Evening on the Avenue Cancelled for Summer

April 3, 2018
Contact:           Ben Kerr, Communications Specialist
Phone:             561.586.1631
Email:              BKerr@lakeworth.org 

WHAT:           Evening on the Avenue Hiatus
WHEN:           Friday Nights
WHERE:         Downtown Lake Worth
WHO:              LAKE WORTH PATRONS

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:     

Effective immediately the City of Lake Worth Evening on the Avenue event will be taking a hiatus through the summer months. Starting on May 4, Screen on the Green will return to the Lake Worth Cultural Plaza with a showing of Trolls. The City looks forward to announcing an exciting event schedule for the 2018/2019 season in September.

For more information please call Ben Kerr, Public Information Officer at 561.586.1631

Lake Worth Cancels Evening on the Avenue due to cold weather

"Due to the cold weather forecast for Friday, January 5, 2018 the City of Lake Worth has had to cancel Evening on the Avenue.

Evening on the Avenue will return next Friday, January 12th at the usual time. The City apologizes for any inconvenience caused by this cancellation."

Evening on the Avenue on a Hiatus

PRESS RELEASE
FOR RELEASE UPON RECEIPT

City of Lake Worth
10 South Ocean Boulevard
Lake Worth, FL 33460
lakeworth.org

August 30, 2017

Contact:           Ben Kerr, Communications Specialist
Phone:             561.586.1631
Email:              BKerr@lakeworth.org  

WHAT:           September Evening on the Avenue Dates
WHEN:           Friday Nights through September       
WHERE:         Downtown Lake Worth                  
WHO:              LAKE WORTH PATRONS

 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:     
Evening on the Avenue, in the City of Lake Worth, is going to take a pre-season break through the month of September. Screen on the Green will proceed in the Lake Worth Cultural Plaza on September 29th with a showing of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Evening on the Avenue will return to Downtown Lake Worth on Friday, October 6th.

For more information please call 561.586.1631

Ben Kerr
Communications Specialist

Evening on the Avenue Cancelled

Due to the unfavorable weather forecast for Friday, August 25th the City of Lake Worth has had to cancel Evening on the Avenue.

Evening on the Avenue will return next Friday, September 1^st at the usual time. The City apologizes for any inconvenience caused by this cancellation.

Evening on the Avenue CANCELLED

Contact:           Ben Kerr, Communications Specialist
Phone:             561.586.1631
Email:              BKerr@lakeworth.org  

WHAT:           July 21st Evening on the Avenue

WHEN:           Friday, July 21              
WHERE:         Downtown Lake Worth                      
WHO:              LAKE WORTH PATRONS


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:      

Due to the unfavorable weather forecast for Friday, July 21st the City of Lake Worth has had to cancel Evening on the Avenue. On Friday, July 28th Screen on the Green will take the place of Evening on the Avenue with a free showing of The Book of Life. Evening on the Avenue will return on Friday, August 4th at the usual time. The City apologizes for any inconvenience caused by this cancellation.


For more information please call 561.586.1631

Evening on the Avenue Cancelled

Due to the unfavorable weather forecast for Friday, June 9th the City of Lake Worth has had to cancel Evening on the Avenue. This week’s scheduled live band SOLEMARK has been rescheduled to September 15^th. On Friday, June 16^th Screen on the Green will take the place of Evening on the Avenue with a free showing of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Evening on the Avenue will return on Friday, June 23^rd at the usual time. The City apologizes for any inconvenience caused by this cancellation.

Evening on the Avenues Lake Worth

Tonight's the Night for Downtown Lake Worth fun

Evening on the Avenue Music

Food

Fun Friday, August 5 | 6pm - 10pm

Cultural Plaza | 414 Lake Avenue

Strolling on the Avenue in Lake Worth and Jim Stafford

Comment Up

Usually a few months before a local election, you will see the candidates at Evening on the Avenues, passing out campaign literature or just stopping to introduce themselves to the folks.

Jim Stafford, Candidate for District 2, was on the Avenue Friday night with his entire family. They did the complete stroll, stopped and talked to a few people they knew. He even thanked me for my blog stating that he got 2 campaign contributions out of it totaling $1,000. We believe politicians especially those in Lake Worth.

Stafford had to compete with the Democrats that have rented space from Herman Robinson and they were opened for business Friday night.  Union and Democratic sympathizers had a function in front of the Clay Glass Metal Stone Gallery on Solidarity Forever.  One Republican told me he was thinking of changing to Democrat...was that a good idea, he asked me. There was a union song book passed out as well as some speakers glorifying unions through inception. It has to do with what they say is "working for peace and social justice."

