As I sit at my desk the day after Christmas — with several extra pounds on my waist and a purring office cat on my lap — I think about how much there is to be thankful for as we slip into the New Year.  
    Because I’m in the business of publishing a community newspaper, I also think about all that we need to keep an eye on in 2016. No matter how sated we may be with the sugar and tryptophan of the holidays, it’s important to remember that we can’t protect democracy by building gates around our personal desires and forgetting our place in the larger community.  
    Here are my top three local issues for the coming year:
    • Beach erosion: It isn’t going away. Even if you believe that pumping sand on public beaches is a waste of time and money, it does allow one of the main economic drivers of Florida (tourism) to continue. As our population increases (there are now 6 million people living in the South Florida corridor), there is a growing need for recreational space — and there are very few public beaches remaining. No matter how many gates we put up, tourists (and residents) will want to come to the beach. Those of us lucky enough to live along the shore need to take a broader look at the role beaches play in our economy and not succumb to an “I’ve got mine” mentality.
    • Sober homes: The recovery industry’s meteoric rise over the past few years has taken almost everyone by surprise. We’ve all known family, friends or neighbors who have battled with addiction and are thankful for professionals who provided assistance for this disease. What we didn’t expect was for the sober home industry to explode when laws and a lack of regulations provided access to easy money for those who prey on the needs of others.  
    Now we have the fourth-largest industry in Palm Beach County giving little back to the communities where they see the most potential profit. It’s become an issue for government agencies (aka our tax dollars) to deal with. Unless recovery industry leaders step up their efforts to police their own (it’s not like they don’t have the money), it’s going to take a long time for the wheels of government to provide a solution that benefits both the communities and the growing need for addiction treatment.
    • Guns for hire: Advance apologies to all my attorney friends, but it seems that no dispute (no matter how small) is settled in our area without costing thousands of dollars in legal fees. Again, much of this ends up being paid by the taxpayers. In meeting after meeting, I watch individuals, businesses and developers seek special allowances from local government by hiring well-connected lawyers who know what it takes behind the scenes to get things done. Can’t blame them, it’s how things work.  
    But after seven years of attending local government meetings, I see the same attorneys before our councils and commissions again and again and again. It becomes obvious that a very few people are behind the changes (good and bad) happening in our communities. Someone is profiting, and seldom is it the taxpayer.
    Will any of these concerns be mitigated or solved in the coming year? Doubtful. These are complex issues.  
    Still, I have hope for 2016.  
    Already I see citizens organizing and becoming better informed. In today’s changing media world, this is essential. It has become more and more important that traditional “follow-the-money” journalism be supplemented by courageous citizens who are willing to become part of the solution: solutions that work for everyone.

