Street Painting Festival, Neighborhood Road Bond, and about Community Development Block Grant funding too.

First a question, since when did road construction not cause at least some ‘pain’ for the public?

FYI: Fortunately for our City of Lake Worth’s management, staff, and Ben Kerr too, the City’s public information officer — the ones who would be left to explain all the public confusion — the editor(s) at The Palm Beach Post read the blog post below and ‘tweaked’ the story that appeared in last week’s Sunday edition. The story has been republished again today, Sunday, Jan. 28th.

However, the short quote by City Manager Michael Bornstein that would have greatly helped the public understand the issues of road repairs and road construction was not added to the story by beat reporter Kevin Thompson. Very unfortunate. To see Bornstein’s quote please continue reading.

Here is the headline that originally appeared in the online edition:

“How will Lake Worth’s road repairs affect street painting festival?”

Read more about open-ended questions in headlines below. The editor changed that headline to read this way in the print edition last Sunday:

“Lake Worth road project to cause ‘pain’ ”

Here is how the headlines appears today, Sunday, Jan. 28th:

“Lake Worth’s $40M roads project will not affect street painting festival”

Once again, note the editor eliminated the open-ended question.* But since when did road construction not cause at least some ‘pain’ for the public, e.g., dust and noise? I know. It’s just absurd.

Anyhow, here is the original blog post, the one that got so much attention in the first place:

Here’s another quote from that story in the online edition in reference to Lake Worth Commissioner Omari Hardy’s powerful message to the community at the City Commission meeting last Tuesday, January 16th:

Commissioner Omari Hardy said the project [Neighborhood Road Bond] will transform Lake Worth.

Below is another excerpt, but this one is from the entire quote by Commissioner Hardy last Tuesday, the part that didn’t get referenced in the Post:

I want to thank the commissioners who have been sitting on this dais longer than I have for having the courage to go for this [Neighborhood Road Bond] twice. And I want to thank the voters who approved this. Because this is going to really going to transform our City.

The reporter could have mentioned that Commissioner Hardy thanked the voters of this City. And Hardy also thanked Mayor Pam Triolo and commissioners Scott Maxwell and Andy Amoroso too for all their hard work, courage, and determination. But this is election season and guess the reporter is just trying to be fair.

What Commissioner Hardy was referring to in the quote above is that the first Neighborhood Road Bond referendum failed in August 2014 by just 25 votes. But Triolo, Maxwell, and Amoroso didn’t give up — despite the objections of a former commissioner with a PhD — the majority proceeded with a second referendum in November 2016. That second referendum passed by a huge margin prompting the editor at the Post to write,

“Lake Worth is poised for some major upgrades following residents’ approval — by a whopping 69 percent [emphasis added] — of a $40 million road repair bond. . .”

Whilst on topic, meet the
City of Lake Worth’s City Commission:

Flanking Mayor Pam Triolo are District 2 Commissioner Omari Hardy (left) and District 4 Commissioner Herman C. Robinson (they replaced Chris McVoy, Phd, and Mr. Ryan Maier, respectively,
in the March 2017 elections):

Next to Commissioner Hardy is Vice Mayor and District 1 Commissioner Scott Maxwell. District 3 Commissioner Andy Amoroso (also Vice Mayor Pro Tem) is next to Commissioner Robinson.

Below is the entire quote by Commissioner Hardy (and also below is the video).

In the story by beat reporter Kevin Thompson about this City Commission meeting last Tuesday is more very important information that should have been included in the Post article but was not reported. Here’s a quote by City Manager Michael Bornstein from the meeting:

Just a point of clarification and I hope people understand, 2nd Avenue South is not part of the Neighborhood Road Program. It’s not part of the bond issue.

The 2nd Ave. South project will be done using Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money. Not money from the Neighborhood Road Bond! Please spread the word so no one in the public is confused about what is actually happening here in this City.

Anyhow, in this latest endeavor by the Post’s beat reporter about the upcoming Street Painting Festival, the Neighborhood Road Bond, “road repairs” and “when work would start on 2nd Avenue South” is this excerpt that needs to be clarified for the public as well. Here’s another excerpt from the story in the Post:

[P]art of the discussion of Brian Shields’ 4-minute update on the city’s mega project that will likely cause some frustration and disruption on the roads in 2018.

The beat reporter is referring to item ‘D’ on the City Commission agenda last Tuesday, “Update of Neighborhood Road Program by Brian Shields”. That would be Water Utility Director Brian Shields, P.E. who gave this presentation. Note the reporter references “Shields’ 4-minute update”.

This ‘4-minute update’ was actually a bit longer than four (4) minutes. It lasted 15 minutes and 35 seconds!

This Neighborhood Road Program update to the City Commission also included information provided by Jamie Brown, the Director of Public Services about the 2nd Ave. South CDBG project and the upcoming Street Painting Festival as well. All very important information you can watch for yourself in the video below.

Without further ado. . .

The full quote by Lake Worth Commissioner Omari Hardy and the video of that ‘4-minute update’ that was actually almost sixteen (16) minutes long.

“You [Commissioner Hardy addressing Water Utility Dir. Brian Shields] and the rest of the team [Public Services Dir. Jamie Brown et al.] are doing a really fantastic job. There might have been some disconnects here and there but I think overall you guys are doing an amazing job and I’m really glad that you’re on board while we’re going through this.
     I want to thank the commissioners who have been sitting on this dais longer than I have for having the courage to go for this twice. And I want to thank the voters who approved this. Because this is really going to transform our City.
     We talk about ‘curb appeal’ all the time. The street is the part that we have ownership of and we’re finally taking responsibility for that. So I appreciate everybody who was involved with the decision-making in this process and I appreciate all you doing such a great job in the execution of it.”

Hope you enjoy the video and share this information with all your friends and neighbors!

In conclusion, as far as the headline in the Post, “How will Lake Worth’s road repairs affect street painting festival?”, in the video above at the 50:15 mark City Manager Michael Bornstein sums it all up quite well about the Neighborhood Road Bond and CDBG money, two very different funding sources for infrastructure projects.

Unfortunately, however, a very short quote by Bornstein at the City Commission meeting this week was not cited in Kevin Thompson’s story:

Just a point of clarification and I hope people understand, 2nd Avenue South is not part of the Neighborhood Road Program. It’s not part of the bond issue.

*Note that it’s not proper journalism — or even proper editing — to use open-ended questions in a headline. For example, there’s this very unfortunate headline from a Post Sunday edition a few years back: “Could riot happen here?”