INDIAN RIVER SHORES — The very end of Fred Tuerk Drive, past the bend where the road turns from east-west to north-south heading to Bee Gum Point and the back entrance to John’s Island, is now called “Colonel Jack Mitchell Way.” The Indian River Shores Town Council honored Mitchell with a surprise proclamation last week and unveiled the John’s Island-style street sign.
Mitchell, after his 30-year career in the U.S. Air Force, came to town in 1971 and worked for E. Llwyd Ecclestone, the founder of John’s Island, and helped to get the development started. He then became a resident and has remained an active citizen of the town for more than four decades, most recently serving as vice chairman of the Planning, Zoning and Variance Board.
Mitchell is the senior member of the staff at John’s Island Real Estate Company and the “resident historian.”
The proclamation – awarded at the Feb. 23 council meeting – recognizes Mitchell for “a steady line of communication regarding Town activities.”
“There has not been a more faithful resident who attends nearly every meeting of the Town Council and who provides invaluable input and much appreciated insight to the Town,” the proclamation continued.
“He’s been a real motivator of trying to find people to run, actively seeking candidates for town council and for our committees,” said Mayor Tom Cadden, who headed the effort to honor Mitchell. “He’s done everything in his power to preserve the ambiance of our little town which we all love.”
Mitchell never hesitates to take the Shores Town Council to task when he feels passionately about an issue. He was adamant about the town receiving substantial recognition in the naming of the Indian River Land Trust Bee Gum Point nature preserve project and, due largely to his insistence, Indian River Shores indeed ended up in a prominent place on the signage.
Apart from his civic and political involvement, Mitchell served as a director on the board of the VNA Hospice Foundation and the Moffit Cancer Center Research Institute.
Mitchell, known for his dry wit, joked that such honors are usually only bestowed when an elder of the town is seen as failing in health. He said he “didn’t know he had been looking that bad.”