Some of the raw ingredients of Feast of the Seven Fishes include mussels, clams, scallops,

shrimp, langostino, calamari and snapper fillets.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

A secondary dish of shrimp prepared by Angelo Morinelli, executive chef

at Merlino’s in Boca Raton, as part of the Feast of the Seven Fishes.

Christmas Eve feast nourishes body and soul

By Jan Norris

     There are as many stories linked to the Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes as there are variations on the fishes used, and their preparations.
    The feast, held on the night of December 24, or La Vigilia (the Vigil), is a dinner where seven seafoods come to the table — either in one pot or over several courses.
    The dinner is actually part of a fast from meat and dairy foods as part of the Catholic observance. Fish was the alternative food in Southern and coastal Italy, and frying or marinating it in oil were the preferred cooking methods since no butter could be used.
    The number of fish and shellfish used is where it’s sticky — seven, however, seems the most common. Seven is often referenced as the Seven Sacraments of the church, though some households serve nine, 10, or 13 fishes, representing other icons from the Catholic teachings.
    During the Christmas week, watch for the pasta dish containing seven fishes served at the new Italian restaurant in Boca Raton, Merlino’s Ristorante. It’s themed to the cooking style of Italians from South Philadelphia.
    At Merlino’s, executive chef Angelo Morinelli, who is originally from Naples, Italy, plans to cook shrimp, mussels, clams, snapper fillets, langostino, calamari, and scallops in one dish, with a choice of red or white sauce, as a representation of the feast.
    “Oh sure, we’ll have it on the menu. We must have it!” he said. “It’s a big tradition.”

The Feast of the Seven Fishes, as prepared by Angelo Morinelli, executive chef at Merlino’s in Boca Raton.

INSET BELOW: Chef Angelo Morinelli

    He explained what he thought was the story behind the feast.
    “The story goes there were poor people living in a village on a seaport. The family had no money for food, but it was Christmas Eve — and no one eats meat on Christmas Eve. The mother sends the kids out with buckets to where the fishing boats are coming in. The fishermen see the kids and feel sorry for them, and give them here — a fish — and here, some scallops. Another gave mussels — whatever they had extra.
    “The kids take the buckets back to their mom and give her the fish. It was enough fish for an army! So she creates a whole feast — in one big pot, she puts the fish and pasta and herbs. It took a long time to eat it all there was so much.
    “Today, we chefs try to impress the diners at our restaurants, of course. All use different fish — some only use fillets — but some of the most common are sole, cod, snapper, salmon, branzino, halibut and baccala,” Morinelli said. Some use only fish and no shellfish — it depends on preferences, he said.
    Among the most common fish used are baccala — dried, salt-cured cod, served with pasta or fried, either whole or flaked in balls and served with a red sauce. This is a signature fish of Naples and a staple of Venice.
    Eels are another favorite, along with an octopus and squid salad. Scungilli (sea snail) marinated salad can be found in a number of Southern Italian homes.
    “Different regions have different foods — even different ones in the same region because of family favorites,” the chef said. Families from two different regions may combine their must-haves, he said, and go all out to include all the fish and shellfish available.
    “It can be a long meal,” he said, shrugging.
    The local fish markets will be ready for the orders, already being placed by some.
    At Capt. Frank’s Seafood Market in Boynton Beach, owner Joe Sclafani says he’s very familiar with the feast and stocks all the fishes most common for the meal during Christmas. “Oh yeah — I’m Italian.”
    Planning in advance for the buyers, he said, “We’ll have flounder fillet, sole fillet, cod, grouper, snapper — several kinds — and mahi and fresh pink shrimp. Shellfish? Oh yeah — scallops, clams, mussels. Octopus, baccala and scungilli — sliced in the can or in the freezer, whole pieces.”
    Sclafani doesn’t make the traditional dinner any longer, he said, so friends prepare it for him. “I don’t have time — we’re so busy,” he said.
    Along with a wide selection of shellfish including clams, mussels, scallops and oysters, Captain Clay and Sons Fish Market in Delray Beach will have a number of local fresh fish such as mahi, swordfish and several types of snapper. Wild-caught pink shrimp, squid and blue crab are among the others Reed Brand, son of the market’s owner, said Italians use in the dinner. “We’ll also have our smoked fish dip that they like to incorporate into the dinner.”
    Jill Schaedtler, manager at Old Dixie Seafood in Boca Raton, advises anyone planning on the big seafood dinner to place an advance order. “We carry just about everything, though,” she said.
    She orders specially for big holiday parties and the Feast of Seven Fishes dinners. “I’ll order special things like calamari with octopus, smelts, baccala — and we’ll have the standards: clams, shrimp, mussels, oysters and stone crabs — and all kinds of fish. We can get anything in if people call ahead. We’re really busy during that time, of course.”
    Within four days, Fish Depot in Boynton Beach can have fish on hand for the dinner, according to Chris Bezecny, a partner there. “We always have available swordfish, mahi, tilapia, yellowtail snapper and other snapper, and octopus. We can order eels, and from time to time we have branzino — it’s popular for that dinner. But we have a wide selection at any time.”
    Prepared seafood salads and dishes also may be available at area specialty markets during the holidays, and other Italian restaurants may offer the Feast of Seven Fishes as a special dinner package on Christmas Eve; call your favorite to find out if it’s available.

A holiday drink with flair (and flare)

   Merlino’s Ristorante in Boca Raton boasts it has one of the top mixologists in the area — Lee Hoechstetter. The beverage manager, formerly of Tanzy in Boca Raton, is big on interactive drinks, and presents one that home bartenders can accomplish and will make a splash at the holidays.
    Following the Philadelphia theme of the Italian restaurant, Hoechstetter named the bourbon drink the “LCB Line” after the famous trio of hockey players who took the Flyers to a Stanley Cup victory.
    “It’s a smooth herbal bourbon cocktail with Luxardo cherries and a flamed marshmallow on top. The flaming marshmallow falls into the drink and gives it a smoky-sweet flavor. It’s a winner — that’s why the name.”
    Here’s the recipe — and Hoechstetter insists that to achieve the correct results, follow the stirring instructions precisely.

LCB Line
2 ounces Woodford Reserve bourbon
1 ounce herbal syrup — see note
¾ ounce Luxardo Maraschino Cherry liqueur
For garnish:
2 Luxardo maraschino cherries per glass
1 marshmallow threaded on long skewer

    Pour drink ingredients to a cocktail shaker, and fill with ice. Stir a perfect 33 times. Strain mixture into a martini glass.
    To serve: Hang a duo of Luxardo cherries over rim of glass. Lay the marshmallow and skewer over the center of glass. Using a small kitchen torch or long lighter, ignite the marshmallow. Allow it to blacken and fall into drink.
    Makes 1 drink.
    For the herbal syrup, pack equal amounts of fresh basil leaves, cilantro leaves and mint leaves in a 16-ounce jar, crushing slightly with pestle to release leaf oils. Make a simple syrup using ½ cup each turbanado and white sugars added to 2 cups water. Bring to a simmer and boil for 10 minutes, stirring well to melt sugars. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. Pour over packed leaves in jar, shake gently and seal. Refrigerate; use as needed in drinks.

