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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1961-10-24 This Village Adds Classroom a Month (Miami Herald)Mz.4rvI: HERALD (�sr. 24) 1461 Mr. and Mrs. Peter Meister Live at 913 Westwind Dr, N. Palm Bead . . they're among the many hundreds of new residents who have moved into North Palm, Beach in past few wears `Classroom North Pahn Beach Growing at Itpid Clip By BILL MANSFIELD Herald Staff Writer NORTH PALM BEACH --e 01 If you enjoy impressing your northern friends with reports of South Florida's growth, here's a statistic for you: The population of North Palm Beach has increased 2,175 per cent during the past 48 months. There's no missing decimal point there — the figure is 2,175 per cent. On Oct. 1, 1957, North Palm Beach had just 203 residents. At the start of the current month, 4,620 persons called 1 he village home. Village Manager Albin Olson, who took on his dutioG before the first resident mo' ed in back in 1956, isn't sur- prised at all. "Basically, we're running right along with the estimates made when the village w a s planned," he says. "We esti- mated 4,000 residents -by -now- and we're running just a lit- tle ahead of that figure." Olson's crystal ball — which has been working fine up to now — sees a solid growth for the next four years, too. "Our estimate calls for 10,- 000 residents by 1956," he reports. Which will be a slack- ing of the percentage pace, down to a mere 100-odd p e r- cent growth in four years. Unless North Palm .Beach does some annexing, t h e growth will come to an abrupt halt sometime near 1970. That's about the time Olson figures the "planned commu- nity" will hit its maximum population of 15,000. In the meantime, Olson pre- dicts that, barring some jar- ring upset, families will con- tinue to move into the village at about the same rate they've beenentering for the past 18 months-30 a month. Where do they come from and why? Olson doesn't have any pat answer to that question, but he does have a couple of sta- tistics that shed some light. First, 47 per cent of the family breadwinners in North Palm Beach are employed at one of three plants: Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, RCA or Minneapolis -Honeywell. None of these plants is lo- cated in the village, which has no industrial zoning, but all are nearby. Most of their North Palm Beach employes are engineers or other technical men drawn here from the north. Another eight per cent of the new village's residents are retired persons — and again, most of them probably moved in from the North. In general then, North Palm Beach is a new city of new Florida residents. The population trend —which encouraged voters to give overwhelming support to a 1.43 million dollar bond issue for recrreation facilities — has pleased everybody. Except perhaps the county school board. Already forced into double shifts at the North Palm Beach elementary school while another school is being rush- ed to completion at nearby Palm Beach Gardens, school board members may shudder at this one last statistic. North Palm Beach adds an 11 average of 30 elementary school children each month. Translated into school building terms, that's a new classroom a month.