Photo: AFP
There are three Indian River County Commission races in the primary and two will be decided August 20th, including the race for District 1 where incumbent Commissioner Susan Adams is facing a challenge from Tim Borden. They are both Republicans with no other candidates running, so it's open to all voters.
Three Republicans are running in another open primary, for District 3. The incumbent is Joe Earman, a retired firefighter with Indian River County Fire Rescue, who worked his way up to Captain. He says that while the county is growing, it's not growing unchecked.
"The growth that we have, and you can't stop growth and you really shouldn't, but you need to manage your growth properly. And we are really taking the time and studying it and working with the developers that come in, that are pretty much ready to put a shovel in the ground."
Earman says the Commission recently finished a "visioning process," consisting of re-evaluating planning and zoning and other things.
Challenger Stephen Hume is an Air Force veteran who chairs the Veterans Council of Indian River County and is a professor at Indian River State College. He wants to develop a strategic plan to, in Hume's words, give the county direction and purpose.
"There's just a whole bunch of different things that have been put on the back burner and haven't been done to correctly address the issues that we have here, whether it be that we're 3 fire stations short. We're not going to have enough middle schools for my child once he gets to middle school, for the growth of the community we have right now."
He says the county's roadways are getting too congested and blames that on the Commission for not having a plan prior to the growth that the county is now experiencing.
David Shaw is the third candidate in this race and we did not hear back from him.
While the primaries in Districts 1 and 3 are open to all voters, District 5 is different. This is a Republican primary with two candidates, but with a write-in candidate coming into play in November, only Republicans can vote in the primary.
Incumbent Laura Moss says that "write-in" is not a true candidate and blames her challenger Tracey Zudans, a Vero Beach City Council member. Moss is a former Vero Beach Mayor who takes credit for the city's sale of its electric utility to FPL. She had previously chaired the City of Vero Beach's Utilities Commission. Moss acknowledges that residents are concerned about the county growing too much, too fast...
"I would even support taking a hiatus for a period of time. We are, by the way, engaging in a strategic plan and many other plans. We have a new County Administrator and he's an Army Ranger, so all these plans and studies will actually be implemented. God bless him."
Zudans did not respond to our request for an interview.
There are also two Indian River County School Board races.
In District 3, incumbent and Vice Chair Peggy Jones faces Robert MacCallum. And in District 5, incumbent Kevin McDonald faces a challenge from David Dyer.
County Tax Collector Carole Jean Jordan faces a challenge from fellow Republican Brenda Bradley and there is a GOP primary for Sheriff, with incumbent Sheriff Eric Flowers being challenged by Keith Touchberry and Milo Thornton. A write-in candidate keeps that primary closed to voters other than Republicans.