VB32963_ISSUE7_021816_OPT

Vero police to provide alerts
on utility problems. P4
Vero electric
confab a bust. P6
Jay McLaughlin shares

history of his iconic brand. P10

For breaking news visit

MY VERO Plea by charter schools for
more funds nixed by Rendell
BY RAY MCNULTY
BY SAMANTHA ROHLFING BAITA to cover the repairs and reno-
Jeb still leading in Vero Staff Writer vations to our facilities,” Ren-
campaign contributions dell told Vero Beach 32963.
While School Superinten-
There's no denying that The five charter schools say
Donald Trump and his bluster dent Mark Rendell is cred- they are being starved of funds
have changed the tone, focus for capital improvements that
and, to a larger extent, rules ited with greatly improving they believe should be coming
of the 2016 Republican presi- from the school district, with
dential primary season. relations between the School the shortfall affecting every-
thing from class size to teacher
Nationally, he is driving the District and the county’s five retention as they juggle bud-
conversation. But what about gets to find money for campus
here? It's tough to tell. charter schools in his first year repairs and improvements.

Certainly, there's no way to in the top job, he says the char- “We continue to work with
gauge Trump's local populari- the charter schools on this
ty using the amount of money ters are not going to get the ad- matter,” said Rendell. But as of
contributed to his campaign last week, the charter schools
by local donors – because, at ditional funds they are seeking planned to go before the Cir-
least through the primaries, cuit Court or to Tallahassee
he's self-funding his run. for capital improvements. seeking relief from what they
consider the District’s inequi-
According to the Federal “We don’t have any addition- table distribution of funds.
Election Commission, Trump's
campaign received zero dollars al money to share, as our capi- “We remain hopeful we can
from our community in 2015. come to an agreement before
Long-time Norris co-owners Jane Schwiering and Gena Grove. PHOTO BY PHIL SUNKEL tal dollars are already needed that happens,” said Indian Riv-
"Certainly, Trump has er Charter High School Board
changed the equation," said Norris & Company sold to Berkshire Hathaway chairman Gene Waddell.
Tom Lockwood, executive
board chairman of the Indian BY LISA ZAHNER wealthiest men, Warren Buf- Realty, the Florida franchi- CONTINUED ON PAGE 9
River County Republican Club. Staff Writer fett, to Vero Beach. see of the national real estate
"I've been to a few events with company that bears Buffett’s
Norris & Company, a major Long-time co-owners Gena prestigious global brand.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 player in the barrier island Grove and Jane Schwiering
luxury real estate market for announced last week that they The acquisition of Norris
45 years, is bringing the im- were selling their real estate now gives the Florida broker-
primatur of one of the world’s brokerage to Berkshire Ha- age, which is owned by the
thaway HomeServices Florida
CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

Ice Age archaeological excavation Moorings purchase of
finally resumes at Vero Man site Hawk’s Nest looking
like a huge success

BY MICHELLE GENZ The month-long delay in Jennifer Wolfgram clears topsoil from the canvas at excavation site. PHOTO BY PHIL SUNKEL BY RAY MCNULTY
Staff Writer start-up wasn’t an issue of Staff Writer
the ground being too wet,
After one of the rainiest but whether the ink was The full impact of The Moor-
Januarys on record, the Ice dry enough on a new agree- ings Yacht & Country Club's
Age archaeological excavation ment with Florida Atlantic $2.5 million acquisition of
known as theVero Man site has University. Hawk's Nest Golf Club might
resumed for its third season. not be known for years, but the
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

February 18, 2016 Volume 9, Issue 7 Newsstand Price $1.00 Great turnout for
Windsor Charity
News 1-10 Faith 78 Pets 77 TO ADVERTISE CALL Polo Cup. Page 28
Arts 33-42 Games 55-57 Real Estate 81-96 772-559-4187
Books 52-53 Health 59-64 St Ed’s 54
Dining 70 Insight 43-58 Style 65-69 FOR CIRCULATION
Editorial 50 People 12-32 Wine 71 CALL 772-226-7925

© 2016 Vero Beach 32963 Media LLC. All rights reserved.

2 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

Vero Man excavation cut its collaboration with the Vero Man some details being worked out about who previously haven’t given a thought
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 project from its budget. the legal chain of command.” to the canal along the road’s southern
side, the vast white tent and the flurry
“It wasn’t weather. We just didn’t Fortunately, the two key scientists Public tours will resume March of activity have become something of
have our ducks in a row,” said Randy involved in the project have been hired 1 at the site, considered one of the a roadside attraction, drawing hun-
Old, who chairs the committee help- by FAU. James Adovasio is a promi- most important archaeological finds dreds to participate in a new trend in
ing to fund the dig. nent scholar in basketry and textiles in North American history. It was re- such research: community archaeol-
who was the director of the Mercy- vealed more than a century ago when ogy.
The agreement replaces an arrange- hurst Archaeological Institute. Andy a drainage canal was dug and exposed
ment with Pennsylvania’s Mercyhurst Hemmings, who earned a doctorate at late Pleistocene-era plant matter, ani- The management of the project is
University, established when the exca- the University of Florida, is known for mal bones, artifacts and, most aston- under the direction of Megan Davis,
vation off Airport Road began in 2014. his work on Paleoindian sites and has ishingly, human remains. Those re- an FAU research professor who is in-
Last summer, in the midst of finan- worked extensively on digs in Florida. mains became known collectively as terim director of Harbor Branch. “The
cial issues, the university underwent Vero Man. But they were never able to university is really thrilled to be able
a shift in priorities, and its renowned “We have a new memorandum of be studied with the care and intensity to help with the discovery,” says Davis.
archaeology department was forced to understanding between ourselves and of today’s dig. “What gets me so excited is seeing the
FAU and it’s still in the process of be- community participate.”
ing finalized,” said Old. “There are just For commuters on Airport Road,
So far the Vero Man effort has mus-
tered 800 volunteers, Old said.

The digs, which typically start in Jan-
uary and run until May, cost around
$600,000. The Vero group shared those
costs with Mercyhurst, but still owes
from prior years. Old said they have
worked out a confidential exit agree-
ment to pay off the balance

Artifacts found in prior years are
now in the hands of FAU. Meanwhile,
fund-raising for the dig continues,
with a passionate group of volunteers
being a key source of backing. On Feb.
29, a $200-a-seat gala at Quail Valley
will add to the committee’s coffers.

Then in early April, the site will get
a boost in name recognition when an
anticipated 200 archaeologists will
tour the dig as a field trip from the an-
nual meeting of the Society for Ameri-
can Archaeology, taking place this year
in Orlando.

“This is a big deal for us,” Old says.
Volunteer sifters are already toil-
ing at the site, which has developed a
cult following of sorts. And 10 student
interns bunking at Harbor Branch are
here from universities as far away as
England, not just from Mercyhurst as
in prior years.
Monday afternoon, the students
were back from a one-day weekend,
on hands and knees sweeping dirt into
dustpans, removing the last remaining
protective fill placed over last year’s
excavated layer; heavy equipment re-
moved the rest.
One student named John laborious-
ly measured and tied string to posts
in the dirt, establishing a new grid to
track the finds. Hemmings was par-
ticularly pleased with the precision of
the grid: Across a 16-meter span, the
string was only a tenth of a millimeter
off. “But I just talked to Jim (Adovasio)
and he agrees John should be tossed in
the canal for that tenth of a millime-
ter,” the ever-boisterous Hemmings
hollered. The others, trudging off
with their dirt buckets, offered weary
smiles.
For their labors, the students are
getting a stipend from FAU that covers
their room and board.
That area is exactly the spot that was

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 3

NEWS

examined in previous years. It includes only clue from the excavation that hu- area of undulation – a bump – that he said Old. “We’re still in the study stag-
an area of animal bones, including the mans were present at the layer from can’t wait to get to. es. We’ve not reached any conclusions,
teeth of an Ice Age horse and a dire 13,000 years ago. but we very much hope so.”
wolf, and burned matter identified as The deepest hole is of black soil dat-
ancient oak, pine and cypress. Hem- “If the same cordage was found at ed 22,000 calendar years old. As the science of ancient DNA pro-
mings and Adovasio postulate that the 13,000, it would be a huge thing. It gresses, material from the site, should
area was once an Ice Age camp fire. would be among the oldest fiber ar- Meanwhile, materials still being it prove to be human, could even show
tifacts in the New World,” says Hem- examined at Harbor Branch’s ancient which path early humans took to
“We can’t figure out any other use mings, offering an example of the im- DNA lab under the supervision of Dr. reach this area, since it’s now generally
for it,” says Old of the burn. “It’s got to portance of the physical context of the Greg O’Corry-Crowe could possibly believed not all of the migration took
be caused by humans. It’s not caused finds. He also talks excitedly about an provide that proof. place across the Bering Strait. 
by lightning.”
“There’s nothing confirmed yet,”
While a piece of braided cordage
was found at a level from 9,000 years
ago, and a piece of stone used to make
tools was found at roughly the 11,000
year level, so far the camp fire is the

My Vero Exclusively John’s Island

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Nestled along the 7th fairway of the North Course, on an end lot creating
virtually no neighbors, is this charming 3BR/4BA residence. The expansive
Trump supporters, and he seems to lanai, off the formal living room with tray ceiling and wood burning fireplace,
have a pretty strong following. leads to a picturesque poolside terrace, beautifully landscaped and hedged
for privacy. Additional features include 3,917± GSF, cozy kitchen with
"But he's funding his own cam- breakfast area, wet bar, dining room, private master suite, 2-car garage and
paign, so it's hard to get a read on how a lush courtyard entry. 460 Sea Oak Drive : $1,525,000
much support he has here," he added.
"I'm somewhat perplexed, and I'm three championship golf courses : 17 har-tru courts : beach club : squash
sure I'm not alone." health & fitness center : pickleball : croquet : vertical equity membership

After finishing a close second to Ted 772.231.0900 : Vero Beach, FL : JohnsIslandRealEstate.com
Cruz, the junior senator from Texas, in
the Iowa caucuses, Trump easily won
the New Hampshire primary. Trump
leads the polls in South Carolina,
where the Republican primary will be
held Saturday.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and for-
mer Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, both of
whom were projected to be among the
frontrunners before Trump entered
the race, failed to crack the top three
in either of the first two states to vote.

Bush remains the local favorite,
based on FEC-reported contributions
to both his campaign and the inde-
pendent super PAC (political action
committee) supporting him.

The former governor's campaign
has raised more than $75,000 in the
Vero Beach area – about $20,000 more
than Cruz, $35,000 more than Rubio
and $42,000 more than renowned
neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

Those figures, however, pale in com-
parison to the more than $900,000 in
local contributions to the super PAC
backing Bush, RightTo Rise USA, which
has brought in historic amounts.

Four local donors to Right To Rise
USA each contributed six-figure
sums, with the biggest check written
by Peace River Citrus CEO Bill Becker,
who gave $350,000 to the super PAC.

The other big-money donors were:
Thomas Corr ($250,000), CEO and
head trader at the George E. Warren
Corp.; Neill Currie ($205,510), retired
CEO of RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd.;
and Evans Properties, a family run cit-
rus company ($100,000).

