St. Lucie County’s four hospitals have experienced an abundance of activity recently, a healthy mix of new construction, additions to already existing spaces, and updated equipment and services. And plans for future renovations are already in the works. At HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce, the final beam for new floor was placed on Friday above the newest tower. The floor will house a 32-bed addition that is scheduled to open during the first quarter of next year. Also coming next year: a recently approved five-story parking garage, which will be built on an existing surface parking lot at

Read more

The state of Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia paid a visit to St. Lucie County last week, and his message to the community was … you’ve been ripped off. According to Ingoglia, St. Lucie has wastefully spent more than $46 million of taxpayer money. Earlier this year, he told the City of Fort Pierce that $10.5 million was overspent and wasted. “Government is expanding because they can, not because they need to,” said Ingoglia. “They continue to cry the same thing: poor, poor, poor. “I made it my mission to advocate for taxpayers. Taxpayers are the ones who get

Read more

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers laid down the first sands of another nourishment project, the third since 2022, at Jetty Park last week. A mile of shoreline between the Fort Pierce Inlet and South Beach Park is receiving an influx of nearly 400,000 cubic yards of sand. The Army Corps maintains access to the approximate 0.2-mile length of rock jutting into the Atlantic as construction progresses there through September, records show. By Easter weekend, earth movers from Manson Construction working around-the-clock covered 8-to-10-foot escarpments in new mounds that hid the emaciation the beach had suffered throughout 2025. The approximate

Read more

St. Lucie County closed one park and the boat ramp of another last month to make repairs and renovations as summer approaches. Harbour Pointe Park, near Avenue M between Fisherman’s Wharf and Taylor Creek, closed March 23, and the boat ramp at White City Park, 2018 W. Midway Road, closed March 30, county releases say. Harbour Pointe Park closed March 23 to build out new access roads beyond a single unkempt dirt road. A new entrance will be built near the end of N. 2nd Street “to streamline the traffic flow,” to move the park past its “primitive” status, the

Read more

Another St. Lucie Mets season is upon us, and the fan experience promises to be a whole new ballgame at Clover Park in St. Lucie West. “We are excited to begin our 38th season of baseball in the Treasure Coast community,” said Adam MacDonald, the Mets’ senior manager of multimedia, ahead of the Mets’ scheduled home opener April 7 against the Dunedin Blue Jays. “Clover Park is a wonderful place to bring the family and experience the game of baseball in a fun and affordable environment. Throughout the season we will have promotions and nights that will tailor to all

Read more

Welcomed showers continued to pelt St. Lucie recently as the county recovers from severe drought brought on by the February cold. Record rainfall of 1.28 inches fell on the county March 29 and 0.2 inches fell April 3, according to the National Weather Service. These totals arrived in between readings that rarely rose above 0.5 inches the weeks of March 22-April 4. The CoCoRaHS volunteer weather monitoring service reported similar peaks centered around White City and Tradition. Three readouts between these sites took in anywhere between 1.34 to 1.81 inches of rain, according to the CoCoRaHS website. Smaller peaks descended

Read more

A contractor with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began closing Fort Pierce beaches on a “revised” schedule to address erosion there in recent months, according to a March 19 county release. Manson Construction, the contractor, cut off access to Jetty Park and South Beach on South Hutchinson Island between March 21-27 as a new beach nutrition project begins. The Army Corps, through Manson, intends to “place roughly 400,000 cubic yards of sand” throughout “one mile of shoreline immediately south of the Fort Pierce Inlet,” the release said. Manson would begin adding sand to the beach starting March 24. Manson

Read more

The 2025-26 winter proved daunting for Florida’s citrus industry in both the field and laboratory. Obstacles, both natural and administrative, beset scientists looking to restore thousands of acres of citrus groves waylaid throughout the state. They included the ongoing greening epidemic, now in its third decade; the historic February freeze, which left soils in dire need of water; and the 43-day federal shutdown last October through November, which squelched government-backed lab research. Discoveries unveiled at the 2026 Florida Citrus Show, however, revealed positive steps toward reversing these fortunes: from greater fruit yields to more promising methods in combating invasive diseases

Read more

Port St. Lucie has a renewed sense of purpose in building and maximizing its city-owned green spaces. A 2.4-acre patch of trees in the Whispering Pines community served as the pilot for what some public land managed by the Naturally PSL program could look like in the coming years. The plat – encircled by SW Hiawatha Street; SW Homeland Road; and SW Lovell Terrace – had, for decades, remained a dormant habitat as new homes were built nearby. Around 20 city workers and volunteers met there the morning of March 21 for two purposes: to plan another park, and to

Read more

The Port St. Lucie Governmental Finance Corporation (GFC) authorized two land sales at their March meeting, leaving just 22 acres in the 1,200-acre Southern Grove Jobs Corridor unaccounted for. “We are near achieving full completion of the implementation of the Southern Grove Master Plan,” said Jennifer Davis, director of the PSL Community Redevelopment Agency. “It’s amazing that we only have 20 acres left,” said Vice Mayor Jolien Caraballo, expressing surprise at how quickly full completion has been achieved. One land sale was to Costco and the other to Tambone Companies, LLC, which acquired 7.36 acres at the northeast corner of

Read more