By Dan Moffett

    Briny Breezes residents will get a rare chance to go one-on-one with state officials over property insurance issues when state Sen. Maria Sachs holds a workshop in the town’s ocean clubhouse beginning at 1 p.m. on Oct. 7.
    Sachs, D-Delray Beach, has lined up a panel of representatives from Citizens Property Insurance and consumer advocate groups to discuss problems residents are having with their mobile home policies.
    “You will have the opportunity to question them directly,” Sachs says, “and get answers straight from Citizens.”
    The relationship between the state’s mobile home parks and the state-run insurer took a dramatic turn in 2010 when the Legislature changed Citizens’ rules for coverage. Under the change, Citizens is no longer required to pay replacement costs on losses for mobile and manufactured homes built before 1994. Instead, Citizens is required to pay only the actual cash value of the loss.
    For communities such as Briny, the new rule means that Citizens will pay an owner whose trailer is destroyed in a storm only a fraction — often less than 30 percent — of what it will take to buy another.
    The decrease in compensation is part of the Legislature’s effort to reduce the state’s exposure to potential hurricane losses. Over the last four years, Citizens has reduced its total exposure from about $510 billion to $295 billion by dropping high-risk coastal home policies and reducing the coverage obligations on trailers and manufactured homes.
    Citizens has gone from a high point of about 1.5 million policy holders to just over 900,000 now as part of the company’s depopulation of policies.
    According to Citizens CEO Barry Gilway, the insurer is better positioned to take a hit from a major hurricane since legislators made the changes and now has a total claims-paying capability of close to $20 billion, up from about $16.7 billion in 2011.
    Sachs is telling residents to “bring your insurance policies” to the Briny workshop and let the representatives of Citizens and the consumer groups review the coverage on an individual basis.
    In 2013, she played host to four similar workshops in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
    “What we’re trying to do is bring Tallahassee down to the people,” Sachs said. “Let’s get together and let’s discuss this.”
    Admission is free.
    The panelists scheduled to participate in the Briny Breezes event are Christine Ashburn, Citizens vice president of communications and legislative and external affairs; Candace Bunker, Citizens manager of legislative and cabinet affairs; Steve Burgess, Tallahassee-based insurance consumer advocate; and Jay Neal, president and CEO of the Florida Association for Insurance Reform in Fort Lauderdale.

By Dan Moffett

    Gulf Stream residents first started talking about moving their utility lines underground back in 2008, and the Town Commission came up with a plan to do it in 2010.
    The thinking then was that the $5.4 million project could be completed by the end of 2014.
    The thinking now is that was a bit too optimistic. How does the end of 2016 sound?
    “We knew it would take a long period of time,” said Vice Mayor Robert Ganger, “but we never imagined it would take this long.”
    Danny Brannon, Gulf Stream’s engineering consultant, broke the news to town commissioners Sept. 12 that the second phase of the project — which will move utility lines in the town’s north end — won’t get started until at least November, and residents can expect work to continue throughout 2015.
    “We are somewhat behind where we’d like to be,” Brannon said.
    The goal is to have all residents in the town online for underground power by the beginning of 2016. Then it still will take months to move telephone and cable TV lines underground, and then take down the utility poles and make cosmetic repairs to pavement and landscaping.
    Brannon told the commission that it took only three years to complete an underground project he oversaw on Jupiter Island. But he said that community had fewer complications than Gulf Stream.
    “There was very little telephone, very little cable TV,” he said, “and those are the things that really bog us up.”
    Brannon did bring some good news. Phase 1 work on the south end will be over by year’s end and come in on budget at roughly $2.5 million. And he said the work on Phase 2 should go somewhat smoother because north-end homes are more accessible and many of them already have underground wiring to the street poles.
    Ganger said workers are doing a commendable job of trying to inconvenience residents as little as possible. He said a construction crew stopped work on switching off the power to a home because the homeowner was busy in the kitchen.
    “The lady said, ‘I can’t be out of power because I’m baking a cake!’ ” Ganger said. “She was accommodated very happily, and I think that’s an anecdote about the fact that they are listening to us and trying the best they can to accommodate the real things in our lives.”
    Said Brannon: “It was an important cake.”
    In other business:
    • Commissioners unanimously approved a public records compliance program that sets guidelines and procedures for dealing with requests for public information.
    A 15-page document detailing the program outlines the town’s chain of command in handling records, staff education and training methods, monitoring procedures for incoming requests, fees for copying documents and enforcement policies. The program calls for an annual review and periodic reports to the Town Commission.
    Gulf Stream has been deluged with more than 1,300 public records requests during the last 18 months because of lawsuits filed by residents.
    • Town Attorney John Randolph has been named to the 2015 edition of “Best Lawyers in America” as an outstanding practitioner in municipal litigation and municipal law.
    Randolph, of Jones Foster Johnston Stubbs P.A., has more than 30 years’ experience in municipal law, serving also as attorney for the towns of Palm Beach and Jupiter Island.

INSET BELOW: Police Chief Carmen Mattox

By Dan Moffett

    Manalapan Police Chief Carmen Mattox will undergo ethnic diversity counseling, and the town has given him a written reprimand in response to an officer’s harassment complaint stemming from an incident in late June.
    According to a grievance filed by the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association, Mattox made a “racially derogatory comment” to Officer Jose Fernandez that another officer, Steven Basinger, witnessed.
    Mattox has acknowledged that, while telling the two officers an anecdote about his service in the military, he used an offensive term for Hispanic. Fernandez complained about the remark to the union a month later.
    The town hired the West Palm Beach law firm Ward Damon to investigate the incident, and an investigator’s report filed in August recommended diversity training and the written reprimand for Mattox.
    “While you may not have intended to offend Officer Fernandez,” Town Manager Linda Stumpf wrote in the reprimand, “it did offend him, especially because you are his superior officer.”
    Stumpf said the investigator, Sally Still, found no evidence of a pattern of discriminatory behavior, and no probable cause to support violation of federal civil rights laws.
    “Whether or not these comments violated the law,” Stumpf wrote, “they were wrong.”
    “At no time did I intend to insult or make Officer Fernandez feel uncomfortable,” Mattox said. “I now understand that the discussion  did make him feel uncomfortable. The incident has been investigated, and I have apologized to Officer Fernandez. I intend to move forward and maintain a positive relationship with Officer Fernandez and all members of the department. I believe the matter was handled fairly, and I recognize my responsibility.”
    Over the last two years, town resident Kersen De Jong has filed several discrimination complaints to state and federal officials, charging Mattox and the department with profiling and racism. At least three officers have filed grievances over work conditions.
    Outside investigations, some commissioned by the town, have not found evidence to substantiate a pattern of misconduct.
    Mayor David Cheifetz says the Town Commission and town residents are standing behind their police chief. He said commissioners are “completely satisfied” with the findings of the investigations.
    “Our chief is not a racist — this has been proven,” Cheifetz said during the Sept. 23 commission meeting. “Our town is not racist. That is obvious. Our residents overwhelmingly support our police chief, town manager, our fine staff and elected officials.”
    In July, the commissioners presented Mattox with a plaque, honoring him for “a job well done.”
    A group of residents is preparing to launch a campaign in October to raise donations for the Police Department to buy new equipment.
    Cheifetz said that, unless new evidence surfaces that substantiates discrimination charges, the town is ready to move on: “We’re finished with this issue.”
    In other business:
    • Commissioner Peter Isaac, who leads the Audubon Bridge task force, said the panel believes the design for the new bridge should “be simple and not too ornate.”
    Isaac said engineers think the project should come in close to its $760,000 budget. He said the town will put it out for bid in early December and then choose a contractor in January 2015.
    The town is hoping for an April 1 start date on construction and is shooting to have the new span completed by Thanksgiving. “So far, so good,” Isaac said of the preliminary permitting and design work of the last two months.
    • Commissioners voted 5-0 to take $5,000 from their contingency fund to give to a $45,000 campaign for private donations to renovate the landscaping at Town Hall.
    • Commissioners decided to ask Town Attorney Keith Davis to rewrite a proposed ordinance that would restrict residential special events after concerns surfaced about a possible loophole allowing multiple-day fundraisers. A new version is expected in October.

