Yesterday at the Lake Worth beach and pool
How many cities can claim they own a beach on the Atlantic?
How many cities can claim they own a beach on the Atlantic?
As no back-up was provided to the public, I decided to go home and watch from my computer on the beach segment of the budget. There were no surprises. Scott Maxwell wants to close the pool and had staff repeat twice the deficit amount--$180,000 this year. In Maxwell's mind and objective, the beach should sustain itself although no other park, ball field or gym in Lake Worth does. The beach and pool are special amenities (our most valuable asset) and should not be treated as if they are nooses around our necks.
We have had greater activity at our beach, more parking revenue and more citation revenue but there are limited revenue enhancements--just so many people come to the beach. We have attracted new beachgoers by having art festivals there. I didn't hear about increased revenue at our ballroom but I understand that is always booked.
It was mentioned that the pool is 46 years old and needs a lot of work. We paid $500,000 to Greater Bay for pool repairs and accessories years back but the city has not allotted any extra money to maintain our beach and pool as these costs must come from beach revenues. For some reason, Maxwell has always wanted the beach to fail. It is the most important asset we have. I live in a 50 year old building and it's in nearly perfect shape. If you maintain your asset, it can last indefinitely.
Commissioner McVoy showed that by raising the parking twenty-five cents an hour every three years or ten cents every year, we would stay in the black and that's with the two extra sheriff deputies, one extra full-time lifeguard, keeping four months reserves and paying back the loan to ourselves at $500,000 a year. That fell on deaf ears with Maxwell whose objective was to close the pool. McVoy mentioned taking $30,000 and sprucing up the locker rooms/bathrooms and Maxwell questioned the wisdom and value of that suggestion.
Paver work at our pool yesterday
There was consensus to give it six months to see if we can get our upstairs space rented or find other sources of revenue to support our beach. This commission is not going to do anything differently in six months than it has in 5 years. Six months is not enough time unless someone concentrates on this exclusively.
We need to take our Beach Fund out of Enterprise Funds and make it a Special Revenue Fund like we did our golf course. Burton and Associates said that the golf course would be a better Enterprise Fund than the beach. If we "lost" $180,000 this year with the pool opened but it will cost $198,000 a year to keep the pool closed, is there logic to this? When Juan Ruiz mentioned the cost to keep the pool closed, Maxwell didn't bat an eye.
Other things mentioned last night:
Water to go up 2.75%
Regional Sewer: 3%
Local Sewer: 3%
Sanitation to stay the same at $245.76 residential with an increase in commercial rates from $6.48 per cubic yard to $10.37.
Electric will stay the same but go up 1% in 2018. Maxwell and Triolo still want rate parity with FPL.
Stormwater has 12 months reserves and will stay the same at $75.60
Scott stays pissed off about everything. Nothing new, He needs to take some time to walk on the beach, do water exercises with Sally and get healthy. Perhaps then his perspective would do a 180 degree turn.
ReplyDeleteDoes it matter that the residents want the pool? Why can't we vote on it then.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, one of the last times we voted against a city issue was on the heights referendum. You know what happened here. This arrogant Trio decided our vote was null and void. The people defeated the city's bond referendum by 25 votes and now they are putting it back on the ballot. We defeated three year terms as well and now they are putting it back on the ballot.
ReplyDeleteWe have voted in tyrants, sorry to say.
when I heard that the Olympics were training at the boca high school pool I emailed the scott to find out where they were advertising the pool no answer.scott told me the city was going to be more aggressive on ad for pool but I don't see it.he needs to do more than just walk on the beach and get his head oui of the sand for some air
ReplyDeleteI believe the cost to keep the pool closed was $98,000 not $198,000 but it still is a good point. Also, I think Scott is a lone wolf on this one. Pam and Andy will try to keep it open if we can find a way to pay for ADA compliance and to refurbish. I believe the amount mentioned was $1 million to bring it up to today's standards and to make it a revenue maker. The key will be whether we go to law suit in October.