Seafood sources

Captain Clay and Sons Fish Market, 308 NE Fourth St., Delray Beach
561-266-2068; captainclay
andsonsfishmarket.com

Capt. Frank’s Seafood Market, 435 W. Boynton Beach Blvd., Boynton Beach
561-732-3663; captfranks
seafoodmarket.com

Fish Depot, 1022 N. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach
561-375-8363

Merlino’s, 39 SE First Ave., Boca Raton
561-756-8437; merlinosboca.com

Old Dixie Seafood, 7000 N. Dixie Highway, Boca Raton
561-988-0866; florida
stonecrabs.blogspot.com

By Cheryl Blackerby

    Coastal residents can be proud they had something to do with increasing turtle nest numbers this year.
    “Most experts agree that conservation efforts and full-cutoff lighting on the coast are probably the main reasons for the success of turtle nesting in the state,” said Dr. Kirt Rusenko, marine conservationist at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.
    “The lighting ordinance a generation ago — a generation for a loggerhead is 20 to 30 years — really helped,” he said.
    Loggerhead turtles particularly have been a source of concern for wildlife researchers, but this year the turtles made a nice recovery.
    “We’ve been worried about loggerheads since 2010, but they seem to be returning. That is making us quite happy,” Rusenko said. In 2010, Boca Raton’s loggerhead nests totaled 577, and this year the total was 856.
    Green turtles are a huge success, increasing from 27 nests in 1987 to 331 last year, and 75 this year in Boca Raton. Statewide the numbers are even better.
    “The 2013 green turtle nest numbers were huge. They were lower in 2014, but that was expected because the turtles generally come back on two-year schedules,” said Dr. Simona Ceriani, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission research scientist.
    Statewide in 2014, loggerhead turtle nests numbers remained high and leatherback turtle nests reached a new record in the state, according to Ceriani.
    Florida is extremely important in the quest to keep sea turtle nests numbers high, she said.
    “It’s up to Florida to be the steward for these species. Protecting nesting habitat is the best thing we can do, to give them a safe, dark place to nest. That’s something  we do have control over, and something we have to strive for. We have to share the beaches with them so they will have a good recovery,” she said.
    The state statistics in November were from 26 core index beaches, including Boca Raton, that monitored the beaches according to specific boundaries and protocols. The total turtle nest census for all beaches in Florida will be announced in January.
    Green turtle nesting trends show an exponential increase over the last 26 years, she said. Green turtle nest counts set two consecutive high records in 2011 and 2013 in the state.
    In Boca Raton, green turtle numbers have been going up double-digit percentages, said Rusenko, good news considering they were extinct in Florida in the early 1970s.
    The Endangered Species Act of 1973 allowed the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to designate specific areas as protected “critical habitat” zones. The Florida Endangered Species Act further protected turtle nests.
    “All the green turtle canneries in Florida went out of business,” Rusenko said.
    There was also good news for leatherbacks. “This year was a great year in the state for leatherbacks, and especially in northern Palm Beach County,” he said.
    Although the numbers are up, turtle experts say there is more to do, particularly about “sky glow,” the light projected into the sky by coastal cities on the west side of the Intracoastal Waterway. Hatchlings walk toward the glow from the west that shines between condo high-rises on the beach, and they are subsequently crushed on A1A or they die in the sun. Nature dictates they should walk toward the ocean guided by reflected star and moonlight.
    “Boca’s City Hall, police station and library have full-cutoff light fixtures that direct light on the ground instead of into the sky, but there’s a lot more work to be done,” said Rusenko.
    Statewide, researchers are optimistic about the turtle nest numbers, as new protection strategies are implemented.
    “The U.S. is trying to cut down on challenges in fishing, such as the size and shape of hooks so they won’t be killed. A ‘turtle excluder device,’ used primarily in shrimping, is helping but we can’t quantify it yet,” she said.
    “Sea turtles face many important threats at sea and on land, which need to be addressed for the recovery of these charismatic and endangered species, but the results of the 2014 nesting season in Florida are encouraging and provide a positive outlook for the future,” said Ceriani.

    The work of writers and designers at The Coastal Star was honored with seven awards in the Florida Press Club’s 62nd annual Excellence In Journalism competition:
    • Top honors went to Cheryl Blackerby, Mary Kate Leming, Jerry Lower and the late Tim O’Meilia, who received the Lucy Morgan Award For In-Depth Reporting for their series, “Lessons Learned From Sandy.”
    • Blackerby also took first place honors in the environmental news category for a portfolio of stories, including “Rising Water” and “Audubon Bird Count.”
    • Thom Smith took first place in commentary writing for his column about the embattled President of Florida Atlantic University.
    • Ron Hayes received a first place in the light feature writing category for a portfolio of stories, including “Time In A Bottle,” as well as third place for commentary writing for his memorial feature on journalist Tim O’Meilia.
    • Jane Smith was honored with a first place award for her public safety reporting for a portfolio of stories, including reports on lifeguards’ attempt to rescue a drowning victim, the Manalapan beach closure and Atlantic Avenue traffic woes in Delray Beach.
    • A second place award for layout/front page design went to Jerry Lower, Mary Kate Leming and Scott Simmons for “Lessons Learned From Sandy,” “Rising Water” and “Crocodile Capture.”
   The Coastal Star competes in the “Class D” division for nondaily, community, tribal or college publications.
    The awards were announced at the club’s annual banquet Nov. 15 at the Pirate’s Cove Resort & Marina in Stuart.
    The Florida Press Club was founded in 1951 as the Florida Women’s Press Club by Frances DeVore, a reporter at The Ocala Star-Banner, to fight inequities that kept women from career advancement in the news industry. Later, as “women’s pages” faded from section fronts, the club changed its name to the present-day Florida Press Club, which now boasts hundreds of Florida journalists across the state as members.
— Ron Hayes

The Boca Raton Dog Club donated pet oxygen masks to Boynton Beach Fire Rescue.

Pictured are firefighter Rubin Lopez and Jackie Allen of the Dog Club with Sir Lancelot.

Photo by Michael Landress

By Arden Moore

   Among all the species on this planet, canines truly rank as top dogs when it comes to diversity. Think about it. There are very few species with such size, look and temperament differences. In the dog kingdom, there are itty-bitty breeds like the Yorkshire terrier and the Chihuahua, which are small enough to ride in purses, and there are mammoth-sized breeds like the Bernese mountain dog and the Saint Bernard, which easily take over any bed with their size and stretch — and with enough discarded fur to knit a sweater.
    There are breeds with easy, short names, like the pug and the collie, and others that would challenge even stellar spelling bee contestants, such as the Xoloitzcuintli and the Coton de Tulear. The American Kennel Club officially recognizes a whooping 180 different breeds.
    It’s easy to suffer from canine confusion by all these diverse breeds, but fortunately, Palm Beach County is home to the Boca Raton Dog Club, a group of dog enthusiasts who are more than happy to serve as a canine resource center.
    I recently caught up with Debbie Roberts, president of the local club. This Boca Raton resident happily shares her home with a pair of Norfolk terriers answering to the names of Maggie and Lilly. The latter is a retired show dog champion and the former prefers participating in the earth-dog sport rather than being in a show ring.
    If you get confused about the difference between what a Norfolk terrier looks like versus a Norwich terrier, Roberts offers this fun way to remember:
    “The main difference in looks is the ears, she says. “The Norfolk’s ears are down while the Norwich ears are up. Think of a pointed witch hat and you will always remember that the Norwich ears are up,” she says. “Our dog club members enjoy providing education to people about dogs of various breeds.”
    And this group likes to make Palm Beach County a safer place for all dogs — and yes, even cats. Each year, the club donates a portion of proceeds collected from its annual dog show held in June at the South Florida County Fairgrounds. This year the money raised went to purchase pet oxygen masks for the Boynton Beach Fire Rescue. Firefighters, many of whom have pets, can use these masks conformed to fit the muzzles of dogs and cats and immediately provide life-saving oxygen to pets rescued from burning homes.
    The Boca Raton Dog Club’s main mission is to promote responsible dog ownership. Members accomplish this by not only hosting dog shows, but also being available to answer questions about specific breeds, offer advice on dog training and help people find responsible breeders. In recent years, they have provided blankets and bedding and other needed supplies to local animal shelters coping with a spike in the number of dogs housed during hurricane seasons.
    The club’s next big dog show is June and Roberts welcomes any and all who love dogs to attend.
    “People at dog shows — the owners, the handlers — are very friendly and are usually more than happy to answer questions about their breeds,” she says. “Proper etiquette is to always ask first before touching a dog and to wait until the judging is done to speak to someone who has a dog in the show ring. It takes a lot of training before a dog is ready to compete in the show ring.”
    To learn more about this club, visit www.bocaratondogclub.org.
    “This is an all-breed club,” adds Roberts. “And you don’t even have to own a dog to belong to our club. All people who love dogs are welcomed.”

