Pedro Maldonado (below) works to create what he hopes will become

the world’s most valuable dreidel (above) at his studio

in Manalapan’s Plaza del Mar.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

    Pedro Maldonado learned how to make jewelry by assisting his father, a master jeweler in Cuenca, Ecuador.

    “My father was a well-known jeweler there,” the son says. “He created a 35-pound monstrance for a Catholic church.” Its parishioners donated their jewelry for it.

    Decades later, Maldonado, who owns Jewelry Artisans in Manalapan, is creating the world’s most valuable dreidel for the Chabad of South Palm Beach.

    They are neighbors in the Plaza del Mar shopping center. In the summer when Shaina Stolik —whose husband is the Chabad’s rabbi — learned that Thanksgiving and Hanukkah would share the same date, she started to think of a world record to match the once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.

    She eventually thought a dreidel, a spinning toy, would be appropriate.

    Chabad’s congregants donated jewelry for it. Stolik plans to enter it into the Guinness Book of World Records in the new category of “world’s most valuable dreidel.” To qualify, the dreidel would have to be appraised and it would have to spin. She estimates the finished value will be about $9,000.

    Maldonado hopes to finish it in early January, working in his newly expanded space.

    The expansion gave him a jewelry-making area viewable to his customers. He also built out the space, meaning he put in the hardwood floor and built the display cases, trimmed with aluminum. “My wife says if the jewelry making doesn’t work out that I can make furniture,” he says. 

    He also expanded the space so that his two teenage sons could work alongside him and learn how to make jewelry. 

    Maldonado has a long history in the area. His Jewelry Artisans opened in 1991 in the plaza. Before that, he had a jewelry store for seven years in Palm Beach. His store manager, Emi Ebben, has worked for him for 23 years. She is a graduate gemologist with a degree from the Gemological Institute of America.

    Earrings, priced between $3,000 and $5,000, are the most popular, he says. His store does about $500,000 in annual sales.

    Jewelry Artisans also cleans and maintains jewelry for its clientele. One woman brought in jewelry owned by her late father-in-law to turn into something she could wear. The wedding band was sawed in half to create two arcs that would be turned into earrings. His cufflinks would become post earrings. 

    For rings and pendants, he often raises the stone atop a bed of filigree work to allow the light to shine through to the stone. He signs his pieces with a heart and his name. 

   “I’ve been around jewelry since I was a kid,” he says, “it comes naturally to me.” 

AFTER: Kirsten and Tom Stanley raised the roof and gutted their Gulf Stream kitchen.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

BEFORE: A wall blocked the flow into the Stanleys’ cramped kitchen. 

Tom Stanley’s grandparents bought the orange butcher-block table

from the Army airbase that now is home to Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

Tom and Kirsten Stanley renovated their vintage Gulf Stream cottage,

which originally was built for employees of the Gulf Stream Polo Club. 

By Christine Davis

    Will Kirsten and Tom Stanley be having crab for dinner soon?  When renovating, they did find a really big one under the kitchen, so who knows? It might have friends.

    Even if not crab, something good is sure to be cooking, and Tom will be doing it.

    The couple (who met in high school) love Florida and old houses. Both are long-time Florida people; Tom’s family came to Delray Beach in 1914 and Kirsten’s parents moved here when she was young. Both have experience with building: Kirsten is the executive vice president of Meisner Electric and, Tom, an attorney, is a Gulf Stream town commissioner and former chairman of the Delray Beach Historic Preservation Board. 

    So, it’s no surprise that they opted to buy and renovate a 1927-era cottage in Gulf Stream. 

    What is kind of surprising is the unusual accessibility problem they encountered. The kitchen ceiling was too low for Tom, who likes to cook. He’s 6 feet, 4 inches tall and he had to bend down to do the dishes and get to the refrigerator. Can’t have that, notes Kirsten.

    But knocking out the false ceiling was just the beginning. The kitchen had other problems. Once the ceiling was removed, they saw that the room wasn’t insulated. The floor was yucky old linoleum and there was no way to save the cupboards — they were too far gone.  Everything, in other words, had to go, except for the farmhouse kitchen sink, which they kept.

    The adjacent guest suite (which they’ve since repurposed as their master bedroom) had similar problems, so that space needed to be rebuilt, too.

    The laundry was in an outside breezeway — not very convenient, says Kirsten — and the garage needed to be torn down and rebuilt to accommodate two cars.

    The home’s need for renovation appeared to be the result of sloppy add-ons over time, Kirsten believes, because the heart of the house is perfect. “All we did was paint.”

    The living room does have wonderful features: hardwood floor, bead board paneling, cypress ceiling, fireplace and bay window. Just adjacent, to the north, is the original master suite, which is also quite handsome, with a pitched cypress ceiling, bead board paneling and hardwood floors.

    Through French doors to the south of the living room is the formal dining room, with another set of French doors that open to a courtyard. “We want to use the patio as an outdoor breakfast area,” Kirsten says.

    A third bedroom offers pretty views of the pool area, and the Stanleys already had updated the adjoining bathroom.

    It was the kitchen and the guest wing that was discombobulated and kind of thrown together. 

    “We think the little room in front of our kitchen was the original kitchen,” Tom says. “When we bought the home, a wall had been knocked down between the two spaces, creating a pass-through that was like a bar.”

    But from the beginning, it felt like home. “We looked at three houses, and this was the second. The house immediately spoke to us. We deliberated for 45 minutes and said we wanted it,” Tom says.

    “The nine-foot ceilings were a key feature. We thought we could work with that, and the house really had good bones.”

    They hired Mouw Associates Inc. as general contractors, Roger Cope as architect, Clint Oster with General Landscaping Corp., and Meisner, of course, as electrical contractors.

    There were setbacks.

    The process of permitting took longer than expected, which changed the construction schedule; and also Kirsten needed to have cancer treatment.

    “She doesn’t delegate,” Tom says.

    “I had to let decisions be made without me, and act like I was happy with them,” she says, smiling.

    But she’s one strong positive thinker. “The flip side: You realize what you really want.”

    Over time, they realized they wanted to use the new bedroom as their master suite and they changed the home’s focal point.

    “Before, you couldn’t get to the pool from the house, so we reoriented the whole house towards the pool,” Tom explains.

    In addition, the home has some wonderful new “old” features — the front screen door and shutters that used to be in Tom’s grandparents’ 1938-era house, and a butcher-block table in their kitchen that his grandparents bought from the Army airbase (now the site of Florida Atlantic University’s campus) after it closed.

    Now that the work is done, the couple can finally relax.  “It’s an escape and an oasis,” Kirsten says.

