By Steve Plunkett
Roadway catch basins are stacked up behind Town Hall, and the right-of-way on Wright Way is staked out, but even before Gulf Stream’s street and drainage improvement project in its Core district kicked off, officials were making changes.
First off, the project started on Wright Way at the north end of the construction zone and will work its way south, reaching Golfview Drive in December. That’s the reverse of what town residents were told at an informational meeting on the project in March.
At the April 12 Town Commission meeting, Town Manager Greg Dunham recommended at least two changes to the overall plan: keeping Old School Road wider than it seems to be and widening part of Banyan Road.
Old School, as approved, would have become 18 feet wide.
But, Dunham said, “There’s actually about 20 to 21 feet there now. It’s just all covered up with grass and some people don’t even know that.
“Our preference is not to reduce the width of any of the streets that we already have,” he said.
The section of Banyan west of Polo Drive is now 18 feet wide, “but that’s another street that is always subject to rutting” when vehicles go off the pavement. “And so we’d like to widen that to 20 feet,” Dunham said.
Commissioners agreed that Baxter and Woodman Consulting Engineers should work up change orders and prices and Dunham should return for approval.
King tides due in October and November were the reason for starting the project on Wright Way and Old School, which Mayor Scott Morgan noted was the lowest point in Gulf Stream.
Baxter and Woodman has set up a hotline for residents to lodge complaints (855-228-3436) and a website to track progress (www.CoreAreaRoadwork.com). The website can also be accessed at the town’s website (www.gulf-stream.org).
Gulf Stream School
Also on April 12, commissioners approved an amendment to the developer’s agreement the town has with the Gulf Stream School keeping the number of students there “not to exceed 300” through the 2028-29 school year.
Commissioners were surprised in January 2023 to be told that the school had 294 students after enrolling 270 the year before and 260 the year before that — despite the 250-student cap to which the school had agreed in 1994.
Commissioners gave temporary permission setting the limit at 300 until a legal document could be hashed out and required the school to submit a head count every October.
Police Chief Richard Jones said he had personally monitored traffic for several days before the commission meeting to gauge the effect on traffic of parents dropping off their children at the school.
“What we’ve seen and what we’ve timed is that at no point in time on Sea Road specifically have there been more than five vehicles lined up to exit onto A1A,” Jones said. “And the longest that any of those vehicles waited was 1 minute 6 seconds, which is about half the time that you typically wait at a normal red light.”
Before voting, Commissioner Joan Orthwein cautioned the school to pay attention to the 300-student limit.
“I am for this, but I wish it hadn’t happened the way it did. And also I hope that we maintain 300 people and not go over that and have a count every year so that the commission isn’t surprised by more students in the future,” Orthwein said.
“And also I want to mention that the school is a very special place, but it should maintain a little school-by-the-sea, not let’s-see-how-big-we-can-get.”
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