Story and photos by Mary Thurwachter
 
    Accolades keep rolling in for Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue, a collection of more than 200 upscale shops (Tiffany, Chanel, Hermes, Saks, Louis Vuitton and Cartier, etc.) offering everything from designer jewelry, clothing and shoes to internationally acclaimed antiques and paintings.  
    Conde Nast Traveler dubbed Worth Avenue one of “the top five places to shop in country” and USA Today has it on the list of “10 Most Iconic Streets.” Worth Avenue’s history began in 1918, when Addison Mizner built the exclusive Everglades Club at the road’s west end. That Mediterranean-style structure set the pace for the prestige the shopping area that it is today. Beyond the shops, restaurants and galleries, there is much to see.
    Here are five spots not to miss:

1. Via Mizner
    Worth Avenue features eight cloistered courtyards. The via design was intended to resemble Venice, without the water. One of the most impressive is Via Mizner with its winding, covered walkways, fountains and flowers, and colorful tiled stairways. The complex has 19 buildings, 40 small shops, flats and includes Addison Mizner’s five-story apartment at 339 Worth Ave. (above), with a bridge that connects his living space to his offices. Mizner’s love of monkeys is evident throughout. In fact, Mizner’s pet monkey, Johnnie Brown, is buried in the courtyard, which has a monkey motif (below). Look for it if you’re dining at Pizza Alfresco (14 Via Mizner).

2. Via Amore
    If you’ve lived here awhile, you probably knew this as the Gucci Courtyard. The name changed in 2012 after the Gucci building (256 Worth Ave.) was sold. From gurgling fountains to playful sculptures and colorful bougainvillea, this via is gorgeous and historic (Gucci started his Palm Beach fashion shows here). Via Amore, so named on Valentine’s Day in 2012 by property owner Burt Handelsman, is where Historical Walking Tours of Wonderful Worth Avenue (www.worth-avenue.com/specialevent/historical-walking-tour-at-worth-avenue/) begin on Wednesdays during the season.

3. Ta-boo
    From its beginning in 1941, Ta-boo  (221 Worth Ave.) has been a magnet for the rich and famous. Frank Sinatra, John F. Kennedy and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor dined here. Today’s famous guests include Rod Stewart, James Patterson, Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford. The food is good, the happy hour is legendary and then there are those adorable monkeys (above) on the wall!

4. The Living Wall
    As part of Worth Avenue’s $15 million face-lift in 2010, an 840-square-foot vertical garden was added to the west wall of the Saks Fifth Avenue (above). The living wall is made up of 10,900 plants.  Shoppers often stop to admire the wall (150 Worth Ave.) but the wall’s most dedicated watcher can be found across the street in the window of the DTR Modern Galleries at 440 S. County Road (right). A security guard never takes his eyes off the wall. He’s actually a sculpture by Marc Sijan but looks so real you have to stare back at him awhile to see that he’s not breathing!

5. The Clock Tower
    Designed by Bridges Marsh & Associates (both Digby Bridges and Mark Marsh are Ocean Ridge residents), the 30-foot tower on the sidewalk at the east end of Worth Avenue serves as a monument to the Palm Beach Pier that stretched into the Atlantic from 1926 to 1969. The landmark, built in 2010, also alerts drivers on A1A that this is where Worth Avenue begins. Tourists and other shoppers can’t resist using the tower as a backdrop for a selfie or as a convenient spot for a quick siesta. 

The Philharmonic gets ready to begin the 2014 Gingerbread Concert.

Photo provided by Lynn University

By Janis Fontaine

    The 13th annual Gingerbread Holiday Concert by the Lynn University Philharmonic returns from campus to the Great Hall in the Boca Raton Resort & Club at 3 p.m. Dec. 13.
    The 80-member Lynn University Philharmonic’s program features the concert suite from the animated film The Polar Express, based on the beloved children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg.
    Composers Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard wrote the suite, which includes a medley of the songs Believe, The Polar Express, When Christmas Comes to Town and Spirit of the Season. A Hanukkah medley and a six-song sing-along, under the direction of Guillermo Figueroa, balance the program.  
    A pre-show reception features champagne (for parents) and gingerbread cookies. New this year, Santa will pose for photos with kids and adults. Another perfect place for the photo is in front of the 30-foot decorated tree surrounded by gaily wrapped oversized gifts.  
    This annual concert is an important fundraiser for the Lynn Conservatory of Music. It supports the scholarship that many of the conservatory’s 103 students depend on for their tuition and expenses.
    Tickets, $35, are available in advance only.

If you go: Gingerbread Holiday Concert, 3 p.m. Dec. 13, Boca Raton Resort & Club Great Hall, 501 E. Camino Real. Admission: $35 (includes valet) through the box office at 237-9000 or online at events.lynn.edu/upcoming-events/

Cruising with Santa
    Delray Yacht Cruises will host a Cookie Cruise with Santa on select days in December.
    Get in the spirit, Florida-style, on a yacht cruise of the Intracoastal Waterway. A light ocean breeze will likely ruffle some whiskers, and festive music will blend with the sound of waves lapping the hull of the Lady Atlantic.
    The adventure will begin and end at Veterans Park in Delray Beach.
Boarding begins at 9:30 a.m. and the boat will leave the dock at 10:30 a.m. and return at noon. Visitors will cruise south through Delray Beach, Boca Raton and Highland Beach.
Parents can sip coffee or tea and admire the architecture of the homes lining the Intracoastal while kids can visit with Santa, enjoy a craft activity, and nosh on cookies and other treats.

If you go: Cruising with Santa, 10:30 a.m. Dec. 12, 19 and 20, Veterans Park, 802 NE First St., Delray Beach. Admission: $20, which includes a visit with Santa, cookies and milk or hot chocolate or coffee and tea, and a craft activity. Reservations are required.
Info: Call 243-0686.

Dancers performing at last year’s Festival of Trees at Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens.