By Dan Moffett

    Minutes before approving a much-anticipated beach ordinance, Ocean Ridge town commissioners inserted a few words into the new law that could complicate its enforcement.
    The commission decided to make it a violation for motorists to park, stop or unload at “beach access points” along Old Ocean Boulevard and A1A.
    Commissioner Richard Lucibella said that the addition was needed to keep traffic moving and prevent accidents. “Sooner or later, somebody’s going to get squished,” he said, and argued that other laws on the books prohibit motorists from stopping, so the beach ordinance merely underscores what’s already there.
    For police, however, the provision adds another gray area to an ordinance that also does not define a clear line between private and public beachfront property.
    Many town residents who use the beach pull up in vehicles on Old Ocean Boulevard and unload kayaks, coolers and family members. When the commission started debating new beach rules late last year, the idea was to rein in the bad behavior of nonresidents — not change the behavior of townspeople.
    The new regulation isn’t intended to restrict residents, several commissioners said during the Sept. 9 meeting. They said it would be left to police to decide what motorists to ticket and what motorists should be allowed to unload.
    “It comes down to the discretion of the Police Department,” Mayor Geoffrey Pugh said, “and that individual officer.”
    Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi said officers routinely make judgment calls when deciding how to deal with motorists at the beach access points.
    “It depends on the circumstance,” Yannuzzi said. “There’s always discretion.”
    Two former town commissioners, Terry Brown and Ed Brookes, criticized the crackdown on unloading. Brown said the town should go ahead and print tickets with his name on them because he was going to get ticketed.
    “This is petty and mean-spirited and you’re going to have a real problem,” Brown said.
    Brookes called the restriction “discriminatory” and said it will impact residents who don’t live on the beach but not those who do. He said “fear of getting a ticket” will keep residents away.
    Commissioner James Bonfiglio agreed with Lucibella that the restriction makes the beach ordinance consistent with other town laws.
    “It doesn’t add anything that isn’t already reflected in the code,” he said.
    Police also will have to use discretion in enforcing behavior on the beaches because the ordinance does not define a line between public and private land. The commission gave up trying because of the legal complexities. Town Attorney Ken Spillias said he will work with Town Manager Ken Schenck and Yannuzzi to develop an enforcement strategy to keep beachgoers off private property. “I want you to understand that it’s a little difficult for us to enforce this because there is no ‘quote-unquote’ line,” Yannuzzi said, “and I don’t think there can be.”
    The ordinance bans pets and glass containers on the beaches but allows alcohol.
    In other business:
    • On a 4-1 vote, the commission gave final approval to a revised rental registration ordinance. Vice-Mayor Lynn Allison voted no, saying the changes make the law ineffective at keeping track of renters in neighborhoods.
    The new version of the ordinance cuts fees for landlords and focuses more on property owners than tenants to avoid privacy concerns.
    • The fate of the troubled commercial strip at 5011 N. Ocean Blvd., may not be sealed just yet. Rob Sivitilli, son of owners Orlando and Lilianne Sivitilli, came to the commission meeting armed with an architect’s scale model of a new proposal to renovate the building.
    Sivitilli said the family is willing and able to spend as much as $250,000 “to make this property look like it’s brand new.”
    Allison said she would put Sivitilli on the agenda for the Oct. 6 meeting to hear details of the plan.

Dog lovers risk fines by ignoring city ordinances on this August morning.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

INSET BELOW: A digital sign on A1A proclaims ‘zero tolerance’ for offenders.

Mary Kate Leming/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    Delray Beach resident Rick Rubenstein was surprised when the police officer approached him as he walked with his three Yorkshire terriers on Delray’s public beach and told him that he was breaking the law.
    He was even more surprised when the officer handed him not one, but two, $50 citations for violating a municipal ordinance that prohibits animals on the city’s beach.
    “I was totally blindsided,” said Rubenstein, who had walked Spencer, Madison and Mr. Chow regularly on the sand. “I never saw the sign that said no animal on the beach.”
    Now the city is making a concentrated effort to get the word out that residents should take pause before letting Fido splash in the surf.
    After an email was sent to Mayor Cary Glickstein and commissioners by resident Mark Fix — who was concerned about an increase in the number of pets he saw along the ocean — Parks and Recreation Director Suzanne Davis assembled a task force to ensure that word was getting out about the city’s ordinance.
    “Our goal is to provide a positive experience for all of our beach patrons,” Davis said.
    According to Fix, his concerns are as much for the safety of beachgoers as they are for making sure the beach is free of pet waste.
    “I am tired of wondering if the large, unleashed animal running towards me on the beach is the ‘friendly’ dog or the violent out-of-control dog,” he wrote.
    What may have seemed simple on the surface — getting the word out and enforcing the municipal code — has turned out to be a little more complicated, especially since there are some questions about the scope of the city’s jurisdiction.
    “One of the first things we have to do is clearly define where the municipal beach begins and ends,” Davis said.
    For years, the beach behind private homes just north of the end of the public sidewalk east of State Road A1A has been known as “dog beach,” where dogs romp freely.
    Davis said the city is trying to determine if the beach ban on pets applies to that area.
    “People have been going there with dogs for years,” she said. “We don’t want to take that away if it doesn’t fall under our ordinance.”
    Davis said the team — comprised of representatives from the Police Department, code enforcement, public information, and parks and recreation — is also working on making signs more visible.
    Existing signs near the sidewalk on A1A list a variety of beach rules and make it clear that animals aren’t permitted on the public beach. Stand-alone signs posted in the same area also point out that animals are not allowed east of the dune line.
    But Davis is exploring the possibility of posting signs in the sand — east of the dune line — that would be hard to miss.
    Last month, the city positioned a large electronic billboard sign on A1A to inform people about the ordinance, proclaiming “zero tolerance” for violations.
    From July 1 to Sept. 24, nine citations for violations of the city code prohibiting dogs on the beach have been written and recorded by the Police Department, according to the records division.
    Davis said the city is also studying how other cities deal with the issue.
    While Boca Raton has a portion of public beach set aside for pets, that solution seems unlikely in Delray Beach. In December, city commissioners voted down the idea of creating a designated dog beach on the municipal beach.
    Efforts to bring the issue back to the surface have gone online with a petition on Change.org drawing about 300 signatures. Organizers of “We Want a Dog Beach” are hoping to collect about 500 names before taking the petition to City Hall.
    While a long-term solution is sought, Davis and the task force have taken steps to spread the word about the law. The city issued a news release and also put a notice on TripAdvisor, countering posts that made it seem as if dogs were welcome on the municipal shoreline.
    For residents like Rubenstein, who paid his tickets the day after receiving them back in June, enforcement of the no-dogs-on-the-beach rule put some cold water on his warm feelings for the city.
    “It took away a little bit of the joy of living in Delray Beach,” he said.
    He also expressed concern about the way he was treated, saying he was told he had to carry his three dogs off the beach.
    “It was embarrassing,” he said. “I was treated like I just kidnapped the Lindbergh baby.”

By Cheryl Blackerby

    King tides, the highest tides of the year, caused alarming and unprecedented coastal flooding from Miami Beach to Palm Beach County last October.  
    The extreme high tides, also called autumnal tides, will be back this month.
    “The highest predicted astronomical tides of the year will be Oct. 5 through 11 and at its peak Oct. 8 and 9,” said Robert Molleda, meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Miami.
    It’s difficult to predict how high this year’s tides will rise.
    “Tides may be lower or higher than last year depending on many factors, including storms and strong winds out in the ocean,” Molleda said.
    Last year, the sun was shining and the National Weather Service had just announced the dry season had officially started when the streets flooded. No hurricane or tropical storms were coming, but residents on Marine Way in Delray Beach stacked sandbags around their doors and watched seawater creep across their front lawns and into their houses.
    Farther south, a foot of sea water flooded the streets and low elevations of Fort Lauderdale. In Miami Beach, saltwater pushed up through the drains and stood 2 feet deep on Alton Road.
    The king tides are an emerging problem in coastal areas around the world, prompting scientists in Australia to start the King Tides Project. “Citizen scientists” — from Australia to Italy to Tampa — take photos of water levels during king tides and photos of the same place with normal tides. The images show what future sea levels will be and what is at risk.
    “We had really high king tides in areas that didn’t typically flood,” said Misty Cladas, project manager for the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. Two years ago, she asked local residents to join the King Tides Project, and the photos turned out to be a wake-up call for the future. The threat of sea rise was suddenly very real.
    “What we’re trying to do is bring awareness about sea level rise for planning building construction, wildlife habitat and infrastructure, such as sewers and roads,” she said.
    The term “king tide” is used to describe an especially high tide event occurring twice a year when there is alignment of the gravitational pull between the sun and moon. This year, the fall king tides will be the highest of the year.
    The predicted heights of a king tide can be amplified by local weather patterns and ocean conditions.
    “When king tides occur, people notice the flooding, but they may not be aware of other issues caused by high water levels that can cause great damage to properties and the coastline,” Cladas said. “Residents are becoming more aware of the problems and the need to prepare.”

