Council opposes Thalatta event facility expansion | Featured

Council opposes Thalatta event facility expansion | Featured

Palmetto Bay Council member Howard Tendrich has become the public's best advocate for green space and parks. I applaud his tenacity in holding the current council to the commitments set in 2005 to obtain the grants necessary to secure Thalatta.  As Howard J Tendrich noted,  “Nowhere in the plans earlier did it say there was to be an enclosed glass house of 7,500 square feet. It showed an open area and in fact somewhere along the way we have a 9,500-square-foot enclosed area in our village already which is larger than what we have and the necessity of it doesn’t seem necessary.

“The park is supposed to be open to the public and that’s one thing, I still feel that it is not open enough to the public. We might need to have more personnel, but I feel the park should be open at least Monday through Friday, from 10 till 6, so people don’t need to go, ‘well, if we go on Monday it’s open from 10 to 2, if we go on Wednesday it’s open from 4 to 7. We need to have standard hours.”

The people spoke and even the original advocates of this ill-advised plan on the council saw the light and decided to stick (at least for now) to the grant commitments.  This ill-fated Thalatta plan arose by three members of the council during the budget hearings last September.  This was not a plan devised by village staff.

Special thanks also needs to go out to Council Member Patrick Fiore who held firm on a principled stand for parks and against government using tax dollars for ill-advised business ventures. 

Read the entire article in the April 17 - 30th edition of the Palmetto Bay News, Council opposes Thalatta event facility expansion, by Gary Alan Ruse