Mary Kate Leming,
Editor

A domestic abuse survivor, Jeannette DeOrchis will co-chair AVDA’s Heart of a  Woman Luncheon on Jan. 20.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    Jeannette DeOrchis has a great career as a certified financial planner and senior vice president at a large financial services firm.
    She has a strong marriage to one of the top surgeons in his field and has been honored for her work in the community.
    She is also a survivor of domestic abuse, both at the hands of an often brutal father and a former husband.
    More than a decade after the end of a drawn-out divorce, the coastal Delray Beach resident continues to be an inspiration to others who have endured emotional and physical abuse.
    DeOrchis, a board member of Delray Beach-based Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse — known as AVDA — will co-chair of the organization’s Heart of a Woman Luncheon this month, highlighting its 30 years of serving the community.
    For DeOrchis, who joined the AVDA board in 2010 after working with the organization for several years, her involvement is as much a tribute to those who were on her side during the dark years as it is a way of showing others that adversity can be overcome.
    “To me, it means everything to help women and children in the community who need help,” she said. “I was poor and abused. Being that so many people helped me rise from the desperate circumstances I was in during my childhood and my marriage, I wanted to help others in similar situations.”
    DeOrchis is grateful to those who were by her side during her years of living in fear.
    “Any person who ever helped me, I am beyond thankful,” she said. “It was as if they had handed me a Tiffany diamond.”
    DeOrchis grew up in a tough section of Pompano Beach in a home where abuse was a constant.
    “It was pure hell,” she says. “Every night was World War III. Coming home from school I never knew what I would encounter.”
    School became a refuge for DeOrchis, who read voraciously and discovered a particular interest in numbers.
    “At 10, it occurred to me that I had to somehow escape,” she said. “I discovered the concept of finance.”
    For two years, she skipped lunch at school and saved her lunch money, hiding it behind a picture frame in her room.  Her goal was to save enough to get a ticket to Massachusetts, where she could live with an aunt. But by the time she had enough money, her father had gone and she no longer needed to leave.
    Because her grades were so good, DeOrchis was able to earn a full scholarship to American University in Washington, D.C., where she studied finance and graduated cum laude.
    She returned to Florida and met her first husband, whom she married at 25. Emotional and psychological abuse started a year into the marriage and eventually turned physical.  
    After six years, DeOrchis filed for divorce. During the two years it took for the divorce to be finalized the psychological abuse became severe.
    “I was afraid during the divorce,” said DeOrchis, who for privacy purposes requested that her age and her employer not be disclosed. “It’s a terrible feeling to be hunted like an animal.”
    There was a point, she says, where she obtained a restraining order with the help of AVDA and considered going into hiding.
    “I was very close to moving into the shelter,” she said.
    Today, DeOrchis is married to her husband, Doug, a surgeon, whom she knew from her days at American University. They had lost touch for 28 years until about six years ago and were reunited when he moved to Florida to work at a local hospital and discovered she was still here.
    Despite all the adversity, she is not surprised by the successes she now enjoys.
    “As a child, I would say prayers to God to help me escape and at the end I would say I just know that somehow my life is going to be better.”

By Dan Moffett

    During Jamie Titcomb’s interviews for the Ocean Ridge town manager’s job last summer, he told commissioners that one of his strongest attributes was an ability to assemble talented teams of employees.
    Titcomb didn’t have to look far to choose his first team member in December. He picked Tracey Stevens to be the town’s new clerk after working with her in Melbourne Beach much of last year.
    “I’m personally familiar with her work ethic, her personal ethics and her quality of product,” Titcomb said, and he told commissioners he wanted to “find the most credentialed and experienced” clerk among the 12 candidates who applied.
    Before moving to Melbourne Beach last year, Stevens spent 11 years as a town clerk and municipal employee in Maine, working in very nontropical communities such as Fairfield, Lewiston, Waterville and Augusta. She was named Maine Town Clerk of the Year in 2014, after winning Rookie Town Clerk of the Year in 2007.
    “I was a certified instructor for voter registration,” Stevens said, “and worked alongside the deputy secretary of state to make sure all of the clerks and deputy clerks in Maine were properly trained.”
    Town commissioners unanimously approved Stevens’ hiring at a salary of $65,500 during the Dec. 7 meeting. She replaces Karen Hancsak, who is retiring after 35 years as an Ocean Ridge employee.
    Unlike Hancsak, however, Stevens will not be in charge of producing the town’s budgets. That task will fall to Titcomb beginning this year.
    The next step in overhauling Ocean Ridge’s administrative lineup is expected to come during the Jan. 4 town meeting when commissioners consider a replacement for Town Attorney Ken Spillias, who is retiring in February. Seven applicants are in the running for that job.
    
In other business:
    • The town will have a contested commission seat in the March 15 municipal election. Steve Coz has filed to challenge incumbent Vice Mayor Lynn Allison. Coz, who serves as an alternate on the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission, has been an outspoken proponent of increased beach controls and improving the town’s response to traffic problems from growth in communities across the bridge.
    Allison has been vice mayor since 2010, after first winning a seat on the commission in 2004. Commissioners serve three-year terms.
    • The town will hold a public workshop at 6 p.m. Jan. 26 to consider restricting access to Old Ocean Boulevard. The commission will hear residents’ comments on Mayor Geoff Pugh’s proposal to turn Old Ocean into a promenade.
    Meanwhile, the town has closed the entrance to Midlane Road at the Woolbright Road intersection for a six-month trial period.
    • Commissioners approved spending $117,000 for three new police vehicles — two 2016 Ford Interceptor Explorers and a new Dodge Charger sedan. Police Chief Hal Hutchins said about $4,000 of the cost will go toward upgrading the vehicles with radios that are compliant with the regional agency network.

