THE CITY’S POWER DILEMMA T H U R S D A Y N O V E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 1 V O L . 1 , I S S U E 3 4 Group thanks donors for all they givePage 16 22 CALENDAR 25 TO ADVERTISE CALL MARTINE FECTEAU 772.696.2004 MARK SCHUMANN 772.696.5233 Inside FORUM ENTERTAINMENT Holiday happiness Festival of Trees kicks off season of celebrations Page 18 Military honored Soldier says thanks at Red, White and Blue Gala Page 20 Soccer stars Freshmen power VBHS to No. 2 state ranking Page 27 14 Exclusive talks set to end December 31 Page 3 City must resolve contractual obligations before it can sell the power plant. Page 7 FPL, Vero Beach to miss deadline
Transcript
THE CITY’S POWER DILEMMAT H U R S D A Y N O V E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 1 V O L . 1 , I S S U E 3 4
Group thanks donors for all they give Page 16
22CALENDAR25
TO ADVERTISE CALL
MARTINE FECTEAU 772.696.2004
MARK SCHUMANN 772.696.5233
Inside
FORUM
ENTERTAINMENT
Holiday happinessFestival of Trees kicks off season of celebrations
Page 18
Military honoredSoldier says thanks at Red, White and Blue Gala
Page 20
Soccer starsFreshmen power VBHS to No. 2 state ranking
Page 27
14
Exclusive talks set to end December 31 Page 3
City must resolve contractual obligations before it can sell the power plant. Page 7
FPL, Vero Beach to miss deadline
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To learn more, call Martine Fecteau at 772-696-2004 or Mark Schumann at 772-696-5233.The Vero Beach Newsweekly gives you the barrier island and more.
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PHOTO BY J. SCOTT KELLY
J. Scott Kelly combines his love of photography with giving back to the community.
Finding a cause for art Gallery to donate to
non-profi ts Page 18
T H U R S D A Y J U L Y 1 4 , 2 0 1 1 V O L . 1 , I S S U E 1 5
City defends Finance Director hiring Page 3
FORUM 12
CALENDAR 20
OBITUARIES 24
TO ADVERTISE CALL
MARTINE FECTEAU 772.696.2004
MARK SCHUMANN 772.696.5233
Christmas in July
Santa makes summertime visit for Homeless
Family Center Page 16
Toe-tapping fun
Oceanside Business Association hosts week-
end concert Page 10
In land they trust
Indian River Land Trust sets about keeping
the Indian River Lagoon green Page 7
Inside
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CONTINUES ON PAGE 4
Local News
C ol d we l l B an ker E d S c h l itt Re a ltor s ®Is l an d Pre v i e ws Inter n ati on a l O f f i c e
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FPL, Vero Beach facing Dec. 31 deadline on letter of intent Exclusive arrangement could be extended if both sides agreeBY IAN LOVEVERO BEACH NEWSWEEKLY
With voters having spoken that they want to move forward on a deal to sell Vero Beach electric to Florida Power & Light, the two sides are now faced with forging an agreement while the clock keeps ticking louder and louder.
[e city’s transactional attorney, John Igoe, a partner at Edwards Wild-man which is negotiating on behalf of Vero Beach, has put together a time-line that even he suggests will be dif-ficult to meet. Igoe is concerned with the number of outstanding contracts the city must settle before he can roll up his sleeves and begin the hard bar-gaining with FPL.
Igoe admits that he moved up how long he thinks it will take to strike a
utility deal because FPL was “very anx-ious” to get an agreement signed by the end of the year.
“We tried to put a realistic assess-ment of the timeline together,” Igoe told the City Council on Nov. 15. “And we actually had the signing of the contract with FPL later, in February (of 2012), because we thought it might take that long. [ e folks at FPL are very anxious and they have reasons for wanting to have an agreement signed. We actually moved the target dates for signing the FPL agreement ahead, toward the end of the year because that is their sched-ule and we wanted to sync up.”
[e end of the year is important to FPL because that is when a letter of agreement between the city and the utility is set to expire and with it, ex-
clusive negotiating rights between the two parties.
[e sticking point for the city is a number of outstanding contracts for power it has agreed to purchase dat-ing back to the 1980s that it must set-tle before offi cials can fully realize how much liability Vero Beach may be holding. [ e figure, in a worse case scenario, could run into the tens of millions of dollars. (See story on page 7 for the status of the city’s outstanding deals with Florida Municipal Power Authority and Orlando Utility Com-mission.)
By Igoe’s own timeline, he does not think those issues could be resolved before Feb. 28, 2012 and he suggest that even that date is “ambitious.” Dick Winger
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At the Nov. 15 City Council meet-ing new Council member Dick Winger suggested the negotiating team focus on resolving those core issues before too much time and money is spent on other issues surrounding the deal. Ed-wards Wildman has estimated it could cost up to $500,000 to complete the negotiations for which it estimated a charge of $75,000 for the FMPA and OUC portion of the talks.
“You can’t really negotiate with Flor-ida Power and Light until you know what it is going to cost to get out of these agreements,” Winger said.
City Manager Jim O’Connor has been given direction by Council to provide them with a contract and he intends by the end of the year to pro-vide Council members with a docu-ment for them to consider, even if it is filled with contingencies.
“We will not have a complete con-
tract done by December 31,” O’Connor said. “I think the best we can hope for with FMPA by February is having a value established or a range of values. You may have the framework for a contract by the end of December, but I think you will still have to put the meat on those bones and part of that will be having exit clauses in case the FMPA value is too high.”
On the one hand, he is confi dent a deal for the FMPA and OUC contracts can be reached. But, as the devil is in the details, what that price might be could make or break the deal.
“All of those things have a value,” he said. “I don’t think there is anything that can’t be closed on and resolved. fe key is if it costs us “X” millions of dollars, then that becomes a decision for the city if it is worth getting out of these contracts and getting out of the electric utility.
On the other hand, we could come back from FMPA and their only dam-
O’Conner says even if Dec. 31 is unrealistic it is important to have markers to keep negotiations moving forward.
“We can’t have this drag out for a long time, so I think the strategy is a good one,” he said of the multi-layered approach to the negotiations. “With something like the OUC con-tract there may be a portion that FPL can help us get out of. f e FMPA contract is a totally diff erent critter because FPL will not be a part of that.”
Vero Beach Electric UtilityTransaction Timeline
(f is list of target dates was put to-gether by Edwards Wildman, the law firm hired to represent the city in its contract negotiations with FPL, the OUC and FMPA. f e firm is charg-ing the city the following: $500 an hour for work by partners, $350 an hour for work by associates and $230 an hour for work by legal assistants. Listing Phase of Transaction, Esti-mated target date for completion and estimated legal fees. Phase 1 of the project has already been completed.)
Phase 2 -- FMPA and OUC due diligence, Nov. 30, 2011, $50,000
*Phase 3 -- Utility due diligence, Dec. 31, 2011, $100,000
*Phase 4 -- Negotiations with FPL, Dec. 31, 2011, $100,000
*Phase 5 -- City of Vero Beach ap-proval, Feb. 15, 2012, $10,000
*Phase 7 -- Negotiations with FMPA and OUC, Feb. 28, 2012, $75,000
Phase 8 -- Pre-closing, as needed, $50,000
Phase 9 -- Closing, Dec. 31, 2013, $25,000
*Edwards Wildman notes that these are “ambitious target dates in line with FPL target dates.”
age could be the value of the bond is-sue associated with the City of Vero Beach. I think that becomes a much smaller number. f ere is also always the chance that FPL does not want to be associated with a transaction where we can’t clear all the titles.”
FPL spokesperson Jackie Anderson said her company is moving forward with its due diligence, but that much of the unknowns regarding a possible deal sit with the City of Vero Beach.
“We are working closely with the city’s transactional team on our part of it,” she said. “At the same time the city has to address its other contractual obligations, so we are moving forward concurrently, but ultimately the tim-ing is dependent on how fast the city moves forward with its other contract negotiations.”
One factor that may weigh into considerations is unless the two sides agree to keep the negotiations exclu-sive, other suitors could step up and make off ers. Earlier this month, Cana-dian-based Algonquin Utilities made an unsolicited bid of $125.3 million for Vero electric.
fe city has not even responded or considered that off er due to the letter of intent to sell to FPL currently in ef-fect.
“I personally think that after Decem-ber 31 there will be more off ers,” Wing-er said. “f at is not a bad thing, but we are fairly far down the line with Florida Power and Light and I think the odds are we will close with them.”
Winger noted that FPL has the ad-vantage of providing the lowest rates in the state.
“We have two mandates we have to accomplish, one is to sell the system and get out of the electric business in such a way that the city remains fi nan-cially viable,” he said. “f e other man-date is to get our rates down to Flor-ida Power & Lights rates by selling to them. So we could sell to another party that may pay more for the system, but I don’t think any of us would be satis-fied if the rates were much higher than FPL’s.”
And, of course, the city and FPL are free before or after Dec. 31 to extend the terms of the agreement.
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LOCAL NEWS
Mayor Turner seeks brighter future for Vero Beach
BY BARBARA YORESH VERO BEACH NEWSWEEKLY
With a preference for organization and structure borne of her career as a civil engineer, newly elected Vero Beach Mayor Pilar Turner seems a natural in her new role as the city’s highest profile elected leader.
And with a potential sale of the city’s electric plant looming amid ongoing debate, it is likely that she’ll need all the diplomacy and common sense she can muster.
Last week – with boxes of files and paperwork yet to be unpacked and pictures only partially hung in her new City Hall office – Turner took a quick reprieve from her meetings and nearly endless new duties to meet with Vero Beach Newsweekly to outline her plans and aspirations for the coming year as well share personal vignettes about her life and path to the mayor’s seat.
“I never aspired to political life and my interests are strictly with the City of Vero,” she said with a smile while seated at the mayor’s desk.
A former “Dallas girl,” Turner at-
tended Georgia Tech where she earned a degree in civil engineering. She later earned an MBA.
Working within the oil and gas-re-lated industries in Houston, Turner was a project manager for major, multi-million dollar off-shore oil and gas projects. She also did a stint with British Petroleum in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea and later worked in Colombia within the timeframe, as she described it, that “(drug lord Pa-blo) Escobar was setting off bombs in the downtown area.”
Having survived challenging and nearly inaccessible work sites as well as the murderous whims of drug cartels, Turner seems ably suited to wield the gavel on the City Council dais, which, despite the contention sometimes seen among Council members, is nonetheless a much tamer environment than her previous jobs.
“Establishing decorum is the may-or’s job and it will be a challenge sometimes. But I think we have a congenial group,” Turner said of her fellow Council members.
CONTINUES ON PAGE 6
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Newly-elected Councilman Dick Winger had supported former May-or Jay Kramer for another mayoral term, but nonetheless expressed hope that Turner would rise to the task.
“She’s even-keeled and a person of class,” Winger said.
In 2003, Turner and her husband moved to Vero Beach from Dallas.
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TURNERFROM PAGE 5
Her mother was a local resident and her mother-in-law and an aunt sub-sequently followed, giving Turner a family circle from which to launch an interest in civic affairs.
“I thought we’d have a base here and travel after we retired. But I also recognized a need in the commu-nity to transform city government. With the (electric) utility, the gov-ernment had ballooned to 500 em-ployees. Now there is an opportu-
nity to streamline that government,” Turner said.
With an engineer’s problem-solv-ing, analytical mindset, Turner be-came increasingly interested in and critical of city government because of what she perceived as a lack of financial accountability and a ten-dency by City Council to make de-cisions without thorough financial analyses.
“I watched Council meetings without any financial background (support information). I found that most government agencies don’t work for residents, they’re working for themselves. You have to have the ability to question and I think this Council has done its research and does question,” Turner said.
Before running for City Council, Turner served as vice president of the Indian River Tax Payers Asso-ciation; served on the city’s Finance Commission and on the county’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
Although a variety of sometimes conflicting opinions have been ex-pressed by Council members since she took office in 2010, Turner be-lieves all who serve do so with good intentions.
“For $800 a month (Council mem-ber’s stipend), nobody does this for anything less than wanting what’s best for the community and we’re here to do what the people want. I want Vero Beach to remain a special place,” Turner said.
Voters on Nov. 8 approved a refer-endum which gives Council and the city the green light to proceed with negotiations for a lease of the power plant’s city-owned land to Florida Power & Light and then proceed with a sale of that plant to FPL if it is beneficial to the city.
“The citizens want to move ahead with it. The timeline is whatever our transactional attorney says. That’s the determining factor. The Letter of Intent (from FPL to buy the util-ity) is a vehicle. The date (of its ex-piration on Dec. 31) can always be extended. It’s not a drop-dead date for anything,” Turner said.
On Nov. 14, the city received a
non-solicited offer from a Canadi-an company to buy the city’s utility for $125.3 million, an offer the city cannot consider while it is engaged in exclusive negotiations with FPL which has offered to buy the utility for $100 million plus pay other as-sociated costs.
Turner, a proponent of the utility sale, believes prior city leadership and staff became dependent upon the millions in revenue produced by the utility and had little interest in running effective government.
“The utility (sale) is the oppor-tunity to streamline government. I want us to be looking at the best practices used in other cities. It’s so vital to see what they do in house and what they out source. I also want to try to support our Chamber of Commerce.
“There are things we can do to maintain the level of service in the city without all the administrative costs we have. We need to be go-ing for bids on our healthcare costs and open negotiations with the un-ions who represent city employees,” Turner said.
An annual review for city employ-ees and an analysis of the city’s or-ganizational chart are two of Turn-er’s goals to enhance government efficiency.
