Community Redevelopment Agency
Executive director’s salary: $136,200
Assistant director’s salary: $112,500
Employees: 10 full-time, two part-time employees work on the GreenMarket; two open part-time positions
Board: Seven-member board from the community and appointed to varying terms
Revenue: $25.7 million
Revenue sources: 50 percent property taxes, 33.5 percent carried over from the last financial year, 15 percent from land sales, remainder from miscellaneous sources
Percent of revenue spent on payroll: 4.1 percent
Property within boundary: 1,900 acres or 20 percent of the city, northern boundary is Gulfstream Boulevard south to Southwest 10th Street, western is Interstate 95 east to the Atlantic Ocean.  The CRA owns at least 165 properties, including the iPic site (1.5 acres), the Fairfield Inn site (1.2 acres being leased by the hotel), the Uptown Delray project site (6.5 acres), the Arts Warehouse (0.5 acre) and several multifamily units and vacant single-family lots located throughout the district.  The iPic and Uptown Delray sites are under contract and will be sold once the projects receive building permits. The vacant housing lots are typically transferred to nonprofit agencies for new affordable housing.
Highlights: iPic upscale theater complex to open next year; Fairfield Inn to open soon; increased Clean and Safe program budget by nearly 30 percent; GreenMarket opened with the most vendors ever; artistic entry feature for Pineapple Grove; co-sponsor tennis tournament with the city; co-sponsor Federal Highway corridor improvements with the city; downtown marketing and promotion through the Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative; assisting in parking management program for the downtown.

Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative
Executive director’s salary: $72,000
Assistant director’s salary: $54,000
Employees: Four full-time
Board: Five-member board of the Delray Beach assistant city manager, two members from the Delray Beach CRA, two from the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce
Revenue: $689,280
Revenue sources: 68.3 percent comes from the city, its CRA and the chamber. The CRA is the biggest contributor at $326,980. Another 16 percent comes from sponsorships, 5 percent from the sale of First Night buttons, 2.7 percent from donations to the December events, 1 percent from booth sales and the rest from a variety of sources, including Santa photos and Santa breakfast.
Percent of revenue spent on payroll: 40.3 percent
Area served: The city of Delray Beach and its suburbs
Highlights: Started Artober event at On The Ave held in Pineapple Grove; celebrated Back to Cool on West Atlantic Avenue in August; teamed with Rand McNally to create a mobile tourism app; finalist in the Providencia Award from Discover The Palm Beaches tourism group, winner will be announced this month; First Night event sold out for the first time; built the 100-foot tall Christmas tree and held a tree-lighting ceremony.

Downtown Development Authority
Executive director’s salary: $97,603
Associate director’s salary: $61,800
Employees: Two full-time, one part-time
Board: Seven-member board, of which four must be taxpayers in the district. Business people apply to the city, which reviews applications for completeness. The DDA also receives the applications and makes recommendations to the city.  One city commissioner on a rotating basis nominates a prospective board member, who must receive the majority vote to join the DDA board.
Revenue: $676,032, does not include sponsorships
Revenue source: $1 in taxes per $1,000 in taxable property in the DDA area
Percent of revenue spent on payroll: 33.2 percent
Area served: 340 acres in the downtown core, west boundary is I-95 to the Atlantic Ocean, covers 409 businesses.
Highlights: Maintains online database of Atlantic Avenue restaurants and retailers that includes hours open, credit cards taken and location;  participates in nighttime management and parking in the area; markets merchants on specific days, such as Small Business Day and Mother’s Day; promotes merchants on the its website; starting program that allows small businesses to get high-quality video. 

All figures from 2014/15 budgets
Sources: Boca Raton Community Redevelopment Agency, Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative, Downtown Development Authority

Community Redevelopment Agency
Executive director’s salary: $0; city manager is executive director per an interlocal agreement. 
Downtown manager’s salary: CRA pays 90 percent or $88,788
Employees: 4.98 full-time-equivalent positions. Each CRA employee splits his or her time with the city,
Board: The five-member City Council sits as the board.
Revenue: $12.4 million
Revenue sources: 58 percent property taxes, 18 percent carried over from the previous financial year, 9.5 percent Mizner Park leases, 8.1 percent development fees, 5.2 percent from parking meters/tickets, remaining miscellaneous income
Percent of revenue spent on payroll: 4.1 percent
Property within boundary: 344 acres that covers the south end, starting at Northeast Mizner Boulevard in north and east to Northeast Fifth Avenue. The CRA owns 30 acres under Mizner Park, but the agency does not own the land and buildings of the city’s amphitheater.
Amount of money still owed the city for Mizner Park: $21.8 million. CRA will reimburse the city $2 million during the current budget year.
Highlights: City team working on a new parking strategy for the area; Business Improvement District Steering Committee created as an alternative resource for downtown marketing, events and programming, trolley/shuttle system and parking; Sanborn Square Arches and ‘Sanborn Promenade’ dedicated; redesign of Downtown Boca website launched in October; new consultant hired to continue downtown marketing and public relations plans; fourth annual Meet Me on the Promenade held in October.

All figures from 2014/15 budgets
Sources: Boca Raton Community Redevelopment Agency, Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative, Downtown Development Authority

Community Redevelopment Agency
Executive director’s salary: $123,188
Assistant director’s salary: $95,000
Employees: Seven full-time, one part-time to be hired
Board: Seven-person board, made up of five City Commission members and two community members appointed by the commission
Revenue: $9.1 million
Revenue sources: 90 percent property taxes, 10 percent from the marina
Percent of revenue spent on payroll: 9.2 percent
Property within boundary: 1,640 acres in the eastern end of the city, starting at Northeast 26th Avenue going south to Gulfstream Boulevard. The CRA owns 14.8 acres among 40 parcels.
Highlights: Phase II of the Boynton Harbor Marina will open this month; Pirate Fest & Mermaid Splash weekend held in October; grants for new and expanding businesses inside the CRA boundaries; holiday boat parade and Holiday Extravaganza in December; Catch Boynton ad campaign at the Palm Beach International Airport

All figures from 2014/15 budgets
Sources: Boca Raton Community Redevelopment Agency, Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative, Downtown Development Authority

