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04-09-65 APRIL 9, 1965 A meeting of the City Council, together with the Beach Taxpayers League, was held in the Council Chambers at 6:30 P.M., following a request of said League for a meeting. Members of the Council pre- sent were: Mayor Al. C. Avery, Vice-Mayor Jack L. Saunders and Councilmen j. LeRoy Croft, James H. Jurney and George Talbot, Jr., also Acting City Manager R. D. Worthing. Members of the Beach Tax- payers League present were: Mr. Lewis Gibbs, President, Mrs. Dorothea Montgomery, Secretary, Messrs. Dugal G. Campbell, Pierre Crenier, Ward M. Robinson, George Talbot, Jr., William G. Weiss, E. Jack Barns, Herbert F. Royal, j. Watson Dunbar and Mrs Gladys R. Little. · Mayor Avery called the meeting to order and an opening prayer was delivered by Mr. Worthing, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America. Mayor Avery: "This meeting was requested by the Beach Taxpayers League, and we agreed to give them the courtesy of the meeting. No action will be taken on the part of the Council at this meeting tonight, because it is an informal workshop. We are here to listen and heed, with an open mind. Now, with this, and since it has been requested, I would like to call on Mr. Gibbs, President of the Beach Taxpayers League, to present the items that you wish brought before this Council. Anyone who speaks, we will ask to come to the micro- phone, as we are on tape.,, Mr. Gibbs: "~onorable Mayor and Commissioners, we are just here and we are very grateful to have your time and energy that you have devoted to what we wish to present. We are very grateful for that, and of course, the time of the day is a little bit odd, but we appreciate your position and we are just grateful to be here. We are very much interested and also we want you to understand, and some of us are only down here for three or four months and some for six months and some for a year, but our properties, however, haDpen to be down here for a full twelve months, which we are interested in, and our homes on the beach side. I have the pleasure of turning this meeting over to the Chairman of the Committee that I appointed, Col. Dugal Campbell.. Col. Campbell: "Mr. Mayor and Council, in asking for this meeting, we would like for you to accept the fact that we, living east of the Canal, feel that some of the problems that are ours are, by the type of problem, believe that they are the City's as a whole. We believe that the beach property that is, the beach itself, the mile, is perhaps the most valuable asset that the City has. It is used by literally thousands during the season and by our own citizens to great advantage during the so-called off months. We would like you to believe that we are coming to you hoping for and believing that we will get the fullest cooperation within the bounds of the moneys that can be spent. We haven't asked---to my knowledge, the east side hasn't asked for any expenditures for some time, and frankly speaking, we think that we have got very little expense on the east side for some time. I would like to, if I may, read some of these notes that have been made. I want to thank one or two of your Council for having taken the time to inspect the area the other day. I know that George knows the area as well as any of us, but I asked the City Manager first, and Mrs. Little and others to make this trip through the area with the thought ..... or asking them to look at it from the viewpoint of a person coming into Delray with a thought of one or two things: Either spending the season with us, or spend- ing the season with us with the thought that they might want to'buy, and we want to do the best selling job that we can do. So we started with the north end of A1A, which is one of our six City entrances, and came on down. The first thing that we find 4-9-65 "is the rock that has, by necessity, been put in on the shoreline just north of Beach Drive on up to ---. It has done a wonderful job. It has held our beach erosion back; there is no question about it, but we wondered if asking the State, County, or doing it our- selves, if the City couldn't find the moneys in one of those three places to perhaps put fifteen to twenty loads of dirt, not sand, in among those rocks, and then plant the fast growing type of vines that we have used down at the lower end of the beach where it has held now for four or five years and done a worthwhile job. Then as you come on down AiA, there are a number of places on the west side where the owners, I believe, have built the walls and carried the blacktop up to those walls. They are neat looking. They give a turn out of traffic. They do furnish parking for those people, and I don't think it has been used by the City possibly to the extent it might be. There are some of those on the north side. There are any number of them on'the south side of Atlantic Avenue where the black- top has not been carried over to the walls that have now been built, and I am sure that those who have seen it will agree that they make very unsightly looking spots. If it is on City right-of-way or State right-of-way, we could carry that blacktop over to the walls, clean them up and we would get the good effect of the clean up and might pick up some most valuable parking areas. Back of the Seacrest Hotel, there