Fort Pierce News from Fort Pierce, Florida • 25

Fort Pierce UNews Friday June 25 1999 fV V- A TREE LEGEND CcMMDtfNAttt Namt ttttArtmwr wesMjmnu UGomKMtNWU tem VV jimhmmmm tottttlCMMGNOUS Ow-f" Ada Coats Williams I I rsarttJi i 'V 'Vf 3- A- Hff Courtny of City of Fort Morao drawing of proposed Glidden Park and Memorial Tree Garden City considering memorial tree park By Draw Dixon of the News stall trees Selling all the plaques would generate $37000 Beach said proceeds from plaque sales' would go into the city's general fund Amy Mott acting urban forester for the city said she is also looking into alternative funding sources for the project going to start looking up Mott said going to try to replace the cost as much as Wells said the point of the project is not only to help the city but provide solace to residents think it will be a big improvement to some city-owned property and it will be a comfort to some citizens who would like to memorialize a loved Wells said tree garden for three years Monday night the Commission said it could continue if money can be found for the project in next budget Betty Lou Wells chairwoman of the Tree Board said the act was the right step in the right direction project really grabbed the Tree Board and took on a life of Wells said during a presentation to the commission the first time in the Tree 10-year existence that come to you for The money would be used to buy 74 trees 10 benches brick paving and other additions for the park The Tree Board will sell 74 plaques at $500 each for anyone wishing to memorialize a loved one under the FORT PIERCE City officials are moving closer to providing roots for a park for persons who want the memory of a loved one to live on under a canopy of trees The Gty Commission on Monday directed City Manager Dennis Beach and staff to investigate ways to allocate $80000 in the next fiscal year to establish what will be known as Glidden Park and Memorial Tree Garden The tree garden would be on city-owned land bordered by South 10th Street South Ninth Street and Park Way The land was donated to the city in 1950 by the family of Dr GH Glidden The Gty Tree Board has been discussing a memorial port dates back to early Our beautiful lagoon called the Indian River since the first Spanish explorations originally had only two natural inlets to the Atlantic Oceaif on its entire 150-mile length One was just a short distance north of our town at a site now known as Pepper Park The pioneer fishermen wanted an inlet from the ocean closer to Dock and the Fort Pierce fish houses They hired Green Coats my uncle who owned the livery stable to use his mules and scrapers to cut an inlet for their boats at a narrow place on Hutchinson Island When the great land boom hit Florida in the 1920s St Lucie County was in the midst of it Developers and speculators poured into town and joined with local citizens in bidding and buying One parcel of land would change hands eight or 10 times a day It was during this time of superficial prosperity that Fred McMullen president of the bank at Fort Pierce organized the Fort Pierce Finance and Construction Co for the purpose of developing a port at Fort Pierce McMullen was dedicated to the future of St Lucie County and felt certain that all investors would gain greatly from the venture The inlet was considered inadequate for the port The new Finance and Construction organization had well-known pioneer names to handle its business: McMullen was president Ellwyn Thomas who later was a Florida Supreme Court justice was secretary PG Eldred Lynn Carlton Edgar Lewis and AN Hoofnagle were members of the board This group was incorporated in 1921 and joined with the Fort Pierce Inlet District in carrying out the port project Stock was sold by the organization and many townspeople invested heavily paying between $20 and S33 a share: A large tract of land was purchased on the waterfront The company agreed to cut an inlet across the island directly opposite the waterfront property: The jetties were built first and the Fort Pierce Inlet District ordered that the channel be cut 18 to 22 feet deepL On May 8 1921 the Tusscavilla a dredge of the Seaboard Dredging Co in Jacksonville started from the river side and cut a channel across the island to connect the river with the ocean On May 9 the tide broke through and finished the job A toll bridge was built from-the mainland to Fort Pierce Beach This involved digging out the fill from the area that would be used as a ship channel which made what is known today as the Causeway Island In 1925 a casino was built on the beach to stimulate use of the toll bridge: The casino was a two-story building with a few rest rooms and showers to change swim suits and a snack bar downstairs with a large room upstairs where card games and dances could be held By 1927 the land boom had collapsed and beach lots along with all Florida real estate were impossible to sell The Finance and Construction Co had borrowed heavily from the bank for this expensive project McMullen president of both the bank and construction company together with Carlton and other stockholders had put vast amount of port stock up as collateral for the loans They had believed so strongly in the port development and the good it would do for the area that no sacrifice seemed too great a risk for it With the burst of the land boom these persons lost so heavily that many of them never recovered financially But the day was to come to prove their far-sightedness to be correct: Their dreams became a reality though sadly not in the lifetimes of some Edwin Binney head of the Binney Crayola Co had discovered this area coming often in his yacht Binney had invested in citrus and he invested heavily in the Finance and Construction