During the candidate forums, it was mentioned by the mayor that "we almost lost the $6 million for the beach redevelopment.," or words similar, insinuating that a former commission really dropped the ball. Actually, the former commission saved the day for our beach rehab.
To give you a little background on the money that we received from Palm Beach County for our beach rehab project, is as follows:
If you all remember, we were going through a recession in this country and it hit Lake Worth very hard. Property values plummeted but we still had to run this city. Severe measures were taken to cut costs. The Great Recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, which makes it the longest recession since World War II.
On October 17, 2006, the County commission approved an Interlocal Agreement for the Lake Worth Beach Redevelopment Project in an amount not to exceed $5,000,000 from the Recreational and Cultural Bond that passed on November 5, 2002. It was to be matched by Lake Worth with $3,620,800 from the City of Lake Worth.
On October 16, 2009, four months after the recession ended, the agreement lapsed as we had not commenced the project and we no longer had the matching funds. We were still struggling to crawl out of a hole. Then four days later, the County discussed the conditions under which it would consider entering into a new project agreement. Our former city manager along with a few of our commissioners worked it out and it was agreed that there would be no matching funds requirement. Thanks to Cara Jennings, we got to keep some of our decal parking spaces. And the rest was history.
The only bad thing about it is the fact that we are obligated to the County until February 1, 2040 at which time Lake Worth will be able to call the shots on its own beach.
12 comments:
Wow.... talk about revisionist history....
Cara saved our decal spaces???
The only reason we still have ANY decal space is that we taxpayers separately paid for an area, as far away as you can get without being across A1A, for those of us who PAY for the upkeep of the beach for the rest of the County.
Bornstein at least moved the spaces by switching the area from the North end to the bottom of the hill near Benny's.
Go ahead and address the loss of spaces and how convenient the parking lot up top are to navigate. Cara may not have engineered it but she sure did approve of it and would have taken away more parking up top if given the opportunity.
It is true that we did pay for the beach decal spaces. Without Cara we would not have had any.
So, what's your problem?
The only blogger in this town involved in "revisionist" history is the other blogger.
The beach redevelopment went into negotiations and we saved millions of $$$$$ by not having to pay matching funds, thanks to the commission and Cara and our former city manager. We agreed to so many public parking spaces per the county's requirements.
You don't get everything you want in negotiations...that's why it's called what it is. Personally, I hate the upper level parking and what they did to it. And I certainly don't like Bornstein's decision to take 24 decal spaces and move them to the south end for Benny's on the Beach's convenience. Did you notice that Benny's gave $1,000 each to Triolo and Maxwell for their campaign?
I never go to Benny's. They have always been political. $1000 each? Wow.
And then along came "Dirty Szerdi" to make our parking dilemma even worse for residents. D.Z. allowed SNOWBIRDS,who are NOT residents, to buy beach decals.The city sold almost 3,000 decals for 50 spaces. Good luck. I said no thanks,and for the same amount that it would have cost me to enter the PARKING LOTTERY, I became a member of John D, McArthur park. Ten minutes down the road and an incredible beach and nature center.
I am no fan of what Cara and her friends did to our upper parking lot.but Lynn is right. If it were not for Cara we would have had ZERO resident parking spaces on a beach that the residents of Lake Worth had been paying for for over 80 years.
I agree, so wrong about beach decals and parking. Not fair they took all the spaces, they should've just let people park where they want in any space with the decal like before. Too, and not give them to snowbirds or Canadians who are not even citizens or year-round residents, they should have to pay premium then LW would make more money, they are seasonal, charge them more. It is all a scam, so I don't buy it anymore or go to that LW beach. Plus it is cheaper at the Lantana beach or free at the one for a few hours in the morning north of the Krussler beach up the road. LW can kiss my butt! Their greed is brining all their troubles on themselves.
Open the damn pool
Cara Jennings; WOW! I wonder if she has taken a bath yet. I think the area is positively schizophrenic. Talk about roaches and rats. Benny's has those Grackle's flying around in the outside dining area. The beach was authentic when NYPD Pizza was there, before they got the worst designer in the world to destroy it. And we had to pay them for the destruction. There is no accounting for taste, and clearly Mulvehill had a deficit in this area.
Not a kind remark about Cara.
Mulvehill's claim to fame was saving the casino and her Circle of Light.
Rene Varela was the one with the designer beach architect. Life is Beautiful, what in the heck was his name?
The worst part of this entire mess was the elimination of 162 parking spaces at the upper level to install a Jungle Jim that is rarely used by the way.
You must be losing your mind. Cara embarrassed this town with her anarchist followers, every chance she got. She endorsed every cause you hate. Surely you remember her histrionic protests that made nationwide news. Don't forget the chickens she wanted to have running around the neighborhood.
9:29--I'm talking about Cara and the beach. In fact, Cara put the people first in this city, not her own ambitions.
She did not endorse every cause I hate.
As far as her personal life and her national politics, that is another story and not being told here.
You hate liberals, and Cara was a Liberal/Communist with a capital L. Just one more instance indicating you don't know what you are talking about.
Yeah, you better believe it... HOWEVER, Cara Jennings was a good commissioner.
This is supposed to be non-partisan on the local level. Only Scott Maxwell likes to make it partisan.
And I don't have as much venom as you do. Must be a bitch to be you.
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