By Jane Smith
    
    Delray Beach officials took the high road when responding to the second amended complaint filed by the Atlantic Crossing developers in federal court for the Southern District of Florida.
    The response, filed Dec. 14, kept to the legal issues of the complaint and why it should be dismissed. Many, the response said, were not ready to be heard, failed to state a cause of action or follow proper procedures when suing a municipality.
    “The city is contractually entitled to require a connector road between Northeast Seventh Avenue and U.S. Highway 1 and to demand reconveyance of the abandoned alleys when the plaintiffs fail to meet the conditions of their agreements,” the city’s response said.
    The complaint had alleged the mayor and two commissioners had wanted to stop the project from being built.
    The proposed $200 million Atlantic Crossing sits on 9.2 acres at the northeast corner of Federal Highway and East Atlantic Avenue in the city’s downtown. The project, developed by a partnership between Ohio-based Edwards Companies and Ocean Ridge resident Carl DeSantis, will contain 356 luxury condos and apartments plus 80,000 square feet of restaurants and shops and 79,000 square feet of office space.
    “We are reviewing the city’s filing and will respond in the court. We are confident this matter will proceed, and we’ll continue the legal process until our property rights are secure,” Don DeVere, Edwards Companies vice president, said.
    “At the same time, we are always open to working with the city to reach an amicable settlement. Toward that end, we’ve already submitted an application for a site plan modification that would include an access drive from the core of the project at Northeast Seventh Avenue to U.S. 1, and are working with the city to confirm a timetable to complete that process. If we can obtain approval of this application, we could then settle all of the issues in the lawsuit with the city.”  
    The Planning and Zoning Department received the amended site plan and is reviewing it to see whether the connector road will mitigate traffic concerns the City Commission had, said Tim Stillings, department director.
    The plan contains the same road configuration that the city’s traffic engineering consultant, Rob Rennebaum of Simmons & White, reviewed in June and deemed “just slightly better” than the two-way configuration that could create  “internal conflicts in the central core.”
    In the meantime, the other partner, DeSantis, sent a letter Nov. 27 to a group of Delray Beach residents appealing to them “to stand with us and ask city commissioners and staff to facilitate these steps so that we can get underway.”
    When his spokesman, Jeff Perlman, was contacted about the letter, he sent this response for property owner CDS International Holdings via email:  “Since City Hall has been reluctant to settle, it was time to go directly to the people. The fact is Atlantic Crossing was approved by the Delray Beach City Commission two years ago, but has been held up at every turn since then, even though it is fully compliant with the city’s land use regulations and requires no variances or waivers.”
    The developers sued the city in June, claiming the city has not issued a site-plan certification that was approved in November 2013 and affirmed by a previous City Commission in January 2014.
    The case was moved to federal court in October when damages sought by the developers rose to $25 million.
    The lawsuit has a late May trial date in federal court in West Palm Beach with U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks. It also was assigned a federal magistrate, Dave Lee Brannon, who can help arrange settlement or mediation discussions. A pretrial conference is set for May 25.

    In your last issue, I read a letter submitted by Ed Harris of the National Humane Society. In it he suggests that the collection of ivory is a barbaric, horrendous and shameful hobby that should be ended.
    It is well-known that his group is attempting to ban all sales of any object made wholly or in part from animal ivory. This would include antiquities purchased legally by passionate and responsible collectors. Such a ban would render their collections worthless.
    This type of ban would include furniture with inlays, early painted portraits, pool tables and balls, walking sticks, chess sets, historic arms, scientific instruments, scrimshaw, musical instru-ments such as pianos, guitars, bagpipes, violin bows, etc. The one thing Mr. Harris does get right is that the major cause of this horrific act of elephant poaching is demand in China and other Asian countries for the ivory tusks. On the other hand, he conveniently fails to mention the long-standing U.S. laws that prohibit any type of importation or purchase of modern ivory. Facts show that there is little to no interest in America for modern carved ivory trinkets and that most ivory trade takes place within the antiques world.
    It is urgent and important that the world work to combat elephant and rhino poaching; but at the same time the rights of Americans, who have done nothing illegal, must be protected as well.
    Destroying fine antiquities and their value will do nothing to save the life of another elephant but could well have a serious impact on the financial well-being of many law-abiding collectors who were planning on the value of their antiques collections to help fund their retirements.   
John Rinaldi
Delray Beach

