The next regular City Council meeting is scheduled for December 1st. See the packet HERE.
1) MARCIA ANDREWS – a 51 year Palm Beach County School District veteran and 16 year District 6 School Board member is retiring and so the City of Westlake issued a proclamation in her honor. Ms. Andrews IS the reason that Westlake is getting its elementary school TWO years earlier than its originally planned delivery date of 2029 (Can u imagine?!)! Thank you, Ms. Andrews, congratulations and good luck!
2) PANTHER PARTNER AWARD – was presented to the City of Westlake by Palm Beach State College’s Executive Dean Andraes Alexander, D.B.A. The Panther Partner Award recognizes organizations whose partnership advances student achievement and strengthens the communities Palm Beach State College serves.
Dr. Alexander says partnerships like these are the heartbeat of success and are what turn potential into real world impact. I think this has to do with Westlake’s AMAZING Education Advisory Board (EAB) chaired by Dr. Anita Kaplan and with Westlake Vice Mayor Greg Langowski as liaison. Great job, Westlake!
3) PBCFR – has been busy the last few weeks with historic flooding and that terrible Learjet crash, not to mention the India Grill & Bar fire! But lucky for PBC, we have highly trained experts ready with all the right equipment to make an incredible difference in the outcome of tragedies like these.
Westlake had 78 incident calls in October with a response time of 6:06 (shaving 40 seconds off of September’s time!).
Don’t forget Winter in Westlake tomorrow at Station 22, 5-7PM: station tours, sno cones, a bounce house, touch a truck, photo ops! Don’t forget your toy for the toy drive!
4) PBSO –
- E-Bikes – The City is looking to create ordinances regulating e-bike usage. Unfortunately, there are an irresponsible few making trouble for the rest of us… And make sure to lock your bikes up! There were a couple of e-bikes reported stolen from in front of Axis Jiu-Jitsu.
- Construction vandalism and burglaries are up, but PBSO has added surveillance cameras on top of those already provided by the developers. PBSO is gonna get ya’ll!
- Tractor Supply Co. had BB guns stolen. But here in Westlake, we don’t mess around. So a witness alerted PBSO and those little robbers were nabbed by a whole slew of PBSO, quickly and dramatically. With video evidence, the perps ended up confessing. Don’t bring that nonsense here.
- Ding-dong ditchers… roves of brats (I stand by that!) in all black, wearing full-face masks, carrying backpacks, and riding e-bikes are going around Westlake kicking on doors in the middle of the night. Literally, like 230AM types of times. Get your cameras hooked up, DO NOT OPEN YOUR DOOR/ENGAGE, and call PBSO ASAP. These are not old school ding-dong ditchers, they are looking for serious trouble. So let’s work together to make it stop. You gotta call these instances into PBSO.
5) MAVIS TIRES & BRAKES – came in with their sign plan. It looks great!
Mavis Tires & Brakes owns a bunch of companies like Midas, Tire Kingdom, and Tuffy Tire. But we’re getting, as Mayor J.P. O’Connor put it and is very happy to hear, the “top cheese”, Mavis itself! And Councilman Erik Gleason happily approved this “top cheese’s” sign plan. (Fun fact, cheddar is the most eaten cheese. Do not Google “head cheese”… I finally searched for “important person cheese” which gave me phrase we were really looking for, “the BIG CHEESE”!)
6) SANDGLASS SIGN PLAN – came in for Minto’s new residential community coming in west of Seminole Pratt Whitney (it’ll wrap around north and west of Lowe’s/Walmart/James Business Park), and it’s all gorgeous! So gorgeous in fact, that a lot of us, residents and council alike, were wondering why Minto has the privilege of not adhering to Westlake’s master sign plan (which Minto/Westlake’s own staff came up with in the first place).
Westlake and the original communities are stuck with these teal totems outside of our city and neighborhood communities. The Sandglass signs makes these original signs look downright dated and cheap in comparison. Minto gets to build these new, beautiful communities while we’re stuck over here in our dusty neighborhoods, with signage according to the master sign plan, trying to resell our homes. Alas.
There will be two entrances with these signs, at Town Center Parkway North and South, both of which are west a bit of Seminole Pratt Whitney.
Anyway, the Sandglass community is in the British West Indies style, kind of like Alys Beach up in the panhandle if you know it. Minto really wanted something new, like nothing you usually see in the US.
Sandglass will ultimately have 1,950 single family homes over 613.2 acres and in four phases and about 7-8 years.
7) CITIBOT – is coming to Westlake! Citibot is a resident-first, AI-powered government communications platform. Citibot will be plugged into Westlake’s phone system and website to assist us residents 24-7 whenever we need help or have questions.
Mayor O’Connor learned of Citibot through some of his behind-the-scenes mayoral duties. He says that Citibot will improve the City’s engagement with its residents, it will be a direct line to residents needs and wants, and it will track request data so that the City can better address the most common, pressing issues.
Councilman Gary Werner was very skeptical at first, but, after having tried out different demos, feels that Citibot has a lot to offer and will be a good asset for us. Councilman Gleason agrees that of all the different “bots” he demoed, Citibot has the most to offer.
8) FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT (FPL) – is going to get an official admonishment from the City of Westlake. Well-deserved, I say. Councilman Gary Werner suggested that, after 10 years and multiple remaining or altogether unaddressed lighting issues, that the City should finally make an official complaint. The rest of the City Council agreed. Lets get this city properly lit already!
9) WELLINGTON REGIONAL MEDICAL – similarly, Vice Mayor Greg Langowski has suggested that the City or Mayor write an official letter to Wellington Regional who owns that massive plat of land surrounding Westlake ER. Vice Mayor Langowski suggests this letter should inquire about any plans and/or act to spur them along. Mayor O’Connor is more than happy to write this letter.
Leave a Reply