Our Gumbo Limbo at the Lake Worth Cultural Plaza

Do you remember back in April 16, 2015 when we had a big production and planted a Gumbo Limbo to replace the Banyan that was at the Cultural Plaza? It was a happy day. We even had a ribbon cutting.

As I recall, we spent a bloody fortune that encompassed the removal of the messy Banyan that left its berries all over the place. The city replaced it with a tree that we bought from Smarty Plants, a Gumbo Limbo. The cost to transport and replant the tree was estimated to cost $4,025 and was not in the budget. The city told us in May 2015 that it would be covered by donations.  This can't be verified. Now the tree is totally uprooted and you can kiss it goodbye.

April 2015

Irma did it's deed--

Long fight over Champion Tree might soon end

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Lawsuits were filed against the City of Lake Worth involving our Champion Tree where the Plaintiff sought to develop three parcels of property located at 315 N A Street, 1716 3rd Ave N, and 1731 4th Ave N in the City of Lake Worth. The developers wanted to fell this tree. In 2004 a dispute arose over our champion tree located on the Property. The Plaintiffs filed their first lawsuit in April 2008 challenging the constitutionality of the 2005 Champion Tree ordinance. In March 2009, The Townhomes of Pineapple Ridge at Lake Worth filed a claim with the City alleging damages of $1.5M under the Bert J. Harris, Jr., Private Property Rights Protection Act (section 70.001, Florida Statutes (the “Harris Act”). The City for various legal reasons declined to respond to the Harris Act claim and the Plaintiffs filed the second lawsuit under the Harris Act in February 2012.

ORDER ON JOINT MOTION TO CANCEL SUMMARY JUDGMENT HEARING AND REMOVE CASE FROM TRIAL DOCKET IS GRANTED. T BARKDULL DTD 2/26/15

The suits are finally being settled and the item is on the Consent Agenda Tuesday night.  The city has incurred $64,000 in legal fees to date and has agreed to pay $175,000 to the Plantiffs in order to protect the tree if the following occurs--The parties file a joint motion to stay both lawsuits; - The parties agree on a certified arborist to sympathetically prune the ficus tree; - The parties agree on a conservation easement area to protect and provide public observation of the tree and to allow for development of the surrounding property (consistent with existing zoning); - The parties prepare a conservation easement agreement to protect the tree and address future issues affecting the tree and the surrounding property; and, - Once the conservation easement agreement is approved by the parties, the City pays the Plaintiffs $175,000 and the Plaintiffs dismiss both lawsuits.

The Tree Board - Let's take one step at a time

Tonight the Tree board will be making a presentation to the city commissson.  Now I would wager to say that we all love trees and we love the Tree board. They are suggesting that certified arborists locate and identify all trees owned by the city of Lake Worth.  Not only that, but they want to use GPS or GIS to identify those locations. The trees involved have to have diameters of 4.5 feet and the board will assess their health and strength.

We had a great tree at the Cultural Plaza that never got representation or protection from this board. As you recall, grounds maintenance Supervisor, Chris Kibben and the city's horticulturist, David McGrew, who reports to Kibben, were suspended for cutting down the 75-80 year old Fiscus/Banyan tree that was at the Cultural Plaza. We were told that Kibben, the boss, got a 5 day suspension and McGrew got suspended for 3 days without pay. We were also told that the city manager had given orders not to cut down the tree.

So, we can spend money on arborists and GPS but no money in the world will protect our trees or replace one that never should have been cut down to the stump without proving that it could not be saved. This incident showed where staff can rebuff a city manager's directive. Who is in charge of this looney farm? The city commission should ask the Tree Board to find a replacement tree at our Cultural Plaza before any monies are expended for tree identification throughout the city...let's do one step at a time.