Co in 1925 He Please see OUR TOWN on C5 Students free to choose with adult education program By Jill Barton of the New staff then when I did I really Rhoden said The lithium she takes to control her disorder led to some learning disabilities After a 12-montn break from her studies Rhoden found she had difficulty reading and retaining information makes it real difficult if you have to read something and then take a test on she said all of my teachers from the high school program were very encouraging A lot of- them knew my story and if I was slipping they got me back on College officials say they work to create a comfortable and accepting environment for students allowing them to work at their own pace and take classes at dozens of locations in the four-county area In addition to the five campuses storefront churches sheriffs offices community centers and elementary schools open their River Community College she decided to give it a try More than 13000 Treasure Coast adults hoping to earn their high school diploma or GED have done the same this year signing on to take advantage of the Free program at IRCG Some students are just a few credits shy of their diploma or need only a couple of weeks to prepare for their GED Others start in reading labs for students with below fourth-grade reading levels or if they have no experience with the English language enroll in beginner English as a Second Language courses This past school year the adult education program produced more high school graduates than any school on the Treasure Coast More than 550 students of all ages earned the honor to wear caps and gowns at a graduation ceremony last week and Rhoden says she was determined to be one of them go back for a year and FORT PIERCE For many teens the social and academic pressures of high school often feel unbearable A nervous breakdown two years into her high school career and a diagnosis of manic depression only cemented that belief for Jenifer Rhoden many people knew too much about me and I just face said Rhoden now 18 became too hard to go to school but I knew I had to finish high school you go anywhere in this world without a high school After leaving Port St Lucie High at 16 Rhoden spent months working to control her disorder and mulling over her future Returning to the school she left an option so when her high school counselor suggested an adult education program at Indian -rt' '--AC s- photogrspfcsr IAN FHTCH Jennifer Rhoden a staff member at the Robert Minsky Gymnasium In Port SL Lucie plays basketball with Eddie Keyes 15 of Port SL Lucie at the gym last Friday 1 STUDENTS on CS Plea By Draw Dixon ol tiw Nawa staff Fort Pierce committee formed to assure accurate census avert Fenn former St Lucie County and Fort Pierce City commissioner has also joined the committee in 1989-90 when census takers came into the area I was thinking that we were really going to thoroughly get a count of thepeople in our Fenn said did not happen follow up to get all the information they should Fenn added would like for those kind of things to be reported to the Fenn speculated that minorities were grossly undercounted in 1990 and that many homes with several people in them were counted as one resident Fenn said he believes Fort Pierce was undercounted by as many as 25000 people Harry Pawlak local office manager for the US Census Bureau for the area from Jacksonville to Fort Pierce agrees that Fort Pierce was undercountcd community is concerned about Please see CENSUS on C2 FORT PIERCE A 10-person Complete Count Committee is now in place to make sure that Fort Pierce is not undercounted in next census The panel was formed after several complaints that the dty was undercounted by as many as 20000 people in the 1990 census which tallyed 36830 people in Fort Pierce: US Census Bureau officials have been urging cities to form Complete Count Committees to oversee the count Anne Satterlee administrative assistant to the Fort Pierce city manager Dennis Beach started sending letters to prominent community members in an effort to form the committee in the last two months all wanted to said Saterlee who will act as a coordinator between the committee and the Census Bureau think we got a good cross-section and we can add to it if some people are 7 Jose Encamadon Department of LaborMgrart Housing to Fort Pierce k' Mac Hamltan ftrt Pierce Ufflties Authority Janie Hellstram of Lawnwood Regional Medteal Center Tamara Pardo Florida Rural Legal Services office in Fort Pierce Lisa CNeM SL Lucie County chapter of the League of Women Voters I Cnartie Frank Matthews SL Lude County Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The Rev Howard Coleman Mount dive The first meeting of the committee will be at 2 pm July 1 in the third-floor conference room of Gty Hall The meetings are open to the public Satterlee said Liu president of the St Lucie County chapter of the League of Women Voters and one of the committee members said serving on the committee is a chance to Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Pierce Reagan Ellis Neighborhood Housing Services in Fort Pierce Jean Almas a talk-show host discussing Haitian issues on radio station WIRA 1400 AM Havert Coach Fenn former SL Lude County and Fort Pierce commissioner Coordinator between the committee and the US Census Bureau is Anne Satterlee administrative assistant to the Fort Pierce city manager For more information call Satterlee al 460-2200 extension 308 help bring appropriate government grants to Fort Pierce: Qualifications for many federal grants are based on census figures an accurate census count gets us funding O'Neill said league has been active beyond voter information We'd be a good group to help spread awareness of (the census count).