Page 18 September 14 - September 20, 2012
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Council Amends Grille Decision To Remove Cocktail Lounge OK By Lauren Miró Town-Crier Staff Report In an attempt to clarify a decision made last month, the Grille Fashion Cuisine was subjected to additional conditions Tuesday in a move that Vice Mayor Howard Coates labeled “anti-competitive.” The change, clarified by Councilman John Greene, revokes the restaurant’s designation as a cocktail lounge and thereby requires it to comply with state requirements that 51 percent of its daily income be from food and not alcohol. The council split 3-2 on the change, with Coates and Councilwoman Anne Gerwig opposed. In August, the restaurant came before council requesting a conditional use permit to be labeled a cocktail lounge, as well as extended hours of operation. The designation would have allowed the restaurant to make 51 percent of its annual income from food, rather than the daily requirement imposed by the state. The village would have audited the restaurant to be sure they were in compliance. But Greene said that he believed
ITID
Many Angry Residents
continued from page 1 South Florida Water Management and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” Erickson said. “This was not your fault, but it will be your fault if you don’t take care of this.” Longtime community activist Patricia Curry said she has lived in the area for 32 years and had never seen such community-wide flooding. “A little blame needs to go all the way around,” Curry said. “I feel Indian Trail did not convey to the South Florida Water Management District how flooded we were. Royal Palm Beach roads were high and dry. I don’t know why we weren’t draining south.” Damone replied that she did not sleep Sunday, Monday or Tuesday after the storm because she was trying to communicate to every agency she could that the district was flooding. “Nobody recognized that we were flooded to the degree we were,” she said. “We were reaching out, begging for assistance.” Damone added that she believes The Acreage did not get the attention it deserved until Gov. Scott visited. “Help has been coming in since,” Damone said. “Ev-
Drainage
ALA Offers Presentation
continued from page 3 Royal Palm Beach was sold for development, most of the area’s drainage rights went with it. “The whole area of Indian Trail Ranches had one inch of outfall for everybody,” he said. “If you had a property, you were allowed to drain one inch of outfall in 24 hours.” This became problematic when it came to developing Royal Palm Beach, which has the lowest elevation in the area, Erickson said. “In order to develop Royal Palm, they needed more outfall,” he said. “So they said, ‘We’ll take the outfall from all these acres out here [in The Acreage]. They are swamps that are never going to be developed.’ So they took outfall from what is The Acreage today.” This gave Royal Palm Beach the drainage it needs, but left the area that became The Acreage with only one-fourth of an inch until 1998. In 1995, large storms flooded the area, prompting ITID to seek more drainage rights, Erickson said.
9/11
Ceremony At Patriot Memorial
continued from page 3 tragedy, the American spirit has
there was confusion over his motion, which he said was to grant the extended hours of operation, but not the cocktail lounge designation. In a letter to council members, Greene requested the item be put back on the agenda, but not open for public hearing. “The applicant has presented to council and the public has already been given the opportunity to comment,” he wrote. Greene said he wanted to amend his motion to clarify it, as well as remove the requirement that the village be able to audit the restaurant annually. Avery Chapman, attorney for the applicant, was ultimately given a chance to speak. He said that the change was unfair. He noted that other restaurants, such as the Players Club, have been given similar designations, and are allowed open later. “The restatement of the motion effectively eviscerates 50 percent of what we asked for,” he said. The change could affect the restaurant’s ability to stay operational, he cautioned. He noted that
the owners were pro-active in seeking out a designation so to avoid problems. “I think you need to give us our [designation] so we don’t have problems in Tallahassee,” Chapman said. “We don’t control what people buy. If we have problems in Tallahassee, they could strip us of our license and we could close which, and I don’t say this to be confrontational, will be your fault.” Owner Juan Gando told council members in August that the conditional use would be necessary to operate under the state’s license — which cost $80,000 — and to be competitive with restaurants like the Players Club, which are open later. Chapman called on Greene to recuse himself from the decision due to his relationship with Players Club owner Neil Hirsch. “Given the stated relationship, and given past recusals, I urge you… to recuse yourself,” Chapman said. “I think that it offers the appearance of impropriety.” Greene admitted that he has been a friend of Hirsch for 30 years, but said that he does not stand to
