By Ron Hayes  

    You see it at the movies all the time.
    “Inspired by a true story” is the promise at the beginning.
    And then, in tiny letters at the end: “Although based on real events …” And you find out that most of what you’ve just seen never happened.
    Harvey Oyer III, descendant of Boynton Beach pioneers, amateur historian and successful children’s author, has often pondered that line between fact and fiction.
    In 2008, Oyer published The American Jungle, a children’s book based on the life of his great-granduncle, Charles W. Pierce (1864-1939), whose little sister, Lillie Pierce Voss, grew up to become Oyer’s great-grandmother.
    With The Last Egret in 2010 and The Last Calusa two years later, Oyer has created “The Adventures of Charlie Pierce,” a series of historical fictions for children.
    In December, The Barefoot Mailman arrived, Oyer’s take on those intrepid, 19th-century postmen who lugged the mail on foot from Hypoluxo Island down the beach to Miami and back.
    “This one tells the story of our family friend, Ed Hamilton, who disappeared without a trace while carrying the mail to Miami,” Oyer says. “As a result of his disappearance, Charlie became the Barefoot Mailman.”
    The original mailman died — possibly drowned in the Hillsboro Inlet — and Oyer’s great-granduncle took over the job. That much is true.
    So where does the history end for Oyer, and inspiration begin?
    “It’s a tricky balance,” he concedes. “I have two goals — to write an interesting, fun read for children, and teach as much Florida history, geography and ecology as I possibly can.”
    To get the history right, Oyer says, he researches heavily, and then has the books proofread by university professors and museum curators.
    “The fiction is the dialogue, because I obviously don’t know what the characters said to each other 130 years ago,” he adds.              And because history is often unwieldy, Oyer doesn’t hesitate to simplify, condensing timelines and chronologies to keep the story moving.
    “For example,” he says, “I make Charlie the only replacement for Ed Hamilton, but in real life he alternated weekly with another mailman named Andrew Garnett. One would care for the other’s farm while he walked, and then he’d switch.”
    Add some imaginary characters, animals, challenges and triumphs, tag on a gentle moral at the end and Oyer has written a Florida fable built on a firmly historical foundation.

    Apparently, Oyer’s blend of fact and fiction doesn’t trouble South Florida’s teachers. The Last Egret is required reading for about half of Florida’s fourth-graders each year.
    For all the fiction in his books, Oyer’s Barefoot Mailman may offer more reliable history than Theodore’s Pratt’s celebrated 1943 novel of the same name.
    According to Oyer, Pratt was more storyteller than historian.

    “He turned Charlie into a jungle boy, unsophisticated and primitive. Pratt didn’t call his character Charlie, so there was no slander, but my great-grandmother had expected he was going to be a hero.
    “I once saw a letter she wrote to the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach when Pratt was scheduled to be a guest lecturer. She said, ‘Do not let this scoundrel into your fine institution.’"
    The Barefoot Mailman is available at Hand’s Office & Art Supply in Delray Beach, the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach and amazon.com. The retail price is $19.95.

    The Plate: Lenox Salad
    The Place: Mariposa, Neiman Marcus, Town Center, Boca Raton; 544-2320.
    Cost: $18
    The Skinny: Neiman Marcus brings its luxury experience to dining with Mariposa.
    Once you’re seated, the server greets you with popovers served with strawberry butter — and that’s when you sit down. Lunch? That’s a whole other matter.
    We feasted on Lenox Salad, with chopped perfectly grilled chicken breast halves served atop mixed greens.
Included in the mix with the greens were avocado, bacon, garbanzo beans, blue cheese, tomatoes and olives. They were dressed with red wine vinaigrette.
    We would have eaten dessert too, but we felt we had started on a sweet note with the popovers, so why not end on a healthy one?
— Scott Simmons

Six couples share stories of devotion, telling us how they met, what ignited their passion and how they make love last.

By Mary Thurwachter

    With Valentine’s Day this month and Cupid on the loose, we asked readers to tell us their stories of love. For some, the attraction was instant. For others, it took a bit longer. Most married, one didn’t, but all hold on to the precious memories love brought them. Here are their accounts.

Bill Finley found a soulmate when he met Anita. They’ve been married 41 years.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

It's the little things that matter.

    Bill and Anita Finley celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary in October and, for Bill at least, the attraction was instantaneous. They were both divorced when they met at a fundraiser in Miami.
    “I saw her from a distance, “ Bill recalled. “She was tall and gorgeous with a big smile and waving to everyone.”
But when he called her for a date, Anita had her doubts.
    “I was the administrator of an art museum and he was this big-shot developer,” she said. “I thought he was too big for his boots. I thought he wanted to find out all about the museum. But it turned out that wasn’t true.”
    Bill, a former World War II bomber and world traveler, didn’t spend any time during their first lunch asking about the museum. He wanted to know all about Anita and her family. He was looking for a wife, a soulmate.
    “Bill was wonderful about my son,” Anita said. He also went out of his way to be nice to her mother and stepfather, taking them places they wouldn’t ordinarily go and introducing them to people they wouldn’t otherwise meet.
    “Men don’t realize how nice it is when people are nice to your family,” said Anita, a gerontologist who has her own radio show, publishes Boomer Times newspaper and produces medical symposiums.
    Shortly after their first date, Anita had surgery and it was Bill, not the fellow she had been dating regularly at the time, who checked in on her every day.
    During the first two decades of their marriage, the Finleys lived on the beach in Jupiter and Ocean Ridge and Bill collected heart-shaped shells and stones for Anita as he walked the shoreline. Then he would string them together and hang them on the wall, a daily reminder of his affection.
    He stopped collecting heart-shaped shells after they sold their Ocean Ridge home and moved across the bridge to Boynton Beach. They exchange greeting cards frequently, and not just for Hallmark holidays, Bill, an author, said. Any chance to remind each other of how deep their affection runs.
    “I’m always watching out for Bill,” Anita, 78, said of her 92-year-old mate. “If he’s not feeling well, I get him to the right doctor.  If he needs a new watch, I find one that is easy to read. And if he forgets to pull his fly up, I’ll remind him.”
They go on cruises, and attend plays, the ballet and concerts, holding hands and enjoying them together.
    “He’s not shy about showing how much he cares,” Anita said. “He shows others that being sensitive doesn’t make you less of a man.
    “Love is all about the little things you do every day for your partner,” Anita said. “It’s not about being on some fancy yacht.”

Gabriella Bianchini and Brett Serpe

Michelle March Photography

Pope Francis blessed the marriage of Gabriella Bianchini and Brett Serpe on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Photo provided

Newlyweds blessed by the pope.

    When Gabriella Bianchini and Brett Serpe flew to Rome for their honeymoon last June, Gabriella packed her wedding gown. Why? The Gulf Stream newlyweds (along with 50 other couples) had a date with the pope, who blessed their union on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica.
    It was a special honor they had applied for and were granted, but they didn’t realize they would have a chance to met His Holiness in person.
    Brett got down on one knee to propose to Gabriella on June 29, 2014, under the iconic kapok tree next to The Flagler Museum in Palm Beach. After their May 30, 2015, wedding at St. Ann’s Church in West Palm Beach, the two held their reception at the same museum.
    It was a magical moment for a couple who seemed destined to be together. They had known each other as children and reconnected at the 2013 funeral of Gabriella’s grandmother Rose “Rita” Bianchini, whom Brett, now a local businessman, knew and admired as a boy.
    The couple’s friendship began in 1979, when Gabriella’s father, Michael Bianchini, met Gaetano (Bill) and Tricia Serpe along with their 3-year-old-son, Brett. The Serpes introduced Gabriella’s father to her mother. Gabriella was conceived in Florence on their honeymoon.
    By the time of her grandmother’s funeral, it had been 14 years since Brett and Gabriella had seen each other. Their eyes immediately locked.
    “It was love at first sight,” said Gabriella, 32, a professional photographer. Seven months later they went ring shopping and the rest, as they say, is history.

Sabin Robbins and Jane Fonda: After 60 years, they keep in touch.

Photos provided

INSET BELOW: Sabin Robbins and Jane Fonda at a gala in Cincinnati.

The first love is the deepest.

    Who can forget his first love? Not Sabin Robbins of Highland Beach. He fell head over heels for actress Jane Fonda after meeting her during a summer vacation.
    “A college pal and I were spending a summer month in 1954 on Hawaii’s Waikiki Beach. On our second day of scouting for pretty girls, we hit the jackpot — Jane and a friend,”  Robbins said. Jane and her family were vacationing there because her father, Henry Fonda, was there for the filming of Mr. Roberts.
    “I had my first date with Jane that night, and, in a week, we were in love, all storybook and song,” he said. “Every day was a holiday. Every night was New Year’s Eve.”
    They surfed at Makapuu, sailed catamarans and slid down rain-slicked mountain trails on ti leaves.
    “At night, we danced beneath star-bright skies under the banyan tree at the Moana Hotel,” said Robbins, a writer and lecturer. When the moon was full, they walked down to the beach just to sit and talk on the grassy expanse of Kapiolani Park below Diamond Head.
    “If you’re going to fall in love for the first time, you can’t do any better than in one of the most romantic places on Earth — Hawaii,” he said.  “And you can’t do any better than with a blond, blue-eyed, long-legged girl named Jane Fonda. I didn’t have to ask for the moon. I had a bright star.”
    In the first of more than 40 love letters from Jane (he saved all of them), she wrote:
    “Rob, darling, I don’t know how to describe how I felt tonight when I received the message that you had called from the mainland. Except to say the realization of how much I love you became painfully acute. … Yesterday, I drove to the ti leaf slide and saw a double rainbow stretched across the Pali, and I kept thinking that you and I were there together it was wrong for me to be there without you. … I missed you so much. … Remember I love you. All my love, Jane.”
    “Jane at 16, and I at 21 were sure all we needed to live happily ever after was a little bungalow and a picket fence,” Robbins, now 82, said.
    “Our magic carpet romance continued all through Jane’s senior year (of college),” he said. “There were weekends at her school, Yale (where he studied) and the Fonda home in New York. Plus Christmas vacation at my home in Cincinnati and spring vacations at my cousin’s in Sea Island, Ga.”
    Eventually, each married others (he is divorced now), but, after more than 60 years, the two still keep in touch.
    “A friend reminded me that you can’t live in the past, but it can be a wonderful place to visit,” he said.