Photo provided by Krystal Zaskey Photography

Children’s Gala
and Festival of Trees
    The lovely Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens in West Palm Beach opened its doors for its annual Festival of Trees on Dec. 4. The exhibit, which features professionally decorated trees, will be open through Dec. 16. Last year nearly 5,000 people visited the festooned Fraser and Douglas firs scattered throughout the 1.7-acre garden.
    One popular highlight of this annual celebration is the Children’s Gala, which takes place from 5 to 7 p.m. Dec. 13.
 This year, Hansa Creation Inc. brings a jungle-full of lifelike, life-sized stuffed animals to decorate the gardens.
Visitors will find flamingos balancing on one leg and a family of tigers resting after a long day. Have a family scavenger hunt to find all the animals artfully hidden among the garden’s rare palms and sculptures.
    The theme of this year’s show is “The Joy of Holiday Traditions: Celebrating Family Heritage,” and it features more than 25 trees. Trees are sponsored by area patrons and businesses and are designed by local interior designers, artists, architects and florists, who leave no branch untrimmed and no light unlit.
    Holiday music and special performances, including a performance by the Florida Dance Conservatory, are planned. Child-friendly treats, sips and nibbles round out this dreamlike experience.

If you go: The Children’s Gala, 5-7 p.m. Dec. 13, Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, 2051 Flagler Drive, West Palm Beach. Admission: $40. The Festival of Trees also is open for “Community Days” from 6:30 to 8 p.m. through Dec. 12 and Dec. 14-16. Tickets for Community Days are $20 for adults, $7 for children. Info: Email Festivaloftrees@ansg.org, call 832-5328 or visit www.ansg.org.

Family dinner theater
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
    Make your reservations by Dec. 10 if you want to bring the family to dinner and a show at First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach to celebrate the holidays.
    At 5 p.m. Dec. 13, the children, youth and adults of the parish will be singing, dancing and starring in this production of the timeless Seuss tale How the Grinch Stole Christmas. A special surprise solo is also planned.
    Dinner begins at 5 p.m. in Fellowship Hall with special menus for children (tomato bisque, grilled cheese, mini-hot dogs and dessert) and adults (Christmas salad, roast beef, fingerling potatoes, vegetables, rolls and dessert).

If you go: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, 5 p.m. Dec. 13, First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach, 33 Gleason St., Delray Beach. Admission: $7 adults, $5 children, or $20 for family. Reservations are required by Dec. 10 at 276-6338. Info: firstdelray.com.

A group of  girls built a snow lady during last year’s Snow Day at Sugar Sand Park. This year’s Snow Day is Dec. 19.

Photo provided

Piles of Smiles ‘Snow Day’
    Sugar Sand Park Community Center is at it again!
For the fifth year, visitors can experience a South Florida novelty. Snow!
    From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 19, chidren ages 4 to 12 can play until their hands freeze in 25 tons of real snow.
    And there’s so much more! A giant inflatable polar bear slide, bounce house and ride, a sock-skating rink, obstacle course games, a sweet treat decoration station, a holiday theme craft, music and appearance by special characters are planned.
    Adult admission is included with paid child admission, but rides and activities are for children only.
They’ll also have food vendors on site, and the Florida Panthers hockey team’s Panther Patrol will return in the team’s tricked-out interactive party-mobile. An 88-foot street hockey rink will thrill hockey fans.


If you go: Snow Day at Sugar Sand Park, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Dec. 19, 300 S. Military Trail, Boca Raton. Admission: $12 in advance, $15 at the gate. Info: 347-3948 or www.SugarSandPark.org.

    Gulf Stream School has been ranked No. 32 out of 50 schools identified as the best private schools in the country by TheBestSchools.org, an independent organization.
    Only one other Florida school made the list. Rocky Bayou Christian Academy in Niceville ranked No. 4.
    To make the list, schools, among other criteria, must have at least three of the six grades (first through sixth grades) that are traditionally categorized as elementary-level grades and must exceed nearby public schools in course selections and scholastic success.
— Staff report

Gulf Stream School students who will participate in the all-state concert are (l-r): Stefan Awaida,

Tori Wheat, Sarah Vanden Bosch, Daniel Rogers, Bianca Mason, Alivia Roth, Morgan Mattson and Mia Dagher.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

RELATED STORY: School rated one of best in nation

By Ron Hayes

    Eight hundred Florida elementary school music students applied.
    For 300 spots.
    And those who made the cut would face as many as 8,000 music teachers listening to their every note.
    The odds were tough, but eight fourth- and fifth-graders from the Gulf Stream School have beaten them.
    On Jan. 14, five GSS students will be among the 200 singers of the All-State Ensemble in the Tampa Convention Center when music teachers gather for the Florida Elementary Music Educators annual conference.
    And another three will join the 100 members of the Orff Ensemble, performing on xylophones, triangles, maracas and drums.
    “It’s a huge conference, with all the state educators from elementary school through college attending and more than 100 schools participating,” says Rob White-Davis, the school’s director of music. “Each school can send a maximum of 10 students and we had eight accepted.”
    The audition process itself is enough to scare many away.
    During the third week in September, the students recorded their auditions for the music association’s panel of judges to consider, following a 16-page set of extremely detailed instructions:
    Are You Sleeping? will be sung a cappella as a round at 90-100 beats per minute.
The student will begin and the teacher will enter after two measures.
Sing only one time. Breath marks are included.
    Fifth-graders Morgan Mattson, 10, of Manalapan, and Tori Wheat, 10, of Boynton Beach, know what to expect. They were selected last year.
    “First you rehearse your part alone,” Mattson says, “and then when you sing it with the whole group it sounds really, really good. It’s really fun, but the actual performance is 30 to 45 minutes and you rehearse for six hours.”
    Other students who won the judges’ approval are:
    • Stefan Awaida, 11, Delray Beach.
    • Sarah Vanden Bosch, 11, Ocean Ridge.
    • Mia Dagher, 9, Ocean Ridge.
    • Bianca Mason, 11, Gulf Stream.
    • Daniel Rogers, 10, Delray Beach.
    • Alivia Roth, 10, Gulf Stream.
    “I feel thankful,” said first-timer Roth, “because I didn’t know my voice was that good. I’m kind of nervous, but there’s 200 other people singing, and they’ll be singing so beautifully that if I do a wrong note it won’t stand out.”

