Indiantown is paving the road forward for more growth with the creation of the Economic Council of Indiantown. Council Chairwoman Danielle Williamson says the group is there for the community.
"It basically exists to help navigate Indiantown's long-term growth in a responsible way. So our focus is really on strategic priorities that our community needs," she said.
Danielle expressed a village-wide grief of commutes. I've been an Indiantown resident my entire life and so I've been subjected to commute for work.
"I've had to commute for doctor's appointments. I think that many or a majority of the residents have to travel just like I do and so the goal is to bring businesses and services here that we need immediately," she said.
Part of their mission, Danielle says, is to keep growth responsible.
"At the same time though, we want to make sure that we're committed to protecting the rural identity of Indiantown and the open spaces that it offers and the agriculture and the small town feel and character that's unique to Indiantown. So finding that balance is extremely important," she said.
First up on the docket, medical services.
"Essential businesses like grocery stores are definitely important. Health care, I mean you can't go to a cardiologist here in town. You can't go to a dermatologist. You can't send your kid to the orthodontist here. Everything is a commute," she said.
The council also has eyes on bringing a bit of fun to the community.
"There's nothing really here on the weekends for the kids and you know school's out on the weekends and it's family time so you know maybe like a rec center or somewhere that the kids can go if the weather's bad to play some games with their friends," she said.
Danielle assured that the community's fingerprints will be all over the council's work.
"Those people's voices are very important to us. They live here. They're affected and their voices should be heard. Businesses that are already here are important too because the businesses have needs too. If I want to have my menus printed, I have to go into Stuart to Office Depot. If there's other businesses that are dealing with the same issues as I am, we need to all come together and figure out where these voids are that we can fill locally," she said.
Why it all matters? To help Indiantown's economy.
"Like any economy, you want to keep your dollars local and as it sits right now with people commuting out of town, our local economy isn't really stimulated by the money people are spending. So if we can do that here, we're going to create more jobs. We're going to have more successful businesses. There's going to be more people to work in those jobs here. We have a new housing development that's currently being built that's going to provide homes for these workers," she said.