Lake Worth Potholes

More pothole complaints in Lake Worth Beach

Back in 2016, the people voted to support the City's Bond referendum.

Taxpayers are obligated to repay $69 million for the $40 million bond package. That’s a 72 percent penalty for paying for roads through bonds.

At that time, city officials stated that only 29.72 percent of neighborhood roads would be repaired with the $40 million long-term debt! Property owners had certain expectations and some are still unhappy...read article below.

Read the latest on potholes... at WPBF

Pizza and Potholes - Invite Domino's to Lake Worth to fix potholes!

Domino’s Pizza filling potholes across the country

WPEC

Lake Worth is always looking for partnerships or the other guy to do the work. Well, here's a solution.

Invite Domino's to Lake Worth to fix our potholes

Quote of the Day - Susan Bucher on Lake Worth's bond referendum placement on the ballot

“It’s on there in accordance with the law. I don’t establish the laws and the rules. We’ve done this with them before so they should have been aware that it would be the last item on the ballot.”

~ Susan Bucher, Supervisor of Elections

Talking about the 30 year General Obligation Bond issue on the last page of the ballot.

The City of Lake Worth is doing everything possible to promote this bond:  a mailer to registered voters, the city manager speaking at any neighborhood association that wants him, developing a web page and bond calculator and now soliciting the help of  The Palm Beach Post to get the word out.

It is all political but the politicians are not really engaged with some not even informed until the last minute on the political mailer...the one who is engaged is the city manager who is not supposed to be political.

29.72% of Lake Worth roads will be affected under General Obligation Bond

Comment Up

There are some in our city who believe that all of the roads will be fixed (It certainly looks that way when you see the maps) under the $40 million bond, a bond for which we have no financial details-- an estimated final cost over thirty years.  We know that the finance department can give a close estimate but so far they are keeping that information under wraps.

It's not any different than the last bond that failed other than it will not cover the cost of fire hydrants, sidewalks, street lighting, Park of Commerce or the slush fund of $3.2 million for district commissioners' use. At least we don't think so.

Here is a little bit of trivia on the roads:

• We have 119 miles of roads.

• Out of that, 34.47 miles will be addressed under the bond.

• The bond money would be dealing with the worst roads in the city.

• The percentage calculates to 29.72% of our total roads that will be repaired.

As all these repairs and how long they last will depend on a rigid and committed road maintenance program going forward, the question we need to ask is, will the city finally maintain anything?  Before residents agree to vote themselves in debt for 30 years, what about the city making a contract with the residents that they will have a well funded maintenance program going forward and have that language in the ballot description.

Lake Worth Bond Survey

Comment Up

Several weeks ago I got a live telephone survey conducted by Clearview Research LLC. The main purpose was to ascertain whether the city should go forward with issuing bonds for our roads. The person on the other end asked all sorts of personal questions: age, race, if I own a home, gender, party affiliation, etc.

The polling questions were prepared by two people one of whom is Steven Vancore. Steven J. Vancore is the president of Clearview Research and who has a master’s degree in Marketing Communications from Florida State University,  nearly 30 years’ experience conducting polls and focus groups throughout the state. He serves as an adjunct instructor in the Masters of Applied American Policy and Politics program at FSU

Vancore's approach to good polling is to poll registered voters--"You draw respondents from the active voter file and know what their registration is before asking  (It’s a little more complex than that, but you get the idea). This way you can model your sample to look pretty close to what the electorate is most likely going to look like and you are not dependent on people telling you what they think you want to hear."

And one Lake Worth voter with whom I have spoken swears his polling interview was recorded.

The Survey

Telephone Survey by Lake Worth City Manager

Comment Up

On June 18th I got a call with a live person who was conducting a survey for the City of Lake Worth.  There were various questions asking what I thought about the present commission's job performance, whether I would consider supporting a $40 million dollar bond for roads followed by a question on whether I would support a $50 million dollar bond for roads and sidewalks. They even asked whether I would support the PB County 1 cent sales tax increase.

Unfortunately, there were no details along with the questions such as the term of the bond, its total cost including interest and what all it would specifically cover. The last bond the city wanted us to approve was for $63 million for 30 years that would have cost us a total of $131 million, a detail never discussed. That bond covered all sorts of things besides pothole repair even an $800,000 slush fund for each commissioner to spend as he wanted in his district.

