Dr. Joe MacInnis relaxes at the beach in front of his home in Delray Beach.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

MacInnis with film director James Cameron.

Photo provided

By Cheryl Blackerby

    Dr. Joe MacInnis can see the Atlantic from his home in Delray Beach, but when he looks at that blue expanse, he sees more than the rest of us.
    He pictures the Titanic, which he explored by submarine, 2.5 miles beneath the surface of the ocean. He sees the first polar undersea station under the ice of the Arctic Ocean, which he helped build.
    In his long career as a pioneer in deep-sea medicine, the physician-scientist has himself led 30 expeditions and logged more than 5,000 hours under the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans. He’s seen many close calls, and he’s seen leadership that saved the day.
    In his 10th book, Deep Leadership: Essential Insights from High-Risk Environments, MacInnis, a Canadian who lives in Toronto 10 months out of the year, describes 12 “essential traits of leadership.”  
    On a Saturday morning in May, after getting a haircut at Colby’s Barber Shop in Ocean Ridge, MacInnis relaxed in a chair outside and discussed his book. He was squeezing in time at home between back-to-back speaking engagements, hence the haircut.
    He tells corporate executives and university students around the world that leadership is needed to conquer today’s crises, particularly global warming and resulting extreme weather and rising seas.
    He modestly calls himself an accidental leader. “I was a leader in very threatening environments. I realized I had been leading by instinct,” he said. “I wanted to help people get a sense of the structure and dynamics of leadership.”
    One of the leaders described in the book is film director James Cameron, whom MacInnis worked with on numerous expeditions for documentaries including the Discovery Channel’s Titanic;  the 3-D film Aliens of the Deep; and National Geographic’s Deepsea Challenge, Cameron’s 35,000-foot dive to the deepest place on Earth. The film comes out in August.
    Cameron’s nine-part documentary on climate change, Years of Living Dangerously, is being shown on Showtime.
    The three most important leadership qualities, which Cameron and the other leader/explorers in the book have, he said, are empathy, eloquence and endurance.
    “A leader must have deep empathy for the team, for the task, for the technology, for the terrain, for humans and for the ocean,” he explained. “A leader must be eloquent and express ideas and put them into words that are accurate, brief and clear. And they must have the endurance to get the task done.”
    The world desperately needs leadership on climate change, he said. “If we’re going to navigate our way through this problem, we need leaders. We’ve all been in denial about this,” he said.
    “We will get through this,” he said, confident that leaders will step forward.
    MacInnis’ book, published by Knopf Canada, is not a PowerPoint list of character traits, but a riveting account of leaders in extreme and dire circumstances who have saved the day.
    The book reads like a novel with hair-raising heroics described in jaw-dropping detail, such as the night National Geographic electronics technician Mike Cole saved the eight-man crew from a fire in a tent five miles north of the Arctic Circle.
    The team had been worried about the constant threat of cracks in the ice beneath their feet, but the real danger had come from a fire in a stove’s leaking gas line. Cole found an extinguisher in the dark, and risked his life fighting the flame until he put it out.
    On MacInnis’ first dive to the Titanic, there was leadership of another kind.  The dive was a long one — three hours to the sea floor, six hours on the wreck and three hours back to the surface — in the $20 million French research sub the Nautile.
    He admits to some trepidation about that first dive to the shipwreck.  “When it comes to this kind of depth, I have a PhD in fear,” he said.
    The French pilot saw the sweat on MacInnis’ face and he parked the sub, brought out sandwiches and a small bottle of Beaujolais blanc. MacInnis, the pilot and copilot enjoyed a picnic about 2.5 miles below the surface of the ocean.
    The offer of food and drink was not just a friendly gesture, but the leadership of a pilot who saw his fellow scientist experiencing stress — a leadership trait MacInnis calls “high-empathy communication.”
    The pilot’s gesture worked. “I saw the shattered stern where so many lives were lost,” MacInnis wrote. “I was anxious, but my heart beat at a reasonable rate. I was with two men whose emotional awareness diminished my fear.”

Deep Leadership: Essential Insights from High-Risk Environments by Joe MacInnis is published by Knopf Canada and is available in hardcover for $25.99.

INSET BELOW: Manalapan Officer David Hul

By Dan Moffett
    
    Town officials have moved to fire a three-year veteran of the police department over the officer’s handling of a February incident involving employees at Manalapan Pizza.
    The town has suspended Officer David Hul without pay and begun the process of seeking his dismissal from the department. It is the second time in six months that Hul has been the subject of an internal affairs investigation.
    In November, Hul charged Police Chief Carmen Mattox with making racially disparaging remarks after a Haitian student lost his ID card in the La Coquille Villas garage.
    Mattox denied the allegation, and an outside review by West Palm Beach police investigators found no evidence to support Hul’s claim.
    The incident at Manalapan Pizza occurred after 9 p.m. Feb. 13, according to an internal affairs report by Manalapan police Lt. Christopher Fahey. Hul was eating at the restaurant while on duty, the report says, when a heated, profanity-filled argument broke out among three employees.
    One of the employees, Jennifer Nuccilli, a recently hired waitress, said she felt threatened by the other employees, Monica Garcia and Louis Younglove, and asked Hul for assistance. Nuccilli told police Hul was dismissive of her request, did not help her and did not file a report. Nuccilli filed a complaint against him to the Manalapan Police Department.
    According to the internal review, Nuccilli accused Hul of siding with the two employees because they often had given him free food from the restaurant, a violation of department policy. Fahey says Hul “freely admitted in his IA interview” that he took free food, even on the night of the disturbance.
    Another officer questioned in the case, Stephan Jacknowitz, said he never received free food from the restaurant but did receive discounts.
    Hul told the investigator he did not take notes or file a report because he believed the incident was a civil matter, not criminal. Hul said he separated the employees and requested that the restaurant owner be called in to deal with the situation.
    “At no time did I hear threats made or any actions that would be considered intimidating or aggressive,” Hul said.
    In a memo informing Hul of his suspension, Mattox compared the restaurant incident with the discrimination allegations from last year, saying the officer did not file timely reports in both cases.
    Mattox also charged Hul with several other policy violations during the restaurant incident, including failing to report his whereabouts to the dispatcher.
    The chief cited a May 2013 accident in which Hul damaged an ATV as another reason for his dismissal. Shortly after he was hired in 2011, the town honored Hul with a life-saving commendation after he used a rope to rescue two struggling snorkelers from the Boynton Inlet.

    The Manalapan department has had its own issues with investigations during the last year. After a racial profiling complaint by town resident Kersen De Jong, the U.S. Justice Department in March 2013 opened an investigation into police conduct.
    De Jong, a frequent speaker at town commission meetings, has accused the department of discriminating against minorities and trying to keep visitors out of the town. De Jong has called for Mattox’s firing and believes the department’s plans to fire Hul are in retaliation for his accusations of racial discrimination against the chief last November, an assertion Mattox and town officials deny.
    “There is no retribution,” said Town Manager Linda Stumpf. “There is no retaliation.”
    Hul has retained legal counsel through the Police Benevolent Association and is contesting the case.
    In other business:
    • The commission agreed with Mayor David Cheifetz’s proposal to create an ad hoc committee to oversee construction of the Audubon bridge project. Cheifetz appointed Commissioner Peter Isaac to head the panel of residents.
    “The committee will provide oversight but no decision-making,” the mayor said. “I’m in favor of focusing issues with a commissioner and bringing members of the community in to involve them in the process.”
    • Commissioners unanimously agreed to allow more time for beach cleaning. Dave Rowland, owner of The Beach Keeper, a Lake Worth maintenance firm, told commissioners it was impossible to remove trash and seaweed from the town’s beaches because of the town’s restrictions on work after 9:30 a.m.
    Rowland’s company has contracts with 13 properties, including the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa. Commissioners decided to allow cleanup work from Monday to Saturday, sunrise to 11:30 a.m.
    • At the request of La Coquille Club Villas, the commission approved six code variances and a waiver to accommodate plans for a facelift of the development’s entrance. The exceptions concern wall, gate and tree requirements and go next to the Architectural Commission meeting on June 11.

Alice ‘Nainie’ Weems Weaver holds a painting of her father,

Dr. Nathaniel Marion Weems Sr., Boynton Beach’s first doctor.

Town Clerk A.U. Peterson (left), Dr. Weems Sr., vice mayor, and Mayor Marcus A. Weaver

at the dedication of the shuffleboard court at Southeast Fourth Street and Ocean Avenue in 1938.

Photo provided by family

INSET BELOW: Dr. Weems received a ring as payment for a $25 bill.

