A message from Scott Maxwell, Lake Worth’s Vice Mayor and District 1 Commissioner.

“Scott Maxwell gives the community valuable information to help reduce the time of power outages as well as expressing a heartfelt appreciation to those who pitched in to continue to make Lake Worth a great community.”

Editors, media executives, reporters, and journalists: Stressed out?

Please take note. The following blog post also addresses the subject of medical marijuana and may be disturbing for some readers. Below, you’ll also learn about the newly-formed coalition called “HEMP” that attempts to confront this issue head-on vis-à-vis the responsible use of medical marijuana, young people in Palm Beach County, and possible protests (and counter-protests) in the very near future.

Without further ado. . .

Hurricane Irma coverage was rough for everyone, e.g., imagine the surprise of employees at The Palm Beach Post when they all learned,

“[P]ublisher Tim Burke told the employees via email . . .”.

However, if you’re in the press and/or news media business, there’s good news to report! A great way to change your mood and perspective: medical marijuana.

Later this month Modern Health Concepts (MHC [not to confused with THC]) is opening a new medical marijuana dispensary right here in the City of Lake Worth, conveniently located at 1125 N. Dixie Hwy.

MHC is on the west side of Dixie between a crematorium and an elementary charter school on the east side of Dixie. Or. . . look for Blue Front BBQ; MHC is right across the street! How cool is that? Contact MHC today:

“Now Offering Free Delivery to Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Lee and Collier Counties. Call 877-303-0741 or place an order online.”

BONUS CONTENT!

Young members of HEMP (Helping Educate My Parents),* are planning a counter-protest on learning this from the editor at the Post:

“The proposed [medical marijuana] dispensary, owned by Miami-based Modern Health Concepts, plans to open by the end of the month. Academy for Positive Learning’s [charter school] owners are fighting it, including possibly protesting outside the facility once it opens.”

HEMP’s goals are nonviolent; completely educational:

• Charter schools are too expensive and a family can use the money on funner things.
• “All my friends go to public school.”
• Medical marijuana (MM) can help parents better deal with school administration, staff, and grades.
• MM can help teachers deal with unreasonable deadlines.
• And MM can help when pondering questions like, “Why am I still teaching in a mobile home after all these years?”
• What if a child says, “I want to be a part of PBC School Superintendent Robert Avossa’s vision for the future of public schools.” MM can help deal with that too.

Stay tuned as they say for more from HEMP!

*If you didn’t catch on, this is called satire. There is no group called “HEMP”. At least not yet. Will there be protesters outside MHC, a legally-operating medical marijuana dispensary later this month? We’ll have to wait and see. But hopefully there will be counter-protesters there as well in support of a Lake Worth business and medical marijuana.

Spread the word, “Together We Stand Democratic Club” tomorrow at 4:00.

Meet at Fire Station #3, corner of 49th St. and
Broadway in West Palm Beach.

“Featuring Lake Worth City Commissioner Omari Hardy”. FYI, besides the glaring typo in this announcement, our District 2 commissioner’s
last name is “Hardy” with a “y”.

UPDATE: Excitement builds, ITLAPD in Lake Worth. But Editor at Post hints at another downer editorial. City officials respond, “Arrrrghh. Make our day.”

MORE NEWS TODAY!

ITLAPD is on the City of Lake Worth’s
Commission agenda next Tuesday.

To see and read this for yourself, use this link and then,

• Scroll down for “September 19, Regular Meeting”.
• Then click on “Agenda & Backup”.
• When download is complete go to page 61.
• Read entire agenda item 6B, “Proclamation declaring September 19, 2017, as International Talk like a Pirate Day”.
• Please share with your friends and neighbors!

If ITLAPD upsets you, remember that Modern Health Concepts (MHC; not to confused with THC) is opening a new medical marijuana dispensary later this month. Use this link to learn more, call 877-303-0741, or if you happen to be driving around our vibrant City take a look at 1125 N. Dixie Hwy (MHC is located on the west side of Dixie between a crematorium and an elementary charter school on the east side of Dixie).

Continue reading for the news from yesterday, and learn more about the City of Lake Worth’s ITLAPD event next week.