Neither of the super PACs back-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

4 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

My Vero our community – family members Vero police to provide alerts
spent winters in Vero Beach – but he in event of utility problems
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 has developed doubts about the can-
didate's passion for the presidency. BY LISA ZAHNER the official Vero Beach Police Depart-
ing Cruz (Keep The Promise) or Ru- ment account.
bio (Conservative Solutions) received After attending an April gathering Staff Writer
any money from the Vero Beach area with Bush at a Vero Beach home in O’Connor and water and sewer di-
in 2015, but the super PAC supporting April, then hosting a dinner party for It’s been a rocky few weeks for Vero rector Rob Bolton have been tasked
Carson (The 2016 Committee) took in him last summer in Nantucket, Becker Beach Utilities, with two major power by the City Council with finding a so-
$4,264, with the largest contribution – told his wife, "I'm not impressed with outages in the past week following lution to the lack of communication
$1,562 – coming from Scott Buzby. Jeb. There's no fire in his belly." hard on the heels of a two-hour outage that resulted in mass confusion dur-
with 15,000 people in the dark, a water ing the Jan. 30 outage of roughly half
The largest local donor to the Cruz He said other local Republican do- outage, and three days of system-wide Vero electric’s customers.
campaign was John Childs, the J.W. nors now share his concerns, so much boil water notices.
Childs Associates chairman and CEO, so that they're "holding back" on fur- Though updates were communicated
whose contributions totaled $27,000. ther contributions. FEC records show As city officials work on ways to bet- to local print and broadcast media, and
Bush's contributions dropped from ter get information out to the public, key school and hospital executives were
The Rubio campaign's biggest local $37,400 in the second quarter of 2015 the Vero Beach Police Department is notified directly in real time, city officials
contribution came from island resi- to $23,900 in the third quarter and to stepping in to help. realize that, with the technology avail-
dent George Kasten, who gave $5,400. $14,000 in the fourth quarter. able, utility customers expect more di-
Police Chief David Currey and his rect communication during outages.
As expected, an overwhelmingly Trump's presence and attacks staff post various alerts and press re-
large percentage of the local money against Bush have hurt, but so has the leases on social media via Facebook In the absence of any automated
donated to the campaigns and super crowded field. With 17 candidates go- and Twitter, and have built large num- city communication system to reach
PACs has come from barrier island ing to the gate last fall, the Republican bers of followers – many of them city customers about the Jan. 30 boil wa-
residents, some of whom believe the race resembled the Kentucky Derby, utility customers. ter notice, Vero enlisted the help of the
party must expand its appeal to re- where the favorite rarely wins because county and messages were sent via the
claim the Oval Office. the track gets too crowded. Since power and water outages con- county system whereby residents reg-
cern public safety, “the police depart- ister for various alerts.
"There's obviously a very clear de- The pack has been whittled to five ment is using its networks that are
sire of a majority of people in the Re- viable candidates – Trump, Cruz, already in place, as well as its email This got the precautionary boil wa-
publican Party to move away from the Bush, Rubio and Kasich – with Car- lists,” City Manager Jim O’Connor ter notice out to more people, but the
far right and get to the mainstream of son's campaign on life support. But said Monday, when a downed line on county alert resulted in much confu-
the United States," Becker said. "We there are still too many horses on Indian River Boulevard knocked out sion because Indian River County Utili-
need to get away from people who are which to place a bet. power to neighborhoods from Royal ties water customers, more than 10,000
poking each other in the eye. Palm Pointe northward to and includ- of whom get their power fromVero elec-
That's why many local donors, par- ing Indian River Medical Center. tric, were confused about whether or
"A lot of Republicans, including ticularly those who have backed Bush, not they had to boil their water.
myself, are hoping for someone who have decided to wait and see who gets Residents who are already signed up
is fiscally conservative and socially to the front of the pack with a real on a neighborhood watch list are al- They did not, since they were on the
moderate," he added. "I think that's chance to win. ready in the pipeline to receive police county water system, but Bolton said
where the party needs to be, and that's alerts on utility matters. Utility cus- “most of the calls we received were from
why you're seeing the governors start- "There's no doubt that a lot of people tomers who are on Facebook can fol- people who were not on our water sys-
ing to get some traction." are sitting back and letting the process low the Vero Beach Police Department tem. They were county customers.”
play out before they do anything more," page, and those on Twitter can follow
Ohio Gov. John Kasich finished Becker said. "Once it gets down to two “I have been in contact with the In-
second and Bush was fourth in New or three guys – probably two – then
Hampshire, where both enjoyed their you'll see more donors get back in.
best showings thus far.
"Super Tuesday ought to be very in-
Becker said he still supports Bush teresting," he added, "and by the sec-
because of his performance as Flori- ond week of March, we'll have a better
da's governor and his connection to feel for where this is all heading." 

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 5

NEWS

dian River County Emergency Opera- robocall, text and email. ity customers would need to register Florida’s public records laws, and that
tions Center (EOC) and have provided O’Connor has the authority to im- their phone number or email address City Council members would not be
the EOC with maps of our service ar- (or both) with the city in order to re- permitted to comment back and forth
eas,” O’Connor said. He added that plement low-cost solutions, but any- ceive the alerts. O’Connor reminded or engage in a conversation via social
Vero is looking into working with the thing requiring a major capital expen- city officials that anything commu- media on a city post, as doing so might
same company the county uses for its diture would need to come back to the nicated via social media or an alert open them to accusations of a Sun-
public safety and weather alerts via City Council for approval. system must be retained according to shine Law violation. 

Once the system is in place, util-

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6 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

Meeting of Vero and Shores legal teams is a bust

BY LISA ZAHNER The response: “No, it’s a keep whole May, who is Holland and Knight’s lead very cordial. But it wasn’t a negotia-
Staff Writer number derived from functionally using utilities attorney; rate consultant Terry tion, and it wasn’t meant to be.”
the Rate Impact Measure (RIM) test.” In Deason, a former member of the Flor-
No great breakthroughs occurred in other words, the huge figure would keep ida Public Service Commission; and The mission of the Shores’ team was
the electric impasse betweenVero Beach Vero “whole” by providing it with money private citizen Bob Auwaerter, who to try to verify the assumptions that
and Indian River Shores whenVero’s legal to cover its fixed costs indefinitely, even serves in an advisory capacity as the produced the $64.5 million number,
and rate-consulting team met recently though Shores customers would no lon- Shores representative on Vero’s Utili- and to find out where some of the cost
with their Shores counterparts, and the ger be served by the system. ties Commission. projections came from and what data
voluminous public records requests and they were based on. Auwaerter said all
interrogatories exchanged by the war- Wright’s memo summarized other Auwaerter, a recent retiree who as a the documents used in the meeting
ring parties just keep piling up. topics discussed at the meeting, includ- top fund manager with Vanguard re- were items already in the public record,
ing how Vero’s team came up with the searched corporations and industries and that nothing new was revealed.
The goal of the Jan. 27 meeting had expense values and assumptions re- like utilities, has taken a keen interest in
been to somehow reconcile Vero’s $64.5 garding bulk power supply costs. The May and Deason reported back to
million price tag to let the Shores exit teams also talked about the “take-and- NEWS ANALYSIS the Shores Town Council last week that
Vero’s electric system with Florida Pow- pay nature of the Stanton I, Stanton II the meeting did not provide them with
er and Light’s $13 million offer to pur- and St. Lucie II project contracts.” Those the Shores’ utility woes, spending count- any confidence the city’s $64.5 million
chase the Shores customers from Vero. are the rights Vero has to purchase pow- less hours studying the city’s contracts figure was based in reality or calculated
er from those projects, by way of its and the multitude of financial and legal according to industry standards.
That chasm has yet to be bridged, de- membership in the Florida Municipal paperwork related to the electric utility.
spite hopes expressed by Shores Mayor Power Agency electric co-op. “The information we gleaned from
Brian Barefoot before the pow-wow that He said the meeting in Wright’s Tal- the meeting actually confirms many of
the sit-down might foster progress. Wright has said Vero has “virtual lahassee office was never seen as a the initial concerns of the Town’s con-
ownership” of a fraction of those gen- trip to the bargaining table, but a fact- sultants. Despite its title, the Rate Im-
Vero’s attorney Robert Scheffel “Schef” eration assets – no real equity, but fi- finding mission. “The purpose was to pact Analysis is not an analysis of the
Wright characterized the meeting as nancial obligations to purchase power get a better understanding of where City’s rates that may result from FPL’s
“constructive and cordial” in a three-page and pay for capital needs on the proj- they were coming from. Bruce May purchase of the City’s electric system
memo to City Manager Jim O’Connor. ects until the coal and nuclear plants and Terry Deason and I presented an in the Town,” May and Deason wrote
Wright explained that one of Shores’ at- are decommissioned. This obligation alternative view, and they listened and in their five-page report.
torney Bruce May’s first questions was could last 50 years or more. took notes,” Auwaerter said. “It was
whether or not the $64.5 million figure What consultants did determine was
represented some sort of appraisal. Attending for the Shores was Bruce that many of the numbers used in the
calculations were provided by Vero city

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 7

NEWS

staff, and that the cost projections fac- PSC asking for a ruling on whether that The Moorings course will set us apart in the market-
tored in steady annual escalators in rates board of five political appointees claims place and assure the future growth and
and transfers into the city’s general fund. jurisdiction to address questions the CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 financial stability of our wonderful club."
Shores has about what happens when
“The Analysis is based on the premise an electric franchise agreement expires early returns seem to mark a major devel- Thus far, he has been proven right.
that the annual subsidy of $473,000 the and a utility like Vero no longer has per- opment on the island private club scene "In terms of membership, we are
City currently derives from customers mission to operate within the Town’s nearing our cap and closing in on
in the Town would increase each year by rights of way or on public property. More than 200 new members have 1,000 members," Gunter said in an
2.5 percent for the next 30 years. The City joined The Moorings since last spring, email. "We are continuing to sell
Representatives did not explain or at- The PSC staff recommendation in when the full-service, island-based memberships through the next few
tempt to justify the basis for the 2.5 per- that case is expected this week, and club began its pursuit of Hawk's Nest, months, however we anticipate a wait
cent escalation factor,“ the report said. the matter is scheduled to be heard on a 300-acre mainland property that list starting in the near future.
March 1 in Tallahassee. contains a 7,046-yard, Jim Fazio-de- "Since Oct. 1, membership activity
“We continue to have concerns re- signed golf course. remains strong," she added. "We have
garding the basis for the guaranteed Indian River County has taken its sold approximately 10 new member-
2.5 percent annual increase in ‘profits.’ case to the Florida Supreme Court According to Ursula Gunter, The ships and are fielding inquiries daily
To achieve this increase in profits, the and is awaiting a ruling. Meanwhile Moorings' membership and marketing from prospects."
City presumably would have to incur the Shores’ breach of contract lawsuit director, 114 of Hawk's Nest's 144 mem- A full membership includes access
additional investments and operating against the City of Vero Beach is wind- bers have become full members since to two golf courses, yacht club, tennis
costs to produce higher sales growth ing its way through the state court the purchase was finalized on Oct. 1. In club, fitness center and spa, kids zone,
and higher profits. However, these system locally, with some movement addition, more than 100 new members fine and casual dining, bridge and
costs would not be incurred for the expected over the next few months as joined prior to Aug. 1, when the club in- Mah Jongg, and club events.
Town’s benefit since the Town custom- both sides collect ammunition against creased the price of its memberships. During the summer months, in
ers would no longer be on the City’s each other and the first depositions of fact, The Moorings fully renovated
system,” May and Deason wrote. public officials and government em- The joining fee for a full member- and slightly reconfigured its Dockside
ployees and consultants are taken. ship jumped from $25,000 to $55,000 Grille, the popular, pool-side gath-
Transfers into Vero’s general fund as a result of the added value of having ering spot that offers casual dining,
are only one bone of contention as the In the case of the Shores and the a highly-rated, full-length, champion- drinks and socializing – the club's an-
legal triangle of the Shores, Vero and County, taxpayers are funding the ship-caliber golf course to supplement swer to Quail Valley's Tiki Bar.
Indian River County litigate pending mounting legal bills for these battles. the club's riverside, 4,434-yard, par-64 The improvements to Dockside and
cases in Circuit Court, at the Florida On Vero’s end, those same electric short course designed by Pete Dye. the adjoining Commodore's Room
Public Service Commission and at customers in the Shores and the un- included new carpeting, painting, fur-
the Florida Supreme Court. Like the incorporated County including South In an April letter explaining The Moor- nishings and kitchen equipment, as
Shores, the county is trying to extri- Beach are, sadly and ironically, also ings' interest in acquiring Hawk's Nest, well as a slight expansion to the bar.
cate part of its territory from Vero funding the attorneys and consultants club president Joe Vargas told members
Beach electric service. fighting to keep them as part of Vero’s that "many new, younger retirees and CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
34,000 customer system.  professionals are looking for a champi-
The Shores has filed a request with the onship long course" and "adding a long