    “We feel like we are miles away on vacation,” Tom says.

    And now, of course, Tom can open the refrigerator door and wash dishes without knocking his head or hurting his back.

AFTER: A new two-car garage eases the Stanleys’ parking situation. 

BEFORE: The back portion of the house needed to be rebuilt.

AFTER: Designers re-oriented the house toward the pool. 

BEFORE: There was no direct access to the pool from the house.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori (left) and the Rev. Andrew Sherman

participate in a baptism ceremony with Mazie Baker, 1, who was

accompanied by her parents, Jonny and Sember Baker.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

INSET BELOW: The Rev. Pam Cahoon

By Tim Pallesen

    Katharine Jefferts Schori has weathered the storms as presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in America.

    But the sun was shining bright Dec. 7 when she stepped into the ocean off Boca Raton for baptisms during the 60th anniversary celebration at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church.

    “I came when there was wretched conflict and departures from the church,” Schori said. “We’re done with that.”

    She assumed her post in 2006, when it would have been impossible not to makes enemies on the issues of sexuality and theology. Church conservatives fought her because she supported marriage and ordination for gay men and lesbians.

    She has taken a hard line against dissenting dioceses. Under her leadership, the Episcopal Church has spent millions in legal fees to keep the church buildings of congregations that broke away.

    But St. Gregory’s has always been peaceful. And so it was during the anniversary weekend that culminated with a gala jubilee luncheon at the Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club after Sunday worship.

    Mia Kain, a Boca Raton High School student studying journalism, asked Schori the first question at a news conference.

    “How do you feel being the first female leader of the church?” she asked.

    “Some have objected to me being bishop,” Schori replied. “They have been polite to my face. But the conversation on blogs isn’t always social.” 

    “Pray for Delray” is the theme for the city’s annual prayer breakfast, set for Jan. 14 at Pompey Park.

    Speakers include the Rev. Casey Cleveland of The Avenue Church, the host of the event. Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Karen Granger will be the emcee.

    Entertainers include Mary Gaines Bernard, the sister of the late Donna Summer; Tony LeBron, the latest winner of the Gospel Dream television show; and the Rev. Daniel Williams of the Redemption Church.

    Tickets for the 7 a.m. breakfast are $25. Contact Sarah Vallely at 279-0907.

    Proceeds benefit City House, a faith-based temporary home for single mothers with children. See www.cityhousedelraybeach.com.  

    The Rev. Pam Cahoon is retiring after 35 years as Palm Beach County’s top crusader to end hunger.

    Christians Reaching Out to Society Ministries has 3,000 volunteers operating six food pantries, the Caring Kitchen in Delray Beach, plus gleaning and social service programs.

    With Cahoon as executive director, CROS has given food from its pantries to 556,000 people and served 1,172,000 hot meals at the Caring Kitchen since 1978. Gleaners harvested 1,354,000 pounds of produce.

    Cahoon also brought Habitat for Humanity to the county and was first president of the Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, which established Children’s Place as a shelter. 

    She will be replaced as CROS executive director by Ruth Magaria, a 12-year staff member who in 2010 returned to her native Kenya to mobilize Nairobi Chapel’s Social Justice Ministry.   

    Archbishop Demetrios, the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, will baptize the sanctuary at St. Mark Church in an ancient ceremony on Feb. 22.

    “This is the crown jewel for an orthodox church,” said the Rev. Mark Leondis, the pastor of the Boca Raton congregation. “It means we will remain a church forever.”

    The archbishop will place holy relics of three martyrs in the altar, sealing them with waxes and myrrh so they can never be opened again. The ceremony dates back to the fourth century, when liturgies were performed over the tombs of martyrs in the catacombs.

    St. Mark Greek Orthodox Church began 34 years ago. Its sanctuary was built in 1998. 

    Cardinal Timothy Dolan will review 50 years of Catholicism on Jan. 16 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary.

    Dolan, archbishop of New York, recently served as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

    Widely known for his conservative values and charismatic personality, he was named one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” by Time magazine in 2012.

    The 7:30 p.m. presentation is open to the public. Call 732-4424 for reservations.

    Watch for Lego sculptures to blossom at St. Vincent Ferrer Church and School in Delray Beach this year.

    Legos are a craze among children. So stewardship director Julie Ott created the Lego Challenge to raise money to buy new iPads and computers at St. Vincent’s.

    Schoolteachers assembled the first Lego creation Dec. 8 to demonstrate how much fun participating students will have this year. Any child whose family contributes money will be given a Lego to help build their classroom Lego sculpture.   

    “There’s a lot of energy here,” Ott said. “We’re helping people find that stewardship brings joy and peace to their hearts.”

    Calvary United Methodist Church in Lake Worth has closed less than a year after celebrating its 100th anniversary.

    Declining membership and lack of money were to blame. The congregation was thriving with 1,400 members when it moved into its distinctive A-frame sanctuary in 1968.

    But with changing demographics in downtown Lake Worth, the congregation shrank to 289 members with 95 attending church.

    The congregation voted to close by a 25-12 vote on Dec. 2.

    Methodists in Lake Worth date back to April 1912 — the same day that the Titanic sank — when a Methodist pastor came to town to perform the first Methodist baptism.

    Worship services began in January 1913 at a home. Church women painted coconuts to raise money to build a church, which was completed in April 1913.

    In recent years, Calvary leased space to four Hispanic and Haitian congregations and six drug and alcohol recovery groups to pay the bills.

    The congregation, knowing the end was near, celebrated its centennial by baptizing descendants of its charter members during its anniversary.

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

On Jan. 5, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church will hold a period costume re-enactment

to mark its founding in 1914. Prior to its founding, Lake Worth’s Episcopal family,

the Cooks, had to travel to Holy Trinity in West Palm Beach. At 4 p.m. Jan. 5,

parishioners and friends will caravan up Dixie Highway to Holy Trinity for a

5 p.m. service with the choirs of Holy Trinity and St. Andrew’s participating. Info: 582-6609.

Pictured: St. Andrew’s parishioners Christie Ragsdale and Margot Emery in 1914 attire.

Photo provided by John Robuck

On Dec. 18, the Knights of Columbus Blessed Mother Council No. 1333

of Emmanuel Catholic Church presented 15 Bibles

to Delray Medical Center.

Pictured: Bob Budd, Chuck Dolce, Becky McCoy, Kevin Flannery and Bob Bonney.

Photo provided

Seventh-graders at St. Vincent Ferrer Church and School participated in

a Lego Challenge to raise money to buy iPads and computers at the school.

Their class was the first to have 100 percent participation.

Photo provided

The St. Andrews golf course greens were extensively renovated in 2013.

