By Margie Plunkett
    
    Boca Raton counted 1,041 turtle nests along its five miles of beach as nesting season nears its close, bouncing back from 949 last year. But researchers saw an unusually high number of unhatched eggs.
    “Our hatch success is not as high as previous years,” said marine turtle specialist David Anderson of Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, explaining that nests are excavated after hatchlings emerge to inventory hatched and unhatched eggs.
    “It is possibly due to the hot and dry summer we had, as it only began to rain a lot the last few weeks,” Anderson said. “But we really don’t know and we will analyze our data after the nesting season.”
    A full 718 of this year’s nests were made by loggerhead turtles, down from 856 last year. Green sea turtle nests numbered 298, up from 75 in 2014. And there were 25 leatherback nests, rising from 18 last year, according to Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s end-of-the-season numbers.
    The figures indicate continuing resurgence of the green sea turtle. “Green sea turtles have made an impressive comeback since their populations were decimated from when it was legal to eat and there was a cannery in the Keys,” Anderson said. “The population is recovering after it was almost driven to extinction locally.”
    Green sea turtle nests hit their low here in 2001, when there were only 10. In the years since, the numbers have grown, reaching the highest number recorded — at 331 — in 2010.
    The count alternates from year to year between high and low because the sea turtles nest every two to three years, Anderson pointed out. Meanwhile, sea turtles lay multiple nests, so 1,000 nests may mean 150 to 250 nesting turtles.
    Loggerhead nest numbers had been dwindling here as well, reaching a low of 361 in 2009, although the count has since increased.
    “Nesting numbers may reflect what was happening 20-30 years ago,” Anderson said. “If both green and loggerhead nest numbers are increasing, it could mean conservation efforts over the last couple of decades, along with protection by the Endangered Species Act, have had a positive result.”
    Despite the rising loggerhead numbers, the turtle is still considered a threatened species. And all other sea turtles are listed as endangered, Anderson said. “Neither … is in the clear to be removed from the list anytime soon.”
    The turtles face a long list of threats, such as losing nesting habitat to beach erosion; pollution and plastics in the ocean; being netted with the commercial fishing industries’ catch; and artificial lighting that disorients hatchlings, to name a few.
    While nesting season runs from March 1 to Oct. 31, the Gumbo Limbo numbers are final, Anderson said. “We do not expect any more nests this year.”
    But specialists will continue to survey the beaches after season ends, until the last nest hatches — and that can be well into November, Anderson said. “As of today, we have about 50-60 nests remaining on the beach. We would have more, but the high surf from Tropical Storm Erika offshore washed out over 40 nests.”

Emily Leander with her daughter Elle and the maze of electrical cables

running through the lobby of the Villa Oceana.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Margie Plunkett

    More than 10 days after a fire at the Villa Oceana apartments in Boca Raton, one resident says permanent electricity had not been restored and occupants were living with unreliable generator power.
    Firefighters responded to a call Sept. 18 at the apartments along A1A and quickly extinguished a fire in the electrical room that left 27 residents without power, according to Assistant Fire Chief Mike LaSalle.  Residents were evacuated that night and promised by the apartment management that they would be reimbursed for two nights in a hotel while the building was restored to a livable state, resident Emily Leander said.
    The day of the fire, Leander and her 8-year-old daughter, Elle, were stuck in the elevator that serves the apartment building, she said, noting, “Two hours later, there was an electrical fire.”
    Leander, who has lived at Villa Oceana for the last year, said she returned to the apartments when she was reassured that it was habitable.
    “That Sunday we came back. There were no lights, no emergency lights, no working elevator,” she said.  “They said it was fine. They weren’t covering the hotel any more. There was no hot water. And I had to use a flashlight to get from floor to floor.”
    Leander said that like her parents, who just moved to the apartments and live on the fifth floor, she is  nervous about staying there in the aftermath of the fire. Her building, the Lake View, was the only one of the apartments’ two buildings that was affected, she said.
    She describes a scene as of Sept. 28 of wires snaking through the hallways, generator power that has gone out several times, and common areas without air conditioning that are becoming moist and moldy.
    Management has said that power would be restored by Friday, Sept. 25, but now says it will be a week later, according to Leander.
    Despite the inconveniences of generator power, Michael Dinorscio, Boca’s chief electrical inspector, said the building is “perfectly livable.” While the air conditioning in the corridors isn’t on, everything concerning life safety is working, he said.
    Dinorscio said the Villa Oceana managed to get generator power up within 12 hours of the fire. Its work to restore normal power is “not a quick fix,” but the electricians are working on an expedited basis, he said, adding that his office was scheduled to check back on the site Sept. 30.  “They’re not going to get a break from our end.”
    Villa Oceana’s property manager could not be reached for comment by The Coastal Star’s deadline.

By Steve Plunkett

    After nearly four years, it’s time to talk about the future of Ocean Strand again.
    “Sometime this fiscal year we need to have that discussion,” Commissioner Robert Rollins told fellow commissioners at the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District’s Sept. 21 meeting.
    The district stopped talking about Ocean Strand — almost 15 undeveloped acres stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Intracoastal Waterway between Spanish River and Red Reef parks — in February 2012. The decision came after a landscape architect hired by the district recommended against developing the land because no unique use had been proposed.
    Rollins said starting a new discussion would make commissioners think about what to do with the parcel, which has sat idle since the district bought it in 1994 for $11.9 million.
    “I’d rather do that than to have someone come to us with an idea that’s contrary to what we’re looking to do and then get the public all concerned about it. I’d rather hear what the public says,” Rollins said.
    In addition, sea grapes and mangroves “are really taking over the seawall,” he said.
    “If we want to have any type of a seawall vista there on the Intracoastal, we’re going to need to do something about that before it gets unmanageable,” Rollins said.
    Recent suggestions for Ocean Strand include using the property as an overflow parking lot for the popular Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.
    In 2009 a proposal by developer Penn-Florida Cos. to put a private cabana club at Ocean Strand to augment a luxury hotel planned for downtown sparked a public outcry. Neighbors were shocked to learn the city’s comprehensive plan and zoning would have allowed up to 80 residential units on the property.
    Since then Boca Raton has changed its comprehensive plan to allow only park-related structures no larger than about 51,000 square feet at Ocean Strand. The City Council also passed an ordinance that prohibits private uses of public beaches and waterfront land.
    The discussion of Ocean Strand will appear as a “future agenda item” on the Beach and Park District’s regular agenda.

    Boardwalk repairs at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center will take longer than expected, though no one knows yet how much longer.
    A team from consultant Miller Legg, which is handling the $1.75 million project, did a quick review of the site in mid-September and under the planks discovered electrical wiring for a call box and public address system as well as a PVC water pipe for cleaning the boardwalk.
    “The previous plans and current design scope did not include water or electrical design,” Dylan Larson of Miller Legg advised the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, which is paying for the repairs.
    Beach and Park commissioners authorized Larson to investigate the situation and report back with cost and time estimates to do additional work.
    The nature center’s boardwalk closed to the public in February when engineers said joists under the planks had “no positive means of support” and “could fail without warning.”
    Repairs originally were to be completed by the end of the year. Construction, not including the wiring and water pipe, was expected to take four months.
—Steve Plunkett

Joe Gillie, outgoing president of Old School Square in Delray,

poses with a mannequin wearing a dress by Delray Beach designer Amanda Perna.

Perna, 28, returned to Season 14 of Project Runway.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Kay Brady, Joe Gillie and Susan Hatfield of the Caldwell Cabaret

starred in Gold Diggers Revue at the 1989 Mizner Festival.