Lenny and Florence Cohen: The couple eloped 66 years ago.

Photos provided

'Our love is greater today than ever before.'

    Florence Cohen, 84, said she and her husband, Lenny, 85, were “two crazy kids from New Jersey in love with love” when they eloped in Maryland 66 years ago.
    “We didn’t think people would think we should marry,” Lenny said.
    But they did it anyway, showing everyone how it could work.
    “We’ve had our ups and downs,” Florence said, “but we’re of the generation where if something breaks, you fix it.”
    For their 65th anniversary last year, the South Palm Beach couple asked friends and family to bring Teddy bears for the Connor Moran Cancer Foundation for children with cancer. The Cohens had been working for kids with cancer for many years after their friend’s daughter died of the disease and founded The Valerie Fund to provide support for children with cancer and blood disorders.
    “The (anniversary party) room was decorated with bears of all sizes,” Florence said. “We delivered them later and the kids just couldn’t believe their eyes.”
    The Cohens moved to South Palm Beach 18 years ago. Lenny tried to retire, but it just didn’t work for him so he went back to selling real estate. And the Cohens host monthly ice cream socials at town hall.
    Lenny said his wife “is gorgeous.”
    And she said, “It has been an amazing life with this amazing man. If you see us walking together we will be holding hands. Our love is greater today than ever before.”

Ron and Phyllis Porter Dolislager: The couple went to Paris for their 50th anniversary.

Photos provided

INSET BELOW: Phyllis Dolislager was wowed by her husband’s love letters.

Clothes don't make the man.

    Phyllis Porter Dolislager was a 21-year-old teacher sharing an apartment with another teacher when her roommate invited some single guys over from a nearby apartment complex.
    When she heard male voices at the door, she ran a comb through her hair and prepared to join their guests.
    “As I opened my bedroom door, I saw Jim, one of the guys from upstairs,” she said. “But who was that stranger with him? And that wasn’t all. ... I heard a voice — call it intuition — say, ‘This is the man that you will marry.’ ”
    She didn’t like the way the fellow (Ron Dolislager) was dressed — his shirt and slacks didn’t look good together, she said. “But he was good looking! Surely I could fix that fashion problem of his.”
    The “voice” may have spoken, but it was Ron’s letters that made her fall in love.
    Love was in the air — especially in Ron’s letters, the Lantana woman said. “I really loved the incredible lines that he used to hook me. I found his philosophies at the time interesting — remember it was the ’60s. And what girl could resist his sense of humor, and his explanation of being thrifty. When you’re in love — you don’t call it cheap!”
    The Dolislagers have been married 50 years and Phyllis, 74, a writer and polio survivor, said Ron’s convictions and strong sense of right and wrong have made him not only a man of purpose but also an encouraging husband and a wonderful father.
“I thank God for him and his life,” she said. “Anything that I have accomplished in my life, Ron has truly been the wind beneath my wings.”

Josephine and Joseph Dolce: Music brought them together.

Photo provided

INSET BELOW: Joe Dolce loved Josephine’s singing — and still does!

Her classy music ignited their romance.

    Five hundred Wall Street traders, all in tuxedos, celebrated during a post-convention gathering in the New York Hilton in April 1969. Joseph Dolce was one of tuxedoed traders. The only woman in the room was singing with the Karl Invalt Orchestra. She was singing “classy music and opera,” said Joe, a stock trader for Merrill Lynch at the time.
    For him, it was love at first sight, but he saw another man standing behind a column staring lovingly at the singer.
    “Nobody knew who he was,” said Joe, whose boss arranged for the band to play at the party.  “I was about to escort him out and asked if he liked the singer. He said he loved her. She was his daughter!”
    Joe asked his boss for her paycheck so she could not leave without seeing him. The other man staring at the singer became Joe’s father-in-law and the singer, Josephine, became his wife.
    “After the festivities were over I asked if they would join me for a nightcap at the Chateau Henry IV, which was my favorite restaurant,” Joe said.  “They agreed and seven months later, we had our wedding reception there and still talk about that beautiful evening when we met quite by chance.”
    Joe and Josephine have lived in Highland Beach for 16 years and Josephine, 72, still sings. She will perform at a free Valentine’s concert at 5 p.m. Feb. 11 at the Highland Beach Library. Joe, 79, will be there, once again watching lovingly.

Daniel Cartledge with the Nervana player, designed to help people relax and feel in sync with music.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Lona O'Connor

    Introducing a new electronic product at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is like bringing a promising but unknown tennis player to play in the U.S. Open.
    So the little band of Palm Beach County entrepreneurs was delighted at the attention garnered by their device, the Nervana. It’s a relaxation instrument that is part music player and part electronic stimulator.
    “We didn’t leave our area, we had so much attention there,” said Nervana co-founder Ami Brannon. “We had buyers, we had press, manufacturers and other businesses and a few really big companies. We all got such a charge out of it. It validated the last two years of work.”
    If you’re already googling, it’s NERV-ana, as in nerve, not Nirvana, although you might play the band Nirvana’s music on the Nervana device and you might achieve a type of nirvana, depending on how you choose to interpret the term for ecstasy or enlightenment.
    The Nervana is about the size of a cellphone, only thicker. It employs earbuds like any portable music delivery system.
    The left earbud of the Nervana produces an electronic signal that is received by the vagus nerve, a long nerve that extends from the skull through the heart and lungs to the digestive system. From its base in the gut, the vagus nerve sends signals back to the brain, leading some doctors and researchers to call it the source of “gut feelings.”
    The device “helps people take control of their own wellness, to decrease stress and relax more,” said Nervana CEO Brannon, of Boca Raton.
    Though it utilizes technology similar to devices used to regulate seizures, obesity and other medical conditions, Nervana is not a medical device, according to its four founders — heart surgeon Richard Cartledge, his brother Daniel Cartledge, Brannon, a former nurse, and engineer Gregory Mayback.
    “It’s really a consumer device, to make people feel good, relaxed and in sync with the music,” said Daniel Cartledge, a Boca Raton interventional pain physician whose practice is in suburban Delray Beach. “There is over 30 years of research on stimulation of the vagus nerve to treat depression, seizure disorders and Alzheimer’s. But the Nervana is fun and recreational.”
    The Nervana can play any music you download into it, from Bach to Bieber, but its connection — via the left ear through the skin to the vagus nerve — makes the music feel more visceral and pleasurable to the listener.  
    Users at the Consumer Electronics Show described their reactions: “Tingly….calm…. I was tired but I feel pretty good right now, different than before.”
    Interestingly enough, the best effects come from electronic dance music, with its pronounced beat and thumping, hypnotic rhythms.
    The four founders all flew to Las Vegas to unveil the device at the show.
     “It went amazingly well,” said Daniel Cartledge. “We had prototypes that people were able to use. There was such a great response, and a ton of international media attention.”
    That would have been plenty, but the Nervana also won the competition for a tech start-up in the digital health category.
    “I love the feeling, the actual stimulation going through my ear,” said Daniel Cartledge. “It brings a tactile sensation to the music. It’s very relaxing and it keeps me very focused. I forget about the background thoughts.”
    The comparison to LSD or Ecstasy springs to mind, but Cartledge says sorry — that’s not what happens.
    “No one is hallucinating, but it definitely would have been fun at a Grateful Dead concert.”
    That brings up Nervana’s second mode, which allows the user to pick up ambient music, say, from a concert, and transmit that to the vagus nerve. A third mode produces no sound, just the vagus stimulation.
    Not only did people find Nervana in the vast convention halls of the CES in January, but also emails have been coming in from potential customers who see it as a possible aid to reducing depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
    Once again, the founders are making no medical claims for the Nervana, only promising a pleasant musical experience.
    They are taking orders on their website, www.experiencenervana.com, and include user videos on their “Experience Nervana” page on Facebook. The price is expected to be $299, and delivery should begin in June.


Lona O’Connor has a lifelong interest in health and healthy living. Send column ideas to Lona13@bellsouth.net.

Brandy Torrez with her three children — Destiny, 16, Robbie, 12, and Paul, 9 — and husband, Robert.

Torrez’s hair loss is typical of cancer treatment.