Photos by Tim Stepien/ The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes
 
    On Nov. 7, 1925, a Model T Ford rattled to a stop in the newly incorporated town of Boynton and delivered that tiny community’s first doctor.
    The town that welcomed Nathaniel Marion Weems almost 90 years ago had one bank, one newspaper and 1,500 residents who traveled up to Lake Worth whenever they needed a cold treated, a bone set or a baby delivered.
    Forty years and 7,500 babies later, “Dr. Nat” retired, for a while, and when he died in 1978, the city of Boynton Beach had acquired nearly 36,000 people, a hospital he helped landscape, a nursing home where he spent his last years and a new police complex named in his honor.
    In his time, he had been a charter member of the city’s Rotary Club and a vice mayor. He had raised mangoes and oranges in his 2-acre yard on Northeast Third Street, planted about 2,600 melaleuca trees around town, simply because he liked growing things, and he had been stabbed seven times by a man who went berserk in his office.
    Dr. Nat also raised seven children of his own, six of whom are still living.
    In 1927, his son, Nathanial Marion Weems Jr. was born, and in 1931, he delivered a daughter named Alice, called “Nainie,” who grew up to marry a man named Curtis Weaver, whom her father had also delivered.
    “Well, Daddy was born in 1898 in Lawrenceville, Ala., which was a wide spot,” Alice Weems Weaver recalled recently, “and when he was just a boy they moved to Clopton, which was no better.”
    Weems’ father was a doctor who made calls by buckboard. The boy earned his tuition to Auburn University by teaching school when he was 17.
    “Later he transferred to the University of Alabama,” Weaver said. “He told me his roommates used to tease him that he baked biscuits with oil from all the cadavers he worked on.”
    At Emory University in Atlanta, where he earned his medical degree, Weems met and married a nursing student named Truly Fain. The two were completing their residencies in Mobile when he received a letter from another former Emory student. Dr. Alva Leo Rowe, who had opened a practice in Lake Worth, was writing to say that a town called Boynton needed a doctor.
And for 26 years, Dr. Nat would be its only doctor.

Early years in Boynton saw much difficulty
    The couple’s first home was a porch rented from Richard Newlan, the town’s pharmacist, and his first office was in back of the pharmacy. Later, he had offices in the Oyer Building, above what is now Hurricane Alley.
    Dr. Nat had arrived in time for the 1926 hurricane that devastated Miami, and then the 1928 storm that flattened much of Palm Beach County, including his office.
    He volunteered with the Red Cross for three months, while the storms burst the real estate bubble and Florida sank into the Great Depression.
    The doctor served both black and white patients.
    “There were two separate entrances, one for blacks and one for whites, and in between was his office,” his daughter recalled. “There were no appointments. People just came in whenever they came in.”

    He never refused a patient, and they paid however they could. If they didn’t have money, they paid with vegetables, even animals.
    “For a while there, he got four chickens every Sunday,” Weaver remembers, “and that’s a lot of chickens. I know because I was the one who had to cook them, until they got the bill paid off.”
    In their home in suburban Boynton Beach, the Weavers still have a wedding ring.
    “He felt she should keep it, but the woman wanted the bill paid off,” she says. “The bill was $25 and the ring was probably worth $15.”
    In 1935, he opened the Weems Clinic on what is now Southeast Fourth Street, where Drs. Jorge Macia and Rosa Marin still practice medicine.

A second family and temporary retirement
    Truly Fain Weems died in 1947, and three years later he married Margaret Dudley, with whom he had two children.
    His son, Nathaniel Marion Weems Jr., joined the practice in 1952, and five years later, on June 8, 1957, the lead story in The Palm Beach Times reported “Dr. Weems Attacked By Berserk Man.”
    Dr. Nat had delivered a baby in his clinic late one night, the paper reported, and when he inquired about payment, the father made “some smart remarks.” Ordered to leave, the man pulled a knife and stabbed him seven times.
    “The police report said all the stab wounds were in Dr. Weems’ chest,” The Times went on. “However, an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist from West Palm Beach was among doctors summoned.”
    Alice Weems Weaver shakes her head at the story.
    “He got a tetanus shot for the stabbing and had a reaction,” she explains. “The tetanus paralyzed his lungs and he lost his sight in one eye.”
    In 1965, when Dr. Nat retired to work in his garden, the Rotary Club presented him with an oil portrait to mark its silver anniversary and honor him as a charter member. In the portrait, by fellow member Bernard Thomas, he is surrounded by the faces of children he delivered.
    The retirement, however, did not take, and for several years Dr. Nat returned to work in the emergency room at Bethesda Memorial Hospital, until failing vision forced him to leave medicine for good.

Building named for inspirational doctor
    On Saturday, Dec. 30, 1972, about 100 people gathered to see the city’s new, $300,000 police complex dedicated in his honor. A bronze plaque adorned the door and the day was proclaimed “Papa Doc Weems Day.”
    Circuit Court Judge Hugh McCracken said the new building would inspire police officers to serve the community as Dr. Nat had served it.
    With 90 percent of his vision gone, the doctor spent his final years in the Boulevard Manor nursing home.
    He died, age 80, on Sept. 19, 1978.
    “Daddy and I got along,” his daughter said. “I admired him. He was fun some of the time, but Daddy worked like a dog, all day and all night, if it came to that.
    “Mostly he was loved.”
    In 1988, the police complex was remodeled. The jail cells were moved, and the plaque that honored “Papa Doc” disappeared.
    “We looked for it,” Nainie Weems says, “but I think it went off in the cement, with the debris.”
    Now Boynton Beach is planning to build a new complex at Gateway Boulevard and High Ridge Road. 
    “We have an architect on board right now,” reports Jeff Livergood, the city’s director of public works. “We’re looking at the space needs assessment, and the next step is to determine the preliminary floor plans.”
    The new complex is estimated to cost between $20 million and $25 million.
    The bronze plaque is gone, but there are still memories of Dr. Nat to be found in town.
    In the city’s library archives, a manila folder holds copies of his diplomas from the University of Alabama and Emory University, a few photographs and, easily missed, a barely legible copy of a receipt made out on April 17, 1952, to a patient named Joseph whose last name is illegible.

INSET BELOW: Mayor Susan Haynie

By Mary Thurwachter

    Fresh out of a two-day goal-setting session, Mayor Susan Haynie outlined Boca Raton’s goals and priorities during a State of the City address to the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowners Associations on May 6.
    Maintaining a financially sound city remains the city’s No. 1 goal, she said, followed by providing world-class municipal services, remaining a vibrant and sustainable city, and having strong partnerships with the community (for example: Florida Atlantic University, the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Parks District, Palm Beach County and Boca Raton Regional Hospital).

Wildflower top goal
    From those goals, Haynie said, a policy agenda was established for the coming year. First on that list is development of the Wildflower property.
    “It’s been on the books for several years,” Haynie said. “We’ve owned that land for awhile. Recently, we put out an RFP and Houston’s did respond. They came to the council and we said, ‘Please, you need to go back to the drawing board and solve your parking and access issues.’ We understand that it’s a very sensitive location to the neighborhoods. We understand that there could be some traffic consequences to the intersection of Palmetto Park Road and Fifth Avenue. And we also need to protect the boat ramp from overflow parking. Hopefully, in the coming weeks, we will hear some more about the solutions they have identified.”

Public safety pensions
    Next on the list are public safety cost and pension sustainability actions.
    “We are about to enter into negotiations with our police and fire unions and we hope it will be a collaborative negotiation that both sides understand that we need to make some changes for the future fiscal sustainability of our city,” Haynie said. “Stay tuned for that. Those will be coming over the summer.”

Economic growth
    The city’s economic development structure is third on the list.
    “We (council members) really have no desire to raise the millage (tax rate),” she said. “We would like to balance our budget based on further economic growth. We’ve been very successful so far. We would really like to focus more on that. In the last three years, we have retained and created over 5,000 jobs just in our city alone. That’s an excellent track record and we could probably expand that.”

Improve permit process
    The fourth priority is a development process improvement plan.
    “We (council members) hear it from the big developers of complex structures to someone just trying to replace the air conditioner unit in their home,” she said. “It’s very difficult to get through our development process. We see room for improvement.  We instructed the city manager and put it on this list with much discussion.
    “You know, you don’t hire a consultant and put a report on the shelf,” Haynie said. “Do a peer review, go see what the county’s doing. Go see what other cities are doing. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, but when something isn’t functioning optimally and the customer service is failing, we really need to address it. And this really isn’t over-arching. It’s a threshold where we’re asking these businesses to come into our community, then they come in and they can’t get a building permit to do their interior improvements. It’s very vital to our future.”

20th Street plans
    The 20th Street development and overlay district was part of the priority plan last year and is back again.
    “This is a vision to work with Florida Atlantic University, collaboratively, and create an overlay district for the redevelopment of 20th Street,” the mayor said. “It’s a corridor of industrial and aged retail, and we see that as possibly a gateway to the university with university-centered uses. FAU did a survey of their students as to what type of uses they would like to see there to integrate with the university. We can take advantage of a planning grant through the MPO that pays for a planner to come in and assist the city so there won’t be a fiscal impact to us.”

