Teen anglers (from left) Chase Eagleton, Will Lightle and Conner Eagleton of Lake Worth show three dolphin

they brought to the scales April 11 during the 10th annual Boynton Beach Firefighters Fishing Tournament.

One of them, a 20.9-pounder, won second place in the dolphin category for the EMS 1 team led by Craig Lightle.

Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

Boating safety experts recommend that all boaters wear life jackets,

such as the comfortable suspender-type inflatable modeled above,

at all times when they’re on the water.
Courtesy of Pat Ford

By Willie Howard

    May is the month that on-the-water law enforcement agencies, including the Coast Guard and its auxiliary volunteers, make extra efforts to promote boating safety.
    National Safe Boating Week (May 16-22 this year) was created by the National Safe Boating Council to raise awareness about boating and water safety as warm weather, generally calmer seas and the end of the school year entice more boaters to the water.
    Boating on the Atlantic Ocean can lead to serious problems for those who are not prepared or are unfamiliar with their boats.
The fatal boating accident off Delray Beach last summer is an example.
    A 25-foot Mako boat capsized about three miles off Atlantic Avenue as an afternoon storm was brewing on July 27, killing an 82-year-old Lantana man.
    The boat had been purchased the day before by a friend of the operator and was filling with water brought in by the bait well system before it went belly up, according to a report by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.
    Alexandre Lopes of Boynton Beach was running the boat powered by twin outboards on a fishing trip with friends.
    As winds from an afternoon storm kicked up waves, the stern began to fill with water. When Lopes noticed the water, he started the engines and drove the boat in circles.
    He stopped and tried to bail out the boat with a scoop made from a 2-liter bottle, but water kept filling the boat. Attempts to restart the engines failed. When the men realized the boat was going down, they called 911.
    Not long after the call, the boat capsized.
    Another boater, Brian Sachman, stopped to help. Two Delray Beach Ocean Rescue lifeguards used personal watercraft to reach the overturned boat from the beach.
    Ocean Rescue lifeguard Justin Walton pulled Supelcio Luna Espinal, 82, of Lantana from under the capsized boat, the FWC report said.
    Luna Espinal was wearing two life jackets but was not breathing and had no pulse, the report said.
    All three men were loaded onto Sachman’s boat, where Walton tried to revive Luna Espinal.
    Firefighters with Delray Beach Fire Rescue, who were waiting at the beach, took Luna Espinal to Bethesda Hospital East, where he was pronounced dead.
    Lopes and the other occupant, Nelson Luna Berroa of Lantana, refused treatment at the hospital.
    FWC investigators who studied the boat following the accident said the bait well system was filling the boat with water, but the bilge pump switch was not working.
                                          ***
    During National Safe Boating Week, the Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 54, which serves Boynton Beach and Delray Beach, will offer free boat safety equipment checks on the mornings of May 16 and May 23 at public boat ramps in Lantana, Boynton Beach and Delray Beach.
    The exams will be offered from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. both Saturdays at Sportsman’s Park in Lantana, Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park in Boynton Beach and Knowles Park in Delray Beach.
    Flotilla 54 Commander Valerie Pleasanton said the Coast Guard Auxiliary will set up an information table at Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park on both Saturdays to answer questions and hand out materials promoting safe boating.
    Pleasanton said the flotilla plans to ask city officials for permission to paint a “Wear It” logo promoting life jacket use on the pavement near the launch ramps in Lantana, Boynton Beach and Delray Beach.
    Flotilla 54 also will hold a basic boating safety class in the classroom building next to the Boynton Beach boat ramps on May 23. The class runs from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m., and the fee is $40. For details, call Ron Cuneo at 389-1850.
    For more information about National Safe Boating Week, go to safeboatingcampaign.com.
                                          ***
    The International Game Fish Association recently moved its Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum from its Dania Beach headquarters to a new wildlife museum and aquarium in Springfield, Mo.
    The museum will be operated by the Johnny Morris Foundation. Morris is the founder of Bass Pro Shops.
    “The opportunity provided by longtime IGFA friend and supporter Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops to showcase our Hall of Fame and collections in his new museum and aquarium will allow us to dramatically increase our exposure to the public,” IGFA President Rob Kramer said.
    IGFA’s headquarters, along with the E.K. Harry Library of Fishes, will remain at the Dania Beach headquarters.
The IGFA’s School of Sportfishing is expected to resume classes for anglers in the fall. Look for classes in the future at igfa.org.
                                          ***
    Angler Biff Barus won heaviest overall fish in the 10th annual Boynton Beach Firefighters Fishing Tournament & Firehouse Chili Cookoff held April 11 at Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park.
    Barus was fishing with Capt. Mike Risely and several other anglers on the Clean Slate. Mate Kevin Hemsher said the big kingfish was caught on a live blue runner in relatively shallow water north of Boynton Inlet.
    EMS 1 Captain Craig Lightle said three teen anglers on the boat — Chase Eagleton, Will Lightle and Conner Eagleton — caught three nice dolphin on ballyhoo trolled behind Ilander lures along a color change 15 miles offshore. One of the dolphin weighed 20.9 pounds and placed second-heaviest in the dolphin category.
    The My Office team won top dolphin, at 23 pounds. The Greenacres Fire Department team won the wahoo category with a 22-pound ’hoo.
                                          ***

Joe Schultz of Delray Beach (right) caught this 52-pound dolphin using a trolled ballyhoo in 220 feet off Boynton Inlet while fishing with Austin Burkett of Boca Raton (left) and Jim Ankney of Delray Beach. Schultz fought the dolphin for 35 minutes. Courtesy of Austin Burkett

   The spring dolphin fishing season arrived in early April for angler Joe Schultz of Delray Beach, who caught a 52-pound mahi mahi off Boynton Inlet the morning of April 8 after a 35-minute fight.
    Schultz was fishing on his boat, My Office, with friends Austin Burkett of Boca Raton and Jim Ankney of Delray Beach. They were trolling in 220 feet off Boynton Inlet around 7:15 a.m. when the big dolphin hit a single-hook ballyhoo rigged with monofilament leader and started leaping from the water.
    After a long fight during which the fish stayed deep, the three anglers put the big dolphin in the boat. It measured 52 inches to the fork of the tail.
    Three days later, the My Office team won top dolphin in the Boynton Beach Firefighters Fishing Tournament with a 23-pound mahi mahi.
                                          
Upcoming offshore tournaments:
    May 2-3: Lantana Fishing Derby: Lantanafishingderby.com
    May 9: Grand Slam KDW Tournament: fishgrandslamkdw.com
    May 16: Boynton Beach Kiwanis Offshore Fishing Tournament, boyntonbeachkiwanis.org.
    May 30: Palm Beach County KDW Classic: kdwclassic.com
    May 30: Sail Inn Tavern KDW tournament, sailinnkdw.com.
    June 27: Lake Worth Fishing Tournament: lakeworthfishingtournament.com.
    July 12: Big Dog, Fat Cat: bigdogfatcat.org.
                                          
Tip of the month:
    May is considered one of the best months to catch kingfish, dolphin (mahi mahi) and wahoo off the coast of Palm Beach County. That’s why there are so many “KDW” fishing tournaments during the spring and early summer.
    Trolling ballyhoo will produce all three species if wire leaders are used to prevent leader cuts by toothy kingfish and wahoo. Trolling also allows anglers to cover a lot of water, but smart anglers will focus their trolling on drop-offs, color changes and weed lines (lines of tan-colored, floating Sargassum). Experienced dolphin anglers keep a rigged spinning rod or two ready to catch fish that might follow a hooked dolphin to the boat.
    If you grow tired of trolling, drift with dead sardines on triple hooks (or live sardines on live-bait hooks) in 90-140 feet. Use weights to get some baits down below the surface while drifting others near the surface.
    Drifting saves fuel and can produce tasty bottom fish such as mutton and yellowtail snapper in addition to kingfish (and possibly dolphin or wahoo).

