Today Andrew Marra of the Palm Beach Post wrote an editorial entitled, "Make it 13 million, period. And that is exactly what the commission did--every single one of them. Why did they vote to spend $2 million dollars more of your money on the beach redevelopment? Because there was no other choice. We, as usual, found out all the nitty gritty dirty details at the last 98 seconds of the game.
Sometimes teams can win at the last minute, but usually the odds are against it. In this case, we will get a beach redevelopment that not everyone considers a smart way to spend millions to shift around parking lots and we will also get to spend $2 million more of OUR MONEY, not the County's money and not the money from all of the people who come and enjoy our beach. We will have PB Country strings on our beach for 30 years even though Lake Worth is taking the risk and the biggest percentage of the expense.
In this case, costs were not estimated correctly. There were too many people in the game who needed to make a living off our beach redevelopment. There were probably too many sub- contractors in the game that needed to make as much as possible off of a government that, afterall, was getting $5 million from Palm Beach County--Lake Worth had the bucks and they were all going to be mighty sure that they got a piece. By the time anyone involved in the beach complained, it was way too late to come up with a solution. And perhaps that was the plan.
So, drive on up there over this weekend. It will be the last you will see of it for several months as the upper level lot will be closed. Of course, it will be good practice to park at the lower level and walk up the hill as that is what you will be doing next year when it is finished unless you arrive at our beach when the sun comes up.
There is no doubt that it will be an attractive site. There is also no doubt that we will be that much poorer. It is easy to say that we will "get our money's worth" just like we did when the CRA spent $15 million on 6th Avenue South and 10th Avenue North to attract developers. You know how that went.
It is the taxpayers who exist now, who are paying this tab, not those who will eventually move here in the future who were turned on by the beach. Perhaps a general obligation bond is warranted to pay for this added cost in order to make it fair to all of those who now live and will live in Lake Worth for years to come.
16 comments:
Does anybody know what's going on with the pool? It's been closed forever but it looks like it is still being maintained as an operational pool (water, chemicals, cleaning, etc). Will it reopen when the casino opens?
The pool really gets me going--another Joe Kroll screw up. It was closed to save money. They closed it during high Season because the city had some data that "proved" people used it more in the summer. It was finally closed for the moment and being used as a staging area for the casino re-built. It will open when the casino opens unless we have someone else that will convince the commission that we just don't need a pool either or to have national meets that will bring in money to LW, etc.--sort of like we don't need an 18 hole golf course mentality and we don't need all our shuffleboard courts to attract meets and bring in tourism to Lake Worth.
Seems like a lot of people are upset about the extra cost of the new Casino. Back in 1921 when the original casino was being built at the then contract price of $99,500
and was finally finished at a cost of $150,000. Almost double of the contract. Stop complaining and enjoy this beautiful new building when completed.
Well, Richard--As you don't even live in Lake Worth these days, why not move back, pay taxes, and help pay for it. It is not the casino we are talking about. That is being done for the original contract price minus the design architect's fee. It is the entire beach redevelopment project, Dick. $2 MILLION AIN'T HAY.
If you accept that the Parking Lot will be only half lit, the Costs are more like $3,600,000 over Staff’s Original Budgets.
X commissioner Jennings insisted upon personally conducting the final Site Plan negotiations with PBC Staff. Required Utility Costs and John Szerdi Green Features were excluded from the Site Plan Budget in favor for Singer Architectural Features.
Much of the Budget costs normally attributed to the Casino Building were switched to the Site Plan Budget to get approval to commence construction of the Casino. After those costs were finally admitted, it was too late to stop construction on the Casino and too late to not commence construction on the Site, while still maintaining the $5,000,000 Site Grant.
Without repaying all the Costs Capitalized or Expensed for the Beach Budgets in past and future years, the City’s General Fund Services will be negatively impacted and the Utility Bill reduction efforts will have a steeper hill to climb.