City staffing levels
    Also under high priorities is city service level and staffing.
    “This has become an issue,” Haynie said. “When the recession was so strong, Mr. [Leif] Ahnell suggested to the council to cut 200 positions. We’re still trying to play catch-up from that. It was the right thing to do, to cut our expenses to that degree, but we know our residents expect certain levels of service and we are now finding we may need to increase a little bit of staff to maintain those levels.”
    She said city staff prides themselves on “delivery of service in the most economic, streamlined fashion, and we use technology whenever we can. However, there are certain staffing levels that need to be addressed.”

Renourishment, marketing,
rail safety, park access
    Other priorities include annexation policies, finding funding for beach renourishment, city branding and marketing, rail safety improvements, a Lake Wyman Park public access plan, the downtown pattern book, customs facilities at the airport and intermediate and long-term solutions for downtown parking.
    “Ten years ago, there was nobody in our downtown and now we are having a parking issue, which is a good problem to have,” Haynie said. “But we really need to address it or we’re going to lose our momentum and our vibrancy. There’s been talk of providing a centrally located parking structure. This is one of our high priorities to identify a location and come up with a funding scenario to make that happen.”

By Mary Hladky

    The creative team behind Delray Beach’s successful Arts Garage is now breathing similar cultural life into Pompano Beach.
    The nonprofit Creative City Collaborative, which launched and manages Arts Garage, was selected by the Pompano Beach Community Redevelopment Agency in February to develop cultural programming.
    As in Delray Beach, the idea is that economic development in a blighted downtown can be spurred by cultural programs and events that attract residents and tourists and create demand for more restaurants, galleries and other types of businesses.
    CCC is creating cultural programming for Pompano Beach’s newly renovated Bailey Hotel, now known as Bailey Contemporary Arts, or BaCA, and the Ali Building, a former boarding house.
    Plans call for studios for artists, art and music classrooms, galleries, concerts, plays and more.
    The Arts Garage team began getting word out this spring to artists that studio space is available and began seeking teachers for various arts programs. A summer education program for children also is planned.
    “It was enticing and exciting to see how we can take our cultural muscle and apply it to a different city and county,” said CCC executive director Alyona Ushe.  
    Under the contract with the Pompano CRA, the CCC is being paid $236,000 through September. Ushe anticipates presenting a proposed budget to the CRA in June for the next fiscal year, with the amount still to be determined.
    Chris Brown, who served as Delray Beach’s CRA executive director in 1991-2000, said he asked Ushe to consider responding to the Pompano Beach CRA’s request for proposals in his new capacity as co-owner of Redevelopment Management Associates, the company that runs the CRA.
    “Culture is very important for economic development,” Brown said. “It is not just about cash registers ringing. We think culture is important to contributing to the image of the city.”
    Arts Garage “is sort of a role model for us,” he said. A resident of Delray Beach, Brown said Arts Garage “has done a fabulous job. It has really helped Delray. They are really becoming an arts scene.”
    Brown still has a link to Delray’s CRA. RMA was hired as a consultant by the CRA last year to update its redevelopment plan.
    While hailed by many supporters for what Arts Garage has accomplished in Delray, the program has not been without controversy.
    Last year, the Delray CRA came under fire for funding Arts Garage. Resident Gerry Franciosa challenged the practice, citing his interpretation of an opinion by former state Attorney General Bill McCollum as saying that CRA expenditures must be connected to “brick and mortar” capital improvements, not funding a cultural nonprofit. The CRA budgeted $310,000 to support Arts Garage in 2012-13.
    CRA Executive Director Diane Colonna said at the time it was proper to give CRA money to nonprofits that enhance downtown development.
    State Sen. Joseph Abruzzo, D-Wellington, chairman of the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee, approved an audit request by state Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, and former Boynton Beach CRA executive director Lisa Bright. The state auditor general concluded it was not clear that the funding was appropriate and recommended the CRA board ask Attorney General Pam Bondi for an opinion.
    When the CRA did not do so, Abruzzo did. In a March 11 letter to Abruzzo, Senior Assistant Attorney General Gerry Hammond said the request had to come from the CRA, not Abruzzo. But in additional informal comments, he said that it was up to the CRA to determine whether spending complied with the Community Redevelopment Act of 1969, although the CRA should do a better job documenting that the spending was proper.
    Abruzzo credits Delray’s CRA with doing an “incredible job” revitalizing downtown. The CRA has addressed many of the auditor general’s 19 findings, he said.
    “I personally am satisfied with their work and I do not see any additional inquiries at this time. I wish the CRA a good future,” he said.
    Abruzzo said he has no issue with the expansion of Arts Garage into Pompano Beach. As a result of the audit, “the Delray CRA now has experience in what to do and what not to do,” he said.
    Brown said he never had second thoughts about launching a similar program in Pompano, noting that other CRAs across the state fund cultural projects. “We think spending money on cultural facilities is economic development,” he said.
    Frank Schnidman, a senior fellow at Florida Atlantic University who has set up a CRA in North Miami, has consulted other CRAs and has been involved in redevelopment work since the 1960s, thinks the funding of Arts Garage is permissible and a good way to attract people to a redeveloped downtown. He noted CRAs elsewhere in Florida have funded cultural programs outside the redevelopment district or misspent money in other ways, but no one has taken them to task.
    “There is some political agenda in Delray Beach,” he said. “It smacks of politics, not monies.”
    Broward CRAs have stirred controversy as well. The County Commission has long objected to the agencies, saying they siphon tax dollars that could be better spent on redevelopment projects elsewhere in the county and that they misuse the money.
    In January, commissioners voted not to renew CRAs funded with county tax dollars when they expire. Under that decision, Pompano’s CRA will be out of business in five years — a fact that doesn’t sit well with Brown.
    “Pompano has an extremely blighted community,” he said. “There is no way to turn those communities around without a CRA in charge of it.”
    The city of Pompano Beach and its CRA sued Broward County and the state on May 19, saying the county commission action effectively blocks the CRA from moving ahead with a $9 million bond issue for redevelopment projects that it had approved last year. The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the CRA can continue to operate and issue bonds through 2040.
    Jamie Cole, an attorney with Weiss Serota Helfman Pastoriza Cole & Boniske in Fort Lauderdale, who represents the CRA and the city, said other Broward cities may join the suit. “We will see,” he said.

Temporary stop signs at Gleason Street and East Atlantic Avenue require a three-way stop.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Tim Pallesen

    Motorists are urged to use caution after stoplights on East Atlantic Avenue near the ocean were removed in late May.
    Only stop signs will guide traffic at the Gleason Street and Venetian Drive intersections for three months after it was discovered that the support arms for the stoplights were about to collapse.
    Residents and business owners objected to the traffic danger for motorists and pedestrians during a May 6 City Commission meeting.
    “Safety is obviously the big issue here. This could be catastrophic,” Beach Property Owners vice president Andy Katz told commissioners after state officials originally said the intersections would be without stoplights until late 2015.
    “This will be a major traffic and safety nightmare,” Delray Beach Marriott general manager Rick Konsavage agreed at the meeting attended by oceanfront business owners.
    “Our business relies on guests walking and driving the avenue,” Konsavage said. “Removing the stoplights would be unsafe and an unfair burden on residents and tourists.”
    The Florida Department of Transportation responded the next morning by saying temporary stoplights on wires will go up in mid-August. FDOT now predicts that replacement support arms will be installed by June 2015.
    State inspectors first discovered that the old support arms were rusting from the inside out in May 2013, but didn’t sound an alarm until more inspections this year.
    “The state is trying to get them down as soon as possible because they fear they will fall down,” city environmental services director Randal Krejcarek told commissioners.
    Mayor Cary Glickstein criticized FDOT for not seeking money for the replacement arms in this year’s operating budget, which begins in July.
    “Why didn’t we know about this until the last minute?” Commissioner Shelly Petrolia asked.
    With only stop signs for the next three months, Katz said, left turns from Gleason and Venetian onto westbound Atlantic will be the most dangerous for coastal residents. He urged flashing lights and an electronic billboard to alert motorists to the hazardous intersections.
    FDOT district traffic operations engineer Mark Plass promised to work with city officials to improve safety at the two intersections.

By Tim Pallesen

    A proposal to allow personal watercraft rentals at the Atlantic Avenue bridge has coastal residents in an uproar.
    City commissioners will hear the proposal to rent watercraft such as Jet Skis and Waverunners at the Deck 84 restaurant and bar at their June 17 meeting.
    “This would be a magnet for more noise in a residential area — and a volatile mix to have with a bar,” Beach Property Owners vice president Andy Katz told the city Planning and Zoning Board on May 19.
    The meeting was packed by opponents who live along the Intracoastal Waterway.
    “The noise is from idiots who have to scream when they jump waves,” Beach Drive resident Anita Casey said. “No one in Delray needs those noisy little things. I don’t need more wackos in my backyard.”
    The request to amend the city’s land development regulations to allow personal watercraft in the downtown business district comes from Delray residents Clair and Margery Johnson, who have operated a Waverunner concession at the Boynton Harbor Marina for 20 years.
    The Johnsons, who want to rent four Waverunners from a floating dock off Deck 84, say Delray hotels requested the concession for their guests. Fueling would be at their Boynton location.
    But boaters joined with coastal homeowners to say the Atlantic Avenue business would be both noisy and dangerous where yachts line up to wait for the bridge to open.
    “Don’t ruin the charm of downtown Delray Beach,” pleaded Don Dobson, who lives on a sailboat at the nearby city marina.
    The Planning and Zoning Board recommended in a 6-1 vote that city commissioners deny the request. “It’s not the right spot for it,” board chairman Craig Spodak said.
    “This is not an activity that every city needs to have,” Katz said. “It would detract from the beauty of our downtown.”

