Sunday, May 7, 2017
“Corrections & Clarifications” in today’s Sunday Palm Beach Post.
“Because of a reporting error, a story in Saturday’s Palm Beach Post about a protest at the office of Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, said Ian Wellinghurst of Tequesta is a Republican. Wellinghurst said he is a constituent of Mast, but didn’t say he was a Republican. The error appeared on page B5 [link added] of the Local & Business section.”
You may have missed this news, the Post had another round of layoffs, as reported by Jose Lambiet:
“It’s tough to get exact numbers these days: The Atlanta-based owners of the Post hide behind its status as a private company to avoid reporting things like personnel cuts — never mind that the paper has plastered labor cuts in other companies on the front page.”
“Gee Wiz. I’m just so tired of elections all the time.”
Be patient citizens of the little City of Lake Worth. Change is coming.
If you didn’t know there was a referendum last March to increase the terms of our electeds from two to three years. The referendum did pass, and quite easily, this is what will happen as a result:
Frankly, my hesitancy was the prospect of another Anarchist like Cara Jennings getting elected, having 3 years on the Commission, a frightening thought. True, the Anarchist Ryan Hartman lost in a landslide in 2016 but until that group is thoroughly discredited they are still a threat, but much less so now.
Also, curiously, the issue of the pay raises for elected officials was shaping up to be a campaign issue, but never did become one. Interesting.
If you didn’t know there was a referendum last March to increase the terms of our electeds from two to three years. The referendum did pass, and quite easily, this is what will happen as a result:
- There will be another election of candidates on March 13th, 2018 for mayor and commissioners in Districts 1 and 3.
- Another election of candidates will be held on March 12th, 2019, for Districts 2 and 4.
- There will be no election of candidates in the City of Lake Worth in 2020. Going forward there will be a year of rest and reflection between each City election.
Frankly, my hesitancy was the prospect of another Anarchist like Cara Jennings getting elected, having 3 years on the Commission, a frightening thought. True, the Anarchist Ryan Hartman lost in a landslide in 2016 but until that group is thoroughly discredited they are still a threat, but much less so now.
Also, curiously, the issue of the pay raises for elected officials was shaping up to be a campaign issue, but never did become one. Interesting.
“Club Meetings and Other Points of Interest” in the City of Lake Worth.
Below are just four upcoming and ongoing events in this week’s Lake Worth Herald:
The Civil War Round Table of Palm Beach County upcoming monthly meeting, Wednesday, May 10. Meet at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center, 2000 North “D” Street, Lake Worth, at 7 p.m. The topic will be Fascinating Facts About President’s Who Served in the Civil War. This event is free and open to everyone. For more information use this link.
LAKE WORTH ROTARY CLUB meeting every Wednesday at Brogues DownUnder, 621 Lake Ave., downtown Lake Worth. Noon. Come visit, become a member! For info call Ron Leeds at 561-969-9600.
FREE ADULT ENGLISH CLASSES. Tuesdays 6:00–8:00 p.m. Compass Community Center, 201 N Dixie Hwy, Lake Worth. To register call 561-863-5778. Everyone is welcome.
GRAY MOCKINGBIRD COMMUNITY GARDEN. 2000 N. “D” St., Lake Worth (Located on the grounds of Scottish Rite Masonic Center). We pick daily, come by and see what we have available. For more information call 561-246-0148.
The Civil War Round Table of Palm Beach County upcoming monthly meeting, Wednesday, May 10. Meet at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center, 2000 North “D” Street, Lake Worth, at 7 p.m. The topic will be Fascinating Facts About President’s Who Served in the Civil War. This event is free and open to everyone. For more information use this link.
LAKE WORTH ROTARY CLUB meeting every Wednesday at Brogues DownUnder, 621 Lake Ave., downtown Lake Worth. Noon. Come visit, become a member! For info call Ron Leeds at 561-969-9600.
FREE ADULT ENGLISH CLASSES. Tuesdays 6:00–8:00 p.m. Compass Community Center, 201 N Dixie Hwy, Lake Worth. To register call 561-863-5778. Everyone is welcome.
GRAY MOCKINGBIRD COMMUNITY GARDEN. 2000 N. “D” St., Lake Worth (Located on the grounds of Scottish Rite Masonic Center). We pick daily, come by and see what we have available. For more information call 561-246-0148.
To contact the Herald use this link.
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| Pick up the print edition (still ¢50!) at the City’s newsstand located at 600 Lake Ave. in the Downtown. |
Chris McVoy, PhD, a former Lake Worth commissioner gets quoted in the Tampa Bay Times.
Two excerpts from reporter Craig Pittman’s article are below and McVoy is quoted twice about a reservoir in Palm Beach County to “Send The Water South!”. A future reservoir is not looking so promising now (more about that below). The Tampa Bay Times, by the way, is the winner of 12 Pulitzer Prizes.
