Stet NewsGood morning, Stetters! Let’s hit the ground running. For you today, the joy of landfills, a spotlight on the county budget, hyperscale data storage coming to the neighborhood, teens step up and 27 years of weather watching.
🗑️ Surprise! Environmentalists are promoting landfills
As Palm Beach County embarks on building a $1.5 billion incinerator, environmentalists are pushing an alternative they once condemned — landfills.
It’s not as preposterous as you think. The alternative, burning trash in enormous incinerators, spawns more pollution, they say.
Why it matters: The amount of garbage is expected to grow 20% along with the number of Palm Beach County residents over the next 25 years. Burning trash instead of burying it can add decades to the life of a landfill and new burn technology is safe, county officials say.
- Environmentalists say first and foremost, society must find ways to reduce garbage, through better packaging and recycling. The goal is called zero waste.
What they’re saying: “For those who say, ‘zero waste,’ that‘ll never happen,” County Commissioner Maria Marino said Oct. 8. That’s the day commissioners committed to the new incinerator, the most expensive capital project in county history, to replace a 1989 incinerator.
Zoom in: The Solid Waste Authority insists that the technology on the 2015 incinerator scrubs several pollutants before they go airborne and that the new incinerator will be even better.
Yes, but: Environmentalists poke holes in the county’s argument, saying only a few pollutants are monitored continuously and some not at all. Toxic metals such as mercury and lead are tested only once a year.
Zoom out: Broward County plans to increase recycling to 75% of its trash and while it does, dump the rest in landfills. Miami-Dade toyed with building a landfill in Central Florida and trucking its waste there before opting for a new incinerator.
What’s next: The Solid Waste Authority has years of steps to take before construction begins on the new incinerator in 2029, which is scheduled to open in 2034.
Read more about how landfills have shed their dirty reputations and how they’re so much less expensive than incinerators at StetNews.org.
— Holly Baltz
💥 CFO tosses a $344 million grenade
Comparing Palm Beach County’s pre-COVID spending to its 2025 budget shows overspending by $344 million, the state’s chief financial officer, Blaise Ingoglia, declared at a news conference Thursday in West Palm Beach.
That’s nonsense, says County Administrator Joe Abruzzo.
Why it matters: Ingoglia, who is facing a Republican primary challenger in his run for CFO, is counting on the popularity of cutting the property taxes that fuel local government spending. His announcement buttresses state efforts to place on the ballot amendments that sharply reduce local property taxes. City and county officials say the cuts would be devastating.
While state auditors spent two days going over county finances in August, Ingoglia’s declaration of $344 million in overspending is the only detail that has been produced since then.
Catch up quick: After Ingoglia’s remarks at the Okeechobee Steakhouse, Abruzzo sent the CFO a public records request. In short, it said, “Show me the money.”
What they’re saying: “This is excessive and wasteful spending,” Ingoglia said, holding up a sign with $344,620,981 written on it. “That is the biggest number we’ve seen in the state of Florida so far this year.”
Yes, but: Ingoglia said he uses the Consumer Price Index to capture inflation. Counties face different inflationary factors, Abruzzo wrote in his letter to Ingoglia.
- “Applying consumer-style inflation to government functions therefore understates actual cost pressures and may overstate the appearance of ‘excess’ spending,” Abruzzo wrote.
Of note: While Ingoglia said the county collected $878 million more in taxes between the 2020 and 2025 fiscal years, that simply isn’t true, Abruzzo said. County records show the tax-supported part of the county budget increased by nearly $480 million during those six years.
Read the rest of the story at StetNews.org.
— Jane Musgrave
📼 Data storage center’s big pitch
A proposal to build the first hyperscale data storage center in Palm Beach County goes before the County Commission Wednesday.
Residents of Arden, the closest neighborhood to the 202-acre site off of Southern Boulevard at 20-Mile Bend, are prepared to oppose it.
