Jupiter council moving ahead with makeovers
Neighborhood improvements worth $50K also approved.
The panel signs off on a $20 million contract for a new police station as well as $50,000 for spruce-ups in 13 neighborhoods.
Jupiter is pressing the yes button on makeovers ranging from major to micro, from a $20 million contract for a new police station beside a planned town hall to more than $50,000 approved this week to fix up neighborhoods with benches, signs, security cameras, landscaping and more.
In some years, a portion of town money set aside for community improvements has gone unused, but officials at a town council meeting credited reporting by The Palm Beach Post with helping to draw attention to what is available.
“There was a really nice article in The Palm Beach Post about the program,” Neighborhood Services Manager Satu Oksanen said at a town council meeting Tuesday evening.
In recent years, as little as $37,000 of the grant money has been used, but this week, town council members approved 13 neighborhood grants of $50,273.78.
The program matches town resources with volunteer hours and donations, often letting community associations avoid special assessments to residents.
Approvals include $2,927.63 for pet waste stations, landscaping and sign repair for The Heights, for example, and $5,000 for security cameras for Tierra Del Sol.
Bigger projects are afoot as
well. The council on April 17 awarded Song and Associates Inc. a $20 million contract to construct a new police facility, data center and veterans’ memorial.
The building that currently houses the police department comes with no guarantees it can withstand some of the strongest hurricane winds, posing concerns such as protecting evidence, records and case files. One official last year called it “particularly disturbing when the last thing we have to do is cover our electronic equipment with trash bags to avoid any potential water damage.”
The proposed new building will be designed to act as an emergency operations center able to withstand winds up to 180 mph. It will be constructed next to the town’s community center, not far from the current town hall on Military Trail near Indiantown Road.
A later phase of the plan calls for a new 48,000-square-foot town hall, multi-level parking garage, athletics building and school parking accommodations.
For now, the contract addresses the first phase, designing and constructing the 36,000-square-foot police facility.
“If all the stars align, the project will be completed in 27 months,” said town utilities director David Brown.