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April 15 - April 21, 2011
The Town-Crier
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OUR OPINION
Easter, Passover & Earth Day: Holidays Share Common Themes This upcoming week marks the Jewish holiday of Passover and the Christian observance of Easter. Though differing in practice and custom, both share the central themes of redemption, rebirth and renewal, as well as hope for the future. With that in mind, it’s only appropriate that in the middle of the two celebrations is Earth Day, which will be observed Friday, April 22. Like Easter and Passover, Earth Day is about renewal and hope for the future. However, whereas the religious celebrations are steeped in tradition and timehonored rituals, there are many ways to celebrate Earth Day. Not everyone will spend the day outside planting trees or picking up litter, and that’s OK. If nothing else, though, people should take an honest look at themselves and how wasteful they are on a daily basis. How many unnecessary trips in the car do you make? How many lights really need to be on in the house? Is it really necessary to get a shopping bag for a single item? Do you really need to drink water from a bottle? Why not at least buy bigger bottles? These are small steps anyone can take to become better environmental stewards. Not only is cutting down on consumption good for the planet, but it will save you money, too. This is true on a larger scale as well, as many agencies and businesses have discovered. As belts continue to tighten across all levels of government, green technology has helped save money through the constructing of buildings that are LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certified, such as the new county branch library under construction in The Acreage. It will be the first LEED-certified county building, and its design will provide the county savings on operating costs. The use of hybrid and electric automobiles — such as the new ZapVan Shuttle in Wellington — will also
help governments reduce their carbon footprint while sidestepping the rising gas prices. While some are reluctant to change, there’s no excuse for being lazy or careless when it comes to the environment. Earth Day is about being conscientious and realizing that all of our actions have consequences. And besides, it’s not even about us. It’s about our grandchildren and their grandchildren — and so on. It is absolutely crucial that we teach children the importance of environmental responsibility, instilling this knowledge at a young age so they don’t grow up with the same wasteful habits many adults can’t seem to kick. They are the future and — as with Easter and Passover — we’d like to think there is hope. But as long as we’re still talking about “going green” and not “gone green,” then there is much progress to be made. To get more directly involved in cleaning up the earth, several groups throughout the western communities will take part in the Great American Cleanup this Saturday morning. In Wellington, volunteers will participate in cleanups from 9 a.m. to noon on property between 50th Street South and Lake Worth Road and in the Folkstone neighborhood. Royal Palm Beach volunteers will meet at the RPB Recreation Center to clean up village roads, parks and rights-of-way. Volunteers in The Acreage will meet at 8 a.m. behind Walgreens at the southeast corner of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road and Orange Blvd. to clean a portion of Seminole Pratt. In Loxahatchee Groves, one group will meet at 8 a.m. on the sidewalk on Okeechobee Blvd. north of Loxahatchee Groves Elementary School, while another will convene at Loxahatchee Groves Park at 8 a.m. Learn more at www. keeppbcbeautiful.org.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Kudos To RPB’s Valuntas I suppose I’m not the only one who is disappointed with the elected officials in the Village of Royal Palm Beach. Imagine, since 2001, our village has either not noticed, was not interested or “too busy” to question the levying authority of the Indian Trail Improvement District. The lawyer representing Indian Trail has publicly admitted that he could find no evidence of any authority for Indian Trail to tax people in the Village of Royal Palm Beach during the last 10 years. Now, one might suppose that the legal department of Royal Palm Beach would have noticed this discrepancy and informed the mayor and the village council, and that the mayor and the council would have sometime during the past 10 years, challenged Indian Trail! The truth is apparently quite different from the reasonable supposition, and the truth is that it took the newest councilman’s vigilance and action to pursue the matter. Had not Richard Valuntas uncovered this illegal tax, many in Royal Palm Beach would still be paying this tax to Indian Trail. We owe a special debt of gratitude for not only uncovering this matter, but in his continuing to pursue this unlawful tax. Mr. Valuntas has proven he’s worthy of our support now and in the future. And for the members of the council of very long tenure, who obviously are too busy, perhaps they’ve enjoyed it long enough. Richard Nielsen Royal Palm Beach
Don’t Four-Lane Okeechobee Through Groves I am a resident of Loxahatchee, and I think Loxahatchee Groves is a wonderful, quaint old community, and I hope that it always remains a wonderful, quaint community. I would like to point out some facts and possibilities to our Loxahatchee Groves neighbors. When the Groves was incorporating, the county was moving on plans to expand Okeechobee Blvd. to four lanes. Once the town incorporated and told the county that it did not want Okeechobee Blvd. to be expanded, the county acquiesced to the town’s wishes. You are legally a town now. Do only what your residents want and not what outsiders and the county want. Please note that your town already has a “main drag” that is mostly six lanes with some eightlane sections, this being Southern Blvd.
