Showing posts with label West Lake Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label West Lake Park. Show all posts

Friday, August 30, 2019

Hollywood City Commission makes great points about relative failings of independent consultant's report on placement of Broward's 911 radio antenna in Hollywood, but to what end exactly? Sadly, perhaps none. And in the end, the South Florida news media does not seem keen on giving the issue the impartial overview it always deserved; video

Hollywood City Commission makes great points about relative failings of independent consultant's report on placement of Broward's 911 radio antenna in Hollywood, but to what end exactly? Sadly, perhaps none. And in the end, the South Florida news media does not seem keen on giving the issue the impartial overview it always deserved; video



Today's blog post is a follow up to my August 19th post, 

So THAT just happened... for the worst. Broward County's 325-foot 911 Services radio tower at West Lake Park in #HollywoodFL just got the green light from an independent consultant. So now what? Don't hold your breath, Hollywood!
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2019/08/so-that-just-happened-for-worst-broward.html

Which followed this post of mine:
May 6th, 2019, The West Lake Park Radio Tower issue is rubbing #HollywoodFL residents the wrong way, esp. people who don't see 325-foot tall radio antennas, even for 911 services, being compatible for a nature park. Especially when there's a better answer available. @SAVEWESTLAKE

https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-west-lake-park-radio-tower-issue-is.html

So, in the week since we last discussed it, I hope you didn't choose to disregard my sound advice and choose to hold your breath, perhaps believing that by doing so, somehow, common sense would suddenly prevail in the long-running battle between the City of Hollywood (and a majority of its citizens) versus Broward County and their insistence that the eventual placement of a 325-foot high 911 emergency services radio tower antenna in  West Lake Park , a very popular county park in northern Hollywood, off of Sheridan Street, was the best possible choice to be made.


Photo from @SAVEWESTLAKE

Map here: https://goo.gl/maps/mM7qZd1Hz6aBHqx2A



That unpopular plan has been almost universally opposed by Hollywood residents and elected officials on many different grounds, usually, on environmental and financial grounds, though there are clearly many Hollywood citizens who were opposed to the radio tower being located there, near the Anne Kolb Nature Center, a county-run facility named after a former Broward commissioner and environmentalist who represented the southeast part of the county, where Hollywood is located.

idistr, for reasons involving health fears and simple aesthetics.

And to quote myself last week: 
This all taking place despite the fact that it's clear to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention that the 911 radio tower antenna tower, no matter where it was located in the greater Hollywood area to cover SE Broward, would NOT be complete until... NEXT YEAR.
Not that you would know any of this from the vast majority of the South Florida news media's coverage of this issue the past few months, but it's true. It will be finished NEXT YEAR.
So, why don't the press say that in their stories and newscasts?
Good question.

 but the radio antenna tower was needed to greatly improve First Responder communications via their 911 emergency services system, NOT to improve a citizen's efforts in reaching 911 and requesting help, as several Miami TV newscasts the past few months have allowed people to state on the air without anyone there knowing any better.
I know what you're thinking. Nonsense getting aired on South Florida TV stations?
Yes, continuing a longstanding tradition.

So, no, holding your breath until only common sense reigned in Hollywood and Broward would be Mission Impossible, and the reasons why were on full display late Wednesday afternoon at Hollywood City Hall at the first Hollywood City Commission meeting since July 4th, following Ciizen Comments around 5 p.m.



So, in short, on June 19th, the Broward County Commission and the City of Hollywood City Commission agreed to hire an independent consultant to evaluate two proposed locations for a new radio tower in east Hollywood. The expert's report recommended the West Lake Park location just off of Sheridan Road -west of the West Lake Commons retail area on U.S.-1 that occupies the spot that was once home to the Hollywood Pontiac car dealershipand not the CIRC Hotel location that the city was urging. 
Per the terms of the agreement between the City and County, the independent expert’s decision is binding on both parties. 

And so it was that a little bit after five o'clock on Wednesday, the consultant, Gary Monetti, came into the Lions Den at Hollywood City Hall and tried his best to defend his report, beat back the lions, and emerge largely unscathed.







Watch this debate here from the August 28th, 2019 City of Hollywood City Commission meeting


So here is how I saw the discussion it from my seat in the chambers.... and what I thought.

