With a $1 Billion Biden Maintenance Backlog, Trump Fixing the Reflecting Pool

Donald Trump and Doug Burgum Fixing the Absolutely Filthy Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Biden Left Behind

Biden let the pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument turn into a swamp.

Now Trump posted the proof – and he wants every American to see what four years of Democrat neglect actually looks like. The cleanup just started, and Biden can't hide from this one.

The National Mall draws 24 million visitors a year. Every one of them walked past that pool. Every one of them saw what Biden left behind – stagnant water, visible filth, a landmark that looked like it belonged in a city that had given up.

Biden's team had four years and a $1 billion maintenance backlog sitting on the National Mall – and cut deferred maintenance funding by $13 million in his final budget year anyway.

In November, Trump posted a video of workers finally beginning the work Biden never started, with Andrea Bocelli's "Time to Say Goodbye" playing over the footage.

A graffiti reading “86 47” was spray-painted in the empty Lincoln Memorial Pool on Friday, May 1, 2026, following the indictment of former FBI director James Comey over an image on social media that showed seashells laid out to spell “8647.”

Many believe that “86 47” denotes murdering President Donald Trump, though those critical of the current administration have disputed the claim. The U.S. Park Police are currently investigating the vandalism.

Read about it...

A Pool in Lake Worth Beach? As rare as finding another Hope Diamond

Then

Now

'Please do something': Lake Worth Community High School pool demolition

I've been watching this as I drive by...an era is gone forever

"WPTV's Joel Lopez is tracking the developments and listening to the community as they voice their concerns for change."

I don't know why they just didn't repair and maintain what they have...Total neglect and disinterest.

"Joel Lopez reported late last year that maintenance issues and an iguana infestation forced the School District of Palm Beach County to shut down the 60+ year-old pool indefinitely." It's certainly is  definite...it's demolished.

Read about it

We used to have a wonderful pool at the Lake Worth beach. Sally Welsh, who my mother took aerobic exercises from at that pool that has been closed for 10 years (the city escalated it's destruction by allowing it to deteriorate and dry out), wants an aquatic center for families in the community. A developer already has presented a proposal for that as well as a new golf course.

No one maintains what they have and in the end, it costs the taxpayers unnecessary millions.

Lake Worth High School Pool

Iguanas share blame for closure of Lake Worth High swimming pool

‘No one took care of it. To let it go like that is a shame.’

FOR ABOUT 60 YEARS, Lake Worth Community High School’s swimming pool provided training waters for thousands of people — from beginners taking lessons to student athletes setting speed records to seniors relaxing with water aerobics.

These days, the pool's only users are iguanas.

The invasive tropical lizards, known to cause power outages in Lake Worth Beach, are sharing blame for the Palm Beach County School District’s recent decision to “indefinitely” close the city high school swimming pool.

“In collaboration with the Department of Health, the School District of Palm Beach County has closed the pool at Lake Worth Community High School indefinitely to ensure the safety of students and the community. Outdated equipment and environmental contaminants have compromised the pool's water quality and safety,’’ a district spokesperson said Friday in an email to ByJoeCapozzi.com.

Read the article... and see the photos of the iguana take-over.

I was a kid, one of hundreds, who raised money to build the pool. We sold magazine subscriptions and did all that we could to help the school. "In 2002, it was named the Dennis F. Dorsey Swim Complex, in honor of the former Lake Worth mayor and Lake Worth High swimming alum who poured money in the school’s swim program over the years," my late brother-in-law.

Our Lake Worth Beach Pool

Lake Worth Beach takes steps to resurrect municipal pool

Staff to determine cost to replace pool that closed in 2016

The city of Lake Worth Beach is taking steps to resurrect the Lake Worth Municipal Swimming Pool.

City commissioners on Tuesday voted 4-1, McVoy dissenting, to come up with all the particulars. He wanted a more interesting design that would attract all our residents as well as tourists. The cost was also a factor with the Vice Mayor. We have no idea what this will cost or how we will pay for it but the price tag of $16 million has been thrown around.

