By Rich Pollack

    During meetings with residents concerned that a new U.S. Customs Station at the Boca Raton Airport would generate more noise, airport leaders realized they could be doing a better job of telling the airport’s story.
    “That was the catalyst that made us realize we needed to share the value and history of the airport with our community,” said Cheryl Budd, a member of the Boca Raton Airport Authority who is heading up a committee focused on building awareness. “We learned that we needed to be better engaged and have better communication with our various publics.”
    The first sign of the airport authority’s efforts to raise its visibility in the community is a new logo, which received final approval at the authority’s meeting last month.
    “We now have a top-notch logo,” Airport Authority member and Boca Raton Vice Mayor Robert Weinroth said.
    Created by Green Advertising, the logo uses a font developed specifically for the authority and is designed to highlight the forward-looking perspective of the airport.
    “The A in the logo is designed so it actually looks like the trajectory of an airplane taking off,” Budd said.
    The logo uses green to symbolize land and blue to symbolize water and can be adapted to include the word “international” once the customs station is built.  
    A fresher looking logo reflects the recent changes taking place at the Airport Authority, Budd said, including a new executive director, a new administrative building, plans for a customs office and a new commitment to community engagement.
    The Airport Authority’s marketing committee will work with Green Advertising on a multifaceted awareness campaign that will include educational and public relations components, Budd said.
    “The branding complements the airport’s mission to be a world-class general aviation airport that is a vital element of the area’s economic development initiative,” said Clara Bennett, the airport’s executive director.
    The campaign, which includes an annual contract with Green Advertising for $68,000, will focus on the value the airport brings to the community and its economic impact.
    “The goal is to strengthen relationships with the community,” she said. “It’s also about building trust.”

By Rich Pollack

    With their library in transition following the departure of its longtime director, Highland Beach town leaders hope to find out more about a private company that manages libraries for communities across the country.
    During a Florida League of Cities conference in Orlando last month, several Highland Beach commissioners met briefly with a representative of Library Systems and Services Inc., which manages about 80 libraries nationwide.
    Vice Mayor Bill Weitz and Commissioner Lou Stern told other members of the commission that they would be in favor of inviting LSSI to visit Highland Beach so they could find out more about what the company offers. “We know very little about this company but when we have options, we should look at all the data,” Weitz said.  “Right now we’re just in the data collection mode.”
    Tim Buckley, a spokesman for LSSI, said the Maryland-based company was founded by experienced librarians in 1997 to help government agencies operate their libraries efficiently and effectively.
    “They saw there was a better way of doing it,” Buckley said.
    Because LSSI operates several libraries, Buckley said, the firm can save money on books, software and other expenses through economies of scale. He added that the firm also has experienced library managers who can use their knowledge to help libraries best meet the needs of their residents.
    While LSSI runs the day-to-day operation of the libraries it manages, Buckley said key decisions continue to be made at the local government level.
    He said that any discussions with Highland Beach officials would also be an opportunity for LSSI to determine if working with the town would make sense for the company.
    “It needs to be the right fit,” he said.
    Weitz said that should the town see potential in partnering with LSSI, he would then seek input from library users and other residents.
    Both Weitz and Stern said they’re pleased with the job interim Library Director Suzi Hayes is doing.
    Since taking over the position in June, Hayes has instituted a new electronic cataloging system for new books and is preparing a survey to determine what programs and services residents would like to see at the library.
    Hayes, along with Town Manager Beverly Brown and Town Attorney Glen Torcivia, also is working on crafting a policy to address outside vendors who offer classes at the library.
    Vendors offering programs, such as yoga classes, had been paid directly by class members. The town is looking into liability issues and into the possibility of a more structured system.

The 24-unit, nine-story luxury condo will be built at 327 E. Royal Palm Road.

Rendering provided

By Mary Hladky

    While two recent downtown Boca Raton development projects garnered impassioned opposition, the 24-unit 327 Royal Palm condominium has sailed to quick city approval and the developer expects to break ground later this year.
    The City Council, sitting as Community Redevelopment Agency commissioners, approved the nine-story project in a 5-0 vote on Aug. 10 after only one city resident spoke against it, citing traffic concerns.
    The luxury condos at 327 E. Royal Palm Road are priced at $1.6 million to $2.9 million and will average about 3,500 square feet.
    The uncomplicated city blessing comes in the wake of controversy over the proposed Sol-A-Mar luxury condo on nine acres along Southeast Mizner Boulevard that would have four 13-story and three four-story buildings, and the Chabad of East Boca’s 18,000-square-foot synagogue on East Palmetto Park Road.
    In both cases, the buildings would exceed the city’s height limits in the downtown area. But 327 Royal Palm’s height — just under 117 feet including architectural elements — falls within what the city allows and its relatively small number of units does not stir complaints about density.
    “We are trying to play by the rules,” said Ignacio Diaz, general manager of developer Group P6. “We were not seeking anything unusual.”
    Diaz was so confident that the project would win approval that he began selling pre-construction units in January, with the provision that buyers would get their 10 percent down payment back if the city did not give the OK. Half of the units are pre-sold.
    “We were pretty confident we would get through the process. I didn’t feel uncomfortable doing that,” Diaz said, adding that he didn’t want to miss out on the winter season.
    The buyers, he said, are “entirely local,” generally empty nesters with large homes in the area who want to downsize and live in an urban environment.
    Diaz’s father and other family members are developers in Venezuela. One of their current projects, expected to be completed next year, is Parque Industrial del Este, a 2.15 million-square-foot industrial park in Caracas.
    But Group P6 is not interested in Miami-Dade County and its large Venezuelan population. Land prices there are too high, Diaz said.
    Instead, the company is  focusing on eastern Broward and Palm Beach counties. Outside Boca Raton, it is  developing two high-end townhouse projects in Fort Lauderdale and two condos in Deerfield Beach.
    “The price of land is more reasonable, demand is there and we are not relying on assumptions of foreign buyers,” he said. “We liked the fact we can offer luxury to a local market.”

    The Brooklyn Children’s Museum is taking fundraising to a new level — asking fellow museums for donations.
    It recently asked the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, which operates the Children’s Science Explorium at Sugar Sand Park, to waive repayment of a $5,000 security deposit the district paid for an exhibit in 2008.
    Interim Executive Director Arthur Koski said the Brooklyn museum now has “some financial inability” to give the money back.
“Do they have other exhibits that we could trade?” Commissioner Dennis Frisch asked.
    Koski said he would investigate.
—Steve Plunkett

Kelly Martin, an environmentalist with Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management,

digs for a temperature-monitoring device buried more than two feet underground.