By Rich Pollack

    It looks like license-plate recognition cameras on State Road A1A and other state roads will be allowed to stay up after all — at least for now.
    Last month, officials with the Florida Department of Transportation’s regional office caused an uproar in the local law enforcement community when they sent letters to four municipalities in Palm Beach County requiring the removal of license-plate recognition system cameras on state rights of way.
    Some of those cameras, including ones in the towns of Palm Beach and Manalapan, had been up for more than a decade and had been permitted by FDOT.
    Now, it seems that thanks to intervention by the Palm Beach County Association of Police Chiefs and the Florida Police Chiefs Association, the cameras will be allowed to remain, at least until a permanent resolution is hammered out between impacted law enforcement agencies and FDOT officials.
    “Common sense took over,” says Ocean Ridge Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi, who has been leading efforts to have agencies in southern Palm Beach County work together to install scanners on State Road A1A. “This is a public safety-focused technology that should be expanded, not decreased. I’m sure that there will be further discussions and that any other differences will be worked out.”
    License-plate recognition systems work by scanning tags of passing cars and comparing that information to tag numbers entered into databases by law enforcement agencies. If a tag registered to a stolen vehicle is spotted by the system, for example, an alert is sent to a dispatcher who verifies the information and then notifies officers on patrol.
    Law enforcement officials in Palm Beach County using license-plate recognition systems said they were surprised last month when they received a letter from FDOT ordering that the cameras on state property be removed.
    In the letter to police chiefs and managers in Boca Raton, Manalapan, Palm Beach and Riviera Beach, the FDOT’s District 4 Maintenance Engineer John Danielson noted that an inspection by state crews found that license-plate recognition devices had been installed on state property.
    “Only legislatively authorized traffic infraction detectors (red-light cameras) and toll violation cameras are permitted within FDOT right of way,” Danielson wrote. “In the absence of specific legislative authorization, other types of camera systems, such as license-plate readers and surveillance cameras that are used by law enforcement, are not allowed.”
    Chuck McGinness, a spokesman for the FDOT’s District 4 — which includes Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties — said the letters were prompted by a media report several weeks ago about a license plate recognition camera installed by the city of Riviera Beach near the Blue Heron Bridge.
    “Our maintenance staff was asked to survey state roadways, particularly along State Road A1A and near Intracoastal Waterway bridges, for other license-plate recognition devices,” he said. “After the survey, the letter was sent to those municipalities with license-plate recognition cameras on state right of way.”
    The letters, a topic of discussion among local police officials including several whose communities are considering installing license-plate recognition scanners, were brought up at last month’s meeting of the Palm Beach County Association of Police Chiefs.
    One of the members of that group is Jupiter Police Chief Frank Kitzerow, current president of the Florida Police Chief’s Association. Both Kitzerow and the Palm Beach County Association’s president, Palm Beach Public Safety Director Kirk Blouin — whose department was one of those receiving a letter — contacted FDOT officials in Tallahassee.
    “They’re being very reasonable with us and we’re sure we’ll come to a reasonable solution,” said Blouin, who confirmed that FDOT is allowing the cameras to remain on state property, at least temporarily.
    A Florida Department of Transportation spokesman in Tallahassee said little about the situation. “We are working cooperatively with the affected local governments to reach a resolution,” Dick Kane, FDOT’s communications director, said.

By Jane Smith
    
    The Boynton Woman’s Club received another plume for its bonnet when it was designated a Boynton Beach historic site.
    The clubhouse, already on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979, was designed by Addison Mizner. It is the scene for weddings, private celebrations and meetings.
    “We’re very happy to have the designation,” said Michele Walter, Boynton Woman’s Club president, after the City Commission passed the ordinance 5-0 in early October. “And we’d like to thank Warren Adams, historic planner, as well as the CRA and city commissioners for their support for our restoration efforts. Their cooperation and support of the CRA grant helped us in the restoration of the three doors and windows in our second-floor ballroom.”
    Adams is helping the club members apply for a state matching grant that had to be filed by Oct. 31. The state will rank the grant recipients and send that list to the Legislature. “Then it depends on whether the Legislature appropriates the money,” he said.
    If the Woman’s Club gets the grant, it would have to raise a matching amount. Adams said the group would use the value of his time for a percentage of the matching amount. The money will be used to refurbish the original windows and French doors.
    “We have 41 openings to address, this includes double French doors, some with transoms, casement windows with and without transoms and a variety of single windows and doors,” said Barbara Wineberg, the club’s fundraiser. “We are hoping it will cover them all, but we won’t know for sure until we get an architect in there to examine each one.”
    The Woman’s Club building, sitting on the east side of Federal Highway between Boynton Beach Boulevard and Woolbright Road, is the city’s grandest structure.
    The family of Maj. Nathan Smith Boynton, the city’s founder, donated $35,000 in his memory to the project.
    Famed architect Addison Mizner did his design “pro bono” because the building would cost over $50,000. It contains classic Mizner features, such as a barrel-tile roof, arched windows, turquoise trim, pecky cypress trusses on the ceiling and French doors. From the lobby on either side, two wide wooden staircases curve gracefully to the second floor, which is large enough to seat 400 people.  The building opened in the fall of 1926.
    Celebrations at Boynton Woman’s Club schedules events and shares a percentage of the fees with the club. It uses the approximate $80,000 annually to pay for various insurances and the elevator maintenance contract, said Barbara Erlichman, who handles publicity for the club.

By Jane Smith
    
    After waiting for more than 10 years, Boynton Beach will finally get a project that could jump-start its downtown.
    City commissioners sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency board gave tentative approval to a $4.3  million package to construct the $67 million 500 Ocean multifamily project. With two community members on the board, the vote was unanimous in mid-October.
    “I can’t tell you how long I waited for this to happen,” Mayor Jerry Taylor said.
    To him, the 500 Ocean project with its 341 apartments in a mix of five- and six-story buildings with a seven-story parking garage, will be a catalyst for downtown Boynton Beach.
    Before agreeing to provide the financial incentive over 10 years, some of the CRA board members demanded to know whether the developer who received approval would be around in the end.
    “It’s a long-term deal for LeCesse,” said Tom Hayden, development director at LeCesse Development Group of Altamonte Springs. “We are proud of this one, we will be here at the end.” LeCesse is a partner in the multifamily project’s developer Morgan Boynton Beach LLC.
    But that quasi-promise still left some of the commissioners uneasy.
    The 4.7-acre property at the southwest corner of Ocean Avenue and Federal Highway has been vacant for about 12 years.
    The incentive money would come from property tax revenue generated by 500 Ocean’s construction.
    LeCesse requested the money to be front-loaded to cover the gap between the expected rental income and increasing construction costs. For the first four years, the developer would get 75 percent of the tax revenue and the CRA 25 percent.
    To do the deal, the CRA requested the developer add 6,000 square feet of Class A office space above its retail space. The office space would bring more professional jobs to the downtown, said Vivian Brooks, executive director. The CRA also requested the building be green-certified to fit into the city’s climate action plan and green building program.
    Commissioner Mike Fitzpatrick asked why the developer had not produced the financial documents requested when it first sought the money in the summer.
    Hayden dodged that question by saying his investors would be reluctant to provide that type of information. “I would say they would provide it before closing,” he said.
    Fitzpatrick said that would be after the CRA board votes. “I don’t see any hard evidence that you need our money,” he said.
    Hayden did not reply. Taylor came to his rescue when he said the need for the money was explained in the presentation.
    The board felt more comfortable when Brooks said the developer won’t see any money until it secures a construction loan.
    Ground will be broken for the project next spring, Hayden said. Then it will take another 18 to 24 months for the project to get its certificate of occupancy.
    Brooks will bring a revised agreement for the board to sign in the future

Rob Van Winkle, aka rapper Vanilla Ice, is offering to do a 13-episode TV show

about his renovation of this $10.5 million home in Manapalan.

Photo provided

Watch video

By Christine Davis

    Broker James Arena, of Arena and Company, which has headquarters at the Boynton Beach Mall, has produced a YouTube video starring Rob Van Winkle, better known as Vanilla Ice, about a property for sale at 4020 S. Ocean in Manalapan. Owned by Ken Brown, it’s currently listed by Marisela Cotilla and Michael Castro of Douglas Elliman and Sheri Reback and Mindy Gaines of Reback Realty for $10.5 million.
    “This is one of the most unique things I’ve ever done,” Van Winkle said in the video. “We are going to put this on TV, make 13 episodes out of this, and turn this house into something that’s truly magical.”
    In an email response, Van Winkle added: “This is a great opportunity for investors or homeowners looking for a jewel in the heart of Palm Beach. The home is a little dated, and it would be a complete new build. This will make for a magical TV show on the Vanilla Ice Project to showcase to the world the beauty of Palm Beach and its wealthy residents. Palm Beach has its own style and flair that is second to none.”
    For homes on his show, he always endeavors to take them from dated to amazing, he wrote, using the finest features such as home IMAX theaters, lazy-river swimming pools, pneumatic elevators, award-winning kitchens, rotating automobile turntables for the garage, etc.
    According to Arena, the investor can do it as a joint venture and have the property renovated by Vanilla Ice and have it featured on season six of DIY Network’s The Vanilla Ice Project. “Rob will be the contractor, and renovate it on air in front of 51 million viewers, then put it back on the market and sell it at a premium.”
    Cotilla, one of the listing agents, said that the value of the property is in the land, a double lot on 2.4 acres with views of the Intracoastal Waterway and the ocean. The property is adjacent to the Boynton Inlet.
    Van Winkle’s company also closed on a Hypoluxo Island property in October. In that $1.425 million sale, Arena represented the seller, and Angela Kinser of Milestone Real Estate Services represented the buyer. Arena said he was told that the Lantana house would be featured during season five of HGTV and DIY Network’s Vanilla Ice Project.
                                     
