The first sea turtles are arriving and the first snowbirds are departing. 

    It’s been a record-breaking tourist season, and most locals have long ago surrendered to the sunburned hordes and no longer try to dine out on weekends or venture anywhere near a public beach.

    Even so, we’re pleased our friends in the hospitality industry are doing well. That reflects on our bottom line and we aren’t complaining.

    Still … once the last car carrier is loaded and pointed north, we know it will be time to get down to the heavy lifting that happens during the off-season. So, no more lingering on the patio, it’s time to get to work. 

    If you are a seasonal resident, that means letting your newly elected officials know the issues that matter the most to you before you leave town. 

    And stay in touch with what is happening while you are away. You can do that by having a Coastal Star mailed to you at your Northern address: It costs only $20 per year and you can find a subscription form on page AT19.  We hope you decide to join the more than 400 people who keep up-to-date from their Northern home.

    A few things to note in the April edition:

    ArtsPaper: April is the last month we publish our ArtsPaper insert before it takes a summer vacation. In May, you will find, instead, a monthly “Summer Arts” column.

    Summer Camp Guide: Our annual guide is inserted in this edition to help you find activities to keep the kids and grandkids busy during the summer months. We will be updating this online as more camps set their schedules.

    Tots & Teens: We have started separate calendar listings for local classes and events for families, children and teenagers. You will find this each month at the end of our regular Community Calendar.

    Whether you’re leaving or staying for the summer, by all means check in with our members-only website (www.thecoastalstar.ning.com).

Please stay in touch. 

We’ll be here.

Mary Kate Leming, Editor

World War II Navy veteran Ernie Simon, and his wife, Norma, look at a mannequin

dressed in a WWII 101st Airborne uniform in the Cason Cottage at the Delray Beach Historical Society

during the ‘Delray Beach: The World War II Experience.’

Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

Notable golf course deigners and Gulf Stream residents Pete and Alice Dye were inducted into the

Palm Beach County Sports Hall of Fame by Guy Quattlebaum, president of the Palm Beach County

Sports Commission Board of Directors (left) and Richard Ellington, vice chairman of the Hall of Fame committee (right). 

Photo Provided

From left, Bob Ganger, Joan Orthwein, Thomas Stanley, Donna White and Scott Morgan

are sworn in by Gulf Stream Town Clerk Rita Taylor.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

    Gulf Stream voters turned out in large numbers last month for the town’s first contested commission election in 21 years. 

    Though four incumbents and a newcomer who supported them won by wide margins over the town’s harshest critic, the election appears to have done little to ease the rancor or resolve the courtroom fights that have plagued Gulf Stream for the past two years.

    Twenty minutes into the first commission meeting after the election — and shortly before newcomer Scott Morgan was to be sworn in as a commissioner — Martin O’Boyle had Morgan served with a subpoena for a deposition in one of O’Boyle’s lawsuits against the town.

    O’Boyle may have lost his bid for a commission seat but he has left little doubt that he is carrying on his campaign in the courts.

    “I’m still hoping that things will settle down,” said Morgan, an attorney and businessman who is the former chairman of the town’s architectural board. “I hope we can get back to doing things in a calm, civil, less divisive way.”

    Morgan said he took the election results and the standing-room-only turnout for the swearing-in ceremonies as support for the new commission and the return to the quieter times that many in the town seek.

    Gulf Stream had the highest turnout of any municipality in Palm Beach County on March 11, with 58.49 percent, 417 of the 713 registered voters, casting ballots. Morgan and Robert Ganger led the vote-getters with 325 each, 18.87 percent; Donna White had 320, 18.58 percent; Thomas Stanley 317, 18.41 percent; and Mayor Joan Orthwein 313, 18.18 percent; O’Boyle had 122 votes, 7.08 percent.

    O’Boyle sent an email to his supporters giving credit to his opponents for their victory and crediting his own campaign with bringing about changes that the town needs, most notably energizing the electoral process.

    “I entered this election to win and effect change,” O’Boyle wrote, “and with the help of the people, I accomplished all goals. 1) I entered the election (although I was not elected) but I feel that the people, through our joint efforts, clearly won; and 2) the beating of the drums of change can already be heard.”

    O’Boyle said he intends to take his complaints to the newly seated commission.

    “Gulf Stream has many complex issues that must be dealt with,” he wrote. “As applies to them, I can say that I and my supporters are committed to working with the commissioners to resolve those issues.”

    The town’s first election since 1993 went off with only a minor incident, according to Town Clerk Rita Taylor. Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher checked out Town Hall on election day and found that O’Boyle’s campaign truck was parked too close to the poll entrance.

    “His truck with the campaign signs was within the 100-foot no-no zone,” Taylor said, “so he had to move it. Otherwise, there weren’t any problems.”

Issues going forward

    One of the most pressing issues that the new commission must face is the rising legal fees caused by O’Boyle’s numerous lawsuits, and those of one of his most vocal campaign supporters, Chris O’Hare. The legal fight between O’Boyle and the town began with a dispute over a home remodeling project and has expanded into allegations of violations of public-records laws and infringement of constitutional rights.

    In a hastily called special meeting on March 28 — a Friday afternoon — the Town Commission unanimously approved hiring Boca Raton lawyer Robert Sweetapple as special counsel for defending the town against its many lawsuits.

    Morgan nominated Sweetapple and praised him as an attorney experienced in public-records cases and municipal litigation.

    “I believe a special counsel will lead to an expeditious resolution and ultimately be less expensive,” said Morgan, noting that Sweetapple usually charges $500 an hour but was willing to represent Gulf Stream for $350.