“This is a grand opportunity to transform the city from the bottom up,” she said.
Turner said she, like former May-or Kramer, wants to give the pub-lic an opportunity to speak and be heard at Council meetings, but she also believes city business needs to be conducted as well.
“If you don’t make your point within three minutes, you lose your audience,” Turner said with a laugh. “I feel it’s my job (as mayor) to help them get to their point as kindly and courteously as possible.
“I don’t want to impose a time limit. But being an engineer, I like to have a structure. The agenda also needs to be structured. I don’t want Council or City Hall to be thought of as a joke. We’re here for the ben-efit of taxpayers,” Turner said.
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BY MARK SCHUMANNVERO BEACH NEWSWEEKLY
As the city sprints down a fast track toward a speedy sale of its electric utility to Florida Power and Light, the highest hurdle it will have to clear is the contractual obliga-tions it has with the Florida Munici-pal Power Agency and the Orlando Utility Commission.
`e biggest challenges city leaders face in crafting a deal that will work for FPL and the city are not political opposition or a legal challenge, but economic realities.
By some estimates, the city may wind up spending over $45 million to terminate four major contracts with the FMPA and the OUC, the first of which was signed in 1982. `ese power contracts - now the sticking point in structuring a sales agreement with FPL - have enabled the city to satisfy the power de-mands of a customer base that has increased signifi cantly during the last 30 years.
In addition to what it will have to pay FMPA and OUC to get out of the power contracts, the city will also have to settle some $55 million in existing debt on the electric system. Apart from other closing costs, such as an estimated $5 million in trans-action fees, the city’s two biggest li-abilities may together equal or even exceed the $123 million FPL has ten-tatively off ered for the electric sys-tem. `e total off er of $123 million includes a cash price of $100 mil-lion, the assumption of $17 million in unfunded pension liabilities, and $5 million to dismantle the transfer station local on Indian River Boul-evard next to the power plant.
Some lament that the city has not used more of its income to pay off debt. Rather, city leaders have an-
nually taken nearly $6 million in utility revenue to subsidize the Gen-eral Fund. By giving itself a nearly $6 million yearly “allowance” from its electric system, the city has been able it to keep property taxes arti-ficially low. Critics argue that as a consequence of funding city govern-ment in this way, the city has had to jack up electric rates accordingly.
`ough there are diff ering opin-ions on how the city should have managed its utility revenues, the fact remains that the electric system is encumbered with some $55 mil-lion in debt. is liability is over and above the $17 million in un-funded pension obligations to exist-ing employees of the electric system. While FPL has indicated a willing-ness to take on the city’s $17 million in unfunded pension obligations for electric employees, the company has not shown any appetite for covering the city’s debt by adding $55 million to their initial off er.
When representatives of the city and FPL fi nally sit down at a closing table accompanied by a small army of transactional attorneys, docu-ments will be signed and checks will be written, both by FPL and by the city. e question that has some concerned is whether the city could actually wind up walking away emp-ty handed.
Given its electric system debt of $55 million, if the city also has to pay more than $45 million to wiggle its way out of large and long-standing obligations to FMPA and the OUC, then all the city may have to show for the sale will be the prospect of lower electric rates going forward. CONTINUES ON PAGE 8
City’s power contracts could beexpensive to terminateComplex negotiations must take place before all costs are known
NEWS ANALYSIS
`e city’s transactional attorney, John Igoe, told the council last week that he expects negotiations with OUC and FMPA to be complicated and diffi cult. ose discussions, he said, are likely to continue until mid to late spring of next year, months after the council hopes to sign a con-tingency contract with FPL.
Glenn Heran, perhaps the most visible and vocal non-elected propo-nent of a sale, believes the city will be in a better position to negotiate with FMPA once a contingency con-tract is signed with FPL. Other see it just the opposite, arguing that if the city and FPL arrive at a tenta-tive sale price before contract issues with FMPA are resolved, the power agency will be in a position to “pick our bones,” as newly elected Coun-cilman Richard Winger put it.
Heran concedes that if FMPA is not cooperative, the city may have no recourse but to take the power agency to court or to look to the State Legislature for help. In Her-an’s view, though, FMPA cannot af-ford to deal unfairly with the city. “Everyone will be watching,” he says, referring the 30 or more Florida mu-nicipalities that may or may not have an interest in being acquired by FPL.
Heran thinks that with all eyes on them, FMPA offi cials will be gra-cious to the city, allowing it walk away from its power contracts for a cost low enough that it would not jeopardize a sale to FPL. Again, others see it diff erently, suggest-ing that theory is wishful thinking. `ey expect FMPA offi cials to ne-gotiate fi rmly, precisely because its other member municipalities will be watching what happens in their dealings with Vero Beach.
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CONTINUES ON PAGE 11
ELECTRICFROM PAGE 7
If negotiations with FMPA do not go well and the city decides to take the power agency to court to force its way out of its contracts, it could be a year or more before all the ac-tual exit cost are knows.
Councilmen Jay Kramer, and Winger have both argued the city would be better off resolving its is-sues with FMPA and OUC before it negotiates and signs a contingent contract with FPL. Confident the city will work its way out of the FMPA and OUC contracts at a cost low enough to enable it to sell to FPL for $123 million, Heran and others are urging the council to conclude a contingent agreement based on FPL’s letter of intent.
Winger disagrees, saying the city cannot know the price at which it needs to sell its electric system until it has first determined what all of its costs will be for exiting its contracts with FMPA and OUC.
LOCAL NEWS
In essence, the city is in a position similar to that of a landowner who wants to sell his property for a cer-tain price, but who has yet to deter-mine what the cost will be to clean up environmental waste on site. As an example, if $5 million has been offered for the land, and if the en-vironmental clean up will cost $6 million, then that landowner cannot afford to sell his property unless he has an extra $1 million in reserve to bring to the closing table.
While the city’s contracts with FMPA and OUC are not exactly analogous to environmental waste, they could prove expensive to re-solve, which is why Kramer and Winger have argued the city should first conclude negotiations with FMPA and OUC before it settles on a sale price with FPL.
FOUR POWER CONTRACTS:AND WHERE THE CITY
GETS ITS POWERIf Vero Beach had not over the
past few decades entered into agree-ments with FMPA and OUC to sup-ply the city with power, customers would be paying rates even higher than they were in 2008.
Never mind higher rates. On re-ally hot or cold days city customers would be experiencing brown outs and black outs, because even with all five generators running - three on fuel oil and two on natural gas - the city can still only generate 157 meg-awatts of electricity. bat output is well below what is needed to meet peak demand on hot summer after-noons and cold winter mornings.
be power generated at “Old Blue,” the city’s plant on the river, is far more expensive than the power the city buys from FMPA and OUC. In fact, the city’s generators are only fired up when demand exceeds 150 megawatts, the maximum amount of power that can be funneled into the city over existing transmission lines.
Two of the city’s five generators, unit 2 and unit 5, run on natural gas, the other three run on fuel oil, mak-ing three of the city’s five generators dinosaurs in the power business. Quite simply, Vero Beach is depend-ent on power supplied from more efficient generators, those being the St. Lucie nuclear plant, and Stanton 1 and 2, the coal-fired generators located east of the Orlando airport, and operated by the OUC.
In the mid 1970s, in anticipation of the need to either make a huge in-vestment to upgrade its generating capacity, or to contract with outside suppliers, city leaders sought and received support from voters to sell the electric system to FPL. Because of the changing regulatory environ-ment at the time, FPL concluded that it was not its best interest to ac-quire the city’s system.
At that point the city had two choices, either invest tens of mil-lions of dollars in larger and more efficient generators, or contracts for power from outside sources. City leaders chose the latter approach to meet local power needs, first by en-
tering into agreements with FMPA and then with OUC. From 1983 to 1996 Vero Beach signed three power contracts with FMPA that entitled it to up to 48.1 megawatts of power.
bese three power entitlements, which have helped to keep lights on and air conditioners running, came in exchange for contractual obliga-tions the city made. First, the city is committed to buy the power to which it is now entitled. bese ob-ligations continue for the life of the Saint Lucie nuclear plant and the Stanton 1 and Stanton 2 units in Orlando. be city is also obligated to pay off its share of the bonds that were sold to fund construction of the St. Lucie nuclear plant, as well as the two coal-fired generators in Orlando.
Of the 48.1 megawatts the city buys through FMPA, 11.2 megawatts come from the St. Lucie nuclear plant, 20.5 megawatts from Stanton 1 and 14.4 megawatts from Stanton 2. beoretically, if the city were only consuming 48.1 megawatts of power at a given time, all of that electricity would come to the city through its three FMPA entitlements.
In 2008 the city ended its par-ticipation in the All Requirements Project, a separate and additional power agreement with FMPA. To re-place the power purchased through the All Requirements Project, the city contracted directly with OUC for an additional 95 megawatts. bis fourth power contract is over and above the 48.1 megawatts the city received through its three contracts with FMPA.
So, how much is the city paying for the power it received through its three entitlements with FMPA, and what percentage of that cost goes to retire the bonds that were sold to finance the St. Lucie nuclear plant and Stanton 1 and 2? brough September 2011, the city paid $17.7 million for this outside power, or an average of $1.5 million a month. It will spend close to $24 million on the three FMPA entitlements this year, with approximately half of that
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11LOCAL NEWS
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going to debt service and fi xed costs. ^e city’s share of FMPA bond in-
debtedness on OUC’s Stanton 1 gen-erator is $3 million a year through October 2019. rough November 2027, the city owes an additional $2.3 million a year for its portion of the debt FMPA assumed to acquire an ownership interest in the Stan-ton 2 generator. Vero Beach owes a staggering $60.8 million in debt on the Stanton 1 and Stanton 2 genera-tors.
Because carbon emissions from coal-fi red generators exceed natural gas generators by 50 percent, coal power is increasingly unpopular po-litically and thus more diffi cult to sell. If the city is unable to peddle its Stanton 1 and Stanton 2 entitle-ments, it may also fi nd itself on the hook for the prorated share of fi xed costs it has historically been charged for the operation of the OUC gen-erators.
^ose fi xed costs, projected to total $44.6 million over the next 16 years, will not go away if and when the city stops accepting the power to which it is entitled through FMPA. Absent a buyer for its entitlements the city will present FMPA with a diffi cult choice. FMPA executives will be left with the choice of press-ing Vero Beach to continue paying fixed expenses, or passing those cost on to their remaining customers. It is a $44.6 million question, one which some believe FMPA will want resolved by the courts.
Between its $60.8 million in debt service obligations to FMPA, and its fixed cost obligations of $44.6 mil-lion, the city is going to have to buy its way out of $105 million in com-mitments to FMPA if it is ever going to be able to sell to FPL.
^ese numbers, real and undenia-ble, have some wondering if the city may wind up having to pay to “sell” its power system. Heran insisted these exit costs -- $20 million here, and $60 million there -- can be easily justified considering the nearly $20 million a year current customers of
Vero Beach Electric will likely save as customers of FPL.
GETTING OUT OF THE POWER CONTRACTS
^e city will have to buy out of these contracts if it is to clear the way for a sale to FPL. Of the four main contracts the city must negoti-ate, the most diffi cult ones to resolve will be with the FMPA. In the past the FMPA has proved challenging to deal with.
Some argue with much conviction that the association of 30 munici-pally owned electric utilities has be-come an “institution of ineffi ciency.” However close FMPA may be to out-living its usefulness to its member utilities, it remains a major player in the Florida power business. FMPA’s board members cannot simply let Vero Beach out of its contractual obligations to the agency and its bondholders, while passing the cost on to the customers of its remaining member municipalities.
^e sluggish economy and the col-lapse of the housing market are two reasons why the city may fi nd it diffi -cult to shed or sell its power entitle-ment through the FMPA. Current-ly, there is an oversupply of power generating capacity throughout the state. Consequently, fi nding a likely buyer for the city’s entitlements to power from Stanton 1 and Stanton 2 will not be easy.
Because nuclear energy is relatively inexpensive, the city may fi nd a buy-er for its entitlement to power from Saint Lucie nuclear. In response to a request for interest and qualifi ca-tions the city sent out in August, the OUC expressed a willingness to buy the city’s right to power from the St. Lucie nuclear plant. is en-titlement has been estimated to be worth as much as $5 million. Selling it to OUC could off set some of the cost of exiting the 2008 agreement.
As yet, no one has expressed an interest in taking on the city’s rights and obligations associated with the agreements signed with the FMPA in 1987 and 1996 for power from
Stanton 1 and Stanton 2. Some fear getting out of these contracts could prove very expensive.
A fourth contract the city must resolve is the 2008 agreement with the OUC. is agreement expires in 2027, and, in terms of revenue to the OUC, is worth an estimated $600 million. In entering this agreement both the OUC and the city agreed that if either party chose to termi-nate the contract before 2027 they could do so for a cost of no less than $20 million and no more than $50 million. is exit clause has been widely described as the “$50 million penalty.” Legal experts point out, though, that this provision protects both parties equally, and, to the city’s advantage, limits its potential liability.
While some number below $20 million might be negotiated with the OUC, this municipally-owned util-ity can no more let Vero Beach out of its contract at a cost to its cus-tomers than can FMPA. Certainly if
ELECTRICFROM PAGE 8
the tables were turned, Vero Beach power customers would hardly be eager to pay higher power bills sim-ply to benefi t OUC or other FMPA customers.
Working through each of these four entitlements will be the biggest challenge in arriving at the num-bers that will make up the power sale equation. e real costs and the benefi ts will not be known until these contracts are settled. Reso-lution may come quickly and eas-ily through negotiation, or slowly, through costly and perhaps lengthy litigation.