Lynn, I agree 2 Mil is alot even in todays prices. Yes the original cost was figured for the Casino only. Why the parking area wasnt figured in seems like the commissioners or responsible persons goofed. It is what it is and needs to be completed. It will be beautiful. Those improvements were needed. No I dont live there anymore, couldnt afford it. Palm Beach County is to big, busy and expensive for me.
Lynn I know the subject was not about the Casino cost. I was just adding my 2 cents about the whole beach project. Taxes will always rise. In todays world cities have to cut back too, on how the monies are spent. You steal from peter to pay paul. Retired people are having a hard time just to survive.
We had forgotten to put away enough money for retirement. But life goes on. Just like the city and not figuring cost of the parking area, etc. It happens.
Dick- I know what you're saying. Government needs to do a much better job for the citizens in this country...stop the spending...stop the waste...work within budgets, etc. They never seem to do that. When you have a project that involves this much money, there is always a problem attached to it. Corruption or apathy or whatever it is, happens. It needs to stop.
To the person who continues to tell everyone, and just tried to come over on my blog and diss me, even doing that in a public forum, that I don't pay taxes--hear this.
Because property values fell so far in PB County and across the country, many people are not paying ad valorem right now. It is not to say that they did not pay in the past nor does it say that cities will always be in these straits. So I am sorry that you feel that people should be forced to pay a tax that is disproportionate to their income or to their property values...a 700 s.f. property paying the same as someone owning a 7,000 s.f house. I especially object to being assessed for a union pension when I do not live on a pension, only money that I saved myself.
Assessments hurt the poor. Ad valorem taxes ARE fair, assessments in this case are not and never will be.
So you and Peter Timm have a ball. Sock it to the poor people all the while clapping and cheering that the CRA is bringing in MORE HOUSING FOR THE POOR, rather than this city concentrating on housing for the middle to upper class thus bringing our city out of the pits with more expensive housing and more tax base. You keep building for the poor and that is all that we will have in Lake Worth. Great vision. An affordable city that is anything but.
We drove by yesterday, its really looking great! I am so happy, after living in the City since 1999, that the beach is finally getting redone.
We were wondering about the pool too, as it really looks kind of sad next to the beautiful casino. Is there any plan to upgrade the facade of the pool building?
And while I'm not happy about paying more, more, more for it, spending money on our beach and the downtown is, in my opinion, some of the best money we can spend.
That area will be redone--new bathrooms, new locker rooms,etc.
I have a feeling the commission will do away with the pool. It cost to much to maintain. The outside appearence sure doesnt fit in with the new casino.
If marketed correctly just like anything else, the pool can be successful. We spent 1/2 of a million on it two years ago. There is no way that they will close down the pool unless, of course, THEY ARE OUT OF THEIR FREAKIN MINDS.
I wonder how much it actually cost just to maintain the pool. Life guard cost, liability insurance and how many people actually use it. Statistics would clear things up.
No matter the asset that we own, whether it is the golfcourse, the shuffleboard courts or our pool, they all must be marketed correctly in order to bring in their full financial potential. None of these assets has ever been given a chance for success.
None of the above stats will tell us what we can do with our pool that we just spent 1/2 million on. Collegiate meets will bring in a lot of money for our pool and to our city. Private parties that will rent the ballroom and pool area will bring in loads of money. There are all sorts of money making opportunities not to mention the general use of our pool for exercise and swimming. The SEALS will once again rent it out for their training. Not too many cities have an Olympic pool. Let's take advantage of what we have and use it to its full potential.
I heard there was a Commission discussion in 2009 regarding the beach redevelopment cost in which the utilities costs were disclosed. The total cost of the project was $7.1 million and then Mayor Clements said we could move the utilities costs into the Utilities Dept. If this is true, then all the staff comments about not knowing the infrastructure costs don't ring true. Does anyone know anything about this or what meeting this was discussed at?
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