A resident maneuvers a golf cart into Briny Breezes, where the use of non-street-legal golf carts

such as this one has been determined to be illegal.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    Drive your golf cart on a public road in Ocean Ridge and you might be stopped for violating state traffic laws.
    Ride that same golf cart — similar to one you’d see on a golf course — on a street just a short distance away in Gulf Stream and you’re operating within the law.
    Now, take that same golf cart out for a short spin in Briny Breezes and you’d be violating the law — at least for now — but there’s a good chance you won’t get a ticket as long as you’re operating it safely.
    If that’s not confusing enough, add into the mix the fact that no matter what coastal town you’re in, you’re likely to be in the rough if you take that golf cart onto State Road A1A — or even try to cross it.
    Throughout the coastal communities in Palm Beach County, laws regulating golf carts vary substantially thanks largely to a provision in state law that allows local governments to pass ordinances determining where they can be used.
    Those state laws and local ordinances are significantly different, however, from laws governing low-speed vehicles — better known as street-legal golf carts — like the ones you’ll find on A1A and in downtown Delray Beach.
    “Whether you can legally operate a golf cart in your community is something you should educate yourself about before you engage in that activity,” says Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins, who advises contacting the local police department if you’re unsure of local restrictions.
    In Gulf Stream, an ordinance passed in 1999 makes it possible for anyone to drive a golf cart on a public road as long as drivers follow traffic laws and golf carts have the proper equipment.
    That ordinance, enacted following requests from some residents, has no age restriction on who can and can’t drive the cart.
    “We initially anticipated problems with youthful drivers but that hasn’t been an issue,” said Police Chief Gary Ward. In Briny Breezes — where the ratio of golf carts to homes is exceedingly high — the question of what golf cart uses are legal became a hot topic following a February incident in which a resident’s foot was run over from behind by a golf cart as cart and pedestrian crossed State Road A1A.
    For decades, residents of Briny Breezes have been using their golf carts to get around town. In doing so, however, they’re actually violating the law, according to Hutchins, whose department provides police services to that community.
    Now the town is preparing an ordinance that will make it legal to operate golf carts within the community as long as they’re operated safely and within state law.
    “The ordinance needs to be in place to set clear guidelines and authorize the use of golf carts within the municipality,” said Hutchins, whose department has been using discretion and honoring the long-standing tradition of not citing golf cart owners as long as vehicles are operating safely.
    Town officials are hoping to fast-track the ordinance and have it in place by the end of the month. At the same time, Town Attorney John Skrandel is researching the possibility of getting approval from the Florida Department of Transportation to develop at least one, and possibly two, golf cart crossings on A1A, which bisects the town.
    State law permits golf cart crossings on state roads — similar to one in place on A1A in Boca Raton that connects both sides of Red Reef Executive Golf Course. Those crossings must meet DOT guidelines and receive DOT approval.
    State law is also very specific in allowing low-speed vehicles as long as they meet several of the same safety standards required of small cars.
    “We tell people you drive these just like you drive a car,” says Cindi Freeburn, who along with her husband, David, opened Exhilaride, a Delray Beach street-legal golf cart rental business in January. “You must obey all the rules of the road and you have to wear your seat belt.”
    For safety purposes, all passengers must not only wear seatbelts but the same child restraints required in a car are required in a golf cart, Freeburn said.
    Street-legal golf carts, she says, must have a license plate and a vehicle identification number, just like a regular car.
They must also have many of the same safety features including headlights, taillights, turn signals, windshield and rearview mirror and must be able to go at least 20 miles an hour but no more than 25 miles per hour.
    These vehicles are allowed only on roads with a speed limit of 35 miles per hour or lower.
    In Delray Beach, it’s not unusual to find golf-course golf carts that have been converted to street-legal vehicles along with factory-built low-speed vehicles,  especially downtown and on A1A, according to Sgt. Jeff Rasor, who heads the traffic division.

Safety equipment required under Florida state law:  
    Golf Carts Operating on Public Roads (Florida Statute 316.212, sect. 5)  
    A golf cart must be equipped with:
• Efficient brakes
• Reliable steering apparatus
• Safe tires
• A rearview mirror
• Red reflecting warning devices in both the front and rear  

    Low-Speed Vehicles or Street Legal Golf Carts (316.2122, sect. 2)
    A low-speed vehicle must be equipped with:
• Headlamps
• Stop lamps
• Turn-signal lamps
• Taillamps
• Reflex reflectors
• Parking brakes
• Rearview mirrors
• Windshield
• Seat belts
• Vehicle identification numbers

Coach Ted Green gives player August Slat

a hug after August got a solid hit and ran the bases.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Kevin Taylor is greeted with a series of high fives as he rounds third base on Miracle League Opening Day in Delray Beach.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Peter Fernandez helps 12-year-old Ben Els

with his swing. In the Miracle League, all players get to swing

until they get a hit. After each hit, multiple balls are thrown into the infield

so that each player gets to field the ball. Every player has a buddy, an ‘angel in the outfield,’ to help.

Buddy Shayni Sloan encourages Dinah Ruvolo as she reaches out to throw the ball.

