By Steve Plunkett
Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s parking lot will soon get two parking spaces, to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and an ADA-compliant ramp from the parking lot to the boardwalk.
But rebuilding the center’s observation tower, a project that originally included creating the handicapped parking spots, will likely not happen this year.
Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District commissioners approved spending $81,612 for the parking spaces on May 2 after being told that it is too soon to rebid the tower.
“City staff will continue (to) monitor the market conditions. The next 6 months do not look favorable,” Michael Kalvort, the city’s recreation services director, said in an April email to the district.
“It looks like the tower’s being postponed indefinitely,” Commissioner Steve Engel said.
But district officials will meet with their city colleagues to see why other tower designs were not considered and to look for quicker alternatives.
District and city officials were shocked in February when they received only one bid of $2.6 million for the work — $1.2 million more than the pre-bid estimate.
The bid was rejected and officials planned to wait for prices to come down before rebidding the work. Spring was the initial date set for re-evaluating the market.
District commissioners worried in April that paying for the parking now might delay rebidding the observation tower.
“If we take this out, it sounds like we’re suggesting that they just go get this piece and that would be it,” Commissioner Craig Ehrnst said at the district’s April 4 meeting.
Boca Raton owns and staffs Gumbo Limbo, which is part of Red Reef Park; the Beach and Park District pays for all its operations and maintenance as well as all capital improvements.
The parking lot project will add two 12-foot-wide spaces separated by a 6-foot-wide space at the southeast corner of the nature center. A 13-foot-long inclined ramp matching the boardwalk will offer access to it.
A $345,000 Gumbo Limbo Master Plan to begin later will add an ADA-compliant entrance to the nature center, a third ADA-compliant parking space and new ADA-compliant doors to the facility and the boardwalk. The plan also includes ADA-compliant upgrades to the restrooms.
Boca Raton demolished Gumbo Limbo’s popular 40-foot-tall tower after engineers in early 2015 declared it and the adjoining boardwalk to be unsafe. The boardwalk was rebuilt in phases and fully reopened in July 2019.
In other action, Beach and Park District commissioners gave Briann Harms, their executive director, a pay raise to $135,000 a year, up from $111,000, after a survey of comparable positions showed salaries ranging from $149,000 to $179,000
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