    There are few places left in southern Palm Beach County where you can see the Atlantic Ocean. Private homes and condos block most of the views. Only along the public beach in Delray Beach, in spots where sea grapes have been trimmed along Boca Raton’s public beach and at the inlet bridges are glimpses of the ocean still visible.
    Manalapan provides some stunning views along A1A, but the increasing number and size of scattered beach cabanas may soon leave that stretch with views of the ocean limited to all but the property owners.
    There is one stretch of road, though, where for generations those “in the know” could drive to check on the beach conditions or simply cruise by to catch a glimpse of moonlight on the ocean. It’s named Old Ocean Boulevard and is what remains of the old coastal route through Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes.
    Before the hurricane of 1947, this was the road many from Palm Beach took — traveling the dune-top road down to a gas station and shell shop in Briny Breezes and then a bit farther to the polo fields in Gulf Stream and beyond to Delray Beach and Boca Raton.
    Briny pioneers tell tales of Harold Stirling Vanderbilt and his wife stopping off in Briny to buy gas and chat with the station owners on their way to and from Eastover, their home in Manalapan.
    A1A runs to the west now, the gas station and shell shop are gone and the polo fields are mostly golf course, but historic Eastover and Gulf Stream Golf Club remain — as does Old Ocean Boulevard.
    I’ve traveled this bit of road in both directions for more than 30 years — sometimes taking my elderly mother or aunt for a ride to feel the sun on her face and see the rolling blue expanse of the ocean, and sometimes just to check for myself to see if the surf’s up or if the sand is inviting me down for a walk along the shore.
    At night I often drive home along this road from dinner with friends in Briny Breezes or the county pocket, listening to jazz on the car radio and stopping to catch a glimpse of moonlight on the water.
    Could I (and others) still do these things if Ocean Ridge’s proposal to turn this stretch of road into a one-way “promenade” happens? Maybe. But what if Briny Breezes chooses the un-neighborly option of turning “their part” of the road private?
    If these changes are implemented, we all stand to lose an important connection to local history. And for those of us not lucky enough to live on the water, there will be one less place to catch a glimpse of the ocean.

— Mary Kate Leming, editor

Lance Shaner, owner of Shaner Hotel Group, and Mike Sformo, Operation Backbone’s founder.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack
    
    Lance Shaner was in Buffalo several months ago for what he thought was simply the opening of the new Buffalo Marriott HarborCenter hotel that his company — the Shaner Hotel Group — had been contracted to operate and manage.  
    While there, however, Shaner learned the owner of the hotel, his longtime friend and owner of the Buffalo Sabres hockey team Terry Pegula, had arranged for the founder of a project called Operation Backbone to give a presentation on the program.
    That was when Shaner learned that the nonprofit organization was helping veterans with debilitating spinal and brain injuries receive specialized treatment at centers around the country.
    “I didn’t know there were thousands of American soldiers with spinal and brain injuries that the Veterans Administration hospitals aren’t equipped to treat,” says Shaner, 61, a part-time resident of Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club in Boca Raton. “These people aren’t getting the care and support they deserve.”
    Shaner has partnered with the Sabres and Pegula, along with a few others, to help make it possible for Operation Backbone to provide surgical treatments to dozens of the most severely wounded veterans, many in intense pain and on the verge of giving up.
    In addition to financial support, Shaner has offered his corporate jet to transport ailing veterans whose injuries make it impossible for them to fly commercially.
    “I told them whenever you need my plane you can have it,” Shaner said.
    Operation Backbone, which receives many patient referrals from the military, works with treatment centers in cities such as Tampa, Buffalo, Houston, San Diego and also at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Maryland. It also works with a neurosurgery center in Boston, where it partners with the Boston Bruins hockey team and CEO Charlie Jacobs.
    Shaner also agreed to let Operation Backbone veterans traveling for treatment stay in any of more than 48 hotels his company has ownership in or manages — including the new Fairfield Inn & Suites in Delray Beach and several others throughout Florida — at no cost.
    He also used his connections to help veterans get rooms in Marriott hotels — not owned by his group — near treatment facilities.
    Shaner tells the story of a veteran identified only as “the colonel” who was flown to treatment on the corporate jet and whose treatment was successful.
“When you can experience a veteran in intense pain and you fly the man to treatment and then a month later see that same soldier saying he’s pain-free and ‘you saved my life’ — it doesn’t get any better than that,” Shaner said.
    Shaner, who also operates Shaner Capital, an investment business that helps small businesses grow, is not new to philanthropy. He’s funded a cancer treatment center and also an Easter Seals child development center, both in State College, Pa., where he spends summers.
    “I’ve been fortunate in business where I can make a difference,” he said. “With Operation Backbone, you can see it so clearly.”
    Mike Sformo, Operation Backbone’s founder, says that in addition to financial support, Shaner and Pegula help raise awareness so veterans and their families know there is help available to those suffering with severe brain and spinal injuries.
    Shaner said that he and Sformo are studying the feasibility of placing information about the program in all 5,000 rooms in hotels owned or managed by the Shaner Hotel Group.
    Sformo says Shaner also helps provide him with business knowledge and guidance that is invaluable.
    “The most important thing is to find people who know how to do this better than I do,” he said. “It’s good to know they have faith and trust in the program.”

    To find out more about how you can help, visit www.operationbackbone.org.

If the fire district were to be approved, a new station might be built along A1A somewhere between the town of Gulf Stream and Woolbright Road in Ocean Ridge. One proposed location is in Briny Breezes between Gulfstream Texaco and Hampton Real Estate.
Renderings by Bridges March & Associates Inc.

