Hear Ye. Hear Ye. Public notice published in The Palm Beach Post.

FYI: The blog post below is a lot more that just about elections. If you’ve ever wondered about the walled City of Atlantis near John Prince Park below is lots of information including an upcoming event next Saturday called “A Whole New World” (with or without walls?), a map showing where Atlantis is, and about chocolate too. Yes. Chocolate.

Enjoy!

2019: Municipal elections in
City of Atlantis.

Three seats on the City Council in the City of Atlantis are up for election on March 12th, 2019.

An excerpt from the “Notice of Municipal Election” is below, published on December 15th.

Worth noting before we proceed: Atlantis City Hall and the Atlantis Police Dept. are both located at 260 Orange Tree Drive. However, when you Google that address it comes up as “Lake Worth”. The ‘Lake Worth’ is just the mailing address, not the physical location. Hope that clears things up.

Briefly, just by coincidence, coming up on January 12th from 1:00–4:00 is an event on the theme “A Whole New World”. This fundraiser is being held in the City of Atlantis — a city protected by walls — but inside those walls will be a cash prize, raffles, and wonderful baskets.

This “Great Holiday Gift” only costs $50 and one needs to RSVP by January 5th [TODAY!]. For more details click on this link.

And also interesting and worth noting about ‘Lake Worth’ is two former mayors from the City of Lake Worth reside in the City of Atlantis. And a former Lake Worth City Commissioner once protested in Atlantis chanting “Tear Down These Walls” that surround a large portion of that city and just this year to enhance its public image the City of Lake Worth will have a referendum on March 12th, 2019 to rename and rebrand itself the “City of Lake Worth Beach”.

In a real-life example — confusion over two chocolate stores, but both using ‘Lake Worth’ zip codes — you’ll come to understand why renaming this City by adding the “Beach” makes sense for this 6 sq. mi. municipality.


Moving forward.

To familiarize yourself with the City Council in the City of Atlantis click on this link. Up for re-election this year are:

• Group 1: Councilwoman Keller Lanahan (appointed to Council on July 18th, 2018).
• Group 2: Councilman and Vice Mayor Aaron Rinker.
• Group 4: Councilman Michael LaCoursiere.

To challenge any of the above incumbents the deadline to file is January 10th at 4:00 p.m.

Up for re-election in 2020, if they opt to run again, are Mayor Catherine Higgins (Group 5) and Councilman Allan Kaulbach (Group 3).

Briefly, let’s pause for one moment.

A public service announcement for the Spanish-speaking community in the City of Atlantis.


SU CENTRO ELECTORAL está nombrado en su Tarjeta de Identificación Electoral. Tendrá que informar a la Oficina de Elecciones si se muda de la dirección nombrada en su Tarjeta de Identificación Electoral. Si no está seguro del lugar donde debe votar en su nuevo distrito electoral, llame al 561-656-6200.

SE REQUIERE IDENTIFICACION VALIDA Y VIGENTE CON SU FOTOGRAFIA Y FIRMA cuando usted va a los centros de votación a emitir su voto.


Now back to our regularly scheduled program today.


City Council in the City of Atlantis, “[I]s presided over by five Council Members . . . All are elected at-large. The Mayor is chosen by the Council at its Organizational Meeting each March. Council meetings are open to the public and held on the third Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers, unless otherwise noted.”

NOTICE OF
MUNICIPAL ELECTION

Notice is hereby given that the City of Atlantis, Florida, will hold its Municipal Election on Tuesday, March 12, 2019, between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. for the purpose of electing three councilmembers, two for a term of (2) years [Councilmen Rinker and LaCoursiere] and one for a term of (1) year [Councilwoman Lanahan]. There will be one councilmember elected representing Group 1 (one year), one councilmember elected representing Group 2 (two years), and one councilmember elected representing Group 4 (two years). Candidates must be a qualified elector of the City of Atlantis.

The first day of qualifying begins January 2, 2019 at 9:00 a.m., and the final day for qualifying is January 10, 2019 by 4:00 p.m. Candidates must file in person with the City Clerk at City Hall, 260 Orange Tree Drive, Atlantis, Florida, Monday through Friday between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. until said date and time. Each candidate shall be voted upon by the electors at large.

Registered voters in Precinct 3082 [click on this link] are qualified to vote in this election.

