Mayor Muoio visits D.C. to push local projects

Transportation issues include opposition to State Road 7 extension.

WEST PALM BEACH — Tuesday may have been Independence Day, but cities these days are as dependent as ever on Washington, D.C., for money and approvals for local projects.

For that reason, Mayor Jeri Muoio traveled to the nation’s capital last week, shaking the money tree and the policy tree.

The mayor, along with City Attorney Kimberly Rothenburg, took the city’s issues to U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings and Lois Frankel, Sen. Bill Nelson and a member of Sen. Marco Rubio’s staff. She met with officials of the Justice and Transportation departments and the Coast Guard.

The mayor said she went to the Army Corps of Engineers to express her administration’s continued opposition to extending State Road 7 along the western perimeter of the Grassy Waters Preserve, “and our hope they will not grant them a permit.”

“They know us now and they always have been helpful and open to discussion, so we talked to them,” she said.

Word is that the state is weeks away from putting shovel to dirt for the project, which would link Northlake and Okeechobee boulevards.

She also spoke with the Have a West Palm Beach news tip? Contact Staff Writer Tony Doris at tdoris@ pbpost.com or 561-8204703.

Coast Guard to ask whether the Royal Park drawbridge can stay down during morning rush hour. When it opens at 8 a.m. weekdays, it tends to lock up downtown traffic.

“They told us there’s an application process and how to do that,” she said, encouraged. The city will have to use data from its mobility study to make a case for the change. “It’s amazing to me they have an application process to do that. Obviously we’re not the first one to ask.”

The West Palm officials spoke to Department of Transportation officials about how to get money for infrastructure, such as a transit hub downtown, a dedicated express bus lane or even light rail. Light rail is an expensive option, she acknowledged. “It’s a blue sky goal that I’ve had, but if there’s federal funding ...”

She said she urged the county congressional delegation to fight cutbacks in block grants for housing, some of which in the past have gone to providing housing for the city’s homeless.

She also pressed for support for the Drone Federalism Act, a piece of bipartisan legislation that would give localities the power to control where and when drones can be used, currently a matter mainly of federal law.