Lake Worth Casino and our Beach

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Soon, we will no longer have to look at "ugly"

Other than a few bad decisions from a few of our Commissioners from time to time (Bryant Park comes to mind) and that I will continue to talk about from time to time, I believe that this Commission will go down as the best that Lake Worth has had in some time. I can’t blame this entire commission on the decision to eliminate all those parking spaces at the upper dune that will inconvenience many and would have brought in a lot of revenue. It was just some that forced their green agenda on all the rest of us. Mayor Varela brought this Plan to the City.

And now a few of those very same people have now gone back to the Greater Bay Plan of eliminating parking (248 total upper level spaces in existence today--GB's plan was to eliminate all but 59 spaces making that a 76% reduction in the total upper level convenient parking for the public) (the new site plan eliminates all but approx 84 spaces). They think a commercial zoning is A-ok when this is a Park. Click on this Video from Lake Worth Media to see what we were petitioning for back then and the very short memories of some of our Commissioners now. We the people were not listened to nor were we respected. The irony now is that they all want a charrette to gather public input on the design of our Casino.

I really believe that people, when they find out that 1) they can’t even see the ocean when they drive up to our beach any longer and 2) that there is limited parking at the upper dune, will be disgusted. These two aspects alone are what make our beach the most unique and the most special anywhere.

Years ago when Joe Egly was a Commissioner, the Commission decided to move the parking at the upper dune to the other side of the street and people were very upset. They no longer could drive up there, sit in their car and look at the sea.They were forced to get out of their vehicles and walk across the road. To this day I try to avoid parking there—you can not see cars while backing out and it is a dangerous situation. Sometimes good intentions make no sense just like thinking a bush is more important than a person’s convenience or for that matter, income to the City.

We now have before us our Casino restoration and choosing the architect. This is going to be the most difficult decision this Commission will ever have to make...but in another sense, it will be the easiest. Every single one of the finalists is highly qualified and four of the six have my vision on the design. No one in the world will say, “Oh, let’s go to the Lake Worth beach and look at their groovy art-deco green building.” What they will say, however, is” Let’s go to the Lake Worth Beach as they have a Casino restored to the 1920’s splendor and it is out of this world.”

It all boils down to, “Who do you trust?” and who do you feel has the most experience in bringing our building "home?" I trust these architects--just not too sure about politicians. These are the three that I like and they might very well end up in the top three--

BRPH
I have liked this company ever since they submitted a drawing over two years ago. This company has tons of enthusiasm for this project. They understand what we want. It is a company that does not have to sub out—they have a professional staff that is all inclusive. They have told us that “they have left their egos at the door.” They are therefore, flexible and will listen to public input. They have told us that they will even hire the other 5 firms for professional input and that they will give us a 20% discount. Their virtual rendering of their Plan was fabulous and this time it showed trees. Click HERE (and then scroll down) to see their original rendering.

REG
I only got to hear ten minutes of Rick Gonzales’ presentation on Saturday but I trust him. I did hear him at this first presentation and I was told that he was even better on Saturday and that his design had changed and was improved upon. He is an expert in what he does and is highly well-known and is respected in the industry. He has a wonderful design; he has what it takes in every way and he would be a great choice. His integrity is beyond reproach.

Beilinson-Gomez
This firm has a unique design of combining the 1949 look with the 1922 look. This is very attractive and they say in order to have the chance of getting a National historical designation, this is what needs to be done. They went that one extra step by getting an opinion from the State of Florida, Division of Historical resources, that says, "In re-evaluating the eligibility of the 1949 building, it is the opinion of this office that the historical significance of the 1949 building must be taken into account." I think this is the one factor that will clinch the deal for Beilinson. Mr. Beilinson says he is normally a stoic person but he has lots of enthusiasm for our Casino. Beilinson-Gomez can be trusted and has high ideals with plenty of experience on coastal buildings.

Unfortunately, due to another commitment, I did not get a chance to hear the morning presenters although I did listen to Song and Associates on the Internet for a short while. I did hear many of them several weeks ago. I want to recognize some of the citizens that were there for the most part if not the entire day--Dee and Laurence McNamara, Wes Blackman, Laurel Decker, a new member of the Financial Advisory Board who probably was thinking about cost and how we were going to pay for all of this, M/M James Walker, Lorraine Bowe, Barry Freedman, Wendy Yarbrough, Beth Felti, Jack Simons and many of our City staff.

There is no guarantee that we will even get a federal historical designation and there is little Grant money available. We should not be building this building based on receiving any grant money. A national historical designation, however, will give the building a lot of prestige and national recognition and it is something that will never be taken away. It is our history that we are trying to preserve.

Also, I do not want to see a charrette process slow this project down as there will be hundreds of opinions; there always are. We have only been talking about this since 2004. Where was the public a few weeks ago? Where were they on Saturday? Have they not been listening to the people? Does the Commission not understand what the people have said? Do they not know why we petitioned and why there were law suits? How much longer do we have to talk about this? A lot of people would disagree with me on this, even some of my closest associates, but let us not prolong the charrette. Also, let us not get boggled down with "green" or Staff with their constant delays. If we pick an architect, let’s move with the design and only adjust if it goes above budget.

Due to lack of building maintenance over decades by the City, we are forced to re-build it at a cost of $6 to $10 million. Hopefully the finance plan will be worked out soon and we can go out on a Revenue Bond. Tuesday will be the first step to having the most magnificent looking building in years and the envy of every coastal town on the east coast of the United States.

Lake Worth deserves it.

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