By Mary Thurwachter
Lantana Mayor Karen Lythgoe carved out a half hour of the Feb. 10 Town Council meeting to tout the town’s achievements during the past year.
Typically, the end-of-year report is made available to news media and published on the town’s website, but Lythgoe said she was so proud of accomplishments in 2024, she took the opportunity to address the community herself.
She also wanted to combat what she said was misinformation being circulated via Facebook.
“Regardless of some of the things you may or may not have read on social media, we are actually accomplishing things,” Lythgoe said. “We are doing what we say we’re doing and we’re not on the take. There’s a lot of people who’ve got nothing better to do with their time than to be miserable and to make other people miserable too by telling them how badly they’re getting screwed by their government.”
She encouraged people with questions about what they read online to contact Town Manager Brian Raducci.
Both Vice Mayor Mark Zeitler and Lythgoe have lived in Lantana since they were kids and have seen a lot of changes, “a lot for the better,” she said.
“I know people say it’s not like it was,” Lythgoe said. “Well, it wasn’t really all that great all the time. We’re trying to spruce it up and enhance the quality of life for our residents.”
Among the accomplishments in 2024, Lythgoe highlighted what the town did to maintain its infrastructure. That included working with FPL to repair non-functional streetlights, resurfacing the basketball courts at the sports park, restoring the centennial sculpture at Bicentennial Park, and working with the county’s traffic division to enhance traffic light synchronization on Lantana Road.
Additionally, the town replaced water mains and completed the Sea Pines stormwater pump station construction project.
The report outlines improvements to the Hypoluxo Island drainage project and mentions that Lantana adopted a stormwater assessment program.
Beautification efforts achieved last year included removing invasive plants and trees at the Lantana Nature Preserve and replacing a large, deteriorated timber pedestrian bridge there. Other steps taken to make the town more attractive included displaying colorful seasonal banners on major roadways, installing new fencing and concrete monuments at
Evergreen cemetery, adding an obstacle course at Maddock Dog Park and amping up the holiday lighting displays around Town Hall.
Under the heading of “responsible development,” the report mentions permits and special exceptions for Water Tower Commons and plans in progress to build apartments, shops and a community park on 18 acres at the former Kmart site.
Lythgoe said the town has been successful in its quest for grants, pulling in $2.3 million for capital improvement projects and $1.2 million in state appropriation money.
Last year the town even added $2.6 million to its reserves, bringing that total to $15.9 million.
For a look at the complete year-end report, visit lantana.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/91
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