King tide events
• For more information on the King Tides Project go to kingtides.net.
• A King Tide Education Event will be held at 10 a.m., Oct. 8, at the intersection of Marina Way and Southeast First Street in Delray Beach. Dr. Ana Puszkin-Chevlin, a Delray Beach resident and consultant on environmental land use planning and coastal hazard resiliency, will be a speaker. The event is presented by Delray Beach Rising Waters Task Force.

A postcard advertises one of the Boston’s site’s early incarnations as the Hotel Del-Sol.

Photo provided by Delray Beach Historical Society

Boston’s, with the Upper Deck above.

Photo provided

Where else would hockey sticks decorate the dance floor, except for Boston’s?

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Thom Smith
 
    Imagine a TV show: A little bit of Friends, some Seinfeld, a smidgen of Cops, a lot of Cheers.
    The inspiration: Boston’s on the Beach, which will culminate its 35th anniversary with a typically big party on Oct. 25.
    That’s right, Delray’s little piece of heaven on South Ocean was dishing up brews and brouhahas, assignations and asininities, food and frolic years before those sitcoms became legends.
    Back in the mid-’70s, Delray was a sleepy place, the Atlantic Avenue renaissance still decades away. But as with most Florida beach towns, it offered refuge from northern winters.
    So it was with Jerry Beauchamp and Bernie Cronin, two budding entrepreneurs from Massachusetts who happened to meet at a road race in Gloucester.
    Beauchamp, a probation officer working on his Ph.D., had studied psychology at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. Cronin, whose family had been coming to Deerfield Beach for years, was in the restaurant business. Florida appealed to Cronin much more than the North Shore, and he persuaded Beauchamp to join him on an adventure.
    Up and down the coast they traveled, Vero to Deerfield, looking for that perfect opportunity. They found it at 14 South Ocean — Hotel Del-Sol & Coffee Shop.
    Built in 1926, it was popular with Finnish visitors. Beauchamp and Cronin had more universal plans, but knew they had no intention of going it alone.
    In the spirit of Rooney and Garland’s “Let’s put on a show,” they headed back north — to Boston, Worcester (WOO-stah), the North Shore — to pitch their plan to friends, business associates and a surprising number of educators.
    The task wasn’t that difficult: New Englanders may be tough, but given the opportunity, they aren’t averse to travel, especially in winter. A bar on the beach in Delray, they suggested, would be as appealing as the house of refuge that took in shipwrecked sailors in the 19th century.
    To drum up investment cash, they needed two immediate changes — renovation and a new name.
    “The hotel had a little cafeteria that served only Finnish dishes for breakfast and lunch, a small bar, no TV,” Bobby Paquette, Boston’s assistant general manager recalled. “It all progressed from there.”
    Name wise, Hotel Del-Sol offered little allure and Worcester doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Boston’s on the Beach, on the other hand, had a universal and alliterative ring.
    But much work remained for the new owners, 12 to 14, in all. They kept the hotel out back, but added air-conditioning, a larger bar, TVs to catch the Pats, Bruins, Celtics and Sox, whose memorabilia covers the walls and tabletops, a bandstand for live music and a menu featuring more than the usual bar food — plus fresh New England lobster, steamers and fried clams … with the bellies.
    Opening, initially scheduled for the first week of September in 1979, was delayed by surprise visitor — Hurricane David. On Oct. 22, Boston’s began serving “food, fun and live music,” but a few months later, it had to deal with another potential disaster.
    Three off-duty sheriff’s detectives stopped in after their shift. One detective slung her purse over the chair back, but it slipped to the floor and the pistol inside discharged. The bullet struck and killed a young musician who was there in hopes of landing a job.
    Though Boston’s was not responsible, the tragedy affected management and staff profoundly. Beauchamp wrote an employee manual that stresses interdependence among staff and management and the community, noting, “the place can’t survive with one or two successful people. We all must succeed.”
    No better testament exists than Donna Gustin, whose smile seems to grow brighter with each decade. A member of the wait staff on opening day, she’s now lunch manager.
    Paquette, a member of the Worcester crowd, started as a bar manager in 1982, about the same time as Perry DonFrancisco, a Mott Fellow taking graduate courses in education at FAU, began tending bar.
    “Everything I learned in my education courses transferred directly to Boston’s,” said DonFrancisco, who eventually became a partner. “We were blessed to have a tremendous staff and tremendous management.”
    Over the years, Boston’s has regularly been recognized by civic and business associations for its community involvement. They’ve sponsored youth and adult sports teams, road races and bike races. DonFrancisco co-founded Citizens for Delray Beach Police. After the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, special events raised money for the OneFundBoston to help victims with long-term medical needs.
    In 1985, the owners bought the derelict Arvilla Hotel, a favorite of vagrants on the south side, and bulldozed it. Boston’s added parking and the city subtracted an eyesore. Improvements were made. The second floor became the Upper Deck.
    Monday’s Reggae Nights were followed by Blues on Tuesday. Boston’s scored top-notch acts by offering them gigs on usual off nights after they had worked dates in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
    “We’d give them an extra night and a free hotel,” Paquette said, “and they’d get us a good crowd.”
    As the years passed and the bar’s namesake became a city of champions — Stanley Cups, NBA and NFL titles — Boston’s became the church where die-hard fans worshiped on game days. Except for Red Sox fans who had to pay penance — the “curse of the Bambino” — for trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919. Yet in 2004, just as they had done so many heartbreaking times before, hundreds of the faithful and hopeful gathered among more than 30 TV screens at Boston’s for game seven against the Cardinals.
    “I may have to crawl home,” Michael Walsh yelled as the jubilant crowd spilled onto A1A after the last out.
Walsh, from the Boston “suburb” of Bar Harbor, Maine, could have watched from “his place” just up the street, but he, too, preferred Boston’s.
    In May 2006, his Ocean Properties, which owns the neighboring Delray Beach Marriott and is one of the largest privately held hotel companies in North America, bought it from DonFrancisco and partner Robert Kenney for just over $11 million. Not a bad return on an initial investment of less than $750,000.
    “I’ve spent most of my adult life here,” a reflective DonFrancisco told The Palm Beach Post after the sale. “I spent it passionately. I loved it here.”
    Fortunately, for longtime customers and the community, Ocean Properties had no intention of bulldozing the place, only improving it. DonFrancisco remains a consultant. Veterans such as Paquette, Gustin, beverage manager Millie Wilkerson (18 years) and entertainment manager Mark Pisarri (16 years) stayed on, and Ocean Properties brought in restaurant veteran Mark DeAtley as general manager.
    Two years ago, Walsh closed it down … but only to spend $5 million on renovations. The result: a new outdoor SandBar on the south side with palm trees, pools, tiki bar and bandstand, and 50 Ocean, an upscale and much quieter restaurant upstairs with a great view beyond the sea oats and dunes. Some 200 employees keep the place humming.
    While the big party is set for Oct. 25, 50 Ocean will be the setting on Oct. 22 for the next iteration of “Cocktails in Paradise,” a series of benefits for the Historical Society of Palm Beach County and associated groups. The $25 ticket includes drinks and hors d’oeuvres. (832-4164).
    “Upstairs with 50 Ocean, the word is finally getting out,” DeAtley said. “What Ocean Properties has done with the property as a whole is fabulous. And we’re always doing something to help the city out.”
    “And we can’t forget our customers,” DonFrancisco said. “From the beginning we got support not only from Delray but from around the country. We were viral before the Internet.”

