News

By Mary Thurwachter
    
    With bustling restaurants and shops along Lantana’s Ocean Avenue, parking has long been a problem. But a new lease agreement between Mario’s Ocean Avenue restaurant and the town for employee parking on a little-used town-owned lot on Third Street will give some relief.
    Restaurant owner Henry Olmino will pay the town $3,750 a year for exclusive use of the lot for his employees. The lot, next to Benny’s Seafood restaurant and west (across Dixie Highway and the railroad tracks) from Mario’s, will not be used for customer valet parking.
    The money will be used to help defray the town’s cost to repave the lot, a $29,440 expenditure agreed on last December. For a while, the town planned to use old parking meters from the beach on the lot, but neighbors complained and the idea of leasing the lot by one or more of the restaurants was brought up by council member Tom Deringer.
    Mayor Dave Stewart said he thought the lease was too low, but voted with other council members to approve the deal. Lantana Chamber of Commerce President Dave Arm told the council leasing the lot is “a terrific idea.”
    In other action during August, the Town Council:
    • Approved an extension of a lease agreement between the town and the Chamber for the property at 212 Iris Ave. for $1.
    • Reappointed Arthur Brooks as a regular member of the Planning Commission and Edward Shropshire and C. Lyn Tate as alternates.
    • Approved a $5,000-a-month agreement with Ballard Partners Inc. for lobbyist services. The lobbyists helped the town secure $1 million from the state last year toward moving and rebuilding ball fields from prime space on the A.G. Holley property. The developers agreed to pay another $2.5 million for the project. Ú