Boy Scout Troop 49 is the oldest scout organization in Miami Lakes and has called the old Picnic Park Community Center on Miami Lakes Drive East its home for more than 30 years.
But the building, also known as “The Shack,” was torn down to make way for a new youth center three years ago and the group was displaced and forced to find temporary space for their meetings, awards ceremonies and banquets at the Mary Collins and Royal Oaks Park community centers.
And when the new youth center opened late last year, Troop 49 was ecstatic to call the new facility their home again.
But not so fast.
The activities planned by the Miami Lakes Youth Activities Task Force, and after school programs, posed scheduling conflicts with the Boys Scouts’ activities, leaving Troop 49 without a home again, so the troop turned to lawmakers for help.
At the January 5 regular Town Council meeting, council members approved Mayor Michael Pizzi’s recommendation for town staff to create a plan that would allow the Boy Scouts to use the youth center and find space for their equipment and the annals of the troop on display for everyone to observe.
The troop placed their entire history of camping and jamboree pictures, plaques, awards, trophies and equipment in a trailer outside of Miami Lakes during construction of the youth center, which was once vandalized.
Representatives of Troop 49 said the Mary Collins Community Center os a good place to conduct business but they would rather do it in a place they once called their home.
The Miami Lakes United Soccer Club also felt it was left without a home after personal trainers and their clients occupied most of the space and exercise equipment at Royal Oaks Park, forcing the teams to practice at Norman and Jean Reach Park in Palm Springs North.
Council members approved Pizzi’s recommendation for town staff to draft a multi-year contract with the soccer club to use Royal Oaks Park for their practices again and other additional recreational areas within Miami Lakes, and prevent vendors charging people for their services while using the town’s parks until they agree to a revenue-sharing covenant with the town.
The plan also calls for the vendors to be insured and conduct a background check on the personal trainers, which is a town requirement for anyone doing business in the parks where children are playing.
According to Town Manager Alex Rey, about 80 percent of kids in the soccer club’s recreational program, including Councilmembers Tony Lama’s and Manny Cid’s kids, are Miami Lakes residents.
In other town business:
• Lawmakers gave their final approval for an ordinance to provide more clear regulation of nonconforming uses for structures and site improvements, including fences, which may be replaced for aesthetic reasons without losing their nonconforming status.
Council members approved an amendment to the ordinance made by Pizzi that if a fence is destroyed during a hurricane or by other natural disaster, it can be rebuilt using to same code standard as the old one.
Pizzi said fences and other structures in the West Lakes area were grandfathered in the town’s new land development code but if the property owners tore them down, they would have to replace them under the town’s standards.
The new ordinance would allow them to replace the same structure if a hurricane was responsible for the damage.
• Lawmakers gave their initial approval for an ordinance to amend the current budget by carrying over the prior year’s estimated surplus to fund the completion of capital projects that were budgeted and commenced in the prior fiscal year, allocate funds for settling Pizzi’s reinstatement lawsuit and allocate funds from the town’s fund balance to reimburse FEMA for hurricane related expense disallowances.
• Council members authorized the town manager to finalize and enter into a Community Aesthetic Feature Agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) for the installation and maintenance of the Beautification Master Plan’s Palmetto Expressway underpass improvement and town brand/identification marker.
• Lawmakers approved a resolution to create a Miami Lakes Sports Hall of Fame at the new Miami Lakes Optimist Park Clubhouse, which will honor athletes, coaches community members and teams from the town for their outstanding contributions or achievements in sports.
• Council members approved a conditional use site plan for a private educational facility at 15050 N.W. 79 Court in Miami Lake Business Park West.
The Graham Companies is leasing a portion of the office building to Agmus Ventures for a private college called Ana G. Mendez University. The site plan calls for office space for up to 18 employees, classrooms for academic classes and meetings with groups between 15 and 25 students. The school can register a maximum of 200 students.
The college is leasing the building on a temporary basis until the institution's permanent home, a new building in Business Park, is ready.
• Council members approved a resolution to amend the town’s Community and Leisure Services Rules and Regulation for a new user free schedule with the opening of the new youth center facility and picnic shelters at the park.
The amendment to the fee schedule is necessary to include the new facilities which are projected to generate up to an additional $75,000 in revenues that will be utilized to offset direct facility and maintenance costs.
• Lawmakers approved Council members Manny Cid’s and Ceasar Mestre’s recommendation to name a street after Breanna Vergara, the 10-year-old girl who died after she collapsed during a dance class from a heart condition.
Cid said the Breanna Vergara Foundation has had an incredible impact through South Florida, including the first annual 5k walk that saw thousands of people come out and of her memory.
Cid originally sought to co-designate Commerce Way as Breanna Vergara Foundation Way but Council member Nelson Rodriguez suggested N.W. 164 Street which leads to her home and nearby Royal Oaks Park where a tree can be planted in her memory.
In addition, lawmakers also approved Council member Tony Lama’s recommendation to require coaches at the town’s parks to learn CPR and other life-saving methods and how to use a fibrillator in an event of an emergency.
• Lawmakers approved Rodriguez’s recommendation to ask Miami-Dade County to add an ALS Transport Unit at the new West Miami Lakes fire station. Rodriguez, a Coral Gables firefighter, said the unit is needed with the development of the Dunnwoody Lake property, adding 482 homes.