ERM intern Lory Gort downloads data from a monitor for later transfer into ERM’s temperature database.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Cheryl Blackerby

    Is replacement sand on beaches affecting sea turtle gender?
    That’s a question county environmentalists will try to answer in a study of three county beaches — Boynton Beach Oceanfront Park, Jupiter Beach, which has three types of replacement sand, and Singer Island.
    The temperature of beach sand affects the sex of sea turtle eggs. Sand 84 degrees or higher is more likely to produce females and below 84 degrees is more likely to produce males.
    Since temperatures of replacement sand vary depending on where the sand came from, county environmentalists are worried that renourishment projects may be altering the delicate balance of gender determination.
    “South Florida nests produce mostly female turtles,” said Kelly Martin, an environmentalist with Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management. “That’s good but there’s a fine line.”
    The project was started in April to determine whether  sand dredged from offshore, which is darker and hotter, and mined inland sand, which is paler and cooler, have an effect on turtle gender. Temperature-monitoring devices buried in the sand will remain until October.
    All of the sand used on South County beach renourishment projects has been dredged sand except for a dune project in Delray Beach.
    “There was mined sand put on the beach in South Palm Beach for many years, but our last project there was in 2010 and that sand has been eroded,” said Leanne Welch, shoreline program supervisor for ERM.
    Most reptiles including alligators, crocodiles, turtles and lizards lay eggs that depend on temperature for gender determination.
But turtle sex determination is the opposite of lizards and crocodiles, Welch said. “Warmer temperatures produce more female turtles, but more male lizards and crocodiles.”
    On a recent August morning, Martin scooped out big handfuls of sand at the Boynton Beach Oceanfront Park beach, reached down 18 inches, and pulled out a monitor that logs the temperature of the beach sand every 15 minutes.
    She dug deeper and retrieved another monitor 27 inches deep, the depth on the beach that green turtles and leatherbacks bury their eggs. Loggerheads lay their eggs at 18 inches.
    Six monitors were placed on Oceanfront Park beach, and 30 at the other two beaches. Martin checks each monitor once a month and records the data with the help of Lory Gort, a biology student intern from Palm Beach Atlantic University.
    Oceanfront Park has had the hottest sand so far, in the range of 92 to 93 degrees, she said.
    She noticed that nesting turtles on a North County beach with replacement sand from an inland mine were taking a couple of days longer to hatch than at other county beaches. She also discovered that the sand was cooler than the original sand dredged from offshore.
    “The temperature may not be a big deal,” Martin said, “but we need to know that we’re not altering the sex ratio a whole lot.”
    County environmentalists are also analyzing sand composition and other factors, such as climate change, which may be making the beaches hotter. Cooler inland sand may be an inadvertent benefit.
    “There are so many variables we have to consider,” Martin said. The county will bring in a statistician and the staff will spend six months to a year to analyze the data.
    The project is being paid for with a $14,000 grant from sea turtle license plates.
    So far this turtle season, the numbers of nests have been excellent, she said.
    “Loggerheads have been numerous with some beaches getting record numbers,” Martin said. “Green turtles are having a phenomenal year with numbers exploding in the last two years.”
    The high numbers are likely due to conservation efforts put in effect two decades ago, she said.

Surfers prepare to take on the remnants of Tropical Storm Erika along the beach at Palmetto Park Road

in Boca Raton. Strong winds and choppy surf attracted surfers and onlookers to the beaches.

There was little sand left for beach walkers in front of the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa on Aug. 31.

Photos by Tim Stepien and Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

Delray steps up push for solutions

Packets of heroin and cash were seized during a recent arrest.

Photo provided by Delray Beach Police Department

By Thomas R. Collins

    The heroin addict is unconscious, teetering between life and death.
    A paramedic swoops in and gives a shot of medication that — almost literally — brings the person back from the dead.
    The reaction from the user? Not amazement, not gratitude. And definitely not relief. Instead, there’s anger and contempt. What a powerful high he had going — the addict often says, according to Delray Beach Fire-Rescue Chief Danielle Connor — but the paramedic stole it from him.
    Such is the twisted world of a heroin addict — an increasingly common figure in the landscape of drug use in the Delray Beach and southern Palm Beach County area.
    In an uptick over a 24-hour period on Aug. 28 and Aug. 29, there were three overdose deaths in Delray Beach that police believe were due to heroin.
    The rise in heroin use has put drug-abuse-prevention specialists and drug-treatment professionals to a new test. As regulation of pain pill prescriptions has found success and made those drugs harder to get and more expensive, many of those addicted to oxycodone and other pain medications have turned to heroin.
    It’s an obvious choice, really — it’s cheaper, more accessible and more potent.
    Professionals are trying to attack this latest scourge of drug abuse: Narcotic-reversing medications, new laws, and a slew of brainstorming action teams and task forces are coming out of the toolbox.
    “We have definitely in recent years seen an increase in heroin use in our community,” Connor said. “It’s truly epidemic levels in our community.”
    Delray Beach police went public with a spike in the city’s heroin use in June, after a huge uptick in heroin overdoses was seen in May. There were 17 in the city that month, compared to nine for the entire calendar year up till then. There were four deaths from heroin.
    “When we started seeing that uptick in that month, we decided to attack it head on,” Police Chief Jeffrey Goldman said. The public was asked not to clean up overdose scenes, so that evidence would be more available to police. All crime scenes where the August deaths happened were cleaned up before evidence could be gathered, so police weren’t able to test the substances to see if they were laced with anything, such as the poweful opiate fentanyl, to make them more poweful.
    Sgt. Nicole Guerriero sought to reassure those who clean up crimes scenes out of fear of police, saying state law doesn’t allow prosecution of those who phone in an overdose emergency, or the prosecution of the person overdosing, lest a potentially life-saving call not be made.
    Since the May uptick, more confidential informants have been used, Goldman said. He said the police have not seen a corresponding rise in people and property crimes — such as assaults or burglaries — as a result of the heroin spike.
    In May, there were 70 calls to Delray fire-rescue for a bad reaction to a drug, for an overdose or for a death, Connor said. Before that, Delray hadn’t had more than 26 in a single month in 2015. In June, there were 70 calls again.
    In July, the number of calls dropped to 39.  Connor said it wasn’t known how many of those involved heroin, but it stands to reason that heroin drove the spike.
    In September 2013, a similar rash of drug calls was seen when “a bad batch of something” hit the streets, Connor said.
    “I don’t ever remember — and I’ve been here 22 years — getting these types of numbers at any time,” she said.
    Of 394 drug-related calls to Delray Fire-Rescue from August of last year to July of this year, paramedics have injected drug users with Narcan 192 times — almost exactly half the time. Narcan, the brand name for naloxone, almost immediately reverses the effects of opiates. So when paramedics use it, addicts are out cold one minute, often on the brink of death, and alert — and faced with their grim reality — the next.

