This was the only and last group picture of the 'architects' of the Casino complex taken in 2012. No one is laughing any more.
On March 1st at the next City Commission meeting, unless a Herculean effort is made to solve this problem, the contractor, the contractor's bond company, and the architect of the Lake Worth Casino will be found in default. You can read how this all came about using this link.
The public, business community, elected's, et al. have had egg on their face for too many years because of this. Here is just one example, one of way too many to mention in this blog post, of the problems at the Casino building; here is the video of the news segment:
If it couldn't get any worse, it gets much worse. The only thing keeping the Casino complex afloat (pardon the pun) is the parking revenue. It was the parking revenue that was supposed to be the surplus money to help fix the streets and infrastructure in the City. Because it was a failed business plan from the beginning, now it's the other way around and the City taxpayers are left holding the bill.
The City's municipal pool was another broken promise. Because the project was mishandled so badly there was no money left over to fix any problems at the pool and pool building. Here is how the locker room looked just a few months ago:
These are things to remember on March 15th, election day in Lake Worth.
The water releases from Lake Okeechobee and the efforts to keep the Herbert Hoover Dike in safe condition are big news of late. Below is a blog post from last year following the failed plan by some environmental groups to spend $3+ billion ("billion" with a 'b') to move water south of Lake Okeechobee to be cleaned and then sent to the Everglades. In October of last year this article from TCPalm titled, "Research: Septic systems ‘primary' source of river, reef pollution" in the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) was published.
The debate about water levels in Lake Okeechobee is an important one but shouldn't the debate about so many communities along the Indian River Lagoon using septic tanks also be a part of the debate? JP Sasser has thoughts about this as you'll read in this blog post from last year:
On the heels of the pitch by The Palm Beach Post over the end of the "sheet flow" debate the focus may now shift to our friends north and east of Lake Okeechobee. Here is how I ended my post on the end of the Everglades land buy and the grief by the Post:
Now about all those septic tanks . . .
And wouldn't you know it, the VERY NEXT DAY this "Point Of View" appears in the Post editorial page by JP Sasser, the former Mayor of Pahokee:
JP Sasser was right all along.
Here is an excerpt from Mr. Sasser's contribution to the debate (with emphasis in red):
The final point was that the cities of Belle Glade, Pahokee and South Bay pumped our raw sewage into the lake. We have had modern centralized sewer systems for over 40 years. The Treasure Coast needs to look in the mirror. Some waters in Florida are polluted with human fecal matter — particularly the IRL [Indian River Lagoon]. “Buy the land and send water south” is not the only road to water salvation. My question is: When are we going to get serious about our water? Florida’s agriculture-industry pollution is regulated statewide and has to meet specific limits. Our septic tanks are not held to the same requirements.
The following video has nothing to do with this debate but it is an interesting look back at the political career of JP Sasser:
1864 – The Battle of Olustee took place on this date. Also known as the Battle of Ocean Pond, it was the largest battle fought in Florida during the American Civil War. Union General Truman Seymour and 5,500 troops met Confederate Brigadier General Joseph Finnegan with a force of around 5,000 troops clashing near present day Lake City. Union forces were driven back to Jacksonville after intense fighting, although casualties remained high on both sides. The site of the original battle is now an historic state park and a reenactment of the battle takes place every year within the park grounds.
Urinating in public is not acceptable in Lake Worth or anywhere else for that matter. However, Commissioner Ryan Maier's take on the situation is it's "not that big a deal" as long as no one sees it happening. Judging from the reaction of my blog readers (and other sources) after this comment was made the public in Lake Worth is in agreement this is completely unacceptable.
Lake Worth Mayor Pam Triolo and Commissioner Andy Amoroso have businesses in downtown Lake Worth. They're doing everything they can to make the downtown a clean and healthy place to be for everyone including families and visitors. Maier also has a business downtown but he thinks that urinating in public, as long as no one sees it, is just fine by him.
You can hear for yourself what Maier said in the short video below. Following Maier's remarks Commissioner Amoroso responds and he is none to happy with what was said:
If you see any activity in the City, such as anyone urinating in public, "Make the Call Y'all"!
As part of your downtown Lake Worth experience take a walk over to Lucenté and see the new townhome community coming to life. It is located just southeast of the City's Publix and very close to the Post Office. Here are two excerpts from the feature in the Post:
What is this Lucenté that the whole Town of Lake Worth is talking about? Lucenté is the newest townhome community by Kennedy Homes, LLC, and it’s already 50 percent sold out and celebrating its Model Grand Opening with huge savings. Located in trendy downtown Lake Worth, these Key West-inspired townhomes start from $259,900, and there’s no better way to experience this mecca of value, style and convenience than by attending the Lucenté Model Grand Opening now in full swing.
