News

By Jane Smith

    The fate of the old Boynton Beach High School and the county possibly providing public safety services will be discussed at the Aug. 4 Boynton Beach City Commission meeting.
    The topics were named priorities at the city’s strategic planning sessions held in mid-June. Elected officials, working with city staff, developed action plans for the next year.
    Vice Mayor Joe Casello championed both actions. As to the old high school, he said, “Let’s find the funds and knock it down.” Mayor Jerry Taylor quickly agreed.
    But Woodrow Hay, a former mayor and current Community Redevelopment Agency board member, urged caution. “If we made a decision today (June 17), it would be perceived as being under-the-table,” he said.
    For the public safety contracts, Casello said, “Just for the record, we have the two finest and most professional leaders in our public safety chiefs. It’s not about confidence at all, but looking out for the taxpayer — how to get the highest level of services for the lowest cost.”
    Boynton Beach also provides fire-rescue service to Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes.
    The high school, built in 1927, occupies 28,240 square feet on two floors. “It can’t be secured for a hurricane,” said Jeff Livergood, the city’s public works director. The roof will not support [construction] people on it, he said, but its walls and the exterior can be saved.
    The city has eight reports on its condition. Livergood would do a ninth report compiling info from each of those reports.
    The building last housed elementary students in 1990. Three years later, the city bought the structure from the county School Board. Ever since, the fate of the high school surfaces every few years.
    Commissioner David Merkel also wants to know the status of a lawsuit filed by a Lake Worth architect whose event-center plan was not chosen.
    The high school could become a community building project to create a civic center, the same way as playgrounds are built, Commissioner Mike Fitzpatrick said. “The walls are as strong as walls approved by the city for new houses. The wood is all Dade County pine,” he said.
    The City Commission will have to decide quickly. The fate of the high school also affects its Town Square plan, for which the city manager hopes to bring a proposal to an October commission meeting.
    The public safety contracts could take as much as a year to get information from the county fire-rescue and Sheriff’s Office, City Manager Lori LaVerriere told commissioners during the strategic planning sessions.
    The city has a copy of the report Delray Beach received from the county fire-rescue last year when it was considering switching to county service. Boynton Beach Fire Chief Ray Carter said the comparison would be apt because Delray Beach’s department is most similar to Boynton’s.
    Casello continued to hammer on the rising costs of the city public safety departments:  $21 million for fire-rescue and more than $28 million for police. “Payouts from multiple lawsuits (against the Police Department) have cost the city more than $2 million,” he said.
    “It’s not just dollars and cents,” Commissioner Merkel said, “but what is better for the citizens of Boynton Beach.” He wondered whether it was just a way to get out from under the burden of public safety pensions, which are weighing the city down. Commissioner Fitzpatrick spoke of philosophical problems of losing control. “Where does the buck stop if the Sheriff’s Office is here? Who is in charge?” he asked.
    In other action, the commission and the CRA board agreed to start a Clean and Safe Program in the city’s downtown. The community policing and code enforcement elements will be ready in January; the maintenance part could go into effect in October.