South End condominium boards and some other groups will no longer be allowed to host meetings in the area’s fire station, now that the Town Council has agreed to limit events at the building to town-affiliated programming.
Under the policy unanimously approved during the council’s April 17 meeting, only events sponsored or co-sponsored by the town will be allowed at Palm Beach Fire Rescue Station 3 at 2185 S Ocean Blvd.
According to the policy memo, any co-sponsored event must be vetted by the town manager, to ensure it does not disrupt operations at the station and preserves the town’s political neutrality.
The policy comes after the council discussed limiting events at the meeting room during its Feb. 10 meeting.
Those concerns arose after the station hosted a community event along with an “office-hours” event for the candidates competing for the council’s Group 1, incumbent Lew Crampton — the eventual winner — and challenger John David Corey, respectively.
Crampton, who had originally raised the issue, asked Town Attorney Joanne O’Connor if the new policy meant that Town Council members could not host office hours when their seats were up for election.
More likely than not, the answer is yes, O’Connor answered, but she said she would review each event request on a case-by-case basis.
“It may be a moot issue,” in the event of an unopposed election, she said.
While the policy is not meant to outright ban events held by civic groups, including the Citizens’ Association of Palm Beach, those organizations will be required to seek the town as a sponsor before they can make a request to rent the meeting room, according to the policy document.
Fire Rescue Chief Sean Baker said the new policy would ensure that third-party events would not disrupt the department’s personnel training or its public-safety programs, such as CPR training for residents.
Before the policy change, Town Hall put no restrictions on a town resident’s ability to rent the station’s meeting room as a public facility. In the past, residents who wanted to rent out the meeting room just needed to contact the town, put down a $200 deposit and pay $28 per hour of use, with a minimum hourly charge of $40, according to Deputy Town Manager Carolyn Stone.
The fees were notably less than those charged for facilities at the Mandel Recreation Center, where the town requires a $300 deposit and offers the cheapest room at the Midtown center for $60 an hour.
Diego Diaz Lasa is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at dlasa@pbdailynews.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach OK’s limits to South End fire station use as event space
Reporting by Diego Diaz Lasa, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
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