[and. . .]
“New construction so nearby to eclectic downtown dining and shopping and the amazing entertainment that Lake Worth is famous for is just unheard of at these prices,” said Robin Abrams, sales manager at Lucenté. “And with the amazing features that come standard in a Kennedy Homes townhome—features that almost always cost more with other builders”
IF YOU GO: Address: 114 North J Street, Lake Worth, FL 33460. A furnished model is on the southwest corner of 2nd Ave. North and North K Street Hours: 10 a.m.–6 p.m. daily Telephone: (855) 782-0566 and the website for Kennedy Homes.
Susan Salisbury at The Palm Beach Post has this welcome business news in Lake Worth:
Is your iPhone’s screen cracked? There’s no excuse for looking so tacky. Now there’s a place in Lake Worth that specializes in
same-day repair service of electronics such as phones, tablets, iPods,
computers and game consoles. uBreakiFix has 165 stores nationwide, and Friday opened its newest location at 706 Lake Ave., Lake Worth.[emphasis added]
[and. . .]
Other uBreakiFix franchises in Palm Beach Beach County are in Wellington, Boynton Beach and Boca Raton. uBreakiFix has saved Americans an estimated $500 million in
replacement costs since its inception in 2009 and has an average repair
cost for electronics of $85. The company offers repair services for all
brands of smartphones, tablets, computers, game consoles and more. Each
repair comes with a 90-day warranty.
Now there's no reason to look tacky any more in Lake Worth using that phone with a cracked screen. While your repair is getting done you can walk down the street and have lunch at Callaro's, one of my favorite lunch spots in the downtown:
There's real good news about the future of transit in Lake Worth (below) but first to clear up something very important. Commissioner Ryan Maier said the following at the Lake Worth City Commission meeting on Feb. 2nd:
"I sit on the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council [TCRPC]. I've spoken about that many times." [quote made at the 8:50–9:00 mark in the video below]
Commissioner Maier is the City's liaison to the TCRPC. He is not a sitting member and has no formal role; he sits with the rest of the public at meetings there. The Chairman and other sitting members of the TCRPC may be somewhat annoyed some elected officials are making claims like this to their constituents. Use this link to see all the members of the TCRPC and the list of alternates also. The next meeting, if you're interested, is TODAY (February 19th).
On the discussion that followed at the City Commission about Brightline (formerly All Aboard Florida) the vote taken was 5-0 to support rail transit going forward. You see, bipartisanship is possible here in Lake Worth. Mayor Pam Triolo, Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell, Commissioners Andy Amoroso, Ryan Maier and even Chris McVoy all agreed on "WHAT IS POSSIBLE" and the bright future that the soon-to-be passenger rail project, Brightline, presents for city's like Lake Worth.
Another topic of discussion was the future "Coastal Link":
The Coastal Link will
follow the Brightline service and link all of the coastal cities in
Palm Beach County together. For instance, you'll be able to take the
train from Lake Worth to West Palm Beach and then take Brightline to
Disney, for example, or if you wish go to Ft. Lauderdale/Miami.
I'm glad I was there to videotape this discussion/vote about Brightline and the Coastal Link and to see all the elected officials in Lake Worth set aside their differences to bring the City together.
There is debate within the journalism community about clickbait. Here is the definition in Wikipedia:
Clickbait is a pejorative term describing web content that is aimed at generating online advertising revenue, especially at the expense of quality or accuracy, relying on sensationalist headlines to attract click-throughs and to encourage forwarding of the material over online social networks. Clickbait headlines typically aim to exploit the "curiosity gap", providing just enough information to make the reader curious, but not enough to satisfy their curiosity without clicking through to the linked content.
I've blogged about this subject in the past and will make this point again to be clear: I am not a journalist. What I do on this blog is feature items sent to me by readers or news items from sources such as newspapers, TV news, other blogs, press releases, etc., and also write about issues (mainly concerning Lake Worth), this for instance, I think will interest my readers.
On Twitter, for those of you who don't know, you're limited to 140 characters (including word spaces) but that changes if you add an image. In the Tweet below by CBS12/WPEC there was plenty of room to indicate where this tragic event occurred. Was it Boca Raton? Wellington? Somewhere in the Treasure Coast?
If you were curious to find out where this event happened and clicked (Gotcha!) you learn it occurred in Texas. That's right. The state of Texas just north of Mexico. A long, long way from southeast Florida. But in order to find that out you had to click on the CBS12/WPEC Tweet.