New laws affecting
reversal drug, referrals
    A change in Florida law that took effect in July now allows caretakers and other nonmedical personnel to administer Narcan — it can be done with virtually no training. Delray police, often on the scene before paramedics, are working out the logistics of carrying it, including how to store it in the police cars.
    The drug gives addicts a new lease on life, but, usually, they don’t see it that way — they just want their high back, Connor said. High users, upon seeing paramedics in emergency rooms, sometimes beg them not to inject them with Narcan, Connor said.
    Another legislative move, which also took effect in July, creates a voluntary certification program for sober homes, where addicts recently out of rehabilitation programs live to get further support as they continue their recovery. Law enforcement and treatment professionals frequently refer to “the good and the bad” sober homes, distinguishing between those that are run properly, with recovery the real goal, and those that exist only to work the system and make a profit.
    Starting in July 2016, rehabilitation centers will be allowed to refer patients to certified sober homes, which is when experts expect the real change to begin taking hold.
    Sober homes are highly concentrated in southern Palm Beach County, particularly in Delray Beach. The Fix, an addiction and recovery website, lists the city as one of the country’s Top 10 destinations for sober living, along with metropolises New York, Los Angeles, Boston and San Francisco. The 5,000 people going to 300 12-step programs a week, and its eclectic therapy settings, give it “the sobriety footprint of a much bigger city,” the site says.

Unrelieved pain
a path to addiction
    Suzanne Spencer, executive director of the Delray Drug Task Force, said the sequence of events leading to heroin addiction in the Delray area, and elsewhere, can be gradual and insidious. An accident causes pain. People take pain medication the proper way. Legislation hits and suddenly they have trouble finding a doctor willing to give them a prescription. They turn to heroin.
    “No one wakes up and says, ‘I think I’m going to have an addiction,’ ” Spencer says. Anyone can be just a car accident away from becoming a heroin addict, the saying goes.
    Spencer has assembled a “heroin response team” to try to draw up new solutions. The team is looking at potentially modeling something after the Montana Meth Project, a savvy, hard-hitting media blitz that has capitalized on social media.
    But there are realities to be dealt with: Team members don’t want to tackle heroin and somehow lead addicts to other addictions. Plus, medical advancements in the treatment of HIV, while welcomed, have taken away what was formerly a natural deterrent: The fear of AIDS got some people to think twice before injecting themselves.
    “There are some who feel that HIV is no longer a death sentence,” Spencer said.
    Indeed, HIV and hepatitis C infections are generally on the rise, possibly reflecting this reshaped view, said Terri Neil, communications specialist with the Comprehensive AIDS program. Addicts know about the advancements in HIV treatment just like everyone else, Neil said.
“The last thing they care about is getting HIV,” she said. “All they care about is getting their next fix.”

Success in treatment
is quite possible
    Paul Cassidy — chief operating officer at Access Recovery Solutions, which offers methadone treatment and medication-assistance treatment approaches — said that Delray Beach has been seen as underserved by methadone treatment for opiate addictions since 2010. His company finally opened a center several months ago.
    The treatment challenges for pill addicts and heroin addicts is largely the same, he said. Everyone seems to be at risk;  Access Recovery’s clients are 18 to 71 and an even split between men and women, Cassidy said.
    Treatment can work, though. About 63 percent of patients are unemployed when they first arrive; in two months, that’s down to about 28 percent, he said.
    “In a relatively short period of time, people have rejoined the workforce and are doing something,” he said.
    Joe Bryan, executive director of the 12-step, abstinence-based Beachcomber rehabilitation center near Briny Breezes, said that the makeup of the person, not necessarily the drug, dictates his or her recovery success. For instance, those in positions of privilege, who aren’t used to being told no, might have a more difficult time getting and staying sober, he said.
    Compared to pain-pill addicts, heroin users — because of the extra stigma linked to heroin — might be a little quicker to lose their support structure of family and friends, a factor so important to someone’s recovery odds, he said.
    “There are many successes,” Bryan said. “I don’t know if more than not, but enough to keep working at it.”
    Cassidy’s assessment of the future of the drug battle, here and nationally, was tempered — he’s “not that optimistic” the problem will go away.
    “We don’t spend nearly enough to reduce the demand,” he said. “But that’s basically retooling as a country how we’ve handle the drug problem for 50 years.”

Akila Raja, Kelsey Diamantis and Stephen Erdo debate an answer. Their team, Donald Trump’s Toupee,

is among many that gather on Wednesdays at Two Georges in Boynton Beach to compete for prizes.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

A team of doctors from JFK Medical Center discusses the answer to a question

posed during Think and Drink Trivia at Two Georges.

Trivia Master Steve Steckroth provides the questions.