    Defending a municipality is a bit of a role reversal for Sweetapple, who has earned a reputation as a tenacious litigator in bringing several high-profile cases against the cities of Boca Raton and Boynton Beach. In 2005, he charged Boca police with misconduct and brutality in the arrest of a wealthy developer.

    Last year, Gulf Stream wound up paying $395,000 in legal expenses, most of it because of O’Boyle. Town Manager William Thrasher warned commissioners that the town has already burned through nearly all of the $93,500 earmarked for legal expenses in the current budget year. O’Boyle’s latest suit against the town was a complaint filed in federal court over the town’s code restrictions of his campaign signs.

    “We are behind on legal fees, and the escalating costs are now starting to hit our budget,” Thrasher said. “If you project that out, we’re going to be over budget by somewhere around $150,000.”

    White said it will be challenging for the commission to find the money to cover the rising costs of legal defenses. 

    “The fees are awfully high,” said White. “Attorneys are just expensive, and to be at that part of the budget this early in the year is really disturbing.”

    Morgan said that, talking to residents during the campaign, he was confident that most townspeople “were willing to contribute” to fighting off the lawsuits against the town. 

    “I don’t see any sign that those two (O’Boyle and O’Hare) are going to back off, so I really think a very strong, aggressive defense needs to be taken,” said Morgan. “The vast majority of people, on both sides of the Intracoastal, want to defend the cases aggressively.”

    The last act of business for the old commission, which included the outgoing Garrett Dering, was to pass unanimously new decorum guidelines for commission meetings.

    Under the new provisions, people who launch personal attacks at commissioners, use profanity or disrupt the meetings face expulsion or arrest. The new rules came in response to the tumultuous February meeting in which O’Hare and town officials had several heated exchanges after his mother had difficulty using the Town Hall restroom.

    Thrasher said the town “is making progress” with restroom design changes and repairs that will make the facilities more compliant with federal Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. He said engineering plans for a larger restroom renovation will be coming to the commission later this year.

By Jane Smith

    An 18 percent annual increase in your flood-insurance premium is a hefty hike, but it beats the 25 percent that many coastal homeowners were facing.

    A new federal law caps increases at 18 percent for primary residences. Owners of second homes and business, though, still could pay 25 percent increases.

    The big jumps were intended to make the National Flood Insurance Program solvent after huge payouts from hurricanes Katrina in 2005 and Sandy in 2012 put it $24 billion in debt. 

    Premiums for everyone would have jumped 25 percent each year until they were high enough to support the program.

    The federal flood-insurance program serves 5.6 million homes nationally, with nearly 40 percent in Florida. About four out of five policies pay what the Federal Emergency Management Agency calls full rates, but nearly 5,000 Palm Beach County policies have premiums “inadequate for risk,” according to FEMA.

    “I’ve seen some astronomical rate increases” under the previous plan, said Ken Schenck, Ocean Ridge town manager. 

    The new law caps flood-insurance premiums at 1 percent of a policy’s coverage. For example: a $5,000 yearly premium for $500,000 coverage.

    Most of the coastal areas of Highland Beach, Lantana and South Palm Beach are in flood zones. 

    Condos dominate Highland Beach and South Palm Beach, and residents technically live above flood zones, South Palm Beach Town Manager Rex Taylor explained. But flood insurance is included in their association fees.

    Higher premiums for second homes troubles Schenk, since the populations in Ocean Ridge and other coastal communities usually double in season. “We have no idea how many are using Ocean Ridge as their primary residence,” he said. The town has about 1,300 registered voters and a 2013 population estimate of nearly 1,800.

    Many of those barrier-island homes are subject to storm surge and are evacuated as hurricanes approach. Sections of A1A often flood during strong storms and some neighborhood streets flood during peak high tide times in the spring and fall.

    FEMA creates maps that identify flood risk, and continually revises them, creating some flood zones for new construction and mortgaged property. 

    Ocean Ridge is appealing proposed changes in the maps, that excluded only 140 properties from the flood zone, since the town spent $10 million to improve drainage in its south end. Schenck hopes to get 50-100 more properties removed from the flood zone.

    Richard Radcliffe, executive director of the Palm Beach County League of Cities, said his group also submitted information about why certain areas should be excluded from flood zones. 

    Delray Beach has appealed some of its coastal properties placed in flood zones, building official Steve Tobias said, but Gulf Stream is waiting before it considers an appeal, according to Town Manager William Thrasher.

    Boca Raton will appeal proposed changes to flood maps along its canals, but not its coastal areas, Dan Grippo, municipal services director, said. “It’s a given along the coast that the (homes) are subject to storm surge.” 

    FEMA is expected to issue new maps by about June, followed by 30 days for public review and another 90 days for community officials and property owners to submit more technical and/or scientific data.

    Still, the new maps may not go into effect until August 2015, FEMA said.

    For more information on the process, visit fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program-flood-hazard-mapping/letter-map-change.

Newly elected Jordana Jarjura and reelected Al Jacquet.

Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

By Tim Pallesen

    Newcomer Jordana Jarjura upset incumbent Angeleta Gray in the March 11 city election, possibly shifting the balance of power on the Delray Beach City Commission.

    Jarjura became the fourth attorney on the commission by capturing 51 percent of the vote compared to 41 percent for Gray, who had been a city commissioner since 2009.

    Another incumbent, Al Jacquet, fought off a challenge from Chris Davey in the second commission race on the ballot. Jacquet got 50 percent of the vote compared to 46 percent for Davey.

    Jarjura could become the swing vote with Mayor Cary Glickstein and Commissioner Shelly Petrolia on issues such as ending developer incentives to build downtown, police and fire pension reform and seeking bids for the city garbage contract.