By Ron Hayes

    “Play ball!” the loudspeaker crackles, and one by one the players emerge from the dugout and head to home plate.
    Some strut forth eagerly, and some shuffle awkwardly. Some push walkers, and some are pushed in wheelchairs.
    “Let’s make some noise!” the loudspeaker demands. “Nice and loud! Nice and loud!” And the throng behind the hurricane fence explodes in hoots and whistles and cheers as the first player pounds the plate with his bat.
    And then the pitcher releases the ball — a bright DayGlo green training ball, soft as a tennis ball, larger than a softball — and the Miracle League of Delray Beach’s eighth annual season has begun.
    “For me, it’s a soul-satisfying Saturday,” says Julia Kadel, who introduces the players and leads the cheers. “It’s a party with baseball as a theme, and it’s for any child who has not been able to participate on a team for any reason, from high functioning autism to the severely handicapped. We say no to nobody.”
    One evening in January 2005, Julia Kadel and her husband, Jeff, were watching when HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel broadcast a segment on a Miracle League team in Atlanta.
    “That’s what we’re going to do,” she informed him.
    The city’s Parks & Recreation Department supported their plan, the City Commission gave them $10,000 to get started, and in 2007 the Miracle League played its first game.
    Three years and $550,000 later, the Anthony V. Pugliese Miracle League Field opened, one of seven fields in Miller Park, paid for by donations and like no other.
    This field is smaller and paved with recycled rubber. The bases are painted-on to ensure no runner trips. The dugouts are wheelchair accessible.
    On this humid April afternoon, 65 boys and girls with various disabilities are here to play ball. Another 85 volunteer buddies are here to help them. And a tireless roar of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and friends are here to cheer them on.
    Andrew Pollard of Lake Worth, who is 14 and autistic, has been playing for six years.
    “A lot of the time, these kids are excluded,” his father, Nicholas, said. “The schools are getting better and better, but here it’s all about them. Here it’s all about inclusion.”
    As the players wait for the games to begin, this season’s buddies are gathered behind third base to hear Coach Jeff explain the buddy rules.
    “No. 1,” he tells them, “you are here for the players’ safety. I expect you to take one in the head before your kid gets hit by a ball.
    “No. 2, you’re here to assist only as much as they need it. They’re here to play; you’re here to assist.
    “And No. 3, you cheer for everyone.”
    For three years now Brooke Steinbauer of Greenacres has been a buddy to Lisa Killian, who has Down Syndrome.
    “My mom wants me to get volunteer hours for this,” she says, “but honestly, I couldn’t care less about that. My reward is the smiles.”
    Steinbauer, the buddy, is 15; Killian, her player, is 19.
    Peter Fernandez, 26, who leads the youth ministry at Ascension Catholic Church in Boca Raton, heard about the league from a ministry member who had volunteered. This is his first season as a buddy, and as Coach Jeff explains the rules, Fernandez seems not quite sure what he’s supposed to do.
    Meanwhile, the kids are being divided into six teams.
    Ben Els, 12, of Jupiter, stands with Elani Weitz, his caregiver. He is autistic, a nervous boy in a N.Y. Yankees cap whose fingers play constantly about his lips as he stands, slightly hunched, waiting, blinking, meeting no one’s gaze.
    “This is his third year,” Weitz says. “He’s been a Marlin, a Red Sox, and now he’s a Yankee.”
    How, you wonder, can this boy play ball?
    And then the buddies and ballplayers come together and the game begins, and the cheers.
    This is not baseball as it’s played on the park’s other fields. No one pretends it is, and no one cares. Here everyone bats. Everyone hits a home run. Everyone wins.
    “Gabriel hit a home run!” Julia Kadel yells as he crosses home plate and the crowd cheers and claps as he leaves the field.
Over and over the crowd cheers and claps, and the high fives are nearly as numerous as the smiles.
    Rick Hayduk, president of the Boca Raton Resort & Club, and his daughter, Jamison, who is 9 and has Down Syndrome, have been coming for three years.
    “I have three girls, and we’re a baseball family,” Hayduk explains. “My 13-year-old, Jordan, plays softball for a Delray Beach traveling league, so Jamison tries to mimic her, but there’s no way she could play with the regular team.”
    Here, she’s in a league of her own.
    “If I say, ‘Put your uniform on,’ it’s not so much, ‘I’ve got a game today,’ It’s, ‘I’m going to go see my friends.’
    “Inclusion,” he says. “Inclusion, inclusion, inclusion.”
    Fernandez, the first-time buddy, has been paired with Ben, the first-time Yankee. They leave the dugout and head to home plate.
    The boy whose fingers dance constantly around his lips grips the bat and pounds the plate.
    The bright green ball is pitched.
    He swings and misses.
    Another pitch. Another miss.
    Gently, Fernandez stands at his back, reaches around and they hold the bat together.
    Another pitch, another swing.
    The ball flies. The crowd cheers. And Ben runs the bases, trotting along at a steady clip, unaided, while his buddy scuttles along behind, just in case.
    On the homestretch Ben reaches out a hand to return a flurry of high fives from the sidelines.
    “And Ben hit a home run!” Julia Kadel yells. “Let’s hear it for Ben!”
    Everyone in the bleachers hears it for Ben, and it’s hard to tell who’s more thrilled, the player or the buddy.
    “Awesome!” Peter shouts. “Oh, my God, you hit a home run!”
    “Yeah,” says Ben.
    “You did it by yourself!”
    “Yeah,” says Ben.
    “You happy?” asks Peter.
    “Yeah,” says Ben.
    “I’m very happy,” says Peter.
    “Yeah,” says Ben.
    Back in the dugout, his fingers find his lips again and Ben stands still, blinking, meeting no one’s gaze.
    “They all have a good time,” Fernandez says. “They’re all friends, and everybody supports each other. It’s just awesome.”
    Yeah.

For more information, visit miracleleaguedelraybeach.com, call 414-4441 or email coachkadel@aol.com.

Beachgoers packed the oceanfront daily in Delray Beach, making it difficult to find a parking spot or parcel of sand.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    You can credit bad weather up North, the recovering national economy or the growing reputation of Palm Beach County as a popular winter tourism destination.
    Whatever the reason, Palm Beach County continued to be a mecca for winter visitors this year, with occupancy rates reaching records in some areas and with local hotels being close to sold out for many days during the winter season.
    “This season has been unprecedented in terms of tourism for Delray Beach,” said Stephanie Immelman, executive director of the Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative, which promotes the area as a tourism destination. “Occupancy levels are up year over year even with a new hotel — the Fairfield Inn & Suites — opening.”
    Countywide, total occupancy rates remained strong, reaching almost 82 percent in January, close to 90 percent in February and a little more than 86 percent in March, according to statistics compiled by the county’s tourism agency, Discover the Palm Beaches.
    In south Palm Beach County, occupancy rates were even higher, with hotels seeing record occupancy levels in January and February.
    Another measure used to gauge growth in hotel visitors — revenue per available room — shows across-the-board increases, according to Brittany Schnorr, manager of industry relations for Discover the Palm Beaches.
    That number is calculated by dividing the total amount of revenue received by area hotels by the number of available hotel rooms.
    Overall, Discover the Palm Beaches statistics show more than 6.2 million people visited Palm Beach County last year, eclipsing the 2013 record of 6 million. Early estimates indicate occupancy in 2015 is on track to top last year’s record numbers.

Crowds meander down Atlantic Avenue during the 53rd annual Delray Affair.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    In Delray Beach, according to marketing cooperative numbers, every hotel had an occupancy rate in the high 80s or low 90s for the first three months of 2015.
     “Our occupancy rate has been creeping up every year for the last couple of years,” says Ashley Mileschkowsky, sales and marketing manager at Crane’s Beach House Boutique Hotel & Luxury Villas. “You don’t think it can get any better and then it does.”
    Mileschkowsky said the 28-room boutique hotel, just a few blocks from the ocean, had many nights when every room was taken.
“If we had twice as many rooms, we probably could have filled them, too,” she said.
    A few blocks away, in downtown Delray Beach, the 89-year-old historic Colony Hotel & Cabana Club also had an outstanding season.
    “We had our best season ever,” said owner Jestena Boughton. “We had very high occupancy.”
    Boughton said occupancy was at 90 percent for the first three months of the year, with the rate climbing into the high 90s in February and March.
    Both Crane’s and the Colony are seeing the trend continue heading into summer.
    “May looks stronger than ever,” Boughton said.
    Weather in the Northeast played an important role in the strong tourist season. But there were other factors at work as well.  
“Weather always has an effect on tourism,” Schnorr said. “As long as it continues to be cold up North during the winter, Palm Beach County will always be an attractive destination.”
    Visibility and awareness of all the area has to offer, especially among those in the Northeast, also play an important role in the growing tourism numbers.
    “We have a lot of organizations promoting Delray and that’s part of it as well,” Boughton said.
    Thanks in large part to efforts by the Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative and others, Delray Beach has been catapulted into the national spotlight. The city won recognition from Rand McNally and USA Today as America’s Most Fun Small Town in 2012 and recently was nominated as one of Coastal Living magazine’s Happiest Seaside Towns.
    “Awareness of Delray Beach has hit a national level due to sustained media coverage,” Immelman said.
    The recovering economy, according to Mileschkowsky, also is a factor in Palm Beach County’s record-setting tourism season.
“People have been starting to travel again in the last few years,” she said.