gain financially from the relationship. “Our relationship is not business related,” he said. “I have consulted with our attorney and sought outside opinions. There is nothing in anyone’s opinion that poses a conflict. I have no intent of recusing myself.” Coates said that when he seconded Greene’s motion in August, he believed he was granting the Grille a cocktail lounge designation. “I thought it would be the same thing we did with the Players Club,” he said. “If that wasn’t the motion, there would have been no reason for the village to require that we audit the food and beverage sales.” Greene said he tacked on the requirement because it came from the Planning, Zoning & Adjustment Board. Coates said he felt that Wellington would be giving a competitive advantage to the Players Club if they didn’t grant the cocktail lounge designation to the Grille. But Greene said there was no reason to compare the two. “It’s
like comparing apples to oranges,” he said. “Where the Players Club is located and where other restaurants are located is very different than the [area] that the Grille is located in.” Coates disagreed. “To suggest that there is any meaningful difference between the commercial and the competitive environment of the Players Club and the Grille
ery single one of us was requesting assistance.” Robert Stevens of the neighboring Deer Run community asserted that water was flowing into his community from Indian Trail. Stevens, who has served on Deer Run’s property owners’ association board for 15 years, said that during previous floods, water was coming in from Lion Country Safari and Palm Beach Aggregates, but this time, it was from TheAcreage. “This storm really flooded us,” he said. “We had swamp buggies rescuing horses. Water coming in from Indian Trail kept us flooded for 14 days. This needs to be addressed.” Damone encouraged Stevens to come to a workshop Tuesday, Sept 18 from 5 to 7 p.m. to discuss the issue further. Resident Sue Davie-Kunda said drainage should be based on need not on contracts. “If we’re flooded with three feet, we should be given priority,” she said. “It should not be based on who signed what contracts.” Resident Diana Demarest urged more cooperation between ITID and the county. “The county was clueless as to our condition,” she said. “I tried to give out as much credible information as possible.” Demarest said she called the county’s emergency operations
center to get supplies out to people stranded in their homes. “Her response was, “Aren’t you aware we have a pavilion at Acreage Community Park?’ My response was, ‘Aren’t you aware we need a sailboat to get out?” she recalled. Demarest said she relied on Todd Bonlarron, the county’s intergovernmental coordinator, to coordinate relief efforts with ITID. “I told Todd we need to get the food to the people,” she said, noting that emergency responders did not become available until the Wednesday after the storm. Sandra Love-Semande, a former ITID employee and supervisor, said she had never seen this type of flooding. “It’s a little ridiculous to only have a quarter-inch a day discharge,” she said. “I really want Acreage residents to stay on top of this. I don’t want to come to another meeting to get answers. It’s the same old status quo, and I’m getting tired of it.” Love-Semande also questioned why the Corbett area is allowed to keep the water level dangerously high. “I know there have been talks and letters and meetings,” she said. “Someone needs to step up to the plate here.” Damone said the board has written numerous letters to the state that Corbett is holding water levels too high. “We have been recording those levels in Corbett for a reason,” she said. “There is a
water level issue in Corbett.” Damone said that although she did not agree with everything that had been said that evening, she understood everyone’s anger and frustration. “Now is the time to move forward,” she said. “We need to unite together for additional discharge.” Damone passed out a draft resolution to board members pledging that the board would work with other agencies, including the SFWMD and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, to address long-term solutions. Supervisor Carol Jacobs made a motion to approve the resolution, which carried 5-0. Supervisor Carlos Enriquez made a motion to delay construction of the community center until the board figures out what to do about infrastructure improvements. That motion also carried unanimously. Damone also asked that resolutions be written thanking numerous agencies and property owners that allowed ITID emergency drainage onto their property or through their canals during the flood’s aftermath, including Royal Palm Beach, the SFWMD, the School District of Palm Beach County, GL Homes and CalleryJudge Grove. Jacobs made a motion to have those resolutions written, which carried 5-0.
