Just throw them a bone

Displaced Haitians have to live under tarps

Haitians have been abused for an untold number of years—hundreds perhaps. Recently they have had to endure the worst natural disaster in this hemisphere, a 7.0 earthquake that killed over 200 thousand people and caused major damage to Port-au-Prince, Jacmel and other settlements.

36 large U.S. corporations pledged over $1 million each. The Red Cross raised $10 million plus with 15% of that money coming from U.S. corporations. The U.S. government pledged $100 million as a starter. Stars like Sandra Bullock gave $1 million. The Clinton/Bush Haiti Fund raised over $12 million. The list is endless when it comes to donations from all over the world.

So why then are the Haitian victims who are now homeless and own no possessions, have no means to work or buy one thing, are told that they can not have a tent to live in because they are too costly and too inefficient and then are handed a TARP?

This abuse of these people has gone on long enough.

CBS - Billboard Blight

Billboard blight next to our famous Lake Worth Tower

This past week, the City received the fully executed settlement agreement from William McCormick of Gray:Robinson, PA. who are now awaiting the acknowledgement of the inspection and approval schedule from the City in order to coordinate the City inspections with CBS personnel.

WHO ARE THEY KIDDING???????????????
HAVE WE RECEIVED ANY OF THE MONEY ?????????
Can we get rid of the Billboard Mafia hold on Lake Worth?

Pets in the Plaza

Comment Up
There were wonderful "pets" in our Cultural Plaza on Saturday that were looking for homes. There is so much animal abuse that it makes you sick. You don't even want to hear the horror stories that were told to me. The next time you see an animal that is abused, speak out; call the ASPCA or some other organization--call the police if you have to.

Also, it is against Palm Beach County law, as of 9-1-2003, to chain or tether your dog out doors between 10am and 5pm. If you see this, call 561-233-1200 ext 0 to report it.

Tiny size
I know I look silly wearing this fuzzy thing!

Medium size
Bulldog (my favorite)

Large size
Labrador

Humongous size
Great Dane 7' 8" that eats 40 lbs of food each month

The Political Solution - Build more

Comment Up

I-595

We don’t pay attention to what’s happening in the rest of the State. We have enough problems right here at home to gripe and worry about when it comes to over-development and sprawl. We do know that we are rapidly losing our quality of life in Florida.

We are now just a bundle of people living on top on each other. To solve that, developers just keep building in from the coasts and encroach on animal habitats and every square inch of land they can get their greedy little hands on. And the government is complicit and their answer to just about every woe we have in our State is to build—build anything anywhere. Create the jobs, get the growth, more money in the coffers.

Commissioner Golden recently said at the joint CRA meeting, that we should start fixing our roads before we worry about the rest. Usually government does just the opposite. One day it wakes up and says, Holy moly folks, we have a problem; let's build or widen another road. And this mindset continues; it is endless.

Developers have been allowed to come in with local municipal approval by changing Comprehensive plans and build large tracts of homes or commercial centers without considering the infrastructure. All of a sudden…boom…we have a traffic congestion problem or not enough roads to accommodate the population. How long has it taken to widen I-95 just here in Palm Beach County? It took seven years and nearly $400 million dollars and I still see barricades as I drive farther north. For years I hated to drive I-95.

What all this road construction does is buy us several years of reprieve all over our State because of the influx of people moving here and the never ending building in our State to accommodate the thousands of people migrating here. It is a constant game of catch-up and money that our State and the residents here can no longer afford.

Dr. Steve Rosen says about his neck of the woods-- "State goons are spending over a billion dollars to revamp Interstate I-595 that runs right in front of my business. When it first opened around 10 years ago, it was a nice drive. However, all it did was open West Broward County up to an explosion of development. Five years later, the road is clogged during rush hour.

So, the politicos came up with a solution: Use stimulus money and double deck the road-- widen the hell out of it too to accommodate the bulging traffic.

Why bother with all this? Simple. It opens the West end of the county up to even MORE burdensome unwanted development. I wonder how long, without Amendment 4, it would take before the road is once again maxed out.

This is the politico scumbag way. Too much traffic, widen the roads. They did this for years in Miami-Dead County. Now they can’t do it any more so what do they do, divide the road into toll and non-toll sections to suck even more money from us.

Amendment 4 is the only answer. These scum have run amok and are totally out of control."

LW Democratic Club Meeting

Well, this is a darned shame! It conflicts with top LW Democrat and Mayor Rene Varela's State of the City address. At least Pegasus has better food.