By Ron Hayes

    By 7 p.m. the bar is packed. Music’s blasting. Beer’s flowing. Everybody’s here except Steve.
    Team Sunshine is by the door. Team Ramrod’s snared a spot, and the Mixt Nuts and Conquistadors have tables in the dining area, not far from the Titsburg Feelers.
    The far end of the bar has been occupied by Donald Trump’s Toupee.
    For this crowd of loyal regulars, there is nothing trivial about Wednesday Night Trivia at Two Georges Waterfront Restaurant in Boynton Beach.
    These are seriously trivial people.
    Now, score pads and pens at hand, they are eagerly watching the door for Steve, the host.
    “He’ll be here,” Bob Luckey of Team Sunshine announces reassuringly. “Steve always gets here a few minutes before we start.”
    Luckey, of Hypoluxo, has been coming on Wednesday nights pretty much since the games began about five years ago.
    “I’m good with history and business,” he says, “and my wife, Carol, is good with all literature. She’s an ex-schoolteacher.”
    For his teammate, Georgina Leathers of Delray Beach, trivia’s the most trivial part of the evening.
    “It’s just a great way to get together with friends,” she explains. “A great night out on a Wednesday.”
    They’re certainly not here for the winnings. First place gets you a $20 gift certificate, second place $10, on down through free appetizers and desserts, all the way to a ninth-place keychain.
    “We’ve won a lot of desserts and appetizers,” Luckey says, “and then some of the cheap stuff —Koozies and T-shirts.”
    Finally, about 7:20, a young man in an Endless Summer shirt arrives, lugging a folding table, gym bag and miniature sound system.
    Steve has entered the building.
    “I got into hosting trivia because I was so bad at it,” he says, unfolding the table. “I wasn’t contributing anything to the team.”
    Now Steve Steckroth is one of a dozen Trivia Masters at Think & Drink Trivia, a company that hosts weekly games at 25 sites, including Jack’s Grumpy Grouper in Lantana and the Dixie Grill & Bar in West Palm Beach.
    “I make all the questions up, but don’t confuse that with knowing all the answers,” he confides. “I think of the question and then I Google the answer.”
    On a good night, Two Georges can get as many as 21 teams, Steve says. Tonight’s a good night.
    “But having a bigger team isn’t necessarily an advantage,” he explains. “When you have two people who are certain they know the capital of Kansas, who are you going to go with?”
    Is it Topeka?
    “I think.” The Trivia Master frowns. “I don’t know.”
    (It’s Topeka.)
    The rules are simple. Steve asks a question, then blasts a song for 3½ minutes while the players parade up to his table and drop their answers in a bucket. Wagers are two, four or six points.
    Four questions and one bonus question to a round, four rounds a night, 20 questions to the game.
    No cellphones, please.
    “We’ll be out of here right at 9:30,” Steve promises.
    First question: The highest scoring baseball game ever played was on Aug. 25, 1922, when the Cubs beat the Phillies by 3 runs. What was the total points, plus or minus 3 runs?
    The music blasts, the answers arrive, Steve announces a 30-second warning, and the music stops.
    (The Cubs scored 26 and the Phillies 23. Total points, 49.)
    And so it goes.
    Some of the questions are easy.
    Who was Bob Denver?
    (The actor who played Gilligan.)
    And some are tough.
    With more than 1,500 species of animals, what city is home to the largest zoo in the world?
    (The Berlin Zoo, opened in 1944.)
    Halfway through, Steve pulls out the 20-point countdown. The first clue is worth 20 points, the second clue 18 points, on down.
    Now, for 20 points: I am a famous American who was born in 1928 and died in 2011.
    No one rises to drop a guess in the bucket.
    For 18 points: I was convicted of second-degree murder in 1989.
    Frowns all around.
    For 12 points: Even knowing that Al Pacino played him in the movie doesn’t spark a rush to the bucket.
    Finally, My nickname was Dr. Death.
    (Oh! It’s Jack Kevorkian, the assisted suicide guy.)
    Round 3 begins with Wingmen & the Hotwings and the Conquistadors tied for first place.
    “They win 90 percent of the time,” Steve says.
    Team Sunshine has 50 points.
    “Sometimes we pull it out in the end,” Bob Luckey says, bravely.
    Three U.S. state capitals have only five letters. Name them.
    (Boise, Idaho; Dover, Delaware; and Salem, Oregon.)
    Down at the end of the bar, Donald Trump’s Toupee maintains an air of detached self-confidence.
    “We’re formerly ‘Trump/Palin 2015,’” says Stephen Erdo of Boca Raton, a Syracuse law student home for the summer.
    Erdo has a quick definition of trivia. “Trivia is knowledge that should be common but isn’t,” he says.
    His teammate, Akila Raja of Lake Worth, is doing graduate work in medicine at Boston University.
    “Science is my best category. Was that a dead giveaway?” she laughs. “My best win was knowing what a HEPA filter is.”
    (An air filter used to maintain a sterile environment in operating rooms.)
    Their other teammate, Kelsey Diamantis, a schoolteacher from Boca Raton, says her best category is “cheerleader.”
    “I give my input here and there, but I’m here for the fun.”
    In fact, most anyone you ask is here for the fun. Trivia’s just the excuse. No one seems to take the game all that seriously.
    Almost no one.
    “We haven’t had any fistfights,” Steckroth says, “but one guy from Canada came close.”
    The question was: Other than Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, what are the most populous countries in North America?
    “He was red in the face and never came back.”
    (The angry Canadian insisted that Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are the only countries in North America, but according to the geographers, North America is comprised of all countries north of the Panama Canal. The next most populous are Guatemala, Cuba and Haiti.)
    By 9:15, they’ve arrived at the 20th and final question.
    What California city has the honor of being the only city in the U.S. to have an element named for it?
    The music plays, the answers flutter into the bucket.
    (Berkelium, a rare earth element named after the University of California’s city of Berkeley.)
    And minutes later Steve announces the evening’s winners.
    Brace yourself.
    In first place with 109 points is a team that calls itself “And in 1st Place With 144 Points.”
    Turns out they’re a group of doctors from JFK Medical Center who gather here each week to unwind from the doctoring. But they take the game seriously enough to have had light-blue custom T-shirts designed with their team name on the front and nicknames on the back.
    “My nickname is Magellan because I’m good at geography,” explains Taylor George, a resident in internal medicine specializing in infectious diseases.
    “I was able to answer the most visited national park in Tanzania,” he says.
    (Serengeti National Park.)
    The team also has “The Beef,” who excels at food questions, and “Stratego,” the whiz at board games.
    Donald Trump’s Toupee finished with 94 points, good for a free Two Georges T-shirt, and Team Sunshine trailed with 66 points.
    The winners collect their winnings, the folding table and sound system are packed up and Wednesday Night Trivia is over for another week.
    Steve has left the building.