Photos provided

By April Klimley

    Cancer is especially tragic when it happens to someone young such as Brandy Torrez. The 35-year-old mother of three is a style expert at Angela Moore in Manalapan’s Plaza del Mar and on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach. In late November, she was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia — acute lymphatic leukemia. The condition is treatable, but made doubly challenging because Torrez also has a chromosome abnormality.
    “When I got sick, it all came out of the blue,” says Torrez. “It’s been hard on my family, too. I haven’t been able to see them that much.”
    She was allowed to go home from the hospital for Christmas. But now she is back undergoing several rounds of chemotherapy. Once her cancer is in remission and a donor is found, she will go to the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa for a stem cell transplant.
    All this has not put a damper on Torrez’s fighting spirit, or “moxie,” as one of her friends put it.
    But it has put a strain on the family finances for Torrez, her three children — Destiny, 16, Robbie, 12, and Paul, 9 — and her husband, Robert,  who is self-employed in the pool cleaning business. “We are just scraping by,” she admits, due to the loss of her income.
    Enter Torrez’s friends and colleagues — who are strong supporters of Torrez and have taken action to help. Earlier this year Jewelry Artisans, the store next to where Torrez has been working, announced that it will hold a raffle Feb. 1-27 for a pair of 14-karat gold earrings to raise money for the family’s living expenses. The earrings were custom-designed by the store’s owner, Pedro Maldonado, a fourth-generation master jeweler. Tickets cost $45 each or three for $125. A winner will be chosen at random on Feb. 27.
    Another friend, Annie Davis of Palm Beach Travel, will make a $250 donation every time a client books a Lindblad-National Geographic travel excursion through her office this year. The travel agency sold gift cards during the holidays to raise money for Christmas gifts for the Torrez children.
     “She is really incredible,” Davis says about Torrez. “She is a generous, fun, creative personality. Lots of moxie.”  Davis also mentions that Torrez has a hidden talent. “She is our cupcake designer,” Davis says. Torrez created customized cupcakes (margarita and even pretzel-themed) for various travel agency events. “Her imagination for design is amazing,” Davis says.
    People are pulling for Brandy to get through this ordeal and resume her job at Angela Moore (which is being held for her by the manager) and go back to regular family life that she loves so much.

To help Torrez meet this challenge, go to “Brandy’s Fight Against Leukemia” GoFundMe page at  www.gofundme.com/r2chshks; contribute to the raffle; or book a Lindblad trip at Palm Beach Travel.

Father Paul Kane, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, participates

in Delray Beach’s Martin Luther King Day Walk to City Hall.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Janis Fontaine

    If you come to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray Beach and ask to speak to the chief shepherd, they’ll introduce you to Father Paul Kane.
    He was recently named rector of the church, a role that calls him to preach, teach and outreach.
 As the new face of St. Paul’s, Kane, 50, is tall and broad-shouldered; a people person, friendly and welcoming.
    One wall in his office is filled with books, the shelves recently dusted. He doesn’t want to sit behind his big desk. He prefers the sofa and armchair.
    Kane’s job in a nutshell is “the pastoral care of the congregation.” He’s responsible for bringing good quality preaching to the church, and that’s what he loves most about the job. Preaching brings more sheep to the fold, and attracting new members is critical to the sustainability of St. Paul’s.
    “We don’t welcome people who are Episcopalians. We welcome people because we’re Episcopalians,” Kane said.
    Once Kane has potential new members in the pew, their education begins. He does this when preaching, of course, but new worshipers interested in joining the church can attend a class called the Foundations of Faith, which covers the basics of the Episcopal religion.
    Ultimately, members are recruited to support the church’s charities and outreach programs. They provide the money and the energy, the creativity and the labor.
    Kane calls the strong and vibrant people in the community to satisfy the church’s primary purpose: “To support the poor and the needy,” he says, “and to offer services that meet the fundamental needs of the congregation,” whether they are physical, financial, emotional or spiritual.
    Kane was born in Chicago, the fifth of seven children. His parents were high school sweethearts and devout Catholics who moved to Miami when he was 9.
    In Catholic families, it’s an honor to raise a son to become a priest. Kane earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from La Salle University in Philadelphia in 1987, and he worked in sales management for Amscan Inc. and Berwick Industries until he entered the seminary.
    In 1995, he earned his master’s in systematic theology, followed by a master of divinity in 1996, both from St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach.
    He began his career as a Catholic priest in South Florida at Little Flower Catholic Church in Hollywood, then at St. Timothy’s in Kendall and finally at St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Pompano Beach.
    But in 2010, after 14 years, he decided to leave the priesthood. He had become unable to support some of the church’s views — two in particular: that priests cannot marry and its refusal to ordain women.
    It wasn’t only the intellectual theologian in him that was questioning his choices. In his heart, there was “a loneliness that led me to the conclusion that God was calling me to join the married life,” he says.
    After leaving the priesthood, he accepted a job with Food for the Poor, among the largest international nonprofits based in the United States. He continued to worship as a Catholic until Easter 2011, when he found his “theological convictions” aligned better with the Episcopal Church. It was an environment where marriage and priesthood were not mutually exclusive. 
    Kane had found a new home for his faith, but a piece was still missing.

Kane left the Catholic church in part because its priests cannot marry. He met his wife, Irene, shortly after.

Photo provided

    Then he met his wife, Irene, a health care administrator,  at a dinner party. The two became friends and eventually started dating. They fell in love and were married on Jan. 7, 2012, at St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church in Coral Springs.
    “In marrying Irene, I became stepfather to her daughter Ingrid, who is now 21 years old,” Kane said.
    A month later, after much prayer and preparation, Kane and his wife were both received into the Episcopal Church. Kane says that being called to marry and to know, personally, the love of a woman and a family have helped him grow.
    His “journey from Rome to Canterbury was a process of personal and professional conversion,” Kane said, “but I never stopping feeling the need to serve God as a priest.”
    Shortly after joining the church, Kane began the process of being received as an Episcopal priest. “I longed for preaching,” Kane said.
    It took just over a year for the former Father Paul the Catholic to become Father Paul the Episcopalian, in June 2013.
    He was put in charge of St. James-of-the-Hills Episcopal Church in Hollywood. Kane was happy. Friends who heard about the opening at St. Paul’s began to encourage him to apply. When the job went unfilled and the church announced it was still accepting applications, at more urging of his friends, he reconsidered.
    Kane talked it over with Irene. He wanted to be sure she wanted to take on the responsibilities of a rector’s wife. Her 18-year career at Tenet Healthcare was important to her.
    Ultimately they decided he should apply. Kane threw his hat in the ring, as had almost 50 others. He was one of four finalists brought in for a three-day visit to preach and meet the staff and vestry in person.
    Kane says the fact that the search committee and vestry took a long time to decide made him feel confident about the church. It was the sign, he says, of a healthy congregation.
    When the Right Rev. Peter Eaton, bishop of the Diocese of South Florida, invited Kane to take the position, it was an easy decision.
    Now, when Kane goes home to Boca Raton at the end of the day, he’s got a loving wife, a lovely stepdaughter and even a dog — a feisty 14-year-old Maltese/shih tzu mix named Yango — waiting for him.
Even the priest seems awed by his good fortune. “The well doesn’t go dry,” Kane said. “It grows.”

By Janis Fontaine

    Refusenik Marina Furman speaks at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 16 at a private home in St. Andrews Country Club. Hear the story of a woman who survived the Soviet emigré movement and made a dangerous journey to freedom, including a harrowing escape from a KGB murder attempt while she was pregnant.
    Furman now works as executive regional director at the Jewish National Fund in Philadelphia.
    The event is open to contributors to the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County’s 2016 annual campaign at the “pomegranate” level. Tickets are $36 and include breakfast. For information or to become part of the pomegranate sisterhood, call 852-6058 or email francescaw@bocafed.org. RSVP at www.jewishboca.org/pomegranate.

Interim minister
    In January,  the Rev. Dr. Edward S. Long began his service as international transitional interim minister for the Church of the Palms Congregational UCC in Delray Beach. Long is a graduate of Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, Ill., and he earned his master’s of divinity and his doctor of ministry from Eden Seminary. As the temporary shepherd of church he’s expected to serve 12 to 24 months.  

A Valentine’s Day idea
    What do most wives want for Valentine’s Day?
    A delicious meal they don’t have to cook (or pick up before or clean up after) and a little undivided attention.
    The meal thing is pretty easy to figure out. The attention part can be a little tougher.
    Here’s an idea: Attend the Advent Lutheran Church marriage retreat on Feb. 6, and you’ll be good. Sure, it runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., but it could be the best six hours you ever spent. And be honest: She deserves it.
    Pastor Andy Hagen and his wife, Susan, will lead this Christian-based retreat using videos and discussion. Tuition is $40, which includes lunch and workbooks. Reservations are required. Email ahagen@adventboca.org or call 395-3632.

Shopping Op
    The Step-Above Rummage Sale is 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 11-13 at First Presbyterian Church, 33 Gleason St., Delray Beach. This carefully executed rummage sale is like shopping in a department store.
    Try on shoes comfortably in the shoe section; find bargains in the jewelry department. There’s a linen section, kitchen supplies, glassware, flatware, sets of dishes, small electrical appliances, furniture, artwork, personal and decorative items, plus books, toys, sports equipment, bicycles, luggage and tools. Info: 276-6338; www.firstdelray.com/upcoming-events.

An evening of gratitude
    The event takes place Feb. 23 at Congregation B’nai Torah, 6261 SW 18th St., Boca Raton and is a celebration of gratefulness for all we have been given.
    Golden Globe and Emmy winner Henry Winkler will speak. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. with cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and a showcase of the Jewish community’s resources.
    A couvert of $95 plus a minimum household contribution of $365 to the 2016 Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County annual campaign are required to attend. For information, call 852-5031 or email KathleenB@bocafed.org. You can also register online at www.jewishboca.org/theevent.