    Lord & Taylor’s corporate nonprofit program, Shop Smart Do Good, returns on Nov. 6 from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., in support of 25 local nonprofits. Organizations sell $5 tickets to the daylong event, and in addition to the deep discounts, refreshments will be offered from area restaurants as well as entertainment by local performing artists. Top-selling nonprofit organizations will receive additional bonus prizes from Lord & Taylor and all ticket proceeds sold on the day of the event are divided between the participating organizations. Lord & Taylor is at 200 Plaza Real, Mizner Park, Boca Raton.

INSET BELOW: Jan Savarick                                    
    Jan Savarick, president of Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation, plans to retire. “Jan is going to be a tremendous loss to the hospital,” said Jerry Fedele, the hospital’s president and CEO. “She’s been here for 13 years, and the hospital has evolved from a very good hospital to an academic center. During the last six years, since I’ve been here, I’ve worked with her personally. She does it all: major gifts, spectacular community events, the golf tournament, and a big part of the marketing component by reaching out and educating about the services we have here, and she sits in patients’ rooms and holds their hands. She does it all 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
    She is a busy woman. In addition to her role at the hospital, she’s chairwoman of the advisory board for the School of Social Work at Florida Atlantic University, an honorary board member of Hillel of Broward & Palm Beach, and past president of Donna Klein Jewish Academy. She was named one of South Florida’s Most Influential Business Women of 2012 and a 2013 Palm Beach County Ultimate CEO by the South Florida Business Journal.  She was the honoree at the annual American Association of Caregiving Youth’s Back to School breakfast in 2013, and most recently received the Phyllis & Harvey Sandler Crystal Award in recognition of her involvement in and support of the Levis Jewish Community Center. Savarick also is honorary chair for the 2015 Kiwanis Scholarship Walk for Homeless/Foster Care Students and recipient of the 2015 Rotary Opal Award in Medicine and Healthcare.
    Which is why she’s winding down a little, she said. “I will continue with the work I’m doing.  I’m not going quite so fast; maybe in four months or so. The hospital has not started the search yet.”
    She wants to take some time to figure out the next chapter of her life, she said, and she has so many interests and opportunities, she hasn’t decided on anything specific yet. “I’m seeing too many small nonprofits failing because they are focused only on the good services of their mission. I might want to do some consulting for them; step in to help facilitate for major asks. It’s not something that would make me a millionaire, but it would help others. My primary passion is the world of contemporary art, so I’d like to marry my personal passion with something that I’m doing in the business world.”
                                      
    It’s not a walk in the park, but a mammogram can be like a day in the garden or at the beach, or by a waterfall. Boca Raton Regional Hospital’s Christine E. Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute offers the SensorySuite by GE Healthcare, which surrounds a woman with an interactive mammography experience designed to stimulate sight, smell and hearing. Studies have shown that when women can choose to have their mammogram in an environmental ambiance they have a better overall experience and are more likely to schedule regular exams.
    For those with chronic hip pain who’ve resorted to replacement surgery and still have problems, Boca Raton Regional Hospital orthopedic surgeon Charles Toman may have a solution: the gluteus maximus transfer. This procedure divides and reroutes muscle from the gluteus maximus to replicate function of the medius and minimus hip abductors that are torn beyond repair. The gluteus maximus transfer is usually overlooked as an option, however, because X-rays are more commonly ordered than MRIs. While an X-ray may call for a new hip, it’s the MRI that can reveal evidence of atrophy and chronic tearing, which are the probable causes of pain. The gluteus maximus transfer is usually a last resort and is recommended for patients with chronic, degenerative issues or complications from other surgeries.
                                      
    Brenner Real Estate Group, in cooperation with Balistreri Realty, has been awarded the brokerage listing for the sale of 31 luxury condominium units at Royal Poinciana, on West Hidden Valley Drive and Northwest 76th Street in Boca Raton, with its sales center at 93 Via Floresta Drive.  The owner of the property is Sabal Financial Group LP, a hedge fund based in Newport Beach, Calif. The gated community of Royal Poinciana has 90 units, 31 of which have been rental apartment units. An onsite general contractor is renovating these units to make them ready for sale as townhomes by the Brenner/Balistreri team. The units range from 1,930 to 2,410 square feet with three- and four-bedroom layouts and two-car garages, with 50 of the units as two-story, single-family, semi-attached homes and 40 as three-story attached townhomes. Prices will range from $325,000 to $450,000. For information, visit www.royalpoincianaboca.com or call 994-8333.
                                     
    Baptist Health South Florida, together with Bethesda Health and Bethesda Hospital, signed an affiliation agreement in October. “We believe that this potential affiliation will leverage our shared vision for improving the health of our respective communities,” said Roger L. Kirk, president and chief executive officer of Bethesda Health. “Over the coming months, we will be working collaboratively on a strategic business plan to ensure that our mutual goals for the affiliation are closely aligned,” said Brian E. Keeley, president and chief executive officer of Baptist Health South Florida. The closing date of the affiliation is expected to occur during the first quarter of 2015.
                                      
    In mid-October, the George family, owners of 326 and 400 East Atlantic Avenue, Delray Beach since 1915, listed the properties for sale for $21.5 million through Howard Bregman, of Marcus & Millichap.
    “In the last six to 12 months, the Georges have received unsolicited offers for the buildings and they feel that it’s an opportune time to bring their assets to the market,” Bregman said.
    “In general, the market in Downtown Delray Beach is very hot. I think it’s only getting hotter. Atlantic Avenue is a very limited area, so barrier of entry is very expensive. I think, in general all development — hotels, condos, theaters — only advances it.”
    Around the corner, iPic Entertainment’s proposal for a mixed-use development anchored by an eight screen, 529-seat luxury movie theater was accepted by Delray Beach’s Community Redevelopment Agency, but raised concerns from some local business owners who believe that the theater will cause traffic congestion problems.
    “iPic has resubmitted its development proposal, and the access of the alley has been eliminated from the original proposal. Now the access to the garage would be Southeast Fourth Avenue, and not from the alley,” said Scott Pape, the city’s Planning and Zoning senior planner.
    “We need to review their revised plans, and once we have consensus to move forward, it will go to Planning and Zoning.” No date has been set.
                                      
    Marianne Gourmet Shop, 803 George Bush Blvd. in Delray Beach, has added hours and menu items. New hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
    “We extended times to help moms pick up healthy snacks and meals to go,” said owner Sara DeVries. “We’re offering more kid-friendly foods, like chicken cutlets, and healthy foods, like grilled salmon and shrimp. We have all kinds of casseroles, like macaroni and cheese, and baked ziti with meat sauce.”
    Also, keep in mind the gourmet shop’s Thanksgiving menu, she said. “We do the whole nine yards. Come and purchase the whole dinner, or pick and choose items by the pound. Everything is made right here.” In addition to old stand-by favorites like chicken salads, tuna salad and Turkey Terrific Sandwiches with stuffing and cranberry mayonnaise are an array of desserts and daily specials.
    “Also, people like to bring in their own dish, and ask us to fill it up with their favorite. They can entertain at home, and their guests will think they home-cooked it.”
                                      
