THERE WON’T BE any trucks driving down Lake Worth Beach’s public beach this winter, spring or summer, but it’s an idea Palm Beach officials might consider again in the fall.
After an internal meeting Jan. 16 between city and town officials, Palm Beach officials told their Lake Worth Beach counterparts that the town will postpone a beach renourishment project for a year, interim city manager Jamie Brown announced at the Jan. 21 City Commission meeting.
The town was expected to complete a sand dredging operation this week and stockpile the sand at Phipps Ocean Park in Palm Beach for the next 10 months or so before considering the project in the fall.
By then, city officials said they hope the town finds an alternative to its plan to transport the sand along a 10-foot-wide strip of town-incorporated land along Lake Worth Beach’s public beach.
The town needs to get the sand south of Lake Worth Beach to renourish the beaches along the towns of South Palm Beach and Lantana. But plans to truck the sand down the middle of the city’s public beach this month, in the heart of tourist season, sparked loud public outcry from commissioners and residents, leading to negotiations between the town and city.
“They will come back in the fall. Hopefully there is a different resolution,’’ Brown said.
“At least now we have some time to kind of work some of these things out and have some conversations as far as what this process would be if, lord forbid, they did have to utilize that 10 feet.’’
The strip of land was created in 1936 by state legislators to meet requirements that municipal boundaries be contiguous. At the time, the public beach in Lake Worth, as the city used to be called, separated the north half of Palm Beach from the town's south half.
At last week’s meeting, Palm Beach officials told their Lake Worth Beach counterparts that if the town resorts to using its 10-foot strip of land along the city’s shoreline, trucks would be escorted by town police officers on ATVs and safety protocols would be put in place.
But Brown said the town still has not addressed questions about whether the trucks traveling on the town’s narrow strip of land can fit under the Lake Worth Pier and how the heavy equipment might affect the pier’s stability.
“The good thing is we have time now to work through some things with our attorneys and their attorneys, and it gives them extra time to look at other alternatives,’’ Brown said.
Commissioners welcomed the reprieve, however brief it may be, and vowed to continue their fight to block the trucks.
“It's good that it's postponed. It's disappointing that they still think they have an option to drive trucks on our beach,’’ Commissioner Reinaldo Diaz said.
“Quite frankly there's not gonna be trucks driving on our beach,’’ he added. “From a practical standpoint, it just doesn't make sense. It's hard to take it seriously.’’
Vice Mayor Sarah Malega said she hopes the city uses the coming months to build a solid case against the town and lobby state and federal lawmakers for help.
“I'm personally going to spend the next 10 months bothering every local elected higher official that I can and bring this to their attention,’’ she said.
“We need to make sure our case is locked and sealed,’’ she said. “You are not coming to Lake Worth Beach, You're not driving trucks on our beach. This is a ‘you’ problem. This is not an ‘us’ problem.’’
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About the author
Joe Capozzi is an award-winning reporter based in Lake Worth Beach. He spent more than 30 years writing for newspapers, mostly at The Palm Beach Post, where he wrote about the opioid scourge, invasive pythons, the birth of the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches and Palm Beach County government. For 15 years, he covered the Miami Marlins baseball team. Joe left The Post in December 2020. View all posts by Joe Capozzi.