Two former Lake Worth City commissioners at the urging of The Palm Beach Post editor, still stinging from the medical marijuana debacle last week, fired off angry letters to President Donald Trump today calling on the City of Lake Worth to cancel next week’s International Talk Like A Pirate Day (ITLAPD) festivities (learn more about ITLAPD below). The letter said in part,

Dear Mr. President . . . to have ITLAPD continue is nothing short of malfeasance, misfeasance, badfeasance, evilfeasance, and smellyfeasance . . . save your legacy and eliminate ITLAPD forever from our American shores.

If you didn’t know, ITLAPD is on September 19th every year. Just by coincidence, the next regular City Commission meeting is next Tuesday, September 19th. Protests are planned by anti-ITLAPD groups and the pro-ITLAPD groups are said to be rallying as well.

Stay tuned for more on this
developing situation.

To learn more about ITLAPD please continue reading and Thank You for visiting today.

“The ITLAPD Proclamation”
in our City of Lake Worth is
only four days away!

Just don’t expect EVERYONE (see below) to be in the mood when you say, “Arrrrrr, Ye Bilge Rat!”

The excerpt below is from a hilariously funny and quite clever news article by former Post reporter Willie Howard in September 2012 titled, “ ‘Talk like a pirate day’ in Lake Worth has some up in arms”:

[R]esident Lynda Mahoney said the pirate day proclamation sounded “juvenile, nonsensical — a day that might occur in a kindergarten class.”
     She said the city should not waste time on such foolishness because it has serious problems. [City Manager Michael] Bornstein responded in part with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi: “If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.”
     “I’m so sorry you find this fun, silly proclamation anything more than that,” Bornstein wrote in his response to [former commissioner JoAnn] Golden. “I could easily become consumed with a sense of over correctness in almost everything involved in government. However, I refuse to become devoid of all the wonderful human emotions including, most importantly, humor.”

A proclamation for ITLAPD went off without a
hitch at the City Commission last year.

Former District 4 Commissioner Ryan Maier
won “Best Pirate Hat”!

The “gadfly”,* Chris McVoy, PhD, later lost his
bid for re-election.

 [FF to 1 minute 15 second mark for ITLAPD proclamation]

To learn more interesting facts about ITLAPD use this link to Wikipedia. Below is a short and informative video; learn more tips how to “Talk Like A Pirate”.

Remember, there will be no merriment and the beatings will continue until morale improves!

*The term “gadfly” when referring to an elected official is pretty harsh. But that’s what the editor at the Post called McVoy in his endorsement for now-District 2 Commissioner Omari Hardy in the elections last March.

Remember, your official news source about the little City of Lake Worth IS our little City of Lake Worth.

Below is a recently issued, important City of Lake Worth YouTube video.

Our Asst. Dir. of Leisure Services on our City’s parks.

Municipal offices will re-open on Monday. Use this link for more information. Next Tuesday’s ITLAPD proclamation at the City Commission is a go!

For example, many of the news reports in The Palm Beach Post to date, post-Hurricane Irma, have been copy & paste, reworded press releases and updates from the City of Lake Worth.

Below is a message from the spectacular Lauren Bennett, the City’s Asst. Dir of Leisure Services.

But first, here is a short excerpt from Lake Worth’s Post-Hurricane Update #31 datelined yesterday,
Sept. 15th:

Post-Hurricane Irma, Day 5, was another good day. Lake Worth Electric Utility was able to energize 5 more system circuits, that means out of the 41 circuits within the Lake Worth Electric service area, 1 circuit is left to re-energize.
     Approximately 84% of the system has been restored, which equates to 22,122 customers. This leaves 4,288 customer outages. For those of you still without power, please be patient, we are on our way. Today, post-Hurricane Irma Day 6 we’ll hit it again, continuing to restore power.

To contact the Lake Worth Electric Utility
by phone, call 561-586-1695.

Without further ado, Lauren Bennett.

Please share this message with
your friends and neighbors.

Meteorology is science too. Should public hurricane and tornado warnings use kilometers instead of miles?

“On issue of sea level rise, use inches instead of the metric system for public to better understand?”

A blog post from 8 months ago (see below, “Without further ado. . .”) continues to draw a lot of attention.

And a lot of ire as well.