By Dan Moffett

    A barrier island fire district is many months and many political battles away from becoming a reality — if it ever happens at all.
    But one thing is already clear. At least a feasibility study is feasible.
    Representatives from the coalition of coastal municipalities interested in the fire district idea met in Gulf Stream on Oct. 30 to open bids from consultants who are interested in studying it. And all of the four proposals submitted came in well under the $100,000 price limit the six towns were looking for.
    Matrix Consulting Group of Keller, Texas, was the low bidder at $39,000, and also ranked highest in the overall rating system the representatives used. Gulf Stream Town Manager William Thrasher said that cost had little to do with the decision, accounting for only 15 percent of the factors the town representatives considered.
    “It’s ironic, really, because much more than money went into the ratings,” Thrasher said. “We looked at many factors.”
    Ranking second was Fitch and Associates of Platte City, Mo., with a bid of $48,600, followed by Public Safety Solutions Inc. of Chester, Md., with $68,850 and the local entry, Special District Services Inc. of Palm Beach Gardens, with $70,000.
    Gulf Stream Town Clerk Rita Taylor said the town representatives “were all pretty much in line with one another” during their deliberations.
    The group included: Thrasher, Highland Beach Town Manager Beverly Brown, Briny Breezes Town Council President Sue Thaler and Briny corporate board member Paul Stewart, new Ocean Ridge Town Manager Jamie Titcomb and South Palm Beach Mayor Bonnie Fischer. Manalapan Town Manager Linda Stumpf, a member of the group, was absent because she was participating in a police arbitration hearing.
    Thrasher said the next step is to get approval from Gulf Stream’s legal staff, and then the Town Commission at its Nov. 13 meeting. Once the feasibility study gets the go-ahead from officials, the consultants will have 90 days to study the six towns — Gulf Stream, Highland Beach, Briny Breezes, Ocean Ridge, Manalapan and South Palm Beach — and report back to the coalition.
    “I’d like everyone, all the towns, to contribute something,” Thrasher said of sharing the study’s cost. “But I don’t think money is going to be a problem for us with this.”
    The six municipalities total roughly 100,000 residents and currently pay for their fire-rescue services from Palm Beach County, Boynton Beach or Delray Beach. But the providers on the mainland have steadily charged more over the last decade, and Boynton Beach and Delray Beach have considered consolidating their departments with the county’s — a move that would cause significant problems in Gulf Stream, Briny Breezes and Ocean Ridge.
    Thrasher thinks that for the fire district to work, the towns would have to build a fire station in Briny Breezes and overhaul the maintenance building in the lot behind the Ocean Ridge Town Hall. He said Palm Beach architect Mark Marsh believes the most favorable place for the Briny station is in the storage lot on A1A across from the entrance to Tropical Drive.
    Gulf Stream Vice Mayor Robert Ganger, a supporter of the fire district study, said Thrasher deserves praise for getting the coalition together and bringing the idea forward.
    “It took some courage for Bill to go forward with this and get all these communities onboard,” Ganger said. “He put his credibility on the line. But this is something we have got to look at.”

By Jane Smith

    Delray Beach will focus on raising the level of service of its own fire-rescue department instead of consolidating with the county, city commissioners agreed Nov. 3.
    Just four residents spoke against the consolidation.
    “We are a smallish town,” said Susan Ruby, who lives in the Del Ida neighborhood. “Fire-rescue is an essential, vital service. I wouldn’t even know who to call in the county.”
    City Manager Don Cooper explained he had received a memo with only four sentences from the county on Oct. 21, not enough information to present to the commission. He wanted to concentrate on preparing for  the city’s goal-setting session set for Oct. 29.
He added that the county gave him a December deadline because it needed to know whether to add the county’s fire-rescue tax rate to the Delray Beach proposed tax bills.
    Cooper added that the December deadline didn’t give him enough time to receive and review a county contract.
    Four commissioners attended the Nov. 3 meeting. Commissioner Jordana Jarjura was absent.
    Two, including Mayor Cary Glickstein, thought the city manager had overstepped his bounds when he sent an email ending the discussions with the county.
    Commissioner Al Jacquet, the other commissioner who chided the city manager, asked City Attorney Noel Pfeffer what form of government Delray Beach has.
    Pfeffer said a strong city manager and weak mayor.
    “The burden should have been on our shoulders. It’s a tough decision to make, it should have been ours,” Jacquet said.
    The city has a commitment to public safety, “yet we allowed this issue to kick the can down the street,” Glickstein said.
    “We haven’t bought firetrucks, some of our fire stations are in abominal shape.”
    He directed the city manager to determine the level of service the Fire-Rescue Department needs to put it back into the top quartile in the county.
    Vice Mayor Shelly Petrolia and Commissioner Mitch Katz supported the city manager’s actions.
    Emails had zipped around the city the week before, most were against consolidation.
    Another round of prerecorded telephone calls went out on the afternoon of Nov. 2 to phones with a Delray Beach exchange.
The robocall message was not as threatening as the one in late September, but it pointed out that Jarjura and Glickstein had received support or campaign money from the county fire-fighters union. It urged recipients to call the commissioners and tell them not to consolidate.
    “I have received no phone calls and about 15 emails,” the mayor wrote in an email about 6 p.m. Nov. 2. “I received numerous contributions in the last two campaigns and one of the contributors was the fire-rescue union in both campaigns, whose members include the city’s fire-rescue department. I’m not sure how that’s relevant, particularly when I voted against the consolidation last year when it was initially proposed. 
    “In the end, I think the calls and emails were insulting to our residents in suggesting the people they elected would make such a decision that impacts 25 percent of the city’s budget based on $500 campaign contribution.”  
    Delray Beach’s 2015-2016 nearly $105 million budget allocates about $27 million for fire-rescue.
    Cooper, the city manager, had sent an email to city commissioners the last week in October saying the proposed agreement for consolidation would take further lengthy negotiations. As a result, he “stopped discussion on this issue and will focus our resources on … addressing the various issues within the fire department.”
    One day later at the city’s goal-setting session, he agreed to present the consolidation issue to the commission at the Nov. 3 meeting.
    Unlike the 2014 proposal, which used a full-cost methodology, this time the county wants the city to become part of its municipal service taxing unit where property owners pay a flat rate of $3.46 per $1,000 of taxable value.
    The county’s fire-rescue chief was preparing the county’s proposal, which would cover city fire-rescue employees who will have the option to join the Florida retiree system for their pensions, response times, staffing levels, equipment to buy or lease, actual fire stations and other items.
    The deal would last five years and the county would pay Delray Beach for its five fire stations, make needed upgrades, hire the city’s firefighters and pay for the equipment over that period.
    The city would retain the pension liability for its fire-rescue personnel who are currently working without a contract.
    Delray Beach provides fire-rescue services to the towns of Gulf Stream and Highland Beach.
    The Highland Beach contract expires next year and Gulf Stream’s in 2020. Both towns are exploring a barrier island fire-rescue service.
    Boynton Beach also is thinking about consolidating with the county.
    City commissioners directed City Manager Lori LaVerriere to survey residents with a questionnaire in the city utility bills.
She will seek further direction on the wording of the question and whether it should be just one vote per account. No date is set for that discussion.
    In addition, Boynton Beach provides fire rescue services to the towns of Briny Breezes and Ocean Ridge. Both towns are part of the exploration for a barrier island fire-rescue service.