By Steven J. Smith

    By all accounts, John Bitove Sr. led an exceedingly rich and productive life, but according to his son, John Jr., he will be most remembered for his optimism.
    “He saw opportunity in everything,” Bitove Jr. said. “When someone would say a situation was hopeless, he’d convince them why it was not. If someone would say they couldn’t help with a given project, he’d tell them what they could do. That’s why he took up so many community efforts. When people came to him for help, he’d take it upon himself to find a way to help them.”
    Bitove Sr., who had a home in Boca Raton, died on July 30 in Toronto at age 87.
    He was born on March 19, 1928, to Macedonian immigrants in Toronto, where he grew up. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade to work in his father’s butcher shop.
    Using his intelligence, positive attitude and work ethic, Bitove went on to obtain the catering rights to Toronto’s SkyDome (now known as the Rogers Centre) and Toronto’s Pearson Airport. He later merged existing companies into Bitove Corp., which grew to become one of the largest dining and catering companies in Canada.
    His business achievements, paired with his commitment to giving back to his community, prompted the Canadian government to make Bitove a member of the Order of Canada in 1989.
    “It’s the Canadian equivalent to the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Bitove Jr. said. “It’s the highest honor a civilian can get in Canada. Aside from his business achievements, he had done lots of community work, like building an old-age home for Canadians of Macedonian descent.
    “He also started ProAction Cops and Kids, which has gone on to raise millions of dollars funding police-run youth athletic programs across the country to keep kids from troubled areas on the field instead of on the street.”
    Bitove married Dotsa Lazoff, an American-Macedonian, in 1949. The couple spent 67 years together and had five children — Vonna, Nick, Tom, John Jr. and Jordan — and 16 grandchildren, to whom he was devoted.
    He never forgot Macedonia and its people, however, and in 1991 Bitove led an international campaign to have the country recognized as an independent state. For that, he received the September 8th Medal of Honor, the highest merit from the president of the Republic of Macedonia.
    “Sept. 8, 1991, was the date Macedonia became an independent country,” Bitove Jr. said. “My father had been involved in coordinating with the U.S. government, the Canadian government and the British government in achieving this, without having any bullets fired.”
    Family was most important to his father, he added. Bitove built family compounds in Canada’s lake country and Boca Raton.
    “He loved watching the grandchildren and he loved to golf,” Bitove Jr. said. “My parents bought a home in Boca Raton in 1957, when he was in his 20s. Every winter they would go back for extended periods. They were members of Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club in Boca and would stay in Florida from Thanksgiving to Easter. Golfing, family and charity work was what he did the last 59 years of his life. He loved the relaxed attitude of the people in Florida, the variety of the restaurants and the shopping. It was their second home.”
    When Dotsa acquired Alzheimer’s disease, Bitove was inspired by the work of the Louis and Anne Green Memory and Wellness Center in Boca Raton to found the Dotsa Bitove Wellness Academy in Toronto.
    “He preached to everyone about the importance of a facility like this, that keeps families together and keeps patients home as opposed to the old-school mentality, which is just parking them in a home until they wither away,” Bitove Jr. said.
    Bitove Sr. died peacefully, his son said. “It was just old age,” he said. “His mind was fine, but his body was breaking down with infections. Over the last seven or eight months it just wore him down.”
    Bitove Jr. added that his father was a constant wellspring of positive energy.
    “He was always a person who cheered you up and got you focused on what had to be done,” he said. “He had a tremendous can-do spirit. It’s something I miss now in my life, but will always remember him by, in terms of how to keep going. And so will many other people.”
    In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations go to the Dotsa Bitove Wellness Academy, ProAction Cops and Kids and Canadian Macedonian Place Foundation — all organizations founded by John Bitove Sr.

    Water jugs frozen. Check.

    Cash from the ATM. Check.

    Gas for the generator. Check.
    We were prepared for Tropical Storm (or maybe Hurricane) Erika. Then after days of blowing (and raining) through the Caribbean, she hit the mountains of Hispaniola and Cuba, and “poof,” she was gone.
    We heaved a sigh of relief. Then got back to work.
    This time no evacuations were required and the lights stayed on.
    But it’s early September and there are swirls of wind and waves lining up off the coast of Africa and headed in this general direction. Will they make it here? It’s far too early to tell, but if any one of them does, we have many of our preparations already completed. Phew.
    Although Erika fizzled, I’m sure our local first responders don’t regret the advance preparations the storm demanded. They will now be able to more quickly act should a new storm threaten. That’s a good thing for all of us.
    So this storm was not a waste of time. It was a healthy reminder that each hurricane season we need to take stock and make plans. Each storm threat is different and basic plans should stay flexible enough to morph into what is required to keep us safe regardless of predicted wind speed or tidal surge.
    It was good to knock the cobwebs off the shutters and stow away the lawn furniture. It won’t hurt a thing to leave things secured for a few more weeks. Then, when this hurricane season is finally past, we’ll be ready to hose everything off and put it back in place all tidy and clean — and then get back to living in paradise.
    We’ll be ready for that as well.
— Mary Kate Leming,
Editor

Irving and Barbara Gutin at their home in Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    Over the years, Barbara and Irving Gutin have funded millions of dollars’ worth of projects in South Florida and previously in New Hampshire.
    They were a major driving force behind bringing robotic surgery to Boca Raton Regional Hospital and helped finance the hospital’s first stroke center.
    Their financial support extends throughout the community to organizations such as Family Promise of South Palm Beach County, which was able to establish a mentoring program thanks to a $150,000 grant.
    But the contribution that may best illustrate the Gutins’ philosophy of philanthropy could be the donation of a ping-pong table their visiting grandchildren no longer used to a center serving homeless families struggling to get back on their feet.
    “Philanthropy doesn’t have to be about a lot of money,” Irving Gutin said. “It just has to be something where you can see the impact.”
    The Gutins share their philosophy of philanthropy with many others in South Florida, including Henrietta, Countess de Hoernle, and this month they will serve as honorary chairs of the countess’ 103rd Birthday Philanthropic Concert, “A Knight in Budapest.”
    Hosted by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem Knights Hospitaller, the Sept. 19 concert at Lynn University’s Wold Performing Arts Center is both a benefit and a tribute.
    Among the charities supported by the order are: The American Association of Caregiving Youth, Boca Helping Hands, Estella’s Brilliant Bus, Family Promise of South Palm Beach County, Gulfstream Goodwill Industries, HomeSafe and the Spirit of Giving Network.  
    “The countess has been an outstanding member of this community,” Irving Gutin said. “She has been a symbol and a reminder for all of us to do good.”
    Gutin said that all organizations benefiting from the concert, which will feature the Lynn University Philharmonia under the direction of Dr. Jon Robertson, are ones he believes are making a positive difference in South Florida.
    “These organizations are all having a real impact on our community,” he said. “It’s going to be a great evening.”
    A former senior vice president of mergers and acquisitions at Tyco International, Irving Gutin understands the importance of due diligence and applies the skills he developed in the corporate world to his family foundation’s philanthropic giving.
    “Giving is a tough job,” he said. ‘It’s a very difficult task to understand where your funds are going and to make sure they’re having the impact that you were promised.”
    Their philosophy of philanthropy, the Gutins say, was developed while they were living in a small New Hampshire community, where charitable giving had a strong impact on the area.
    “We continue to follow that concept of giving today,” Irving Gutin says.  
    Perhaps the contribution the Gutins made that has had the greatest impact is the donation of $4 million used to purchase two da Vinci robotic surgical systems.
    Those systems, Irving Gutin says, have been part of a dedicated effort to make Boca Raton Regional Hospital a world-class facility where patients can find the state-of-the-art technology.   
    For the Gutins, support of the community goes beyond just giving money. Both Irving, 83, and Barbara, 73, also serve on several committees and boards.
    Barbara Gutin serves on the advisory council of the Lynn Women’s Health and Wellness Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital while her husband is a member of the hospital’s board of trustees and chairman of the finance committee. Both also serve on the community advisory board of Family Promise of South Palm Beach County.
    While finding the right organizations to support can be a job unto itself, Irving Gutin says he and Barbara don’t mind the work.
    “I enjoyed what I did for 30 years with Tyco and we have enjoyed the last 12 years donating money to worthy causes in our community,” he said.

