We had everyone back in place tonight! Deputy City Clerk Odet Izquierdo; City Clerk Zoie Burgess; and new City Manager Howard Brown! Congrats and thank you to everyone who worked together to keep this city afloat during the City Manager transition.
1) PBCFR – unveiled their City of Westlake seals for Station 22’s engine, rescue and tender vehicles! The chiefs all expressed the sentiment that while PBCFR is a very large organization, the ultimate goal is maintain a local, neighborhood feel around each station.
Palm Beach County gets their Fire Rescue RIGHT. They do everything. All of it. Underground, in the water, up high; from humans to kittens. Education, building inspections, swim instruction. Leaks to spills…. All firefighters are also emergency medical trained. They’ve got whole blood, they’ve got plasma!!!
Chief Amanda Vomero presented a video tonight. I highly recommend watching it to learn about how great PBCFR is and what they do. By the end of the video, I had the adrenaline. I wanted to set my notepad down and do some air punches and karate kicks, right in front of everyone.
2) PBSO – You might remember that Westlake had 18 crashes in March, up from February’s 10 crashes. Luckily, in April we went down to 12 crashes, mostly in the Publix and Starbucks parking lots. I came inches from reversing out of my diagonal space into another truck reversing out of their diagonal space in the Publix lot just the other night. Thankfully, a third car honked to alert us. Be careful!
Cresswind residents… Westlake’s special traffic enforcement officer Deputy Paul Heckler is still calling you guys out for speeding on SPW! It’s 45 mph, not 50 or 55.
School zone speeding is a problem, too. So Officer Heckler is bringing in reinforcements.
One crime in April, guys. A kid’s bike tire was slashed at the Sky Cove bus stop. Weird. I’ve also heard of some bikes going missing. Let’s be vigilant and make sure our kids know how to securely lock their bikes to the racks. And also maybe that no one’s going around popping tires.
3) CITY STAFF – Coincidentally, May 3rd-9th is Municipal Clerks Week. There were many thanks and kudos tonight to City Clerk Zoie Burgess and Deputy City Clerk Odet Izquierdo for holding down the fort during Westlake’s seven month (!!!) City Manager transition.
City Clerk Burgess had very kind words of thanks for Deputy Clerk Izquierdo and gifted her a beautiful orchid representing Deputy Clerk Izqueirdo’s growth in her positions here at Westlake. They both got a well-deserved standing ovation from everyone.
4) CRESSWIND SIGNAGE – If you had to guess what caused the most ruckus at tonight’s meeting (or in the last year of meetings) I’m betting you wouldn’t guess this!
Long story short, at Cresswind’s secondary entrance on Persimmon Blvd, the incorrect sign was installed. It’s not a terrible sign but it’s not up to compliance code or design consistency standards. This second sign is off by a foot in the height direction, by two inches in the width direction, and the the color/materials are not consistent with the original Cresswind sign.
There were angry Cresswind residents and heated exchanges between council members (there was an “out of order”! Our second, I believe!), but in the end, the Council agreed to require that the secondary sign be updated with tiles and paint to more closely resemble the original Cresswind sign on Town Center Parkway.
5) MINTO TO CITY OF WESTLAKE LAND SALE – but the amazing punchline is that the sale price is $10!
That’s right, Minto PBLH, LLC gifted, er, SOLD, this parcel of land to the City for ten measly dollars! Parcel C-2 comprises 4.591 acres, is located across from the Tax Collector’s Office, and is restricted to civic uses only. That means one thing, it’s gonna be where our City Hall goes!
If you remember, there were plans for the future Westlake City Park at the northwest corner of Seminole Pratt Whitney and Sycamore to have a City Hall/recreation building. But it looks like those plans might be changing.
This is truly a blessing. For us tax payers to have to make this happen on our own wasn’t going to be fast or cheap. A new, beautiful City Hall is much more attainable this way. It all makes so much sense, to have Fire Station 22, the Tax Collector’s Office, City Hall and, maybe, a PBSO substation all on the same block. It’ll really cement Westlake’s identity as a city.
Westlake’s Education Advisory Board is looking for a regular member and an alternate member. Help build your city’s relationship with its schools by meeting two or three times a quarter, no biggie. Only thing, you can’t work for the PBC School District. APPLY HERE.
At the City Council’s June 2nd meeting, Westlake will be recognizing Seminole Ridge High School’s dual enrollment graduates, those seniors graduating with a high school AND associate’s degree, about 35 students in all, AND SRHS’s one single teacher of the year! Show up to support these amazing students and teacher if you can!
7) AI DATA CENTERS – Many residents have spoken on the record at Westlake’s City Council meetings against Project Tango. But super sharp neighbor Ani Tapiero brought up the specific concern of an AI data center coming to Westlake. We do still have a lot of vacant land within our city limits after all.
The City Council unanimously agreed to amend Westlake’s zoning ordinance to prohibit AI data centers. We’ll have to see exactly if and how this can play out. Fingers crossed.
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