Don’t expect to see any quotes from McVoy in The Palm Beach Post any time soon.
Prior to city elections this year in Lake Worth the editor at the Post called McVoy an “ineffective gadfly” as an elected commissioner. The Post endorsed a young newcomer to politics who went on to win. In 2016 no doubt many here in the City questioned the need having a scientist on the Commission following the now-famous “inglorious demise of Consent Agenda item 9C”:
Not even a week has gone by and already supporters such as McVoy of a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee see the reality: chances are it’s never going to be constructed. And even if it is, it probably won’t work. For 1½ days after SB10 passed and Gov. Scott signed the bill there was much jubilation by supporters of a reservoir — then the celebration stopped — apparently they all got around to reading what the bill actually does.
Without further ado, use this link for the article in the Times; here are the two excerpts:
In horse-trading with the House, the reservoir that [State Sen. Joe] Negron got is a smaller entity than he one he originally wanted. It won’t provide the full range of benefits for the entire Everglades as the original one would have.
And instead of being built on property now planted in sugar, it will be on a former sugar plantation called Talisman that was bought by the taxpayers in 1996 — to become a reservoir.
“Twenty years later we’re still talking about the same parcel,” Eikenberg [President, Everglades Foundation] said.
If Congress says yes to the project too, then figure five to seven years for construction, based on the Army Corps’ track record for building similar projects.
and. . .
McVoy [Chris McVoy, PhD] also questioned how the new reservoir will release unpolluted water into the Everglades when the state’s current treatment areas for stormwater are already at capacity.
He noted that Negron’s bill didn’t specify where the water will flow out of the reservoir, and pointed out that both the Everglades and the sugar companies may wind up fighting over who gets that flow in dry times.
“That’s a barn-door size loophole,” McVoy said. [emphasis added]
The thing to remember about the reservoir in particular and Everglades restoration in general, he added, is that “this whole thing is part science and part what you can get politically.”
On the subject of “what you can get politically”* you may be interested in reading what State Sen. Jeff Clemens wrote as SB10 moved through the State Senate prior to being signed by Gov. Scott:
My opinion is that this bill will not result in a fix for the problem. Instead of using this bond money to accelerate planned and approved environmental projects, it is dedicated to projects that have not been appropriately studied, because the push for southern storage has become more political than science-driven. [emphasis added]
FYI, the bill also potentially privatizes water that will now be moved to the C-51 [canal], and also bans any potential future use of eminent domain in the Everglades Agricultural Area. And for those who want to take sugar land out of production, it doesn’t do any of that either.
There are many projects currently on the CERP list that would have a more positive environmental effect on the problems we’re experiencing, including work in the C-43, the C23/24 reservoirs (north and south) and STAs [stormwater treatment areas], and projects in CEPP.
I believe those things would be a better approach.
“[T]he push for southern storage has become more political than science-driven”, wrote Sen. Jeff Clemens.
*Also on the topic of the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) and a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee, read an editorial in the TCPalm that calls all this work a “cusp of a fix.”
The word cusp means, “a point that marks the beginning of a change”. Residents in the cities of Pahokee, South Bay, and Belle Glade may have a problem with that choice of words. Also note that septic tanks leaking along the IRL was not addressed in the TCPalm editorial.
Don’t expect to see any quotes from McVoy in The Palm Beach Post any time soon.
Prior to city elections this year in Lake Worth the editor at the Post called McVoy an “ineffective gadfly” as an elected commissioner. The Post endorsed a young newcomer to politics who went on to win. In 2016 no doubt many here in the City questioned the need having a scientist on the Commission following the now-famous “inglorious demise of Consent Agenda item 9C”:
Resolution No. 38-2016 - implement a solution to long standing water discharge issues plaguing the City.Within the first 2 minutes of that Commission meeting “Resolution No. 38-2016” was pulled from the agenda never to be seen again. All the people who came down from Martin County in support of that agenda item were quickly ushered out and sent back home. The whole thing was well. . . let’s say it was indeed inglorious.
Not even a week has gone by and already supporters such as McVoy of a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee see the reality: chances are it’s never going to be constructed. And even if it is, it probably won’t work. For 1½ days after SB10 passed and Gov. Scott signed the bill there was much jubilation by supporters of a reservoir — then the celebration stopped — apparently they all got around to reading what the bill actually does.
Without further ado, use this link for the article in the Times; here are the two excerpts:
In horse-trading with the House, the reservoir that [State Sen. Joe] Negron got is a smaller entity than he one he originally wanted. It won’t provide the full range of benefits for the entire Everglades as the original one would have.