By Jane Smith
    
    Parking meters are coming to downtown Delray Beach, a majority of city commissioners agreed in mid-October. The question remains when.
    A majority of commissioners reached that decision in May, too, and were waiting to review proposals for a parking-management plan for the beach area and downtown.
    But that May workshop lasted nearly five hours and city staff possibly left confused. The staff put out a request for proposals that asked whether the parking program should be run in-house or outsourced. Only one company responded.
    “We screwed up,” said City Manager Don Cooper at the October workshop. He will have staff revise the request for proposals to focus on smart meters that accept different forms of payment for the beach area and then for installation west of the Intracoastal Waterway. The program also would include the two city-owned parking garages, seven city-owned surface lots and possibly a residential parking component.  
    At the October workshop, Mayor Cary Glickstein expressed his frustration when he said, “Five months later I have an RFP that doesn’t address the first component of how to raise revenue.”
He estimated that metered parking downtown could provide $3.5 million annually or 5 percent of the general fund.
    Commissioner Jordana Jarjura said she supported paid parking in the downtown. “I also don’t think it’s fair to the businesses that we are charging to park on the beach side and not in the downtown. A lot of our traffic issues come from people circling, circling, trying to find that prime space.”
    The other commissioner in support of meters downtown would like to see a phased approach. Commissioner Mitch Katz ticked off his priority list: the beach, Atlantic Avenue west of the Intracoastal, an employee parking program, the garages, the street lots and a residential component.
    For logistical reasons, the smart meters likely won’t go in the downtown until 2017.
    Retailer Bruce Gimmy, who also chairs the city’s Parking Management Advisory Board, told commissioners in October, “Parking is not free, we know that... But should taxpayers pay to maintain the garages? I don’t think so. A lot of people who pay taxes in Delray Beach never come downtown. It should be a user-fee situation.”
    Also at the October workshop, Randal Krejcarek, city environmental services director, updated commissioners on what was accomplished since May: better signs for the parking garages and elimination of the on-demand trolley stops in favor of fixed stops.
    The Downtown Development Authority’s pilot employee parking program was pushed back to mid-December, said Laura Simon, the group’s new executive director. The city is working out the details, she said. The program covers retailers and restaurants west of the Intracoastal.
    Earlier in October, city commissioners expanded the hours for feeding parking meters east of the Intracoastal Waterway and along the beach.
    The new times are 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week, effective Oct. 16. The hourly rate remains $1.50.
    Glickstein had suggested the expanded hours to mirror activity in the area. “That’s when people are on the beach,” he said at the Oct. 6 commission meeting. Vice Mayor Shelly Petrolia wanted to make sure the city would have someone to enforce the new hours before agreeing to the change. The city manager assured her the new hours would be enforced.
    The meters had to be reprogrammed and stickers applied with the new hours, said Krejcarek, when explaining the 10-day delay. Ú

By Jane Smith

    The Downtown Development Authority board will give new Executive Director Laura Simon a salary increase to coincide with her promotion.
    At the Delray Beach authority’s Oct. 12 meeting, the board agreed to increase Simon’s base salary to $75,000 from $61,800 she made as associate director. She also will receive a $250 monthly car allowance and an $85 monthly cellphone allowance.
    Simon was named executive director at the September board meeting of the Delray Beach agency. She took over on Oct. 1.
    At a specially called meeting in August, the board voted not to renew the contract of Marjorie Ferrer. Her contract as executive director ended Sept. 30. She had led the DDA since 1993. At the time of her departure, Ferrer’s base salary was $94,003 with a $3,600 annual car allowance.
    The board felt pressure from Simon, who said she was hired five years ago as Ferrer’s replacement and had a job offer. It also was under scrutiny from the City Commission as a tax agency that receives $1 for every $1,000 in taxable property value in its 340 acres. In the summer, Mayor Cary Glickstein pointed out the DDA spent 40 percent of its budget on administrative costs.
    Ferrer has since established her own consulting firm, Downtown Management Consulting, where she will help cities manage their downtowns.
    Simon’s contract will be approved at an upcoming board meeting. It will be retroactive to Oct. 1.

New playground equipment might have a nautical theme.