Photo provided

By Steve Pike

    Geoffrey Hume looked across the practice tee at St. Andrews Club north of Delray Beach and surveyed the club’s emerald fairways and greens.

    “I call this my ‘little jewel on the ocean,’ ” said Hume, the club’s general manager.

    That jewel has a new polish, thanks to legendary golf course architect Pete Dye, who along with his wife, Alice, son P.B. and St. Andrews Superintendent Charley Crell, rebuilt the club’s 18 greens.

    The project, which took place this past summer and into the fall, was much smaller than Dye’s redesign work at neighboring Gulf Stream Golf Club, but just as important to St. Andrews Club members, who for the past several years had been putting on slow, inconsistent greens.

    Many of those greens had developed what are known as “turtleback.” A turtleback is a large hump or mound in a green caused by years of top dressing. It often limits the area where a pin can be placed and causes even well-struck balls to miss their targets.

    “You almost couldn’t get a ball to stay on a couple of the greens,” Hume said.

    To make matters more challenging, St. Andrews’ greens were filled with different kinds of grasses that made them difficult to read and gauge the speed. For example, if two players had 4-foot putts from different sides of the hole, one player might have been putting on a completely different grass than his or her partner.

    “We were dealing with a lot of intrusion, where we had multiple types of grasses on the greens and within the whole course,” Hume said. 

    That’s no longer the case. St. Andrews Club’s greens now each feature TifEagle Bermudagrass, which is popular in South Florida, along with TifGrand Bermudagrass (a newer form of cultivar) on their collars. The turtlebacks are gone, too. 

    “Everything was done that needed to be done,” said Crell, who came to St. Andrews Club in December 2012 from PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie. “Anything that [has] age to it, like an old house, needs to be updated. It’s the same with a golf course. 

    “We try and keep (the greens) between 9 and 10 (on the Stimpmeter) daily, but for tournament play we can get as fast as any private club in the area.”

    Crell and the Dyes also replaced irrigation around the greens, renovated each tee box and added tee boxes to a few holes, including a forward tee on the 160-yard, fifth.

    The fifth hole — the longest at St. Andrews — probably is the best example of the entire project. The green, which originally hugged the Intracoastal along the left side of the fairway, was moved approximately 15 yards to the right, allowing the hole to play as long as 185 yards.

    Much of the old material that was removed from the greens, Hume said, was used to create a berm along the third hole that protects the course from rising Intracoastal tides.

    “We had problems with swamping,” Hume said. “Nothing is worse for a golf course than salt water.”

    The berm is a preview of what is coming at St. Andrews Club.

    “This summer we’re going to do a lot of reclamation of land because of what we’ve lost to erosion,” Hume said. “In the next couple of years we’re planning to renovate the rough and fairways.”

    And add more polish to the jewel.

Vanessa Lovvorn lost nearly 100 pounds,

but has regained 95 pounds after

spinal stenosis hampered her activities.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Joe (left) and Henry Ostaszewski (far right) flank friends Aaron and Kathy Corr

following a fitness outing organized by the brothers’ Wear Your Soul Foundation.

Photo provided

By Paula Detwiller

    Two years ago this month we shared the stories of our “biggest losers”— local people who had lost a significant amount of weight. This past March we wrote about twin brothers from Boynton Beach who both lost more than 120 pounds — one on The Biggest Loser TV show, the other by following along at home.

    We recently checked back in with some of our “losers” to see where life has taken them, and whether they’ve managed to maintain their healthier physiques.

Jane Hebert, 

Briny Breezes

    It’s been four years since Jane Hebert’s New Year’s resolution to lose 100-plus pounds. 

    When we interviewed her in 2012, she had accomplished that goal, slimming down from 260 to 155.

    Today Hebert’s bathroom scale still reads 155. She still adheres to the Weight Watchers eating plan. And she still, at age 79, walks five miles a day around her Briny Breezes neighborhood with the help of her walking sticks.

    “I have arthritis in my knees, and sometimes I don’t feel like going,” she admits. “But if I don’t get out in the morning and get that walk in, I feel like I’m dragging all day.”

    Hebert hasn’t been sick in two years — not even a cold, she says — and her annual checkups at the doctor are textbook-perfect. 

    “It’s just unbelievable how good I feel, and that’s what keeps me motivated.”

Vanessa Lovvorn, 

Delray Beach

     Our other Biggest Loser “cover girl” two years ago, Vanessa Lovvorn, had slowly reduced her weight from 345 to 241 by changing her eating habits and working with a trainer at a local gym. Smiling broadly at our camera, she told us her goal was to lose another 60 pounds.

     About a month later, the whole picture changed.

    “It happened Feb. 22, 2012,” says Lovvorn, now 34. “I had worked out, and my back wasn’t feeling that great. By the time I got home, I had shooting pain and numbness down my leg. I went to walk downstairs, took two steps, and couldn’t move. My husband had to carry me to the bedroom.”

    Two days later, a scan revealed Lovvorn had five bulging discs in her lower spine. She underwent emergency surgery on March 1. Doctors removed a portion of the most severely protruding disc, the one that was crushing a nerve root, she says.

    But the pain persisted. She received multiple steroid treatments intended to reduce inflammation around the nerves and relieve her pain. Nothing worked. At the suggestion of a doctor, she applied for, and now receives, disability benefits.

    She has gained back 95 pounds.

    “People say, ‘How come you let yourself go?’  Well, my back hurts every single day. I can’t stand for longer than 20 minutes, can’t bend over, can’t twist, at times I need to use a wheelchair. When you can’t put pressure on your spine, it’s tough to burn calories.”

    Lovvorn is trying to stay positive in her new, limited world. She says spinal stenosis (degeneration of the spinal canal) runs in her family. But she knows her condition would be easier to manage without so much excess poundage.

    “I’m fighting the battle of the bulging disc,” she says, “but I’m not giving up the battle of the bulge — my weight.”

Joe and Henry Ostaszewski

    On the last season finale of The Biggest Loser, contestant and former Ocean Ridge police officer Joe Ostaszewski weighed in at 217. He didn’t win the competition, but he had lost 147 pounds of body fat and gained 12 pounds of muscle. He also inspired his twin brother, Henry, to lose 137 pounds — an impressive accomplishment considering Henry’s hectic life as a full-time IT manager and shared-custody parent.

    The “O Bros,” as they call themselves, were high school football players in Delray Beach and Lantana and later attended Florida State University on football scholarships. They were big guys (over 360 pounds each) who liked big meals. But that’s history now.

    “I’ve changed the way I see food,” says Joe. “It used to be purely for pleasure. Now I look at food as fuel or nourishment. I ask myself, what food do I need to eat to keep me feeling this good?”