is a space just off the paved road that has been used for years for parking of approximately twelve cars. About five years ago, the hotel took it upon themselves to blacktop, put a guard rail across and made a very neat looking park- ing space of it. They put up two signs that it was for the use of the hotel people only, and the City, rightly so, had to ask them to take the signs down. It has been used for public parking ever since, but I doubt if the City has spent as much as a plugged nickel to keep it cleaned up or to keep it in shape. The guard rail is now broken in many places, the beer cans, bottles and everything else are in around the area, and now is a sand stand instead of a blacktop. I am sure if Mr. Holland, who also made this trip with us, had been on the job as late as last Monday, it would have been blacktopped be- cause he was impressed with the possibilities of it, and I am sure I am not putting words into his mouth. I would like to have youth ink of that area with the possibility of cleaning it up in the manner that we have referred to. It will cost a little money, but I am sure it will cost much less than some of us may think. As you come back around, coming up from the south from Seagate Drive, we find one of the sewer lifts or stations still up above the ground, the only one, I believe, left on that side. It is in the middle of a very valuable piece of property; true enough, it is on the City right-of-way, but none of us understand why it was built that way in the first place. The City has corrected the others, and I am sure the people on the south side will appreciate it if you will go a step further and clean this one up and put it below the ground where it should be. I, for one, cannot understand why our consulting engineers, who were also the designing engineers, should't be asked to make good these mistakes and they are mistakes, as their own ." Mayor Avery: "Mr. Campbell, the engineers are not here to de- fend themselves, so ." Mr. Campbell: "May I ask you then to call the attention of this to their attention." Mayor Avery: "That's right, but they are not here to defend themselves, so let's don't attack anybody ..... keep it general." Col. Campbell: "I'm sorry. If, in my opinion, and I mention it as my opinion, they are at fault, I ask that it be so mentioned because the tape can be read back to them. Let's not put a gag on." -2- 4-9-65 Mayor Avery: "Mr. Campbell, we are not putting a gag on. We just want to be fair to everyone. We don't want to attack anyone that can't defend themselves. Let's stay in good taste." Col. Campbell: "I'm sure you won't, but there is no harm done in calling attention to the fact that the mistakes made have cost the City money. On the east bank of the waterway, there is consider- able debris that has been either Washed up or dipped uD when the digging out of the waterway was done last year that is exceptionally objectionable, not only to our people, but it is objectionable to those people on the west side who were, I don't know whether they did or not, to bring a petition to you at the first meeting. That particular area just south of the bridge on the east side for perhaps five hundred feet is, to say the least, not in keeping with what we think of when we think of Delray Beach. Further, there has been some request, and on this particular point, there is a division of thought as to whether or not the lighting on the Ocean Boulevard could be improved, as there is some who feel that the walking on the Boulevard in the early evening hours, or in the evening hours, has become some- what dangerous. We have had people say that even the police, and this I would rather question in my own mind, but they say that the police have called their attention to the fact that they wish they wouldn't walk along there at the late evening hours. On a number of the streets on the north side, and one or two on the south side, we continue to have the flood water conditions, where it has been practically impossible for some of the owners to get into their homes. You had one case here before you two or three weeks ago, and that was corrected. That was Mr. Dittrich in that location that he was in. This next problem is one that we are all very much interested in, and I am particularly happy that we have the Chief and Captain from the Police Department here. The question has been raised whether or not we have enough protection, police protection, east of the waterway, especially in the late evening or early morning hours. It is evident that we have one cop in a car on duty in what is listed as the first shift, and that first shift is from 11:00 p.mo to 7:00 a.m., and it is my understanding that that man is instructed that' under no circumstances, he will leave the beach area. For that we are duly thankful, but we question whether one man out of a force of 41 is all that we should have a right to expect, and if that one, covering the area from the north to the south and east to west, can do the job. Many of those homes are vacant many months of the year. We have had some considerable breaking in. We know other sections have, too, but we would very much like to ask for a study by the Commission, and through them to the Police Department, of the possi- bility of better coverage. We also object to the traffic, the speed