Regarding our Casino--There are only three people who have ever declared that the Casino was unsafe: John Farinelli, a building inspector who is no longer with the City of Lake Worth and obviously did not read the previous building inspections when he made that statement. He left the employ of Lake Worth mysteriously in the middle of the night;
Wes Blackman believes that the holes and cracks in the façade have occurred from spawling and consequently believes that the Casino is unsafe--even spoke about it a few times publicly at Commission meetings… forgets that Rodney Romano jack-hammered holes in the building and never repaired the concrete…he forgets that Mayor Jeff Clemens ordered the same thing to happen last year and he forgets that not one engineering report said that the rebar was bad or that the building was unsafe;
Joe Kroll, Public Services Director, who parrots the first two. Joe is a “company man” wearing too many hats.
Staff continues to get in the way. After 5 engineering reports on the Casino, the City hired, once again, another company to provide a structural analysis for $19,400. This appeared as an addition (the last minute) to the regular Agenda on February 17th. The City paid this from our Beach Redevelopment Capital Fund and it was approved by Bob Baldwin (what else did Bob Baldwin approve at the last minute before he left Lake Worth?) and Mark Bates. The City just did not believe the previous 5 reports. It was determined that condemnation would occur. Once the building was demolished, it was open to development by all those salivating to get hold of our casino—friends of the City.
The City Commission was blackmailed into accepting Farinelli’s report that the building had to be shored or demolition had to occur by March 31, 2009 and it forced the Commission to proceed by voting to hire an eventual company that will do the shoring.
Now we spend money on CPH to do another structural report and now we will go out on an RFP to have some company do more shoring up of the building. We have already spent money on shoring. It was around $50,000. If we had proceeded in restoration of the existing building, the contractor would have shored up this building for FREE as part of the building process. But the City loves to spend money. Loves it.
Regarding Greater Bay—As far as the threat of Greater Bay, I don’t know why there are people who still think that they have a claim to anything. Anyone can file a law suit. We know that they do not have the money for an injunction, cost of which is prohibitive (I have been told 10% of the entire project in CASH), for a law suit that would be considered frivolous and they are just spinning wheels trying to get the City nervous.
It seems that the only people siding with Greater Bay are those who wanted our Casino demolished, are against the citizens who want to restore our Casino, and are friends with developers as well as wanting Greater Bay taking over our public beach. Why would anyone want that? Perversely and perhaps without admitting it, they want the will of the people to fail. Even Lonnie Mills, President of the Lake Worth Alumni Association who represents 28,000 members, wants to restore the LW Casino. Those who are against this just want to be able to say, “See, I was right, it wasn’t worth saving and you were wrong.”
Regarding our water rate increase—This increase of 13.25% is not just to fund a Reverse Osmosis System. Burton and Associates was hired on August 5, 2008 to do a rate study. The rate increase is necessary to meet current water and sewer utility operating expenses, annual capital improvement costs as well as existing loan covenant requirements. The Bond covenant says that the money will be used for our own RO Plant. The 13.25% equates to $5.18 more per 5,000 gallons of potable water usage. Whether we proceed with getting our water supply from Palm Beach County or our own Reverse Osmosis, we would have to raise the rate to do it. Eventually and hopefully, we will own our own water plant and be a seller of water instead of a buyer, not totally dependent upon Palm Beach County.
The City has never asked for a re-bid for building a Reverse Osmosis system. Why not, Mayor? Mock Roos has said that it could be 40% less than the figure that the City continues to use. We have already received an unsolicited bid of $10 mil to complete our RO and we still have bond money to do that. As water is becoming the planet’s most valuable commodity, in the future this will prove to be a very wise decision. We have already spent $15.2 mil on our RO System (bond money). Gallon per gallon it will cost the same if we had our own RO System or if we went to PB County for our water source. Which makes more sense? And why don't you like the taste of WPB water, Mayor? It is a free connect. Lois is hurt.
The County wants our water and we seem determined to give it to them.
Regarding our Golf Course—Yes, it is too expensive to play golf and the course is in average to bad condition. A golfer this morning told me that it was in very poor condition. Improvements are necessary. The City chose to raise rates for our members and raise golf fees. Consequently they have had a drop of revenue in both categories to the tune of $314,000. It was unwise to raise rates at this time. Don’t you think that Finance would see this and conclude that they have lost members and lost golfers and correct this?
Consumers control the price of goods and services to a lot of respect. When the price gets too high, they cut back or don’t buy it, particularly on expensive entertainment. The golfers have told the City this by not playing golf. I have spoken about recreational rate increases on two occasions now but to dead ears. We can see, just in the golf course alone, that we have lost dearly because of it. If anything, make rates even more favorable so that golfers will play. Even JCD Sports agreed to that concept. Don’t drive them away during this economic crisis. It is better to lose $100,000 than the projected $284,000 that we are losing. The City has raised rates across the board for recreation believing in our Public Services Director and his recommendations. Bad move.
What we need is a golf professional with managerial abilities…someone who has been around and understands golf courses. This would do more for us than anything I can think of. Who wants to play on a course without a golf pro?
Why does the City neglect every asset we own?
