Take charge like our Pioneers Did

Nearly one hundred years ago Lake Worth had 38 residents. Now we have 37,000+- people and we are entirely living on top of each other on our 25 foot residential lots. People originally came here for the good life, to relax and enjoy the sunshine in homes in which they could afford to live. They are still doing that to this day. Lake Worth is affordable and has so many fabulous amenities.

• Florida became a State in 1845.

• 1872: 1st land claim filed in Lake Worth

• 1912: 1^st newspaper (now the LW Herald), railroad depot, post office and school

• 1913: 1^st bank

• 1914: 1^st police and volunteer fire facility and lights were turned on

• 1919: 1^st bridge to the beach and the Brelsfords sold the city of Lake Worth 1,000 feet of beachfront

• 1920: 1^st bond to build the Casino in the amount of $100,000

• 1922: 1^st pool built

• 1926: 1^st public library
  

I present this little bit of history trivia to show you how the Pioneers took charge of our city to make it prosperous and thrive. I remember Fountains Department Store on Lake. We also had a Morrison’s Cafeteria. We had diversity in our downtown and we could actually shop here without going elsewhere. We have now become a city of bars and eateries and antiques.

We have been a city for nearly 100 years and what we have been doing over the past decade is destroying our city by outsourcing everything from police to fire to garbage. One commission actually gave away our waste water. Why did the past majority commissions want to destroy our city? They said it is cheaper for the other guy to perform the service. They say we can't manage anything. I say, hire people that can manage.

Right now we are still paying for police and fire retirement. We have no control over any outside services as to what they charge or how they perform. Recently we contracted with Boynton Beach to handle building. We have rapidly become a city in name only but we still pay city taxes for services performed by the County or some other municipality and it is was one of the highest millage rates in the County. This attitude of "cleaning off the desk decisions" have cost us dearly. We have a utility Department that should be MAKING money. It isn't. Why? Where is the money going?

We took over County Roads that they maintained and it cost the citizens $15 million dollars plus now we maintain them. We have a new tax on our utility bill that is paying for the new bureaucracy at City Hall instead of cleaning up blight. We just get taxed to death and all fees are higher.

It is a sad situation for the City of Lake Worth that has been chartered for so long to be dissolved informally by outsourcing. There are over 10,000 cities across the Untied States? How are they managing? Our forefathers never envisioned this for Lake Worth. I think that if they were here right now they would figure out how to be a global tourist attraction, open our hotel and promote our sea side as an affordable resort destination thus bringing in billions of dollars to Lake Worth for decades to come. What do you think?

We do not want to follow the way of Pahokee, South Bay and Belle Glade that are just hanging on and might have to dissolve their Charters. That would be a sad day for Lake Worth and something our forefathers never entertained.