Willie Howard is a freelance writer and licensed boat captain. Reach him at tiowillie@bellsouth.net.

St. Vincent Ferrer would double the size of its school (top right) and add a new portico to the church sanctuary (bottom right). Rendering provided

By Tim Pallesen

    St. Vincent Ferrer Church is asking the 2,800 families in its parish for $6.5 million to double the size of its growing Catholic school.
    Monsignor Thomas Skindeleski describes the fundraising campaign as “an exciting opportunity to build upon our wonderful heritage and expand our mission” because of the growth that both the parish and the school have enjoyed in recent years.
    “This is both a challenge and a hidden blessing for us, as it will enable future generations to enjoy what has been handed to us,” he said.
    Enrollment in the pre-K to eighth-grade school has increased from 265 students before four temporary modular classrooms were added in 2013 to 340 students this year. Some students might be turned away when enrollment reaches the school capacity of 360 students next year.
    The “Living Our Faith, Building Our Future” campaign includes $5.6 million to construct a 23,000-square-foot building equal in size to the existing school, which will be renovated.
    An additional $900,000 is included to build a portico entrance and narthex for the church sanctuary.

INSET BELOW: Rabbi Josh Broide
                                          
    A Boca Raton rabbi has been honored by making the 2015 list of America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis.
    Rabbi Josh Broide, the new Jewish Federation community engagement director, was one of 33 on the list of rabbis “who move us” announced by the national Jewish Daily Forward newspaper.
    “Rabbi Broide is truly a gift to our community,” said Larry Feldman, who chairs the federation’s marketing committee.
    “He has an amazing ability to connect with people and he’s never met a stranger. His brilliant smile, vibrant energy, positive attitude and joy in his heart are truly contagious.”
    Broide was nominated for the honor by Judith Klau, an 80-year-old volunteer at Florida Atlantic University who wandered into Hillel lounge to ask him where she could find a Passover seder. “I met the Energizer Bunny of rabbis,” Klau said.
    Broide has been in Boca Raton since 2000. when he was hired to be youth director at the Boca Raton Synagogue. He later became its outreach director. He became the federation’s first community engagement director last year.
    “Rabbi Broide is renowned throughout our South County community for his dedicated, vibrant, innovative work to personally connect with Jewish residents of all ages,” federation CEO and President Matthew Levin said.
    Broide downplayed the personal honor.
    “This is a recognition that our community is headed in the right direction, that we’re succeeding in finding what they’re looking for — a place for every Jew to learn, to grow, to connect, to feel at home,” he said.
    “When I see people who have been so unconnected to Jewish life and community get so on fire, I just get energized to do more and more.”

INSET BELOW: Shawn Berry
                                          
    Unity of Delray Beach has hired a well-known music leader as its new director of music.
    Shawn Berry is co-founder and artistic director of the Young Singers of the Palm Beaches, which features 350 singers ages 8 to 18 performing at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts twice each year.
    He also is the arts and cultural education manager for the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. He previously served as pianist at the United Methodist Church of the Palm Beaches for 25 years.
    “Shawn not only brings with him a wide range of musical talent, but also a joyous spirit,” Unity associate minister Laurie Durgan said. “He is deeply committed to using his gifts to create an atmosphere of sacredness and worship.”

INSET BELOW: Rabbi Efrem Goldberg

                                          
    The Guinness Book of World Records has recognized the Boca Raton Synagogue for the world’s largest Jewish prayer shawl.
The massive 1,472-square-foot prayer shawl, known as a tallit, was created in 2012 for all children under bar- and bat-mitzvah age to receive a special blessing on the holiday of Simhat Torah.
    Parents and grandparents added names of children who are able to look up under the shawl to see their names during the blessing.
    “We are blessed to have close to a thousand children in the synagogue, which necessitated a tallit of this size,” Rabbi Efrem Goldberg said. “While we are proud of the record, we hope to break it ourselves because we will need a bigger one to fit even more children.”

INSET BELOW: KristenMurtaugh

                                        
    St. Paul’s Episcopal Church has increased its salary offer as it renews its search for a new rector.
    A search last year didn’t produce a candidate who the search committee felt could lead St. Paul’s as its neighborhood on South Swinton Avenue in Delray Beach becomes gentrified with redevelopment.
    “The neighborhood has been changing very fast now,” search committee vice chairman Kristen Murtaugh said. “We’re looking for someone excited by change who can help us envision what our role is going to be.”
    The committee updated that need for help in its community ministry profile sent to candidates. Applications are due May 15.
“There’s a little more money, too,” said Murtaugh. Officials would not say how much.

Tim Pallesen writes about faiths, their congregations, causes and community events. Email at tcpallesen@aol.com.

PGA Professional Golf Pro Tommi Ylijoki, pictured front, watches as another golfer putts one

Saturday afternoon at Delray Beach Municipal Golf Course. Originally from Helsinki, Finland,

Ylijoki has been playing golf in the South Florida area for 25 years.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Steve Pike

    Let’s deal with the name first. It’s Tommi Ylijoki, a good Finnish moniker and the name of the new head golf professional at Delray Beach Golf Club. Born in Helsinki and raised in West Palm Beach, Ylijoki, in a roundabout way, is back home.
    His first golf experiences were riding on his father’s shoulders at the Palm Beach Par 3 and later advancing through the area’s junior programs that included rising PGA Tour star Brooks Koepka of Wellington.
    “This was really where I want to be,’’ Ylijoki said. “I wanted to go someplace I could make a direct impact. I played here and the (Palm Beach) Par 3 and Okeeheelee when I was growing up. This is the flagship course for JCD. It’s been here since 1923 and is a really popular place. It’s not as seasonal as other courses in the area.’’
    Ylijoki played on the golf team at Forest Hill High School, turned down golf scholarships from several local small colleges and followed his two sisters to the University of Florida.
    “Education was very important to me,’’ said Ylijoki, who earned a degree in history. “I knew I could always come back to golf.’’
    Following his 2007 graduation from UF, Ylijoki stayed in Gainesville — where he was assistant professional at Haile Plantation Golf & Country Club — before he got a higher call to duty. That was mandatory service in the Finnish military, where Ylijoki served 14 months in the navy and rose to the rank of corporal in the military police.
    Ylijoki indeed returned to golf (and Gainesville) at Haile Plantation as “first assistant professional” from August 2009 to July 2012 before heading back to South Florida, which he quickly learned is the land of a thousand unemployed golf professionals.
    “I had a difficult job finding a job,’’ he said. “I applied to something like 40 courses and after not hearing anything back, finally got started (as assistant professional) at the West Palm Beach Golf Course.’’
    Ylijoki stayed at West Palm Beach GC, also managed by JCD Sports Group of Delray Beach, for 13 months before getting the head professional job at Orangebrook Golf & Country Club, another JCD-managed facility, in October 2013.
He made the move to Delray Beach Golf Club this past March.
    Ylijoki brings the best of each world — golf club management and military-trained organization skills — to the Donald Ross-designed course.
    “Everything in the military is done based on organization,’’ Ylijoki said. “The reason it’s done that way is because it works. It’s the most efficient way to get things done. I’m not saying running a golf course is the same as the military, but it definitely gives you leadership qualities.
    “Basically my role here is to be the professional manager. A lot of courses are going that way today. You really have to wear a bunch of different hats. But it’s not about me being here — it’s about what we can provide the customers. I look at customer service and presentation — a place that’s organized and clean and a place where people want to go. A lot of it is price-driven, but this facility has very much a club feel. People like to come here and hang out. That’s what makes it fun.’’