By Sallie James

    A standing-room-only crowd of nearly 300 staunch supporters and fierce opponents of a controversial beachside synagogue packed Boca Raton City Hall last month for a showdown about the project’s site plan.
    But they left without resolution after City Council members stunned some and delighted others by deferring action on Chabad of East Boca’s proposal, citing questions about the project’s calculated footage.
    “Obviously it’s very disappointing,” said Rabbi Ruvi New, as he exited the council chambers, flanked by a crush of congregants. “It’s not what we expected at all since we had unanimous approval by the Planning and Zoning Board. I don’t think anyone expected this. We were completely blind-sided.”
    A sprawling, two-story, 18,000-square-foot synagogue with an interactive Israel museum is proposed for 770 E. Palmetto Park Road where La Vieille Maison restaurant once stood.
    Questions also swirled about a parking garage clearance issue, and a turning radius for buses.
    New said questions about the proposed synagogue’s ratio of square building footage to square property footage cropped up that afternoon, but he thought they had all been answered.
    “There are factors that staff has not yet had an opportunity to fully absorb and make a recommendation to the council,” City Attorney Dana Grub Frieser explained during the meeting.
    The Planning and Zoning Board will re-examine the project’s site plan on May 7, and City Council will reconsider the issue on May 27.
    Questions about traffic patterns and the proposed structure’s height — which is more than 10 feet over the normally allowed 30-foot height restriction — also remain contentious.
    Proponents claim the .84-acre site on East Palmetto Park Road is the perfect spot for Chabad of East Boca’s proposed state-of-the-art synagogue and world-class, interactive Israel museum.
    Opponents insist that such a facility will drive extra traffic into an already congested area that is also critically affected by the ups and downs of the Palmetto Park Road drawbridge.
    “I’m happy about the continuance because it allows everyone to have further discussion,” said 20-year resident Julie Holzworth, who lives on Northeast Spanish Trail in the Riviera neighborhood nearby. “My biggest concern is traffic. It’s hard to get in and out of my little neighborhood and I’m concerned about the amount of traffic this project will generate because it will be a cultural center.”
    New has said the Chabad’s membership is composed of only about 75 families, of which 30 to 50 percent walk to worship services. But residents in the area fear the worship center and museum will create gridlock in an area already plagued by congestion.
    Deputy City Manager George Brown said a continuance was necessary so city staff could clarify some ambiguities about the site plan regarding the square footage of the proposed building as it relates to the square footage of the property.
    The square footage of a building cannot exceed 50 percent of the total land area eligible for development, Brown explained. The Chabad calculations appeared to include a small, residentially zoned parcel along with the main parcel, which is zoned for business, putting the total percentage over 50 percent, he said.
    “The developer has explained that the actual building area is less than is shown in the tabular data but staff has not had time to verify what they were saying,” Brown said after the meeting.
    Mayor Susan Haynie said she is concerned the project design does not allow an adequate turning radius for buses. “Can a bus actually make a turn there?” Haynie wondered after the meeting.
    The proposed synagogue is slated to have a 156-seat sanctuary, a basement parking area with 56 spaces and a 25-space ground-level lot. In addition, the project would have a social hall and a high-tech Israel museum.

By Sallie James

    Calling Boca Raton’s recently negotiated police and fire contracts a “reset” and a compromise, City Council members in April voted 4-1 to approve the long overdue agreements.
    The contracts are expected to save the city approximately $93 million in combined pension obligations over the next 30 years.
    “There’s a saying that a good compromise leaves both sides a little dissatisfied,” said City Council member Scott Singer. “I think these agreements fit the spirit of that statement.”
    Council member Jeremy Rodgers voted no on both contracts, claiming the plans were not sustainable in the long run and that the contracts did not contain enough incentives for new hires.
    The contracts are retroactive to Oct. 1, 2014, and run through Sept. 30, 2017. 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.
    Mayor Susan Haynie called the contracts the “most meaningful pension reform” that has occurred in the history of the city.
    Under the new police contract, police personnel will be upping their pension contributions from 10.3 percent to 11.5 percent.
In addition, retirees will get a maximum of 77 percent of the average of their last three years’ pay before retirement. Previously, they could earn a maximum of 87.5 percent.
    The fire rescue contract includes two caps: Firefighter pensions across the board are capped at $100,000 and firefighter pensions also are capped at 90 percent of the last three years’ average salary before retirement. Previously there was no cap.
    Boca Raton residents Judith Teller Kaye and Betty Grinnan, co-founders of Boca Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility, both urged city officials to reject the contracts.
    Kaye called the city’s financial calculations “embarrassing.”
    “The projected savings do not take into account updated mortality tables and use an 8.5 percent projected rate of return for the next 30 years. It’s not realistic,” Kay said.
    Grinnan told council members she believes city firefighters are overpaid.
    “Public safety eats up more than 50 percent of the city budget. I hate it. I want some of those funds to go to the library,” Grinnan said.
    John Luca, union president for the firefighters of Boca Raton, said the city needs to provide decent incentives to attract and retain good employees.
    “We don’t want Boca to be a training ground,” he said. “We want to continue to attract the best and brightest in hopes of keeping those police and firefighters on the streets for a career."

Dignitaries and the creators of the ‘Garden Of Humanity’ take part in the dedication and ribbon-cutting in downtown Boca Raton.

Rev. Fr. Paren Galstyan, pastor of St. David Armenian Apostolic Church in Boca Raton, stands

before a monument to Albert Einstein with his wife Yn. Lusine Simonyan, and their two sons, Grigor, 8, and Aren, 6.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Caren Neile, storytelling class leader, holds a microphone

up to Ellie Lingner as she tells a story at the Boca Raton Public Library.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

    This is a story about the importance of stories.
    “When you tell a story, you take us on a journey and we experience it with you,” says Caren Neile. “If the world would hear stories more often, rather than just opinions, we’d have a much more connected world.”
    Neile knows stories. For the past 15 years, she has taught classes in storytelling at Florida Atlantic University, where she’s an affiliate professor, and every Sunday at 4 p.m. she co-hosts “The Public Storyteller” with Michael Stock on WLRN 91.3 FM. She has performed, taught and produced storytelling events throughout the U.S. and abroad, and she’s a former chair of the National Storytelling Network, the professional organization of storytellers.
    Now she’s brought her love of well-told tales to the Boca Raton Public Library with StoryShare, a weekly meeting for folks who want to tell stories, listen to stories, or  just ponder the importance of stories.
    When the group’s second meeting began on April 20, only four participants were gathered in the library’s community room, but Neile was unfazed.
    “A story is anything that has a beginning, a middle and an end and has a problem and a solution,” she said.
    By that standard, the stories told were more anecdote than story.
    Neil Schulhoff, the library’s events planner, recalled the time he was evicted from a music concert after drinking too much pink lemonade, with alcohol added.
    Ellie Lingner drew laughs with a self-deprecating account of a tumble she and a friend took while searching for their seats at the theater.
    Naturally, the most polished story came from the professional storyteller herself.
    “This is a little tiny folktale,” Neile began. “A very adult folktale.
    “There was a man who lived on one side of a lake, opposite a woman. The man was a yogi. He just sat and meditated all day. And the woman’s job was even older than the yogi’s. She was a lady of the night.
    “All day, the yogi would see men flow in and out of the lady’s house.
    “Well, eventually they died close together in time, and when the yogi got to heaven, he was surprised to see the lady of the night standing in the same line, waiting to be processed.
    “He said, ‘I know why I’m here, but why is this woman in heaven?’
    “And St. Peter or whoever told him: ‘While you were trying to mediate and thinking about what she was doing, she was doing her job and thinking about what you were doing.’”
    The group was puzzled. Most assumed the lady was admitted to heaven because she’d brought so much heaven to her fellow man, but Neile refused to explain or speculate. A story, she said, can have many meanings, and often grows and changes over time.
    “Stories change in their details,” she said, “but the human truth remains the same. When you’re telling a story about human bravery, it doesn’t matter whether the hunter killed 16 buffalo or a hundred. But once you’re trading buffalo skins for leopard skins, it has to be exact. And that’s why writing developed.
    “Everything I tell you may not have happened,” Neile insisted, “but everything I tell you is true.”
    That’s the storyteller’s story. And she’s sticking to it.
    The next StoryShare session is May 20, at noon. To register visit bocalibrary.org.