of the traffic, not only on the Boulevard, but on some of the back streets, as well. We are building our first high-rise apartment which is thought to the possibility of fire coverage; those people in that first one will no doubt want to know what is being done, or what can be done in case of fire. It may well be thought out; if it is, I don't think anyone yet has the answer on it. In the past few months, many of us, not only on the beach area, have been disturbed by the lack of what we called in the old days a capital improvement committee. We are very happy to see that a couple of weeks ago, the Mayor, in the papers and by letter, I believe, to the Council, asked their consideration of a central, or a committee to study the need of capital improvements and capital financing on a City-wide basis, rather than to go the way we had started to go by special committees, it being understandable that each would have their own pet improvement. No doubt they are very sincere in those improve- ments, but can we take them all on at one time? We hear of the most necessary beach erosion correction, the water expansion, the sewer -3- 4-9-65 "expansion, need of a police building, and it goes on and on, and we wonder where the money is coming from and what the tax bills are going to be in the coming years. When we speak of the tax bills, we all were very happy last fall when the Council, through'the Mayor, announced that our budget had been cut and that we would have a corresponding cut in the taxes, but a study of some of the tax bills have shown that when we pay the $180,090.00 garbage removal bill for the year, which is equivalent to 3 mills, that we haven't had the tremendous savings that has been referred to, but on that particular point, I am sure that I can speak for the Taxpayers League when I say to you that we would rather you didn't cut the corners quite so close, if in turn you give us the service that we are willing to pay for. For example, we don't feel that a thousand dollars assigned for the beautification program of the City, and of that, $500.00 is being held for the Cemetery, leaving $500.00 to be spread most thinly over the balance of the City. We are glad to see the $500.00 spent at the Cemetery and if it has done the job, fine. If it hasn't, spend some more until you get it right, but don't let's cut the corners too close. A suggestion has been made as to the ~Dossibility of the com- paratively low cost of a police stockade. We are living in an area where it might be possible that the boarding and housing of these prisoners, of which we seem to have more than any other town around us, might fall back into a stockade proposition. That is just a suggestion for what it is worth. It has been a matter of considerable question in the minds of a number of our people as to why, when the --- and this we can't go back and correct, but it is brought up again now .... when we are told that a hundred, over a hundred thousand dollars is to be paid out in the central part of the town to correct the sewer conditions that have existed there for many, many years, we wonder why that $100,000.00 wasn't taken into consideration when the job was being done, which, at that time, would have been included in the bonding, which now evidently will be thrown at us either on a basis of repair, and if so, will have to be picked up in the first year. If you throw it into the bonds, and we hope you do into the second bonds, we still wonder why the balance of the City is paying for the repairs of a sewer that was put in during the twenties and on which, the vast majority of the people serviced by that have paid no repairs or no service charge over the years. There is further wonder, Mr. Mayor, and I should perhaps direct this to you in particular as I believe that you have the answer, why the streets in the west side of town have been, as I believe you said one time when a protest was made at one of the regular meetings, was blacktopped. There are other streets that were blacktopped d~ring the sewer program. The question that was asked is how those particu- lar streets were built or put in position, call it what you like, without the abutting property owners being charged any part of it; how the maintenance on those will be made. Is that to be charged to the city as a whole, or just what? It was explained to some who were here at one of the meetings .... no, it wasn't explained publicly; it was explained privately .... that Homewood Boulevard and N. W. 4th were done on an emergency basis, at least, Homewood Boulevard. The question that would be asked there is to what emergency existed, and why the abutting property owners, which must be those on the east side, as the ones on the west side would be in the County, why they are being asked to pay 60% of the cost of that road, where in the past, in like situations, the abutting property owners have oaid as high as 90%, not only of the cost of material, but of labor ~nly. As far as it being an emergency, you have 22nd Street and the Street that leads down to the second golf course, giving access to both golf courses, without any question. we are concerned about the recreation program, in particular as it affects the beach. You have at the beach, i believe the highest paid men now that we have ever had, and frankly, the supervision, in -4- 4-9-65 "our opinion, leaves a lot to the imagination. You see as many as three and four people up in the guard stands, where I am sure that an operation would say that the guard should be there at all times alone, ifhe is up there, and if he is on the beach, his swim suit should be marked 'GUARD' so that you could find him without undue delay. As a week ago Sunday, one of them was not in the guard house---in the guard spot, and after a half an hour wait, he was pointed out as being down at the beach where, I think, he coul~ well do a good job, but there was no way to tell that he was the guard as he had a white sweat shirt on over that part of his body that might have carried the guard emblems. Some of this seems no doubt petty, but we do have a worthwhile investment in all of it, and I can assure you that we are vitally interested in the fact that we want to pay our share and we do 9ay our share, we pay 38% of the total tax~ we don't dwell on that point, but we do pay our share, and we pay the share we feel that we ought to get the same breaks that are given to any other area. As abutting property owners, if we 9ay our share of improvements, then we want the others to do likewise, no matter where they may be. We know that we are in the unhappy position of having a very small voting unit, but we ask that you overlook that and give us the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the improvements that we are asking for here, and that have been asked for over the years. There are some of our people who Would question the judgment, and we realize that it is your decision to make, of the spending of $25,000.00 through the Chamber for'.an advertising campaign, and then on top of that, spending $5,000.00 last year for what was sup- posed to be our share of the World's Fair expense, and voting an additional $2,500.00 this year, rather than take it out of the $25,000.00 that has already been set aside. It seems to us that is rather heavy for this town when no other town around us, except Boynton, pays $5,000.00. Boca and other towns of like size .... Boca paid nothing. Some of them paid $100.00. Whether we got the ad- vertising return on it is your guess or mine, but we wondered why the $2,500.00 couldn't have been taken from the $25,000.00 that was set aside for advertising. In the past two years, I have known that budget, or that allowance to the Chamber of Commerce, to go as iow as, I think the lowest was $10,000.00 one year, and we have worked it back u9 so we are now back u9 to $25,000.00. Four or five years ago, we were spending money trying to bring in industry. We find now that the Chamber has decided that we are not going to spend money for industry, that we are going to sDend it in other ways. We would like to make a comparison on that basis. An apartment building was built just south of Atlantic, 42 or 43 families. That apartment building brought in the class of people who are spending money with our mer- chants, that are living here longer than the average winter resident, and they are capable of, and are spending the money, and we would like to suggest that possibly the Chamber could be sold on making an approach for retirees, going through the different house organizations. We have, living in our area, men who have retired here, who have in the past headed, or department heads of consequence, or have headed their own large organizations, and we ask, if it is possible, that a study be made of the chances_ of reaching worthwhile ~etirees, through these house organizations or through these people. Having been up here longer possibly than I should have been, I think that's it and I turn it back to our worthy President." Mr. Gibbs= "I don't know whether there is anybody here among our members that would like to have something to the the Council to- night. We are fortunate to have them° Is there anybody that woul~ like to add something?" Mrs. Montgomery= "I would like to add about two things to Col. Campbell's talk. I believe that the Colonel's idea is about the sa~e as all of us on the beach. We want light, but we don't want Coney Island light. We want, I think if we had more of the same type of -5- 4-9-65 "light, because there are a few black spots, or blackout spots. We don't want Atlantic Avenue lights to hate to fight with the moon, because we love to walk along there and see the moon come up out of the ocean. It is 'Moon over Delray Beach', not 'Moon over Miami', for us. I believe we could do something on that very easily. Another thing that we are starting to have very bad again .... we have plenty of life guards; we have a very good man in charge of them, but they are not cracking down. I am very emphatic on this. There is no reason why anyone, regardless of who they are, should be allowed to undress on the beach, even though they have a bathing suit under it. We put an ordinance in our books prohibiting undressing and dressing on the beach. A person can have a beach coat, beach robe, but there is no reason for them to take off all their outer clothing and peeling down to bathing suits. It gives the place, to my mind, a very, very bad name. We also have on the books that people cannot walk around the whole town in bathing suits without some type of cover, man or woman, beachcoat of some sort. That is not being enforced