LGWCD
“In 1998, the district engineer revised the existing permit [with the South Florida Water Management District] and got us some of the conditional outfall,” he said. “It took us from 1995 to 1998 to get the permit adjusted, and there have been no adjustments to that permit since.” When The Acreage was developed, it was done in a way to help drain the area, Erickson noted. Excess water is meant to flow out of the yards and into the canal system, which is made up of both the small canals that are often found at the end of dirt roads as well as the larger canals that run throughout the area. “The water drains into our swale and, from there, makes it to some secondary canals,” he said. “From there, it gets into the larger canals and then falls out to the community where it becomes another agency’s responsibility.” Some water has to collect in the yards, he said, because most of the homes use well water. “The water percolates down into the soil and back into the water table,” he said. “We need to replenish those wells.” In The Acreage, Erickson said that the lowest-lying area is south of Orange Blvd. and west of Roy-
al Palm Beach Blvd. “That area was hit the hardest,” he said. “If it weren’t for the canals, they would have actually had trapped water. Though they were pumping water to try and get it down, it didn’t look like the water was moving from the lowest elevation.” Using maps and graphs, Erickson showed the area’s drainage system, which flows either out west, or north and south through the M-1 canal. “There’s a whole balancing act,” he explained. “The M-1 impoundment pumps 500,000 gallons per minute. But the pump stations can only be turned on when there is capacity in the upper basin of the M-1 Canal.” He explained that if the canal is overflowing, pumping more water in will “just be passing water back and forth.” But the SWFMD’s strict environmental standards for water flowing into the Everglades can pose a problem, he said. “The pumps work, the water flows, but they don’t meet the 10 parts per million phosphates, so it’s not considered operational,” he explained. Erickson said that the SFWMD’s priorities have shifted over the years from flood control
to enforcing environmental standards. “Environmentalists have taken over, and any flood control issues have moved to the bottom,” he said. Another issue, he said, is with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who designated a crucial reservoir as a wetlands, further hindering drainage capabilities in the area. “I don’t think they should be able to come in here and say, ‘Oh you made it so nice that it’s a wetlands now,’” he said. “There are two culprits here, if you ask me.” Erickson encouraged the community to get involved and urge ITID to make whatever improvements it can, as well as put pressure on other agencies to prevent flooding in the future. “We need to get people to show up and put pressure so we get the proper outfall permit,” he said. He added, however, that it will take the community actually coming out and putting pressure on officials to solve the problem. “Will the community wake up, or will it bury its head again when the issue is not in its face?” he asked. “We can have 1,200 people screaming on Facebook, but they don’t come out for the real answers and solutions.”
endured. “Today we are able to put aside our differences and remember that we are Americans,” he said. “We will come together, and our resolve will never be broken. A senseless act of terror… doesn’t change who we are.” Councilman Matt Willhite, who spearheaded the Patriot Memorial
project, said he was glad to have a special place for residents to gather and remember those lost. “This piece of steel only represents one aspect of that terrible day,” he said. “There were the lives lost in Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon. We’re here to remember every life that was lost that
day. As a country, and as a community, we come together to remember.” By commemorating the day, Willhite said, those lives were not lost in vain. “It’s the spirit inside each one of you that reminds us of who they were and carries their legacy on,” he said.
Mayor Bob Margolis welcomes the crowd.
Councilwoman Anne Gerwig recalls the events of 9/11.
Wellington officials salute the flag as Wellington Idol winner Cara Young sings.
PHOTOS BY LAUREN MIRÓ/TOWN-CRIER
Attorney
In-House?
continued from page 1 owe it to the residents to see what else is out there,” he said. “I’ve always believed a municipality our size needs to have an in-house counsel. I think the time is right to do it now.” Rather than putting the burden on staff to evaluate the matter, Willhite suggested hiring a consulting company to evaluate information and make a recommendation to council. Gerwig said that it would just be doing studies on top of studies. “To me it seems like we don’t
Line Of Credit
continued from page 1 annual fee to carry the line of credit, although it had not charged a fee at all prior to that. However, BankUnited proposed an annual fee of $4,000, which is 1 percent of the credit line amount. He also asked SunTrust Bank if it would be willing to reduce the annual renewal fee from $2,000 to $1,000, and it agreed. The current emergency line of credit agreement expires Sept. 23. Ryan made a motion to approve Suncoast’s fee of $1,000. “The fee is one quarter of 1 percent,” Ryan said. “That’s a very reasonable fee. For the benefit of having a $400,000 line of credit that’s secured against FEMA and other agencies, it is reasonable to have each year. I’d feel much more comfortable having this to rely on rather than dollars we have in the bank we may need for other purposes.” Supervisor Don Widing agreed, saying he had just gone through a similar process at his job trying to get coverage. “We’re at the peak of hurricane season right now,” Widing said. “I recommend we approve this.” The motion carried 5-0. • The board also approved a referendum process for stabilization of North B Road with OGEM. In May, the district received a petition from the property owners who access their property from B Road between the intersections of Okeechobee Blvd. and North Road, requesting that the board improve the road following the procedures set forth in the district’s enabling legislation for the other OGEM paving projects recently completed by the district. The district has estimated the costs for stabilizing the section of B Road will be a total of $668,942. The acres benefiting from improvements are estimated to be 748, which would give an estimated cost per acre of $895. The estimated annual cost per acre, if financed over 10 years, would be $108, assuming an interest rate of 4 percent annually. A workshop has been set for Saturday, Oct. 22 at 7:30 p.m. to explain the process to the property owners. Ryan made a motion to approve the process, which carried 5-0. • The board also decided to hire