Westminster is the big dog
    On the national level, the AKC’s Westminster Show held each February in New York City reigns as Super Bowl of K9 dog show competitions. The top dog is crowned Best in Show and is presented with a gold/purple ribbon. The champion and his/her handler then immediately hit the talk show circuit and make personal appearances for the year — much like Miss America duties.
    Here are a few fun Westminster show facts:
    And, you are HOW old? The oldest dog to win Westminster was Stump, a Sussex spaniel who was 10 years, 2 months and 9 days old when he took Best in Show in 2009. The youngest was Laund Loyalty of Bellhaven, a rough collie, who won in 1929 at the age of 9 months.
    Don’t touch that dial! The Westminster show first aired on television in 1948 and has been a must-view special each year. In 2014, the two-day broadcast drew more than 3.5 million viewers.
    All hail the terriers! Among the seven different breed groups, the terrier group has won Best in Show at Westminster the most — a whopping 45 times.
    Meet the face — and voice — of Westminster. Host David Frei aims to extend his announcing streak to 25 years when he hosts the 139th annual Westminster show on television Feb. 16-17.
    
    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  www.fourleggedlife.com.

A splash of colorful seeds and blooms highlights

the dominant green hue of most native plants. Here are a few

of the plants for sale at Meadow Beauty that would be appropriate

east of the Intracoastal Waterway: above -- Beauty berry lives up to its name

with purple fruit and fuzzy leaves. Below: Bitter bush has glossy leaves and clusters of red fruit.

Two more species: Below -- Slow-growing lignum vitae has brilliant blue blooms that mature

into yellow seed pods that hold bright red fruit. Inset in story: Dune sunflower is a very salt-tolerant ground cover.

Photos by Jerry Lower/ The Coastal Star

By Deborah Hartz-Seeley

    You need to go slowly and look carefully or, better yet, set your GPS to find Meadow Beauty Nursery on a rural road in western Lake Worth.
    Your hint that you are approaching the 2½-acre site is the butterfly- and flower-covered garden flags flying by the side of the road. A red Radio Flyer wagon sits at the edge of the macadam, its bed filled festively with flowering plants.
    Now look closely and you’ll see the sign that tells you that this nursery is open to the public only from 8 a.m. until noon on Saturday mornings.
    This is when you can head through the wire gate and up the gravel driveway lined with small pots of wildflowers. Their diminutive but colorful blooms attract plenty of zebra longwings, sulphurs and other fluttering butterflies.  
    You’ll note these flowers aren’t as showy as the hibiscus, bougainvillea or other exotics you find at most garden stores. That’s because Meadow Beauty Nursery specializes in native plants. That’s flora that has learned to survive in the dunes, wetlands, grasslands, Everglades and other habitats common to South Florida.
    Park your car in the small grassy area at the end of the drive and, as you get out, you’ll probably be greeted by Carl Terwilliger or his wife, Donna Leone. They make it their business to welcome you and help you navigate the 200 varieties of trees, shrubs and wildflowers they provide.
    Terwilliger is proud that almost all are native to within 100 miles of Palm Beach County. He knows because he’s personally collected their seeds. For example, he found the red berries of the bitter bush on Brickell Hammock near Key Biscayne. The seeds for bear grass were gathered from a park in Central Florida. And the satin leaf with its coppery foliage is from around Hutchinson Island.
    He then brought the seeds home, grew them into plants and then used their seeds to propagate what you see today. It takes him an average of five years to raise his plants from seeds to sellable trees and shrubs. But the lignum vitae can take up to 15 years.
    Many natives are in pots waiting to be bought; but some, such as the saw palmettos and slash pines, also are part of the landscape. The nursery was established in 1988 and has been at this location since 1993. It’s taken the trees that long to establish themselves and grow tall.
    In fact, the couple use the landscaping around their home to demonstrate how native plants can be used in a yard and how they will look after a few years’ growth. That helps shoppers understand how their purchases today will fit into their landscapes tomorrow.
    On a recent visit, “Tim” Keith and her husband, Bill Petry, of Delray Beach were there for the first time because they want to replant part of their yard.
Leone teams up with them to discuss what will work in their garden on the barrier island that’s affected by sandy soil and salty ocean breezes.
    Terwilliger helps them gather their purchases — including beauty berries, white indigo berries, locust berries and bitter bushes — on a green mesh hand cart and load them into the back of their car.  After getting some planting tips, they are on their way.
    For the nursery owners, it’s rewarding to see their careful work appreciated by other gardeners. “I have a lot of time invested in these plants,” Terwilliger 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.

Children from St. Paul’s Day School in Delray Beach sing during the church service on Oct. 26

to celebrate the 51st year of St. Paul’s Day School’s ministry to preschool-aged children and their families.

Tim Stepien/Coastal Star

Students from Gina Bentivegna’s class at Pope John Paul II High School in Boca Raton pose for a selfie

in front of the mural they painted Nov. 8 in the Boynton Beach Arts District. The PJPII mural

joined others as part of the Bay Gates Mural Project.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Nick Ourusoff (l-r), Bill Poist, John Powless and Don Mathais at the finals in San Isidro, Agentina.

