Don't buck Buc-ee's; Vero Beach water; save Indian River Lagoon; Stuart traffic | Letters

Stormwater project in Vero Beach a model, helps environment

A new era of cooperation between the city of Vero Beach, the town of Indian River Shores and Indian River County is becoming evident as they engage in a new project that will serve as a model going forward.

The Sun Belt population is rapidly growing as people take advantage of the new work model: You don't have to be at the office to be effective. As a result, people from all over are moving to the beautiful Sunshine State.

So, what's the project? The city plans to incorporate pumps and processing at the site for the new wastewater treatment plant (located at the airport) that will facilitate the transportation of approximately 4 million gallons of water per day for irrigation. It would come from the western side of the weir, a part of the 20 million-plus gallons per day that flows down the Main Relief Canal into the Indian River Lagoon.

This water will be piped under the lagoon to John’s Island. The funding for this pipeline comes from stormwater grants and John’s Island. Currently, John’s Island meets its irrigation needs through withdrawals from the aquifer and re-use water provided by Vero Beach.

The significance of this project cannot be overstated. It will enable John’s Island to replace much of its potable water with stormwater, while allowing the city to redirect re-use water to fulfill other irrigation needs in the area that are not situated close to the lagoon. Presently, more than 65% of irrigation needs in the county are met using potable water.

We need to protect our water source: This is just one of many steps along with better use and conservation, on that path. We need to be better stewards of the resources that we have been given.

Mike Johannsen, Vero Beach

Don't scare off Buc-ee's, which can help all employees

My family and I have been hoping for a Buc-ee's to be built somewhere south of Daytona Beach. I only hope the review board in St. Lucie County offering "suggestions" for the company to take into consideration before moving forward does not deter progress.

This would be a monster boost to the local economy and service workers across the board. Buc-ee's pays a living wage, gives serious benefits and promotes. Start at $19 to $20 an hour as a cashier, $2 an hour more for the overnight shift. Managers make more than $100,000 annually, with some making $250,000. The company offers tuition, medical, retirement and vacation benefits.

A vast majority of the Treasure Coast employers will have to take heed. Why work for $12 or $13 an hour with no benefits if you can work there? Other businesses will have to start matching to get employees (or cut their profit to pay real wages).

When the St. Augustine Buc-ee's location opened, Costco was building across the street. Costco has historically been good to its employees and even it had to raise pay to retain help.

Having had to deal with review boards on proposed projects in various municipalities, those boards can very easily try to impose enough "suggestions" to have owners change their mind and walk. Let's hope St Lucie County has not managed to mess up this, helping to keep the county reputation as an example of what not to do in university planning classes.

Jeff Hamilton, Sebastian

Begley's passing leaves hole in varied Indian River County circles

Indian River County has lost a great friend and great reporter.

Janet Begley was an integral part of our community, known for her compassion and considerable reporting skills. She had her fingers on the pulse of the county and took great interest in making it a better place for us. She really knew her stuff.

When you read one of her stories, you were getting news that was accurate, fair and unbiased. She always worked at getting both sides and understanding the topic so she could make her stories understandable. She was an incredible asset to the Press Journal and Treasure Coast Newspapers.

She was an old-school reporter. Her first thoughts were “how will this affect our readers?” and “what do our readers want and need to know?”

Whether covering the needs of the Humane Society of Vero Beach and Indian River County, the Source and other worthwhile organizations, or letting residents of Sebastian, Indian River County and Indian River Shores know what was going on in their communities, Janet always kept those thoughts in mind.

As a freelancer, Janet could have said “no” to some of the story ideas pitched her way. But knowing residents needed to know what was going on or organizations needing a helping hand to get their word out kept her going.

I can’t tell you how many late nights and weekends she spent getting results of events such as the Crown Jewel band festival. Was it groundbreaking news? No, but it was information people wanted.

As the years went on, particularly after I retired, Janet really became one of my closest friends. I’m so grateful to have known her. She was a wonderful person.

Louise Phillipine, former Indian River County editor of Treasure Coast Newspapers, lives in Sebastian. She is a member of the organization's editorial board.

Stuart golf course-area traffic presents wrong kind of problem

Today is truly a “red letter” day!

It’s been well over a year since the stop signs of questionable utility were installed on St. Lucie Boulevard at the Sailfish Sands golf course, ostensibly to accommodate vehicular traffic exiting from that facility.

In that interval of approximately 14 months, however, as I’ve traversed that area on average four times a day at various times of every day, including during “season,” it was not until today that I observed any vehicle ever leaving Sailfish Sands at the intersection created by placement the stop signs.

This observation only serves to illustrate the lack of need for such devices and tends to bolster the common belief that they were merely installed as traffic-control measures on that stretch of road, particularly because they remain in place, even at times when the golf course is closed.

That belief is further reinforced by the inexplicable blocking of the second parking lot exit to the south, which, just as the north exit, had previously been used with no obvious impediment from passing St. Lucie traffic.

Apparently, decreasing the speed limit from 35 mph to 25 mph several years ago wasn’t effective enough, so now traffic flow is not only slowed, but senselessly stopped.

George Quinlan, Stuart

Quiet, relaxing restaurants just good business

Lucie Regensdorf's critique of a Hobe Sound German restaurant, apart from an excellent description of the fare offered, brings up a good point in mentioning "a quiet, relaxing atmosphere."