Rendering provided

By Jane Smith
    
    Veterans Park will soon have new playground equipment after Delray Beach commissioners agreed to pay slightly more than $92,000 to replace the aging wooden structures.
    “We’re hoping it can be in the next 12 weeks,” said Suzanne Davis, Parks and Recreation director. “I don’t want to promise anything. It all depends on the manufacturer and the site plan approval.”
    Gametime/Dominican Recreation Products, of Longwood in central Florida, submitted the lowest bid for the playground equipment, installation and mulch underneath the 97-by-46-foot area, suitable for ages 2 through 12. The playground equipment also will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Davis told commissioners on Oct. 20.
    The two wooden playgrounds by Leathers and Associates were constructed through a community build in 1993. City Parks staff repaired problems found through regular inspections, but the age of the structures made replacement parts difficult to find.
    “I don’t want to have the site without playground equipment for a long time,” Davis said after the meeting. “I want to take it apart, haul it away and then level the site and have the new equipment be installed.”
    Volunteers will be needed to help dismantle the equipment under the guidance of city Parks staff, Davis said.  She will get the word out through the city’s website and emailing system and traditional media.
    For those whose names were on the wooden equipment, they can claim the piece. It also can become part of an artwork that will be created by a local artist near the playground equipment.
    Davis also told commissioners on Oct. 20 that the playground equipment could be moved to other areas of the 3.5-acre Veterans Park.
    That pleased Vice Mayor Shelly Petrolia, who held the gavel when the mayor left after an hour into the meeting. She long has expressed concern about the condition of the playground equipment.
    The nearby Atlantic Crossing project, which plans offices, shops and restaurants, agreed to pay $500,000 to fix up Veterans Park, but the project is in federal litigation with the city.
Commissioners unanimously approved the new playground equipment by a 4-0 vote.

By Jane Smith

    The owner of the proposed iPic movie theater property in Delray Beach asked to amend for the fourth time the contract to buy the 1.59-acre site.
    But the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, which owns the parcel that sits between Southeast Fourth and Southeast Fifth avenues, took it as an opportunity on Oct. 15 to put some teeth into the contract.
    The board agreed 6-0, with Herman Stevens absent, to extend the government approvals date to Dec. 31 and the termination date to Jan. 31, 2016, to allow the CRA attorney to negotiate a better deal. Delray Beach Holdings, which would own the Delray Beach site, had asked for two extensions: April 29, 2016, for the government approvals and Dec. 31, 2016, as the termination date.
    If terms can be reached between the CRA and iPic’s owner, then the CRA board would review the contract and approve iPic’s amended dates.  
    At the Oct. 15 CRA meeting, board member Daniel Rose had asked for a reverter clause in case iPic does not move its headquarters into Delray Beach or flips the property to a multiplex theater owner.
    CRA Attorney Donald Doody said the reverter clause had been considered. It sounds good, but it is difficult to enforce, he said.
    Rose, who is a lawyer, said he wanted something stronger than the word “covenants,” which was in the agreement. He suggested “warranties.”
    He felt so strongly about the extension that he wrote an email Sept. 30 to the CRA executive director, assistant director and Doody’s law firm colleague: “The buyer has the money to close and they are approved to build a movie theater, there is no reason for them to need additional due diligence and they should close without delay. I don’t think it is right that we will have to scale back projects such as clean and safe, sidewalk repairs and other valuable projects because the buyer needs more time.”
    Scott Backman, attorney for Delray Beach Holdings, said, “We are here as iPic, not as a developer. We’ve been here since Day One.”
    At the lengthy Aug. 18 City Commission meeting, when iPic received approval on Aug. 19, Mayor Cary Glickstein asked the company to reduce the size. He asked the iPic developer “to let some air out of the tires for us,” but he did not give specifics.
    A revised site plan was submitted Oct. 12 to the city’s Planning and Zoning Department.
    The latest plan shows little change in the project, said Tim Stillings, department director, when asked Oct. 29 at the city’s goal-setting session. It now has 32 fewer seats among the eight movie auditoriums for a total of 497 seats, and an alley that is four feet wider at 24 feet. The retail square footage was reduced by 500 square feet to 7,000 and the office space grew slightly, Stillings said.
    Stillings said he was not going to take the plan to the city’s Site Plan Review and Appearance Board and called the developer’s attorney to let her know the plan needed more work.
    Neither Bonnie Miskel, the developer’s land use lawyer, nor her law partner Backman could be reached for comment.

Lois Pope walks along the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Photo provided

    A new documentary film, Debt Of Honor: Disabled Veterans In American History, funded by Manalapan philanthropist Lois Pope and directed by Ric Burns, will premiere nationwide at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 10, as part of PBS’ Stories of Service.
    Focusing on how disabled veterans are regarded by their government and civilians, the human cost of war, and the sacrifices of military service from the time of the Revolutionary War forward, the film recounts disabled veterans’ stories combined with scholarly narrations, still images and archival footage.
    Included in the film are interviews with disabled veterans U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth (Illinois); former U.S. Sen. and Veterans Affairs Administrator Max Cleland (Georgia); actor, motivational speaker and Iraq War Army veteran J.R. Martinez; and the former garrison commander of Fort Belvoir, Col. Gregory Gadson, who is a double amputee veteran of the war in Iraq.
    “The goal of this film is to try to understand the realities and challenges that disabled veterans have faced throughout history and continue to face today,” said Burns. “There is a real necessity to bridge the gap between civilians and those who have served in the military.”
    Pope, founder of the Disabled Veterans Life Memorial Foundation, spearheaded the creation of the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial.  The reflecting pool and star-shaped fountain with a ceremonial flame is sheltered by impressive stone walls along with bronze and glass panels etched with words and images that illustrate personal journeys of courage and sacrifice.
A 16-year endeavor on Pope’s part, the memorial was dedicated by President Barack Obama on Oct. 5, 2014, in Washington, D.C., and is the nation’s first permanent public tribute to the 4 million living disabled American veterans and all those who have died before them.
    “Not everyone can visit Washington, D.C., and see the memorial dedicated to disabled vets,” Pope said. “That’s why I created and funded the film Debt of Honor, to teach our children and future generations about the human cost of war.
    “It’s such a powerful film that the National Endowment for the Humanities has set aside funding (for it) to be shown in cities around the U.S.”
— Christine Davis

