Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Tuesday, October 6, 2026Official site

The Martin County Board of County Commissioners held a joint meeting with the City of Stuart, School Board, and Village of Indiantown to discuss infrastructure projects, environmental updates, and growth trends.

About this meeting

Government Body
Board of County Commissioners
Meeting Type
Board Of County Commissioners
Location
Martin County, FL
Meeting Date
October 6, 2026

Published excerpts

Only published remarks appear here. The full transcript is not published.

35 sections (from 37 segments)

0:24•Sarah Heard

Let's start with a roll call. We'll start with the school board. Please identify yourselves, starting with Mr. George.

0:49•Sarah Heard

Phyllis Waters-Brown, mayor of Indian Town.

1:02•J. Blake Capps

Blake Capps, Martin County Commission, District 3.

1:12•Stacey Hetherington

Good morning. Stacey Hetherington, District 2, County Commission.

1:38 – 1:52•Sarah Heard

Thank you. We'll begin with public comment. Please join us at the podium up here. You will each have three minutes to address us. The first request to speak form I have is from Alexia Haas, followed by Kelly Riboto.

4:32•Sarah Heard

Thank you. Alexia Haas is next, followed by Iris Haas.

5:52•Sarah Heard

Thank you. Iris Haas is next, followed by either Star or Stan Kellner.

9:32•Sarah Heard

Thank you. Mr. Kellner is next, followed by Gary Earler.

11:05•Sarah Heard

Thank you. Gary Erler is next, followed by Andrea Horst.

13:12•Sarah Heard

Andrea Horst is next, followed by Kendall George.

15:19•Sarah Heard

Thank you. Patricia Melanes is next, followed by Christian Melanes.

16:18 – 16:40•Sarah Heard

Thank you. Patricia Milanes is next. And Ms. Milanes is the last request to speak for my half. Eric Barnes is next.

18:57•Sarah Heard

Thank you. Would anyone else from the public like to address us? We'll move on to our agenda item number A, which is the County Public Works Project.

24:40 – 25:21•J. Blake Capps

Yes, the light at Cross Rip Street, Hobesown, we're at 90% design. Can you give me an idea on when we might actually have the light? I've heard that once everything is in place, there's like a nine-month wait on the mast arms that go over the road. that those are on backlog. And so that's a very significant delay right there. But can you give a little more detail on when we might expect to actually have that light? Because there are a lot of accidents at that intersection, as you know.

25:55•J. Blake Capps

And then one other thing, I don't know if everyone knows, but we had a collision of a car and a train there about a month ago.

26:06•Sarah Heard

Any other questions? Then we will proceed with John Mayle, our Environmental Resource Administrator.

33:39•Sarah Heard

Thank you very much. We will move on to the City of Stewart's Utilities and Engineering Projects.

39:06 – 39:27•Sarah Heard

Any questions for Mr. Kunin? I don't see any. Thank you. And for the record, the Village of Indian Town Council Member Hernandez has joined us. Next, we will hear from the Village of Indian Town, from Patrick Nolan, about Village Utilities and Public Works update.

45:06 – 45:17•Sarah Heard

Any further questions? I don't see any. Thanks, Mr. Nolan. Next is the report from the school district facilities capital projects update from Mark Sechrist.

47:44•Sarah Heard

And now we're going to get a pre-K programs overview.

54:14•Sarah Heard

Any questions for Ms. Gilbride? I'm sure she can answer anything. I feel like we should clap.

54:36•Edward V. Ciampi

Thank you. Don, get her resume. Sorry. Did I say that out loud? Sorry.

54:46•Sarah Heard

Next, we'll move on to county and village growth and development updates. Ms. Lovelady will present the county's growth and development updates.

55:17•Stacey Hetherington

They moved down just a little bit in the later years.

56:33 – 56:45•Sarah Heard

Questions for Ms. Lovelady? I don't see any. Thank you. We'll now move to Lucia Mendoza from Indiantown.

1:10:21•Sarah Heard

But that limit is because of water capacity, not school.

1:10:47•Sarah Heard

Ms. Lovelady, would you like to add anything?

1:12:08 – 1:12:28•J. Blake Capps

Commissioner Capps. So can anyone tell us a little bit about the timetable for resolving the water capacity issues, and then also how much development is in the pipeline that's actually being held up because of water capacity problems?

1:17:52 – 1:21:40•Edward V. Ciampi

Thank you. This is an issue that has been worked on. We had a presentation at the county. I completely understand what they're saying. It gets a little more complicated, not based exclusively on what the past experiences were on that roadway. The uniform traffic code requires certain things that even if those of us that are in the position to make Decisions on this would like it to be that way there's certain legal ramifications and qualifications that need to be met Every set of circumstance is different. I was thinking as these folks were speaking some of them I've had the opportunity to spe

1:23:37 – 1:25:05•Edward V. Ciampi

Thank you. Just to follow up, we did have it as an agenda item. We had our traffic folks come. I don't believe it was hearsay, but I'll have them come again. We did offer at the meeting, you can go back and watch the video, I did request that the same presentation that was made at our meeting be made to the school board and made to the PTA or the administration at the school. I don't know if that has taken place. If there was a time frame for that, I had requested that it be done immediately. So I'm not looking to make excuses. My nieces went there. A lot of my friends' kids go there. I think

1:25:09•J. Blake Capps

Has our county engineer come to the school board to make the same presentation yet? No. That might be a good starting point. You know, we could get that on your agenda.

1:26:10•Sarah Heard

That sounds good. We have reached the end of our agenda. Councilwoman Hernandez.

1:28:31 – 1:28:46•Sarah Heard

Any further comments from school board members? Village of Indiantown. City of Stuart. Commissioner Hetherington. I'll go at the end. Oh, sorry. Commissioner Matheson.

1:31:32 – 1:34:22•Edward V. Ciampi

I can't address the Stuart Middle School, but I can address Charlie Layton Park. That park and the boat ramp there has been in a process of the county redoing or rehabilitating all of our boat ramps. There is obviously a lot of conversation on social media. The spots were 48 feet. the ones that were reconstructed and restriped at 48 feet. We've heard that the average truck and trailer is about 45 feet. There were a couple of examples that were listed where someone had a triple axle trailer and a large truck that was pulling it. We have heard those requests. The reason we didn't address it imme

1:35:32 – 1:37:50•Stacey Hetherington

As many of you know, this will be my very last joint meeting joining you as District 2 County Commissioner. And I want to say what an honor and privilege it has been as I'm nearing this eight years of public service. It's really been an honor and privilege to serve the community that I grew up in, was born and raised in. And I hope that we have made a lot of accomplishments in District 2. We've worked really hard. And I would like to say that we've left the district better than we found it. And I want to say what a pleasure it's been to work with my colleagues here at the county. And I expect

These excerpts are remarks by officials whose identity a person confirmed, from a transcript generated automatically from the official public meeting video and presented unedited. Accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.