By Dan Moffett
    
    Town commissioners gave their approval for a Red Cross charity event on Point Manalapan, but not before plenty of hand-wringing over the possibility their good wishes might have some bad consequences.
    Desiree and Lambert Van Der Walde asked the commission to allow the Red Cross to make their residence at 45 Audubon Causeway a Red Cross Designers’ Show House from Feb. 19 to March 21 next year.
    Red Cross organizers say they hope to take in about $250,000 from people who will tour the home and inspect the work of various interior designers. The organizers say they expect to draw as many as 75 people per day, and where those visitors will park their cars has commissioners worried.
    “I would like to support the Red Cross because the Red Cross does such valuable work, so we really do need to do what we can,” said Commissioner Peter Isaac at the June 24 meeting. “I’m still concerned about the traffic.”
    Lambert Van Der Walde told the commission that about six cars per hour were expected to come to his home and that at least 33 parking spaces were available around the corner on Curlew Road. He said volunteers would park their cars at the town library or Plaza del Mar shopping center, and that a Feb. 18 party for 150 guests also would use the offsite parking options and take shuttles to the home.
    “Six cars an hour works statistically,” said Isaac, “but if they all arrive at the same hour?” Isaac said he was willing to give his support, “with the caveat that you move parking to the library if there are problems.”
    Police Chief Carmen Mattox said he reviewed the organizers’ plan and approved it: “I’m comfortable with this event. We handle parties and events like this all year.”
    Daryl Cheifetz, the mayor’s wife, who lives on Curlew Road and chairs the town’s architectural commission, told the commissioners approving the event was a mistake and sets a troubling precedent that “will allow other charities and fundraisers to come in to Manalapan.”
    She said she believed the town had a bad experience with a previous Red Cross event a decade ago, and that making a decision in June is unfair because too many residents are gone for the summer.
    “I do not believe that this is good for our community,” she said. “People are here for privacy and tranquility. This is in the height of our season and it goes on for four weeks. People are going to be coming in to our quiet little Manalapan and driving around and cruising.”
    The commission voted 4-1 to approve the Red Cross plan, with Commissioner Ronald Barsanti dissenting and Commissioner Clark Appleby absent.
    Mayor David Cheifetz said the town’s code prohibits commercial events — yard sales and garage sales — but charity fundraisers are not mentioned. Cheifetz said he wants to take the issue up at the commission’s next meeting. ;

By Dan Moffett
    Manalapan has the lowest tax rate in Palm Beach County, and some of its highest property values and budget reserves that are the envy of communities across the bridge.
    So finding $750,000 to replace the town’s failing Audubon Causeway Bridge shouldn’t be a big deal, right? Well, not exactly.
    During the town’s budget workshop on June 23, Mayor David Cheifetz instructed Town Manager Linda Stumpf to explore the possibility of taking out a loan to cover the initial $500,000 that is needed this year to get the project underway.
    “We could borrow. I think it’s something we should consider,” Cheifetz said. “Interest rates are pretty low and the town has a good credit rating. We could leave the reserves intact then.”
    The town commission has been wrestling with the costs of replacing the 30-yard span on Point Manalapan for the past six months. Efforts to find federal, state or county money failed. The project is too small to finance through a bond offering, Stumpf told commissioners. The town’s auditors have suggested maybe opening a line of credit with a local bank.
    If all else fails, commissioners actually might have to dip into the $1.8 million in reserves that are sitting in the town’s bank account, Manalapan’s rainy day fund — rainy day as in hurricane.
    About $120,000 of the Audubon project’s cost goes toward replacing a water line that runs across the bridge. That expense is covered by utility fees, according to Stumpf, leaving about $630,000 that ultimately will have to come out of reserves, new taxes, borrowed money or a combination of all three.
    The project is scheduled to begin next May, and commissioners are hoping the worst of the construction work is over by the start of the 2015 tourist season.
    Two other significant capital expenditures are in the early budget for the new fiscal year. The town’s 9-year-old generator is corroded and needs replacement at a cost of about $27,650; and it might take as much as $20,000 to replace the 11-year-old town hall phone system which has failed several times in recent months.
    Manalapan has also seen rising costs from litigation with the police union. Arbitration issues over the town’s plan to fire Officer David Hul have helped run up about $37,000 in legal fees, according to Stumpf’s preliminary numbers.
    The town’s next budget workshops are scheduled for July 22 and Aug. 20. ;

By Jane Smith
    
    The man who just received approval to open the newest substance-abuse treatment center in Boynton Beach has fought in court for more than four years with Delray Beach — over a $4.25 double-scoop of strawberry cheesecake ice cream that began a wrangle for his job.
    Late last year, the city commission approved a $125,000 out-of-court settlement with Michael Brown, and he waived his right to return to work at the Delray Beach Police Department, according to a memo prepared for the Dec. 10 commission meeting.
    Brown said he is not supposed to discuss the settlement. Instead, he prefers to focus on getting his Sobriety Now center ready for clients. The for-profit business received a probationary state license June 20 to offer adult outpatient and adult intensive outpatient treatment services at 639 E. Ocean Ave. in Boynton Beach.
    Sobriety Now is seeking clients who have completed in-patient programs and have insurance, about 10-15 people. “We won’t take any court-ordered patients,” Brown said.
    The business is designed with a 12-step-plus approach to treatment, emphasizing the lifelong recovery process. It will monitor clients’ drug use through random urine testing done weekly. No clients will live at Sobriety Now offices.
    Michael Berger, a licensed clinical social worker, will oversee the client assessment, counseling and group therapy sessions. The two met when Berger was working at the Ambrosia Treatment Center in West Palm Beach as a licensed therapist, Berger says. He heard that Brown was looking for a licensed clinical social worker to run a treatment center.
    Berger’s background also includes a stint at the South County Mental Health Center, where he was a therapist on its outpatient crisis unit.
    Brown declined to discuss his financial backing. When seeking his state license with the Department of Children and Families, Sobriety Now supplied a letter from H & G Bookkeeping and Tax Services Inc. in West Palm Beach that said, “We can assure that Sobriety Now has the ability to sustain during the first six months of business.”
    That letter and other supporting documents were sufficient for Sobriety Now to get a probationary license for 90 days. The company paid $300 each for the two treatment center types.
    DCF insists that the center’s officers, therapists and volunteers with direct client contact are fingerprinted and have a state and federal criminal record checks, but it does not look into the work histories listed on a résumé.
    Brown declined to discuss his work history after he left the Delray Beach Police Department.
    His résumé lists: a certified behavioral health technician course, completed June 2013 in Pompano Beach, and an associate of arts degree from Palm Beach State College in Boca Raton.
    Under professional experience, his resume shows that as CEO of Sobriety Now he “facilitated a sex and love addiction specialty group one time a week, served as Ambrosia South’s relapse prevention specialist …”
    He also lists two positions in the jewelry industry: owner of Michael Ryan Jewelers in Boynton Beach, which specializes in buying diamonds and estate jewelry, from July 2013 to present, and general manager of Cash for Gold & Silver Inc. in Fort Lauderdale from July 2011 to January 2014. He also listed an eight-year stint in the U.S. Navy and reserves where he was a “master at arms.” For the Delray Beach Police Department, his résumé lists “sworn police officer” from August 2007 to November 2009.
    In April 2009 he went into a closing Ben & Jerry’s and asked for free ice cream, according to the department’s Internal Affairs records. The chief recommended Brown be fired, which the then-city manager did on Nov. 20, 2009.
    Brown took that termination to arbitration. The arbitrator decided on July 7, 2010, that an eight-month suspension without pay was appropriate and awarded Brown his job without back pay.
    The arbitrator also reviewed the department’s investigation into the incident and found it to have several “red flags” that did not support the conclusion that Brown had lied.
    In addition, the arbitrator report also looked into Brown’s discipline record with the agency, 11 cases in two years, calling that record “deplorable.”
    The city appealed to circuit court, saying the arbitrator had overstepped his role. The judge agreed in December 2012 and sent the case back to arbitration. The union appealed to the Fourth District Court of Appeal. Then in November 2013, the city’s outside counsel filed a notice of settlement.
    In the city attorney’s memo for the December commission meeting, the settlement with Brown was described as “66 percent of his back pay if he were to be reinstated at the second arbitration hearing … If the case is not settled, the City’s attorneys’ fees and costs going forward will be approximately $50,000.”