Kirsten Stephenson at the Junior League office.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    For Kirsten Stephenson, being a Junior League member has been about life lessons — learning the needs of her community while at the same time learning about herself and what she can achieve.
    “I am a different person after having been in the Junior League,” she says. “As a member of the league you’re trained to see the world differently, to be sensitive to the needs of your community and to how you can make things better.”
    Active in the Junior League of Boca Raton, having served on the board of directors and as chair of several committees, Stephenson, 47, has found herself continuously taking on new challenges.
    “As a member of the league I have done things I never dreamed I could do,” she says.
    Now, Stephenson is in the home stretch of what may be the most massive challenge of her 15 years as a league member. With her longtime friend Yvette Drucker, Stephenson is co-chairing the Junior League of Boca Raton’s 27th annual Woman Volunteer of the Year Luncheon and Fashion Show, set for Friday, Nov. 7, at the Boca West Country Club.
    “Yvette and I wanted to do something together that we’d never done before,” Stephenson said. “We thought taking on something like this would be a wonderful opportunity.”
    It’s also turned out to be tremendous amount of work, especially in the last few months as the event gets closer and the committee responsible for making it happen adds the finishing touches to its plans.
    “It’s been a full-time job and then some,” says Stephenson, who, along with her husband, Sam, juggles raising four children, ages 6 to 15, with her league responsibilities. “What’s been amazing is that everyone who has done this before has come to help.”
    To understand just how big an undertaking serving as co-chairs for the event is, you just have to look at the numbers. This year’s Woman Volunteer of the Year luncheon is expected to draw between 650 and 700 guests, and while the main goal is to honor women who are nominated, the event is also the major fundraiser of the year for the Junior League of Boca Raton. For Stephenson, the return on her investment of time and energy has been well worth the effort.  
    “I truly feel that what this organization has done in the community is incredible and what it’s done for me is powerful,” she said. “I recruit people all the time for the league and I tell them ‘You will do more than you ever thought you could.’ ”

— Rich Pollack

    Q. Where did you grow up?
    A. I’m a bit of a hybrid. I grew up in Miami, attended university in Alabama, was in Berlin for the wall coming down, and then lived for the first part of my young adult life (five years) in Europe before returning to the States. I lived many years in Texas, and then moved to Boca Raton. I feel just as comfortable in cowboy boots wading through rattlesnakes and swampland on our family property in Alabama as I do ordering dinner in French in Paris.
    
    Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
    A. I was fortunate enough to work for a major international company in Europe in the project management field. But every time I visited the States, I was so impressed with the amount of options available. Upon returning to the U.S., I settled in Boca Raton and worked for Pepsi’s international division. I finished my career at Enron in project management and management. Enron was a fabulous company and it was a pleasure to work with people who lived to think ‘outside the box.’
    
    Q. As co-chair of the Woman Volunteer of the Year luncheon, what do you see as your greatest challenges for this year’s event?
    A. Challenges? We (my co-chair Yvette Drucker and I) prefer to think of them as opportunities, such as our fantastic partnerships with the Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation and Saks Fifth Avenue Boca Raton. We’ve also been blessed to work with Marta Batmasian, our honorary chairwoman, who has been invaluable in her assistance to us. I do want to mention that we have wonderful partners in the community. The Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation has been a wonderful friend to us for many years and serves as our awards sponsor for this event. Also, Heather Shaw and Stacy Atwater at Saks Fifth Avenue Boca Raton are a wonderful team to work with, as Saks is serving as our fashion partner and putting on an incredible fashion show for the event featuring their alice + olivia clothing line.

    Q. How did you choose to make your home in Boca Raton ?
    A. Easy. My husband literally grew up on the same street we currently live on. Everything about his life here in Boca was ideal, and he wanted to re-create it for our children.  
    
    Q. What is your favorite part about living in Boca Raton?
    A. Simply, we are a community of generosity. I am oftentimes overwhelmed by how generous we are. There are constant breakfasts, lunches, dinners and fundraisers to honor nonprofits throughout our community. These are well-attended and well-funded. It’s a beautiful thing to see us helping those that need it the most. It’s a warm and comfortable feeling to be living among so many people who give so much to help others.

    Q. What book are you reading now?
    A. Well, I am a voracious reader. I usually have several books going at once. I am rereading Isabel Allende’s Islands Beneath the Sea, a historical fiction about Haiti; I am halfway through Sarum, by Edward Rutherford; just finishing Grain Brain, by Dr. David Perlmutter, and just finished Breakfast With Buddha, by Roland Merullo, a book my mother wanted me to read.
    
    Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration?
    A. I adore jazz. I play Symphony Hall on Sirius XM in my home many evenings to keep my kids relaxed enough to complete homework.
    
    Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
    A. Yes, since I was young, this from Theodore Roosevelt has had such an impact for me: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
    
    Q. Have you had mentors in your life, individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
    A. In my league career, Debbie Abrams has been a constant. I have literally showed up on her doorstep when she could hardly remember me, and she has always come through for me. She is the epitome of graciousness, and I am forever grateful for the person she is, the generosity of heart that she exhibits, the quiet strength she exudes. Dorothy MacDiarmid has been an enormous mentor to me in terms of my advocacy efforts and an unfailing friend. In my family, my grandfather was a rock of morality, my daughter exhibits a quiet grace that I find incredible, and my husband has been everything that I could ever dream for and much more.

    Q. Who/what makes you laugh?
    A. My beautiful family, particularly my 6-year-old who lives for this privilege.

If You Go
What: 27th Annual Woman Volunteer of the Year Luncheon and Fashion Show
When: Friday, Nov. 7
Time: 10:30 a.m. for silent auction/raffle and noon for luncheon
Where: Boca West Country Club, 20583 Boca West Dr., Boca Raton
Tickets: Platinum Runway seating, $200; Gold Seating, $150, Silver seating, $95
Highlights: Fashion show featuring Stacey Bendet, CEO of alice + olivia, showcasing the company’s spring 2015 line.
Info & Tickets: www.jlbr.org/wvoy

By Jane Smith

    Representatives for a new passenger rail service are courting South County coastal residents to convince them that an express intercity rail link is needed between Miami and Orlando.
    All Aboard Florida will operate on the Florida East Coast Railway tracks, the legacy route created by Henry Flagler, said Ali Soule, public affairs manager. Train service between Miami and West Palm Beach will be ready by late 2016, and the rest of the line, which ends at the Orlando airport, will be running in 2017, she said.
    “We will have continuously welded tracks so you won’t hear that clickety-clack noise,” she told Boynton Beach commissioners in early September. She declined to provide specifics on fares and ridership numbers anticipated by All Aboard Florida, a private company.
    The City Commission postponed voting on a resolution until its residents provide more input.
    The train will whisk through the South County at 79 mph. North of West Palm Beach, the train speeds will approach 110 mph.
    Its representatives also gave a presentation at a Delray Beach commission workshop.
    “The benefits to Delray Beach are peripheral at best,” said Mayor Cary Glickstein in early September. “There is very little Delray Beach can do to control what happens on that rail line.”
    He’s right. Neither the express passenger line nor FEC freight trains need city approval before they can proceed.
    Delray Beach has the most to lose, Glickstein said. “Delray’s downtown will be impacted like none other,” he said “You are bisecting the heart and soul of this city, the same can’t be said for other cities.”
    Even so, he knows he has to be forward-thinking. His support would be contingent on three factors: Delray Beach does not spend any money to upgrade its crossings to quiet zones; a commuter passenger line could use the FEC tracks; and some of the FEC freight trains would move west to the CSX tracks.
    At the Delray Beach workshop, Nick Uhren, executive director of the county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization, talked about $6.6 million in federal money available to upgrade FEC crossings into quiet zones. Not all of the crossings need to be upgraded, he said. The Federal Railroad Administration allows for an aggregate risk index for crossings in a certain area, in this case cities, where train horns would not be needed.
    Taxpayer money pays for the equipment, Uhren said. The cities pay an additional $4,200 annually to maintain each crossing with added gates. Lantana would not see an increase, Boynton Beach would have to pay $4,200, and Delray Beach and Boca Raton would each pay $12,600 annually to maintain the extra gates.
    “Construction work at the grade crossings will occur early 2015 through mid-2016,” All Aboard Florida said in an emailed statement.
    Its representatives did not make an appearance before the Boca Raton City Council. They did make a presentation last year to the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowner Associations, which did not take a position on the express passenger rail service, according to Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie.
    “More freight is coming on the FEC lines,” Haynie said. All Aboard Florida is double-tracking the line, making it safer for both types of traffic.