To this day, under freedom of information, no one can get any answer from the city on this survey--not even a commissioner for whom I contacted was told about it--the city manager is remaining mum. There is no doubt in my mind that the trio of commissioners (Maxwell, Triolo and Amoroso) know all about it. It's sickening when decisions are made out of the Sunshine, requests by the public are ignored and democracy is relegated to an unimportant position.

1. Who authorized this survey?
2.Was our Commission informed about this survey?
3.How much did this survey cost the taxpayers?
4.What is the name of the company conducting this survey?
5.Who has access to the survey results?
6.Will the public have access to the survey results?
7.Will a neutral third party company be hired/is already hired to verify the survey results?
8. When was a telephone survey for a new roads bond discussed in public?
9. How many people were surveyed?  Were certain areas targeted?

There will be a Workshop on July 7th at 6pm at City Hall to discuss potholes. Perhaps then the details will be revealed.

Lake Worth Potholes - Looking for solutions

Comment Up

Channel 5 had a segment on Lake Worth potholes, mentioning the worst street in Lake Worth, 2nd Avenue South, with Commissioner Christopher McVoy commenting.  Barbara Aubel has mentioned this particular street on so many occasions and it just gets worse.

Read about it...and view the video.

Why the General Obligation Bond Failed in Lake Worth

Comment Up

The blog below by Katie Mcgiveron, Chair of the C.A.U.T Pac that helped defeat the General Obligation bond in 2014, is in response to the Wes Blackman opinion as stated on his blog: Unfortunately for the public, what's missing in the article [PBPost] is the reason why we're in this predicament in the first place. And that's all thanks to a bond vote that failed in 2014. The reporter briefly mentions the failed bond vote but not the reason it failed by just 25 votes. He goes on to say it was the PAC and hypocrites and offers that as the reason why we have potholes.

Guest Blogger
Katie Mcgiveron

Why was the 20/20 bond of 2014 such a bad idea for Lake Worth? Let me count the ways. Setting the Record Straight

This was an initial $63.5 million dollar cash grab that by the end of thirty years would have cost taxpayers in Lake Worth over $131 million dollars. Even the best made road has a life span of about fifteen years--So thirty years of debt to pay off roads that might, on a good day, last half of that time.

This bond was pushed as a “Don’t you want your potholes fixed?” necessity. When, in fact, only 30% of the existing roads in Lake Worth would have been resurfaced. Maybe. There were absolutely NO guarantees on how ANY of this bond money would REALLY have been spent.(FEMA,anyone)?

$9,600,000 was earmarked for the Park of Commerce, privately owned land that the city does not even own. Citizens asked for a 'smaller roads only bond' but they were ignored.

$2,075,000 would have gone to pay for a project manager. And, shockingly, each Commissioner would have been given $800,000 to hand out at their own discretion on “neighborhood enhancements”. Hmmmm, really?

$18,510,000 would have been taken from the city reserves, and another 2 million would have been grabbed from the Electric Utility Bond.

These figures came from the CITY’S OWN LITERATURE. Somebody in charge was very unhappy that the public was being told of the REAL cost of this bond. (As opposed to the ridiculous cup of coffee and a burger comparison that Commissioner Maxwell was pushing). For telling the truth, the finance director at the time was fired.

The bond was a thirty year UNCAPPED tax lien on every residence and business in the city. The Commission had already voted to increase both the water and sewer rates. The UNCAPPED bond lien would have been added on top of these increased rates. Lake Worth could have become the highest taxed city, by far, in all of Palm Beach County. As fed up residents and businesses moved out of Lake Worth, the 20/20 bond noose would have gotten tighter and tighter around the necks of the remaining residents and businesses.

With this kind of a pay day at stake, it was no surprise that the City Commission would go to almost any lengths to get the 20/20 bond passed. There were supposed to be two city wide workshops on this issue. The city only held one. From July 1st 2014 until August 19th 2014, OVER A MONTH right before the election, there were NO CITY COMMISSION MEETINGS. This was so that the residents had no chance to speak publicly on the issue and the press had no chance to publish those comments.