Marny Glasser poses with a bombardier jacket

that her late husband, Harold, wore during World War II.

Harold Glasser was presented with this tiara in honor of his service to the Miss Universe pageant.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    The arts have always been an important part of Marny Glasser’s life.
    Growing up in Westchester County, N.Y., Glasser loved to draw, paint and create ­­— so much so, that by the time she was 12, she began taking art lessons and later majored in fine arts at Boston University.
    After graduation and a short stint as an art teacher, she became an entertainment producer, which eventually led her to meet and work with her late husband, Harold, the long-time president of the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants.
    Now living in Highland Beach with her two Cavalier King Charles spaniels, Prince and Buddy, Glasser has returned to the arts, serving as chairwoman of the FAU College of Arts and Letters Advisory Board.
    “I’ve come full circle,” she said. “It’s interesting where my paths have led me, which is back to my art.  My whole life, it seems, has revolved around the arts.”
    Over the years, Glasser has crossed paths with country music stars and other celebrities, along with kings and queens and presidents around the world eager to host the Miss Universe pageant. Her adventures in the entertainment world started in the early 1980s, when she produced a show featuring the magician Blackstone in a long-empty Jersey City, N.J., movie theater.
    “I didn’t know a lot about producing but I figured I could do it,” she said.
    She produced other shows — one featuring singer Melba Moore — before taking on her biggest musical challenge, producing a major country music festival at Princeton University’s Palmer Stadium.
    Not long after the New Jersey concert, Glasser met her future husband at a Valentine’s Day party and soon she was working with him, helping to produce Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants.
    A lawyer who helped transform Miss Universe from a small pageant into a worldwide event, Harold Glasser led a fascinating life that included flying 62 missions in a B24 bomber during World War II.
    His story attracted the attention of FAU history professor Patricia Kollander, who wrote Courage Takes Flight: An Oral History of the Life and Times of World War II Bombardier Harold Glasser.  The manuscript was finished in 2010, shortly before he died.
    Marny Glasser later donated a huge collection of her husband’s memorabilia, including his World War II bombardier jacket and a Miss Universe Crown, to FAU, which is housed in the Special Collections and Archives Department at the university’s Wimberly Library.
    The collection will be featured during a three-day “Spirit of America Festival: A celebration of Music and Arts” at FAU beginning June 21. It will include a performance of Leonard Bernstein’s 1944 Broadway musical On the Town, featuring maestro Aaron Kula’s 50-member Klezmer Company Orchestra.
    Glasser is sponsoring a visit by Jamie Bernstein, who will speak about her famous father.
    As chair of the College of Arts and Letters Advisory Board, Glasser is playing a leadership role in raising funds as well as awareness for the programs and performances hosted by the college.
    “They have lovely galleries and incredible performances and it’s all right here in our community,” she said. “It’s an amazing university and there’s so much there that people should know about.”
    Today, Glasser finds time to mentor young students and share the knowledge she acquired over the years. “I feel very fortunate to have been able to do all that I’ve done,” she said.
— Rich Pollack

Q. Where did you grow up and go to school?
A. I grew up in Yonkers, N.Y., and went to Yonkers High School. Remember Hello, Dolly!? I attended Boston University, where I received my bachelor of fine arts degree.
    
Q. What are some highlights of your life?
A. My art background led me into promotion and producing concerts. I brought to the Northeast the largest country music festival. We had Roy Clark, the Oak Ridge Boys, Larry Gatlin and many more. It was held at Princeton University in Palmer Stadium. Great fun. Later on I pursued my creative side and became a stone sculptor. I showed and sold my sculptures in many galleries and they are owned worldwide.
    
Q. What is your favorite part about living in Highland Beach?
A. The beauty and tranquility, sunrises and sunsets. It is a safe, wholesome town, with its own post office, library, Fire and Police departments. I walk my two Cavalier dogs, Prince and Buddy, at all times of the day and night, feeling completely safe. Everyone is so friendly. We stop and meet and greet. Sometimes you know their names, other times not. It is a feel-good place to live.
    
Q. If you could change anything in your life, what would it be?
A. Meeting my husband, Harold, sooner. We had such an incredible life together, and had that one true love. We both felt so fortunate to have found each other.
    
Q. What was the best part of being married to the man who was president and executive producer of the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants?
A. The adventure! I got to meet presidents and kings around the world. It was completely amazing, truly a fantasy. A country would roll out the red carpet. They invited Harold to come and view their country’s sites, so that they could host the Miss Universe Pageant. This was huge for tourism, live television that would feature the best that their country offered.
 
Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
A. Cool jazz. It’s soothing and relaxing.
    
Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
A. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
    
Q. If they made a movie of your life, who should play you?
A. My husband once said that Meryl Streep should play me. Who wouldn’t want her to play them? She is a talented, strong woman. I hope I am a little like her.
    
Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. My mother, Mildred, always saw the artist within. She gave me art lessons as a child, which did lead me on my path to the love of art.
    
Q. Who/what makes you laugh?
A. I love to laugh. My dogs have me laughing all the time.

By Dan Moffett

    South Palm Beach Mayor Donald Clayman says people shouldn’t be misled by the silence from the Paragon Acquisition Group since the developers pulled out of a March workshop on their Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn project.
    Clayman says he fully expects Paragon to bring a revised proposal to officials and try again to win approval from the Town Council — and more important, from town residents — later this year.
    “They’re still in the game,” the mayor said. “I expect them to have something before too long. Though it has been quiet lately, it’s coming.”
    Paragon CEO Gary Cohen gave residents a first look at his ideas for the troubled hotel property in February, when he proposed a 36-unit, eight-story condominium building that would require voters to approve an amendment to change the town’s charter.
    That idea went nowhere a week later at the next Town Council meeting, when Clayman’s motion to put the amendment on the August ballot died for lack of a second. Council members remembered how in 2011, after years of contentious debate over the property, voters approved the town’s current 60-foot height limit with a 78 percent majority.
    There isn’t much appetite in South Palm Beach to fight another war over height limits. After absorbing a barrage of criticism from residents at the initial workshop, Paragon pulled out of a second workshop in March and went back to the drawing board. The company has refrained from public comment since.
    Clayman, who said he made his motion for the charter change amendment as a way of letting everyone know where things stood, says he thinks Paragon will keep its “wedding cake” design but will have to reduce the building’s height before it can have a chance at approval.
    “I know they’re working on it,” Clayman said. “I think they’ll keep the same design — people like the design. They know what the problem is, and they’ve known how it is here since they bought the property.”
    What’s certain is that nothing substantive will get decided until the fall when the snowbirds return to South Palm Beach and voice their opinions. “Right now, probably about half the town is gone,” Clayman said.
In other business:
    • At its May 27 meeting, the Town Council unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance changing the quorum of the Community Affairs Advisory Board to nine members. The council agreed that it was too difficult to get a majority of the 25-member CAAB to attend meetings, but nine was a reasonable number.
    • Councilman Robert Gottlieb proposed putting the town on Facebook, and the rest of the council agreed. The town’s page would allow officials to release timely information, but would not be a two-way link that would permit postings from residents. Town Attorney Brad Biggs said he would research potential legal issues that a Facebook page might raise and report back to the council.
“By fall, let’s get this going,” Gottlieb said.
    • The Town Hall garage got a facelift with the installation of a new $12,000 fire bay door. Town Manager Rex Taylor said the old one was about 40 years old.

By Tim Pallesen
  
    A proposed state law to regulate sober homes failed to pass the Florida Legislature, frustrating coastal residents who sought the state’s help.
    “It’s deeply disappointing that certain legislators in Tallahassee did not take the widespread abuses associated with sober houses as seriously as many Floridians do,” Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein said.
    The bill sponsored by Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, and Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, appeared to have widespread support.
It would have required all sober homes to register annually and be inspected by the Department of Children and Family Services.
    But the Senate bill died when it wasn’t called up by the Senate Appropriations Committee on April 22.
    Two days later, the House approved a weaker voluntary certification program that would have required treatment centers to only refer patients to certified sober homes. But Clemens wouldn’t sponsor that weaker House bill in the Senate and the legislation died.
    “I did everything I could on my side,” Hager told Delray city commissioners on May 20. “Sober homes will continue to be a great problem. I’m going back next year to go right smack at it.”
    Glickstein said the city will also continue to ask the Congress to provide states and cities “the authority and ability needed to weed out the unscrupulous operators from among those truly trying to help individuals with addictions.”