The Fountain at the Cultural Plaza

This morning, the city had a back hoe at the Cultural Plaza to remove the fountain that has been left to decay for far too long. If there is one thing that the city does consistently, it is the lack of maintenance on assets we own. Full of mildew with a broken pump, it has now been removed for what they say are "repairs" and will be back in one week's time. The last time the city was involved in a project there, it chopped down a 75 year old ficus/banyan tree. We can only hope that the fountain, as well as the tree, will be replaced/repaired and not succumb to the city graveyard of neglected obsolescence.

What it used to look like in 2011--

Exploited Hopes and Dreams

Banyan tree in Cocoanut Grove

Does every city government want to be like Cocoanut Grove?  Do they really believe that becoming an artist destination people will move to their cities, buy properties, open businesses and contribute to the tax base?  Do they really believe that there will be people coming in droves to buy this stuff? They must.

Boynton Beach artist Rolando Chang Barrero is working diligently to promote his city as a Palm Beach Art District.  West Palm Beach is now considering a downtown arts area, after all it has the "biggest, most well-known, most impactful cultural institutions in the country clustered in the downtown area," so says DDA executive Director, Raphael Clemente.

In the meantime, Lake Worth is handing over several of its public buildings to the Arts. Its CRA even gave $700,000 back in 2009 to bring in the Palm Beach Cultural Council to Lake Avenue that is housed in a building that was given to them. The CRA can't even buy a twig to replace the fallen tree at our Cultural Plaza. The decision to give the Cultural Council all of that money was based on nothing quantitative in respect to what the PB County Cultural Council could really do for Lake Worth only what they told us they could do-- just hopes, dreams and wishes and we could capitalize on their well-known reputation.

As an art lover, which I am, you can't help but notice that everywhere you look, there are artists in Lake Worth with all those hopes and dreams. Surrounding cities with more money than we are jumping on the bandwagon. What happens when the government runs out of money for all of these grants?  How much can a poor city like Lake Worth absorb for the dream?

Lake Worth Tree Festival

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The tree replacement at the Cultural Plaza--
a decision made in the shade?

Tree canopy is important, gives shade and all that jazz.  It's so important in Lake Worth, that the Tree Festival is having its 10th annual tree festival from 10 to 4 at the Cultural Plaza this Saturday. Just steps away from where city manager Michael Bornstein lives, the city says it is serious about trees and doing what it can to promote them.

Why then, did it cut down a 75 year old Banyan tree and replace it with a teddy bear?

Stumped at the Cultural Plaza

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I'm stumped.  We can't afford a twig to replace the 75 year old Ficus/Banyan that was cut down to the ground with only a stump remaining--a mistake they said but NO one believes it. There would have had to have been an approved work order.

Instead, we (we, meaning the city of Lake Worth...an explanation for that obtuse person who continually comments on this blog) want to spend $80 million on roads and $18 million on a field of dreams.

Festival of Trees

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What more appropriate venue than to celebrate the benefits of trees than the Cultural Plaza where our 80 year old Ficus had the life snapped out of it by a chain saw. As there was never a Work Order for this tree removal, let's hope staff shows up and gets its educational opportunity on the benefit of trees.

Click to read

And speaking of our felled Banyan tree, The City is now following up on the vice mayor's idea of asking for donations to replace the tree. Why not? The tree belonged to the residents. It's only fair that the resident's pay to replace it, right? Call 586-1663 if you care to donate.

Blast from the Not Too Distant Past - The Ficus - RIP

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The Infamous Ficus that was chopped to the ground. 

 In memory

The Vice Mayor wants to start a city-wide funding project (citizens to pay for the tree) to replace the 80 year old tree that was cut down to a pulp by staff that did not heed the words "do not cut down that tree."  Let's just get another large tree in that space as soon as possible.

Read the Palm Beach Post Editorial on our felled tree:  Tree cutting says all the wrong things about Lake Worth.

In today's Letter to the Editor :  Paraphrasing his letter, the writer said that the felled tree is not a big deal in the scheme of things...he wondered if we were going to wait until a branch fell on someone's head killing him before we took action on the tree.  Well, a branch can fall from any tree even a palm tree. You have a grounds crew to watch for that sort of thing especially in public parks and trees growing near sidewalks.

