A great champion of Port St. John, Maureen Rupe, passed away on Thursday, May 14 at 1:35 p.m. She passed without pain.
Maureen was already a member of the Port St. John Homeowners Association when I joined and we became friends. She was a force in stopping the county from forcing a sewer system into the PSJ area west of the railroad tracks, a move that would have destroyed home values for the people owning homes at that time - a $20,000 expense when the average home price was around $55,000.
Maureen spent decades advocating for PSJ, the environment and social justice. She attended meetings all over the county and some outside the county to represent our community and of course, environmental issues. She stopped developers’ bulldozers from burying threatened and endangered species in property south of the Winn Dixie plaza, on the land that eventually became Verona just north on Grissom Pkwy., and even in the Enchanted Forest Sanctuary.
She lobbied for Grissom Pkwy. to connect north and south of Port St. John, and years later for Golfview Ave. to connect south so residents west of I-95 had a second egress route in emergencies.
She wrote several articles for Happenings when issues affected our community. In June, 2005, her regular Good Day column was born. Until this past year, I believe she only missed two months in two decades.
Among her many passions and projects, she was President of Partnership for a Sustainable Future, League of Women Voters of the Space Coast, Parrish Hospital Board of Directors, Space Coast Progressive Alliance, The Friends of Enchanted Forest, Inc. and Brevard Nature Alliance. She campaigned for the self-imposed tax to fund the PSJ Community Center, recreational facilities and the purchase of the land that became Fay Lake Wilderness Park. That MSTU served as a model for Brevard County Parks referendums.