Wherever the numbers may fi nally settle, and however the deal eventu-ally comes together, what a sale to FPL will mean to the city cannot be accurately estimated until a few gaping holes are fi lled in the equa-tion. Putting meaningful, accurate numbers in those blanks will not be possible until the actual cost of ex-iting the power contracts has been determined.
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L O C A L N E W S D I G E S TWinter Beach Post o?ce is closed
WINTER BEACH — he Winter Beach Post Office located at 6848 Old Dixie Highway has been closed due to continuing budget shortfalls within the agency.
Postmaster General Pat Donohue announced plans in July to review 3,700 post offices for consolidation or closure. No Indian River County post offices were on the original list.
he Postal Service projects a net loss of $7 billion this fiscal year and debt exceeding $10 billion, leading to a cash shortfall of about $1 billion. Losses are expected next year as well. he Government Accountability Office added the Postal Service to its list of high-risk government agencies and programs last Tuesday.
In a letter posted on the door of the Winter Beach Post Office, Ernie Onody, manager of Post Office Operations for the Suncoast Division, recommended that customers visit the Grand Harbor Station at 5325 U.S. 1, about 2 miles south for service. But what isn’t noted is the post office is inside the Harbor Shell gas station at the intersection of U.S. 1 and 53rd Street.
Locating post offices within existing businesses is the direction the Post Service is taking as it tries to reorganize.
Vero Beach minister to bike from California to Vero Beach for charity
VERO BEACH — he Rev. Scott W. Alexander, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and who also writes a column for Vero Beach News-weekly, plans a month long, 3,300-total-mile, 115 mile-a-day bike ride across America to beat hunger.
Beginning April 22, Alexander will bike from Costa Mesa, Calif. and end at a rally at Waldo’s, inside the historic Driftwood Resort, on Ocean Drive, Vero Beach, at 5 p.m. May 22.
A goal of $50,000 will be split between Harvest Food and Outreach Center of Vero Beach, which distributes low-cost food locally to those in need, and Stop Hunger Now, an international organization.
For more information, call 772-494-5009 or toll-free 855-494-5009 or visit www.ridetobeathunger.org.
Humane Society appoints board of directors
VERO BEACH – he Humane Society of Vero Beach and Indian River County has appointed its 2011-2012 board of directors. he announcement was made by board member Cheryl Gerstner earlier this month.
New members to the 2011-2012 Board include Samuel F. Beach, Jr., Michelle Servos, Bill Frates, Jim hompson, Sheila Marshall and Maria Whittle.
Board Officers are Jo Ann M. Becker, Secretary; Deborah Freed, 3rd Vice President; Cheryl Gerstner, 2nd Vice President; Bill Hudson, Treasurer, Frank “Fritz” Spitzmiller; President and Debbi Vickers, 1st Vice President.
David K. Brower, Roger C. Haines, Cynthia Haskett, James “Mike” Molloy and Dick Pippert will also be serving on the Board. Advisory Council mem-bers include Bob Neel and Susan Schuyler Smith.
Commissioner Wesley Davis to seek third term in o?ce
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Wesley Davis last week filed the paperwork
necessary to seek a third term as District 1 County Commissioner.Davis, 41, a fourth-generation county resident and real estate auctioneer from the Wa-basso area, filed to run again as a Republican for four more years representing the commission’s mostly rural district. he area includes Fellsmere, Vero Lake Estates, Roseland, western Sebastian and much of the county north of State Road 60.
He was first elected in 2004, defeating fellow Republican Jim Hill in the pri-mary and Democrat Richard Baker in the general election to succeed former Commissioner Fran Adams of Fellsmere.
In 2008, he fended off a primary challenge from Republican Susan Boyd of western Vero Beach and defeated write-in opponent Fred Mensing of Rose-land.
Hallstrom House once again opens to visitors
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY -- Hallstrom House, built by the citrus and busi-ness pioneer Axel Hallstrom, is open for visitors three afternoons a week, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 1 to 4 pm.
he brick house was built in the late 1910s by Hallstrom for his family. Axel’s daughter, Ruth, bequeathed the house to the Indian River County Historical Society in 1999. Over the past dozen years, the Society has restored the house, inventoried the furnishings and begun cataloging the documents related to the family and its agricultural and business activities.
Trained docents provide tours of the home, focusing on the family’s Swed-ish heritage, Axel Hallstrom’s horticultural innovations and the Hallstroms’ contributions to the economic and cultural life of the community.
he Hallstrom House is located at 1723 Old Dixie Highway in Vero Beach. No reservations are required for groups of fewer than five people. A donation of $5 per person is suggested. For larger groups, reservations may be made in advance by calling the Historical Society office at 772/778-3435.
Sebastian area sediment dumpcompletion delayed until February
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY -- Due to unexpected complications, the $2.8 million sediment processing facility on the old Vickers Grove near Sebastian will not be completed until February officials said last week.
“We’re working in a grove that’s been there for over 100 years,” said David Roach, the executive director of the Florida Inland Navigation District, which is working on the facility with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “here are a lot of things in there from over 100 years that we’re now unearthing.”
An extra $89,000 worth of work is needed at the 180-acre site on U.S. 1 to deal with issues that were not originally anticipated, Roach said. hat includes sealing several artesian wells on the property, removing terra cotta pipes that had been part of the grove’s irrigation system, modifying drainage ditches that handle storm water runoff from U.S. Hwy. 1 and moving parts of the security fence and the gate.
Roach said the facility is needed to process sediment dredged from the parts of the navigations channel that have experienced shoaling in order to keep the waterway safe for boaters. A mixture of sediment and sand will be pumped into a 47-acre containment basin where the sediment will be allowed to settle before the water is released back into the Indian River Lagoon.
Officials had expected to complete the Dredged Material Management Area IR-2 by the end of December.
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13LOCAL NEWS
BY IAN LOVEVERO BEACH NEWSWEEKLY
VERO BEACH -- Neighbors have been gathering since last week to console family members and remem-ber Brian Simpson as a devoted hus-band, doting father and dear friend.
Simpson, 41, was shot when he stumbled upon a robbery at his home on the 600 block of Fiddlewood Road. Police said Simpson returned home and encountered burglars in his residence. A neighbor heard a loud noise and called 911. Officers went to Simpson’s home and found him dead from gunfire.
Interim Vero Beach Police Chief David Currey said the shooting death of Simpson was the city’s first homicide on the barrier island in 13 years.
Neighbor Kristine Klose used her Facebook page to remember the first time she met her friend at a Fourth of July barbecue on Fiddlewood.
“At the barbecue Brian was the fun dad,” she wrote. “He gave all the kids sparklers and the children were so excited ... Brian made a huge deal about them feeling important. He was not just there with his own kids, but all the kids.”
Hundreds turned out for a vigil last Sunday at Jaycee Park to remember Simpson. He leaves behind his wife of 19 years, Kristen, and a son and daughter.
Kristen Simpson’s parents, Nancy and Rowland Judge, told the Press Journal their daughter and Brian
Simpson were high school sweet-hearts in Ohio. She enrolled in West Virginia University one year ahead of her future husband, who followed her to the school. Together, they were stars on the university swim team.
“dey never had a honeymoon,”
Nancy Judge said. “dis was their honeymoon, just living here. dey loved it.”
de couple became scuba divers and Brian, an avid fisherman and boater, hunted lobsters for the din-ner table every season.
Police have identified two men they are calling persons of interest in the case after eye witnesses placed them in the area around the time of the shooting.
de two black men are described as being in their early- to mid-20s. One of the men had dreadlocks tied in a knot at the back of his head, police said. de other had a short-cropped hair style.
Currey said business leaders and other residents have put together a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the homicide. Anyone with information about the homicide should call Treasure Coast CrimeStoppers at 800-273-TIPS (8477) or leave the tip at www.tc-watch.org.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Simpson Children Fund at Gould, Cooksey, Fennel, 979 Beachland Blvd., Vero Beach, FL 32963.
Neighborhood left trying to make sense of senseless tragedy
Persons of Interest
STAFF PHOTOS Kristen Simpson is consoled by friend Brian Connelly at a Jaycee Park vigil for her husband.
Hundreds of people showed up to remember Brian Simpson, who was shot and killed during a home burglary.
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Community Forum
Vero Beach Newsweekly is distributed throughout Vero Beach and the barrier island.
Visit us on the web at www.VeroBeachNewsweekly.com
LETTERS WELCOMEVero Beach Newsweekly invites you to send Letters to the Editor on topics of interest pertaining to Indian River Coun-ty. Letters should be 250-300 words and may be edited for length. We encourage an open dialogue, but reserve the right to refuse publication of letters that do not meet our editorial standards.
E-mails may be sent to [email protected] or by regular mail to Letter to the Editor, Vero Beach Newsweekly, 1801 U.S. 1, Vero Beach, FL 32960.
Former Vero Beach Police Chief Don Dappen and his new boss, City Manager Jim O’Connor, wound up not seeing eye-to-eye, so Dappen was asked to retire. He will cash out with a check for $76,000 compensat-ing him for unused sick leave and vacation time. Dap-pen will also receive health insurance benefi ts and a monthly pension payment of nearly $9,000.
Wough famous for coddling its employees, not even the United States Postal Service hands retiring workers a one-time payment for unused vacation and sick leave. Rather, the value of these accrued days off is rolled into their vested retirement account.
How the City of Vero Beach can aff ord benefi ts more generous that those off ered to federal postal employees is beyond reason. In fact, if the city is going to make do without the $6 million annual “al-lowance” it has been getting from its electric utility, city leaders are going to have to take off their rose colored glasses and face the new economic realities the rest of us are deal with every day.
Not to single out Vero Beach, municipal govern-ments throughout Florida and across the country are challenged to satisfy their constituents’ de-mands that they do more with less. Despite declin-ing revenues, local governments are being asked to maintain services such as parks and recreation, public works and police and fi re protection.
While one former city councilman argued that gov-ernments should be run like a government and not like a business, the reality is that there is much lead-ers and managers in government can learn from their counterparts in business. Day in and day out, private
sector leaders must fi nd was of doing more with less. Unable to rack up defi cits, or to fund shortfalls
with the less expensive credit available to local governments, businesses have no choice but to ex-ercise near-ruthless cost control, while channeling equal, if not more eff ort into increasing revenues.
While controlling costs and maximizing income opportunities are both keys to success in business, another trademark of prosperous enterprises is that they are constantly striving for greater effi ciencies.
Skeptical of government’s ability to spend a dollar wisely, taxpayers are largely unwilling to support tax increases. What is left for government to do is to wake up, and wise up, and stop spending money foolishly.
We days are gone when local governments can af-ford to off er their employees generous benefi ts that have long since disappeared from the private sector. For example, fi nd a business today that allows its employees to accrue unused sick leave and vacation pay year after year after year, without restriction.
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15COMMUNIT Y FORUM
BY REV. SCOTT ALEXANDERI suppose it is the duty – of all ear-
nest and right-thinking clergy – to publicly decry (every year at the begin-ning of this holiday season) the exces-sive commercialism and materialism of American culture. eis November, I was going to spare you, my faithful and thoughtful readers, this predict-able rant…until I read that most of the major retailers in this country had de-cided to move their “Black Friday” sales openings into eanksgiving Day itself!
Alright…that’s it…no more Mister Nice Guy. ee gloves are off, it time to say enough is enough.
eere is no avoiding the fact that we are a consumer culture, and holiday shopping (for those we love) brings
pleasure to countless millions of Ameri-cans. But amidst the inevitable com-mercialism of this season, can’t we at least leave the won-derful family feast of eanksgiving unfet-tered by shopping and buying?
I hope that some of the national retailers will respond to the “push-back” they have re-ceived from both their workers and customers and at least return to san-ity next year. I further hope that you expressed your displeasure with this “creeping commercialism” by simply
(and subversively) staying home this eanksgiving – and enjoy relaxed conversation with family and friends.
“Black Friday” with its throngs of greedy shoppers knocking each other down on their way to the displays of bargain-priced flat screen televisions is bad enough a sign for our culture. It’s up to us to preserve and honor eanksgiving Day purely for family, friends, food, conversation and fun.
And, during the rest of this holi-day season, we will also spiritually and emotionally benefit from simply keeping our shopping and buying and consuming in some sort of meas-ured calm. Healthy holiday living is not an all-or-nothing proposition. It’s not that we have to puritanically
refuse and forsake all the commercial and material aspects of the season.
But what will help us to truly enjoy this festive and joyful season is mate-rial restraint, consumer moderation, and the knowledge that, in the end, that which truly blesses us has noth-ing to do with how much “stuff” we get. ee other day while I was biking, a car passed me with this message on its bumper: “ee best stuff in life isn’t stuff.”
May your holiday season be blessed.Rev. Scott W. Alexander is the minister
of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Vero Beach, and has been a minister, author, and educator for almost 40 years. He is an avid cyclist and outdoor enthu-siast who loves living in Vero Beach.
BY MILT THOMAS
eis past Sunday I returned from two weeks in Egypt. I have friends there and visit them every year, but this year was different. We have all read about the “Arab Spring,” the popular upris-ings that began last January in Tunisia, then spread to Egypt, Libya and other countries in that part of the world. Ba-sically, all those uprisings had one thing in common – dissatisfaction with the long term dictatorships that have sti-fled freedom and economic growth re-sulting in high unemployment without hope for a better future.
