Palm Beach County Eviction Mitigation Assistance

Palm Beach County has partnered with the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County and is offering free assistance and representation with landlord/tenant matters and past due payments through the CARES Act Rapid Response Eviction Assistance Project (RREAP). The program term runs from August 1 through December 30, 2020.

The services include: pre-suit mediation between landlords and tenants, legal advice regarding the eviction process, referrals for rental assistance, preparation of responses to an eviction lawsuit, assistance in negotiating repayment plans, and court representation.

For more information, click here.

Gulfstream Hotel Presentation with Bryant Park Neighborhood Association

More on this later. Please ask questions in the comments in the meantime. This was a Zoom meeting, facilitated by the Neighborhood Association Presidents Council (thanks Ryan Oblander). About 20-30 people attended this virtual meeting where the prospective purchasers of the Gulfstream Hotel property answered questions and shared some details about the plans for the project.

There are still some loose ends on financing, but as posted previously, the Lake Worth Beach CRA made a major commitment to the project and its August 11th meeting. Both principals of the company May and Amrit Gil participated in the meeting. You will hear what directed their design choices, the timeline for the project and how much parking will be provided by the redevelopment.

Watch the video - it's not very long. And, for now, leave questions in the comments section. Thanks!

Palm Beach County Community Services Department to Temporarily Suspend Rental and Utility Assistance Applications

 On Sept. 1, 2020, the Palm Beach County Community Services Department (CSD) will temporarily suspend the acceptance of rental and utility applications to allow sufficient time to process applications currently in the queue.  The county will reopen the application portal in October if funds are still available.  Applications must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 31 in order to be processed.

Currently, more than 3,400 applications have been submitted for a total request of approximately $8 million. An additional 3,300 applications are in draft status. Individuals who have already submitted applications can check their status at www.pbcgov.com/clientservicessearch. 

To date, Palm Beach County has processed close to 1,000 rental and utility payments totaling over $1.4 million. The review process has been completed for an additional 360 payments totaling approximately $560,000.  There are 620 applications currently pending due to missing documents, 320 have been denied, and 1,120 applications are under review.

The rental and utility application portal will remain open until 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 31, 2020.  Households seeking assistance can apply by visiting www.pbcgov.com/OSCARSS.

Let TooJay’s Do the Cooking on the Jewish High Holy Days

 It’s Time to Make Your Reservation or Place Your Order 

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (August 25, 2020) – With the Jewish High Holidays fast approaching, TooJay’s Deli has begun taking reservations for in-restaurant dining and orders for its menu of traditional favorites available for convenient takeout, catering and contactless curbside pick-up.  

Rosh Hashanah 

Reservations are required for Rosh Hashanah dine-in at the restaurant on Friday, September 18 and Saturday, September 19. In keeping with current requirements from local and state governments, seating will be limited.  

 

Takeout and catering orders must be placed by Tuesday, September 15. Curbside pick-up is available only on pre-paid orders through the TooJay’s website or Delicious Rewards app. To order online, visit toojays.com/order-now.  

 

The Rosh Hashanah menu of traditional savory and sweet specialties includes the following popular choices: lean and tender brisket platter; herb roasted half chicken; broiled salmon with dill sauce; roasted Cornish game hen; and grilled London broil. All dine-in entrées include a glass of kosher wine, made-from-scratch matzo ball soup, gefilte fish or chopped liver, mini potato pancakes, carrot tzimmes, coffee or tea and a choice of dessert.  

 

Yom Kippur 

Orders must be placed by Wednesday, September 23 for Yom Kippur takeout, catering and contactless delivery in time to prepare for the break-fast on Monday, September 28.   

The classic TooJay’s Yom Kippur break-fast includes platters of sliced Nova, baked salmon and whitefish salad, bagels, cream cheese and accompaniments all ordered in desired quantities. Blintzes, mini potato pancakes and other holiday favorites from TooJay’s kitchen also are on the Yom Kippur menu, along with freshly baked breads and desserts from TooJay’s famous bakery. Classic, made-from-scratch round challah, raisin challah, almond cake, honey cake, sponge cake and macaroons top the list of traditional favorites.  

TooJay’s has welcomed guests into its dining rooms at all locations throughout Florida in accordance with capacity and distancing requirements from local and state governments and enhanced sanitation procedures. For information on how TooJay’s is implementing COVID-19 safety regulations, please visit TooJays.com/how-we-are-navigating-covid-19.  

 

Founded in 1981, TooJay’s currently serves guests in Palm Beach and Broward counties, the Treasure Coast, the West Coast of Florida, the Orlando area and The Villages.  