INSET BELOW: Beverly Brown

By Rich Pollack

    The Highland Beach Town Commission unanimously voted last month to appoint interim Town Manager Beverly Brown to the position permanently.
    Brown had served as the Highland Beach town clerk for eight years and had been interim town manager since January following the mutually agreed upon departure of former Town Manager Kathleen Weiser.
    Replacing Brown as town clerk is Valerie Oakes, who was deputy town clerk for the past six years and who had served as interim town clerk since January.
    Brown and Oakes both received praise from commissioners.
    “They’re both extremely qualified,” said Commissioner Lou Stern. “They’re a perfect fit for our staff because both have a very people-oriented management style.”
    During a meeting in early April, commissioners approved a contract that provides for Brown to receive a salary of $127,000 per year, about $11,000 less than Weiser’s annual salary at the time of her departure. Brown, whose salary as town clerk was $91,780, will also receive a $600-a-month car allowance.
    In a departure from contracts with previous town managers, Brown’s contract does not include severance pay. The contract also has a fixed expiration date of April 2017 and can be renewed only with approval of the Town Commission.
    “I’m quite happy with this contract,” Commissioner Carl Feldman said. “I think it’s important that we promote from within.”
    Both Feldman and Vice Mayor Bill Weitz said they felt that the new contract with Brown was more advantageous to the town than contracts with previous managers.
    “This is fair to the employee and fair to the town,” Weitz said. “It’s fair and objective.”
    Brown, a veteran of local government, began working as a city clerk in Shelton, Conn., in 1973, She was the clerk there for 29 years as the community grew from a small town of about 12,000 residents to a city of more than 50,000.
    After moving to Florida’s west coast to be closer to family, she served as city clerk for the city of Seminole before becoming Highland Beach town clerk in 2002.
    Brown says her focus as town manager is on ensuring a high level of communication between her office and town commissioners as well as with the town’s staff and with residents.
    In replacing Brown as town clerk, Oakes says she will be working to maintain the high level of service the office has provided over the years.
    “We truly believe in quality customer service,” she said.
    Prior to becoming deputy town clerk, Oakes served as assistant to the town manager in Haverhill and also worked for the town of Royal Palm Beach.
    She recently served as president of the Palm Beach County Municipal Clerks Association.

By Sallie James

    A plan to build a Houston’s restaurant on the old Wildflower property near the Intracoastal Waterway continues to draw ire.
    At a Planning and Zoning meeting last month to change the density and zoning of the northern part of the property, many residents voiced protests, citing gridlock in an already congested area. But after much discussion, the board voted to recommend the City Council approve the changes anyway.
    “What about quality of life for people who live here?” asked resident Lee Williams, of the 600 block of Northwest 12th Avenue. “We do not want our city destroyed. There is no going back once you have a higher density use. We have enough restaurants. I implore you to consider an alternative use.”
    The Hillstone Restaurant Group Inc. has asked to build a Houston’s restaurant on the old Wildflower property on the intersection’s northeast corner at 551 E. Palmetto Park Road and lease the land from the city.
    How the nearby and very congested intersection of Palmetto Park Road and Northeast Fifth Avenue could handle hundreds of additional daily trips is something residents in the area have been asking city officials since the project was proposed.
    A traffic study of the intersection is slated for this summer.
    Last month, frustrated homeowners lashed out during an April 9 Planning and Zoning meeting, peppering the board with questions about traffic studies, land use, zoning and density.
    The board considered two issues:
    • Amending the future Land Use Map of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan for a 1.1337-acre parcel on the north end of the former Wildflower property, changing the use from residential low to commercial.
    • Rezoning that parcel from single family residential (R-1-B) to local business (B-1) district.
    The former Wildflower property is composed of two parcels. The southern portion of the property is already zoned B-1 business district. Board members who favored the changes said the two parcels’ land use and zoning should be consistent and compatible for future land usage.
    The board recommended approval on both measures with 4-3 votes, with board members Kerry Koen, Janice Rustin and Arnold Sevelle voting against both measures. Many residents left the meeting clearly frustrated.
    A traffic engineer who presented favorable trip figures to the board conceded that the traffic study he conducted did not take into consideration the ups and downs of the Palmetto Park Bridge, or the effect of rail operations. The study, he said, was based on what is required by Boca Raton city codes and Palm Beach County codes.
    His conclusion was incomprehensible to resident Heidi Klier, of the 200 block of West Palmetto Park Road. She said she routinely gets stuck in horrific gridlock caused by westbound motorists on Palmetto Park Road trying to valet park at a restaurant on the northwest corner of Palmetto Park Road and Northeast Fifth Avenue adjacent to the former Wildflower property.
    “It seems kind of ridiculous that a traffic engineer says nothing is wrong when clearly there is,” Klier said. “This is not going to get any better, and this is not our imagination.”
    Koen, who voted against the proposed changes, said he couldn’t make an intelligent decision on the matter without the results of the traffic study of the Palmetto Park Road and Northeast Fifth Avenue intersection.
    P&Z board member Glen Gromann said that traffic study had nothing to do with the rezoning matter but was instead related to improvements for that intersection.
    Residents disagreed that the two were not related, insisting the two were linked because of the overall gridlock in the area.
    Rustin, who voted against the zoning change, said the city could develop that land into something “interesting and uniquely Boca” instead of changing the zoning and density to allow another restaurant.
    As a condition of approval, board members said the intersection traffic study should take into consideration the ups and downs of the Palmetto Park Road Bridge.
    Hillstone is asking to build a $5 million, 7,000-square-foot restaurant on the former Wildflower property, with 3,500 square feet earmarked for indoor customer service and 800 square feet of outdoor seating. The eatery would have 128 parking spaces.
    Under the proposal, Hillstone would lease the property from the city for $500,000 a year for 20 years with five, five-year optional extensions. The restaurant would be open seven days a week for lunch and dinner.

Plans to enclose two terraces at the Highland Beach Library are estimated to cost $150,000.