Photo courtesy of the  Boca Raton Historical Society & Museum

By Thom Smith

    Joe Gillie’s life as a teenager in Danville, a Virginia mill town, was typical. He sang in the church choir. He appeared in a school production of Meet Me in St. Louis. He wasn’t particularly fond of school.
    But life is filled with unexpected and serendipitous turns. After turning away from an expected life on the fourth shift at the mill, first one way then another, he was drawn back to an old schoolhouse. In 1992 — after nearly three years on the board — Gillie accepted an appointment as president and CEO of Old School Square Cultural Arts Center in Delray Beach. The next year, he opened the Crest Theatre, spearheading Old School Square’s rebirth and creating the magnet for a sleepy city’s transformation.
    But in September, with 25 years behind him and more turns to take, Gillie retired. On Nov. 8, a “few” friends will say “Thanks for the Memories,” a night of parties and performances. He agreed only on condition that it serve as a fundraiser for the center.
    While the retirement is official and he has an overflowing bucket list — he just returned from a month in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji — Gillie will not disappear. The path will always bring him back, but along the way he looks forward to the next surprise around the corner.
    Danville was the classic Southern town. The soil along the banks of the Dan River was ideal for growing tobacco. The river’s falls powered the mills that cranked out textiles to the world. Though always among the state’s 10 largest cities, its population never exceeded 55,000, but it boasted more churches per square mile than any other town in Virginia. Many streets were lined with stately mansions built by the mill owners and managers, just blocks away from the workers’ crackerbox row houses.
    As sure as river rocks churned up the rapids, tradition and mores dictated that Danville’s children likely would grow up to run the mills or work in them.
    Joe’s mother was a stay-at-home housewife; his father drove a Trailways bus, three times a week to Washington, D.C., and back.
    “My dad drove 38 years for Trailways, 2 million miles, and he never had an accident,” Gillie said proudly. “Things like that influenced my life. Both of my parents had a great sense of humor. They left little notes to each other and they didn’t hide ’em. It was great stuff.
    “We didn’t have people in the mill, but the town was THE MILL. It was still a great town to grow up in. You get small-town values; you get that sense of belonging in a community; you experience that ‘it takes a village’ thing on a daily basis.
    “If my mother wasn’t watching out for me and my two brothers and the other kids in the neighborhood, somebody else was. You learned that there are consequences to your actions. In Southern communities, you didn’t mess around. You thought before you did something.”
    Gillie thought long and hard about his prospects. He wasn’t a great student, but Averett College in Danville was more appealing than the mill. Established in 1859 as Union Female College, it converted in 1967 from junior college to four-year school and became co-ed. Gillie broke the news to his parents that he was interested in art, architecture, religion, maybe even preaching part-time.

    “They figured I’d be on the fourth shift at the mill and call it a day,” he said. “At first, they were not cool with it; they just didn’t understand it. But they got it once I started making a living.”
    With no computers to produce architectural drawings, Gillie developed a knack for drawing and painting. He also was picking up work wherever he could. He heard the drama department needed a backdrop painted for South Pacific.
    “I wasn’t really interested in the theater,” Gillie explained, “but I went over to paint the set and they said, ‘We’re short guys’ — for South Pacific, you need guys — ‘would you mind singing in the chorus?’
    “I said I’d do it, and, boy, I got hooked. In a small college you have to do everything, painting the sets, pulling the costumes, hanging the lights. If you want to be in a theater repertory company, you’d better be able to do all that.”
    Gillie didn’t want his parents to pay for college, so when he wasn’t working in the theater, he took odd jobs — classes here, work there. His four-year degree took seven.  
    “I wasn’t the best undergraduate student when it came to calculus and world religions, but I was straight A’s in theater,” he said. “They were happy when I walked across that stage to get my diploma.
    “But I got a lot of leads. That instructor, Betty Smith — she was a former Gibson Girl — pulled a lot out of me. She changed my life.”
    Rather than head for bright lights and big city, Gillie turned toward the coast, signing on with the Lost Colony production on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. With Tony- and Emmy-winning director Joe Layton running the show, Gillie’s education continued.
    In 1976, he headed south for his first real professional performing shot on the campus of the College of Boca Raton, now Lynn University, working for Michael Hall at the Caldwell Theatre Company.
    “Michael’s certainly a mentor and deserves a lot of credit for my career,” Gillie said. “And Jan McArt (Royal Palm Dinner Theatre). She gave me my Equity card. I got my first professional show there and my first Carbonell nomination — for Promises, Promises.
    Equity card and accolades in hand, he finally tried New York. He never waited a table. He found work at the Guggenheim Summer Theater and even took some turns on fashion runways. He was never not working.
    When the cattle call went out for Tommy Tune’s roadshow of Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, he auditioned, with 800 other hopefuls. He survived the first cut, then after singing and dancing for five hours at the Winter Garden, he was signed as a swing dancer. He played 38 states, his proud parents often showing up to see their boy, who also served as assistant stage manager.
    “It was amazing, working with Tommy Tune and Alexis Smith,” he said. “She mentored me.
    “I’ve just been lucky.”
    But rather than return to New York, Gillie again reversed direction. A graduate degree would offer security — maybe he could teach theater at a college: The “lucky, poor student” landed a teaching fellowship at Portland State University in Oregon.
    He didn’t know a soul there, but in what he called “the best two years of my life,” he built lasting friendships, sang in the school’s jazz group and in his spare time, made $300 an hour modeling for Portland-based sportswear giants Nike, Pendleton and Jantzen. At Jantzen’s show, the models made their final run in black Speedos and delivered roses to each woman in the audience.
    “They loved it,” he said. “Back then I could handle it.”
    With a master’s degree and an outstanding scholar award from Portland State, Gillie returned to Florida and the Caldwell. He scored another supporting actor Carbonell nomination for Something’s Afoot. He teamed with South Florida veterans Susan Hatfield and Kay Brady in a cabaret show that ran at the Sheraton Boca Raton for eight years. But most of his theater work had moved offstage — booking, logistics, grant writing. He liked it and when he landed the Old School Square job in 1992, he hit the ground running.
    “We’re selling culture,” Gillie said. “The last few years, we’ve averaged about 500,000 people a year coming through here. Think about how many people we’re bringing into downtown. We know the impact we’re providing.
    “Our impact is $12 to $15 million annually and the city knows that. In less than five years our budget went from $2 million to $3 million. We’re bringing in national tours of major shows in this little place and people appreciate that. Our cabaret series, you can’t get a ticket to that.  
    “I’ve been around Palm Beach County long enough to watch a cultural wasteland grow into a cultural oasis. I’m proud that we were able to bring a new standard to this area. And it’s not just theater and art, it’s bringing a new level of accessibility to the site.
    “I also have a different way of doing things. People appreciate the fact that not only the arts are accessible but the people running the arts are. You don’t just go to the Kravis Center and walk into (CEO) Judy Mitchell’s office and say I didn’t like that show. Here, my door’s always open.
    “The whole idea about the arts is discovery and we’ve provided great opportunities in this community to discover exhibits and performances. I’m so excited after being here for 25 years, to retire and to watch it grow, because it’s gonna grow.”
    Accolades and budgets aside, and a new boss on the job — Rob Steele from Westport, Pa. —  Gillie’s ready for another turn on the road.
    “I’m not walking away, because I can’t,” he said, conceding he won’t be gone too far for too long. Besides, home is just a few blocks away. “I love what I’ve accomplished. We have one of the best teams in South Florida. We’re blessed with great board members. People in this community care about this facility. They’ve stepped up. I can’t think of another team I’d want to be with.
    “I don’t plan on removing myself from the facility. I’ll always be a part of it. I can’t not be. And I can’t wait to see where it’s going.
    “I could stay another 10 years, but being a creative person, there are other things I want to experience. Now I’ll have some time to do other things I hadn’t had time for before.”
    The bucket list includes a children’s book that’s written and he will illustrate. He wants to visit every national park, and — wink, wink — he’s a huge Disney fan.
    He’s been working with former Delray Mayor Dave Schmidt to develop a Three Cities Festival. Artists, craftsmen and performers from Delray and its sister cities Miyazu, Japan, and Moshi, Tanzania — and possibly a fourth, Aquinas, Haiti — would travel to each city to showcase the diversity and the similarities of each culture.
    Looking back, does Gillie have one accomplishment that stands out, that gives him the greatest pride? The decision to break out of Danville maybe? The tour with Best Little Whorehouse? The scholar honor at Portland State? Old School Square? Maybe that lifetime achievement award for leadership and artistic excellence in 2011 from the Boca Raton South Florida Chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters?
    “That award was important because it recognized that what I was trying to do was making a difference,” Gillie said. “But I’m still waiting for the most incredible moment in my life.
    “I have a bottle of Champagne, Dom Perignon, that’s been in my refrigerator since 1984. I don’t know if it’s gonna be good or not. I’ve kept it cold. I’m waiting for that moment. Maybe it’s my retirement, I don’t know! But so far, I just can’t do it because I don’t think I’ve found that defining moment.
    “I think it’s around the corner. But I don’t know.”

