Hello from Your Chairperson
Dear Neighbors;
June
is here and I cannot believe that almost half of the year is gone already. Where did it go? It’s the month for
celebrating Flag Day on the 14th, Fathers Day on the 17th
and the start of summer vacations. What do you and your families have
planned for your vacation? Please
write us and share the adventure and pictures with our neighborhood. Send your submissions to Katie Shepherd,
our Editor of The Heights paper at NPBHeights@bellsouth.net.
Speaking of the paper, we are at
risk of losing our Heights Advertising Page if more people with businesses
don’t step up to the plate and advertise. To date Katie
has absorbed most of the cost of advertising on this page. Needless to say she
cannot continue to bear the burden of the expense any longer. Please advertise in our paper no matter
what service or trade you might provide. The paper is here for us and it is the
revenue generated from advertising that helps to ensure
the paper continues to exist for all of us. If you do crafts or if you
baby-sit, tutor, paint, do landscaping, signs, web creations, mortgages,
realtors, appraisers, pressure washing, hair stylists, mechanics, house
cleaning, general maintenance, masonry, teach music, rent party supplies, pet
sitting, house sitting, electrical,
air conditioning, plumbing, engineer, lawyer, dentist, doctor, massage, sell
beauty products, dry cleaner, etc….You get the idea- If you have a
service to offer, advertise it!!
Many of our neighbors are new to the area and looking for different
business needs. Don’t forget
that if you advertise in the paper with a business card or larger, then your
business card is placed on the website with a direct link to your web page, at
no additional cost to you. Advertising in our Service Directory is the BEST buy
for your money!!
By now you are all aware that the
Palm Beach School Board is proposing boundary changes that will affect our
children and our neighborhood. The Advisory Boundary Committee is recommending that
our children should be changed from attending Lighthouse and Beacon Cove
Elementary Schools to the
new school in Mirasol. A new school….hum, doesn’t
sound so bad! I am sure the children that go there will enjoy
an equally beneficial education with up to date technology but, the fact still
remains that the Lighthouse Beacon Cove campuses are- in regards to the
location- more convenient. Think
also of the many additional impacts that it will have on our children as well
as our community. Our children will lose the right to attend schools that
volunteers from our community have helped to build into the schools that they are today. They will lose the right to walk or ride
their bike to school, or attend the school
that is right in their own community.
They lose the support system
that they currently have while in their most formative years. They lose the right to attend the same school
as friends of theirs from the surrounding
community, Abaca. They lose the right to go to a school in
Jupiter, the town in which they live.
They would be forced to ride a bus for a longer period of time, through
more traffic and across main arteries of traffic such as Donald Ross Road, Central and Hood Road and without
seat belts. Such a change could
also have a negative impact on future home sales.
Like it or not convenience is a plus
to homebuyers, especially if it comes with the possibility of Duncan as a future
middle school (remember with one
change comes another- feeder schools are also at issue here), instead of
walking to Independence
Middle School. We as home owners will lose the appeal
of future buyers that are considering our neighborhood because they want their
children to attend Jupiter schools such as Lighthouse and Beacon Cove. From a
taxpayers standpoint let’s also consider the increased cost of the extra
buses, fuel, and drivers, where will that money come from? Does it make sense
for our children to be on buses going south to Palm Beach Gardens Schools while
Palm Beach Gardens (San Michele)
children are on a bus driving north to Jupiter Schools? If that is not enough to get you
thinking, what about the extra motor vehicle emissions that the extra traffic
creates? Whether it is a parent
driving further or more buses out there, the ozone pays the price which in turn
will ultimately be the legacy that we leave are children and grandchildren. Wouldn’t
it be better to encourage our School and Town officials to implement a “Safe Route to
School Program” like California
did. This would ensure that funding
was spent for sidewalks and bike lanes as well as other infrastructure
improvements to encourage walking and biking by schoolchildren which would be
better for both the children and our earth!
I wanted to take this time to
Thank everyone that attended the Emergency Meeting that we held in the park regarding
the School Boundary Changes, and I am pleased to tell that we have formed a
steering committee and they are well on their way to help fight this battle. Our Boundary Change Steering
Committee Chairperson is Kathy
Olsen (kathy@kolsen.com) with Owen Whalen,
as Co-Chair (low@mindspring.com). The steering
committees primary objective will be to gather information to refute the data
provided by the School Board in selecting our neighborhood for the projected
boundary changes. Please watch the
website and newspaper for updates from the Boundary Change Steering Committee
and please do your part to help them get all the information that they will
need in such a short period of time. Should you have any questions or comments
about the boundary changes, please feel free to contact either of the committee
members above or any of the “Friends of The Heights” Board members
at www.heightsofjupiter.com.
I also want to thank all the residents that have graciously volunteered to
help get important information out to our residents in a short amount of time by
forming a “Mail Train”.
Please check the paper and website for more information on the
“Mail Train” and how you too can volunteer to help.
The DOT held
another meeting regarding the widening of I-95. We are
still slated for a sound wall that will begin at the entrance
of I-95 and Donald Ross Road
and run past our neighborhood to the start
of Indian Creek Golf course. They
are still telling us that the wall
must be in place before construction starts. We’ll just have to wait and see!
Don’t forget about water
restrictions. As of Tuesday, May 15th
all of Palm Beach
County was put under
PHASE III Water Restrictions and fines will be issued to all the people that do
not comply. Check the paper and
website for more details.
I want to acknowledge all of our residents that made
the time to attend our meetings, e-mail or call me with their concerns, ideas,
suggestions and opinions on different issues. If you haven’t had the time to make
one of our meetings please try to in the near future. They are very informative. If your schedule won’t permit it
please send me an e-mail with your
information and I will gladly add you to our e-mail list for updates, the
meeting agenda, upcoming events and activities, as well as alerts from the
Jupiter Police Department and other organizations.
I also want to extend a welcome to
all of our new residents that have
moved into our neighborhood and invite you to become part of “The Friends
of The Heights” group. It is
a great way to meet your neighbors and to feel a part of our community. Please
feel free to call or e-mail me and we will arrange for one of our board members
to deliver a copy of our monthly paper and provide you with information of
upcoming events.
Our next “Friends of the
Heights” Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, August 9th at 7:00pm. It will be held at the Jupiter Town Hall.
(Please check our website or contact a member of our board if you need
directions.)
From
my family to yours, “May each day begin with a smile on your face, a song
in your heart and spirit in your soul.”
Respectfully,
Gina Pierce
Chairperson
“The Friends of the Heights”
