A couple quick up-dates...

This has been a busy week for me Lake Worth-wise, as well as with work.

I spent much of today taking pictures of landscaping treatments that are tolerant of salt spray. In doing so, I was introduced to many lushly landscaped properties on Palm Beach - gorgeous tropical environments. If you haven't been on the island recently, you may want to go to experience the contrasts that I witnessed just passing through. Of course their local government resources are much greater than ours and driving through the Town you are continually reminded of that. During the time that I was there today, I saw at least three different parking enforcement vehicles, tickets placed on many cars, heavy landscaping debris pick-up going on in three different parts of the Town, police cars at every major entrance to the island and very visible along the major thoroughfares, tree trimming crews taking care of public trees, etc.

I guess that's how the other .036% of the population lives.

We had the CRA budget workshop meeting on Monday night which was very productive. I thought it was interesting that as the meeting adjourned sometime after nine - my perception was that it was a short meeting. Such is my frame of reference from P&Z meetings while on that board.

Tuesday we had the City Commission meeting which I had planned to listen to from my home while catching up on various work related items. It turns out that the audio stream did not work for me that night. However, I heard others didn't have a problem. I've had issues with browsers recently and am back to using Firefox 3 - the latest release. I have never been able to directly access the audio stream from the City with Firefox - I always have to use Internet Explorer. In the process of sorting things out, I deleted IE 7. That solved the conflicts that I was having with Firefox, but now can't access the stream using the IE6 I still had on my computer. So, if anyone has a clue on how I can get that working again, I would like to chat with you about it.

The big news this week is that the final report on the casino building is out. The Lake Worth Herald claims that the building is unsafe. Another "media" (eh hem) outlet of course claims that all that is needed is maintenance ($$?) and that the public is safe. I have not seen a copy of the report yet, so I will refrain from offering an opinion. (I will try to get one tomorrow and review it here over the weekend) The only thing that I will say is that the structural integrity of concrete buildings on the ocean do not get better over time and do not "heal themselves." After three structural reports all saying that there are structural problems with the building, you would have to believe that there is fire where there is smoke. The real questions will come down to is the general public at risk, how much money would the building require, how extensive and intrusive would restoration be to commercial operations there, over what period of time and, most importantly, WHAT WOULD WE REALLY HAVE ONCE THE WORK IS FINISHED?

Last night, the Planning and Zoning, Historic Resource Preservation Board acted on the requests by the owner of the Gulfstream hotel. They, nearly unanimously (Ron Exline voted "no" on the historic preservation items), approved the modifications to the existing approval so that an interim phase could go forward without construction of the larger, new building on the western half of the property. In its place would be a tennis pro shop, four tennis courts and a surface parking lot. Lisa Maxwell asked some good questions regarding the storm drainage situation in the area and some additional conditions made their way to the final motion.

Unfortunately, this may be on a future City Commission agenda as a litigant was in the audience. The expectation is that he will appeal this decision to the City Commission, as he has with previous decisions, and carry those into the courtroom. It is really unfortunate that the community is denied use and improvement of this facility in the meantime - it is a historic signature hotel property on our waterfront. But for these legal challenges, things could be moving ahead more quickly.

Just tonight, the CRA had its joint meeting with the City Commission to review the CRA budget and priorities. Commissioner Lowe did not attend and Commissioner Jennings arrived later to the meeting. It might be a good idea to listen to this when the audio is available on the web. I will provide a link. I responded to Commissioner Jennings call for an emphasis on very low and low income housing and to Commissioner Golden's admonition that members of the CRA speak for the board when they talk, not just their own opinion. You really need to hear the exchange to get the full affect.

Thanks for visiting - readership continues to be high and I appreciate the opportunity to help keep you informed.