Since last January a former Lake Worth commissioner with a science degree from Cornell lost his re-election bid to a young newcomer in politics. The blog post below had zero effect on the outcome. However, it was after seeing a political mailer from Chris McVoy, PhD, reminding the public once again about his efforts to battle sea level rise (SLR), a question came to mind:

“Does the public in our City understand the issue of SLR any better since McVoy was first elected in 2010? Or not?”

True. Our country no longer uses the “Imperial Standard” of measurement. In the comment section below was taken to task and quite deservedly so. But if I may, a few questions:

• Almost everyone in South Florida knows how many miles Cuba is from Key West. But how many can calculate that into kilometers? (On the fly, the number 1.6 is a good way but how many people know that?)
• Local weather reporters, using information gleaned from the National Weather Service (again, science), doesn’t use the metric system to let us know how much rainfall there was or to be expected.
• There’s a proposal to sink the USS Clamagore “in about 75 feet of water”. Should the reporter have used the metric system?
• An outfall pipe off the coast of our City may become very big news. McVoy talked about that and referred to the pipe being “¾-mile long”. Why didn’t he use the metric system?
• Our Beach in Lake Worth is approximately 1,100′ long. Quick. Convert that into meters!
• Should all future hurricane warnings and risks be cited in kilometers?
• It’s very important to map turtle nests along our coast. Are all these locations/coordinates being collected using the metric system or in lengths and distances of feet?

Encourage everyone to read the blog post that follows and the comments as well. Disagree if you wish as many have done so already. For those of you unaware, you’ll find my email address in the right-hand column. Try and not use foul words please.

Without further ado. . .

Chris McVoy, PhD, knows how to calculate millimeters into inches, but do you know how? For City of Lake Worth residents puzzled about sea level rise, technical jargon, and not well-acquainted with the metric system use this link. For example,

3 millimeters (mm)  =  ≈⅛^th of an inch or 0.125% of 1″ [stand corrected; see comment section below] using the standard of measurement in the United States since July 4th, 1776, called the “Imperial Standard”.

When you hear about sea level rise from McVoy’s campaign material, is that issue more important than the ones that affect your daily life, like our roads, potholes, street lighting, and public safety? Or should the cry from the public be, “Keep It Local!”?

Lake Worth elections can be very entertaining for the rest of Palm Beach County, especially the skill and political savvy displayed by some elected’s to skirt, duck, or otherwise avoid the actual issues the City has to deal with.

Of course, there’s always issues like our Casino that haunt our City going all the way back to 2010, the year McVoy was first elected.

Lake Worth, if you didn’t know, is just one of 39 cities in Palm Beach County. With under 40,000 residents and about 6 square miles it does stand out in a very big way: The City has more than its share of difficult problems to address. And it doesn’t help matters when one City commissioner in particular tries over and over again to distract the community.

One of the ways McVoy tries to distract the community is to bring up issues like “sea level rise” (SLR), comparing Lake Worth to much larger cities like Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Hoboken, NJ. It’s no secret Lake Worth is not to scale of those cities. And doesn’t Palm Beach County have a “czar” to monitor sea levels?

Although a timely topic, many in Lake Worth are very concerned that SLR is being used as a “wedge issue” to distract the community from things like our crumbling roads and potholes, street lighting, and public safety. In 2014 this tactic did work when McVoy campaigned against the LW2020 bond to fix our roads. By just 25 votes that referendum failed.

Anyhow, now there’s this from a reader of this blog, something discovered on the City’s Wikipedia page* that was recently added:

“The [Lake Worth] pier is home to a tide gauge with a sporadic history, showing an above average rate of sea level rise.[18]”

Here is footnote 18:

“Mean Sea Level Trend 8722670 Lake Worth Pier”. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved December 30, 2016. [emphasis added]

However, for some perspective about the image below cited on the City’s Wikipedia page:

3.56 millimeters = approximately ⅛^th of one (1) inch.

The following image is from this website:

McVoy has a PhD and he reminds people all the time about that. However, can we please stick to the “Imperial system” of inches for everyone to understand, instead of using the metric system?

*Please note: When visiting the City’s Wikipedia page always look at the very bottom of the page for a line like this, “This page was last modified. . .”, and jot down the date and time. That way you know when the page was last updated, edited, or otherwise altered the next time you visit this Wikipedia site.

Update on post-Hurricane Irma cleanup operations in little City of Lake Worth.