Some details gleaned from loan application
    A glimpse at its Miami-West Palm Beach service was provided in a prospectus when All Aboard Florida floated $450 million in bonds to finance the double-tracking between those cities.
    According to published reports, the West Palm Beach station would see 1,839 passengers board the train and another 1,987 leaving the train daily in 2019. A coach class ticket between Miami and West Palm Beach would start at $30 during the first year of service and climb to $31.84 in 2019.
    The rail line also has applied for a $1.6 billion Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing loan through the Federal Railroad Administration, although it is not dependent on the money to proceed north of West Palm Beach, Soule said. With the loan application, the rail line had to provide a ridership study, fare schedule, environmental impact study of the area between West Palm Beach and the Orlando airport, as well as put up its tracks as collateral.
    In addition, South Florida has received a total of $13.75 million in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants to connect the FEC corridor with the South Florida Rail Corridor (CSX tracks) in Miami-Dade County in the south and the Northwood area of West Palm Beach in the north.
    The Hialeah connector will be finished in early 2016, said Amie Goddeau, mobility development manager for the Florida Department of Transportation’s District Four.
    The full Northwood connection won’t be finished until 2019 because of the extra land needed, she said.
    When those two connections are complete, some of the FEC freight trains could move over to the CSX tracks. More freight will be unloaded in Miami and Port Everglades after 2016, when the Panama Canal is expanded to allow transit for more and larger ships.
    FEC currently operates 14 freight trains daily from Jacksonville to Miami, said Robert Ledoux, senior vice president of Florida East Coast Railway.
    “It will grow incrementally,” he said. “Most of the trains going north are empty right now.” It could rise to 20 trains in five to six years, he said.
    As to a commuter rail line using the FEC tracks, All Aboard Florida has signed a non-compete clause with Tri-Rail, Soule said. The Coastal Link service is “starting the environmental phase … with the Federal Transit Authority later this fall to finalize these station locations,” FDOT’s Goddeau said.
    Boynton Beach plans for a station between Boynton Beach Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, according to Vivian Brooks, executive director of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency. But she did not know who would pay for the station and how elaborate it would be and who would pay for the trains.
    In Delray Beach, plans call for the Coastal Link station to be north of East Atlantic Avenue, between Northeast Second and Northeast Third avenues.
    In Boca Raton, the preferred station location is near the city library on land where the Boca Raton Community Garden sits at 101 NW Fourth St., Haynie said.
Boca Raton is still deciding what kind of station it can afford, near the downtown area and north of Palmetto Park Road.
    “Will it be an overhang and a walkway to get over the tracks, as they have at Yamato,” asked Mike Woika, assistant city manager, “or something more elaborate?”

    Next year, when the cities can concentrate on the Coastal Link service, Haynie is confident a financial plan for the line will be found.
    The start date of this commuter rail line service depends on finding the money to pay for the annual operations and maintenance costs, Goddeau said.

By Mary Thurwachter

    MANALAPAN — He had been ill for some time and was bedridden on his 90th birthday, Sept. 18, but Point Manalapan developer and former Manalapan Mayor William Evarts Benjamin II and his wife, Maura, found joy on the occasion.
    “It was a lovely day,” Maura Benjamin said. “All his children called and we had his favorite coconut cake. A group from Hospice came over to serenade him for two hours.”
    Mr. Benjamin died three days later on Sept. 21 at their home in Pretty Marsh, Maine.
    Maura Benjamin found one song the Hospice group sang on his birthday — You Are So Beautiful — particularly touching.
    “He was such a beautiful man,” Mrs. Benjamin, his third wife, said. The Beautiful song reminded her of the day they met at a Palm Beach party 40 years ago.
    “I was never going to marry again. I was going to have my career,” she remembered. “But then suddenly there he was. I had a ticker tape running through my mind saying, ‘This is the man you have been waiting for all your life.’ ”
    Condolence notes coming to their home described her husband much as she did, she said.
    “He was elegant and charming and always did things the right way,” she said. “He was one of the last of a dying breed.”
    Another former Manalapan mayor, Peter Blum, said he and Mr. Benjamin had been friends for 40 years.
    “He was a true gentleman of the old school,” Blum said. “He was kind and thoughtful, and as a mayor he always heard people out.”
    His calm and thoughtfulness served him well in the early 2000s, when the town was dividing over a disagreement about fair representation for Point Manalapan residents on the Town Commission.
    The issue propelled Mr. Benjamin into a successful run for the commission and being named mayor. A federal judge approved a plan Blum and Mr. Benjamin put forth giving Point Manalapan more representation on the commission.
    “We both loved Manalapan and we wanted our town to be the happy place it had always been,” Blum said.
    A native of Long Island, N.Y.,  Mr. Benjamin was a great-grandson of Standard Oil partner Henry Huttleston Rogers. The family lived in Greenwich, Conn., for many years until moving to Palm Beach in the 1950s.
    In 1957, he bought Casa Alva, a 35-acre estate on the south end of Hypoluxo Island with a 25,000-square foot mansion owned by Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan. He added 50 acres by filling in swampland and then used it to develop Point Manalapan.
    He turned Casa Alva into a private club, The Manalapan Club.
    “We all loved it,” Blum said, “but it sure wasn’t a money maker” for Mr. Benjamin, who decided to close the club after members balked at raising the annual fee from $400 to $500 in 1976. There were no initiation fees.
    “It broke our hearts,” Blum said. “We loved it.”
    The Benjamins moved into Casa Alva after the club closed and lived there until they sold it in December 2012.
    Mr. Benjamin attended Columbia University before becoming an ensign in the Navy, where he served in the Pacific. When WWII ended, he worked in publishing and advertising and was director of the American Sugar Company in Haiti.
    In addition to directing the Point Manalapan Development Co., he was a director of the First State Bank of Lantana and Island National Bank and Trust.
    He was a member of many social clubs, including The Everglades Club and the La Coquille Club. In his spare time, he enjoyed boating and gardening.
    He was a founding trustee of JFK Hospital in Atlantis, president of the Norton Museum of Art, and served on the boards of many charities.
    In addition to his wife, five children, two stepchildren and 13 grandchildren survive Mr. Benjamin.
    Donations in his name may be made to the Palm Beach Community Foundation, 700 S. Dixie Highway, Suite 200, West Palm Beach, FL 33401; Friends of Acadia Bar Harbor, 43 Cottage St., Bar Harbor, Maine 04609; or the SPCA, 141 Bar Harbor Road, Trenton, Maine 04605.
    A memorial service will be held later this year.

By Rich Pollack
        Construction of the new Interstate 95 Spanish River Boulevard interchange is making progress, with completion scheduled for spring 2017.
    To date, there has been minimal interruption to traffic in the area, with crews working Sunday through Thursday widening northbound I-95 from Glades Road to Yamato Road. The work begins at 9 p.m. and wraps up at 5 a.m.
    In addition, crews continue to work on interchange ramps and on six of 13 bridges over the interstate and other roads included in the $67 million, 2.5-mile interchange project.
    The project also includes widening Spanish River Boulevard west of FAU Boulevard, building eight new bridges between Spanish River Boulevard and Yamato Road, widening five bridges on the interstate and Spanish River, improving traffic signals, and extending the El Rio Trail.
    A new lane will be added in both directions on I-95 between the Spanish River interchange and Glades Road. New lanes in both directions will also be added between the Yamato Road and Congress Avenue exits. Yamato Road will also get an improved northbound exit ramp and improved westbound entrance ramps.  
    Traffic on Spanish River Boulevard has not yet been impacted, although lane shifts are anticipated in the near future.
    “We don’t expect any traffic impact on Spanish River Boulevard during October,” said Andrea Pacini, project spokesperson.

