Dear District 6 Residents,


Welcome to this month's edition of our community newsletter! We are excited to bring you the most recent developments throughout our community, and highlights from the last month.

This summer, all school-aged kids can enjoy FREE lunch and snacks at every Palm Beach County Library branch! 📚✨ 🗓️ Schedule: Lunch: Monday-Friday, 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Snacks: Monday-Friday, 2 p.m. & 5 p.m. Thanks to The School District of Palm Beach County for making this possible! 🎉 🌟 Weekend Meal Kits 🌟 Grab your weekend meal kits every Friday at select branches

Acreage

Loxahatchee

ROADS AND STREETS UPDATE


Lyon's Road/Sansbury Way from Forest Hills Blvd to Southern Blvd. Separated Bike Lane Installation. Periodic northbound and southbound traffic shift.

Seminole Pratt Whitney Road at Northlake Drainage work. Northbound right turn lane closure.

Seminole Pratt Whitney Road from Northlake Blvd. to 90th St. North. Road widening with periotic lane closures and flagmen controlling traffic.

Seminole Pratt Whitney Road north of 87th Lane N. Culvert installation with eastbound and westbound traffic shift.

Orange Blvd approximately 450 feet east of Avocado Blvd to approximately 30 feet east of 120th Ave. N. FPL Pole replacements. Periodic lane closure with flaggers controlling traffic.

Northlake Blvd. approximately 495 feet west of Coconut Blvd. Widening and drainage repairs. Eastbound right lane closure.

Westlake

Commissioner Baxter gave a legislative update at the Greater Wellington Chamber of Commerce. It was well attended and very informative. The Commissioner updated on the progress of bills in Tallahassee and was accompanied by Casey Denny, Palm Beach County's lobbyist.

Acreage



Commissioner Baxter attended the graduation ceremony at Seminole Ridge High School. Thank you for all the hard work by the teachers, School Board Representative Marcia Andrews and Superintendent Burke.

Congratulations to the Class of 2024!


Glade's Communities

The Glades Legislative Update held by Commissioner Baxter was an extremely informative evening for those in attendance. Joining the Commissioner were the Mayors from Belle Glade and South Bay, and Commissioners from the tri-cities.

Representatives of the county included Parks and Recreation Director, Jennifer Cirillo, who spoke on new programs, such as Schools to the Pools that will teach Kindergarten to 2nd grade students to swim. PBC Water Utilities Director, Ali Bayat, gave an update on underground utilities being installed in the Glades areas. FDOT Outreach Liaison, Melissa Reading informed the crowd of roads to be constructed and streets under construction with approximate completion dates.

Commissioner Baxter spoke about her efforts in Tallahassee to fund State Road 880 reconstruction and efforts to support the cities requests in Tallahassee for this legislative session.

State Road 7 Hearing Update

The State Road 7 Administrative Final Hearing resumed on Friday, May 17, with the last day of Respondents’ rebuttal testimony, which was held virtually. FDOT recalled Dr. Steven Peene, a Principal with Water Resources Applied Technology & Management. He testified that the calculations associated with the SR-7 discharge runoff are contrary to the testimony of WPB experts Dr.’s Perez & Janicki. Dr. Peene also testified that he did not believe City’s model constructed by Dr. Janicki was realistic and consistent with to how the wetlands behave. Dr. Peene also discussed the expected total phosphorus and total nitrogen concentrations in the discharge leaving the stormwater system outfall north of Northlake Blvd. 


Barbara Conmy of South Florida Water Management District (District), testified regarding the environmental portion of ERP review. Conmy testified that DuPuis Reserve, Pine Glades West Mitigation Area, and Loxahatchee Mitigation Area are not required to provide greater long-term ecological value than the areas proposed to be adversely affected, but that the District required offset mitigation to be done pursuant to the Applicant handbook requirement. She also testified that the Respondent’s (FDOT and County) went above what was required to implement practical measures for long term ecological value, and that the applicants were not required to consider design modifications because they met the requirement of the Opt-Out provision.


Jesse Markle of the District testified regarding the engineering stormwater system of the ERP, including the Public Interest Test. Markle emphasized that project would also provide additional hurricane preparedness and cleanup efforts, and will widen the 2-lane road and create a 4-lane road where there isn’t one, which will help hurricane preparedness. He also testified that there are a myriad of ways to design stormwater system and as far as method, the requirement is to meet ERP criteria, not how criteria should be met. Markle further testified that the applicants provided reasonable assurances regarding conditions of issuance for stormwater management design.


