🧊Park plan on ice
It's the day after April Fool's, AKA International Fact-Checking Day. In this issue: Gardens' future parks, a billionaire's favorite PBC charity, paging FAU and Art Nouveau near you.
🏒 Hockey in, gymnasium out
Two major proposals for recreation in Palm Beach Gardens are going in opposite directions.
Moving forward: A nonprofit organization’s $40 million plan to build two ice rinks with the backing of a company associated with hockey great Wayne Gretzky.
What’s happening: The City Council will consider leasing a city park for 40 years to the Palm Beach North Athletic Foundation Thursday.
The park is named Plant Drive Park. It is east of Military Trail and south of Burns Road behind Palm Beach Gardens High School.
The dual ice rinks would replace a girls’ softball field used by Palm Beach Gardens High School and dedicated to the memory of slain softball player Amanda Buckley. The project also would eliminate a basketball court and a skateboard park.
What they’re saying: In its memo to the council, the city called Plant Drive Park “a marginal recreational facility (that) attracts malcontents who engage in illegal activities, including vandalizing the premises.”
Rejected: Separate plans for a $50 million gymnasium, pickleball, mini golf and restaurant complex on 14 acres in the Gardens North County District Park.
What’s happening: The city selected developer Mammoth Fieldhouse, a subsidiary of Mammoth Sports Construction of Meriden, Kansas, in September.
Yes, but: Negotiations hit a snag in January when Mammoth revised its financial approach, Stet News learned through the city’s response to a public records request.
“The terms of the proposal are completely opposite to the city’s stated intentions conveyed to the Mammoth team almost a year ago,” city Purchasing Director Km! Ra wrote on Jan. 9.
“Therefore, we will be moving forward with other options for Gardens District Park and will not be engaging into any further discussions with Mammoth.”
We’ve got much more to tell you about both proposals. Look for an email soon with the rest of the story.
👛 MacKenzie Scott ‘Takes Stock’ in PBC kids
Amazon co-founder MacKenzie Scott’s famed generosity has found the Palm Beach County affiliate of Take Stock in Children.
Why it’s important: Scott announced last month she would give the nonprofit $1 million as part of $640 million shared with 361 small nonprofit organizations. No strings attached.
The grant shines a light on Take Stock for Children, which mentors students and provides two-year Florida Prepaid college scholarships to high school graduates in its program.
The Palm Beach County organization was chosen from more than 6,000 organizations that applied for a grant.
Flashback: Scott and Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos divorced in 2019. That year she pledged to give away most of her wealth, estimated then to be $38 billion.
With this round of grants, Scott has given away more than $17 billion, according to her organization, Yield Giving.
In 2020, she gave $10 million to the United Way of Palm Beach County.
In 2022, she gave $5 million to the Urban League of Palm Beach County.
About Take Stock in Children:
The Palm Beach County affiliate is part of the statewide organization that operates in every Florida county.
Mentors from the community meet with students weekly during school hours.
700 students who completed the program were enrolled in college last year.
Impressive stats: The Palm Beach County nonprofit’s 2023 annual report charts a graduation rate of 98% for program high school students vs. 80% for at-risk peers.
96% of program participants enroll in college compared to 30% of peers.
74% complete college compared to 29% of peers.
What one mentor says about the program.
🙏 Just tell us why
The public will have to wait for insight into what caused a $35 million, state-subsidized, high-tech science building on the Florida Atlantic University Jupiter campus to close last July just six months after opening.
It took five weeks for FAU to respond to a request to provide a $122,175 report by consulting engineers.
The university’s response: “Please be advised that there are no responsive records.”
Perhaps our request was too specific. Stet asked for “the report prepared by Affiliated Engineers SE Inc. dubbed the Peer Report pertaining to the FAU STEM Research Building on the FAU Jupiter campus and prepared under Purchase Order P2424916.”
Stet knew about the report because, after a five-month wait for an earlier public records request, FAU provided a copy of the purchase order and the work proposal submitted by Affiliated Engineers Inc.