    Today Joe hovers between 225 and 235 pounds. Henry weighs about 260. They kayak, mountain bike, and snowboard effortlessly for the first time in decades. They ran their first triathlon in June. And they no longer worry about fitting into airline seats.

    The twins, now 44, are busy building a nonprofit organization called Wear Your Soul (www.wearyoursoul.org), whose mission is to involve kids in outdoor recreational sports in hopes of reducing or preventing childhood obesity.

    “Losing weight and getting in shape just improves everything — your health, your outlook, your attitude,” says Henry, reflecting on the past year. His advice? “Try to eat clean and always look for ways to keep moving.”

Paula Detwiller is a freelance writer and lifelong fitness junkie. Visit her at www.pdwrites.com.

Mature oak trees provide shade to Jaycox Lake with its pulsing fountain,

while a flock of ibis looks for food on the grounds.

Variegated crotons glow in late afternoon light.

Small markers encourage walkers to keep healthy habits.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

    Hospitals usually aren’t particularly pleasant places to visit. “Anyone who comes here is, for the most part, in a very stressful situation,” said Thomas Chakurda, referring to the Boca Raton Regional Hospital, where he is vice president of marketing. 

    Whirring machines, hurrying doctors and nurses as well as the inevitable buzzers and alarms on monitors are anything but relaxing. But at BRRH, they are trying to counter the high-tech atmosphere indoors with a natural space or park-like area outside.

    No one is quite sure about the origin of this garden on the north side of the building between the parking lot and the
emergency room entrance. If you look at early photos, the land is almost empty except for what looks like a drainage pond. 

    But over time, landscape shrubs have been added, trees planted and concrete paths laid. “It’s been cultivated so it looks more appealing and offers a tranquil setting for visitors,” Chakurda said. 

    Although the garden isn’t the result of philanthropy, some things in it have been dedicated. For example, Jaycox Lake is an S-shaped water feature with four shooting jets of water to keep it aerated. It’s named for the director of engineering at the hospital from 1965 to 1983. 

    The grassy area that measures about 150 by 250 feet, is nicely shaded by more than a dozen oaks and a variety of palms, including robellinis, royals and thatch palms. Touches of red come from the flowers of the firecracker plant and splashes of orange are contributed by the flowers on the ixora.

    The feathery foliage on the aptly named bottle brush tree will soon be showing red. In the meantime, plenty of yellow, red, purple and green crotons add their own bright displays.

    Variegated ginger tosses in its yellow and green striped leaves. And when it’s ready, the wild coffee drips with red berries.

    You can sit on one of the wooden benches and enjoy the oversized crinum lilies brushed by a light breeze. You’ll be entertained by a flock of Muscovy ducks that swim in the pond and sun themselves on the grass. Their red masks make them look almost comical. You also can watch white ibis strut their stuff. 

    Or you can just sit.

    “Many find this a healing environment in almost a spiritual sense,” said Chakurda.  

    Staff members come here for a break or lunch at one of the picnic tables. Ambulatory patients have been known to escape their hospital floors. And visitors use it as a place to take a break, catch up on email or read a book.

    “You sure wouldn’t find a spot like this at a hospital where I’m from in New York,” said Tamara Stein of Roslyn Heights, Long Island. She was visiting her mother, Frances Felbert from Delray Beach. “It’s much nicer waiting out here by the lake than inside with other patients.” 

    Colleen Phillippi of Waterford, Mich., also took a break while her father, Ray Phillippi from Boca Raton, underwent tests. 

    “I have a fond memory of this place,” she said of a visit 10 years ago when her father was here for surgery. She remembered a terrapin turtle surfacing from the depths of the lake. 

    “At the time it was kind of frightening because they are such strange creatures,” she said. But on this visit, she’s keeping her eyes open. “I kind of hope to see him again,” she said. 

Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley is a certified master gardener who can be reached at debhartz@att.net when she’s not in her garden. 

Pet lovers protest the sale of ‘puppy mill’ dogs at Waggs to Riches

on Atlantic Avenue in downtown Delray Beach.

Mindy Farber of Delray Beach is an advocate for adopting pets from shelters

rather than buying ‘designer’ dogs born and raised in inhumane conditions.

In fact, she rescued her own three dogs, Abbey, Cara and Nicky. 

Photos provided

By Arden Moore

    What a difference a span of 51 years can make. In 1953, singer Patti Page rose to the top of the musical charts with her seemingly sweet song, How Much Is That Doggie in the Window.

    Back in the 1950s, the local animal shelter was called the pound and was often located in a dismal part of town. There were no leash laws or enclosed dog parks or doggy day care centers. If you wanted a dog, you bought one from a breeder, a pet store or kept one from a litter of pups produced by your unsprayed female. 

    That sweet song now strikes a sour note with animal advocates who are doggedly doing all they can to eliminate the sale of puppies or dogs who come from mass-producing centers and are shipped to independent pet stores. They want these “puppy mills” (and “kitten factories”) shut down.

    These individuals are careful to distinguish these pet store sales from responsible and reputable professional breeders, who meet certain breed guidelines and who welcome people interested in adopting to visit their homes where the young pups are being weaned.

    Today, the fight to ban the sale of pets in retail stores is being waged in big and small cities all across America and has now reached Delray Beach. An ordinance that would stop such pet store sales within the city limits has been drafted and is expected to be on the Delray Beach City Commission agenda in late January or February, confirmed interim City Attorney Terrill Pyburn. 

    If adopted, the ordinance would immediately require pet retail store owners to prominently post a certificate of authenticity that specifies where each pup was obtained and would no longer permit pups coming from mass producing facilities. Violators would face fines up to $2,500 and possible civil action filed by the city. 

    Leading the local fight are Mindy Farber, a civil rights attorney who shares her home with three rescue dogs, and Stacy Aberle, a psychologist who created the Stop Puppy Mills/Ban the Sale of Animals in Retail Stores in South Florida group. Both women live in Delray Beach. They have been leading peaceful protests and passing out fliers on puppy mills in front of Waggs to Riches, a pet store on Atlantic Avenue.

    Farber, who also has a home in Potomac, Md., serves on the nonprofit Pet Connect Rescue (www.petconnect.org) board and knows firsthand the life-saving need for people to “adopt, not shop” for puppies. 

    “Far too many healthy puppies and dogs are euthanized in shelters all across America,” she says. “Contributing to this problem are these puppy mills that produce thousands of purebreds and so-called designer breeds that are sold for $1,000, $2,000 or more a pop in these pet stores.” 