I have been told that Stafford is behind an up and coming attack blog dedicated solely to and written about me to discredit and malign, the same things he is famous for just a few years ago.  If so, it will prove that nothing has changed in Lake Worth.

Lorraine Bowe's Boutique

Tammy Pansa and Lorraine Bowe

Lorraine Bowe's Treasure Chest was at our Casino for years. After the decision to rebuild our casino, Lorraine moved to S. J Street. This location has always been off the beaten path and Lorraine recently closed that shop.

Evening on the Avenues was buzzing last night and was back to "its old self" thanks to Andy Amoroso and his love for the downtown and his drive for its success.

Last night Lorraine had a booth at Evening on the Avenues at the Cultural Plaza. Lorraine makes all her own jewelry and she has some exquisite pieces. A lover of jewelry, occasionally I buy a piece when I feel extravagant. As I was looking over Lorraine's masterpieces, there was Tammy Pansa who fell in love with a piece in Lorraine's latest collection.

Visit Lorraine Bowe's Boutique on the Internet. She and her daughter have branched out on the Internet with Etsy.com and Storenvy.com.

Evening on the Avenues

Comment Up

Lake Worth's downtown was jammed packed last night. There were people buzzing here and there. It seemed like every bar had its own music that was conflicting with another's right next door. No one minded. It was vibrant and fun. Every now and then I hear from someone who says our downtown is suffering. It sure doesn't look that way whenever I am there which is often.

We walked from one end of the avenue and back, stopping first at 531 East, Inc. where I bought a belt. Next purchase was at The Sunflower Room, the greatest place. This is where I spotted this hat and told Barbara Jean, "This is you." She bought it. We next went over to SouthShore and discovered they had changed their menu. Just wanting something small to eat, we then walked over to the pizza place and had a slice with Coke. SouthShore is on my return list of things to do.

There truly is something for everyone in our downtown not to mention that the art is out of this world.

Special Events in Lake Worth

Special events at the Lake Worth Playhouse

December 2
Evening on the Avenues
6 - 10pm

December 3
Holly Days & Tree Lighting
6 - 10p
Downtown Holiday Shopping Stroll & Window Contest
5 - 9p

December 9
Bonfire on the Beach
6:30 - 10:30p

December 10
Santa's Workshop
12 - 6p
Light-Up the Night Parade
6 - 8p

December 16
Evening on the Avenues
6 - 10p

December 17
Sounds of the Seasons
6 - 10p

December 23
Bonfire on the Beach
6:30 - 10:30p

January 6
Twas the Nightmare After Christmas
6 - 10p

On the Avenue

The CUTEST thing on Lake Avenue--Greg too!

We now have Evening on the Avenues back. All we have to do is locate the vendors who used to participate and get it buzzing again. Mark Parrilla was there helping to take orders for the Lake Worth High school Band for Christmas. Please get in touch with Mark and help out our local band that is fantastic. We were all having a great time until the rains came down.

City Manager Moves to Change downtown parking hours

Comment Up
Once again, the city manager has implemented policy that was not voted upon by the Commission--changing downtown parking hours from 4 to 2. You can't even go downtown, have dinner, stroll the avenue and attend Evening on the Avenues within 2 hours. Why do we continue to want to fix something that IS NOT BROKEN? No public input. No vote. The most important question is, how does the city manager take it upon herself to make these changes? Tell me I missed something here.

CITY MANAGER RECOMMENDATION:

"Regulating and enforcing downtown parking is never an effortless task. In the reparation of the FY 2012 Budget, there was City Commission consensus not to charge for on-street parking but rather adopt a shorter two hour parking limit which would generate additional short term parking and discourage people from parking their vehicles on the street for an extended length of time. All downtown merchants suffer when people doing business on Lake Avenue and Lucerne Ave, or employees working in the downtown, park their vehicles in front of a business all day because of the City is not enforcing parking restrictions.

Four hour parking limits in a downtown area promotes day long on-street parking which discourages traffic turnover and contributes to the decline of new businesses in the downtown area. However, it must also be conceded that the City has not conducted a formal independent parking study of the total parking needs of the downtown area for many years. Such a study would document existing parking conditions, identify parking deficiencies, seek input from downtown merchants and shoppers and evaluate different alternatives for improving parking. The City did not budget any funds for this study nor will every resident be excited about using tax payer money for yet 'another worthless study'."

Once again, Stanton has made a decision based on what she believes, not what the rest of us want. This is on tomorrow night's agenda under New Business D. The City Manager did not get her way with paid parking stations, thus we get this. Some of the signs have already been changed out to 2 hours and someone is marking tires, getting in practice I was told.