    BCBGMaxazria, a luxury national-brand women’s clothing boutique, plans to open its doors in a storefront in the 411 E. Atlantic Ave. building by the end of November, if not sooner, said the soon-to-be store manager, Rena Vatch, who is currently working out of the company’s Boca Raton Town Center store. Construction is underway and, BCBG is currently hiring sales staff.
    Fresh Produce opened in October at 401 E. Atlantic Ave. “Fresh Produce clothing has had a strong presence in the Delray Beach area since the 1980s at Dock Square Clothiers,” said Mary Ellen Vernon, Fresh Produce founder and chief brand officer. “Everything about this location aligns beautifully with the spirit of Fresh Produce, from the vibrant colors to the calm, casual feel.”
                                      
    Early November, Robert Greenfield, former owner of DIG and Greenfields on Atlantic, will open his new restaurant, Green Fields Organic Bistro, in Boca Rey Plaza, 4900 Linton Blvd., Suite 14. Offering a smoothie bar, organic foods and other healthy choices, the menu will include salads, soups, organic mac and cheese, wraps, sandwiches, seafood, juices and desserts.  Green Fields also will offer take-out and delivery.
                                       
    The Delray Beach Green Market at Old School Square Park is in its 19th season and will be open every Saturday through May 9, with a few location changes and closures because of festivals. The market will also host two special events this season including the 18th Annual Chili Cook-off on Feb.  21 and the 14th annual Easter Bonnet Pet Parade on April 4. This season, more than 65 veteran vendors have returned. Old School Square Park is located on 51 N. Swinton Ave. in downtown Delray Beach. For more information, email greenmarket@delraycra.org or call  276-7511.
                                      
    From 6 to 8:30 p.m. Nov. 20, for this year’s final Third Thursday Fun-Raiser at Crane’s BeachHouse Hotel Tiki Bar, 10 local restaurants will compete for the coveted title of Best Bite on the Ave by offering free samples from their menu. Attendees will select the winner by dropping a special token in their favorite restaurant’s fish bowl.
    Attendees will receive their first token (along with five free raffle tickets) upon paying the $5 admission charge, and will receive another token every time they buy a drink (alcoholic or not) at the Crane’s BeachHouse Hotel Tiki Bar.
    At the end of the evening, the restaurant with the most tokens will be declared Best Bite on the Ave winner for 2014. Previous winners include Tryst Gastropub in 2013 and Prime Delray in 2012. 
    This Fun-Raiser will benefit the HOW Foundation of South Florida, which works with wounded warriors, and Project Holiday, which supports local families who have loved ones serving in the armed forces. Crane’s BeachHouse Hotel Tiki Bar is at 82 Gleason St., Delray Beach. For information, call (561) 278-1700 or visit www.cranesbeachhouse.com.

INSET BELOW: Bob Weisblut                                    
    It took two years, but Bob Weisblut’s little “For Sale by Owner” sign finally produced results, bringing him two potential buyers for his Ocean Liner Villa Apartments at 5001 Old Ocean Blvd., Ocean Ridge, on the same afternoon in September, and finally gaining him a $2.7 million sale by the month’s end.
    “When I bought the Ocean Liner 22 years ago, I walked down the street, saw it and wanted it, and I figured I’d sell it the same way,” he said. He figured right. “The day I was leaving for a trip to Peru, Francois Marcil and Frank McKinney both had an interest in it. I told them I was leaving for two weeks and what could I do on a Saturday?”
    Upon Weisblut’s return, Marcil did indeed buy it. The closing was Sept. 30. Marcil, who is planning some renovations, has already painted the roof, Weisblut said. The Ocean Liner, comprising six apartments, was originally a duplex, “but at some point (before his time), the porches closed it up,” Weisblut said.
    At first, he was going to rent a unit from Anna Ruggiero, for whom Anna Street was named. “But she passed away and her son, who lived in Georgia, didn’t want anything to do with it. He had no idea who was going to show up that year, because he had no records. He said he wanted out. I loved it, so I bought it.”
    But that was a long time ago. “I was ready to sell,” he said. “I want to travel, and that’s hard when you have people depending on you to have things fixed. I’m finished with that.”
                                     
    Recently, the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches promoted Dionna Hall as the new chief operating officer and Kim Hansen as the new director of MLS. On Sept. 6, the association donated $5,000 toward the home of a family in Lake Worth, and spent the day assembling and installing walls. On Sept. 25, they donated $200 to The Lord’s Place and $250 to Quantum House. Proceeds were raised from continuing education classes sponsored by First American Title.
                                      
    The Mildred Hoit boutique, at 265 Sunrise Ave. in Palm Beach, will host Adopt-A-Family Day on Nov. 4. During this daylong event, a percentage of all sales will be donated directly to the nonprofit organization. The agency has helped more than 40,000 families attain self-sufficiency in its 31 years of service in the community. The boutique offers fashions and designer products including sportswear, jewelry, handbags, lingerie and home furnishings.

Christine Davis is a freelance writer. Send business news to her at cdavis9797@comcast.net.

Hal Finkelstein (left) and Martin Kahn at the South Palm Beach SCORE office in Boca Raton.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jay Waitkus

