By Brian Biggane
After a lengthy discussion, the South Palm Beach Town Council voted 4-1 at its September meeting to prohibit all dogs except service animals from walking on town property. Councilman Raymond McMillan cast the dissenting vote.
The town had posted four signs asking residents to clean up after their pets along the Town Hall driveway and installed a free pet-waste bag station behind the building, all to no avail.
Mayor Bonnie Fischer began the discussion by pointing out that the town already has a resolution prohibiting dogs on the beach, “and that’s not working well.” She wondered if the Sheriff’s Office, which has a substation in Town Hall, should get involved in enforcement.
“But that’s public property,” Town Attorney Glen Torcivia responded. “This is town property so it’s up to the town to enforce it.” Enforcement, according to the new law, will be left in the hands of Town Manager Jamie Titcomb.
“So now I’m the poop police?” Titcomb said.
The council hoped new “No Dogs Allowed” signs would be respected. Members agreed that the current signs and bag station would be removed.
“I’m very much in favor of this,” said Councilman Monte Berendes, who brought up the subject at a previous meeting. “Let’s see how it works.”
McMillan then stated: “I’m going to be a ‘no’ vote on this. There’s going to be problems with the cops, problems with the dogs, problems with the town manager.”
“Like with most regulations, you hope people are going to follow the rules,” Torcivia said. “Just like a red light, if somebody runs it, you hope there isn’t a crash. People don’t follow the rules all the time. But that doesn’t mean you don’t make the rules.”
Ellen Salth was the only resident to offer an opinion, saying, “I know each complex doesn’t want to have dogs walking on their property, so this is not an unusual situation to ask for. … If the sign says, ‘No walking dogs on property,’ there’s no walking dogs on property.”
Berendes said: “We’re going to have a new complex here, so the time to start is now. ... We’re going to have pushback; we’ll deal with it.”
Titcomb added, “We’re modifying people’s behavior over time, so they’re not going to come back and start using the new campus as a dog park.”
In other business:
• Erik Scheuermann of Archetype Homes LLC offered a demonstration of SIPs (structural insulated panels) as the town continues to work toward the design and building of a new Town Hall and community center.
Scheuermann told the council that the panels are stronger and quicker to construct than similar building materials, as well as more resistant to hurricanes.
He said he has case studies from across Florida where hurricanes ravaged whole neighborhoods but the structures built with SIPs remained undisturbed.
The council discussed where the town will conduct its business once the current hall is demolished, as no commercial buildings lie within town limits. No solution was reached.
The council plans to put out a call for bids on the design and construction, to be discussed at the October meeting.
• The council paid tribute to former council member Stella Gaddy Jordan, who died Sept. 4.
• Town Clerk Yude Davenport was presented with the master municipal clerk designation from the International Institute of Municipal Clerks. Only 9.3% of the more than 14,000 clerks nationwide have achieved the MMC designation.
• The council approved a new sign for the Dune Deck condominium; the sign is slightly larger than town ordinance specifies.
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