8 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

The Moorings club, and dining and events available Norris & Company sold been courted by several other buyers.
on the island at The Moorings." CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Though the terms of the acquisition re-
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 main private, Grove said it was a cohe-
More important, though, is what luxury developer WCI Communities, sive match in cultures that solidified the
Gunter said the club also will be the acquisition of Hawk's Nest is do- 40 real estate offices throughout the deal, plus the fact that general manager
investing $1.3 million over the next ing for The Moorings. The club now state, and makes it the fifth largest Carol Prezioso will stay on in her key
five years in its new campus, which can accommodate golfers of all ages Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices af- leadership role in the Norris office.
is located at 6005 Old Dixie Highway and abilities on two of the area's most filiate in North America.
– north of Vero Beach – and has been picturesque courses. Following last week’s announce-
rebranded "Moorings at Hawk's Nest." Buffett’s parent real estate company, ment, the Ocean Drive office was
Hawk's Nest was built along the same Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices buzzing with activity. “They sent a
"In the first four months, we have sand-based ridge as Red Stick, John's based in Irvine, California, has nearly wonderful team, a transition team of
purchased a new golf-cart fleet and in- Island West, Bent Pine and the Indian 1,200 offices with more than 42,000 nine people,” Grove said.
vested in new turf equipment, includ- River Club, as well as the county-owned, agents in 47 states, and in 2014 was
ing a $70,000 fairway mower, and ma- aptly named Sandridge Golf Club. named real estate agency brand of the The team was working on integrat-
jor infrastructure improvements to the year by the Harris Poll. ing the agency’s listings and web-
clubhouse, course-maintenance opera- However, Hawk's Nest was carrying site and that of Berkshire Hathaway
tions and overall facility," Gunter said. a debt of slightly more than $2 million, After making the surprise an- HomeServices Florida Realty. “We’ll
had lost more than 100 members since nouncement last week, Grove and be co-branding in our advertising,”
Golf rounds are up 30 percent at the its pre-recession heyday and needed Schwiering emphasized that they’re Grove said, so the familiar green logo
Hawk's Nest campus and 10 percent at a long-term solution to the financial not going anywhere. By being relieved and the Norris & Company name will
The Moorings course through the first challenges confronting many stand- of the day-to-day management of the still be there to make their many re-
four months of the fiscal year, despite alone golf clubs in a shrinking industry. office, Grove said, “We get to list and peat customers feel at home.
record rainfall this season, Gunter said. sell real estate. We’re here and our
That's why Hawk's Nest members doors are always open.” In addition to expanding the agen-
"We have received a fantastic re- voted in late May to sell their 28-year- cy’s reach, the new union will position
sponse from former Hawk's Nest mem- old club to The Moorings. She added that the personal atten- the Vero office to provide a full menu
bers as well as Moorings members," tion and local knowledge clients have of corporate relocation services to
said Bob Gruber, the club's golf director. Gunter echoed Gruber's remarks come to expect will only be bolstered executives and professionals wishing
"The integration is going very smoothly, about the successful merging of for- by the Berkshire Hathaway network to settle in the area. With agents also
and members from both clubs are real- mer Hawk's Nest members with The and the new high-tech marketing keeping an eye out for prime com-
izing what a win-win this is." Moorings membership. tools and professional development mercial properties and development
now available to the 48 agents and opportunities, the widely recognized
He added: "Hawk's Nest members "Former Hawk's Nest members are brokers on the Norris team. Berkshire Hathaway brand could also
are thrilled to be able to play champi- using The Moorings Club facilities and play a role in attracting new business-
onship golf on a track they know and Moorings members are playing golf and “It’s an opportunity for us to get ad- es to the area.
love, and also have the ability to use the dining at Hawk's Nest," she said. "Mem- ditional tools for our business and for
fitness center, tennis courts, spa, yacht ber satisfaction is high and will continue marketing Vero on an international This chance to contribute to eco-
to climb as we strive towards the ulti- scale,” Schwiering said. nomic development, which renews
mate goal of excellence in all we do."  Vero’s vitality and keeps new talent
The transaction, which has been and philanthropy and culture flowing
in the works for six months, came af- into the community, Grove said, was
ter Grove and Schwiering said they’d also a factor in the partners’ decision
to agree to the acquisition.

“Norris & Company Real Estate Re-
altors are well-respected throughout
the Treasure Coast,” said Rei Mesa,
president and CEO of Berkshire Ha-
thaway HomeServices Florida Realty.
“The firm’s long standing reputation
and loyal client base speaks to the
skills and professionalism of this fine
sales team and we are proud to wel-
come them to our ‘family of services.’”

“Our Vero has been long desired,” said
Grove. “It’s a wonderful place to live and
to raise a family or to retire to.” 

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 9

NEWS

More funds for charters nixed School Superintendent Mark Rendell “For example, I found that we had two Rendell says. “Bruce has done a great
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 separate email address groups for princi- job building a positive relationship with
PHOTO BY PHIL SUNKEL pals – one labeled ‘All Principals’ and one the charters. He meets with them on a
While Florida’s charter schools are part labeled ‘All Principals – Non Charter.’ I regular basis and is able to respond to
of the public school system – and state increase the amount of capital funds eliminated the non-charter group. If any of their concerns and share infor-
statutes include detailed guidelines cov- they receive directly from the state, as anyone at the district office was sending mation with all relevant parties.”
ering how school districts must treat the that is where the decline has been.” anything to principals, it would be sent
charters – Rendell says cutbacks in the to all principals. I send out my memo ev- Dr. Martha McAdams, director (prin-
state’s capital funding of charter schools Apart from the financial issues, the ery Monday morning to all principals.” cipal) of Sebastian Charter Junior High,
is at the heart of the current problem. charters generally give Rendell high commended Rendell on his appoint-
marks for his outreach to them since Rendell also appointed assistant ment of Green. “I have known Bruce for
“The amount of capital funding they taking over as superintendent last May. superintendent of technology and ac- many years, and I think he will work well
receive directly from the state was ro- countability Bruce Green as a charter with the charter school community.”
bust for them a few years ago, but has “One of the first things I heard when school liaison.
recently declined, and I believe that I arrived was that there was a separa- North County Charter Elementary
prompted them to look for additional tion between the traditional schools “I believe this gave the position more business/finance manager Ken Miller
funding,” Rendell said. “We do already and the charter schools,” he says. “My validity, as Bruce is a member of the says, “This is the first time in my 18
share some additional funding with approach has been to include every Superintendent’s Leadership Council,” years with North County Charter that I
them from a discretionary property tax one of our schools in what we do – all can recall what feels like a genuine at-
millage. They are currently requesting under the same tent. I moved to im- tempt to work with and to communi-
a larger share of that, and this is the mediately to eliminate any divisions cate with the charter schools. I sincere-
matter being contested right now. in support or interactions. ly hope this is the beginning of a much
improved working relationship.”
“It should be noted that we are one
of only two school districts (in the Rendell says the change in charter
state), out of 67, that share any discre- school liaison “has paid big dividends,
tionary millage with charter schools,” really solidified two-way communica-
he added. In 2009-10, “the School tion.
Board shared $2 million with charters
– one of only a few in the state that “At the monthly principal meetings,
shared capital funds with charters. charter school principals participate in
the training that we offer and share best
“The state sets aside a certain practices with their colleagues.
amount of money for Charter School
Capital Funds. If I were them, I would “We recently launched a new dis-
be working with the state to try and trict-wide Professional Development
Program for teachers, and charter
schools were given the opportunity to
participate.” 

10 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

Jay McLaughlin shares the history of his iconic brand

BY JULIE TARASOVIC got there,” said McLaughlin, who with showed up in J. McLaughlin threads. ourselves. We would always add little
Correspondent his brother Kevin founded the iconic “My mother was a housewife with tweaks to our outfits that set us apart
clothing brand J. McLaughlin in New from what everyone else in high school
Two hundred people turned out last York City in the 1970s. excellent taste. She hand-sewed much was wearing.”
Wednesday night to hear retailer Jay of our clothing so at an early age she
McLaughlin give a fascinating talk at “My brother Kevin and I had no idea had us feeling special in our clothing.” McLaughlin attended Fairfield Uni-
The Moorings Club that ranged from we’d be here today. And I certainly would versity in Connecticut and then went
formative childhood events to the not be here without my wonderful wife Jay and Kevin got their first taste of on with his brother to business school
growth of his eponymous company. Joan by my side,” McLaughlin said. retail working as stock boys at a de- at New York University. “I met Joan
partment store while in high school. around that time while we worked as
“When you work so hard for so long, His parents played a crucial role as “We took our first paychecks and went lifeguards. We married in 1974.”
you don’t have a lot of time to reflect well. “I believe genetics play a part in straight to Brooks Brothers and bought
on what you’ve done and how you who you turn out to be,” McLaugh- Peal tassel loafers. It was an important While McLaughlin was renovating
lin told the audience, many of whom statement we wanted to make about homes that his father owned in Brook-
lyn, Kevin McLaughlin worked in a
boutique clothing store in Manhat-
tan. One day, said McLaughlin, “Kevin
approached me and said ‘Why don’t
we pool our resources and open up a
store?’ ”

In 1977, with no formal retail training,
the brothers began operations as Sea Is-
land Clothiers in Manhattan.

McLaughlin said they got the idea to
private label all their clothes from Paul
Stuart, an established men’s store that

McLaughlin speaks at The Moorings. PHOTO BY PHIL SUNKEL

only sold Paul Stuart products.
“We followed suit and decided to only

sell our brand. That made us a much
stronger retailer and is one of the stron-
gest attributes of J. McLaughlin today.”

In 1979, the brothers became J.
McLaughlin. “You’re probably won-
dering why it became J and not K for
Kevin,” McLaughlin said. “Very simply,
at the time we were Joan and Jay, and
Kevin and Julia (Kevin’s first wife). So
three J’s won over the one K!”

In 1999, the first store outside of the
New York area opened in Naples, Flor-
ida. It was designed by a young archi-
tect who subsequently designed every
J. McLaughlin store since then. Each
shop is different, reflecting the individ-
uality of the region, the town’s charac-
ter and architecture. By 2006, the com-
pany opened its 25th store. Today the
company has more than 100 stores in
23 states, including 21 stores in Florida.

In 2013, the McLaughlins bought the
Village Shops in Indian River shores
and began a visionary redesign of the
quaint plaza. “For the last two years we
have been trying to create this terrific
environment for shopping,” McLaugh-
lin said. 



12 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

We Care physicians and donors enjoy Mardi Gras

BY CHRISTINA TASCON
Correspondent

Sarah Mondano, Eileen O'Donnell, Tony and Gina Brooks. Noel Hoover, Shelley Stuven, Debrah Agnello, and Edwin Rojas. Louise Hubbard and Emmanuel Balkin, with Diana Stark.

Dr. Charles Eberhard and Dr. Ralph Rosato.

BY CHRISTINA TASCON Brian Greenaway and Dr. Amberly Paradoa, with Georgia and Bob Irish. PHOTOS: DENISE RITCHIE Jeannie and Dr. Dennis Saver.
Staff Writer

The Moorings Yacht & Country We Care cooperative effort between the Jammin’ Jambalaya Band in the crab, lobster and other delicious
Club was transformed last Monday the Indian River County Medical main dining room, and also tried seafood piled high on ice atop two
evening into a glittering casino for Society, Health Department and their luck at casino tables and one- mini sailboats. Additionally, wait-
the third annual Mardi Gras Cele- Hospital District. armed bandits, hoping to win big ers passed hors d’oeuvres and
bration Gala to benefit the We Care and give back to We Care. chilled cocktails, and several chef-
Foundation of Indian River. The oc- Guests were showered with fes- manned stations were strategically
casion also marked an opportunity tive Mardi Gras beads and got into A scrumptious buffet kept ev- placed about the room.
to toast the 25th anniversary of the the New Orleans spirit with the eryone more than satisfied, with a
funky jazz sounds of Mark Zauss & huge selection of shrimp, cracked CONTINUED ON PAGE 14



14 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™
2
PEOPLE 3
4
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12 Department refers me to are going 1
to be so good.”
John Moore as Master of Cer- MARDI GRAS CAPTIONS
emonies announced winners of In addition to serving as a fund-
several drawings throughout the raiser, the event provided a way to 1. Robert Hay and Elizabeth DeBaun
evening, and asked guests to be show gratitude to the many physi- 2. Dr. Hugh McCrystal, with Joan and Al
sure to thank the We Care physi- cians who donate their time to help DeCrane. 3. Dr. Mike and Lei Ann Greene, with
cians who volunteer their time to others. We Care now coordinates Sonia and Dr. Arley Peter. 4. Michele and Dr.
provide medical care to individuals its free physician services for un- Charles Mackett, Dr. Charlie and Keri Celano,
in need. Moore also acknowledged insured, indigent patients at their with Carole and Dennis Ryan. 5. Jeff Susi,
six young Florida State University new clinic located in the Gifford with Michele and Dr. Jeff Livingston. 6. Ann
medical students who are serving Health Center. More than 3,000 res- Marie McCrystal, with Dr. Bob and Pam Bisset.
as We Care interns, as well as Eliza- idents, referred through the Health
beth DeBaun, a patient recipient of Department, qualify for the pro-
the program. gram’s services each year.

“It is nice to give back,” said Dr. “We have people in Indian Riv-
Jeffrey Livingston, an ear, nose and er County that need help. No one
throat doctor. “There are patients can live a fulfilling life if they are
who do not have insurance who not feeling well. The doctors are
need our services. Some of their not just treating these patients but
issues really make life difficult for they doing it graciously, humanely
them but we can make patients' and compassionately,” said Shelley
lives better.” Stuven, executive director of the In-
dian River County Medical Society
DeBaun was one of his patients and We Care Foundation of IR.
and said We Care improved her life
in many ways. “This directly impacts extremely
financially challenged citizens in
“I was an asthmatic and Dr. Liv- the area where we need it,” said Deb-
ingston did surgery to remove pol- rah Agnello. “It is all volunteer and
yps that made breathing difficult,” almost everything is donated. These
said DeBaun. “He is one of the kind- people want no glory for themselves
est men on the inside as well as out. and help the very neediest with
We Care is just awesome. They an- something that I think everyone is
swered all my questions and took entitled to – decent health care. It is
care of everything. It is such a relief such a necessary cause.” 
to know that the doctors the Health

56

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 15

PEOPLE

Orchid Island Crossfit event benefits veterans

Orchid Island Crossfit came up with a unique way to bring attention to
what current members of the Armed Services experience, while at the
same time benefiting veterans with an inaugural Hump for our Vets
event last Saturday. Participants loaded up with weighted backpacks – 15
pounds for women, 25 pounds for men – and formed teams to "hump"
the nine miles from the gym to Veterans Memorial Island Sanctuary
and back. They also had to deal with team weights to simulate the ex-
tra equipment carried by soldiers in their everyday missions. Event pro-
ceeds were presented to the Veterans Council of Indian River County. 