By Willie Howard

    OCEAN RIDGE — Capt. Mike Zubak, a charter boat captain who earned a living on the waters off Boynton Inlet for nearly 40 years, died June 22 while in Hospice care at Bethesda Memorial Hospital. He was 85.
    Mr. Zubak had suffered from multiple health problems in the past year and died of kidney failure, said his son, Jon Zubak.
Mr. Zubak, who lived just south of Boynton Inlet on Island Drive South in Ocean Ridge, had a sailfish image tiled into the bottom of his pool and portholes on his front doors. He dedicated his life to fishing.
    A native of Detroit, Zubak moved to South Florida in the late 1950s after serving as a paratrooper in the Army. He worked the Boynton Inlet docks in the late 1960s, where he met his wife, Dorothy Flaccus.
    Mr. Zubak worked on several Boynton Beach charter boats and ran his own commercial fishing boat, the Go Boy Again, before setting up his charter business on the Elf III — a 44-foot wooden sportfishing boat custom built in North Carolina in the late 1960s. He operated the Elf III from 1968 until he sold it in 2004.
    Even his son is not quite sure how Mr. Zubak came upon his nickname, Zoom Boom, but fellow fishermen said it was probably a reference to his tendency to get excited.
    “He was very lively, always entertaining,” said Flip Traylor of Ocean Ridge, a boat captain who always used Mr. Zubak’s split-tail mullet when he trolled for billfish during tournaments in the Bahamas.
    “He’d get cranked up,” said Butch Moser of Delray Beach, a veteran charter captain who worked as a mate on the Elf III with Mr. Zubak.
    Moser remembers boating one of the first recreationally caught swordfish off Boynton Beach with Mr. Zubak in 1968 along with several Warsaw grouper over 100 pounds. Mr. Zubak’s other prized fish included a 145.5-pound white marlin caught off Lake Worth.
    Mr. Zubak was known as a man who had strong opinions and didn’t back down when he thought he was right. But he had a compassionate side, too.
    In recent years, he stopped by Palm Beach Yacht Center (where he used to dock the Elf III) every night to feed pelicans and stray cats, said Sandy Schulz, who operates the Living on Island Time and Southern Comfort IV fishing boats from the marina with her husband, John.
    Marina managers told Mr. Zubak not to feed the pelicans, but he fed them anyway, along with the cats.
    “He came by every night like clockwork,” Schulz said. “He loved animals.”
    When Cindy Lyman Jamison was home from her first year in college, Mr. Zubak helped her operate the Lucky Penny charterboat for her father, Kenny Lyman.
    “Mike would talk to me on the ship-to-shore radio when other captains wouldn’t,” Jamison said.
    Friend John Jolley said Mr. Zubak taught a lot of people to fish on the Elf III.
    “He was a hard-working guy,” Jolley said. “He was one of the old guard, and now he’s gone.”
    Steve Sprague, co-owner of Tuppen’s Marine & Tackle in Lake Worth, said he still catches fish at key locations he learned from Mr. Zubak.
    “He knew all the hot spots,” Sprague said.
    Jon Zubak is Mr. Zubak’s last remaining relative. His wife, Dorothy, and son, Michael, died in 1997.  No memorial service was planned as of late June. Jon Zubak said he will spread his father’s ashes on the ocean.

Vice-Mayor Louis De Stefano listens to the concerns of protestors after the Town Meeting. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett
    
    About a dozen friends, relatives and supporters of a Haitian student turned out at Manalapan Town Hall on June 24 to protest against what they believe is racial profiling by police.
    “This is about racism,” said Wilfredo Madrigal. “Manalapan needs to end its discrimination and its profiling.”
    Madrigal, a Lake Worth resident and brother-in-law of Junior Vertus, led the group of protesters outside the building, then came inside to make his complaints to town commissioners. He called for the firing of Police Chief Carmen Mattox over an incident that occurred in August when the ID card of Vertus, a Seagull Academy student, was found in the La Coquille Villas garage.
    Manalapan police officers visited the student’s house twice looking for Vertus but he was not home. The officers told his family that they wanted an explanation about how the ID card got in the building.
    “When you find a lost ID card, you mail it back to the person,” Madrigal said. “You don’t go harassing a person’s family. Unless they’re Haitian.”
    Manalapan resident Kersen De Jong has cited the incident as an example of racial profiling — one of many, he says — and has filed a complaint with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
    De Jong also has complained that the town unjustly reprimanded and is now trying to fire one of the investigating officers in the Vertus matter, David Hul, after he accused Mattox of making discriminatory remarks about Haitians. The town says it wants to terminate Hul because he mishandled an incident at a local restaurant in February.
    In November, the town called in the West Palm Beach Police Department to make an independent review of the Vertus case. Internal affairs investigators Sgt. Michael Deighan and Lt. Theadore Swiderski filed a 50-page report in January that found no evidence of misconduct by Hul or Mattox, but that did recommend changes to the way the town handles public records requests for emails.
    The report also said that Manalapan police quickly established that the ID card was simply lost and no criminal activity had occurred.
    The town also hired the West Palm Beach law firm Ward Damon to review the Vertus incident. In June, attorney Jeffrey Pheterson filed a report that backed Mattox and criticized Hul for not bringing forth his accusations against the chief in a timely manner.
    “The credibility resolution is resolved clearly in favor of Chief Mattox,” Pheterson wrote. “The allegations are determined to be unfounded.”
Mayor David Cheifetz says the investigations have cleared Mattox and the department of misconduct.
    “There has been an internal investigation, an outside firm has been hired, and Chief Mattox was completely exonerated,” said Cheifetz. “There was no case of racial profiling found. As far as this commission is concerned, the matter is closed.”         Cheifetz went on to say that Mattox “is a wonderful public servant” and the town is fortunate to have him.
    After the commission meeting, Vice Mayor Louis De Stefano met with several of the protesters in the parking lot and told them he was willing to work with them to improve relations. “Come see me,” De Stefano told the group. “I’m here all year. I’m happy to talk to you.”

By Mary Thurwachter

    SOUTH PALM BEACH – Former South Palm Beach Mayor Maurice “Maury” Jacobson, who in 2009 at age 87 was known as the oldest sitting mayor in Palm Beach County, died June 30. He was 93.
    Mr. Jacobson was mayor from 2005 to 2009. He served on the town council from 1993 to 1998 and returned in 2000 for two more two-year terms.
    “Nobody loved South Palm Beach more than Maury,” said Town Manager Rex Taylor.
    “He will be missed by all,” said Mayor Donald Clayman. “He served on many committees and acted as a mentor to many.”
    Lantana Mayor Dave Stewart was one of those Mr. Jacobson mentored. Stewart, who sat with Jacobson frequently during the weeks before his death, said he had known Mr. Jacobson for 40 years, initially in the air- conditioning field common to both.
    “He was always out there wanting to help people,” Stewart said. “Maury was the most fatherly figure anybody could know. He was a pioneer in the A/C business and wanted the industry to be better. If you were having problems, even if you were a competitor, he would help you out.”
    Stewart said Mr. Jacobson called him his “surrogate son,” and was there to provide advice.
    “He is one of the main reasons I ran for mayor,” Stewart said. “He said not to be a one-issue person. He told me to attend council meetings and speak up when they were doing something good – or not good — but not to speak all the time. He taught me to filter interaction.”
    Born Aug. 18, 1920, in Brooklyn, N.Y., Mr. Jacobson was the youngest of five children. His father died in an explosion when he was 9. During The Great Depression, he learned important life lessons from his mother, Mr. Jacobson told The Coastal Star in a 2009 interview.
    “We shared meals with strangers who’d knock on our door,” he said. “We didn’t have any money, but she’d invite them in, split our dinner with them, and treat them like old friends. Over the years, I developed the feeling that the great treasures of life are people. Most people try to do the right thing.”
    He moved to Florida from Washington, D.C., in 1974 with his wife, Fran, and their two daughters, Lynn and Janet. Fran died in 1993.
    After high school, he worked as a civilian machinist for the U.S. Navy before joining the U.S. Army to serve under Gen. George Patton during World War II. When he returned, he opened an air-conditioning business.
    In 1997, the Maurice J. Jacobson Scholarship Fund (www.pbacca.org/the_m_jacobson_scholarship_award.html) was founded to honor Mr. Jacobson for his dedication to the HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) industry.  His company, Florida Heating and Air Conditioning, helped build the Children’s Place and Connor’s Nursery in West Palm Beach — Florida’s first nursery for HIV-positive children.
    A service was scheduled for 10:15 a.m. July 3 at Beth Israel in Boynton Beach. South Palm Beach is planning a tribute to Mr. Jacobson later in July. A date has yet to be announced.

By Jane Smith

    Boynton Beach city commissioners are pinning their downtown development hopes on the 500 Ocean project, while they are concerned about the developer’s request for financial assistance.
    For more than 10 years, developers have toyed with creating a project on the 4.7-acre site at the southwest corner of Federal Highway and Ocean Avenue.
    In its first incarnation, the $105 million The Arches was proposed to have 378 condominiums and 40,596 square feet of commercial uses (retail, office and restaurant space). The project fell into foreclosure, and the site remained vacant for years.
    On July 1, city commissioners gave unanimous approval to Morgan Boynton Beach LLC to develop the multi-family project. The corporation is a joint venture of LeCesse Development Group of Altamonte Springs and Morgan Management LLC of Pittsford, N.Y. Their upscale project consists of 341 luxury rental apartments in five- and six-story buildings, 13,330 square feet of retail space, 6,613 square feet of office space and a seven-story garage that could hold up to 664 vehicles, including 14 handicap spaces.
    “Boynton Beach is a growing community,” said Tom Hayden, development director at LeCesse, when asked why his company wants to build in the city. “We are excited to work with the city staff and CRA to bring it to the next level.”
    City Commissioner David Merkel had said in June he supports the project in principle but was troubled by the developer’s request for financial assistance from the city. The commission’s actions on July 1 did not cover the financing aspect. They were asked to vote on the rezoning and site plan. The financing request will be reviewed by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
    Hayden had requested $7 million earlier this year. When questioned July 1 about the financing help, Hayden said, “We continue to discuss that with the CRA.”
    Residential developers don’t usually ask for this assistance, said Vivian Brooks, executive director of the CRA. “We asked them to produce the documents so that we can analyze the need,” she said. “I don’t want to do a Digital Domain (referencing a failed project in West Palm Beach and Port St. Lucie) and have it be in all the papers that we gave them money without doing due diligence.”
    Even if the CRA staff recommends approval, the CRA board, which consists of the commissioners and two community people, might not approve the request, Brooks said.
    The 500 Ocean development would be lushly landscaped with 185 canopy trees and palms. The palms would give quick height, Boynton Beach’s Director of Development Nancy Byrne had said in May when showing the plans. The canopy trees would provide shade in later years.
    The site plan was amended July 1 to allow a hired tree consultant to determine the health of 48 palms and trees existing on the site.
Boynton Beach planners are proud of the landscaping plan they created with the developer.

