The Town-Crier
WWW. GOTOWNCRIER. COM
July 5 - July 11, 2013 Page 3
NEWS
Wellington Council OKs Daycare Center At Charter School On SR 7 By Lauren Miró Town-Crier Staff Report The planned Wellington Charter School will also include a daycare center after members of the Wellington Village Council approved a resolution last week to allow the project’s daycare component. At the June 25 meeting, Growth Management Director Tim Stillings noted that the daycare facility is part of the larger, 1,200-student school for kindergarteners through eighth-graders. While the school will encompass 75,000 square feet, the proposed daycare would be 15,000 square feet. “The daycare originally was proposed with 200 children,” Stillings said. “Tonight’s approval would increase that to 228 children.” Though traffic was a key issue for many council members, Stillings said that the proposed circu-
lation plan for the site includes provision for the daycare. “We believe [the plan] will adequately deal with site circulation and ensure that there is no stacking onto State Road 7,” he said. Another change to the proposal will have the applicant pay the cost upfront of a crucial traffic light at SR 7 and Palomino Drive, Stillings said. “They will pay the full amount of the light,” he said. “Wellington will reimburse them $141,000 when it’s received from the other parties.” Though two other property owners are on the hook to pay for a portion of the light, Wellington Charter School owners offered to front the cost of the light to get the project underway in time for the 2013-14 school year. Councilman Matt Willhite said the traffic light would alleviate many of his safety concerns. “That concern goes back to
when the county approved the development that is on Palomino,” he said. “I think the traffic light should have gone in then. It didn’t, and that’s why we’re in the position we are in today. But I think we are in a good place now.” Willhite also commended the applicant for working to alleviate traffic problems. “That was my very first concern,” he said. “I’m very happy to see that the applicant has put everything aside, including financial support, to make sure this traffic light comes forward.” He said he is glad to see something being built on the property that will bring value to the community. “This is the third project I’ve voted for on that property, and I’ve never seen something come to fruition,” he said. “I’m so excited that the applicant is committed 100 percent to building this school and the amenities that go with it that
they’re willing to put up the funding to get this done.” Vice Mayor Howard Coates asked why the daycare center was increasing from 200 students to 228 students. “Will that have an impact on traffic issues?” he asked. Agent for the applicant John Schmidt said that the difference is because of the way age groups are divided among staff. “It was an error on our part, but 228 students is the best number that works with the mix of teachers in the daycare,” Schmidt said. “The traffic impacts are based on the square footage of the daycare, not the number of [children] within the daycare.” Councilman John Greene asked Wellington staff to work with the county to get the traffic signal installed. “It’s critical that the light is installed prior to the [next] school year,” he said. “I’ve expressed some concern in the past about
who is paying for it and who isn’t paying their fair share, so I thank [the applicant] for stepping up. It was essential, from a public safety standpoint.” Willhite made a motion to approve the resolution with the amendments, which passed unanimously. In other business, council members directed staff to include $51,000 in the upcoming budget for the Wellington Seniors Club. Wellington has provided money to the club for many years, Director of Operations Jim Barnes said. “The funds would be subject to availability,” he told the council. “You will have the opportunity to give final approval during budget hearings.” Greene asked whether the proposed amount was in line with the budget. Barnes said that council had to direct staff to include the financing. “[The club] requests it early so
we can factor it into the budget,” he said. Willhite asked whether the approval needed to mention that the funds were pending approval during the budget. Village Manager Paul Schofield said that was not necessary. “I just need direction from [the] council to put it in the budget,” he said. “This is the same amount we’ve been funding for as long as I can remember. This is one of those things that we do for our seniors.” Coates said he supports adding the money into the budget for discussion purposes but didn’t want anyone mistaking it for a guarantee. “Without seeing what the whole budget is going to be, it’s hard for me to say definitely that this will survive the process,” he said. He made a motion to direct staff to include the funds, which passed unanimously.