    Petrolia financially supported Jarjura and Davey for election. Glickstein asked residents by mass email on election day to vote for Davey.

    Support for Jarjura and Davey was strong in east Delray, partly because Jacquet and Gray didn’t join Glickstein and Petrolia to fight the Atlantic Crossing mixed-use project in January.

    Gray, a beauty shop owner, suffered a blow when several west Delray citizen groups and the Sun-Sentinel endorsed Jarjura.

    News that the state attorney was examining Gray’s role in awarding a $50,000 city contract to a firm tied to her campaign manager was reported less than two weeks before the election.

    The election turnout was 15.8 percent, with 6,584 of the city’s 41,584 registered voters going to the polls.

    Voters also approved a charter revision to clarify the voting procedure by commissioners at meetings, with 56 percent in favor of the revision.

The owners want to rebuild the Seagate Yacht Club with 10 townhouses and a clubhouse.

Rendering provided

By Tim Pallesen

    Plans to rebuild the Seagate Yacht Club are drawing positive response from coastal residents south of Atlantic Avenue.

    The owners of the nearby Seagate Hotel and Spa want to build 10 luxury townhouses and a three-story clubhouse at the existing 44-slip marina on MacFarlane Drive.

    The clubhouse got scrutiny at a March 17 meeting of the Planning and Zoning Board, where the developer agreed to a neighborhood request to close the clubhouse at 10 p.m. on weeknights and midnight on weekends. No music on the rooftop sunbathing terrace will be another restriction.

    But the developer submitted favorable comments from 200 neighbors who say the new yacht club with its distinctive contemporary design will benefit their neighborhood.

    City commissioners must approve a conditional-use request for the clubhouse. The design goes to the Site Plan Review and Appearance Board for approval.

    Dockage for luxury yachts is important for Seagate’s effort to create a full-service resort destination, said E. Anthony Wilson, chairman of the Seagate Hospitality Group. 

    In addition to the 162-room hotel at 1000 E. Atlantic Ave., the company operates the Seagate Beach Club at 401 S. Ocean Blvd.

    Seagate bought the Hamlet Golf and Country Club for $7 million in 2012 so golf and tennis could be included in its full-service resort.

Dawn Toimil started a multiple myeloma support group.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star 

By Linda Haase

    When Dawn Toimil’s doctor sent her for pre-op clearance for foot surgery, she figured it was a routine test. Instead, he discovered an abnormality in her blood work and sent her for more tests, including a bone marrow biopsy.

    The results were shocking: smoldering multiple myeloma (the presence of abnormal plasma cells in the bone marrow). Toimil was floored. 

    “I was sad when I was told the diagnosis, but have learned that cancer is not necessarily a death sentence, and that many scientific inroads have been made. The future is hopeful that this can be a chronic disease,” the mother of two says about her February 2010 diagnosis. “Thankfully, the disease has not progressed to the point requiring aggressive treatment.” 

    The St. Andrews and University of Florida grad is no stranger to misfortune: She underwent surgery, chemo and radiation for breast cancer in 1999. 

    So this time around, she was even more determined to get healthy. She discovered everything she could about multiple myeloma — and in the process helped start a local support group.

    The Boca Raton Multiple Myeloma Support Group, which held its first meeting in November 2010, began with eight patients and caregivers and now has 74 people on its email list.

    “The group is a forum for patients, their friends and caregivers to exchange information and form a community with others experiencing similar circumstances,” says the Boca Raton resident, noting the group has something in common with newsman Tom Brokaw, who recently divulged he has the disease. 

    “People often confuse myeloma with melanoma, but they are two entirely different diseases. Myeloma is still considered incurable, but researchers are aiming to make it a chronic disease, much like diabetes,” she said. 

    “It is important to get the word out so those affected could get diagnosed at an earlier stage of the disease. We are also attempting to familiarize medical practitioners with myeloma awareness, so it can be tested for whenever someone presents with bone pain, especially in the back, anemia or abnormal calcium/creatine/renal levels.” 

    Last month, the group got proclamations from several local cities — including Ocean Ridge — declaring March Multiple Myeloma Month. 

    While Toimil is doing her part to spread the word, she’s also busy helping her husband, Al, in their business, Jet Parts Inc., and renovating a house they bought in Ocean Ridge. 

    “With an empty nest looming, we wanted to try living closer to the water and purchased our home in Ocean Ridge in November. We love the quaintness and solitude of Ocean Ridge and old A1A,” says Toimil, who worked as a marketing analyst at Southern Bell, AT&T and WorldCom/MCI. 

    She has another milestone to mark this year: She and her husband will be celebrating their 30th anniversary. Son Brett is in Georgetown Medical School while Ryan attends Dartmouth College and is on the baseball team. 

    “I feel blessed to have seen my boys reach young adulthood. My goal then, as it is now, is to see their children reach young adulthood,” she emphasizes. “I hope others facing health obstacles can make the most of every day, after the normal phase of anger and grief, and find joy and happiness with their lives.”

The Boca Raton Multiple Myeloma Support Group meets from 6:30-8:30 p.m. the first Monday of each month at the community center of Patch Reef Park in Boca Raton.

Delray Beach Police Detective Matthew Naparstek monitors the crowd

in front of The Blue Anchor Pub during the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Tim Pallesen

    More children and less alcohol made a better St. Patrick’s Day Parade this year, city officials say.

    “The parade went much better since we did away with open alcohol,” Assistant City Manager Bob Barcinski concluded after the March 15 parade.