By Rich Pollack

    Saying they are pleased with the positive changes they’re seeing, Highland Beach commissioners have abandoned efforts to bring in a private firm to manage library operations.
    Commissioners in August had agreed to invite representatives of Library Systems and Services Inc. to town so they could learn more about what the company offers and whether it would make sense for the town to contract with the firm.
    At the time, commissioners felt the library was still in transition from the sudden May departure of longtime director Mari Suarez and might benefit from management by an experienced outside firm.
    Even though interim Library Director Suzi Hayes has not yet made a decision about accepting the director position on a long-term basis, commissioners say they no longer see a need to meet with LSSI representatives.
    “We found a very capable interim librarian and we don’t feel it’s necessary to meet with the outside firm,” said Commissioner Carl Feldman.
    Others on the commission agreed.
    “We’re seeing very positive improvements initiated by our interim director,” said Vice Mayor Bill Weitz. “It makes no sense to take any further action.”   
    Town Manager Beverly Brown said two new assistant librarians have been added to the staff. In addition, Brown said, the library has increased its programming to better serve residents.
    “The library is putting on a new face and adding new programs to encourage participation,” Brown said.
    Hayes and the team at the library have already instituted an electronic book cataloging process to increase efficiency and are preparing a survey to determine what additional programs and services residents would like to see at the library.  
    Already the library has started an adult coloring club and now has bridge lessons available. Plans are also being made to start tai chi classes, and the library now has a refreshed website.
    In addition, Brown said, the staff has been adjusting programming schedules to help reduce parking issues.
    The town manager said she and Town Attorney Glen Torcivia are working with library staff to develop a policy to address outside vendors teaching classes at the library, due to potential liability issues.
    One possible solution being explored is to charge vendors a nominal fee to use town facilities for the classes and then allow instructors to charge participants for the programs.

    The Friends of the Highland Beach Library will be welcoming back many of the town’s returning residents during the third annual Wine and Cheese Fundraiser, set for 5 to 7 p.m. on Dec. 4 at the library.
    Last year’s fundraiser drew about 150 people and organizers of this year’s event are hoping to attract an even larger gathering.
    “Our wine and cheese fundraiser is a fun night out,” said co-president Dorothy Kellington. “It’s close to home and you can meet your friends and neighbors.”
    The event, which costs $25 per person, will feature a selection of red and white wines as well as a variety of cheeses.
    There will also be a Chinese auction with prizes including theater tickets, jewelry, a wine tasting and tea for two.
    Money raised will help the library cover the cost of items not included in the town budget, with an emphasis this year on children’s programming.
    For more information, contact the Highland Beach Library at 278-5455.
— Rich Pollack

By Dan Moffett

    Briny Breezes Town Attorney John Skrandel was researching records for writing a new golf cart ordinance earlier this year when he stumbled onto a historical oversight.
    There was nothing in the town’s archives to document exactly who owned Old Ocean Boulevard, Briny’s oceanfront roadway that residents had just naturally assumed belonged to them.
    “Back in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, the record-keeping wasn’t that good,” Skrandel said. “You could say the road was lost — its ownership was lost, just because people didn’t follow through with things.”
    Somewhere around a half-century ago, as Highway A1A and other north-south roads opened to the west, the Florida Department of Transportation was supposed to give up possession of Old Ocean and file a deed that turned it over to the town. For reasons no one is likely ever to figure out, that didn’t happen.
    To this day, Skrandel says, the state technically retains ownership of the road, though Brinyites have been claiming it and caring for it for generations.
    “Throughout the history of Briny, most people have considered it a Briny road, though officially it wasn’t,” he said.
    The Town Council is trying to change that, approving unanimously a resolution on Oct. 22 that authorizes Skrandel and Mayor Michael Hill to explore an agreement with the FDOT that would transfer the road to the town.
    Skrandel says neither the state nor Palm Beach County is interested in owning Old Ocean.
    “Palm Beach County is of the opinion it does not own it and does not want it,” he said.  “FDOT feels they’re stuck with it but they’re willing to give it to the town.”
    So the town probably can take over the road for essentially no cost, with the requirement that the road maintains a public purpose and remains open for public use. However, things could get complicated if the town decides to turn it over to the Briny corporation, the holder of all land in the community.
    Going forward, any private entity such as the corporation that takes possession of the road from the town would have to pay the state fair market value for the property. Possible changes to coastal traffic flow patterns could also complicate matters.
    Ocean Ridge, Briny’s northern neighbor, is considering a plan to turn its section of Old Ocean Boulevard into a promenade with one-way traffic running south. Also, plans for construction of a large single-family duplex on Ocean Ridge’s section of Old Ocean could send heavy trucks onto Briny streets if work begins next year.
    If the town takes formal possession of Old Ocean, it also assumes clear responsibility for maintaining the road and repairing damage.
    Skrandel told council members he expected to have more to report from FDOT about the road at Briny’s Nov. 19 meeting.
    In other business:
    • Council President Sue Thaler advised residents who are considering running for mayor or Town Council that the filing period for the March 15 election will run from Nov. 10 until Nov. 24 — roughly three months earlier than usual. The early deadlines are because the presidential preference primary is also to be held on March 15 and Palm Beach County election officials say they need extra time to prepare.
    • The council unanimously approved up to $9,500 to investigate repeated water main failures at Banyan Boulevard and North Heron Drive. Thaler said the cost of the analysis “could be much less” but the town needed to find out how badly corroded the pipe is.