LAKE WORTH DEMOCRATIC CLUB
FEBRUARY 17 - NOTE DATE & LOCATION CHANGE

Meetings: 3rd Wednesdays monthly (instead of 2nd), 7:00 PM
New location: Pegasus Restaurant, 301 North Dixie Hwy, Lake Worth FL 33460, Tel (561) 588-4463

Contact: Drew Martin President, at 561-533-6814,
dmandch@aol.com

Website

Tower 1515 Implosion

The third largest implosion in U.S. history just took place on Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach. It took 6.5 seconds for this building to be reduced to rubble.

Hands in the Sand at Lake Worth Beach

Comment Up

Hands In The Sand
Estimated 300 - 350 people protesting oil drilling
off Florida coasts

Surfrider's booth near Benny's
Barbara JeanWeber under tent, Jeff Clemens to the right and
Dan Liftman, aide to Alcee Hastings, far right

Brendan Lynch in wet suit about to take on the waves

Awesome wave

Pelican Pete stopped by to watch the event

Nothing more needs to be said.

Rachel and Diana - a Film

My 2nd cousin, David Jannetta, who lives in Pennsylvania, is the executive producer of an independent film soon to be released, Rachel and Diana. He also wrote it. His girlfriend has the starring role.

He will be presenting it at the Tribeca Film Festival which was founded in 2002 by Robert DiNiro, Jane Rosenthal and Graig Hatkoff in response to the 911 attacks on the World Trade Center.

Take a look at the trailer.

Tower 1515 - Watch the Implosion on Valentine's Day

For all of you who just are bored shopping for the traditional heart shaped box of candy on Valentine’s Day, give your sweetie a thrill--you can always drive over and watch the implosion of Tower 1515 at 9am Sunday. What about renting a helicopter? I haven’t read anywhere that the waterway would be off limits only that you had to be 750 feet away, but that might be the problem. The event is expected to draw thousands of curiosity seekers who have been looking at this wreck of a building for 5 years now. Just a note--don't blink twice because the building will be down in 6.5 seconds!

Doug Wise, Construction Services Division for the City of West Palm Beach says, “There’s no facilities, there’s no bathrooms or anything like that. We can’t make it a public event.”

The final demise of Tower 1515 will be something to celebrate after all these years but honestly gals, wouldn't you rather have that box of candy?

Olympic Games

The 2010 Winter Games will be held February 12-28
and the Paralympic Winter Games will be held March 12-21
in the following Host Venue Cities:

• Vancouver
• Whistler
• Richmond

Hands in the Sand tomorrow

MESSAGE FROM SURFRIDERS--

STEP 1 Look for the SurfRider tent on the beach! Come to the beach at 12:00 PM for a beach cleanup, rain or shine.

STEP 2 At 1pm we will organize for the 1:30 pm event --we hold hands forming lines in the sand protesting against oil drilling in our coastal waters.

STEP 3 Leave only your footprints.

There will be an after party get together at Havana Hideout in downtown Lake Worth at 3pm. http://www.havanahideout.com for directions.

Havana Hideout After party details:
$2 homemade fresh local tacos
$2 Monk In The Trunk Organic beer donated by Inlet Brewing Company for event participants.

Come relax at 3pm and network to help forge a strong alliance for a sustainable future.

Another Garage Sale

Just too much going on this Saturday--but the South Florida Fair says--

Come join the fun, you never know what treasures you might find!

This Saturday, find unique items you can't just pick up at the mall: antiques, clothes, collectibles, furniture, kitchenware, linens, paintings, records, tools, toys, and much more...too much to mention!

ONE DAY ONLY FREE PARKING AIR CONDITIONED

Saturday: 8am-2pm
Ticket Price: $2.00
Expo West, Enter Gate 3 or 12.

The Americraft Expo Center at the South Florida Fairgrounds is located on Southern Boulevard, west of Florida's Turnpike, 1 mile east of SR7/441 in West Palm Beach. For more information, visit www.southfloridafair.com or call 561-793-0333.

Decadence on the Move in Lake Worth

Pain Clinics, the latest SCAM to hit the country, were recently banned in Palm Beach County. But where there's a will, there's a way. Lake Worth is the answer to their black little prayers as one recently opened on Dixie. Our zoning on Dixie Highway allows them to be here. It doesn’t matter that they will attract substance abusers and people trafficking in prescription drugs. What about Marijauna for medicinal purposes? Is that legal too?

Perhaps all those troubled kids that will be in that Group Home on Federal Highway can run over to the Pain Clinic and get some relief for their rotten little lives.

All this clinic will do is attract more deadbeats, more drug dealers and more criminals to Lake Worth. The first thing on the next City Commission Agenda should be to enact an Ordinance against this type of business.