Florida Highway Patrol Officer Paul Croy speaks to a group of cyclists he pulled over in Highland Beach

after observing them violating a law regarding road-sharing. None of the cyclists received a ticket.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    Highland Beach Police Officer Paul Shersty was driving south along State Road A1A one Saturday morning when he noticed a car continue through a dedicated crosswalk just as two pedestrians began to cross.
    Shersty turned on his lights and pulled the car over.
    Rather than write a ticket, he issued the driver a verbal warning.
    The verbal warning was one of three issued to motorists during targeted enforcement efforts along State Road A1A last month coordinated by the South Florida Safe Roads Task Force.
    The enforcement efforts, conducted mainly during a Saturday and Sunday morning, were part of a weeklong education campaign designed to raise awareness of the need for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians to safely share the road. The effort involved police officers from towns and cities up and down the coast, as well as Florida Highway Patrol troopers.
    “The campaign was not designed to write tickets,” said Tara Applebaum, spokeswoman for the Safe Roads Task Force and executive director of Dori Saves Lives/The Dori Slosberg Foundation. “All of the agencies involved in the task force are looking to create awareness of major issues that are causing serious injuries and fatalities.”
    To help get the word out, the task force placed several message boards along State Road A1A during the week of Dec. 7 to let those using the road know that a vehicle-, bicycle- and pedestrian-safety campaign was in effect.
    During those targeted efforts, law enforcement officers wrote 25 citations to motorists, five citations to bicyclists and three tickets to pedestrians.
    Officers also wrote 21 warnings to bicyclists and issued close to 200 verbal warnings to them, most coming when officers or troopers pulled over packs of riders.
    During one stop in Highland Beach, Trooper Paul Croy pulled over a group of more than 30 bicyclists, reminding them of the need to share the road and not impede the regular flow of traffic whenever possible.
    “We’re here to protect you all,” he told them.
    Later, Croy and other troopers pulled over a pack of bicyclists after one of the troopers said he saw some of them taking up much of the southbound lane of State Road A1A and impeding traffic. Two citations were issued.
    The leader of at least one bicycle club, zMotion, says his group has made an effort in recent years to ensure riders share the road and remain safe.
    “zMotion and a lot of the other clubs have really scaled back and focused on obeying the laws,” says Chris Hoch, the group’s executive director.
    Hoch said that each group of riders has a ride captain — or more, depending on the size of the group — who reviews the laws with the group and works to make sure the rules are being followed. “The captains are the ones who make sure everyone is safe and not breaking any laws,” Hoch said.
    Task force members say they plan to conduct additional enforcement efforts later this year and are discussing the possibility of hosting a safety fair.
    “Human nature is to get complacent, so we’re continuing the education process for everyone involved,” said Highland Beach Police Lt. Eric Lundberg, one of the founders of the task force.