    The apartments will range in size from a 747-square-foot one bedroom to a 1,306-square-foot three-bedroom unit. Each one will have a balcony, ranging in size from 60 square feet to 235 square feet.
    The development, designed in a contemporary style with some Mediterranean embellishments, will have three plazas: one at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Federal Highway, and two along Ocean Avenue. The corner plaza, at 2,418 square feet, will contain a seating wall, benches, trees and an art feature. A second plaza, at 1,492 square feet, will sit between two retail buildings. The third plaza, at the corner of SE 4th Street and Ocean Avenue, will have 2,236 square feet, lined with palms and sit opposite a future Tri-Rail Coastal Link station.

Scott Greenberg is  president and CEO of ComForcare Senior Services,

a private-duty home healthcare agency serving Palm Beach and Martin counties.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    Each Monday evening from 6-7 p.m., listeners to Seaview 95.9 FM, are invited to join what may be the talk show with the longest title in radio history.
    Oh My God, I’m Getting Older and So Is My Mom addresses issues of importance to aging Floridians and features expert guests, call-in questions and a host who brings both empathy and humor to sometimes uncomfortable facts of life.Now that radio show with the long title is a book with a long title, written by the host, Scott Greenberg.
    Greenberg, 64, is just back from New York City, where he accepted first place in the parenting/family category of Book Expo America’s awards for independently published books.
    “Stroke, spinal surgery, volunteering, food banks, glaucoma, elder law and, of course, Alzheimer’s disease,” Greenberg says, “We’ve done shows on them all.”
    A former New Yorker, he lives in coastal Boca Raton with his wife, Irene, married 44 years this month. The couple has two daughters and three grandchildren.
    In addition to his radio work, he is also the president of ComforCare Senior Services, which provides private, nonmedical home care.
    In both his radio show and book, Greenberg emphasizes the importance of not waiting for a crisis before making decisions about aging.
    “There are all too many people out there whose real motivation is to sell you a product whether it’s good for you or not,” he says. “I think navigating the aging highway, while not as simple as we sometimes believe, can be a great experience with proper planning and preparation.”
— 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 Queens, N.Y., and was brought up in a very traditional, struggling, middle-class family, the oldest of three kids. I grew up in an era when you were thrown out of your house early and came home at dinnertime. It taught me to treat people like I would like to be treated. I had a public school education, and then attended Queensborough Community College and SUNY Plattsburgh, but never finished my degree. I still regret that.
    
Q. How/when did you become an author?
    A. The publisher, Brenda Starr of The Starr Group, was a listener of the radio show and called me and said “Did you ever think of writing a book?” I wrote the book because I see that people often make really critical decisions in a crisis as opposed to when they’re thinking clearly. Any decision made in crisis, you later regret.
    
    Q. Have you had mentors in your life?  Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
    A. Oh, that’s a wonderful question. I would not be who I am today without a couple of wonderful people who took me under their wing and taught me. I was very young, about 17, and a social worker at camp named George Singfield said to me, “People treat you the way you let them treat you.” That really taught me to own who I was.
    My most important mentor was Denis Connors. I worked for Denis off and on for 35 years and he has shaped the person I have become. I’m not sure anybody thinks I’m humble, but I think he taught me humility.

Q. Tell us about your other careers, what were the highlights?
    A. For 22 years I was president of a firm that specialized in the design and production of corporate annual reports and I learned a number of things from dealing with CEOs and COOs of major public corporations. One thing is how to compartmentalize, when to make decisions. Do I need to make that now? Is it urgent and important right this minute or can it wait? I learned the value of patience, analysis and compartmentalizing.

Q. What advice do you have for a young person entering the  workforce today?
A. The harder you work, the luckier you get. It’s a cliché, but I believe luck is where opportunity and preparation meet.
    
Q. Tell us about your interest in issues of aging.
A. I had retired from the annual report business and spent about 18 months playing golf five days a week and I got tired of talking about my lousy golf game, my crazy parents, my crazy kids, my next trip to the doctor’s. I started looking around for something to do and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that serving the aging in Florida is a growth business. So I started this first as a business decision. I would like to say it began as a passion, but I didn’t enter it as a passion.

Q. How did you choose to have a home in coastal Boca Raton?
A. It’s funny, considering I hated Florida and I hate the beach. I still think sand is directly designed to infiltrate every nook and cranny of my body, but my wife is a beach lover and I adore staring at the ocean. In the annual report business, my second biggest office was here in Florida. I came down a couple days every other month. We had a small place for about five years and ultimately moved here fulltime 10 years ago.
    
Q. What is your favorite part about living in Boca Raton?
    A. Being able to play golf 365 days a year isn’t bad. The restaurants are pretty good and we have a lot of friends.
    
Q. What book are you reading now?
    A. I don’t have time to read a lot of books, but I’m an avid newspaper reader, two papers every day. My favorite book is Setting The Table, by Danny Meyer, the famous restaurateur. It’s a recipe for success in business based around multiple restaurant concepts.
    
Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
A. Robin Williams, because he sees everything in a humorous light.

By Mary Hladky

    If all goes as hoped, two South Florida public broadcasting television stations will complete a merger plan by this fall.
    The new entity, South Florida PBS, would bring together WXEL-TV, which serves Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, and WPBT2, serving Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. The two stations said a merger would create the nation’s seventh-largest television market.
    Since the stations announced they were exploring a merger on June 5, staff and board members have been working out the specifics. If the two boards bless a finalized merger plan, the stations would seek Federal Communications Commission approval.
    “We can achieve greater success by working together rather than competing,” said WXEL President Don Sussman.
    The two stations would continue to operate. But the goal is to eliminate duplication of programming. Now, the stations offer — and pay for — a similar lineup during prime time. Divvying up those programs would mean viewers would have a choice in what they watch. Both stations would extend their signals to reach all of South Florida.
    It also would free up money so that the new South Florida PBS could produce and acquire new programs.
    “By pooling resources, we have the ability to create more content that is locally specific,” said Max Duke, WPBT2’s vice president of content and community partnerships. “This is the opportunity for us to spend the resources that before would have been spent competing.”
    George Elmore, a Gulf Steam resident and the founder and president of Hardrives in Delray Beach who serves as a WPBT2 director, said the change is overdue. “It is stupid to have the same program on two channels,” he said. “Everyone has reduced funding of public television. We have to merge or combine in some way to continue to bring quality programming to South Florida. It should have happened years ago.”
    Discussions about combining the two stations have taken place several times since 1997, but no deal was ever struck.
    PBS’s wildly popular Downton Abbey, which now airs Sunday evenings on both stations, offers an example of what a merger could accomplish.  If it ran on only one of the stations, its South Florida audience would be the fifth-largest public broadcasting audience in the nation, Sussman said. “That is a phenomenal shift in metrics for us,” he said.
    Another possibility is to air Downton Abbey at different times on the two stations, Duke said. “We might be able to offer best content more often without duplication,” he said.
    The merger talks come at a time both stations are financially challenged.
    “There isn’t a not-for-profit that has not been affected by the recession,” Sussman said. “The recovery has been slow, as has major giving. We hope this will bring people back.”
    South Florida PBS would offer a larger market for donors and corporate underwriters and eliminate the two stations’ competing for funding. Supporters of public television could contribute to benefit all of public broadcasting or could designate funding for a specific area of programming.
    By establishing South Florida as the nation’s seventh-largest television market, “we think we have a pretty good message for corporate underwriters,” Sussman said.
    Since the merger talks were announced, both Sussman and Duke said the stations have gotten positive feedback.
    One exception is Jupiter resident Murray Green, the former president of the Community Broadcasting Foundation of Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast, who wants WXEL to remain independent. He wrote a letter to the editor of The Palm Beach Post in June decrying a merger and saying WXEL’s spectrum will be sold.
    “Mr. Green is very misinformed,” Sussman said.
    The FCC is planning an auction of television broadcasting spectrum rights in 2015, and could do something that would “put us in a position we don’t want to be in at this point,” Sussman said. But absent that, WXEL-TV officials have no intention of selling, he said.
    “It is not something we are intent on doing,” Duke said.