On Monday May 20, the City of WPB commenced its Sur-Rebuttal testimony and re-called Elizabeth Perez as a witness. Perez was the sole witness called for the day and gave her opinions as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyst and an expert on surface water models. As Perez had previously testified, her current opinions were limited to rebutting FDOT’s rebuttal testimony (sur-rebuttal). Perez’s testimony was focused primarily on the credibility of the work and testimony of FDOT’s expert Dr. King. Perez testified that Dr. King had a flawed analysis in his flood assessment model that did not support his conclusions regarding stormwater flow associated with SR-7.

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A significant portion the City’s sur-rebuttal case resulted in the judge ruling on objections, lengthy Motions in Limine, and the judge rulings and instructions to ensure that the City’s witnesses’ testimony were limited to sur-rebuttal testimony only. 

 

WPB’s Geologist Steven Memberg testified on the issues he disagreed with in Dr. King’s testimony, specifically the issue of flow net as a graphical representation, indicating where water discharges, recharges and moves through the ground. He emphasized that Dr. Kings flow chart was not drawn correctly, which resulted in a false conclusion that only one-seventh of the water in the dry retention swale will infiltrate into the wet conveyance channel, and in Memberg’s opinion the number should be 50%.



Laura Kuebler, a Modeler, testified for the City and emphasized that she disagreed with Dr. King’s opinion in which he attributed the reduction in Grassy Waters Preserve water levels to the City’s water managers who stopped pumping in water June 2016, but kept withdrawing water from Control 4 through June, July and the beginning of August. Kuebler said the City pumps water into the M-Canal portion of the Grassy Waters Preserve as opposed to directly into the Grassy Water Preserve. Kuebler also testified that Dr. King’s groundwater model did not express surface waters accurately.


Another of City’s expert Dr. Harvey Harper, an Engineer, testified on the history of stormwater treatment to enhance the overall effectiveness of treatment systems via treatment trains. He testified that he was given a contract by The DEP to evaluate design criteria in Florida in 2007, as there was a wide range of calculation types and assumptions being made in applications submitted for ERP permits. Dr. Harper testified that the Respondents’ treatment train methodology is inappropriate and concluded Respondents’ expert Dr. Peene’s calculations re pollutant removal efficiencies were based erroneously on offline systems. Dr. Harvey also questioned the methodology used by the District in issuing the ERP permit. However, Dr. Harvey later retracted some of his prior opinions in cross-examination regarding Dr. Peene’s use of offline systems.    


Dr. Evelyn Gaiser testified for the city regarding the uptake of Total Phosphorus in the primary wetland area compared to the data from the everglades, to rebut the testimony presented by Respondents’ expert as to the uptake of phosphorus sediments in the water catchment area.


 Another of the City’s expert Dr. Anthony Janicki testified as to the calculation of the total phosphorus aerial loadings to primary wetlands based on Dr. Harper’s calculations. He also asserted that the Dr. Peene’s estimate of what critical loading should be for the primary wetland, was incorrect.


At the conclusion of the hearing the parties were given ninety (90) days after the official transcript is filed with DOAH, to submit Proposed Recommended Orders for the judge’s consideration, after which the judge will issue her Recommended Order on the case.

Proclamations

Ribbon Cuttings

Palm Beach County Commissioners, Mayor and Vice Mayor presented Representative Rick Roth, Senator Bobby Powell and Senator David Silvers commemorative plaques for their dedicated service to the communities they represent in Palm Beach County. Thank you to these public servants for all the hard work during their terms in office!




Commissioner Baxter met with Senator Scott recently during his trip to Palm Beach County to discuss issues relative to her district!

Commissioner Baxter was proud and humbled to be able to declare May 7th as the "NATIONAL DAY of PRAYER " in Palm Beach County!

Upcoming Meetings

Board of County Commissioners Zoning Meeting

June 20,2024 9:30 am

301 N. Olive Ave. 6th Floor

West Palm Beach, Fl. 33401


Board of County Commissioners Meeting

July 2,2024 9:30 am

301 N. Olive Ave. 6th Floor

West Palm Beach, Fl. 33401


Contact Your Commissioner

Commissioner Sara Baxter

Sbaxter@pbc.gov

561-355-2206

Joe LaFauci

Commission Administrative Assistant

JLaFauci@pbc.gov

Regina Bohlen

Commission Administrative Assistant

RBohlen@pbc.gov

Crystal Scalese

Commission Administrative Assistant

CScalese@pbc.gov

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