    She adds, “Why should dogs and cats be sold when there are 8,000 dogs being euthanized a year in Palm Beach County because they have no homes?”

    Last fall, Farber paid a visit to the Waggs to Riches store, questioned the owner and began doing research online about where the store obtained its puppies. She also aired her concerns on a Facebook pet site that triggered an avalanche of calls to action and an introduction to Aberle.

    “One cause near to my heart is rescuing the puppy mill puppies,” says Aberle. “These dogs and puppies face horrible conditions in these puppy mills. I approached the store owner and offered to help her find reputable local breeders to provide healthy puppies. I even offered to pay for her to fly with me to one of the commercial breeders she buys her puppies from in Kansas, but she refused.”

    Aberle is referring to Kimberly Curler, owner of Waggs to Riches. The store’s website proclaims to be “the nation’s premiere full-service pet boutique” and offers the “finest in toy breed puppies.” I attempted to reach Curler for comment via phone messages and emails, but she did not reply.

    Curbing the sale of “doggies in the window” is a growing crusade being waged by pet lovers all across America. It has also become a legal hot button on the local and state levels. 

    “It has been America’s dirty little secret long enough,” says Farber. “The time is now to close down these puppy mills.”

    Currently, Lake Worth is the only city in Palm Beach County to ban the retail sale of dogs (the law passed in 2011). And at the time of this column’s deadline, the state of Connecticut plus 28 municipalities have ordinances banning the retail sale of dogs.

    On the West Coast, the city of San Diego passed a ban on these pet store sales in November, but it now being legally challenged in federal court by David Salinas, the owner of San Diego Puppy store. He recently opened a pet store and began selling puppies in Oceanside, where I now live. 

    On a recent Saturday, dozens of people with signs proclaiming “Ban Puppy Mills” peacefully passed out educational fliers and encouraged motorists passing by the Oceanside Puppy store to honk in support.

    While the sound of car horns may not be as melodic as a Patti Page hit song from the 1950s, it was music to my ears. 

Arden Moore, founder of FourLeggedLife.com, is an animal behavior consultant, editor, author, professional speaker and master certified pet first aid instructor. Each week, she hosts the popular Oh Behave! show on PetLifeRadio.com. Learn more by visiting www.fourleggedlife.com

IberiaBank reached out to Tri County Humane Society as part of the company’s ‘i Gives Back’

community-outreach program by collecting cash donations, pet food, cat litter, cleaning supplies

and other items for the nonprofit shelter. ‘We’d like to thank our clients, staff and the community

for being so generous in supporting our pet-supply drive,’

said Jennifer Brancaccio, market president for iberiaBank.

Pictured is Suzy Goldsmith, co-founder of Tri County Humane Society, with a room full of supplies.

Photo provided

By Ron Hayes

    A TV fishing host goes in search of a secret love child. An African warrior finds adventure on that war-torn continent. A hurricane tears through a tiny oceanside trailer park. And a Palm Beach County firefighter recounts his real-life memoirs.
    While some of us walk the beach, surf, sail or play golf, others stay inside, patiently scribbling and pecking, writing and rewriting, turning out books.
    This year, four ambitious local writers saw their efforts published. Here’s a peek:

Weed Line: A Shagball and Tangles Adventure, by A.C. Brooks.
    Shagball and Tangles are finally leaving Lantana.
    In their first two adventures, Foul Hooked and Dead On The Dock, Shagball, the TV fishing show host, and his vertically challenged sidekick Tangles, the former Elvis impersonator, hung out at the Boynton Beach Marina and The Old Key Lime House restaurant.
    In their third outing, Weed Line, author A.C. Brooks sends his heroes to St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. Martins as they scour the Caribbean to track down Shagball’s deceased aunt’s secret love child.
    Along the way, they mix it up with a corrupt Virgin Islands senator, two Colombian drug lords and a submarine full of cocaine.
    “The books are really more humor than anything else,” says Brooks, a Lantana resident. “There’s action and a little bit of romance because the ladies like that. Shagball’s girlfriend, Holly, is a former computer consultant and marina owner. She’s a strong character.”
    Brooks is prolific. His first novel was published in 2010, the second in 2011 and the latest in April. A fourth, Deep Drop, will be out in the spring.
    “Learning to write takes a lot of time,” Brooks says. “You just need to get up and do it. I’m a procrastinator like everybody else. I might go weeks without writing — especially in the summer when the fishing’s good. You have to treat writing like a job. Get up and find a way to keep the story going even if you’re stuck.”
    Originally from Gates Mills, Ohio, Brooks has lived here for 20 years and sells commercial real estate when he’s not chronicling his characters’ adventures on their boat, the Lucky Dog.
    “I try to do most of the writing during the day and juggle my real estate work in between,” he says. “When business picks up, I get less time to write, and then I’ve got my wife, Penny, pushing me. She’s my running editor and screens each chapter to make sure I don’t get too crazy.”
    Weed Line is available through amazon.com or at the Old Key Lime House in Lantana, Main Street News in Palm Beach and Hand’s Stationers in Delray Beach.

•

The Honeyguide, by James Gardner.

    When James Gardner visited Africa for the first time in 1968, he marveled at all the golf travel bags in the airport.
And then he realized they weren’t golf bags. He had landed during the Rhodesian Bush War, and those were body bags.
    Gardner fell in love with that troubled continent anyway, and during 25 more visits over the next 45 years he’s brought home to Ocean Ridge the inspiration for The Dark Continent Chronicles, a trilogy of geopolitical thrillers.
    “My hero is named Rigby Croxford,” Gardner says. “He’s a white Rhodesian who’s like a Navy SEAL, but a SEAL on steroids.”
    In the first novel, The Lion Killer, Croxford was hired to rescue an American tourist on safari from Congolese rebels.
    In The Zambezi Vendetta, Croxford finds himself leading five spoiled American teenagers on a photo safari.
    And this year has brought The Honeyguide, with Croxford visiting America to defend his brother-in-law, a television newscaster caught up in a sex scandal.
    The series has drawn praise from Palm Beach mega-seller James Patterson, who says, “I have seldom come across such fine, descriptive writing in a thriller.”
Born in Albany, Gardner came to Florida in 1947. In 2003, he retired as a senior vice president with Smith Barney to devote his time to writing.
    “My most productive time is 9 to 3,” he says. “By 3 I’m wasted, and I go play golf or fly a plane. You come to it the next morning and it has to be completely edited. What sounds good at 3 p.m. is pretty bad at 9:30 in the morning. Writing books is mostly rewriting, but I really enjoy it.”
    An avid golfer, scuba diver, sailor and pilot, Gardner will visit Borneo in March, “to see the Komodo dragons and orangutans” — then to Europe in June for the 70th anniversary of D-Day.
    And he’s already at work on the first volume of a second trilogy.
    “My hope is that some day a movie will be made of The Lion Killer,” he says.
    The Dark Continent Chronicles are available exclusively through amazon.com.