By Emily J. Minor

    GULF STREAM — As a young doctor, Gerald Fisk Dederick Jr. worked long hours — seeing patients in the office, making hospital rounds at least twice a day and eventually heading up the surgical department at a leading hospital in New Jersey.
    “Honestly, he was hardly ever home,” says his widow, Mary Elizabeth, to whom he’d been married for 73 years. “That’s how it was in those days.”
    And still, despite his thriving career and his off-duty love for playing sports — everything from tennis to handball to golf — the man called “Doc” by patients, friends, even family, was revered as a kind, gentle soul who was gracious with his time, said his wife. “He was just so friendly,” his wife said. “It’s hard to put into words.”
    Doc Dederick had been in failing health in recent months and died June 17. He was 97, and had lived in Gulf Stream with his wife, nicknamed “Mep,” since he retired from medicine in 1989.
    As a boy, Dr. Dederick attended school in Oradell, N.J., a small town in Bergen County that even today has fewer than 8,000 residents. Dr. Dederick was a natural athlete and after attending Roanoke College was later inducted into both the high school and college Athletic Halls of Fame, said his family.
    It was at a 1937 college dance that a young Mrs. Dederick met her husband-to-be. She was in high school; he was in college. She says now she wasn’t all that taken with him at first. “It took me six months to give him a date,” she said.
    They were married June 14, 1941.
    They were the war years, and after Dr. Dederick graduated from the Medical School of Virginia in 1942, he enlisted in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Navy. His wife began having children, eventually two girls and a boy, and the family followed their beloved patriarch as he served on the USS Dover and at several naval hospitals.
Upon his discharge, Dr. Dederick began a four-year surgical fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Eventually, he became director of surgery at Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood, N.J.
    And then came his love affair with golf, said his wife.
    While Dr. Dederick was great at almost anything that was physically competitive, it was golf that really stole his heart, she said.
    “We had next-door neighbors who were members of the Country Club of Florida and they asked us to come down and visit,” she said. “We loved it and joined.”
    It was a passion he enjoyed for a quarter of a century. Indeed, Dr. Dederick played the Par 3 course at St. Andrews about six months before his death, his wife said.
    A private funeral was held, but memorials can be made to the Country Club of Florida Scholarship Foundation, 22 Country Road, Village of Golf, FL 33436.
    Survivors include his wife; two daughters, Susan Dederick and Barbara Cherry, both from Connecticut; one son, Gerald F. Dederick III, from Louisiana; four grandchildren and two great-grand children — all of whom called him “Doc.”

Producer Marc Bell’s $35 million Boca Raton home includes a home theater

that replicates the bridge of the Star Trek Enterprise.

Photo provided

By Christine Davis

    In June, CNBC’s Secret Lives of the Super Rich featured Tony Award-winning Jersey Boys producer Marc Bell’s $35 million mansion, which is the priciest estate to hit the market in Boca Raton. With architectural features that defy classification, its out-of-this-world home theater replicates the bridge of the Star Trek Enterprise, complete with a star-studded ceiling and some of the series’ sound effects.
    The 27,000-square-foot home, with eight bedrooms and 16 bathrooms, also has a ballroom with 1970-era arcade games, a “Call of Duty” room modeled after the video game, three bars, a 1,500-bottle wine cellar, library, gym and basketball court. Douglas Elliman’s Senada Adzem, Oren and Tal Alexander are the listing agents in Florida and New York, respectively. A fun place to live, new owners are sure to beam in.
    Adzem, the company’s Top Producer in Florida for 2012 and 2013, said the climate of luxury real estate is escalating, and understanding the nuances of that market helps her stay ahead of the curve. Within four months, she sold unit No. 406 at Boca Raton’s One Thousand Ocean for $5.7 million. The 4,287-square-foot condo has four bedrooms and bathrooms. According to the warranty deed dated June 3, Steven P. and Debra Raia and Steven P. Raia Living Trust were listed as the sellers and Mason Slaine as the new owner.

***

                            
    Deborah Bacarella and Cathy Lewis of Elite Florida Real Estate received the Blue Diamond Circle Award from the Women’s Council of Realtors, Greater Palm Beach County. The award is given to Realtors who have achieved significant productivity standards and who are recognized as leaders in their industry.

***

            
     According to BauerFinancial ratings, three of the four banks with headquarters in Boca Raton achieved perfect five-star safety ratings in the first quarter. Paradise Bank remained at five stars, and 1st United Bank and First Southern Bank both moved to five stars, or “superior,” from four stars, or “excellent,” in the fourth quarter. The fourth Boca Raton institution, Legacy Bank, climbed to three stars, or “adequate,” from two stars, or “problematic.”

***

                              
    Forty-one physicians on the medical staff at Boca Raton Regional Hospital were named “Top Doctors” by Castle Connolly, a research firm specializing in providing consumers with information about the nation’s best doctors and hospitals. From the firm’s surveys, a peer-recommended list was compiled and reviewed for standards including medical education, training, hospital appointments, professional achievements and any disciplinary or malpractice history.
This year’s list includes: David Applebaum, Plastic Surgery; Thomas Bartzokis, Cardiovascular Disease and Interventional Cardiology; Albert Begas, Medical Oncology; Brian Bernick, Obstetrics and Gynecology; Rafael Cabrera, Plastic Surgery; Julio Cardenas, Infectious Disease; Paul Christakis, Pediatrics; Frank Cirisano, Gynecologic Oncology; Joseph Colletta, Breast Surgery; Richard Conlen, Obstetrics and Gynecology; Merrill Epstein, Psychiatry; Lawrence Fiedler, Gastroenterology; Alan Freedman, Urology; Stuart Friedman, Allergy and Immunology; Howard Goldman, Ophthalmology; David Gross, Psychiatry; Donald Heiman, Infectious Disease; James Houle, Otolaryngology; Robert Johr, Dermatology; Mitchell Karl, Cardiovascular Disease; Cristina Keusch, Plastic Surgery; Alan Koletsky, Medical Oncology; Michael Krebsbach, Hand Surgery; Jan Kronish, Ophthalmology; Ira Lazar, Nephrology; Richard Levine, Geriatric Medicine; Mark Licht, Urology; Jeffrey Miller, Urology; Vito Proscia, Gastroenterology; Harold Richter, Hematology; Rolando Rodriguez, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism; Steven Rosenfeld, Ophthalmology; Mark Rubenstein, Cardiovascular Disease and Interventional Cardiology; Jonathan Seckler, Cardiovascular Disease and Interventional Cardiology; Stephen Servoss, Cardiovascular Disease and Interventional Cardiology; Jane Skelton, Medical Oncology; David Snyder, Ophthalmology; John Strasswimmer, Dermatology; Mark Weiner, Ophthalmology; Jerry Wexler, Pediatrics; and Mark Widick, Otolaryngology.

***

                         
    Groundbreaking is scheduled early 2015 for Delray Medical Center’s new four-story tower, an expansion funded by Tenet Healthcare Corp. Once the new tower is up, the hospital will convert 96 semi-private rooms into single-patient rooms. “The additional 96 private-patient rooms will enable us to better serve our orthopedic, cardiology, neuroscience and oncology patients,” said Delray Medical Center’s CEO, Mark Bryan. The plans also include a 340-space parking garage and the fourth floor will be shelled for future expansion.
                               

***

    The Fort Lauderdale-based Holy Cross Hospital is building a 7,844-square-foot urgent-care and imaging center at 1799 S. Federal Highway in Boca Raton. Scheduled to open in September, it will comprise six treatment and exam areas, and its imaging department will offer CT scans, digital X-rays, mammography and ultrasounds.

***

                             
    Trader Joe’s South Florida devotees are ready, waiting and hungry. It did take a while, but the popular neighborhood grocery store chain that started in the Los Angeles area in 1958, has finally made it to Palm Beach County. Following a May kickoff of its store in Wellington, the company just announced opening dates for three more stores: Sept. 5 for its branch at 1851 S. Federal Highway, Delray Beach; Sept. 26 for its store at 855 S. Federal Highway, Boca Raton; and Sept. 19 for its Palm Beach Gardens branch, at 2560 PGA Blvd.
    For East Coasters not familiar with Trader Joe’s, the chain carries domestic and imported foods and beverages, including artisan breads, Arabica bean coffees, international frozen entrees, deli items and vitamins, as well as basics like milk and eggs.
    Why does the chain have such a following? While other grocers buy from distributors, Trader Joe’s purchases from manufacturers, taking a brand-name product, eliminating the preservatives and artificial colors and ingredients, and putting it under its Trader Joe’s label, selling it at a discount.
    Trader Joe’s prices change when costs change, so the company does not offer fancy promotions, discount cards or couponing wars.
    Also of note, Trader Joe’s introduces approximately a dozen new items every week, and to keep you updated, the store will send a copy of its “Fearless Flyer” to your mailbox or email box after the stores open.
Sign up at: traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/index.asp

***

                            
    In May, Rick and Pat Howard of SKLAR Furnishings (2014 Small Business Leaders of the Year); Richard Pollock, president and CEO of the YMCA (2014 Business Leader of the Year); and Modernizing Medicine (2014 Business of the Year) were honored at the Boca Chamber’s 2014 Business Awards Luncheon. “We are enthusiastic to honor Rick and Pat, Richard and the entire team at Modernizing Medicine for their personal and professional contributions to the enhancement of Boca Raton and South Palm Beach County,” said Troy M. McLellan, president and CEO of the Boca Chamber.  

