Mayor and Vice Mayor Swap Roles; City Ably Handles Tornado

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The April 7 Palm Beach Gardens City Council Meeting began with the annual reorganization, nominating and selecting the Mayor and Vice Mayor for the following year.  Congratulations to Mayor Chelsea Reed and Vice Mayor Rachelle Litt!  Council Member Marciano was ‘under the weather’ and not in attendance.

Christ Fellowship Church has had a big volunteer role and impact on our City.  Daniel Prieto, Deputy Leisure Services Administrator, kicked off a presentation citing the various ways the church has aided the City over the years.  Also presenting were David Reyes, Community Services Administrator and Monette Preston, Operations Manager – Community Engagement & Events.   Among the accomplishments were involvement in Operation Sister City (aiding Bay County), activating for Hurricane Dorian, and help throughout the Covid pandemic in 2020.  Todd and Julie Mullins as well as Rebecca Kyle, Director of Missions were honored and a brick honoring Christ Fellowship is now at City Hall.

Next up was Joann Skaria,  Planning Manager, AICP, explaining the mobility related grant applications contained in Resolution 15, 2022 and Resolution 16, 2022.  Both projects (adding bike lanes and sidewalks to Gardens Parkway and Fairchild Avenue, respectively, were already in the City’s mobility plan.  Ms. Skaria then segued to describing the Vision Zero Network program – an association of cities that support the Vision Zero objectives: “Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all.” 

As part of the City Manager Report, David Reyes gave an ‘After Action Damage Assessment Report” on the Tornado and storm which hit Palm Beach Gardens the day before.   While Burns Rd Community Center was hardest hit, there were numerous emergency calls and lightening caused brush fires occurring at the same time.   Mr Reyes described how these are the exact kind of emergencies the teams prepare for – whether big or small, and individual departments worked as a team and worked to handle emergencies throughout the city.  During the peak of the storm over 150 people were moved into the Cat 5 fortified section of the Community Center – designed for just this kind of event.  He also showed a few short videos of the tornado forming and the force of the winds impacting the City pool.  By 7:30pm everything had been take care of and the crews were able to go home.  All on the Council were very appreciative and lauded the preparedness and actions of the staff.

Todd Engle, City Engineer then gave a short update widening on the various sections of Northlake Drive in the western sections of the City.

The Consent Agenda and Resolution 20, 2022 regarding the Incentive Agreement with Aeroclean (pulled to highlight the positive relationship) passed 4:0.

Public Comment was made by:

• Resident Gary Bernstein, who living near the Lighthouse RR crossing, requested that the area be made a Quiet Zone as soon as possible due to the frequent train horns throughout the night, every night.
• Resident Douglas Grant who thanks the City for assistance the previous year in closing down two unofficial daycares being run out of residences – but now had noise issue from unsupervised children and wanted the assistance of Code Enforcement.

Ordinance 2, 2022 passed 4:0 on Second Reading and Adoption.

The last item on the agenda was the Council deciding on External Board and Committee appointments.  There was no City Attorney report.