And instead of being built on property now planted in sugar, it will be on a former sugar plantation called Talisman that was bought by the taxpayers in 1996 — to become a reservoir.
“Twenty years later we’re still talking about the same parcel,” Eikenberg [President, Everglades Foundation] said.
If Congress says yes to the project too, then figure five to seven years for construction, based on the Army Corps’ track record for building similar projects.
and. . .
McVoy [Chris McVoy, PhD] also questioned how the new reservoir will release unpolluted water into the Everglades when the state’s current treatment areas for stormwater are already at capacity.
He noted that Negron’s bill didn’t specify where the water will flow out of the reservoir, and pointed out that both the Everglades and the sugar companies may wind up fighting over who gets that flow in dry times.
“That’s a barn-door size loophole,” McVoy said. [emphasis added]
The thing to remember about the reservoir in particular and Everglades restoration in general, he added, is that “this whole thing is part science and part what you can get politically.”
On the subject of “what you can get politically”* you may be interested in reading what State Sen. Jeff Clemens wrote as SB10 moved through the State Senate prior to being signed by Gov. Scott:
My opinion is that this bill will not result in a fix for the problem. Instead of using this bond money to accelerate planned and approved environmental projects, it is dedicated to projects that have not been appropriately studied, because the push for southern storage has become more political than science-driven. [emphasis added]
FYI, the bill also potentially privatizes water that will now be moved to the C-51 [canal], and also bans any potential future use of eminent domain in the Everglades Agricultural Area. And for those who want to take sugar land out of production, it doesn’t do any of that either.
There are many projects currently on the CERP list that would have a more positive environmental effect on the problems we’re experiencing, including work in the C-43, the C23/24 reservoirs (north and south) and STAs [stormwater treatment areas], and projects in CEPP.
I believe those things would be a better approach.
“[T]he push for southern storage has become more political than science-driven”, wrote Sen. Jeff Clemens.
*Also on the topic of the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) and a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee, read an editorial in the TCPalm that calls all this work a “cusp of a fix.”
The word cusp means, “a point that marks the beginning of a change”. Residents in the cities of Pahokee, South Bay, and Belle Glade may have a problem with that choice of words. Also note that septic tanks leaking along the IRL was not addressed in the TCPalm editorial.
Saturday, May 6, 2017
“Is Arden really in the Village of Wellington”?
The blog post last week was titled, “Arden is open in Wellington! And it’s only about an hour from Lake Worth Beach!”
The answer is no. Arden is not in Wellington.
The community of Arden doesn’t even exist yet (here is ‘an address’, an empty lot, 912 Wandering Willow Way). Why is this important? Because the City of Lake Worth, its elected leaders and administration, needs to watch how the Village of Wellington deals with this. More about that below.
To put it mildly, the electeds in Wellington are not happy.
The “new master-planned community in Palm Beach County” called Arden is located at 19425 Southern Blvd. west of the Village of Wellington in unincorporated County. The Post beat reporter in Wellington, the actual village, is Matt Morgan. He penned an article titled, “Wellington has an issue with Arden development: It’s NOT in Wellington!” Here is an excerpt from the article:
It’s a big deal for the council because it could mislead people who want to buy a home in Wellington and don’t realize it’s not in the village, McGovern [Vice Mayor John McGovern] said.
When someone buys a home in one of these outside communities, Wellington doesn’t see any benefit in taxes or otherwise.
“We want people who desire and intend to live here to know that by going there that is not what we’re doing,” McGovern said.
The Village of Wellington is very aware of its brand and how important it is to protect that. What will they do? It will be interesting to find out.
The City of Lake Worth lost its “brand” many years ago and is still trying to create one. For many people “Lake Worth” extends all the way to the edge of the Everglades. Some time back here in the City of Lake Worth some thought of a way to deal with this: create our own unique brand by renaming our City. Read about that using this link.
For someone thinking about running for a seat on the Lake Worth City Commission this is a ready-made campaign issue. Maybe even a winning one.
How badly has the “Lake Worth” brand been damaged? Consider just one example, our local beat reporter from the Post — from news about the number of homeless in our City (false and misleading data) to flawed crime data from real estate aggregation sites — just reports like those hurt and misrepresent our City for years to come.
If Matt Morgan wrote an article in the Post about Wellington that falsely misrepresented that City there would be hell to pay. But he knows how much pride there is in the brand they’ve spent decades working to create.
Would a new name for our City do anything to help fix the false image of Lake Worth so many have? It’s at least “Worth” a conversation and community debate.
The answer is no. Arden is not in Wellington.
The community of Arden doesn’t even exist yet (here is ‘an address’, an empty lot, 912 Wandering Willow Way). Why is this important? Because the City of Lake Worth, its elected leaders and administration, needs to watch how the Village of Wellington deals with this. More about that below.