***

                              
    Events are lining up for Boca Chamber Festival Days, which run the month of August.  In this community outreach, profit and nonprofit Boca Chamber members join forces to hold events open to the community aimed at raising awareness and funds for the nonprofit member’s philanthropic efforts.
    •  Kaye Communications Inc. invites the community to the fourth annual “White Coats-4-Care” awareness and fund raising reception to benefit  Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 31, at Waterstone Resort & Marina. Reception admission is a pledge or donation of a minimum per-person gift of $100 to underwrite and dedicate a white coat for a new medical student or other contribution opportunities that range up to  a $5,000 “Named” Medical Student Scholarship Fund. A pre-reception private lecture, from 4 to 5:15 p.m., “Modernizing Medicine: Building Software, Transforming Healthcare” will be presented by Modernizing Medicine.  Contact Gisele Galoustian at  ggaloust@fau.edu or call 297-2676, or register online at fauf.fau.edu/wc4c.
• Boca Chamber Festival Days kick-off breakfast, hosted and sponsored by NCCI, 901 Peninsula Corporate Circle, will be held from 7:45 a.m.-9:15 a.m. Friday, Aug. 1. Speaker will be Betsi Kassebaum, founder and president of the Center for Strategic Philanthropy & Civic Engagement. Tickets are $25. Register online at web.bocaratonchamber.com/The_Chamber/
• Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation will host a James Bond-style theme party to raise money and benefit the foundation. The event will be held at Blue Martini in Boca Raton starting at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 9.
The theme, “Bond With Us,” will include red carpet arrivals and a photo opportunity with the official Sean Connery of Palm Beach County, John Allen. VIP Gold Tickets, priced at $75, are limited, and VIP holders will receive early entrance, a private martini tasting (shaken, not stirred), special culinary treats, “buy now” auction pricing, a premium giveaway, two cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Silver Tickets are $50 per person.
    Culinary offerings will include shrimp rolls, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Beef & Blue Cheese Bacon Wraps, and brie puff pastries. There also will be a turkey carving station as well as a variety of flatbread pizzas and salad.  From 9 until 11 p.m., ladies will drink free; and at 10 p.m., there will be music by the La Linea Latin Band.
Tickets are available at www.giftoflife.org/tickets. Proceeds will go toward Gift of Life swab test kits, which allow labs to match donors. Blue Martini is located at 6000 Glades Road, Suite C-1380 in Boca Raton. For more event information, call 982-2932 or email events@giftoflife.org.
Based in Boca Raton, Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and facilitating bone marrow and blood stem cell transplants for patients with leukemia, lymphoma and other blood-related diseases.   
    • On Thursday, Aug. 14, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., the Boca Museum of Art will celebrate everything — sports, art, weather — that is the “Best of Florida.” Sip cocktails, enjoy hors d’oeuvres, browse the museum store, take a guided tour, listen to music, relax in a massage chair. Price is $15 per person or $20 at the door. The Boca Museum of Art is at 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. Call 392-2500, Ext. 208.
    • Another Festival Days event, and underwritten, in part, by Max’s Grille, Hospice of Palm Beach County Foundation & Hospice by the Sea Foundation will host “Party to the Max!” on Tuesday, Aug. 19, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Max’s Grille, Mizner Park, 404 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. All proceeds from this event benefit the organization’s specialized programs and services that are not reimbursed by Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance. These programs include charitable care, grief support, complex case management and music and integrative therapies. The cost is $25 per person, and includes one free drink and appetizers. For information, contact Mary Coleman at 416-5037 or email her at mcoleman@hpbcf.org         
    • The Boca Raton Historical Society & Museum will conduct two 90-minute guided tours of the Boca Raton Resort & Club, focusing on the hotel’s history and architecture, including Addison Mizner’s original Cloister Inn. Tours will begin at 2 p.m. and will be held on Aug. 23 and Aug. 30. Tickets are $15 per person and reservations must be confirmed by noon the day prior to each tour date. Call 395-6766, Ext. 101.
    • Boca Helping Hands will offer an afternoon of fun, food and bowling at its Annual Bowling For Bread from 2 to 5 p.m. on Aug. 24, at Strikes @ Boca, 21046 Commercial Trail in Boca Raton. The best bowlers will receive trophies, and Boca Helping Hands will invite children from local nonprofits to come and bowl through sponsorships. For information, call 367-1193.
    • To help raise money to provide music education to children with the greatest need and fewest resources, join Nat King Cole Generation Hope Inc. and Pride Global Management for “Culture & Cocktails,” at Arts Garage in Delray Beach from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Aug. 28. Guests will enjoy music performed by Arts Garage students, food, cocktails, and drawings. In addition, guests are encouraged to donate new or gently used brass, woodwind, percussion or string instruments, which will be repurposed and distributed to children who are unable to purchase their own. The price is $25 in advance, and $35 the day of the event. To purchase advance tickets or for more information, visit natkingcolegenhope.org or call 213-8209.
    • On Aug. 30, from 7 to 9 p.m., Twin Palms Center for the Disabled will turn the Boca Raton Museum of Art into a “Wine Country Safari,” where guests will enjoy food by Mississippi Sweets with drinks from Total Wine & More and entertainment by Just Us Orchestra. Silent auction items include sporting memorabilia items, artwork, personal fitness sessions and a trip to Bimini Big Game Club and Resort with airfare.
    All proceeds from the event will benefit the Boca Raton Society for the Disabled Inc.  Tickets to the event are priced at $25 per person, or $45 per couple. The Boca Museum is at 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. For information, call 391-4874.
    To stay tuned to additional Festival Days events, go to  www.bocaratonchamber.com and click on events. Scroll to the bottom of the page under the calendar and listing of upcoming events, and under “Category” choose “Boca Chamber Festival Days” in the drop-down menu.

***

                  
    As phase one of a multiyear remodeling project, a $500,000 renovation at Crane’s BeachHouse Hotel & Tiki Bar will dramatically transform four suites into high-tech luxury villas to be completed this fall. Delray Beach companies involved include Carrie Leigh Designs, architect Francisco Pérez-Azúa of Perez Design LLC, and the construction will be managed by Bill Branning of BSA Corp.
    More news from Crane’s: Based on customer reviews, Crane’s has again received the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence Award 2014 and Fido’s Favorite Award from BringFido.com. Crane’s also received the Donal A. Dermody White Glove Award for housekeeping excellence from the Florida Superior Small Lodging Association, and Crane’s was named on the Expedia Insiders Select List. Crane’s BeachHouse is at 82 Gleason St., Delray Beach.

***

The building that once housed Delray Beach's first Chevrolet dealership has won an award for its restoration. Photo provided

                      
    In June, at the 36th annual statewide Preservation Conference held in Tampa, the renovation of a local mid-century former Chevrolet dealership won Honorable Mention — 2014 Adaptive Reuse Award, given by the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation. Two grants from the Delray Beach CRA totaling $100,000 were awarded for historic façade reconstruction and site development work, and the 7,000-square-foot building was renovated by Caster Developers of Delray Beach. The project was nominated by Amy Alvarez, Delray Beach’s historic preservation planner.
    The building, at northbound Federal Highway and Southeast Third Street, was constructed in 1949 as the first Chevrolet dealership in Delray Beach. Its original design, conceived by first-generation Delray Beach architect Sam Ogren Sr., was in the Subtropical Modernism style, with angled windows, low-slung rooflines, and lots of aluminum, a cost-effective and trendy choice at the time.
    Caster Developers acquired the abandoned property in 2013 and made plans to redesign it into a modern showroom/loft style office building.  It now serves as headquarters for 21 Drops, a manufacturer of aromatherapy products.
    “This project is a winner from both historic preservation and economic development perspectives,” said Delray Beach CRA Executive Director Diane Colonna. “The ability of Caster Developers to preserve the integrity of this historic building, while transforming it into such a beautiful modern office space was truly a significant undertaking.”
    Added Rick Caster, owner of Caster Developers: “Dozens of passers-by stop in and share their story about how they purchased their first car here, and how happy they are to see the building maintain so many of its original characteristics. We’re thrilled to have such positive feedback.”

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

   BOYNTON BEACH — Garland “Smitty” Smith, age 76, of Boynton Beach passed away June 21 surrounded by his loving family. He was born Dec. 29, 1937, in Greensboro, N.C.
    Mr. Smith proudly served in the US Army for eight years, worked at Florida Power & Light for 30 years, and was a police officer for 40 years — part of this time while at FP&L. He was with the Ocean Ridge Police Department from 1977 to 2006.
    Although he was a hard worker with a successful career, nothing was more important than his family.
    Mr. Smith was preceded in death by a granddaughter, Gina Sonne. He is survived by his loving wife of 27 years, Jeannette; his children, Garland and wife Andrea, Susan and husband Mike, Connie and husband Eric, Charmain and husband Donald; and Ronald and Daniel. By grandchildren Whitney, Kristen, Kaitlyn, Greg, Chivaun, Joseph, Donald, Jonathan, Danielle, Tori, Destiney and Ann Marie; and 11 great-grandchildren.
    Mr. Smith — the kindest, jolliest man with the most animated laugh — will truly be missed by many.
    The family requests that contributions be made to Hospice of Palm County, 5300 East Ave., West Palm Beach FL 33407. A memorial service was held at Boynton Memorial Chapel on June 30, with a private burial service planned at some future date.
— Submitted by the family

Perrie and Ira Gurfein moved their Style Bar hair bar & day spa

from Sag Harbor, N.Y., to Palm Beach, just north of the Lake Worth Bridge.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