Okeechobee Blvd. and Southern Blvd. are parallel roads only one mile apart. So there is no need to bisect the center of your town by four-laning Okeechobee Blvd. unless that is what your residents want. Please remember that once you four-lane it, you can never go back. Take a look now at our Seminole Pratt Whitney Road, which is now being four-laned. This is what your Okeechobee Blvd. would look like. Now, because Seminole Pratt is only two lanes, we can only travel as fast as the car in front of us. With four lanes, those days will be over, meaning that the speed limit is 45 miles per hour, which you have to do if the car in front of you is doing 45 mph with the current two lanes. But with four lanes, this allows cutting in and out of lanes as quickly as possible to get every bit of open road to speed up beyond 45 mph, all day long, up and down Okeechobee Blvd. if it is four-laned. The traffic on Okeechobee, both car, truck and trailer, will increase tremendously if four-laned, when Callery-Judge’s 3,000 new homes and their hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial is built. Please do not forget that Lion Country Safari at the end of Okeechobee Blvd. has been approved for increased residential development and traffic. Then there is GL Homes’ 4,900 acres and the EB Developers’ 1,200 acres adjacent to Callery’s west end. Both are slated for residential development. The four-laning of Okeechobee Blvd. will make it basically a cutthrough drag strip through the heart of your town, even while there is located one mile south of it, the six- to eight-lane Southern Blvd. So choose wisely so that you will be able to live safely and happily, as will those who will live there over the next 100 years. Will it still be a quaint old town then? Or will it be another Military Trail? Ed Zakrzewski Loxahatchee
Don’t Tie Hands Of Inspector General Why are some government officials determined to tie up the hands of the inspector general? Perhaps they have watched the undoing of the town of Belle, Calif., and its corrupt officials from the top to the bottom try to thwart the investigative process through various methods, all designed to delay or to deter a thorough investigation of their conduct while in office. And, in my opinion, those who are trying to tie up the hands
of the inspector general are trying to limit the scope of a mandate from 72 percent of the people. I, for one, want to know who these are, for it seems to me that “we the people” have spoken, but somehow a small percentage of a nameless group is able to tie up the hands of the inspector general, and this is wrong. It’s not what 72 percent of us voted for, and I want to know who this group of persons is who has the tail wagging the dog. Those who stand to lose the most when the inspector general is allowed to do the job that we have mandated: in my opinion, it will be them — finally them — for whom the “Belle” tolls. Thomas Goff Wellington
Groves Had Protection Through The County The residents and council members of Loxahatchee Groves seem to have forgotten that what our council members have negotiated away we had already received in public policy in the Palm Beach County comprehensive plan. The transportation element section 1.4 R-S policy stated, “to further protect rural tier communities and to prevent the encroachment of incompatible uses, proposed roads… which pass through existing communities shall be aligned… along the periphery… and not sited so that they bisect communities.” Further, I was at the county commission meeting when, consistent with policy, E Road-140th Street was removed from the future thoroughfare identification map of Palm Beach County. There is no such road. Also forgotten is the fact that the Department of Community Affairs already approved the Loxahatchee Groves comprehensive plan such as it was. Callery-Judge Grove sued us out of greed, and our Loxahatchee Groves council members blinked. As previously stated, maybe it is time to unincorporate. Joan Shewmake Loxahatchee Groves
Goldenrod Closure Is Needed Editor’s note: The following letter is in response to Timothy Palmer’s letter (“Don’t Close Goldenrod Road,” April 1). Mr. Palmer, a property owner of a multifamily unit on Goldenrod since 2005, wrote an opinion in objection to the closure of Gold-
enrod stating that, “If we closed every road that had speeding issues, we wouldn’t have any roads open at all.” “If speeding is the true issue, then incorporate traffic circles, speed bumps, rumble strips, post a 15-mph speed limit and have the road routinely patrolled by law enforcement... Why punish the law-abiding drivers and citizens who use the roadway as a legal and legitimate route by closing the road?” However, Mr. Palmer fails to realize the difference between roadways meant for through traffic and those intended to be part of a community. Why would drivers cease speeding in a 15-mph zone if they are already speeding in a 35-mph zone, and why should neighborhood residents have to suffer additional wear-and-tear on their cars driving over speed bumps and rumble strips or give up property to create traffic circles? Mr. Palmer then decides to lash out at those who live on Azure, stating, “I’m pretty sure the road was built with its established route when you moved into the house; did you think you would never hear or see a car driven by?” Perhaps Mr. Palmer should realize that while Azure was in place when homes were purchased many years ago; the adjacent shops were not. Traffic has increased to the shops as many nonresidents use the neighborhood to bypass the traffic signals that are installed on streets intended for through traffic. A closure of the connection between Azure and Goldenrod is only a fix of an error made years ago. Mr. Palmer then states that, “Regarding the issue of security… when you put up barriers… you create animosity, tensions and imbalance between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots.’ Dividing is not the way to bring a community together.” I’d like to know exactly to what history, what examples, Mr. Palmer can point where the closure of a single road caused such social upheaval. Do the many gated communities in Wellington anger the residents on Goldenrod? I suppose that shoplifting, burglary and drug trafficking are much better ways to bring the community together than trying to take action to reduce crime. Mr. Palmer further asks, “What proof does the village offer that by shutting the road, crime will go down on both sides of the road closure? And if it’s not an equal deterrence to both sides, how is that fair representation to the taxpayers?” This is straightforward: reduced access provides more security and this is not questioned by Mr. Palmer. But why would the town need to show that crime would decrease on both sides of