A one sided propaganda fest was held at the Lake Worth Playhouse. Citizens against the bond were not invited or allowed to speak. The election was to be held August 26th during the summer to ensure a low voter turnout. The city stole $50,000 of tax payer money to pay for campaign propaganda pushing this cash grab. The Lake Worth Yes Pac was formed to help the city in their efforts. It raised $20,000. My Citizens Against Unfair Taxation PAC was formed to get the real truth about this bond fiasco out to the residents of Lake Worth. We had a total of about $6,000 to fight with. Not much when you’re fighting $70,000 worth of misinformation. And by the way, on the behalf of the people of Lake Worth, give us our $50,000 back!

Even the Palm Beach Post knew what a disaster this would have been for Lake Worth. From an article on 8/12/14- “Under the plan, property tax rates could rise by 35%, making Lake Worth’s rate by far the county’s highest. The resulting jolt to the city’s economy will likely drive up rents for businesses and renters, which could lead to some businesses closing or looking elsewhere to open up.”

Also from the Post 8/12/14-“The $63 million loan would be more than twice the city’s annual operating budget, and repaying it would require huge property tax increases on its residents.”

The city stuck their hands down our pants and stole $50,000 from us to convince us that they were broke and needed $63,000,000 [MILLION], because they were broke. There was no plan “B” in place to fix our roads in case the bond did fail. Why not? Because this was about fixing things, MANY things in Lake Worth, but our roads were not one of them.

Lake Worth Potholes

Comment Up

Click here... to see the latest Palm Beach Post video on Lake Worth potholes.

The article mentions a few of our residents and what they have experienced with potholes.

Lake Worth Potholes

Comment Up

If you attend city commission meetings, you have heard Barbara Aubel speak of potholes but particularly those on 2nd Avenue South.

"Neighbors hope city leaders do something about them sooner rather than later. They're all over our area this time of year, but on 2nd Avenue South in Lake Worth, they are severe."

Read the article from WFLX.

If you recall during the election, all the opponents and none of the incumbents spoke of fixing the roads and concentrating money into the neighborhoods even bringing up the possibility of another general obligation bond. The last one that was defeated by 25 votes, not 24 as the city manager continues to say, was for too much and too long with little accountability. Perhaps the city, after engaging the public, will come up with something better that all of us can rally behind.

Letter to the Editor - Repair the Pothole

Comment Up


Letters to the Editor
Palm Beach Post
March 18, 2016

Repair Pothole to save other Drivers

Wednesday I drove through a deep pothole on First Avenue South in Lake Worth. Something started rattling. I spent 3 hours yesterday at the dealer while they discovered what was broken. It will probably cost about $100 to fix and by the time it is done, will have taken 4-5 hours out of my life because of this shabby street surface.

My taxes increased by over $450.00 this year. I feel it is reasonable to expect what will be a $35 street repair to be done to prevent others from the same inconvenience.

Laurence McNamara
Lake Worth

Potholes in Lake Worth- Commissioner Scott Maxwell blames residents on potholes

Comment Up

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Does anyone want to guess where this is located?

Once again, Scott Maxwell is blaming the potholes on the residents who turned down the general obligation bond he was pushing in the amount of $63.5 million over 34 years that would have ended up costing the taxpayers $131 million. He never mentions the real cost and never was forthright with the voters on bond details. He also ignores the huge amount of taxpayer money used to convince the voters ($50,000) on the general obligation bond in comparison to those who supported a referendum. He never tells you about the $3.2 million with each commissioner getting $800,000 of that bond money nor does he tell you about all the millions he was going to grab for the Park of Commerce. Now he says workers will be laid off.

How Scott Maxwell answered the Palm Beach Post question on Potholes:

The city offered a comprehensive roads and infrastructure bond referendum to the voters in 2014 and lost by 24 votes. [It was 25 votes] There is no pot of money available to address our pothole issues in our city. The best way to address the potholes is to replace the failing roads as required. Absent the proper funding to do so, we will need to find opportunities within our budget going forward of 1% across the board departmental cuts to help roughly double the annual funding for pothole maintenance. Scott Maxwell

His opponent, Ryan Hartman answered the question as follows:

Potholes are a huge problem and immediate action is needed. In the short term we should take the funds allocated from the capital fund for the Park of Commerce and redirect them for residential street repair (POC grant matches come from the electric and water funds). A smaller, transparent bond for our neighborhood streets, sidewalks and parks should be discussed and grants pursued for walkable, bikeable streets. We need traffic calming to get heavy vehicles off residential streets. Ryan Hartman

Plea from Concerned Lake Worth Citizen - Wake Up Lake Worth

Comment Up

I don't know if you can help us or not but the over 600 "seniors" at Palm Beach Mobile Home Park are very upset with the current Lake Worth City Council and Mayor.  It does not appear that they care about what is happening to our city or our specific community.

