MARK SCHUMANN

In the face of the Indian River County Commission’s refusal to participate in a regional effort to address the Lagoon crisis, four municipalities – Sebastian, Fellsmere, Indian River Shores and Vero Beach – are banded together to seek representation on the new Indian River Lagoon Council.

The four cities have created an interlocal agreement that will enable them to form the Indian River County Lagoon Coalition. The four cities next plan to request a shared seat on the Lagoon Council, formed earlier this year when Volusia, Brevard, Saint Lucie and Martin Counties, along with the Saint Johns and South Florida Water Management Districts and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, agreed two work together to coordinate efforts to save the Lagoon.

Bowing to pressure from Commissioner Bob Solari, the Indian River County Commission is refusing to participate in the regional Lagoon Council. Solari recently said that when he drove home from the organizational meeting of the Lagoon Council we thought he would have to pull his car to the side of the road “and puke.”

Solari objects to voting participate by the three state agencies, arguing that their involvement at a voting level violates the concept of representative government.