By Willie Howard

    OCEAN RIDGE — Janet Hall, one of the first female boat captains in South Florida and co-founder of the Sea Mist drift fishing business in Boynton Beach, died Sept. 16 at her home in Ocean Ridge.
    She was 96.
    Born in Cortland, N.Y. in 1917, Mrs. Hall moved to Miami with her parents as a young girl. She fell in love with swimming and diving and joined a city swim team called the Water Rats. As a teenager, Mrs. Hall took a job as a “mermaid” for a glass-bottom boat tour operator in Fort Lauderdale, where she put on an underwater show and collected sea fans from the ocean for tourists.
    After encountering a large grouper in the water one day, Mrs. Hall decided she would rather run the boat than dive under it. She took her place at the helm and became one of South Florida’s first female boat captains, if not the first.
    The Coast Guard issued Mrs. Hall a captain’s license in March 1940, her family said.
    Mrs. Hall met and married fisherman Dan Garnsey in the 1940s and worked with him to establish the Helen S fishing business in Pompano Beach, which is still operated by her grandchildren.
    After having three children, Mrs. Hall divorced Garnsey in the 1950s and married Wendall Hall. The Halls moved their blended family of seven children, along with Mrs. Hall’s orphaned nephew, to Boynton Beach. The family lived on 50 acres “west of town” off Military Trail and ran cattle on the land before moving east to a home on State Road A1A in Ocean Ridge.
    They bought the first Sea Mist II drift fishing boat, a wooden boat, in 1956 and began offering ocean fishing trips to the public from Boynton Beach.
    The Halls purchased what is now Boynton Harbor Marina, named it Sea Mist Marina, and made it into a full-service marina with boat storage, fuel and repair services. The family moved into a small two-story building at the marina in the early 1970s, where Mrs. Hall’s daughter, Judi Garnsey Andrews, remembers dipping shrimp for customers as a girl.
    The Halls eventually sold the marina to the city. But the Sea Mist III fishing boat, run by Mrs. Hall’s grandchildren, still sails daily from the marina on East Ocean Avenue.
    “Their family was one of the first families of fishing in Boynton Beach,” friend Harvey E. Oyer III said. “They probably introduced hundreds of thousands of people to Gulf Stream fishing.”
    Despite being one of the few, if not the only, woman at the helm of large commercial boats in South Florida, Mrs. Hall said during a February interview that she was always treated with “a great deal of respect” by other boat captains.
    Mrs. Hall and her husband, who died in 1994, helped start the First Church of Christian Science in Boynton Beach in the 1950s. Family members said Mrs. Hall followed her Christian Science faith and lived free of conventional medicine.
    She was an avid reader who enjoyed keeping up with the latest technology. She used an iPad to play crossword puzzles and answer emails in recent years, family members said.
    In addition to working in the fishing business, Mrs. Hall operated the Victorian Parlor vintage bookstore on East Ocean Avenue until 1999.
    Mrs. Hall is survived by six children and stepchildren, including Capt. Tom Hall of Pompano Beach; Capt. Bark Garnsey of New Mexico; Wendy Hall Bensol of New York; Nancy Hall Garnsey of Ocean Ridge; John Hall of Tennessee; and Judith Garnsey Andrews of Ocean Ridge.
    She has 15 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
    The family is planning a celebration-of-life service for Mrs. Hall aboard the Sea Mist III in November.
    In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that contributions be made in Mrs. Hall’s name to the charity of the donor’s choice.

Nancy Schneider learns that her Delray Beach condo is now considered in a flood zone.

Judy Kraft is one of the few whose Briny Breezes property

has been given a more favorable flood rating.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith
    
    When FEMA held an open house at the Boynton Beach City Library, the event was supposed to start at 4 p.m. But when the doors to the conference room opened at 3:15 p.m., a flood of coastal residents surged in.
    They wanted to know how the proposed flood map changes would affect their insurance rates, an important factor for anyone with a home mortgage.
    The Federal Emergency Management Agency registered residents and gave each person a ticket to keep until that number was called. The first stop: a row of FEMA contractors sitting behind computer screens. The contractors were able to look up the residents’ properties and flood insurance rating.
    Some, like Judy Kraft of Briny Breezes, received good news at the September open house. Her trailer sits on a coral reef, allowing her flood zone to be downgraded. Others in the trailer park sit on soggy ground, she said.
    “I’m happy,” she said. Although because Briny Breezes property owners also are shareholders, she feels responsible for the whole park. “It’s not an individual thing,” she said. “The (insurance) rates affect the values and the rental rates of the park.”
    Others, such as Nancy Schneider of Delray Beach, received unpleasant news.
    Under the old elevation standards from 1929, her Patio Beach condo building was not in a flood zone. But FEMA redid the elevation standards in 1988 to make them equitable for any property in the 48 contiguous states. As a result, Schneider’s condo is now in a flood zone.
    She wasn’t surprised. In February she had heard the standards might be changing. The proposed change forced her to find a surveyor who would note the elevation of her building. She needed it to be at least 6 feet above sea level, according to 1988 standards. It was 4.75 feet, she said, after the survey was done. “We can’t raise it (the building) because it’s built on a slab,” Schneider said.
    FEMA officials also were available to help residents figure out changes needed to avoid a premium increase.
    Town managers and city engineers also were there to provide more information about drainage improvements and other steps they were taking to help residents.
    In addition, employees of AECOM, a FEMA contractor, were ready to talk about the recently started coastal study to update the one done in 1996.
    The study, expected to be ready in four to five years, is analyzing wave heights and surges, topographic maps, effects of sea walls and previous hurricane information (landfalls, wind speeds, rain amounts, etc.) along the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast. The analysis alone is expected to take 18 months, said Mark Vieira, senior civil engineer for FEMA’s Region IV, which includes Florida.
    Meanwhile, FEMA is updating its flood maps for Palm Beach County for the first time in about 30 years. It released preliminary maps last year that set off a tidal wave of responses, mostly from the western communities that were placed in high-risk flood areas.
    Manalapan and Highland Beach did not see much change between the maps released in August and the current ones. Delray Beach and Lantana also did not see many changes for their properties near the ocean or Intracoastal Waterway.
    Other coastal communities are still trying to figure out what FEMA did.
    “They’ve changed all the categories,” said Ken Schenck, Ocean Ridge town manager. “They are supposed to advertise it (the maps) in the Federal Register in November. From that point we will have 90 days to comment. The lines between the properties are so faint that it is hard to tell in which flood zone a property lies.”
    In the spring, Ocean Ridge had appealed proposed changes in the maps released in 2013 because they excluded only 140 properties from the high-risk flood zone when the town spent $10 million to improve drainage in its south end. Schenck was hoping for an additional 50-100 properties to be excluded. He had said FEMA categorized a property as in a high-risk flood zone when only a corner of the property was in it.
    “That information we submitted about drainage work done in the south end will be used in their coastal study to be released in 2019,” he said.
    Gulf Stream did not see any major changes to its flood zones, Town Manager William Thrasher said. He is concerned about the change to the elevation standards that FEMA is now using. “We will have to change our building code, based on 6 feet NAVD (the new standard),” he said.
    Boca Raton is still waiting to hear from its GIS staff about the proposed flood maps and how they compare to the current ones. “Then we will do an analysis to determine whether we will do a city appeal or have the individual property owners submit letters (of map change),” said Keith Carney, senior zoning officer.
    FEMA revises its flood maps continually.
    Big payouts after Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy put the National Flood Insurance Program $24 billion in debt. Congress passed the Biggert-Waters Act in 2012 to help bring the flood insurance policies in line with the true risk. Homeowners living in high-risk zones would have seen policy premium increases as high as 25 percent until their policy premium reached full flood rates.
    In the spring, rate relief went into effect for primary homeowners. Increases for flood insurance premiums were capped at 18 percent, although no relief was given to second home and business owners who can be charged as much as a 25 percent increase.
    FEMA has 7,730 flood insurance policies in six South County coastal communities that lie entirely on the barrier island. Of those policies, 77.3 percent are in a high-risk flood zone, said its spokeswoman, Margaret “Jody” Cottrill. FEMA figures are for the whole towns, she said.
    In November, FEMA hopes to publish the county flood maps in the Federal Register, Vieira of FEMA said. Then the agency would buy two legal notices, alerting the public that the 90-day comment period is open.
    The number and complexity of the comments will determine how soon FEMA can sign off on the maps, Cottrill said. She did not want to speculate, but that change could be coming as early as the summer of 2015.