Lt. Jason Kirkwood of Boca Raton Ocean Rescue secures a Burmese python

for Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers to take to Busch Wildlife Sanctuary.

The python was found Sept. 22 on the Boca Raton beach between Spanish River Park and Red Reef Park.

Photo by Kevin Hughes/Boca Raton Ocean Rescue

Related story: Witches of Delray

When witches go riding, and black cats are seen,
the moon laughs and whispers, ’tis near Halloween!

Boots worn by Margaret Hamilton

in The Wizard of Oz, cauldron and other props

courtesy of Hidden Siren.

Photo illustration by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Witchy music
    •    Black Magic Woman by Peter Green — First recorded by Fleetwood Mac in 1968, Black Magic Woman would be taken under the mighty wings of Santana and made a worldwide smash in 1970 as part of its Abraxas album.
    •    Witchy Woman by the Eagles — Many of us know a creature with “raven hair and ruby lips” and chances are, “she’s a restless spirit on an endless flight.”
    •    Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac — This is a song about an old Welsh witch.

Witches in film
    • Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz — In the book, the terrifying ruler (played by Margaret Hamilton) of Winkie Country carried an umbrella, since water made her melt.
    • Queen Grimhilde from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — The witch in this animated Disney film went to drastic measures to stay more beautiful than Snow White.
    • Jennifer (Veronica Lake) in I Married a Witch — More malicious minx than malevolent, Jennifer was the inspiration for the TV show Bewitched.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Witchy cookies
    Sugar cookies in the shape of witch hats, boots, brooms (and other Halloween-themed shapes) are available

($5.95 for a bag of five) at Two Fat Cookies, 245 NE Second Ave., Delray Beach, 265-5350. www.twofatcookies.com

Witches in books
    • Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins — Sophie Mercer, a witch, attracts too much attention for a prom night spell that goes horribly wrong.(Disney Book Group, 2010)
    • The Witching Hour by Ann Rice — About a dynasty of witches — a family given to poetry and murder. (Arrow, 1990)
    • The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike — Wonderful powers have descended upon three divorcees in a snug Rhode Island town. (Ballantine, 1984)

Witchy decorations
    Hidden Siren, 640 E. Ocean Ave., Suite 15, sells all kinds of hand-painted furniture, antiques, hand-painted folk art and old-fashioned candy, as well as the witch items we used on the cover. 666-0665 or www.hauntedfurniture.com.

Witches' spa day
    Being a sand witch has its challenges. Before you go flying off your broom handle, consider an emergency landing at Eau Spa in Manalapan. Enchanting mixologists will conjure a lotion potion to polish gruesome and green feet, ankles and toes while you repose on the seashore. The Witches’ Leg Treatment — and custom to-go cauldron — costs $185. You’ll even get a trick-or-treat bag of bewitching products to take home. The offer, along with other wickedly wonderful spa specials, are available the entire month of October. For reservations or more details, call 533-6000 or visit www.eauspa.com.

Rather than howling at the moon, these whimsical witches

rise early Halloween morning to ride their broomsticks

(bicycles) for fun and a good cause.

Andie DeVoe, Alpha Witch, surrounded by fellow witches waving and casting spells

upon passing cars last year at Tim Finnegans in Delray Beach.

File photo/The Coastal Star

Andie DeVoe first dressed as a witch for Halloween in 1981.

Photo provided

By Mary Thurwachter

    A mere mortal who happens upon the Witches of Delray during the coven’s annual Halloween morning ride typically does a double take. He wonders, was that a gaggle of glittery hags he just saw flying down the street on bicycles?   
    You bet your eye of newt it was! Attempts to suppress smiles are futile. It’s best, onlookers find, to simply go with the flow, honk a horn if in a car, or cackle to greet the spirited gals in pointy hats.
    This Halloween will be the fourth ride for the Witches of Delray, says Alpha Witch Andie DeVoe, one of the original members. The group’s founder was Lori Klinger, a friend of DeVoe’s who had been involved with the Witches of South Walton in Florida’s Panhandle before moving to Delray Beach.
    But when Klinger moved to Texas after the first year, DeVoe became the Alpha Witch, the one who leads the others.
    In the past, the Witches pedaled past Delray Beach schools, but this year, with Halloween on Saturday, the five-mile route will be Delray downtown/Atlantic Avenue focused.  
    Each “witch” pays $20 to ride and the money goes to the Achievement Centers for Children and Families of Delray Beach.  
“A lot of our witches love the Achievement Center,” says DeVoe, a massage therapist who specializes in craniosacral work. “We like to help people locally.”
    A Witches Brew happy hour fundraiser (with a raffle and silent auction) precedes the Oct. 31 ride at Tim Finnegans Irish Pub on Oct. 23. Last year the group raised $1,500 between the brew and the ride.
    “The Witch Ride is so very dear to my little black Alpha Witch heart,” says DeVoe, 44, who first dressed as a witch for Halloween when she was 10. “The community of creative women that we have created in our ‘coven’ are brilliant, passionate women who love to give back to their community!”

    Every year the number of witches has doubled, DeVoe says. “We started with 10 and had 40 last year.”
    Last year, she mounted a GoPro on the back of a bike helmet (which has a pointy witch’s hat attached to it). The video can be viewed at www.witchesofdelray.com.
    “I wrecked on George Bush Boulevard,” she says. “I was wearing a big pink tutu and I scraped my knee, but got back on the bike and kept riding.”

    Bikes and witches are colorfully costumed.
    “We’re very whimsical witches,” DeVoe says. “I tell ‘my pretties’ to not to dress too scary or too sexy. We don’t stop for wardrobe malfunctions.” But the witches do leave a trail of purple and green glitter and a few feathers, to boot.
    Almost everyone seems to get a kick out of the witches ride. Although there was that time when a nun chased them off school property, DeVoe recalls.
    She never thought of herself as witch-obsessed — although  “I have a lot of kitchen witches (homemade witch dolls to ward off bad spirits),” she admits.

    The Alpha Witch says her main squeeze, (aka her husband Michael), is “the wind beneath my cape.” He drives with a bike rack behind the cackling pedalers.
    “We have to be ready in case a witch goes down,” she says. But other than her own wipe-out on George Bush Boulevard last year, that hasn’t been a problem.

IF YOU GO A-WITCHING
Witches of Delray Ride
    Begins at 9 a.m. Oct. 31 at the railroad parking lot behind Johnnie Brown’s, 301 E. Atlantic Ave. (Witches congregate at 8 a.m.) Ride ends at the Green Market, where prizes will be awarded for the best costume, broom (bike) and cackle.
    Witches Brew happy hour fundraiser: (with a raffle and silent auction) is from 4 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Oct. 23, at Tim Finnegans Irish Pub, 2885 S. Federal Highway.
    Cost: $20 per person to ride
    Proceeds: Benefit Achievement Centers for Children and Families
    Info: witchesofdelray.com or facebook.com/WitchesOfDelray/

George Gann, standing in a natural setting of blackbead and saw palmetto,

has created a website and phone app (below) to assist local gardeners.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Christine Davis