•

On the Edge of Dangerous Things, a novel by S. Snyder-Carroll.

    On Dec. 31, 2007, Suzanne Snyder-Carroll officially retired after teaching high school in New Jersey for 30 years.
The next day, Jan. 1, 2008, she sat down in her Briny Breezes trailer, looked out at the Intracoastal Waterway and started writing a novel set in a trailer park called Pleasant Palms.
    “It is Briny Breezes, and it’s not Briny Breezes,” Snyder-Carroll says of the trailer park in On the Edge of Dangerous Things, a cautionary thriller that unfolds in the equally fictional town of Destination, Florida. “Pleasant Palms is fictitious.”
    Let’s hope so!
    Snyder-Carroll’s debut novel begins when a hurricane jogs off-course and rips the trailer park apart. And then it gets darker.
    Hester Murphy, a young English teacher, was drawn to Alexander Murphy, fell in love and now finds herself slowly sensing her new husband is not all he appears to be.
    “It’s a breakdown, breakup story,” Snyder-Carroll adds. “Someone dies, and whether or not it’s a murder or an accident is really part of the suspense. It’s a cautionary tale for young women, a song of lament for older women and an eye-opener for men.”
    On the Edge of Dangerous Things is the first in a planned trilogy, and Snyder-Carroll is already hard at work on Vol. 2, tentatively titled Collecting.
    “I get up in the morning and I run, usually anywhere from 3 to 6 miles,” she says. “Then I take a quick shower, eat some food and write until 3 p.m. Then I go to the beach and read.”
    Since leaving teaching, Snyder-Carroll says, she’s been rediscovering the classics she first read in college. Thoreau. Tolstoy. George Eliot, and her favorite, Nathaniel Hawthorne.
    “Hawthorne was my inspiration,” she says. “In all his novels he has a female protagonist — like Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter — who’s a dark lady — with an empathy for women who’ve had a tough time.”
    For more information, visit www.snydercarroll.com or amazon.com.

•

Hot Zone: Memoirs of a Professional Firefighter, by Christopher Teale Howes.
    A lot of little boys dream of growing up to be firemen.
    Christopher Teale Howes did it.
    From 1976, when he joined the Del-Trail Fire Department as a rookie, until his 2007 retirement as a district chief in Fire-Rescue’s Battalion 2, Howes fought fires in Palm Beach County.
    And then he moved to Armathwaite, Tenn., and wrote a memoir about that life.
    “The book is a quick read,” Howes says. “At the beginning of each part there’s an essay titled ‘On The Job’ that’s an in-your-face look at what it’s like.”
    Born in Maine, Howes was working at Ken & Hazel’s, his father-in-law’s Delray Beach restaurant, when some friendly firefighters who ate there urged him to try out for the department.
    His book recounts the formation of Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue in 1984, and the tremendous growth of the county’s fire-rescue service in the decades since.
    “It’s an inherently dangerous profession,” Howes says, but also an inherently misunderstood profession, and he hopes Hot Zone will give readers a more realistic vision of the job.
    “The biggest misconception is that we sit around the station all day waiting for a call,” he says. “That’s doesn’t happen any more. If we’re not running calls, we’re training. Everybody there is a medic now as well as a firefighter, and keeping up with those skills is a constant struggle.
    “To give you a sense of how busy Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue is, in the year I retired, we had more than 50 fire stations with 1,500 personnel, and ran 112,000 calls throughout the whole county.”
    For more information, visit www.kithowes.com or amazon.com.

By Mary Thurwachter

    Hypoluxo Island residents will be polled to see how many of them are interested in having a natural gas line extended onto the island. If at least 60 percent support the project by the end of January, the town of Lantana will create a special assessment to provide financing.

    Spearheading the drive are island residents Rod Tennyson and Robert Barfknecht, who promoted the project during a recent Town Council meeting.

    Tennyson said that a preliminary survey of residents in June 2012 showed that 71 percent of 84 respondents were in favor of converting to natural gas and were willing to pay for it. Another survey will be done in January, when more of the island’s 300 property owners are in Florida.

    “I think this will be a great enhancement to our island,” Tennyson said. “There would be both energy and cost savings. Natural gas costs about half the price of LP gas.”

    Barfknecht said that not only does natural gas represent a significant savings over LP gas, it’s also cheaper than electric.

    If 60 percent vote in favor of natural gas, the town will create a special assessment to provide financing of running the lines to the property boundaries. Property owners would pay additional costs to complete the gas line connection to their properties. The estimated construction cost of the project is $534,396.

    The town, according to Public Service Commission regulations, could be refunded for a portion of the aid to construction based on the number of users who connect to the system and their intensity of use. Any refund would be used to reduce the following year’s assessment.

    Once the line is in place, Florida Public Utility would assume ownership, operation and maintenance.

    The Lantana Town Council gave a thumbs up to a $195,965 contract to build boat docks at Sportsman’s Park Boat Ramp. 

    Mayor Dave Stewart said the town had entered into an agreement with Palm Beach County in 2008 for $300,000 to pay for docks at 330 E. Ocean Ave., on the west side of the Intracoastal Waterway. 

    The money came from the Palm Beach Waterfront Access Bond. But because of the construction of the new Ocean Avenue Bridge, the dock project had to be delayed.

    The town received six bids for the dock project and awarded the contract to the lowest bidder, B&M Construction Inc. of Boynton Beach. 

    The docks will be made of composite plank decking that town staff said resembles wood.

In other action: 

    The council voted to increase the salary of Town Manager Deborah Manzo by $5,000 to $117,000. Manzo took the job last year after former manager Mike Bornstein became city manager in Lake Worth.

    hen she began, Manzo made $97,476, what Bornstein was making at the time. That amount was about $20,000 less than she made as assistant city manager in Greenacres. Last year, the town raised her salary to $112,000.

— Mary Thurwachter

By Steve Plunkett

    Boynton Beach Oceanfront Park’s name is the only thing changing there at least until next summer.

    City Commissioner David Merker asked in September for a report on how much money Boynton Beach could collect if it charged parking fees after 4 p.m. and what the money could be spent on.

    “To me it’s a no-brainer. You have to maintain it,” Merker said when the park numbers were presented Nov. 5.

    But his colleagues said his questions came too late in the planning cycle.