By Jane Smith

    The grande dame of Boynton Beach is showing her age — again.
    As the Boynton Woman’s Club nears its ninth decade, its 16 original windows and 20 sets of original French doors need to be redone. The cost would be between $300,000 and $400,000, said past-president Kay Baker. The group is soliciting bids to redo the windows and doors. Other repairs would bring the total renovation cost to about $500,000.
    In early May at the Boynton Beach Historical Society’s annual gala, the organization presented a $1,000 check to the Woman’s Club for its bulding fund campaign.

    The city is helping by adding the building to its list of historic sites. If all goes according to plan, the building will go before the city’s Historic Preservation Board on June 9, says the city’s historic planner, Warren Adams.
    He also will help the club apply for grants from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency and from the state’s historic preservation board. Both grants, though, require matching funds from the organization.
    In 1979, the Addison Mizner-designed building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
    The Woman’s Club is raising money from its membership. “One member has offered to match what other members donate,” Baker said.
    The club of about 80 members has not sought new members but that will change soon, “We’ve been passive about (recruiting),” said current club president Michele Walter. “We will start advertising our activities, talk them up more and possibly hold a reception for interested women later this summer.”
    It really is a Palm Beach County jewel, Walter said. “It’s the only Mizner building that is open to the public.”
    The Woman’s Club building is the city’s grandest structure, sitting on the east side of Federal Highway between Boynton Beach Boulevard and Woolbright Road.
    To help with the building’s construction in the 1920s, the family of Maj. Nathan Smith Boynton, the city’s founder, donated $35,000 in his memory. Famed architect Addison Mizner did his design pro bono because the building would cost more than $50,000.
    It contains classic Mizner features, such as a barrel-tile roof, arched windows, turquoise trim, pecky cypress trusses on the ceiling and French doors. From the lobby on either side, two wide wooden staircases curve gracefully to the second floor, which is large enough to seat 400 people.
    When the building was finished in the fall of 1926, it opened in time to house hurricane refugees. Then it housed the city’s first library for 40 years, hosted teas where women wore hats and white gloves, and allowed churches and civic groups to hold initial meetings. In recent years, it has been rented for weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, quinceañeras and engagement parties.
    Celebrations at Boynton Woman’s Club — a catering company — schedules events and shares a percentage of the fees with the club. It uses the approximate $80,000 annually to pay for various insurances and the elevator maintenance contract, said Barbara Erlichman, who handles publicity for the club.
    The Woman’s Club is so gorgeous that when people drive by, “they fall in love with the building and want to join,” Baker said.
    The club leadership is hoping they can raise enough money to create an endowment that would allow the club to maintain the structure — and do some work on the interior. “Reupholster the furniture and things like that,” Baker said. “We don’t want a modern style, we want to freshen what we have.”

For more information, visit boyntonwomansclub.com.

Michele Walter has been chosen to be the club’s president for the 2014-16 term. She takes over

duties from Kay Baker. The new Boynton Woman’s Club Executive Board (from left):

Evelyn Weicker, Pat Waldron, Barbara Wineberg, Maria Forastiero, Joan White, Lillian Ostiguy,

Michele Walter, Barbara Grimes, Barbara Erlichman, Chadda Shelly and Kay Baker.

Photo provided

By Jane Smith

    About 50 Boynton Beach residents gave up five hours on a recent Saturday to brainstorm ideas for the 17-acre Town Center.
    The four-block area, bounded by Boynton Beach Boulevard on the north and Seacrest Boulevard on the west, houses mainly municipal buildings: City Hall, library, high school, police headquarters, a fire station, Kids Kingdom Playground, Schoolhouse Children’s Museum, Civic Center, Stage Left! theater, Arts Center and shuffleboard courts.
    The library, said Dana Little of the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, “has 300,000 visitors a year. It could act as the anchor tenant for the community center area.”
    Another asset, he said, is its proximity to the beach, a little over a mile away. “That’s a 20-minute walk or a seven-minute bike ride,” said Little, the council’s urban design director.
    The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency paid the council $58,000 for a six-month contract, which included the workshop. Little and his colleagues will take the ideas and develop a plan to show the city commission in July. A more detailed plan would take an additional three to six months, he said.
    Eight council staffers, along with Boynton Beach planning and CRA employees and the city’s mayor and two commissioners attended the Saturday workshop.
    Little also told the residents that the city is hiding its assets behind dense foliage and with building backs facing the streets. The morning of the workshop, some of his colleagues drove around the area, trying to find the entrance to the library where the discussion was held. In addition, the various buildings lack connecting sidewalks, making it not very pedestrian friendly.
    With that in mind, the residents, sitting at six tables, created plans for the municipal core.
    Each team wanted to save the Boynton Beach High School by renovating it and adding the activities of the Arts Center, Civic Center and theater to it. The renovation cost was estimated to be $8 million to $9 million by Little. He suggested that the renovation become part of a bond issue voters could decide.
    One group renamed the Town Center as Coquimbo Square, in honor of the Coquimbo ship that wrecked off Boynton Beach in January 1909. Several storms battered the ship in the next few months, sending lumber onto the shore. That lumber was used to build the Boynton Woman’s Club’s first home on Ocean Avenue and other structures in the city.
    That group expanded on the nautical theme by creating a Maritime Museum with a lighthouse that would be a signature element. The members also proposed moving the city’s original gates, now on the other side of the interstate, to the corner of Seacrest Boulevard and Ocean Avenue.
    The next team, presented by Kim Kelly, who co-owns the nearby Hurricane Alley restaurant, proposed having a fountain at the corner of Boynton Beach and Seacrest boulevards with a “Welcome to Boynton Beach” sign. Along Boynton Beach Boulevard, they propose buildings for national tenants, such as Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts, “to save money and cut costs,” she said.
    The team’s other highlights included adding a water feature and lighting to the Kids Kingdom Playground and building a four-story City Hall with the police headquarters on the fourth floor.
    Presenter Barbara Ready also proposed moving the CRA from Federal Highway to the area, next to a new Arts Center. She ended by saying her team didn’t come up with a fancy name for the area, as the previous team. The residents chuckled.
    Another team proposed putting in a Trader Joe’s grocery store along Boynton Beach Boulevard to draw visitors to the area.
    Susan Oyer of the historic Oyer family presented for yet another group. For the new City Hall, her team recommended reusing the city’s last remaining 1960s-era facade from the Civic Center and creating a pavilion with sail shading on the west side of the high school as a permanent home for the city’s green market. Her group wants to keep the tree canopy and create identifiable meeting places near fountains with low benches.
    The current City Hall should be replaced with mixed-use buildings for family-oriented businesses. “They should be rented,” Oyer said, “because, if not, you will never get it back.” The reference, she said after the workshop, dates back to the 1920s, when Boynton Beach and Ocean Ridge were one community and Ocean Ridge split off in the ’30s.  
    Boynton Beach can make its challenges into opportunities, according to Little. “Ten to 15 years ago in Delray Beach, people got together to create a spending plan,” he said. “You have to think of creative ways to finance your plans.”

By Willie Howard

    West Construction, the company that sued the Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency over the contract for the new Harbor Master building under construction at Boynton Harbor Marina, will not seek an injunction that could have stopped the work on the marina renovation project.
    Following a May 5 court hearing, West attorney Bruce Loren said the company will continue the lawsuit in hopes of preventing the Boynton Beach CRA from using the same bid criteria that excluded the Lake Worth-based construction company from winning the Harbor Master job.
    The CRA awarded the $1.6 million Harbor Master project to Lake Mary-based Collage Design and Construction Group. Collage was the second-lowest bidder, behind West.
    West sued the CRA in March, just after Collage began work on the project near the marina’s fuel docks, which will include new restrooms, a ship’s store, new fuel pumps and landscaped open space.
    West’s lawsuit claimed that the CRA’s stipulations in the invitation to bid — including a requirement that the bidders had not been a party to litigation or arbitration arising from a public project within the past two years — violate Florida law and are “arbitrary, capricious, vague, indefinite, uncertain, unclear and exclusionary.”
    During a May 5 hearing in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, Judge Thomas Barkdull denied the CRA’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
    The Harbor Master building and surrounding improvements are scheduled to be completed in January.

