Hoping to catch more criminals, help more citizens and improve overall city sleuthing, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department is doing a complete overhaul of its Web site, after city commissioners recently agreed to allow Vision Internet Providers Inc. of Santa Monica, Calif., to redesign the outdated site.

“The current police department Web site will be transformed to utilize new technologies to protect and serve the public,” said Matt Little, a Fort Lauderdale spokesman. “When complete, the new [Police Department] Web site will provide unprecedented accessibility to law enforcement information and services.”

The redesign will cost more than $58,000, of which $25,000 will come from the Department’s Trust Fund 104, which is money confiscated by police. The remainder of the cost will come from the federal Safe Streets Grant.

The existing Web site is often difficult to navigate and officials hope the redesign will improve community outreach.

Check out the Fort Lauderdale Police Department's current Web site here, and judge for yourself how badly an overhaul is needed.

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After organizing a lifeguard workshop earlier this month to weigh residents’ concerns over whether or not the town needs lifeguards on its beach, Mayor Roseann Minnet said Broward County should help subsidize Lauderdale-by-the-Sea lifeguards since the town attracts so many visitors.

"Every day we have tourists come here from all over," Minnet said.

Some commissioners say the town alone cannot afford the $1.5 million price tag for lifeguards along the two-mile stretch of beach, and that the Volunteer Fire Department’s recent addition of an ATV beach patrol is enough, despite frequent rip currents.

“The biggest danger I see is kids running away from parents and ending up in the water,” said Commissioner Jim Silverstone, who has lived in the town for 25 years. “We’ve reached a good medium [with the ATV patrol], and I’m leaning toward improving what we have now.”

Silverstone said the town would spend approximately $1.5 million a year to have 14 lifeguards and two supervisors on duty seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Commission passed a resolution Nov. 10 urging the county to help fund the town’s lifeguard bill.

“There is a general area where [drownings] occur,” said Commissioner Birute Ann Clottey. “Some of us are willing to pay for lifeguards.”

Neighboring Pompano Beach has 101,457 residents and pays $1.3 million annually for 18 full-time and 26 part-time lifeguards on its three-mile stretch of beach, which averages to roughly $12 per resident.

With only 6,300 residents, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea would be paying $239 per resident for comparable services.

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Civic associations in Fort Lauderdale now have their community pool back, thanks to a unanimous vote by the City Commission and a helpful new management company.

Hammerhead Aquatics Inc. recently received a one-year contract beginning Jan. 1 worth $16,000 to manage the pool located on Sunrise Middle School’s property in Fort Lauderdale.

“It’s a wonderful facility that’s never been used year-round but it will be now,” coach John Grzeszczak Sr. of Hammerhead Aquatics said.

Controversy over the pool began after the school board sublet the facility to different management companies that failed to communicate the operational hours to area residents that wish to use the pool, Poinsettia Heights Civic Association president Mike Vonder Meulen said in September. In fact, the association raised $70,000 toward the pool's construction cost.

Even before the bid, Hammerhead Aquatics contacted the association vowing to work with local residents for use of the pool.

“All the other management companies never had any community outreach,” Vonder Meulen said. “We’re excited that they contacted us.”

Grzeszczak is currently contacting all the associations about the pool’s operational hours and activities, in hopes they will include the information in their newsletters. The final schedule will be posted on the company’s Web site, www.hammerheadaquatics.com, in the coming weeks and also at the pool fence by Jan. 1.

“I want to keep the pool open 365 days,” Grzeszcak said.

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Horses arrived 10 minutes into Imperial Point’s Winter in the Park festival, two proud Percheron mixes pulling a covered wagon, only without the cover. Christmas lights lined the ribs of each horse, glowing with color against the sudden dark.

A sight like this isn’t unusual — not in December — when each year the Fort Lauderdale neighborhood’s homeowners association takes over Dottie Mancini Park for a festival that brings a bit of coolness to a typically warm South Florida.

A few years ago the association almost always scheduled its winter festival in the morning hours, with real snow shipped in from Miami and piled into mounds throughout the park grounds. But now even the park has changed. Earlier this year, Imperial Point Park was renamed Dottie Mancini Park.

But the snow got too expensive, association board member Laura Clark said, and for two years now the event has been in the evening, without the large mounds of snow. Organizers were able to conjure up a snow machine, a black box sitting on tall, skinny legs and looking like a relative of “Wall-E” in the latest Disney movie.

“I love this,” said resident Chris Petrouske, shepherding his two sons, ages 5 and 3, toward boxes of hot popcorn. “It’s a family atmosphere. The kids all go to school together, and their friends are here.”

“This is about community,” Eleanor McCoy said. “You get to meet and greet neighbors, not just watch them drive by. When people know you, they want to take care of you.”

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The Las Olas Boulevard Association’s efforts to keep its major retail strip in constant attention often includes details like making sure broken streetlights are replaced efficiently and keeping the paint on lampposts fresh. Now add on-street parking during the day to that list.

Traditionally Fort Lauderdale has permitted parking only after 6:30 p.m. on weekdays, which didn’t always please local businesses, according to Laura Mogilewski, the association’s executive director.

In response to the group's requests for extended parking hours, the city granted the additional hours after the association presented their case to the City Commission, allowing parking on the boulevard from Southeast Fourth Avenue to Southeast 12th Avenue, leaving the fee at $1.50 per hour.

“This makes it more convenient for people, enabling them to park in front of the places they want to visit,” said Mark Whitney, manager of Mangos Restaurant, 904 E. Las Olas Boulevard. “And having so many more cars on the street makes it look lively.”