Photo provided

By Steve Pike

    Ocean Ridge resident Bill Poist is finishing 2014 on a high note. Poist and his doubles partner, Donald Mathias of St. Petersburg, recently won the Alfredo Trullenque ITF Seniors tournament in Santiago, Chile, that propelled him to the International Tennis Federation world No.1 ranking in the age 75-plus division.
    The victory in Santiago continued a strong summer/fall run for Poist and Mathias. The duo won the 31st Nautico San Isidro (Argentina) International tournament, as well as tournaments in Cognac and Bordeaux, France. He also finished second with Tom Brunkow of Washington, D.C., this past October at the ITF World Championships in Antalya, Turkey.
    As a team, Poist and Mathias are ranked No. 2 by the USTA, having won three Category II events this year in Florida, along with the Atlanta Invitational, as well as runner-up finish at the Clay Court Nationals in Virginia Beach.
    In singles events this past summer, Poist was runner-up in ITF events in the Czech Republic and England, but doubles is the 75-year-old’s forte.
    “I don’t work out,’’ said Poist, who with his wife, Ann Alexander, moved to Ocean Ridge four years ago. “Doubles is less strenuous because it’s played on a smaller court, so I’m able to manage that.
    “This year I played around 15 tournaments — many more than in previous years.’’
    One reason for the increase, Poist said, was that this is his “rookie’’ season in the 75-up division.
    “One of the beauties of the ITF and USTA (U.S. Tennis Association) is the five-year categories,’’ Poist said. “It’s allowed people to play in their age brackets and skill levels. The first year — in any age bracket — you’re the youngest person in that five-year slot. So everybody, theoretically, is slower than you. Once you get to the third and fourth years, the younger players are quicker and better.’’
    Poist, a member of the Ohio Wesleyan Athletic Hall of Fame, plays locally with tennis professionals Dennis Grainger (at Seagate Country Club) and Paul Cranis, as well as top players Howard Klinnert and Garrett Bornstein.
    “They deserve a lot of credit for helping me,’’ said Poist, who also is a regular in the 10 o’clock Club at the Delray Beach Tennis Center.
    Competition has always been a staple in Poist’s life. Now a retired business consultant who spent the bulk of his professional life in Washington, D.C., Poist was a standout basketball and tennis player at Hanover (Pa.) High School and led Ohio Wesleyan tennis teams to successive conference and NCAA regional titles from 1960-62.
    Poist was tennis professional at Corinthian YC in Marblehead, Mass., from 1960-61 and at Eastern YC in Marblehead from 1962-66. When Poist began his business life, he cut down on tennis, but started playing seriously again about 30 years ago.
    Since then he’s combined his competitive spirit for tennis and his adventurous spirit for travel to succeed on the court and see the world with Ann, who volunteers at various tournaments at the Delray Beach Tennis Center.
    “Tennis and travel,’’ Poist said with a smile. “When I played golf in the ’70s, we traveled to places like Canada and Scotland and played all the great courses. Tennis is the same way. I enjoy seeing all the different places.
    “I especially enjoy going to Frinton on the North Sea about 100 miles from London. It’s a lovely old club. It’s more than 100 years old and is an ‘old shoe’ kind of place because you feel comfortable there.’’

Capt. Chip Sheehan flies a fishing kite to keep live bait near the surface.

He holds the head of a sailfish up briefly for a photo

before releasing it. Mate Billy Blackman, background,

caught the sailfish using a live bait dangled from a fishing kite.

Photos by Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

By Willie Howard

    The northerly winds and ocean swells of winter bring with them the opportunity to catch and release sailfish — a beautiful, high-jumping billfish with a sail-like dorsal fin that has the distinction of being the state’s official saltwater fish.
    Sailfish can be found year-round in the waters off Palm Beach County, but their numbers typically increase during the cold-weather months.
    The winter season’s many sailfish release tournaments typically begin in December and continue into April. Tournament fishing teams spend many a blustery winter day in hot pursuit of “spindlebeaks” in the Atlantic waters off Palm Beach County, where the Gulf Stream current sweeps so close to the beach that sailfish are occasionally caught from fishing piers.
    But you don’t have to be competing for the most releases to enjoy a day of catch-and-release sailfish action, as Capt. Chip Sheehan of Boynton Beach and mate Billy Blackman demonstrated recently.
    Sheehan operates the Chip’s Ahoy charter boat based at Boynton Harbor Marina and has been a sailfish tournament competitor for 20 years. In addition to running his boat, Sheehan serves as a tournament skipper on other boats.
    Sheehan specializes in kite fishing, a method used by most teams competing in sailfish tournaments off the coast of Palm Beach County.
    In kite fishing, a kite is sent aloft from the boat and lines holding live baits are dangled from the kite line (or lines). When a fish strikes, the release clip opens, freeing the fishing line. Kite fishing holds leaders out of the water and encourages baitfish to make fish-attracting splashes on the surface.
    During a trip to the waters off Boynton Inlet in November, Sheehan stocked up on live baits and launched two kites from the stern of his 33-foot Invincible after choosing a spot to fish offshore. He typically finds “sails” in 100 to 200 feet of water, but he stays in touch with other captains to discover in what depth sailfish are being found on any given day.
    With Blackman’s help, Sheehan launched two kites and rigged live baits on six fishing lines, three dangled from each kite line.
    The first fish to strike the kite baits were dolphin. Sheehan and Blackman were not disappointed. Dolphin (mahi mahi), are among the most sought-after of ocean fish because they’re beautiful, high-jumping and make excellent dinner fare (as long as they measure at least 20 inches to the tail fork.)
    Other fish caught when kite fishing include blackfin tuna, kingfish and occasionally wahoo.
    After a few hours of fishing, Blackman took the rod to fight a sailfish that hit a live goggle-eye in 100 feet of water off the Lake Worth pier. Sheehan held the sailfish’s head out of the water for a few seconds for a photo, then released it.
    Later that afternoon, Sheehan spotted the dark shadow of another sailfish that was stalking one of his kite baits but decided not to strike for some reason.
    Even though sailfish look silver in some photos, they display different colors based on their moods. Sailfish usually appear dark in the water when they’re chasing prey.
    We ended our November trip with several dolphin in the cooler and one sailfish release pennant flying — a nice day of fishing, but hardly a red hot day of sailfishing by Sheehan’s standards.
    Sheehan spends about 250 days a year fishing the ocean. His best single day of sailfish action came in 2004, when his team released 30 sailfish during the Silver Sailfish Derby, a tournament organized by the West Palm Beach Fishing Club.
    In January, Sheehan and his fishing partners released 23 sailfish in the waters off the Boynton Beach water tower (south of Boynton Inlet). Sheehan said he could see the tails of sailfish in waves driven by north winds that day.
    “They were tailing, headed south like bullets,” he said.
    When conditions are right following a cold front, the sailfish action off Palm Beach County can be world-class. On Jan. 5, 2012, the first day of the Silver Sailfish Derby, fishing teams found sailfish leaping from the water and tailing in the waves. Anglers on 46 boats released a combined 659 sails that day.
    All tournament sailfish are caught on non-offset circle hooks, which cause less internal damage to fish than traditional J hooks and are mandatory in billfish tournaments.
    Nearly all sailfish are released nowadays.
    To be legal to keep, a sailfish must measure 63 inches from the tip of the lower jaw to the fork of the tail. A federal HMS (highly migratory species) permit is required to harvest sailfish and other billfish, and all landings must be reported to NOAA within 24 hours.
    To reach Capt. Chip Sheehan regarding fishing trips aboard the 33-foot Chips Ahoy leaving from Boynton Harbor Marina, call 436-1417 or go to www.chipsahoycharters.com.
                                      
Notes
    Boynton Beach’s annual Holiday Boat Parade kicks off at 5:30 pm on Dec. 12 with live entertainment and activities for children. The boat parade begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Lantana bridge on Ocean Avenue. The decorated boats then move south ending at the C-15 Canal in Delray Beach. Viewing areas include Boynton Harbor Marina and Intracoastal Park. U.S. Marines will collect donations of new, unwrapped toys at viewing areas.
    Boaters interested in participating should call the Boynton Beach CRA at 600-9097. For details about parade viewing areas in Delray Beach, call the city at 243-7000.
                                      
    Members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary’s Flotilla 36 will teach the introductory About Boating Safely (ABC) course Dec. 6 in the headquarters building at Spanish River Park, 3939 N. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton. Course hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The $35 fee can be paid at the door.  Call 391-3600 or go to www.cgaux.boca.org.
                                      
    Tip of the month: Delicious Florida pompano can be caught from the beach when conditions are right. Use a long (10 feet or more) surf rod and heavy pyramid sinkers (3 to 4 ounces) to make long casts from the beach onto sand bars where waves are stirring up sand, leaving foamy sheets of brownish water. Waves unearth sand fleas and crabs that bottom-feeding pompano like to eat. Rig your rod with a pre-made pompano rig, which usually features two or three hooks above the sinker. For bait, use live sand fleas, bits of fresh shrimp or clam strips. Pompano must measure at least 11 inches to the fork of the tail to be legal to keep. The daily bag limit is 6.
Look behind you before casting from the beach. Don’t fish around swimmers or in guarded swimming areas. A Florida saltwater fishing license is required. Florida residents must carry a free shoreline fishing license unless they’re exempt. A three-day, non-resident saltwater fishing license costs $17. Call 888-347-4356 or visit www.myfwc.com.
    