The Colon Crawl at “Ewww! What’s Eating You” at the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium.

Photo provided

By Janis Fontaine

    The South Florida Science Center and Aquarium’s newest exhibit is “Eww! What’s Eating You?” a 5,000-square-foot carnival sideshow of parasites — from blood-thirsty lice and leeches to opportunistic consumers like hookworms and tapeworms.
You’ll see live and preserved specimens of human-loving organisms and insects, as well as video of infestations.
    “It’s really fun, and very interactive,” said SFSC’s chief operating officer, Kate Arrizza. “Summer exhibits are really our bread-and-butter. It’s too hot outside to play so we always offer some great indoor options. One of our mottoes is ‘The brain learns what the hands touch,’ so we encourage touching, and we try to get really durable exhibits that are made to last.”
    Arrizza, who grew up in Jupiter, volunteered at the SFSC when she was in high school in the late ’90s. “It really sparked my love of science,” she said. Arrizza earned a bachelor of science degree from the United States Naval Academy and a master’s degree from John Hopkins University before returning to South Florida to be near her family.
    Now a mother of two, she’s reaping the benefits of her volunteer hours as one of the SFSC’s decision-makers, and her children, Cecilia, 4, and Cole, 2, “practically live at the Science Center.”
    “Eww!” is designed like a carnival, and the person inviting in the kids is the exhibit’s virtual guide, the suitably creepy comic Carrot Top. As you move through the attractions, Carrot Top in a top hat describes what you’re about to see or do. This gives you ample time to opt out of a presentation that’s too “eww” for you. And everyone seems to have a different idea of what “eww” is.
    Arrizza said, “Here’s what is really ‘eww’ to me: We have tapeworms on display and there’s a video of doctors pulling a worm out of someone’s foot.”
    Some of the exhibits are informational: Spin the Wheel of Misfortune and see how likely you are to get infected by a parasite. Others get a little graphic: Roll around in the Colon Crawl, a tubular structure that features video of a magnified colonoscopy in which ascaris roundworm is discovered.
    “I’m looking forward to the head lice display,” Arrizza said. “There are huge hairs you walk through where you encounter head lice that are trying to attach to a hair. And there’s a jumping challenge that has the kids measuring how high they can jump and how it compares to fleas, which are incredible jumpers.”
    Indeed! A flea can jump about seven inches vertically, which is equal to a man with a vertical jump of 160 feet. Most athletes can’t break three feet.
    This exhibition targets kids in upper elementary school and older, Arrizza said, but parents with toddlers will want to visit the new 5-and-younger play area that opens May 8 in the Discovery Center.

    It’s a 1,000-square-foot space with a 16-foot-long water table, where kids can manipulate sand and water to create rivers, levees, dams and lakes. “Kids get little aprons so they don’t soaked,” Arrizza said.
    “There’s also a huge light bright mural wall — think of that little Lite-Brite toy from your childhood multiplied by a hundred with big toddler-sized 4-inch round pegs — and a big story-time area. We don’t have a lot of things for the younger kids so this is a really welcome addition.”
   This colorful custom-built area features another welcome addition: a seating area for tired parents.

If You Go
What: Eww! What’s Eating You
Where: The South Florida Science Center and Aquarium, 4801 Dreher Trail N, West Palm Beach
When: May 11 through Oct.18. Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Admission: During Eww! What’s Eating You?, admission drops to $15 adults, $11 ages 3-12, and $13 for seniors older than 60. Free for members and younger than 3.
Info: 832-1988;
sfsciencecenter.org

By Dan Moffett

    Manalapan town commissioners are blaming their engineering consultant for grossly underestimating the cost of replacing the Audubon Causeway bridge, and now they’re looking to replace the consultant, too.
    Mayor Pro Tem Peter Isaac said that Mock, Roos & Associates of West Palm Beach assured him in September that the project would come in around $850,000, and that there were “no surprises that might lead to a major difference in pricing.”
    By February, however, the consultants had revised their estimate to $1.3 million, telling commissioners that rising prices for steel and concrete were responsible for most of the increase.
    Isaac disagrees, saying that material and labor costs rose by “no more than 5 percent” over the last year. He said the real reason for the project’s soaring cost was an error by the bridge designers who failed to take into account that new Florida Department of Transportation standards require building the new bridge wider than the current bridge.
    “It has to be some kind of cover-up, in my view,” Isaac said of the error and the consultants’ explanation for it. He said the town should consider trying to recover some the engineering fees it paid.
    With construction scheduled to begin April 17, commissioners decided their best option was to try to find new engineers to run the project. Mayor David Cheifetz told Town Manager Linda Stumpf to contact Engenuity Group Inc., the engineering firm the town has on retainer, to see if it can oversee the work. Stumpf said Engenuity ran a similar bridge replacement in Ocean Ridge several years ago.
    “If we start this in April, the very people in charge of the project are the people that got us into this mess in the first place,” Cheifetz said of Mock, Roos. “We’ve got to change the oversight on this, not necessarily the contract.”
    Drawdy Construction of Lake Worth was the only construction firm willing to submit a bid on the project. Michael Gottlieb, vice chair of the town’s zoning commission, said the lack of bidders and the rising costs of labor and materials mean the commission has to move forward with construction because delays will only ensure that the bridge gets more expensive. He said it’s too late to restart the project from scratch, as some residents had suggested.
    “Nobody wants to do the work because it’s too small,” Gottlieb said during the March 24 commission meeting. “The longer we wait, the harder it’s going to be to find a construction company. … Costs will go up.”
    Stumpf said she hoped to have a contract with Engenuity ready for commissioners to approve in a special meeting some time before the April 17 start date.
    In other business, the commission decided on ground rules for survey ballots that will go out to residents on Point Manalapan to assess the interest in installing natural gas service.
    All 144 property owners will receive ballots by mail, probably in May. Each will come with a self-addressed stamped envelope. The town will send ballots to snowbirds at their summer addresses, as well as their Manalapan homes.
    Residents will have 60 days to return the ballots with their yes or no vote for gas service. Town Attorney Keith Davis will hold custody of the ballots, until they all are opened at once in a public meeting after the 60-day period.
    At least 60 percent of the respondents must say yes to gas service for the project to move forward. Commissioners will decide on the ballot language at their April 21 meeting.