To put it mildly, the electeds in Wellington are not happy.
The “new master-planned community in Palm Beach County” called Arden is located at 19425 Southern Blvd. west of the Village of Wellington in unincorporated County. The Post beat reporter in Wellington, the actual village, is Matt Morgan. He penned an article titled, “Wellington has an issue with Arden development: It’s NOT in Wellington!” Here is an excerpt from the article:
It’s a big deal for the council because it could mislead people who want to buy a home in Wellington and don’t realize it’s not in the village, McGovern [Vice Mayor John McGovern] said.
When someone buys a home in one of these outside communities, Wellington doesn’t see any benefit in taxes or otherwise.
“We want people who desire and intend to live here to know that by going there that is not what we’re doing,” McGovern said.
The Village of Wellington is very aware of its brand and how important it is to protect that. What will they do? It will be interesting to find out.
The City of Lake Worth lost its “brand” many years ago and is still trying to create one. For many people “Lake Worth” extends all the way to the edge of the Everglades. Some time back here in the City of Lake Worth some thought of a way to deal with this: create our own unique brand by renaming our City. Read about that using this link.
For someone thinking about running for a seat on the Lake Worth City Commission this is a ready-made campaign issue. Maybe even a winning one.
How badly has the “Lake Worth” brand been damaged? Consider just one example, our local beat reporter from the Post — from news about the number of homeless in our City (false and misleading data) to flawed crime data from real estate aggregation sites — just reports like those hurt and misrepresent our City for years to come.
If Matt Morgan wrote an article in the Post about Wellington that falsely misrepresented that City there would be hell to pay. But he knows how much pride there is in the brand they’ve spent decades working to create.
Would a new name for our City do anything to help fix the false image of Lake Worth so many have? It’s at least “Worth” a conversation and community debate.
News from the Town of Palm Beach: “Prohibition of Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers on Properties Less Than One Acre”
“At the April 13, 2017, Town Council meeting, Ordinance 11-2017 was approved on second reading, prohibiting the use of gas-powered leaf blowers on properties less than one acre. After significant research and lengthy public discussion Town Council determined that frequent use of gas-powered leaf blowers in residential and commercial districts within the Town creates excessive noise, emits fumes, and creates annoyance for persons of normal sensitivity and a prohibition in higher density areas with smaller lots was a reasonable compromise to a town-wide ban on leaf blowers.
Ordinance 11-2017 mandated a phase-in period to provide staff time to conduct outreach to inform and educate residents and landscape maintenance companies about the new restrictions. The prohibition is effective October 1, 2017.
For more information, please contact Code Enforcement at 561-838-5465.”
Official photograph of the New Lake Worth City Commission.
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| From left to right: Vice Mayor and District 1 Commissioner Scott Maxwell, District 2 Commissioner Omari Hardy, Mayor Pam Triolo, District 4 Commissioner Herman Robinson and District 3 Commissioner Andy Amoroso. |
Here is how you can contact the electeds in the little City of Lake Worth (copy/paste email addresses into your email browser):
Silvina Donaldson, Executive Assistant, Commission
561-586-1730
sdonaldson@lakeworth.org
Pam Triolo, Mayor
561-586-1735
ptriolo@lakeworth.org
Scott Maxwell, Vice Mayor & District 1
561-586-1731
smaxwell@lakeworth.org
Omari Hardy, District 2
561-586-1732
ohardy@lakeworth.org
Andy Amoroso, Vice Mayor Pro Tem & District 3
561-586-1733
561-398-8340 (cell)
aamoroso@lakeworth.org
Herman Robinson, District 4
561-586-1734
hrobinson@lakeworth.org
TODAY: The 16th Annual Derby Day Party from 4:30–7:30.
News in this week’s Lake Worth Herald.
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| “Ladies, get your prettiest or most creative hats ready. Gentlemen, bring out your loudest shirts or your best ‘racetrack-side’ attire for the Annual Kentucky Derby Day Party.” |
Bryant Park Neighborhood Association invites everyone to the Beach Club at the Lake Worth Golf Course on 7th Avenue North and North Lakeside Drive to enjoy this Sixteenth Annual Derby Day event and to watch the the horse race on big TV screens.
and. . .
Join your friends and neighbors for fun, contests, sweeps, raffles, prizes good food and drinks. You do not need a ticket, just show up. Food and drinks will be available at Happy Hour prices.
Friday, May 5, 2017
Lake Worth News: “Inoperable Derelict Vehicles To Be Removed From Public Right of Way”.
“The City of Lake Worth Code Enforcement department gave a presentation to the City Commission explaining the two week initiative which began Monday to have derelict inoperable vehicles removed from the public right of way in the city.