Ride 4 Orphans
    R4O started in 2013 to raise money for orphan projects at Spanish River Church plant locations in Chad, Malawi and Haiti and local foster care organizations: 4Kids of South Florida and Place of Hope at the Haven.  
    On Feb. 13, R4O will host its annual 30- or 62-mile ride from Spanish River Church through Lake Worth, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Boca Raton. The ride leaves at 7:30 a.m. There’s also a kids fun ride and activities.
    Meet at the church at 2400 Yamato Road, Boca Raton. Volunteers are also needed to make the fourth annual R4O successful. For more info, visit www.ride4orphans.com

Birdies for Children
    The 2016 Honda Classic, Feb. 22-28, will help support CROS Ministries and more than 100 other charities. Make a $20 donation and correctly guess the number of birdies made by the entire field in all four rounds and you might win a new Honda.
    Choose CROS and it will receive 100 percent of the donations plus a 10 percent matching contribution from The Honda Classic. Info: www.thehondaclassic.com/birdies-for-children/donate/ or www.crosministries.org.

Volunteers needed
    St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church will host its 50th annual Parish Festival on March 4-6 and it needs volunteers to pull it off. Organizers estimate it takes 50,000 volunteer hours to pull off the festival, which features carnival rides, games, live entertainment, food and a flea market. Hours are 5-11 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m.–11 p.m. Saturday; and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday, at the church, 840 George Bush Blvd., Delray Beach. Info: 276-6892; www.stvincentferrer.com.

Janis Fontaine writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Contact her at janisfontaine@outlook.com.

Longtime supporters of the federation were thanked by the Jacobson Jewish Community Foundation

during a celebration in Zinman Hall. The festive breakfast included

holiday songs performed by preschoolers from Zale Early Childhood Center. ABOVE: Dorothy Wizer and Phyllis Wachtel.

Photo provided by Jeffrey Tholl

Jeffrey the cat keeps a watchful eye on a stack of Coastal Star newspapers at Delray Garden Center.

Photo provided

Dave Wesolowski, community outreach coordinator, sorts through a tub of donated leashes,

collars and harnesses at Peggy’s Pantry on the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League campus in West Palm Beach.

Taylor Jones/The Coastal Star

By Arden Moore

    What do a slightly used bathrobe, a box of ink pens, a vacuum cleaner and a bag of pet food your cat refuses to eat share in common?
    They are among the diverse items that animal shelters in Palm Beach County eagerly welcome as donations.
    It’s well known that these nonprofits depend on donations in terms of money and volunteer time to care for cats, dogs and other homeless animals. But there is a third, less-known way you can help. The next time you are in a de-clutter mood, skip the garage sale and consider giving your no-longer-needed items to an animal shelter. Your act of generosity also qualifies as a tax deduction.
    “It’s true. A lot of people don’t think about donating things as simple as robes, linens or socks, but these are extremely useful items at our shelter,” says Rich Anderson, executive director and chief executive officer of the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League, based in West Palm Beach.
    Every donation — in the form of money, time or items — helps take a bite out of the bills facing these animal shelters. I was surprised to learn from Anderson that it costs, on average, $400 to care for each and every animal that is housed at Peggy Adams.
    “In some cases, a particular dog or cat can cost us thousands of dollars if they need special surgery, medications, special diet or might be with us for an extended period of time,” said Anderson. “We have had cats and dogs who have been with us for a year or longer before being adopted and each has cost us well over $1,000 to care for.”
    When I moved and downsized recently, I looked at my garage full of items. I could have made some money hosting a garage sale, but nod your head if you agree with me about all the headaches involved in pricing, setting up and sacrificing a Saturday. You may declare the sale starts at 8 a.m., but you can bet there will be at least a few people arriving by 7 who pester you while you are setting up in your driveway.
    I’m happy I opted instead to take a U-Haul truck filled with pet carriers, dog beds, leashes, toys as well as bedding, pillows, office supplies, a camera and even a corner desk with a hutch to my local animal shelter. I did phone ahead so I knew when and where I could make the drop-off.
    At Peggy Adams, there is the Peggy’s Pantry Food Bank. It is a pet food bank for people who are struggling financially and having trouble feeding their pets. According to Anderson, more than 10,000 pounds of pet food are dispersed from this pantry each month.  He estimates that the donated food helped about 3,000 residents last year keep their pets and not have to surrender them to the shelter.
    “Peggy’s Pantry used to be opened only one day a week, but we expanded it to being open five days a week last year,” says Anderson. “Now when people come in to surrender a beloved cat or dog because they can’t afford to feed them, we refer them to our food bank. Hopefully, it will enable them to get over a temporary financial situation so that they can keep their pets.”
    Peggy’s Pantry is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. If you are unable to drop off donations during those hours, you can drop them off at the Grace Pavilion at the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League.
    Individuals are not the only ones who donate items. Several hotels, including the Airport Hilton, Residence Inn and the four-diamond historical Casa Grandview Bed and Breakfast Inn, regularly provide the shelter with bathrobes, towels and linens.
    No, shelter pets are not walking around in bathrobes, but volunteers transform them into needed bedding for shelter animals.
    Southwest Airlines also brought the shelter brand-new pet travel carriers as well as pet food, and supermarkets like Publix have made food donations.  
    “I hate to leave any company out,” says Anderson, in citing some examples. “We do appreciate any and all donations from businesses as well as individuals.”
    So the next time you walk into, say, an Office Depot or a Walmart, to buy some office supplies or household items, consider buying in duplicate and donating the second set to a local animal shelter.
    “These donations help us save money we can put toward spaying and neutering and other costs in our shelter,” says Anderson.
    And you can skip the hassles of staging a garage sale.

Arden Moore, founder of FourLeggedLife.com, is an animal behavior consultant, editor, author, professional speaker and master certified pet first aid instructor.

Customers shop in the store off U.S. 441 west of Boynton Beach. The new location

in downtown Delray Beach will have the same square footage but a different aisle configuration.

U-pick strawberries are ripening now.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

    We walk along the rows of carefully staked tomato vines, enjoying their earthy, almost lemony scent. We have our eyes peeled for reddish-orange orbs signaling the fruits are vine-ripe, ready for picking — and eating, of course.
    In the rows of dark green strawberry plants, we find plenty of white blooms, but it takes careful looking beneath the leaves to find the jewel-like berries. There hasn’t been much sun recently to ripen them.
    And among the shiny green foliage of the pepper plants, it takes a Sherlock Holmes to discover the pepper globes camouflaged by the leaves.
    These are the U-pick fields that are just part of the fun when you visit Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market west of Boynton Beach. Set on 80 acres, the farm supplies fresh beans, corn, broccoli, cabbage, kale, lettuce, spinach, cauliflower and other crops to its farm store.
    “You name it and we probably grow it,” says Marie Bedner, operations manager at Bedner Growers Inc.
    But the Bedner family — now in its fifth generation on the farm — has set aside seven acres you can harvest yourself. In fact, now is prime picking time for peppers, tomatoes and strawberries.
    In the spring you’ll find cucumbers and a field of snapdragons and sunflowers. You fill a pail with your pickings and then pay for them by the pound. You’ll soon discover that the most difficult thing about U-pick is taking only what you can use.
    Seems like any day you visit you’ll find people from all age groups out among the plants. “The crops are so fresh,” says Alex Vidal of Boca Raton, explaining why he’s brought his two granddaughters, 10 and 2, to roam the fields.
    For Tonya Clarkson of Pompano Beach, it’s a great way for her 6-year-old twins, Brett and Casey, to get outdoors and do something when there’s a day off from school. They’ve come with their friends Kristeen Bengala of Pompano Beach and her daughter, Ava, 6, who are impressed to learn that everything here is organic.
    Jennifer Fleigelman of Lake Worth is gathering berries to make jam. Her home-schooled sons Jordon, 13, and Jaydon, 15, are helping her pick and are looking forward to having something good to eat.
    And then there is the strawberry field full of students who are here on a field trip.
    On weekends the farm is particularly kid-friendly. That’s when you can not only pick your own but also enjoy pony rides, a petting zoo, fresh-churned ice cream, corn right from the roaster and an audio-guided tour of the farm on a trailer pulled by a tractor. “Weekends here are madness,” says Bedner.
    And if you are lucky, you, like us, will be able to enjoy the wildlife. Because the farm is adjacent to the over 220-square-mile Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, you may see egrets, wood storks and even an endangered snail kite. We were lucky enough to share a field with three immature roseate spoonbills swaddled in pink feathers enjoying an outing with their mom.
    If you can’t make it to their farm out west, the Bedners are opening a second market location in Delray Beach’s Artists Alley area sometime this month. This 3,000-square-foot store will offer field-fresh produce trucked in daily from the farm. Of course, there won’t be room for a U-pick, but there will be a patio where you can enjoy prepared salads and sandwiches.
    “It’s been terrifying to add retailing to our family farming business. But we’ve had success in Boynton and that should make it easier on our second go-round,” Bedner says.

Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley is a certified master gardener. Reach her at debhartz@att.net.

    If a tree is planted in the right location in your yard, it can cut your summer energy costs by 20 percent, according to the Florida Forest Service. To get you started saving, the service has teamed with the Arbor Day Foundation to give away trees that will grow well in South Florida.
    Visit www.arborday.org/floridatrees to reserve. We tried it and were offered a free dahoon holly, live oak, mahogany or bald cypress.
    The website also offers information on choosing, locating, planting and caring for your tree, as well as the energy savings you can expect from it.  The offer ends when the supply of trees runs out or May 31, whichever comes first.
    For more information, call 855-234-3801.
— Deb Hartz-Seeley

Story and photos by Mary Thurwachter  
    Atlantic Avenue has been Delray Beach’s shopping mecca for decades, but some shoppers forget about the eastern-most stretch — from the Intracoastal Waterway to the beach. That’s a shame. Lovely boutiques, good restaurants, hard-to-pass-by ice cream shops and a few cool surf shops line the street. Here are five places not to miss:

Nina Raynor
Like exquisite designer clothes? Stroll through this shop, at 1031 E. Atlantic Ave., put down your purse and enjoy the high-end women’s boutique, a Delray Beach icon for more than half a century. You won’t find crowded racks or cluttered tables, just lots of space and beautiful blouses, skirts, slacks, gowns, handbags and jewelry. Refreshments (coffee, soft drinks, wine) are complimentary, so no waiting husband will ever go thirsty. Like many shops on the avenue, Nina Raynor is doggie-friendly and if Cathy Ann Sauer, who runs the shop with her brother Bobby Wollenberg (the store was founded by their parents, Joann Phelan Wollenberg and Robert Wollenberg), is there, you may get to meet Skyler, her English springer spaniel. Skyler is a former show dog that broke a tooth and gave up modeling for working as the store’s occasional greeter.