1

2

34

ORCHID ISLAND CROSSFIT CAPTIONS

1. Marchers stop at Memorial Island to pay their respects. 2. Men from Orchid Island Crossfit push
weights along their route. 3.Walkers participate during the first annual Hump for Our Vets. 4. Hump for
Our Vets marchers lap Memorial Island before heading back to Orchid Island Crossfit. PHOTOS: LEAH DUBOIS

16 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

United Against Poverty savors glamorous Valentine Ball

Annabel Robertson, Don Drinkard and Barbara Lowry. PHOTOS: LEAH DUBOIS Tim Muris, Sally Daley, Ed Johnson and Dick Daley.

BY CHRISTINA TASCON Vero Beach campus will now be with the new name and logo.
Correspondent known as UP Indian River County. “We are thinking about getting a jar

On the eve of cupid’s favorite holi- Attendees, dazzling in their elegant in the office and every time someone
day, guests enjoyed another fabu- formalwear, were greeted at the entry- uses the old name they will have to
lously glamorous Valentine Ball at the way by Gala Chair Pam Harmon, UP- drop in a coin,” said Jamie Jackson,
Oak Harbor Clubhouse. The annual IRC Board Chair Barbara Lowry, and UPIRC director of institutional ad-
event was a benefit for United Against UPIRC Founder/CEO Austin Hunt, vancement.
Poverty, the new moniker announced before entering the beautifully trans-
earlier this year of the former Harvest formed dining room. Fé Domenech The name change better reflects
Food and Outreach Center, whose of the Event Firm International had their mission of not just providing
contributed to the romantic setting affordable groceries to the work-
ing poor but also empowering them
Olivia and Matt McManus with Ginny Hunt. through education, counseling and
job training.
featuring lush florals atop maroon
silk and velvet linens, and Pangea, a “We also kept getting confused with
hot Miami band, kept the mood siz- the Food Bank and although food is a
zling all night long. huge part of lifting people out of pov-
erty, we are more than just a food cen-
Trude See and her décor commit- ter now,” said Hunt.
tee spectacularly enticed bidders with
more than 185 silent auction items for “It has been really exciting around
guests to peruse, and later Wesley Da- here since Austin was on Fox and
vis presided over an exciting live auc- Friends. The amount of calls coming
tion which alone brought in another in locally and also nationally has been
$25,000. pretty exciting with people wanting
to come see our place as a model for
Between courses, Hunt gave a their organizations,” said wife Ginny
special thank-you to Don Drinkard, Hunt.
former board chairman and honor-
ary event chairman, who received a The most poignant part of the eve-
standing ovation for his eight years of ning was a short testimonial by one
dedicated service. of their clients, who said, “My story
is like so many people. I did not go to
“I can only say that this organiza- high school and by 16 I was married
tion would not be here if it were not and divorced at 21 with three chil-
for Don,” said Hunt. dren.”

Drinkard modestly credited gener- After struggling with drugs, ill-
ous donors for enabling the organiza- ness and homelessness, she said the
tion to inspire and empower families best thing to happen to her was be-
to lift themselves out of poverty and ing introduced to UPIRC, where job
into self-sufficiency. training provided the tools for her
to become a youth care worker for
“That’s Harvest’s mission. That is Children’s Home Society.
what we do,” said Drinkard. “I have
never seen Harvest as effective in “I want to thank you all for show-
transforming lives as it is doing in this ing me that the ladder does not have
moment.” to end at the clouds; it can go as
high as you can climb. I also want
Admitting he was going to have a to thank you for giving me the op-
hard time not using the name Harvest portunity to be a living example to
anymore, he and executive director others who come after me who just
Annabel Robertson unveiled a banner want a chance,” she added to thun-
derous applause. 

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 17

PEOPLE

Kelli Martin and Sue Post. Melissa and Biz Gainey. Rob and Tiffany Tripson with Tonya and Wesley Davis.

Pam Harmon and Austin Hunt. Dawne D'Albora with Doug and Laurel Stoll.

18 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

McKee’s seventh annual Motor Car Exhibition

1 23

456

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

7

8
MCKEE MOTOR CAR CAPTIONS

1. John and Kathi Schumann 2. Jim and
Lea Cornell with Marion de Vogel, great-
granddaughter of Arthur McKee. 3. Jane and
Jerry Weick 4. Will, Theresa and Ryan Ramsey
with their 1959 Edsel Ranger. 5. Jack Scheffer
with George and Linda O'Malley. 6. Travis
Kromhout, Harrison Katz, Jonny Medina and
Zander Lekanides. 7. Lee and Helena Pearson.
8. Peter Hendrickson rings the bell on Crosley
converted Ice Cream Truck. PHOTOS: PHIL SUNKEL

To coincide with its new Roar of
the Dinosaur sculpture exhibit
of 14 life-sized dinosaur instal-
lations by fossil collector Guy
Darrough, McKee Botanical Gar-
den’s seventh annual Motor Car
Exhibition last Saturday featured
40 ‘Extinct but not Forgotten’ ve-
hicles. The cars and trucks may
no longer be manufactured, but
they are clearly cherished by
the devoted collectors who own
these unique automobiles and
the thousands of car enthusi-
asts who came out to view them
roared their approval as well. 

20 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Second annual Art on the Island features 3D artwork

BY MARY SCHENKEL
Staff Writer

Art aficionados showed a little Val- Sue Dinenno and Joan Earnhart. PHOTOS: PHIL SUNKEL Gail Fayerweather and Mackie Duch.
entine love once again last weekend
as visitors to the Vero Beach Art Club’s inch,” explained Dorothy Napp Schin- vorite pieces to determine a Patron’s Karen Parker and Caroline Frewer.
second annual Art on the Island 3D del, who had submitted two pieces – a Choice award.
Fine Art & Fine Craft Exhibition held at 2D with Pizzazz and a Mixed Media.
the lovely Marsh Island Clubhouse. “This show is really amazing,” said
Marnita Patton, an artist, educator pottery artist Dorinda Walker, whose
“This year artists could only enter and art therapist residing in Altamont mother, Alicia Callander, won the Pot-
two works,” explained event chair Joan Springs, had the difficult task of de- tery First Prize. “It’s interesting, cre-
Earnhart, noting that the number of termining the winners in each of the ative and it’s fun.”
artists grew from 60 last year to 90 this seven categories: Sculpture, Mixed Me-
year, and the number of works from dia, Pottery, Jewelry, Glass, Fiber and “This year the quality, intensity and
103 to 129. “Last year I had people beg- 2D with Pizzazz, in addition to Best in caliber of the art has surpassed last
ging me to get into the show. This year Show. All visitors to the show were also year – and last year was very exciting.
I knew there was going to be a lot of in- encouraged to vote on their three fa- I’m mesmerized by R.G. Book; it’s so
terest so we cut it down from three.” unique,” said artist Lila Blakeslee, ref-

While the third dimension is second
nature to artists dealing in such medi-
ums as sculpture, mixed media or pot-
tery, the two-dimensional artists again
embraced the novel concept of adding
a three-dimensional aspect to their
works in a category called 2D with Piz-
zazz.

“It was created to inspire 2D artists
to explore ways to bring a flat plane out
into space by at least one-eighth of an

Hope Resale Boutique

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Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 21

PEOPLE

Dorothy Napp Schindel, Darlene Davis and Ed Uttridge. Susan Von Hagen and Jill Jones. Barry Paddington and Anna Valencia Tillery.

ART ON THE ISLAND WINNERS

ART ON THE ISLAND 2016
Best of Show: Gustaf Miller,

Red Cubed Facade
First Place Winners:
Sculpture: R.G. Book,

Autumn Wind
Mixed Media: Pamela Pike Gordinier,

Longing to Escape this Grey Solid
Earth

Pottery: Alica Callander,
From Our Earth

Glass: Eilene Farrell,
Lighted Heron with Flowers
Jewelry: Jens Bisgaard, Sterling Silver

Ring with Amethyst
Wood Fiber: Sheila McAvoy,

Wisdom Keeper 47
2D with Pizzazz,
Minakshi De, Migrations

erencing the artist whose wonderful
wooden carving won Sculpture First
Prize. “There’s some incredible art.
That’s what makes it so spectacular.”

Fresh off his win for Best in Show at
the Art Club’s Art by the Sea Exhibition
last month, Gustaf Miller equally im-
pressed this judge, who awarded him
Best in Show for his submission, Red
Cubed Façade, which only select peo-
ple knew offered two little peep holes
for a glimpse inside.

As they did last year, White Glove
Moving and Storage assisted by re-
moving and later returning all the
furniture from inside the Marsh Is-
land Clubhouse. “We cleared it all
out in two hours and we’ll come back
Monday to put it all back,” said Anna
Valencia Tillery. “Now we’ve got it
down to a science.” 

22 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

United Way fetes its long-time contributors

Kerry Bartlett, Janet Baines and Susan Adams. PHOTOS: DENISE RITCHIE Lenora Ritchie, Katie Kirk and Janie Graves Hoover. Amanda and Dan Kross, Ken Felten, Sara Riggs, with Sara and Jeff Labellarte.

BY MARY SCHENKEL consecutively. The lovely evening was affiliation with the organization de- money is well allocated.”
Staff Writer sponsored by Brown & Brown Insur- spite living in various places around During a brief program, current
ance and co-sponsor Chubb Insur- the country as well as in Paris. “I’ve
Members of the UnitedWay of Indian ance. always liked the concept of the Unit- United Way Board Chairman Randy
River County’s Leadership Investment ed Way because they touch so many Riley introduced Susan Chenault and
Society and Loyal Contributors were Commenting on the large numbers lives,” said Reita Byrket. Janie Graves Hoover, two of the seven
fêted at a cocktail reception at John’s of community leaders and philanthro- co-chairs of the 2015-16 campaign.
Island last Thursday to thank them for pists attending the event, Earl Morgan “We ran the United Way Campaign The other members of the team are
their decades of support. Leadership said, “I was just thinking, the support in 2001,” said Lee Moore, who co- Kerry Bartlett, Katie Kirk, Leah Muller,
Investment members make an an- of United Way has grown exponential- chaired with husband John and is a Lenora Ritchie and Sue Tompkins.
nual commitment to the campaign of ly over the last couple of decades. It’s 25-plus-year contributor. “We con-
$1,000 to $9,999, and Loyal Contribu- amazing to see the support and real- tinued to be committed to the United Thanking the guests for their gener-
tors are those who have donated to ize the number of lives that have been Way because they do such a great job osity, Chenault related that the Lead-
United Way for 10 or more years either touched in so many ways.” making sure the money goes to the ership Investment Society and Loyal
here or elsewhere, and not necessarily right places. It’s unbelievable how Contributors have already raised more
Sixty-plus-year contributors Bob they vet these agencies to ensure the than $800,000 toward the $2.955 mil-
and Reita Byrket have maintained their lion goal.

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 23

Michael Kint, UWIRC CEO, noted PEOPLE Ray and Jean Oglethorpe, with Sharon and Peter Mortimer.
that the organization has grown more Lee Robinson Moore, with Rene and Alice Donars.
sophisticated over its 54-year history in Grace Hinkley, Randy Riley, Reita and Bob Byrket.
Indian River County. Hamilton Arden, Jackie and Bob Solari, and Celeta Arden.

“We are now changing community
conditions using research, experts,
measurable goals and objectives. We are
now focusing on those building blocks
that are proven to improve the quality
of life – education, financial stability and
health. We are now recruiting people
from all across community sectors to
lend their experience and abilities to
the work we do,” said Kint. “I don’t ex-
aggerate when I say we couldn’t possi-
bly accomplish what we do without the
solid support of you – our Leadership
Investment Society and Loyal Contribu-
tors. You’ve chosen us as your partner in
driving positive, measurable and lasting
change, and I hope you know we deeply
appreciate and value your support.”

Kint pointed out that individuals can
now leave a legacy through a planned
giving endowment with the United Way
of Indian River Foundation. He also in-
vited guests to become part of the Citi-
zen’s Review process in evaluating those
programs requesting United Way fund-
ing.