Steve Dolan, (l) a New York visitor, chats with his host Bob Hunt of Manalapan, while they sort through books

for sale at the J. Turner Moore Memorial Library on March 21. The annual event helps to clear shelf space

and serves as a fundraiser for the library.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Tim Pallesen

    Coastal residents may soon see some relief from beachgoers who park on their narrow residential streets.
    Delray’s city engineer is working with the Beach Property Owners Association to identify streets that are too narrow to safely allow parking.
    “We’re studying whether individual roads can accommodate parking,” City engineer Isaac Kovner said.
    The city will install no-parking signs on Nassau Street this month in a pilot program to test public reaction.
    “Some streets are just too narrow to have any parking,” BPOA vice president Andy Katz said. “There’s not enough room for safe driving and it’s difficult for emergency vehicles to get through.”
    Streets less than 28 feet wide will get no-parking signs because state rules require 10 feet for each traffic lane plus 8 feet for parking.
    The likely streets where parking will be prohibited are Ingraham Avenue, Nassau Street, Bay Street and Ocean Terrace plus the west end of Miramar Drive and parts of Gleason Street and Venetian Drive, Katz said.
    All the affected streets are south of Atlantic Avenue, where beachgoers look for alternatives to the city’s metered parking.
    “Everyone comes to Delray’s beach and most everyone parks illegally whether there are meters or not,” Katz said.
    The BPOA push for tighter parking restrictions near the beach comes after residents in the Marina Historic District west of the Intracoastal Waterway got city support to prohibit nonresident parking on their streets.
    Marina District residents and boat owners at the city marina now may purchase annual parking permits. Nonresident vehicles without a parking sticker or guest pass are ticketed.
    The city, for now, isn’t proposing resident-only parking on streets that are wide enough in the beach area. “We’re not looking yet at whether there should be resident parking only,” Kovner said.
    But Katz said parking may be insufficient for both residents and nonresidents on some of the wide-enough coastal streets. He said homeowners on those streets could petition for permit-only parking.
    A majority vote of the residents on the affected streets would be needed.

By Tim Pallesen

    Coastal homeowners are being urged to take individual action before their premiums for flood insurance skyrocket at the end of this year.
    “This is grim for some of you,” Beach Property Owners Association vice president Andy Katz advised residents at a BPOA forum on March 25. “You may have to claw and beg to maintain reasonable rates.”
    The rate hikes come as the Federal Emergency Management Agency updates its flood maps, moving many homeowners into higher-risk zones.
    Katz, who researched the rising rates with Conner Lynch of Plastridge Insurance, said increases of 300 to 400 percent will be common for many coastal homes. Lynch cited one oceanfront property owner in the highest-risk zone whose annual premium will jump from $400 to $8,000.
    Neither the city nor the BPOA will protest the changes on behalf of Delray homeowners. “You have to fight it lot-by-lot as individuals,” Katz stressed at the forum attended by 100 concerned residents.
    The new flood maps show that most homeowners to be paying higher rates live south of a high-elevation coastal ridge that extends north from Casuarina Road.
    The BPOA stressed that establishing a home’s elevation will be important in determining insurance premiums.
    The annual premium for the policy that covers $250,000 in property damage and $100,000 for contents will cost $1,594 for most homes built at the city’s current 7-foot required elevation. But the cost increases to $6,317 for older homes built at a 5-foot elevation before the first flood maps in 1979.
    Homeowners were urged to pay for a survey to obtain an elevation certificate that establishes a higher elevation if possible.
    The federal government requires flood insurance for all homeowners in a high-risk flood zone who have a mortgage. Insurance agents sell the policies at the same rates.
    To determine if your home will be in a high-risk zone starting on Dec. 16, see the flood maps online at: maps.co.palm-beach.fl.us/gis/floodzones.aspx.

By Dan Moffett

    Embattled Commissioner Richard Lucibella has filed suit in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, seeking a temporary injunction and an emergency hearing to halt the recall movement against him.
    Lucibella, in a written response to residents calling for his removal, says he has no choice but to “challenge the hurtful and unwarranted allegations” that have grown out of his role in the ouster of Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi in January.
    “Elected officials should be allowed to carry out their official duties without fear of being threatened with false criminal charges and targeted for illegitimate recall, simply because he or she disagrees with the agenda of a few,” Lucibella wrote. “This recall attempt seeks to overturn our election process and our town’s system of government.”
    The suit names Ocean Ridge resident Haley Joyce, the leader of the recall group, as a defendant, along with Town Clerk Karen Hancsak and Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher, whose offices have oversight over elections and recalls.
    “Lucibella’s response is unfortunately what everyone expected,” Joyce said. “Someone in his position should be willing to let the process go forward and let the people have their say.”
    She accuses the commissioner of trying to stall the recall movement until part-time residents go back to their homes up North and lose interest in what’s happening in Ocean Ridge.
    “He wants to push this into the hot summer,” she said, “but he’s lighting a fire under the individuals who are adamant about his ouster.”
    In March, Lucibella’s opponents submitted petitions to elections officials with the required number of signatures to start the legal removal process in earnest. In his suit, filed by Fort Lauderdale lawyer Sidney Calloway, the commissioner challenges the validity of the petitions and paperwork, saying the documents are “legally insufficient,” error-filled and improperly written.
    Joyce disputes the claims and says she has worked with officials at the U.S. Department of Justice to ensure the documents were correctly written and filed.
    “This makes him look desperate and angry,” she said of Lucibella. “It is a reflection of his character and typical of what we don’t need in Ocean Ridge.”
    In their petitions, the recall organizers charge Lucibella with malfeasance over what they believe was the harassment and intimidation of Yannuzzi, who had a long-running feud with the commissioner over beach security. They also charge that Lucibella violated the state’s Sunshine Law in orchestrating a campaign to undermine the police chief.
    Lucibella, who was elected to the Town Commission a year ago and has two years left in his term, has repeatedly denied the group’s allegations, and he says his recall would unnecessarily burden taxpayers and set a dangerous precedent for governance in the town.
    “It will cost Ocean Ridge taxpayers tens of thousands in election and legal fees,” he says. “Current and future commissioners will face similar threats of recall, personal attack and libel, should they fail to please a few vocal residents.”
    Only a few recall drives have been successful in Florida in recent decades, according to elections officials, and those have involved officeholders who have committed serious crimes. Typically, the movements either run out of steam or the targeted official agrees to resign before a special election occurs.
    Unless the courts intervene, Ocean Ridge organizers will have roughly until the end of May to submit petitions with the 225 signatures needed to satisfy the second phase of the process. After those are validated, elections officials would then call a special election with an up or down vote on Lucibella’s fate.
    “I’m absolutely sure we’ll get the 225,” Joyce said. “My goal is to get 300 so that Lucibella has to ask himself, ‘Can I get 301? And is it really worth it?’ ”

New Delray Beach City Commissioner Mitch Katz is sworn into office March 31 alongside his family,
(l-r) son, Hayden, wife, Heather, and daughter Shayna.

Mayor Cary Glickstein is sworn in for a second term. With him are his children, (l-r) Jack Glickstein, 16, Madison Rothmar, 23, and Lily Glickstein, 16.  