    “The time to have brought this up was in July during the budget workshops,” Commissioner Michael Fitzpatrick said. “So the second best time to bring this up would be July 2014 for the budget next year.”

    City Recreation and Parks Director Wally Majors estimated Boynton Beach could collect $53,300 a year if it charged for parking from 4 to 9 p.m. But he would have to hire two parking attendants, reducing the net gain to $11,800.

    Vice Mayor Woodrow Hay concluded the amount was not worth the fuss. 

    “To me that’s not enough to warrant the negative impact,” Hay said.

    Mayor Jerry Taylor said some people enjoy parking for free at the beach before 8 a.m. and after 4 without having to buy a $40 parking permit.

    “That’s a benefit for our residents that we shouldn’t take away,” Taylor said.

    Majors said the city has spent less time maintaining Oceanfront Park over the years because of budget cuts and other priorities. To pressure-clean the facility once a month, make monthly repairs to the sprinkler system, pull weeds by hand 16 days a year, mulch six days a year and replace plants once a year — all adding “a bit of a ‘wow’ factor” — would cost $73,600 annually, Majors reported.

    The city sold 3,457 beach permits last year, collecting $340,261, with an additional $21,400 in revenue from the snack bar, Majors said. The park costs the city about $600,000 a year to operate, he said. 

    “So it’s a losing proposition,” City Commissioner Joseph Casello said.

    Merker said the city should be analyzing its budget continuously to find ways to pay for new initiatives.

    “You have to think of the future,” Merker said. “I don’t like to sit on my behind and not think of the present, let alone the future.”

By Steve Plunkett

    The Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency may be getting tired of the slowness of negotiations to lure a law firm and 200 new jobs downtown.

    Board members voted Nov. 12 to give One Boynton LLC, which owns most of the land fronting Federal Highway between Ocean Avenue and Boynton Beach Boulevard, 30 days to come to terms with the Kanner and Pintaluga PA law firm.

    CRA Executive Director Vivian Brooks said “there’s been no real negotiation” since September, when the agency offered to donate a sliver of property it owns at the northwest corner to help make the deal happen. She asked board members to withdraw the offer and look for other parties interested in the land.

    But Mayor Jerry Taylor, who also chairs the CRA, argued that One Boynton and the Delray Beach-based law firm were closer than they’ve ever been.

    “This is a big deal for Boynton Beach if we could ever make it happen,” Taylor said. “I think there’s some negotiation left to do here.”

Roland Wood carries on a tradition he started in 1950 as a 13-year-old Boy Scout, when he was the first person over the then-new bridge at its dedication ceremony. Wood also was the last person over that same bridge when it closed in March 2012. Carrying the flag with him is Ramon Torres, 7, of Lantana, a Scout in Troop 241.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Revelers gathered along the new Lantana Bridge to celebrate its Nov. 16 opening. The event included a
‘First ______ Over the Bridge’ parade, followed by a party in Bicentennial Park and capped off with fireworks.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

The owners of the Dune Deck Cafe march across the Lantana Bridge during its official opening Nov. 16. They were among the roughly 1,000 people who joined the walk. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Workers Noel Billaro and Ruben Guebara install bolts as spectators gather to cross the bridge.  

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

    When Lantana hosted a bridge reopening bash, the town did it in fishing-village style. The celebration started with a parade over the Ocean Avenue bridge and ended with a flourish of fireworks that left spectators exclaiming, “Best finale ever!”

    The Nov. 16 parade’s theme of “The First ____ Over the Bridge” drew a steady stream of marchers holding signs saying, First Princess, First Home Brewer, First Hula Hooper, First Skunk, First Surfing Piñata and many other firsts.

    “Lantana is charming,” said Greg Rice, parade emcee who called out the firsts. “It’s like watching a Norman Rockwell painting come alive.” 

    About 1,000 people and their pets marched across the bridge, while another 1,500 or so watched during the celebration.

    Lantana Mayor Dave Stewart boasted that the bridge was finished four months early and cost about $32 million. “We saved the county taxpayers $18 million by not building a temporary bridge and about three years (of aggravation).”

    The new Ocean Avenue Bridge allows easy access to the surrounding communities. The Lake Worth Bridge to the north or Ocean Avenue bridge in Boynton Beach to the south were common detour routes. 

    The bridge tender’s tower sports a dolphin as a weather vane, another salute to the town’s roots.

    “We wanted this bridge to be more of fishing village (style) than the Disney style of the Boynton Ocean Avenue bridge,” said Mike Bornstein, then-Lantana town manager and now Lake Worth city manager. 

    It’s a great addition to the community because it is pedestrian and cyclist friendly, Stewart said. At 21 feet taller than the old bridge, it will have 40 percent fewer openings, making the bridge motorist friendly, too. 

    Since it opened, the bridge had to close overnight for two nights for painting, according to Lantana Town Manager Deborah Manzo.

Michael Matriccino, Delray Beach Club maitre d’, welcomes a group of women

to lunch at the club, from which he is retiring after 35 years.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Michael Matriccino visits with club member Luise Forman in 1994 at the Delray Beach Club.

Courtesy photo

By Ron Hayes

    When he looks around the formal dining room at The Delray Beach Club, the maitre d’ sometimes sees things that aren’t there.
    “When I first came here, this was a solid wall,” he mused one recent Friday morning, pointing out at the ocean waves through a floor-to-ceiling window as servers hurried about, setting up for a private luncheon. “The bandstand was against that wall” — he spun about — “and the dance floor was between those columns.”
    When Michael Matriccino first came here in 1978, the private club itself was only 8 years old, and he had already been working in South Florida hotels and clubs for more than a quarter-century.
    “I was 6 when he came to work here!” marvels Shane Peachey, the club’s general manager, “and he’s still all over it. Michael has that classic, Old World charm from once upon a time, when you opened doors for a lady.”
    In the club’s December newsletter, Peachey announced that Matriccino will retire after 35 years as the club’s maitre d’.
    “Michael is a true professional,” Peachey said. “He makes parties happen, and he makes people happy through his hard work and determination.”
    The hard work has clearly not been too hard on Matriccino, who turned 82 on Dec. 2 but could easily pass for a man 20 years younger. Seated at a table by the window that used to be a wall, reflecting on his 62-year career, he was often called away to check the seating plan or confer with a club member.
    “People don’t understand what a maitre d’ does,” he said. “They think I just greet people and make tips, but it’s not that way. I set up the parties, arrange the floor seating for every function and complete the contracts for all the food and drink.”  
    In less than an hour, he would greet 45 ladies arriving for a luncheon lecture celebrating the late writer Nora Ephron. 