"It's probably the best real estate probably in Palm Beach County, so we are fully intent on bringing it back and making it really special," Commissioner Reinaldo Diaz said.

No one seems to want an Olympic Pool these days. Even Wes Blackman doesn't want a pool at the beach which is actually the best place for a pool.

Our old pool--

SUMMARY:
CPZ Architects, Inc. and Chris Zimmerman President and AIA was selected on October 12, 2017 to provide professional services for the Lake Worth Beach Complex Design Phase for replacement of the pool at the Beach Complex. The City Commission will engage in further discussion of the programs and the proposed conceptual design.

BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION:

Possible design options were presented by CPZ Architects, Inc. at the August 7, 2018 commission meeting. At the July 5, 2022 commission meeting, Task Order No. 3 was approved for the preparation of a final conceptual design of the pool area only for the City to review and approve the scope of the project after a full-day meeting with the City Commission. A After reviewing CPZ’s notes from their one-on-one discussions with the Mayor and Commissioners, staff was able to determine the common concepts, programs/activities, and elements of the pool features. They are as follows:

Programs/Activities:
 Water sports
 Water aerobics
 Swimming lessons
 Lap swimming
 Splash Pad
 Summer camps
 Events/Movies/Hangout
 Food/Drink Offerings

Design/Features:
 Rectangular Shape
 Multifunctional
 Tourist Attraction
 Tropical/Native Plants
 Artsy
 Tiki Bar
 Cabanas

Go to 4:01:35 for the start of the Beach Complex Pool

Our Lake Worth Pool--dormant for years

We can thank one of our former city managers (who called our Olympic pool a "white elephant") and his assistant for the state of our pool. Neither one now are with the City of Lake Worth in any capacity.

Lake Worth Beach commissioners ready to dive into deeper, pricier swimming pool design

DESIGN A DEEPER multi-use public swimming pool, Lake Worth Beach city commissioners told a consultant eight months ago.

On Aug. 15, a new rectangular design for a deeper and more expensive oceanfront swimming pool will be presented to commissioners.

This one has depths ranging from 3 feet to 10 feet, starting with the shallowest section on the north end of the pool and the deepest sarees at the south end, according to an architectural rendering in the commission’s agenda.

The previous version, presented to the commission Dec. 6, called for a $12 million pool no more than 4 feet deep. That drew sharp criticism from commissioners, who a few days later at an agenda-review meeting questioned why CPZ Architects would design such a shallow pool to replace the city’s shuttered public pool at the beach casino.

Read article by Joe Capozzi

Presentation on our Pool at December 6 Meeting

STAFF REPORT
REGULAR MEETING
AGENDA DATE: December 6, 2022 DEPARTMENT: City Manager
TITLE:

Presentation of conceptual design for the pool by CPZ Architects, Inc.

SUMMARY: CPZ Architects, Inc. was selected on October 12, 2017 to provide professional services for the Lake Worth Beach Complex Design Phase for replacement of the pool.

BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION:

Possible design options for the pool were presented by CPZ Architects, Inc. at the August 7, 2018 commission meeting. At the July 5, 2022 commission meeting, Task Order No. 3 was approved for the preparation of a final conceptual design of the pool area only as outlined in the previously provided conceptual design drawings.

MOTION: Direction sought from the commission regarding the design for the pool.

ATTACHMENT(S):

Fiscal Impact Analysis – N/A

Go to the Agenda of December 6 and scroll down to New Business A to see all the scenarios that CPZ Architects are presenting.

The Pool at Lake Worth beach

Why latest discussion on reopening Lake Worth Beach municipal pool resulted in another delay

"After years of discussions, workshops, public meetings and no swimming in Lake Worth Beach's long-shuttered municipal pool, the city commission decided on Tuesday to... wait some more.