Photos by TimStepien/The Coastal Star

By Tim Pallesen

    Two city commissioners want Delray Beach to terminate its $1.5 milliion contract with Oceanside Beach Service to rent chairs and cabanas on the city beach.
    City Manager Don Cooper had recommended that the city terminate its contract after Oceanside didn’t respond to his Feb. 17 notice that it breached its contract.
    But Cooper backed off from that recommendation at a March 31 city commission meeting, suggesting that Oceanside be “allowed one more chance.” Only Mayor Cary Glickstein and Commissioner Shelly Petrolia were ready to terminate the contract at that meeting.
    Cooper said the company that rents chairs and cabanas at the city’s beach wasn’t cleaning up debris and litter within 50 feet of its concession area as its contract requires.
    The city manager followed his Feb. 17 letter to Oceanside owner Michael Novatka with another two days later accusing him of raising rates without city approval.
    An investigator with the Palm Beach County Inspector General’s Office was sent to the beach to confirm that allegation. Cooper said Oceanside quoted the undercover investigator an $11-per-hour price to rent two lounge chairs with an umbrella or cabana. Oceanside’s contract limits the price to $10 per hour.
    “I’m tired of dealing with Oceanside,” Glicksten said.
    “It hasn’t been anything but a headache since when these guys started with us,” Petrolia agreed.
    Oceanside’s contract first became controversial shortly after Glickstein and Petrolia were first elected in March 2013 pledging to put all city contracts out for competitive bidding.
    The cabana contract became the first when Commissioner Al Jacquet joined Glickstein and Petrolia to order competitive bids in May 2013. But only Oceanside submitted a bid.
    Commissioners accepted Oceanside’s bid of $1.5 million to operate the beach concession for five years in October 2013. The vote was 3-2, with Glickstein and Petrolia voting against.
    Oceanside also provides beach concessions for the neighboring cities of Boynton Beach and Boca Raton.

Delray Beach Election Results

Mayor – Seat 5
                                   Percent    Votes
Tom Carney              46.71%    3,266
Cary D. Glickstein    53.29%    3,726
                                                   6,992

Commission Member Seat 3
Bruce Bastian            21.55%     1,480
Mitch Katz                 33.25%     2,283
Christina Morrison    28.57%     1,962
Josh Smith                 16.63%     1,142
                                                    6,867
Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections

Gail Adams Aaskov (left) and Geoffrey Pugh are sworn into office March 25

by Ocean Ridge Town Clerk Karen Hancsak.  Town Manager Ken Schenck observes.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

    Absentee voting proved decisive as two incumbents, Commissioner Gail Adams Aaskov and Mayor Geoffrey Pugh, turned back the challenge of former Commissioner Ed Brookes in Ocean Ridge’s hotly contested March election.
    Only seven votes separated the three candidates and 32 percent of the town’s registered voters turned out, the highest participation rate in Palm Beach County.
    Aaskov, who is beginning her sixth three-year term, received 285 votes, Pugh 283 and Brookes 278. Aaskov’s 35 absentee votes were critical in deciding the two open seats; Pugh had 25 and Brookes 22.
    Another key factor was the ongoing recall movement against Commissioner Richard Lucibella. Aaskov and Pugh have sided with Lucibella, while Brookes was the candidate of choice among recall supporters. He signed the petition for the commissioner’s removal.
    “I wish it would all go away,” Aaskov said of the recall. “I think it’s all ridiculous and Lucibella should be allowed to serve out his term.”
    The influence of the recall efforts surfaced in the high number of undervotes recorded. According to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office, 132 voters selected only one candidate instead of choosing two. Undervotes (where only one candidate was selected) are valid and counted.
    In this case, they likely reflected support for Brookes and dissatisfaction with the incumbents.
    Brookes’ supporters also blamed a group called Citizens for Sane Politics for an 11th-hour attack against the candidate that alleged he violated election rules by receiving assistance from the nonprofit Florida Coalition for Preservation and the Ocean Ridge Garden Club.
    Brookes denies any misconduct: “Let me assure you that has not happened.”
    Both the coalition and garden club insist it neither endorsed nor backed his campaign.
    Aaskov says the town needs to move forward with other issues, such as making interim Police Chief Hal Hutchins the permanent choice.
    “My main thing is getting the chief issue resolved,” she said. “Morale in the department has been improving by the day and Hal should be appointed as the permanent chief.”
    Aaskov, 79, promised to work to resolve the issues that are dividing the town. “It’s unfortunate that we’ve had some bad publicity the last few years,” she said. “We’ve got to get Ocean Ridge back on the right track.”
    Pugh, 52, who has been on the commission since 2003, was named mayor in 2012, succeeding Ken Kaleel

Ocean Ridge Election Results

Town Commissioner – Ocean Ridge
                                     Percent    Votes
Gail Adams Aaskov    33.69%       285
Ed Brookes                  32.86%       278
Geoff Pugh                  33.45%       283
                                                        846
Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections

By Dan Moffett

    Briny Breezes and other mobile home communities that complained for months about their insurance problems appear finally to have gotten through to Tallahassee.
    Citizens Property Insurance has announced that it will begin accepting alternative valuation methods from policyholders in an effort to allow mobile and manufactured home owners to get more coverage.
    “Somebody’s listening,” said Briny Alderman Bobby Jurovaty. “This could be a big help to us.”
    In October, Jurovaty and dozens of his neighbors turned out for an insurance workshop at Briny Breezes that state Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, organized and top Citizens officials attended. Brinyites complained that their policies covered only a small fraction of the replacement cost of their homes.
    In 2010, the legislature changed the rules for coverage of mobile homes. For those built before 1994, Citizens is required only to pay the actual cash value of the loss, leaving many homeowners vulnerable to large out-of-pocket expenses.
    But under the new valuation tools, Citizens will accept MSB and e2Value cost estimators along with the standard 360Value estimator. Simply put, the changes, which can be applied immediately, will help close the gap between windstorm coverage and replacement values for many.
    “It’s critical that Citizens policyholders receive the best coverage to meet their needs at the most affordable rate,” said Freddie Schinz, chairman of Citizens’ Consumer Services Committee. “These additional valuation tools will allow Citizens customers to make sure they are getting the appropriate coverage for their homes and provide them with a simple outline to walk them through the valuation process.”
    Mobile home owners should talk to their agents to ensure that improvements or upgrades to properties are captured by the coverage valuations. The changes also may enable some homeowners to buy liability coverage that until now wasn’t feasible.
For year-round Briny Breezes residents who are living on Social Security or pensions, the new valuation formulas could be especially beneficial.
    “This is important because it will allow us to increase the valuation of our property,” said Paul Stewart, a Briny Breezes board member. “But the problem is the timing. Everybody is heading back up north right now, so I’m going to get a hold of people and let them know.”
    Stewart, who helped organize the October workshop, says he wants to schedule another one to get the word out on the changes at Citizens.  
    “I give credit to Sen. Sachs,” he said. “She was willing to step up to the plate when nobody else was.”
    Citizens has begun sending out hundreds of thousands of postcards to mobile home owners around the state, advising them to call their agents and explore the changes. The cards also will remind owners that they can insure their homes for 25 percent more than their estimated value.
    “We want customers to have the right amount of coverage for their homes,” said Christine Ashburn, Citizens vice president of communications, who came to Briny Breezes in October. “We urge customers to connect with their agents, who are in the best position to determine what’s right for their customers.”