Ciao Sidewalk Café
A local landmark tucked into the back of the Courtyard Shops, at 1208 E. Atlantic Ave., Ciao has been serving sandwiches, quiche and muffins since 1978. New to the menu: mimosas, wine and craft beer. Customers can sit outside in the courtyard or on one of the few tables inside. We stopped by for the quiche du jour (asparagus) and side of fresh fruit salad as we made our way down the avenue on a chilly January day. Open for breakfast and lunch, Ciao (Italian for both hello and goodbye) is both kid- and pet-friendly. We said “goodbye,” but plan to say “hello” again soon to charming Ciao.

Sales clerk Debbie Jennings displays a pretty pink ukulele at Epic Surf Shop.

Epic Surf Shop
Custom surfboards, skateboards, Hawaiian shirts, sexy swimsuits and even the sweetest little pink ukuleles you’ll ever want, can be found here. The shop (1218 E. Atlantic Ave.) has been in Delray for 27 years and is just around the corner from the beach, so you can buy a board and hang 10 minutes later (if the waves permit, of course!). We found some Florida Orange Salt Scrub made from Atlantic sea salt and coconut oil that made our skin feel wonderful and smell like the beach.

Snappy Turtle
Don’t worry. The turtle (1100 E. Atlantic Ave.) doesn’t bite. It’s just a catchy name for catchy shops packed with stylish resort wear, much of it colored pink and green. They call the style “preppy with a twist” and that seems to fit quite well. So if you’re in the market for a yacht club shift, hot pink ankle pants or a chic straw hat, this is the place to go. In Delray Beach since 1987, this shop is “turtley” awesome.

Style and Wine
At first glance, you wonder, what is this place, at 1122 E. Atlantic Ave.? Wander inside and you will see the shop’s moniker describes it well — style (fashions, furniture, home goods, party favors)  — and yes, wine. Owner Rachel Boueri opened her first Style and Wine at 44 SE Second St., and that location is being rebuilt. The Atlantic Avenue shop, just steps from the beach, serves and sells some of Boueri’s favorite wines, including a lovely Darioush Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon. Want a little something to eat after shopping? Boueri suggests the two restaurants next door — El Patron and Boheme Bistro, both owned by Rachel and her hubby, Tony Boueri.

Capt. Art Sapp of Pompano Beach (top) celebrates with members of the Liquid fishing team

at Sailfish Marina in Palm Beach Shores after winning the 79th annual Silver Sailfish Derby with 11 releases.

Photo provided by Leonard Bryant Photography

By Willie Howard

    The sailfish action wasn’t red-hot during the 79th annual Silver Sailfish Derby, but the competition was neck-and-neck between teams from Boynton Beach and Pompano Beach until the last few minutes of the Jan. 7-8 tournament.
    The Pompano Beach-based team, fishing on the 39-foot Sea Vee named Liquid, won the Derby by finding sailfish on the surface and pitching live baits to them to score most of the team’s 11 releases.
    On the foggy first morning of the Derby, the Reel Easy team, fishing on a 41-foot Invincible run by Capt. Chip Sheehan of Boynton Beach, fished along a current edge north of Jupiter Inlet where flying fish were coming out of the water.
    The Reel Easy team, including boat owner Brian Lulfs of Boynton Beach, released seven sailfish using live baits under fishing kites to take the lead on Day 1.
    But with several boats close behind Reel Easy, it was still anybody’s tournament heading into the second day of fishing, when Reel Easy and several other Derby boats began the day in a rolling swell off Stuart.
    Capt. Art Sapp of Pompano Beach and his team on Liquid began Day 2 with only two releases but began to climb the tournament ladder quickly.
    With little wind to hold fishing kites aloft, the Liquid anglers stowed their kites and started slow-trolling live baits and moving to spots where they saw jumping sailfish and sprays of bait fish coming up on the surface.
    By mid-afternoon, the Liquid team had released another eight sailfish and was tied with Reel Easy, with 10 releases.
    Sheehan’s team, too, found a sailfish on the surface on Day 2. A Reel Easy angler pitched a bait near the fish and hooked up, but lost it.
    With about 15 minutes left to fish, Sapp spotted a sailfish on the surface from the tower of Liquid and moved the boat toward it.
    Angler Rob Degnin cast a threadfin herring to the sailfish, hooked it and fought it until the leader connection touched the tip of the rod to score the winning release at 3:47 p.m. — 13 minutes before the lines-out call signaling the end of the tournament.
    Sapp said the Liquid team anglers scored nine of their 11 releases by pitching baits to sailfish they spotted on the surface.

    Overall, 37 boats fishing in this year’s Derby released a total of 166 sailfish — 68 the first day and 98 the second day.
    Started in 1935 by the West Palm Beach Fishing Club and held every year since (except during the fuel shortages of World War II), the Silver Sailfish Derby is billed as the world’s oldest sailfish tournament.
    In 1938, the fishing club introduced the concept of flying red release pennants instead of bringing dead sailfish to the docks and urged charter captains to release their fish.
    In the mid-1950s, author Ernest Hemingway — a friend of the late John Rybovich, a boat builder and former fishing club president — sponsored a Silver Sailfish Derby trophy. The prize consisted of two wooden bookends featuring likenesses of an old fisherman and a marlin along with a signed copy of The Old Man and the Sea.  

Weekly Fisherman show moves to new radio station
    The Weekly Fisherman Show, a Saturday morning radio show that has been on the air for 10 years, has been purchased by Dania Beach-based Nautical Ventures Group Inc.
    Steve Waters, longtime outdoors writer for the Sun Sentinel, and veteran disc jockey Eric Brandon will continue to host the show, which airs 6 to 8 a.m. on Saturdays.
    The show has moved to WINZ-AM 940, a Miami sports station that is part of the iHeartRadio network.
    Waters and Brandon plan to expand the show. They recently added weekly call-ins from kayak-fishing expert Joe Hector.

A boy fishes off a dock in Boynton Beach in this photo

taken during the 1960s. The Delray Beach Historical Society

is looking for similar fishing memorabilia for its upcoming Fish Tales! exhibit.

Photo provided

Fishing history exhibit taking shape in Delray
    The Delray Beach Historical Society’s fishing history exhibit Fish Tales! is scheduled to open in April and run through September.
    Archivists already have received fish stories and memorabilia from fishing in the 1930s, Miss Spirit fishing contests of the 1950s and dock fishing in the 1960s.
    The historical society is working with fishing clubs, anglers, authors and residents to form a committee for the exhibit.
    “We would like to gather the support of the local community to tell a comprehensive story,” said Leslie Callaway, the society’s president.
    Anyone interested in sharing South Florida fishing stories — or donating/lending vintage fishing gear, mounts of locally caught fish or photos for the exhibit — should contact Janet DeVries or Michelle Quigley at 274-9578 or email Archive@Delraybeachhistory.org.

FWC mulls new limits
on mutton snapper

        The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is holding mutton snapper workshops during February to gather public input on management options for the popular reef fish.
    The FWC staff has proposed lowering the recreational mutton snapper bag limit to five mutton snapper during the regular season and to two during the spawning months of May through July.
    A statewide conference call on mutton snapper management is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Feb. 24. Call 850-487-0554 in advance for instructions on joining the conference call.

Coast Pilot now includes
northern Florida Reef Tract
    Mariners are being advised to use caution around coral reefs from Biscayne National Park north to St. Lucie Inlet through the recent addition of that section of the Florida Reef Tract to NOAA’s Coast Pilot advisory books.
    Coast Pilot books share information with mariners that is difficult to show on nautical charts.
    The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Coral Reef Conservation Program worked with NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey to get the northern section of the reef tract included in Coast Pilot.
    The advisory in Coast Pilot book No. 4 warns boaters to avoid grounding or anchoring on the reefs and to use mooring buoys where available.

Coming events
    Feb. 6: Florida Power & Light Co.’s Manatee Lagoon eco-discovery center opens. It’s free and located next to FPL’s Riviera Beach power plant at 100 Broadway. Hours are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. 626-2833 or  visitmanateelagoon.com.
    Feb. 6: Basic boating safety class offered by Coast Guard Auxiliary in Boca Raton. Class is 9 a.m.-5 p.m. in the headquarters building at Spanish River Park, 3939 N. Ocean Blvd. $35. Register at door. Bring lunch. 391-3600 or fso-pe@cgauxboca.org.
    Feb. 11-15: Miami International Boat Show, Miami Marine Stadium Park & Basin, 3501 Rickenbacker Causeway. (Strictly Sail at Bayside Marketplace.) Adults:  $20 ($35 on Feb. 11).  Ages 15 and under: free. 954-441-3220 or miamiboatshow.com.
    Feb. 11-15: Yachts Miami Beach (formerly the Yacht & Brokerage Show), Collins Avenue between 41st and 54th streets. More than 500 new and used yachts on display. 954-764-7642 or showmanagement.com.
Feb. 14: Beach cleanup organized by Sea2shore Alliance, 8-10:30 a.m., Ocean Inlet Park. Meet in south parking lot. Contact: Kcucinotta@sea2shore.org.
    Feb. 23: Ernie DeBlasi of Impact Lures demonstrates how to make wooden fishing lures. 7:30 p.m. at the Boynton Beach Fishing Club, Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park, Boynton Beach. Free and open to nonmembers.  www.bifc.org.
    Feb. 24: Capt. Quinton Dieterle discusses advanced kite-fishing methods, 7 p.m., West Palm Beach Fishing Club, 201 Fifth St., West Palm Beach. Free and open to nonmembers. 832-6780 or westpalmbeachfishingclub.org.
    Feb. 27: Basic boating safety class offered by the Coast Guard Auxiliary, 8 a.m. in the meeting room at Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park, Boynton Beach. Fee $40. Call Sandy Meridy, 734-2244.