    The owner of the Style Bar Day Spa came to the business accidentally.
    Perrie Gurfein grew up in New York City, where she also raised her family. She was a buyer for department stores, too. After the kids were grown, she and her husband decided to move to the Hamptons to live a more relaxed lifestyle.
    That lasted for about a week. She was looking for a place to get a manicure and pedicure but could not find one that met her expectations. She suggested to her husband they open a full-service day spa to offer the high level of service she wanted.
    The Style Bar opened in May 2000 with three rooms. It grew to seven rooms and was soon “the talk of the Hamptons. For 14 years, we had a wonderful family business,” Perrie Gurfein says. “We had write-ups in Vogue, Allure and New York magazines and all the local papers and magazines.”
    Then a health concern made her consider a move to Florida. She ended up in the Bank United building, just north of the Lake Worth Bridge, because her son knew the owner. He flew up to Sag Harbor to meet with the Gurfeins, who ended up closing that location and opening a new spa in Palm Beach about four years ago.
    “We built everything from scratch,” she says. The Style Bar features bamboo-base cabinets with granite countertops. It has separate areas for hair, manicures, pedicures and treatment rooms for facials, waxing and massages.
    Gurfein says her spa has both male and female attendants. It also serves male customers who come in for manicures, waxing of the back and brow and massages.
    The spa offers complimentary drinks such as wine and coffee, snacks and on Saturday morning, it serves bagels and cream cheese. “We want customers to relax and hang out,” Gurfein says. “Not just get your service, pay and leave.”
    During the season, the spa is busy, but in the summer Gurfein is trying to build up business by offering promotional prices on the spa’s services and treatments. The promotions, such as a one-hour massage for $60 that usually costs $110, are valid through October.
    The spa has about 3,000 square feet of space. During the summer, the spa employs 10 to 15 attendants, but that number increases to 25 during the season. She declined to reveal her annual sales volume.
    The spa uses a public relations company to do its social media, including Facebook and Twitter. It advertises in local publications and donates to charities, too.
    The spa hosts birthday parties, bridal parties and even goes to clients’ homes or hotel rooms to do hair and manicures or give massages.
    One late Friday afternoon, three young women who just had their hair styled used their cellphones to take pictures of each other. They were oblivious to the raging storm outside. No matter, the spa gave each one a clear plastic shower cap to preserve coifs as they dashed to their cars.

    Style Bar Day Spa, 2875 S. Ocean Blvd., Suite 108, Palm Beach; 585-9788; www.stylebarspa.com.

The loggerhead turtle was emaciated,

had been struck by a propeller

and had a 4-inch hook in her esophagus.

Crowds cheer as Phoenix the loggerhead turtle returns to the ocean on June 12.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

This transmitter placed by the team at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton will enable researchers

— and the public — to track Phoenix’s travels for up to a year.

The 4-inch hook that was embedded

in Phoenix’s esophagus is shown at actual size.

Photos provided

But Phoenix the turtle survived,

and you can follow her journey via a transmitter.

INSET BELOW: Gumbo Limbo Nature Center staff members carry Phoenix

the loggerhead turtle past the crowds that assembled to watch her release.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Cheryl Blackerby

    More than 1,000 people formed a semicircle on the beach of Spanish River Park in Boca Raton on an overcast afternoon June 12 to watch the release of Phoenix, a 15-year-old loggerhead sea turtle, back to the ocean.
    On past turtle releases from Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s turtle hospital, onlookers hoped for the best, aware they probably would never know what happened to these turtles.
    But this time no one has to wonder where Phoenix is. She was fitted with a satellite transmitter attached to her shell that will allow her fans to track her ocean journey online for at least a year.
    “The transmitter was the first one in many years we’ve done.  It was funded by Friends of Gumbo Limbo. It’s pretty exciting,” said Ryan Butts, sea turtle rehabilitation coordinator at the center.
    The big turtle with golden skin and expressive eyes had recuperated from horrific injuries that had inspired the big turnout of spectators.
    Phoenix slowly moved to the water away from her Gumbo Limbo caregivers, stopping several times to look at the people to the left and right and the ocean straight ahead.
    Many released sea turtles thrash in the sand in their hurry to get back to the ocean, but Phoenix took her time. “Turtles have unique personalities like people. She’s always been a very reserved turtle,” said Butts.
    Amid cheers and clapping, she finally dived in the surf, disappearing into the ocean with the easy thrust of powerful flippers.
The record crowd that day, the largest in the center’s history of frequent turtle releases, was attributed to Phoenix’s heroic story and recovery.

Veterinarians perform surgery in February to remove the hook that was stuck in Phoenix’s throat.

Photo provided

    In early February, the emaciated 90-pound turtle was found by a biologist in an intake canal at the St. Lucie Power Plant, and was taken to Gumbo Limbo.
    A boat propeller had slashed away six inches of the rear of her shell. She was stabilized, received antibiotics and IV fluids, and the staff was confident she was on her way to recovery. But X-rays soon showed an even bigger problem — a 4-inch stainless steel shark hook embedded in her esophagus.
    The center’s veterinarian, Dr. Maria Chadam, and Butts attempted to remove the hook with long pliers without success because it was lodged so deep. The turtle was moved to the Palm Beach Zoo, where Chadam was able to take out the hook with surgery. When the veterinarian held up the big hook, the staff cheered.

The team that operated on Phoenix let out a cheer when surgeons removed the hook from the turtle’s throat.

Photo provided

    Phoenix spent four months recuperating at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center turtle hospital and made a full recovery. By June, she weighed a healthy 120 pounds.
    So far this year, Gumbo Limbo has treated 15 turtles, and in late June the hospital was full.
    And where is Phoenix? “She made a beeline back up to St. Lucie. She probably had found lobsters and crabs there,” said Butts.
    He got a scare a few days after her release when Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission called him to say they had found an injured loggerhead turtle near St. Lucie.
    “I thought, please don’t let that one have a satellite transmission on it,” he said.
    It didn’t. But this new turtle surely has a story of her own.

To track Phoenix’s journey, go to www.gumbolimbo.org or www.seaturtle.org.

Dark Sky Lighting can range from Old World-style lanterns (above) to contemporary fixtures (below).

Photos provided

By Cheryl Blackerby

    In the past two years, a deadly enemy of sea turtles has emerged: sky glow.
    The low cloud cover in summer and the rise in residents in winter create a brilliant orange nighttime smog of light over inland cities that disorients nesting sea turtles, even though the lights directly on the beach have been turned down or off.
    Instead of finding their way to the ocean, guided by reflected starlight and moonlight on the water, they head toward the bright lights of the city and the city glow streaming between beachside condos.
    Experts are worried about this year’s hatchlings that started appearing in June, and will continue through the end of October. Last year, Boca Raton had 74 sea turtle nests, each averaging about 85 hatchlings, that were disoriented because of “sky glow” and many didn’t find their way to the ocean.
    “They scattered on the beach, wandering. Thirty percent are not making it to the water,” said Kirt Rusenko, marine conservationist at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton. “This is lethal. They’re usually picked up by a fox or raccoon or they just simply run out of energy and when the sun comes up it cooks them.”
    The disorientation has greatly worsened recently, he said.
    “Prior to three years ago, the hatchlings would be disoriented by night glow but would find their way to water,” he said. “Starting two years ago, they didn’t find their way to water. The light is more of a lethality, and it’s now starting to kill hatchlings. Scientists estimate that sky glow doubles every 11 to 12 years.”
    The best course of action to combat sky glow, he said, is to turn off lights or use full-cutoff light fixtures that shine on the ground and not into the sky.
    Lighting companies have started selling “Dark Sky” light fixtures approved by the International Dark-Sky Association that are sold in Lowe’s, Home Depot and online.
    The products vary from Old World-style Mediterranean lanterns to modern ceramic sconces.
    Boca Raton, Palm Beach and other beach municipalities have installed full-cutoff  streetlights and lights at city buildings that project light fully on the ground and not into the sky.
    Companies have been urged to turn off lights in office buildings at night.
    City residents are becoming more aware of the problem and are asking the staff at Gumbo Limbo, who advise parks and cities about Dark Sky lighting, questions about light fixtures. Rusenko tells them that the lights have practical benefits as well as saving sea turtles.
    “You usually save roughly 60 percent on the electric bill when you use these fixtures. And condo members say they notice the decks and pools are brighter, making them safer, even though the buildings are darker,” he said.
    In Florida, excessive lighting disrupts the biological cycles of wildlife. “Light pollution” can disorient birds, chase fish away from the shoreline, and interfere with the mating habits of frogs.
    The Council of Science and Public Health reports studies that show nighttime artificial lighting adversely affects humans, too. It disrupts circadian biological rhythms that can increase cancer risks and some chronic diseases, and even contribute to obesity.
    If full-cutoff lighting were used, he said, less money would be wasted by governments, businesses and homeowners, and more nocturnal animals would be able to live their lives as nature intended.
    Rusenko is a founder and board member of the Palm Beach County chapter of the nonprofit International Dark-Sky Association (www.idasouthflorida.org), which meets monthly at the Florida Atlantic University observatory.
    Meanwhile, nesting sea turtles seem to recognize the danger of sky glow, and are nesting in the nighttime shadows of high-rise condos. But that is not helping hatchlings that still can’t see the ocean.