We have the following concerns:

1. They changed the zoning of the park to Industrial without giving us a chance to voice our opinion.  They used the excuse that they sent out a letter several years ago to the previous owners of the park that the current owners did not know anythings about.  The previous owners objected to their plans but that did not matter to Lake Worth.  A few years back we found out only by having one of our residents being refused a permit to add a Florida room to his home.  He was told that no one could add any square footage to their homes as we were now zoned as industrial.

2. We just found out recently that since we were zoned as Commercial (now they are using this term) that they no longer had to provide us with curbside Garbage pick up.  They would now require the residents to place their garbage in a container that will be placed in the common area of the park.  WE ARE SENIORS IN THIS PARK and to expect people in their 70's, 80's and 90's to haul their garbage to a container and then try to get it in the container is in our opinion elder abuse.  Their excuse is that our streets are too narrow to do safe pick up.  I have lived here since 1982 and they have not had this problem in the past, why is it a problem now.

3. We have a street that the residents used to come in and out of the park (Joyce Street) that is full of pot holes and they state that they have no intention of repairing the street.

4. With their new plan of "building their 'Park of Commerce' there are plans to take some of the property that is now park property to achieve their goals.

5.We have had an increase in crimes in our park as well as the area around us and yet that does not seem to concern them.

We feel that they are trying to take the park away from us.  We live on limited incomes (maybe we don't pay the city enough to live here).  To force over 600 senior citizens out of the park or to take services away from us or to zone this park as Industrial shows us that seniors do not matter to the city.  From their plans it looks like they just want the upper class here.  They treat us like trailer trash.

The city needs to concentrate on decreasing crimes rather than building more useless buildings.  They need to care more about the people of this city and not on how they can make more money to spend it anyway they want or lining their pockets.

I don't care what they say, this city has declined tremendously since I moved here.  It was a safer and cleaner city.  Making Lake Avenue beautiful did not make the city more beautiful.  Making the beach more beautiful only took more of the beach away from the residents.  They took the naturalness away from it and made it look like something from a ritzy resort.  I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

We were a beautiful quaint little town and now we are a town with crime so bad that you can no longer walk the streets and be ensured of a nice evening.  Their vision is obscured by their own personal needs.  Wake up Lake Worth.  Tourists have come here for years.  The Canadians have been coming here and buying property for years.  Now they are selling their properties because of the decline in Lake Worth.  Stop making laws that are pointless and that no one is going to enforce and start fixing the problem.

Thank you for allowing me to vent my concerns that are felt by all of us.

A very Concerned Citizen

Happy Earth Day

Rasmussen

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Most Americans continue to believe in the importance of April 22 as Earth Day, although far fewer do anything to celebrate it. They still feel, though, that individuals can make an environmental difference. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

What Sea Level Rise? Global Warming?  Nah.

The Road Ahead keeps pushing along in Lake Worth

ONE WEEK FROM TODAY--

Public Meeting: Financing Infrastructure - The Road Ahead

When:  Sat, March 21, 1pm – 3pm

Where:  City Hall, 7 North Dixie Highway, Lake Worth (map)

Description:  Bring YOUR ideas and questions about financing options available in order to improve our roads, water & sewer services, drainage systems, and sidewalks. Or you may send your ideas & questions to LW2020@lakeworth.org Need more information? Lake Worth City Clerk’s Office | 561.586.1662 | Monday – Friday | 8am – 5pm

They just won't quit. The city can say it is doing everything possible to engage the property owners to agree to tax themselves. Didn't they say that the first time?  Well, the minority commission believes that a smaller bond amount might be agreeable. Let's see what smaller is--the term and what actually will be performed on each street and its cost. And get the city to be factual and truthful. The city and the majority commission lost the election 7 months ago and Szerdi was kicked out of office on Tuesday, so let's see if they "got the picture" this time.

