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News Update from Town Hall - February 26, 2021

ALAN FIERS- MAYOR

Hello and Happy March to all:

Well, it is that time of the month again. It is really hard to believe that winter is almost behind us. In my mind I see those electric poles flying by the car window, except they aren’t poles, they are months and years! Oh well, I guess that comes with age. As they say, time flies when you are having fun.

UNDERGROUNDING

FPL:

We have 26 electric poles left to have wire and transformers removed and be topped. Nine of these require a long arm crane to handle the lift. So, on some streets, there will be a bit of traffic interruption. We will send out a notice when this is going to happen. The automated switch is moving along. It turns out that the existing switch on the northeast side of Ocean Avenue at the Palm Beach Shores Resort can be modified to do the job. The required parts have been designed and ordered. So, we are still on track to complete the job before storm season.

AT&T - COMCAST

Comcast:

The conversion is about 60% completed. The last run of remedial conduit was run down Lake Drive. This will enable two more sections of Town to be converted. The focus will then shift to Inlet and the southern streets (Tacoma south) from Atlantic Avenue east. The completion date remains sometime in April.

AT&T:

Someone in the AT&T organization made a clerical error and the ordering of the fiber was delayed. This will set us back by three or four weeks. So, it will be mid to late March before the fiber is run in the north half of Town. Once they start running fiber, the project will move quickly. And, as soon as the fiber installation starts, we will begin our effort to have AT&T customers convert to the new program. (Remember, by law the AT&T cable cannot be taken off the poles until ALL AT&T customers have switched to the new service).

THE JETTY MAINTENANCE PROJECT

The Corps of Engineers has completed the renovation of the riprap along the jetty. Some 56 new stones, weighing between 12 – 14 tons were placed along the jetty. A few stones that had slipped into the Inlet bottom due to wave action were also relocated. The riprap on the west end of the Inlet was reviewed by Corps engineers. The Town will be requesting that this be considered for possible maintenance. In parallel with the Corp’s work, the County and the Town of Palm Beach rebuilt the Sand Transfer Plant. It had been inoperable for several months and there was a significant sand build-up on the north wall of the Jetty. In fact, it was possible to walk to the end of the Jetty and the water was only ankle to knee-deep. It is now up and functioning and much of the accumulated sand is now on the Palm Beach shoreline.

BEACH WALKOVER REPAIR

As the beachgoers have noticed, the beach walkover is being repaired. Only the posts and the railings were preserved. The job is being done in-house, which saves up to $20,000. Placement of new supporting floor joists (2 x 8s) will begin this week and run for about ten days. Placement of new deck boards will follow. The entire project should run three to four weeks.

COMMUNITY CENTER TERMITE TREATMENT

The Community Center has been invaded by dry wood termites! (We are fortunate that the infestation is not the more damaging Formosan termites.) The entire building will be tented. The process will start on the morning of March 9^th and finish on the afternoon of March 12. The center will be unavailable during this period.

FEBRUARY COMMISSION MEETING

We had a short agenda and the meeting only lasted 45 minutes. Most of the time was spent on the Department updates, the details of which are reported in the Department head comments. The following are the only other items of interest covered:

Approval of the Jimmy Johnson Fishing Tournament at the Sailfish Marina to be held March 2-6. We specifically ask that post fishing party noise be kept in check. (This is a huge tournament with Marinas from Key West to Palm Beach Shores participating. And yes, Jimmy Johnson is the football coach.

Mary Stanton was recognized for her outstanding efforts in organizing the Town 2020 Census effort.

Two resolutions recognizing water conservation and water reuse were approved and signed by me as Mayor.

And that is a wrap on the Commission meeting.

As a reminder, the March Commission meeting will be held on March 15^th and the annual Town Reorganization meeting will be held on April 5^th

Tracy Larcher will be sworn in as a Commissioner on March 29^th and the Commission will select the other two Commissioners at the April 5^th meeting. The reasons for this adjusted schedule were explained in the January Newsletter under Clerk’s Comments. If you wish to read that again, please see the link to the January Newsletter on the Town website.

And that is a WRAP for February!

HEAR YE, HEAR YE… Calling all interested and qualified Town of Palm Beach Shores Residents to join our Team on the Planning and Zoning Board!!!

We have three open seats on the P & Z Board for this upcoming term. If you are interested, please submit your request in writing to the Town Clerk, Evyonne Browning: ebrowning@pbstownhall.org, or in hard copy at Town Hall, 247 Edwards Lane. Our office hours are 8:30 to 4:30, Monday through Friday.

Please list any history of service in our Town or other locations. Also, if you possess experience or expertise in the fields of architecture, planning, land use, or related fields, you will be given the highest consideration.

As this board meets monthly on a regular schedule, it is important that all regular and alternate members arrange to attend all meetings if possible. This will ensure all members are kept informed of the on-going developments in the Town.

Please Note:

The deadline for submittal is 4:00 pm, March 22, 2021. Action to be taken by the Commission at the April 5, 2021 Commission Meeting.

