By Steve Plunkett
Creating new signs at the town’s entryways and choosing a slogan to put on them aren’t the top goals of Highland Beach’s new three-year strategic plan, but they may be the ones finished first.
“We love our town. Let’s make it look nice coming in,” Vice Mayor Ron Brown said as commissioners wrangled over the final list at their April workshop and the regular meeting May 1.
Highland Beach will hold a contest to come up with the new slogan. Details of the competition will appear in the next town newsletter.
“I’ll throw out a few suggestions, like ‘Jewel of a Town’ … ‘First in Safety and Service,’ “ Commissioner Lou Stern said.
Mayor Bernard Featherman began the push for a strategic plan soon after he was elected last year. Highland Beach’s advisory boards channeled possible goals to the Planning Board, which narrowed the list before forwarding it to the commission.
“You really have to look at four or five goals to adhere to and concentrate on those, because that makes them doable,” Featherman said.
Other top goals are:
- Continue to work with the state on a plan to improve safety for motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists on A1A;
- Address the use of reserves to balance the budget;
- Renovate Town Hall;
- Repair and repave the town’s walking path.
Less-important goals were to work on a joint effort to oversee Intracoastal Waterway safety concerns and sell surplus property in Boca Raton. Dropped from the plan were suggestions to provide water and covered rest stops on the walking path and procure a “sitting park” on A1A.
“A strategic plan should be ongoing,” Featherman said. “Even though it’s a three-year plan, you can revise it — every year if you want to.”
While the sitting park did not make the plan, commissioners authorized Brown to investigate the town acquiring a vacant parcel at 3200 S. Ocean Blvd.
In other business, they confirmed the mayor’s nomination of Eugene Engelhardt to the Charter Review Board.
Engelhardt told commissioners he was a chemical engineer for a DuPont spinoff and was steeped in DuPont’s corporate culture of planning and teamwork. He also has been active in the Toscana condominium association, he said.
The nomination was Featherman’s fourth for the charter review seat. His first choice, Marc Saltzberg, also a Toscana resident, resigned. Commissioners declined to confirm Carl Feldman or Deanna Kelvin as a replacement. Feldman managed the mayor’s campaign in 2011 and George Kelvin’s unsuccessful Town Commission campaign in March. Deanna Kelvin is George Kelvin’s wife. Ú
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