Boca Raton Gets Ready for Final Presidential Debate

By: Ariana Green

As Boca Raton prepares itself for the final presidential debate of the 2012 elections, resides can expect headaches all day Monday on the roads around Lynn University. Military Trail between Yamato Road and Potomac Road; Potomac Road between Northwest 24th Avenue and Military Trail; Spanish River Boulevard between Broken Sound Boulevard and Military Trail. Will all be closed starting at 6 a.m on Monday and will only reopen 2 a.m. Tuesday.

More periodic road closures “should be anticipated,” police say which might include ramp closures on Interstate 95 for the motorcades of President Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney, though it won’t be announced if they’re flying into Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood or Palm Beach international airports or which route they’re taking.

“Whenever the president visits, we don’t know which roads until they’re en route. The Secret Service handles all of that,” said Boca Raton police spokesman Mark Economou. “It’s safe to say a few times during the day there will be periodic road closures for the president’s escort and the governor’s escort as they come and go.”

Furthermore, school will be closed at Pope John Paul High School and classes are cancelled at Lynn on Monday due to the road closures.

As residents know, this isn’t Boca Raton’s first experience with presidential debates. In 2008, Florida Atlantic University hosted a Republican primary debate. But city officials say that was nothing like the scale of Monday’s presidential debate.

Up to 6,000 credentialed media alone are expected in town for the debate, far outnumbering the university’s 2,100 students.