TREVOR STEEDMAN - FIRE CHIEF

The COVID-19 Census tract data and daily lab positivity rates for Palm Beach County have experienced overall stability over the past few weeks. This is a glimmer of good news as we are not seeing the positive case spikes that we did around the first of the year. Although there has been some success in getting the target populations of our County vaccinated, the process remains sporadic and difficult in most cases. Nevertheless, adherence to the CDC guidelines has been largely credited for the reduction of virus spread. The State’s COVID-19 vaccination strategy continues to favor mass points of distribution, such as the Publix supermarket chain. This initiative limits the ability of the PBC Healthcare District to receive and distribute initial doses of the vaccine. To that end, the PBC Healthcare District reports a week-to-week operational plan based on their potential access to the vaccine.

The PBC Healthcare District does have a plan for a North County vaccination site at Palm Beach State College on PGA boulevard once vaccines are available. Municipal Points of Dispensing (PODs), such as ours, are not prioritized. The State of Florida is reportedly taking steps to acquire four Federal vaccination POD’s throughout the State sometime after March 3^rd. The details of this effort are not currently available. The State reports that it will continue its efforts to identify under-served communities, making access to the vaccine the possibility for those populations as well. State POD’s are temporarily established to serve these areas. To augment this process, the State authorized a single CVS store in Palm Beach County to provide the vaccine in the Belle Glade community. This leads to some confusion as these pop-up sites occur, typically on very short notice. Keep in mind, that the County and individual municipalities are not part of the planning or decision-making process for the State’s pop-up sites, therefore we find out about them at the same time as everyone else.

Some of our Town residents have had success in getting a vaccine appointment, however, it has been in Broward County, Okeechobee County, or points further away. Many of those folks have commented that they were glad to get an appointment but didn’t feel comfortable driving those distances. We don’t want to see anyone miss out on getting to their hard-earned appointment.

Please contact me, as we may be able to assist in getting you to your appointment. For a variety of reasons, other folks simply cannot tolerate riding in a vehicle for that long and still must continue to try to get an appointment locally. We will keep you updated as more information becomes available.

Please reach out with questions or if we can be of any assistance. tsteedman@pbsfire.org or (561) 296-3380

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STEVE LANGEVIN - SGT. - DISTRICT #20

As if there was not enough going on, the bad guys are up to their old scamming tricks. The below scams were perpetrated on Palm Beach Shores residents.

Scam one:

You receive a phone call from a person who says your name has come up in a felony investigation and your social security card is about to be suspended. They can clear it up for you for $2,000.00. Just go to the nearest Target store and buy four (4) $500.00 worth of gift cards. The person did as instructed; the caller then obtained the serial access code on the rear of the gift cards over the phone. The victim is out $2,000.00.

Scam two:

The victim receives a phone call; the person advises there is unusual activity on their credit card; the person leaves a phone number to call back. The victim uses the internet to look up her credit card company phone number. Unknown to the victim, the company also had a phony internet address setup similar to the person's bank/credit card website. The victim calls a number from the internet and answers the questions given. After sharing that information, the victims' bank account is opened and 3 transactions were made, all totaling more than $1,500.00.

Scam three:

The person accepts payment for debt by using a third-party app on their smartphone, money is transferred, but later money is removed from that account using the same app.

Scam four:

Kidnapping scam: Mother in Town receives a phone call stating, “Your son is kidnapped, we have him.” The mother is told to drive to I-95 and get off at Palm Beach Lakes Blvd. The mother cannot remember where, but pulls over, enters a store, and wires $400.00 to kidnappers.

At the same time, a person calls the son saying: “your mother is kidnapped, they demand money.” The son is told to drive to Northlake Boulevard to wire the money, deputies arrived at this time, determined it was all a scam and the delivery was not made. Mom and son are fine, but $400.00 poorer.

Three residents also wished for advice but not reports. This was in regards to medical fraud, but they did not return the calls or emails of the scammers.

As soon as COVID-19 allows, we will bring in our crime prevention folks to give us a better idea of the myriad of scams out there and what we can do to stop them. In the meantime, the 2 links below will bring you to our PBSO page for assistance and the FBI page for the same, federally.

Please remember, most of these scams originate overseas and are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to prosecute.

Please let me know if we can help.

Sites for assistance:

https://www.pbso.org/services/community-services/crime-prevention/

https://www.fbi.gov/scams-and-safety

VAST BROCHURE Volunteers Against Scams Team

In response to a person’s complaint about shark fishing from the beach

A Task Force was formed with the Florida Wildlife Commission for their officers and our deputies to spot check permits and watch for proper gear of the fisherman. Numerous citations were issued to those not having the proper licenses. The Task Force will continue to monitor and ensure State law compliance. There is no fishing of any sort in the guarded area of the Town beach at any time. State law allows shark fishing from the beach believe it or not, but they cannot trespass or violate our Town ordinances while doing so. And, some 20 species of sharks are protected.

Stay safe: Sgt. Steve Langevin

langevins@pbso.org