By Jane Smith

    Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes and county pocket residents will soon have drinking water without added fluoride.
    Their water supplier, Boynton Beach Utilities, took one of its two fluoride tanks offline at the end of January and the other will go offline soon when it runs out of fluoride. The purpose is to make way for the reconstruction of that treatment plant.
    The west fluoride tank was leaking, said Colin Groff, the city’s director of utilities. To prevent further corrosion, it was turned off. His department is redesigning that treatment system to avoid a costly repair. The redesign will take another three to six months and will cost about $25,000, he said.
    The utility moved up its $30 million upgrade to its water treatment plant on the east side of town. That tank would run out of fluoride in another week or two, Groff said at the end of March. It would be another three to six months before it was back online.
    The water from the treatment plants is mixed, so customers earlier this year were receiving water with reduced levels of fluoride.
Boynton Beach water has about 0.2 parts per million of naturally occurring fluoride. The city adds about 0.5 parts per million to comply with federal drinking water standards that recommend levels between 0.7 and 1.2 parts per million.
    Adding fluoride is not required, but it is controversial. Those opposed say it causes brittle bones. Supporters, such as Palm Beach County’s Health Department, say it prevents tooth decay.
    “It’s one of the greatest public health achievements,” said Tim O’Connor, county health department spokesman. “It does not discriminate. Even if you are poor, you can still get it.”
    In the county, about 777,515 residents have fluoridated water, which works out to be slightly over 60 percent. According to the Florida Department of Health, Boca Raton, Highland Beach, Lantana and Manalapan do not add fluoride to their drinking water.
    Because adding the fluoride is not a requirement, Boynton Beach did not have to notify its water customers. It did notify the Environmental Health division of the county Health Department. Groff points out that bottled water does not contain fluoride.

The Little House property at 480 E. Ocean Ave.

The Oscar Magnusen house at 211 E. Ocean Ave.
Photos provided

By Jane Smith

    Boynton Beach held its own version of the Shark Tank television show in March when its Community Redevelopment Agency board listened to ideas pitched for its two historic homes — Little House and the Oscar Magnuson house.
    Most presenters bubbled with excitement about their plans for a music school with space for the local ukulele club to play, a bed and breakfast with an event center, a craft brewery serving light bites, a pizza place with a wood-fired oven, a Mediterranean restaurant and a brew pub that specializes in fermented tea.
    Then a potential buyer, Bruce Kaplan of the Local Development Co. in Philadelphia, stepped forward and talked in general terms about the development firm where he is chief financial officer. His firm recently purchased a 3.3-acre vacant parcel at 1314 N. Federal Highway in Delray Beach.  
    Prakas & Co., a real estate brokerage that specializes in restaurants, received the exclusive listing for the two homes in November. The Prakas firm is based in Boca Raton and run by Tom Prakas.
    Vivian Brooks, the CRA’s executive director, contacted Prakas. “He is often mentioned in the media as the go-to person for restaurants,” she said last year.
    Broker Steve Mossini said the firm sent an email blast to its client list about the Boynton Beach homes when asked how Kaplan found out about the properties. They were not listed on Loop.net or other commercial real estate websites.
    The Prakas firm will receive a commission equal to 5 percent of the base lease rental amount for the full lease term or $5,000, whichever is greater, for the Little House at 480 E. Ocean Ave. and for the Magnuson House at 211 E. Ocean Ave. If the firm finds a buyer, it would receive a 5 percent commission, or at least $10,000.
    For the Magnuson house, the CRA is offering $200,000 to the buyer/renter to build it out, plus other grants available from the CRA, Brooks said.
    Kaplan’s firm offered to pay $250,000 for the Little House and $300,000 for the Magnuson house, the oldest structure in Boynton Beach.
    The prices would translate into losses for the CRA. The agency had paid $850,000 in 2007 for the 1,736-square-foot house built about 1910 by Swedish immigrant and farmer Oscar Sten Magnuson. His wife, Eunice Benson Magnuson, was one of the first town clerks.
    The CRA had spent nearly $800,000 to buy, move, renovate and outfit the 786-square-foot cottage, known as the Little House.
Its board members received just a spreadsheet listing the potential buyer and tenants, even though most of the potential tenants had submitted plans. Kaplan’s firm did not submit material, just gave a $2,500 deposit held by Prakas & Co.
    Board members eventually decided to review the proposals before voting, but they let the businesspeople make their pitches.
Chris Montague, who lives in Boynton Beach, talked about moving his music school, SoFlo Music School, from Delray Beach into the Magnuson house. He submitted a proposal, but it was not listed as a viable option because he learned after the fact that the CRA was only interested in restaurants. No one mentioned that to him during the process, he said. The CRA materials also listed other uses for the building.
    His music school offers piano lessons to 150 students a week. “That’s about 600 people a month, dropping off kids or loved ones for 30 minutes to an hour with time on their hands,” he said. They would bring extra traffic to Ocean Avenue, he said.
    He thinks the backyard space would be a great place for the Boynton Delray Ukulele Society to meet. “Right now, they practice in a private home,” he said.
    Events coordinator Tara Sinclair brought an entourage to support her idea of turning the 211 house into a bed and breakfast. Her inn would feature a wrap-around porch where beer and wine would be served, four luxury suites and an event space in the backyard, and her living quarters and office upstairs.
    She hired an architect to develop renderings and restaurant and business consultants to guide her. She also had a building inspector review the condition of the house. Her proposal includes this financial breakdown: $400,000 loan secured to cover the cost of the luxury suites and event space, $250,000 from the CRA to create the wrap-around bar, $200,000 from the CRA to bring the structure up to code and the property would be given to her.
    “Boynton Beach is charming,” she said. “It has character and can become a coastal destination.”
    Jason Facarra of Three Horns Brewing Co. said his business was formed two years ago by three friends who started it as a hobby. The company has a chef who trained with Michelle Bernstein in Miami. It plans to brew craft beers onsite by building a small structure that can support the tanks.
    “Our goal is to be a hub for the kind of people the CRA is trying to attract,” he said. Three Horns plans to bring beer tourism to Ocean Avenue with beer tastings and the like.
    Three Horns offered to enter into a 10-year lease at the Little House at $2,000 per month with the first four months free. It also wants an option to buy in the first year. “Whatever makes the most sense from the financials,” he said.
    Sal Campanile introduces himself as the “Pizza Guy” and told the board, “I see Boynton Beach as even better than Delray Beach.” He owns the 250-seat Mastino Wood-Fired Pizza Kitchen in Delray Beach.
    For the Little House, he plans to open the Little Pizza Shack and offer wood-fired pizzas, free-range rotisserie chickens, handmade gelatos and cappuccinos. “We will do wine pairings, craft beer pairings, wood-fired pizza school for aspiring chefs,” he said.
    At the Magnuson house, he wants to run La Piazzetta Market & Grille and offer Mediterranean cuisine with an open kitchen.
At the Little House, he is willing to pay $1,500 a month for a five-year lease with three five-year extensions and an option to buy within the first five years for $275,000. Lease payments would go toward the purchase price. He is asking for six months rent free.
At the Magnuson house, he would pay $2,500 a month for a five-year lease with three five-year extensions and an option to buy. Lease payments would go toward the purchase price, not specified. He wants first 12 months rent free.
    “What kind of financial help are you looking for?” Mayor Jerry Taylor asked.
    “I’ll take whatever you guys have,” Campanile said. “We don’t need it. But if it’s available, we will take it.”
    Chris Montellius, who works at Brown Distributing Co. in West Palm Beach, wants to open a Kombuchery. “Kombucha is a fermented tea, similar to the process of brewing beer,” he said. “But it is more of a health and probiotic beverage.”
    He plans to offer a restaurant/brew pub at the Little House and pay $2,500 monthly rent. His chef, Alex Bustamente, cooks at The Breakers’ HMF restaurant in Palm Beach. Bustamante said the time is right to strike out on his own and that the Little House is the perfect place to start.
    For dinner, Bustamante wants to create an intimate, cozy atmosphere with a wood-fired oven. “It’s a really special spot that Boynton is lacking,” he said.
    Kaplan, of the Local Development Co., said his company has a branch office nearby. It acquires large properties, with its most recent acquisition at 1314 N. Federal Highway in Delray Beach. That acquisition closed in early March for $2 million, without a mortgage, he said.
    His company currently maintains over 20 properties and has developed in excess of 100 properties. It has bought and sold 234 properties in the last two years, he said.
    “We like the (Boynton Beach) properties. We believe we could acquire them, develop them,” Kaplan said.
    At the end of the more than two hours of presentations, Taylor said, “This could be the biggest thing we do on Ocean Avenue.” He asked his fellow board members to review the proposals and make a decision at the April 14 meeting. They agreed — unanimously.