The bigger story here is not that the tree was cut down but that staff went around a direct order not to cut it down. Insubordination of staff and their constant belief that they run this city is the problem.  Susan Stanton tried to stop that mindset when she was city manager and she let them know who was the boss. Things were turning around in that regard.  Micro-managing staff is not good but letting them know who's boss is. It really begs the question, what will staff do next?

Ooops!

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Boss: Take down that tree at the Cultural Plaza.

Ooops, sorry boss. I took down the wrong tree!

Staff suspended for cutting down Ficus Tree

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Grounds maintenance Supervisor, Chris Kibben and the city's horticulturist, David McGrew, who reports to Kibben, were just suspended for cutting down the 80 year old Fiscus tree that was at the Cultural Plaza. Kibben, the boss, got 5 days and McGrew got 3 days without pay. They were told by the city manager not to cut down the tree.  What did they do? They cut it down anyway.

Now we all, from time to time, believe that we know better than the boss but we do what he says or find another job. In Lake Worth it doesn't matter much.

Now just suppose you are working in the private sector and your boss tells you NOT to do something and you go ahead and do it anyway?  What would happen to you?  Unless he was asking you to commit an illegal act, do you think he would slap you on the wrist and suspend you for 3 or 5 days and then welcome you back with open arms to continue as if nothing had happened?  What if what you did caused irreversible harm?  What if it had caused thousands and thousands of dollars?  Would your boss say, "Sorry Kibben old buddy, I will have to suspend you without pay for 5 days and then you are welcome back to develop a plan so this might not happen again?"

Only in government is this allowed to happen. When you're dealing with the Unions, a city manager is not a boss; the unions are--they run this city and the employees.

How much is an 80 year old Ficus tree worth?

100 years later, Banyan tree now only a memory

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Nothing is sacred in Lake Worth--absolutely nothing.

The above trees are located on the north side of our Cultural Plaza. They are still happily growing and have been for well over 100 years it is estimated. They all have been the pride of Lake Worth. The banyan tree on the south side of the plaza was cut down. Nothing remains but sand and dirt. It has been said that someone on staff made the decision to cut it down deciding that it might be a liability. A few other trees are on his chopping block. He has apologized.

Who runs this city? I told Mr. Bornstein months ago that staff ran the city. He didn't believe me.

Banyan trees and the Schlesinger Stall

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Our Banyans have been here longer than
The Gulfstream Hotel

You don't have to travel to Sri Lanka, Paraquay or India to see interesting Banyan trees. Here are three right on the north side of our City Annex, probably growing for 100 years or more or at least as long as our Gulfstream Hotel has been in existence since 1925.

Now if we could just get the Gulfstream Hotel to open and have a place for tourists to stay, we could use our trees as a tourist attraction along with our fabulous waterfront golfcourse, our beach, Bryant Park and our vibrant downtown. We need a downtown hotel and we need THIS hotel to open.

Charles Celi's appeal is to be heard on Monday at 5:30 on The Gulfstream Hotel. Mr. Celi's lawsuit is not the holdup on why this hotel has not opened since 2005 when it was bought. Look to favorable decisions made by our own Planning and Zoning Board, allowing the owner delay after delay, extension after extension. It is wrong to want to add to an historical property and this is what Schlesinger wanted. This property will sit here until the market turns and then, who knows? Your guess is as good as mine.

In the meantime, we now look at containers on his property, an eyesore to our downtown. It is just one travesty after another--with the owner of the hotel telling the City to "stick it in your ear" and he has been allowed to get away with this, not only with his delay tactics on opening his hotel but using this property for something that is absolutely NOT allowed. The Code fine on this egregious violation is just a little slap on the wrist for Adam Schlesinger.


Which will live on longer? Our Banyan trees or the Schlesinger stall?

You didn't really think this was about trees, did you?