    Unlike last year, the city banned drinking from open containers of alcohol on the sidewalks along the Atlantic Avenue parade route.

    Police documented 1,159 violations of the open-container law. Drinkers were simply asked to empty their drink glasses and nobody received a citation.

    Bars and restaurants were allowed to serve alcohol inside their businesses. But Police Lt. Scott Privitera said four businesses failed to stop patrons from carrying alcohol when they left the bars and restaurants.

    An employee on loan from the Boca Raton Police Department recorded a video of patrons leaving with alcohol from the businesses, Privitera wrote in a March 21 report.

    But city officials were pleased overall by the first year when open drinking was banned during a parade that’s become a national attraction on St. Patrick’s Day.

    “Our police felt it went better,” Barcinski said. “More positive than in the past.

    “We still have a couple little issues,” he added. “I don’t understand why people bring animals.”

    A police officer was bitten on the hand trying to stop a pit bull attack on a guinea pig, Privitera said.

    Police and parade organizer John Fischer agreed that more children and families attended this year’s parade.

    “More children are coming because we’ve been marketing the parade to the School Board,” Fischer said.

    Police officers joined firefighters and paramedics for the first time this year as the parade was expanded to include all emergency responders. School children, civic groups and charities also began marching in the annual event.

    “We’ve steered the parade to the positive stuff,” Fischer said, “and that’s where it’s going to stay.”

By Cheryl Blackerby

    The little olive ridley sea turtle rescued on Lantana Beach on Christmas Day is on the road to recovery at Loggerhead Marinelife Center.

    “She was moved into a bigger tank because she had been bumping her head against the sides of the smaller tank she was in,” said Kat Rumbley, Loggerhead communications coordinator.  “This tank just gives her more room to swim.”

    Meghan is the only documented olive ridley found stranded in Palm Beach County and the first this far north.

    The turtle, whose condition was listed as critical when she arrived at Loggerhead, was treated for external wounds, given a glucose IV, antibiotics to prevent infection, and iron to treat anemia.

    When she was rescued, she weighed only 65 pounds; the ideal weight for an adult olive ridley is about 100. She now weighs 79 pounds. In the days after she was found, she had to be fed intravenously, then was tube-fed a slurry of fish and vitamins. Now she is eating fish on her own.

    Meghan arrived with a constriction injury to the front left flipper, which caused extensive tissue damage. X-rays showed no bone damage. 

    Her flipper wounds are all healing well.

    Meghan started her journey around Central and South America, and at some point was swept along in the Gulf Stream — all four flippers tangled in fishing net — before landing on Lantana Beach, thrashing in the surf.

Police Officer Robert McAllister of the Ocean Ridge Police Department

wrote up four different bicyclists who ran a red light on A1A.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    Law enforcement officers along the coast of Palm Beach County – from Boca Raton to Manalapan – were out in force earlier this month as part of a continuing effort to educate bicyclists and motorists about laws designed to make roads safer for both.

    In a joint effort coordinated by the South Florida Safe Roads Task Force, police officers from several cities and towns patrolled State Road A1A on Tuesday April 1 as part of a weeklong initiative aimed at reducing accidents involving bicycles, pedestrians and motor vehicles. 

    “All of the agencies involved in the South Florida Safe Roads Task Force are looking to create awareness of the major issues that are causing serious injuries and fatalities,” said task force spokesperson Tara Kirschner, executive director of the Dori Slosberg Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to traffic safety. “There are many safety concerns that need to be addressed and resolved.” 

    During the April 1 coordinated effort, police officers and Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies kept a close eye on the often-narrow stretches of A1A from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., stopping bicyclists and motorists and reminding them of the need to share the road with one another. 

    In Ocean Ridge, police officers stopped five bicyclists and one motorist during the enforcement effort, with three of the violators receiving warnings and three receiving citations.

    “We had three violations in just the first 15 minutes,” said Ocean Ridge Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi. “These violations are happening all the time. We should be thankful there aren’t more accidents.”

    At the Boynton Inlet, sheriff deputies focused on educating pedestrians, writing several warnings to those crossing A1A and not using the marked crosswalk.

    “Our whole aim is voluntary compliance from pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists,” says Highland Beach police Lt. Eric Lundberg, who helped get the task force started. 

    Two priorities for the task force are making sure bicyclists are aware of the law requiring them to ride no more than two abreast and not impede the flow of traffic when doing so, and that motorists are aware of the law requiring them to give bicycles at least 3 feet of clearance. 

    “Through education, we hope to change the attitudes of motorists toward cyclists and cyclists toward motorists,” Kirschner said.

    As part of its effort, the task force and the Florida Department of Transportation late last month placed six electronic message boards along A1A that read “Vehicle Bicycle Safety Campaign in Effect.” 

    The boards are giving travelers an indication of stepped-up enforcement efforts and also serve as a reminder of the need to keep roads safe for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers. 

    Task force members will review the result of the initial weeklong effort and are expected to continue with the initiative later in the year. 

    “The majority of bicyclists and motorists follow the rules of the road,” says Highland Beach Police Chief Craig Hartmann. “What we want to do is educate that small percentage who don’t or who may not be aware of the rules.”

A 1940s aerial photo of Hypoluxo Island, viewed from the north,

with the original bridge that was replaced in 1950.

Photo courtesy of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County

Narine Ebersold, 87, has lived on Hypoluxo Island since she was a young wife, as seen in inset below.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Mary Thurwachter

    Back in 1946, when Narine Ebersold and her husband, David, moved to Hypoluxo Island, she was a newlywed who liked to tuck sweet-smelling gardenias behind her ears.