The five-person board is in agreement that the pool, located a stone's throw from the Atlantic Ocean at the city's beach complex, must reopen after being closed since 2016.

Mayor Betty Resch proposed shelving talks until a future commission workshop so that board members, along with an architectural consultant, can craft design elements – splash pads, tiki huts, public access, etc. – to be followed by potential developers.

Commissioner Robinson who has announced that he will not be running again, said, 'This is absolutely the wrong way to go. We are going to get less and it's going to cost us more...This is a scary night for me'."

Read about it...

A possible Public/Private Partnership at our beach complex?

Lake Worth Beach Commission takes first step to re-open ocean-side complex

That was the headline in Yahoo News...a little misleading!

One of the major hindrances that was not mentioned in this article is that the former city manager, Michael Bornstein, did not want the pool. When he first came into office he called it a "White elephant," thus it languished for years and eventually died once the water was removed and left to the elements to decay..

Most of us want the pool rebuilt exactly as is in exactly the same place and do NOT want a public/private partnership. But this commission is willing to listen to proposals that could give up control of our entire beach park but still retaining ownership

How much is our beach worth? There is no price tag on this extremely valuable property. And commissioners, it is not all about making money. Get the correct employees in place to manage and market this park. It is an amenity that attracts tourism and residents alike.

Personally, I believe it sinful to not repair this when we had a chance for $509,000. Staff went along with Bornstein and so now we have a pool that will cost millions to replace. But a public/private partnership really could give away the whole enchilada.

The residents have told the city that they want our pool to be repaired and re-opened and Kimley-Horn told them in 2019 that it could be repaired for $509,000--We don't need millions poured into our pool--fix what you messed up.

Read about it...

Discussion on our Beach and Pool

City Comission Meeting of November 2

Full agenda for the City of Lake Worth's Commission Meeting On November 2

 A few items on the agenda that are interesting:

1.  Resolution No. 80-2021 approves the Agreement with the Supervisor of Elections for calendar year 2022 and establishes the City’s canvassing board for the March 2022 municipal election.

BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION:
Every year, the City approves a one-year agreement with the County Supervisor of Elections (SOE) for equipment use and election services. This agreement outlines all duties and responsibilities of the SOE and City, and the fees to be paid by the City to the SOE for conducting the local municipal election. Changes from last year’s agreement include adding the General Election date and having the SOE oversee the election by hiring, training and assigning the poll workers. The City Clerk will remain as the qualifying officer for the election.

The term of the SOE agreement is from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2022, and the City Clerk’s Office has budgeted $45,000.00 plus the cost of part time poll workers to conduct the General Election.

1) term limits of two consecutive terms for a given seat (6 years—I think 9 years is best—3, 3 year terms)
2) in any election a candidate may concede without forcing a run off--ok
3) change to single-member district voting, mayor at large (totally against this...because it cannot produce proportional representation. Commissioners in actuality represent all of us in this city)
4) allow election by plurality should the leading candidate get 40% plus 1 of the vote. The biggest disadvantage to this is someone can get elected with small amounts of public support

2.  The next thing of interest to all of us who love the Lake Worth beach and park will be discussion of it under Unfinished Business. We already know what Herman wants which is not what the people want overall. Everyone with whom I have spoken want the pool repaired. If it no longer can be repaired because of Bornstein's and staff's total neglect, then build it new and keep it where it is...And no private/public partnerships.

Agenda change tonight's Commission Meeting

UPDATE

Tonight's presentation at City Hall by Maui Goodbeer and Dan Volker on youth potential and tourism at our pool has been postponed by the City.

It will be presented in the very near future.

A few items on the Lake Worth Commission Agenda

Lake Worth commission Meeting tonight

Under Presentations there are two that you don't want to miss:

1.A  The City Clerk retired! Deborah Andrea will be honored by the commission for her service to the city.