Considering all the attention that the issue has received going back to last year -shocker!- there were no members of the South Florida press at the meeting, just yours truly.




Dave 



Monday, May 6, 2019

The West Lake Park Radio Tower issue is rubbing #HollywoodFL residents the wrong way, esp. people who don't see 325-foot tall radio antennas, even for 911 services, being compatible for a nature park. Especially when there's a better answer available. @SAVEWESTLAKE

The West Lake Park Radio Tower issue is rubbing #HollywoodFL residents the wrong way, esp. people who don't see 325-foot tall radio antennas, even for 911 services, being compatible for a  nature park. Especially when there's a better answer available. @SAVEWESTLAKE

Updated Tuesday May 7th, 2019








Lakes Residents, The HLCA Board of Directors supports the Circ Hotel rooftop as the best place for the County's radio communications antennas. Many thanks to the residents of West Lake Village for all their hard work on this issue. Also many thanks to all concerned residents who came out to support West Lake Park at the Rally on Saturday. Broward County is proposing to install eight 325' towers throughout Broward to have a countywide emergency 911 system for first-responders. They plan to install two towers in Hollywood, one in East Hollywood and one West Hollywood. The East Hollywood site they proposed is in West Lake Park. The City of Hollywood asked Broward County to look at the rooftop of the Circ Hotel as an alternative to building a tower in the park, as they are currently utilizing rooftops at Point of the Americas and Playa Del Sol condo buildings. The County commissioners voted to have a feasibility study done on the Circ Hotel. The feasibility study was completed and the City's experts say the study is positive for the Circ rooftop, but it is biased towards a tower in the park. Any challenges cited in the report are either standard procedure for rooftop installations or estimates and assumptions without detail. The City had an engineering study completed as well and the engineer stated that the County's report takes an extreme position in terms of costs and coverage. Further he stated that the Circ can be done without extensive modifications to the building, at lower costs than the County report estimated and without loss of coverage. On April 16th, the Broward Commission voted to move forward with West Lake Park based on the results of the County's feasibility study. Comm Furr and Comm Ryan, both wanted confirmation that the County was working simultaneously with the Circ in the event there is a problem with the park, which the County administrator Bertha Henry said they would. They also approved voting on removing the current restrictive covenant currently protecting the park to a
A post shared by SAVE WEST LAKE PARK (@savewestlake) on

https://www.instagram.com/savewestlake/

Just wanted to share some news about an important Hollywood Lakes area story that has been percolating just below the surface for quite some time and only gotten the right amount of attention and analysis at what seems to me to be odd times. 
At the last minute. Not unlike how it came up in the first place.

Many of the most trusted people I know in Hollywood wonder why it's come to this, and why this issue could not have been handled in a more transparent and professional manner by Broward County. But it was not.
So that's why Tuesday morning's proceedings are key.

Here's some of the backstory...

First, this is the website for the Broward County park involved in the controversy, West Lake Park in Hollywood, at 1200 Sheridan Road, not in West Park, the city west of Hallandale Beach, as some South Florida media have erroneously been reporting. 
http://www.broward.org/Parks/Pages/Park.aspx?=44

Background info from Broward County's website, agenda item #62:
http://cragenda.broward.org/agenda_publish.cfm?id=&mt=ALL&get_month=5&get_year=2019&dsp=ag&seq=586







Local 10 News
Parker Branton, Reporter
Protesters rally against county's plan to build radio tower in park
Posted: 11:54 AM, May 04, 2019

https://www.local10.com/video/protesters-rally-against-county-s-plan-to-build-radio-tower-in-park










Local 10 News
Commissioners favor building radio tower in West Lake Park
Residents worry structure will be an eyesore

By Saira Anwer - Reporter, Tim Swift - Local10.com Digital Editor
Posted: 5:39 PM, April 16, 2019Updated: 6:27 PM, April 16, 2019

https://www.local10.com/news/florida/broward/commissioners-favor-building-radio-tower-in-west-lake-park






South Florida Sun Sentinel
Broward reverses course and looks to put radio tower in Hollywood park
Larry Barszewski, Reporter, South Florida Sun Sentinel
April 10, 2019


There are plenty of crossed fingers in Broward County hoping another major police incident doesn’t occur before a new public safety radio system starts operating. But time is slipping away as the county struggles to nail down the final details.