    The island was a jungle back then, with few homes and few human settlers.

    “If you would have taken a picture then, you would see a lot of trees,” Ebersold said. “After the hurricane in 1947, you should have seen all the palm trees laying across the road,” she said.

    Among her few early neighbors were homeowners King Hughes and Bill Swain along with Consuelo Vanderbilt, her husband, Jacques Balsan, and a caretaker all at Casa Alva. 

    David Ebersold was a prominent builder who constructed many of the homes on the north end of the island. When he died in 2006, they had been married for 61 years. 

    Narine will turn 88 in October and is still living in the fourth home he built for them, a light green, two-story house on Southeast Atlantic Drive.

    “He would build one and we’d live in it for awhile and then he would sell it and build another one for us,” she said. 

    Her father-in-law bought Narine and David (as well as her husband’s three siblings) their first lots on the island. Each lot cost $500.

    “We could have bought the whole north end of the island for $2,000 back then,” she said. “But we didn’t have $2,000.”

    Although she was born in Arkansas, Ebersold moved to Florida when she was 6 months old, first to Haines City, then to Jacksonville. As a teenager, she worked at a drive-in in Jacksonville. That’s where she met David Ebersold.

    “He was a lifeguard at the beach,” she said. “In those days, people were kind of bashful and I didn’t even know he liked me, but he went home and told his brother he met this good-looking girl.”  

    The couple began dating and married a few years later.

    When the Ebersolds moved to Hypoluxo Island, they didn’t have a car and she rode her bicycle everywhere.

    “I would ride to West Palm Beach and back, and I never got tired,” she said. 

    They had indoor plumbing, but no electricity during those early years. “We had lanterns and a gas refrigerator and I had a two-burner kerosene stove to cook on,” she said. “I must have done all right, because the kids still talk about how good the big breakfasts I would make were.”

    Her husband was on the town’s volunteer fire department and served on the town council for three years in the 1960s. She was one of the first members of the Casuarina Woman’s Club.

    Entertainment was simple, old-Florida fun. Some evenings, the family would walk to the beach to enjoy a bonfire. Her husband and sons liked to fish.

    “I was busy raising our (four) kids,” she said. “They couldn’t wait to come home from school to fish.”

    Life was good, she remembered. Except for the dreaded sand flies and mosquitoes.

    “My husband used to paint the screen doors with some kind of goop to keep the sand flies out,” Ebersold said. “They were hard to see, but they sure could bite.”

    When the old wooden bridge connecting the island to the mainland was torn down and rebuilt in 1950, the Ebersolds lived on a 40-foot sailboat for two years. David Ebersold traded one of his houses for a sailboat.

    “He was in the Merchant Marines during World War II and sailing was in his blood,” she said. “I knew he would want to do it sometime, so we might as well do it then.” 

    They sailed from Miami to South Carolina.

    “I was so glad to get off that thing,” Ebersold laughed.

    After 68 years on the island, she says some things have changed. 

    Hundreds of people live there now, but Ebersold doesn’t know many of them.

    “I don’t socialize much anymore,” she said. She spends her time with her children, grandchildren and her two cats.

    There are still a lot of trees around. And she likes that — as long as a hurricane hasn’t blown them across the road.

By Dan Moffett

    After a spate of hiring in recent weeks, the South Palm Beach Police Department is at full strength for the first time since last summer.

    During a period of rare turnover, the department lost its chief last fall when Roger Crane retired after 28 years on the job, and then lost a senior officer when Lt. Nick Alvaro called it quits in February. All told, four positions turned over on the eight-officer staff in the last nine months.

    Acting Police Chief Carl Webb, who was promoted from captain to replace Crane in November, has been busy juggling schedules and screening candidates.

    “We’re very happy about the new officers we’ve added,” Webb said. “We feel good about our department right now.”

The town’s new officers are:

    • Robert Rizzotto, who comes to South Palm Beach after serving two years as an officer in Juno Beach. Rizzotto was a member of the New York Police Department and was working with the street crimes division during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

    • Carol Johnson, who has served with the Fort Pierce Police Department. “I took a look at her application and with her experience and education, she’s definitely going to be an asset to our department,” Webb said.

    • Michael Ladda, who comes to the town after working for the Lake Clarke Shores department.

    • Steve Kirkpatrick, a recent graduate of the police academy with experience in combating drunken driving.

    “Even though we were hiring officers as people left, it became a bit more acute with the retirement of Chief Crane and Lt. Alvaro,” said Town Manager Rex Taylor. “All new officers require a period of field training before they operate on their own.”

    Councilman Robert Gottlieb said now that the department has caught up on its hiring, it needs to examine how it patrols the beachfront.

    “Whether we walk the beaches, whether the buildings report, we need to start to take a look at beach security,” Gottlieb said.

In other business:

    • Nothing’s been rescheduled since the developer of the Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn, Paragon Acquisition Group, abruptly canceled a workshop for residents on a proposed project for the site.

    Taylor said the town has no plans to take another look at the proposal until Paragon and CEO Gary Cohen make the next move.

    “At this point in time, it’s all in the court of the developer,” Taylor said. “We have nothing for consideration. I don’t know what their plans are or what they’re going to do, but I assume we’ll know something in the near future.”

    Mayor Donald Clayman said he spoke with Cohen after the cancellation and the developer was interested in meeting with the town again. “But there’s nothing to schedule yet,” Clayman said. “We’ll see.”

    Council members reflected on the career and life of former Mayor Marty Millar, after word came from Lantana police that he had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on March 23.