    Are you a wannabe gardener, and your thumb isn’t green, but your way of thinking is? Would you like to know the difference between a baygall and a coastal strand? Do you know that “exotic” plants are probably things you shouldn’t have in your garden?
    If you are wondering about any of these things, check out “Natives for Your Neighborhood,” an easy-to-use program at www.regionalconservation.org.
    Created by the Institute for Regional Conservation, a Delray Beach-based nonprofit started by Delray Beach resident George Gann in the 1980s, “Natives for Your Neighborhood” aims to help South Floridians grow gardens that re-create natural habitats specific to their neighborhoods.
    Typing in your ZIP code will generate a list of plants that will thrive in your yard. Click on one, and you will see what it looks like, find out where to buy it, learn what wildlife it attracts and get contact information on landscapers specializing in native plants.
    By planting natives that flourish in your neighborhood, you will reduce water, pesticide and fertilizer usage, while enjoying birds and butterflies. And you will be contributing to the conservation and restoration of South Florida’s natural environment.
    If you have a problem area — say, a low spot that collects water — you can do an advanced search, which will return a list of compatible plants that will grow in that type of environment in your specific ZIP code.
    Pretty cool, huh?
    Many people seem to think so. “Natives for Your Neighborhoods” receives 10,000 page views per week, and beginning gardeners aren’t the only ones who find this site useful. More experienced gardeners and land managers use the site, too.
    While planting with natives may be new to some gardeners, Gann, a descendant of South Florida pioneers, has been working with natives much of his life. He helped out with his family’s business, Gann’s Tropical Greenery and Native Nursery, and helped his parents with a restoration project they undertook on their land.
    “My parents bought some property in Redland near the Monkey Jungle,” he said. “Areas like that had been pine forests, which early settlers had cleared away for citrus, but that market didn’t work out. The property had some remnant pine trees and they went about trying to restore a native forest. They couldn’t restore the pine forest, but they could restore a hardwood hammock.”
    Gann went on to study at University of Colorado, where he earned a bachelor’s degree  in environmental conservation and international affairs. While he was still in college, he co-founded the Institute for Regional Conservation —which, according to the website, “is dedicated to the protection, restoration, and long-term management of biodiversity on a regional basis, and to the prevention of regional extinctions of rare plants, animals and ecosystems.” Gann says this description is right on.
    Ten years later, Gann proposed a new project for his institute, the Floristic Inventory of South Florida, and out of that came the “Natives for Your Neighborhood” program.
    “To encapsulate why I created the Neighborhood program: Through my life experience — I’ve been exposed to growing native plants and have been involved in projects planting native plants — it became clear to me that people needed more information on how to use native plants, be successful in growing them, that their gardens would be aesthetically pleasing, and that they could contribute to biodiversity.”
    Gann personally has conducted extensive field research and managed large multifaceted research and conservation projects. Since 1987, he has published more than 100 articles, technical reports, websites and the book Rare Plants of South Florida: Their History, Conservation and Restoration. He has given more than 100 presentations to both general and technical audiences and has been active in several professional societies, including serving on the board of the Society for Ecological Restoration, The Tropical Audubon Society and the Florida Native Plant Society.  In 2010, he was named director of Manalapan’s Gemini Botanical Garden, a private 16-acre garden with major collections of Caribbean plants, which uses naturalistic design and ecological restoration principles to display its collections.
    To Gann’s way of thinking, all native plants have unique roles to play in the environment and deserve their place in the sun (or shade, as the case may be). “A lot of conservation programs focus on some subset of nature. Our focus is on nature; we want to protect all native plants, not just the ones people are familiar with or think are most beautiful,” he said.
    “We are interested in biodiversity wherever we are working. Plants don’t arrange themselves by politics but by ecological history, as in, ‘this plant lives here, so it’s a good plant to live here in your yard.’”

Garden team leader Shelly Zacks hands a pruning saw to Arie Forma.

A bolting basil plant.

Salo Bowen carries some wood for stakes.

A vining sweet potato already is in bloom.

Jeanne Fernsworth lays cardboard to be covered with mulch.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

    Where today you see a pile of mulch, Shelly Zacks envisions Mulch Mountain covered with climbing kids. That nearby hole in the ground will one day be an enclosed habitat for water plants and fish. And the raised beds overflowing with sweet potato vines will be tamed and planted with a variety of vegetables including collards, kale and peppers.
    Welcome to the Delray Beach Children’s Garden that, as you can see, is a work in progress.
    Zacks, the garden team leader and a preschool teacher herself, always dreamed of creating a “place where children are immersed in nature, love it, not want to leave it and tell their parents they want to come back.”   
    Her dream began to take shape in early 2014 when St. Paul’s Episcopal Church offered a half-acre of land for $10 a year. The same day she signed the lease for the use of the land, the project was awarded a $5,000 county grant.
    “Everyone involved agreed that this children’s garden should be designed and created by the children themselves,” says Zacks, who believes many young people suffer what’s been called “nature deficit disorder.”
    To do this, the steering committee hosted a design brainstorming session to which they invited local parents, landscape designers, city officials and educators who were tasked with building model gardens from pipe cleaners, clay and other craft materials. Then a “surprise panel of judges” comprised of a dozen youngsters ages 7 to 17 critiqued their work.
    “They were so verbal and so critical. They had wonderful ideas,” says Zacks.
    A landscape designer took the winning ideas and put together a plan that’s being brought to fruition by volunteers who have been working at the garden on Saturday mornings since February.
    “None of the work is being contracted,” says Zacks, who praises the community for its generous donations of time, money and materials.
    Using a permaculture technique, the grass has been covered with cardboard and mulch that will help create a first layer of soil as it decomposes.
    The plot has been cleared of invasive Brazilian pepper trees so now you can see there are four towering turpentine mangos destined to shade a triangular sandbox.
    They’ve planted a chocolate tree, lemon bay and cinnamon tree. And they can’t wait until the loquat, jaboticaba and longan bear fruit and the stemmadenia tree blossoms with its fragrant white flowers.  
    There’s even a peanut butter plant whose red fruit tastes something like, well, peanut butter. Nearby blackberries grow and muscadine grapes will be planted so the children can enjoy a very natural PB&J.
    Cotton and henna plants are just the beginning of a craft garden. Echinacea, aloe, ginger and chamomile form the backbone of a medicinal plot.
    A small square of sunflowers is destined to grow into “walls” and be topped with morning glory vines that will form a “roof” for the garden’s Sunflower House.
    A stand of thriving banana trees forms a banana forest where children can hide and seek. And an Eagle Scout troop has built above-ground planters arranged as a labyrinth. It’s these that currently are overgrown with sweet potato vines. The garden is slated to open to the public Nov. 9 when there will be a Harvest Festival. By then these raised beds will be neatly planted, weeded and ready for harvest.
    “It will be so much fun for the kids to pluck food from the ground like buried treasure,” says Zacks, who, of course, will be there celebrating, too.

Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley is a certified master gardener who can be reached at debhartz@att.net when she’s not in her garden.

IF YOU GO
Delray Beach Children’s Garden, 137 S.W. Second Ave., Delray Beach; 716-8342;

www.delraybeachchildrensgarden.org

The west side of the garden has a pedestrian entrance with street parking. There is a parking lot on the east side of the garden off First Avenue. Volunteers are needed 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. Just show up with your water, hat, gloves and sunscreen.
A Harvest Festival, the official garden opening, will be 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 9. Enjoy vegetable harvesting, pumpkin decorating, scarecrow building, storytelling, music, food and more. The first annual fundraising Delray Beach Children’s Garden Golf Tournament will be held at Delray Municipal Golf Course in December.

Susanne Jorgensen stands triumphantly at the summit of Mount Shasta

in California after taking part in the 2015 Climb Against the Odds.

Photo provided

By Lona O'Connor

    Nobody would have faulted Susanne Jorgensen if she had decided to snorkel and walk the beach near her home. She had just finished a grueling year that began with a diagnosis of breast cancer, then surgery, then chemotherapy.
    Instead, she decided to climb 14,000-foot Mount Shasta in California, a fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Fund.
    She found the Breast Cancer Fund during an Internet search for information on cancer-causing substances in the environment. The fund focuses on prevention, including research on environmental toxins.
    “It was 3 in the morning and I said, ‘I have to do this climb for them,’ ” said Jorgensen. She had just taken her last treatment.
    Breast Cancer Fund founder Andrea Ravinett Martin, a two-time cancer survivor, organized the first Climb Against the Odds in 1995.  Sheila Brown, director of development for the fund, said, “It’s meant to draw people who want to take on a big challenge, survivors or people climbing for a survivor.”
    The other members of the 2015 climbing team had been training for three months when Jorgensen signed on in March for the June climb.
    “I had just had my chemo port taken out,” said Jorgensen, 57, who lives in Ocean Ridge. She developed a hematoma in the area around the port. She had never climbed a mountain before, and she was the only one training at sea level.
    “I remember thinking, ‘Susanne is probably not going to make it,’ ” said Brown. “But she is incredibly determined.”
    Jorgensen, 57, concurs with Martin’s philosophy that you get through cancer, mountain climbs and all the other challenges of life just by putting one foot in front of the other.
    “Then, when the medical treatment is finished, you say, ‘What the heck happened?’ ” said Jorgensen.
    Trained in Britain as a psychologist, she makes her living coaching cancer survivors and others recovering from trauma. She estimates that it takes six or seven months just to assimilate the emotional trauma of cancer treatment.
    “You were in survivor mode. Then, suddenly, the magnitude of it hits you.”
    She worked out only her lower body for a couple of weeks, until the hematoma healed. Then she began intensive full-body workouts with a trainer.
    She also practiced a power breathing technique with her yoga teacher, to help her combat shortness of breath in the mountain’s thin air.
    Jorgensen pledged $6,000, some of which she is still raising through an online auction. She spent $2,000 to $3,000 more for travel, equipment and other expenses.
    Inside their 40-pound packs, each team member carried brightly colored Tibetan prayer flags with the name of a person for whom they were climbing.
    They started at 2 a.m., the stars above them, and only their headlamps illuminating the blue-black snow. The climb lasted three days. The last day, they were on the move for 14 hours, climbing down after the summit. The last few hours getting to the peak, she said, were very much like cancer treatment: one step at a time, focusing on nothing else.
    Then she looked up. There was the summit.  
    The climbers unfurled their prayer flags. Jorgensen burst into tears. After such an accomplishment, Jorgensen could be forgiven for resting on her laurels. But no, she is already thinking about putting together a team for next year’s Climb Against the Odds.