Blotter continued from page 6 deputy was able to retrieve fingerprints and a DNA sample from the vehicle. Video surveillance footage was available, but there were no suspects at the time of the report. SEPT. 9 — A Royal Palm Beach woman was arrested last Sunday afternoon on charges of theft after she was observed stealing cash from JCPenney. According to a PBSO report, a deputy from the Wellington substation responded to the Mall at Wellington Green after 53-year-old Cheryl Veneziano, an employee of the store, was observed stealing $50 cash from the cash register. Veneziano was arrested and charged with theft. SEPT. 9 — A resident of Collecting Canal Road called the PBSO’s Acreage/Loxahatchee substation last Sunday morning to report an act of vandalism. According to a PBSO report, at approximately 2:30 a.m., the victim heard a loud noise outside his property and later observed that approximately 40 feet of his wooden fence had been damaged. The victim said he believed a tractor caused the damage. According to the report, the victim then discovered that another 10-foot section of his fence had also been damaged in a similar manner. Accord-
is disingenuous,” he said. He noted that the Players Club already benefits from having later hours of operation. “I cannot come up with a justifiable reason why we would treat one business different than another,” Coates said. But the majority disagreed, and Greene’s motion carried 3-2 with Coates and Gerwig opposed. want to have the responsibility of this choice,” she said. But Margolis disagreed, pointing out that Wellington used a similar method to decide whether it should have its own police force. Willhite made a motion to draft a request for a consultant. The motion carried 4-1 with Gerwig opposed. “I don’t see any harm in exploring what our options are,” Greene said. “For me, this is not about making a change. It may be complete validation that the system we have in place is the best system. I just think we have a financial obligation to the tax payers to look at what our options are.”
a new contractor to control vegetation growth after flooding during Tropical Storm Isaac was complicated by excessive vegetation. Saunier said the spray used by the current contractor, DGC Environmental Services, proved to be inadequate and recommended the contract be terminated. Saunier said his staff had attempted to work with the contractor about insufficient service for the past several months. Two site reviews were conducted with the owner where excessive vegetation growth was identified for immediate action. The contractor responded each time with additional manpower to spray the overgrown vegetation, but the chemical treatment proved to be inadequate. Saunier recommended that the contract with DGC be terminated for default, provided that the contractor would be given 30 days written notice specifying the default and would have the opportunity to correct the problem within that time. Saunier also recommended that the district’s procurement and contracting policy requirements for soliciting new aquatic vegetation control bids be waived and a new agreement with the previously advertised RFP’s second lowest bidder, DeAngelo Brothers/ Aquagenix Inc., be executed contingent upon DGC Environmental Services’ termination. Saunier recommended waiving the bid process due to the critical, immediate need for the district to secure an aquatic vegetation control contractor during the hurricane season. DeAngelo was the provider for many years prior to the current contractor. Supervisor Don Widing made a motion to approve the termination process, and it carried 5-0. • The board also decided to hold a workshop to iron out terms of a new contract with Saunier, whose current contract expires in November. Saunier has been administrator for 14 years and was hired at a time of instability in the district. The contract offered Saunier many benefits, including a separation package that assured supervisors would not terminate him for frivolous reasons. The workshop was set for Monday, Sept. 24 at 7 p.m. Several supervisors said they might favor offering Saunier the same benefits package as other employees, and set a salary range. ing to the report, the victim’s wife also heard the noise and went outside to find a large yellow frontend loader tractor followed by a white Chevy pickup truck traveling south on A Road. She said she did not observe either vehicle causing damage to the fence. According to the report, the deputy observed large tire tracks, consistent with a tractor, along the fence line near the damaged areas. The deputy followed the tire tracks to a gated private property. According to the report, the deputy was unable to make contact with the homeowners and could not see if there was a tractor on the property. The damage was estimated at $300. There was no further information available at the time of the report. SEPT. 10 — A deputy from the PBSO substation in Royal Palm Beach was dispatched Monday morning to a car dealership on Southern Blvd. regarding a vehicle burglary. According to a PBSO report, sometime between 3:30 p.m. last Sunday and 11:30 a.m. the following morning, someone entered an unlocked truck and removed a navigation system along with the interior dash panels. The stolen items were valued at approximately $2,900. There were no suspects or witnesses available at the time of the report.