Let's make our official State Animal a Developer

16 Florida Panthers killed by vehicles in 2009

The Federal government has pledged it would create jobs. That was the reason to get every man, woman, and child in debt at an amount of $40,000 each. They promised jobs in the Stimulus. What better way to get jobs than development? Let’s just develop anywhere possible.

Today they just screwed the State of Florida, not for the guy who wants a development job, but they just killed off our Florida panther by one simple word, “no.” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it would not designate habitat for the Florida panther feeling that the Endangered Species Act and the Recovery Plan is sufficient.

IT’S NOT!

The government just now killed off our Florida panther for good by protecting the developers at the expense of our Florida panther, now down to about 80 which are mostly cross-breeds with the Texas Puma. We have a designated State animal that we are NOT protecting. Let’s change our State animal to a Developer as it is apparent that this is the only animal that we do protect.

This is another reason to vote YES on Amendment 4.

Hotdog! - There is a Neighborhood Garage Sale

All sorts of goodies for sale - CHEAP!
Drive throughout the Lake Osborne Heights neighborhood
starting at 7am to 1pm today through Saturday and find some treasures.
A few years ago someone discovered a Highwaymen
painting worth $5,000 at a garage sale off of Lake Osborne Dr!
You just never know.

Have a HOTDOG --
@ 2121 Collier Ave starting at 10am Saturday

VisionQuest has a Vision

VisionQuest has a vision to locate in Lake Worth. Ya'll come, here. The word is out...come to Lake Worth---we take anyone and everyone.

A youth shelter wants to come here and locate on Federal Highway within 500 feet of residential homes and not only that, is asking for zoning and variance changes. We gave variances to Schlesinger at the Gulfstream, didn't we? Ah but then Mojito's didn't get one.

What are youth shelters? They are homes for manipulative and very troubled youth (I'm trying to be kind) --delinquents and some dangerous and uncontrollable kids between the ages of 13 and 18 usually. These are lost kids whose own families can’t control them. They are kids who have been involved in substance abuse, child abuse, domestic violence, have mental health issues and a lot of conflict and only God knows really what. Youth centers are the last resort before reform school or jails.

And we are even thinking about that in our city?

AT&T - Customer Service? Call India

It was like spinning on the AT&T logo ball-

Around 8:30 am, I called AT&T in order to find out why they have not billed me since November. I have a direct billing at Visa. I wanted to do the right thing and was worried that they were not getting paid. I have been holding and have been transferred from one department to another for 2 hours and am persevering just to see if I EVER GET SERVICE, which is AT&T’s claim to fame—service. They are even going to send me out an on-line Survey--can't wait!

Ooops, a rep just called. Sounds like India. He is the ONLY one who had an answer for me after being shuffled around to 8 phone numbers. Actually, the first number that I dialed was the correct one in the end. This has to be the WORST customer service experience ever! ATT is discontinuing its Worldnet Service and everything will be just simply AT&T.

The guy from India had the answer though. Maybe we should outsource everything afterall. In this country you belong to Unions and you don’t have to have answers; you don’t have to know your job; it is the big shuffle game all day long…no one can get fired…let the next guy handle it, who has no clue and the customer is still there scratching his head wondering how AT&T makes any money particularly when those union employees who are not satisfied with just a piece of the pie want it all.

March Elections - Why does Lake Worth always have to be different?

Comment Up

The next elections in Palm Beach County take place on March 9. This used to be Lake Worth’s election time until self-serving interests got in the way of good common sense, not to mention saving a ton of money. In fact, our present Commission did not even bother to heed the advice of Susan Bucher, Supervisor of Elections, who strongly suggested that our election be moved back to March because it was going to cost us if we didn't.

Atlantis, Boynton Beach, Briny Breezes, Cloud Lake, Delray Beach, Glen Ridge, Greenacres, Haverhill, Highland Beach, Juno Beach, Jupiter, Lake Clarke Shores, Lake Park, Lantana, Loxatcheee Groves, Manalapan, North Palm Beach, Pahokee, Palm Beach Gardens, Palm Beach Shores, Palm Springs, Riviera Beach, Royal Palm Beach, South Bay, South Palm Beach, Tequesta, Wellington and West Palm Beach. Whew. That is a long list. Did you count them up? No Lake Worth there!

This was a BIG mistake of a past commission that was spearheaded by Commissioner Nadine Burns and voted on by Dave Vespo and Retha Lowe (the 3 to 2 again). They had it go to a referendum to give it the appearance that it was something the people wanted knowing all along that it would most likely be an easy sell for their objective--keeping Jeff Clemens in office 8 months longer. This Commission could have changed all of that when it had an opportunity on January 5, 2010 to go back to March elections.