Aesthetician Dalia Reichbart applies a mask to breast cancer survivor Annie Rolle of Fort Lauderdale

at the Spa Care Center in Boca Raton.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Linda Haase

    For Susan Karsin, there’s nothing like a spa visit to relax and rejuvenate. That was, until she had disfiguring surgery to combat skin cancer.
    “I had just had surgery on my nose and it was so devastating. I had to have a good part of it removed. There was a huge scar and it was all discolored,” recalls the 72-year-old Boca Raton resident. “I have a lot of scars on my body from other surgeries for skin cancer. It’s a normal reaction for people to look, but I felt uncomfortable, like I was being judged.”
    So, she gave up her beloved spa treatments. But when she discovered the Spa Care Center, an oncology spa whose owners say it is one of a kind, she got her ahh back.
    “This is a little jewel. It is like heaven on Earth. It’s so nice to come here and not worry about being judged by anyone,” she says about the Boca Raton facility. “It’s a very intimate, peaceful, private place and the technicians know what products to use and how to treat people who have cancer, which is so important.”
    This 1,200-square-foot oasis, which opened on Federal Highway in January, is the brainchild of Melanie and Pierre Jeanteur. The couple have been touched by the disease: Melanie’s parents are cancer survivors; Pierre’s father is an oncology researcher in France.
    Melanie’s mom, who had breast cancer, lamented that there wasn’t a spa where she felt comfortable and could receive treatments by technicians who knew the needs of cancer patients. That gave the couple an idea: Open a soothing salon and offer personalized treatments for women and men undergoing cancer therapy incorporating organic and vegan products that take into account the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation.
    Services include manicures, pedicures, massages, reflexology and permanent makeup, geared toward a client’s particular situation. For example, Jeanteur says, technicians have been trained to work on someone who has a port and know not to cut cuticles so they won’t bleed or get infected. “People trust us. They know we understand their situation,” she says.
    The goal, she says, is to help cancer patients “gather up  mental and psychological resources to help them better cope with the illness. It is a place for them to come and be themselves, relax and feel better.”  
    And, she says, home services are available for those who aren’t feeling well enough to go out.
    Anyone who has had cancer knows how devastating it can be. It’s draining — mentally, physically and emotionally. And sometimes the physical changes sparked by treatments cause even more despair.  
    That’s one of the reasons the American Cancer Society offers its Look Good Feel Better program. The free, two-hour monthly workshops, available throughout Palm Beach County, including Boynton Beach and Boca Raton, teach female patients beauty techniques that help them combat the appearance-related side effects of cancer treatments.
    “It goes beyond how to take care of your skin and apply makeup. This is an opportunity for women to be with other women who are experiencing the same physical and emotional thing,” says American Cancer Society mission delivery specialist Tracy Kerwin.
    The workshops are led by licensed cosmetologists like Julie Jukich, who runs the program at Lynn Cancer Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital. Participants get cosmetic kits filled with about $300-$350 worth of skin care and makeup — and an ego boost.
“We put on a complete face, but people also let their fears out or talk about how positive they are,” says Jukich, owner of The Studio in Boca Raton. “It provides space for women to be with and support each other and have the conversations that need to be had while going through such a traumatic experience.”
    They also learn how to care for their skin after the side effects from chemo and radiation, how to paint on eyebrows or make it look like they have eyelashes when theirs fall out and how to wear a turban or wig.
    “Sometimes the disease becomes really real for people when they look in the mirror and see their hair is gone, their eyebrows are gone. That can be a very scary moment,” she says.
    After five years of facilitating workshops, Jukich knows this: “Everyone feels a little lighter, a little happier when they leave.”  
    The American Cancer Society also offers free wigs and mastectomy bras at its Boca Raton office at 141 NW 20th St.
    “Sometimes women like to practice and get the wig ahead of time. It can be intimidating to put on a wig, but we make it fun,” explains Kerwin. “Maybe they want to be a blonde today, and a redhead tomorrow. It’s all possible here.”   
    And for those late night questions, panic attacks or anything else, the organization offers a 24/7 help line (800-227-2345).  
    With the organization’s estimate of 1,665,540 new cancer cases diagnosed in the United States this year — and 585,720 cancer deaths, every bit of support is welcome.  
    • For more information or to sign up for a Look Good, Feel Better workshop, visit americancancersociety.org or call 800-227-2345.
    • For more information on Spa Care Center, visit www.spacarecenter.com/ or call 465-5070. The spa offers free manicures for men or women undergoing cancer treatments the first Sunday of the month. An appointment is required.
    
Linda Haase is a freelance writer who knows all too well about health issues because she’s struggled with a few of her own. She’s on a quest to learn — and share — all she can about how to get and stay healthy. She can be reached at lindawrites76@gmail.com

Boca Raton Beautification Committee Landscape Excellence Award winners

this year included the Harbor Point (above) and Luxuria (below).

Photos by Jerry Lower/ The Coastal Star

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley
    Mayor Susan Haynie announced the winners of the 2014 Landscape Excellence Awards presented by the Boca Raton Beautification Committee on June 10.
    This recognition encourages people to improve the landscaping around homes and businesses. The dozen or so committee members spent the past couple of months nominating more than 80 properties and selecting winners in seven out of a dozen categories.
    “We were interested in the frontage of the property; what you can see from the street,” said committee co-chair Richard Randall. The properties were judged on their mix of plants, creative designs, tree canopy and proper pruning, mulching and maintenance.
    “This year we were glad to see that the tree canopy is being treated better,” said Randall. “The committee’s efforts to educate people about tree care seem to be paying off.”
    The 2014 winners and their categories are Peninsula Plaza, large commercial; Millennium Two, industrial; Harbor Point, low-density gated residential; Camino Verde, medium-density residential; Luxuria, high-density residential; The Gardens, institutional; Boca Raton Downtown Library, LEED environmentally green; Valero Gas/PRIP Mart No. 199, service station; FPL Hillsboro Substation in Palm Beach Farms, community recognition property; and Palmetto Dunes Park, city property.

Father Marty Zlatic prepares garlic bread in the kitchen at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Boynton Beach.

Photo provided

By Tim Pallesen

    The reason why gourmet Italian food is the rage at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church dates back 35 years to when Martin Zlatic was a Catholic seminary student studying in Rome.
    A prominent chef from the Hotel Majestic had retired and volunteered to become chef at the seminary where Zlatic was assigned as kitchen liaison.
    “I learned how to cook gourmet on a budget,” Zlatic recalled.
    The seminary for U.S. students hosted U.S. dignitaries when they visited the Vatican. Five-course dinners were served on the seminary roof overlooking St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
    Zlatic was a Catholic priest for only three years, opting instead for a business career with Motorola that brought him to Boynton Beach.
    But he got married and returned to the ministry in 2001 as senior pastor at St. Joseph’s Episcopal, where the congregation quickly discovered that their Father Marty was a gourmet cook.
    An auction held for his first catered five-course dinner for 12 raised a $1,000 donation for St. Joseph’s School. The winning bids for a Father Marty dinner at the annual school fundraiser increased to $5,000 in subsequent years.
    Soon large sit-down dinners organized by Father Marty with assistance from others became the most successful way for St. Joseph’s to raise money for its church missions. But the parish hall seats only 125 diners.
    Now a new dining hall that seats 250 diners is the centerpiece of the $5.5 million “Make Room at the Inn” fundraising campaign for improvements at St. Joseph’s.
    Imagine how delicious Father Marty’s cuisine will taste when it opens.

                              ***

    When was the last time that you joined Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists to discuss current events from a faith perspective?
    The Interfaith Café encourages interfaith dialogue, awareness and understanding by uniting people of different faiths in conversation over coffee and tea.
    The new monthly program, sponsored by the Interfaith Coalition of South Palm Beach County, began last year with 7 p.m. events on the third Thursday of most months. Participants compared faith traditions for courtship and marriage last month. Events have been held at Old School Square and the Arts Garage in Delray Beach plus many Boca Raton locations.
    “Great things happen when you bring people of different faiths together in a neutral place for coffee and tea,” Interfaith Café co-chair Paula Winker said. “The conversations in small groups help us recognize the common values we share.”
    Love, peace and justice emerge as the most common shared values in Interfaith Coalition events, which also include Earth Day fairs and interfaith picnics.
    Contact Pablo del Real at 901-3467 for more information.

***

Deacon Clelia Garrity of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray Beach with schoolgirls

in Bondeau, Haiti. Her work has received a grant to develop and implement care standards

for medical missions to Haiti.

Photo provided

    St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray Beach has received a grant from the national Episcopal Church to develop and implement care standards for U.S.-based medical missionaries to Haiti.
    The $25,000 grant supports the work of Deacon Clelia Garrity of St. Paul’s, who has worked on medical missions to Haiti since 1999.
    “I am truly blessed by God to have been selected for this important mission,” Garrity said. “I look forward to working with so many of my colleagues as we strive to standardize and improve the quality of care that we offer to our brothers and sisters in Haiti.”
    Garrity has organized three medical missions with volunteer U.S. doctors and nurses to Bondeau, Haiti, where St. Paul’s supports a school and parish together with St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church of Boca Raton.
    Many religious faiths send medical help to Haiti. But the challenge has been in coordinating those efforts to provide the best medical care possible with limited resources.
    “We in the U.S. need to step up and start communicating with each other to share our medical protocols,” Garrity said. “What, for example, is the best medication for high blood pressure in Haiti?”
    The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church calls St. Paul’s a model for engaging Episcopalians “to serve the poor and meet Jesus in the process.”  