    Millar, 67, served four years as a town councilman and two years as mayor until resigning in 2010 after admitting violating state ethics laws during a 2009 visit to a West Palm Beach strip club. 

    “His term here certainly was tumultuous, especially his last term,” Vice Mayor Joseph Flagello said. “It’s always a sad and tragic thing. He was obviously not well. One of the positive things he brought to this town through that tumultuous term was that he brought it together. He made the town tougher. He made it stronger.”

    Flagello said one of Millar’s enduring legacies was a method for distributing the Town Council members’ duties.

    “He was the first guy who assigned each council member an area of the town,” Flagello said. “Somebody would get the beach, somebody the sewers, somebody something else.”

—Dan Moffett

New Ocean Ridge commissioners Richard Lucibella (left) and James Bonfiglio

pose moments after being sworn in on March 19.

Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

    The Ocean Ridge Town Commission had put off making the hard decisions about access to its public beaches until after the election of two new commissioners in March.
    Now that Richard Lucibella and James Bonfiglio have claimed the open commission seats, what to do about beach signs and beachgoers’ behavior goes back on the town’s radar.
    Bonfiglio, a 60-year-old real estate lawyer, is no stranger to staff and officials, having played an influential role in Ocean Ridge’s development for more than a decade. He served as the chairman of the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission for the last six years and has held a seat on the panel since 2000.
    Bonfiglio worries about liability issues that could rise from increased beach traffic and believes commissioners should consider increasing police presence to deal with it.
    “My gut reaction is we probably need to start having a little more police patrolling,” he said. “We might have to hire another officer to control risky behavior, but that would be worth it because it’s like buying an insurance policy to reduce our liability.”
    Bonfiglio says he’s open to considering an ordinance banning alcohol consumption on the beach — similar to those in many other South Florida communities — but he’s not inclined to push for it.
    “I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with alcohol on the beach,” he said. “I think many of our residents enjoy going there and having a drink, and I don’t want to take that away from them.”
    Lucibella, 60, a health care management and publishing executive, also is no stranger to the town’s administration. He was a Planning and Zoning board member from 1997 to 2000 and since then has served on the Board of Adjustment.
    Lucibella thinks that process matters when it comes to sorting through the complicated issue of managing access to the town’s beaches. He wants the commission to take a thoughtful, calculated approach and steer clear of what could become an emotionally charged debate.
    “We have public beaches that will remain public beaches and should remain public beaches,” he said. “But I think we have to look at how to walk the fine line of managing them in a calm planning setting, rather than with acute intervention.”
    Lucibella believes this commission is well positioned to set Ocean Ridge on the right course for decades to come. He thinks the commission should resurrect a long-range planning initiative similar to the Focus 2000 effort that guided the town into the new millennium.
     “Past commissions have left us in good shape fiscally, with no big, pressing issues,” he says. “That provides us the opportunity to revisit planning and come up with a blueprint to deal with some of the growth problems that are coming.”
    In all, 445 turned out for the March 11 election, 30.6 percent of the town’s 1,487 registered voters. Lucibella received 388 votes (49.49 percent), Bonfiglio 296 (37.76 percent) and political newcomer Roberta Wehr 100 (12.76 percent). Commissioners serve three-year terms.
    Outgoing Commissioners Zoanne Hennigan and Ed Brookes won praise from Mayor Geoffrey Pugh for their contributions.
    “The three years you guys were up here, the biggest contribution for me was the contrarian view you brought,” Pugh told them at the commission’s March meeting. “You made me think about the issue that you were bringing forward. There was such a great transfer of ideas that the decision we made was the best for the town.
    “I always thought that the whole time you were up here, that’s all you guys thought about — doing this as a selfless gesture for the town.” 

Manalapan Town Clerk Lisa Petersen administers the oath of office to Commissioner-Elect Clark Appleby,

left, Commissioner-Elect Ronald Barsanti and Vice-Mayor Louis De Stefano in the Manalapan

Commission Chambers on March 25.

Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

    Manalapan town commissioners got a face-to-face report from the engineer who evaluated their crumbling Audubon Causeway bridge.
    What Jeff Bergmann told them was that there are no quick or easy fixes for the 20-foot span, but something will have to be done relatively soon.
    “As you drive over it, it looks like a perfectly healthy bridge,” said Bergmann, a consultant with Bridge Design Associates. “But when you go underneath — we were concerned.”
    Bergmann told the commission at its March 25 meeting that the bridge’s pilings are decaying, with steel reinforcements showing the signs of decades of corrosion. He said, however, that the chances are slim that the structure will collapse.
    “Prior to any collapse, you’re going to see some large movements of the bridge that will visually warn somebody,” Bergmann said. “So it’s not going to fail in an instantaneous mode, but will continue to degrade over time.”
    The consultants recommend repairing or replacing the bridge within a two- to three-year period. The price tag for repair is about $528,000, with an estimate of at least 10 years of service; the cost to replace it is about $760,000, for 50-plus years of use. The estimated construction time is between a year and 18 months, with one-way traffic maintained during the project.
    “The sense of the commission is we have a decision that’s going to impact the town for quite a long time to come,” Mayor David Cheifetz said. “We just simply need more information.”
    Bergmann told commissioners it wasn’t feasible to use a prefabricated truss bridge — a World War II-type Bailey bridge — to reroute traffic temporarily because there isn’t enough land to install it around the span. He said using a culvert design could work but also would require federal permitting that would consider the potential environmental impact to sea grass and fish. That process could take two years with no guarantees of approval.
    Bergmann said it might be possible to reduce the number of pilings with a “clear span” design, cutting some cost and construction time. He told commissioners he would give them estimates on that alternative and also on wrapping the existing pilings with jackets to extend their lives.
    The commission unanimously approved a provision to restrict truck traffic on the bridge, under which companies with heavy utility vehicles will have to assume liability for crossing the span.

