Lake Worth wise to delay lawsuit over casino woes
When the second-floor ballroom in the new-look Lake Worth Casino was unveiled in 2012, an assistant city manager called it “our pride and joy,” and added: “We imagine a lot of people are going to be getting married on the beach and having receptions here.”
Nowadays, the oaths being mouthed up there are angry ones. The $6 million plunged into the cityowned building’s renovations has the queasy feel of a bad bet. The ballroom is said to be practically useless, with inadequate kitchen space and walkways providing scant protection from raw weather. Worse, rainwater from the outside deck has seeped under the glass doors and flooded the ballroom floor.
To cope with the flaws, the building’s managers have drilled holes in the upstairs deck to let water escape and shoved towels under upstairs doors to keep water from getting inside.
“They built the Empire State Building in about a year — and we can’t figure out how to keep water from coming under the doors?” an increasingly frustrated Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell said at a meeting of the City Commission on June 7.
The city’s elected officials are all understandably upset. At that same June 7 meeting, the commission voted 3-1 to give the responsible companies until Oct. 6 to fix the building or face the likelihood of a lawsuit.
This was actually a reprieve. In March, commissioners had been ready to declare the companies in default, but City Attorney Glen Torcivia counseled patience, saying recent negotiations had led to “a lot of progress” toward solutions.
Trouble has dogged this project for years. The goal was to transform a peeling 1950s-era concrete building, erected after a devastating 1947 hurricane, back to the casino’s original 1920s-era Mediterranean Revival glory. (Gambling ended there in the 1930s.)
But while tearing down walls to the skeleton, the builders found more damage than expected. The construction estimate soared to $8 million, but the city had only $6 million of borrowed money to spend. To make ends meet, it appears some corners were cut.
No official seems more frustrated than Maxwell, who last week said the structure’s problems were worse than generally known and were affecting shop owners on the building’s first floor. “Retailers are getting rained on because of the leaks,” the vice mayor said. “The problems are deeper than I thought.”
Maxwell urged the city to hurl lawsuits immediately. But the commission declined.
“We voted on it and made a decision,” Mayor Pam Triolo told him. “I don’t know if your allegations are correct. I don’t want to put the city in legal jeopardy.”
That caution was well-advised. We visited the casino last week, and none of the retailers said they had any problems with water or leakage in their spaces. Maxwell could not be reached for comment.
Lake Worth has been generous in giving the parties until October to fix the very real problems with the upper part of the building. It would be everyone’s interest to see this long-promised public asset promptly turn into the “pride and joy” the citizens deserve. And if the companies don’t deliver after these very clear warnings, then, yes, the city should see them in court.