“This is a chance for you to have di-
rect input on how your contribution is
invested in Indian River County,” said

24 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Habitat for Humanity donors make dreams come true

BY CHRISTINA TASCON
Correspondent

At a Donor Appreciation Recep- handicapped residents. 1 2
tion last Tuesday at Northern Trust “We just feel that there are so many
Bank, Indian River Habitat for Hu- often also helping with on-site con- we can do it for the working poor in
manity supporters were given an op- working people who are trying to get struction, and now he has taken up Indian River County.”
portunity to hear from one of the re- a decent place to live and it is out of the mantle.
cipients of their generosity, as well as their reach, so we want to help,” said Jaqueline Charles was at the event
to view the second phase expansion board member Rene Donars. “When my father passed away with her children to thank guests
plans for the IRHFH ReStore, which my mother took his position on the on behalf of her family and hus-
provides funds to refurbish or build Martin Bireley’s late father Rich board and just last week I came on band, who was unable to attend due
roughly one-third of Habitat homes Bireley served on the IRHFH board, board. My dad loved to swing a ham- to work, for enabling them to soon
in the county. mer; he was a frustrated carpenter move into their new Habitat home.
and loved that part of it,” said Bire-
“If you drive down U.S. 1 you will ley. “I am so proud and honored to
see a lot of construction going on at be here tonight,” said Charles. “The
our store adding 9,500 square feet of Newly elected chairperson Con- community we currently live in is in
retail space. It is so important be- nie Poppell thanked guests and the least desirable neighborhood in
cause the dollars brought in through spoke about 2015-16 fiscal year ac- a very small place paying $800 per
the store are changing lives,” said complishments, including that they month. We have always hoped to
Habitat President/CEO Andy Bowl- have built 12 homes, reconditioned find some place we could call our
er, adding that donor contributions 13, and, in the Gifford community, own. The thought of home own-
provide the rest. repaired 77 homes. They have also ership was a dream but we never
tithed enough to build another 77 thought it could come true. It was
In this 25th anniversary year, homes in Haiti and Nepal, where a long shot but this was going to be
Habitat has set an ambitious goal to home costs run about $5,000 to con- our forever home. It’s built now; we
help 100 families through a combi- struct vs. $100,000 in Indian River built that. We did that Habitat; we
nation of new home construction, County. did that!”
rehabs and neighborhood repair
projects, especially for elderly and Toward the ReStore expansion, she Lifetime volunteers Jean and
said, “We have already raised about Gene Cravens said they were at the
Gordon Food Service Presents $750,000. We are halfway there and very first organizational meeting of
need to raise another $750,000 in the Habitat for Humanity 25 years ago,
Finale2016 VERO’S TOP CHEF next 60 days. I know with your help and added that seeing the excite-
TO BENEFIT THE
HOPE FOR FAMILIES CENTER

WHO WILL TAKE THE TITLE?

Chef Tyler Colby of Bent Pine Golf Club • Joey Fenyak & Chef
Kim Coveny of Joey’s Seafood Shack • Chef Dave Schneider
of Indian River State College • Chef Patrick Hughes of Riverside
Cafe • Dessert by Chef Lisa Damiano of Counter Culture.

JOIN US TO CAST YOUR VOTE!

Monday, February 22nd • 6:00 p.m. • The Club At Pointe West
$185 per person • Cocktail Attire • Seating is Limited

Tickets are available at hopeforfamiliescenter.com, or by calling
(772) 567-5537, or stopping by the office at 720 4th Street, VB 32962

THE 2016 Spring Luncheon

TO BENEFIT THE HOPE FOR FAMILIES CENTER

$65 per person Tuesday, March 29th, 2016
Please RSVP OAK HARBOR CLUB
by March 16th Guest Speaker Celebrity Designer Chris Madden
(772) 567-5537
4755 S Harbor Dr, Vero Beach, FL 32967
11:30a.m. - 12:15 p.m. Viewing of Tablescapes

12:30 p.m. Luncheon & Presentation

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 25

PEOPLE

3 45
6 78

9 10 11

ment of new homeowners makes it
all worthwhile.

“If you can just do a little good,
then you have to do it. We are all a
family now just trying to help oth-
ers,” said Gene Cravens.

“This is one of the most rewarding
things you will ever do. The appre-
ciation that is shown by the home-
owners is something you cannot
duplicate and you will never forget,”
agreed Roger Lajoie. 

HABITAT CAPTIONS

1. Francoise Casale with Al and Joan DeCrane.
2. Jerusha Stewart and Scott Alexander. 3.
Jacqueline, Malcom and Shania Charles, with
Lina Jordonne (rear). 4. George Marshall,
Alice Brady, Sheila Marshall, and Andy
Bowler. 5. Brian Curley, with Renee and Martin
Bireley. 6. Gene and Susan Billero, with Roger
LaJoie. 7. Alice Donars, with Gene and Jean
Cravens. 8. Jean Corso, with Emilie Brady
and Kathleen Schulke. 9. Chris and Pamela
Delaney, with Helen Crockett. 10. Sheradi
Monroe, with Ralph and Connie Poppell, and
Rene Donars. 11. Jordan Stewart and Jim
Beindorf, with Norma and Richard Peters.

PHOTOS: DENISE RITCHIE

26 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Robin Diaz, Chuck Sinclair and Susan Chenault Hahn. PHOTOS: LEAH DUBOIS Susan Temple, Margaret Anne Evans and Karan Morein. Cody and Faye Estes with Doug Barnard.
The Source thanks those helping the homeless

BY MARY SCHENKEL ministry, has been providing as- below 35 degrees. All of their ser- program. A second, more intense
Staff Writer sistance to homeless individuals, vices are vitally essential for those six-week period is also offered. The
low-income seniors and families people with nowhere else to go who finished products are sold Saturday
“We want to make the invisible since 1995. Among their numerous are living out of their cars or in tents mornings at the Farmer’s Market on
visible,” said Robin Diaz, executive services, clients are offered meals, in the woods. Ocean Drive, and are regularly fea-
director of The Source, at a cock- clothing, counseling, support tured at the tables of local restau-
tail reception last Monday evening groups, hygiene items, showers and Job readiness programs continue rants and clubs.
at Northern Trust Bank. The event laundry, mail and telephone servic- to develop, such as a Farm to Kitch-
provided an opportunity to thank es, benefit referrals and transpor- en program that teaches clients to Having a commercial kitchen at
donors and give potential contribu- tation. And while the facility does grow and harvest vegetables and their facility has enabled clients to
tors an overview of the nonprofit or- not operate as a homeless shelter, herbs on land leased from Florida earn a certificate based on the State
ganization’s accomplishments and it does open its doors to provide a Veggies and More. Workers com- of Florida ServSafe Kitchen stan-
plans for the future. warm place to get in out of the cold mit to four-hour days, five days a dards, making them eligible to work
overnight when temperatures drop week, learning skills and earning at any kitchen in Florida.
The Source, a Christian outreach a stipend at the end of a six-week
“The programs help them under-

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 27

PEOPLE

Donald and JoAnn Haupt with Al and Bonnie Wolfarth. Lou Ann Lindsay, Kathy Lowry and Shirley Davies. Helen Crockett with Jim and Melinda Marley.

stand what it takes to get and keep a Jan Lauffer and Liz Malik. Stephen and Janell Lundin. So many of them don’t even begin to
job,” said Diaz. know what the process is to be able to
find a job.”
“What really resonated with me is
that it is a totally local nonprofit that Diaz spoke about actor Richard
serves the community. Those of us Gere, whose eyes were opened to the
that are so blessed to live here have plight of the homeless after his expe-
to help those that are less fortunate,” rience posing as a destitute man on
said Jan Lauffer, who has served on the streets of New York for the movie,
the board for several years. "Time Out of Mind." She quoted him
as saying, “I could tell when people
“It’s also important to me that this from two blocks away had made a
is a faith-based organization,” she judgment about me on the corner.”
added. “The Source’s mission is not
to enable these people but to em- “No one plans to be homeless,” said
power them. That means teaching Diaz, noting that a family or medi-
them a skill, helping them to gather cal emergency or the loss of a job can
themselves with the tools they need quickly wipe out a lifetime of savings
to get experience – getting a birth and force people to the street. “We
certificate or social security card, need to stop walking by homeless in-
being properly bathed and dressed. dividuals as if they were invisible.” 

Windsor Charity Polo Cup: Great day, great turnout

BY MARY SCHENKEL Parkinson Association of Indian River 25 gleaming models were enviably on the main event included the Purple
Staff Writer County, which provides local pro- display. Others opted to peruse the Reins team of Salvatore Ferragamo,
grams and services as well as the na- new Specialty Retail Village, where a Ruki Baillieu, Julio Arellano and Luke
The day couldn’t have been more tional Alzheimer’s Association, which percentage of sales from the delightful Tomlinson; and the #CureAlzPark
glorious nor the turnout any better at funds research. Everything Windsor array of products for men, women and team, with Vero’s own John Walsh,
last Saturday’s Windsor Charity Polo hosts is first class, and this was cer- children was donated to the charities. Magoo Laprida, Augustin Merlos
Cup, co-chaired by the Hon. Hilary tainly no exception. After being fer- and Malcolm Borwick. John Walsh
M. Weston and Salvatore Ferragamo. ried from the parking area by a vast “Everything is sold out. I got the last pointed out that Secunda and match
Recognized as the premier high-goal array of golf carts, some guests opted tailgate ticket for my sister who is in announcer Toby Wayman are both
charity polo match, this third bienni- to stroll among the Porsche People’s from St. Louis,” said Peggy Cunning- fourth-generation polo players whose
al event supported the Alzheimer and Choice Concours where more than ham, Alzheimer and Parkinson Asso- fathers are in the Polo Hall of Fame.
ciation of IRC executive director. The
numbers were impressive: 675 seated Windsor’s event department had
for lunch, 90 tailgate vehicles and 180 collaborated with the celebrated floral
grandstand ticket holders. “We’re re- and event design firm, Renny & Reed
ally excited. We’re here to educate all to create a stunningly elegant setting
the donors that we are the local source for the delicious luncheon prepared
for services.” by Windsor executive chef Geoffroy
Deconinck and his staff, featuring fi-
Before lunch, Main Pavillion guests let mignon and lobster timbale, which
sipped on Nicolas Feuillate cham- concluded with a key lime tart for des-
pagnes and Clarendelle wines while sert.
watching the next generation of play-
ers compete in a demonstration. The Renowned interior designer Thom
talented youngsters, aged 8 to 12, play Filicia had the difficult task of choos-
at Bobby Genovese's BG Vero Beach ing a winner from the many creative
Polo Club in a junior polo program entries in the tailgate competition,
coached by Windsor Charity Polo Cup where entrants had been challenged
match director Max Secunda, a U.S. to decorate in a "Love is in the Air"
Polo Association coach. theme in honor of Valentine’s Day.

The stellar lineup of international All in all, it was a day everyone
players who donated their time for thoroughly loved. 

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 29

PEOPLE

1 EVENT PHOTOS CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

3 2

3

4
WINDSOR POLO CAPTIONS

1. Susan Zises Green and Carol Atkinson
with Marcella and Rhoads Zimmerman.
2. Galen Weston, India Hicks, Hilary Weston
and David Flint Wood 3. Peggy Cunningham,
Randy and Sandy Rolf, and Bobbie Olsen.
4. Hilary Gumbel and Susan Dunning.

PHOTOS: DENISE RITCHIE

30 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

56 7

9

8 10

11

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 31

PEOPLE

12 13 14

15 PrayerVEROBEACH Breakfast

17 16 Indian River County Fairgrounds

WINDSOR POLO CAPTIONS Thursday, March 3, 2016 at 7:30 a.m.

5. John Walsh 6. Ann Faunce, Becky Allen, Award Winning Musician
Peggy Cunningham and Este Brashears
7. Susan Braden, Jodie King, Wendy Riefler Twila Paris
and Lisa McCarthy. 8. Max Secunda, John
Walsh and Toby Wayman. 9. Salvatore Twila Paris is a singer-songwriter,
and Christina Ferragamo. 10. Ginny Bauer, author, and pianist. Paris has
Stevie McCarter, Don Herrema and Mike
McCarter. 11. Joan and Norris Cook with 18 released 22 albums, amassed
Cathy and Jeff Sharp. 12. Cameron Gatt,
Allison Varicchio, Stephanie MacWilliam and 33 number one Christian Radio
Chandler MacWilliam. 13. Kassidy, Melissa, singles, and was named the
and Peyton Medlock. 14. Jo-Anne Harrison, Gospel Music Association Female
Kim Narozanski and Vicki Harrison. 15. Karen Vocalist of the Year three years in
Klopp, Samantha Yanks, Sam Dangremond a row. She was inducted into the
and Catherine Smith. 16. Marion Kennedy, Gospel Music Association Hall of
Guy Snowden, Story John, Dede Snowden Fame in May 2015.
and Stephanie Snowden. 17. Don Steckroth
with Christine and Christian Hammarskjold. President of Family
18. Jim Fitzgerald, Zandra Simm, Taryn
Simm, Taylor Simm and Alex Brown. 19. Lila Research Council
Legler, Giuliana Battista, and Maeve Reicher.
Tony Perkins
Tony Perkins, an ordained minister,

is Family Reasearch Council’s

longest serving president. Mr.

Perkins is a veteran of the United

19 States Marine Corps and a former
police officer. Described as a

legislative pioneer by the national

media, he has established himself

as a pro-life and pro-family policy

and political leader since first

being elected to office in 1996.

Award winning musician Twila Parks will be performing
at the 12th annual event. Our keynote speaker will be
Tony Perkins, President of Family Research Council.

Purchase tickets:

verobeachprayerbreakfast.com
or call (772) 492-1041

Full breakfast catered by TooJays.



