Lake Worth Beach staff to pursue Bloomberg bicycle-safety grant planning round

Commissioner Christopher McVoy presented a Bloomberg sustainable-cities initiative that would fund bicycle-safety planning and potentially capital work if the city advances to the second round.

McVoy described the program as two phases: an initial planning selection of up to 25 cities worldwide and, if selected, as many as 10 cities receiving roughly $400,000 each to implement infrastructure. “It’s a 2 phase grant… 25 cities worldwide can get approved the first round… and if that goes well, then 10 of those cities get $400,000 each to actually carry out the work,” McVoy said.

Staff said Alyssa Kirk has confirmed Lake Worth Beach is eligible and that Melissa and other staff would assist with the application. Mr. Perry told the commission that staff will take the lead on completing the application and that the city has already begun advertising for a full‑time grant-writer position to support such efforts. The application period runs from June 3 through September 14; staff estimated the application would take about five hours of focused work.

Commissioners expressed unanimous support to pursue the planning-phase application and suggested including grant-management responsibilities in the recruitment for the grant-writer role. No formal vote was recorded; staff will proceed under commission direction to prepare the application for the program deadline.