Where did this brawl happen? Somewhere in Palm Beach County, Florida? In Palm Beach Gardens? West Palm Beach? No. This happened in Birmingham, Alabama. But you don't find that out until you click the link.
Now you know what clickbait journalism is. FYI, here in my review of TV News in central Palm Beach County.
Below is an excerpt from the editorial. To read in its entirety and for other news and events in Lake Worth use this link or pick up an issue at the newsstand at Lake Ave. and 'L' Street (across from Starbucks):
"Years after the casino building re-opened there are still problems with the building. The parking situation at the beach has left the many elderly of Lake Worth unable to enjoy the beach. All thanks in part to a couple former commissioners, and they are knocking on your doors trying to blame current electeds. There are two current electeds who benefited from these scare tactics. Let’s set the record straight. The City cannot and will not take your mobile home park. The City cannot and will not SELL THE BEACH. The current commission did not raise building heights. In fact, the current commission has lowered the building height restrictions. No, we will not see skyscrapers or big box buildings in the downtown corridor of Lake Worth. If anyone tries to tell you we can, tell them they are a LIAR. The three currently elected officials running for re-election have worked hard on behalf of the residents to improve the tax base and ease the tax burden on residents. They have lowered electric rates. They have improved areas with the use of Community Development Block Grant money that the former commissioners knocking on your doors left unspent and almost forfeited during their terms. This list goes on and on, but the fact of the matter is, Lake Worth is much better off than it was four years ago."
"The Lake Worth Neighborhood Association Presidents Council (NAPC; also on Facebook) is proudly hosting The Great Taste of Lake Worth special event on Friday, Feb. 19, from 6–10 p.m., rain or shine! If that date seems familiar that’s because that’s the night before the Fabulous Street Painting Festival weekend, held Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 20 and 21."
[and. . .]
"Tickets are $25 and include an identifying wristband, a map with all the participating merchants locations. Ticket holders will also receive a $5 discount on the Great Taste of Lake Worth T-shirts, available at the regular price of $15 for everyone else. T-shirts will be sold at the NAPC Great Taste Check in tent, located at the intersection of K Street and Lake Avenue." *Please spread the word: There is NO 'curfew' in Lake Worth. This is false and an irresponsible use of loaded language in The Palm Beach Post and one bottom-dwelling TV news station also. Please be highly critical and question what you hear and read in the 'news'.
If you have an extra five hours, here is the meeting in a video playlist. I will be sorting out the highlights, but this is everything until the batteries died at 11 p.m.. The good news is that the Historic Board passed 4 of the 7 items on their agenda and will come back on March 9th to finish up. The major items like the site plan and the conditional use were approved. I'll have more detail on what is still left to be reviewed soon.
Here are some stills of the crowd and the presentation. Many people came out and were generally supportive of the requests. The board made many suggestions and adjustments, including the removal of the retail space from the parking garage and relocating that as a retail/restaurant space off of Lake Avenue as part of the new building. They also adjusted the setback of the new building on the west side of the property so that its colonnade will be five feet closer to the right-of-way.
Note the Twitter hashtag for the Festival: #CanWeChalk?
Learn more about the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival using this link and this is the official website for the festival on February 20th and 21st.
Palm Beach State College (Lake Worth Campus) is located outside the City west of John Prince Park and Lake Osborne. Here are the driving directions to the campus.
Here is the link to TriRail's weekend schedule. See you at the Festival!
Nicole Danna at the Broward/Palm Beach New Times was the first to report on this. C.W.S. (aka, Charles William Stache) will be opening soon in the Cottage on Lucerne Ave in downtown Lake Worth.
Mr. Stache is coming to The Cottage on Lucerne Ave. in Lake Worth.
Now Lyssa Goldberg at The PalmBeacher has more news on this:
We've found you a new morning coffee spot. And new outdoor hangout. Plus a new late-night cocktail haunt (you know, for good measure). In fact, it's all the same place. C.W.S. Craft Cocktails and Kitchen, opening in Lake Worth, will offer all of these environments and more when it arrives next month. Owners are aiming for a mid-to-late March debut.
[and…]
"We believe in what the city of Lake Worth was founded on—art—and want to integrate food and beverage to elevate the Lake Worth lifestyle and enhance the food and beverage industry in Palm Beach," he [co-owner Jeff John] said. C.W.S. will initially offer dinner service and Sunday brunch, while daily breakfast and lunch hours are in the works for later. Nonetheless, the location will open at 7 a.m. every morning so guests can enjoy a Panther Coffee bar serving up light pastries. "We’ve taken the day-parts and organically transitioned them to incorporate coffee, cocktails and a scratch kitchen, adding to the art culture of the city," John said.