Having spent a great deal of time in Egypt over the years, I developed a unique perspective on the effect of government on people’s lives, especial-ly when compared to life in our great country. In Egypt, the military has ruled since 1952, when a young army officer named Gamal Abdul Nasser overthrew the regime of King Farouk. Over the 58 years since, only three men have served as Egypt’s president and leader. Nasser died in office in 1971 after 19 years, Anwar Sadat was assassinated after 10 years and Hosni Mubarak served from 1981 until last February 11. ee
military still rules Egypt, but that hold may only last until a series of (hopefully) free elections, be-ginning November 28 and culminating with the election of a president in late 2012 or early 2013.
ee date is tenta-tive because the military leadership is trying to manipulate these elections to maintain their power base and exten-sive economic advantages. However, the Egyptian people, through their relatively peaceful overthrow of the Mubarak re-gime, have demanded a civilian govern-ment that represents them instead of the privileged elite that has ruled in the past.
Here is where the problem lies for Egypt’s future and Egypt’s position as a moderate, pro-American force in the Middle East. Mubarak and his prede-cessors have systematically eliminated any opposition to their rule, except in one case – the Muslim Brotherhood. Established in the 1920s, Quan Mus-limiya, as it is known in Egypt, has al-ways been allowed to exist in this most-
ly Muslim country, although with tight control over its activities. eat has not prevented it from being well organized and popular within the general popula-tion, especially the poor.
So when Mubarak was overthrown by millions of Egyptians from all walks of life, organized political opposition did not ex-ist – except for the Muslim Brotherhood. While I was in Egypt the past two weeks, I interviewed five candidates running for the People’s Assembly (Parliament). Two of them represented start-up political par-ties, two were independent of any politi-cal organization and one was the favored candidate, regional head of the Muslim Brotherhood. ee latter individual was politically savvy and had his spokesman in the room for my interview. ee others were amateurs, hoping that the voting public would prefer a moderate, secular government over a strict religious one. Unfortunately, many voters are poor and illiterate, whose only exposure to politics has been the brutal Mubarak regime or the Muslim Brotherhood, which has pro-vided many of their social services and ful-filled their spiritual needs.
Most Egyptians are very religious, and ironically, many of the Muslim clerics I
have met do not want a religious govern-ment. eat is also the view of most edu-cated, middle and upper class Egyptians, especially the youth and those who have worked hard to achieve what they have under difficult circumstances. eey are looking for some form of democracy.
My last night in Egypt (Saturday) I was in Tahrir Square, birthplace of the revolution. ee day before, a huge rally was organized by the religious right and tens of thousands of people at-tended, most of them members of the Muslim Brotherhood and related or-ganizations. Clearly, the Brotherhood wanted to show off its strength in an-ticipation of the election. By Saturday, only the young, secular revolutionaries were left. eey captured a police van and set it on fire as I stood there. Our concern should be which vision of the future will Egyptians take with them to the voting booths on November 28?
Milt Momas is a Vero Beach resident and an experienced freelance writer/author with a 20-year background in the music industry. He currently writes biographies, blogs, lectures, travels ex-tensively and is an active member of the National Press Club.
Let’s get into the real spirit of the season
A Hrst-hand account of the Arab Spring
REVERENDSCOTT ALEXANDER
MILT THOMAS
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16 Social | Lifestyle
BY CHRISTINA TASCONVERO BEACH NEWSWEEKLY
^e Association of Fundraising Professionals took some time last week to recognize the many acts of kindness and charity from donors with the National Philanthropy Day Awards.
While everyone may recognize the name of Outstanding Volunteer win-ner, Karl Steene, because of his tire-less work, some may not recognize David Taylor. He was presented the “Unsung Hero” award, after being nominated by Habitat for Humanity.
Taylor has been a constant at the Habitat’s Hoedown which is a huge
Philanthropists honored for their acts of giving
PHOTOS BY CHRISTINA TASCON Tammy Adams, Freddie Woolfork and Kerry Bartlett
Peter & Susan O’Bryan with Leslie and Mike Swann
Michelle Malyn, John Corapi, Heather Swanson and Dawn Michael“The Advocate” Honoree
Karen Deigl, Pud Lawrence with Don & Chris Loftus
fundraiser. “What matters is that you get involved, somehow or some-way,” said Taylor as he accepted his award. “It’s an awesome feeling when you help someone.”
Robyn Orzel, the AFP President said the organization was “80 mem-bers strong” and their goal was to “change the world with a giving heart.”
Orzel presented Pam Hewett the President’s Award in honor of her late husband Ronnie Hewett who recently passed away. Hewett dedi-cated his life to supporting the chil-dren of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America for over 40 years.
“Children are 25 percent of our
population, but 100 percent of our future,“ he was fond of saying.
“Fundraising is a bullish business and those people that are success-ful at it have to speak with a positive can-do attitude,” said Master of Cer-emony, Carter Hopkins.
Each of the honorees brought a certain amount of that attitude to the process of fundraising for their non-profit agencies. Mary Graves, was recognized as “^e Educator;” Kip Jacoby, “^e Champion;” Dawn Michael, “^e Advocate;” Donna Pe-ters, “^e Visionary” and Sue Tomp-kins, “^e Technician.”
US Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management was honored
as Outstanding Corporate Philan-thropist; Hariot & Barney Greene as Individual Philanthropists; US 1 Nis-san & Route 60 Hyundai and Piper were also presented awards for their Corporate Philanthropy.
Monique Walker, co-chair of the event with Jennifer Jones, praised all of the award recipients along with the attendees.
“^ese are the people that keep our community going,” Walker said “^e work that they do gives the agencies the abilities which would not be pos-sible without them. ^e awards let others see who they are, what they do and show them how to walk in their footsteps.”
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Service Directory
SOCIAL | LIFEST YLE
Barney & Hariot Greene, Outstanding Individual Philanthropists and also cel-ebrating their 65th wedding anniversary
Event Co-Chairs Jennifer Jones and Monique Walker
Ted Michael and Sabin AbellMichael McGee, Outstanding Corpo-rate Philanthropist and Karl Steene,Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser
Stephen Dorrance, Dura Das Hutner, Vicki Soule and Joe CoakleyNat Jackson, Jane Henderson, Mary Graves (the “Educator” Honoree)and Carol Fennell
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18 SOCIAL | LIFEST YLE
David & Kathie AlthoQ, Amy Dolen and Teresa Strackbein man the highly sought after Festival’s homemade jarred selections
Robb GreenPeld, Elizabeth Sorensen, Shelley Adelle and Cory Howell
BY CHRISTINA TASCON
Nearly 300 guests attended the most anticipated holiday season opener, the Festival of Trees Gala at Riverside Children’s Reater.
Surrounded by thousands of twin-kling lights, carols being sung by the RCT Kids, and the smell of scrump-tious cookies from the ornately deco-rated gingerbread houses, one could not help getting into the holiday spir-it.
“Ris is my favorite pre-Christmas event,” said event sponsor Jean Uelt-schi. “It puts me in the spirit and makes it the holiday even if there’s no snow on the ground.”
Perhaps there was no actual snow, but Shells & Rings had the kids wowed with their samples of “Snow.” A big bowl of the cold and powdery
Festival of Trees rings in start to holiday season
stuff felt like the real thing and eve-ryone had to come by to play with it.
Adding to the cool, winter atmos-phere was the sumptuous ice cream bar set up in the corner of the main tree display room by Chelsea’s.
Re room was filled with beautiful lights and sparkling trees, but young Brooklyn Billman only had eyes for the ice cream toppings and other treats. “I think the best part of the night has been the candy,” she said with her eyes bright.
Every holiday was represented in-cluding a display of Menorahs by Carol Kanarek which she has brought every year.
All the amazing trees, dazzling dis-plays and the selection of delicious food were on sale or auction so each person could take a touch of the holi-day magic home.
PHOTOS BY CHRISTINA TASCONRichard Stark (seated) with AnnMarie and Dr. Hugh McCrystal
Riverside Children’s Theatre Singers at entrance of Festival of Trees
Ann Jones and Event Sponsor Jean Ueltschi
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19SOCIAL | LIFEST YLE
The trees on display were purchased via a silent auction
Santa is happily centered between Kim Beckett and Tracy Carroll Ted & Dawn Michael, Heather Swanson Andi Beck & Greg Forner
Grant Gardner, Bonnie Andriotis, Duane Selby & Amy Behm-SelbyVirginia & Warren Schwerin, Anna Nichols and Fran Pieck
New teacher at RCT Melanie Miller looks over the gingerbread houses
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Red, White, & Blue Gala welcomes ‘adopted’ soldierBY CHRISTINA TASCON
Lt. Col. Keith Brace of the United States Army is currently serving in Iraq as a seasoned soldier. However, five years ago he was a fresh face in the trenches.
We Republican Women of Indian River “adopted” Brace and the 20 men in
his unit and sent more than just snacks and calling cards. Weir patriotic spirit and caring attitude carried him and his buddies through many dark nights.
Last Saturday night he came to say thank you at the Republican group’s Red, White, & Blue Gala.
“Wey even sent us Christmas deco-rations so we could experience the
holidays.” said Brace who attended the dinner with his wife Amy. “I have been dying to get down here and meet them. Wis is about shaking some hands and hugging some necks.”
Honored speaker Lieutenant Gov-ernor Jennifer Carroll warmly greeted Brace and thanked him for his service.
Carroll and her husband Nolan at-
tended along with House Rep. Debbie Mayfield and many local officials.
We Lieutenant Governor was the first Republican woman and also the first African American to serve in the Florida Legislature after spending time as the director of the Florida Depart-ment of Veteran Affairs.
Carroll and Mayfield know each oth-
SOCIAL | LIFEST YLE
PHOTOS BY CHRISTINA TASCONJennifer & SheriO Deryl Loar, Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, Shelly & JeO Luther
Rayma Murray, Ann Murray, Eileen Martin and Ruby Freeman
Nolan Carroll, Rep. Debbie MayNeld, Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll and Dr. Bob Scaringe
Dorothy Frances, Michael Osowski with Joan & Roman Ortega-CowanBrittany Wood, Sponsor Dustin Keeling, Kristen Hamilton and Adam Linsky
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er very well from their time together in the state legislature.
“I served with her husband, Stan, and I embraced her as a mentor when she first arrived,” said Carroll. “I wanted to see that she did not fall into the same pitfalls I did as a woman in a largely male arena.”
Carole Jean Jordan met Carroll many years ago at the Governor’s Mansion and was the connection to invite Carroll
to attend the event at Grand Harbor. Je Republican Women have many
causes including a Clinic in Haiti from where sponsor Dustin Keeling had just returned.
However, the focus for this dinner was our men and women serving in harm’s way.
“Tonight is a celebration of our mili-tary which is what this is all about,” summed up Betsy Craum.
3500 Ocean DriveVero Beach, FL 32963772.469.1060
LOYAL TO THE LOCALSMonday: Sweet Start, complimentary dessert of your choice with dinner entreeTuesday: Complimentary glass of Chardonnay or Cabernet with dinner entree
Wednesday: Free Corkage, bring in your own bottle of wine at no additional costThursday: Thirsty Thursday! Extended happy hour drinks until 8pm.
Friday: Frozen Friday! Complimentary frozen cocktail at Heaton’s Reef with any food itemSaturday: Early Bird Happy Hour. Vero’s greatest happy hour a half hour earlier, at 4PMSunday: Sunday Treat, complimentary mimosa with the purchase of a brunch entrée
Show your I.D. with a Vero Beach address and receive:
Monday: Extended Happy Hour Drinks until 7:30pmTuesday: Half off bottles of wineWednesday: Wine down with all house wine poursfor $5 all day
Thursday: Happy Hour at Heaton’s Reef from 6pm-close
Friday: Mr. Motown in the Cobalt Lounge,Curtis Hill at 7pm
Saturday: Live music at Heaton’s Reeffrom 1pm-4pm
Sunday: Bloody Mary Bar from 10am-2pm
Don’t Forget About Our Daily Happenings As Well
Join us in the Wave Kitchen & BarChristmas Eve Dinner 5:30-10pm or Christmas Day BuPet 11am-3pm
Ring in the New Year at Costa d’Este Beach Resort
2 people 0 excuses 1 night 2 cherishChoose the party that is right for you:
Poolside Party with Bobby & the Blisters & DJ Swingsation 7pm - 3am,Dinner Show with Jennifer Patty 8pm, Five Course Pre- Fixe Dinner 7pm & 9pm
Take the Elevator Home New Year’s Packages
3244 Ocean Drive I Vero Beach 32963 I costadeste.com I 772.410.0100
WEDNESDAY is GIRLS NITE OUTBuy One Get One – Ladies 2ndGlass of Wine or Beer is FREE
$10 OFF Your Gift CertiZcatePurchase of $100Please come by Tangos
after 4 pm Tuesday-SaturdayOffer good with coupon until 12/14/11
3001 Ocean Drive, beachside Veroacross from Humiston Park
(772)231-5553Reservations suggested for three or moreServing dinner Tues. thru Sat., from 5:30 pm
See our NEW menu at www.tangosvero.com
Connie Webb, Linda Sims, Betsy Craum, Roni Fuster and Ernestine Williams
Barry & Betsy Craun with Jackie & Commisioner Bob Solari
Mel & Linda Teetz wth Amy & Lt. Col. Keith Brace
Cuisines of Vero
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22 Community CalendarEvery Friday: Farmer’s Market
from 3-6 pm in downtown Vero at the corner of 14th Ave. & 21st St. 772-480-8353.
Every Saturday: Oceanside Business Association’s Farmer’s Market, 8 am-noon. Ocean Dr. & Dahlia Ln. www.VeroBeachOBA.com, 772-532-2455.
