City unveils spruce-up of 11th Ave. streetscape
Third greenway project brings new sidewalks, trees to ‘unsightly’ area.
LAKE WORTH — Five months after she was elected mayor in November 2011, Pam Triolo took a field trip with residents to the south side of Lake Worth.
She snapped several pictures bec ause she couldn’t believe what she saw.
“I was shocked to see how many unpaved roads were never turned into streets and how many unimproved rights of way there were, with kids playing in gravel in the middle of nowhere,” Triolo recalled. “I couldn’t understand how sections of the city were completely ignored.” Fast-forward to 2016. S e ver a l of t hose ne g l e c t e d south side sections are getting some much-needed attention.
In a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday afternoon, city officials raised the curtain on the 11th Avenue South Greenway project at the intersection of 11th Avenue South and South D Street.
The $250,000 project involved, a mong o t h e r t h i n g s , i n s t a l l - i ng new s i dewalks, c onc re t e driveways, trees and irrigation improvements.
The project took three months and marked the fifth greenway the city has completed.
“This area was unsightly to the community,” said Jamie Brown, the city’s public services director.
Retha Lowe, a former city commissioner, has lived in the area for nearly 40 years. She said the improvements were long overdue.
“When I moved here, the area was all closed off,” Lowe said. “It was such a drug-infested area. This project gives the city pride. We now have a place where we can park our cars and where kids c an ride their bikes. It brings unity to the community.”
The greenway projects range f ro m $ 2 2 5,0 00 t o $ 2 75,0 00, Brown said.
More than 90 percent of the money comes from C ommunity Development Block Grants, a federal program that awards money to cities for housing and community development work.
The c it y i s also performing the work in conjunction with underground utilities and drainage projects, Triolo said.
Work on the fifth greenway — Fifth Avenue South to South A Street — is scheduled to start in the summer, the city said.
Some residents have grumbled that $250,000 is a lot of money to spend on a few sidewalks and trees. Brown disagrees. “It’s a lot cheaper than a road,” he said. “If we put a roadway through here, it would be substantially more money. And not everyone wants a road by their house.” The cost doesn’t bother Lowe. “We’ve been complaining and griping about this for years,” she said. “It’s worth the money.”