STACEY LOGAN DEBUTS AT RIVERSIDE
IN AN ABSURDIST COMEDY

34 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

ARTS & THEATRE

Stacey Logan debuts at Riverside in an absurdist comedy

BY MICHELLE GENZ including five Broadway musicals.
Staff Writer Though her down-to-earth demean-
or might belie it, she is a career New
Stacey Logan’s Riverside The- York-based actress who now performs
atre debut this week in the part of regularly at regional theaters. Of late,
a famous actress might not seem a she has performed regularly with
stretch for her island neighbors – at Oklahoma City Repertory Theater –
least until her character Masha be- it’s her childhood hometown and she
comes a little clearer. loves to go back and visit.

In Christopher Durang’s absurdist Logan also has a far different marital
comedy “Vanya and Sonia and Masha history than her character. She dated
and Spike” that opened Tuesday at Riv- her husband Robert Lewis for 16 years
erside, Masha is a movie star from L.A. before marrying him 12 years ago, and
who comes to visit her siblings in rural says the decision to wait was hers.
Bucks County, Penn., with her latest lov-
er in tow. Five times wed and divorced, “I didn’t know his expectations, and I
neurotically insecure and keenly com- was afraid what he wanted was a wom-
petitive, Masha owns the home and an who sits in her kitchen all day.”
pays the bills of the stay-at-home odd
couple that is her gay brotherVanya and Which is more or less what Vanya and
adopted sister Sonia. (Spike, of the non- Sonia do in Durang’s farce. Unemployed
Chekhov inspired name, is the much after taking care of their now-deceased
younger lover; he spends a substantial parents, the two are living in their child-
portion of the play in his underwear, hood home when Masha arrives and
Logan notes happily.) turns their world upside down.

It is probably safe to say that Logan Logan saw the play on Broadway –
doesn’t share much else with Masha it won the Tony Award for Best Play in
but her profession. Furthermore, Lo- 2013 – and knew the role of Masha, then
gan is a veteran not of film but stage, played by Sigourney Weaver, would be
hers someday. “I saw it and said I have
to do this play,” she says.

Stacey Logan. PHOTO BY PHIL SUNKEL

In the 2014-15 season, “Vanya and play Masha was finally fulfilled.
Sonia and Masha and Spike” was the Oklahoma City proved an excellent
most produced play in the country.
training ground for Logan, who danced,
In one of those productions, at sang and acted her way through child-
Oklahoma City’s City Rep, her vow to hood, adolescence and college.

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 35

ARTS & THEATRE

Though she performed the same role says. One particular scene in which she
last year, the lines have proved challeng- brags incessantly about herself was par-
ing all over again, written as a mash-up ticularly challenging.
of the works of the great Russian play-
wright Chekhov’s best-known works. “It’s just really wordy and there
are these quick, bubbling changes of
“It’s almost like it’s translated from thought,” says Logan. “That’s a hard
Russian,” says Logan, who read her scene, and you have to be keyed in
part into the voice memo app on her with your brain full on. You can’t drop
iPhone so she could listen to it wher- the ball.”
ever she was.
“She is perfect for the role of Masha,”
“The language is like popcorn. The says Cornell. “It not only showcases her
syntax of his sentences is so quirky, it’s talent, but it’s a great introduction to
hard to memorize. It’s much more dif- our audiences.”
ficult than you would think.”
“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and
Logan has to be elegant and glamor- Spike” plays on Riverside’s intimate
ous, but also “maniacally selfish,” she Waxlax Stage through Feb. 28. 

Her mother, a receptionist, nurtured Logan went on to perform in four
her daughter’s passions, taking her from more Broadway shows. In 1994, she
the age of 4 to dance lessons, though she had a two-year run as Babette, the sexy
could hardly afford them. Logan was French maid in “Beauty and the Beast.”
out of college before she learned that Then in 1997, she was cast as Paquette
her mom had only just finished paying under director Hal Prince in Leonard
off the debt to the studio – at a deeply Bernstein’s “Candide” at the Gershwin
discounted $10 a month. Theatre. In 1998, she was standby for
Tracy Samantha Lord in “High Society.”
“They’d kept a tab,” says Logan. “And And she played Rita in the 2002 stage
it should have been a lot more than version of “Sweet Smell of Success.”
that.”
Through it all, she was spending her
If she wasn’t fully aware of the fam- downtime with her husband in Vero
ily finances, she certainly knew by her Beach, having bought a home in Bay-
senior year that money for college tree in 1988. After the 2004 hurricanes,
would be short. So when a friend of hers the couple moved to Windsor, where
won the Miss Oklahoma pageant and they now live.
was crowned Miss America winning a
$10,000 scholarship, Stacey jumped in. Logan has been a witness to the evo-
“I said, ‘I can do that.’ And I won the first lution of the small-town Riverside The-
one I did.” ater, from almost all-volunteer in the
1980s to all-professional today, one of
At 17, Logan was crowned Miss Okla- the largest regional producing theaters
homa USA. in the state.

By then she had already gotten her In 2013, she did perform at River-
first paycheck as an actress. She was side, but in a benefit, not a profession-
15 when she was cast in a musical at ally-produced play. Logan read the
Oklahoma’s Lyric Theater. But it was one-woman monologue written by
her talent playing the flute that got her Susan Yankowitz, “The Thumbprint
a scholarship to the private Oklahoma of Mukhtar Mar.” It is part of a larger
City University. The university had an documentary work called “Seven” that
excellent musical theater program; she toured the world in 2006, and was once
and Kristin Chenoweth had the same directed by Julie Taymor. The subject
vocal teacher. matter was uncharacteristically weighty
for Logan: an illiterate Pakistani girl who
Logan graduated with a degree in vo- is the victim of a gang rape.
cal performance and got a three-month
job singing on a cruise ship. With the Yankowitz was the college roommate
$1500 she saved, she made her way to of the event organizer, Cynthia Bardes,
New York. She was there only four days a big supporter of Riverside. Bardes is a
when she went to her first audition, and neighbor of Logan’s in Windsor.
got a union job as a tap-dancing sopra-
no in the musical “George M.” Riverside’s Allen Cornell coached
Logan in the monologue. Well before
The day after the show closed, she that, he knew of her: She had sent him a
headed out to tour with Anthony New- postcard announcement in 1999 when
ley in “Stop the World; I Want to Get PBS’ “Masterpiece Theatre” aired a Pa-
Off!” Her next role was in Florida, at Ju- permill Playhouse production of “Crazy
piter Theatre’s 1991 production of “Born for You,” starring Logan in the lead role
Yesterday” with Claude Akins. of Polly.

Back in New York, she was waiting That production was directed by Riv-
for a sequel to “Sugar Babies” to get off erside veteran director Jimmy Brennan;
the ground, and decided on a whim to he starred in “Crazy for You” on Broad-
audition for the new Gershwin musi- way and is close friends with Logan.
cal comedy “Crazy for You.” She won
the part of Patsy, under the direction of Brennan is directing Logan here
the great Michael Orent. The show won in “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and
Best Musical for 1992. Spike.”

36 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

ARTS & THEATRE

Ballet dancers provide living art exhibits at Museum

BY MICHELLE GENZ with a very unusual exhibition: a se-
Staff Writer ries of tableaux not on canvas but in
space, danced and choreographed
Lucinda Gedeon, executive direc- by members of Vero’s young ballet
tor of the Vero Beach Museum of Art, company.
doesn’t tiptoe around her feelings for
the founders of Ballet Vero Beach. “Museum in Motion” has had Bal-
let Vero Beach ballet master Camilo
“I love these guys!” she declared Rodriguez furiously inventing and
with earnest, as an evening honoring artistic director Adam Schnell mis-
the museum’s 30 years of existence chievously smiling for weeks now,
was about to begin last Wednesday knowing that their audience could

Ryan Christopher, Whitney Walsh and Anna Swenson in “Family Visit.” PHOTOS BY LEAH DUBOIS

not possibly envision in advance curated exhibit of art might set off a
what was in store. certain pattern of thoughts that lin-
ger when the viewer moves on.
“A living exhibit out of dance,”
Schnell called it. Schnell had slipped away from the
gathering guests to go cue his danc-
“We want to celebrate through ers to begin, a full five minutes be-
dance everything that this museum fore anyone was actually watching.
is to the community.” By the time the dancers left their
posts to gather for a finale in the
He warned that the guests them- museum’s atrium, they had been in
selves might be the subject matter. non-stop motion, much like a loop-
ing video, for fully 40 minutes.
That was soon apparent with the
first dance guests saw, when a wom- Even Rodriguez was drained. It
an seated primly at a café table in seemed he was only miming fatigue
the lobby quickly became their dop- as he trudged through the lobby lug-
pelganger. In balletic gestures, danc- ging his folded chair, dressed as a se-
er Alyssa Grimsley mimed texting, curity guard – the identical uniform
checking her watch, waiting for her as the hyper-realistic sculpture of a
companion then switched hats to be- guard that is a fixture in the far cor-
come her. All the while, the museum’s ner of the far gallery, the Stark. Rodri-
real life café was visible behind her. guez, who always dances brilliantly,
would park his chair on his mean-
Only three of the seven dances derings and then move all around
were to music, and the sound drifted
through the open galleries in a faint-
ly dissonant layering, just as each

There is Always an Answer

God’s healing love – never out of reach

A TALK WITH Jill Grimes

Saturday, February 27th at 11:00 a.m.
Indian River County Main Library

National speaker Jill Grimes is a practitioner of
Christian Science healing and a member of the

Christian Science Board of Lectureship.

1600 21st Street (between 16th & 17th Ave.), Vero Beach
Free parking at municipal garage across the street

This talk is sponsored by First Church of Christ, Scientist Vero Beach
For more information, please call 772-567-3656 or email [email protected].

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 37

Camilo Rodriguez in “Art Is All Around Us.” ARTS & THEATRE Claire Goodwillie in “Everyman.”

Chloe Watson in “Getting it Right.”

and over it, a slow-motion embrace. photos inspired her jazz-influenced Vero Beach. At one point, Carter and And in the Holmes Gallery, recent-
Rodriguez hyped that hyper-realism movements, set off by a midriff-bar- Sharratt, dressed in white linen, ex- ly hung with the very serious 19th
when, head bowed beneath his cop’s ing French sailor’s shirt and cropped ecuted a lovely lift facing away from century paintings of Martin John-
cap, a single bead of sweat slid past tight jeans. the gathered spectators, who saw be- son Heade, a couple of very unseri-
his glasses and dropped to the mar- yond them two more figures seated ous visitors: two fussing children
ble floor. Clearly his job was harder Matthew Carter also pled exhaus- on a bench – the outdoor sculpture plopped on bean bag chairs and
than the Stark guy’s. tion, though he seemed as serene as through the rotunda window. their more or less oblivious mother.
his beautiful duet danced with Ama- They were dancers, of course, doing
Other dancers agreed. “I’m just ris Sharratt in the light-filled rotunda. Elsewhere, Chloe Watson, dancing their best to look annoying.
drinking water after water,” panted “What Does It Mean?” was choreo- this time, grappled with a blank canvas
Claire Goodwillie, as she chatted graphed by Chloe Watson, a fellow in “Getting it Right,” lifting it off its easel “Not that the museum is going to
with audience members who sipped company member in Ballet Nebraska, and moving the plane through space – a want to trot this out at every anni-
white wine at a reception following which shares its dancers with Ballet mirror, a partner, a mental block. versary,” said Schnell, “but I wanted
the dances. Her solo, “Everyman,” to show the audience that there’s
was held in the Titelman Gallery a whole level at this place besides
currently hosting John Baeder’s pho- the art, where what you’re seeing
tographs, “American Roadside.” The isn’t necessarily about what’s on the
walls.” 

38 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

ARTS & THEATRE

Coming up: Lennon tribute, Etheridge and lunchtime jazz

BY MICHELLE GENZ Society’s lunchtime concerts. Both
Staff Writer got their start with the University of
North Florida Jazz Ensemble, where
1 Jacksonville-based jazz vocal- Kelly was featured vocalist. Scott
ist Lisa Kelly first teamed up went on to train under the great Ar-
turo Sandoval at Florida Internation-
with trumpeter J.B. Scott at the 1997 al University in Miami. The 1:30 p.m.
concert is preceded by an optional
Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzer- buffet lunch and cocktails.

land. Since then, their Kelly/Scott

Sextet has toured the U.S., Canada

and Europe. Saturday, they’ll be play-

ing at the Vero Beach Yacht Club for 2 For 30 years, singer-songwrit-
er Melissa Etheridge has been
another in the Treasure Coast Jazz

“Lennon: Through a Glass Onion” coming to the Kravis Center.

