ITID Officials Vow To Continue The Fight For Four-Way Stops

Indian Trail Improvement District Supervisor Richard Vassalotti has seen firsthand the awful and mangled results of T-bone crashes on the district’s long, straight roads. That’s why the retired Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue captain said this week that he’s going to keep fighting for more four-way stops at Acreage-area intersections.

“Four-way stops are the easiest way to prevent those kinds of horrific crashes,” said Vassalotti, who spent 30 years with PBCFR — much of it in The Acreage.

Vassalotti spoke after ITID Engineer Jay Foy told the ITID Board of Supervisors at their Wednesday, April 15 meeting that Palm Beach County had approved four-way stops at five of the 10 intersections that ITID had requested.

Those intersections are: 140th Avenue North and Key Lime Blvd.; Key Lime Blvd. and Avocado Blvd.; Mandarin Blvd. and Hamlin Blvd.; Hall Blvd. and Citrus Grove Blvd.; and Hall Blvd. and Key Lime Blvd.

Although ITID is in charge of parks, drainage and most roads in the area’s 110 square miles, as an improvement district, it does not have the so-called “policing power” to simply put up stop signs as desired. Stop lights, stop signs and speed limits must be approved by county engineers.

“The county met in the middle with us,” Supervisor Patricia Farrell said. “We got the ones with the biggest [risk] issues.”

Foy cast the five approvals as a win in the long-running struggle with county road managers over various traffic issues in the Acreage/Loxahatchee area.

“I’m going to take a very positive outlook,” he told the board. “We got half of what we asked for, and, hopefully, we’ll get more in the future. So, it’s not that we have failed. We have succeeded, and I look forward to getting these [installed].”

Those intersections not approved for four-way stops are: Mandarin Blvd. and Temple Blvd.; 140th Avenue North and Citrus Grove Blvd.; 140th Avenue North and Temple Blvd.; 120th Avenue North and Tangerine Blvd.; and Orange Grove Blvd. and Coconut Blvd.

“It’s a good start,” ITID Executive Director Burgess Hanson said. “But we’re not going to give up on the ones that were not approved. We’re going to put in another request with the county.”

Vassalotti, who ran on a traffic safety platform in 2024, agreed.

“We’ll take the five, but we’ll be going back to the county for more,” he said. “Our residents want them.”

ITID President Elizabeth Accomando said that the district has been “trying to get more stop signs for a long time.”

“We’re grateful for any we got,” she said. “Our goal is to keep our residents safe.”

In other business:

• The supervisors authorized a financing strategy through the financial firm of Piper Sandler for up to $3 million to pay for replacing aging field lights at Acreage Community Park North, and a full reconstruction of tennis/pickleball and basketball courts at Temple Park and Sycamore Park.

ITID staff emphasized that the existing Acreage Community Park lights are more than 25 years old, past their standard 20-year life, and costly to maintain, while a proposal by Musco Sports Lighting includes new wiring, controls, lightning detection and a 25-year warranty at a cost of $1.36 million.

For Temple and Sycamore, the board agreed to bid a complete rip-out and replacement at a cost of $1.28 million because contractors would not warranty partial resurfacing.

Meanwhile, Hanson said this week the question of who can play on Acreage Community Park South’s new synthetic football/soccer field is still up in the air. It currently is available for general use, he said. No fees are being collected.

Hanson said he is working with the state and county, both of which have a hand in control of the park, to find a formula that would give ITID more discretion over permitted play and fees.

• The supervisors heard parks staff describe significant deficiencies found in the newly built Coconut Park pier that the contractor agreed to correct before final inspection by the county is requested. Staff also outlined ongoing upgrades at the park, including fencing, benches, exercise equipment, irrigation and sod.
• The supervisors expanded their state lobbying contract with Rubin, Turnbull & Associates to add federal lobbying at a monthly cost of $10,500, up from $4,500. The contract is for three years.

Staff and the firm’s representatives explained that federal opportunities, including potential funding under the federal Water Resources Development Act and U.S. House appropriations could bring in as much as $75 million for projects such as the M-1 Impoundment, also known as “the 640 acres.”

“How great would it be to get some money back from the federal government,” Accomando said this week. “It’s spending a little to possibly get a lot. It’s a no-brainer.”