Vehicles will be red tagged and the owners will have five days to remove them or they will be towed. Lori Milano of Code Compliance told the commission the inoperable vehicles will be towed by Priority Towing, the company working with the city on the initiative.
Lake Worth City Attorney, Glen Torcivia, informed the Commission there will be further towing ordinances forthcoming.”
“Lake Worth’s Oldest Established Business — Established in 1912”
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| Pick up the print edition at 600 Lake Ave. in Downtown Lake Worth, across ‘L’ Street from Starbucks. The Herald is still ¢50! |
Thursday, May 4, 2017
A message from State Senator Jeff Clemens. “Now regarding the bill that everyone has questions about, SB1238.”
This information (see below) from Senator Clemens* was posted on Facebook last Tuesday evening. The message is quite lengthy and am not including the introduction. This has to do with another loaded word (“fracking”) that can get so many in the public upset; sending off nasty notes and calls to elected officials.
However, “You are buying energy from fracking [hydraulic fracturing] that is powering your computer right at this moment”, Clemens writes. [FYI: Senator Clemens is scheduled to give a Legislative Update at the Lake Worth City Commission on May 16th.]
The message follows with emphasis added:
First, let me say that I am not infallible and it is entirely possible that I voted poorly on this issue. If you feel that way after reading this explanation, I ask for your forgiveness. Hopefully, it is some measure of comfort that I helped prevent the bill from coming to the floor in the Senate in the end.
But it is important that everyone actually understand what the bill does, what it doesn’t do, where we as a state currently sit, and where I stand on the issue that is most important to all of you: fracking in Florida.
Let me state that I am 100% opposed to fracking in Florida and have repeatedly been a co-sponsor of the bill that bans fracking here. So that is where I stand on that issue.
Now for the bill itself.
However, “You are buying energy from fracking [hydraulic fracturing] that is powering your computer right at this moment”, Clemens writes. [FYI: Senator Clemens is scheduled to give a Legislative Update at the Lake Worth City Commission on May 16th.]
The message follows with emphasis added:
First, let me say that I am not infallible and it is entirely possible that I voted poorly on this issue. If you feel that way after reading this explanation, I ask for your forgiveness. Hopefully, it is some measure of comfort that I helped prevent the bill from coming to the floor in the Senate in the end.
But it is important that everyone actually understand what the bill does, what it doesn’t do, where we as a state currently sit, and where I stand on the issue that is most important to all of you: fracking in Florida.
Let me state that I am 100% opposed to fracking in Florida and have repeatedly been a co-sponsor of the bill that bans fracking here. So that is where I stand on that issue.
Now for the bill itself.
Here’s what SB1238 actually does, as opposed to the reports that have labeled it as simply a bill to allow fracking:
It
allows power companies to petition the Public Service Commission to
invest in energy exploration operations in order to smooth rates, and
requires evidence of such ability to either keep rates steady, or reduce
increases.
But there are some misconceptions that need clearing up first.
If you are an FPL customer, about 65–70% of your current energy comes from natural gas. I don’t know for sure, but I have been told by those that do know that almost all of that comes from fracking, mostly in Texas and the Plains states. So, in other words, the vast majority of your energy right now comes from fracking. You are buying energy from fracking that is powering your computer right at this moment.
This bill would not have increased that. If allowed by the PSC, it would’ve given a company the ability to pre-purchase, through an investment, the gas that is in the ground now, before it is brought up. So in other words, the gas is going to be purchased by FPL either way, the question is do they do so by purchasing a piece of the exploration and get a cheaper rate, or by purchasing it after it’s out of the ground at a higher rate.
As someone who once was responsible† for setting the rates of tens of thousands of residential and commercial utility customers in Lake Worth, I believe there is a rate benefit to allowing companies to prospectively buy energy sources, as opposed to buying it after it is produced. As an example, ratepayers also paid for the construction of large FPL solar farms, thus paying for that future energy production before it actually produced any energy.
But there are some misconceptions that need clearing up first.
If you are an FPL customer, about 65–70% of your current energy comes from natural gas. I don’t know for sure, but I have been told by those that do know that almost all of that comes from fracking, mostly in Texas and the Plains states. So, in other words, the vast majority of your energy right now comes from fracking. You are buying energy from fracking that is powering your computer right at this moment.
This bill would not have increased that. If allowed by the PSC, it would’ve given a company the ability to pre-purchase, through an investment, the gas that is in the ground now, before it is brought up. So in other words, the gas is going to be purchased by FPL either way, the question is do they do so by purchasing a piece of the exploration and get a cheaper rate, or by purchasing it after it’s out of the ground at a higher rate.
