Port of Palm Beach commissioners voted to ask Palm Beach County to take over the dilapidated John F. Kennedy bunker on Peanut Island, built in 1961 as a secret nuclear-bomb shelter for the 35th U.S. president. The port owns the historic bunker and leases it to the Palm Beach Maritime Museum under a lease contract that expires Oct. 31.
Port commissioners unanimously agreed to direct staff to talk to county officials about leasing the bunker on Peanut Island and maintaining it as part of a county park. Most of the 80-acre island just east of Riviera Beach already is a county park. The county may balk at the port’s plan if it can’t afford repairs to the bunker, estimated to cost as much as $5 million. [Palm Beach Post] – Mike Seemuth