the proposed closure? Most taxpayer dollars are spent to benefit many or most in society but rarely if ever does the expenditure directly benefit everyone. Does everyone use parks? Does everyone have a child in school? The benefits of government projects can be direct as well as indirect, as in this case. We all pay for every crime. We pay increased prices for goods driven by increased insurance premiums and the need for better theft deterrent systems; we pay for additional law enforcement, prosecutors, public defenders, judges and all their offices and buildings. Less crime to anyone is better for everyone. Mr. Palmer then concludes by suggesting “…there are other ways to deter crime: additional street lighting, police presence, crime watch, citizen patrol...” There are already increased police patrols, which we now pay for in the form of increased taxes, and there are neighborhood watches. A plan to add street lighting is also already in motion. Unfortunately, these suggestions call for the lawabiding citizens to modify lifestyle or infrastructure to address the symptoms of crime rather than addressing or treating the cause of the problem. And in reference to citizen patrols, Mr. Palmer, the point is to increase citizen safety, not to have hardworking, untrained citizens patrolling the streets placing themselves in harm’s way. Perhaps, landlords should be doing better background checks, cease offering short-term leases, and have some idea about who is actually living in their apartments and not assume their tenants aren’t allowing potentially criminal family or friends to share their apartments. Therefore, we should begin holding landlords that allow their communities to slip into havens for crime partially responsible for the crimes committed by their tenants in the neighborhood. Assuming some burden of proof that a reasonable landlord should have known about nefarious activity by their tenants, how about criminal charges for landlords such as accessory to (fill in vio-
lent crime) if someone is injured or killed by a tenant, a $5,000 fine for felonies committed (e. g., drug sales, burglary), $2,500 for lesser crimes (e.g., shoplifting) of a tenant? Maybe that additional revenue could offset the costs of additional patrols and burglar alarm installations that you are asking the victims of these crimes to cover, or it could cover the cost of the losses suffered by the innocent at the hands of those from which you profit. Jason Crawford Wellington
Flavors 2011 A Success! The Wellington Chamber of Commerce Flavors 2011 was once again a smashing success. Our event attracted more than 700 attendees. We wish to thank our host venue, our chairmen and host committee, our vendors, our sponsors, our members, our volunteers and our residents for this success. Flavors of Wellington brings together the best of the best Wellington Chamber restaurants, catering venues, wholesale and gourmet markets, and country clubs to showcase their businesses, products, menus and exceptional service staff. This event could hot happen without their participation, and we are so grateful to each of them for joining us last Friday evening. Each year our attendees enjoy See LETTERS, page 22
For The Record A story in the April 8 edition titled “Several Lox Council Members Push For Management Change” reported that a motion to prepare a request for proposals for a new Loxahatchee Groves town manager failed 3-2. The vote actually failed 4-1 with motion originator Councilman Jim Rockett voting in favor. Councilman Tom Goltzené, who seconded the motion, ultimately voted against it. The Town-Crier regrets whatever confusion this might have caused.
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OPINION
The Yankees’ Derek Jeter On His Way To Joining The ‘3,000 Hit Club’ Barring an unpredictable injury, Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees should join that most exalted baseball fraternity known as the “3,000 Hit Club” this season. The pundits predict the popular Yankee captain should reach the lofty goal sometime around midseason. Surprisingly, despite the dugout full of Yankee immortals like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio,
Footloose and... By Jules W. Rabin Mickey Mantle, etc., Jeter would be the very first Yankee to reach it. If you are a baseball fan you can
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probably rattle off a dozen or two Hall of Famers who, like say Ted Williams, never were admitted to the club. Twenty-seven members over some 114 years of recorded baseball history make up this rather exclusive group. The last time it happened there was a low-key celebration as Craig Biggio of the Houston Astros flung the door open on June 28,
2007. The first name on the inside wall belongs to Cap Anson in 1897, and in case you don’t remember, Cap had a career batting average of .333. The somewhat disgraced Pete Rose tops the numbers chart with 4,256 hits. Ty Cobb was second with 4,191 hits and Hank Aaron came in third with 3,771. In fourth place was Stan “the Man” Musial (3,630) and fifth spot belonged to
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Tris Speaker at 3,514. Interestingly, the great Roberto Clemente, whose career ended prematurely when he died in a plane crash, just made the cut with an even 3,000 hits. Other names to recall, and their hit totals, include Carl Yastrzemski (3,419), Honus Wagner (3,415), Paul Molitor (3,319), Eddie Collins (3315) and, of course, Willie Mays (3,283). Then too there was
Eddie Murray (3,255), Nap LaJoie (3,242), Cal Ripken (3,184), George Brett (3,154), Paul Waner (3,152), Robin Yount (3,142), Tony Gwynn (3,141), Dave Winfield (3,110), Rickey Henderson (3,055), Rod Carew (3,053), Lou Brock (3,023), Rafael Palmeiro (3,020), Wade Boggs (3,010) and Al Kaline (3,007). OK, be honest — how many did you remember?
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