By Dan Moffett

    For decades, South Palm Beach has prided itself in being a coastal condo community with a down-home, small-town feel. But some of that laid-back charm and innocence appears about to be lost to the changing times.
    Town Council members are moving forward with a plan to beef up security in the lobby area at Town Hall — a project that could include putting staff behind bulletproof glass and reinforced counters.
    And Police Chief Carl Webb has dramatically increased the firepower of his department, adding a half-dozen military rifles to his officers’ arsenal.
    “It’s not Mayberry anymore,” said Mayor Donald Clayman.
    Town officials say several incidents involving angry visitors to the Town Hall have raised concerns about the security of office workers.
    “It is not something you want to have to think about and do,” said Vice Mayor Joseph Flagello. “But in this day and age, unfortunately all it takes is one unstable person to do something crazy.”
    Flagello said it would be a mistake to assume that employees are safe because their offices are next door to the Police Department.
    “There’s not always someone in there,” he said, “because they’re out on the road protecting our town. We have a half of a little wooden door and counter, and they (employees) feel very vulnerable. We can’t have our people feeling vulnerable.”
    Town Manager Rex Taylor said he is looking for contractors to make proposals for overhauling the lobby and “will get this thing done” as soon as possible.
    Webb, during the same Sept. 23 meeting, told council members he had purchased six tactical weapons — AR 16 A-2 rifles — from a state program in Starke that makes surplus military items available to law enforcement agencies. He said he spent $400 for the rifles, five of them are new, and the retail cost would have been about $5,000.
    Police in neighboring Lantana, Manalapan and Palm Beach are equipped with similar weapons. Webb said his officers currently are armed only with handguns that have an effective range of less than 40 feet.
    The chief says South Palm Beach has two banks nearby, school buses going down A1A and many high-profile visitors — such as members of Congress and diplomats — that warrant extra security precautions.
    Webb also said that the opening of the new Lantana Bridge last November is likely contributing to a new problem: young thieves crossing from the mainland to steal from cars in coastal communities. Ten unlocked cars were burglarized in South Palm Beach on the nights of Aug. 12 and 22, Webb said.
    “They were crimes of opportunity,” he said. “Now with the Lantana Bridge open it’s easier to get in and out of town.”
    The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office has alerted police in coastal communities that a street gang known as YNIC (Young … (racial slur) … In Charge) that operates between Greenacres, Lantana and Boynton Beach may be shifting activities to A1A.

    “They prefer a quieter approach down A1A rather than Dixie Highway,” said police Lt. Robert Rizzotto.

    YNIC is responsible for dozens of auto thefts and burglaries in the last year, Rizzotto said. The thieves are typically on foot and go  building to building through parking lots and garages, between 2 and 4 a.m.

    Webb said most of the items taken from cars were sunglasses and loose change, though one woman said a purse and jewelry worth $11,000 were stolen.  

    In other business:
    • The Town Council will hold a workshop beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 9 to consider possible changes to the town charter. Councilwoman Bonnie Fischer proposed the meeting and said she wants to discuss term limits for council members, among other things.
    • Town Manager Taylor said he is beginning to receive applications for his replacement.
Taylor is retiring at the end of the year after 9½ years as South Palm Beach’s top administrator.

    Cheryl Blackerby contributed  to this report.

More than 50 surfers (part of a crowd of more than 200) paddled out

offshore of Briny Breezes to say farewell to Ben Friedman.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Ben was an avid surfer.

2011 photo provided by Bill Breze

    BRINY BREEZES — Ben Friedman, 25, beloved son of Ira and Joanne Friedman, died peacefully on Sept. 10 at Bethesda Memorial Hospital.
    Ben was born in Palm Beach Gardens and moved to Briny Breezes from Wellington when he was 7 years old so he could be closer to the beach. Ben was a fearless athlete who enjoyed the big waves. He loved skateboarding, surfing and skim boarding and could be seen frequently at the beach doing what he loved best.
    One of his favorite surfing destinations was Costa Rica. He loved adventure.
    Ben was employed in a job he loved as an irrigation maintenance worker for the city of Delray Beach.
    He leaves behind two sisters, Jennifer Carlson of Lake Worth and Jessica Hewitt of Providence, R.I. He also leaves behind five nieces and nephews, 16 cousins, three aunts and one uncle. He was preceded in death by his grandmother, Elsie Silva of Briny Breezes, and his aunt Denise Ledoux of Becket, Mass.
    A paddle-out on surfboards to honor Ben was held at Dog Beach, Briny Breezes on Sept. 27.

— Obituary submitted by the family

Aerial view of paddle-out to honor Ben Friedman. Photo by James M. Arena

By Dan Moffett

    Federal officials say that human smugglers are bringing Haitian and Cuban migrants to South Florida in increasing numbers, continuing a five-year trend that shows no sign of slowing.
    The coastal communities have witnessed this up close, watching from their balconies and beachfronts as U.S. Border Patrol and local police have responded to frequent migrant landings from South Palm Beach to Highland Beach during the past year.
    The migrants who make it to shore are a small fraction of those who try to get here, however. The Coast Guard reports a dramatic rise in Cubans and Haitians stopped at sea. As of mid-September, during fiscal year 2014, the Coast Guard had intercepted and detained 2,059 Cuban migrants, 949 Haitians and 293 from the Dominican Republic, an increase of about 60 percent from the three countries over last year.
    “Economics is always a major factor in migration,” said Maria Zequeira, a South Florida immigration attorney who has worked in Haiti with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Also, these smuggling operations are very sophisticated enterprises. They’re always looking for the loophole. If you’re seeing more migrants landing in South Palm Beach County, it’s probably because smugglers are having trouble getting through tightened security somewhere else.”
    A complex set of economic, political and natural factors is driving the increase in illegal migration, according to federal officials and immigrant activists.
    In the United States, the economy is improving, the focus of enforcement has shifted to the Mexican border and the Obama administration is still promising comprehensive immigration reform. In Cuba and Haiti, economic conditions are still bad. In the Bahamas, where most of the illegal traffic to Florida originates, immigration controls are still loose or nonexistent.
    In the Atlantic, the warm seas of summer are calmer than usual, making a perilous journey seem a little less so.
    Government officials believe the upward trend in human smuggling is going to continue.
    “We don’t see any reason why it’s going to stop,” said Capt. Mark Fedor, an enforcement chief with the Seventh Coast Guard District in Miami. “So we are preparing to deal with it at these levels.”
    Here are factors contributing to the increase:
    The dismal Haitian economy. Four years after an earthquake killed more than 100,000, life in Haiti remains a day-to-day struggle. A recent United Nations study found that at least 70 percent of Haitians have no access to electricity and at least 600,000 have insufficient food. Close to 200,000 people still live in camps set up to house the 2.3 million people left homeless after the quake. In the spring, an outbreak of cholera and the mosquito-borne virus chikungunya added to the island’s misery.
    The earthquake actually deterred migration for a while as Haitians were consumed with surviving where they were. Now that conditions have at least stabilized, more people are willing to risk leaving.
    The recovering U.S. economy. Meanwhile, in the United States, the recession is over and an improving economy means more job opportunities for immigrants.
    For Haitians, remittances from family members living and working in the U.S. still account for the largest part of Haiti’s economy.

    Bahamas immigration policy. The Bahamas has some of the most lenient immigration laws in the hemisphere and does not require visas for visitors from most countries. Less than 70 miles from the Florida coast, the Bahamas is the launching point of choice for many smugglers who charge anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 to transport a migrant, according to government reports.
    “The Bahamas has been lax about its immigration for a long, long time,” Zequeira said, “and the U.S. government hasn’t been able to get it to make changes and tighten things up.”
    Prospects for U.S. immigration reform. Since the earthquake, the government has granted Haitian immigrants Temporary Protected Status, a designation that allows them to stay and work in the United States without fear of deportation while their homeland recovers from the disaster.
    TPS and the prospect that President Obama might act on comprehensive immigration reform have given some Haitians reason to migrate, believing if they can get here they can stay here.
    Quiet seas. The increasing numbers of Cuban migrants, in particular, could be attributed to the relatively quiet storm seasons in recent years. A provision in federal law known as the “wet foot, dry foot” policy allows Cubans who reach U.S. soil to remain here.
    Earlier this year, the Castro government tried to get the United States to end the policy, saying it encourages illegal immigration. But talks about migration policy between the two countries did not produce an agreement.
    Shift in enforcement focus. South Florida may be seeing more illegal migration because other entry points are seeing less. Earlier this year, Border Patrol officials transferred resources to the U.S.-Mexico border to stem the flow of unaccompanied migrant children who were crossing illegally. Tightening security on that border means that smuggling rings will look elsewhere, and Florida is a likely alternative. Federal officials say they’re ready.
    “Make no mistake about it, we will aggressively go after the individuals who knowingly put other people’s lives at risk,” said Cmdr. Timothy Cronin, Seventh Coast Guard District deputy enforcement chief. “Human smugglers are ruthless, profit-seeking criminals who have no regard for human life.”
    Why South Palm Beach County?  Law enforcement officials say that, besides being a straight shot from the Bahamas, the towns of Manalapan, Ocean Ridge and Highland Beach are ideal landing spots for smugglers. Beaches are quiet and within easy access to the mainland.
    “The immigrants have cellphones and they are arranging to be picked up on A1A,” says Manalapan Police Chief Carmen Mattox. “They come right off the beach, they have a cab waiting for them and they’re gone out of the area.”