Willie Howard is a freelance writer and licensed boat captain. Reach him at tiowillie@bellsouth.net.

Tricia and Jordan Hess and their son Brandon play Mary,
Joseph and Jesus in ‘Come to Bethlehem.’

Photo provided

By Tim Pallesen

    Delray Beach offers the best opportunity to get into the Christmas spirit early this month.
    • Begin your adventure standing in awe of the city’s newly lit 100-foot Christmas tree outside the Center for the Arts at Old School Square.
    • “Come to Bethlehem” — a living, interactive re-creation of Christ’s birthplace as it appeared 2,000 years ago ­— will be presented 7-9 p.m. on Dec. 5-7 at Cason United Methodist Church, 342 N. Swinton Ave.
    •  Christmas music comes as the Delray Beach Chorale performs its “Wonder of the Season” holiday concert at 3 p.m. Dec. 6 at First Presbyterian Church.
    Actors at the Methodist church have undergone authenticity training before they speak with visitors to Bethlehem. Roles include the women at the well, shepherds, wise men, feather-winged angels and merchants in a historically accurate Bethlehem marketplace.
    The set for Bethlehem took eight weeks to build behind the church. More than 100 volunteers including 70 actors take part in the annual free community event that draws 2,000 visitors each year.
    “We want people to experience walking into Christmas,” co-chair David Schmidt said. Lynn Routhier, the other co-chair, added: “People come out happy and peaceful.”
    The annual community choral concert at First Presbyterian, 33 Gleason St., will get you in the perfect mood.
    The Delray Beach Chorale has 65 voices accompanied by a brass ensemble, cello and organ.
    This year’s holiday concert is the first for new conductor and artistic director Patricia Fleitas, who is director of choral and vocal studies at Florida Atlantic University.
                           ***
   

Sister Lorraine Ryan, the Catholic nun who has become a Mother Teresa for Boynton Beach’s poor, will be honored as grand marshal in the city’s Christmas parade on Saturday.
    The city’s Recreation and Parks Advisory Board chose her from among 11 nominations.
    “There is simply no one person who has touched more citizens in our community through the sacrifice of energy, dedication and commitment to the well-being of our city and those who live here than Sister Lorraine Ryan,” Gulfstream Goodwill vice president Brian Edwards said in nominating her for the honor.
    Sister Lorraine was a medical missionary in India for 15 years before she moved to Boynton in 1999 to care for her ailing parents.
    After noticing that poor women here needed help, she and Sister Joan Carusillo started the non-profit Women’s Circle to give hundreds of women the skills to get life-supporting jobs.
       

Monsignor David Toups, rector of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Seminary

in suburban Boynton Beach, said he is thrilled by the surge in enrollment.

Tim Stepien/ Coastal Star

                    
    The surge in seminarians that required an $11.5 million dormitory expansion at St. Vincent de Paul Seminary is receiving praise to the Lord.
    The 92 young men now studying to become priests is the largest enrollment at the Catholic seminary since it opened west of Boynton Beach in 1963.
     “I think that would shock people. With the scandals, they might think we should be at an all-time low,” said Monsignor David Toups, the seminary rector.
    “But this is a sign of God’s presence,” Toups said before a Dec. 7 dedication of new dormitories which will allow for 110 seminarians.
    All of Florida’s bishops will celebrate with 300 donors and friends, with the happy seminarians joining in.
    “God has answered our prayers. He is breaking through the darkness that has surrounded the church. It’s truly a miracle,” said Daniel Daza-Jaller, a seminarian from Wellington.
    “I’m sure the scandals pushed guys away,” he said.  “But now the excitement is definitely here.”
    All old dormitory rooms were cubbyholes before the expansion and renovation project that more than doubles the living space by giving each seminarian his own bathroom, shower and porch.
                           ***
    The Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce has named Christians Reaching Out to Society Ministries as the city’s Nonprofit Organization of the Year.
    That’s no small honor considering that the selection committee included five past chamber chairmen and five past Business Person of the Year honorees.
    “The numbers of people whom they have fed and helped in our area is staggering,” chamber president Karen Granger said.
    The Caring Kitchen operated by CROS volunteers in Delray Beach served 91,383 hot meals in 2013. The poor also receive clothing and other services.
    The award was announced at the Chamber’s Luminary Gala attended by 400 community leaders on Oct. 24.

Tim Pallesen writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Email him at tcpallesen@aol.com.

    Eleven new patients are being cared for at the Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Facility at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center. The Kemp ridley turtles, shipped in from Massachusetts on Nov. 25, are being treated for cold stunning, a hypothermic reaction that occurs when sea turtles are exposed to cold water temperatures for too long.
    In the Northeast Region, 50 to 200 sea turtle were found suffering from the malady between late October and December. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation made arrangements with several Florida sea turtle hospitals to care for as many sea turtles as possible until they are ready for release.
    The smallest and most endangered of the sea turtle species, Kemp ridleys are also the most common cold stunned species in the Northeast. To treat them, staffers will monitor vital signs, fluids for hydration and x-rays to look for signs of illness or injury. They will ensure they get a proper diet and medications.
    Gumbo Limbo’s sea turtle conservation program has been rescuing sick and injured sea turtles for two decades. The rehabilitation facility opened in 2010. Since then, more than 275 injured or sick sea turtles have been treated there.
    To visit the turtles, stop by the center (www.gumbolimbo.org) at 1801 N. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton. Visitors are encouraged to donate $5.

— Staff Report

WORKING: The town of Ocean Ridge spent $450,000

to finish a drainage and pump project last year on Coconut Lane,

a street that used to flood on a regular basis. Photographed at peak high tide, the system is working.

NOT YET: Sarah Mitchell looks for a better photographic angle

in the waters flooding Marine Way in Delray Beach during an event held to highlight flooding impact.

The city plans more improvements to help control flooding on this street and in other neighborhoods.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

New drains, pumps, parking lots prevent flooding during king tides.