Instead, Cara Jennings made a motion to table it to “time uncertain” and Varela, Maxwell and Mulvehill voted with her. Her thinking, that was stated to the public and an opinion that no one fully believed, was that the people should vote on it rather than it being done by Ordinance. If that were the case, then the people should have voted on our beach before we took the $5mil bond money to redesign parking lots--a really stupid waste of money...thanks to the greener than green commissioners, Rene and Cara.

Jo-Ann Golden was the only Commissioner who voted to move our elections back to March and the only one fully focused on the issue for all the reasons that make March the best choice.

Why does Lake Worth ALWAYS have to be different? Why do some of its decisions ALWAYS cost us money? It should never have been moved to begin with but this is true of so many past decisions from previous Commissions that got us into horrible, financial messes with water contracts, Greater Bay, etc. as well as others that didn't cost much other than a lot of time like the Sunset parcel.

And now this Commission cowered in fear to right the wrong...and did I say that self-serving interests got in the way?

1000 Lake Avenue

Comment Up

Real estate prices have just about bottomed out. Even the biggest idiot who was ever conceived would take advantage of this market if they had the opportunity. The Lake Worth CRA has a unique opportunity and now is the time to buy while conditions are in our favor.

In so many ways, real estate is local. Our City is on the path to upgrading our beach and casino property. We just finished the Pier. Bryant Park is getting an over-haul and our golf course is still the most magnificent piece of property. Businesses are moving into Lake Worth once again and taking a chance on us. The CRA still wants to continue with the Cultural Renaissance and recently encouraged the Palm Beach Cultural Council to locate in our downtown. And don't forget the $23 mil NSP2 Grant.

Why wouldn’t we want to seize this opportunity on 1000 Lake Avenue? Originally this building sold for $1,760,000 in January 2005. It is now appraised at $1,122,714 and we all know that the appraised value is always much lower than the real value. The owners of the building, 1000 Lake Avenue LLC are willing to sell it to us for $850,000 over four years, literally financing it for us. On top of that, they will continue to pay the real estate taxes during these four years which amounts to around $30,000 a year. It will be owned by the CRA in four years—free and clear!

Once the building is renovated, we will have a fabulous property directly across the street from City Hall. This is the same area and the beginning of what is destined to be a city center development down the pike. The CRA can move its office there, rent out the rest of the space at favorable commercial rents (if there is some problem in finding lessees) in order to get it occupied during our economic downturn and rent out the upstairs for special meetings. Once the economy turns around, and it will, rents will go up accordingly. They could even rent space to the City of Lake Worth that has a need for more space and a city commission that has managed to give-away city buildings for peanuts.

During the renovation, the CRA will market the property and attract commercial interest. If every tenant built out his own space, and paid his own share of property taxes, insurance, etc., we would have a building paying for itself.

I hate to see a “steal” pass through our finger tips, one that would be a valuable community asset, because we are afraid of taking a chance on the future. If you believe in Lake Worth at all, there is no other decision to make.

Hands in the Sand this Saturday at 1pm

This Saturday, starting at 1 pm, there will be a Hands In the Sand demonstration at Lake Worth Beach. Although this conflicts with the all day meeting at City Hall to hear the architect's presentations for our Casino as well as ROLOH's neighborhood-wide garage sale., we hope a lot of you find the time to join hands in solidarity at our Lake Worth Beach.

The Sierra Club says--

Big Oil is pressuring our Florida legislators and the U.S. Senate to open Florida's state and federal waters to oil rigs just 3 miles off our shores.

Even with the most advanced technology, spills and accidents can and do happen. With Florida now poised to build America's 1st high speed train, there's NO reason to put our beaches, marine ecosystem, $62 billion tourism economy and way of life at risk!

Next Saturday, February 13th, join hands with other Floridians and unite to show our decision makers that our state is against oil drilling off our shores.

Here are the details:

WHO: You, your friends, and family along with 1,000s of other Floridians across the state.

WHAT: Folks from across our state will gather at their local beach to join hands forming lines in the sand against oil drilling in our coastal waters. Wherever you are, you can join hands around the state to protect Florida's coastline.

WHEN: Saturday, February 13, 1:00 pm EST/12:00 pm CST

WHERE: Dozens of beaches all over the state, both the Gulf & Atlantic Coasts. Click here for all the locations.

RSVP: http://action.sierraclub.org/HandsAcrosstheSand We'll send a free "Don't Drill Our Coasts" bumper sticker to everyone that RSVPs.

QUESTIONS: Phil Compton, phil.compton@sierraclub.org

Hope to see you there!

Phil Compton
Sierra Club
St. Petersburg, FL