Why it matters: “Project Tango” is backed by the county’s Business Development Board, which recruits businesses to the county. The proposal, which passed the Zoning Commission Dec. 4, doesn’t detail incentives to attract one of the major tech companies that typically operate such centers but the changes would allow about 1.8 million square feet of data storage space, a ninefold increase over existing allowances.
- The developers would retain the right to build 1.9 million square feet of warehouse space, too.
Catch up quick: That’s too much, too close to a newly opened elementary school, say residents of the 2,300-home Arden community, who worry about noise, lighting and traffic, plus energy and water consumption and carbon dioxide generation.
What they’re saying: “A project of this magnitude, essentially an industrial power- and water-intensive campus, does not belong next to thousands of families who moved to Loxahatchee specifically for peace, open land, clean air and a healthier environment for our children,” resident Avi Baecht said.
Of note: The project would be built by PBA Holdings, whose principals have turned thousands of acres of rock pits into a lucrative water storage business and who sold the vacant Arden land for $77 million to a home-builder in 2014.
Zoom in: The developer’s project manager, Ernie Cox, says the 202-acre site is ideal for data storage. It would get electricity from the neighboring Florida Power & Light West County Energy Center, which also receives reused sewage water piped in from a sewage plant 15 miles away.
- Cox pledged to work with Arden residents to respond to their concerns.
The intrigue: NextEra Energy, FPL’s parent, announced Monday an expanded partnership with Alphabet’s Google Cloud to develop large-scale data center campuses nationwide, Reuters reported. NextEra said it expects to add 15 gigawatts, or possibly much more, of new power generation for data centers by 2035.
- “We are positioning our company around bring-your-own-generation, and we are uniquely positioned to win this,” NextEra CEO John Ketchum said at an investor conference.
What’s next: The County Commission meets as the Zoning Commission at 9:30 am Wednesday in the sixth-floor commission chambers at 301 N. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach.
Read more about the project and neighbors’ worries at StetNews.org.
— Joel Engelhardt
📚 Learning about governing in Riviera Beach
Riviera Beach has launched its first Youth Council, a 15-member board of teenagers who will have a voice in their city’s future.
Why it matters: Youth Council members will learn about local government, perform community service and pursue projects to improve life in Riviera Beach.
- The members applied for their appointments and will be paid a $500 stipend when they complete their one-year term.
What they’re saying: “We established the council to reflect all of Riviera Beach,” Mayor Doug Lawson said when the members were sworn in Oct. 1. “Not just the seniors, not just the few people who come to the mic every week. But, actually, the young folks who are going to be impacted by the decisions this board makes.”
Council Member Kashamba Miller-Anderson, an assistant principal, gave Youth Council members copies of several books, including Robert’s Rules of Order, the most widely used manual for parliamentary procedure, “City Council 101,” “The Ultimate Guide to Life Skills for Teens,” “Lead to Win” and “Mastering Council Meetings.”
The Riviera Beach Youth Council members for the 2025–26 term are: Raina Caballero and Reese Caballero, Dreyfoos High School; Seanna Clarke, Liana Garcia, Xiyah MacLarty, Genesis Salmon, Kayla Simeus, Trevana Walton and Kha’Leria Williams, Palm Beach Gardens High School; Elijah Duverson and Bryce Jackson, Palm Beach Lakes High School; Zion Gyamfi, Suncoast High School; Ayanna Melvin and Supreme Melvin, Florida Virtual School; and Kristopher Thurston, Dwyer High School.
What’s next: Council members meet at 6 pm on the second Thursday of each month. The next regular meeting will be Jan. 8 at the Riviera Beach Library.
- In late January, council members will travel to Tallahassee with other youth councils during the legislative session.
Keep reading to find out what message the council wants to give to other teens at StetNews.org.
Who wrote this story: This story was reported by Stet’s Community Voices team of Micaja Etienne, Mikala Graham, Abigail Guillaume, Marielys Solano, Kelvin Verhovlyak and Myles Whigham.
Inlet Grove High School journalism teacher C.B. Hanif and Stet’s Carolyn DiPaolo and Liz Capozzi contributed to this story.
