Highland Beach FDOT to offer public more details about planned A1A repaving

By Rich Pollack

Engineers and others from the Florida Department of Transportation came to Highland Beach in late August to field questions about a repaving project on State Road A1A that is expected to cause major traffic disruptions from spring 2024 until well into 2025. With plans not fully developed at the time, the FDOT team pledged to return to share the latest information with residents who will be impacted by the $8.8 million project that will stretch from just south of Linton Boulevard to the Boca Raton border with Highland Beach.

Now the FDOT is inviting residents to a public open house of sorts, set for 6 to 8 p.m. March 13 at the town’s library, where plans for the project will be on display.

This time, however, the format will be quite different, with no formal presentation and no questions directed to a panel of engineers, landscape architects and others. Instead, FDOT representatives will have as many as a half-dozen illustrations of project designs placed throughout the room with a representative at each board available to answer concerns.

“It’s more of a hands-on approach,” said Brad Salisbury, an FDOT project manager. “Residents can come in and look at the plans and ask questions one on one.”

Salisbury said that the team responsible for the project did listen to some of the recommendations that came out of the August meeting, which included Highland Beach residents and town officials as well as some residents from southern Delray Beach.

“We did try and look at all the suggestions and see what merit they had,” he said. “Some are being incorporated.”

In addition to resurfacing the more than 3 miles of A1A, the project will include widening the road to incorporate 5-foot bike lanes on either side of the road.

It will also include drainage improvements that Salisbury said will include digging out swales and putting in rocks and other materials to make it easier for water to percolate through.

Both those elements of the project are likely to affect landscaping currently in the FDOT right of way. Its engineers and landscape architects said efforts will be made to move as many trees as possible but not shrubs. The biggest concern the project is generating is about traffic disruptions, which are unavoidable during roadwork that is expected to start in May 2024 and run for about 18 months.

To help minimize the disruption, the FDOT will place signs at each end of the town aimed at limiting nonlocal traffic and encouraging drivers to seek alternate routes whenever possible.

The FDOT will also be limiting the length of lane closures to 1,000 feet during the daytime and 2,500 feet at night.

“A lot of resurfacing can be done at night,” Salisbury said.

He said he’s hoping residents with concerns will make an effort to come to the meeting but he’s also open to answering questions from residents by email. He can be reached at brad.salisbury@dot.state.fl.us.

Voters asked to submit questions for candidate forum

By Rich Pollack

Highland Beach residents will have a chance to meet the candidates running for Town Commission during a March 7 forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Palm Beach County.

Set for 6 to 8 p.m. at the town’s public library, the forum will have a question-and-answer format — as opposed to a debate — with each candidate having an opportunity to respond to the same question.

Voters are being asked to submit questions in advance either by bringing written questions with them or by filling out cards once they arrive at the library prior to the discussion.

“We want residents to come with questions so the candidates can hear what their concerns are,” said Marcia Sherwood, the league’s vice president who coordinates candidate forums. Voters will select one candidate for a full 3-year term and elect a new commissioner to serve the one year remaining on the seat previously held by Peggy Gossett-Seidman, who resigned to run for state representative.

Running for the 1-year term

• Maggie Chappelear, 66, a real estate broker and former educator who serves as co-chair of the town’s Natural Resources Preservation Board. She has been a Highland Beach resident for 38 years.

• Judith Goldberg, 77, an attorney for 35 years and a mediator for 27 years, who served as a town attorney in Patterson, New York. She has been a resident for eight years.

• Peter Kosovsky, 67, a retired radiologist who also has a background in private land development. He is a five-year Highland Beach resident.

Running for the 3-year term

• Donald Peters, 76, a sporting goods store founder and former police officer in Yorktown, New York, who served as a town supervisor there from 2007 to 2009. He is a 21/2-year resident.

• John Shoemaker, 76, a former business executive in the high-tech industry and the incumbent town commissioner since 2020 who previously ran unopposed. He is an 18-year resident of Highland Beach.

During the forum, each candidate will have two minutes to give an opening statement and two minutes for a closing statement.

In between, candidates will field questions asked by the moderator, league President Kathi Gundlach.

The questions, which will be reviewed by league members, will be sorted by category to avoid redundancy and will focus on issues over which the town has jurisdiction, Sherwood said.

Topics expected to be addressed are: the overall safety of the town and the establishment of a new fire department; state-mandated recertification of buildings taller than three stories and the state’s reserve fund requirements for condo associations; taxes; environmental preservation, and the upcoming repaving of State Road A1A and accompanying drainage improvements.

Doors to the community room where the forum will take place will open at 5:30 for residents wishing to submit questions, Sherwood said. Anonymous questions will not be accepted. Ú