Bringing you News that Counts
Bringing you News that Counts
|
|
February 25, 2008
IN THIS ISSUE
· Mid-County Senior Center Opens · Officials Attend Lantana Road Branch Library Groundbreaking · County Offering Neighborhood Partnership Grants · Join the “Palm Beach County Saves” Campaign · Lifeguards Honored at Annual Banquet · Waste to Energy Provides Reusable Resource
For more information about Palm Beach County’s programs and services, visit us online at www.pbcgov.com. If you have any questions or to provide feedback, you can e-mail us at countenews@pbcgov.com or call 355-2754. To unsubscribe to Count-e-News, click here.
Mid-County Senior Center Opens
The spacious 26,000-square-foot facility offers a variety of activities including painting classes, weekly blood pressure screenings, language and computer classes, ballroom dancing, piano lessons, camera clinics and more.
The Mid-County Senior Center is a community focal point where residents ages 60 and older can come together for services and activities to enhance their dignity, support their independence and encourage their involvement. Congregate meals are also served daily to senior center participants.
The center also offers an adult day care program where participants are provided with structured therapeutic, rehabilitative, social and leisure programs. Staff provides a supportive, safe and caring environment which includes advocacy, counseling, nutritious meals, recreation, respite care, socialization, supervision, exercise, sing-a-long sessions., transportation through Palm Tran Connection, health screenings and education.
The senior center is open Monday though Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 561-357-7100.
Officials Attend Lantana Road Branch Library Groundbreaking
County officials recently attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Lantana Road Branch library.
The Feb. 14 event celebrated the new 29,000-square-foot branch, which will be located at 4020 Lantana Road on the southwest corner of Lawrence and Lantana roads.
The Lantana Road Branch is one of five projects currently underway as part of a library expansion project funded by a $55-million bond referendum passed by Palm Beach County residents in 2002.
The new facility will include ample meeting space, a public conference room, more than 50 public computers with Internet access and word processing software, five private study rooms, a large study room, a teen room dedicated to young adults, a children’s area with its own children’s story time room and a family restroom with child-size facilities.
The new library is scheduled to open in summer 2009.
County Offering Neighborhood Partnership Grants Grants are available to informal neighborhood and business associations for improvement projects in areas designated by the Countywide Community Revitalization Team and the Glades area, including Pahokee, South Bay and Belle Glade. These are low-income areas that the County is revitalizing to maintain affordable neighborhoods. The Office of Community Revitalization (OCR) will host workshops at four locations throughout Palm Beach County (locations listed below). This is the eighth year OCR has issued neighborhood partnership grants. Examples of how these funds can be used include recreational improvements, entryways, street sign toppers, right-of-way landscaping, exterior painting, tree planting, fencing and art murals. The deadline for filing an application is June 20, 2008. Application packets are available at the Vista Center, located at 2300 North Jog Road, West Palm Beach and may be downloaded starting February 18, 2008 from the OCR Web site at http://www.pbcgov.com/ocr. Potential applicants must submit a letter of intent by April 28, 2008 and attend one of the four application workshops to review the application criteria and grant guidelines. Here are the workshop locations: March
19, 2008: South County - PBC Southeast Administrative Complex March
20, 2008: Glades
Region – Belle Glade City Hall, Commission Chambers March
26, 2008: Central County – Vista Center March
27, 2008: North
County - West Jupiter Recreation Center All workshops are held from 6 to 8 p.m. If you have any questions, contact Chrystal Mathews, Senior Planner at (561) 233-5565 or cmathews@pbcgov.com
Join the “Palm Beach County Saves” Campaign
If your savings lag behind your spending requirements, take comfort in the fact that you can take steps to close the gap and get on track. Once you have figured out how much you will need in retirement, increase your retirement plan contributions or make changes to your investment distributions.
America Saves is a national social marketing campaign that encourages individuals, particularly low and moderate income persons, to save money, reduce debt and build wealth. Currently more than 90,000 individuals are enrolled as American Savers. Visit www.americasaves.org for more information.
Feb. 24 - March 02, 2008 is America Saves Week. The Cooperative Extension Service in collaboration with local banks and credit unions will host Palm Beach County Saves on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008. This event will promote positive financial actions, such as credit/debt management, savings, and wise use of financial institutions. This free activity will be from 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. at the Extension office, 559 North Military Trail, West Palm Beach. For more information and to register please call (561) 233-1742 or visit.
Lifeguards to Be Honored at Annual Banquet
The lifeguards were honored for saving four swimmers caught in a rip current outside county property and after work hours on October 28, 2007. Theiss and Gepp entered the dangerous surf without any equipment or back up and swam 100 yards offshore to save the victims. Without their swift actions, the day would have likely ended in tragedy.
Another example of bravery occurred on Jan. 26, 2008 at Carlin Park in Jupiter. Lifeguards Lou Kanitsch and Ben Demonstranti saved three swimmers caught in a rip current. The seas were four to six feet high and the victims were pulled 75 yards offshore by the rip current. The lifeguards pulled the three troubled victims to shore. One of the victims, a little girl, had aspirated water. The lifeguards took her pulse, checked her respirations and blood pressure and listened to her lungs. Luckily, she was not in serious condition. They consoled and covered the other shivering victims with blankets. Another tragedy was avoided, thanks to these heroic lifeguards.
Ocean Rescue is fortunate to have employees who are committed and dedicated to the training necessary to perform lifeguarding at its highest level.
Waste to Energy Provides Reusable Resource
Did you know that your garbage is used to create electricity? The Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County (SWA) is home to an innovative Waste to Energy facility where garbage is shredded into refuse derived fuel (RDF) and then burned to generate electricity. The Waste to Energy facility generates enough electricity to power 30,000 homes as well as the SWA’s Jog Road facilities in West Palm Beach.
The Waste to Energy facility is home to two power plant boilers, two dry scrubbers and two electrostatic precipitators that aid in air-pollution control to ensure that emissions from the plant’s stack are well below the Environmental Protection Agency’s allowable limits. The ash which is leftover as a result of the process is what actually makes it to the landfill. The operation of this facility aids in reducing the volume of garbage that actually ends up in the landfill. This helps to extend the life of landfills.
The Waste to Energy facility processes 2,500 tons or five million pounds of garbage each day. SWA estimates that each Palm Beach County resident generates on average about eight pounds of garbage per person per day. (The national average is about four pounds per person per day.) One day of garbage is equivalent to covering an entire football field 10 feet high.
The Waste to Energy facility is another example of how the SWA is working to create a brighter future for Palm Beach County residents. For more information, visit our Web site at www.swa.org.
|