Evening on the Avenues

Comment Up

The down hill spiral of this Friday night event started when the Chamber of Commerce divorced itself from it and it was turned over to Amy Saleeby. The Chamber couldn't get any more money from the CRA or the City in spite of Ramiccio's pleas.

Amy describes her company, One Good Deed Marketing & Events, as a S. Florida event company that specializes in producing world-class community celebrations and street festivals. "We are dedicated to raising money and awareness for community groups and local, non-profit organizations." She has also said that she does not make any money on it, that she "loves Lake Worth." Sound good?

The first thing that Amy did was change the name of Evening on the Avenues...big mistake. Why change something when it has worked for years? She got the Cultural Plaza at no charge to have this event on the 1st and 3rd Friday's of every month. She kicked out many of the vendors that had been there for years and vendors we all looked forward to patronizing. She put in a beer garden that no one cared one iota about.

Once again, Evening on the Avenues, or Amy's Party in the Plaza, did not happen last night in spite of it being advertised.

Where's the Leadership? Lake Worth Mayor

New style of leadership--

Tom Ramiccio keeps saying that we must elect a "proven" leader. What exactly does he mean by that?

Is a leader someone who uses his power to intimidate like he did to a few of the downtown merchants? Ask Havana Hideout what happened to them when he was the head of the Chamber. While he was mayor in 1999, one business filed a complaint with the State of Florida and won its case. The State imposed a civil penalty of $2,000; and issued a public censure and reprimand for his strong-arm tactics against the owner of one of our downtown shops. He did not like her putting a campaign sign in her window of the opponent. This is America, Tom.

Do we want someone as a leader who acts like a "made man" who uses Mafia tactics and abuses people by overstepping authority. What about when he was rough with staff at the Chamber and demanded loyalty. What about kicking citizens off city sidewalks, forbidding them the right to petition, a guaranty under our Constitution.

What about when he came before the Commission crying for money for Evening on the Avenues. When he got turned down for lack of budgeted city funds, he used his power and showed all of the citizens who was boss by closing the event down, never funding it again.

Impulsive and says anything whether true or not, he has made so many rash campaign promises like selling our Utility to FPL. He has never told us how he plans on accomplishing that. We do know that he estimated its worth at between $300 and $500 million without ever asking experts in the industry what they felt was its value. He doesn't even have a plan. When you are in a position of leadership, you can't make rash statements and shoot from the hip.

Bullying, abuse of power, intimidation and gang like tactics are not qualities we want in a Mayor. We can't afford, nor do we have the time, to re-train Tom to be a leader during our Budget planning.

A natural born leader, such as Ms. Waterman, would be a vote for reason and stability.

Tom Ramiccio, Governor Elect Florida Kiwanis

Governor-Elect Florida Kiwanis
Thomas M. Ramiccio

MISSION:

According to its web site--Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world, one child and one community at a time.

Kiwanis does good work, especially with children--no question about it. But the Governor-Elect, former Director of the Lake Worth Chamber of Commerce and former mayor of Lake Worth while engaged here, had a proclivity to stifle free speech of some citizens with whom he disagreed. He took the "changing the world" part literally.

He disallowed citizens to petition on city streets and called the police when he was head of the local Chamber of Commerce. He was very political and seemed to only back candidates who were pro-development. There were even some who feared him. Even though it appeared that he was against anyone who had a different political view, he always came with his hand out to the CRA for money, not only for Evening on the Avenues but the Chamber building itself...money that was tax from those living in the CRA district, a district full of slum and blight, with some residents there that were rumored to be those he disliked the most.

The Kiwanis organization of Florida is just another organization, like the Chamber of Commerce, that should stay out of politics. A few of the objectives are to encourage the daily living of the Golden Rule in all human relationships and to cooperate in creating and maintaining sound public opinion and high idealism which make possible the increase if righteousness, justice, patriotism, and goodwill.

Some Clubs are having speakers regarding Amendment 4 and some members seem to have been brainwashed to the Vote No mentality. Are they taking lessons from the Florida Chamber of Commerce? In fact, one Kiwanis Club president stated yesterday that the club had a hard time even finding a speaker For Amendment 4. As our rep for Amendment 4 described it to me, it was a hostile environment filled with some very rude people.

Good luck to Kiwanis Florida and good luck to Tom. You don't get to that position without a lot of connections, politics and hard work. It is an awesome responsibility to represent over 10,000 members across Florida.