As someone who once was responsible† for setting the rates of tens of thousands of residential and commercial utility customers in Lake Worth, I believe there is a rate benefit to allowing companies to prospectively buy energy sources, as opposed to buying it after it is produced. As an example, ratepayers also paid for the construction of large FPL solar farms, thus paying for that future energy production before it actually produced any energy.
Yes, the
investments are in natural gas, which is obtained by fracking. So
perhaps I should have done a better job of thinking about what that
means, in terms of optics and a potential endorsement of fracking in our
Plains states. But I believe it is inaccurate to simply call this bill a
fracking bill.
The other argument against the bill is that it put the burden to pay for these operations on the rate payers, as opposed to the shareholders. This one, I have trouble understanding. How, exactly, does any publicly held company charge shareholders for its expenses, no matter what they are? I’m not wealthy, but I’ve owned a couple of stocks in the past. I’ve never received a bill from a company that I own shares in, charging me for expenses, or construction, or anything.
I suppose a non-publicly held company could benefit from this clause, but all of our Investor Owned Utilities in Florida are publicly traded. So the rate payers pay the bill either way, whether you are buying the gas before or after extraction. There is no mechanism that I am aware of (although it may exist) for charging stockholders of a company.
As more and more questions and concerns arose about the bill, I asked the representatives of the proponents to pull the bill from consideration, and I believe others did the same thing. Perhaps it was too little, too late, and that is something I will have to bear. But I do believe you all deserved an explanation of the bill, my thought process and what happened. The bill is dead.
Thanks for listening.
*To learn more about State Senator Jeff Clemens, including contact information for his staff in Tallahassee and office in the City of Lake Worth, use this link.
†If you didn’t know, Clemens was a former mayor of Lake Worth prior to being elected to the State House.
From Wikipedia: “Jeff Clemens is a Democratic member of the Florida Senate, representing parts of Palm Beach County since 2012. He currently represents the 31st district, which includes Lake Worth, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Greenacres. He previously served one term in the Florida House of Representatives, representing the 89th district from 2010 to 2012.”
The other argument against the bill is that it put the burden to pay for these operations on the rate payers, as opposed to the shareholders. This one, I have trouble understanding. How, exactly, does any publicly held company charge shareholders for its expenses, no matter what they are? I’m not wealthy, but I’ve owned a couple of stocks in the past. I’ve never received a bill from a company that I own shares in, charging me for expenses, or construction, or anything.
I suppose a non-publicly held company could benefit from this clause, but all of our Investor Owned Utilities in Florida are publicly traded. So the rate payers pay the bill either way, whether you are buying the gas before or after extraction. There is no mechanism that I am aware of (although it may exist) for charging stockholders of a company.
As more and more questions and concerns arose about the bill, I asked the representatives of the proponents to pull the bill from consideration, and I believe others did the same thing. Perhaps it was too little, too late, and that is something I will have to bear. But I do believe you all deserved an explanation of the bill, my thought process and what happened. The bill is dead.
Thanks for listening.
*To learn more about State Senator Jeff Clemens, including contact information for his staff in Tallahassee and office in the City of Lake Worth, use this link.
†If you didn’t know, Clemens was a former mayor of Lake Worth prior to being elected to the State House.
From Wikipedia: “Jeff Clemens is a Democratic member of the Florida Senate, representing parts of Palm Beach County since 2012. He currently represents the 31st district, which includes Lake Worth, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Greenacres. He previously served one term in the Florida House of Representatives, representing the 89th district from 2010 to 2012.”
Our City’s Sister City Board meeting is on Monday. Do you remember Lappeenranta, Finland, our forgotten Sister City?
Would you like to help reinvigorate the City of Lake Worth’s Sister City Board and help re-establish a bond with our good friends in Lappeenranta? Other Sister Cities are Saint-Marc, Haiti and Southend-on-Sea in England as well (the city of Sopot in Poland was never a Sister City; that was a rumor started by a former commissioner).
Sister City meetings in Lake Worth are always the 2nd Monday of each month. For the last 7–8 months reaching a quorum has been an issue and maybe it’s finally time to turn that around.
Boynton Beach is making big strides with their Sister City program; there’s news about that below from Palm Beach Post reporter Alexandra Seltzer. To learn how to become a board volunteer for any City board here is who to contact at the City:
BOYNTON BEACH — Boynton Beach residents: You have a new sister, and her name is Rauma.
City officials this week agreed to becoming Sister Cities with Rauma, Finland.
The two cities can connect on issues they both experience, part of a bigger national picture that goes back to the 1950s. [emphasis added] President Dwight D. Eisenhower founded the Sister Cities International, a nonprofit, in 1956, and now cities all over the country have been partnered with communities across the world.
[and. . .]
