Letter: Say No To Valuntas

We have lived in the Cypress Head subdivision located west of Royal Palm Beach Blvd. off Southern Blvd. for 17 years. We have seen many changes and also seen no changes. We voted for one of our neighbors, Richard Valuntas, for Royal Palm Beach Village Council on his promise that he would get the sand lot east of the Crestwood Publix that was supposed to be built when we purchased our homes in 1999 completed. Drive by any day and you will see that nothing has been done.

Some of our neighbors lost backyards as Southern Blvd. was widened and will lose more when the next widening takes place. Mr. Valuntas is silent. He is more concerned about building his resume to become a judge rather than serving the residents of Royal Palm Beach; most recently using his council position to be appointed to the Criminal Justice Commission.

Mr. Valuntas also says that he saved our Cypress Head development money from tax assessments from Indian Trail Improvement District. True, he discovered that we had been charged incorrectly for 10 years. But Richard, the attorney, made no move to recover our money for the overpayment.

But here is the straw that broke the camel’s back for my family: Richard Valuntas told us that he was against the RaceTrac station to go just a few hundred feet from our development. He led us all to believe that he was going to vote “no.” We were shocked as we sat in the last meeting when he called for the vote to approve RaceTrac and voted for it.

I can never trust Richard Valuntas on anything that he says, and I certainly do not want him to continue to sit on the council… There is no doubt in our mind that we will be voting for Selena Smith. I strongly urge my neighbors who were betrayed to do the same.

Ralph and Catherine Paciello, Royal Palm Beach