Lona O’Connor has a lifelong interest in health and healthy living. Send column ideas to Lona13@bellsouth.net.

Craig Yarbrough of Boynton Beach shows the mutton snapper he caught on Sept. 11

using a dead sardine on a circle hook while fishing on the Sea Mist III drift boat,

based at Boynton Harbor Marina.

Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

By Willie Howard

    Ocean-churning storms and slower currents that often accompany the beginning of fall trigger some of the best snapper fishing of the year in the waters off Palm Beach County.
    After waves whipped up by the remnants of Tropical Storm Erika stirred the ocean in late August, drift boat anglers enjoyed good snapper-fishing action over the reefs.
    Capt. Max Parker on the Living on Island Time, a drift boat based at Palm Beach Yacht Center in Hypoluxo, reported catches of large mutton and yellowtail snapper on Aug. 30, the day winds from Erika kicked up waves along the coast. He said mutton and yellowtail snapper were biting well for days following the sloppy weather from the storm.
    The catch on Sept. 3 included 26 yellowtails and a few keeper-sized mutton snapper taken from the reefs off Delray Beach using dead sardines on double hooks.
    October also tends to be a good month for catching snapper, at least until water temperatures begin to drop, said Capt. Bill Cox of the Southern Comfort IV drift boat based in Hypoluxo.
    Try fishing in 60 to 100 feet of water. Drop down a sardine rigged on double 4/0 or 5/0 hooks and 30- to 40-pound test leader under 1 to 2 ounces of weight on a conventional rod.
    Vary the weight to match the current. Use just enough weight to reach the bottom.
    Long leaders of 10 feet or so can be productive for snapper fishing, but they can make it difficult to secure the hooks when the rig is back on the boat. Try shorter leaders of 3 to 4 feet at first, then add leader until you’re comfortable managing a long leader.
    After the bait reaches the bottom, continue to let line out slowly as the boat moves in the current. If the line begins to move quickly off the reel, indicating a bite, lift the rod and start reeling.
    “Don’t yank, just crank,” Parker said.
    Try light-tackle snapper fishing with a spinning rod holding a jig tipped with a small strip of squid. Bring a selection of jigs, as the weight of the jig will need to be adjusted to match the current and the speed of the drift.
    Finding snapper on any given day is an art.
    Capt. Bruce Cyr of the Lantana-based Lady K drift boat recommends moving the boat in a zig-zag pattern over the reefs, watching the depth finder closely, before stopping to drop baits down.
    Some anglers prefer anchoring in the sand near a reef and using chum to draw snapper near the boat.
    Timing can be everything in snapper fishing. Try fishing as soon as possible after stormy weather stirs the water around the reefs.
    “Go fishing as soon as it’s calm enough to get back out there,” advised Sea Mist III Capt. Charlie Brown.
    Snapper size and bag limits vary by species. In general, a 10-fish aggregate bag limit applies to snapper in Florida.
    Also noteworthy: Snapper are measured as total length — the straight-line distance from the most forward part of the head with the mouth closed to the tip of the tail with the tail squeezed together.

Barracuda bag limits
    The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission recently approved bag limits for barracuda caught in South Florida but decided against imposing size limits, at least for now. The new limits take effect Nov. 1.
    The bag limits, approved by the FWC on Sept. 3, include:
    • A two-fish daily limit (per person) for barracuda taken by recreational and commercial anglers.
    • A six-fish daily boat limit for barracuda caught on recreational and commercial vessels.
    The barracuda bag limits apply in state and federal waters off Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Collier counties.
    The new limits come in response to concerns voiced by divers and anglers about declining numbers of barracuda.
    The original proposal included size limits, but the FWC decided to collect more information before creating additional limits.

Snapper limits

Yellowtail: 12-inch minimum size. Bag limit 10 as part of the 10-fish aggregate limit for snapper.
Mutton: 16-inch minimum size. Bag limit 10.
Mangrove (gray): 10-inch minimum size. Bag limit 5.
Vermilion: 12-inch minimum size. Bag limit 5. (Not included in the snapper aggregate.)
Lane: 8-inch minimum size. Bag limit 10.

For details on Florida’s saltwater fishing regulations, go to myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/recreational.

October events
    Oct. 3: Basic boating safety class offered by Coast Guard Auxiliary in Boca Raton, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the headquarters building at Spanish River Park, 3939 N. Ocean Blvd. Fee $35. Register at door. Bring lunch. 391-3600 or cgauxboca.org.
    Oct. 7: Rich Vidulich shares tips on surf fishing for pompano at the West Palm Beach Fishing Club. Practice tying dropper loop rigs for surf fishing at 6 p.m. Presentation at 7 p.m. at the fishing club, 201 Fifth St., West Palm Beach. Free. 832-6780.
    Oct. 24: Basic boating safety class offered by Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 54, 8 a.m. in the meeting room (next to the boat ramps) at Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park, Boynton Beach. Fee $40. Call Ron Cuneo, 389-1850.
    Oct. 28: Fishing television host George Poveromo discusses trolling strategies for dolphin. (Begins at 6 p.m. with a ballyhoo rigging workshop.) Presentation at 7 p.m. at the fishing club, 201 Fifth St., West Palm Beach. Free. 832-6780.

Tip of the month
    Walk the beach and cast for the jacks, snook, tarpon and bluefish that typically follow schools of southbound migrating mullet during the fall mullet run.
    Look for the action around the dark, underwater “clouds” of finger mullet.
    Heavy rains that send water gushing out the inlets have triggered mullet runs in years past.
    Try using a fairly heavy spinning rod (in case you hook a tarpon) rigged with 40-pound-test leader.  Try fishing around the schooling mullet with a 1-ounce silver Krocodile spoon or Gator casting spoon. Also try a D.O.A. Bait Buster or a topwater plug such as a Zara Spook, Windcheater or Top Dog.
 
Willie Howard is a freelance writer and licensed boat captain. Reach him at tiowillie@bellsouth.net.

Francesca Watt and her brother Charlie in Tzfat. Also called Safed, this city

in the northern district of Israel is considered one of Judaism’s four holy cities,

along with Jerusalem, Hebron  and Tiberias.

