporated county south of the city line in Castaway Cove. But recently, Vero leaders began spreading the word with the city’s Utilities Advisory Commission, Finance Committee and the budget task force of the Taxpayers Association of Indian River that the city is looking into only offering water and sewer to customers inside the city limits. County Commissioner Bob Solari, who lives in Vero Beach, said he was concerned that such a plan would mean another 50 percent increase in water and wastewater rates for every Vero resident – on top of the planned 54 percent increases scheduled in the next five years. READ MORE
Are green jobs the future of Indian River County?
Innovative energy technologies until now have been long on the promise and short on delivery, but if three small startups in Vero Beach and Fellsmere gain traction, they may not only help in our country’s search for clean energy but provide a promising step forward in our county’s effort to create jobs -- green jobs. Out in the western part of the county, two companies are seeking to create renewable biofuels for trucking and aviation using algae. And another is exploring purchasing the old Ocean Spray Cranberries’ grapefruit processing plant off Oslo Road and producing ethanol from vegetation waste in what could be Florida’s first commercial bioethanol refinery. The latter project, a joint venture between New Planet Energy and INEOS BioEnergy, at this point has the most backing after receiving a $50 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, which the company expects to match to buy the land and build a new facility most likely where the now empty Ocean Spray plant sits. The $50 million grant to INEOS New Planet BioEnergy (INPB) was one of 19 handed out by the federal government late last year to cutting-edge clean energy companies – and the only one awarded to a company in the state of Florida. READ MORE
Sea turtles key to future of sand trucking
With the start of a trucked in sand replenishment project well underway and fanning out from Wabasso Beach and Golden Sands parks, local code enforcement agencies will be working overtime to protect the area’s sea turtles. Though the official start of sea turtle nesting season is May 1, some species of sea turtles begin to nest around March 1, giving beachside residents less than two weeks to make sure it’s “lights out” at night. As part of the sea turtle test plan being required by state and federal regulators, a preconstruction lighting survey was completed of the area -- running from Golden Sands Park to the north edge of John’s Island -- where at least 215,000 cubic yards of sand (with another 109,000 cubic yards pending approval) will be placed over the next 10 weeks. Generally, county staff said there is good compliance with lighting ordinances within the Town of Indian River Shores and the Town of Orchid, but that the compliance of oceanfront residents in the unincorporated county is more spotty. Biologists will be walking the beaches at daybreak each morning beginning March 1, on the lookout for sea turtles and dangers to their survival. READ MORE
Beach replenishment: One ugly surprise after another
Not only does the timeline for renewing the northern island beaches keep getting longer. Not only does the number of trucks filled with sand that will be pounding across the Wabasso Causeway – at a rate of one a minute, ten hours per day, even on Saturdays and Sundays – keep getting higher. Not only does replenishment of these beaches keep getting costlier in million-dollar increments. Now, the really great news is that the two popular northern beaches – Wabasso Beach Park and Golden Sands Park – have been closed for the remainder of the winter season so the trucks can have unencumbered access to the beach. And for those who love how local government works, none of these things – including the need to close public access to the beaches for months – was disclosed to the public when the Indian River County Commission voted unanimously to choose sand trucking over offshore sand pumping a few months ago. READ MORE
Referendum could put Vero out of electric business
Growing impatient with the City of Vero Beach’s operation of its electric utility, a group led by former City Councilman Charlie Wilson is preparing to launch an effort to put the electric question to a vote. Their plan, announced during an hours-long City Council meeting last week that resulted in little new information about the current electric contract, would see a referendum placed on the city ballot this coming November which if approved by city voters, would force Vero into the sale of the utility. Wilson challenged the City Council to take the initiative to place the item on the ballot asking whether or not Vero residents want the city to sell the power utility or to continue providing electric service. No council member immediately stepped up to the challenge. Wilson gave them a two week deadline, after which he will lead a petition drive. READ MORE
Alan Polackwich: From banking to county attorney
For the past six years, Alan Polackwich has maneuvered through a challenging course as Riverside Bank’s inhouse general counsel, executive vice president and president of its Indian River County arm, after representing the bank in his private practice for years prior to that. Then at each turn, it seemed, the course got tougher. Last year, the Fort Pierce-based bank, with a thousand employees, saw its founder, Vernon Smith, retire just as the bank closed three of its 65 branches. By the end of the third quarter, it got itself pegged as undercapitalized. When news that Indian River County Attorney Will Collins was retiring began to circulate last year, Alan Polackwich decided to apply. “I thought it sounded like a great job,” he says. In January, he came to the fore out of 23 applicants, winning the post in a 5-0 vote by the county commissioners. READ MORE
