West Palm Beach Waterfront Survey
Nov 14, 2011 - Waterfront
The City of West Palm Beach is conducting a brief survey about our Downtown Waterfront and we want to hear from you! Please take a moment and complete this survey and, if possible, forward on to your friends. We appreciate your opinions and time~ thank you!
15 Municipalities Unite to Protect Taxpayer Against Double Taxation
Nov 10, 2011 - Mayor's Office
Palm Beach County has instituted an Inspector General Program designed to eliminate fraud, waste, mismanagement, misconduct or abuse from county and municipal governments. While municipalities across the county support this concept, the funding for this 3.5 million dollar program comes from taxpayers, and those living in municipalities in Palm Beach County would be taxed twice. To protect our residents, the 15 municipalities intend to participate in a lawsuit against Palm Beach County asking the circuit court to determine our rights and declare the funding for the inspector general program unlawful. The municipalities believe the funding mechanism for the program is unlawful for multiple reasons:
(1)Municipal residents already pay for the inspector general’s services through their county tax bill, but have to pay again through their municipal tax bill meaning they pay for the same service twice;
(2)It is a tax not authorized by general law;
(3)Municipalities have no lawful means to collect the charges through vendor contracts; (4)Municipalities have no lawful means to collect the charges through special assessments on vendor contracts;
(5)There is no legal authority for calculating a municipality’s share based on municipal expenses.
In order to be lawful, the municipalities believe that the inspector general program funding should be handled like funding for all of the other countywide programs meaning the County would pay for the program in its entirety. Each city and unincorporated county taxpayer would pay for the inspector general’s services in a lawful manner, the county would retain control over its budget responsibilities, and the municipalities would retain control over their budget responsibilities.
Participating Municipalities include:
TOWN OF GULF STREAM
VILLAGE OF TEQUESTA
CITY OF RIVIERA BEACH
TOWN OF JUPITER
CITY OF DELRAY BEACH
TOWN OF PALM BEACH SHORES
TOWN OF MANALAPAN
VILLAGE OF WELLINGTON
TOWN OF MANGONIA PARK
CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS
TOWN OF HIGHLAND BEACH
TOWN OF LAKE PARK
CITY OF WEST PALM BEACH
TOWN OF OCEAN RIDGE
CITY OF BOCA RATON
The municipalities are united in their support to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse for local governments but also support the concept that funding for any program must be accomplished in a fair manner that does not result in taxing citizens twice.
Community Events Earns 11 Awards at International Event Conference
Nov 02, 2011 - Community Events
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Community Events Division of the City of West Palm Beach has continued its streak of excellence this month at the International Festivals and Events Association convention, earning four gold, six silver and a bronze award for its programming and design. The division, which has collectively won more than 100 international, national and regional awards since 1995, earned more awards at IFAE this year than any municipality at the same budget level ($250,000 or less).
Fourth on Flagler earned gold awards for Best Event and Best T-Shirt design; a silver award for Best Promotional Poster, Best Press Kit/Media Kit and Best Miscellaneous Clothing; as well as a Bronze for Best TV Promotion. The GreenMarket, now located on the waterfront, earned a Gold Award for Best Miscellaneous Printed Materials and Best Event Web site. The City’s Cowboys on the Waterfront month, held February 2011, earned a Gold for Best New Promotion and a Silver award for Most Creative/Effective News Stunt for its Cattle Drive Down Clematis.
The City’s Community Events division is responsible for every detail for hundreds of events each year, including the weekly concert series, Clematis by Night, the popular GreenMarket, Sunday on the Waterfront, 4th on Flagler and dozens of holiday events.
For more information about events and programs in West Palm Beach, please visit the City’s events calendar at http://www.wpb.org/CityCalendar/
West Palm Beach Redevelopment Projects Win State Award
Oct 27, 2011 - CRA
WEST PALM BEACH REDEVELOPMENT PROJECTS WIN STATE AWARD
West Palm Beach, Fla. — The West Palm Beach Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) received two awards out of 12 throughout the state recognized by the Florida Redevelopment Association (FRA). The awards are given to projects that exhibit the best practices in Florida redevelopment over the past year. The winners were honored during the 2011 Annual Conference awards dinner held on October 20 at the Hilton Orlando.
This year, the West Palm Beach CRA has earned the award in the category “Out of the Box” for its project Pleasant City: A Community Inspired, a grassroots effort to empower a neighborhood, by creating relationships, partnerships and programs designed for the specific needs of the Pleasant City Community. They also walked away with the award in the category Cultural Enhancement for their work with the Cuillo Theatre which stood vacant and abandoned for almost a year before the West Palm Beach CRA purchased the property after negotiating a lease with option to purchase agreement with a local theater company that was looking to expand to a larger facility. The project will bring a much needed cultural attraction to the downtown.
“Winning one award is fantastic, but to be recognized for two outstanding projects is simply an honor and one that we are extremely excited about.” said CRA Chair and City of West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio. “We are proud of the progress we make every year and look forward to another year of innovative projects that enhance our community.”
The FRA awards committee carefully selects the winners from over 60 entries. All of the entries embody the spirit of successful community redevelopment and revitalization. “Through a lot of hard work, successful partnerships and local support, these projects are completed and have helped to rebuild that community in some way,” said Kurt Easton, FRA president.
For more information about the West Palm Beach CRA or any of their projects, contact Kate Volman at (561) 822-1551 or visit www.wpbcra.com.
Free Gigapxl Photo Exhibit in Celebration of Art & Humanities Month
Oct 07, 2011 - Art, Waterfront
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (October 6, 2011) – The Boca Raton Museum of Art will feature part of its Permanent Collection of the Graham Flint Portrait of America: Images from the Gigapxl™ Project at the Lake Pavilion (101 South Flagler Drive, West Palm Beach, FL) on the West Palm Beach Waterfront to celebrate National Arts and Humanities Month in October.
The dynamic exhibit, which is free and open to the public, will be open Thursdays to Sundays for three weeks, beginning October 13. Guests can tour the exhibit on Thursdays and Fridays from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Those interested are invited to a public reception on Oct. 14 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. that celebrates the exhibition’s return. It has not been shown locally in four years.
The exhibit highlights cutting-edge photography, as images are featured using digital cameras that take high-resolution images measured in ‘gigapixels.’ This means that photographs are so detailed you in zoom in to 1/10,000th of the original image and still retain high-quality information.
The inventor of that technology is physicist-turned-photographer Graham Flint, designer of high-powered cameras for uses ranging from Cold War espionage to the Hubble Space Telescope. Since 2000, he has been producing ultra-high-resolution Gigapxl™ photographs (more than one billion pixels). With cutting edge optics, film technology, and digital processing, Flint has been able to create photographs with unprecedented amounts of detail.
This exhibition presents Flint’s images from his “Portrait of America” project which was subsequently integrated into the massive Google Earth Project. Flint’s awe-inspiring photographs documenting landscape and imagery are printed at maximum resolution, resulting in images that render the finest detail (even numbers on license plates).
The event is sponsored by the City of West Palm Beach Art in Public Places (AIPP) committee. For more information about the City of West Palm Beach and its waterfront events, visit www.wpb.org/waterfront. For more information about the City of West Palm Beach’s Arts in Public Places, visit www.wpb.org/AIPP.