Melissa Etheridge coming to the Sunrise Theatre. pouring her soul into her music. Sun- studio album, “This is M.E.”
day night, she’ll be exposing that soul Her 1993 hits “I’m the Only One,”
all by her herself as she takes the Sun-
rise Theatre stage in a solo tour. She’s and “Come to My Window” defined
released another album since her her music for a generation. A breast
last visit to the Sunrise in November cancer survivor, she is an advocate
2014; “A Little Bit of Me: Live in L.A.” for LGBTQ rights and environmen-
is a recording of a performance at the tal causes. Her 2007 song “I Need to
end of the tour that promoted her last Wake Up,” part of Al Gore’s documen-
tary “An Inconvenient Truth,” earned

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 39

ARTS & THEATRE

Peter Golden. see, the Okeechobee festival earned a ic music and indie rock, though there
mention in the New York Times in a are a couple of oldsters included like
listing headlined “Where Music Lov- Daryl Hall and John Oates, former
ers Should Go in 2016." The festival is Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and
set on the site of a failed subdivision, the Preservation Hall Jazz Society.
850 acres with only one building – a
14,000-square-foot lodge. Gates open noon Thursday and
everyone has to be out by Monday
For the festival, there are now noon. There are day passes for people
camping facilities, art and yoga stu- who don’t want to camp.
dios and food. The music, which goes
on all night, features top names like Either way, I recommend spending
Mumford and Sons, the Avett Broth- a little time on the festival website
ers, Jason Isbell, Skrillex, Kendrick under “Artists,” where you can hear a
Lamar, Future and Fetty Wap. This is few tunes and read the artists’ bios. If
not music for the faint of heart; there nothing else you can contemplate a
is a strong emphasis on rap, electron- soundtrack for the Sunshine State de-
rived of more than Jimmy Buffett. 

her an Academy Award for Best Song. couple in the 1930s: a young Jewish
man who made a fortune bootleg-
3 There’s an unusually high- ging, and the artistic black daughter
quality musical tribute to John of a college president.

Lennon opening this weekend at The novel’s backstory particularly
piqued my interest. I never knew that
the Kravis Center in West Palm. Part about 100 Jewish scholars fled Nazi
Germany to find jobs at historically
spoken word and part song, “Len- black colleges in the southern U.S.,
particularly in Florida. Golden’s sign-
non: Through a Glass Onion” is ing is Monday at 3 p.m.

performed by the Australian actor, And on a light note later in the
week, Vero’s Cynthia Bardes presents
singer and guitarist John R. Waters, her latest children’s book, “Pansy in
Venice: The Mystery of the Missing
accompanied on piano by Stewart Parrot,” Thursday at 4 p.m. This is
the third picture book based on the
Arrietta. The show won the 2015 Windsor resident’s miniature poodle,
Pansy. The first, “Pansy at the Palace,”
Drama Desk Award for Best Revue. was turned into an original musical
by Riverside Theatre’s Ken Clifton
It is staged in Kravis’ Helen K. Pers- and DJ Salisbury, which premiered
last fall and was repeated a couple of
son Hall, a cabaret venue with tables weeks ago. Local artist Ginger Best is
the book’s illustrator.
for two and four, and riser seating

in the rear. Originally conceived of

and performed in Australia in 1992,

the show played at the Union Square

Theatre in New York in the fall and

winter of 2014 and 2015. Perfor- 5 The countdown is on for a mo-
mentous weekend in Florida
mances run through Feb. 28.

music history next month: The first

4 Monday, journalist and politi- of what promoters hope will be an
cal historian Peter Golden will
annual event, the Okeechobee Mu-

be making a stop at the Vero Beach sic and Arts Festival, takes place

Book Center to talk about his new March 4, 5 and 6. Organized by the

novel, “Wherever There is Light.” The creative force behind the Bonnaroo

book is a love story – with plenty of Superjam, a dance party portion of

sex scenes – involving an interracial the massive music festival in Tennes-

40 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

ARTS & THEATRE

Adventurous art awaits aficionados in Melbourne

BY ELLEN FISCHER
Correspondent

Vero Beach’s art scene is weighted energy into a show in a while,” says Car- the road. After meeting Gordillo on a ery Cuban artist to come after him.
toward the traditional. Not to say that la Funk, director of both museums. cultural tour to Cuba a couple years ago, In the current exhibition Gordillo
our art galleries and artists’ studios she returned to Havana last December pays tribute to Lam in a huge char-
don’t have their outside-the-box mo- It took drive, patience and persever- to personally ferry Gordillo’s works to coal portrait head of the maestro,
ments, but the seeker of the new, the ance on Funk’s part to get this show on the U.S. She even negotiated extensive surrounded by the surreal creatures
unusual, and the unexpected may red tape to bring the artist to Melbourne of Lam’s imagination.
want to visit Melbourne soon for aes- for a brief residency (he has since re-
thetic adventure. turned to Cuba). While Gordillo was educated in
the European-based tradition of the
That’s where the Florida Institute of Gordillo was born in Havana in 1964, academy, his work remains true to his
Technology galleries – the Foosaner but traces his family’s lineage to the Afro-Cuban identity. Gordillo synthe-
Art Museum and the Ruth Funk Center Congo in Equatorial Africa. He was sizes the symbols and stories of Afri-
for Textile Arts – are currently showing trained in at Havana’s Escuela Nacional ca’s Bantu-speaking cultures with the
leading-edge installation art plus the de Bellas Artes, known as San Alejan- New World religion of Santeria, itself
work of an Cuban artist whose oeuvre is dro for the convent where it was estab- steeped in the mythology of Africa’s
decidedly non-Western. lished. Since receiving his diploma in Yoruba people.
1988, Gordillo has exhibited in scores of
Located in the Eau Gallie Arts Dis- shows in Cuba, Demark, England, Can- Enslaved Africans developed San-
trict, the Foosaner’s cumbersomely ti- ada and the U.S. teria to secretly worship their ances-
tled show, “Caminos Transitados/Paths tors’ gods in the guise of their captors’
Taken: A Retrospective of Francisco In 2004 and again in 2015 his Christian saints. The religion is still
‘Gordillo’ Arredondo Baba Oñi” is that paintings were awarded first prize practiced today.
artist’s first retrospective anywhere. in competitions honoring the legacy
of Cuba’s Wilfredo Lam, a painter In fact, “Baba Oñi” (“Father Honey”)
Known simply as “Gordillo,” the art- whose long shadow has touched ev- in the title of the current exhibition re-
ist is represented by 60 paintings and fers to Gordillo’s status as a priest of
drawings inspired by the Afro-Caribbe-
an religion of Santeria.

“I haven’t put so much passion and

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 41

Santeria. The honorific suggests that ARTS & THEATRE
the artist is especially devoted to the
goddess of sweetness and love, Ochún.

She as well as other deities called
Orichás are depicted in the artworks as
abstracted figures or symbols. They are
also identified by their attributes and
associative colors.

“I tried to create a chronological in-
stallation where you can see Gordillo’s
development as an artist,” says Funk.

Beginning in 1989, the earliest works
in the show are less representational.
Their religious significance is discreet
and the titles are cryptic. Through the
years the artist has come to address
Santeria more openly, with figures and
titles that invoke the Orishas’ names.
The most recent works are mystical
“portraits” of the gods.

You don’t have to be a Santeria savant
to appreciate Gordillo’s artistry, howev-
er. His intriguing works in mixed media
on paper, cardboard and canvas vibrate
with color, pattern and texture – a lan-
guage that is understood by art lovers
everywhere.

Those palpable aesthetic qualities are
also rife in the exhibition at the Funk
Center on the Florida Tech campus.
“Reimagined: Innovations in Fiber”
presents works by Miami-based artists
Alex Trimino and Carrie Sieh that don’t
fit into a gilded frame. Indeed, this is art

42 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 ARTS & THEATRE Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

that sprawls across the gallery walls and Navaroli, the artist used the front man’s
creeps along its floor. image as a symbol of virility. Past in-
stallations of the piece have included
Born in Colombia, Trimino earned depictions of The Incredible Hulk and
her M.F.A. in 2012 from Florida Atlan- Chuck Norris, for the same purpose.
tic University; Sieh received a B.A. in
art from the University of California Gender roles and technology are ex-
in Santa Cruz in 2001, and went on to plored in other Sieh works, including an
earn an M.A. in library and informa- embroidered and painted pieced fabric
tion science from San Jose State Uni- work that depicts the dull gold silhou-
versity in 2008. ette of a doomed battleship in “A Neur-
asthenic, a Playboy, and a Weekend
The exhibition brought the artists to- Warrior Walk into a Bar, Remembering
gether as a result of their independent the Maine” (2014). Another work in the
inquiries for a show at the Funk Center. show depicts a male chastity device (i.e.,
a BDSM sex toy) painted in silhouette
Logistically speaking, showing the over 49 wax-dipped, crocheted granny
bold, space-loving works of the two- squares. That one is called “A New Order
in-one gallery could have resulted in a of Invalids” (2014).
competition for the viewer’s attention.
That was prevented by Assistant Direc- Compared to Sieh, Alex Trimino’s
tor Keidra Navaroli’s expert installation. work is lighter in form as well as spirit.
The layout of the exhibition is a delight Her installation “Totemic Patterns of
to the eye, flowing seamlessly from one Light” (2016) is comprised of color-
artwork to the next in the Funk’s large, ful illuminated neon and fluorescent
L-shaped gallery. tubes that spring like gaudy trees from
the floor of the otherwise unlit gallery.
“Reimagined” pushes the boundar- The luminous limbs of these objects
ies of what can be considered textile art. are partially clothed in crocheted and
Both artists use traditional textile hand- knitted sleeves, wrapped with mul-
working techniques in unexpected ticolored fabric, circumvented with
ways. Trimino produces eccentric ob- peek-a-boo lace. An overhead pro-
jects that combine handicraft with mid- jector at the edge of the gallery sends
20th century technology. an additional pattern of colored light
across the floor and up the wall oppo-
Sieh’s creations illustrate, in her site it, adding to the slightly disorient-
words, “the persistent connections ing effect of the environment.
between masculinity, technology,
and labor.” If contemporary art is meant to stir
opinion and stimulate discussion,
More than 20 feet long, Sieh’s “Con- the current exhibitions at the Foo-
tent Creators and Luxuriated Objects” saner and Funk are best seen with
(2013) pairs the silhouette of an indus- friends. The drive back to Vero will be
trial revolution-era spinning machine anything but dull.
(crocheted in sparkling black VHS tape)
with a hand-painted figure of Freddie "Caminos Transitos/Paths Taken”
Mercury, the Zanzibar-born lead vocal- can be seen at the Foosaner Art Mu-
ist of the rock band Queen. Man and seum through March 13; “Reimagined:
machine are connected by a line of VHS Innovations in Fiber” runs through May
tape that travels from spinning mule to 7 at the Funk Center for Textile Arts. 
the mic in Freddie’s hand.

Why Freddie Mercury? According to



44 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT COVER STORY hill were too dangerous and any addi-
tional distraction at that time could cre-
STOPPING THE BIGGEST GAS LEAK EVER ate an unsafe condition.” Conley was a
BY KAREN WEISE | BLOOMBERG few miles out when O’Connor texted,
instructing him to turn around.

Two days later, Conley again flew to
Aliso, this time on the state’s dime. Con-
ley started flying back and forth down-
wind of the site, taking measurements
and gaining elevation with each pass.

As data populated his screen, he re-
calls thinking, “What the hell is that?”
The levels appeared to be at least 15
times greater than he’d ever observed.
Equipment malfunction? The second
analyzer showed the same readout.
“This isn’t an error,” he concluded. Af-
ter 17 laps, he reached the top of the
plume and headed home.

Based on Conley’s readings, the
state would estimate that in less than
a month, Aliso released more than
68 million pounds of methane. Since
then, it’s leaked 132 million pounds

Steve Conley got the call early on mounted on each Mooney’s right wing A thermal map reveals the more, the state says, based on Conley’s
Nov. 5. A natural gas storage well was suck air into two chemical analyzers methane leak in Aliso Canyon, subsequent flights. That makes Aliso
leaking methane into the air at Aliso stored in the luggage compartment. near Los Angeles. More than potentially the largest-ever single re-
Canyon, near a Los Angeles suburb, lease of methane into the atmosphere
and no one knew just how bad it was The leak had been spewing for about 200 million pounds of the – at least, the largest ever recorded.
– could he get a read on it? two weeks. Southern California Gas potent greenhouse gas have
Co., the subsidiary of Sempra Energy Even as the U.S. pledges to reduce
Conley, an atmospheric scientist and that owns the facility at Aliso Canyon, escaped so far. greenhouse gas emissions, methane
a pilot, rushed to a small airport north- had tried and failed to kill it. leaks large and small are going unad-
east of Sacramento. He’s flown more community. Tim O’Connor, a lawyer dressed.
than 1,500 hours measuring emissions The previous night, homeowners at the Environmental Defense Fund
over oil and gas operations in one of from the nearby neighborhood of Por- (EDF), attended the meeting, and Roughly 95 percent of the natural
his two single-engine Mooneys. Tubes ter Ranch had gathered to rail about feared the leak could be big enough to gas that fuels stove-tops and power
the rotten-egg smell taking over their threaten not only the local community plants is methane. Scientists take
but also the earth’s climate. pains to observe it because while it
doesn’t last in the atmosphere as long
As the Mooney flew closer, O’Connor, as carbon dioxide, it’s a far more potent
who’d hired Conley, phoned Aliso’s on- greenhouse gas while it’s there. Meth-
site incident commander with a heads- ane burns quite cleanly compared with
up about the flight.The SoCalGas staffer coal, but when it escapes into the air,
refused to approve the flyby, O’Connor it has 84 times the global warming im-
says. “They said that the events on the pact as carbon dioxide over 20 years.