By Dan Moffett

    It should surprise no one in Gulf Stream that Mayor Scott Morgan and the town’s two litigious residents, Martin O’Boyle and Chris O’Hare, look back on 2015 with radically different opinions about their dueling court cases.
    O’Boyle and O’Hare have dozens of lawsuits pending against the town, most dealing with hundreds of public records requests. In recent months the two men have publicly trumpeted their successes.
    Most notable is a federal judge’s dismissal of the town’s RICO conspiracy suit against them in June, a decision the town is appealing. Then in November, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Richard Oftedal made a similar ruling, and dismissed the town’s request for an injunction that would have prevented the two men from making more requests for public records.
    O’Boyle and O’Hare have criticized Gulf Stream’s legal counterattacks against them and the resulting bill for taxpayers of about $1 million in attorneys’ fees over the past year.
    But Morgan believes that, despite the setbacks, the fight-back legal strategy is paying off. The mayor cites several successes.
    “One is the O’Boyle Law Firm, which everyone knows was started by Mr. O’Boyle and run by his son, and which really was the scourge of the state of Florida, across municipalities in every county of the state,” Morgan said during the Dec. 11 town meeting. “Most of its lawyers have fled and the couple left are handling the existing cases they have. But its effectiveness is really in question.”
    The O’Boyle firm is “essentially denuded,” the mayor said, and he cited the reported demise of Citizens Awareness Foundation, Inc., a group affiliated with O’Boyle, as another positive sign.
    “That sham nonprofit organization set up by Mr. O’Boyle to be essentially the bank of money that would come in from all those public records cases, it would be tax-free as well,” Morgan said, “that company is essentially shut down.”
    The mayor said that Joel Chandler, the former executive director of CAFI, has “turned whistleblower and he will shortly be testifying on behalf of the town of Gulf Stream” against O’Boyle and O’Hare.
    “So with that in mind, I think we’ve had a pretty good year,” Morgan said. “Keep things in perspective, and stay the course.”
    O’Hare used expletives to characterize the mayor’s assessment.
    “A bunch of lies, sir,” he told Morgan. “You are full of bull.”
    Oftedal made two more rulings in December that went in favor of O’Hare and O’Boyle. The judge denied the town’s request to consolidate dozens of the cases, and he rejected a motion for a rehearing on the November ruling.
    O’Boyle told the commission that he is willing to sit down and negotiate a settlement. He blamed the town’s attorneys for refusing to come to the table, and commissioners for “squandering dollars” of taxpayers on legal defenses. Morgan has said repeatedly that the town is willing to enter negotiations as soon as the two men drop their lawsuits.
    “You’re using our money,” O’Boyle told the commission. “There is no accountability with you folks, and that I find to be outrageous. … The town in my opinion has forgotten many of the basic tenets of honor and integrity, and it’s my belief they’re out of control.”

The new Florida congressional map includes redrawn South Florida boundaries:
District 21 - Ted Deutch
District 22 - Lois Frankel.
Deutch and Frankel have agreed to switch districts.
SOURCE: League of Women Voters

By Dan Moffett

    After months of uncertainty over redistricting, a state Supreme Court ruling and a handshake between Democratic allies appear to have cleared up congressional boundaries for coastal constituents.
    In a 5-2 opinion in December, the Florida Supreme Court signed off on a map for the 27 districts that was submitted by the Florida League of Women Voters and approved by Tallahassee Circuit Judge Terry Lewis in October.
    Shortly after, U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, and Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, surprised many political pundits by agreeing to switch districts in the new configuration. Deutch, who currently represents congressional District 21, will run for the newly redrawn District 22 seat, as Frankel gives up District 22 and moves to the new District 21.
    Confused? You probably should be. But here’s what it means for Palm Beach County’s coastal communities:
    Deutch will represent Highland Beach and Boca Raton, with the rest of his district falling south into Broward County.
    Frankel will represent an all-Palm Beach County district that includes Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth, Gulf Stream, Briny Breezes, Ocean Ridge, Manalapan, South Palm Beach, Lantana and Hypoluxo.
    Frankel, the former mayor of West Palm Beach, said the decision to move north was made easy because of her close allegiance with Deutch.
    “I have deep respect for Ted Deutch’s tireless service to South Florida along with great affection for him as a friend. His decision to run in the new Broward-based seat reflects his long commitment to serving the community where he has worked and raised his family,” Frankel said in a statement.
    “As the junior member of the South Florida delegation, I will honor his decision as I look to represent Palm Beach County in 2016. More importantly, Ted and I will remain focused on tackling the challenges of South Florida together, for as long as our constituents continue to elect us.”
    Deutch lives west of Boca Raton in unincorporated Palm Beach County, a residence that actually sits in Frankel’s new district. House members are not required to live in their districts, however.
    “Rep. Deutch will continue to maintain the strong connections he and his family have had for many years with Boca Raton and Highland Beach,” a spokeswoman said.
    The new districts will be in effect for the November 2016 elections.