ReplyDeleteScott has always been after privatizing our beach for his buddies, Hudson Holdings. Mark my word, he won't be happy until he installs them. He is immune to reason. If you want his attention, you have to pay him. Pay to play or go away--
ReplyDeleteOur pool is amazing and beautiful and it is OURS. They better not f*****g touch it!! Maxwell as usual has no idea what he is talking about. He needs to get his Fat butt uyp there and go for a swim.
ReplyDeleteI love sally she is such a great person! Any sucess that pool has is because of her!
ReplyDeleteWell Lynn you say they are tyrants, but the people of Lake a worth voted them in. As the saying goes The People HAVE Spoken.....
ReplyDeleteOk so they can spend 250k to buy back a crappy building, spend another 40k on an information/tech specialist and zilch towards the pool? The pool benefits the community and need to be promoted and taken care of! Every time I am up there , I admire the murals painted on the walls that make it seem like you are looking out at the Ocean. Scott had a grand old time there at the kayak races didn't he? Trying to do away with it just ripens it for a developer to come in! In a city that claims it is alway broke despite increased property values, more apartments being built on lake worth road,commercial development along tenth avenue also? Something is not adding up. PROMOTE our ONE OF A KIND OCEAN FRONT OLYMPIC SIZED POOL! It's an asset worth promoting. Sally Welsh has done great work at the pool despite being handcuffed financially. I would consider a seasonal beach pass for our beach, residents would get a discount of course and use that money to enforce beach badges, pay for lifeguards and beach maintenance, etc. Scot has no real track record of success in running a medium sized business, what makes you think he can use a business mind to help rejuvenate our great beach town? NOTHING, and that also goes for aa who may have one employee beside himself and I include the mayor also. !! Don't take assets away! Increase their value. Btw, what IS going on with the lawsuits On the casino? 3 terms for the 3 of them and hardly any progress! We are losing money daily from the rental if the upstairs of the casino, I think it should be taken out of their slush money! Yes I am still furious over this whole debacle from the do nothing 3 that are running this town!
ReplyDeleteJim Finnegan
The pool is awesome and in good condition (locker rooms are another story). My only real complaint about the pool is twofold: first it is only open during the week for retired people. I work, most people work and I would love to use the pool in the afternoon/evening. My child is learning to swim and it would be great if we could practice what she is learning from Miss Sally, but we can't b/c the pool is never open. Second, the baby pool is rarely open I guess b/c you have to have another life guard over there too. That doesn't make sense to me, but I'm sure there is some risk management rule that requires it.
ReplyDeleteI pay way more in taxes that Scott, and I'd really like some of my funds to go to the pool, its something I use, there are always people there when I'm there despite the fact that the City tries to hide it. Its a recreational facility and until all the other recreational facilities are required to bring in a profit (none of them are), then the pool doesn't need to either.
Do you honestly think that athletes training for the Olympics would choose ours with the locker rooms we have?
ReplyDeleteNobody would.
They're an embarrassment.
Lynn, why do you think no-one wants to commit to renting the upstairs space in the Casino building?
ReplyDeleteIs it because it has problems like leaks and electrical issues? (which I'm sure could be fixed?)
What is it?
I remember there was a restaurant that wanted it - was it Mulligan's that wanted the 2nd floor too? - but the then Commission didn't allow it...what gives over there?
The reason why Johnny Longboats's offer was turned down was because it would have occupied the largest percentage of the occupancy of the building. The thinking was, if this new business fails (and a lot of business do fail in the first few years), our entire project could go down with it. We had to have relative guarantees. Then Maxwell would have something to scream about. Therefore, it was decided to rent to two different companies. Snitkin was hired to find a tenant. He didn't. Any tenant would have to build out the space which would be very costly. We need to hire someone who can "sell" that space to a potential tenant. All of our tenants had to do their own build-outs at their own costs.
ReplyDeleteImagine if Szwerdi hadn't diverted funds from the casino project for the south end bathroom? Those funds could have gone to fix and upgrade our locker rooms and the main bathrooms (the ones most people use).
ReplyDelete