Saturday, July 7, 2018

Sad. Just when the Letters to the Editor published in The Palm Beach Post were improving in quality. . .


. . . after Gatehouse Media took over the Post on May 1st.


Well, things have gone downhill and fast
on the editorial page in the Post.


It must be the editor(s) at the Post are not receiving enough quality Letters to the Editor (LTE) to fill up the entire editorial page. So, for example, if you have something positive to write about the little City of Lake Worth click on this link to learn how to write and submit an LTE. If you follow the instructions it will only take 5–10 minutes and if you hurry you can make this week’s Sunday print edition!


[PLEASE NOTE: You can write and submit an LTE today and have it published in the Post for Sunday but you have to hurry and it’s OK to write nice things! Write and submit your letter so the editor has enough time to verify all the required information which should only take a few moments.]

Why write and submit a quality Letter to the Editor?

Somehow this nonsense got published, making it past the editorial board and making the paper over the July 4th weekend with the silly cliche of a headline, “Lake Worth leaders should listen to people” which begs the question which ‘people’ aren’t being listened to and which particular ‘leaders’* aren’t listening? Here’s a short excerpt which sums that letter up:


A photograph is worth a 1,000 words [another cliche], as to what our beach and pool used to look like back in the 1930s and ’40s, and could look like again, if only our current mayor and commissioners [emphasis added] would start listening to the people . . . The mayor says we don’t have the money to fix it ourselves, which to me is ludicrous.


What is truly ludicrous is the letter writer goes on to decry “public-private partnerships”. Ironically, if the 2014 “Invitation To Negotiate” (see below) was allowed to play out the letter writer could have been swimming on the Fourth of July in a new pool at the Lake Worth Beach.

Why was that ITN issued four years ago? Because the City didn’t have the money to fix all the problems at the Beach and was looking for help from the private sector.

It’s not the fault of “our current mayor and commissioners” the municipal pool was closed down for good in 2017. Click on this link to find out which former mayor and commissioners got us into this terrible mess.


Back in 2010 the pool was shut down by a previous administration because there was no money in the City budget to keep it open.

Beginning in 2011 pressure was put on the ‘current’ City Commission to come up with a plan to re-open the pool.

One possibility was reaching out to the private sector:

ITN 14-211 was issued in Sept. 2014: Once again, the pool was shut down in 2010. City Mgr. Michael Bornstein was hired in April 2012. Question for the critics of the ‘current mayor and commissioners’: Why didn’t you come up with a better plan to ‘fix’ the pool between 2010 and 2014?


*To contact your ‘current leaders’ in the City of Lake Worth it’s actually quite easy. Just click on this link. Now here’s an idea! Contact your ‘current leaders’ and ask what you can do to help improve our little City of Lake Worth.