By Cheryl Blackerby

    Docked at Delray Beach’s marina, the sleek yacht named Amen rose to just 6 inches below the top of the seawall as local residents anxiously watched the tide come in.
    The king tides, the highest of the year, peaked at 10 a.m. on Oct. 8 and washed across the nearby narrow lane of Marine Way.
    Concerned neighbors waited to see if the water would rise as high, or higher, than last October, when high tides flooded Marine Way and the houses across the road.
    It didn’t. There was a collective sigh as the water receded before their eyes an hour later. Amen.
    Coastal residents marked the dates on their calendars, Oct. 8 and 9, when the king tides would arrive.
    Last year, those tides brought a foot of sea water onto Lantana’s beach parking lot, flooded streets in Briny Breezes, and swept over a portion of A1A in Manalapan.
    Because of new pumps and drains, new sea walls and raised parking lots, residents were relieved to see mainly dry streets on Oct. 8.
    Delray Beach’s historic Marina District still saw flooding but not as bad as last year because of a new drain. Four more drains will be installed this year, which is expected to further reduce flooding problems.
    Wearing rubber boots, John Morgan, the environmental sustainability officer for Delray Beach, walked in the sea water on Marine Way and pointed out the new drain that was helping keep the water level lower than last year.
    “We’re installing flex valves that keep sea water from coming in and lets the freshwater go out. The valve looks like a duck bill,” he said. Morgan was a speaker at the King Tide Education and Outreach event that was held at the Marina District at 10 a.m. Oct. 8 at high tide.
    The valves cost $20,000 each, including installation, Morgan said. The next four valves will be put along the marina.
    He called the valves a “stopgap measure.”
    “If the water comes over the sea wall, the valves are a moot point. We’ll have to raise the road at some point, and sink the sea wall farther underground,” he said, explaining that the porous ground under the road soaks up water like a sponge and will come up through the road.
    “This high tide is an indicator of how the water will be in the future,” he said.
    And that is a future that will include sea level rise, said Dr. Ana Puszkin-Chevlin, a Delray Beach resident and consultant on environmental land use planning and coastal hazard resiliency, who also spoke at the event.
    “Climate change is happening, and we need to plan appropriately,” she said. “Remember when Delray had 23 inches of rain in 12 hours? These events will become more frequent, and we have to plan for it.”

OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE MARINA: As part of its budgeted plans, Briny Breezes Inc. recently rebuilt

the bulkheads on the north side of its marina (above). The south side (below) has not been updated.

These photos, taken within one minute of each other, show the improvement.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star   

Other towns have taken protective measures to guard against flooding from king tides, tropical storms and sea rise:
    • Briny Breezes. In Briny Breezes, the two roads that run alongside the water at the marina were a stark lesson on the need for proactive action on flooding. On the morning of Oct. 8, Dock Drive, where the bulkhead was raised and reinforced with a dirt sod barrier this year, was high and dry, while the parallel street, Bay Drive, which had no work done, was under water.
    Briny Breezes, Inc. had $110,000 committed to the project in early April.
    “So far, we’re cautiously optimistic,” said Tom Oglesby, who is on the Briny Breezes board of directors. “We’ve significantly reduced flooding from seasonal high tides. We will have to decide what the best solution for other roads is.”
    • Lantana. The town raised its beach parking lot about a foot after continuous flooding in recent years.
    “It used to flood really bad, anywhere from six inches to a foot of sea water in the parking lot,” said Jerry Darr, Lantana utilities director. “We raised it a foot in July and August, and it has been dry.”
    The parking lot project — including replacing parking meters — was budgeted at $51,000.
    The town installed one tide-flex or duckbill valve, similar to those in Delray Beach, in July that will keep the rising water out, he said. “We’ve used them on a couple of other projects and they’ve worked really well,” Darr said.
    The town also installed two pump stations, one on North Atlantic Drive and the other on Beach Curve Road, at a cost of about $800,000 for both.  “We need more pressure to push water out during storms,” he said.
    • Ocean Ridge. The town finished a drainage and pump project on Coconut Lane last year and is installing a new drain on Eleuthera Drive. The Coconut Lane project cost $450,000 and the Eleuthera project will cost $200,000, including pumps and engineering.
    “There’s a huge difference on Coconut,” said Ken Schenck, Ocean Ridge town manager. “In the cul-de-sac, it could get two feet of water there during a hard rain on a high tide, but now it hasn’t flooded.”
    • Manalapan. The Florida Department of Transportation is upgrading the catch basins on A1A, which had some flooding in front of Eau Palm Beach Resort and Spa during October’s king tides. In 2009, a $10.4 million, state-financed project was completed along the three-mile stretch of State Road A1A south of Eau Palm Beach. The project raised the level of the roadbed 18 inches and improved drainage, landscaping, signs and lighting.

The Delray Beach Bike Club hosted a one-hour Human Powered Delray Bicycle Safety Awareness Ride

in October. The cyclists, complete with police escort, rode east across the George Bush Boulevard Bridge

in an effort to draw attention to the need to repave the roadway for bicycles.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Lois Pope

Photo provided

By Emily J. Minor

    It’s a Thursday, just a little past midmorning, and Lois Pope is watching the NASDAQ on a flat-screen TV hanging in her office. The television’s small, and clearly she could afford something bigger.
    But news is news.
    The market’s down, slightly, but nothing alarming.
    “I’ve always been interested in topical events,” says Pope, a major philanthropist who recently moved from western Delray Beach back to her beloved Manalapan. “I’m a reader. Always have been.”
    She’s also a visionary, an athlete, an art lover, a onetime Broadway performer, a mother, a grandmother, a widow, a dog lover, a Philly girl, and — if you do things right — one fantastic boss.
    Pope’s office assistant, Karen Fleming, has been with her 17 years. They found each other through a newspaper help-wanted ad.
    At 81, Pope is one of the country’s most dedicated benefactors of causes she deems important, large and small, and it’s no short list. Her nonprofit charity, the Leaders in Furthering Education Foundation, for years sent thousands of poor children to camp over the course of a summer, allowing them the cultural and social experiences they otherwise might have done without.
    She loves animals, so humane societies often benefit from her generosity.
    In 1996, she gave $10 million to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s neuroscience research programs.

Lois Pope at the Disabled Veterans Memorial.

Photo provided

    And just two years after that, acting on her longstanding obsession with the country’s propensity to ignore wounded service members once they’re back home, she started the Disabled Veterans Life Memorial Foundation. The memorial was dedicated just last month in Washington, D.C., and there she was — Palm Beach County’s very own Lois Pope — getting kudos from the president.
    Next up? “Well, we have to get a Disabled Veteran’s Day,” she says, enthusiastically. “There’s a day for everything else.”
    Talking with The Coastal Star at the $16.2 million Manalapan mansion she bought last spring, Pope looks relaxed and happy, and rather anxious to get on with her workday.
    She absolutely will not allow a photograph. “I just went through that,” says Pope, who is almost always photographed wearing evening dresses or designer suits.
    But today, the TV blaring business news, she’s wearing gym shoes, gym shorts and a LIFE T-shirt. Her hair is pulled back in her signature chignon. And while she says she’s not even wearing a smidgeon of lipstick, the onetime marathon runner looks absolutely fantastic.
    Staying busy is crucial for her health, she says. The only pills she takes in the morning are her seven vitamins.
    “I don’t stop,” Pope says.