    Martin Kahn says he likes “to see the good side of people, and see them make it.”  
    Kahn means it, too: The 85-year-old Highland Beach resident has a personal case file with the names of nearly 2,000 clients whose lives he has touched over the past two decades.  
    As vice chairman of South Palm Beach SCORE, the Boca Raton-based chapter of a nonprofit organization that provides mentoring opportunities and other resources to businesses throughout the United States, Kahn — like his fellow counselors — is deeply committed to assisting those in the business community.  
    “It’s altruistic and based on people who have great business experience who care about helping other people,” he said.
    The chapter’s chairman, Hal Finkelstein, agrees.
    “Our mission is to help small businesses succeed and grow,” said Finkelstein, 72, a resident of Boca Raton.  
    Based in Herndon, Virginia, SCORE was founded in 1964 as the Service Corps of Retired Executives, before shortening its name to the acronym it is more commonly known by today.
    With 11,000 volunteers from the business world, the organization, which includes more than 320 chapters nationwide, has provided assistance to more than 10 million clients during the past 50 years.  
    “There are a lot of good people in this country who believe in giving back to the community and helping others,” said Kahn.
    Like the national organization, the South Palm Beach branch, at 7999 N. Federal Highway, Suite 201, in Boca Raton, has a lengthy history of service.
    Founded in 1977, the chapter was based in Delray Beach before moving to Boca in 2003.
    An active branch, the chapter has twice been named SCORE’s National Chapter of the Year — first in 1999, and again under Finkelstein’s leadership in 2012.  
    Its roster of counselors, more than 30 in all, includes former CEOs, CFOs, division managers and business owners.
    Most, said Finkelstein, are still involved in the business world in some capacity.
    Along with regular hours of operation, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday to Thursday, assistance from the chapter is available on weekday afternoons and Saturdays upon request, Finkelstein said.
    The services the group provides include business coaching, consulting and workshops.
    Finkelstein said individual mentoring sessions are conducted in person, by Skype and email, with volunteers from the chapter willing to travel to a business’ location if such help is needed.
    Finkelstein said the group has provided services to 17,000 businesses with more than 50,000 employees between them during the last two years.  
    Kahn said the chapter has helped people from across the state and the nation, adding that his own clients have come from as far away as Alaska and Honolulu.
    All of the chapter’s mentoring services are free, although the group charges fees of $39-$99 for workshops and solicits donations to raise money for its expenses.
    The group’s showcase event is its annual conference at Lynn University, a gathering attended by businesses from all over the state.  The next conference is May 9, 2015.
    As chairman of the local chapter, Finkelstein said the best part of his time with SCORE is twofold: One is helping others make their businesses successful; the other is preventing those who have ended up in a difficult position from doing irreparable harm to their finances.  
    Finkelstein’s background in business is diverse.
    A former resident of New Jersey, Finkelstein owned a New York-based construction company for approximately 30 years. He also served as a member of New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller’s construction task force and as a lead engineer for the Apollo missions for ground tracking stations.
    In addition, Finkelstein hosted a number of radio programs and wrote 15 engineering books focusing on the construction industry. He has also been involved in the world of online business.
    After moving to Florida in the late 1990s, Finkelstein wanted to give something back to the business community in a way that would allow him to draw on his extensive background.
    He joined South Palm Beach SCORE in 2007, and was elected chairman two years later.
    Like Finkelstein, Kahn has been very successful. For more than 40 years, he owned his own interior design business in New York.
    Retiring in 1992, Kahn has been with SCORE since 1993, when his wife, Caryl, saw a public service announcement about the group.  
    Since moving to South Florida in 2005, Kahn’s work on behalf of the organization has continued in earnest.
    “It’s a very time-consuming job,” he said, “but it’s very rewarding, because sometimes you meet that one client and they’re able to succeed and you’ve helped them to attain their life’s dream.”
    One of the chapter’s success stories is that of the Boca-based Custom Artisan Cabinetry, which designs, manufactures and installs custom cabinetry.
    Jose Barni, 27, the company’s owner/manager, said the family-owned business has been involved with SCORE since 1999, receiving help in such areas as networking, accounting, marketing and Web development.
    Barni, who has attended several of SCORE’s roundtable discussions, said the main thing the group has provided his business with is insight.
    “Any time we have some sort of tough decision to make or an idea to bounce off the counselors, they’re always available,” he said. SCORE’s assistance, he added, has been “invaluable” to his company.
    Barni said South Palm Beach SCORE is the best chapter in the nation, crediting leaders such as Finkelstein, Kahn and the group’s treasurer, Mike Lupo, for maintaining the chapter’s high quality of service.
    “I think my business would never be headed in the direction it’s headed in now without their help,” he said.
    Barni said he is planning on becoming a mentor to other entrepreneurs when he retires.
    Kahn advocates such a call to service, adding that anyone who has been successful has skill, knowledge and wisdom that could be passed on.
    “If you enjoy helping others and have had an interesting, worthwhile career, there are people who can benefit from your expertise, and SCORE would be a wonderful place to bring your skills,” he said.
    Finkelstein emphasized the impact the group has on people’s lives.   
    “SCORE helps save a lot of jobs by helping a lot of businesses grow and succeed,” he said. “I think we add greatly to the economy, both nationally and here in Florida.”
    For more information about South Palm Beach SCORE, visit the group’s website at
www.scoresouthflorida.net or call 981-5180.

Comparisons

Delray Beach: Marketing agencies | Boynton Beach: Community Redevelopment Agency | Boca Raton: Community Redevelopment Agency

By Jane Smith

    Delray Beach has an alphabet soup of marketing agencies, three city commissioners say. They want to see a clear division of the agencies’ roles so that residents can tell what each one does.
    In September, Mayor Cary Glickstein chastised the Downtown Development Authority for not sending a representative to explain the authority’s budget when it involved a tax levied on downtown property owners. Commissioner Shelly Petrolia echoed his concern.
    The DDA board members took that rebuke seriously and practiced a presentation boiling it down to 30 minutes. They chose board member Ryan Boylston, founder of the Woo Creative marketing agency, to deliver it in mid-October.
    But the City Commission gave him only 10 minutes because its agenda was lengthy that night.
    “I can’t tell you how many times, people have come into this chamber, not understanding what you are, the DBMC, the CRA and the city’s economic development role is,” Glickstein said to Boylston.
    “Ever since the DDA split in recent years, there has been mission creep and duplication of services.”
    He was referring to the division over two years ago, when the DDA board voted to pull most of its money from the Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative. The cooperative is a multi-agency partnership that now includes the city, the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency and the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce. The DDA still gives $30,000 annually to the cooperative for the 100-foot-tall Christmas tree.
    Marjorie Ferrer, the DDA executive director, said at the time her agency wanted to focus on its mission of marketing downtown merchants and keeping the area clean and safe.
    The cooperative, which had been known as the Downtown Marketing Cooperative, changed its name in 2010 to the Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative.
    Seven percent of the cooperative’s current budget of $689,280 goes to destination marketing. Also in the current budget year, the cooperative will receive 68.3 percent of the total from the city, its CRA and the chamber. The CRA is the biggest contributor, with $326,980 going to the cooperative.
    At one time, Ferrer also was the executive director of the cooperative, but in 2010 the cooperative’s board voted not to renew her contract. Following that split, the DDA board asked the commission to contract with it to put on the special events for the city. Commissioners voted against that proposal and stayed with the cooperative to market its events, including the Christmas tree, Fourth of July fireworks and First Night, a family-oriented New Year’s Eve.
    That is why the mayor said in October that he would like to see “all of your (DDA’s) marketing dollars go to the DBMC. It’s our events agency … everything they are marketing is in the downtown.
    “I would like to see the DDA focus more on retail promotion and recruitment. That is what West Palm’s DDA does. In fact, I saw their staff in town this week recruiting our retailers,” Glickstein said.
    Commissioner Jordana Jarjura praised the group for reducing its marketing costs by 25 percent and added, “But I’d like to see it go down further. It’s not my job, but up to your board. I see other areas where that money could be used.”
    The mayor explained his thinking, “The CRA provides our facade improvements and business grants; they are funding clean and safe  economic development. The DBMC is our events agency. I just don’t see anyone dedicated to the success of downtown retail. I know that you think you are, but I see a budget diluted by marketing, economic development, place-making, grants, sponsorships, and I think it’s an agency struggling for relevancy.”
    He wants the DDA to update its cluster retail study and consult with Robert Gibbs, an urban retail consultant in Birmingham, Mich. Gibbs has achieved a guru-like status among downtown planners and visited Delray Beach in May. He spoke about “downtown retail and merchandising in the 21st century.”
    Glickstein also suggested using the services of Joan Goodrich, the city’s new economic development manager. She was just hired in June from Broward County, where she led a recruiting team that helped attract, expand or retain 52 companies in Coral Springs. Her $78,000 salary is split 50-50 between the city and its CRA. She will reveal her business plan this month to the City Commission.
    For now, the DDA seems to be charting its own course.
    The DDA will update its retail cluster study next year using the same consultant, H. Blount Retail and Real Estate Research Consulting of Norfolk, Va., that did the 2005 study, said David Hand, DDA chairman, in written replies to emailed questions. The study will add new growth areas, such as SOFA (south of Atlantic) and West Atlantic Avenue, Hand said.
    “The DDA has a professional relationship with him (Gibbs) and respect for his expertise,” Hand said. “The Delray Beach DDA board will keep him in mind for his expertise and will discuss opportunities as they arise moving forward.”  
    As to the city’s economic development manager, Hand said, the DDA “works with and has a professional relationship with Joan Goodrich and will continue in this regard.”
    At the October workshop, Glickstein asked the DDA to return in six months “and tell us what we are doing in terms of a targeted retail strategy to really protect what we have, as opposed to being overrun by something we don’t want.”
    Hand said the DDA “will update the City Commission every three months on the progress of board-approved goals and objectives, which center on the DDA’s three main focuses: economic development, place making and position marketing of the DDA district.”

