Recent U.S. Department of Agriculture studies show strides toward the development of cit-rus trees resistant to a disease plaguing groves throughout St. Lucie and Florida since the mid-2000s. Researchers at the USDA Horticultural Research Laboratory in Fort Pierce published studies last year that have lent further insight into breeding groves that can withstand Greening, a bacterial disease afflicting citrus crops first discovered around 2005. The Hort Lab developed at least “two citrus cultivars with tolerance to” Huanglongbing (HLB), the insect-borne bacterium responsible for Greening, research director Dr. Scott Ad-kins wrote in a Jan. 29 email. According to Adkins, these two

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Wider lanes and a roundabout are in store for Bayshore Boulevard, an arterial pathway connecting east-central residents with St. Lucie West and major roads. Port St. Lucie expects to widen 1.3 miles of Bayshore between Selvitz Road and Prima Vista Boulevard starting the next fiscal year, according to a presentation given at a Jan. 28 public meeting. The construction comes with a price tag of $35 million to be funded by next year’s city budget. The city also reported 60 percent completion on designing this segment of Bayshore as of Jan. 28. Bids for a contractor are expected to be

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The #IAMPSL Citizen Summit, now in its fourth edition, continued to offer Port St. Lucie residents a platform to discuss changes to the growing city on Feb. 7. Hundreds once again flocked to the city’s Community Center, 2195 SE Airoso Blvd., as Port St. Lucie staff hailed past successes and future prospects. Much of the summit paid tribute to the city being honored by the National Civic League as one of their 10 “All-America City” winners last year. According to the National Civic League website, Port St. Lucie joined cities including Tallahassee and Seattle in recognition of “exceptional civic capital

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Before children learned to swipe, they learned to climb. Before screens filled their afternoons, backyards, sidewalks and empty lots did. Today, however, childhood has increasingly moved indoors, and the shift is taking a serious toll. With the rise of high-tech gadgets, children are spending more time inside and less time playing outdoors. Over the past 17 years, children’s health in the United States has steadily declined as screen time has increased, contributing to higher rates of obesity, anxiety and chronic disease. What’s more – and often overlooked – is that replacing outdoor play with indoor screen time doesn’t just affect

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Black History Month turns 100 this year as St. Lucie County pays tribute to its leading figures. St. Lucie marked Black History Month in 2026 with “Beyond the Canvas,” a limited-run, all-ages exhibit open Feb. 9-28 at the Havert L. Fenn Center, 200 Virginia Ave., Fort Pierce. The exhibit will be open each day for the next three weeks from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to a Feb. 6 St. Lucie release. “Beyond the Canvas,” the release said, is a joint effort between the county’s Parks & Recreation staff, the St. Lucie County Regional History Center, and county libraries.

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began work to repair approximately 3.3 miles of South Hutchinson Island shorelines Jan. 22 in continuing efforts to stave off coastal erosion. Contractors from Manson Construction Co. started dredging sand dunes along Dollman Beach, 9200 South Ocean Drive/State Road A1A, in a $14.7 million, six-month project fully funded by the Army Corps. The beach has been intermittently closed to visitors since Jan. 5 and will continue facing closures from now until the project’s completion, slated for Jun. 30, county releases circulated since Dec. 18 say. Like other projects to restore county beaches, the Dollman

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The term “ticket scalping” conjures up images of seedy-looking characters hanging out near sports arenas in big cities offering tickets to supposedly sold-out games at inflated prices, trying to make quick cash deals away from the prying eyes of stadium security and police. But ticket scalping today has moved upscale and gone high-tech. In recent months, the phenomenon has gotten out of hand at Riverside Theatre and other Treasure Coast artistic venues. The shifty characters lurking in the shadows outside the theater or arena have been replaced by IT professionals operating from far away who are well versed in the

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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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