    Town Manager Linda Stumpf said federal and state agencies won’t allow the town to stop the boat traffic underneath.
Bergmann said he is comfortable with the load restrictions the town has placed on the bridge.
    “I’ve been conservative because one of my jobs is to protect the public,” he said. “So we made our best estimate.”
In other business: 

    • Commissioner Peter Isaac’s proposal to limit public comments to three minutes won unanimous approval. The change brings Manalapan in line with neighboring communities and includes a “mayoral override” provision that allows the mayor to grant speakers more time when warranted.
    Isaac noted that Abraham Lincoln only needed two minutes for the Gettysburg address and the current five-minute limit is too long and fosters pontification. “You don’t build a church for Easter Sunday,” he said.
    • Stumpf said a 14-page consultant’s report has found that the town will need to spend about $21,500 to make parking and access to the 33-year-old Town Hall building compliant with federal Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
    The report comes in response to a complaint by resident Kersen De Jong. The commission decided to take up the proposed changes and how to pay for them at its April meeting.
    • Two new members were sworn in to the commission after going unopposed in the March 11 election: Clark Appleby, who has served on the town’s zoning board, claimed the at-large seat vacated by John Murphy; and Ronald Barsanti, a member of the architectural board who took the point seat vacated by Howard Roder. Vice Mayor Louis De Stefano also was sworn in to another term representing the ocean district.
    Appleby, an investment manager, is the grandson of former Manalapan Commissioner John Manfuso. Barsanti got his first assignment in his first meeting: Mayor Cheifetz asked him to sit in on the town’s screening of engineering consultants. Ú

By Cheryl Blackerby

    The last of four beach renourishment projects is underway, and it’s up against an April 30th deadline that may not be met if rough seas continue. 

    Work on the project at Boca Raton’s north beach started March 23. The dredge was forced to stop pumping sand March 25 because of strong winds. 

    “We had to pull off because of the weather. We hope to start back as soon as the winds calm down,” said Jennifer Bistyga, engineer with the City of Boca Raton. 

    Boca’s north beach as well as beaches in Ocean Ridge and Delray Beach are U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beach renourishment projects. The Army Corps deadline for those projects is April 30, and if the project is not done by that time the city of Boca will have to apply for a new permit. (The fourth project was south Boca Raton beach, which is not an Army Corps project, but the city used the same contractor to save money.)

    “If we don’t meet the deadline, we would have to go for a formal permit extension because the Florida Department of Environmental Protection doesn’t allow us to dredge beyond April 30,” she said.

    The city would probably only be able to get an extension into mid-May because of turtle nesting season, she said. 

    But the dredge has already placed about 40,000 cubic yards of sand on the beach in its first two days, a good head start, she said.  “We feel confident we have more than enough days to get the job done before the deadline.” 

    Meanwhile, winds and surf have carved out high escarpments on Ocean Ridge’s beach, a renourishment project that was finished Feb. 9. 

    “At the southern end of Oceanfront Park, there’s an escarpment about 1,550 feet long and 4 feet high, and places that are 6 feet high. It’s the biggest escarpment I’ve seen in Palm Beach County,” said Tom Warnke, a member of the executive committee of the Palm Beach chapter of Surfrider Foundation, a non-profit environmental group that works to protect oceans and beaches.

    At the north end of Hammock Park, another escarpment is about 550 feet long and 2 to 3 feet high, he said. 

    “High tide water comes right to the base of the escarpments, where turtles build nests. The tide washes out the eggs,” he said.

    The county is aware of the escarpments, said Tracy Logue, coastal geologist for Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management.

    “We’ve been monitoring the escarpments and updating the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on the conditions,” she said. “If necessary, a knock-down will be conducted as late as possible to minimize additional scarping during the peak (turtle) nesting period.”

    The county sea turtle experts will make the decisions on whether or not to relocate any newly deposited nests near an escarpment, she said. 

    The county has a small window of opportunity to move a nest. “According to state permit conditions, nests requiring relocation must be moved no later than 9 a.m. the morning following deposition,” she said.

    The non-profit Reef Rescue group has been researching the turbidity produced by the sand pumping at all four beaches, and saw few problems with Delray Beach but a big problem at Boca’s north beach.

    “They were able to keep the silt plumes under control in Delray Beach. This company has a smaller piece of equipment than the big dredge used last year, and they could control the amount of of silt generated. I don’t think we have any impacts to reefs,” said Ed Tichenor, director of Palm Beach County Reef Rescue.

    Boca’s north beach is a different story, he said.

    “With just one day of pumping, we saw a massive amount of turbidity. We could see turbidity coming off the beach and going all the way to Boca Inlet,” he said. “Unlike the other projects, this is a critical habitat for endangered staghorn coral. I’m very concerned about this project.”

    On March 25, U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel came to Ocean Ridge to make a ceremonial check presentation for the $12 million in federal money that Congress is contributing through the Army Corps to the county’s beach projects, including Delray Beach, Ocean Ridge and north Boca Raton beach — enough to cover about 60 percent of the work. The rest is coming from the state, county and city governments.

    “Beaches mean much more to our community than just a place to get a suntan,” Frankel said. “Beaches protect our property, they are home to natural habitats, and they attract visitors from all over the world. This means millions of dollars in property taxes and tourist dollars to our region.”

More than 100 Briny Breezes residents waited their turn to congratulate Ed Gass,

who retired after more than 10 years of working in maintenance.