2013 file photo Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    Long-discussed plans to enclose two terraces at the Highland Beach Library may be stalled once again after Town Commissioners rejected a selection committee’s choice to award a design and construction contract to a Jupiter firm.
    During a workshop on April 28, commissioners heard a recommendation from town staff to hire Architectural Building Corp. of Jupiter at an estimated $150,000 to enclose the terraces.
    Commissioners, however, turned down that recommendation. Two commissioners said they favored the second choice, West Construction, while two others said there was not enough information in any of the bids to make the right decision.
    After considering a number of options – including asking each of the three bidders to make presentations to the commission – commissioners agreed to postpone a decision until their next meeting in early May.
    In the interim, Town Attorney Glen Torcivia and Finance Director Cale Curtis, who led the selection committee, will be meeting in an effort to bring a recommendation to the commission on how to move forward.
    Commissioners have been struggling to find contractors for the project since late last year, with two prior bids and a recommendation from town staff rejected.
    While it appears that the project, budgeted for $150,000, will go forward with the support of a majority of commissioners, newly elected Vice Mayor Bill Weitz has questioned if a need for the terrace enclosures exists.
    At a meeting earlier in April, Weitz also questioned why the town would be footing the entire bill for the project.
    Weitz said that during his campaign before the March 10 municipal election, he spoke with many residents and the issue of the enclosures did not seem to be a priority.
    “The bottom line is there was not an outpouring of support,” he said. “We’re considering a project at the whim of a few at the expense of many.”
    The vice mayor also said he doesn’t believe there is any documentation to indicate that a need exists to enclose the terraces.
    Weitz said he would support the project if he knew residents favor the renovations.
    “If we did a survey and 80 percent of the people said they were for the enclosures, I would be the first one to raise my hand in support,” he said.
    Funding for the project, supported by the town’s library and the nonprofit Friends of the Highland Beach Library, is included in the town’s budget but Weitz questioned why the town is planning to pay for the entire project.
    Weitz said the project’s cost was originally going to be split between the town and the Friends of the Library but that it now appears the town will be covering the cost of the entire project.
    According to minutes from a June 2014 workshop meeting, then Town Manager Kathleen Weiser said that the Friends of the Library planned to raise money to fund half of the enclosure project. She told the commission that it would have to budget the entire $150,000 in case the nonprofit organization was unable to raise enough money.
    Town officials say they have met with the Friends of the Library and it appears the organization does not have money for half the enclosures.
    Weitz said he and several of the other commissioners recently attended a Friends of the Library business meeting and learned the organization recently bought two paintings from Library Director Mari Suarez for $25,000, with Suarez donating $5,000 back to the Friends of the Library.
    The paintings, from Suarez’ personal collection, had been hanging in the library for several months, Weitz said, but the library director recently decided to take them down.
    “The board of the Friends of the Library independently made a decision to bring them back,” he said.
    In an April 10 letter to commissioners, the Friends of the Library pointed out the many contributions the organization has made to the library and reiterated support for the enclosures.
    “Comments made by the vice mayor at the Town Commission meeting of April 6 lead us to believe there is a lack of understanding of our mission to enhance the library and its offerings,” Co-President Marjorie Lanthier wrote on behalf of the organization’s board. “The main purpose of enclosing the terraces is to provide more meeting space for the community.”
    In an effort to resolve concerns listed in the letter as well as other issues, Town Commissioner Carl Feldman, Town Manager Beverly Brown and Torcivia are planning to meet soon with Friends of the Library representatives.

By Rich Pollack
    
    A Friday afternoon bike ride on State Road A1A turned into a tragedy when a car that veered off the roadway struck a Highland Beach couple.
    The couple, 70-year-old Patricia Goldstein and her husband, 75-year-old Howard Epstein, were riding their bicycles south on A1A toward their home in the Toscana condominium at about 12:30 in the afternoon on April 24 when a car driven by William Clever of Boca Raton weaved off the road and struck the couple.
    Goldstein, who along with Epstein was wearing a bicycle helmet, was knocked off her bicycle and thrown onto the hood of Clever’s 2014 Mazda before landing on the highway. She was rushed to Delray Medical Center in critical condition. Epstein, who was also struck, remained conscious and was taken to the hospital in serious condition.
    “They were riding off the roadway on the shoulder with helmets on and doing everything correctly,” said Highland Beach Police Chief Craig Hartmann. “This was a tragic accident that was due to no fault of their own.”
    The crash, in the 2900 block of South Ocean Boulevard, just south of the Delray Sands Resort, resulted in the road’s being closed for several hours.
    The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office’s traffic homicide investigation unit was called in because of the seriousness of the crash and is investigating the accident. Drugs or alcohol may be a factor and charges, if any, are pending additional information, according the Sheriff’s Office.
    Owners of a condo in Toscana since 2012, Goldstein and Epstein are both from New York, where according to published reports he was a dentist and she served as president of a real estate investment company. She also served as a trustee of the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C.
    Hartmann said the crash is the first serious accident on A1A since a pedestrian in his 20s was struck and seriously injured while crossing the highway five or six years ago.

A frangipani bloom at the Mounts Nursery.

Extracta green sage.

Tom Hewitt (left) speaks to customers at the Mounts Nursery.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

    Anyone who visits Mounts Botanical Garden in West Palm Beach is sure to appreciate the Louis Philippe roses in the rose garden, the fragrant herbs in the vegetable garden and the butterfly-attracting buddleia in the butterfly garden.
    If you’d like to add these to your own garden, you probably won’t find them at the usual garden stores.
    Instead, visit the southeast corner of the botanical garden itself. Find the chain link gate and if it’s a Monday or Thursday morning or the first Saturday of the month, it will be open.
    “It’s too bad but most people don’t even know we are here,” says Tom Hewitt, a volunteer who oversees this area called the Mounts Nursery.
    As you enter, you’ll find a quarter-acre where wire-topped tables hold small pots of well-labeled plants. As you browse, you’ll discover such rarities as Extracta sage and tropical hollyhock.
    And you’ll be introduced to new things such as sambung, a Southeast Asian plant with crisp green leaves you can eat in a salad. There’s popalo that looks like fennel but tastes like cilantro blessed with a touch of citrus. And then consider katuk with leaves that taste like fresh peas.
    “Anything that is in the botanical garden can be propagated and put on sale back here,” says Lois Mahoney, who had a hand in creating this nursery over a decade ago.
    A volunteer in training to become a master gardener, she was weeding the botanical garden one day when she came across an overgrown greenhouse.
    “There were palm trees coming out of your ears,” she says, remembering what she found. But that greenhouse also was full of weeds. “It was a mess.”
    Others told her not to bother with it but that didn’t stop her. “Before you knew it, people were bringing me plants and having me do clippings from the garden to grow here,” she says.
    That’s when she and Garden Director Allen Sistrunk along with about eight other people created the guild that today mans the nursery and does fundraising for the botanical garden. Last year the guild donated almost $40,000 to the garden.
    At age 82, Mahoney now tends the rose garden; master gardener Hewitt has taken over as guild coordinator. He still works with about a dozen volunteers who tend and propagate 200 varieties of mostly herb and butterfly plants so that they can be offered for sale or used to replenish the botanical garden.
    “As a botanical garden, we owe it to the public to offer plants they won’t find anywhere else,” Sistrunk says.
    That’s why in the nursery you’ll find rare and endangered Florida natives such as seashore ageratum that’s indigenous to the Keys and shrub thoroughwort. You also can purchase exotics that have adapted well to our hot, humid weather, including the tropical aster, tree dahlia and giant salvia.
    Children are welcome to bring paper cups to collect butterfly caterpillars that they can release at home. After all, if left in the nursery those caterpillars will eat many of the plants Hewitt is trying to propagate for sale, including fennel, milkweed and parsley.
    If you have questions, guild members are there to help. “We give the right information you need to grow things in South Florida. And we find many people come back just for our advice,” Hewitt says.