4.D`  Two founders of non-profits with long involvement with youth empowerment, swimming,snorkeling and marine wildlife will present possible ideas for helping Lake Worth Beach. Maui Goodbeer, founder of Streetwaves, has dedicated his life to bringing under-served South Florida youth out to the ocean to learn to swim, surf and sail. Dan Volker, a LWB resident and founder of Project Seahorse, has years of experience with diving, teaching children to snorkel and introducing them to the wonders of underwater life. Together Maui and Dan would like to help link our pool and our potential underwater park.

Let's do everything to save our pool!

New Business:

E. Lease Renewal with FDOT for the Sidewalk Café Permits
SUMMARY: The Lease Renewal with FDOT authorizes an additional 5 years of Sidewalk Café leasing of sidewalk and valet parking space.

The time to end sidewalk cafes is now. Parking is scarce enough without these restaurants taking up parking spaces and crowding our streets with sidewalk cafes. Covid can't be the excuse anymore.

I. Commissioner Malega wants a discussion on the residence of the city manager and utility director. These top administrative employees need to live in our city.

L. Approve the use of $50,000 From Biden's American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to support a partnership with Legal Aid of Palm Beach County.

The American Rescue Plan provides $21.6 billion for states, territories, and local governments to assist households that are unable to pay rent and utilities due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Covid is essentially over. Jobs are there. Lake Worth, what gives with this socialist giveaway plan? Essentially this is paying rent for people who are not looking to work which saps morale, slows wealth creation and becomes a habit of idleness.

Lake Worth Casino and Pool

It's been a most unfortunate situation that the city NEVER took the advice from Kimley Horn to repair our pool and locker rooms when we had the chance for $509,000. And it totally ignored the will of its residents.

I agree with Betty Resch at the time--"It was the will of the city to make it fail."

It is unfortunate, and that's stating it mildly, that the city drained the pool  allowing the sun and the elements to further its deterioration. People are unhappy, rightfully so.We could have fixed it at the time for $509,000 (we paid for the engineering study) but the city wanted it out of there. Michael Bornstein was behind this travesty from almost the day he was hired as Lake Worth city manager even calling it a "white elephant."

The city stopped funding our pool in 2018. It was never their desire to save it.

Now, not only have they allowed our pool to go to hell in a hand basket and beyond repair, the city is not maintaining the area either. Blight abounds.

New Commissioners, please have the blight cleaned up and rebuild our pool at the Lake Worth beach.

Workshop on Public Private Partnerships

The City of Lake Worth (Beach) is determined to barrel ahead to screw up our beach.  And it's not only the beach...it's the entire city. They love developers and they love abrogating their responsibility to someone else, anyone else.

Look what they did to the Steinhardt property...a 99 year lease is like giving the County the property. Back on January 7, 2014, the suggested 99 year lease to the County (on the dry as well as the submerged land) was approved to make this property a nature preserve. Now the 99 year lease to the County will be on the ballot.

But I digress--The intent of this particular workshop was to familiarize the Commission on Public/Private Partnerships as the majority of them is all for spending millions. We have already spent millions but those millions apparently are not enough. 

Basically, the City can't manage itself out of a wet paper bag. They can't manage the beach. They made a decision to have public transportation with a bus that goes down our main streets to bring people to our beach...precious parking revenue lost that we depend upon to make our budget.


Time for Term Limits

Quote of the day - City Manager Michael Bornstein

"If you're delusional enough to think you're going to shove this white elephant of a capital improvements budget into an operating budget, you're in for a rude awakening. Now this deferred maintenance is on the record."

~ Michael Bornstein
City Manager Lake Worth speaking specifically to Commissioner Omari Hardy

Does anyone know what he's talking about? We know when Bornstein was first hired here in 2012, he referred to our pool (that was alive and well and functioning at the time) as a "white elephant." He has wanted to yank out our pool for seven years now. Why? He has been so adament about not having a pool, he emptied all the water out of it and has allowed it to dry out and crack from the sun.

He can't maintain it because the city maintains nothing. He treats it as something that should be paying for itself instead of an amenity. The city has never marketed our property and they complain they are losing revenue.