Woodrow ‘Woody’ Gorbach (above) and Bernice ‘Bonnie’ Fisher (below) are sworn into office.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

    South Palm Beach Town Council members had planned to give final approval to two ordinances that would give the council final say over all development projects in the town.
    But then Gary Cohen, the CEO of Paragon Acquisition Group, showed up at the March 24 meeting with two lawyers and a court reporter.
    Cohen was concerned that transferring power from the town’s Architectural Review Board to the council could derail his development plans for the Oceanfront Inn site, a property that for years has been in the crosshairs of political controversy.
    Paragon wants the town to allow it a six-month extension for beginning development because turtle season and the federal and state permitting process have gotten in the way of progress.
    Cohen’s developers had been working with the architectural board, but they worried the proposed shift of control could raise legal complications, or change agreements already in place — or worse.
    John Herin, a Paragon attorney, told the council the company “is very concerned that the ordinance is a ‘back door’ attempt by the town to frustrate its (Paragon’s) efforts to redevelop the property in a manner that is fully compliant with the town code.”
    Herin also said the company had gotten wind of an idea circulating among residents to buy the property back from Paragon and turn it into a public park.
    But council members assured Herin and Cohen that there was nothing subversive going on, and that the town wants Paragon to move forward and build the six-story condominium building that the architectural board approved in August.
    “We want you to go ahead with this project,” Councilwoman Stella Jordan said.
    “It was not our intent,” said Vice Mayor Joseph Flagello, “to put a fly in the ointment of the Paragon Group.”
    Council members unanimously voted to postpone action on the ordinances until the architectural board could give Paragon its six-month extension. Demolition of the old Hawaiian hotel is expected to begin this summer, and by then the council is expected to have its new ordinances approved and in place.
    In other business, Councilwoman Bernice “Bonnie” Fischer was sworn in as mayor after defeating incumbent Donald Clayman in the March election.
    Fischer campaigned on a promise to focus on beach restoration and working with other governments. She said one of her first acts as mayor will be meeting with county environmental officials to talk about the town’s beaches.
    When it comes to life experience, not many elected officials can match Woodrow “Woody” Gorbach, who was sworn in as councilman after running unopposed in March. The 91-year-old Gorbach has been a real estate agent for 60 years and married to wife Lois for 61.
    He said dealing with beach erosion will be his priority and that he intends to take classes from the League of Cities to get up to speed on his new job.
    Clayman, who was the town’s mayor for six years, stepped down to a round of applause for his service. Commissioners praised him for his sound fiscal management during some tough budget years.
    “I feel that we’re in good hands,” Clayman said on leaving. “There are good people leading us and good people working here.”

Suzy Lanigan (with black Lab Molly) has made Impact 100 a family affair.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    The motto of Impact 100 Palm Beach County, the women’s charitable organization, is “One Woman, One Meeting, One Vote.” But for Suzy Lanigan of Gulf Stream, her involvement soon became “Three Women, One Meeting, Three Votes.”
    “My mother, Patricia Bartlett, got involved soon after I joined, and now my daughter, Kathleen Lanigan, is a member,” she says proudly. “Getting to share this experience with them and teach my daughter the importance of giving back to the local community is very special to me.”
    The idea is delightfully simple. Each member donates $1,000, and once a year they all meet to hear representatives from five local nonprofits make a seven-minute pitch for grants. Then they vote and present the checks.
    Last year, the group’s 320 members gave away $320,000.
    On April 16, about 400 members will meet at Lynn University to disburse around $400,000.
    “Your involvement can be as minimal as the one donation and vote,” she says, “or there are so many opportunity to get involved further.”
    Lanigan volunteers with fundraising and event planning for the group, talents she brought from Massachusetts when her family moved to Gulf Stream eight years ago.
    A graduate of Bentley College in Massachusetts, she is a principal with Ocean Properties Ltd., a family business founded by her father and one of the largest privately held hotel management companies in North America.
    In New England, she was a founding member of the Women’s Fund in Massachusetts, was a trustee of the private Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine, and was active in local government, fighting for a community skateboard park.
    In 1996, she ran the Olympic torch in Nashua, New Hampshire, for that year’s Summer games in Atlanta. In addition to daughter Kathleen, Lanigan and her husband, Jay, have another daughter, Tricia, and a son, Michael.
— Ron Hayes

Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A. Brewer, Maine. It was a really nice community. I had a lot of family there. My cousins were all in the area, so it was nice way to grow up.

Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A. I’m in the hotel development business, a family business with my brother and myself. My father started it in the 1960s. He ended up buying a hotel and it just grew from there, from the bottom up. My brothers and myself have worked there, and now the next generation is coming into the business as well.

Q. How did you become involved with Impact 100?
A. I saw a story in The Coastal Star. I was looking for something to get involved with, and when I saw that I just jumped on it.

Q. Tell us a little about your involvement with Impact 100. Why is it important to you?
A. Specifically, I work helping with membership and getting the word out about what a great organization it is. This will be our fourth year, with over $1 million given in those four years. That’s a big accomplishment. It’s nice to see it go to the locals, where there’s so much need.

Q. How did you choose to make your home in Gulf Stream?
A. I have family in the area and we vacationed here when I was a child, so it just seemed like the right place to go, to be near my family.

Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
A. I grew up on classic rock, but I do like all types of music, depending on the mood. Aerosmith, Tom Petty. I listened to Jimi Hendrix through the wall from my brother’s room.

Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
A. My mother always told me, “You’ll never regret being kind.”

Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. I learned a lot about getting involved in volunteer work from my sister-in-law, Paula Jerome. She founded the Woman’s Fund of Essex County in Massachusetts. I was newly married and having kids, and she was doing that, so I became involved and it evolved into all sorts of other organizations. She was the first one I knew who was really heavily involved in doing lots of good.

Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
A. Well, when Sally Field was younger people used to say we looked alike.

Q. Who/what makes you laugh?
A. My kids and my animals. I have a black Lab named Molly, a Yorkie named Annie and a cat named Max who make me laugh a lot. On TV, I love The Middle and Modern Family.

    For the 15th consecutive year, Delray Beach has been designated as a Tree City USA community by the National Arbor Day Foundation. The honor recognizes the city for its commitment to urban forestry management and environmental improvements.
    Four standards were met by the city to achieve the status, including having a tree board, a tree care ordinance, a community forestry program with an annual budget of $2 per resident, and an Arbor Day observance and proclamation.
    The designation, city officials say, promotes civic pride, educates the public on current urban forestry practices and helps to secure financial assistance for related projects. 
    For more information, visit ww.arborday.org.