By Jane Smith
    
    After months of butting heads on the future of the Old School Square grounds, the City Commission and Community Redevelopment Agency board sat down and agreed to redo the process to upgrade the green space, often called the “Central Park” of Delray Beach.
    “Keep it simple,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said. “Don’t let the designers and architects drive the process,” he added, recalling the message delivered by Fred Kent at a Town Hall lecture last year. Kent, a part-time resident, is an authority on revitalizing city places.
    “We need to stop using it as a fairgrounds,” the mayor said. The grounds host the Garlic Fest, Bacon & Bourbon Fest and the Craft Beer Fest. The city will limit the number of festivals there starting in the fall.
    The city’s Green Market, run by the CRA, also uses the grounds weekly during the season.
    The grounds are part of a four-acre historic area that includes the two former city schools and gym and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
    The CRA had budgeted $1 million for improvements and planned to get them started after the season ended in May, but city commissioners questioned that expense when other areas in the CRA district still need alleys and sidewalks.
    The city owns the property and would have to approve the changes before the money was spent.
    Plus, commissioners agreed the improvements proposed by Currie Sowards Aguila Architects of Delray Beach called for too much stuff squeezed into a small area — water features, more pavement to avoid annual sodding of the grounds and futuristic elements.
    Commissioners also agreed with the mayor’s idea of restraint being needed when redoing the grounds.
    Now the CRA will go back to the drawing board, holding community forums around the city to find out what residents want done on the Old School Square grounds. The outdoor restrooms and concession stand likely will be razed.
    The joint meeting was held Dec. 8, just the second time the two groups met last year. At the April meeting, both groups talked about getting together quarterly so that they are on the same page when it comes to deciding how to spend residents’ tax dollars.
    CRA board member Cathy Balestriere had pushed for the December meeting. Her first comment was, “I’m happy to be here.”
    CRA Executive Director Jeff Costello put two Hershey kisses at each place at the table. Then he went out of the room to give the chocolate candies to residents and staffers waiting for the meeting to begin.
    He started the meeting by giving a snapshot of the CRA budget, but Glickstein wanted to know the totality of the plan for each neighborhood in the CRA’s district. City Manager Donald Cooper said he would put together a list of alleys and sidewalks in terms of what’s done and what is needed.
    The meeting ended before the two groups could set the next date, but staff will handle that scheduling.
    At the end, Vice Mayor Shelly Petrolia asked, “Is everyone kumbaya?”

Tom and Mary Thornton laugh as they are presented with gifts at the Dec. 15 Manalapan Town Commission

meeting by Mayor David Cheifetz and Town Manager Linda Stumpf.  Commissioners passed a resolution

honoring Tom Thornton, a former commissioner, for his decade of service at Town Hall and his wife, Mary,

for her leadership role in renovating the town’s library. ‘Tom and Mary have always served the town

with enthusiasm and skill,’ Cheifetz said. ‘I personally will sorely miss them, as will everyone on the podium

and in the town.’ Avid golfers, the Thorntons are moving to the city of Atlantis.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

    An engineering misstep will force Manalapan to keep weight restrictions on its Audubon Causeway bridge for a couple of months longer than expected while workers replace the aging span.
    Commissioner Peter Isaac said when engineers originally drew up the project, they failed to take into account moving Florida Power & Light poles during the bridge demolition. Dealing with the power poles means that it could take until April to remove weight limits and allowing heavy trucks and service vehicles to use the bridge.
    “It’s the only substantive difference” in the construction plan so far, Isaac said. Drawdy Construction of Lake Worth, the lead contractor, still believes the new span will be completed by July.
    “I guess we’re on schedule with the revised schedule,” Isaac said.
    He says residents shouldn’t be misled by a lack of workers and activity at the construction site itself. During the early weeks of the project, the contractor has been doing fabrication work offsite on structural members, getting them ready for installation and assembly as construction picks up steam in January.
    The new bridge will be 1 foot higher and wider than the current structure, with a functional life expectancy of about 50 years. The town still hopes to hold construction costs to about $800,000.
    “Contrary to rumor,” Isaac said, “there has been progress on the bridge.”
    In other business: All three incumbent town commissioners who were up for re-election — Clark Appleby, Ronald Barsanti and Simone Bonutti — filed for another term and were unchallenged. So Manalapan voters won’t have any local choices to make at the polls on March 15.
    “I’m delighted our team remains intact,” said Mayor David Cheifetz. “We don’t have an election. That’s great.”
    The Town Commission swore in a new but familiar member and said goodbye to a departing one during the Dec. 15 meeting.
    Former Mayor Basil Diamond rejoined the commission, filling the Manalapan Point seat vacated by Tom Thornton, who has moved out of town.
    Diamond served as mayor from 2011 to 2013 after holding a commission seat for six years.