When methane leaks, it’s not obvious
like an oil spill. Methane’s invisible and,
for most of its supply chain, has no odor.
That helps explain why there’s been such
a gap in public awareness of what a grow-
ing body of research has found:There are
pervasive, daily methane leaks across the

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 45

INSIGHT COVER STORY

Atmospheric scientist Steve
Conley flying back and forth

downwind of the site.

country’s energy infrastructure that far Porter Ranch parents and integrity at SoCalGas. Minor leaks are Nov. 28, emissions were about 16 per-
outstrip federal estimates. students protest on Dec. 11 routine in the industry. cent higher than he’d measured a few
days before the kill attempt. At its peak,
Aliso’s drawn attention to methane Ranch was just the scrubby foothills The next day, SoCalGas tried to stop Aliso emitted almost 128,000 pounds
like no other emission. It’s releasing in of the Santa Susana mountains, which the leak by using a typical technique of methane an hour, Conley estimates.
an urban area, the one part of the sup- run along the northern edge of the San of forcing a salty fluid down the well
ply chain where methane’s mixed with Fernando Valley. In the late 1930s, an to overpower the upward pressure of On Nov. 19, after another kill at-
sulfurous chemicals so leaks can be de- oil company owned by J. Paul Getty the escaping gas. It didn’t work. So the tempt, SoCalGas announced a Plan B
tected by smell. started drilling for crude among the company called in Boots & Coots, a that may sound familiar from the 2010
ridges. Wells there produced for de- Halliburton subsidiary based in Hous- Deepwater Horizon oil spill – digging
On Dec. 20, EDF released the first cades before depleting the reserves. ton that specializes in wrangling con- a relief well to intercept SS-25 at its
infrared aerial footage of the Aliso leak. trol of leaky wells. base, about 8,600 feet below ground.
The video, taken by O’Connor and a In 1971, SoCalGas bought the Aliso The drilling started on Dec. 4. SoCal-
colleague in a rented Cessna, shows a Canyon site and converted it to stor- Initially, the gas wasn’t spewing Gas said around that time it could take
haunting black cloud streaming end- age for natural gas. SoCalGas uses the directly from the wellhead. Boots & months to complete the task.
lessly from the hillside. Viewed more 115 wells there to inject gas into the Coots determined it was seeping from
than 1.3 million times on YouTube, the same underground field that once held the well’s casing about 500 feet below By the middle of December, real-
viral image shows the threat that has oil. It’s the fifth-largest among about the ground. The gas worked its way up ity was setting in at Porter Ranch that
led thousands of Angelenos to leave 400 such storage facilities nationwide and out into the atmosphere through the leak wouldn’t be plugged anytime
their homes. and supplies 11 million customers the soil. “It was almost like gas was soon. More residents began asking So-
across the Los Angeles basin. Since de- coming up through a sponge and mak- CalGas to pay for temporary housing,
It also exposes a major challenge to velopers built subdivisions starting in ing its way through various cracks and and the company opened an office in
the climate benefits of the country’s the late 1980s, the community peace- natural parts of the geology,” Cho says. a shopping center. Hundreds of people
shift from coal to gas. SoCalGas has fully, if unknowingly, coexisted with the have been showing up each day, and
vowed to mitigate the greenhouse im- subterranean lake of gas. Boots & Coots tried to more force- about 4,460 households are living in
pacts from Aliso, though it hasn’t speci- fully shove brine down SS-25 only to hotels or other short-term accommo-
fied how — or how much it will cost. Then, late in the day on Friday, Oct. discover an ice plug had formed in the dations, at SoCalGas’s expense.
23, workers around Well SS-25 noticed well, complicating access to the leak.
Before there were 30,000 residents the sulfurous smell. At the time, “it was Then, on Nov. 13 – a day, Cho says, that On a Friday evening in mid-January,
living on pleasant streets like Via Bot- not something that was alarming to is “etched in our memory” – another kill hundreds of Porter Ranch residents
ticelli and Vista Grande Way, Porter us,” says Jimmie Cho, senior vice presi- attempt only made matters worse. packed the pews of Shepherd of the
dent for gas operations and systems Hills Church. Onstage, 11 state officials
As Boots & Coots again pushed brine sat at long tables, resembling a mod-
down the shaft, the upward pressure ern-day Last Supper. The state officials
of the leak dramatically overwhelmed attempted to comfort the audience, of-
the downward force of the fluid. fering assurances that the levels of gas
Cho says the brine formed a channel compounds detected in Porter Ranch
through the soil as it came back up to posed no long-term health risks. They
the surface, which created a highway of vowed to hold SoCalGas accountable.
sorts for the liquid – and later gas – to
escape faster. Then homeowners snaked down the
long aisles for a turn at the mic. They
“It went from very diffuse to very fo-
cused,” Cho says. Conley found that by CONTINUED ON PAGE 46

46 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 45 INSIGHT COVER STORY

told stories of headaches and bloody The findings in North Texas’s Barnett ane emissions are as much as 74 per- cover new facilities. About 90 percent
noses, dizziness and nausea, all known shale field, the first basin to widely use cent higher than previous estimates. of emissions come from older sources.
side effects from the smelly chemicals horizontal drilling and hydraulic frac- Regional air quality inspectors visited
added to the methane. turing (fracking) methods, were fright- Aliso in early December and found, Most gas regulation falls to states,
ening and have proven typical. There, in addition to the big leak at SS-25, 15 which generally haven’t focused on
Around 2009, as fracking wells popped researchers measured emissions 90 wells emitting methane. The minor leak detection and prevention. In early
up across the U.S., public debate fo- percent higher than the estimates in the leaks were quickly fixed. February, California proposed rules
cused on concerns over contaminated EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory, and that would require quarterly inspec-
water. In an iconic, if much-disputed, they found that 10 percent of facilities The Environmental Protection Agen- tion of both new and existing gas pro-
scene in the documentary Gasland, accounted for 90 percent of the leaks. cy in August proposed the first federal duction sites, and emergency regula-
filmmaker Josh Fox lights tap water on rules to limit methane leaks from oil tions now mandate daily monitoring
fire. But since then, scientists have be- In California, the state found meth- and gas operations, but they mostly of storage facilities such as Aliso.
gun to fret about how much methane
is escaping into the atmosphere. Too To keep pressure on authorities,
much could counteract the climate ben- EDF has stepped up monitoring. On a
efits of the cleaner-burning gas. Tuesday in January, Bud McCorkle and
Andrew John, of Leak Surveys Inc., took
Early studies relied on theoretical a helicopter up to look for what Mc-
modeling or limited physical mea- Corkle called “a real eyebrow raiser” in
surements. Fracking supporters seized the Barnett shale field to illustrate that
on findings that reported low emis- Aliso is hardly the only trouble spot.
sions, while opponents touted esti-
mates of rates so high that natural gas It didn’t take long for McCorkle to spy
appeared dirtier than coal. a leak.“We’ve got an emission coming off
an unlit flare,” he said.“That single galva-
So in 2012, EDF started the largest- nized stack over there.” On the ground, a
ever series of peer-reviewed studies to man was visible inside the fenced-in site,
measure emissions across the oil and standing next to a white pickup truck.
gas supply chain. It committed $18 He looked up as the helicopter circled
million to fund 16 academic studies. above, seemingly unaware that methane
was escaping nearby.
“One of the biggest questions is, if
you had the wrench and wanted to When McCorkle briefly got a clear infra-
tighten down the leaks, where would red shot, he said the unlit flare “just looks
you start?” says Tom Ryerson, a meth- like a burning cigarette,” a trail of meth-
ane researcher at the National Ocean- ane twisting up into the atmosphere.
ic and Atmospheric Administration.
His work isn’t funded by EDF. California Attorney General Kamala
Harris and a long line of others have

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 47

INSIGHT COVER STORY

sued SoCalGas over the Aliso blowout. believes will cover many of the current total cost could be about $250 million, damage, which the state says it will
Los Angeles prosecutors filed misde- and expected claims. he estimates. That includes roughly require. Buying carbon offsets would
meanor criminal charges against the $115 million to stop the leak and re- cost about $92 million, according to
utility for not immediately reporting In a worst-case scenario, Sempra locate families, $40 million for civil li- Barnes’s calculations. SoCalGas won’t
the leak. SoCalGas’s parent, Sempra could face a bill of as much as $900 mil- abilities, and $11 million in state fines. comment on the liabilities.
Energy, has said it has more than $1 lion, says Brandon Barnes, an energy
billion in insurance coverage that it litigation analyst for Bloomberg. If the One of the biggest expenses could “Our focus is to stop the leak,” Cho
leak is stopped by the end of March, the come from mitigating the climate says. 

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50 Vero Beach 32963 / February 18, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT EDITORIAL

The strange and scary world of negative interest rates

Imagine a bank that pays negative in- securities. By the end of 2015, about a central bank chose to experiment with demand for loans. In practice, there’s
terest. Depositors are actually charged to third of the debt issued by euro zone negative rates before turning to a bond- a risk that the policy might do more
keep their money in an account. Crazy governments had negative yields. That buying program like those used in the harm than good.
as it sounds, several of Europe’s central means investors holding to maturity U.S. and Japan.
banks have cut key interest rates below won’t get all their money back. If banks make more customers pay
zero and kept them there for more than Policy makers in both Europe and to hold their money, cash may go un-
a year. Now Japan is trying it, too. And Banks have been reluctant to pass Japan are trying to prevent a slide into der the mattress instead. Janet Yellen,
some worry that this phenomenon may on negative rates for fear of losing cus- deflation, or a spiral of falling prices the U.S. Federal Reserve chair, said at
spread to our country. Here’s Bloomberg’s tomers, though Julius Baer, a Switzer- that could derail the economic recov- her confirmation hearing in Novem-
explanation of what this all means. ery. The euro zone is also grappling ber 2013 that even a deposit rate that’s
land-based private banking group, has with a shortage of credit and unem- positive but close to zero could disrupt
For some, it’s a bid to reinvigorate an begun to charge large depositors. ployment near its highest level since the money markets that help fund fi-
economy with other options exhausted. the currency bloc was formed in 1999. nancial institutions.
Others want to push foreigners to move THE BACKGROUND
their money somewhere else. Either THE ARGUMENT Two years later, she said that a
way, it’s an unorthodox choice that has Negative interest rates are a sign of change in economic circumstances
distorted financial markets and trig- desperation, a signal that traditional In theory, interest rates below zero could put negative rates “on the ta-
gered warnings that the strategy could policy options have proved ineffective should reduce borrowing costs for ble” in the United States, though she
backfire. If negative interest rates work, and new limits need to be explored. companies and households, driving told Congress last week she thought it
however, they may mark the start of a They punish banks that hoard cash in- wouldn't be necessary.
new era for the world’s central banks. stead of extending loans to businesses
or to weaker lenders. Deutsche Bank economists note
THE SITUATION that negative rates haven’t sparked the
Rates below zero have never been bank runs or cash hoarding some had
The Bank of Japan surprised markets used before in an economy as large as feared, in part because banks haven’t
Jan. 29 by adopting a negative interest- the euro area. While it’s still too early passed them on to their customers.
rate strategy. The move came 1 1/2 to tell if they will work, Draghi said in
years after the European Central Bank January there are “no limits” on what he But there’s still a worry that when
became the first major central bank to will do to meet his mandate. Europe’s banks absorb the cost themselves, it
venture below zero. squeezes the profit margin between
their lending and deposit rates, and
With the fallout limited so far, policy might make them even less willing to
makers are more willing to accept sub- lend. Ever-lower rates also fuel concern
zero rates. The ECB cut a key rate fur- that countries are engaged in a curren-
ther into negative territory Dec. 3, even cy war of competitive devaluations.
though President Mario Draghi earlier
said it had hit the “lower bound.” THE OUTLOOK

The European Central Bank It now When central banks start exploring
charges banks 0.3 percent to hold their strange new worlds, the results aren't al-
cash overnight. Sweden also has nega- ways ideal. A world of negative rates is a
tive rates, Denmark used them to pro- very weird place – one where savers pay
tect its currency’s peg to the euro and borrowers for the privilege of deferring
Switzerland moved its deposit rate be- consumption, and borrowers get com-
low zero for the first time since the 1970s. pensated for bringing spending forward.

Since central banks provide a bench- There is indeed a lower bound to in-
mark for all borrowing costs, negative terest rates – cultural, political, pruden-
rates spread to a range of fixed-income tial – and we're close. For the moment,
we just don't know how close. 