By Dan Moffett

    Ocean Ridge Mayor Geoff Pugh may want to make a promenade out of Old Ocean Boulevard but so far he’s only created a promenade for skeptics leading to the microphone in Town Hall chambers.
    A dozen residents took turns expressing their worries and complaints about Pugh’s proposal during the Town Commission meeting Oct. 5, saying it’s a bad idea to turn Old Ocean into a southbound one-way street and block off several entrances.
    The mayor took the objections in stride, saying the important thing is for officials and residents to begin a dialogue about how the town will handle the changes that growth in communities across the bridges will bring. Pugh said a small town has to have “face-to-face conversation” about its future.
    “The intent is to propose ideas so the town gets talking about a subject, and the subject is a compilation of the last 20 years of ideas we’ve had about Old Ocean,” Pugh said. “Change is coming, and it’s going to be a very big change in the town of Ocean Ridge, and the town of Briny Breezes and all up and down (the coast) here. We need to make plans not just about tomorrow but for the coming years. This idea is just a way to start us talking about how are we going to manage this change.”
    Among the comments from critics of Pugh’s Old Ocean plan:
    • Why try to fix what isn’t broken? Residents said they like the road the way it is, there are no safety problems to speak of, the traffic flow is good, and so there is no reason to change things.
    “In 25 years, I’ve walked up and down Old Ocean at least 10,000 times, and I can tell you, car traffic is not a problem,” said Bob Weisblut. “I doubt that there’s ever been a fatality.”
    • The plan might reduce car traffic but would increase pedestrian and bicycle traffic, which causes problems, too. The reconfigured one-way street will cause problems for dog owners whose pets will be forced to walk in each others’ way, some residents said.
    “The pedestrian traffic already believes that it is a promenade,” said Carol Besler, who lives on Old Ocean. “I have a lot of difficulty getting in and out of my driveway.”
    • The mayor’s plan to change the name of the road to Ocean Ridge Boulevard will cause address problems for those who live on the street. It could also diminish property values because of the loss of an iconic name with historic significance.
    • Expense. Though the cost of signs and street barricades would be minimal — no more than a few thousand dollars — the money could be better spent on other things.
    • The plan is likely to increase the response times of emergency vehicles and force them down narrower streets, some residents argued.
    Commissioners have decided to set a date during their Dec. 7 meeting for a workshop on the Old Ocean proposal, probably scheduling it for sometime in January.
    The workshop would be a back-and-forth session with the public during which residents are encouraged to give their opinions and ideas, Pugh said.

By Jane Smith

    At their March meeting, Delray Beach commissioners will review an agreement that would give them more of the property taxes collected in the downtown.
    “It’s not going to continue as is,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said Oct. 29 at the city’s goal-setting session.
    The current structure calls for the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency to receive the bulk of the property taxes in that 1,961-acre district. A base property value was set in 1985 when few people ventured into the downtown after dark.
    Today, the CRA has revitalized the downtown core. The property has increased in value so much that it generates more than $8.8 million in property taxes from the city to the CRA’s coffers annually. The agency also will receive nearly $6 million in property taxes this budget year from the county.
    The city would like to allow the CRA to keep receiving the county money, but reduce the amount it gives to the CRA.
    The city attorney said the intralocal agreement can be restructured between the city and the CRA.
    Vice Mayor Shelly Petrolia talked about the disconnection she sees between the city and the CRA. The city is trying not to build anything new until it can maintain what it owns, she said. She pointed out the design contract for the grounds at Old School Square which would create more of a park.
    “It’s great when you’re here,” she said to Jeff Costello, the CRA executive director. “But when you’re not, it’s the silo effect.”
Her concerns raised at the end of the Oct. 20 City Commission meeting led the city manager to write a letter advising the CRA not to move forward with that design contract.
    “As the owners of the property the commission feels they should workshop this matter among themselves and seek input from the public and stakeholders prior to any expenditure other than repairs taking place,” City Manager Don Cooper wrote on Oct. 22.
Costello said at the goal-setting session that the CRA board would review that design contract at its Nov. 5 meeting. The CRA can issue the design contract, but the city commissioners would have to approve any improvements to the Old School Square property because the city owns the buildings and the land.
    The mayor said, “You’ll have to demonstrate to this commission what should be in your budget.” He told Costello to expect more scrutiny.
    Costello brought up some of the city programs the CRA underwrites, including the Clean and Safe program for the downtown and the free trolley service.
    Commissioner Mitch Katz pressed for a date when the agreement will be ready. The city manager said the first meeting in March, which was acceptable to the other commissioners and to Costello.
    He said the CRA will soon have the results of its tax-increment analysis performed for each of its eight subareas.

    The City Commission amended its sidewalk ordinance on Oct. 20.
    The 11 historic-home owners who had paid into the sidewalk fund will get their money back, the Delray Beach city manager said after the meeting. Those homeowners had paid a total of $44,994 instead of building a sidewalk.
    The language in the old ordinance referred to “said sidewalk,” but in some historic districts no sidewalk will be built because sidewalks were never part of the neighborhood. The idea was to pool the money for use elsewhere in the city where sidewalks are needed. The ordinance passed last fall as part of the city’s revised land development regulations.
    Sidewalks will be required in all new communities, new residences, home renovations of 50 percent or more or additions of 25 percent or more.
— Jane Smith

By Jane Smith

    The attorneys for Delray Beach responded to Atlantic Crossing’s $25 million lawsuit, now in federal court, with a motion to dismiss on Oct. 26.
    The motion delves into the legal complexity of the $200 million, 9.2-acre proposed mixed-use project at the northeast corner of Federal Highway and Atlantic Avenue and why it has not gone forward.
    The lawsuit has a May 2016 trial date in federal court in West Palm Beach with U.S. District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks. It also was assigned a federal magistrate, Dave Lee Brannon, who can help arrange settlement or mediation discussions. A pretrial conference is set for May 25.
    The city’s position is that the developers are not entitled to any damages because they have not stated a substantive constitutional claim from being deprived of using their property.
    “We are in the process of reviewing the city’s filing and will respond in the court. We are confident that this matter will proceed and we will have our day in court,” said Jeff Edwards, president of the Edwards Companies. “At the same time, we are always open to working with the city toward an amicable settlement that is fair and reasonable.”
    The Edwards Companies, based in Ohio, and local partner CDS Delray Redevelopment, first filed a lawsuit in Palm Beach County Circuit Court in June, alleging the city wrongly delayed it from moving forward with the Atlantic Crossing project.
    The rest of the lawsuit should be sent back to state court to be heard or dismissed because the developers fail to state a cause of action or the claims are not ready to be heard, according to the city’s motion to dismiss.
    The first three counts concern the abandoned alleyways and are not ready to be heard, the city says. The city called a special meeting in August to ask for the alleys to be returned, but they are still held in escrow, according to the city’s motion.
    The other five counts concern the site plan approval process for Atlantic Crossing. The city takes the position that the developers should have opposed the 2013 site plan approval within 30 days in state court.
    Those counts also seek injunctive relief without saying why the claims are valid, the city alleges. In addition, three of the five counts should be dismissed because they fail to give a reason why relief should be granted, the city says.