By Steve Plunkett
The names are in — 294 suggestions for what to call Boca Raton’s soon-to-be integrated Wildflower property and Silver Palm Park on the Intracoastal Waterway.
And the winner is: Wildflower Park and Silver Palm Park.
“I had a feeling that’s the way it would end up,” council member Andrea O’Rourke said. “I think the public has spoken.”
Mayor Scott Singer reviewed the submissions, which were collected online in November and December, at the City Council’s Jan. 13 workshop.
“Far and away, and I don’t know if it’s a majority because not everything was logged exactly, but the furthest plurality was to keep things named as the Wildflower Silver Palm Park,” Singer said.
Variants included Wild Palm Park and Silver Flower Park. The People’s Park, Bridge Park and Camino Love Park also were proposed.
“The other names that were offered — there didn’t seem to be any sort of consensus for a variety of names,” Singer said, concluding that the city should keep the names as is.
Council member Andy Thomson agreed with Singer’s assessment, “with the understanding that if a very generous donor came into the city and offered to name it, a suitable name, that we would be willing to consider that.”
And council member Monica Mayotte was “perfectly fine” with keeping the names but said, “We need some wildflowers, we need some landscaping at the park so the name is appropriate.”
Work on the $6.8 million waterfront park project is scheduled to begin next fall.
Council members also discussed the wall that straddles the east property line of a private parcel at the northeast corner of Palmetto Park Road and Northeast Fifth Avenue next to the Wildflower site. The corner held Maxwell’s Chophouse until the restaurant was razed in 2007.
“The wall is unsightly. Something needs to be done,” O’Rourke said.
City staff will contact the property’s owner seeking permission to at least paint the wall.
In other business, Singer said he would give a State of the City address at the Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center, tentatively set for Feb. 18, to highlight Boca Raton’s last year.
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