Stay tuned to this blog for more information and the opening day.
Ryan Hartman and two young girls disabled a van at a protest in Palm Beach Gardens. What happened next was hilarious. Instead of drawing attention to a plot of land being proposed for development he made Everglades EarthFirst! (EEF) a joke throughout south Florida and the country as well.
Here's what Hartman and his little band of merrymakers did: Instead of reviewing the Anarchist library for ways to disable a vehicle they removed the battery and threw it into a lake! This is not a joke. It really happened. The Palm Beach Gardens PD even took a picture of the battery in the lake and a HazMat team was assembled to remove it. Luckily, no acid was released.
But the story gets better. Hartman and the girls go on trial and they're all found guilty. The judge even felt sorry for them and didn't sentence any of them to jail time. So what does Hartman do next? He cleans himself up, turns Hipster, and decides to run for office and challenge Lake Worth Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell.
Hartman prior to his Hipster makeover.
Knowing full well the people of Lake Worth wouldn't vote for him looking like an Anarchist, Hartman then changed his appearance to make himself more palatable:
Hartman has a whole new look and beams with delight. Note he shaved, got a haircut, and sports trendy new clothes.
And in another later development, the dwindling Anarchist community in Lake Worth put the callout for Anarchists everywhere to descend on the City and help to get Hartman elected by staging a "musical":
If you see a "musical" about to begin contact PBSO and enjoy the show!
Which makes you wonder why Hartman, an anti-government Anarchist, would run for a political office in the first place. Would there be a bigger objective like obstructing and hampering law enforcement in Lake Worth? Not so funny and entertaining any more is it?
A sign at an EEF! 2014 protest in Lake Worth outside PBSO District 14.
A couple of things to note here. By watching and listening to these videos, you will learn the City is done with being patient and is ready to declare both the contractor and architect in default as it relates to the construction of the Casino building. The building is operating under a temporary Certificate of Occupancy due to a number of outstanding flaws. Chief among these flaws is water intrusion. This is more than just a problem when it rains. Ultimately, it will affect the integrity of the building and negatively impact the value of the City's investment in it.
The volume of information on this topic throughout the years on this blog is voluminous to say the least. Here is a short synopsis.
What follows is the Reader's Digest-like version of how the City got into this position. The City had no one with the required construction expertise to watch over the project while it was underway. Mistakenly, many people (including The Obtuse Blogger [TOB]), wrongfully thought that the contractor, Morganti, was working for Lake Worth on the City's behalf. That is half true. Morganti was working for the City on Morganti's behalf. Likewise, so was the architect. Both were chosen by a Commission which included Christopher McVoy, JoAnn Golden, Suzanne Mulvehill, Rene Varela and Rachel Waterman. The project was during the administration of Susan Stanton as City Manager.
Let's remember the progression of this project. The City unilaterally broke off the private/public partnership with Greater Bay that ended up in years of litigation. The City spends almost $1 million in defense of itself in the matter, only to settle out of court by paying Greater Bay $1.4 million. The City Commission at the time, particularly Suzanne Mulvehill, promised to SAVE the Casino building. The architect chosen by the City Commission at the time used that as its prime criterion in the selection process. The Casino building was then 94% demolished.
This is how the SAVED Casino building looked in July 2011.
Looking southwest at the area that eventually would house Mulligans.
Jump to 2012 and early 2013 upon the cessation of construction activity, the City was left with a building that leaked and many pieces and hardware already showing signs of corrosion. The building not being watertight contributed to the City's inability leasing the upstairs restaurant space which is still vacant today.
Listening to the video from last night, the City has been working with an expert on construction law, Mr. Kennedy, for the past two and a half years to resolve these outstanding issues. This was brought to a head last night and the City Commission nearly declared the contractor, architect and the contractor's bond company in default. The item ended up being tabled, by a unanimous vote, to be considered at the next Commission meeting. It was hoped that all the parties could reach some conclusion and resolution/solution to the problems present in the building.
Interestingly, in the second video, the time for public comment came around. It so happens that former Commissioner JoAnn Golden had submitted a card indicating that she had wanted to speak on this item. She didn't speak and ran out of the room when her name was called. It appears that after hearing what was said she had no interest in speaking and high-tailed it home. TOB left the room right behind her.
So, stay tuned for more on this news on this blog (and from other sources, if any) leading up to the next City Commission meeting.
![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)
