Friday, August 28, 2009

Give us the money and then take a Hike!

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I knew that the day would come when I would agree with The Lake Worth Herald on something—but actually two things? I will touch on one of them now—The Lake Worth beach.

The Palm Beach County “strings” are too high to spend $5 million re-designing a parking lot. This is just a crazy waste of money no matter how you look at it and the County refuses to allow Lake Worth residents to have permitted parking—the very people who actually maintain the beach all year around. Are people in Wellington paying for the maintenance at our beach? Our pool? Are they paying for our lifeguards and their retirement?

The problem is that Commissioner Jennings wanted to eliminate 164 parking spaces on the upper level. 184 residents agreed with the Michael Singer Plan—The City manager stated at the last commission meeting that a majority of residents wanted this plan—no they did not. The Michael Singer presentation over one day was attended by a stacked deck of 220 green people.

If you take all that parking out, then it must be put back in. There begins the problem. This means spending millions on design and implementation to re-figure the lower level parking lot. This is nuts! The money should be put to better uses such as the boardwalk and public bathrooms. Our parking is FULL during the Season Commissioners. This is income to the City. To eliminate parking for green is not business smart. A tree will not bring in revenue; a parking space will.

There was some suggestion about allocating a certain section of the lower level for decal permit holders. Next, if you eliminate free parking for employees at the Casino and Benny's and make them pay for parking, they will all buy parking decals thus taking up any alloted decal parking for residents. Employees at shopping malls don't pay for parking. I don't agree with the Herald on this one but can see the point. It must be worked out for employees too.

My suggestion has always been to leave the parking alone. Plant more trees where you can. Re-figure the lot across from Benny’s and plant trees down the middle between the parking aisles. Hire a landscape professional (maybe John Lang—this might keep him happy) who will design the landscaping for all our parking areas and you will be surprised how great it will look. Again--Leave the parking alone! People want convenient parking. And Ms. Stanton, residents do not want to park at Old Bridge, walk across A1A and trek up the hill. This is OUR beach, not Palm Beach County’s; we should be able to park where it is convenient.

After paying on this Bond since 2002, they should just give us the money without the strings. The County says that it has been “pretty patient” with us. Well, we’ve got news for you. We have been waiting for this money for 7 years. Lake Worth will be asking them to waive the $3.5 mil because we no longer have it. The County wants to tie up our beach for 30 years. If we are asking for one thing that is contrary to the agreement then we can strongly demand decal parking.

Otherwise Katie Mcgiveron and The Herald are right--tell the County to shove it if they don’t budge on the decal parking and charge every person who does not live in Lake Worth double to park at our Lake Worth beach. That should get the County’s attention. Also, scream bloody murder about paying for this money since 2002 every year on ad valorem.

Give us the $5 mil; it’s ours and then take a hike.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love it! Let the tree huggers go somewhwere else if they want to look at trees.

Anonymous said...

You do have to admit that the beach needs some refurbishing don't you? I want the casino restored. when are they going to talk about the building?

Anonymous said...

220 conspiring individuals do not represent the will and rights of
40.000 Lake Worth Citizens, with their 900+ decal holders. 900+ not 220.
Singers' statement that the moaority wants his plan, means 20.000 + 1 wants it ????
When did that occur?

Puleeze!

40.000 not informed of the
conspiracy at City Hall is not 220.
Delusional elements 220 should go home and do penance for pretending to be 20.000 + 1 people!

Anonymous said...

Aren't these the same people ( the people)who got Jennings elected? Are they not (The People) who wanted the resource Center? What planet are (these people) from? Aside from all that, I think it would be a great Idea to start a shuttle service at the beach, to help the handicapped, and elderly get from the lower level up to the top. A small fee could be charged, thus paying for itself and making everyone happy!

Anonymous said...

I agree with the Lake Worth Herald,and have always said,this beach belongs to the residents of Lake Worth ! Tell the county to shove their 5 million and get their greedy little fingers out of our waterfront assets ! First the county steals our water, and now they're coming for our beach ?Are there back door deals being made with the county ? Otherwise,you would hear the sounds of PANIC if we looked the county in the eye and told them that not only were we closing OUR beach, but that we have decided to close OUR boat ramps to anyone but Lake Worth residents.The way that our elected officials always kiss the county's ass and screw their taxpayers is ridiculous . Grow a set, for God's sake.We have the money to rehab the building and the bathrooms right now.Leave the stupid parking lots alone. Nobody asked you to touch them!If we want to rehab the LOWER parking lots at a later date, there will be plenty of money from the 20 bucks a pop for the out of town parking fees.For years, everyone in the county has been getting the benefits of using our beach for one dollar an hour. These same county residents have not had to pay any taxes on the upkeep of the beach, like the Lake Worth residents have been doing for years.This WILL be a campaign issue ! Katie Mcgiveron

Anonymous said...

If it's not too much to ask, can we please just keep our parking. I like parking across from the beach. Why does anyone want to park anywhere else if given a choice? People who like to walk over all common sense.

Anonymous said...

Please answer the following questions.
How did the county steal Lake Worth's water?
How is the county coming to steal the beach?
How much money does the city have to rehab the building and bathrooms? Not a band aid fix like they've been doing for years, but an acutal rehab. This would cost millions. It would be more cost effective for the city to knock the casino down, and either leave it down or build a new building.
Why would anyone pay $20 to park at a dump beach with a dilpadiated buildng and bathrooms that look like the bathrooms at a ghetto gas station? There are so many other beaches to go to in the area. If the city charged $20 you would have an empty parking lot and the beach tenants would be screaming about lost business.
What are the back room deals going on? Do you have any facts to back this up? Or is this just another baseless accusation.
Do you expect the county to just give $5 million to the city based on the city's track record?

Anonymous said...

Right, they could always go to PB where there are NO bathrooms and barely any parking...where there is no beach...no restaurants or shops you can walk into with your flip flops. They can always go there. As far as back room deals, do you live on Mars? What makes you such an authority on the casino building to say we should demolish it. Prove that it would be more cost effective. Just because you don't like going to the beach does not mean that thousands don't pack the LW beach all of the time. You don't hear them whining and complaining and being negative. Grow up. You just love to be a parrot. Squawk.