By Mary Thurwachter
The final vote on whether to dissolve the Lantana Nature Preserve Commission, which had been scheduled for the March 14 Town Council meeting, has been postponed until April 25.
The town made its first vote to disband the commission at its Feb. 22 meeting.
Town Attorney R. Max Lohman recommended the move, saying the commission, to which the town appoints members, and the Friends of the Lantana Nature Preserve, a nonprofit organization, frequently duplicate efforts and that only one of the groups was necessary. There are some common members to both groups and only one is covered by the Sunshine Laws regarding open meetings.
Lohman said the town was trying to protect itself and members of the two groups from getting into trouble with the Sunshine Laws.
But at the town’s March 14 meeting, past and present members of the Nature Preserve Commission, who opposed the move, said that insufficient notice was given to them about the plan to dissolve the group.
“We only meet twice a year,” said Nature Preserve Commission Chairman Paul Arena. “Our next meeting is April 5. Let us meet to discuss this.”
Former nature preserve commission member Richard Schlosberg said that “insufficient notice was given” and “the Lantana Nature Preserve Commission had stood in good service for protecting the Lantana Nature Preserve.”
Schlosberg added the commission and the Friends were “not overlapping functions but dovetailing them.”
Some residents worried that the preserve could one day disappear without proper vigilance. But council member Phil Aridas said that “the Nature Preserve will always be there.”
Lohman agreed. “When the property (former home to a town dump) was sold, there was a deed restriction that it always has to be a passive park,” he said.
“Early on, it wasn’t the same people on both so it wasn’t a problem, but as time went on, with fewer people interested (in serving on the committees), it became one,” Lohman said.
A coastal hammock between the Carlisle senior living facility on East Ocean Avenue and the Intracoastal Waterway, the Lantana Nature Preserve was created by a 1997 ordinance and came out of a lawsuit. The Carlisle pays the town $40,000 a year to maintain the park. No money comes from the town’s general fund to pay for its maintenance.
In other action, the council:
• Voted 3-1 (with Lynn Moorhouse dissenting and Tom Deringer absent) to support an effort by the County Commission to put the 1-cent infrastructure surcharge proposal on the ballot in November. The sales tax increase would yield about $220 million annually countywide, of which Lantana would receive $650,000 a year for projects such as renovating the library or Town Hall and for paving roads.
• Denied a request by Nicholas Arsali of 505 S. Atlantic Drive for a code variance to allow him to build a 6-foot-high wall along the front of his property.
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