For a time, the future of the Sandpiper Resort, 4500 SE Pine Valley St. in southeast Port St. Lucie, seemed uncertain: from Club Med abandoning the 216-acre historic property in late 2022 to a prolonged series of acquisitions. Rest easy: The resort has new life due to a $50 million restoration still in progress since 2025, bringing modern luxury to a vaunted destination along the St. Lucie River. The All-Inclusive Sandpiper Resort, now minted under the voco brand – a subsidiary of hospitality conglomerate InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) – has slowly begun reopening since Jan. 7. The Sandpiper resort’s soft

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Chris Dzadovsky will be sworn in on Monday at Fort Pierce City Hall after narrowly winning the run-off election for a City Commission post against Jaimebeth Galinis. District 2 voters went to the polls on Jan. 13 in a special election to fill the seat vacated by former City Commissioner James Taylor after his arrest and resignation in July 2025. Dzadovsky will serve the balance of Taylor’s four-year term. Dzadovsky and Galinis moved forward after none of the original three candidates garnered over 50 percent of the vote in November. The third candidate was Donna Benton. Although Dzadovsky is not

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A pay-to-park program that was expected to go into effect late last year at three popular parks is likely to not happen at all, according to officials’ comments at the end of a Fort Pierce City Commission meeting earlier this month. The plan to charge for parking at Jetty Park on Seaway Drive, Jaycee Park on South Ocean Drive, and South Causeway Park on S A1A and South Bridge was not a welcome one for residents who are used to free parking at the locations, but it was deemed necessary to raise much-needed funds for maintenance in the area. “The

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Port St. Lucie will complete several park projects this year, including a long-anticipated trail throughout its Southeast communities, starting next month. The Westmoreland Boulevard Wilderness Trail will enter a $2.77 million construction cycle starting in early February, wrote city spokesperson Scott Samples in a Jan. 26 email. A Jan. 12 city release said construction would begin by the end of January. A $500,000 Florida Department of Environmental Protection Recreational Trails grant will help the city pay off the remainder of funding from their $869.9 million budget for this fiscal year. The 10-foot-wide concrete “multimodal” trail, Samples wrote, will span approximately

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A novel form of influenza – referred to by some as “superflu” – was cause for concern as it spread throughout Florida over the holidays. But St. Lucie County has, so far, avoided major outbreaks of this novel flu – Influenza A H3N2, subclade K – despite it becoming the most prominent flu strain in the state, according to the Florida Department of Health. FDOH noted in their flu surveillance reports St. Lucie – like many other Florida counties – observed “increasing” trends of flu infection throughout December. The FDOH office representing St. Lucie and Okeechobee counties did not give

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Brightline’s November revenue and ridership report started out on a cheery note with a series of highlights about its performance during the month, noting that ridership was up 14 percent, year over year, to 280,136, while revenue climbed 18 percent. But the upbeat statements sound like whistling past the graveyard when you look deeper in the report, where the company reports that it “has been in discussions for the potential incurrence of up to $100 million of additional debt,” on top of the $5.5 billion it already owes, to keep its trains running. It also says it expects to use

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David M. Smith will be sworn in as Fort Pierce’s new police chief on Feb. 2 after his after his contract was unanimously approved on Monday by the City Commission. “That’s the date that Fort Pierce turns 125,” said Mayor Linda Hudson. “Happy Birthday, Fort Pierce.” The contract was approved with an initial term of three years and a $190,000 annual salary. The contract provisions are budgeted within the 2026 budget. Smith will be provided with a “take-home” vehicle, allocated 80 hours of vacation and 40 hours of sick leave at the time of his hire date. “This is a

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Fresh into 2026, Krista McCoy, Ph.D., walks past crowds of tourists enjoying demonstrations of aquatic life at the Florida Oceanographic Society facility in Stuart, where she has worked as its director of research and conservation since September 2024. Her years of research documented how the Indian River Lagoon fell prey to a bevy of toxins – from effluent leaked by aging septic systems to pesticides carried downstream from farmland – that influenced algal blooms and mass mortalities. Today, however, her work carries a glimmer of hope on the genetic level that she and other researchers could use to produce hardier

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Almost 200 people attended a celebratory ribbon-cutting ceremony last Friday at the new Fort Pierce Utilities Authority (FPUA) Water Reclamation and Reuse Facility on Energy Lane. “Almost three years after our groundbreaking event on this land, we are so proud and grateful to be hosting this ribbon-cutting event commemorating completion of our wastewater treatment plant that will serve Fort Pierce for generations,” said event emcee Rachel Tennant, J.D., FPUA director of public affairs and sustainability. “This morning, we celebrate completion of Phase 1,” she said, adding that Phase 2 construction would continue that same afternoon. Phase 1 of the project

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The future of approximately 1,200 acres located on the east side of Minute Maid Road in unincorpo-rated St. Lucie County is currently unknown. Will it be the site of a massive data center? Slated for Sentinel Grove Technology Park, a proposed data center – which extends approximately 2,600 feet north of Orange Avenue on a former citrus grove – would include almost 15 million square feet of 60-foot-tall buildings. The St. Lucie County Planning and Zoning Commission, at its Oct. 16 meeting, rejected in a 4-to-2 vote a proposed future land use map amendment to change from Agricultural-5 to Special

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