No Party at the Cultural Plaza - Amendment 4 Advocates defend rights

Comment Up

As we were standing on the public sidewalk near the street on Lake Avenue in front of the Cultural Plaza, Amy Saleeby walked from the beer garden over to us. She is in charge of what used to be called Evening on the Avenues and I believe that she uses this area free of charge with the idea of attracting people to the downtown and of course, making money. She says she doesn't make any money and in fact it is all money going out of her pocket--She loves Lake Worth. She asked if we would move to the other side of the street. She did not want us in front of "her" event. She was right in all of our faces for at least 10 minutes. In the middle of her altercation, I finally walked away to pet one of the adopted dogs that was on display...much more friendly experience.

After saying “no,” that it was a public street and that we had the right to stand on it, she called the Sheriff. Who knows what she said to him because one of the first things he said was--he didn’t want any trouble and would kick us out if there was. Standing on a street these days can be trouble...with 3 senior citizens and one getting close. When he arrived, some young gal came on the scene to complain that we were making her “feel uncomfortable.” I asked her who she was as we had not talked to her, did not know her and had never seen her. As it turns out it was a young woman working with Ms. Saleeby. That is a pic of her being stupid in the lower right corner.

We were there for about 70 minutes last evening. After dinner at Too-Jays, we walked over to Amy’s “event” to see what was going on. I ran into Commissioner Mulvehill and spotted Commissioner Golden. As I was talking with Jo-Ann Golden, the same young woman was close by and said twice again, “you are making me uncomfortable.” I then decided she was trying to provoke an incident and decided to leave.

Now, this is a city that is my home. These are public streets. This is our Constitutional right to be there. We caused no problem and it did not distract from Amy’s “event.” They tried to use the old tactic when it was Lake Worth Police and Ramiccio was in charge of Evening on the Avenues. Back then, Ramiccio and Nadine Burns called SWAT on us. We were in front of Fed Ex and even had the owner's permission to be in front of his store. It did not matter to the LW Police. The PBSO Deputy last night understood our right to be there.

I liked this when it was called Evening on the Avenues--a name around for years and one that is well known. The Event is now called Party in the Plaza. It was no "party" other than a little harassment by someone trying to impose her will on Lake Worth citizens who have the legal right to be on a city sidewalk invoking their First Amendment Right .

Meetings up the Wazoo

This is NUTS!

The City Commission, so far this month, has had a demanding schedule. Not only is certain Staff working long hours but the City Commission has a killer commitment. I have never seen a Commission work this hard--NEVER. By the end of it all, this should be the most informed Commission in the history of Lake Worth. We want to say that all of this time and effort is greatly appreciated by the citizens of Lake Worth. Saying "thanks" is not enough. You all deserve a BIG pay increase, and inspite of falling revenue, this should be a priority.

Tomorrow, August 16, the City Commission will be in a work session ALL DAY followed by a Special Meeting beginning at 5:30 that is supposed to last for 4 hours.

Below is the August schedule thus far.

August 18 Budget Work Session: There will be a presentation from the PBSO. Because of superior management and public relations, the Sheriff is highly approved within the City of Lake Worth. According to their report, most major crimes in the City are down by 14.1% with arrests up. Theft is up by a whopping 106% and prostitutes know where to come as that is up almost 97%. All you convenience stores be careful--burglary up nearly 25%. City Manager, Susan Stanton, managed to negotiate the contract with PBSO with a reduction of nine positions. This year we will be paying $13.2 million for sheriff safety plus humongous retirement benefits.

August 17 Regular: There will be a presentation from the LW Chamber of Commerce. Can we get them to take back Evening on the Avenues, now known as Party in the Plaza. (This change of name is NOT working) Since they relinquished the job, Evening on the Avenues is terrible--a big reduction in vendors and the mix is dreadful. We want to be known as an artist destination and Amy kicked out the majority of the arts/jewelry vendors. We have a new store downtown that got her license for the Plaza and she was told she could not set up. Next, the Commission will be setting the official ballot for the general election. Approval of a contract with Youngquist Brothers for the construction of a deep injection well for the Reverse Osmosis plant, total cost not to exceed $4,688,195; approve a variance to permit 24-hour operation; approve Change Order 001 with Reynolds, Inc., total cost for change $117,973; and approve a $78,704 payment to the Building Department for deep injection well permits.

August 16 Special: This meeting is a discussion and vote on the Casino financing plan.

August 16 Budget Work Session : The Commission will be reviewing the possibility of implementing downtown parking pay-stations and red-light cameras. Utility revenue will be discussed and there will be a review of the Utility department's proposed budget.