If You Go
Countess’ 103rd Birthday Philanthropic Concert, ‘A Knight in Budapest.’ In celebration of people who love humanity and contribute to the good of their community, Countess de Hoernle continues to sustain her life of philanthropy through her 103rd birthday wish, to be fulfilled with a memorable concert fundraiser for local charities. 
When: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 19
Where: Wold Performing Arts Center, Lynn University, 3601 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton
Tickets: $35-$150
Proceeds: Go to charities addressing needs of the sick and the poor.

By Steve Plunkett

    The pipes that bring saltwater from the ocean to Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s fish viewing tanks need $2 million of repairs — and fast.
    “Those poor fish — you just want to breathe for them. You want to give CPR because they’re having such a hard time,” said Susan Vogelgesang, chairwoman of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District Board.
    The board declared an emergency Aug. 17 to speed up the process of having repairs made. The declaration let the district immediately hire consultant Applied Technology & Management to design and build whatever is needed to fix the seawater lines. ATM already had studied the lines for the city.
    Arthur Koski, the district’s interim executive director, said the consultant would begin with a temporary repair. Designing, getting permits and constructing a permanent solution will take two years, he said.
    Koski said air is leaking into the system, but ATM is not sure whether the leak is in the pump house, east of State Road A1A, or in the lines under the highway. There are also issues with the intake lines out in the ocean, he said.
    Without the emergency declaration, the district would have had to put the repairs out to bid, adding months to the project.
    “It’s obvious that something needs to be done,” Koski said.
    The city owns Red Reef Park, which includes the nature center. The district pays for all operating expenses and maintenance. It also funds most capital projects.
    Gumbo Limbo’s saltwater tanks, which opened in 2012, were built with $2.2 million from the district. Not long after, officials realized something was wrong with the pumps and pipes that bring in saltwater from the Atlantic.
    Koski said he first heard of the trouble at a meeting in March 2014. “We knew the problem existed way back then,” he said.
    The district started to have a consultant look at the plumbing system, then the city said it could do the work in-house. Earlier this year the city decided to pass responsibility back to the district.
    Beach and Park District Commissioner Earl Starkoff said he and his colleagues should monitor both the repairs and their budget to make sure they have enough money.
    “We don’t know if the $2 million we’ve got budgeted for it is too much, too little or just right,” Starkoff said.
    But Commissioner Robert Rollins said it was more important to focus first on making the fixes. “Let’s just keep the pedal to the metal and keep this thing moving forward so we don’t have a catastrophe,” he said.
    Judy Gire of the Friends of Gumbo Limbo thanked commissioners for taking the emergency action. “We hope that this approval will be sufficient to move the project ahead quickly,” she said.

By Jane Smith

    Attorneys for Delray Beach responded to an Atlantic Crossing lawsuit with a motion to dismiss on Aug. 18.
    The developers sued the city in June claiming the city has not issued a site-plan certification that was approved in November 2013 and affirmed by a previous City Commission in January 2014.
    In the city’s August motion, Delray Beach contends that the developers’ claims “are an untimely and improper collateral attack on a City Commission approved development order” that can be challenged only through a special petition filed within 30 days of the order.
    The motion also points out that the lawsuit should be dismissed for failure to state a cause of action because the development order was not attached or made part of the lawsuit.
    The city also says it should be dismissed because the developers have not submitted a recorded plat for the project.
    The proposed $200 million development sits on 9.2 acres of East Atlantic Avenue in the city’s downtown. The project, developed by a partnership between Ohio-based Edwards Companies and local resident Carl DeSantis, will contain 356 luxury condos and apartments plus 80,000 square feet of restaurants and shops and 79,000 square feet of office space.
    “We look forward to the court’s resolution, as we are confident that the city’s motion to dismiss will not be successful,” said Don DeVere, vice president of mixed use for the Edwards Companies.
    “The reality is that this $200 million project — with its hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenues — has been stonewalled every step of the way.  According to the city, we can’t get the approved site plan certified without first getting plat approval. Yet the city has repeatedly refused to put us on the schedule to finalize the plat.”
    He also said, “With regard to the city’s desire for an east-west road, the first step is to get our site plan certified. Then, if the city can assure a timely approval process, we remain open to modifying the plan.”
The Delray Beach City Attorney scheduled a closed “shade meeting” with city commissioners on Sept. 3 to discuss settlement options.
    In other action on Atlantic Crossing, city commissioners held a special meeting at 4 p.m. Aug. 26 to approve having their city manager send a “request for reconveyance” that would ask for the two alleys given to the project on Feb. 24, 2009 under a previous development order.
    The deadline was buried in an Aug. 21 letter to the city’s Planning and Zoning Director about the delay in plat approval sent by Atlantic Crossing’s planner. The letter claimed the project was ready for plat approval since Nov. 20, 2013, when its latest site plan was approved.         The Aug. 26 commission meeting lasted under 10 minutes because the city needed to respond by 4:30 p.m. that day to meet the five-day limit for such a request. The motion passed 4-0 with Commissioner Jordana Jarjura absent.