Nov 24: Treasure Coast Turkey Trot Against Hunger, 5K run to ben-efit Harvest Food & Outreach, Riv-erside Park. Register at 6:30 am; ad-vance reserve at trotagainsthunger.org or Runner’s Depot, 436 21st St., 772-569-7364.
Nov 24: Skate Your Turkey Off, Skate Factory, 485 27th Ave. SW, 7-9:30 pm, free entry, pay for skate rental, bring nonperishable item for free slushy. 772-794-3373, skatefactory.us
Nov 25: Downtown Mainstreet Christmas, 3:30-8:30 pm, 14th Ave., Black Friday shopping, music and Santa. 772-480-8353, [email protected].
Nov 25: Red Kettle Kick Off Cel-ebration at Christmas in Downtown, 5:30-8:30 pm, by Salvation Army. 772-978-0265.
Nov 26: Vero Beach Book Cent-er Holiday Open House, pictures with Santa, 2145 Indian River Blvd., 11 am-1 pm. 772-569-2050,theverobeachbookcenter.com.
Nov 26: Nutcracker Ballet at VBHS Performing Arts Center, 1707 16th Ave., 2 & 7 pm, $8-$20, Vero Classi-cal Ballet, 772-360-8577 or 772-564-5537. VeroClassicalBallet.com.
Nov 26 & 27: Art for Animals by Humane Society, 6230 77th St., art show to benefit shelter animals. 10-5 Saturday and 10-4 on Sunday, free admission. 772-388-3331.
Nov 29: Jason Vieaux Classical Guitar Concert, 6 pm Reception, 7
pm performance at ie Plaza, 884 17th St., $25-$50. Plumbago Volun-teer Services & the Abilities Resource Center. 772-257-8193.
Nov 30: Jeff Ashton Book Signing, “Imperfect Justice, Prosecuting Ca-sey Anthony” Vero Beach Book Cent-er, 2145 Indian River Blvd., 772-569-2050. theverobeachbookcenter.com
Dec 2: First Friday Downtown Gallery Art Stroll, art galleries and businesses open house receptions all through downtown. Free event, call 772-562-5525 or 772-299-1234 for info.
Dec 2: Christmas Boat Parade on the Intracoastal, 6:30 pm. Viewing stations at Vero Beach Marina and Royal Palm Pointe.
Dec 2: Tara Plantation Night of Lights, Christmas tour, wine tasting and food plus silent auction for Exchange Club. Park at Central Assembly, 6767 20th St., 7-10:30 pm, $50. Public tours Dec 13, 15, 19, 20 & 22. 772-569-0000.
Dec 2: Royal Palm Pointe Tree Lighting Celebration, 5:30 pm, en-tertainment by Vero Classical Ballet, Glendale Elem. & more, tree lighting 6:15 pm. City of VB Recreation Dept., 772-567-2144, covb.org.
Dec 3: Florida Cracker Christmas, Heritage Center, 2140 14th Ave., din-ner, blue grass music, silent auction, $50, Benefits Pet Medical & Blue Rib-bon Charities for pets, 772-562-1357.
Dec 3: 5th Annual Art Trail, tour of 10 artists’ studios/homes around Vero, $25, tickets at Vero Beach Art Club office, 772-231-0303 or Artist Guild Gallery, 772-299-1234. www.VeroBeachArtClub.org.
Dec 3: Vero Beach Christmas Pa-rade by Oceanside Business Associa-tion on Ocean Dr., 5:30 pm, VeroBea-chOBA.com, 772-532-7983.
Dec 3: Literary Services of IRC 40th Anniversary Luncheon, ie Moor-ings Club, speaker Martha Powers, 11:30 am-1:30 pm, $50. 772-778-2233.
Dec 3: St. Patrick’s Parade Fund-raiser Dinner Dance, 5:30 pm, Vero Beach Elks Club, 1350 26th St., $20, Reservations, 772-562-8450.
Dec 3&4: Christmas in the Park 9 am-4 pm, Crafts and gifts to buy for the holidays. Riverside Park, 3001 Riverside Park Dr., 772-336-0606.
Dec 4: “Christmas is Coming,” Academy for Performing Arts con-cert, First Baptist Church, 2206 16th Ave., 6:30 pm, bring non-perishable food item.
Dec 4: Happy Holidays at the Mu-seum, 1-4 pm, refreshments, entertain-ment and Santa at 2 pm, Vero Beach Museum of Art, 3001 Riverside Park Dr., 772-231-0707, verobeachmuseum.org.
Dec 5: Book Review by AAUW, “Kristin Lavransdatter” by Sigrid Undset, Mueller Campus, IRSC, Richardson Center, 6155 College Ln., 9:30 am, 772-532-4712, aau-wverobeach.org.
Dec 5: Harry Getzov Luncheon, au-thor of “gOLD” at Quail Valley River Club, 2345 Hwy. A1A, noon, $100, benefits Treasure Coast Community Health, 772-571-1983 or email [email protected].
Dec 8: Navy League’s Treasure Coast Council Christmas Dinner Dance at ie Heritage Center, 2140 14th Ave., social hour 5:45 pm, fol-lowed by dinner & dancing. $28 per person. 772-231-6101.
PHOTO BY FRAN LOVE
If you’d like to see one of your photographs published in Vero Beach News-weekly, please send them to us at [email protected]. Photos need to be at least 200 dpi and in jpeg format.
23Arts | EntertainmentA glimpse of the artistic life on Vero’s Art TrailSean and Sharon Sexton to open their studio to visitors
BY LISA RYMER VERO BEACH NEWSWEEKLY
One day a year, the Vero Beach Art Club sponsors a series of intimate ex-hibits at the home studios of artists re-siding in the area.
Yis year’s “Art Trail” provides art lovers with an opportunity to get an up-close and personal look at the work, life and lifestyle of a group of local artists.
Art Trail is a fundraiser that benefits the Vero Beach Art Club Scholarship Fund for graduating high school sen-iors. Yis year’s event is Saturday, Dec. 3 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Ye Art Trail will feature ten different studios where 13 featured artists work, specializing in painting, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture and photography.
Ye exhibits showcase each artist’s range of artistic expression, their eve-ryday influences, the vistas from their work place and their individual method of creation .
From the citrus and cattle lands that hem the county’s western borders to the shores of the Indian River Lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean, there is unique
terrain, foliage and fauna enough to in-spire a wide range of artists to be drawn to this locale.
Some of the artists featured at this year’s Art Trail event maintain their workspace during season, living and working elsewhere during the summer months.
Others live and work here year-round.
Sean Sexton, for instance, is the grandson of one of the area’s more fa-mous founding fathers, Waldo Sexton. He is an artist, writer, poet and cattle rancher.
His first book of poetry, “Blood Writ-ing,” published last year by Anhinga Press, “has really taken off,” said Sean’s wife, Sharon Sexton, an acclaimed painter and sculptor.
Yeir 30-year union has produced two children and as many notewor-thy careers in the arts. For the past 20 years, Sharon, 56, has been a partner at Tiger Lily Art Studio and Gallery in downtown Vero Beach. Her mosaic tile work graces the columns at Royal Palm Pointe’s fountain and her bold use of color also adorns the walls of Hospice
STAFF PHOTOS Sean Sexton holds one of his own ceramic creations. Sean Sexton is a cattle rancher, artist, writer and poet, not necessarily in that order.
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House.Sean, 57, was en route to a poetry
reading at the Miami Book Fair Inter-national last weekend, but most days, Sharon explained, he awakens early, feeds the livestock, and spends loads of time leading some cattle to greener pastures, arranging for others to go to market and constantly performing gen-eral maintenance around the farm.
cese days, however, Sean has hired part time help to assist managing the ranch and he is fiercely protective of his off-time.
Treasure Hammock Ranch, which looks a lot like the other Sexton struc-tures around town, boasts simple ar-chitectural lines and plenty of rugged driftwood. It is located just west of the mall off State Road 60.
“Before he built the house, he built a studio,” said Sharon, whose marriage is just as much about the daily responsi-bilities as the need to create art.
ce Sextons met in 1979 at a local ballet studio, according to Sharon, who hails from the Pompano/Fort Lauderd-ale area where she studied dance for 20 years.
When she met the cowboy artist, Sean, a UF graduate, needed artist’s models. But Vero Beach was so con-servative that the next best alternative was ballet dancers warming up at the barre.
Fourteen months later, Sean and Sha-ron were married.
cat’s when they moved into a single-wide trailer on their ranch land. When the babies started coming, everyone they knew was asked to save anything salvageable because the ranch that Sean envisioned would require the most unique items for ultimate build out.
cey collected marble from the first Florida National Bank branch office, French glass doors rummaged from a dumpster and a cypress log that was mistakenly milled and given to them for free.
“We’re like the original recycled house,” said Sharon, who explained they built it by hand with the help of friends.
Whatever work Sean pursues, he al-ways has a journal by his side. He has kept one for 35 years and the notebooks number around 110.
In them, he sketches ideas for paint-ings, poems, impressions, reflections, thoughts and funny anecdotes.
“He’s never without his book,” said his wife.
His work is rooted in the land he lives on, a 600-acre ranch with about 300 heads of cattle. ce substance of this life provides fodder for Sean’s work, of which he takes note in his voluminous journal collection.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
About combining art and marriage, Sharon said, “we’ve both always felt we could have it all.”
In addition to Sean and Sharon Sexton, other artists participating in this year’s Art Trail include Deborah Gooch, who works in acrylic and oil; Al Gustave, wood; Maria Sparsis, ce-ramics; Sara Shankland, jewelry; Allen Teger, photography; Barbara Krupp, acrylic; Maria Morrow, gourds; Kath-
leen Staiger, oil; Ginny Piech Street, collage, sculpture, multi-media; and Tim Sanchez, oil, acrylic, multi-media.
Tickets for this year’s Art Trail are available for $25 at the Art Club, which is located in the Vero Beach Museum of Art and at the Artist’s Guild Gallery located at 1974 14th Avenue in down-town Vero Beach.
For more information, call 231-0303 or visit www.VeroBeachArtClub.org.
Sharon and Sean Sexton will open their studio as part of the Art Club’s Art Trail on Dec. 3.
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Entertainment Calendar
I T ’ S H A P P E N I N G A T T H E
mersonCenter
1590 27th Avenue, Vero Beach(772)778-5249
www.TheEmersonCenter.org
January - April 2012
CelebratedSpeakers Series
COMMUNITY CONCERT SERIESCommunity Church1901 23rd Street772-778-1070communityconcertseries.orgJan 13: The Phantom of the Opera, Tom Trenney, organist with h lm, 7:30 pm, $25
EMERSON CENTERat the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship1590 27th Avenue 772-778-5249TheEmersonCenter.orgDec 8: “The Ashley Gang,” Florida Humanities Series, 7 pm, FreeDec 18: “A Stan Kenton Merry Christmas & Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker,” Space Coast Symphony, $20-$25/Students, Free. 2:30 pm
INDIAN RIVER SYMPHONIC ASSOCIATIONCommunity Church1901 23rd Street772-778-1070irsavero.orgJan 7: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, 7:30 pm $50 each, season tickets $260-$290
OCEANSIDE BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONBeach Concert Series on Ocean DriveVeroBeachOBA.comSecond Saturday of every monthFree concert, 5:30-8:30 pm, food & drink vendors. No coolers allowed, bring your own chair or blanket.
RIVERSIDE THEATER3250 Riverside Park Drive772-231-6990riversidetheatre.comChildren’s Theatre: Dec 3 & 4: Aristicats Kids, $8Dec 9-18: Nutcracker In Swingtime!, $12-$18 Stark Main Stage: Jan 12-Feb 5: The Full Monty, 2 pm, 7:30 pm and 8 pm, $57-$73Second Stage:Dec 9-10: Comedy Zone, Mike Siscoe and Derrick Tennant, 7:30 & 9:30 pm, $15
SPACE COAST SYMPHONYVarious Locations321-536-8580SpaceCoastSymphony.orgDec 2: “A Leroy Anderson Christmas & The Nutcracker,” Waxlax Center for the Performing Arts, 7 pm, $20Dec 18: See Emerson Center
SUNRISE THEATRE 116 South 2nd Street Fort Pierce772-461-4775sunrisetheatre.comNov 26: Comedy Corner Anna Collins, 8:30 pm, $15Nov 26: Kings of Salsa, 8 pm, $29/$35Dec 3: “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish & I’m Home for the Holidays”, 8 pm, $45/$39Dec 10: Bowzer’s Rock & Roll Holiday Party, 8 pm, $45/$65 – with meet & greetDec 17: Comedian Sinbad, 8 pm, $39Dec 21: “A Christmas Carol,” 7 pm, $39/$35Dec 27: Nutcracker by State Ballet Theatre of Russia, 7 pm, $55/$45
VERO BEACH CHORAL SOCIETYTrinity Episcopal Church2365 Pine Avenue772-569-8165verobeachchoralsociety.orgDec 9 & Dec 11: Winter 2011 Concert, “Tidings of Joy: Sounds of the Season,” at Dec 9 at 7:30 pm and Dec 11 at 3 pm
VERO BEACH MUSEUM OF ART3001 Riverside Park Drive772-231-0707verobeachmuseum.orgDec 4: Happy Holidays at the Museum, Santa, activities, refreshments, 10-4 pm, free public event
VERO BEACH OPERA verobeachopera.org772-569-6993Box Of ce: 772-564-5537verobeachopera.orgDec 3: Live at the Met: Handel’s Rodelinda, noon, Majestic Theatre, 772-770-0774Dec 10: Live at the Met: Gounod’s Foust, noon, Majestic Theatre, 772-770-0774
VERO BEACH THEATRE GUILD772-562-83002020 San Juan Avenueverobeachtheatreguild.comNov 10-27: The 1940’s Radio Hour, $20-$22,Walton Jones 1940’s backstage at a radio broadcast
SPONSORED BY
ARTS | ENTERTAINMENT
Ashley Gang to appear at Emerson Center on Dec. 8
BY BARBARA YORESHVERO BEACH NEWSWEEKLY
For more than a decade b e Ashley Gang, whose members live up and down Florida’s east coast, has per-formed a harmoniously unique brand of music which celebrates Florida’s history and natural wonders.