at all. I see police cars go by and I see people, I would say, two blocks away from the beach. We were talking about an apartment. I happened to ' be swimming at that apartment on a Sun~ay afternoon and I looked down and I saw this man walking up to the beach, which meant he had just walked across the bridge with just bathing trunks on. Now we have a Police Department, because I know we have a good one and they patrol that beach. They patrol Atlantic Avenue. I don't know what happens after 11 o'clock; I go to bed, but I do know if I need them, I can get them awfully fast and they are to be complimented on the speed that they can get there when we do complain at night. I do think that the undressing on the beach and the people walking .... we can do that through a little publicity, maybe, in the papers. It is an educational job to my way of thinking, rather than ...... it's a police job to educate the public, and not just say, 'Here, we will give you a ticket for it, but we don't allow this in Delray Beach'. We are a little proud of our town. Thank you." Mr. Gibbs: "Does the Mayor have anything to say, or any questions at all, maybe ..... .. Mayor Avery: "Mr. Gibbs, I think it has been presented in a most comprehensive manner. What I would like to say is that there have been some very good suggestions made. They are going to require some money. I think that while the Council can't take any action, it is quite proper that we direct the City Manager to take this tape and enumerate these things. Some of them are going to require money and so it would be in order to direct him to prepare estimates as to what it would take to accomplish the variou~ suggestions. If there are indications that someone made a mistake, then the Council would like to know it, and if the mistake was on the part of a Council when they approved plans for budget purposes, I think this is quite proper. You have requested answers to certain questions. It will take a little re- search to get the minutes of the Council that approved --- and they were done by Council approval back when Mr. Dietz and Mr. Woodard were on the Council, on the western area. I was on the Council; I was one of them. It takes a little detailed research to give you the positive, truthful and exact answers. We would like to have the City Manager, if you think it is proper, to direct him to take these questions and start researching this so that we can prepare you the answers to the questions that you want answered, and to consider doing those things that you requested, if it is financially feasible to do it." Mr. Gibbs: "I am sure you Commissioners are cognizant of the fact that in the summertime, we live, most of us, I guess, live up in the North, and it is surprising the amount of publication and Sunday pictorials and organizations to come out and say that Delray Beach is the best place, it is better than Palm Beach, and it's surprising. I am tickled to death to read these articles, and want -6- 4-9-65 "to keep it that way. That is our only interest over here on the beach side. We love the City side, too, because we do all our shopping over there. We buy oranges, lemons, and everything else over there. But we want to keep the whole City of Delray Beach with the same reputation for the next twenty-five years, when we're gone. That is all our plea is, and I do think that the various stories about things that happen on the beach after dark, of course those things do happen, but some of them are not in the line of joy, and I do seriously wish you would go into the police situation over there, or maybe .... I don't know if it is possible, but I do think we need some protection over there, because it is a fingered area: in other words, it is easy to see that things happen that they don't do on Atlantic Avenue or down in front of the Tap Room, so that, therefore, there is more possibility of playground symptoms, and I just wish that we could have a little more thoroughly patrolled beach area and on the beach side." Mayor Avery: "I can assure you, because I know this Council and how it acts, so if any member of the Council disagrees with me, say so ..... I assure you that we are going to give these'things our utmost consideration, and try to accomplish those things that are financially feasible. I will assure you that." Mr. Saunders: "We are as proud of that beach as you people are. We figure that's really our biggest asset, and those of us who have lived here for any length of time know that it is the biggest thing we have and we are all interested in doing what we can to keep it in the status it should be kept. I get the impression, though, that you are not too happy with us on some of the things you have pointed out. I think that some of the things that have been brought out, as to Delray Beach having a good reputation in the North, I think that bears repeating. We are all proud of it and we are all proud to live here. We appreciate you pointing out some of these things that need attention and I assure you that it would be my thought to try to bring them about, if we can do it financially." Mayor Avery: "Mr. Gibbs, one of your men, Mr. Crenier, wishes to be heard." Mr. Crenier: "Regarding that sewer pump that is on Seagate Drive, I hapDen to be one of the residents living closest to it. When it was first installed, there