    The arts administrator credited with doubling ticket sales and developing a $5 million endowment at the Pennsylvania nonprofit he led for a decade has been named chief executive officer of the Delray Beach Center for the Arts.
    Rob Steele, former executive director of the Williamsport Community Arts Center in the north-central Pennsylvania city of Williamsport, is taking over the top job at the Delray Beach center from longtime CEO Joe Gillie, who retires Sept. 30.
    “Joe Gillie has been the champion in establishing the Delray Beach Center for the Arts as a premier arts institution in South Florida,” Steele said in a statement. “My goal is to honor, preserve and extend the rich traditions he has established.”
    Steele was chosen from about 100 applicants for the post, said Bill Branning, chairman of the board at the Delray Beach center, and stood out as the right person for the job, “with the right skills, talent, experience and energy.”
    A former restaurateur and vice president of a Michigan bank, Steele was executive director of the civic auditorium in Tecumseh, Mich., before going to Williamsport. At the 2,100-seat Community Arts Center there, Steele focused on community outreach as well as finances, increasing the number of collaborative partners to more than 200 from just 10.
    “Community outreach and coordinating broad-based collaborations with local organizations has become one of the hallmarks of my career,” Steele said, and pledged to “reach into every corner of the market” served by the Delray center to expand audiences and develop partnerships.
    The Delray Beach Center for the Arts is celebrating its 25th anniversary. It has its roots in the mid-1980s, when two historic school buildings dating to 1913 and 1925 were renovated and became the nucleus of the center’s Old School Square campus.                 
 — Staff report

    Chris Yannuzzi, 59, who was forced out of office as Ocean Ridge police chief in January, rejoined the Boynton Beach Police Department in August.
    Yannuzzi rose to the rank of lieutenant in Boynton and worked for the department for 25 years before coming to Ocean Ridge in 2006.
    He will be taking over the city’s reserve officer program, according to Chief Jeffrey Katz, who cited Yannuzzi’s experience in community policing and developing young officers as reasons for his hiring.

By Dan Moffett

    Ocean Ridge town commissioners have narrowed their search for a new town manager to six candidates, and the list includes several familiar names from Palm Beach County and two former officials from Fernandina Beach.
    The commission has scheduled a special public meeting for 9 a.m. on Sept. 8 to interview each finalist for 30 minutes. In all, 29 people applied to replace Ken Schenck, 76, who has held the job since 2006 and is retiring later this year. Commissioners agreed on a base salary of $95,000 for the position.
    Here are the finalists:
    Michael Czymbor, 51, ranked highest in a straw poll of commissioners with five of them putting him on their short list for the interview session. Czymbor served as city manager of Palatka for 2½ years, until city commissioners dismissed him in February after disputes over policy. Czymbor was city manager of Fernandina Beach from 2006 to 2012 and previously served as city administrator in Milan, Mich., and DeWitt, Mich. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from Bowling Green State University.
    Mark Kutney, 61, finished tied for second in the straw poll with four votes. Kutney was town manager of Loxahatchee Groves from 2011 to 2014 and deputy city manager of Belle Glade for four years beginning in 2007. He was a finalist for the South Palm Beach town manager’s job last year.
    Jamie Titcomb, 58, also received four votes in the straw poll. He was village manager in North Palm Beach for seven months in 2011, until the Town Council dismissed him. Titcomb was interim town manager in Lake Park in 2012 and served as executive director of the Palm Beach County League of Cities from 1999 to 2011. He was a two-term Boynton Beach city commissioner beginning in 1996.
    David Harden, 72, was the Delray Beach city manager for 22 years until retiring in 2012. A Navy veteran with 48 years in public service, Harden was city manager of Winter Park from 1977 to 1989, and currently does municipal consulting work. He received three votes in the straw poll.
    Violet (Lee) Leffingwell, 72, who has been town manager and water plant director in Mangonia Park since 2006 received two votes. Leffingwell served as town manager of Glen Ridge for six years beginning in 2000, and also was the town’s building inspector.
    Joseph Gerrity, 62, succeeded Czymbor as city manager in Fernandina Beach in 2012 until resigning this year. Gerrity was mayor of Fernandina from 2002 to 2004 and before that a coordinator for the Suwannee County Commission. He also received two votes.

By Dan Moffett

    Ed Slominski says he learned a good bit about conflict resolution while running successful businesses in the Northeast.
    Where better now to use that knowledge than his adopted hometown of Gulf Stream, where there has been so much conflict and not a hint of resolution in recent years?
    Slominski has been working behind the scenes this summer to broker a settlement deal between the town and its two harshest critics, Martin O’Boyle and Chris O’Hare. The idea is to get everyone to the bargaining table, drop the lawsuits and countersuits, and end the costly hostilities.
    “There’s so much ego here between the parties,” Slominski says. “Both sides are damaging Gulf Stream’s brand and the community by their actions.”
    A growing number of Gulf Stream residents, Slominski believes, have become weary of the court fights that have drained the town’s budget. Town commissioners have set aside $1 million for the next fiscal year to cover the legal expenses from dozens of lawsuits pending with O’Boyle and O’Hare.
    “You’ve got wealthy people who’ve decided you can spend money just because you’re right,” Slominski says. “A lot of privileged people got their dander up. That has to stop.”
    He finds some fault and some merit on all sides: Town officials have been guilty of selective enforcement of some rules, Slominski says, but O’Boyle and O’Hare have gone too far in their attacks, many of which have been public and personal. The more than 1,500 requests for public records O’Boyle and O’Hare have made to town officials haven’t helped either.
    The town’s lawyers, however, overreached in their response, Slominski says, when they filed a RICO lawsuit against the two men this year — a suit that a federal judge threw out in June. In the wake of that dismissal, Slominski has been pitching resolution to all who will listen.
    He has floated a plan for settlement negotiations to Mayor Scott Morgan and O’Boyle and O’Hare.
    Slominski’s idea is to have all parties contribute to a fund as a show of good faith — perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars each — money that would go to charitable causes. That would help repair damage done to Gulf Stream’s brand, he says.
    The more difficult work would begin then with all sides coming to the table and agreeing to resolve their issues and drop their lawsuits.
    Reaction to Slominski’s proposal has been muted. Morgan has referred settlement talks to the town’s lawyers and publicly expressed skepticism about the level of good intentions on the other side.
    Gulf Stream, the mayor says, thought it had resolved all issues with O’Boyle two years ago when it settled a court case over his home renovation plans. But then his lawsuits resumed shortly after.
    Jonathan O’Boyle, Martin’s son and a lawyer affiliated with the O’Boyle Law Firm, says the family is open to negotiation.
    “I have heard about settlement only in the form of getting both sides to talk (something that has been utterly impossible and still may be — let’s see),” Jonathan O’Boyle said in an email to The Coastal Star.  “Ed [Slominski] has identified this situation as a runaway train and wants the commission to talk to the litigants, something that Morgan has publicly averred he would not do as leader of the town.  If this trend is not reversed, then neither will the trend in rising taxes.”  
    Slominski, a technology entrepreneur who moved to the Place Au Soleil neighborhood from Boston 10 years ago, has no illusions about the road ahead. But he says the alternative is possible bankruptcy for the town. If  settlement efforts fail, Slominksi says, he intends to go to the Palm Beach County Office of Inspector General and ask for intervention from higher powers.