Stephan Rioux, owner of Las Olas Fine Arts, 701 E. Las Olas Boulevard, said the new parking hours are wonderful.

“This is a great way to have easy access to the stores,” he said. “It slows down traffic and allows a rhythm on the street that is more connected with what life here should be.”

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Nicknamed the “Crowned Jewel of Fort Lauderdale” for half a century, the Four Seasons Condominium celebrated its 50th anniversary on Sunday with a host of elected officials, current and past residents.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle commemorated the milestone by marking Dec. 14, 2008 as “Four Seasons Condominium Day.”

“Fifty years ago, we lived in a different time,” said building historian, board member and resident Jim Wood.

His research uncovered that the condominium shares its anniversary with the completion of the Las Olas Bridge, the Henry B. Kinney Tunnel and Holiday Park’s Jimmy Evert Tennis Center.

“There’s a great sense of community here,” Irvin Lippman, a five-year resident and executive director of the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, said. “Plus, you get to pay homage to the ocean every day.”

Construction of the building began in 1957 and was completed in 1958, although Wood was unable to find an exact completion date in county or city records.

The building was most recently renovated two years ago with major concrete restoration, a new dock on Sunset Lake, which connects to the New River, and the replacement of many of the balconies and railings. Nova Southeastern University’s president, Ray Ferrero Jr., is currently completing massive renovations to the penthouse, which housed the award-winning Le Dome restaurant for 30 years before closing in 1994.

“The building used to be exclusively seasonal, but then like all things Fort Lauderdale, that changed,” Wood said.

The condo houses between 100 and 150 residents, depending on the season, in 82 units that all have views of Las Olas Boulevard to the west and Fort Lauderdale beach to the east.

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Stretched out on the porch ready to take a long nap, a Victoria Park resident's cat was attacked and killed recently by a neighbor’s pit bull.

A neighbor who witnessed the attack quickly called police just before the black and white pit bull, named Mercedes, was taken by Broward County’s Animal Care and Regulation Division.

The incident is indicative of Broward County's ongoing trouble with dog attacks. Fifty-four animals were killed by dogs in Broward during a 12-month period ending in September. And some in the Victoria Park neighborhood feel the incident is not isolated.

“We’ve even approached [neighbors] on the sidewalk to alert them to the danger, and to say we’re calling this to their attention because there’s really nothing we can do as an association except tell them to be careful,” Association Vice President Ted Fling said.

Pit bulls accounted for more than 200 of the bites reported in Broward from October 2007 through September 2008. More than half were attacks on other animals.

Fling said that animals attacking other animals has become a concern for the association and members continue to warn neighbors to be attentive when they’re out walking their pets.

“It’s happening way too often with these untethered and unmuzzled dogs,” he said.

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To get a better understanding of its resident’s opinions, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea wants to poll residents through the town’s Web site in addition gathering responses by phone and mail.

Commissioners recently discussed offering straw polls on the town’s site to gain a larger and wider audience of voters, where both residents and businesses can take part.

“Rather than take up clerical time to answer calls, people with computers [could] register with the Web site [to vote],” Commissioner Stuart Dodd said. “I think we’ll get a greater response and better feedback.”

Over the summer, the town executed its first straw poll through its newsletter, Town Topics, about the possibility of opening a dog beach. About 239 respondents voted by submitting their full names via mail or phone responses for resident verification.

Commissioner James Silverstone said he supports the idea if there is a way to guarantee residents can only vote once via the Web site.

“There needs to be some type of integrity, but then again with computers, there’s always a way to manipulate stuff,” he said.

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With cleats properly shined and ready to go, the Youth Soccer Program at Fort Lauderdale’s Holiday Park will kick off another season this Saturday. In fact, the program is one of the park’s biggest, according to Recreation Director Phil Peterson.

Now in it's sixth year, the program is casual enough to let players focus on the game rather than the competition.

“It’s a unique sport,” Peterson said. “[Here] you’re really just ... learning the basics of the game.”

The programs formal games begin Dec. 13, with the season ending around Feb. 7.

For information about the Youth Soccer Program call the Holiday Park Sports Line at 954-828-3789.

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A request from a Poinsettia Heights resident to rent out two guest rooms in his house didn’t go over well with the neighborhood’s civic association.

David Smith said he wanted to offer a place that accepted only those guests who called in reservations. Smith also said that every potential renter would be screened before arriving, and that he would like to advertise the guest rooms in the association’s newsletter.

“I’m not too thrilled,” association president Mike Vonder Meulen said in an e-mail. “It’s not right for the single-family home character of our neighborhood.”

Association vice president Gabriel Ocasio-Davila said the neighborhood is also not zoned for those purposes.

Fort Lauderdale city spokesman Matt Little said that although the neighborhood is zoned as residential, nothing would prohibit a resident from having full-time roommates.

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Members of the Central Beach Alliance would like to see a more pleasing Fort Lauderdale skyline, and hope the new Bahia Mar Park, the projected $500 million downtown redevelopment project on the Intracoastal Waterway, can be the way of the future.

“Bahia Mar is probably the most precious public land the city owns,” said Alliance President Steve Glassman.

LXR Luxury Resorts & Hotels Vice President Peter Henn, said he hopes the Bahia Mar Park Project will win a unanimous vote of approval from the Alliance at its meeting in January.

Alliance member Joe Panico said he liked the project and agreed that the land has been wasted.

“But you need to work on the aesthetics,” he said.

Beach resident Shirley Smith said the project is too big.

“The architecture is all right, but I’d love something more Mediterranean. There has to be a lot more talking,” she said.

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