The residents have told the city that they want our pool to be repaired and re-opened and Kimley-Horn told them just two years ago that it could be repaired for $509,000--We don't need millions poured into our pool--fix what you messed up.

Lake Worth Pool

I was 100%in agreement with Commissioner Hardy last night. Although there was no dollar amount affiliated with the motion, at least we will spend some money on the pool complex.

I still say let's use Kimley Horn's engineering report and rebuild our present pool and locker rooms for $509,000 or whatever the cost is now due to inflation, etc.

Other Remarks by engineers:
Pool structural deficiencies: None
Pool finishes: fairly good
Building condition (locker rooms and restrooms): Fair to good
Building deficiencies: Roof cover and minor mechanical and plumbing issues
Pump House deficiencies: Replace roof system. interior piping near end of its useful life--needs to be removed and replaced.

Tonight's City Commission meeting

Tonight's Commission Meeting--not worth your time

College Park Neighborhood Association will give its 10 minute presentation.

There are nine items on the Consent Agenda.

Under New Business, the commission will vote to use the penny sales tax funds on a pool.

Last year, CPZ presented commissioners with six conceptual design ideas that ranged from $14 million to $59 million and a six-lane pool to no pool to a private development hotel. The city is down to two schemes now for the pool. Scheme A will cost $9,090,632 with Scheme B costing $10,600.596. So, they will vote to go forward using the penny sales tax for one of these schemes.

The Costly Situation in Lake Worth (Beach)

The Lake Worth city manager has reminded us that Lake Worth has had decades of neglect that has placed us in the situation we find ourselves in today--falling farther and farther behind the 8 ball. Lake Worth has never maintained anything. When talking about our electric utility and a second tie-line to the statewide electrical grid, Michael Bornstein said  it was undoing 30 to 40 years of neglect. Shocking. Beside our beach property, this is our most important and valuable asset.

They have installed new little palm trees in front of city hall but haven't swept the steps in months which gives a blighted appearance to our government building. If you neglect the little things, you will definitely overlook the big ones. And now Omari Hardy has suggested more than once, that we have a referendum to give the owner of Benny's a 99 year lease on our Pier property.  This is what you do when you can't/won't maintain anything...you find a public/private partnership or another clever way to give up an asset.

Due to all the major and ungodly costly issues in the City of Lake Worth (Beach) such as roads (even a $40 million bond won't fix them all but around 1/3rd),  pool, parking, rebuilding the public works building and another Tie-Line for our Electric Utility (how many millions would this cost?), I have to think that former city commissioner Bo Allen had a viable idea years ago--raze the entire city to the ground and start over.

Last Night's Commission Workshop

Watch, if you dare!  What an unbelievable meeting that took 4:03 to conclude. Scott Maxwell is still against the pool. Nothing has changed with him in 17 years.  The pool question will come back to another workshop with the design professionals and a task order. The city should have repaired what we had at the time the estimate was given by Kimley Horm to repair the pool that also included the locker rooms, around $504k. Now we're up to a new facility that will cost at least $10 million. As Juan Ruiz reminded us, "We have champagne tastes on a beer budget."

Lake Worth's Olympic Pool

Beach closings add pressure to Lake Worth Beach pool decision

Monday night at 6pm, City Commissioners will be discussing the penny sales tax and where to spend it. It's burning a hole in their pockets. One target is our pool as the city closed it in 2016 instead of repairing it. They emptied it and allowed it to deteriorate in the harsh Florida sun drying it out. They now tell us it is unsaveable. Well, of course.  It hasn't had water in it for years!

We have had these discussions before...it never ends.

Last year, CPZ presented commissioners with six conceptual design ideas that ranged from $14 million to $59 million and a six-lane pool to no pool to a private development hotel. The city is down to two schemes now for the pool. Scheme A will cost $9,090,632 with Scheme B costing $10,600.596.

Read The Palm Beach Post article