    “Then tonight I come back and set up for a tennis luncheon at noon tomorrow, and then a 5 p.m. wedding.”
    His first job was a bit more humble.
    Born in Freeland, Pa., Matriccino quit high school at 15 and headed to Las Vegas, along with a friend and the promise of jobs at a new racetrack.
    The racetrack never opened, but the friend knew the actress and comedian Martha Raye, who found the stranded boys work at a casino.
    “I worked in the dealers’ room,” he recalled, “bringing them coffee from 11 p.m. to 7 in the morning.”
    Back home and unemployed in Freeland, Matriccino spotted a newspaper ad for work at The Breakers hotel in Palm Beach. He sent in his application and was offered a dishwashing job. He accepted, and the hotel founded by Henry Flagler sent him a ticket on the railroad founded by Henry Flagler.
    “When I got off the train in West Palm Beach, a guy held up a sign with my name on it and they put me in a limo.”
    It was 1951, he was 20, and the career had begun.
    “I made $25 a week with room and board, and worked my way up to vegetable server,” he says. “I’d scoop the vegetables onto those little monkey dishes. Side dishes. That’s what we called them.”
    From monkey dishes, he was promoted to sauces, and then to server. In the off-season, he worked the Essex & Sussex Hotel in Spring Lake, N.J.
    “I taught myself,” he explains. “I went to every station and learned.”
    In 1958, he moved to the Hollywood Beach Hotel, starting as a bus boy and working his way up to catering manager.
    Ten years later he moved up the coast to the Boca Raton Resort & Club.
    “I got a $750 tip there once,” he says. “From just one person, at a bankers convention. People don’t tip like that anymore.”
    Another decade and in 1978, he arrived at The Delray Beach Club and stayed, serving three decades of members and guests while earning the respect of his colleagues.
    “I’ve been in the business 32 years and there is no one like him,” says Michele Freimann, the head server. “I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word about Mr. Matriccino.”
    The secret, Matriccino says, is loving what you do and treating people right.
    “I call everyone Mr. and Mrs.,” he notes. “Some say, ‘You can call me Joe.’ ” He wags a finger. “Oh, no.”
    In the beginning, he wore a tuxedo. Now it’s gray slacks, a dress shirt and matching necktie. 

    The world’s a more casual place. Even jackets and ties are no longer required. But Matriccino has mastered the art of balancing formality and friendliness in a way that makes his guests feel welcome.
    “The day this guy leaves here, this place will never be the same,” says France Ferring, the dining room manager. “He can flip this dining room over for another 200 people with his eyes closed and still know where everybody’s sitting.”
    Officially, Matriccino will leave at the end of the month, Peachey said, but the exact date will be determined by the need to find and train a replacement.
    Divorced long ago, he has three adult children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren to fill his retirement years. But no golf clubs.
    “I never had time to take up golf,” he says with a laugh. “It was a hard life, but I enjoyed it. The biggest part is loving the business — the people, the other employees …”
    Matriccino peered out the window that used to be a wall.
    “The members make this club, really,” he said. “You don’t meet many people who work in a place 35 years.”

By Dan Moffett

    With year-end holiday celebrations coming up, South Palm Beach residents won’t have to worry about government officials dipping into the town’s coffers and making merry to excess.

    That’s because the Town Council has adopted a “community relations expenditure policy” that sets guidelines for how officials can spend money on food and beverages for public events. The measure passed unanimously, 4-0, on Nov. 19, with Councilwoman Stella Jordan absent due to illness.

    The policy statement comes at the urging of the Palm Beach County Inspector General’s Office, which is trying to keep an eye out for inappropriate government spending. Under the policy, town officials and employees can use public money to buy food and beverages only for events that “enhance relationships and personal interactions” among residents, officers, staff, service providers and members of the community.

    “There must be a public purpose,” said Town Attorney Brad Biggs, “and the inspector general is constantly looking out for public purpose.”

    The policy states that “the Town Council is committed to maintaining the town’s welcoming ‘small town’ atmosphere,” so reasonable quantities of snacks and drinks are still going to be available at public gatherings and meetings.

In other business, council members:

    • Unanimously approved the appointment of police Capt. Carl Webb as acting police chief, replacing Roger Crane, who held the position for nearly two decades before retiring in November.

    “I love to see promotion from within,” said Vice Mayor Joseph Flagello. “Captain, now Chief, Webb has been with us for 25 years so I know that he’s going to do an amazing job. I know how seriously he takes the position, and I know he’s got some big shoes to fill. And I know that he’ll have no problem filling those shoes.”

    Town Manager Rex Taylor, who appointed Webb, says the council has made no decisions about advertising for a permanent replacement. By town charter, council members must ratify Taylor’s appointments.

    “It’s an honor for the opportunity to serve,” Webb said, “and I will do my best. My door is open. If you have a problem, come see me.”

    • Unanimously approved a contract extension for Hy-Byrd Inc., the Lake Worth company that has handled the town’s building inspections for roughly the last 10 years.  “It’s exactly the same contract,” Taylor said. “They’ve been providing good service.”

    Flagello concurred: “When they came in, the quality of inspections in our town went way up.” Hy-Byrd also works for the towns of Briny Breezes, Manalapan and Palm Beach.

    • Taylor reported that revenues from building permits were up again in October, year over year, and said the trend has been improving for some time. “Slowly, the economy is turning around” in the area, he said.

    The Coastal Star staff was honored Nov. 2 with first-place awards in environmental news coverage, opinion writing, news photography and feature page design by the Florida Press Club during its annual awards banquet.

    Competing with other monthly, weekly and, in some categories, small daily newspapers, The Coastal Star took four first-place, six second-place and four third-place awards:

First Place:

• Environmental News (Class C&D) — Tim O’Meilia

• Layout Feature Page Design (Class D) — Scott Simmons

• Opinion Writing (Class C&D) — Mary Kate Leming

• Photography General News (Class D) — Jerry Lower

Second Place:

• Commentary Writing (Class C&D) — Thom Smith

• Environmental News (Class C&D) — Cheryl Blackerby

• General News (Class D) — Tim Pallesen

• Layout Front Page Design (Class D) — Staff

• Light Feature Writing (Class D) — Ron Hayes

• Photography Feature Photo Essay (Class C&D) — Jerry Lower

Third Place: 

• Business Writing (Class D) — Tim Pallesen

• Commentary Writing (Class C&D) — Arden Moore

• Education Writing (Class C&D) — Ron Hayes, Emily J. Minor and Libby Volgyes

• Public Safety (Class D) — Steve Plunkett, Tim O’Meilia and Angie Francalancia

Class C includes small daily newspapers; Class D is weekly and monthly newspapers.