“Jamie Brown, the Director of Public Services for the City of Lake Worth gives a community update on the monumental efforts underway by the Public Services Depart. in an effort to get Lake Worth looking beautiful again.”

To read the City of Lake Worth’s Post-Hurricane Irma Update #27 in its entirety use this link.

Very important information for today,
Friday, September 15th:

A regular pickup schedule will be followed. A hurricane-related vegetation amnesty will be in place allowing 6 cubic yards (cu yd) rather than the usual 4 cu yd of vegetation; this is equal to roughly 3 regular refrigerators in size. Vegetation must be cut to lengths not exceeding 3′. Stumps must be less than 15″ in diameter. Please place all vegetation on the ground separated from any other debris.

Do not use the Green and Black vegetation container. There will be NO recycling pickup this week.

Today we will be picking up garbage in Zones 1 & 2 and vegetation in Zone 3. Remember, NO recycling this week and don’t use the vegetation containers. Please put vegetation on the ground in a pile separate from other debris.

Annual event: “Lake Worth Has Talent Show Announces Auditions”.

Below is news in The Lake Worth Herald. Have you ever seen Jamie Brown’s performance of the Blues classic Soulshine* from last year’s Lake Worth Has Talent show? The video is below.

Here’s the news in the Herald:

This year, Lake Worth Has Talent will hold open auditions on September 23 and 24 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The auditions will be held on a first come first served basis at the Lake Worth Playhouse.
     The talent contest will be held November 5 at 6:30 p.m.

For more community news, subscribe to
our LOCAL newspaper:

Or pick up the print edition for just ¢50 at the
City’s newsstand at 600 Lake Ave. in
our vibrant Downtown.

Below is Jamie Brown’s performance at the Lake Worth Has Talent show in November 2016. If you didn’t know, Jamie is the City’s Director of Public Services.

Mark Easton, the publisher of The Lake Worth Herald, had to quickly switch cameras to get this performance of the Blues classic, Soulshine:



*“Soulshine” is a song recorded by The Allman Brothers Band and released on their 1994 album “Where It All Begins,” written by guitarist Warren Haynes with vocals by Gregg Allman. Song’s title originates from Haynes’ nickname, given by his father. Although never released as a single, it still remains one of the Allmans’ best known songs among fans and concert-goers.

People’s kindness: Part of the Hurricane Irma experience is the kindness of people.

After this electrical outage we will really enjoy our air conditioning and be grateful our City of Lake Worth homes and businesses are still standing. Remember to be kind to City employees doing their jobs, e.g., officers in the Code Enforcement Dept. working so hard to save our ficus trees and reminding residents it’s better to work together and settle disputes instead of getting the City, press and media involved.

Here is a message being spread on Facebook,
“My Dear Lake Worth Family”:

“If you are able: please ask linemen, cable guys, servicemen or landscape folks if you can help them. Reports of guys not having much food (water, gas, electricity just like us) because everything is closed or they can’t wait in long lines. They’ll be working overtime to restore our lives back to normal. Food, drinks, and snacks are much appreciated. Please copy/paste this message and share.”

and lastly. . .

“Instead of complaining, help out and be part of a solution, not a problem.”

More news from the little City of Lake Worth about electrical outages.

“Asst. Electric Utility Director, Walt Gill, gives an in-depth update of how local and national crews have assembled to get Lake Worth electrical service fully restored.”

Pinned Post* all day today. Updates from the little City of Lake Worth on electric outages and progress to date.

Scroll down for Special Update #24 below. A MUST READ!

First, in case you missed this, a message from Mr. Ed Liberty, Director of Lake Worth Electric Utility:

“Outage update following Hurricane Irma for City of Lake Worth Electric Utilities following loss of power on Sunday, September 10th.”



Use this link to read Hurricane Irma Update #21 from the City and please share this information with the media, local press beat reporters, and with your friends and neighbors as well.