At Captain Clay & Sons Fish Market in Delray Beach are (from left) Zack Brand,

Capt. Clay S. Brand, Clay Brand Jr. and Reed Brand.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Christine Davis
    
    Captain Clay and Sons Fish Market at 308 NE Fourth St., Delray Beach is, as the name suggests, a real family deal.
    Clay Brand, with his wife, Susan, started the business in 2006; son Reed, 20, started managing the store out of high school three years ago; eldest son Clay, 25, has just received his master’s degree in international affairs, but you’ll find him behind the counter while he’s job hunting. And Zack, 12, a student at Odyssey Middle School, often hangs around the store.
    They are a true family of fishmongers, says Reed, who is the easiest Brand to find because he’s often minding the store (since Clay Sr. is out fishing).
    “My father has been a commercial spear fisherman and fisherman for 40 years,” Reed says. “He used to supply local fish markets and all the other local fishermen are his friends. He always had the idea of having his own market and now he and his friends supply his market.”
    Says Clay Sr., 56: “I have been fishing since I was out of diapers, but I didn’t grow up in the fishing environment. I just enjoyed it. As a 3-year-old, I caught goldfish from a family friend’s pond with a clothespin, piece of thread and a bamboo stick.”
    Clay’s fishing style has changed a bit over the years.
    “One of the ways I get cobia, we jump into the water when sharks are around. The cobias follow the sharks. The sharks go past us and we spear the cobia, send it up to the top and a guy picks it up. If the sharks get too active, we get out of the water.
    “Maybe I’m getting a little too old to get cobias that way.”
    Cobia, of course, is not the only fish you’ll find at Captain Clay’s. “We get fresh local fish in every day. It’s always a little different, depending on what’s being caught,” Reed says.
    “This summer, we’ll have grouper, snapper, cobia, jacks, wild gulf pink shrimp, dolphin and swordfish.”
    And there’s a huge variety of snapper, by the way. “There’s mangrove snapper, mutton snapper, hog snapper, yellow tail snapper, cubera snapper, yellow eye snapper, vermillion snapper.”
    The Brands also import Portland, Maine, dry-packed scallops, golden corvina, wild Canadian king salmon, Chilean sea bass and sushi-grade tuna.
    While fish aren’t quite seasonal, there are times when they are more plentiful. “We get most of these fish in the winter, too,” Reed says. “Wahoo starts more in the fall, and after Jan. 1, we get golden tilefish.
    “Florida lobster season opens up Aug. 6, and my dad solely catches our whole supply,” he adds.
    “What a lot of people don’t know when it comes to mildness and quality of fish, it has nothing to do with species and everything to do about when it came out of the water,” Reed says. “Even if you’re a good cook, if the fish is bad, it will taste bad.”
    Now, back to Clay. Here are some more interesting fish facts:
    “Tilefish is a member of the grouper family and so is triple tail or leaf fish. They are delicious.
    “Hogfish is not part of the snapper family. It’s part of the wrasse family, and it’s delicious, light and tender, a phenomenal fish.”
    Clay also runs a charter business. “I enjoy going out with people, showing them how to rig the baits, handle the lines, how far out to put it, how the bait swims.
    “Sometimes, they have me go out with them over and over. They catch more when I’m with them.”
    Now one last word from Clay about swimming with sharks: “If its fins are flat out to the side when it’s swimming along, it’s not dangerous. But if it’s showing aggression, its back arches, the side fins point downward, and it has a jerky kind of motion. You’ll have to shoot the shark.
    “But I don’t want to shoot the shark. I can’t sell it. Why kill a beautiful big animal like that if you don’t have to? I’d rather get out of the water.”

Boaters use the ramp at Silver Palm Park, at Palmetto Park Road and the Intracoastal Waterway.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

An angler cleans fish as boaters leave the water via the ramp at Silver Palm Park in Boca Raton.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Willie Howard

    Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie wants to improve access to the water for boaters and relieve congestion at Silver Palm Park, the city’s only ocean-access boat ramp.
    In her May 6 state of the city address, Haynie said the city needs to investigate the possibility of building boat ramps with parking at Lake Wyman Park on Northeast Fifth Avenue, north of the existing ramp at Silver Palm Park.
    “We looked into this years ago and there were some environmental concerns,” Haynie said. “But that (proposal) included a marina and fuel sales. I think that pretty much what torpedoed it.”
    Residents often request additional ramps in the city for trailerable boats, Haynie said, noting that the parking spaces at the Silver Palm Park ramp are often filled on weekends and holidays.
    Boca Raton resident Jason Naumann said he drives to Deerfield Beach to launch his 20-foot Sea Craft because the ramp at Silver Palm Park is “a zoo.”
    “A second ramp would be awesome,” Naumann said. “It would give boaters another option. Silver Palm is always packed, and parking is very limited.”
    Boat captain Nick Cardella said Silver Palm Park is typically full “plus some” on weekends.
    The southern half of Palm Beach County has fewer boat ramps providing ocean access than the northern part of the county, said Alyssa Freeman, operations director for the Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County.
    “More boat ramps in South County would be beneficial,” Freeman said.
    Palm Beach County residents pay $55 for an annual permit (or $20 per launch) to launch at Silver Palm Park, which is open 24 hours a day. Boaters who live outside Palm Beach County pay $435 for an annual launch permit, or $50 per launch.
    Of the 1,082 boat launch permits issued for Silver Palm Park during the latest complete budget year, 75 percent were issued to city residents who pay Beach & Park District taxes. Most of the remaining launch permits were issued to Palm Beach County boaters who live outside Boca Raton. Only five boaters who live outside the county paid for a $435 annual permit.
    Haynie said the proposed Lake Wyman Park boat ramps could serve boaters from Palm Beach County and the city, while the existing Silver Palm Park ramps, which are closer to the inlet, could be set aside for Boca Raton residents only.
    So far, building boat ramps at Lake Wyman Park is just an idea.

The 1920s Gulfstream Hotel in downtown Lake Worth will have 90 rooms,

a rooftop nightclub, restaurant and spa.

Photo provided

By Christine Davis

    It’s official. Urban Outfitters signed a 10-year lease with EASSA Properties LLP and plans to open by Nov. 1, according to Roxanne Register, CBRE’s vice president of retail, who represented EASSA.
    Urban Outfitters’ new store will be at 306 E. Atlantic Ave., near the SunTrust building. With 10,954 square feet on two floors, the interiors as well as the façade will get a redo, though some architectural features will stay, Register said.
    “The word has been out on the street, and other owners I’ve talked to want a good mix of national and local retailers here. It’s good for the street, and supports the restaurants.
    “You’ll see a big change going forward,” she adds. “There will be more national retailers coming in. Urban Outfitters has been a catalyst in the past for that trend, and it will also be a frontrunner for Atlantic Avenue.”
    The space is one of the largest on the avenue and had been vacant since 2010, said Laura Simon, the associate director of the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority. “We are excited about them being here. With the loyalty of the customers and their demographics, Urban Outfitters is a good fit.”
                                       ***
    Thanks to Hudson Holdings of Delray Beach and CDS International Holdings of Boca Raton, Lake Worth’s Gulfstream Hotel will finally undergo a much-needed renovation after standing empty for many years.
    The two companies purchased the hotel in May. At an announcement conference, Hudson Holdings principal Steve Michael said that the revitalized hotel will have 90 guest rooms, lobby, rooftop nightclub, restaurant and spa.
    “This project is a dream come true for me,” he said. “As a resident of South Florida for 13 years, I visited the hotel many times. I imagined what an exquisite enhancement to Lake Worth and the world of historic preservation to see this property once again to be as magnificent a hotel as it was in the 1920s.”
    On the National Register of Historic Places, the Gulfstream Hotel was built during the 1920s boom era. Designed by G. Lloyd Preacher & Company, and financed by G.L. Miller Bond & Mortgage Company, the resort hotel, “with 135 rooms and 135 baths,” was advertised as “one of the finest fireproof hotels.”
    “It’s wonderful to welcome Hudson Holdings to the city of Lake Worth,” said Mayor Pam Triolo. “For such a notable company to recognize the economic opportunities in our city and the historical importance of the Gulfstream Hotel is an honor. It shows that Lake Worth is a good investment and is open for business.”
    CDS is short for Carl DeSantis, the founder of Rexall Sundown vitamins and no stranger to bold ventures. His latest Delray Beach project is Atlantic Crossing, a $200 million blend of residences, offices, retailers and restaurants on the north side of Atlantic Avenue from Federal Highway almost to the Intracoastal.
    Michael, a residential developer is recently venturing into resorts, hotels and combined use properties. He’s working the west end of Delray’s downtown, having just signed a contract to buy Tom Worrell’s holdings around Atlantic and Swinton Avenues — in other words everything Sundy — House, hotel and garden. Again the goal is to expand residential, shopping, hotel and dining space, but he intends to retain the area’s historic and artsy flavor.

Lois Pope paid $16.2 million for a 33,000-square-foot home

at 1720 S. Ocean Blvd. in Manalapan.