On bursday, Dec. 8, the Emerson Center will present through its Flori-da Humanities Series, a free perform-ance of the six-member group which features among “gang” members sing-er and award-winning songwriter Al Scortino of Sebastian.
Named for a notorious gang of Billy the Kid-like desperados who robbed banks along Florida’s southeast coast for more than 15 years back in the first decades of the 1900’s, b e Ashley Gang consists of Scortino, Paul Gar-finkel, Michelle Lowe, Norm McDon-ald, Kay Garfi nkel and Bob Bronar.
Perennial favorite performers at many Florida folk and music festivals, be Ashley Gang was voted among the top ten favorites of the folk disc jockeys at the annual North American Folk Alliance Conference. In addition to beautifully performed, acoustic music featuring vocal harmonies, b e Ashley Gang’s members enjoy a lively repartee with their audiences.
Scortino, a cabinet maker by pro-
fession who is increasingly involved with his music, said that in addition to entertaining, b e Ashley Gang hopes to enlighten and bring aware-ness to Florida’s environment.
“I think it’s what diff erentiates us,” he said. “We try to write and perform something that has a meaning to it. And we’ve been fortunate that the people we play for usually have the same mind set.”
One of his compositions, “b e River Road” recalls the barrier island’s Jun-gle Trail back when it was a veritable playground for those seeking to com-mune with nature by swimming in the peaceful waters of the Indian Riv-er Lagoon, fi shing from river banks or picnicking under the trees which “took a hundred years to grow.”
be tuneful and wistful song of re-membrance recalls what was once a nature’s paradise versus what it has become after the value of riverfront land was realized.
“If you go down there today, there’s nothing much to see. Nothing but the memories of things you used to be,” Scortino wrote of the unspoiled river of his youth.
be Emerson Center, which is handi-capped-accessible and seats more than 800, is located at 1590 27th Avenue at the corner of 16th Street in Vero Beach. For more information, call (772) 778-5249.
PHOTO SUPPLIEDThe Ashley Gang will appear Dec. 8 at the Emerson Center as part of the Florida Humanities Series
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Kemp’s footwear for frolic and fun BY LISA RYMERVERO BEACH NEWSWEEKLY
It was the kind of birthday party a girl could fall in love with… shoes, shoes and more shoes.
Kemp’s Shoe Salon and Boutique, as much a part of the beachside land-scape as Sexton Plaza and the eastern horizon celebrated its 38th anniver-sary on Ocean Drive last week.
Now located on the west side of the street facing the water, Kemp’s has set up shop… or, more like a fabulous fashion getaway, in the former Franc-es Brewster space.
Over the years, Kemp’s has man-aged to keep women in cutting edge fashion, always remembering its Florida roots when stocking the shelves, says Meg Offutt, one of the store’s current owners.
Offutt’s grandmother, Dotti Kemp, opened the first Kemp’s Shoe Salon in Boca Raton in 1959. In 1973, her daughter and Offutt’s mother, Ann Kemp Shambora started the Vero store.
\ere is also a Stuart location and an outlet store, Kemp’s Too, in Mira-cle Mile.
Like most of the veteran business owners on the beach, Offutt is hum-ble about the success of the family enterprise, hopeful that this year is better than last and excited about the future.
Nonetheless, a little snooping re-veals that Dotti Kemp was quite the pioneer when it came to shoe dis-plays in her store by color instead of by brand.
She is also the inspiration for the Jack Roger’s “Dotti” sandal, which is featured in a shoe exhibit at the Met-ropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, and is still carried at the Vero store.
“You just have to come in and feel how different our store is,” says Of-futt, of the elegant sanctuary – yes, a
Fashion
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27FASHION
sanctuary where women of all ages can find fash-ionable footwear and a host of accessories.
“Vis year, animal prints are in,” explains Offutt, as are booties, pumps and flats.
Booties, which are ankle high heels, are lighter than a boot, but more substantial than typical trop-ic wear. “It’s a good way for Florida to interpret that look,” says Offutt.
Other big sellers this winter are ballet flats and driving moccasins.
Kemp’s customers are mostly classic dressers, who trend to the conservative. However, the store does indeed have a small group of clients who re-quest very high heels. So, for them (and for all of the rest of us who see these luscious little darlings as eye candy), there are always several amazing specimens on display with stiletto and platform heels; and closed, open and peep toes.
As season begins -- and that means resort wear -- the most flattering flat and kitten-heel sandals be-come the main attraction. While it may be winter in the rest of the world, Florida represents eternal summer. And in the summer, women wear sandals.
Kemp’s Shoe Salon and Boutique3385 Ocean Drive
Vero Beach(772) 231-2772
STAFF PHOTOS Kemp’s Shoe Salon and Boutique recently celebrated 38 years on Ocean Drive
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Tangos II is a delight that doesn’t miss a beatDining
Pixie8 Years Old
Domestic LonghairFemale
Alexis7 Years Old
Domestic ShorthairFemale
Happy2 Years Old
Jack Russel Terrier MixMale
Missy6 Years Old
Domestic ShorthairFemale
Aphrodite5 Years Old
Siamese MixFemale
Chowder3 Years Old
Domestic ShorthairMale
These and other animals are available for adoption at the Humane Society of Vero Beach and Indian River Countylocated at 6230 77th Street. For directions and information call (772)388-3331
Humane Society Pets Of The Week
BY MARK JOSEPHLocated on
Ocean Drive and nestled between a gourmet choc-olate shop and boutique shoe store, you’ll find a quaint little res-taurant and bar, called Tangos ll. bough a bit small and crowded, this wonderful little
bistro has all the right moves.Chef and owner Ben Tench, who
describes his cooking style as modern American fusion, opened the original Tangos a few years back and though the current location is still in the same building, the former Tangos actually occupied a much larger space. After remodeling the restaurant to a more manageable size, Chef Tench soon reopened his restaurant as Tangos II.
Upon our arrival we were seated im-mediately and were presented with a fairly interesting wine list. We discov-ered several favorable wines by the glass, including a warm and heavy Cabernet
and a cool and crisp Pinot Grigio.As we sipped our wine, the small
room quickly began to fill and it soon became difficult to carry on even the simplest of conversations and, in fact, due to the noise level of the room, we had to continue to ask our server to repeat the nightly specials.
For appetizers, the Tuna Tostada and Fried Green Tomato quickly caught our eye and we could not resist sam-pling the Boston BLT salad as well.
All three appetizers arrived in a spec-tacular show of color, freshness and out-standing flavors. be Tuna Tostado and pesto was so artfully arranged on the plate and the fish so fresh and flavorful, that I was sad to see the last bite of this wonderful creation leave my plate.
Fried Green Tomatoes may have been a book, a play and a movie, but this popular southern favorite that was served with a lively tomatillo sauce, could have easily earned an Oscar for best supporting dish.
be Boston BLT was a delicious blend of beautiful ripe tomatoes, ten-der bib lettuce, crisp, crumbled ba-con and co-starring chunks of tangy Gorgonzola cheese. Far from simple,
this wedge salad was outstanding.For our entrees, we chose two of
the featured specials of the evening: Fresh-caught Cobia and equally fresh Yellow-Eyed Snapper.
be Cobia was served with a side of unusual red spiced mashed potatoes, the perfect accompaniment for this mild and flakey fish. Together with gently sautéed vegetables, this delectable dish was even more enhanced by a light cream sauce.
be broiled Yellow-Eye Snapper was equally fresh and delicious; the delicate fish was moist and perfectly cooked and paired with fluffy mashed potatoes, tender vegetables and gar-nished with capers.
be finale was a show-stopper: A warm apple empanada with tender but crisp caramelized apples baked in a flaky puff pastry with a scoop of super rich ice cream. be dessert was a very happy ending to an outstanding meal.
Dinner before tip: Approximately $100
Wine Selection: $65
Tangos llContemporary American CuisineRestaurant with full bar and wine
3001 Ocean Dr.,Vero Beach, FL 32963772-231-5533
Hours:Tuesday through Saturday, 5:30-10:30
Close Sunday and Monday
Reservations suggested. All Major Credit Cards
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Freshmen help high-scoring VBHS girls’ soccer to fast startBY MICHAEL BIELECKI
For the second year in a row, Vero Beach High School girls’ soccer has started their season 3-0-1. Coming off of an epic state finals appearance which saw them fall in a double-overtime heartbreaker to Oviedo, the Fighting Indians are currently ranked second in the state in spite of losing all-state striker Lauriell Young and all-area midfielder Jackie Metz to gradu-ation.
Sixth-year coach Jose Gibert had the unenviable task of replacing Young’s 32 goals and Metz’s 16 assists going into this year, but so far he’s done it -- with big contributions from his fresh-men.
“We’ve got three freshmen who are playing at a very high level for us,” Gib-ert said. “We’ve got McKenzie Kirby who has good speed and has a great leg. We’ve also got Alana Hockenhull at striker, our leading scorer, who has played Olympic Development Pro-gram soccer. Finally, there is Ashley Calcagno, who has been an incredible midfielder.
“I never thought I would be able to replace Jackie Metz, but Ashley as a freshman is just extremely impres-sive. Between her and Alana I feel like I haven’t missed a beat.”
Hockenhull’s 10 goals and Calcag-no’s 9 assists have effectively replaced the offense provided by Young and Metz from a year ago. In Vero Beach’s 2-2 tie game against senior-heavy Spruce Creek, it was Hockenhull who came up big with an assist and the game-tying goal. Fellow freshman McKenzie Kirby scored Vero Beach’s other goal that game.
“It feels great being the leading scor-er,” Hockenhull said. “Playing in the Indian River Soccer Association since I was 4-years-old has helped me out at the high school level, especially with my dad as my coach. I played with Ashley on the state team and I grew up with McKenzie, so I already knew
a few of my teammates before playing with them on the high school team.”
Balancing out these freshman are four talented senior captains—Kath-leen Keenan (five goals), Destiny Kelly (two shutouts in goal), Sarah Keville (one goal, two assists) and Alex Kuh.
“My seniors are phenomenal—they are all great leaders,” Gibert said.
Keville, an all-area selection a year ago as a midfielder, is one of the many weapons Gibert has at his disposal.
“We have the best all-around qual-ity of girls we’ve had since I’ve been here. It is amazing how far we can go if we keep it up,” Keville said. “Spruce Creek was a game we could have eas-ily won had we played well all game. I think us coming back in the second half of that shows how much charac-ter we have. I’m definitely looking for-ward to playing number-one ranked American Heritage next month at the Citrus Bowl. It will be a great indi-cator of how we’re going to do in the playoffs. It was hard to imagine all of this my freshman year when went like 8-8 or something ridiculous.”
“As long as you believe it’s not im-possible,” Gibert added. “We have four seniors who start, and they all com-mitted. `ey tell the young girls that they want to go back. “
PHOTOS BY MIKE BIELECKIFreshman Alana Hockenhull is leading Vero Beach in scoring
The team is o@ to a promising 3-0-1 start to the season along with a No. 2 state ranking
Sports
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Curtain closes on eventful fall sports season at VBHSBY MICHAEL BIELECKIVERO BEACH NEWSWEEKLY
be fall sports season at Vero Beach High School was one of transition and guarded expectations. With Lenny Jankowski bringing a new brand of football to the school, predictions for the new seasons ranged from three wins to a district championship.
It ended with a first-round play-off loss to East Lake High School. Jankowski would also be named the school’s new athletic director in late October after Tim barp relinquished that title and took that same role at South Fork High School.
be boys’ golf team didn’t have any seniors, but the buzz was that they were the most talented group of ball strikers to ever come through the golf program. Volleyball had a mix of tal-ented youth and senior leadership, so expectations were as high as ever coming off a 20-3 season.
Footballbe Fighting Indians finished the
season second in their district, and with a 9-2 record. bey were stopped in the first round of the playoffs at East Lake High School in Tarpon Springs, losing 41-22 when they were unable to answer three consecutive second-half touchdowns by the home team.
Several seniors led the way for the football team this year on offense. Playing in first-year head coach Jankowski’s pass-happy spread of-fense, quarterback Nick Madden set new school records for yards (over 2,400) and touchdowns with 27 -- all while throwing just two interceptions. Top receiving target Charlie Miller had over 1,000 yards receiving with 10 total touchdowns, with Rakeem Marcelle and Jeremy Bell combining for about 1,000 yards receiving and 10 touchdowns. Running back Dentist Hall ran for 653 yards and nine touch-downs.
On defense, two seniors led the way for the Fighting Indians. Miami com-mit Dwayne Hoilett registered seven sacks and defensive back Charles Ivory snagged three interceptions.
Non-seniors played big roles as well, with sophomore defensive back Will Dawkins leading the team in inter-ceptions with four and starting junior cornerbacks Sean Paul and Dravious Wright combining for three intercep-tions (and several bone-jarring tack-les). Junior linebacker Cole Ripple led the Fighting Indians in tackles this year, racking up just over 100.