End of excerpt from public notice.

If you have any questions contact:

Kristen Puhalainen, City Clerk
Atlantis City Hall
260 Orange Tree Drive
Atlantis FL 33462
Phone: 561-965-1744
Email: kpuhalainen@atlantisfl.gov

More about Atlantis from their official website:

This 834-acre development was formerly known as Mulberry Farms and owned by former State Senator Philip D. Lewis, who formed the Mission Company to raise Brahman cattle. In 1958, Nathan Hunt and Paul Kintz purchased this 828-acre ranch and the remaining two parcels along Lantana Road. 


For more information about the City of Atlantis, a helpful map is below showing exactly where this municipality is located. And no, the nearby ‘Lantana Airport’ is not in the Town of Lantana. Officially called the Palm Beach County Park Airport it is owned and managed by the County, not by any municipality.

Note the Town of Lantana is also holding municipal elections on March 12th, 2019. To learn more about that, from a public notice published in The Lake Worth Herald, click on this link.

“What’s that about zip codes and chocolate stores?”

Recently another really dumb Letter to the Editor got published in The Palm Beach Post. Rambling nonsense about this City of Lake Worth on renaming this municipality the “City of Lake Worth Beach”. The letter writer opposes adding the “Beach”, even citing the construction of walls. Walls to keep who in? Walls to keep who out? That is never fully explained by the letter writer.

How does this stuff make it past the editor?

The letter writer is a bit unhinged because of a public meeting held on December 13th. The Commission set the ballot for March 12th, 2019 and one of those items was the referendum on renaming this City to become “Lake Worth Beach”.

Just to be clear. The boundaries of this City will not change! To even suggest that is just absurd. And the letter writer — one who has special status apparently due to the frequency of silly letters published — is clueless as to why our elected leaders have chosen, every single time unanimously, to move forward with this referendum.


About those two chocolate stores. . .

Kilwins Chocolate is located in
the City of Lake Worth.

The problem is way too many business owners in this City are losing business to other businesses ‘in Lake Worth’ that are not actually in this City of Lake Worth.

For example, Scheurer’s Chocolate has a ‘Lake Worth’ address but is not located in this City. It has a ‘Lake Worth’ address (5901 S. Congress Ave., zip code 33462) but is located in the City of Atlantis, in a commercial area outside the southeast wall that shelters the residents within.

In other words, the wealthy residents of Atlantis can smell the chocolate. They just can’t see it. They can hit this chocolate store with a rock from the other side of the wall but it’s a five minute drive to get there. However, there is plenty of wealth in Atlantis to support their chocolate store.

People complain our stores in Downtown Lake Worth are not getting enough visitors or business. They complain shops and restaurants on Dixie Hwy. are too empty. They complain the Beach could do better.

If “Shop Local” is important to you and you support this City of Lake Worth then please support businesses actually located in this City. The “Beach” would go a long way towards educating the public and the press and news media as well.

Kilwins is an absolutely spectacular chocolate shop and it’s located at Lake Worth’s Beach next to the City’s Casino and Beach Complex on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. Kilwins is a must-visit. For the Kilwins website with hours and more information click on this link.

And follow Kilwins on Twitter too: They will Tweet out the latest creation like, “We’re making a fresh batch of Kilwins amazing nutcracker sweet!”

Hope that clears things up. And also of note: Hoffman’s Chocolates used to have a location in Downtown Lake Worth.

But up against Kilwins they had to close their doors and move out west somewhere.

For reference, the map showing where the Great Walled City of Atlantis is located.

Atlantis is shaded Royal Yellow in the map below, along Congress Ave., west of the County-owned Park Airport.

To the north of Park Airport is John Prince Park, also County-owned. Note that north of Atlantis and west of John Prince Park is the Village of Palm Springs (shaded spring water blue). All areas unshaded are unincorporated PBC.

Click on map to enlarge.

[Orientation: Up is north.
The Great Walled City is to the left (west).]

From Atlantis as a bird flies, heading east of the airport across scenic Lake Osborne, is the unincorporated area called Lake Osborne Heights
(a helicopter-aversive community).

Further east, and not disturbed by helicopters, is the Town of Lantana (shaded Verbenaceae-red) and the City of Lake Worth is north of Lantana (shaded Earth-friendly green).