License now required
to fish from beach
    Florida residents who don’t already have a saltwater fishing license can obtain a free resident shoreline license.
    Nonresidents need a nonresident saltwater fishing license — $17 for three days, $30 for seven days or $47 annually.
    To buy a license, call 888-347-4356 or download the FWC license app on a smartphone.

Tip of the Month
Here’s how to fish from the beach for pompano:
    When winter waves break on sandbars, they unearth small crustaceans that pompano love to eat.
    Using a 9-foot or longer surf rod, cast a multiple-hook pompano rig with a 3- to 4-ounce pyramid sinker clipped to the end. (Larger weights might be needed in heavier surf.)
    Bait the hooks with clam strips, bits of fresh shrimp, sand fleas or Fishbites (scent strips) in the clam or shrimp flavors.
    With a standard spinning rod, try casting a white or pink jig tipped with shrimp. Banana-shaped Doc’s Goofy Jigs, often rigged with colorful trailers, are popular for pompano.
    Pompano feed on the bottom, so let your jig sink to the bottom and move it slightly to attract attention by stirring up puffs of sand.
    Cast near the muddy water that’s being stirred up by waves. Try fishing at different tides.
    Pompano must be at least 11 inches long (to the fork of the tail) to be legal to keep. The daily bag limit is 6.

 Willie Howard is a freelance writer and licensed boat captain. Reach him at tiowillie@bellsouth.net.

Students react to Melissa Norelli during a Skyped lecture.

Norelli as viewed through a hatch in the Florida International University’s Medina Aquarius Reef Base.
Photos provided

By Janis Fontaine

    Melissa Norelli loves math and science.
    The always curious middle school teacher at Unity School in Delray Beach could have had a career as a researcher, doing experiments and analyzing data every day, but, ever since middle school, she always pictured herself as a math teacher up in front of a class.
    She is passionate about teaching, and especially about getting girls ready for careers in math, science, technology and computer science.
    In November, Norelli earned a slot — one of only five teachers chosen nationally — to participate in the Teacher Under the Sea Program at Florida International University’s Medina Aquarius Reef Base 60 feet underwater off the coast of Islamorada in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The program ran for eight days in November and Norelli would be able to share the experience with her students. They loved the idea.
    This was the first time teachers were invited to this operating undersea laboratory. Scientists are able to explore an ecosystem that is by nature very difficult to study.
    At Aquarius, researchers go beyond conventional limitations and live beneath the water to conduct research as saturated divers (those who have reached their maximum loads of nitrogen, allowing them to remain under water longer).
    The 28-year-old Boca Raton resident immersed herself in the experience, diving as part of a team to switch out GoPro cameras and algae tiles for the current experiment: a study of the ecology of fear. The scientists want to know if algae fed differently in the presence of the sea’s top predators — in this case, sharks.
    As part of the program, Norelli Skyped with her students at Unity and with a classroom of students in Peru, which was one of the best parts of the experience. “The kids were so excited, and had so many questions,” Norelli said.  
    And it revealed the difference between a teacher who requires students to learn and one who inspires students to learn.
    She may have been away from school, but this trip was no vacation. After working underwater in conditions suited to attracting apex predators, processing and analyzing data, and Skyping with students, Norelli followed a quick dinner with more data processing. Somehow she also found time to write an enthusiastic and detailed blog about her day.
    Of the Skyping, in her journal she wrote: “The highlight of my day was seeing my students and being able to bring them to the bottom of the ocean with me.” The best part for them, the students said, was getting to go along on an adventure, almost as if they, too, were scientists on an important research project.
    Norelli has already been invited back to the Reef Base later this year, and she plans to bring her sixth-grade students down for a tour of the land base and for a lesson in coral conservation from the Coral Restoration Foundation.
    But what Norelli and the students are really excited about is the class’ overnight trip to Seacamp later this year.
    Seacamp is a year-round, nonprofit marine science camp and educational facility on Big Pine Key in the Keys, in the heart of the coral reefs. The camp combines science lessons and water sports, including scuba, kayaking, sailing, windsurfing and fishing.
    “It’s great to see the kids in their element,” Norelli said. Ultimately, it’s still about what they learn.”
Whenever a parent or student asks for advice on how to improve in school, Norelli says, she gives the same answer: “People think it’s funny that I say this because I’m a math teacher, but the best thing you can do is read more.”

Places to study science

Gumbo Limbo Nature Center and Environmental Complex, 1801 N. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton. Info: 544-8615
    Since 1984, Gumbo Limbo Nature Center has welcomed visitors who want to know more about the flora and fauna that thrive in Gumbo Limbo’s 20 acres of protected barrier island.  More than 100,000 visit each year.
    Much of the focus remains on the preservation of the natural environment and wildlife resources, and several courses are offered each month focusing on science and conservation of the unique ecosystem. Classes include:
    • Seining the Lagoon — Wade in the Intracoastal Waterway to catch, examine (and release) fish, shrimp and crabs, using handheld dip nets and large seine nets. Age 10 and older. $7 members, $10 nonmembers. Reservations required.
    • Beach Treasures — Sea beans, coral, shells, sea glass. Gather up what the sea has left behind to learn about marine life. For all ages. $5 members, $8 nonmembers. Reservations required.  
    • A Walk On The Ashley Trail — A quarter-mile naturalist guide-led walk through a butterfly garden, coastal hammock and mangroves, to a sandy beach, observing flora and fauna. All ages. Free.

The Children’s Science Explorium, Sugar Sand Park, 300 S. Military Trail, Boca Raton. A hands-on science center designed for children ages 5 to 12. Find interactive exhibits, science programs and a permanent science exhibit.  Info: 347-3912; sugarsandpark.org
    • Saturdays the Explorium offers  science stories for ages 5 and older at 11:30 a.m. and once a month it hosts weekend demos for ages 7 and older. These free 30-minute, interactive demonstrations engage kids’ curiosity. This month: 3:30 p.m. Feb. 13-14.
    • The Explorium is hosting a traveling exhibition, “From Here to There,” that focuses on how things get moved from one place to another. Kids will learn about the law of movement: They can feel the friction, grapple with gravity, float in the air on a hovercraft chair and navigate a boat through a canal lock system. On display through May.

Bright & Smart Robotics, Sugar Sand Park, 300 S. Military Trail, Boca Raton. Info: 954-816-3346; email info@BrightAndSmart.com.
    This organization treats learning engineering concepts as fun challenges, combining hands-on robot building with computer programming (or coding to your kid) and teamwork. Kids 6 to 14 years old can benefit regardless of their cognitive skill levels.

The Schoolhouse Children’s Museum & Learning Center, 129 E. Ocean Ave., Boynton Beach. Info: 742-6780; schoolhousemuseum.org.
    • On the second floor of the museum, older children will find some science-related role-playing opportunities. In the Doctor’s Office, your child can help the doctor take an X-ray and check for a heartbeat, and learn about medicine by exploring props. In Mangrove Manor, your scientist can study the flora and fauna of this unique Florida habitat. Kids have to climb, crawl and slide to find the animals.

IMACS, 23172 Sandalfoot Plaza Drive, Boca Raton, and 6200 Linton Blvd., Delray Beach. Info: 470-1178.
    • This enrichment center can tutor your kid, but so can a lot of places. What if your child wants to know more than schools are teaching about computer programming, robotics, bio-medicine, or engineering? These are the skills kids can learn at IMACS — a mastery of mathematics and the ability to apply logic, critical thinking and creative reasoning. High finance, law, venture capitalists, in fact, every job requires problem solving abilities.

South Florida Science Center and Aquarium, 4801 Dreher Trail N., West Palm Beach. Admission: $16.95 adults, $14.95 seniors ages 60 or older, $12.95 for ages 3-12, and free for members and younger than age 3. Info: 832-2026; sfsciencecenter.org.
    • “Dinosaurs Around the World: The Exhibition” — This traveling exhibit features 13 life-sized roaring, breathing dinosaurs that reveal the amazing diversity that existed during the age of the dinosaurs, from the fierce plains of Africa to the beaches of Antarctica, and is on display through April 16.
    • Hack Shack Tech Club — Blossoming designers and budding engineers in fifth through eighth grade are invited to join this club that explores science and technology through experiments with computer programming and designing video games. Classes meet the first Thursday of each month from 5 to 7 p.m. On March 3, the topic is LED Mania, tinkering with light-emitting diodes on several take-home projects. Cost: $15 members, $20 nonmembers.

    • Gems Club — This monthly club for girls in grades 3 through 8 who are interested in science and technology meets the last Tuesday of the month from 5 to 7 p.m. They discover a different topic each month. Dinner and refreshments will be provided. On Feb. 23, the topic is electrifying energy. On March 29, the topic is botanical science. April 26, enthusiastic engineers. $5 per meeting or get an annual enrollment pass for $55.