Notable migrant landings in 2014
Jan. 16: Manalapan police assist Border Patrol in apprehending 17 migrants (16 Haitians and a Jamaican) smuggled from the Bahamas.
April 15: Highland Beach police and Border Patrol agents detain 12 Haitian migrants  — eight men, one juvenile and three women, one of them seven months pregnant.
June 8: Ocean Ridge police, Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies and Border Patrol agents apprehend 17 migrants (15 adults and two infants) from Haiti on Ocean Avenue.
Sept. 1: Manalapan police and border agents apprehend 23 migrants from Haiti and Jamaica at 3:30 a.m. along A1A.
Sept. 15: Highland Beach police and border agents detain 13 migrants from Haiti on South Ocean Boulevard.
Sept. 22: Manalapan police assist Border Patrol in apprehending 10 migrants from Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and Sri Lanka.

By Rich Pollack

    They are very different organizations but they share a common goal: keeping bicyclists and pedestrians safe on local roadways.  
    Last month, the South Florida Safe Roads Task Force conducted its second safety campaign of the year along State Road A1A with a goal of raising awareness of the need for bicyclists, motorists and pedestrians to safely share the road.
    The campaign included stepped-up law enforcement along A1A from Hillsboro Beach in Broward County to Boynton Beach on four days in September. It also included a safety fair on Sept. 13, with safety demonstrations and giveaways.
    This month, in another effort aimed at making roadway conditions safer for bicyclists and pedestrians, Human Powered Delray along with the Delray Beach Bike Club will host a bicycle safety awareness ride beginning at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 12.         The ride, which is free and open to the public, is focused on bringing attention to the need for improvements along George Bush Boulevard in Delray Beach, from Federal Highway to State Road A1A.
    “We realize that George Bush Boulevard is a vital artery to anyone wanting to get to the beach,” said Patrick Halliday, president of the Delray Beach Bike Club.
    He said organizers want to raise awareness of the need for resurfacing of the roadway as well as the need for bicycle lanes.
    “George Bush Boulevard is way overdue to be resurfaced,” Halliday said.
    People taking part in the ride will have the opportunity to sign a petition to be presented to city officials, asking for improvements to the road.
    “Anyone who takes part in the ride will become aware of the problem and see that it’s a project that needs to be funded,” he said.
    While Human Powered Delray, a civic group focused on bicycle and pedestrian safety, and the Delray Bike Club are hoping for positive results from the ride, organizers of the South Florida Safe Roads Task Force say they’re already seeing a positive impact.
    “We’re very pleased with the results we’ve seen after the second campaign,” said Tara Kirschner, executive director of the Dori Slosberg Foundation and spokeswoman for the task force. “The number of bicycle and pedestrian citations given out was significantly lower than in our first campaign and we’ve had a very positive response from the public.”
    In all, Kirschner said, there were 69 tickets issued to motorists, 24 to bicyclists and one to a pedestrian. Bicyclists received 25 written warnings and 78 verbal warnings while pedestrians received nine written warnings and 44 verbal warnings. Motorists received 69 written warnings and 24 verbal warnings.
    “Based on the positive feedback and recommendations from the public, we plan to continue to expand our campaign,” Kirschner said.
For more information on Human Powered Delray, visit www.meetup.com/human-powered-delray.

By Mary Thurwachter

    At a budget hearing Sept. 23, the Lantana Town Council gave its approval to an $18 million budget with a tax rate of $3.24 per $1,000 of taxable property.
    The 2014-15 tax rate is the same as last year.
    Thanks to the rebounding economy and the $39 million increase in taxable property values, revenues are up. Of course, expenses have increased as well, but by the time Town Manager Deborah Manzo and Finance Director Stephen Kaplan had crunched all the numbers, they were able to eliminate a $93,426 deficit that would have had the town dipping into its reserves.
    “Most of the balance is due to increased revenues and lower property and casualty insurance premiums than what was anticipated,” Manzo said. “Also, we are no longer paying for the previous attorney’s (Corbett and White) health insurance, which was just over $15,000.”
    The budget allows for merit raises of up to 2 percent, hinging on annual evaluations.
    Among capital improvement expenditures are computers, library books, computer software, beach parking lot lights, a generator for Town Hall, an air conditioner for the library and a new police car for the chief.
    At its regular meeting on Sept. 22, the town also made some amendments to its 2013-14 budget. Some of the surplus revenues (mainly from off-duty police work) during the year will be used to buy a third parking kiosk at the beach to reduce wait time by patrons. The kiosk and shade cover will cost $23,000. Surplus revenues will also be used to repair the beach boardwalk and railing, a $12,000 expense.
    In other action:
    • The council voted 4-0, (councilman Philip Aridas was absent) to amend the comprehensive plan and zoning from mixed-use industrial to mixed-use development for the A.G. Holley property at 1199 Lantana Road.
A.G. Holley hospital will be demolished to make way for a development to include office space, apartments, restaurants and other businesses.
    • The council voted to build three baseball fields, two batting cages and two soccer fields at its sports complex on the Holley property. Town Manager Deborah Manzo was authorized to decrease the size of the second soccer field if needed to fit the available space. Money for the project will come from the developer of the A.G. Holley property ($2.5 million) and from the state ($1 million). In order to get the money from the state, the project needs to be complete by December 2015.

    The Carlisle Palm Beach, a six-story senior living community at 450 E. Ocean Ave. in Lantana, completed a renovation that includes the addition of a “memory care” unit for residents with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
    “We’re excited to take what was already a premier community here on the beach and make it even better,” said Executive Director Justin Brown. “Our memory care lifestyle option (with 56 units) will allow our residents to continue to live in place.”
   The makeover includes a new gymnasium for fitness classes and rehabilitation and common area spaces for recreation and socializing. New furniture, fresh coats of paint and new carpeting were added.
    The senior living home consists of three residential buildings and was originally designed to house 250 independent-living apartments and 60 assisted-living units. With the renovations, there are 144 independent units and 54 assisted-living units.     The Carlisle sits on property once owned by the town. The property was sold in 1997.

— Mary Thurwachter

Melissa DiMisa and Connie Muir opened Once Upon a Time in May in the Pineapple Grove

area of downtown Delray Beach.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Scott Simmons

    Once upon a time, there were two east Boca Raton moms who had kids to clothe.
    They did it with such panache that people were talking.
    And that talk is what inspired Once Upon a Time, the children’s clothing boutique in Delray Beach’s Pineapple Grove neighborhood.
    “Well, Delray needed a children’s store. We both enjoyed dressing our kids and keeping kids looking young and innocent,” said Connie Muir, partner in the store with her best friend, Melissa DiMisa. “We both have two children each, and our kids are best friends since they were born.”
    Once Upon a Time caters to busy moms like Muir and DiMisa who want their kids to be smartly attired.
    They also had another goal in mind.
“We wanted to have something to do together with flexible schedules and spend time with our kids,” Muir said. Muir and DiMisa’s older children, ages 5½ and 6, attend Gulf Stream School, as did the women’s husbands.
    Their store, which opened in May, offers clothing for kids from newborn to size 10 for boys and girls.
    And the style?
    “I think that’s we’re not so much into the trends as much as keeping them classic,” Muir said.
“I’m sure there are certain styles that come and go but we have dresses similar to what I wore as a child.”
    Some clothing items are keepsakes, DiMisa said, citing the selection of christening and Communion wear.
    But certain trendy items are popular as well.
    “I think the top seller right now would be Mini Melissa shoes,” DiMisa said.
    “They are a really comfortable, adorable shoe,” Muir said. “They’re actually jelly and look like a jelly shoe. Some look like kitty cats. Kids come in and ask their parents to buy them for them.”
    It can be difficult to get kids to try clothes on.
    “Melissa’s (children) love to try them on. My daughter does not. She’s very little, but I make her do it anyway,” Muir said with a laugh.
    That’s all the better for strolling the Pineapple Grove area, just north of Atlantic Avenue.
    Both women said they liked the range of shops in the neighborhood, and acknowledged that many of their east Boca neighbors shop and dine in the area.
    “We had parking. In fact, there was plenty of parking,” Muir said of the area. “If you want to go grab a quick birthday present, you don’t want to valet your car.”
    Said DiMisa: “Moms like convenience.”
    She should know.

    Once Upon a Time, open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, Pineapple Grove Promenade Plaza, 313 NE Second Ave., Delray Beach; 808-7449 or onceuponatimedelray.com.