Deerfield Beach Public BeachThey didn't have to reinvent the wheel
What happens when money is burning in your pocket? Elected officials dream up all sorts of ways to use the money. In our case, it was changing a beach experience to a park experience with actual Jungle Jims. We had one young commissioner who might have been enamored with Disney World or something. Who knows. She never went to the beach; neither did most of the commission. They decided, in all their worldly wisdom, that people didn't come to the beach to go to the beach but wanted other forms of entertainment for little Suzie.
They decided to take out 164 upper level parking spaces saying that the visitors could hoof it for "green" and little Jimmy's play equipment. They, by even accepting the Bond money, lost control of our beach for 30 years. I have heard of people turning their soul over to the devil but losing control for 30 years so developers can get rich? We lost unlimited decal parking and now will be relegated to 55 spaces or so. Who knows what we will really have lost by the time this ever gets figured out.
Now the contractor, Morganti, says that turtle lighting will cost us $2 million. That is over and above the Bond money. Our project manager who took over for the original project manager, Rachel Smithson, who got the heck out of Dodge and moved to Charlotte, has figured out all sorts of cost adjustments by eliminating certain features and materials that total $1.3 mil. Lake Worth Utilities could pick up the cost of the lower parking lot lighting and rent it back to the beach/casino, per the project manager. Also it is planned that the Utility CIP will pay for another $730,000 for water and sewer costs for this redevelopment. There--the $2 mil shortfall was just fixed. This was NOT in the Plan. The taxpayers of Lake Worth were not supposed to pay one dime in extra costs. Again, it is costing us more money for someone's incompetence, or greed, maybe both.
They had previously decided not to go with pavers but monolithic slabs. Do you even know how ugly of an idea that is? The whole project will become a distant cousin of itself. In the project, the wind turbine is still there. Some "green" commissioners love the idea of a wind mill at our beach even though it is a totally impractical idea..."Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind."
The energy can’t be stored, meaning that 100% backup is needed when the wind doesn’t blow. The majority of our days at the beach are anything but windy and the wind is never constant. For some reason, this Commission is in love with all things "green" whether practical or not and whether we can afford it or not. They hate nuclear and there is no alternative that is economically competitive with fossil/nuclear.
It has been discovered and written that wind power would involve covering huge tracts of land all over the country in order to produce any meaningful power. Even environmentalists are becoming disenchanted with wind power, but Lake Worth must have that wind mill for $100,000. It's cool.
Right now we just need a beach. Let's not re-invent the wheel here. Spruce it up and knock off the bull by kicking them all off our beach redevelopment. Tell Johnny Shortboats to buzz off and close our beach at a reasonable time so that we all can be happy, even the turtles.
16 comments:
More shady deals with MY TAX DOLLARS!!!
Johnny Shortboats? hehe We are all sick to death of people over-charging us or just generally being incompetent.
If that is Deerfield Beach, it is beautiful and a perfect example of what the LW beach should and could look like.
lAKE wORTH IS CREATING ANOTHER CONEY ISLAND AT OUR BEACH! LET'S GET BACK TO BASICS. ELIMINATE THE BUILDING AND ENJOY OUR BEAUTIFUL BEACH! THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE!
Lynn, to bad we can't get Johnie G's back, and I am sure if they wanted to stay open till 2am you would be all for it.....
No, I'm not that prejudice. I like fair play and I really don't like giving into people who want favors and want things their way that go against Code or go against common sense. We all have rights and it isn't all about making a fast buck at the expense of our beach, NOTE I SAID OUR) or our wild life for which we have a big responsibility.
It is too bad that John G's could not afford the City's offer to stay.
Why couldn't they they spent a fortune on renovations, and the rent in Manalapan is much higher....
Not sure about the rent in Manalapan. They spent $150,000 in renovations in that space and the plus is no parking at $2 an hour. I am sure that they negotiated a good lease as the other restaurant left there and is going into L'Anjou.
The first question should be...if we had a $5M budget, why did the engineer design a $8M plan. And if I understand what I read, they are trying to negotiate with Morganti, why is it not being put out for competitve bid? Morganti does not do the work as indicated on the design, it will be sub-contracted out and they will make 10% off the sub-contractors for doing absolutely nothing. I understand the city is already paying a project manager to watch out for their interests with Morganti, how many people are we going to pay to watch them, to watch them, to watch them?
Lynn, What do you have to say NOW that the Inspector General says that it is not a rehabilitation?????
Lynn, I worked in The Plaza Del Mar for more than 20 years, and trust me the rent was much more than $13.00 a square foot.....
No, the first question should be "why did the public enthusiastically agree to a patently questionable plan that was tied to county funding and authority in the first place?"
Supporters of this turkey were so excited until the inevitable unraveling. Hope they're enjoying the result.
Exactly as the above poster stated-We had 5 million! Why do we now have a n 8 million dollar plan?
Russ-Commissioners could not get past the carrot--the $5 million. We were sold out for the $$$.
Well I am way in favor of getting rid of the waterview parking lot, I've lived in LW since 1999 and I've never understood the amount of asphalt at our beach.
I also am in favor of having attractions at the beach. Not everyone wants to go to the beach to sit in the sand but many people like to be near the water. I'm not a beach gal b/c I'm blond and fair but I love to be by the water. So I enjoy going to Singer Island/Delray and Deerfield (which you suggest is a good example) who all have waterfront dining options, including Johnny Longboats. I enjoy having a park next to the beach, again see Singer Island, pinic area, play area, I think these are all positives. Singer Island and Deerfield both have sand courts for volly ball and sand soccer.
Give it a break, bulldoze it all done, and just have green space. We can park across the street, and hike to the sand.....
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