August 10 Work Session
August 9 Budget Work Session
August 3 Regular 6 PM Addition/Deletions
August 3 Regular 6 PM
August 3 Work Session 2 PM
August 3 Special 12 PM
August 3 Budget Work Session 8:30 AM

Pay to Play in Lake Worth?

Comment Up

This is not what you think--this is about paying for parking in Lake Worth's downtown.

The newly proposed city budget calls for parking stations in our five downtown parking lots with an estimated revenue of approximately $250,000. This was based on one parking count taken during the Season. More than likely, someone counted up the number of spaces at all 5 lots and made a projection. The Financial Advisory Board left the possibility of charging people to come to our downtown on the table and the proposal by the City will come back to them at the next meeting.

When times are tough, cities look to any source that crosses their laps in order to raise revenue. Cutting waste is not even on the agenda. Why not? Why doesn’t the City end, right now, all membership fees, all travel, all superfluous spending, the free lunch, collect the nearly $9 million owed to us for unpaid utility bills last year, and the list goes on. We are owed multi-millions, folks. If we could collect everything owed to us even by neighboring cities, we would be well-off. But, no, the city would much rather install parking pay stations in our downtown or put up red-light cameras with red-light proceeds going to the PBSO to help with the astronomical cost of the Sheriff contract or charge more for someone to swim in our pool. Absurd. Let’s just make it harder on the residents and make it more difficult for the stores as they continue with the waste.

While our downtown is still struggling in this down economy and businesses are hurting, we don’t need to put any more pressure on them. Commercial establishments pay the highest utility rates in the State of Florida through Lake Worth Utilities and now the City of Lake Worth wants to charge for parking. We should, instead, do everything we can to help our downtown.

Our City attracts those who come here for special events, Evening on the Avenues, and to dine at our local restaurants. They like to stroll the Avenue, window shop, look at the art and antiques and spend their money here. To have that "privilege" of spending their money, they will now have to pay to do so. We don’t want any more businesses moving out. We don’t want our residents to feel that they should now drive to an establishment where parking is free or to their local Mall. We want to keep business right here in downtown Lake Worth and bring in more of it that will cater to all of our shopping needs.

Parking on Lake and Lucerne is for 4 hours now and the FAB has suggested that it be reduced to 2 hour parking. I'm not sure why this is even part of the Board's discussion as its only focus is on the Budget and what will affect the millage. However, as it was brought up, I think 2 hour parking during the day might work but incorporating that at night would not. It also would not work for matinees at the Lake Worth Playhouse as many people dine in our downtown, attend the play, arriving at the theater around 1:30pm for a play that usually is from 2pm to 4:30 pm on average.

Andy Amoroso, CRA member as well as a leader of the Downtown Cultural Alliance, says that the downtown needs to be kept "economical." Parking stations could hurt business and therefore he is against them. He would like to see 2 hour parking from 9am until 6pm, waive impact fees for new businesses over the next 2 years and amortize their large utility deposit over 6 months in order to make it easier for stores/businesses to want to locate to Lake Worth. Andy also mentioned, at last count, there were 19 empty stores and that someone was moving into the vacant Ouzu Blue space.

Wes Blackman says, “Our downtown is at such a fragile state economically now, that the imposition of parking meters is too risky for the amount of "reward" the city would get in additional revenue. I have an issue with red light cameras related to Big Brother, period. I have also heard that rear end collisions are higher at intersections since people now take the yellow light more seriously and slam on the brakes to avoid going through a red light. Both represent little gain, for probable negative results. If it isn't broke, don't fix it.”

Michele Bell, 531 East, Inc.
Michelle Bell, owner of 531 East, Inc. stated that she hated parking meters when she had her store in Delray. “Granted, it is money for the City but the downtown in Lake Worth is not ready yet…park for free…let’s build, not tax—get some business.”

Save Our Neighborhood President, Katie McGiveron says, “I won't be going down town to shop if I have to pay to park. Period. My family and I are trying to save every dollar possible. I won't be eating at restaurants down town when I do eat out. I will be buying Naughty's dog food at a place where I don't have to pay to park, etc. As for red light cameras- just wait until the lawsuits start filling up city hall.”

John Rinaldi, owner of Sabal Palm B&B, has a different view when he says, “I really think that metered parking is so common in most towns that it won't hurt business downtown. It might help as so many spots are taken by employees who park all day. Given the financial mess we are in, we need every dollar we can find.”

We had parking meters back in the 70's. They didn't work then. The merchants complained it was hurting business. They continuously broke down. The City pulled them out and sent them to the dump...money still in the heads. Although they are suggesting parking stations similar to what we have at the beach, we all know the constant maintenance problems with them. Installed not too long ago, the City now says that they have to be replaced.