Photo provided

                                        
    This May, Lois Pope, 80, philanthropist and former owner of the National Enquirer, bought an estate in Manalapan, her hometown for 27 years before moving to Addison Reserve County Club in 1999. Palm Beach County property records show that Pope paid $16.2 million for Amway co-founder and owner of the Orlando Magic basketball team Richard DeVos’ ocean-to-Intracoastal estate at 1720 S. Ocean Blvd. With seven bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and three half-baths, the 33,000-square-foot home was listed at $24.9 million in 2012, and reduced to $19.95 million earlier this year.
    Built in 2004, the current estate features 200 feet of water frontage on both the ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway, a pool, cabana, subterranean garage, boat dock, beach house, and guest house. Meryl and Spero Michos of Berkshire Hathaway Homeservices Florida Realty represented Pope in both the purchase of the Manalapan property and the sale of her Addison Reserve property. Listing agent for the Manalapan property was Pascal Liguori of Premier Estate Properties.
    “This is a record-setting price for this year,” Liguori says. “Property values in Manalapan continue to be strong, as it is one of South Florida’s most desirable communities.”
    While Pope is moving back to Manalapan, the National Enquirer is moving back to New York City. Her husband, Generoso, brought the newspaper’s headquarters to a compound in Lantana in 1971. Generoso died in 1988.
                                       ***
    On May 19, Premier Estate Properties reported an “epic week” with sales from May 9 through 16 that totaled more than $60 million, and in six out of the nine transactions, Premier represented both the buyer and seller.
    Those six include 927 Hillsboro Mile for $17 million, along with South County properties at 450 E. Coconut Palm Road for $9 million, 700 Tern Point Circle for $6 million, 711 Seagate Drive for $3.285 million, 4040 S. Ocean Blvd. for $2.27 million, and 202 N.E. Eighth Ave. for $1.05 million. In addition, they were the listing agent for 1720 S. Ocean Blvd. that sold for $16.2 million, and 1080 Crescent Beach in Vero Beach that sold for $3.75 million and Fort Lauderdale’s 2501 Hibiscus Place that sold for $1.57 million.
                                        
More real estate:
    At 900 E. Atlantic Ave. in the strip mall between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Seagate Hotel, prospective homeowners can take their pick of real estate firms Tauriello & Company, Premier Estate Properties, Lang Realty, Nestler Poletto Sotheby’s International Realty, Re/Max Advantage Plus and now Engel & Volkers. A brokerage owned by Boca Raton real estate attorney Rick Felberbaum, Engel & Volkers will occupy the old offices of William F. Koch Real Estate. Felberbaum also plans to open an Engel & Volkers’ Boca Raton office at 310 E. Palmetto Park Road.
                                        ***
    On top of  bringing the buyers to the table at 1920 S. Ocean Blvd. for a recorded $11.84 that The Coastal Star reported in the May issue, Bunny Hiatt and Jack Elkins, agents with Fite Shavell & Associates, recently made two more Manalapan sales totaling about $19.1 million.
    Recorded on April 18, Massachusetts-based Ceilo Madera Land Trust sold a vacant ocean-to-lake lot for $11.17 million at 1020 S. Ocean Blvd., just north of the historic Harold S. Vanderbilt mansion, Eastover. Elkins and Hiatt had listed the 2.36-acre property for sale two years ago, first at nearly $16 million and most recently at $13.5 million.
    Recorded on April 23, Ronald and Bernice Berman sold their custom home on 1.3 acres with 157 feet of waterfront on both sides of 1555 S. Ocean Blvd. to a trust named after the property’s address for $7.914 million. Hiatt and Elkins represented buyer and seller.
    The Bermans paid $1.6 mil-lion for the property in 2002 and built an 11,800-square-foot Mediterranean-style house with five bedrooms.
                                ***      
    A 15,000-square-foot estate in Highland Beach with 120-feet of beachfront sold on May 19 for a record $13.5 million. Jonathan Postma of Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate’s Boca Raton office was the listing agent and Ari Albinder, broker/owner of Mizner Grande Realty, was the buyer’s agent.
    With an underground 12-car garage, the home at 2445 S. Ocean Blvd. was built by NASCAR multiple Winston Cups winner Jeff Gordon in 2000. He sold it in 2003 for $13.3 million to Marc Andrea Musa, Eyeglass World founder.
    The seven-bedroom, 12-bathroom home has a chef’s kitchen, two elevators, wine cellar, infinity spa, library, gym, spa and movie theater.
                                       
Food and drink:
    John, Luke, Giles and Pierre Therien have extended an invitation to come to Prime Catch to celebrate their restaurant’s 10th anniversary. From June 4-8, customers will have 20 percent taken off their checks.
    “We’ll be at Prime Catch talking to guests,” Luke Therien said. “Our fresh seafood is our forte and we bring it in seven days a week. The yellow tail snapper has been on the menu since we opened and it’s one of those great Florida fish. People like it crab encrusted, our signature dish, but they also like it grilled or blackened.”
    The Theriens also have owned the Banana Boat for 35 years. “We appreciate that we have been a part of the fabric of Boynton Beach from the 1970s,” Therien said. Prime Catch is at 700 E. Woolbright Road.
                                       
Health and wellness:
    If a local travel/staycation is on the agenda this summer, Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa is offering some indulgent opportunities with incredible rates on local overnight stays and daily spa deals. For example, check out its “self-centered” Stand Up Paddle Board Yoga Retreat, July 17 through 20, with international yoga teachers Amelia Travis and Kerri Verna, who embody Eau’s signature “pampering and indulgent” philosophy. In between stand-up paddleboard yoga classes in the morning and evening inversion or AcroYoga workshops, “participants” will have ample time for sunning by the pool, walking along the beach, or partaking in spa treatments.
    Registration costs $995 per person for a private room, $1,425 for two retreat participants sharing one room, or a $595 local rate for the retreat without accommodations. Space is limited, so hurry to make a reservation to slow down, rest and relax like a yogi.
                                       ***
    Bethesda Health Inc. named Ellen Dreznin, RN, as the 2014 Bethesda Nurse of the Year at its annual Nurses’ Appreciation Breakfast and Award Ceremony on May 7.
    Dreznin, who has worked at Bethesda Hospital East for 18 years, currently works in the Clinical Surgical Unit/Bethesda Orthopaedic Institute.
    The candidates for Bethesda’s Nurse of the Year award are nominated by their peers for their dedication and excellence in the nursing profession, as are candidates for its Diamond Award.
    On May 15, Bethesda Health Inc. named Katherine Francis as its 2014 Diamond Award recipient. Francis has worked in corporate strategy at Bethesda Hospital East for more than three years.
    Donning their graduation caps and gowns on May 9, 15 students at the Bethesda College of Health Sciences became the college’s first graduating class of nurses.  
                                       
Giving back:
    On March 29, Evelyn & Arthur at its Plaza del Mar location in Manalapan, hosted a day of shopping to benefit Hospice of Palm Beach County Foundation. The Shop & Share event raised $500, which will go to supporting the nonprofit’s efforts to bring advanced therapies to its patients. “We wanted to do something to support this wonderful organization that helps families at their time of need,” said Adrianne Weissman, president of Evelyn & Arthur. “We are especially grateful to our loyal customers for spending the afternoon with us and also supporting the organization.”
                                       ***
    Recently, NCCI, a large repository of workers compensation information, was honored with three awards at the United Way of Palm Beach County’s signature event, the Simply the Best Awards. NCCI received a Top Ten Award, Spirit of the Campaign award, and the award for the Best Campaign Video. NCCI’s  “Get in the Game” themed campaign raised more than $256,000 for the United Way of Palm Beach County last October.
                                        
The arts:
    The Armory Art Center, awarded a yearlong lease by the Lake Worth Community Redevelopment Agency, will open the Armory Art Center Annex, in downtown Lake Worth at 1121 Lucerne Ave. A schedule of exhibitions, events, workshops, and classes will be in place by June 23.
    Armory instructors will teach classes in drawing, mixed media painting, oil painting and photography for adults and drawing and BAK Middle School of the Arts and Dreyfoos School of the Arts prep classes for youth. Exhibitions by local artists will include Bob Vail and MeiWei Goethe, Lisette Cedeno, Kenneth Gryzmala, Nune Asatryan and Lisa Solon.
                                         ***
    Organized by Realtor Jessica Rosato, Nestler Poletto Sotheby’s International Realty promoted the arts in east Boca Raton with its fourth gallery exhibition in April featuring Torino, Italy, native Luisa Comuzzi.
    “Luisa’s love and appreciation for flowers is evident in her large paintings of them,” Rosato said. “Living in Boca Raton has helped her build on and improve her artistic talent so that now her flowers on canvas appear three-dimensional and as though they could bloom to life right from the artwork.”
    Rosato, who has art degrees from Dartmouth College, The Art Institute of Chicago and Pratt Institute, enjoys finding local talent. The “Evening with the Artist” series will resume in November, 6-8 p.m. the third Thursday of the month at Sotheby’s, 200 E. Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton.
                                       ***
    Deborah Bacarella, broker owner of Elite Florida Real Estate, Boca Raton, with Cathy Lewis, Delray Beach resident and Realtor with Elite, and Bacarella’s sister, California resident Barbara Agerton, have co-authored a book, 7 F Words for Living a Balanced Life, which offers seven power strategies — focus, faith, freedom, family, finance, fitness and fun — for improved work-life balance.
    The book, which is on Amazon’s best-seller list for team management and leadership, also is the foundation for professional workshops and individual coaching the three offer nationally.
    Bacarella realized her life was out of balance and she was not having enough fun, she said. “It was divine inspiration that I came up with the seven F words.” Bacarella recently led a workshop for the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, which sold out.
    A quick tip: “Start a gratitude journal and just list the things each day that you are grateful for. It takes away pressure, and forces you to focus on the positives in your life.”
    The book can be purchased through Amazon, where a sample download is available.
                                       
