By: Dale King
Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer delivered his 2020 “State of the City” address at the Cultural Arts Center in Mizner Park.
Due to the COVID pandemic, he presented this year’s events summary “virtually” Wednesday evening via the city’s online broadcast system.
In fact, COVID-19 and efforts to avoid and prevent the scourge that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives across the globe set the stage for the look back at 2020 and at hopes for the future.
Singer immediately set a positive theme and used video segments during the address to highlight the progress Boca has made despite the raging ailment.
“No one knew what the year would bring,” he said, noting that the 42-minute address would show “how we united and examine the role innovation played in our recovery.”
He said the speech would also reveal the “burgeoning buzz from Boca Raton.”
Soon after 2020 began, Boca Raton declared a state of emergency as individuals locked down, stores locked up and fears of the spreading pandemic grew.
Facing stay-at-home orders and closings, Boca citizens began getting COVID-19 tests at places like Florida Atlantic University.
As the year passed, the city established programs to help those in need who were cut off from jobs, food supplies and other necessities, Singer said.
“We started the Ready, Steady, Boca program, in which people pledged responsibility.”
Speaking in individual segments, Fire Chief Tom Wood and Police Chief Michele Miuccio told how their departments joined in not only to fight crime and fires, but to lead people through the wilderness of pending illness.
Wood said firefighter/EMTs were trained to deal with COVID. Among rescue calls for the year were 1,900 EMS calls that specifically involved the coronavirus – an eye-opening 29%. Wood also offered an update on Fire Station 6, which was razed in 2020 and is being rebuilt at Clint Moore Road and Military Trail. “It will open soon.”
Miuccio told how police dealt with street protestors following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. All demonstrations in Boca were “peaceful,” she said, in particular, a “Unity Walk” in June. She said the department also set up a threat assessment unit in a year that saw “challenging times.”
With the pandemic bearing down on local businesses, a Small Business Recovery & Relief Act program was created and mortgage assistance became available.
Construction continued, despite COVID, perhaps assisted by a streamlined permitting process in City Hall. Two new apartment complexes — Aura Boca near Yamato Road and Congress Avenue and Manor Broken Sound near Yamato Road and Military Trail ― will expand housing in the city, the mayor said.
Thanks to video, Singer was transported from an indistinct room to the golf course at Boca Country Club, where he told watchers how the location was donated to the city this past year by the Boca Raton Resort & Club.
With the outdoors beckoning, Recreation Services Director Michael Kalvort said bids have been advertised for Silver Palm Park and Wildflower Park. Recreation facilities are open again after a pandemic pause, and plans to restore Lake Wyman and Rutherford Park, and to open the Ocean Strand are in the offing.
Looking at the nation’s current situation, the mayor said, “companies are taking notice of Boca” and are moving south from high-tax, high-COVID level climes. Boca, like the rest of Florida, has no state tax. The city “has a triple-A bond rating and the tax rate has not increased in a decade.”
“Boca Raton,” Singer noted, “is strong, united and resilient.”