By Mary Thurwachter
An interlocal agreement to add sand to the beaches in Palm Beach, South Palm Beach and Lantana this winter may be losing one municipality: Lantana.
It’s all about money.
When the dune restoration was hatched a few years ago, South Palm Beach, which has no public beach, agreed to pay for sand to be placed on Lantana’s beach in exchange for sand truck access via the town’s Dorothy Rissler Lane. A new plan will have dump trucks coming across Lake Worth Beach’s shoreline, south of the pier. As a result, Lantana beach access is no longer needed and because of that, Lantana would need to pay for the sand it would receive.
Lantana Mayor Karen Lythgoe says she doesn’t have an estimate for how much it would cost, but “it would be quite high.” She said the town “has a number of projects in flight this year so that would have to be incorporated into our visioning session in the future.”
Town Manager Brian Raducci “is exploring a potential opportunity, but it’s not gone further than that,” she said.
One council member, Lynn “Doc” Moorhouse, shared his thoughts on the change in plans at the Sept. 23 town meeting — and he wasn’t liking it.
“There’s going to be some beach restoration money that they’re going to be asking us for and it’s not going to be there because they’re wanting us to pay for something that they said was going to be free earlier,” Moorhouse said, “and that’s putting a burden on our town manager.
“I don’t want it to reflect in any bad light that we’re not willing to pay. It was supposed to be free. We were going to work with Palm Beach. We were going to let them use the beach, let them do all their stuff and we were going to get free sand.
“Not happening,” Moorhouse continued. “I don’t believe our town has the money to just go yippie-ki-yay. … I just want the public to know why we aren’t joining the beach project. Well, it was free before and now it’s not. This is stupid stuff. You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to like me. But that’s dumb, in my opinion.”
Raducci, in his report for September, didn’t rule out the town’s involvement.
“The Town of Palm Beach is now requesting reimbursement from the Town for sand costs only and is obtaining estimates for sand rates and quantities needed,” he wrote. “Since the sand was originally going to be provided in exchange for Dorothy Rissler access (which is no longer required), they will seek funds from Palm Beach County’s ERM (Environmental Resources Management) for sand placement in the Town.
“We are currently evaluating the need for a new interlocal agreement to proceed if the project is financially feasible for the Town.”
The project is expected to begin this winter and sand would come from a stockpile in Phipps Ocean Park in Palm Beach.
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