Golfbe boys’ team made it to the state
FILE PHOTOPayton Taylor of the Vero Beach High School golf team which competed in the state championship tournament this fall.
tournament, where it tied for sev-enth, 25 strokes back of state champs Bradenton-Lakewood Ranch at the Mission Inn Resort and Club. Fresh-man Jake Leffew tied for 17th with a two-day score of 156, just three strokes behind the state’s top-finishing fresh-man, Davenport-Ride Community’s Sam Horsfield (ninth overall).
Junior Fredrik Gustafsson shot back-to-back scores of 80 to finish at 160, sophomore Payton Taylor shot
164, and freshmen Bradley Wonka and Nick Cammarene carded 166 and 187 respectively.
Lone girls’ state qualifier Kendall Hedgecock finished tied for 50th with a score of 176.
Swimmingbe boys’ and girls’ teams had up
and down years, with the boys man-aging to reach the 3A state meet. be girls’ season ended at regionals, where they placed 8th.
be boys’ 36th-place finish at the state meet featured Colin Mackay’s 12th-place finish in the 100 freestyle.
Cross CountryVero Beach finished third in region-
als, earning a second-straight state meet berth. be girls’ team, com-posed mainly of freshmen and sopho-mores, did not qualify for the state meet this year after finishing ninth at regionals.
Matt Salis finished fifth with a time of 16:53.20, with teammates Austin Wade (17:27.10), Keith De-mons (17:35.40) and Jordan Kutner (17:39.50) finishing 20th, 21st and 22nd respectively. Michael McKently came in 38th with a time of 18:27.20.
Anna Ahrens (21:14.30) came in 20th for the girls, just five spots away from qualifying for the state meet.
VolleyballCoach Sarah Eckert’s 23-4 volley-
ball team ended their season with a straight-sets loss to Winter Park (18-10), 25-16, 25-15, and 25-14 in the Re-gion 2-8A quarterfinals at home. be team lost three of its final five matches this year, but only loses four players to graduation. With 10 players returning next year, the team will make another strong run at a trip to the state finals.
Bowlingbe boys’ and girls’ teams finished
ninth and 10th respectively in dis-tricts, and needed to finish fourth or better to advance to regionals. Season highlights included Garrett Sleeman’s 253 game and 592 series against South Fork for the boys, to go with Saman-tha Clock’s 145 game and 415 series for the girls.
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THE STORY BEYOND OUR
When you combine the readership of the Press Journal and our weekly publication, the Vero Beach Newsweekly, your advertising message has unparalleled reach among the people who live, work and shop within the Greater Vero Beach community. Simply put, we reach more adults than any other print combination.
THE POWER OF TWO:
READERSHIP FACTS:• Nine out of ten adults residing both in Indian River County and zip code 32963 read the
Indian River Press Journal either in print or online each week.
• The number of Indian River County adults reading the Press Journal, in print or online each week, grew by 3% (or 2,400 more adults) since last year.
• The Vero Beach Newsweekly reaches every home on the barrier island, plus communities such as Vero Isles, River Wind, Oak Harbor, Grand Harbor, Vero Beach Country Club, Indian River Country Club, Pointe West and Bent Pine.
Source: Scarborough Research, 2011.
TO ADVERTISE, CALL US TODAY AT (772) 562-2315.
Pair up with our publications for apowerful advertising campaign!
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Brian SimpsonBrian Lee Simpson, 41, died Nov.
17, 2011, at his home. He was born in Canton, Ohio, and lived in Vero Beach for 20 years. He was a graduate of Hoover High School, North Can-ton, Ohio, and attended West Vir-ginia University, Morgantown, W.Va. He was an outside sales representa-tive for Central Window Co. in Vero Beach for more than 12 years. He was a member of the Coastal Conserva-tion Association.
Survivors include his wife of 19 years, Kristen J. Simpson of Vero Beach; son, Scott Simpson of Vero Beach; daughter, Samantha Simp-son of Vero Beach; mother, Betty Simpson-Graham of Vero Beach; brother, Robert Simpson of Delray Beach; sisters, Stacia Jones of San Clemente, Calif., and Susan Haller of Vero Beach. Memorial contribu-tions may be made to the Simpson Children Fund at Gould, Cooksey, Fennel, 979 Beachland Blvd., Vero Beach, FL 32963. A guestbook is available at www.strunkfuneral-home.com.
Peter FidgeonPeter Matthew Fidgeon, 54, died
Nov. 10, 2011, at Indian River Medi-cal Center in Vero Beach. He was born in Cherry Point, N.C., and lived in Vero Beach for 28 years, coming from Oregon. He was a government maintenance worker and belonged to the Teamsters Local 769. He was a member of St. John of the Cross Catholic Church.
Survivors include his wife of 31 years, Maureen Fidgeon of Vero Beach; sons, Flynn Fidgeon, Peter Fidgeon and Lyle Fidgeon, all of Vero Beach; brother, Tom Fidgeon of Palm Bay; sisters, Kathleen Fidgeon of Sebastian, Colleen Fidgeon of Hur-ricane, Utah, and Grace Isshiki of Tampa; stepmother, Lien Fidgeon of Sebastian; and stepfather, Vic Brower of Mesquite, Nev. A guest book may be signed at www.seawindsfh.com/obituaries.php.
Theodore Hakimgeodore William Hakim, 79,
died Nov. 14, 2011 at VNA Hos-pice House in Vero Beach. He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and moved to Vero Beach in 2001, coming from St. Mary’s County in Mary-land. He volunteered with the Vero Beach geater Guild both on and offstage. He was a member of the NRA, the American Legion and the Medical Center Auxiliary. Survivors include his son, Bruce Hakim of East Grand Rapids, Mich.; daughter, Carla O’Brien of Round Hill, Va.; partner, Phyllis A. Taylor; and six grandchildren. A guest book may be signed at www.coxgifford-seawinds.com.
Barbara K. MerrillBarbara K. Merrill, 93, died Nov.
15, 2011, at the VNA Hospice House, Vero Beach. She was born in Port-land, Maine, and lived in Vero Beach, coming from Sebago Lake, Maine. Survivors include her daughter, Bet-sy Nelsen of Vero Beach; sons, Scott Merrill of Long Beach, Calif., and Bill Merrill and Craig Merrill, both of Vero Beach; sister, Nancy Moore of Green Valley, Ariz.; brother, Ches-ter Knowles of Scarboro, Maine; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. A guestbook is avail-able at www.coxgiffordseawinds.com.
John Fisk RaynoldsJohn Fisk Raynolds, died at his
home in Vero Beach on Nov. 11, 2011. He was 82. Raynolds served as CEO of Outward Bound USA during the 1980s, the organization’s most significant period of growth. During his ten years as CEO, Out-ward Bound’s enrollment increased from 7,000 to over 30,000 students per year. A lifelong mountaineer, Mr. Raynolds was a member of the American Alpine Club and the Ex-plorers Club. He was the 2009 recip-ient of the Bicentennial Medal from Williams College for distinguished
achievement in experiential educa-tion.
Mr. Raynolds is survived by his wife Eileen Blaker Raynolds; three children from his previous marriage, William Raynolds, Virginia Raynolds Stark, and Helen Raynolds Griffith; two stepchildren, Kelley McCabe Ruff and Linda Weiss; and six grand-children. Memorials preferred to Visiting Nurse Association & Hos-pice Foundation, 1110 35th Lane, Vero Beach, FL 32960 or Outward Bound USA,100 Mystery PT RD, Garrison, NY 10524 c/o Raynolds Memorial Fund. An online guest-book is available at www.strunk fu-neralhome.com.
John T. TrodglenJohn T. Trodglen, 89, died Nov. 15,
2011, at VNA Hospice House, Vero Beach. He was born in Daviess Coun-ty, Ky., and lived in Vero Beach. He served in the Military Police in the Army Air Force, stationed in West Palm Beach during World War II. He was CEO of Trodglen Paving Inc., Vero Beach, until his retirement. He was a member of St. Helen Catholic Church, Vero Beach. He was com-missioned as a Kentucky Colonel by the governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Survivors include his children, Melvin Trodglen of Cynthiana, Ind., John A. Trodglen of Hender-son, Ky., Sharon Pollard of Carmi, Ill., Judy DiMauro of Port St. Lucie and Carolyn Wenzel, Paul Trodg-len, Susan Painter, Ralph Trodglen, Mary Knief and Nancy Nichols, all of Vero Beach; stepchildren, Rob-ert Schoeneman of Ocoee, Rich-ard Schoeneman of Bainbridge, Ga., and Linda Hulse of Talbotton, Ga.; 36 grandchildren; 48 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild. Memorial contribu-tions may be made to VNA Hospice and Foundation, 1110 35th Lane, Vero Beach, FL 32960. A guestbook is available at www.lowtherfuneral-home.com.
John ConditJohn Gilbert Condit, 63, died Nov.
12, 2011, at Sebastian River Medi-cal Center in Sebastian. He was born in Philadelphia and lived in Indian River County for 31 years, coming from Fort Lauderdale. He received his bachelor’s degree from Kentucky Wesleyan and his associate degree in nursing from Broward College. He was a member of Christ Church in Vero Beach. He worked as a regis-tered nurse for Grove Place Surgery Center in Vero Beach.
He is survived by his wife, Linda Condit of Sebastian; son, Mark Con-dit of Atlanta; daughters, Jessica Con-dit of Madison, Ga., and Hope Condit and Marah Condit both of Atlanta, Ga.; and sister, Jane Condit Rice of Cumming, Ga. Memorial contribu-tions may be made to the Young Life of Greater Athens, P.O. Box 1641, Athens, GA 30606. A guestbook is available at www.lowtherfuneral-home.com.
Sebastian C. ArenaSebastian C. Arena, 79, died Nov.
15, 2011, at Indian River Medical Center, Vero Beach. He was born in Stamford, Conn., and lived in Vero Beach for 23 years, coming from Stamford. He also lived in Naugatuck, Conn. He was an Air Force staff ser-geant veteran. He was a communi-cant of St. John of the Cross Catholic Church in Vero Beach and a mem-ber of Vero Beach Elks Lodge and the Italian-American War Veterans. Survivors include his wife of 56 years, Jean M. Arena of Vero Beach; daugh-ters, Joyce Rosito, Barbara “Bobbie” Jean Cahill, Carol-Lynn Arena and Sharon Palmer, all of Connecticut; 10 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren. A guestbook is avail-able at www.lowtherfuneralhome.com.
Michael P. HalkMichael P. Halk, 54, died Nov.
14, 2011, at his home. He was born in Queens, N.Y., and lived in Vero
Obituaries
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Beach for 12 years, coming from Somers, N.Y. He was employed by Winn-Dixie in Vero Beach. Survi-vors include his daughter, Brianna Halk of Wappinger Falls, N.Y.; fa-ther and stepmother, Joseph and Madeline Halk Sr. of Vero Beach; and brothers, Joseph Halk Jr. and Thomas Halk, both of Vero Beach, Richard Halk of Somers, Timothy Halk of Brewster, N.Y., and Peter Halk of Newburg, N.Y. Memorial contributions may be made to Vis-iting Nurse Association & Hospice Foundation, 1110 35th Lane, Vero Beach, FL 32960. A guestbook is available at www.strunkfuneral-home.com.
Alice Mae RawlinsonAlice Mae Rawlinson, 75, died
Nov. 11, 2011, at her home. She was born in Montgomery, Ala., and lived in Vero Beach for more than 25 years. She joined the Church of Christ in Vero Beach under the leadership of Brother Timothy Bra-dley. Survivors include her hus-band, Algie Rawlinson of Prattville, Ala.; daughters, Sarah Massey and Romona Hurst, both of Vero Beach; sisters, Claudia Williams of Mont-gomery, Johnnie Lee Roberts of Vero Beach, Jackie Hall and Dem-pry Haley of Lownesboro, Ala., Ro-sie Mason of Whitehall, Ala., Eliza-beth Roberts and Mary Davis of Boston; brothers, Monroe Roberts and Albert Roberts of Montgomery and James Roberts of Fort Walton Beach; 19 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren. A guestbook is available at www.thornesmortu-ary.com.
Robert Duncan Jr.Robert D. Duncan Jr., 68, died Nov.
17, 2011, at VNA Hospice House, Vero Beach. He was born in Cor-pus Christi, Texas. Before his retire-ment he worked for Piper Aircraft for 25 years. He was a member of First Baptist Church of Vero Beach. Survivors include his sons, Robert D. Duncan III of Cocoa Beach and Travis Duncan of Orlando; stepson, Robert Jackson of Vero Beach; step-
daughter, Faith Huffman of Orla, Texas; sister, Robin Paulos of Seal Cove, Maine; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. Memo-rial contributions may be made to the VNA Hospice Foundation, 1110 35th Lane, Vero Beach, FL 32960. A guestbook is available at www.coxgif-fordseawinds.com.
Helen FewsmithHelen G. Fewsmith, 92, died Nov.
28, 2011, at Indian River Medical Center, Vero Beach. She was born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and moved to Vero Beach from Shaker Heights 29 years ago. She was a graduate of Wellesley College. She was an edito-rial researcher for Time magazine in New York City for two years. She was a member of ce Country Club of Cleveland, and ce Moor-ings Club and Hawk’s Nest, both of Vero Beach. She served as president of the Cleveland Wellesley Alum-nae Club and was a member of the Community Church, Vero Beach. Survivors include her son, Joseph Fewsmith III of Cohasset, Mass.; daughter, Virginia F. McBride of Cli-max, Ga.; four grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to the Vero Beach Museum of Art, 3001 Riverside Park Drive, Vero Beach, FL 32963. A guestbook is available at www.aycock-hillcrest.com.