 

TooJay’s received three Palm Beach Post 2020 Best of Palm Beach County Awards for Best Sandwich, Best Dessert and Best Caterer; 2020 Best of Orlando Award for Deli; 2020 South Florida Family Favorites Award for Favorite Family Restaurant; the 2019 South Florida Gay News Golden Spoon Award for Outstanding New Spot in Fort Lauderdale; and the 2019 Restaurant Neighbor Award as a State Winner from the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation for its work with Feeding Florida. 

 

For more information about TooJay’s, visit TooJays.com. Follow TooJay’s at twitter.com/therealTooJays and instagram.com/toojaysdeli orvisit the Facebook fan page, which has over 93 thousand fans, and become a fan at facebook.com/TooJaysDeli. 

Vice Mayor Amoroso’s Design-A-Mask Contest

 Contest Rules

Vice Mayor Amoroso and the Lake Worth Beach Recreation Division would like to invite you to join our Design-A-Mask Contest! While we all do our best to follow safety protocols to keep our families and community around us safe, we can also have fun while doing it. Use your inner artist to style a unique mask that speaks to you. The community will come together to vote on the top masks. You can submit individual and/or group themed masks.

Starts Monday, August 17th
Submissions are due Thursday, September 17th

There will be 3 Categories to allow for a wider range creativity and submissions of masks including:

Most Creative - Most Inspiring - Most Comical

Guidelines

Materials for the masks may be purchased from any arts and crafts store, found around the house, or ingeniously crafted.

• Mask submissions with pre-assembled simple store-bought masks will not be accepted.
• Masks must be able to be worn on a face without additional hands or structural support if the materials are too heavy.
• Masks must cover at the minimum the nose and mouth.
• Submission photos must show a full head and upper shoulders of each person in the photo.
• Submissions can include a short 1 paragraph text on what inspired the mask.
• All masks must be in good taste and not display any profanity or offensive language.
• Submissions should be submitted on our website at https://lakeworthbeachfl.gov/recreation/.

Reason for Optimism: The Gulfstream Hotel

Frankly, I was beginning to wonder. I hadn't heard much of anything about the rehabilitation, restoration and expansion of the Gulfstream Hotel since the March election. You may recall that the ballot contained a question on whether to amend the city's Charter to allow for buildings to be built to the same height of the historic hotel. This only applied to the block between Lake Avenue, Golfview, 1st Avenue South and Lakeside Drive. That question passed with 65.21% of voters saying "yes."

The date of that election was March 12, 2020. Almost immediately afterwards, we all began to feel the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and we entered a period of stay-at-home orders. Our lives have been altered ever since. 

We also got word through a Palm Beach Post article that Restoration St. Louis, the contract purchaser of the Gulfstream Hotel property, received an extension of their due diligence period until October. Later on, I heard through the grapevine that another extension had been granted until December 2020. The extensions were made necessary due to the pandemic and what appeared to be skittishness on the part of lenders regarding the project.

Other than that information, I heard little about the project or its progress until I talked to someone who had watched a recent Lake Worth Beach CRA meeting. 

It turns out that a lot happened at the August 11, 2020 Lake Worth Beach CRA meeting. Click here for link to the meeting video. I'll do another post on the project north of The Mid, which is under construction now. You'll be excited to see what is planned for that site and the CRA accepted the $2.49 million offer for the 2.3 acre Dixie Hwy. property from Office America Group of Coral Gables, Florida.

I'm going to let the following snippets from the staff report speak for themselves regarding the Gulfstream Hotel project. Suffice to say that project is REAL, the CRA is offering significant financial incentives and the project is about as real as it gets. Check out the following:

Tomorrow night at 7 p.m., a Zoom meeting is being held by the Bryant Park Neighborhood Association. It falls on the same night as their regular monthly meeting. It is my understanding that the developer of the project will be in attendance, make a presentation and answer questions. As there is a limit on the number of attendees, you are asked to email your questions to bryantparkneighborhoodnews@gmail.com. You can ask for the link to the Zoom meeting and you can attend as long as there are enough places.

In the meantime, I plan on attending and will be able to give you a sense of timing and when this will make its way through the Historic Resources Preservation Board for review.

And, most importantly, the CRA board voted unanimously in support of the project.

2020 Census - Announcement from City of Lake Worth Beach

 How Can You Verify That Someone Is a Census Taker?

If someone visits your home this year to collect information for the 2020 Census, check to make sure they have a valid ID badge with their photograph, a U.S. Department of Commerce watermark, and an expiration date. Census workers may also carry Census Bureau bags and other equipment with the Census Bureau logo.