Moving up:
    Long time Boca Raton resident, Fritz Miner has been named manager of Boca Raton Mausoleum on Southwest Fourth Avenue in Boca. Formerly one of the mausoleum’s family service counselors, he brings campassion and caring to the position of manager. A graduate of Boca Raton High School and Mercer University, Miner has lived and worked in Boca Raton for 53 years: including 10 years with Gold’s Gym as personal training director and 14 years as an investment adviser with Paine Webber.
                                       ***
    Talk about a streak of luck! At Palm Beach Kennel Club on May 25, the only person to correctly select the six-winning horses on the final six races of Gulfstream’s Sunday afternoon program, won Gulfstream Park’s Rainbow Six jackpot totaling $6,678,932, the largest pari-mutuel payout in American racing history.
    Palm Beach resident Daniel Borislow — magicJack CEO and founder — spent a total of $15,206.40 on two separate tickets, each with a 20-cent base, which translates to 76,032 individual wagers. The winning six numbers were 1-8-6-1-6-5.
    The previous record payoff was $3,591,245 in February 2013. According to the Daily Racing Form: “Had the Rainbow Six jackpot survived one more day, and there was a mandatory payout on Monday (Memorial Day) as expected, the pool was estimated to exceed $15 million, which easily would have smashed the existing North American record for multiple-wager pools of $10,870,852 distributed July 2, 2007, at Hollywood Park.”
    “We are very happy for Mr. Borislow on his record-setting win,” said PBKC publicity director Theresa Hume.

Thom Smith contributed to this column.

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

By Jane Smith

    Palm Beach County recently received a $210,000 grant through Operation Stonegarden, which is run by the U.S. Border Patrol’s South Florida office in Pembroke Pines.
    The money will be used to offset overtime and equipment costs for the Border Patrol and local law enforcement agencies, including the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, along the county’s coastline.
    “The waters off our shoreline are notorious for illegal activities, and these patrols are effective and necessary,” said County Commissioner Steven Abrams when announcing the grant in early May. Abrams’ district includes 22 miles of the South County coastline.
    The grant will aid the Border Patrol’s work with coastal law enforcement agencies to intercept anyone trying to get into the U.S. illegally.
    “Palm Beach County is one of our best partners,” said Robert P. Swathwood Jr., operations officer in charge of the Border Patrol’s Operation Stonegarden for the Miami sector.
    The program started in Tucson, Ariz., in 1990, he said. “In early 2000, the program was formally called Operation Stonegarden and expanded into the Southwest.
    “In 2009, the program expanded to include the coast and Puerto Rico,” he said. For that budget year, “nine counties applied in Florida to get $870,000.” Palm Beach County was among the nine.
    PBSO spokesperson Teri Barbera said how the money will be spent “is an operations decision which PBSO is not willing to discuss.”
    Swathwood did not know the genesis of the Operation Stonegarden name, but theorized that it originated in the southern Appalachian Mountains, where “mountain folks referred to anything that was difficult or required work as ‘hoeing a garden of stone.’”

INSET BELOW: Kathleen Weiser

By Rich Pollack

    Despite early concerns expressed by one commissioner, Highland Beach town leaders agreed unanimously this month to renew the contract of Town Manager Kathleen Weiser and to give her a salary increase.
    During their June meeting, commissioners voted 5-0 to renew Weiser’s contract and to give her a 3 percent pay increase to her current base salary of close to $134,000.
    Weiser, who has been town manager since February 2011, had been praised by the majority of the town’s five commissioners at a meeting in May but received an unsatisfactory review of her job performance from Commissioner Carl Feldman during a meeting last month.
    However, at the town meeting a week later, Feldman said he had met with Weiser for two hours in between the meetings and has since changed his views.
    “We both agreed on some things and disagreed on others,” Feldman said. “I’m a team player and if the rest of the commissioners want to keep Kathleen, I’ll go along with it.”
    Feldman, in a written document distributed to other commissioners during the May workshop meeting, expressed concern with Weiser’s handling of the current $850,000 Town Hall renovation project, focusing largely on procurement issues.
    “This is a business that we’re running and we should be running it like a business,” Feldman said after the meeting. “I don’t have any animosity toward the town manager. I just don’t think she’s doing a great job.”
    One of Feldman’s chief complaints was that the town did not follow its purchasing policy of getting three bids for a general contractor to handle the Town Hall renovations.
    Weiser, however, said the town had followed a request-for-qualifications process commonly used by governments for major construction projects, which was reviewed by the town attorney before being presented to the Town Commission for a vote.
    “The issue Commissioner Feldman brought up was approved by the Town Commission,” Weiser said.
    Feldman said his concerns were not personal or political, but instead were driven by his efforts to ensure that the town is run efficiently and effectively.
    “I’m in this to do the right job for the people,” Feldman said. “I just want to be known as the guy who is watching.”  
    Mayor Bernard Featherman, in voting to renew Weiser’s contract, said he hopes the town and town manager will adhere to principals of openness and transparency.
    During the May workshop, Vice Mayor Ron Brown said he was pleased with Weiser’s performance as did Commissioners Dennis Sheridan and Lou Stern.  
    “Mrs. Weiser is the right person in the right job for the right time,” Brown said. “I think she’s done an outstanding job.
“She’s done a heck of a job,” he said. “She has the professional knowledge we need and the contacts both locally and statewide.”

By Betty Wells

    The Community Redevelopment Agency project for a luxury movie theater complex along East Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach is progressing, while two other CRA projects are on hold. Before proceeding on a proposed parking garage, the city wants more public input.

    Funding of $750,000 is set aside to complete the design of a multi-story parking garage on the city-owned Gladiola parking lot on the east side of Southeast Sixth Avenue, south of East Atlantic Avenue.
    The CRA provided the funding for a study to consider a variety of concept plans for self-park and automated parking structures. The city commission consensus was to provide a self-park parking garage with commercial space on the first floor. Construction was to start this year and be complete in 2015.
    CRA Director Diane Collona said the project is on hold after some residents voiced concern about the need and type of new parking.
    In October, Safety as Floridians Expect presented its opposition to the garage to the City Commission, saying there is not proven need for another parking garage, and until the city spends more money on bicycle and pedestrian safety needs, it will oppose the project.
    Colonna said the plans have not been finished; the $750,000 is still in the budget.

    Council members are expected to do more research on what residents want.

East Atlantic median
    Another project on hold is an improved median on East Atlantic Avenue. It’s on the CRA work list and is budgeted at $30,000 for a feasibility study and conceptual plan. Proposed is the installation of a landscaped median within Atlantic Avenue between A1A and Gleason Street. It would give pedestrians a midpoint to stop at while crossing and would force cars to slow down as they turn from A1A onto Atlantic Avenue.
    Randal L. Krejcarek, Delray Beach director of environmental services, said the city commission voted earlier this year not to pay for a study for the median project, but the $30,000 remains in the CRA budget.
    In another project east of the Intracoastal, Krejcarek said, the city has hired Kimley-Horn and Associates to modify the intersections of East Atlantic Avenue at Venetian, Gleason and A1A. The modifications will include adding pedestrian crosswalks at each intersection. The CRA is contributing to this project, he said.

iPic Theater
    The luxury theater complex and office space that its developer projects will produce more than 400 jobs and bring more than 400,000 visitors a year to the downtown, is right on schedule, according to iPic Entertainment, the company building the movie/retail/office complex.
    Jim Lee, vice president of marketing for Boca Raton-based iPic Entertainment, said the project is proceeding as planned with no major changes.
    The company will present plans to the city in July, Lee said. The CRA had accepted unanimously a plan from iPic, over three other proposals.
    The complex will include an eight-screen, 529-seat luxury movie theater; 42,869 square feet of Class A office space; 7,290 square feet of retail space; and a 279-space parking garage.
    The Fourth and Fifth avenues site includes the old library building on Southeast Fourth Avenue, the Chamber of Commerce office building on Southeast Fifth Avenue, and the adjacent public parking lot.
    iPic’s Delray Beach Holdings LLC offered $3.6 million for the 1.57-acre site, about a half-block south of Atlantic Avenue in the downtown core.
    Once the plans are approved, iPic says, the construction should take about 20 months.