For a child living on beachfront,

intrigue of wartime was exciting

Seen from the Atlantic Ocean is the Sanborn house (left), where Dr. Peter Barrett

recalls a suspected spying incident took place in 1942. The Boca Raton Villas ar

at the center and the Robbins House, a boarding house during the war, is at right.

Photos provided

Martha and Peter Barrett lived on the beach near what are now the Beresford Condominiums in Boca Raton.

The Civil Air Watch Tower on the beach in Boca Raton.

INSET BELOW: 1942 notes on submarine attacks off the coasts of Boca Raton, Delray Beach

and Deerfield Beach were kept by Dr. Barrett’s grandfather E.E. Barrett.

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

    Imagine being a young resident of Boca Raton in the early 1940s when World War II was raging and the city was welcoming the Boca Raton Army Air Base.
    “The war was a very exciting time to be here,” says Dr. Peter Barrett, who back then was a 7-year-old living with his family on the beach near where the Beresford Condominiums stand today.
    Barrett, who is on the faculty at the UCLA School of Medicine, recently returned to the Boca Raton Historical Society where he shared his childhood memories of the war through his presentation “The Spies Next Door: Boca Raton During WWII.”
    He recalls the food and gas rationing, coastal blackouts and the Civil Air Watch Tower where he went on Friday afternoons to identify planes that flew overhead. He also experienced German submarines passing off the coast and torpedoing merchant ships and, yes, even the evidence of German spies operating along the beach.
    Back then, there were freighters and tankers that would make their way along Florida’s coast en route to Europe and Africa, where their cargoes were invaluable to the war effort. Realizing this, the Germans launched Operation Drumbeat in which they sent submarines to patrol our eastern shore and blow up those supply ships.
    In 1942, 24 merchant ships were sunk between Cape Canaveral and Boca Raton. And Barrett’s grandfather E.E. Barrett recorded seeing 12 ships torpedoed off Boca Raton.
    Barrett remembers being awakened early one morning by an explosion that nearly threw him out of bed. It was a freighter being blown up off the coast. After such incidents, the family scavenged the beach and found eight-sided cans of Maxwell House coffee compressed by the force of the blasts and oars from lifeboats as well as cases of pineapples and eggplants.
    “We ate eggplant boiled, baked and fried. I didn’t eat it again for 65 years,” says Barrett, who admits he’s back to liking it today.
    But the presence of the war in Boca Raton really hit close to Barrett’s home on a June day in 1942. His family was awakened at 3 a.m. by a motorcycle roaring up to their house and someone banging on their front door.
    They peered out to see a military policeman carrying firearms. He told them that flashing lights had been seen on the beach that could be signals to enemy vessels, which back then would be an act of treason.
    Of course, Barrett’s family knew nothing about the signals but told the man the house next door belonged to a Detroit snowbird, Dr. William Sanborn, who had returned home for the summer.
    With that, the authorities headed for the Sanborn house, which appeared abruptly vacated. They found wet towels, cans of food and an unmade bed as well as a telescope and semaphore signaling device set up in the oceanfront bay window.
    Barrett remains convinced there were spies next door but he’s never had confirmation.
    Today this story is just part of the colorful lore of Boca Raton’s wartime past.
    “As youngsters we didn’t know our lives were special and that we were experiencing history. After all, it’s the only childhood we knew,” he says.

By Rich Pollack

    After months of negotiation, the town of Highland Beach is close to signing a fire and rescue service agreement with Delray Beach that would make it possible to have a new fire truck and a new rescue truck in its station.
    Last month, Highland Beach town officials voted to sign an agreement with the city of Delray Beach — pending approval of final cost numbers — that would enable the city’s fire-rescue department to continue to staff the town’s fire station and provide service to its residents and visitors.
    The agreement is expected to go before the Delray Beach City Commission for approval later this month.
    “This proposed agreement accomplished a number of points that are favorable to the town,” Town Manager Beverly Brown told commissioners during a special meeting to discuss the agreement last month.  
    In addition to covering the cost of personnel, the agreement will make it possible for Delray Beach to purchase both a ladder truck and a rescue truck that would serve Highland Beach.
    Delray Beach would then lease the equipment back to Highland Beach with the town having the option to buy the fire truck after 10 years for $10. The town also would have the ability to buy the rescue truck for $10 after Delray has made the final payment to the manufacturer.
    “The proposed agreement provides for an immediate purchase of an aerial ladder truck and the future purchase of a rescue vehicle to be paid at cost only,” Brown told the commission.
    The agreement also spells out that Highland Beach will pay for maintenance of the truck at cost only and will pay for operating overhead fees at cost only.
    It’s estimated that the fire truck will cost $832,000, with Delray Beach receiving a multivehicle discount because it will be ordering two trucks for the city department’s use. The rescue unit is expected to cost about $335,000, and the town will also pick up its share of the finance charges.
    Highland Beach is still using its own 12-year-old rescue truck but Delray Beach Fire-Rescue Chief Danielle Connor told town commissioners that the vehicle is past its prime.
    “This truck has earned its stripes and it needs to be replaced,” she said.
    Highland Beach leases a ladder truck from Delray for about $8,500 a month, since the town’s 20-year-old truck — which was frequently out of service — was sold at auction last year.  Connor explained to Highland Beach commissioners that there will be times when the ladder truck assigned to the town will be across the bridge for training, maintenance or assistance with other calls. She said, however, that she will provide the town with reports to document those events.
    “At all times fire apparatus and personnel are available to respond to residents of Highland Beach,” she said later. “In instances of training or employee physicals, for example, Delray Beach Fire-Rescue will provide a unit to staff the Highland Beach fire station.”
    The Delray Beach chief estimates that once both municipalities have signed the agreements and placed the orders, it could still take 10 to 11 months before the fire truck arrives and a year for the new rescue vehicle to be in service.
    In other business, Highland Beach Mayor Bernard Featherman will be hosting his annual Coffee with Mayor Featherman gathering on Jan. 13 at 9:30 a.m. at the Highland Beach Library.
    The mayor will present a recap of the town’s accomplishments in 2015 and will discuss plans for 2016. There will also be an open forum for residents to discuss concerns and suggestions for improvements.
    Coffee with Mayor Featherman will also feature a presentation by Claudette Jones, RN, MSN, who will talk about stroke issues and prevention measures that can be taken.
    For additional information call town hall at 278-4548.

New Highland Beach Library Director Lois Albertson (left) with Suzi Hayes,

who is stepping down as the director of the library but will stay part time, working 20 hours a week.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    Lois Albertson and the Highland Beach Library have been friends for a long time.   
    Coming to the community for many years to spend time with her grandparents, Albertson would make frequent visits to the small community library then tucked away inside Town Hall.
    Albertson — who has a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of South Florida and a master’s degree in information systems technology from George Washington University — moved to South Florida more than a decade ago. She volunteered at the town library one night a week while working full-time for a consortium that provides training and resource sharing services to about 40 South Florida libraries.
    In September, she joined the staff of the Highland Beach library as a full-time library assistant. Then late last month she was named as the new library director, following the decision by interim Library Director Suzi Hayes not to take the position full time.
    “I’ve always loved libraries and books,” said Albertson, 51, who worked as the staff development director for the South Florida Library Information Network prior to joining the Highland Beach library staff. “I’m very excited about the new position. After many years of coming here and volunteering, this library feels like home.”
    Albertson, whose mother, Linda, lives in Highland Beach and actively supports the library, said she looks forward to continuing to meet residents to learn more about how the library can better serve their needs. She also hopes to build on the momentum Hayes brought to the library.
    “This library is more than just a place to check out books,” she said. “It’s an important part of the community.”  
    Hayes is pleased that Albertson was appointed by Town Manager Beverly Brown to be her successor.
    “Lois brings strong academic credentials to the job and she has a very service-oriented personality,” Hayes said. “Because of her experience as a volunteer, she already knows most of the operations of the library and she also knows the collection very well.”
    Hayes, who became interim library director in June following the unexpected departure of longtime library director Mari Suarez, will go back to working part time at the library this month.
    “I had been working part time and I really enjoyed it,” said Hayes, 67, adding that she is looking forward to having more personal time.
    Hayes was a library director before coming to Highland Beach and is credited with helping to stabilize the library operations after Suarez left.
    “I can never thank her enough for volunteering to become interim director during that time,” said Brown.
    During her six months at the helm, Hayes introduced several new programs — including an adult coloring club — and led the effort to automate cataloging, saving about 15 hours of staff time each week.
    “I had a wonderful team to work with,” she said. “I really enjoyed my time as interim director.”

'There is no one here who can guarantee how this is going to unfold,’ state Rep. Bill Hager said

about a new bill targeting dubious practices associated with the drug-rehab industry. He spoke during

a news conference at Delray Beach City Hall. ABOVE: Hager (center) is flanked by (l-r) Neal McGarry,

executive director of the Florida Certification Board; John Lehman, president of the Florida Association

of Recovery Residences; Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein, and state Sen. Jeff Clemens.