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

William Peppler flies north along Florida’s coastline above Delray Beach in a 1967 Piper Navajo.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Tao Woolfe

    William Peppler cannot move or speak. The 10-year-old spends most days surveying the world from his small, black wheelchair. But on this sunny Saturday afternoon, William’s wheelchair is back at the hangar. His view is limitless.
    The boy is in the noisy cabin of a 1967 Piper Navajo, flying north along Florida’s coastline, a ragged ribbon stretching below from Delray Beach to forever. William is weightless today, gazing through aviator shades at white sand beaches, cloud puffs, and an endless turquoise sea.
    “This program opens a huge window in his life,” says Galina Stepina, William’s great aunt and constant companion. “It is his favorite day of the year.”
    Galina is speaking of Vital Flight, a volunteer pilot organization that provides free flights to people with special medical needs. Once a year Vital Flight hosts “A Special Day for Special Kids” — a big party at the Boca Raton Airport for disabled children and their families.
    Throughout the day pilot volunteers take kids on 20-minute flights up the Palm Beach County coast while back at the hangar, parents and siblings eat free food, get tattooed, play in the bounce house, and interact with pirates, miniature ponies and other kids.
    “We help anybody with a special need for free — kids with a terminal illness who need to be transported, foster kids, wounded veterans — anybody facing special life challenges and who need a break on transportation costs,” says Michael Covello, a pilot and member of the group.
    On April 11, more than 20 Vital Flight pilots gave some 200 kids and family members rides from Boca Raton to Delray Beach in small planes, mostly Cessnas and Piper Navajos. They flew at about 1,500-2,200 feet, traveling about 155 mph.
    William Peppler’s pilot, Remy Dulay, has been flying for 14 years. This is the third year he’s flown children and families for Vital Flights.
    Dulay enjoys showing the kids South Florida from a pilot’s point of view, but the kids, in turn, also deepen Dulay’s perspective.
    “We think we have problems, but when you see these kids and their families, you realize how much you take for granted,” he says.
    Three volunteers helped lift William from his wheelchair and secure him in the plane.
    The Boca Raton resident has had cerebral palsy since birth. He cannot walk or sit up straight. A travel pillow keeps his head from drooping.  His eyes, however, take in everything, his aunt says.
    “I believe William is an angel who was put on Earth to make us better people,” says Stepina, who left her home in Moscow to care for William. “Today, even with his broken wings, he is flying.”

About Vital Flight
    For more than 25 years, pilot organizations throughout the United States have provided humanitarian air transportation. Most of these organizations, including Vital Flight, belong to the national Air Care Alliance, an umbrella organization dedicated to providing flights for those with special needs.
    On the local level, Vital Flight coordinates air transportation for many groups, including disabled children, wounded military veterans, cancer patients, and emergency responders to natural disasters.
    For every dollar donated, Vital Flight provides $4 in services to those in need.
    To make a donation, see vitalflight.org.

By Sallie James

    Smokers who “vape” on electronic cigarettes will have to follow the same smoking rules as regular cigarette smokers, Boca Raton City Council members agreed on April 28.
    What that means is this: Wherever indoor cigarette smoking is prohibited in this city, so is vaping.
    City officials voted 4-1 to approve an ordinance that places the same restrictions on e-cigarette use that the city has already placed on regular cigarette smoking, linking the action to the Florida Indoor Clean Air Act.
    “This ordinance protects the public health, individual rights and protects small businesses and entrepreneurs,” said Councilman Scott Singer.
    Councilman Robert Weinroth voted “no,” after proposing a failed amendment that would have confined the restrictions to indoor municipal properties.
    Nothing in the ordinance prohibits outdoor use of e-cigarettes or in a private residence.
    The vote to approve did not sit well with some.
    Lake Worth resident Larry Torick, who works in Boca Raton and has relied on e-cigarette usage to help him quit 17 years of smoking, said he is worried he can no longer vape at his desk in his private office.
    “I think they are rushing to judgment. I believe they don’t know all the science,” Torick said.
    Boca Raton resident April Davis said the action takes away the public’s right to choose.
    “They are tagging this to the Florida Indoor Clean Act, which doesn’t refer to e-cigarettes. The Florida Legislature is going to regulate this at some point. I think we need to wait and let the Legislature do their job.”
    The city’s intent is to protect the public from any potential health hazards associated with exposure to secondhand e-cigarette aerosol or vapor while preserving the rights of e-cigarette users and business owners in the same manner as users of tobacco cigarettes and business owners who sell them, according to the ordinance.
    Singer, who proposed the ordinance, said city officials reviewed 70 pages of research on the issue, including several public health reports.
    He called the new ordinance “very different” from another vaping ordinance the city considered in February that would have “vastly over-regulated” the issue. That ordinance was tabled.
    Under the new ordinance, e-cigarette usage is allowed within any retail e-cigarette shop in the city or any enclosed indoor workplace in the city where tobacco smoking is permitted under the Florida Clean Indoor Air Act.
    Violation of the ordinance is punishable by a fine up to $500.

By Tim Pallesen

    The Florida Legislature has taken “an important first step” to regulate the sober homes for recovering addicts that cause concerns in Delray Beach, Boca Raton and other coastal communities.
    The new state law awaiting the governor’s signature offers sober homes a voluntary certification with the state. Drug and alcohol treatment centers could only refer patients to certified sober homes.
    Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein said the new state law will help reduce the number of sober homes by “eliminating the bad operators with little regard to the people in their homes or the communities in which these homes coexist.”
    Communities don’t even know now how many sober homes are operating in their cities. “Hopefully, the law will help us get a handle on how many of these sober homes there are,” state Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, said. “Right now it’s just a guess.”
    Federal housing laws protect recovering addicts from discrimination, leaving cities and states no regulatory powers over sober homes. Unlike other businesses, sober homes can operate in residential neighborhoods.
    “While the Florida legislation is a good first step, we need help from our federal lawmakers in changing antiquated laws and rules to provide cities authority to rebalance the rights and reasonable expectations of its residents,” Glickstein said.
    Clemens and state Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, who sponsored the legislation in the House, both agreed that the state law is just a start.
    The state Department of Children and Families will select groups to certify sober homes based on issues that include the concerns of neighbors. The Florida Association of Recovery Residences, based in Boca Raton, hopes to be designated as a certifying organization.
The new law, if signed by Gov. Rick Scott, will take effect in July 2016

INSET BELOW: Bernd Schulte

   OCEAN RIDGE — After a long battle with pancreatic cancer, Bernd Anton Schulte died peacefully at his home in Ocean Ridge on April 15. Mr. Schulte was born on Aug. 28, 1942, to German parents residing in Sofia, Bulgaria, joining a growing family that would eventually total five children.
    At a young age he and his family immigrated to Manhasset and Brookville, N.Y., where he graduated from Jericho High School.
    On one of several road trips the family visited the American West, where a teenage Bernd fell in love with Montana. Summer jobs as a young wrangler in Montana turned into college in Missoula, and a lifelong commitment to the University of Montana, the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and the Montana Grizzlies.
    After graduation in 1965, Mr. Schulte started his distinguished business career with W.R. Grace & Co. in New York City, beginning as an intern and culminating as head of business development.
    Shortly after joining Grace, Mr. Schulte served with the U.S. Army in Vietnam from 1966 to ’68. Upon his return, he continued his lifelong career with Grace, which took him to the restaurant operations of Far West Services in Newport Beach, Calif., for 17 years, then back to Grace corporate headquarters in New York, and ultimately, as part of the Grace headquarters relocation in 1991, to Boca Raton. There he retired in 1999 as a corporate vice president and executive responsible for the general development group. During more than three decades he excelled in the business of finance, traveling the world to identify business opportunities and executing the multibillion-dollar merger and acquisition strategy for this global Fortune 50 conglomerate. He was also instrumental in implementing Grace’s divestment program and was a confidant to corporate executive management.
    In retirement, he became an avid golfer, redoubled his commitment to the University of Montana Alumnae Association and Greek Task Force, coordinated the activities of Grace’s Florida Alumni Association, and immersed himself in Ocean Ridge’s government, serving his community for several years as a town commissioner and vice mayor. He also actively participated with the Washington, D.C.-based Defense Orientation Conference Association, joining members on many of their trips around the world to U.S. military installations.
    Mr. Schulte’s every involvement produced profound, long-lasting friendships that blessed him throughout his life. Recognizing the importance of so many people in his life, his family is deeply appreciative of the immeasurable outpouring of kindness shown to them by his many friends and former colleagues.
    He leaves behind his wife, the former Marie-Christine Noel, and son Peter. He was preceded in death by his brother, Uve Hublitz, and sister, Antje Fong, and leaves behind sisters Doris Wetzel and Karin Barnaby in New York, and sister-in-law Beatrice Noel in Miami.
    Mr. Schulte will be interred at the Boca Raton Mausoleum following a private service. In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution to Trust Bridge, or Hospice of Palm Beach Foundation, at 5300 East Ave., West Palm Beach, FL 33407.
— Obituary submitted by the family