***

                           
    The Rev. Tony Durante, the outreach pastor at Trinity Lutheran in Delray Beach, led seven high school students to Delray Beach’s sister city in Japan last month.
    Durante, a missionary to Japan in the 1990s, spent a year teaching the Japanese language and culture to students from Atlantic and American Heritage high schools before the trip.
    The students stayed in host homes in Miyazu, which has been Delray Beach’s sister city since 1977.
    Many students on past visits to Miyazu have continued their Japanese language studies and pursued international careers. Sister Cities International was created by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 to promote international relationships.

***

    The 3-year-old Boca Raton Rabbinical College has become so popular that students might be turned away next year.
    Twelve students graduated June 18. But 30 have applied for next year’s class, and the Orthodox Jewish academy at Chabad of East Boca Raton doesn’t have enough space.
    Chabad is a branch of observant Judaism that sends emissaries to Jewish communities around the world. Rabbinical students are choosing Boca Raton for their fourth year of college to develop those outreach skills.
    The Chabad of East Boca Raton plans an $8 million expansion at 777 E. Palmetto Park Road to allow for more seminary students.

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

Stephanie Stanton poses with her dogs at her house in Ocean Ridge. Pictured from left are Sweet Pea,

Frankie and Teelee (being held), Sophie (white Maltese) and Frogman (on couch).

Stephanie Stanton’s product Dog Sprinkles, which includes

pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds and goji berries.

Photos by Libby Volgyes/The Coastal Star

By Teresa Bono

    If you’ve ever wished you could give shelter dogs all the love they never had, you’ve probably talked yourself out of it.
    But one Ocean Ridge couple, Peter and Stephanie Stanton, actually talked each other into it. Together they’ve saved more than 100 dogs from South Florida kill shelters, using their own resources to provide grooming, medical care and rehabilitation. Their mission is to rescue and find homes for older, more challenged dogs who have little or no chance of being adopted.
    Dr. Tania Whyte, a veterinarian at Colonial Animal Hospital in Boynton Beach, recalls her first meeting with the Stantons in 2009, when they brought in an emaciated Maltese named Sophie.
    Sophie, who was found on the street and due to be euthanized in 24 hours at Miami Dade Animal Services, had badly abscessed teeth that required immediate dental surgery and a coat that was so matted and full of maggots and fleas, that it took four hours just to groom her.
    Whyte said she’d never seen a more neglected dog in her 17 years of practice. But what she found more shocking was that the Stantons actually chose to adopt a dog in this condition. When they explained that they adopted her because she was “the worst one,” Whyte instantly fell in love with them.
    Sophie blossomed and Whyte and the Stantons have been collaborating ever since.
    Inspired by Sophie’s recovery and frustrated with the disorganization of other shelters, the Stantons launched Happy Tails Dog Rescue in November 2010. Whyte says she’s lost count of how many “death row” dogs the Stantons have brought in, but says they’ve run the gamut from being badly burned to covered in large tumors.
    And while these rescue stories are remarkable, what’s really creating a buzz is an organic supplement named “Dog Sprinkles” that Stephanie developed. Unable to find an immune-boosting supplement free from chemicals, Stephanie, who has a background in nutrition, combined a variety of super foods that benefits the health and longevity of dogs and that tastes good, too.
    It didn’t take long for Whyte to notice Sophie’s progress and to inquire about what the Stantons were doing. Every time Sophie came in, her condition was improving. Amazed by the transformative properties of the Dog Sprinkles, she decided to try them on her own dogs. Whyte was so impressed by the results, she encouraged the Stantons to pursue a patent and bring the product to market.
    Sophie is now off Rimadyl for arthritis and is more vibrant at 16 than she was back in 2009.
Along with the Stantons’ other five dogs — Sweet Pea, Teelee, Mikey, Frankie and Froggie — Sophie romps in the Stanton’s lush organic garden, taking occasional breaks to stop in for hugs and kisses from Stephanie and Peter.
    And while they weigh less than 100 pounds collectively, the Stanton dogs have shown that canine diseases and rotten personal histories are no match for doggie parents who are willing to fight for them. So next time you visit the animal shelter, take a second look at those old, sad dogs whose gaze you try to avoid. You might just find them to be the most fun friend you’ve ever had.

    Dog Sprinkles are available for purchase as part of market testing as the Stantons seek to license them to manufacturers and/or distributors. Email sprinkles@happytailsdogrescue.org or order online at www.happytailsdogrescue.org and click on the “Dog Sprinkles” tab.

Capt. Al Bitterling was Boca Raton’s first dredge captain, responsible for keeping Boca Raton Inlet clear for nearly 41 years.
Bitterling, now 85, retired in 2013.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Capt. Al Bitterling stands on his barge sometime in the 1980s.

Photo provided

By Willie Howard

    When Capt. Al Bitterling was hired to dredge and maintain a navigable water depth in Boca Raton Inlet back in 1972, he had to start from scratch. The inlet was silted over.
    “It was shut down,” the retired dredge captain recalled recently from his home in Boca Raton. “I had boats running through in two months, and it’s never been closed since.”
    Bitterling retired in 2013 after nearly 41 years as the city of Boca Raton’s first dredge captain. He helped the city launch its first dredge and tugboat used to keep the inlet clear in 1972.
    Bitterling recalls assembling the first dredge at Lake Wyman Park and pushing it into the water with a bulldozer.
    The city assumed responsibility for maintaining Boca Raton Inlet in 1972, the year the Arvida Corp. deeded it to the city.
    Before the city’s dredging program, the inlet would fill with so much sand from time to time that it was not navigable, Assistant City Manager Mike Woika said.
    The city hired its second dredge captain, Juan Garland, in February 2013, a month before Bitterling retired.
    Born near the ocean in Egg Harbor, N.J., Bitterling worked with boats most of his life. He studied Naval architecture as a young man, worked as a fireman on a Navy tanker after World War II and operated his own boat yard in the island city of Brigantine, N.J., in the early 1950s.
    He learned to scuba dive back when scuba technology was still new and worked as a police officer for the city of Brigantine.
His ability to dive made him the underwater search-and-rescue man for that coastal area of New Jersey.
    Bitterling built himself a dredge in 1953 and used it to create water deep enough for boats to reach slips at his boat yard.
    Waterfront property owners took notice. They stopped by the boat yard and asked him to dredge behind their homes. Before long, Bitterling was doing more dredging than boat repair and became a dredging contractor.
    After a New Jersey developer went belly-up, leaving Bitterling with no money for work performed, he decided to move to South Florida in 1968, partly to escape the cold of his native New Jersey.
    He worked for a friend in the air freight business at Miami International Airport for several years until he spotted Boca Raton’s advertisement for the dredge captain’s job in 1972 and was hired.
    Bitterling said his starting pay was $4.50 an hour, but he was allowed to work overtime that first year. After a few years maintaining the inlet, he began to supplement his income by skippering drift-fishing boats.  
    He ran several boats from the Helen S fishing fleet based near Hillsboro Inlet and the Sea Mist III drift boat based in Boynton Beach, working in his spare time from 1974 until the late 1980s.
    Bitterling fell in love with fishing, and so did his wife, Marie.
     “I never fished one day without her,” Bitterling said while staring at a wall in his living room filled with photos from fishing trips with his late wife.  “She was my pal.”
    The two of them caught a tiny 4.5-pound blue marlin in the 1970s and sent it to billfish researchers at the University of Miami. A skin mount of the tiny marlin hangs on his back porch next to a Miami Herald column about the catch.
    Bitterling had time to fish because keeping Boca Raton Inlet free of sand was not always a full time job.
The inlet usually requires about 100 days of dredging a year, he said.
    Work required of the dredge captain and his crew includes maintenance of the dredging equipment. And the need for dredging is dictated by weather. Heavy winter winds or hurricanes can  in a short time move enough sand into the inlet to make it too shallow for navigation.
    Bitterling said there were times when he left work on a Friday and returned Monday to find the inlet filled with sand.
    A black-and-white photo on his wall shows Bitterling walking across car tires that were strewn across the beach south of Boca Raton Inlet following a hurricane — remnants of the Osborne artificial reef project that placed 2 million tires into the ocean in 65 feet of water south of Boca Raton in Broward County.
    “You could walk from (Boca Raton Inlet) to Deerfield Beach without touching the sand,” Bitterling said while showing the photo of a beach littered with tires.
    The tires broke loose from the reef during storms and wound up on far-away beaches. They were eventually removed in a 2007 cleanup.  
    Bitterling lives on a canal in Boca Raton with his 32-foot Albin Sportfisher tied to a small dock in his backyard, ready to head offshore to fish for golden tilefish and other deep-water fish.
    Even though his wife has died, Bitterling still has family members living nearby to accompany him on fishing trips.
    Daughter Sharon Manos lives in western Boca Raton, and daughter Linda Bitterling lives in Delray Beach. He also has five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren living in South Florida.
    Even though he’s 85, Bitterling still plays golf, considers himself in excellent health and is not even thinking about selling his boat.
    “I’ve never been without a boat since 1953,” Bitterling said, “and I’ve owned six boats at one time.”