Redevelopment a long-term process

    Delray Beach also has a Community Redevelopment Agency with a  $25.7 million budget. About half of its revenues are from property tax income. Another 33.5 percent, or $8.6 million, was carried over from the last financial year.
    The agency recently received an extra 30 years to finish its job. “Many areas in the CRA district are still in transition, with substandard housing conditions, blighted commercial buildings, incomplete sidewalk networks and poor street conditions,” said Diane Colonna, executive director. “Redevelopment is a long-term process, and it has to be accomplished as the funding becomes available.”
    The CRA also contracts with the Buzz Agency for its public relations and social media campaigns. The Buzz Agency and Woo Creative recently redesigned the CRA’s website. The CRA and its GreenMarket also received upgraded logos, with the GreenMarket getting a tagline that reads: A project of the CRA.
    Two other South County cities rely on their CRAs to develop and market their downtowns.

Cities vary in approach

    In Boca Raton, the Community Redevelopment Agency is nearing the end of its life, said Mayor Susan Haynie, who as a council member also sits on its board. Created in 1980, the agency floundered until 1988 when it issued a Downtown Development of Regional Impact order, which limits the CRA’s life to the approval of 8 million square feet. As of last year, the area had 15 percent left to develop, Haynie said.
    The city is exploring setting up a downtown development district, Haynie said.
    In Boynton Beach, the 31-year-old agency is having a harder time attracting developers. Its board, which consists of the City Commission and two community members, reluctantly agreed to give incentive financing to the 500 Ocean project on the premise that it would jump-start the stagnant downtown.

INSETS ABOVE: Marjorie Ferrer; Dianne Colonna

All figures from 2014/15 budgets
Sources: Boca Raton Community Redevelopment Agency, Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative, Downtown Development Authority

By Rich Pollack

    It took a couple of votes and close to 30 minutes of sometimes heated discussion, but Highland Beach town commissioners finally agreed at their October meeting to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house to show off the recently completed renovations to Town Hall.
    With some members of the commission wanting only an open house and others preferring a formal ribbon-cutting and open house, commissioners reached a compromise by agreeing to have a ribbon-cutting — with just one speech, given by the mayor — as well as tours of the new Police Department and commission chambers.
    Even then, however, the commission was split, with Vice Mayor Ron Brown voting against the proposal. In explaining his vote, Brown said he was opposed to having a speech, especially one given by Mayor Bernard Featherman.
    “There were two people on the commission who voted no when we were trying to get this project approved, and one of them was the mayor,” Brown said.
    But Commissioner Carl Feldman, who had also voted against the nearly  $900,000 renovation project, countered by saying the two votes were not against the project but, instead, against the process.
    In the end, commissioners voted 3-1 — with Commissioner Dennis Sheridan absent because of an illness — to go ahead with the ribbon-cutting and plaque unveiling.
    Commissioners unanimously agree to hold the event on Dec. 1, to coincide with the town’s Light Up the Holidays celebration.
    The open house will begin at 3 p.m. with tours of the renovated facilities. Refreshments, including finger sandwiches and cookies, will be available outside but not permitted in the building.
    The ribbon-cutting and plaque dedication with a short speech by Featherman will take place at 4:30 p.m.
    The town’s Light Up the Holidays celebration starts at 5 p.m. and will include performances by the Dimensional Harmony Choir from Boynton Beach High School, the Temple Sinai choir and town resident Josephine Dolce, a former opera singer.
    The celebration will include the lighting of a menorah and a Christmas tree and also will include refreshments.
    Commissioners have allocated $2,000 for the open house and $2,000 for the Light Up the Holidays celebration.

By Rich Pollack
    
    Buoyed by the success of last year’s inaugural event, the Friends of the Highland Beach Library will again host a wine and cheese fundraiser featuring entertainment and drawings for an assortment of prizes.
    Set for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5, the event, to be at the library, will be open to the public. It is designed to raise money for audio-visual equipment that will be installed on the library terrace, which is scheduled to be enclosed within the next year.
    Tickets are $25 per person.
    “This is a great way for those who enjoy presentations at the library to give a little something back and have a nice, enjoyable evening with others in the community,” said Dorothy Kellington, co-president of the nonprofit organization.
    In addition to choices of red or white wine and a selection of cheeses and fresh fruit, guests will also have the opportunity to enjoy a performance by singer Tony Abbott and to enter drawings for a variety of prizes.
    “We’re also planning a table of sweets, including gourmet chocolates and delectable desserts,” says Linda Albertson, chairwoman of the event and vice president of the board.
    Albertson said last year’s event had exceeded the committee’s expectations, with more than 100 guests attending.
    “It was such a success, the community has been asking us when we were going to do it again,” Albertson said. “We expect this year’s fundraiser to be even better.”
    Tickets are available at the front desk of the library. For more information, call the library at 278-5455.

By Rich Pollack

    Highland Beach was all abuzz last month when part of a beehive on State Road A1A fell to the ground and hundreds of bees began chasing pedestrians strolling on the town’s walking path.
    More than four hours after a walker flagged down a passing police officer to alert him to the problem, a beekeeper had removed not one but two hives of Africanized honeybees hidden in a tree on the west side of the road.
    In all, town officials say, there were at least a half million bees in the two hives, with one hive weighing in at about 250 pounds and the other weighing about 300 pounds.
    “It was ‘un-bee-lievable,’ pun intended,” said Lt. Eric Lundberg of the Highland Beach Police Department. “Based on the size of both hives, we’re very lucky no one was seriously hurt.”
    Police closed off a portion of State Road A1A in the 3000 block to pedestrians and bicyclists for about four hours as a beekeeper removed the hives. A portion of A1A was also closed to traffic for a short time.
    Lundberg said two people were stung while the hives were being taken down, including a police officer who was helping to cordon off the area and a jogger who was running on the west side of A1A.
    The hives were estimated to be 5 feet and 6 feet in diameter respectively, and were taken away and destroyed by the beekeeper.

By Sallie James

    The Boca Raton City Council approved a year-long moratorium on the operation of medical marijuana treatment centers and dispensing or cultivation facilities.
    The law gives the city time to address possible land- development regulations should Florida voters approve Amendment 2 in November.
    Because of the city’s historical prohibition of marijuana use and cultivation, no existing land-development regulations in Boca Raton address its permitted use.
    If Florida voters fail to approve the constitutional amendment, Boca’s temporary moratorium on the operation of medical marijuana treatment centers will immediately terminate.
    The temporary moratorium on the operation of dispensing facilities will remain in effect.
Amendment 2 would allow marijuana to be legally given to anyone with a doctor’s referral for cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, hepatitis C, HIV/AIDS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease or “other conditions for which a physician believes that the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the potential health risks for the patient.”
    In other business, the council:
    •  Approved spending $142,383 for additional biological and physical monitoring, and construction observation for the continuation of the North Beach Renourishment project.
    Work on the project was temporarily halted from May 1 to November 1 due to turtle nesting.  
    Sand pumping is expected to resume the first week of November, according to Assistant City Manager Mike Woika.
    The contractor will begin placing sand near the middle of Spanish River Park and work north to about 1,000 feet north of Spanish River Boulevard, Woika said.
    Approximately 200,000 cubic yards of sand will be needed to complete the job, Woika noted.
    Completion is expected by the end of November or early December.
    • For the ninth year in a row, the city of Boca Raton will sponsor a PGA Champions Tour charity golf tournament at the Old Course at Broken Sound.
    “We have done this every year for the last (several) years,” said City Councilman Michael Mullaugh. “It’s on the Golf Channel and it happens the week after the Super Bowl, so football is gone. We hope the people in the Northeast will watch to see what a lovely place Boca is. Maybe they will think of relocating.”
    The city will contribute $375,000 to the Feb. 5-8 event put on by Boca Raton Champions Golf Charities Inc. in addition to providing in-kind police services.
    The city funds will be used for marketing and public relations costs.
    In addition to shining a positive light on Boca and providing enhanced national and international recognition for the city, it gives a boost to the local economy, city officials said.
    •  Approved a two-year agreement with the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority for shuttle bus service for the Boca Shuttle Route with funds from a $221,468 Transit Corridor Grant.
    The grant will allow additional service hours from 6:30 to 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. on weekdays.  The agreement runs from Jan. 5, 2015, to Jan. 4, 2017.
    • Approved a Burglary Apprehension Task Force Mutual Aid agreement with Palm Beach and Broward county law enforcement agencies to address burglaries in south Palm Beach County and Broward County. 