When resident Thelma Gannon commented,

“You’re the best gardener Briny has ever had,” he replied,

“Well, this was the best job I’ve ever had.”

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Jim McCormick (left) and Bobby Jurovaty are sworn in as aldermen.

By Dan Moffett

    Briny Breezes is considering joining with neighboring communities in a plan to install a network of security cameras that would photograph the license plates of motorists driving on A1A.

    Last month, Mayor Mike Hill and Ocean Ridge Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi went on a fact-finding mission to Golden Beach — a wealthy waterfront enclave of 950 people in northern Miami-Dade County — to take a close look at the town’s high-tech camera network.
    Thirty years ago, crime in Golden Beach got so bad that officials closed all but one road into and out of the town. Today, a system of some 72 cameras monitors traffic throughout the 1.3-mile-long municipality, and crime is no longer a consuming problem.
    Briny is exploring a much smaller system of six cameras that would be positioned along A1A and cover the town’s northern and southern boundaries.

    “The purpose is to monitor who is coming into town and who is coming out of town,” Hill said. “The hope is that when the bad guys realize that when they drive through they’re likely to get pulled over, the bad guys will steer clear. I don’t know that’s the case, but it’s an interesting theory.”
    Yannuzzi said police departments along the coast are working toward having seamless coverage of A1A traffic through South County. Manalapan has used the cameras for years, and law enforcement officials in Ocean Ridge, Gulf Stream, Boynton Beach and at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office are believers in having the capability to track offenders across jurisdictions.
    “Criminals are transient,” Yannuzzi said, “and what’s going on in one community isn’t limited to that community any more.”

    The “automatic license plate recognition,” or ALPR, cameras cost about $10,000 each. They have the capability of reading license plates in real time and comparing their numbers with databases of stolen cars and owners with outstanding criminal warrants.

    “Obviously, it’s something that’s not going to be cheap,” said Hill, “but it’s something we’re interested in looking at.”
Golden Beach was able to pay for its $500,000 system with forfeiture money — funds that came from seized cash and property of people who committed crimes in the town, mostly drug crimes. Briny, as Hill is happy to point out, doesn’t have bad guys to seize things from, so the town would have to come up with the $60,000 for cameras from more traditional sources.
    Besides expense, Hill said opponents of the systems make the Orwellian complaint that “it’s too much like 1984.” The cameras take high-resolution images and are even capable of monitoring boat traffic. Yannuzzi said Lighthouse Point in Broward County installed the cameras four years ago and police since have made more than 100 arrests and seized more than $1 million in forfeitures, as crime fell.
    Town Council members decided to do more research on the cameras and how to pay for them, then take the matter up later this year.

In other business:
    The town swore in two new members to the council to replace Nancy Boczon and Pete Fingerhut who gave up their seats over the last two months.
    New Alderman Bobby Jurovaty has owned property in Briny since 1999 and been a resident in the town for three years. Jim McCormick has lived in Briny for 17 years and served on the Planning and Zoning Board for the past two years. 

    Both were approved unanimously by the council.

By Thomas R. Collins

    A Senate bill that would give the state more oversight of homeowner associations, and impose a $4-per-year fee on every parcel to pay for it, has drawn opposition from an area alliance of property owner associations, which says the measure is unnecessary.

    The bill (SB 1348) proposed by Sen. Alan Hays, a Republican from Umatilla in north central Florida, says “it is necessary to provide regulatory oversight of such associations to ensure compliance with federal and state laws and local ordinances.” 

    So far, the measure hasn’t gained steam in Tallahassee.

    Under the bill, a division of the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation could investigate complaints and enforce compliance in homeowner associations that are still under control of the developer. And after the homeowners take control of the association, the state only would be able to investigate complaints on financial issues, elections and homeowner access to records.

    An ombudsman’s office would be created, along with an 800 number for complaints that would be available to residents in homeowner associations.

    Condominium associations already have such an ombudsman dedicated to their communities, and already pay the $4 fee. 

    Hays has said that the proposed law was prompted by complaints from homeowners within his home county as well as from around the state.

    But Lori Vinikoor, executive vice president of the Alliance of Delray Residential Associations, says the current system of mediation is already sufficient state oversight. In that system, differences over homeowner association bylaws can be settled by a state-appointed mediator after both sides pay a fee.

    That system works, Vinikoor says.

    “You have recourse if somebody doesn’t perform,” she says. “There’s always a place to go.”

    But with such ease of access as an ombudsman, homeowners would be inclined to make frivolous claims, which will cost associations time and attorney fees, Vinikoor said.

    “It’s like putting up a quarter or dollar into a soda machine and getting a soda,” she said. “If it’s as easy as that, wouldn’t it be easier for there to be more frivolous things?”

    In condos, she said, most of the complaints come from a “very small percentage” of condo owners, who have been dubbed “recreational complainers.” She says the same could happen in homeowner associations.

    Vinikoor said she is unaware of any homeowner associations in southern coastal Palm Beach County who have been following the legislation closely.

    Highland Beach Vice Mayor Ron Brown, who also is president of the Bel Lido Home Owners Association in Highland Beach, said he was unaware of the bill. He said complaints within his community typically can be resolved locally.

    “My opinion is that it’s not needed at the level our association functions,” he said.

    Bel Lido likely would not be affected by the bill, since membership in the association is voluntary.

    The prospects for the bill might be dim. 

    A similar bill was proposed last year, and did not go anywhere. This year, there is no House companion bill for it and hasn’t been heard in any committees, said Yeline Goin, a community association attorney.

    “It doesn’t have a good chance of passing, in my opinion.”