By Steve Plunkett
Place Au Soleil homeowners will install four security cameras to track comings and goings while they widen the entrance road to their community across the street from the Walmart being built in Boynton Beach.
“I think that’s all part of a message to the outsiders: This is a class town, and beware!’’ homeowner association representative Ned McDonald said.
Town commissioners at their August meeting agreed to act as a “bank of Gulf Stream’’ and lend the homeowners up to $90,000 for the project while the group collects $800 special assessments from its members. The town also will contribute $10,000 and the Gulf Stream Civic Association $7,500.
McDonald said 15 homeowners had already paid a discounted $750 before letters could go out seeking the money. The association voted 54-6 in favor of the project.
The Place Au Soleil homeowners have talked about fixing up the entrance for years, McDonald said.
“We really turned the jets on when we learned that Walmart was coming,’’ he said.
The road on either side of the guardhouse is too narrow for fire engines and some delivery trucks, which run over and crumble the curb or hit the guardhouse’s tiled roof. The new curbs will be farther from the guardhouse and swale-shaped to minimize the chance of their breaking.
McDonald said the improvements would be top-notch. “Whether someone is coming in from the east side of Gulf Stream or from the west side of Gulf Stream, your front entrance is going to be an ‘ahh’ moment. It’s going to be, ‘This is class, this is really special,’ ’’ he said.
The Walmart, at the northwest corner of Federal Highway and Gulfstream Boulevard where the Platinum Gold strip club used to be, is scheduled to open Oct. 26, about two months before the Place Au Soleil project is finished. The store will be open 24 hours a day seven days a week.
“There’s a lot of information out there that indicates that crime surrounding a 24/7 Walmart increases,’’ Town Manager William Thrasher said.
Two of the cameras will record pedestrians; the other two will capture license
plates.
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