Glickstein described the industry as Delray Beach’s most intractable problem.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Nick Madigan

    Even as state legislators and Delray Beach officials outlined new measures in December to strengthen their armory of tools in the fray against an onslaught of troublesome and poorly run sober homes, they acknowledged doubt over the potential effectiveness of those efforts.
     “There is no one here who can guarantee how this is going to unfold,” Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, said during a news conference at which the measures were announced.
    His uncertainty was echoed by John Lehman, president of the Florida Association of Recovery Residences, the entity chosen by the Department of Children and Families to establish a voluntary credentialing system for the unregulated sober homes and apartments. They act as halfway houses for people recovering from substance use disorders but are often problematic for the residential neighborhoods that surround them.
    “We don’t think this is going to be a miracle solution,” Lehman said, referring to the legislative measures. “We will not be able to clear all this up in short order, but we are committed to the process.”
    Delray Beach officials estimate there are least 850 sober homes in the city, with more opening on a regular basis. When treatment facilities are added to the tally, the approximate number rises to well over 2,000.  
    Some of the sober homes, also known as recovery residences, have themselves become de facto treatment centers, in violation of licensing and zoning laws. Drugs are provided and tests of dubious efficacy performed in order to claim brazenly inflated insurance reimbursements.   
    A federal task force headed by the FBI is investigating some sober homes and treatment centers for financial malfeasance, including widespread allegations of insurance fraud and kickbacks from treatment facilities to sober homes in exchange for referrals. A grand jury is expected to hand down indictments soon.
    Delray Beach residents, some in expensive beachfront neighborhoods, have seen their lives disrupted by relapsed addicts shuffling through the streets, dropping hypodermic needles in their wake and being carted off in ambulances when they overdose. Deaths from such incidents — particularly as a result of heroin use — have risen markedly in Delray Beach in the last few years, according to city employees who prefer to remain anonymous.  
    “I have had to contend with picking up used needles, drug paraphernalia and empty alcohol bottles on a regular basis,” said Joanne Varga, who lives on Northeast Sixth Avenue, across the street from a residential recovery facility, formerly a motel. “We have had many attempted break-ins and our cars broken into, with shattered windows and stolen property.”

Federal laws hamper locals
    Officials in Delray Beach say they are constrained by federal law from enforcing local ordinances that might lessen the worst of the homes’ effects on neighborhoods, let alone from evicting their clients and closing the places for good, as some residents have demanded.
    Under the law, addictions are considered a disability, and both the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act preclude any action against disabled people and their living environments that could be construed as discriminatory. Hence the voluntary nature of Florida House Bill 21, which became law in June last year and established not only the credentialing system but that such homes be open to random inspections and their employees subject to criminal background checks.
    The teeth in the law lie in a provision set to take effect in July, under which treatment centers — which are regulated as medical facilities and where addicts are ostensibly detoxed under doctors’ supervision — will be permitted to refer patients only to sober homes that are certified. The thinking is that those recovery residences that do not meet certification standards, or which choose to operate outside the system, will ultimately fail because treatment centers will not be sending them the residents they need to stay open.
    Another proposal, Senate Bill 1138, introduced at last month’s news conference by state Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, would target unethical marketing and business practices at both treatment centers and sober homes. One of the practices at issue involves enticing clients with free rent and other perks at recovery residences as long as the clients seek medical help at particular treatment centers, which then collect hefty insurance payouts that they share with the sober homes.
    In an indication of how fraught the conditions are in some of the facilities, Clemens’ bill asserts that people staying in residential treatment centers or recovery residences have “the right to a safe living environment free from drugs, alcohol, harassment, abuse and harm.”
    Addicts who fail in their attempts at recovery or who get kicked out of sober homes because they did not follow the rules “end up on the street, still suffering from an addiction,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said in a telephone interview. “And they become victims of crime — or perpetrators of crime.”
    Glickstein, who described the “unaccountable and hugely profitable” residential recovery industry as Delray Beach’s most intractable problem, said his office was working with Rep. Lois Frankel, a Democrat who represents Florida’s 22nd Congressional district, to amend language in federal administrative rules and the Fair Housing Act so that local governments can have solid standing in their efforts against wayward sober homes and other facilities.
    “It provides the legal cover for us to start regulating what is a completely unregulated industry,” the mayor said. “That’s the hope. It’s the best we’re going to get, given the FHA and the ADA as they exist. We have bad actors exploiting federal laws that are not intended for this purpose.”
    The mayor described sober homes that “are run like barracks,” many of them “off the grid” until police receive a call about some criminal activity. “The officers show up, expecting two adults in the house and they walk in and it’s a sober home with eight or 10 adults in there,” Glickstein said. “The police can’t even note it on a report.”
    Although he noted that there are many legitimate players in the rehabilitation and recovery industry who genuinely try to help people with addictions and whose “heart is in the right place,” Glickstein said the collateral damage on the city from the “tidal wave of bad actors” is almost incalculable.
    “A significant percentage of nonviolent crime in Delray Beach can be ascribed to the transient population that lives in these sober homes and is affiliated with this rehab industry,” said Glickstein, who plans to invite Frankel and Gustavo Velasquez, the assistant secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to Delray Beach in February “to show them firsthand what is going on.”
    Meanwhile, he said, the problem “is getting worse and we can’t do a thing about it.”
    Sitting outside the Starbucks café at U.S. 1 and Atlantic Avenue one afternoon in mid-December, a man who identified himself only as Steve said he had lived in a sober home for a time about a year and a half ago, along with as many as eight or nine other people. He ended up managing the place for about six months.
    “It helped me get where I am today,” said Steve, a 32-year-old native of Baltimore who has lived in Florida since he was 10. “I’m in recovery.”
    But there were problems. “The person I worked for was all about the money, not so much about anybody else,” Steve said. “I witnessed how the clients were being treated. If someone was late for curfew, or they relapsed, he just looked the other way. He didn’t abide by the rules himself. Due to what was going on, I got in the right mind to quit — before anything else got worse.”

Part II: Coming in February

Ocean Ridge Town Clerk Karen Hancsak sits at her post on the Town Hall dais. She retires Jan. 29.

Photo by Tim Stepien

By Dan Moffett

    Ocean Ridge is bracing itself for a case of institutional amnesia the likes of which few communities have ever seen.
    On Jan. 29, Town Clerk Karen Hancsak is retiring after 35 years as an employee. When she walks out the door for the last time, she takes with her a cache of knowledge about Ocean Ridge that is irreplaceable.
    Not only does Hancsak know where all the proverbial bodies are buried in the town, she can tell you who dug the graves, where they bought their shovels, whether they paid with cash or credit, and who picked up the check for dinner afterward.
    “She constitutes our ‘institutional memory’ when it comes to the history of ordinances, agenda items, elections and budgets these past three decades,” says Commissioner Richard Lucibella. “Perhaps more than any other employee, she has shaped the culture of our staff with her professionalism and willingness to always go the extra mile.”
    There has been a recurring event at town meetings over the years that, in some circles, is known as “the Hancsakian moment.”
    It goes like this: A commissioner gets stumped on some obscure historical detail and looks for help from colleagues on the dais. The mayor and vice mayor shrug and kick it to the town manager, who passes to the town attorney. Nothing.
    Then, as one, they all look to the clerk’s seat, where invariably Hancsak has her hand raised and the answer waiting.
    “Karen was the first person I met in the Town Hall over 20 years ago when I wanted to get a new seawall,” says Mayor Geoff Pugh. “She was knowledgeable, helpful and kind — quite a contrast to most building departments. Among other things, she has been the town’s historian and oracle. She knows the code backward, forward and sideways. I for one will truly miss her.”
    In her 35 years, Hancsak has worked with 25 commissioners, nine town managers, four police chiefs and four deputy clerks. She has served as interim town manager twice.
    “When I started out, the number of children in town was probably less than 10,” Hancsak says. “It was more of a retirement community and more seasonal. Now Ocean Ridge is more of a business, working community with lots of families. And we’re all built out.”
    She watched the 9/11 attacks from Town Hall, and also the Challenger disaster. She can tell you how Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne pummeled Town Hall in 2004 and blew off the steeple, and how a small plane crashed into the facade of the new Town Hall while it was being built in 2008 — and how the pilot walked away unscathed. She and former Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi picked out the furnishings for the new hall.
    “We went shopping looking for carpeting, furniture and appliances,” Hancsak says. “It almost seemed like we were a couple for a while.”
    Hancsak succeeded legendary Town Clerk Rita Taylor, now with Gulf Stream, as Ocean Ridge clerk in 1990, and things were stormy from the outset. A month after getting sworn into office, Hancsak had to handle a dead-heat election between Commissioner Vera Klein and challenger Weldon Yeager, who tied with 269 votes.
    An unflappable Hancsak enlisted a Boynton Beach employee who happened to be in Town Hall to pull a name out of a blue Gap shopping bag to break the deadlock. “The incumbent lost by that method,” she says.
    Originally from Long Island, N.Y., Hancsak was fresh out of Lake Worth High School in 1980 when she took a $9,000-a-year job with the town as a police dispatcher. Eight years later, Taylor had a deputy clerk opening and Hancsak claimed it. She calls Taylor, who has done municipal clerk work for more than 40 years, her mentor.
    “As a young girl, she worked out beautifully, right from the beginning,” Taylor recalls. “She was a natural. I was just tickled to death to have her. Now I’m happy that she’s stayed with the town this whole time, right to retirement.”
    Hancsak’s husband, Bill, a security specialist with the South Florida Water Management District, also is retiring on Jan. 29 and the two are moving to Swansboro, N.C. Their son, Andrew, was just hired as a police officer in North Miami, so there’s added reason to visit South Florida.
    “It goes by in a flash, the 35 years,” Hancsak says. “I really like this town.”
    And the town likes her. As a going-away gesture, commissioners unanimously voted to give her two months’ pay ($13,000) to cover all the questions she’ll have to answer the next couple of months as she trains her replacement.
    “Karen has been an invaluable asset to the town of Ocean Ridge,” Lucibella said. “She’ll be deeply missed by each and every one of us.”

There will be an open house at Ocean Ridge Town Hall,  6450 N. Ocean Blvd. from 3-5 p.m. Jan. 29  for residents, friends and vendors to share memories and goodbyes with Hancsak. For information, call 732-2635.