There are about 26,000 Finnish residents of Florida, and between 10,000 and 12,000 in Palm Beach County, Makila [Honorary Consulate of Finland Peter Makila] said. Traditionally, the Finnish residents have lived in Lantana and Lake Worth, but Makila said there has been a recent shift south of there.
Good luck and hope to hear about a big turnout at the Sister City Board here in Lake Worth!
Sister City meetings in Lake Worth are always the 2nd Monday of each month. For the last 7–8 months reaching a quorum has been an issue and maybe it’s finally time to turn that around.
Boynton Beach is making big strides with their Sister City program; there’s news about that below from Palm Beach Post reporter Alexandra Seltzer. To learn how to become a board volunteer for any City board here is who to contact at the City:
- Silvina Donaldson, Executive Secretary to the City Commission and Volunteer Coordinator
- 561-586-1730
- Email: sdonaldson@lakeworth.org
BOYNTON BEACH — Boynton Beach residents: You have a new sister, and her name is Rauma.
City officials this week agreed to becoming Sister Cities with Rauma, Finland.
The two cities can connect on issues they both experience, part of a bigger national picture that goes back to the 1950s. [emphasis added] President Dwight D. Eisenhower founded the Sister Cities International, a nonprofit, in 1956, and now cities all over the country have been partnered with communities across the world.
[and. . .]
There are about 26,000 Finnish residents of Florida, and between 10,000 and 12,000 in Palm Beach County, Makila [Honorary Consulate of Finland Peter Makila] said. Traditionally, the Finnish residents have lived in Lantana and Lake Worth, but Makila said there has been a recent shift south of there.
Good luck and hope to hear about a big turnout at the Sister City Board here in Lake Worth!
Lake Okeechobee and a sobering read: The Lloyd’s of London report
The Army Corps of Engineers has been putting a lot of resources and effort into making the Herbert Hoover Dike safer and more secure. (The dike is more accurately referred to as a dam now because it’s being used for water storage.) You can read about that here, an excerpt:
“The corps inventoried all dams in the country after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It found the Hoover Dike urgently needed some repairs to prevent a catastrophic breach of the dike.”
The report by Lloyd’s of London* is one of the most alarming things you’ll ever read if you live in south Florida. Below is an excerpt from that report on the Herbert Hoover Dike (which technically no longer serves as a dike):
“And this brings us to the key concern; the dyke is no longer being used solely as a levee to protect the area from flooding when storms are in the vicinity but also to hold a permanent reserve of water. The lake is being used as a reservoir and therefore the dyke is now operating as a dam. [emphasis added]
This means that water is pushing against the dyke nearly all of the time and that the risk does not come solely from a hurricane event. The dyke must act like a normal reservoir, i.e. be able to safely store floodwaters without overtopping.
The dyke was built from un-compacted earth, made up of naturally porous materials such as peat, gravel, sand and shell and is therefore prone to leaks.
Since the construction of the dyke, the land outside of the dyke has been eroding, particularly on the south side of the lake.
The Herbert Hoover Dike, when built, was never intended to be used in this way and it has only recently been designated to be a dam. The flood criterion for dams is far more stringent than that which it has previously been subject to and also to which it is currently able to meet.”
*Google search, “The Herbert Hoover Dike: A Discussion of the Vulnerability of Lake Okeechobee to Levee Failure, Cause, Effect and the Future” for the PDF.
“The corps inventoried all dams in the country after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It found the Hoover Dike urgently needed some repairs to prevent a catastrophic breach of the dike.”
The report by Lloyd’s of London* is one of the most alarming things you’ll ever read if you live in south Florida. Below is an excerpt from that report on the Herbert Hoover Dike (which technically no longer serves as a dike):
“And this brings us to the key concern; the dyke is no longer being used solely as a levee to protect the area from flooding when storms are in the vicinity but also to hold a permanent reserve of water. The lake is being used as a reservoir and therefore the dyke is now operating as a dam. [emphasis added]
This means that water is pushing against the dyke nearly all of the time and that the risk does not come solely from a hurricane event. The dyke must act like a normal reservoir, i.e. be able to safely store floodwaters without overtopping.
The dyke was built from un-compacted earth, made up of naturally porous materials such as peat, gravel, sand and shell and is therefore prone to leaks.
Since the construction of the dyke, the land outside of the dyke has been eroding, particularly on the south side of the lake.
The Herbert Hoover Dike, when built, was never intended to be used in this way and it has only recently been designated to be a dam. The flood criterion for dams is far more stringent than that which it has previously been subject to and also to which it is currently able to meet.”
*Google search, “The Herbert Hoover Dike: A Discussion of the Vulnerability of Lake Okeechobee to Levee Failure, Cause, Effect and the Future” for the PDF.
