2011 Presidents' Breakfast

Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach

The Annual Presidents’ Breakfast was held at the Four Seasons Resort, on February 17. The breakfast was funded by BankUnited, the invitees included the Presidents and Delegates from every Palm Beach condominium south of Sloan's Curve, our Mayor, Town Council, Public Works Department, and several County and State governmental officials. The key purpose of the meeting was to educate us on the short-term tactical and long-term strategic plans to preserve our beaches and dunes.

Jimmy Ryan opened the meeting with an update on the current dunes project, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of March.  He spoke of the conciliatory efforts that have been made to satisfy the concerns of some condominiums who have resigned from the Citizens’ Association. Continuing those conciliatory efforts was the decision to invite all buildings, members or non-members to participate in this informative meeting addressing shore protection.

The beach project presentation was led by Paul Brazil, Public Works Director, and Rob Weber, Palm Beach Coastal Coordinator, joined by Penny Cutt, Regional Manager of Coastal Systems International, Inc., the outside firm who will handle the environmental issues and permitting.

In order to support the concept of a "united south end", Ron Greene, president of the coalition, volunteered to represent the buildings, which have left the Citizens’ Association. He smoothly facilitated the questions and answers session to ascertain that all concerns were heard, perhaps THE MOST TELLING OF THE QUESTIONS to the Town and consultants WAS "IF YOU HAD ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD, what would you be doing differently than we are currently doing?' "The answer was a resounding "NOTHING WOULD BE DIFFERENT". THE TOWN COUNCIL, SHORE PROTECTION BOARD, MAYOR AND OUR TOWN STAFF HAVE ACTED RESPONSIBLY AND STRATEGICALLY AGAINST THE NATURAL OCEAN TIDES.

Richard Kleid outlined our lobbying efforts at the state and federal levels to gain legislative advantages to our continuing beach and dune protection actions.

John Altimari President of Halcyon, summarized the meeting, when he said "The presentation given by Paul, Rob and Penny was brilliant. We support them, the Town Council and the Citizens’ Association, and look forward to continuing protection of our dunes, beaches and homes."