Financing Discussion tonight in Lake Worth

Comment Up

Although the City Commission, four of whom are advocates for taxing the people for 34 years for infrastructure and road repairs (Maxwell, Triolo, Amoroso and Szerdi), said that the public forums would be advertised in newspapers, etc, I haven't seen much about it. There was a blurb in today's Palm Beach Post local news section.  I would expect tonight's attendance will be the same people as we have seen throughout the election of August 2014 where the city was defeated at the polls on the general obligation bond.

The city is determined to grab the cash...as much as residents might allow.  They are going to "allow" us to speak to taxing methods--all of us retirees, housewives, construction workers, struggling business owners and laborers and middle class working people struggling to stay afloat...people they must believe to be highly knowledgeable on bond financing that has regulatory complexities with interest being double the principal as the last bond proved to us and the then finance director went missing in the night because of his transparency.

An Open Discussion

on Financing Options to Resolve Lake Worth’s Infrastructure Needs

The City Commission will be holding open discussions for citizens to publicly offer their ideas and ask questions about financing options available regarding infrastructure improvements in Lake Worth. “We are excited to continue the discussion on how to fix the infrastructure in Lake Worth” says Mayor Pam Triolo. “We invite residents to bring their ideas on how to pay for the improvements that are desperately needed in Lake Worth.”

Tuesday, January 27 at 6pm
Compass Community Center
201 North Dixie Highway, Lake Worth

Saturday, March 21 at 1pm
Lake Worth City Hall
7 North Dixie Highway, Lake Worth

Bring ideas and questions about financing options available in order to improve our roads, water & sewer services, drainage systems, and sidewalks. Or you may send your ideas & questions to LW2020@lakeworth.org

Financing Workshops Lake Worth

Comment Up

Financing Our Infrastructure
The Road Ahead
An Open Discussion on How to Pay for Lake Worth’s Infrastructure Needs
January 27 | 6pm
Compass Community Center
201 North Dixie Highway | Lake Worth

March 21 | 1pm
Lake Worth City Hall Commission Chamber
7 North Dixie Highway | Lake Worth

Bring YOUR ideas and questions about financing options available in order to improve our roads, water & sewer services, drainage systems, and sidewalks.

Or you may send your ideas & questions to LW2020@lakeworth.org

Need more information?
Lake Worth City Clerk’s Office | 561.586.1662 | Monday – Friday | 8am – 5pm

There are Potholes and then there are Potholes

Comment Up

As everyone knows, infrastructure and potholes are all across America and even cities with more money than we,  don't have the funds. But one struggling city is filling in their holes in an innovative way--and it's not by taxing the people for 34 years.

"Chicago has been hit particularly hard--with 47,500 pothole complaints between December and March alone. The city has rolled out a pothole tracker and a new strategy to deal with it....Also, The option to raise property taxes to cover the annual required pension contribution is simply out of the question considering homeowners would be looking at a 35 percent tax increase"...sound familiar? Read about one artist who is making a difference. With staggering unfunded pension obligations and debt, Chicago could next follow Detroit.

 
In the meantime, there are Lake Worth's potholes that were vandalized by the YES advocates (losers) during the recent election. The Palm Beach Post even said that if the bond had passed, taxpayers would have been looking at a 35% increase in taxes. With staggering unfunded pension obligations and debt, Lake Worth just keeps on spending and will be drawing $264,544 out of reserves (savings) in order to balance its budget for FY 2014/2015. The entire commission, with the exception of Amoroso, voted to accept the Budget. We continue to ask this commission to live within its means, but as usual, it does NOT listen.

Quote of the Day - Election desperation

"I'm not opposed to any particular candidate but I'm appalled by the concept of electing judges based on how much money they spend."

~ Melinda Gamot, attorney, speaking about the Palm Beach County Judicial race.

This same outrage can be felt about the City of Lake Worth's $50,000 of taxpayer money used by them to launch a campaign to win at the polls on August 26th. The city is desperate to grab $63,500,000.00 so that you will have to pay for it until year 2049. At the end of thirty years, you will be looking at the same potholes that will need fill.

The Pothole

Sinking to all time lows

"I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left."

~ Margaret Thatcher