By Sallie James

    An upscale Mizner Park jazz club that features live entertainment could be staying open until 4 a.m. on weekends under a six-month pilot program.
    Jazziz Nightlife, at 201 Plaza Real in Boca Raton, wants to keep its doors open two hours later than the city currently allows to better serve its late-night clientele.
    The popular nightclub, on the southwest corner of Mizner Park, regularly books notable entertainers and musicians such as flautist Nestor Torres, and renowned singers such as John Hall of Hall & Oates and Oleta Adams.
    The idea of later hours intrigues city officials, who want to make sure the move wouldn’t affect people who live nearby or create public-safety issues.
    Jazziz Nightlife landlord, General Growth Properties, also would need to agree to the extended hours.
    Boca Raton City Manager Leif Ahnell said the issue centers on one thing: drinking.
    “The real issue is the serving of alcohol after 2 a.m. Anybody can have entertainment after 2 a.m..The serving of alcohol is the real issue,” Ahnell said during an Oct. 14 Community Redevelopment Agency meeting.
    However, a draft ordinance establishing a six-month pilot program allowing Jazziz ­— and only Jazziz — to stay open later must be revised to specify how far the establishment must be from residential development, council members decided during an Oct. 27 workshop meeting.
   In its current form, the draft ordinance is legally indefensible, Mayor Susan Haynie said.
    “It’s not good public policy to try to amend something for a single place,” Haynie said. Staff members were directed to revise the ordinance for future consideration.
    Councilman Scott Singer voiced similar concerns.
    “I, too, want to make Boca Raton a cultural destination, but I share the concern others have voiced regarding the way this particular ordinance is drafted,” Scott said at the workshop.
    “I don’t like that this particular draft focuses on Jazziz. I would be more comfortable tying it to some sort of distance.”
Singer suggested 250-275 feet from all residential development, a requirement that likely would disqualify most, if not all, businesses other than  Jazziz.
    Haynie said the draft should apply to downtown establishments that have a stage and offer live entertainment, in addition to having a distance-based requirement.
    Councilman Robert Weinroth echoed their sentiments.
    “I am having some difficulty limiting this to a single establishment,” Weinroth said. “I think that just isolating it into one establishment might not give us exactly what we are looking for. I would like to see it a little bit broader.”
    Deputy Mayor Constance Scott, however, opposes the idea of specifying a distance requirement, saying it would be easier to measure successes and outcomes if the pilot program were tied to a specific location.
     “I have not been approached by other venues in Mizner Park with the same zeal and enthusiasm that Jazziz has,” Scott said.
    Under the draft ordinance, the six-month pilot program would allow Jazziz Nightlife to remain open for business and serve alcohol until 4 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
    The experiment could be extended or terminated early based on circumstances.
    The ordinance expressly prohibits drinking outside the nightclub during the extended hours.
    The draft ordinance would require Jazziz to hire two off-duty police officers to work outside the club from 1-5 a.m.
If 300 or more customers were in attendance, four officers would be required.
    The proposed ordinance offers little tolerance for any sort of police activity related to the extended hours. In fact, if three or more police incidents — such as illegal drinking, belligerent behaviors or open-container violations — occur during the extended hours within 60 days, Jazziz would immediately lose the right to remain open late.
    Councilman Mike Mullaugh said public-safety concerns are key. That the jazz club is not near residential development is also important.
    “I want to hear from the police if it’s a good idea or not,” Mullaugh said. “There is a big public-safety element in the whole thing.”

Jim Prewozniak, executive director of the Holy Cross Medical Group (center), fields questions during an open house to celebrate

the opening of its Urgent Care and Imaging Center at 1799 S. Federal Highway in Boca Raton.

Music, refreshments, giveaways and paraffin dips were part of the event.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

    The Boca Raton Garden Club’s annual Holiday House fundraiser will be held Nov. 14-16 at the clubhouse, 4281 NW 3rd Ave.
    The hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.
    “Our members have been busy creating handmade items since July!” Holiday House chairwoman Janine Savitch said in a statement.
    Visitors can purchase seasonal decorations for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas, as well as handmade aprons, natural swags made from palm fronds and bead-embellished flatware.
    The club also offers plants grown and cultivated by its members, including herbs, orchids, succulents and a wide variety of natives. Gardening tools, accessories and ornamental pieces are available for purchase as well.
    The event also features homemade treats for sale, including cookies, pies and cakes, all baked by club members.  For more information, call 395-9376.

Members of the community-outreach-focused congregation helped make a difference in the lives of others

during the synagogue’s High Holy Days hunger program — among them, ‘Feed My Community,’  in which

more than 5,000 bags were filled with 18,000-plus pounds of nonperishable food.

The food was distributed to local food pantries. Photo: Lumi Pollack, 5, helps collect canned goods.

Photo provided

Bo Reynolds’ music draws from the neighborhoods (like Briny Breezes) near his home in the county pocket.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    In 1999, when Bo Reynolds lived in Austin, Texas, he wrote and recorded an album called Out Of Texas.
    In 2009, while living near the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains in Bend, Ore., he wrote and recorded an album called Cascade DeVille.
    And then, a year and half ago, Reynolds and his wife, Deb Yager, moved to the county pocket.
    He put down his guitar, picked up a ukulele and recorded Ukulele Beach, 14 songs that capture his love of the laid-back life he’s found here.
    “I tend to write about where I am and how I’m living,” says Reynolds, 55. “I tend to absorb the places I’m living.”
    Naturally, there’s a tune called Briny Breezes, and another dubbed Gumbo Limbo.
    The Path Down To The Beach emerged in memory of the late Bill Dunn, a much loved, much missed pocket resident whose apartment the Reynolds now inhabit.
    “I never met him,” Reynolds says, “but the path he took to the beach has been named in his honor, and that inspired me.”
—  Ron Hayes

    Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
    A. I grew up in Yuma, in southwest Arizona, and went to school in an agricultural area very close to the border with Mexico. I grew up listening to the border radio stations, so a lot of Mexican influences are in my music.

    Q.  How/when did you become a musician?
    A. I picked up the guitar at about 10 and learned a few chords and then tore it apart to see how it was built. Then in 1979 I went to an apprentice school in Nashville to learn how to build guitars, but that didn’t work out. But I still have that guitar.
   I was really lucky. I grew up in the ’70s, when James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Jackson Browne were all over the radio. It was accessible music.

    Q.  What other careers have you had, and what were the highlights? 
    A. I almost always had a day job, customer service mostly. I’ve sold RVs and boats for years. I did commercial printing for 10 years in Austin and sold food for Schwan’s, frozen food in Oregon.

