Officials close Herb Watt building; groups meeting there have until November 1 to find another place (WD) October 18-24, 2000Officials close Herb Watt
Building; groups meeting
there have until November
1 to find another place
Decision not made yet on demolishing it or moving it
to Anchorage Park
By Denise Jaegers
Officials voted 4-1 last Thursday
to close the Herb Watt Building
beside the North Palm Beach
Library, giving the three groups who
currentlyuse the facility until the
end of the month to find a new
location for their meetings.
Mayor Joseph Tringali cast the lone
dissenting vote in this action, stating,
"it's a mistake to close the building,"
tearing the structure would fall even
further into disrepair than its current
state. Vice Mayor Edward Eissey
represented the remaining
councilmembers' opinions, however,
remarking that the building was unsafe,
and should therefore be closed for that
reason alone.
In subsequent action, the council
voted unanimously to direct staff to
obtain a cost estimate for relocating the
Herb Watt Building to the Anchorage
Park area. Public Services Director
Tom Hogarth advised against this
action, cautioning officials he didn't
believe the building could withstand
the stress of moving, due to its size and
weak foundation characteristics. But
Tringali noted this cost estimate was
for information purposes only, and no
decision had been made to actually
move the historic building.
The final action made in reference
to the Herb Watt Building was to vote
unanimously to authorize an asbestos
study, the results of which may
influence the ultimate fate of the
structure.
In other action, council:
• Unanimously authorized the
Mayor and Village Clerk to execute a
second amendment to a lease
agreement with JEDL, Inc., deleting the
requirement to establish and implement
a minimum restaurant charge of $10 for
annual golf membership.
• Unanimously approved and
enacted second reading of an ordinance
authorizing the Mayor and Village
Clerk to enter into . a franchise
agreement with FPL FiberNet. LLC,
which authorizes FPL FiberNet to
utilize public rights -of -way within the
Village.
• Unanimously approved and
enacted second reading of an ordinance
amending Ordinance 31-96, which
created a Planned Unit Development
(PUD) known as "Prosperity Harbor
North" by establishing setbacks from
the rear and side property lines for
pools and screen enclosures.
• Unanimously approved and
enacted second reading of an ordinance
amending .the aggregate area of a
temporary sign from 32 square feet to
16 square feet on parcels other than
one -family residences, two-family
residences or multi -family residences.
• Unanimously approved first
reading of an ordinance amending
General Fund Budget for FY 2000-
2001 to appropriate funds in the
amount of $15,000 to perform an audit
of Florida Power & Light Co.
• Adopted a resolution
accepting the bid ' of Sub -Aqueous
Services in the amount of $180,524.28
for Phase 2 canal dredging; with funds
to be expended from Community
Planning — Construction and Major
Renovation.
• Adopted a resolution
authorizing the Mayor and Village
Clerk to enter into a standard form of
agreement with Sub -Aqueous Services,
Inc., for the purpose of securing
dredging services for the North Palm
Beach Canal Dredging Project Phase 1.
Martha Eskuchen, Attorney
WeekDay salutes
our North County
Women in Business
WeekDay will feature a new
"Women in Business" each week,
introducing a new woman in the
north county area,, describing her
job, services and personal business
philosophy to our readers.
We invite you to learn more about
the most talented, innovative and
resourceful of our local ,female business
professionals, who have labored against
the odds to rise to the top of their
professions. This week meet Attorney
Martha Eskuchen. See her story on
page 8.
Read WeekDay Pn
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northern. Palm Beach County news
and happenings on the Internet at
our new WeekDay website:
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In the process of upgrading to
Windows 2000, we were unable to
update the website with last week's
edtion, but the programmer should
have it up to date by this Thursday.
NORTHERN PALM BEACH C OUNTY'S HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER
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