Photo provided by Koby Wexler

By Janis Fontaine

   In August, Francesca Watt received the best gift, but she didn’t get it from her parents or her brother, her fiancé or even a close friend.
    The gift was her birthright trip, a 10-day all-expense-paid trip to Israel given to Jewish young adults age 18 to 26 and paid for by Birthright Israel and, in Watt’s case, in partnership with the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County.
    Since 2000, Birthright Israel has sponsored more than 500,000 young adults on this educational trip of a lifetime.
    The goal of the trip, called taglit meaning “discovery” in Hebrew, is to build a bond between young Jewish people and Israel by giving them an opportunity to “see it, experience it, talk about it, and think about what Israel means for them and the Jewish people.”
    The group travels with two local staff members who supervise them from start to finish. They also have a tour educator, and a medic/security person.
    Since this was a South Florida trip, all the tour-goers came from Palm Beach and Broward counties. It was a diverse group: There were new college grads, a graphic designer, a chef, a speech pathologist, a professional dancer, a physician’s assistant and some engineers.
    For Watt, 24, an FAU graduate who works at the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach as an event planner, the trip was life-changing, especially since she shared the experience with her big brother, Charlie, older by 11 months.
    “There were a lot of brothers and sisters on the trip,” Watt said. “It was great to meet kids with the same background and moral foundation.”
    Watt, who was born and raised in Boca Raton, said the emotion grabbed hold of her as soon as her plane landed. “You touch down and you want to cry,” she said. “It’s not something that you can explain. It was the best experience of my life and I’ve traveled quite a bit.”
    The trip through the Holy Land included emotional visits to Yad Vashem, Israel’s national memorial to the Holocaust, and to the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery, where Israel’s presidents and prime ministers are buried.
    But it was fun, too. Travelers went hiking in the Golan Heights, floated in the Dead Sea, got splashed by the waterfalls at Banias National Park, scaled Masada, the desert fortress, rode camels and slept in a Bedouin tent.
    But the moment that is burned into Watt’s memory was celebrating Shabbat at the Kotel, the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, which is the most significant site for the Jewish people. Jews come here from around the world to pray, and many people write prayer notes on tiny slips of paper and wedge them between the stones of the wall.
    “There were a lot of people praying and crying,” she said. “I felt like most of the people were crying with joy. It was amazing to see people from so many walks of life. I was so proud. I thought, ‘This is where our voices can be heard.’ ”
    And Watt had a special prayer, a personal prayer: “I’m engaged, and I was praying for my marriage, that it would be blessed and happy and healthy.” (A March wedding is planned.)
    Most of the 40 people on Watt’s trip came from traditional Jewish homes, but some had grown up without religious education or observance. They are still welcomed and entitled to the taglit.
    “On the last day, we had people who got bar mitzvahed, including one of our tour guides. It changed their lives”, Watt said. “For me, I think the most important thing was getting to discover myself. It was a trip of self-discovery, religious discovery, and spiritual discovery.”
    For more information, visit www.birthrightisrael.com.

New rector named
    After an arduous search, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Delray Beach has chosen a new rector.
    On Sept. 20, the church announced that the Rev. Paul J. Kane had accepted the position. Kane is currently the priest in charge at St. James in the Hills Episcopal Church in Hollywood. Before that, Kane worked for Food For the Poor for four years. From 1996 to 2010, Kane served as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. He was received as a priest in the Episcopal Church in 2013.
    The institution of Rev. Paul Kane will be held on Dec. 1. He will lead services at St. Paul’s for the first time on Saturday and Sunday, December 5-6.
    A reception for Father David Knight, who served as interim rector while the committee searched for a permanent replacement, will be held Nov. 7-8.
    Kane and his wife, Irene, live in Boca Raton.

Local school renamed
    In September, Bishop Gerald M. Barbarito of the Diocese of Palm Beach announced that Pope John Paul II High School in Boca Raton has been renamed. The school is now called Saint John Paul II Academy. The name change reflects that Pope John Paul II, for whom the school was named in the 1980, was canonized in April 2014, and elevated to a saint.
    The school was designated an “academy” to honor its relationship with the Brothers of the Christian Schools.

Boca Church needs
choir director/organist
    First United Methodist Church of Boca Raton is accepting applications for a part-time organist/pianist/choir director for its west campus church location. The position requires a two-hour commitment every Sunday as well as two services on Christmas Eve. Call Minister of Music Bob Sheffey for more information at 910-7635 or email him at bsheffey@fumcbocaraton.org.

Music in the Museum:
The Schola Singers
    The Schola Singers from St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church will perform at 3 p.m. Oct. 4, at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real in Mizner Park, Boca Raton. The concert will feature songs inspired by the exhibitions,. The concert is free with museum admission. Call 392-2500 or visit www.bocamuseum.org.

Hungarian Torahs
find new home
    Sibyl Silver, a retired teacher and grandmother from Boca Raton, recently rescued three Hungarian Torahs, once in the hands of the Nazis, from a Russian library and got permission to bring them back to South Florida with her.
    The Torahs — parchment scrolls containing the first five books of the Old Testament — were stored in a library basement in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, and are in fairly good condition.
    Silver founded the Jewish Heritage Foundation, and is in the process of raising money to restore the scrolls — $180,000 per scroll, she hopes. A portion of those funds will be used to start Jewish schools in Nizhny Novgorod and for the recovery of additional Judaica from Eastern Europe.
    These three works were dedicated at the Boca Raton Synagogue on Sept. 20, where Silver is a member, which will house them as they undergo repairs. Call 394-0384 for more information.

Janis Fontaine writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Contact her at janisfontaine@outlook.com.

Three-year-old Yorkshire terrier Peaches,

who has been named America’s Top Dog Model,

poses in a pet relief area at Palm Beach International Airport.

Peaches no doubt will make regular use of PBIA’s new pet relief areas,

at the eastern and western ends of the airport.

Photos by Taylor Jones/The Coastal Star

By Arden Moore

    In Palm Beach County, October signifies the start of steady balmy breezes and the return of a steady stream of snowbirds from the East and Midwest states. Some of our temporary residents will land at Palm Beach International Airport with lots of suitcases and, of course, their beloved family dog or cat.
    Traveling with pets is a trend that continues to escalate all across the country. In fact, the number of people who bring their dogs (and cats) along on road trips as well as on airplanes has nearly doubled in the past decade, according to a recent pet owners survey conducted by the American Pet Products Association.
    Fortunately for furry frequent fliers, arriving and departing Palm Beach International Airport just got a bit easier — especially on their bladders. That’s because PBIA, recognizing the need to cater to canines, recently created not one, but two well-manicured, fenced-in pet relief areas.
    Snicker if you will, but access to a bathroom especially after a long flight is a priority among people and pets, particularly if they have incurred a turbulent flight.
    Having once flown Chipper, my 60-pound Husky-golden retriever mix, from San Diego to New York City for a media event, I can attest to the benefits of having an easy-to-find pet relief area at an airport.
    “The response by the public to the opening of our pet relief areas has been great,” says Lacy Lueck, director of airport marketing. “There are signs inside the terminals directing people to the pet relief areas and our staff is ready to provide directions once you and your pet deplane.”
    Specifically, the pet relief areas are located at the east and west ends of the main terminal, outdoors on Level One (baggage claim level). And, in true PBC fashion, these are being heralded as “luxury” canine potty places. Each features a comfy grass and wood-chip area fenced in for safety with plenty of shade. And, of course, each offers complimentary doggy waste disposal bags.
    Keep in mind that PBIA is ranked the sixth-best airport in the United States, according to Condé Nast Traveler. It has a putting green installed for golf lovers, and now recognizes the value of making companion animals feel welcome.
    “I think this is a fabulous idea,” declares Jo Jo Harder, chief executive officer of Jo Jo Companies and creator of America’s Top Dog Model contest, who shares her Boca Raton home with her dog, Romeo. “Well-manicured pet travelers should have well-manicured pet relief areas where they can take care of business in style, as well as romp and roll. We wouldn’t want them to ruin their ‘peticures,’ would we?”
    To capture this canine amenity in Palm Beach County style, we turned to a local canine celebrity — Peaches, a Yorkshire terrier and the reigning America’s Top Dog Model for 2015.
    Peaches knows Fido fashion and is one well-mannered dog. She and her pet parent, Claire Spielman of suburban Lake Worth, graciously accommodated The Coastal Star’s request for a photo shoot at the PBIA pet relief area.
    Her Facebook page (Yorkie Peachy Girl) has more than 1,740 followers. On her page, I discovered that Peaches, a tad over 6 pounds, appears to have a larger clothes closet than I do and her fashion tastes are far superior to mine.
    But Peaches is more than a beautiful-looking, strike-the-pose Yorkie. She also is a certified therapy dog (acing the Share-A-Pet therapy training program) who delights in visiting kids regularly at the Palm Beach Children’s Hospital at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
    “Peaches enjoys doggie modeling and loves getting dressed up, but she truly loves bringing joy to children at the hospital,” Spielman says. “When we put on her little therapy vest, she gets excited because she knows it is time to visit the kids.”
    Peaches, now 3, has logged many road miles in her dual roles as a therapy dog and America’s Top Dog Model, but has yet to earn her airplane wings. That is expected to happen next year when Spielman and her husband, Bob, plan to fly to the vacation destination of Lake Tahoe in California with Peaches inside an airline-approved carrier.
    And, Spielman makes this prediction to those traveling in the cabin on that future flight out of PBIA: “Peaches will be better behaved than any child on that airplane. That, I can guarantee. Yes, she is a girly girl, but she is very quiet and very well-mannered.”
    Do you fly with your pets? Have you flown in and out of PBIA with your pet? Please share your best travel tale (and provide photos, too!). Send to arden@fourleggedlife.com.
    
