Very important public meeting tomorrow at the Lake Worth City Commission.

The long-awaited Casino Complex and Beach presentation by CPZ Architects will be held at Lake Worth City Hall tomorrow night and is open to the public. The Commission meeting begins at 6:00. However, the Casino presentation is late in the agenda,

Item 12B: “Presentation of Conceptual Design Concepts for the Lake Worth Casino Beach Complex Improvements.”

See the summary of this agenda item
at the end of this blog post.

If this information makes anyone upset then medical marijuana may be the answer. In the meantime, please try and refrain from writing any more silly Letters to the Editor(s) at the Post because he/she/they sitting in their plush offices cannot help you. Remember, this next meeting is just another in what will be many more steps.

For those of you following this process, and appreciate all the hard work being done, consider trying this approach: contact one or more of your elected leaders and ask how you can help. I know, a radical idea.

This public meeting coming up will be addressing public input from the public charrette held last April to finally fix all the design problems and planning deficiencies at the Beach and Casino complex going back to 2008–2010 (click on this link to learn more, which includes a timeline).

For more background on this important topic, an editorial in the Herald titled, “Stop the bleeding”.

This Herald editorial came out last year just when it looked like the City was going to cave once again and cater to that small cabal with loud voices who wanted ‘their pool’ fixed and the City staff — who seemed unable to ignore that small, shrill crowd — well, one could say the editor at The Lake Worth Herald had enough of all this nonsense:

“It is imperative they [children and young adults] learn to swim.” And. . .

“Lake Worth needs a pool, but . . .
also need some Staffers with some creativity.”

The editor at the Herald nails it. Yes. Our City does need a municipal pool. But we don’t need one at the Beach to teach children how to swim.

I waited a long time for this day last year. After 6+ months pounding away explaining why constructing another pool at our Beach is a bad idea, then comes along an editorial in the Herald. Here are three excerpts:


It has become evident over the last dozen or so years, Lake Worth can’t figure out how to make a pool pay for itself, or even come close, at the beach.
     Lake Worth needs a pool, not necessarily an Olympic pool, but at least one big enough to serve the community and teach children how to swim. There are plenty of opportunities for children to come into contact with water in Lake Worth. It is imperative they learn to swim.
     In years past, Lake Worth attracted swim teams from colleges to the area to train in the winter, defraying some of the expense of having a pool. Lake Worth has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair, paint and stripe the pool on the promise of attracting swim teams again. It isn’t going to happen, that ship has sailed.


and. . .


     Lake Worth does have some under-utilized parks with enough space to accommodate an aquatic center and should consider investing in a pool somewhere other than the beach. Bryant Park has space, but that would raise the ire of those who walk their dogs in the park. What is more important, dogs or children?
     What about Sunset Ridge Park, there might be enough space there too.
     Go to the north end of the city, there sits numerous baseball and softball fields, some of which are never or seldom used. Take PONY field for example, it is in shambles and occupies a large portion of the park area.


and. . .


     Stop the bleeding.
     Lake Worth needs a pool, but they also need some Staffers with some creativity. How many times do we have to fail at the same thing before we realize it is the taxpayers who suffer in other areas so we can keep failing?
     If staff won’t get creative, maybe the electeds should take take the wheel and not just take staff’s worn out ideas that have proven time and again to be extremely expensive to the taxpayer.

Also mentioned in the Herald editorial is the oft-mentioned term “White Elephant” vis-à-vis our municipal pool at the Beach:

Why is it so many who never used the pool suddenly want to “save the pool” now? And if a pool at the Beach is so important to some former electeds, then why did they shut it down in 2010?

Summary. Agenda item 12B tomorrow at City Commission:

Presentation of Conceptual Design Concepts for the Lake Worth Casino Beach Complex Improvements.

Summary:

The City issued a Request for Qualifications (No. 17-305) for the Lake Worth Beach Complex Conceptual Plans Design and subsequently awarded the contract to CPZ Architects Inc... CPZ Architects was tasked with creating several design concepts that include probable construction cost estimates that address deficiencies at the Casino Building, address parking and the municipal pool.

Background and Justification:

In April 2016, the City Commission entered into an Interlocal Agreement with Palm Beach County and the School District of Palm Beach County to support a one-cent infrastructure surtax. In November 2016, the one cent sales tax was approved by 56.63% of the voters of Palm Beach County. As a result, the City will receive approximately $21,675,296 million dollars over a 10-year period to identify and complete projects that meet the surtax ordinance criteria. The surtax funds can be used by the City to acquire, finance, plan, construct, reconstruct, renovate and improve needed infrastructure such as property, buildings, equipment, roads, bridges, sidewalks, streetlights, signalization, parks, recreational facilities, drainage, wastewater facilities, and public safety vehicles and equipment that all provide a public purpose and benefit for a minimum of five years.

City Commission approved the issuance of a Request for Qualifications (No. 17-305) for the Lake Worth Beach Complex Conceptual Plans Design and subsequently awarded the contract to CPZ Architects Inc. CPZ Architects was tasked with creating several design concepts that include probable construction cost estimates that address deficiencies at the Casino Building, address parking and the municipal pool. Use of the City’s surtax allocation was previously identified as a possible source of funding for the potential improvements at the Beach Complex.


End of summary.