LAKE WORTH — Five days a week, a tract of paved property under Interstate 95 serves as the student parking lot for Lake Worth High School.
But on the weekends, it takes on another persona: a thriving flea market operated by Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Frank Kohl to benefit the Chamber and the high school.
And benefit both is exactly what it has done, Kohl said. In nearly a year that the enterprise has been operating, the two have split almost $42,000 in net profits.
“This is a lot nicer than a lot of the other flea markets you see,” said one vendor who identified himself as John and who sells an assortment of tools and other merchandise. “I used to be at the drive-in, and this is just a lot better. The people are nicer, and you couldn’t ask for a better location.”
“This is just the best thing that’s ever happened to a school as far as a fund-raiser is concerned,” said Lake Worth High Principal David Cantley. “For the first time since I’ve been a principal, when a teacher asks for something, I don’t have to say no, or maybe, or let’s wait and see.”
Funds have gone to the school’s band and choral department, as well as for computer and security equipment, and even a cover for the gymnasium floor so the school can hold dances there without risking expensive damage to that surface, Cantley said.
While the school uses its share of the money to add to its activity fund, Kohl said the Chamber’s split goes toward its general operation. Part of the proceeds so far will be used to renovate and paint the Chamber offices, housed in the city’s oldest building.
“Chambers in general are always doing some little thing to raise money,” he said, noting that many of these fund-raisers, such as breakfasts and luncheons, are generally supported by Chamber members and few others.
“We don’t try to make money on our own people,” Kohl said.
Unfortunately, the market under the interstate has been almost too successful.
Operators of the long-time flea market at the Trail Drive-in, about a mile west on Lake Worth Road, complained to the Florida Department of Transportation that the School Board was violating its long-term lease with the DOT by allowing profit-making activities to take place on the property.
“That was business and I understand it. There are a lot of vendors, and there are going to be more. If they lost anybody (to the Chamber), in six months’ time they will be back to where they were,” Kohl said.
The School Board has controlled the parking lot property for more than a decade, since construction of I-95 was completed, under a long-term lease from the DOT.
Rather than fight the challenge through a long and possibly losing battle, however, Chamber and school officials decided to move the flea market onto the high school campus.
That move will take place the weekend of Jan. 2-3, Kohl said, when 42 of the vendor spaces will be set up in the gymnasium parking lot, and the remaining 54 will be around the school’s running track.
The move will cost the market 11 vendor spaces, dropping the total from 141 to 130, Kohl said, “but we will have the largest buyers’ parking lot of any flea market in the state (under I-95).”
Even the proposed move to the athletic field doesn’t bother the vendors, John said. “We’ll be out of the shade (under the highway), and people won’t be able to park right along side, but I like the idea of being in a confined area like that.”
“People were really mad when they heard we were going to have to move. I heard a lot of cuss words against the DOT,” Kohl said. “But they really can’t be blamed, they were just following the law.”
Kohl added he is working with members of the county’s legislative delegation to try to get that law changed.
In a way, he said, the publicity generated by the protest has helped the flea market, while not seriously affecting the drive-in’s business.
Kohl said he takes a benevolent approach to managing the enterprise, making sure vendors are accommodated and buyers are comfortable.
“I treat them like I would like to be treated. I deal with the vendors like they were my own brothers and sisters,” he said.
“It’s becoming an institution down there. It’s more like a family every week,” Cantley said.
“Most flea markets just happen; whether you are a buyer or a seller, you go through the gate and you’re on your own. Frank (Kohl) really and truly manages this flea market. If there is a problem, you go to him and he will take care of it,” Cantley said.
His benevolence only extends so far, however. Kohl said he adamantly refuses to reserve more than 75 percent of the spaces on any given weekend to allow for families or others selling household goods to participate.
“If you don’t have people with household goods, if you don’t have new people, you’re losing out. A real flea market has to have household goods,” he said.
So popular the market has become, Kohl said, that when he arrives at 5:30 a.m., both vendors and buyers are already lining up to get in.
“There are people out there with flashlights looking for bargains,” he said, adding that, although the official opening time is 8 a.m., most vendors already are set up and ready to do business by 7:30.
“We’re here by 5:30 in the morning,” said George Werner who, with his wife, sells donated goods to support orphans overseas. “We don’t have to be here, but it is something we enjoy doing.”
Werner says he has a special interest in the welfare of orphans, proudly showing a picture of his new grandson, a once-abandoned Columbian child adopted by his daughter.
Kohl said he hopes the issue of using the student parking lot can be settled in time for the market to move back by next summer to take advantage of the shade offered by the highway overhead.
“I’m not giving up,” he said. “If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to be back there.”