County Residents Might Have To Pay Entire Cost Of Paving Projects By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report The Palm Beach County Commission gave preliminary approval Tuesday to an ordinance that would make people living on private roads who want paving to pay 100 percent of the cost. The ordinance would amend the county’s municipal service tax unit (MSTU) ordinance to allow for assessments and collections from affected residents at 100 percent of the total cost of improvements, with certain exemptions, as opposed to 50 percent previously. During public comment, Andy Schaller commented that he had been trying to get improvements on his unpaved road for about five years and was still waiting. Schaller’s property is in Palm Beach Ranchettes, a community on the east side of State Road 7 north of Lake Worth Road where Lyons Road passes through. County Engineer George Webb said his department was still designing Lyons Road, which will tie in with the roads in Palm Beach Ranchettes, and had run into delays with roundabout design and other issues. Commissioner Jess Santamaria asked what the legal responsibility of the county was to maintain
roads that are fully or partially private, and County Engineer George Webb said the county has responsibility in Palm Beach Ranchettes, which has a paving project underway and regularly grades the unpaved roads. “We will be maintaining, and it is our responsibility for any paved road that currently exists within the boundaries of the Ranchettes,” Webb said, explaining that there are several miles of paved road there already that have been installed under the MSTU program. Santamaria said the MSTU program is designed to assist community improvements, but asked, “Prior to the MSTU program, there is no legal responsibility of government, is there?” “That’s right,” Webb said. “That’s how we interpret it. We have many, many roads in the unincorporated areas of Palm Beach County that Palm Beach County never accepted for maintenance. They’re open for the public to drive on just by legal dedications in the past.” Santamaria pointed out that there have been two requests from residents on private roads in the Loxahatchee area for intervention by the county, which it refused on the grounds that it had no responsibility on those properties.
Webb said there is a large segment of property in the central area of the county that has flooding and road maintenance issues for which the county takes no responsibility. “In a way, it is a selective process when we decide to apply the MSTU program to assist a community that may have some problems or just a request for paving,” Santamaria said. “It’s not really a right, but an extension
of assistance to apply the MSTU program.” Webb agreed that it is a policy call resting with the commissioners. Assistant County Attorney Marlene Everitt distinguished between private roads, such as those in a gated community where the roads are truly private and there is no governmental interest to maintain the roads, and roads in the
county that are private but perhaps owned to the center line by the property owners. “The county has no responsibility to maintain those, but they are open to the public, and as a result of that, the statute is that the county has jurisdiction if it chooses,” Everitt said. “So part of the assessment process is that the property owners have to give up a private right they have to those
roads, and that is a condition of moving forward with any improvement. Those are the type roads that are included in our MSTU program. Once that’s determined as policy by the board, which ones are eligible, then they turn those roads over to the county and they become county government roads, and they are maintained.” Everitt emphasized that the See PAVING, page 14
County Approves New Road Striping Contract By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report For anyone having trouble making out the lane lines on Palm Beach County roads lately, you probably don’t need an eye checkup. The problem is that the county has fallen behind on scheduled lane marking. On Tuesday, the Palm Beach County Commission approved a $4.5 million road pavement marking contract that is anticipated to help bring many neglected county streets back up to par, but still will continue a pattern of too little financing for striping maintenance. “We were very fortunate over the last 10 years to do a lot of road
widening and improvement projects, so with that came new striping,” County Engineer George Webb told the Town-Crier on Monday. “We also were able to keep our striping budget to handle the roads that weren’t being redone, but our new road-building and widening projects have dropped down.” Striping lasts typically for about 10 years, depending on the amount of traffic on a road, Webb said. “The road striping budget, because of other budget pressures, has not kept up with the need,” he said. “We are substantially behind now as far as where we would have liked to have gotten out there with
our new, refreshed striping. We did what we did, and we try to make do.” Webb said the striping has gotten progressively worse over the past five years because the striping budget has not increased. “If I looked five years ago, it’s about what it was then, yet more lane miles and more markings have reached the end of their, for lack of better term, useful life,” Webb said. He said the lack of maintenance is becoming more noticeable. “I was riding down Belvedere east of State Road 7 in front of the Walmart,” Webb said. “We’re benefiting because we put in the raised reflective pavement markers.
They’re there, but the actual white stripes, it’s very hard to see them anymore.” The contract is with the sole bidder, Southwide Industries of West Palm Beach, not to exceed $4,470,000 to install pavement marking material along with raised, reflective pavement markers on an as-needed basis for various roadways throughout the county. Southwide’s bid was $3,415,773. The contract will include 1.9 million linear feet, or about 361 miles, of 6-inch white thermoplastic pavement marking compound lines at a cost of 55 cents per linear foot, and 1.26 million linear feet, about 238 miles, of 6-inch yellow marking at the same price.