— Staff report

By Steven J. Smith

    OCEAN RIDGE — Pierce Koslosky Sr. was the very model of a tenacious businessman, a loving husband and a dedicated family patriarch, who emerged from humble beginnings in a coal town to embrace lasting success in the business world.
    According to his son, Pierce Jr., Mr. Koslosky Sr. was born in Shenandoah, Penn., on May 12, 1920, the son of a local politician.
“His dad lost a leg in a coal colliery when he was 12 years old,” Pierce Koslosky, Jr. said. “And he became something of a wheeler-dealer in the area. I’m still in touch with the people of Shenandoah, who hold an annual kielbasa festival that draws visitors from around the country. It’s a vibrant, colorful place.”
    After Mr. Koslosky Sr.’s father died, his mother remarried and the family moved to the Newark, N.J., area, where he grew up and secured an accounting degree from what is now Rutgers University. He served as a master sergeant in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and was known as “Two-Gun Koslosky,” because of the two .45 caliber pistols he would strap on for protection during his excursions to the U.S. Mint, where he would extract up to $500,000 at a time in cash to meet his payrolls.
    “He had an armed jeep in front of him and an armed jeep behind him,” Koslosky Jr. laughed. “He was stationed in Fort Meade, Md., at the time. ‘Two-Gun Koslosky.’ What a hoot!”
    After the war, he worked several years for Magnolia Metal Corp. — a foundry and machine shop that started in 1886 and still manufactures precision bearings that are shipped all over the world. He would eventually become chairman and president of the company, but early on a certain official prevented him from buying stock in it, so he quit.
    He next started a printing business with a friend called Color Reproductions, in Union, N.J. Koslosky Jr. remembered working there during summer vacations while in high school.
    “Most of their accounts were grocery stores and companies like Exxon,” he said. “Then in the early 1960s, managers from Magnolia Metal approached him and asked if he wanted to invest in the company. He and several investors actually bought out the official who had earlier forced him to quit! He went on to become the company’s president. He remained in that position until 2000.”
    Betty Koslosky, who started out as Mr. Koslosky’s secretary, became his second wife in 1969. The two moved to Ocean Ridge in 1978.
    “He was a brilliant man and he knew a lot about business,” she said. “He didn’t have a lot of hobbies. We went on a lot of cruises, because he found them restful. But business was a very big part of his life. He didn’t really retire until he was 80.”
    Koslosky Jr. agreed his father enjoyed traveling.
    “At one point we owned a third of a company in Dundee, Scotland, and he would travel over there quite a bit,” he said.
    Mr. Koslosky died on Feb. 25 from complications of congestive heart failure. He was 94 years old. His wife, two sisters, seven children, 16 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren survive him.
    Koslosky Jr. said his father would be most remembered for his sense of humor and his tenacity.
    “He did not give up,” he said. “For his 70th birthday, I bought him a plaque featuring a famous quote by Winston Churchill: ‘Never, never, never give up.’ And he really lived that out for us.”

By Mary Thurwachter

    It may appear bleak now, but soon the green space at the Lantana Beach facing A1A and east of the drainage ditch swale will be undergoing a spruce-up courtesy of an anonymous resident.
    At the March 23 meeting, the Lantana Town Council gave two big green thumbs up to a proposal to purchase vegetation to replace what had been removed when the parking lot was reconstructed and to extend the existing irrigation system to cover the new plants.
    The project will cost $9,769, according to Town Manager Deborah Manzo. Tropical Landscapers Inc. will do the work.
    “An individual who wants to have the beach beautified immediately and doesn’t want to wait until we have funds is making the donation,” said Mayor Dave Stewart. “This is not uncommon in this town. In the past, Generoso Pope (founder of The National Enquirer) gave us a fire truck and fireworks and (car dealer) Wayne Akers also gave us fireworks.”
    There is, Stewart said, “no quid pro quo.”
    Salt-tolerant plants were recommended by a landscape architect and will include variegated arboricola, coco plums, crinum lilies and thrinax.
    “We wanted something low-maintenance,” said Mike Greenstein, the town’s director of operations and arborist.
    Council member Phil Aridas said he preferred planting a line of 7-foot palm trees, but Manzo said that could interfere with overhead power lines.
    Work is expected to begin early in April.

    In other action:
    • Stewart, who was unopposed in the recent election, was sworn in. This is his 15th year as mayor.
    • The council approved a modification to the site plan for Aura Seaside (on the former Cenacle property) to allow for two more units and four more parking spaces, for a total of 246 apartments and 621 parking spaces. The modification will not mean a change in the project’s footprint. Construction on the luxury apartment complex is scheduled to begin as soon as summer.
    • The council approved of a site plan for the Lantana Sports Complex to include three baseball fields, two soccer fields, a maintenance shed, a concession/restroom building and 150 parking spaces. The complex, on land previously known as the A.G. Holley Complex, will be built at 903 N. Eighth St. in the mixed-use industrial district.

    SOUTH PALM BEACH — They say a cat has nine lives, but with all due respect to felines, any cat would have been happy to have lived the many lives of Robert “Bob” Welstein, who died on March 15 at the age of 96. Mr. Welstein lived many lives during those 96 years.
    He was born to Russian immigrant parents just two months after the end of World War 1 and grew up in Chicago’s Jewish West Side during the height of the Depression. As a young boy, he did everything from drive a horse-drawn wagon to being a cook at the Waveland Golf Course.
    When World War II broke out, Mr. Welstein enlisted in the Army Air Forces, where he served as a cryptographer. Upon his honorable discharge, his love of numbers led him to his first career, accounting. It was at that point that he made the decision that he would never work for anyone and always be his own boss.
    After almost two decades in accounting, Mr. Welstein purchased one of his accounts and became the owner of an industrial supply business in Chicago. While he knew nothing about the business when he bought it, he threw himself into his new endeavor with the same zeal that he had for life and turned it into a successful enterprise.
    It was during this phase of life that an event occurred which changed his entire outlook on living. On Jan. 17, 1968, his 49th birthday, Mr. Welstein suffered a massive coronary and was hospitalized for six weeks.
    At the time, his doctor advised him to put his affairs in order because of the serious nature of the heart attack. Instead, Mr. Welstein stopped smoking, started exercising, and began a wind-down of his business so that by the time he was 58, he retired to South Palm Beach.
    His years in South Florida gave his life new meaning and left a legacy that will not be forgotten, as he impacted the lives of many others.
    He developed interests in areas as diverse as opera, art, foreign film and climate science. He was a passionate believer in lifelong learning. Starting as a volunteer, Mr. Welstein eventually became the president of the Center for Lifetime Learning at Palm Beach State College, where he organized the lecture bureau.
    Not satisfied with just one job, he transferred the concept to the town of South Palm Beach and started what is now called The Robert Welstein Quest for Knowledge series. He booked all the speakers and ran the program up to the time of his death.
    His personal life was filled with family and friends. He was devoted to his wife, Eleanor, to whom he was married for 62 years. They traveled the world together and shared a love for the town of South Palm Beach.
    Later, he had a wonderful relationship with Eleanor Rubin of Boynton Beach. In addition, he was a regular at the Lake Worth Golf Club until he was well into his 80s and volunteered for numerous organizations including working with Palm Beach County as an election adviser.
    Robert Welstein is survived by his daughter Donna (Justice William Ehrcke), his son Harvey (Anne), his grandchildren Todd, Jaclyn (Grant), Alicia, and Dylan and his great grandson, Everett. He will be missed by many, but also celebrated for a life well-lived.
    A memorial was held March 18 at the Rubin Memorial Chapel in Boynton Beach. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to United Way of Palm Beach or the Jewish War Veterans.
— Obituary submitted by the family