Arden Moore, founder of www.FourLeggedLife.com, is an animal behavior consultant, editor, author, professional speaker and master certified pet first aid instructor. Each week, she hosts the popular Oh Behave! show on Pet Life Radio.com. Learn more by visiting www.fourleggedlife.com.

Kevin Anderson of Gulf Stream waves to the crowd during the U.S. Open.

Photo by UltimateSports.com

By Steve Pike

    Any good professional athlete worth his or her salt will tell you that every pitch, every pass — and, in Kevin Anderson’s case, every stroke —is a learning experience.
    If that’s indeed true, then this summer has been an unprecedented learning experience for Anderson.
    The Gulf Stream resident last month broke through to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, with a four-set upset of British star Andy Murray, ranked No. 3 in the world. It was the first time in Anderson’s eight-year professional career that the 29-year-old native of South Africa had reached the quarterfinals of a tennis Grand Slam.
    Anderson lost in straight sets to fifth seed Stan Wawrinka in the quarters, but left New York with a renewed confidence — particularly after he had won the Winston-Salem Open just a few days before the U.S. Open.
    The Winston-Salem title and the quarterfinals run at the U.S. Open propelled Anderson from 14th to 12th in the ATP world rankings and 2015 earnings of more than $1.5 million.
    “Playing the week before the U.S. Open felt great,’’ Anderson said. “It was my first title since Delray Beach in 2012. The U.S. Open was in the back of my mind, but it was rewarding from a personal standpoint of achieving my goal of winning a title.
    “One of the concerns going into the U.S. Open was that, after playing the previous week, how my body would feel. It felt great, so there were no downsides. Beating Murray in the fourth round was the highlight of the week for me.’’
    Anderson’s victory over Murray was his first in eight tries in the fourth round of a Grand Slam event. He hit 25 aces and won 41 of 58 points at the net in beating Murray for the second time in his career.

    “I wasn’t doing anything outside of my comfort zone,’’ Anderson said. “I was playing the kind of tennis I believe I can play consistently. I think moving forward it gives me a lot of confidence in how I want to play. I wasn’t doing anything magical — just sticking to the basics of how I want to be playing tennis.”
    While he didn’t win the U.S. Open, Anderson did leave New York a winner when he was named recipient of the U.S. Tennis Association’s fifth annual U.S. Open Sportsmanship Award.
    “It was obviously great to be recognized,’’ Anderson said. “I think I conduct myself pretty well on the court, so to be recognized in that way was fun. It’s quite different from winning and losing tennis matches and something I’m very proud of.’’
    Another source of pride for Anderson is his impending U.S. citizenship. Anderson hoped to get his citizenship this past summer, but his tennis travels prevented him from fulfilling all of the residency requirements.
    “There are rules that you have to be in the U.S. for a certain numbers of days over three years,’’ Anderson said. “I’m just under that, so hopefully sometime at the beginning of next year I will have fulfilled that requirement.’’

Related story: Police advise precautions during Halloween festivities

By Janis Fontaine

     Halloween is more popular than ever, but the days of trick-or-treating door-to-door are fading fast. Less than a third of costumed kids plan to walk around their neighborhoods ringing doorbells. Parties are becoming the norm. But no one wants to be all dressed up with nowhere to go, so we’re offering a few options.

Haunted schoolhouse
    The Schoolhouse Children’s Museum and Learning Center, 129 E. Ocean Ave. in Boynton Beach, will hold its annual Spooktacular: Haunted Schoolhouse on Oct. 24 and 25.
    This not-too-scary event is designed for kids ages 3 to 9 and features a “slightly spooky” Wizard of Oz theme on the first floor for younger kids, and a “slightly scarier” zombie-themed experience on the second floor for older kids.
    The event takes place 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $5 per child, with one free accompanying adult.
    The museum also will hold its first Costumes & Cocktails, an adults-only costume party, from 7 to 10 p.m. Oct. 23. The evening features food by the bite, cocktails, dancing to DJ Arce’s special Halloween spins, a costume contest with prizes, glow-in-the-dark painting and access to the haunted house. Costumes are encouraged but not required. Tickets are $50 (proceeds benefit the museum).
   For more information: call 742-6780 or go to www.schoolhousemuseum.org.

Haunted hammock
    Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, 1801 N. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton, offers two frightening events:
    Halloween in the Hammock is an evening scare-fest for kids ages 6 and older (adults are welcome, too!). They can stroll through the spooky forest with ghostly guides and visit with creepy animals like snakes, owls and spiders. Attendees need to beware that the little lights that flicker, dance and gleam are not what they seem.
    Costumes are welcomed but not required, but reservations are required. The event is 6:30 to 9 p.m. Oct. 17. Tickets are $10 members, $15 nonmembers, $20 at the door (if available).  
    At Halloween in the Garden from 10 a.m. to noon Oct. 25, kids ages 2-6 are invited to a morning of games, treats, crafts and photo ops with Luna the sea turtle. Costumes are encouraged but not required.
    Because this program takes place before the center’s regular opening time of noon, the aquariums and other exhibits will not be open.
    Pre-registering for this event is a good idea, as it sold out last year. Tickets are $7 members, $10 nonmembers, $14 walk-in.  
For more information or to register: www.gumbolimbo.org or 544-8615. 

More outdoor thrills
    The town of Lantana is hosting its first Haunted Nature Preserve from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 16. Visitors will take a guided excursion through the haunted preserve then celebrate with a DJ for music and dancing, a costume contest, hayrides, carnival games, prizes and, of course, candy. Lantana Nature Preserve is at 400 E. Ocean Ave. This new event is part of Lantana’s new special events program called Enjoy Lantana! Info: www.lantana.org.

Superhero walk
    Here’s an opportunity for youngsters to join costumed friends in an event help the Boca Raton Children’s Museum raise money to keep the museum open.
    At 10 a.m. Oct. 10, the Save Our Children’s Museum Superhero Walk will take place at the museum. The goal is to recruit 100 children and their families to raise $100 each, making them Museum Heroes.
Everyone in a costume is a hero, including princesses and pirates. Families will stroll around Boca Raton Christian School then return to the museum for a party with food, games, activities and prizes.
    The museum is at 498 Crawford Blvd., Boca Raton. Registration is $25. Call 368-6875 or email wendy@cmboca.org.

Pumpkins everywhere
    Pumpkin patches are a big source of fund-raising for many churches. Here are a couple of local choices:
    The Pumpkin Patch at West Campus of First United Methodist Church of Boca Raton, 9087 Glades Road, is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 10-31. Volunteers needed; 395-1244 or www.fumcbocaraton.org.
    Cason United Methodist Church, 342 N. Swinton Ave. in Delray Beach, also features a Pumpkin Patch starting at 9 a.m. daily from Oct. 10 to 31. Call 276-5302.  

Janis Fontaine writes about teenagers and toddlers. Contact her at janisfontaine@outlook.com.

A scary, skeletal  guard greets visitors who dare to enter the spooky grounds

for Halloween in the Hammock  at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.

Photo provided

    During Halloween, we throw many of our rules out the window, according to officials at the Boca Raton Police Department. Kids dress in crazy, sometimes inappropriate, costumes. They take candy from strangers. They are even allowed to ring the doorbells of strangers’ homes.
    Boca Raton’s men and women in blue want to remind parents and kids that while fun, Halloween can be dangerous. Here are four tips for kids and four tips for parents:
For kids:
    • Wear costumes with reflective fabric or carry flashlights or glow sticks.
    • Don’t eat any candy or treat that is open or unwrapped or that looks homemade.
    • Trick-or-treat in groups and stay with them. Walk on sidewalks.
    • Go only to houses where the outside lights are on.
For parents:
    • Accompany your children.
    • Make sure your child can see well out of any mask. If not, use makeup or face paint instead.
    • Inspect treats before letting your child eat anything.
    • Try to get the littlest children out and back home before dark.