Thomas Thompsoncomas S. compson, 93, died
Nov. 15, 2011, at Indian River Medi-cal Center. He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and lived in Vero Beach for 20 years, coming from Darien, Conn. A veteran of World War II, he served in the Army Air Force, attaining the rank of captain. He was a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Business School. He was senior vice president of ce General Foods Corp. Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Nathalie B. compson of Vero Beach; son, Todd compson of Southbury, Conn.; daughters, In-grid Morsman of Bryn Mawr, Pa., and Kristin Patterson of Fairview, Pa.; sister, Ingrid Andersen of Rich-
mond, Vt.; 10 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to the Visiting Nurse Association and Hos-pice Foundation, 1110 35th Lane, Vero Beach, FL 32960. A guestbook is available at www.strunkfuneral-home.com.
Arthur Mayer ColinArthur Mayer Colin, 71, died Nov.
17, 2011, at VNA Hospice House, Vero Beach. He was born in Brook-lyn, N.Y., and moved to Sebastian 14 years ago, coming from Long Island, N.Y. He was a pharmacist, a Mason and former Cub Scout. Survivors include his wife of 28 years, Patricia Colin of Sebastian; daughter, Elizabeth Ross of Tampa; sons, Harley Colin and Robert Co-lin, both of Jacksonville; sisters, Mu-riel Baker of Vero Beach and Norma Colin of Tamarac; and three grand children. A guestbook is available at www.seawindsfh.com/obituaries.php.
Frank ChaBn HilsonFrank Chaffin Hilson, 72, died
Nov. 15, 2011, at his home. He was born in Miami and moved to Sebas-tian 10 years ago from Fort Lauder-dale. He owned a BMW and Nis-san dealership in Fort Lauderdale. Survivors include his wife, Joyce Hilson of Sebastian; children, Frank Hilson III and Jeffrey Hilson, both of Houston, Kimberlee Marshall of Boynton Beach and Kristina Rizk of Boca Raton; stepchildren, Brandi Deuterman and Robert Deuter-man, both of Cocoa Beach; sister, Helen Miller; and nine grandchil-dren. Memorial contributions may be made to VNA Hospice Founda-tion, 1110 35th Lane, Vero Beach, FL 32960. A guestbook is available at www.seawindsfh.com/obituaries.php.
Pamela KearnsPamela Jean Kearns, 52, died
Nov. 12, 2011, at VNA Hospice House. She was born in Hollywood and lived in Indian River County since 1988, coming from her birth-
place. She was a paralegal in Hol-lywood. She was a member of the Calvary Baptist Church of Sebas-tian and an Alpha Net Associate. Survivors include her husband, Dar-ryl Howarth of Sebastian; daughter, Caitlyn Howarth of Sebastian; sons, Michael Eddie of Micco, James R. Eddie of Colorado and John J. Vick-ers II of Vero Lake Estates; sister, Kim Stuckey of Gainesville; mother and stepfather, Lorraine and George Williamson of Detroit; and seven grandchildren. Memorial contribu-tions may be made to the Indian Riv-er County VNA Hospice, 1110 35th Lane, Vero Beach, FL 32960. A guest book may be signed at www.lowther-funeralhome.com.
Virginia StockerVirginia M. Stocker, 90, died Nov.
13, 2011, at Sebastian River Medical Center. She was born in Philadelphia, Pa., and moved to Sebastian 25 years ago, coming from Pompano Beach. Before retirement, she was a pot-tery teacher as well as a member of the Museum of Art in Vero Beach. Survivors include her daughters, Susan I. Davis of Vero Beach, Jill V. Stocker of Sebastian, and Judy S. Jones of Roseland; sisters, Charlotte Blizzard of Barrington, N.J., and Nancy Mortimer of St. Augustine; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. A guest book may be signed at www.seawindsfh.com/obituaries.php.
Arthur Mayer Colin Arthur Mayer Colin, 71, died Nov.
17, 2011, at VNA Hospice House, Vero Beach. He was born in Brook-lyn, N.Y., and moved to Sebastian 14 years ago, coming from Long Island, N.Y. He was a pharmacist, a Mason and former Cub Scout. Survivors include his wife of 28 years, Patricia Colin of Sebastian; daughter, Eliza-beth Ross of Tampa; sons, Harley Colin and Robert Colin, both of Jack-sonville; sisters, Muriel Baker of Vero Beach and Norma Colin of Tamarac; and three grandchildren. A guest-book is available at www.seawindsfh.com/obituaries.php.
OBITUARIES
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34 Real EstateBarrier Island Real Estate Sales – November 10-November 16
2040 Club Dr. Riomar8/12/2008$1,300,000 11/15/2011$1,065,000 Dale Sorensen Real Estate Inc.Steven Zeuner Alex MacWilliamCharlotte Terry
2614 Cardinal Dr. The Village 9/6/2011 $575,00011/15/2011 $520,000Dale Sorensen Real Estate Inc.Elizabeth Sorensen Phoenix Acquisitions, Inc.Elaine Amy
Mainland Real Estate Sales – November 10-November 16
Address Subdivision List Date List Price Sell Date Sell Price Listing Broker/Agent Selling Broker/Agent 6407 53rd Cir. Cobblestone 6/1/2011 $214,900 11/10/2011 $210,000 RE/MAX Crown Realty/Laura Petersen NMLS/NMLS Agent
Address Subdivision List Date List Price Sell Date Sell Price Listing Broker/Agent Selling Broker/Agent 2160 Via Fuentes River Mews Condo 4/6/2011 $200,000 11/15/2011 $175,000 The Moorings Realty Sales Co./Erika Ross The Moorings Realty Sales Co./Judy Hargarten
To advertise call Martine Fecteau at 772-696-2004Mark Schumann at 772-696-5233
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13LOCAL NEWS
BY IAN LOVEVERO BEACH NEWSWEEKLY
VERO BEACH -- Neighbors have been gathering since last week to console family members and remem-ber Brian Simpson as a devoted hus-band, doting father and dear friend.
Simpson, 41, was shot when he stumbled upon a robbery at his home on the 600 block of Fiddlewood Road. Police said Simpson returned home and encountered burglars in his residence. A neighbor heard a loud noise and called 911. Officers went to Simpson’s home and found him dead from gunfire.
Interim Vero Beach Police Chief David Currey said the shooting death of Simpson was the city’s first homicide on the barrier island in 13 years.
Neighbor Kristine Klose used her Facebook page to remember the first time she met her friend at a Fourth of July barbecue on Fiddlewood.
“At the barbecue Brian was the fun dad,” she wrote. “He gave all the kids sparklers and the children were so excited ... Brian made a huge deal about them feeling important. He was not just there with his own kids, but all the kids.”
Hundreds turned out for a vigil last Sunday at Jaycee Park to remember Simpson. He leaves behind his wife of 19 years, Kristen, and a son and daughter.
Kristen Simpson’s parents, Nancy and Rowland Judge, told the Press Journal their daughter and Brian
Simpson were high school sweet-hearts in Ohio. She enrolled in West Virginia University one year ahead of her future husband, who followed her to the school. Together, they were stars on the university swim team.
“dey never had a honeymoon,”
Nancy Judge said. “dis was their honeymoon, just living here. dey loved it.”
de couple became scuba divers and Brian, an avid fisherman and boater, hunted lobsters for the din-ner table every season.
Police have identified two men they are calling persons of interest in the case after eye witnesses placed them in the area around the time of the shooting.
de two black men are described as being in their early- to mid-20s. One of the men had dreadlocks tied in a knot at the back of his head, police said. de other had a short-cropped hair style.
Currey said business leaders and other residents have put together a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the homicide. Anyone with information about the homicide should call Treasure Coast CrimeStoppers at 800-273-TIPS (8477) or leave the tip at www.tc-watch.org.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Simpson Children Fund at Gould, Cooksey, Fennel, 979 Beachland Blvd., Vero Beach, FL 32963.
Neighborhood left trying to make sense of senseless tragedy
Persons of Interest
STAFF PHOTOS Kristen Simpson is consoled by friend Brian Connelly at a Jaycee Park vigil for her husband.
Hundreds of people showed up to remember Brian Simpson, who was shot and killed during a home burglary.
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Community Forum
Vero Beach Newsweekly is distributed throughout Vero Beach and the barrier island.
Visit us on the web at www.VeroBeachNewsweekly.com
LETTERS WELCOMEVero Beach Newsweekly invites you to send Letters to the Editor on topics of interest pertaining to Indian River Coun-ty. Letters should be 250-300 words and may be edited for length. We encourage an open dialogue, but reserve the right to refuse publication of letters that do not meet our editorial standards.
E-mails may be sent to [email protected] or by regular mail to Letter to the Editor, Vero Beach Newsweekly, 1801 U.S. 1, Vero Beach, FL 32960.
Former Vero Beach Police Chief Don Dappen and his new boss, City Manager Jim O’Connor, wound up not seeing eye-to-eye, so Dappen was asked to retire. He will cash out with a check for $76,000 compensat-ing him for unused sick leave and vacation time. Dap-pen will also receive health insurance benefi ts and a monthly pension payment of nearly $9,000.
Wough famous for coddling its employees, not even the United States Postal Service hands retiring workers a one-time payment for unused vacation and sick leave. Rather, the value of these accrued days off is rolled into their vested retirement account.
How the City of Vero Beach can aff ord benefi ts more generous that those off ered to federal postal employees is beyond reason. In fact, if the city is going to make do without the $6 million annual “al-lowance” it has been getting from its electric utility, city leaders are going to have to take off their rose colored glasses and face the new economic realities the rest of us are deal with every day.
Not to single out Vero Beach, municipal govern-ments throughout Florida and across the country are challenged to satisfy their constituents’ de-mands that they do more with less. Despite declin-ing revenues, local governments are being asked to maintain services such as parks and recreation, public works and police and fi re protection.
While one former city councilman argued that gov-ernments should be run like a government and not like a business, the reality is that there is much lead-ers and managers in government can learn from their counterparts in business. Day in and day out, private
sector leaders must fi nd was of doing more with less. Unable to rack up defi cits, or to fund shortfalls
with the less expensive credit available to local governments, businesses have no choice but to ex-ercise near-ruthless cost control, while channeling equal, if not more eff ort into increasing revenues.
While controlling costs and maximizing income opportunities are both keys to success in business, another trademark of prosperous enterprises is that they are constantly striving for greater effi ciencies.
Skeptical of government’s ability to spend a dollar wisely, taxpayers are largely unwilling to support tax increases. What is left for government to do is to wake up, and wise up, and stop spending money foolishly.
We days are gone when local governments can af-ford to off er their employees generous benefi ts that have long since disappeared from the private sector. For example, fi nd a business today that allows its employees to accrue unused sick leave and vacation pay year after year after year, without restriction.
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29
Freshmen help high-scoring VBHS girls’ soccer to fast startBY MICHAEL BIELECKI
For the second year in a row, Vero Beach High School girls’ soccer has started their season 3-0-1. Coming off of an epic state finals appearance which saw them fall in a double-overtime heartbreaker to Oviedo, the Fighting Indians are currently ranked second in the state in spite of losing all-state striker Lauriell Young and all-area midfielder Jackie Metz to gradu-ation.
Sixth-year coach Jose Gibert had the unenviable task of replacing Young’s 32 goals and Metz’s 16 assists going into this year, but so far he’s done it -- with big contributions from his fresh-men.
“We’ve got three freshmen who are playing at a very high level for us,” Gib-ert said. “We’ve got McKenzie Kirby who has good speed and has a great leg. We’ve also got Alana Hockenhull at striker, our leading scorer, who has played Olympic Development Pro-gram soccer. Finally, there is Ashley Calcagno, who has been an incredible midfielder.
“I never thought I would be able to replace Jackie Metz, but Ashley as a freshman is just extremely impres-sive. Between her and Alana I feel like I haven’t missed a beat.”
Hockenhull’s 10 goals and Calcag-no’s 9 assists have effectively replaced the offense provided by Young and Metz from a year ago. In Vero Beach’s 2-2 tie game against senior-heavy Spruce Creek, it was Hockenhull who came up big with an assist and the game-tying goal. Fellow freshman McKenzie Kirby scored Vero Beach’s other goal that game.
“It feels great being the leading scor-er,” Hockenhull said. “Playing in the Indian River Soccer Association since I was 4-years-old has helped me out at the high school level, especially with my dad as my coach. I played with Ashley on the state team and I grew up with McKenzie, so I already knew
a few of my teammates before playing with them on the high school team.”
Balancing out these freshman are four talented senior captains—Kath-leen Keenan (five goals), Destiny Kelly (two shutouts in goal), Sarah Keville (one goal, two assists) and Alex Kuh.
“My seniors are phenomenal—they are all great leaders,” Gibert said.
Keville, an all-area selection a year ago as a midfielder, is one of the many weapons Gibert has at his disposal.
“We have the best all-around qual-ity of girls we’ve had since I’ve been here. It is amazing how far we can go if we keep it up,” Keville said. “Spruce Creek was a game we could have eas-ily won had we played well all game. I think us coming back in the second half of that shows how much charac-ter we have. I’m definitely looking for-ward to playing number-one ranked American Heritage next month at the Citrus Bowl. It will be a great indi-cator of how we’re going to do in the playoffs. It was hard to imagine all of this my freshman year when went like 8-8 or something ridiculous.”
“As long as you believe it’s not im-possible,” Gibert added. “We have four seniors who start, and they all com-mitted. `ey tell the young girls that they want to go back. “
PHOTOS BY MIKE BIELECKIFreshman Alana Hockenhull is leading Vero Beach in scoring
The team is o@ to a promising 3-0-1 start to the season along with a No. 2 state ranking