By Steven J. Smith

    BOCA RATON — Although some people might consider themselves “Jacks of all trades,” Chuck Barnes proved he was a master of many.
    Born in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Nov. 18, 1938, Mr. Barnes achieved youthful fame as a track star at Sexton High School in Lansing, Mich., breaking the city record and ranking second in the state in the half-mile, according to his wife, Cris.
    “It was quite a competition between him and the fellow who ultimately won that track meet,” she said. “It was an experience that stayed with him all his life. Chuck was stretching on the grass before the race and the guy came up to him, stood over him and said, ‘Barnes, you’re my biggest problem here, but at the same time you’re my biggest impetus. Because I know you’re going to give me that last push I need to win.’ He had a way of succeeding while pushing others to success as well.”
    Success followed Mr. Barnes through his college years and into business. The first of his family to earn a degree, he graduated from Michigan State University in 1960 with a bachelor’s of science degree. He became a civil engineer and found a prolific career in the construction industry as a general contractor and eventual president of the construction firm Foster, Schermerhorn and Barnes.
    “He was chief estimator for that company,” Mrs. Barnes said. “That was his preference. It was a large company of about 200 employees.”
    She said Mr. Barnes developed exceptional skills at corporate law over the years, even though he never formally studied to be an attorney.
    “This knowledge was instrumental in dealing with several lawsuits he was involved in,” she said. “He became very knowledgeable in this area and it helped him win those cases. There were also cases in which he actually assisted attorneys and they recommended that he become a litigator for corporate law in his retirement.”
    A lover of nature and an enthusiast of science, Mr. Barnes had a curious mind about the world and the universe.
    “Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking were his favorite scientists,” Mrs. Barnes said. “He was profoundly into the study of space and the cosmos.”
    He was also a big sports fan, she added, having owned and managed a recreational baseball team at one point, and became a top racquetball player in Michigan.
    After retiring to Boca Raton in the late ’70s, he became a passionate follower of the Miami Heat and the Miami Dolphins, though he continued to follow his college team, as well.
    “The night before he died he was watching the Final Four,” Mrs. Barnes said. “He was thrilled that Michigan State had gotten in.”
    He was also a fine card player and cribbage expert, she said.
    “He used to play cribbage at the construction company during lunch hours,” she said. “He honed his talent and when he came to Florida he joined the Moose Lodge in [West] Palm Beach. He competed in tournaments sanctioned by the American Cribbage Congress all around the country and actually became a national champion in 2010.”
    Mr. Barnes died in Boca Raton on April 12 due to complications from a urinary tract infection. He is survived by his wife, his mother, two brothers, a sister, four children, nine grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
    A memorial service was held at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton on April 15. A separate service will be held at a later date in Michigan for family and friends from the Midwest.
    In lieu of flowers memorial gifts can be directed to St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, 100 NE Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton, FL 33429 or the National Audubon Society (audubon.org).
    “He’ll be remembered for his heart and his wit,” Mrs. Barnes said. “He was a good man, there for anyone who needed to talk to him. He was fair, very nonjudgmental. If you came to him, he had words of consolation and strength. He was our rock. He was our go-to person. A real patriarch, in every sense of the word. We’re going to miss him terribly.”

By Steven J. Smith

    BOCA RATON — If ever one could represent the epitome of a mover and a shaker — someone who overcame adversity and prevailed against all odds — it would have to be Joan Daly.
    Mrs. Daly, 94, died at her home in Boca Raton on April 10.
    She was a native of New York City who, with her husband Robert (deceased 1996), moved to Scarsdale, N.Y., in the 1950s to raise their family.
    Adversity soon set in when her daughter Patricia was brain-injured, according to her other daughter, Susan Daly. Susan Daly said her mother was moved immediately to spearhead an initiative to see that Patricia got every opportunity to live a normal life.
    “She began a pilot program in Pelham, N.Y.,” she said. “Pelham Public Schools gave her a basement room, which was staffed by three doctors who had about 10 children that they felt were able to be educated, to function outside of an institution. They named it after our house in Scarsdale, which was called Starpoint.”
    When the family moved to Boca Raton in the early 1970s, Mrs. Daly created an independent real estate firm called Daly Realty, which she ran successfully for over 25 years.
    But her daughter said the business always ran second to the needs of Patricia and those like her.
    “My mother’s major interest was always getting public school education done for children who were brain-injured or handicapped,” her daughter said. “At the time my sister Patricia was born, there was no such thing. So she founded the Habilitation Center for the Handicapped in Boca Raton. She got the land donated from the city, did fundraisers, built the buildings and got it all started so that the kids would have someplace to go and work.”
    The success of the Habilitation Center, incorporated in 1978, led to the formation of other facilities and causes Mrs. Daly inspired or played a significant role in, such as the Nazareth Homes for the Handicapped, Harbour East House and the Shamrock Society. She even found time to serve on Boca Raton city advisory boards, which she used as a platform to further the causes of the handicapped.
    Bill Muir, whose son John has cerebral palsy, autism and quadriplegia, said Mrs. Daly was one of a kind.
    “I have known some very brave people over the course of a lifetime,” Muir said. “My C.O. in the Marines was decorated as a kid on Saipan. Our sergeant got the Silver Star at the Yalu River. In the old neighborhood, the local bartender’s kid died winning the Medal of Honor in Vietnam. But pound for pound, nobody I know has got more guts than sweet and demure Joan Daly.”
    Muir said Mrs. Daly battled for special needs people and programs for well over 50 years.
    “You can sum up her accomplishments in a brief paragraph,” he said. “But it does not do justice to her years and years of advocating, litigating, fundraising, defending and never, ever quitting. Joan was unique. She was a lioness. She fought for people who could not fight their own fights. She was a petite lady, but when she was riled up, you were dealing with a fistful of razorblades.”
    Susan Daly said she would remember her mother as an extraordinary, beautiful and dynamic woman.
    “She was always, always out there trying to do the best for everybody,” she said. “She would not take no for an answer. That’s how she accomplished all she did. I think there are extraordinary people that come to this Earth. They are given struggles, but they do something about it. My mother was one of them. She was able to create solutions to a situation that most people would probably give up on.”
    She is survived by her three children, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. The Daly family has requested that in lieu of flowers, expres-sions of sympathy be made to the Habilitation Center for the Handicapped, 22313 Boca Rio Road, Boca Raton, FL 33433.