By Rich Pollack

    Thanks to significant increases in overall property values and several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of cuts to the town’s proposed 2015-2016 budget, Highland Beach residents are likely to see their municipal tax rate drop for the first time since 2011.
    Town commissioners have discussed the possibility of cutting the operating tax rate from $3.95 per $1,000 of assessed value to $3.70 or less per $1,000. The overall tax rate, including debt service, would drop from $4.95 to $4.35 per $1,000 of assessed value.
    The reduction in the municipal tax rate to what is known as the rollback rate — the rate that will generate the same amount of property taxes that the city took in the previous year — will mean some residents could see the actual amount they pay in taxes to the town decrease, depending on their property’s assessed value.
    “We’re able to provide a tax-rate cut to our residents without reducing the overall quality of service we provide,” said Commissioner Lou Stern. “Because of the property value increase, we’re able to reduce our tax rate and still maintain proper reserves.”
    Total assessed value of property in Highland Beach increased from $1.9 billion to just over $2 billion this year.
    Commissioners are continuing to make budget cuts, which could drop the tax rate even lower. The final decision will be made later this month.
    “I want to make it clear there’s no way we’re raising our taxes,” Stern said. “Taxes are going down.”
    The town currently has an $11.37 million budget and town officials had originally proposed a budget that would increase in the upcoming fiscal year to $11.55 million.
    Commissioners, however, have trimmed several hundred thousand dollars from the budget, which if approved in its proposed form would stand at just over $11 million.
    Among the items taken out of the budget were two major capital improvements that have been placed on hold: license plate recognition scanners for the Police Department and enclosures for two terraces at the library.
    A purchase of scanners, with a cost of about $68,000, was placed on hold due to a Florida Department of Transportation ruling that prohibits cameras on state rights of way. The terrace project, with a $150,000 estimated price tag, was delayed while town officials gather data to determine if the terraces are wanted by residents or are needed.
    Commissioners cut another $100,000 that had been earmarked for repairs to the town’s sidewalk, by tentatively agreeing to do those repairs this fiscal year using funds in the current budget to cover the cost.
    Personnel issues were the subject of a lengthy discussion during a budget workshop last month, with commissioners debating salary increases for town employees.
    In a cost-cutting move, the commission eliminated a maintenance position at the town’s library and removed $127,000 from the budget by doing away with a systems analyst position. A full-time library assistant position, with a cost of $67,000, was added to replace the analyst position.
    During discussions of pay increases, commissioners shied away from giving employees 5 percent raises that have been standard in recent years. Instead, they agreed to 3 percent raises at the beginning of the new fiscal year.
    Vice Mayor Bill Weitz expressed concern over salaries paid for certain positions and questioned whether the town could continue to provide pay increases for them. “Are there certain jobs in town deserving of the level of pay they receive?” he asked. “I don’t think so.”
    Commissioners agreed to a 3 percent increase for employees but also expressed interest in rewarding employees who perform well. “I would like to see some kind of merit program for someone who can save the town money,” Commissioner Carl Feldman said.
    The public hearings will be held Sept. 10 and 24.

By Sallie James

    Boca Raton would add four code enforcement officers, four firefighter/paramedics and five new police officers under a proposed 2015-2016 municipal budget that holds the line on property taxes and adds two new programs and new personnel for city beautification.
    The good news for taxpayers is that the city property tax rate would be slightly down from a year ago under the proposed $625 million 2015-2016 budget. The budget includes 34 new full-time positions and an unchanged fire assessment fee.
    According to City Manager Leif Ahnell, 2015-2016 city property values have increased 7.62 percent over a year ago, making a tax hike unnecessary.
    “We are able to hold the tax rate where we are because of the increase in property values,” said City Council member Mike Mullaugh. “We are restoring positions we had eliminated in 2008 and 2009 during the recession.”
    Calling Boca Raton a “financially sound” municipality with “world-class” services, Ahnell explained during an August budget workshop that the proposed tax rate for $1,000 of assessed value is $3.68, a slight decrease from the current rate of $3.71 per $1,000 of assessed value.
    For homeowners, that means the owner of a $300,000 single-family home will pay $1,103.97 in municipal property taxes, or 1 percent less than a year ago, if the budget is approved. The city’s proposed fire rescue assessment fee is slated to remain steady at the current rate of $85.
    In addition to municipal property taxes, tax bills include sums paid to the Palm Beach County School Board, the South Florida Water Management District, park districts and other entities.
    The 2015-2016 proposed budget includes a $142 million general fund budget, which provides money for police, fire and street services, and a $372 million operating budget.
    The city budget also includes the Economic Development Fund, Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund, Sanitation Fund, Right of Way Beautification Fund, Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District Fund, Cemetery and Mausoleum Fund and the Golf Course Enterprise Fund.
    Residents will have a chance to weigh in on proposed expenditures during two public hearings: The first is at 6 p.m. on Sept. 10 and the second is at 6 p.m. on Sept. 17. Both are at Boca Raton City Hall, at 201 W. Palmetto Park Road.
    “I think the city is being very well-run,” said City Council member Jeremy Rodgers. “Our city manager has kept the city quite lean. They are basically manning up for the approved projects that are already on the table.”
    The police and fire budgets for the coming fiscal year reflect contract changes that will provide more than $93 million in combined pension obligation savings over the next 30 years.
    Mayor Susan Haynie has called the contracts the “most meaningful pension reform” that has occurred in the history of the city.
    Boca Raton police will receive annual 2 percent raises for the next three years under a three-year contract that also requires police personnel to contribute more to their pension plan.
    Firefighters will also receive annual 2 percent raises for the next three years. The Boca Raton/International Association of Firefighters Local 1560 also agreed to changes in the pension plan that should make the plan actuarially sound.
    The proposed budget includes five new police officers, partially funded by the Community Redevelopment Agency, and four new entry-level firefighter/paramedics.
Other additions of note:
    • Office of the city manager: a development services manager to direct internal operations for the city.
    • Water and Sewer Fund: one new safety, security and training officer.
    • Beautification Fund: one new maintenance supervisor, 15 new groundskeepers.
    • Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District: one full-time science educator, one senior aquarist, and several other part-time positions converted to full-time positions.
    • Two new programs: rental registration and vines and exotics removal. Each program includes three new employees.

By Steve Plunkett

    The proposed Houston’s restaurant at the old Wildflower site will have a breathtaking view of the Intracoastal Waterway, but it won’t have docks, the developer says.
    And a fence will block access on the waterfront walkway to the boat launch area at adjacent Silver Palm Park, said Glenn Viers, vice president of the Hillstone Restaurant Group, which the city chose to build the eatery.
    Viers told a crowded Sept.1 meeting of the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowner Associations that his company was simply reacting to the concerns of boaters who want to protect Silver Palm Park from restaurant traffic.
    “Really, the only way that we felt that we could effectively deal with that was to put a fence up,” he said.
    The restaurant will not have docks because the Intracoastal’s right of way comes too close to shore and the waterway’s bed is filled with sensitive plant life.
    “We’ve looked into it, and we’ll continue to look into it, but the indications are that it’s infeasible,” Viers said.
    Neither proposal went over big with the audience.
    “You really need to get the city to work with you, the county, whoever it is, to get the … dockage. That is important,” resident Craig Ehrnst said. “And No. 2, the whole idea of a fence that’s underneath there in Silver Palm Park, I understand the logic and the development of how it got there, but it defeats the mobile, pedestrian-friendly city we are. And that would just be a tragedy.”
    The restaurant, originally projected to open in December, will not be ready for business until sometime in 2017, Viers said. The one-story structure will be 7,000 square feet, smaller than the 7,800-square-foot Houston’s the company operates off Glades Road west of Interstate 95.
    Viers said the new Houston’s would have 30 tables inside, an undetermined number outside and 11 more parking spaces than the code-required 120. The entrance will be on Northeast Fifth Avenue, and the restaurant, he said, will offer “some of the best views available of the Intracoastal in South Florida.”
    Houston’s will rent the land from the city for $500,000 a year plus 5 percent of any gross above $10 million. Boca Raton bought the 2.3-acre parcel at the northwest base of the Palmetto Park Road bridge in 2009 for $7.5 million.
    Any issues with traffic are the responsibility of the city, Viers said, as is changing the zoning for the parcel.
    Viers also said the restaurant, at the former site of the raucous Wildflower restaurant and bar, would be vigilant about keeping noise down.
    “We’re committed to being a good neighbor,” he said.
    The city’s marine advisory board, its planning and zoning board and the City Council are scheduled to discuss the restaurant this month.