Commissioners have been criticized for not moving faster to replace the county’s old and overloaded system — a system that was crippled during the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting in 2017 and the Parkland school shooting last year.

The new system would help police and firefighters responding to 911 calls, improving their ability to transmit and receive messages anywhere in the county, including in schools, condominiums and hospitals. It will also be able to handle more traffic, so police at a major crime scene aren’t having to resort to using hand signals to communicate or aren’t able to get an open line to dispatchers.

The most recent stumbling block the county has faced is where to put a Hollywood antenna needed for the system. The city wants the antenna placed on top of the Circ downtown apartment high rise, where it will be less conspicuous than erecting a 325-foot tower in West Lake Park.

Read the rest of the story at:




Local 10 News
HOLLYWOOD
BSO radio tower delayed again after concerns from Hollywood residents
Equipment needed to improve Sheriff's Office's communications system

By Tim Swift, Terrell Forney - Reporter
Posted: 5:15 PM, January 29, 2019Updated: 7:05 PM, January 29, 2019
https://www.local10.com/news/florida/hollywood/bso-radio-tower-delayed-again-after-concerns-from-hollywood-residents


The following email was sent out this morning by Hollywood Lakes Civic Association President Terry Cantrell, who has given me permission to share it here on the blog to get the word out about Tuesday's important meeting.

Also, if you are interested in more information, the URL for the Twitter handle @SAVEWESTLAKE is at https://twitter.com/SAVEWESTLAKE

Lakes logo new
  
Lakes Residents,
  
The HLCA Board of Directors supports the Circ Hotel rooftop as the best place for the County's radio communications antennas. Many thanks to the residents of West Lake Village for all their hard work on this issue. Also many thanks to all concerned residents who came out to support West LakePark at the Rally on Saturday.

Broward County is proposing to install eight 325' towers throughout Broward to have a countywide emergency 911 system for first-responders. They plan to install two towers in Hollywood, one in East Hollywood and one West Hollywood. The East Hollywood site they proposed is in West Lake Park. 
The City of Hollywood asked Broward County to look at the rooftop of the Circ Hotel as an alternative to building a tower in the park, as they are currently utilizing rooftops at Point of the Americas and Playa Del Sol condo buildings. The County commissioners voted to have a feasibility study done on the Circ Hotel. 

The feasibility study was completed and the City's experts say the study is positive for the Circ rooftop, but it is biased towards a tower in the park. Any challenges cited in the report are either standard procedure for rooftop installations or estimates and assumptions without detail. The City had an engineering study completed as well and the engineer stated that the County's report takes an extreme position in terms of costs and coverage. Further he stated that the Circ can be done without extensive modifications to the building, at lower costs than the County report estimated and without loss of coverage.

On April 16th, the Broward Commission voted to move forward with West Lake Park based on the results of the County's feasibility study. Comm Furr and Comm Ryan, both wanted confirmation that the County was working simultaneously with the Circ in the event there is a problem with the park, which the County administrator Bertha Henry said they would.  They also approved voting on removing the current restrictive covenant currently protecting the park to allow for the tower to be built. That vote will take place:

Tuesday, May 7, 2019, at 10 AM.

At the County Hall Chambers

4th Floor, Government Center
115 South Andrews Ave
Ft Lauderdale, FL 33301

Please come on 5/7/19 and make your voice heard. You will need to fill out a card to speak upon arrival. Parking is available in a metered lot to the north and corner of SW 1st Avenue and Broward Boulevard, or within the parking garage located west of the SW 1st Avenue on SW 2nd Street, by the railroad tracks. They do validate parking for the garage by the railroad tracks and it is free.

The City of Hollywood has been very supportive as well as a couple of the county commissioners, such as Comm Beam Furr and Comm Tim Ryan.  If you would like to write to the Broward County Commissioners to tell them to please move forward with the Circ Hotel and not to remove the covenant on the park, you can use the following email addresses:


We must show Broward County Commissioners that we do NOT want the 325 foot Tower in our Park. We DO NOT want them to remove the protections that now exist.

Tell them to Park it on the Roof of the Circ Now , before they vote on May 7!!!!
HLCA
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