Yoga helps keep folks moving, despite injuries, growing old

Murray Rubin (front) and others take a chair yoga class taught by Stephanie Streff at Yoga Sol in Delray Beach.

Rubin says he noticed a difference in his back pain after only one class.  
Streff works with Rachel Neuswanger, who says yoga ‘has kept me out of a wheelchair.’
 
Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Lona O’Connor

    Back when he was a pharmacist, standing on his feet all day, Murray Rubin had such back pain that he sometimes had to lie on the floor to get any relief. More recently, the old pain flared up and his orthopedist advised him to go to a neurologist.
    “I had a tremendous amount of back pain. It was bone against bone,” said Rubin, 81, of Delray Beach. “I could barely get out of bed. The next thing for me was surgery.” He didn’t need to keep that appointment. His granddaughter urged him to try yoga. He’s smiling and his doctor is scratching his head, mystified but pleased. “He said he never would have sent me to a yoga class, but to keep on doing whatever I’m doing,” said Rubin.
    What he is doing is two yoga classes, both aimed at relieving pain, loosening joints and addressing other ailments brought on by time and injuries. Yoga Sol, in Delray Beach, offers a range of classes for students of all types, from athletic to elderly. The two classes Rubin takes are called “Ageless” and “Gentle Chair.”
    “I felt relief from the first class,” said Rubin.

Yoga students use pillows and other props to master poses and improve posture.

Abe Sokol, 93, and Murray Rubin, 81, do gentle chair yoga. Sokol says the class has helped his golf game.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    The classes are led by Stephanie Streff, who has been trained in the Iyengar method of yoga, which is known for at least two features that might assist someone with physical limitations: a painstaking attention to correcting posture problems, and the use of wooden blocks, straps, blankets and, yes, chairs, to allow almost anybody to manage the basic yoga poses.
    B.K.S. Iyengar, who began yoga as a sickly child in India, practiced and taught into old age. He died in 2014 at the age of 95.
    True to her Iyengar training, Streff circles the room, adjusting the position of each student’s arms or feet until she is satisfied that they are in alignment.
    She asks students if they are feeling pain or discomfort. Nothing seems to escape her scrutiny. She adds a blanket under Rubin’s feet.
    “She gives excellent instruction, and she individualizes the program,” said Rubin. “But she also makes it fun.” “Best ever,” Streff tells Rubin, giving him a high-five after he completes a pose.
    He beams.
    Also in the chair class are Abe Sokol, 93, of Delray Beach, who says that yoga has helped his golf game, and his neighbor Elaine Grosoff, who fits yoga in with her tai chi classes, volunteering and mahjong games.
    Rachel Neuswanger of Boynton Beach, who uses a cane to walk, practices yoga in class to help with a curvature of the spine, arthritis and a childhood injury. She also practices at home every day.
    “It has kept me out of a wheelchair,” said Neuswanger, who brought a snowbird friend to class. There are hundreds of yoga poses, many of which can be adapted to aging or injured bodies. “We don’t work slower, we work smaller,” said Streff.
    “We break up the poses into bits and pieces. And I try to add something new every time. It’s about feeling successful."

    For information, call Yoga Sol at 272-8699 or visit yogasol.com.
    Ageless yoga classes are also offered at Pura Vida Yoga in Boca Raton. Call 322-5711 or visit puravidayogaboca.com.

Delray Beach lawyer Mindy Farber, with rescue dogs Cara, Nicky and Abbey,

advocates for nonprofits, veterans, women, minorities and homeless pets.

Photo provided

By Arden Moore

    There are people who champion the cause for pets by fostering rescues, volunteering in animal shelters, organizing pet events and bringing their well-mannered therapy pets into nursing homes and schools.
    I applaud the contributions made by all of these people. And, I admire a special breed of pet advocate: the legal beagles. These people are committed to working with local, state and national lawmakers to make this a better planet for cats, dogs and other companion animals.
    In Delray Beach, there is a very active legal beagle: attorney Mindy Farber. In practice for more than three decades, she specializes in civil rights law for nonprofits, veterans, women, minorities and homeless pets.
    She splits her time between residences in Delray Beach and Maryland with her husband and their three well-traveled rescue dogs: Cara, Nicky and Abbey. She serves on the board for the nonprofit Pet Connect Rescue (petconnectrescue.org) in Potomac, Md.
    Farber worked with state legislators in Maryland to pass a bill recently that prohibits the sale of animals in pet stores. She is currently working with the state’s House Judiciary committee to get a bill passed that would require people found guilty of animal cruelty to not only serve time in prison but also pay restitution toward the financing of any bills related to injuring or killing animals.
    Locally, she is hard at work on finding a solution to address homeless, abandoned animals found on the streets of Delray Beach. Two days after Christmas, she was shopping in downtown Delray Beach when she came across a very weak, mange-filled, little red dog.
    “When I found this dog, I called the city immediately and said, ‘Help! There is a dog who is struggling here, just lying on the street,’” recalls Farber. “This dog was dying and I was frantic to find a way to get her medical attention, but was told that the city of Delray Beach does not have an animal control officer and was told to call the county. Well, I tried, but the phone kept ringing busy.”
    During this time, Farber called out to passersby for help but to no avail.
    “This dog had ooze pouring out of her ears and eyes,” she says. “While my husband took our three dogs home, I called out to everyone for assistance — bikers, drivers, joggers, walkers and people with baby carriages. But all averted their eyes.”
    Fortunately, members of Dezzy’s Second Chance Rescue were nearby setting up their booth for rescued dogs to be adopted. One member assisted Farber by placing the sick dog in a van and taking it to a veterinary clinic where the dog received life-saving treatment. The dog has not yet been adopted. The plight of this dog has motivated Farber to lobby with the Delray Beach City Commission. She wants to find a way to allow a nonprofit animal organization to have use of the vacant animal shelter building for a yearly rent of $1.
    Farber, who has lived in Delray Beach for a decade, is quick to say she is not critical of the city. “I’m looking for a way that a nonprofit animal group can do a much-needed government service that the government currently cannot provide,” she says.
    I reached out to city officials regarding Farber’s proposal. Commissioner Mitch Katz explained that the city is doing a complete inventory of all city-owned buildings, including those that are vacant.
    “We will not be making a decision on any building until the analysis is done, which should be within a month or so,” says Katz, adding that he wants more information on how such an arrangement between the city and a nonprofit group would be set up.
    In an email reply, Vice Mayor Shelly Petrolia wrote, “I would be in support of the city offering a building to temporarily shelter animals by a nonprofit … as long as it received a majority commission vote. I would only agree to consider something like this following an inventory and evaluation of all properties owned by the city, which is currently in the process.”
    In the meantime, Farber is maintaining her advocacy efforts for companion animals in need, both here and in Maryland.
    “As a lawyer, I’ve worked hard for many years and never took very many vacations,” she says. “I am blessed in many ways and now I want to give back and to use my legal skills to advance issues, like helping homeless animals.”
    She is definitely my kind of legal beagle.

Arden Moore, founder of 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 PetLifeRadio.com. Learn more by visiting fourleggedlife.com.

Win an Arden book!

    Got a pet? In celebration of the release of my newest pet books, I am giving away a personalized, autographed copy of Fit Cat and Fit Dog to a couple of readers of The Coastal Star. How? Easy. Simply email me (Arden@fourleggedlife.com) and tell me, in 100 words or fewer, how your dog or your cat has made your life better. And, if you like, attach a photo. We will pick a cat and a dog winner and share the results in the June issue.