By Jane Smith

    Drama continues to swirl around the iPic movie theater as it makes its way through the Delray Beach approval process.
    The proposed luxury movie theater just south of the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Federal Highway will have to return to the city’s Site Plan Review and Appearance Board. The site plan was tabled Dec. 16 because it lacked details allowing the members to judge whether the project meets the city code for such areas as lighting, landscaping, parking and security.
    IPic’s agent, land-use attorney Bonnie Miskel, said her client could get the information in time for the Jan. 14 board meeting.
    The company wants to build a high-end movie theater where tickets cost $15 to $25, with 497 luxury seats in eight theaters, topped by two floors of office space and a nearby parking garage with 315 spaces.
    According to the board, the site plan lacked a loading zone area; a parking agreement with the city and its Community Redevelopment Agency for the 90 public spaces in the garage; and a security program for the complex —including the third-floor terrace that would be open to the public.
    Its members also pointed out other flaws, such as an insufficient turning radius for valet drivers to get into the garage, and the location of the movie theater’s garbage containers across two lanes of traffic on the other side of the valet stand. Also, its lighting segment did not meet city code, board member Andrew Youngross said.
    “It’s just too much for the site,” said Jose Aguila, board chairman.
    The board granted three waivers requested: no rear setback space, because the Martini property it abuts would be one iPic plans to buy and incorporate into the project; not meeting the building frontage requirements for the first and second floors; and no windows along Federal Highway because it is a movie theater.
    Principal planner Scott Pape said at the meeting that stairwells and elevator shafts are not part of the measured height.
    IPic wants to use elevator technology that gives users a fast ride and needs to have the equipment at the top of the shaft and not at the bottom. Doing so would add 10 feet to the building’s proposed height of 59.5 feet, but that increase was not mentioned in Pape’s report.
    Eleven people spoke during the public comment section.
    Karen Granger, executive director of the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, was the most effusive.
“We should be rolling out the welcome mat to them,” she told the board members.
    Sandy Zeller, president of the Marina Historic District Homeowners Association, spoke about the traffic impacts in his neighborhood. According to a May traffic study included with the plan, theater traffic approaching from the east would be directed into his neighborhood, he said.
    The iPic development team had submitted a new traffic study in November that reflects the two-way traffic on Southeast First Street and no longer directs traffic into the Marina district.
    But Zeller thinks traffic still will cut through his neighborhood when Atlantic Avenue is clogged. That’s why he wants the iPic owners to pay into a traffic mitigation fund managed by the city that would put streetlights into the Marina district.
    After the meeting, he said the iPic site plan was not ready to be submitted to the board.
    “That was pointed out by the board members, who are volunteers, and not the city’s planning staff. I’m disappointed,” said Zeller, who is a lawyer for municipal planning and development boards in New Jersey.
    The previous night, the iPic team faced a skeptical CRA board when it tried to amend the sales agreement for the fifth time. The CRA owns the 1.6 acres known as the “old library site.”
    Just after the CRA board members sat at the dais Dec. 15, they were given the latest contract proposal that said iPic would move its headquarters provided the city would issue a certificate of occupancy by March 31, 2018. Miskel said her client was able to negotiate a lease extension with its Mizner Park landlords during the construction period.
    But CRA board member Daniel Rose and Chairman Reggie Cox objected because the agency has no control over when the city issues that certificate. The board deadlocked on that vote, and Miskel and her team left the meeting.
    The CRA attorney then advised that the move could be considered a “technical default” leading to a breach of contract.
    The board members reconsidered and agreed to a May 31 deadline for approvals and an Oct. 31 deadline to close the sale. They also switched the language to say: 30 days after the certificate of occupancy is issued, iPic must open a movie theater and move its headquarters to Delray Beach.
    When the sales contract was drafted in 2013, it did not contain any type of “poison pill” the CRA could extract from iPic, if it failed to perform as promised, board member Rose said at an October meeting.
    He wanted to see stronger language in the contract about iPic’s agreeing to move its corporate headquarters to Delray Beach and consequences added before he would agree to extend the contract a fifth time.
    Rose, who is a lawyer, persuaded his colleagues to agree only to a short time extension until Jan. 31 to allow the CRA attorney to negotiate with Miskel and her team and bring that deal back to the board for approval.
    The negotiated deal failed to mention the headquarters move. The weekend before the CRA meeting, when speaking to a downtown merchants group, Miskel said her client was not contractually obligated to move its headquarters to the new building, according to people who attended the meeting.
    The total iPic office building is listed as rentable for $30 a square foot on LoopNet.com, a website that lists commercial real estate for lease or sale.
    In other action, the board agreed to have its staff advertise for letters of interest for its Arts Warehouse. The request would be advertised on Dec. 20 with a Jan. 26 deadline.