were several of us around there made some inquiries regarding the installation of that pump, and we were informed that it was a temporary proposition, which is probably the reason why you haven't received any formal~complaints about it, and I think that you will agree, Mr. Mayor, if you will drive by there, that it does look like a temporary pump proposition. It is an eyesore. The other pumps that have been put in in the other parts of the town have disappeared, so that I really think that this is not a mistake. It was a temporary proposition that has been neglected~ let's put it on that basis." Mayor Avery: "I can assure you that it is one thing that will get researched by this Council, and mistakes will be corrected. If it is not a mistake, then a study will be made to make it a palatable thing, if that is the correct way to talk about a sewer." Mr. Crenier~ "It wasn't an error. It's something that has been neglected." Mayor Avery: If it doesn't contribute to the beauty of this town, I think that every Councilman here, we are pretty well dedicated to beauty, and it is not because it is in your backyard, but beauty is beauty, regardless, and I think the rest of the Council are most sympathetic with this point, and we intend to research that, don't we, gentlemen?" -7- 4-9-65 Mr. Gibbs: "I think that covers the waterfront pretty well on our side. There may be things come up after we leave, but we will have to take them up individually. We are very grateful to you Councilmen to take your time out and take you away from your dinner table, or what have you, and we are grateful for everything that you have done for us, and as far as we are concerned, I guess this closes our books for the time being." Mayor Avery: "Now, are you satisfied with the fact that there are answers that we can't give until we research---you understand that? We don't want to spread gloss or glaze over anything, but you want the truth." Mr. Gibbs: "We know that as long as you give us your word for cooperation, that is all we need." Mayor Avery: "I want to thank you very much. I think you are very public spirited. I think it is a wonderful thing. I think this is a fine American type of democracy where we can sit down and talk things out." Mr. Gibbs: "I hope we may have the 91easure next year." Mayor Avery: "Thank you Mr. Gibbs. Does anyone else have any- thing from the grou~? Well, gentlemen ..... I neglected the Councilmen. Does anyone want to make any comment?" Mr. Croft: "Mr. Mayor, I would just like to add mine to what Mr. Saunders said, and you have said, I believe, Mr. Mayor, that certainly we will make every effort to correct these things, and the only things that we are seeking is to be reasonable and just to the whole City, with no purpose to any section of the City, and that, I think, is the reasonable way to approach it." Mayor Avery: "You can see now why we refer to Mr. Croft as the silver tongued orator of this Council." Mr. Talbot: "I would just like to take this opportunity of tooting Delray's horn, I have the privilege of talking with about 200 visitors, tourists, each season, and I would say in the past 15 years, I can figure about 2,800 or 3,909 people I have talked to. They all say, 'How do you do it? It's the last holdout.' My answer to them is that it is damn hard to do it, which it is. Another thing, in defense to the money that this Council and past Councils have allocated the Chamber of Commerce, I assume that everybody will agree that the Grosvenor House is a pretty substantial institution; so is the Manor House. At least 50% of the people in those two institutions,at one time, were tourists, and were lured here by a certain high grade type of advertising. Don't forget that before a person buys here, he must be brought here by some means. Either by advertising, or by word of mouth by other people, but it isn't money thrown down the drain, gentlemen, I can assure you that." Mr. Jurney: "I would like to thank the Beach Taxpayers League for calling this meeting with the Council, and I would like to assure them that this Council is not going off half-cocked on any capital improvement program. We are very well versed here with financial people and I think we are in very good hands. Just bear with us, and be a little patient. We will get everything straightened out. Thank you." Mr. Robinson: "I refer to Mr. Talbot's comment about the ad- vertising and the fact that ..... I think I quote him about verbatim--- 'half of the tenants of the Manor House and Grosvenor House were lured here by high type advertising'. I would like specifically ....... ." -8- 4-9-65 Mr. Talbot: "I said half of them had been tourists here. I didn't say 'lured here'." Mr. Robinson: "I just want to get something straightened out for my understanding. Is it your idea that the tyge of advertising in which the Chamber of Commerce has been engaged, with City money, the past few years is the kind of advertising that brings people to Delray Beach who are Manor House and Grosvenor House material?" Mr. Talbot: "I said, 'or word of mouth'." Mr. Robinson: "I didn't understand that. Thank you." Mayor Avery: "Mr. Gibbs, do you have anybody else that wishes to be heard? Any member of the Council wish to be heard? Does that wind it up? Thank you very much." The meeting adjourned at 7:45 P.M. -9- 4-9-65