🍊 The Juice
💰 West Palm Beach is offering the Salvation Army $9.5 million to buy out the nonprofit agency’s lease on 3 acres of city land in the Northwest Neighborhood at 600 N. Rosemary Ave. The agency runs a community center on the land, built by the city in the 1990s. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
Officials broke ground last month in Lake Worth Beach on the largest workforce housing project built with money from Palm Beach County voter-approved affordable housing bonds. The $62 million Residences at Lake Worth by the Richman Group will consist of 195 income-restricted apartments. The project’s financing includes a $13 million low-interest loan from a $200 million bond issue approved by voters in 2022. (Lake Worth Beach Independent)
🌐 Boca Raton is a hub for 11 undersea fiber-optic cables, part of a vast, invisible global network that may date to when Tyco International was headquartered in the city 20 years ago. (The Coastal Star)
- Meanwhile, a long-running lawsuit involving one of those cables, owned by Globenet Cabos Submarinos America, involves Delray Beach developer William Swaim and onetime West Palm Beach powerbroker Bill Boose. (The Coastal Star)
💺 Related Ross is one of several partners in San Jose-based Archer Aviation that plans to launch an “air taxi” network in South Florida. The electric-powered vertical takeoff and landing aircraft could have a downtown West Palm landing spot, as well as a spot at area airports. (South Florida Business Journal $$$)
🎤 A six-minute interview with Related Ross’ Stephen Ross, touching on Florida’s business climate, New York City under Zohran Mamdani and Ross’ ownership of the Miami Dolphins. (CNBC)
👀 What $975,000 buys in Missouri (a Tudor revival), New Mexico (an adobe farmhouse) and West Palm Beach (a three-bedroom bungalow). (New York Times gift link)
🎙️ “Top of Mind Florida,” the podcast by Michael Williams and Brian Crowley, is moving to 9 am Sunday, the time slot Michael and Brian dominated on TV for more than a decade. They announce the changes, to go into effect Dec. 14, on this week’s show, reminding viewers that in a media landscape often defined by shouting matches, they remain committed to the quiet work of civil analysis and storytelling. (Listen now; watch after 4 pm Wednesday.)
561NSIDER: 🌀 Steve Weagle, the calm in a storm
When chief meteorologist Steve Weagle announced he was retiring from WPTV-Channel 5, after 27 years, you could almost hear the collective gasp from his television audience.
What’s happening: The weatherman who talked Palm Beach County residents through at least 10 major storms will sign off Friday, two days after a community party in his honor.
What they’re saying: “There’s a special bond with hurricane coverage because people still come and say, ‘You got me through the storm,’” Weagle, 59, said after receiving a proclamation last week from Palm Beach County commissioners, “and that’s a bond that can never be taken away.”
Why it matters: Even people who don’t follow TV news watch the local weather. After all, the threat of a storm is never far away, and viewers want to know if it’s going to rain on their parade.
“I’m the last person that should be on TV,” Weagle told Stet News last week. “I’m the kid in school who sat in the back of the class and didn’t talk to anyone for years. I was painfully shy, and I wanted to use the TV to get over the shyness. TV brought me out of my shell.”
Flashback: In the weeks after 2004’s Hurricane Frances, Weagle realized his impact.
That storm stalled off the coast before making U.S. landfall near Sewall’s Point in Martin County on Sept. 5, 2004. Weagle recalled that the weather team was on the air for about 67 straight hours.
“That’s probably my proudest moment.”
What’s next: The Palm Beach County proclamation declares Friday, Dec. 12, Steve Weagle Day.
- Celebrate Steve by eating all the snacks in your hurricane preparedness kit!
- Or if you’re in the area, everyone is invited to celebrate Weagle at 4:30 pm Wednesday at Old Key Lime House, 300 E. Ocean Ave., Lantana.
Keep reading to find out the journalism movie that Weagle modeled his news delivery on and who inspired his locally famous Snuggle Alerts at StetNews.org.
– Janis Fontaine