Perhaps if more area dining spots were to provide that sort of environment, it would prove a profitable means of catering to the many seniors, year-round residents and seasonal residents who do not appreciate a noisy atmosphere created by loud background music and conversation.

Tom Gorak, Palm City

Fertilizer bans benefit the Indian River Lagoon

The recent article addressing the summer fertilizer ban quoted FAU scientist Brian Lapointe as saying that residential fertilizers are only 21% responsible for harmful algae blooms in the Indian River Lagoon.

I understand his point of focusing on the major cause of algae growth (sewer and septic) but downplaying the effect that residential fertilizers have on the lagoon is irresponsible — 21% is still a significant number.

Our big-box home improvement stores are bursting at the seams with toxic poisons for the yard and garden. People unknowingly buy a lot of this poison and indiscriminately apply it to their lawns or hire lawn care companies to spray these poisons.

All these toxins end up in our lagoon. It’s not hard to figure out why the wildlife that call the lagoon home are dying, sick or have lesions all over their bodies. Lifting a summer fertilizer ban is a bad idea.

I stopped putting any type of fertilizer or insecticide on my lawn 10 years ago and our lawn looks fine. It is also home to lots of beneficial insects and wildlife.

John Cielukowski, Cocoa Beach

Here's how to fund future of Indian River Lagoon

A new state bill provides $100 million to restore Indian River Lagoon water quality. However, the legislation language is vague enough to allow use of funds for projects that won’t restore IRL water quality.

As originally envisioned, funds should be largely allocated to fixing wastewater infrastructure issues. This is because aging and overcapacity sewage treatment plants and the high number of septic systems are top contributors to the excess of nutrients that fuel the harmful algal blooms that are killing the IRL.

The legislation also states that by 2030, sewage treatment plants need to be upgraded and residences on septic must be hooked to sewer lines or converted to new septic systems. The best long-term solution is to connect to sewer, especially since the newer septic systems have a mixed performance record. This is an ambitious timeline, but necessary to fix restore the IRL.

Contact your municipal, county and state representatives and tell them the funds should be spent to upgrade the sewage treatment plants to reduce sewage spills into the IRL, treat the water more effectively to remove more nutrients, increase capacity to enable adding more houses on sewer, retrofit so treatment removes contaminants like pharmaceuticals and PFAS (research shows ozonation is effective).

Funds should then be used to construct new sewer lines to neighborhoods currently on septic, fund house-to-sewer hookups for converted septic properties and prioritize the barrier island region of south beaches for septic to sewer conversion due to low elevation areas contributing more nutrients from septic systems.

Eileen Grenon, Melbourne Beach

County property appraiser provides sticker shock

On one hand, someone valuing your home at more that you think it's worth might be a good thing. But when it’s the county property appraiser, it’s a different story.

Our recent assessment, received this week, has increased 19.2%, and, even with the current inflationary times we live in, that’s way over the outrageous threshold. Maybe what the county needs to do is seriously pare down its future budget requests and balance them with what people can afford to pay, not how some backward division and multiplication using millage rates that magically meet grand future spending goals.

So don’t be inflating my home’s value to meet your overspending budget goals. In fact, back off and hold what you've got, because our buying power or “taxpaying ability” has not increased by 19% in one year.

David Lutz, Vero Beach

Why not just hire best qualified person for the job?

Lately, all I have been reading about is diversity and equity for school and employment opportunities. Even the search for a university president has been stalled, one way or the other, it appears. Whatever happened to hiring or admitting the best available candidates?

I ask that question because I have extensive experience in that area, having been subject to it as a police commissioner in a major northeastern city. To apply as a police officer, one had to take a civil service test and get at least a 70 on the exam to be qualified. This system worked for more than a century until a federal judge got involved.

We were ordered to have two lists. One list was just the highest grades received and the other was a list of the highest grades received by minorities. So we were forced to take one from the highest list, probably a grade of 98, and the second from the minority list, and vice versa until we filled the required positions.

Now there were some on the minority list that also appeared on the highest list, but in most instances, the grades were much lower. That system was not beneficial to obtain quality candidates as officers.

Edward Marasi, Port St. Lucie

Trump besmirched, while Biden walks away with dough

The Democrat-controlled media machine has unfairly besmirched the Trump name.

Few know that while Donald Trump was president, he donated his salary back to the government and his company also stopped all new developments outside of the United States. In other words, the Trump organization avoided any action that would appear inappropriate — no conflicts of interest. The Wall Street Journal pointed out several years ago that Trump’s net worth actually dropped while he was president.

Contrast this with the Biden family's schemes being revealed by the House Oversight Committee. Despite the foot-dragging by the Justice Department and the top brass at the FBI, the committee has uncovered an increasing amount of evidence showing the Bidens have received payments from foreign nationals for special favors — to the tune of $30 million and rising.

One may not like Trump’s personality, but one must admit he is a patriot and places country before personal enrichment. I don’t think that can be said about Biden. How could he afford an oceanfront mansion, plus another mansion, after 50 years on the government payroll?

Where did he get the money? It wasn’t from his wife’s teacher’s salary.

Tom Miller, Vero Beach

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Don't buck Buc-ee's; Vero Beach water; lagoon; Stuart woes | Letters