UPDATE: For update #22
use this link:

“Notes from Walt Gill, Asst. Director of Lake Worth Electric Utility. ‘Day 2 [Sept. 13th] was a good day.’ ”

Update #24 [dated 9/13]; excerpt:

The Lake Worth Electric Service Territory covers 12.5 square miles and contains a total of 41 system circuits. Crews have been able to re-energize 26 of these circuits, leaving 15 circuits left to energize.
     Approximately 48% of the system has been restored, which equates to 12,589 customers. This leaves 13,821 customer outages. Key pick-ups today [yesterday, Sept. 13th]:

• Second 138kV Feed from FPL into our single [as in 1] Tie Line.
• Second half of Palm Beach State College, JFK Charter, Barton Elementary, South Grade Elementary, Lake Worth Middle School.
• Solar Field was connected to the system and producing mWs again.
• South West County Medical Park, the last 3 substations in the northeast quadrant, 2½ north central city circuits, southwest county circuit including RaceTrac and Speedway gas stations at Congress Ave. and Lake Worth Rd.
• West central county including Bodegon and Wawa gas station at Congress Ave. and Lake Worth Rd.

Tomorrow [today, Thursday 9/14], between our City crews and mutual aid crews there will be a total of 101 linemen and 8 tree crews (16 men), on the ground continuing to restore power.

Have you tried using the Lake Worth Power Tracker yet? You can watch in real time as the City of
Lake Worth gets powered up again!

*A “Pinned Post” is one kept at or near the top of the blog for a period of time as determined by Yours Truly. As always, Thank You for visiting today and hope your electric power is restored shortly in the Lake Worth Electric Utility service area.

Please pardon this short break from Hurricane Irma coverage.

“On Your Mark. Get Set. Not Yet . . . GO!”

Hope you enjoyed this short intermission.

Wes’ little bit of Lake Worth news and please take note: Be very suspicious of rumors and speculation.

UPDATE: Well. Now it’s Day 4 and The Obtuse Blogger (TOB; see below) is still not back on the Internet. TOB’s been offline since Sept. 10th. If you didn’t know any better, if you happen to read that blog, you would think Hurricane Irma was still on its way. One would think with all her ‘conservative’ connections, she could find somebody, anybody, to give her access to the Internet. Anyhow. . .

“You guys all stay safe down there. Thinking about all my old friends in Lake Worth!”
—Quote, Tom McGow, Sept. 6th, 2017 (learn more about Mr. McGow below).

As of Thursday, Sept. 14th, at 5:30 a.m., still do not have electricity in my neighborhood in this little City of Lake Worth, but am very happy to hear many others are getting their lights turned on.

If you’re not following the City on Twitter,
well, you should: @LakeWorthpbc

Why? Because there’s a lot of good news being reported by the City. Also try using the Twitter “hashtag” Lake Worth too: #lakeworth

“everywhere i turn i see more power crews in #lakeworth”

This is a trying time for many people, a very real hardship. But please know the City is doing everything they can to restore power to your neighborhood. And if you know what is happening — and have been following the updates (now up to #21) from the City of Lake Worth — please inform your friends and neighbors what is going on as well.

And. . . there are plenty of rumors going around as well. Especially from a certain condo community west of I-95, which is nothing new of course.

Do you remember the rumor back in the day when the Army Corps of Engineers was going to “reconfigure” Lake Osborne into the shape of a dolphin?

The Army Corps of Engineers announced today that they plan to dredge and reconfigure Lake Osborne as part of a federal mandate to return lakes and waterways to their “pre-development” state.

That rumor was untrue. Lake Osborne was never reshaped into a dolphin. The lesson is be very careful of rumors and wild speculation. However, reconfiguring the lake into the shape of a mammal seemed like a good idea to some people at the time, according to Mr. Tom McGow:

“Local resident ■■■■ ■■■■■■■■ [aka, TOB], who lives close to the lake, added, ‘I like it!’ ”

Oh, by the way, our Downtown Publix has power and is open for business following Hurricane Irma! Now for another look back in time, read “Publix Works” by the inimitable Mr. McGow from back
in April 2010, prior to construction of our
treasured City supermarket.

News from Assistant Lake Worth City Manager Juan Ruiz:

Triathlon Update — Unfortunately, we need to cancel the Bill Bone Tropical Triathlon scheduled for this Sunday. The City Beach complex is closed until further notice with no ETA for re-opening.

We will be posting updated information as soon as it becomes available. Thank you and apologize for the inconvenience.

A message on Facebook from City of Lake Worth Commissioner Andy Amoroso:

From yesterday evening:

What’s the message from the City of Lake Worth’s official Facebook page? There isn’t one. Lake Worth is not using this communication tool. But cities like Greenacres are.