🌅 🗳️ St. Lucie County Election Season Begins

It's Monday! We can jump right in.

🚨 Situational Awareness: PSL discusses $24 million Waste Pro settlement. Special City Council meeting today at 6 p.m. at City Hall. Council will review allocation options for settlement funds from waste collection contract dispute.

🍳 New Breakfast Spot Alert: Another Broken Egg Cafe is opening today in Port St. Lucie at 876 Becker Rd Ste. F-101. Southern-inspired menu featuring breakfast, brunch and lunch dishes, along with handcrafted cocktails, mimosas and spiked cold beverages. Owned and operated by 3 Good Eggs Inc. Check it out here.

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Let's jump right in!

☀️ Day: High of 93°F | Scattered showers and thunderstorms50% chance of rain.
🌙 Night: Low of 75°F | Thunderstorms this evening, 80% chance of rain.
🌅 Sunrise: 6:25 AM | 🌇 Sunset: 8:17 PM
🌙 Moonrise: 6:38 AM | 🌚 Moonset: 9:22 PM
🎶 Sounds like: "Overjoyed" — Stevie Wonder

We reported Friday that Commissioners Arnold Gaines and Michael Broderick both ran unopposed in Fort Pierce Districts 1 and 2 and were automatically reelected without a vote. The full picture is now clear after the qualifying deadline passed at noon Thursday. 42 candidates are officially in 14 races across St. Lucie County. Primary campaigns run through August 18th with the General Election on November 3rd 🗳️.

A quick note before we get into it. This newsletter stays politics free and that is not changing. This is simply to keep you informed as a citizen about who is running in your community. I am planning to sit down for a video interview with every candidate and those will live separately from the newsletter. If you want access to those conversations grab a People Pass here.

The races to watch 📋:

🏛️ Port St. Lucie Mayor: Mayor Shannon Martin is running for reelection against Steven Giordano and Eric Daniel Strazzeri.

🏛️ Port St. Lucie City Council District 1: Four candidates including Indony Jean Baptiste, Frederic Meltzer, Eric Vytautas Reikenis and Kevin Zimmerman.

🏛️ Port St. Lucie City Council District 3: Three candidates including Fritz Masson Alexandre, Jim Norton and Peter D. Overhuls.

🏛️ St. Lucie County Commission District 2: Commissioner Larry Leet running for reelection against Rolin Dorsainvil.

🏛️ St. Lucie County Commission District 4: Commissioner Jamie Lee Fowler running for reelection against Nicholas Burgos, Jean Eddy Leroy and Roger Messer.

🏛️ School Board: Contested races in Districts 1 and 5. District 1 has incumbent Debbie Hawley facing Brian K. Capp. District 5 has incumbent Troy Ingersoll facing Charles V. Cerami and Lisa Kessler.

🏛️ State Representative District 85: Councilman Anthony Bonna is running alongside Wayne Richter and Amr Metwally.

🏛️ U.S. House District 21: Incumbent Brian Mast is being challenged by James T. Martin and Bernard Taylor.

Worth noting: Florida is a closed primary state meaning only registered party members can vote in their party's primary. However if all candidates in a race are from the same party the primary becomes open to all registered voters and serves as the general election 👀.

What's next: Primary is August 18th. General Election is November 3rd 📅.

💬 Which race are you watching most closely this cycle? Tell us right here

In a major victory for pickup truck owners, Indian River Shores town council instructed staff at its May end-of-month meeting to draft a new ordinance removing the current restrictions on pickup trucks being parked on streets or in driveways. The new draft ordinance will be reviewed at the June 22 regular meeting, and repeal is likely to pass since the instructions were clear. At a public hearing last month, about 30 people attended with at least half a dozen passionately pleading to lift the ban, while no one spoke in favor of keeping it. The current ban only prohibited non-commercial trucks 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. outside, but speakers noted it amounts to a total ban since owners couldn't park elsewhere overnight. Modern F150 trucks cost $60,000 to $74,000, more than popular luxury sedans like the Mercedes 300 C at $50,000.

👉 Read more (Vero News)

St. Lucie County is updating its Port of Fort Pierce master plan, with residents having until June 15 to submit comments on redeveloping Museum Pointe Park into a mega-yacht marina facility. The concept includes mega-dock marina, clubhouse, fishing pier and events center/restaurant open to the public, plus a water taxi connection between Museum Pointe and Harbour Pointe linking marina berthing with waterfront dining and entertainment. The marina would accommodate large and mega-yacht vessels serving the Intracoastal Waterway and Atlantic corridor, and could include relocating the Regional History Center but not the aquarium. County Director Joshua Revord stressed nothing has been approved or finalized yet and the concept will be presented to commissioners in the future for consideration.

👉 Read more (TCPalm subscription may be required)

A 105-acre brush fire near Newfield Boulevard and Southwest Citrus Boulevard in Palm City is now contained after Martin County Fire Rescue, the Florida Division of Forestry, and the Martin County Sheriff's Office worked together to battle the blaze. Early investigation points to a possible lightning strike from the previous day. Helicopter water drops from the Division of Forestry helped stop the fire's spread across the neighborhood. Smoke and flames were visible from Newfield neighborhood homes, drawing crowds of onlookers, but no homes or structures were threatened. Division of Forestry units remained overnight and into Monday morning to monitor for spot-overs.

👉 Read more (WPTV)

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