By Dan Moffett
    
    South Palm Beach is appealing to oceanfront condominium owners to allow the town easement access to the beaches during emergencies and renourishment projects.
    Town officials say they have no way of getting vehicles to the beach without the cooperation of private property owners. Public access from Lake Worth is too far north to be feasible and public access from Lantana may not be granted because the town has liability concerns about potential damage.  
    “Lantana is very protective about their sea wall,” Mayor Bonnie Fischer said. “I don’t blame them. They don’t want other people’s heavy equipment going through. We need an easement in this town.”
    Fischer said South Palm Beach had looked at barging in machinery and vehicles by sea but the costs are too high.
    Without easements from the condos, the town can’t go forward with the beach restoration projects it hopes to take on in the coming years. Council members are telling residents that if they want their eroding beaches repaired, they’re going to have to make way for some heavy-duty equipment.
    Fischer and the council on Aug. 25 approved a letter Town Attorney Brad Briggs wrote that will go out to condominium associations along the beachfront. Briggs’ letter makes three requests of the homeowner groups:
    • Allow public service and rescue vehicles “the beach access necessary to aid persons facing serious and imminent injury.”
    • Allow staging and necessary vehicles “so that they may enter onto the beach for repair and maintenance of the many seawalls … which serve to protect so many of the town’s residences from the ocean’s destructive forces.”
    • And “perhaps most importantly, allow such vehicles as are necessary for beach restoration activities to deliver, grade and restore sand to the eroded beach areas.”
    Council members say they want to reassure condo owners that the request for easements does not mean that the town wants to create access for the public. The easements are for the town’s official use only.
    Vice Mayor Joseph Flagello, who is also president of the Palmsea Condominium board of directors, says his association will also need reassurance that the town is fully insured and will cover potential property damage vehicles might cause. “That’s the question I’m going to be hearing,” Flagello said.
    How serious is the town’s request? Very serious.
    Biggs told the council that if negotiation with the condominium owners doesn’t work, then the town might have to consider claiming the easements by eminent domain.
     Officials say that’s a last resort that they hope will not be necessary.
    In other business:
    The council approved hiring Colin Baenziger & Associates to run background checks and screen prospective candidates for the vacant town manager’s job.
    Former Boynton Beach Town Manager Kurt Bressner, who is advising the council on filling the position, recommended the headhunting firm over another company the town used last year in hiring Jim Pascale, who abruptly resigned in June.
    Colin Baenziger will charge $900 for each candidate it screens, and the council hopes to have identified six finalists to choose from before the tourist season begins and the interviewing and hiring completed before the end of the year.

By Jane Smith
    
    This time, the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency commissioners were unanimous at their late August meeting in awarding a $59,000 contract to analyze taxable values in each of its eight subareas.
    The contract went to the low bidder, Munilytics Inc. of Davie. The firm also had the shortest estimated completion time — two months — when it was selected in July.
    The analysis will be done in three parts. Part A will include: Establish a base year value of each subarea when the CRA was formed in 1985, establish current year value, project values for each subarea for the next 30 years, interview all city and CRA commissioners and each of their respective managers or directors, interview the CRA bond counsel, interview the CRA legal counsel, provide recommendations for the CRA to assist the city with other expenditures and present report and findings to the CRA board and to the City Commission.
    Part B covers comparative analysis of CRAs in other Palm Beach and Broward county cities, including date started, annual budget, expected sunset date and taxable value.
    Part C calls for an economic analysis of the CRA contribution to the Delray Beach economy from CRA investments, demographic data, property values, jobs created and other similar items.
    The other bidders also were from Broward County: PMG Associates of Deerfield Beach and RMA Associates of Pompano Beach.
    In July, the CRA commissioners were deadlocked 3-3 because Cathy Balestriere was absent. Finally CRA then-commissioner and now chairman Reggie Cox made a motion to hire Munilytics. It passed 4-2, with Paul Zacks and Joseph Bernadel voting no. They both preferred PMG, recommended by CRA staff.
    Balestriere also was absent for the August vote.
    In other action at the Aug. 27 meeting, the board asked staff to increase 2015-16 budget amounts for the Spady Museum to the $67,357 requested and for the Delray Beach Historical Society to the $52,000 requested. The other nonprofits would receive the amounts that staff had recommended.
    The board approved by a 6-0 vote to spend $21,370 to hire Kimley-Horn and Associates to do a study of parking demand and use in its downtown core, generally between Swinton Avenue and the Intracoastal Waterway. The firm was the lowest of four bidders.
    The board also agreed to reimburse the city up to $400,000 during the next financial year to operate the downtown trolley. The city had a $100,000 state transportation grant that is expiring, which accounts for the increased request. Finance Director Lori Hayward said the expenses for the current year were only $112,000 so far, not nearly the $300,000 budgeted.

By Dan Moffett
    After serving 20 months as alderman, Barbara Molina has resigned her seat on the Briny Breezes Town Council, citing personal reasons.
    “Unfortunately, I don’t have the time,” Molina said. “It’s been a pleasure working with this group. It’s truly a great group and I’m happy and proud to have been a part of it.”
    Molina, who has resided in Briny full-time since 2013 when she left a teaching job with the U.S. military in Germany, also served as the town’s clerk pro tem.
    The council unanimously confirmed Alderman Bobby Jurovaty at the Aug. 27 meeting to fill the clerk vacancy. In June, the council filled its open deputy clerk’s position by hiring Steve Cooper.
    “I’d like to say on behalf of the Town Council that we owe you our appreciation for stepping up and filling the position of town clerk pro tem when a volunteer was needed,” Council President Sue Thaler told Molina. “You’ve juggled a lot of balls in the air with all the commitments you have in your life right now.”
    Council members are looking for candidates to serve out the rest of Molina’s two-year term, which expires in March.