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
“Corrections & Clarifications” today (May 3rd)
“Because of an editing error, a story in Friday’s Palm Beach Post incorrectly quoted a Greenacres councilwoman about conditions near Bowman Park. Lisa Rivera declined to speak about the neighborhood’s past issues with crime, saying only it continued to deal with problems of ‘trash, debris and code violations.’ The error appeared on Page 5 of the A section.”
—Use this link to read the original story on Friday, April 28th, where Councilwoman Rivera is misquoted in an “editing error” as saying, “Nothing has changed”.
“The State of Florida has once again turned its back on Lake Worth.”
UPDATE: Don’t get excited and don’t get your hopes up. Word is the $2M for our Park of Commerce (POC) is back in the State budget. The POC is one of the few bright spots on the horizon vis-à-vis a future tax base going forward. Maybe this year’s legislative update, scheduled for the City Commission on May 16th, will have good news from State Senator Jeff Clemens.
Following is a blog post from earlier this morning about the Commission meeting last night:
Sobering comments by Lake Worth City Manager Michael Bornstein in the video below.
No matter what the City does, crossing all the t’s and dotting all the i’s, Gov. Rick Scott and the State legislature have no intention of helping little cities like Lake Worth. Despite all the problems — and all the progress our City has made over the last five years — none of that means anything to them.
Our City’s Park of “Commerce”, a project and word that should get the attention of every elected in Tallahassee, is just ignored.
Keep this in mind at tonight’s Planning & Zoning Board meeting (see the blog post following). According to Mayor Pam Triolo we’re going to “have to get creative” addressing the problems in our little 7-square-mile City of Lake Worth.
Please share this video with your friends and neighbors:
A huge victory for Palm Beach County and our neighbors out west near Lake Okeechobee.
Read an excerpt from the latest news by reporter Mary Ellen Klas at the Herald/Times Tallahasse Bureau below.
Latest news from the Herald/Times, an article today titled, “Compromise yields gift for the Everglades: 78 billion gallons of cleaner water”:
Months of negotiation and compromise over whether to build a deep-water storage reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee ended in victory Tuesday for Senate President Joe Negron as the Florida House agreed to the Senate plan and sent the measure to the governor for his approval.
The proposal, SB 10, will cost the state and federal government $1.5 billion and will accelerate the state’s 20-year goal of storing water from the lake by using land the state owns, known as the A-2 parcel, as well as land swaps and purchases.
The House passed the measure 99-19, after it reduced the amount the state could bond for the project to $800 million, and the measure was then passed by the Senate 33-0.
The plan will create at least 240,000 acre feet of storage — about 78 billion gallons — south of the lake by converting 14,000 acres of state land now used as a shallow reservoir to build a deep-water reservoir. The measure will set in motion negotiations for the state to purchase land for the project from willing sellers, while prohibiting the use of eminent domain to force the sale. [emphasis added]
North of Lake Okeechobee there remain very serious issues to address. Stay tuned for news to come about all the septic tanks along the Indian River Lagoon.
Click on image to enlarge. This was when “Send The Water South!” was a much larger project that would have wiped out the way of life for so many here in Palm Beach County:
 |
| The public came out and they spoke. And the electeds listened. |
Latest news from the Herald/Times, an article today titled, “Compromise yields gift for the Everglades: 78 billion gallons of cleaner water”:
Months of negotiation and compromise over whether to build a deep-water storage reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee ended in victory Tuesday for Senate President Joe Negron as the Florida House agreed to the Senate plan and sent the measure to the governor for his approval.
The proposal, SB 10, will cost the state and federal government $1.5 billion and will accelerate the state’s 20-year goal of storing water from the lake by using land the state owns, known as the A-2 parcel, as well as land swaps and purchases.
The House passed the measure 99-19, after it reduced the amount the state could bond for the project to $800 million, and the measure was then passed by the Senate 33-0.
The plan will create at least 240,000 acre feet of storage — about 78 billion gallons — south of the lake by converting 14,000 acres of state land now used as a shallow reservoir to build a deep-water reservoir. The measure will set in motion negotiations for the state to purchase land for the project from willing sellers, while prohibiting the use of eminent domain to force the sale. [emphasis added]
North of Lake Okeechobee there remain very serious issues to address. Stay tuned for news to come about all the septic tanks along the Indian River Lagoon.
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![Dr. W. H. Cotton’s ode: “Oh, My Lake Worth, Florida!” [circa 1920].](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUL75cv6zJQFjX15ojOIIz9AjnbqH4asHJTYSDhnGnYr7rJZRha1NcNTirj2xPcId158vkz5Hw-wXgOfrlztj8Zr8jLFFCfuEN6PyV44ZlpMRmJ68xbtFL9vzxNiG7xDs_HJvm/s1600/LakeWorthPioneers.JPG)
