Blast from the past. Nov. 2nd, 2016: Mayor Pam Triolo, “Flips The Switch ON” for City’s new LED street lights.

And just six days after this event the Neighborhood Road Bond went to the voters by referendum. It passed by a “whopping 69 percent” and sealed the fate of two former commissioners in this City of Lake Worth.

Also worth noting, the editor(s) at The Palm Beach Post did not make an endorsement for the City’s Road Bond Referendum on Nov. 8th, 2016.

And in another interesting twist, the editor(s) at the Post did not publish an endorsement for President of the United States either. But the Post did publish full-page ads with the message, “VOTE TRUMP!”

Now to that blast from the past on Nov. 2nd, 2016 when Mayor Triolo, “Flips The Switch ON” for LED street lighting. And. . .

Politics 101, “When you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”.

But sometimes it’s too late to “join ’em” when the train has already left the station.

At the end of this blog post is the video of this public event outside City Hall in early November 2016.

But first, let’s set the stage.

And starring in that video is the former District 2 City commissioner who got booted out of City Hall on March 14th, 2017. You see, Chris McVoy, PhD, was a big critic of fixing the street lighting in the City of Lake Worth for a whole lot of goofy reasons and maybe that was why the editor at The Palm Beach Post called him a “gadfly” in the endorsement for then-Mr. Omari Hardy. Mr. Hardy is now Commissioner Hardy.

And also in the video is former District 4 Commissioner Ryan Maier. Unfortunately for Maier he oftentimes followed the lead of McVoy until he ‘saw the light’ so to speak. But it was too late. The political damage had already been done. Maier opted not to run for re-election.

Also on the March 2017 ballot was the rare “open seat election” and on that ballot was a man named Mr. Herman C. Robinson. Mr. Robinson is now District 4 Commissioner Robinson.

The 2016 Neighborhood Road Bond result:

Following the vote Rick Christie, the editor at the Post wrote, “Lake Worth is poised for some major upgrades following residents’ approval — by a whopping 69 percent. . .”

And then in 2017 when Chris McVoy, PhD, ran
for re-election the voters said, “No”.

Mr. Herman Robinson handily won the “open seat election”. The ballot “Question” was to raise terms for elected officials from two to three year terms. It passed quite convincingly.

What follows is a blog post from two years ago of the event outside City Hall.

An event held just six days prior to the Neighborhood Road Bond referendum on Nov. 8th, 2016.

Without further ado. . .


It was exciting to be there last Tuesday and watch this event. The City continues to get rave reviews and kudos for the new LED lighting from outside the City limits as well. Along with this being a celebration, a victory lap if you will, there were a few comedic moments as well for those of you following this situation closely.

All of the elected’s showed up which was nice to see. Early on in the process back in 2014 to fix the street lighting, at the urging of neighborhoods and PBSO for public safety reasons, a few vociferously criticized the City with much the same complaints you hear now about the Neighborhood Road Bond referendum next Tuesday.

Commissioner Chris McVoy was one of those critics and after the lights began to be installed throughout the City came to realize he made a very bad political decision and started back-pedaling so fast he left a vapor trail. Now McVoy is a big fan and thinks these LED lights are the best thing, well, since sliced bread.

It was quite funny to watch him at the City’s “Flipping Of The Switch” trying to get in front of the cameras and get noticed. If the referendum passes next Tuesday he’ll do much the same thing at another press conference. He’ll try to take credit for fixing our roads as well.

But that’s politics. Just the way it is.

The cavalry arrived in the College Park neighborhood last month [Oct. 2016] to replace lighting with new LED’s.

Utility worker descends after replacing a very old, ‘dead’ incandescent. He was very courteous and told me everyone is very pleased with the new LED lights.

Interestingly, I don’t recall any of those complaints when all the roads and sidewalks were replaced around Sunset Park on North D Street two years ago [in 2014].

Hope you enjoyed this blast from the past.

Enjoy the video!

[Chris McVoy, PhD, is wearing the light-blue shirt and blue jeans. Ryan Maier the dark suit and hair bun.]