The proposal said AEI would “generate a plan of action to work each issue to a point of acceptable resolution, develop opinions of probable cost associated with recommendations and provide suggestions for phasing.”
The proposal is signed by Jeff Heiken, who heads the national company’s Tampa office. Since 2016, that office has been involved in projects for the University of South Florida, the University of Tampa, Naples Community Hospital and the Sarasota Memorial Hospital system.
What they said: “A written report is the primary deliverable of our efforts.”
How long would it take? Six to eight weeks from “initiation to completion and report generation.”
When did they start? The purchase order is dated the same date as the proposal: Sept. 11.
When did they finish? The Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute’s reopening date, Dec. 4, coincides with AEI’s proposed timeline.
What does FAU say? Nothing. FAU has never provided details of what caused the $35 million building to close and what steps were taken to assure its safe use in the future. It also hasn’t said if taxpayers are footing the bill for repairs.
In August, we outlined some of the few known details for the closure here.
What’s next? We’re happy to hear your ideas for getting the state-subsidized university to provide public information on a timely basis. Send ideas to stetmediagroup@gmail.com.
Meanwhile, we’ll try again.
🌸 The juice
Florida’s Supreme Court ruled Monday that the state’s constitution does not protect abortion rights, allowing one of the country’s strictest and most far-reaching abortion bans to take effect May 1.
In a separate decision, the court also ruled that an amendment to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution can go on the November ballot for a vote that could undo the ban in a matter of months. (Washington Post - gift link)
Also cleared for the November ballot: recreational marijuana.
We shared a tribute to Agnes Ash, the longtime publisher of the Palm Beach Daily News, by her longtime friend, retired Tallahassee attorney Florence Snyder. Agnes died March 22 in Palm Beach at the age of 99. Read Florence’s remembrances here.
⛪️ Local architect Rick Gonzalez warns that Related Cos. is planning to dismantle history by removing key portions of the 1926 church at the center of The Square, Related’s downtown West Palm Beach development formerly known as CityPlace. (The Palm Beach Post opinion)
🚪 While hundreds of thousands of new residents have flocked to Florida, as we reported last week, nearly 500,000 left in 2022, according to the most recent census data. (NBC News)
🐊 A seven-minute status report on the $25 billion state and federal project to fix the Everglades. It’s been called the largest restoration project in human history. (CBS News)
⚾️ Hank Aaron played here. And, 50 years ago on April 8, after a less-than-relaxing spring training in West Palm Beach, he went to the plate in Atlanta and socked his record-breaking 715th home run. (ByJoeCapozzi.com)
🖼️ 561 insider: Discovering a treasure
Carolyn here with a little story.
For 33 years and six household moves, I tolerated a framed print of a lovely woman with fantastic curls. She was on a bicycle and looking directly at the viewer. My husband, Bill, didn’t know anything about it but would not let go of it.
Then I saw a story in the Palm Beach Daily News about an exhibit celebrating artist Alphonse Mucha at the Flagler Museum.
We recently visited the museum, and there, larger than life, was a print that looked just like Bill’s. We learned Mucha created the lithograph in 1902 as an advertisement for British bicycle-maker Cycles Perfecta.
Mucha’s style of employing lush details and intricate patterns helped shape the Art Nouveau movement.
While a vintage copy of Mucha’s work can command upward of $20,000, an unframed version like the one in our home can be had for 20 bucks.
Yes, but: We experienced the joy of art discovery, and my new understanding gives deeper meaning to an object I see every day.
Bill’s artistic eye now carries more sway.
We moved the “our Mucha” to the living room.
If you go: “Alphonse Mucha, Master of Art Nouveau” is on display until April 14.
🏄🏽♀️ Our favorite April Fools’ Day prank came from Palm Beach Atlantic University, which announced on its social media accounts plans for a bachelor’s degree in surfing instruction complete with a giant surf simulator in the heart of its West Palm Beach campus. Bummer, dude, if you fell for it.
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