“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.

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.

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.

“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.

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”

Pick up the print edition at 600 Lake Ave. in Downtown Lake Worth, across ‘L’ Street from Starbucks. The Herald is still ¢50!

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.

     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.

     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.”

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:

• Silvina Donaldson, Executive Secretary to the City Commission and Volunteer Coordinator
• 561-586-1730
• Email: sdonaldson@lakeworth.org

Here’s the news in the Post from last December with the headline: “Boynton Beach residents, meet your new sister from Finland”, two excerpts: 

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.

“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.

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.

A newspaper headline editor gets the facts correct:

“Wellington has an issue with Arden development: It’s NOT in Wellington!”

The title above is from an article by the Post’s beat reporter Matt Morgan. Use this link to read the entire article which provides a good framework for the City Commission and administration here in the City of Lake Worth when they truly get around to protecting “our brand” and educating the public about our municipal borders and things like the “Lake Worth Corridor” too.

It’s good to read an elected official saying it “infuriates him” businesses and developers are using the Village of Wellington’s brand to promote themselves in unincorporated County. The most you ever get from an elected official here in Lake Worth is maybe a slight annoyance and nothing more. Anyhow, here are two excerpts:

The Wellington Village Council thinks the village has a branding problem.
     Or, more specifically, it has a problem with developers and businesses using the Wellington name even though they’re not in the village.
     The most recent case is Arden, a nature-focused new community that’s located miles west of Wellington’s borders. [emphasis added] It’s in unincorporated Palm Beach County, west of Loxahatchee Groves and Lion Country Safari.

and. . .

     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.

Attention all concerned anti-development rad enviros here in the little City of Lake Worth.

You may be very interested in attending a meeting today from 5:30–7:30 ‘in Lake Worth’ that’s not actually here in the City of Lake Worth. It’s not that far away though.

Click on image to enlarge:

The meeting location, 6000 Northtree Blvd., is in suburban Lake Worth west of Boynton Beach and east of Jog Rd.

And whilst on the subject. . .

Five months later still waiting for a response to “Eastward Ho! Development Futures: Paths to More Efficient Growth in Southeast Florida” published in 1999.

Success! Below is proof the media and press, even beat reporters, can learn and report the facts.

“Stop using divisive term ‘sanctuary city’ Kathy Castor tells immigration advocates”.

Above is the title from a blog post last month. Ever since the local press and media have been very careful throwing around the word ‘sanctuary’. Going through all the press and media reports yesterday about the immigration “march” in the City of Lake Worth did not see the word “sanctuary” used one single time. So. Yes. It is possible for the media and press to learn and report the facts.

If this march happened a month ago they would all have been throwing around the word “sanctuary” like cheap confetti.

The march yesterday fell way short of the “200–300” that were expected but the good news is everyone was well-behaved and there were no incidents. Without further ado. . .


Above is the title for the news story by Mitch Perry at SaintPetersBlog (see below). Why is this important? Because the little City of Lake Worth, Florida, IS NOT and NEVER WAS a “sanctuary city”, despite what anyone says to the contrary. The Town of Jupiter is/was rumored to be a “sanctuary” as well. Not true.

Simply put, as stated on this blog many times over:

Because a city or town has a center to help immigrants, doth not a ‘sanctuary’ make.

To learn more about this situation in the City of Lake Worth use this link:

In 5+ years of searching has one single piece of documentation ever been produced that Lake Worth IS a sanctuary city? No. Not one. Zero. Nada.
    And is it proper journalistic method to have elected leaders and City staff prove a negative?

But. . . If. . . And. . . !, suggest local reporters at the Post, for example, who try over and over again to cleverly try and make the case (A  +  B  =  C) for their readers that the opposite is true. The facts are: 

A  [Lake Worth]  +  B  [the Guatemalan/Maya Center]  ≠  C  [a ‘sanctuary city’] (the symbol  ≠  means “does not equal”).

Anyhow. Two excerpts from the article in SaintPetersBlog follow and “Kathy Castor” is quoted (if you didn’t know, “Castor” is Katherine Castor, the Democrat U.S. Rep. for Florida’s 14th congressional district since 2007).

“It appears that some of the mean-spirited rhetoric out of the Trump administration has emboldened certain immigration agents to act outside of their typical powers, and we really need to hear that if you of these cases locally,” [emphasis added] Tampa Congresswoman Kathy Castor told several dozen activists and citizens who jammed into the Blind Tiger Cafe on Ybor City’s 7th Avenue Wednesday morning.
     When an audience member talked about a local detention that lacked specifics, Castor said she would need more information before acting.
      “That’s the only way that I’m empowered to ask Secretary Kelly and say,’ they’ve overstepped their bounds,” she said, referring to John Kelly, who heads the Department of Homeland Security.

and. . .

     Regarding the issue of sanctuary cities and/or counties, Castor told the crowd they should stop using that phrase, as it was intentionally divisive. The loosely defined term is best described as local government limiting cooperation with the federal government to help undocumented immigrants avoid deportation.
     “There’s a lot of confusion and emotion around the term,” Castor said. “I think it’s a trap. I think it was a term that was created to divide people and to demonize diverse areas.”
     The Tampa Democrat said the real question to ask is what are the responsibilities of the local law enforcement compared to federal officers.

Once again. . . “the real question to ask is what are the responsibilities of the local law enforcement compared to federal officers.”, and. . . “stop using that phrase [‘sanctuary city’], as it was intentionally divisive.”