Life-changing event

    She was born Lois Berrodin to middle-class parents outside Philadelphia. She has one brother, six years her elder, who is still involved in the family business, auto parts. Her mother was an elementary school teacher, and Pope credits her mom with “taking the time and the patience” to help her learn to read. Pope has fought dyslexia since she was a girl, although “then, there wasn’t even a word for it,” she says.
    Pope’s mother played the piano, and encouraged her young daughter to sing along — eventually paving the way for Pope to land vocal lessons with Estelle Liebling, a renowned vocal coach who agreed to take on the young girl for just $5 a lesson. “That’s all we could afford,” she says now.
    Lois Berrodin began college courses, but was eventually lured to the lights of Broadway, where she made for herself a short but memorable singing career. Once, while performing for wounded soldiers at a New York City hospital, she had an experience that changed her life. No cliché.
    She reached out to a soldier, encouraging him to take her hand as she sang, but he couldn’t. He had lost his arms.
    “That is something you never forget,” she says.
    In 1958, Pope — who wasn’t even Lois Pope yet — married a talent agent, and they had two children. When that marriage ended, Pope met Generoso Pope, who famously turned his family business into the National Enquirer and brought the headquarters to Lantana.
    Generoso Pope was only 61 when he died of a heart attack in 1988, and Lois Pope inherited his millions.
    In those early years, when Generoso Pope was still building the National Enquirer into an empire — an empire that would end up financing Lois Pope’s philanthropy today — the couple and the two children they had together made their home in Manalapan.
    Pope says she fell in love with the quaint neighborhoods in the late 1960s, the minute they drove into town.
    But more than a dozen years ago, Lois Pope moved away from the island, living in a gated community in Delray Beach. “It was time to come back,” says Pope, who bought her new estate from Richard DeVos, co-founder of Amway and owner of the Orlando Magic basketball team.
    Pope wanted to be back on the island, she says, close to the people who support her causes. Her big gala, the annual Lady in Red Gala, is Dec. 6 at Mar-a-Lago. Comedian Martin Short will perform.
    In the meantime, amid all the hubbub that a successful Palm Beach charity event demands, there are home improvement projects of all manner flying around her new place. The first thing she did was turn DeVos’ gym into her office. He might have used the private elevator from the master bedroom to the first-floor workout rooms, but she takes the staircase to work.
    There, sitting at her desk that faces the Intracoastal, she spends most days, unless she’s traveling. Networking. Planning. Thinking about her animals and her devotion to the arts and her love for children.
    “I really try to answer every phone call,” says Pope, about her charity work. “You just never know when people might need help.”

IF YOU GO
What: Lady in Red Gala, hosted by Lois Pope with comedy by Martin Short, to benefit LIFE, in partnership with the American Humane Association
When: 6-11:30 p.m. Dec. 6
Where: The Mar-a-Lago Club, Palm Beach
Tickets: $700; $500 junior   
For information: 582-8083

   If all of the negative campaign ads flooding the airwaves this midterm election have you feeling like you don’t want to vote for anyone, because they won’t tell you where they stand on anything, I understand.
    At The Coastal Star we don’t do endorsements for many reasons (time and resources being the most significant), but I do want to share my feelings on one issue that has already begun to impact all of us who live on the barrier island: the dismantling of the Florida Department of Community Affairs.
    Remember when 20-story towers were proposed for Briny Breeze’s 48-acres between the ocean and Intracoastal? In 2007 there was a Department of Community Affairs that weighed neighbors’ concerns against developer’s plans, then highlighted issues to address before development could be approved.
    But since Florida’s last gubernatorial election, that group has become the Department of Economic Opportunity. Now decisions about development (or overdevelopment) are pushed to local governments. No offense to the fine volunteers who sit on local boards, but the prospect of another mega-development proposal coming along in our slice of paradise is frightening.
    So this is the one topic I’ve decided to focus my vote on, and I’m searching out candidates who might feel the same way — even if they won’t talk about it on the campaign trail.

— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

Nilsa McKinney is chairwoman of this year’s Women of Grace Luncheon.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    For Nilsa McKinney, it’s a good day when she gets to kick off her shoes and stroll along the beach in shorts and a T-shirt.
    And while she loves the sunlight, well, given her druthers, McKinney would much prefer to stay out of the spotlight.
    Most of the time she leaves that up to her better-known husband, Frank, a well-recognized luxury-home developer and author.
    Every now and then, however, if the cause is good enough, Nilsa McKinney will reluctantly put on a pair of dress shoes and step onto center stage.
    “We joke that I wear shoes only because they make my outfit look good,” she says.
    McKinney will be in the spotlight this month as chairwoman of the 15th annual Women of Grace Luncheon hosted by the Bethesda Hospital Foundation and benefiting the hospital’s Center for Women and Children.
    The event, set for Nov. 12 at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, is expected to draw close to 700 guests and will honor five women selected as Women of Grace. Those honorees are: Barbara Gracey Backer, Laurie Raber Gottlieb, Fonda Huizenga, Una James and Anne Vegso.
    A past recipient of the Women of Grace recognition, McKinney says she left her comfort zone and accepted the role as chair of the event due in part to her long relationship with the hospital and her understanding of its impact in the community.
    “I took on being chair only because I truly believe in the work of the foundation and of the hospital,” she said.
    McKinney, 53, was one of the people who helped start the Women of Grace program 15 years ago, when she took part in a planning session for the event.
    That first year, she recalls, the awards were held in the hospital cafeteria with about 80 guests.
    “It’s been very satisfying for me to see this event grow the way it has,” she said. “Every year, it’s become the event that nobody wants to miss.”
    Over the years, the luncheon has raised more than $1 million and this year, McKinney said, the money raised will go toward helping the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a part of the hospital she visits every chance she gets.
    In addition to her support of Bethesda, McKinney has been a strong supporter of several other local organizations, including the Achievement Centers for Children & Families, the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce and St. Vincent Ferrer Church and School, where she ran a fundraising campaign.
    But the effort she and Frank are most passionate about is the Caring House Project, which they founded in 1998. The project has created more than 20 self-sufficient villages in under-developed areas of the world, including Central America and, most of all, in Haiti.
    Through the Caring House Project Foundation, the couple and their 16-year-old daughter, Laura, have had the chance to visit schools and orphanages that wouldn’t exist without the foundation’s support.
    “There’s no amount of money in the world that could give me the joy I get on the days I visit the school and orphanages,” she said. “Every time we visit these countries, the rewards that come back go beyond what we could expect.”
    While she remains pretty much behind the scenes, Nilsa McKinney is deeply involved in the couple’s real-estate development company, Venture Concepts International.
    An interior designer, she handles the logistics of the business, working out of a trailer on construction sites and putting out fires that come up.
    “I’m pretty good at executing plans B, C and D,” she says.
    For the McKinneys, the real-estate projects help make it possible for them to support the local community and to continue the work of their foundation.
    “We like to say that we build the big houses so we can then build the little ones,” she said.
    Nilsa and Frank McKinney are making it a point to pass on their passion for helping others to their daughter, who has seen firsthand the impact the foundation is making.
    “We want her to know the wonderful feeling that comes with giving because it gives you perspective on life,” Nilsa McKinney say. “You find that the simpler things can give you the most joy.”
    Things like walking barefoot on the beach in shorts and a T-shirt.

IF YOU GO
What: 15th annual
Women of Grace Luncheon
When: 11:30 a.m. Nov. 12   Where: The Mar-a-Lago
Club, Palm Beach
Tickets: $150  
For more information: Visit www.bethesdahospital
foundation.com or call
561-737-7733 ext.  84445.

