Once again the Village of Wellington’s leaders have chosen to consider Rustic Ranches as their dumping ground. This time it’s for their tons of manure, which is generated in the village, not Rustic Ranches.
First of all, I would like to know why the Village of Wellington has chosen this to be their problem, instead of the problem of the property owners in their horse community, which generates the monumental amount of manure.
I cannot stress the impact on our roads with hundreds of trucks daily. That question stands alone, not to mention the road maintenance costs.
Additionally, how could any site be considered that has a mostly residential status when there are other sites available, i.e., 20-Mile Bend. If Village Manager Paul Schofield and Special Projects Manager Mike O’Dell are so anxious to have a manure transfer station in a neighborhood, let them use their own.
As president, I said this at our last Pine Tree Water Control District meeting: In what world would I ever allow the Acme Improvement District to use Pine Tree as their dumping ground?
More questions: where’s the money going? Someone is lobbying for this. What’s next?
Chris Wallace, Wellington
Hear, hear!
Was this manure idea something that Schofield and Dell came up with or was this initiated by some Councilperson? The Village does not need to go into the manure business (or municipal golf course business for that matter).
Candidates are starting to line up for upcoming Council elections. (let’s hope it’s not a too crowded field that would assure an incumbent’s re-election). It’s time for groups to put forth a questionnaire for any and all candidates to address:
1. Would future candidates support an appointed, Non-Voting Equestrian Council member to advise Council on matters effecting the Preserve?
2. What are future candidates thoughts on paving projects in the Preserve?
3. Should 120th be paved between 50th and Lake Worth Road?
4. What are candidates’ ideas, thoughts on the 120th Street property owned by the PBC School District and the potential to have a school built on that property in the future?
5. What future linkage can be established between PB Little Ranches and the rest of the Equestrian Preserve?
6. Thoughts of future expansion or annexation into Wellington – Homeland, Wycliffe, Stonehaven Estates or are they happy where they are located-no doubt that their taxes would escalate if annexation occurred and our’s, too.
7. Traffic lights at 120/LW and Homeland/441?
8. Horse Park at Wanderer Executive Golf Course or Bink’s Forest Golf Course -path along Flying Cow Rd across to Bink’s.
9. Equestrian Preserve to have separate Planning and Zoning division?
10. What to do about Kpark? Percentage of Parks/Commercial/Housing.
11. Sidewalks from South Shore along Pierson to Village Park
12. Buying a golf course and maintaining it as a Village Municipal Golf Course (with on-going and increasing expenses-greens, golf club, company to run course; competition from Royal Palm and Okeeheelee public golf courses). We can’t keep rescuing golf courses and saddling all Wellington taxpayers with More Costs. There wasn’t enough money in the budget for road/flood improvements in Preserve, and just recently at the Agenda Review it was stated there was not enough money in budget to put in sidewalks along Pierson Rd AND put in traffic improvements at Stribing and Pierson Rd. The Manager said he’d have to ‘find’ and redirect monies to do it! And now, this Council is considering buy and hiring someone to run a failing golf course? Bring it to the voters in a referendum in March!
13. What about the Aesthetics in the Village? Improved landscaping; and Public Art should be peppered throughout the entire Village, not just inside the Muncipal Complex.
14. What about the Council turning over Village Green Park (the 10 acre open field beside Hampton Inn Hotel off of Forest Hill Blvd) for Low Income Senior Housing (Government Vouchers, 3-4, 4 story buildings) to be built and run by EHDOC- a non-profit. We can’t afford to give up any more open space-no matter where the land is located in the Village for more buildings. And there is no guarantee that only Village seniors will be housed. The Low Income Housing will be open to all. Put this out for referendum in March, too!
15. 20 year project for Walls to Replace hedging along Village thoroughfares. How about finding a federal safety grant to put in circular driveways along collector roads, so people will not have to back out into traffic? How about plantings on north side of Paddock Drive to improve aesthetics of that road?
16. A vision for the interior commercial areas along Greenview Shores. They will really start to fail once Kpark is developed.
17. A vision for the Multi-family Housing thru-out Wellington where too many problems reside.
18. A vision for the aging single family areas in Wellington. (New street signs, lights, landscaping, etc.)
19. The Village Website. It’s a convoluted mess. How about a monthly calendar with listings for events and meetings where one can click on the notation for further information? Simplify!
20. Transparency in Wellington’s budget compared to other similar sized municipalities. Show us what other cities spend on similar items on 1page. Stop burying the costs thru accounting and the ridiculous Village Website.
21. How is the Village proposing to pay for Channel 18 when Comcast stops offering it for free?
22. Cell Tower placements within the Village. A tower will soon be erected behind PA Barbeque Restaurant in the center of Wellington. Take the time to research more inconspicuous placement of cell towers instead right smack in middle of Wellington.
23. Civility of Council members to each other and more efficiency at Council Meetings. Length of meetings is ridiculous.
24. Another entry sign at Big Blue/Southern Blvd-Village owns property along the canal (how about touching up the present peeling entry sign there; plus paint the entry sign on the northside of Forest Hill. It’s faded and stained. It’s the entry into Wellington for goodness sake.)
25. What about the horse show ‘signage’ at Pierson and South Shore? That is not up to standards Council allowed electronic signs at church and Scott’s Place and Village Park site. Watch what you approve.
26. Replacement candidates for vacated Council seats. We can not have any more cronyism in Wellington. Take it to the voters when an opening occurs.
27. What are the plans for the Village owned park in the Equestrian Preserve across from Southfield and near the Fire Station?
28. Proactive stance and planned action on whether it should be an Overpass or Underpass at 441/Forest Hill. Ditto: FH/Southern Blvd intersection. Buena Vida and Olympia need to get involved with 441/Forest Hill area; Ditto: residents in Quercus Lane area of Wellington. Elevation will expose your homes.
29. Proactive stance and planned action on Medical Arts District north of Wellington Regional on 441. Palm Beach County just sold land it owned in this area.
30. Should the on-going problem with the alarm in Village Chambers be fixed?
31. Future use of vegetation containers in Wellington-more and more people are just throwing vegative debris onto swales instead of using the cans.
32. Should Wellington be divided (that’s the keyword-Divided) into geographical areas to elect Council members? Just think if that was in place with the recent attempt to sell Kpark- ONLY the Councilperson ‘residing’ and representing that geographical area, would be Worried about their re-election, instead of ALL Council members! Please be aware that the Appointed members of the Wellington Charter Review TaskForce is suggesting this to the present Council. There will be a Town Hall Meeting coming up in March regarding what you think on recommendations by these appointed Taskforce members. Pay ATTENTION to what are advocating.
33. Should Council members be able to increase their salary every 3 years?
34. Traffic along Stribling Way will increase with Kpark development. Waht consideration for exiting nearby communities and the Trader Joe’s shopping Center?
Maybe they got a 10 million dollar grant to make it our problem. It should be horse owners problem and let them pay and deal with it.