    Q. Why did you choose the ukulele as your principle instrument on this CD? 
    A. I’d been a guitar player for a long time. My wife and I were in Hawaii on a business trip in 2008, and I went with her and heard ukulele playing in a mall, and when I got to this clearing in the center there was a young man sitting on a stool with his uke, teaching six or seven people. Every hour on the hour he was giving lessons, so I thought, ‘What the heck, this looks like fun.’ I sat down and went through one little lesson and he said his dad had a shop — that was a mistake. There were these gorgeous koa wood ukes, and I just fell in love with it. I had it for a long time before I thought of it as a songwriting tool, and then when we got to Florida it just made sense to write songs for the ukulele.

    Q.  How did you choose to make your home in the county pocket?
    A. We sold everything from Bend and got a 38-foot motor home and hit the road and started playing music. We came across from Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and all across Texas, down from Mobile to Cedar Key and Tampa. My wife grew up here from the age of 10. She went to Boca Raton High School and used to ride her bike down A1A and passed the pocket a lot. She’d stop at the Seaside Deli, went by Briny Breezes almost every day. She said, 'I want you to see this place because it’s going to go away. This is old Florida.' So we drove through the pocket and there was a For Rent sign, and she said, ‘Maybe we should just stay here a month.’ After a month, we said maybe six months. We’ve been here a year and a half now, and we love it. It’s an inspirational time and place for me.

    Q. What is your favorite part about living in “the pocket”? 
    A.The people. There’s a lot of surfers who’ve been here a long, long time. There’s something young about it. Everybody knows each other and keeps an eye on each other’s stuff. It’s kind of like being on a vacation.

    Q. What book are you reading now?
    A. Right now I’m reading a Carl Hiaasen book, Star Island, and I love it. Whenever I get a chance I take my Carl Hiaasen book down to the beach. The song Stiltsville on my CD was inspired by one of his books. And I just finished Skinny Dip.

    Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
    A. Lately I’ve been listening to Jake Shimabukuro. He’s brought a lot of people to the ukelele. In his hands it’s not a toy; it’s some serious stuff. I’ll never be able to play like that, but I never get tired of listening to him.

    Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions? 
    A. I was in sales so long I had to use those motivational quotes. I used to think they were the greatest things in the world. The one I remember is, “If you keep doing what you’ve always been doing you’ll keep getting what you’ve always been getting.”

    Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?

    A. Jeff Bridges.

    Bo Reynolds’ CDs are available at boreynolds.com, amazon.com or cdbaby.com.

By Jane Smith

    HIGHLAND BEACH — For the annual Delray Beach St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Margaret Ann “Muffie” Liebler hired a semi-trailer and decorated it.
    “She always had a float,” said her daughter Heather Phelps. Her floats won many first place prizes, including one she designed that saluted Irish potatoes.
    She also was a fixture at the American German Club’s Oktoberfest in suburban Lantana, the now-closed Royal Palm Beach Polo Club in Boca Raton and the New Orleans Jazz Festival.
    Mrs. Liebler, of Highland Beach, was 71 when she died from breast cancer on Oct. 5.
    The daughter of the late Dr. Charles and Margaret Schmitt, she was born in Fort Lewis, Wash.
    “My grandfather called her ‘Little Miss Muffett,’ which gradually was shortened to Muffie,” Phelps said.
    Mrs. Liebler graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a master’s degree in education in 1963. She taught briefly in Pennsylvania schools.
    She met her husband in 1955 when he was a lifeguard at the Mt. Lebanon Municipal Pool, near Pittsburgh. He taught her brothers how to swim and thought “she was pretty,” Phelps said.
    He proposed at her house, just before he was inducted into the Army at Fort Sam Houston. They married on Jan. 6, 1968, at Heinz Chapel on the Pitt campus.
    They moved to Highland Beach in 1978. For many years, Mrs. Liebler owned Olympic Gymnastics in Boca Raton.
    In addition to her husband, Dr. Frederick Byron Liebler, she is survived by two daughters, Heather and husband Brian Phelps and Heidi and Bobby Zafarnia; two sons, Frederick Charles “Fritz” and wife Heather Liebler and John Matthew “Jodi” Liebler; three grandchildren, Vivien and Beatrix Phelps and Sienna Zafarnia; and many extended family members.
    Babione-Kraeer Funeral Home in Boca Raton handled the arrangements with her funeral Mass at the Ascension Catholic Church in Boca Raton and burial at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in McMurry, Pa.
    Instead of flowers, her family requests donations in her memory to the Alzheimer’s Association (alz.org).

By Steven J. Smith

    BOCA RATON — You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who knew the city of Boca Raton and its history better than Peggy McCall.
    Mrs. McCall served as volunteer archivist for the Boca Raton Historical Society for more than 25 years, helping to establish the society’s local history search collections and assisting hundreds of researchers in their work. Her passion for the job and the breadth of her work earned her many important accolades over the years, including the 1991 Woman of the Year, the Myrtle Butts Fleming Award (the historical society’s highest honor) and in 1998 she was inducted into the Boca Raton Walk of Recognition.
    Mrs. McCall died on Sept. 18, her 91st birthday. She was born in New York City, according to her son, Howard McCall Jr., and moved to Florida in the early 1930s.
    “She lived in places like Mount Dora and Orlando,” he said. “But her family settled in Vero Beach. Her father was in the citrus business. He owned orange groves and was the president of a packing company. He had a great name: Jack Frost.”
    Mrs. McCall attended Florida State College For Women, as it was originally called, then returned to Vero Beach when World War II broke out to work in the hospital. It was there she met Howard McCall, who was an airman at the naval air station.
    “She had a boyfriend, who happened to be my dad’s best buddy,” her son said. “When he got shipped out, he said, ‘Howard, I want you to make sure you take care of Peggy for me.’ He certainly did!”
    The two were married in 1943 and would spend 68 years together, right up to Howard Sr.’s death in December 2011. They had three children — Carol, Howard Jr. and Russell — followed by nine grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren and four nieces and nephews.
    “I remember her from my childhood as being very active,” her son remembered. “She was a good swimmer, tennis player and golfer. My dad had an architectural practice that he opened in Boca and we moved there in 1959.”
    That was when Boca Raton was at the beginning of an explosive growth spurt.
    “Back then we had a four-digit phone number,” her son said. “The town consisted of about 5,000 people and everybody knew everybody. My parents moved us here just as Boca was beginning to grow, when IBM and FAU came in. My mother had a chance to be very active in a very active town at a very active time.”
    Mrs. McCall was a founding member of the Debbie Rand Memorial Service League and a member of the Art Guild of Boca Raton. She joined the Boca Raton Historical Society, becoming an honorary trustee and served as treasurer, membership chairman and then archivist for a quarter of a century.
    “She was a real history buff and really enjoyed genealogy,” her son said. “When she finished doing our family tree, she helped other people get started on theirs. That’s what led her to her role as archivist at the historical society, where she excelled. She was extremely organized, in a non-computer sort of way. She could track down heirs of a plumbing company to get drawings of a house that was built on 12th Street. She was as much a private detective as she was an archivist.”
    As a mother, her son remembered Mrs. McCall as a no-nonsense disciplinarian next to her more laid-back husband.
    “But all the kids in the neighborhood liked her,” he said. “She was a young mother, so she was up to speed and relevant to my friends. Kids weren’t hesitant to come to our house. No generation gap there.”
    Eschewing the computer, Mrs. McCall was better known for handwritten letters and long telephone conversations.
    “She was never one for the Twitter, text message era,” her son said. “She preferred writing you a 10-15 page letter by hand. She was a reader — and a writer.”
    Mrs. McCall’s life was celebrated with a memorial service on Oct. 11 at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, where she was a member for over 55 years. The family requests that remembrances be made in her name to the Memorial Fund of St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church or to the Boca Raton Historical Society General Fund, 71 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton, FL 33432.