    I have lived in Ocean Ridge since 1988. Those years have been eventful. Once I opened my mail box to come face to face with a large red snake about twice the diameter of my wrist. With my heart pounding out of my chest, I slammed the door shut and ran to phone the police. I am not sure what they did, but the snake did not come back.
    While animal lover “Doc” was still on the police force my Chihuahua, Cutie Pie, got a lamb chop bone stuck in her mouth. I grabbed her and tried to drive to the vet. But AIA roadwork created an obstruction. With lights blinking and sirens screeching, Doc got us there and went back to his job. The veterinarian was able to remove the bone easily.
    Then, sad to say, I fell into the “gypsy trap” of a distraction burglary. I collected the insurance, but that did not compensate for the value of never-recovered family heirlooms. We might have done better if there were cameras photographing traffic on the island.
    The police continue to call when I forget to close my garage door at night. I profusely thank them for reminding me.
    Recently I have been contemplating moving a little west to a less expensive house. Then there was the knock on my door this morning. I had gone out last evening and checked the mailbox on my return. After clearing the box, I had the mail, a bag of groceries, my purse and my cell phone. I dumped a magazine in recycling and entered the house.
    Missing the mail, I went out to the recycle bin, but there was no mail there so I came back in. This morning there was a knock on my door. There stood the police chief with my mail in his hand while one of his officers collected the rest of the soggy letters from my front lawn.
    I think I am changing my mind about moving, as where else could I find people like that — and the rest of the office staff — to take care of me and protect me in my aging years?
Joyce Bruck
Ocean Ridge

    I am writing in hopes that you will be interested in the other side of the story you recently printed about Manalapan police grievances.
    The union was accepted in Manalapan as the result of poor management that was evident by the huge turnover prior to becoming unionized. The officers having the ability to defend themselves against the poor management practices that resulted in a number of grievances.
    The police officers lost benefits and were the third-lowest in pay and benefits in the county prior to the 2012 contract. The contract agreed to in 2012 brought the officers back to where they were years earlier. This is all documented by the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association.
    The complaint made by me that you refer to in your September article was not a union grievance but a hostile workplace complaint made against Chief Carmen Mattox and another officer.
    This type of complaint had nothing to do with the union. It is a complaint handled by the human resources department. I withdrew the complaint, but the town chose to go forward with it.
    Another point I take exception with in your article is that you make it sound like I resigned as the result of not prevailing in my hostile workplace complaint. That is not true. I resigned for personal reasons following the death of my mother in April 2014.
    Your reporting is very one-sided. The town is having the problems that it has due to poor management.
Paul Williams
Former Manalapan police office

Christine Ashburn, Citizens insurance VP, works with Candy Alexandra to review her insurance policy.

With Sen. Maria Sachs looking on, Bobby Jurovaty encourages members of the crowd to talk to their agents.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

INSET BELOW: Alan Umstadter

By Dan Moffett
    
    The organizers of an insurance workshop at Briny Breezes promised no miracle fixes for the coverage problems the state’s mobile-home owners are experiencing.
    And true to their word, state Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, and the Citizens insurance officials and consumer advocates offered no cures.
    But the 80 residents who attended the workshop left with plenty of sound advice and a good bit of satisfaction. It isn’t often that policyholders get the chance to sit across the table from high-ranking executives of the state-run insurer.
    “I absolutely acknowledge the plight you’re in,” said Christine Ashburn, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. vice president. “I absolutely understand what’s going on here. I’m not promising a silver bullet, and I don’t have answers to all your problems, but I know what you’re going through.”
    Coverage started changing for mobile-home owners in 2006 when the Legislature ordered Citizens to begin treating their trailers like cars. Under the change, Citizens is no longer required to pay replacement costs on losses for mobile and manufactured homes built before 1994. Instead, the law requires Citizens to pay only the depreciated cash value of the loss.
    In communities such as Briny, the new law means that mobile-home owners are insured for only a fraction — often less than 30 percent — of what it will take to replace a trailer destroyed by a storm.
    Briny resident Celene “Candy” Alexandra says she has an insurance policy for $13,750 on her mobile home and coverage for $3,400 of her personal belongings.
    “That’s not even enough to pay for a shell of a new trailer if I had to rebuild,” Alexandra said. “And it’s not even enough to pay for a decent dinette set to replace the one I have. It’s not close to enough.”
    Alan Umstadter said he doesn’t even bother carrying property insurance on his Briny trailer.
 “I really don’t think it amounts to anything,” he said, “so I don’t see a reason to have it. I’d like to have liability insurance but I can’t get it without the storm insurance.”
    Paul Stewart, a Briny board member, noted that Palm Beach County has 162 mobile home parks, populated mostly by retirees who would have a hard time rebuilding or relocating under their current coverage.
    “FEMA could be facing many thousands of homeless elderly folks in the event of a catastrophe,” he said.
    Some advice from the Oct. 7 workshop for mobile-home owners:
    • Get to know your insurance agent. “It’s critically important that you work with your agent and make sure the agent knows about any upgrades you made to your property,” Ashburn said.
    • Consider paying for a home inspection. It could result in more coverage and a better deal.
    • Don’t be intimidated. Briny Alderman Bobby Jurovaty said too often when people get bad news from Citizens, “panic is the easiest thing to do, or people accept anything they may say.” Jurovaty encourages residents to get on the phone and talk to an agent.

By Dan Moffett
    
    In August, Ocean Ridge town commissioners rejected a last-ditch proposal from the Sivitilli family to renovate their beleaguered commercial building at 5011 N. Ocean Blvd.
    As it turns out, however, that was only a penultimate-ditch rejection.
    At its Oct. 6 meeting, the commission had a change of heart and gave the Sivitillis one more reprieve. Commissioners told family representative Rob Sivitilli they would rewrite the town’s rules to allow the building’s renovation.
    On a 3-1 vote, the commission approved assigning Town Attorney Ken Spillias to draft an ordinance that will grandfather Ocean Ridge’s only remaining commercial property into compliance with the town’s zoning and comprehensive plan.
    Spillias said the proposed ordinance he intends to bring to the Nov. 3 meeting will have a “repealer” provision that will allow the commission to remove the law from the books if the Sivitillis don’t follow through on their promises to overhaul the 55-year-old structure.
    “We agonized over this thing,” said Mayor Geoffrey Pugh. “I just don’t want to see this property sitting for the next two or three years looking like it does now.”
    The Sivitillis appeared to have exhausted the commission’s patience in August after offering a bare-bones renovation plan. But Rob Sivitilli came with details and concessions in October.
    He said the family was prepared to spend at least $250,000 on the project and would let the town hold the money during construction. He said the Sivitillis were willing to pay for all the legal expenses the town had incurred during more than a decade of court cases against the family. He brought a scale-model rendering by architect Randall Stofft and said the building would look “like new” in fewer than 90 days.
    And Sivitilli said he intends to live in Ocean Ridge and personally oversee the building’s use. “This property is going to stay in this family for as long as this person’s alive,” Sivitilli told commissioners.
    Commissioner James Bonfiglio was unimpressed and voted against the ordinance. He said the Sivitillis didn’t deserve concessions because they had sued the town twice.
    He said other property owners are likely to come forward now and ask for a similar break, and so might other developers. “Briny Breezes is going to come back and want to develop,” he said. “We had a strong position against Briny Breezes because we were 100 percent residential. Now we have a much weaker position.”
    Commissioner Richard Lucibella agreed that the town had been “jerked around” by the Sivitillis over the years, but agreed to give them a final chance.
    “The highest and best use of the property is mixed use, I’m convinced,” Lucibella said. “For the owners and for this town.”
    Vice Mayor Lynn Allison worried that turning down the Sivitillis’ plan could create a derelict building that would be an even worse eyesore. “I can’t understand why we wouldn’t do something that could improve the town,” Allison said.
    Commissioner Gail Adams Aaskov, whose real estate business has an office in the building, recused herself.
    In other business, commissioners tabled until November a discussion of enforcement guidelines and signage for the recently passed beach ordinance.