By Jane Smith
    
    Delray Beach is starting an ambitious review of its comprehensive plan, Planning and Zoning Director Tim Stillings told commissioners at their second December meeting. The revision will take nearly two years to complete, he said.
    The plan, required by Florida law, must be evaluated every seven years, he said. The last evaluation was finished in 2008.
    Since then, in 2011 the state Legislature repealed part of the law that required new development to be able to handle the impacts it made on various public services, such as roads and schools. But the city wants to consider these potential impacts as it reviews a revised plan.
    “The main emphasis is on the community plans and to make sure the comp plan reflects them,” Stillings said.
    Since 2011, the economy and real estate market have picked up, he said. The city also has completed the Federal Highway improvements and is assessing the Congress Avenue corridor.
    The state requires nine elements in comp plans: future land use, transportation, housing, public facilities, coastal management, conservation, open space and recreation, intergovernmental coordination, and capital improvement.
    Delray Beach wants to add five others: economic development, historic preservation, healthy communities, sustainability and public education.
    The city planning staff has identified other influencing factors that also will be addressed, including sea level rise and climate change, beach protection and access, workforce housing, rehab and sober homes, parking management, and service levels.
    Early this year, Stillings  expects to hire a consultant to help his staff work on the plan.
    “The goal is to have a community-generated plan that looks out 10-plus years,” he told commissioners. The plan would be integrated with the city’s operating and capital improvement budgets and the redevelopment plans that Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council staffers are updating for the city.
    Mayor Cary Glickstein said he’d prefer to see the plan finished in 18 months. “Two years represents 20 percent of the plan’s life — theoretically,” he noted.

By Mary Thurwachter

    Never let it be said that Lantana Mayor David Stewart doesn’t enjoy a good challenge — especially when it comes to his town and reading to children. So when the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County invited the public to participate in Jumpstart’s 2015 Read for the Record on Oct. 22, Stewart and his team of volunteers rallied.
    The national celebration involves thousands of adults reading a nationally selected book on a single day each year to the most children ever.
    The Literacy Coalition coordinated more than 500 adults to volunteer and “Read for the Record” to more than 12,000 children in Palm Beach County. Mayors, like Stewart and Lake Worth’s Pam Triolo, and other public officials contributed to the record-breaking events.
    The Lantana readers — including Stewart, Town Manager Deborah Manzo, Town Clerk Crystal Gibson, members of the local Kiwanis Club and students from Santaluces High School (who got community service hours credit for their efforts) — met for instructions and assignments.
    “You’ve got to know the book by heart,” said Stewart, “and you’ve got to get down on the floor with the kids.”
    The chosen book, Not Norman: A Goldfish Story, by Kelly Bennett, is a lighthearted tale of a little boy who finds a friend in an unexpected place.
    Manzo, who was on vacation at the time but came to read anyway, even brought in a goldfish with bowl and gave it to one of the schools.
    The team visited every elementary school and day care center in the town and read to 610 students in the 5- to 6-year age group. That number earned the town top honors in the Literacy Coalition’s small municipalities (20,000 or under) competition.
    “Lantana has been winning for years,” Stewart said, “but last year Palm Springs out-read us.” This year, Palm Springs, due to population growth, found itself in the large city category.
    “They (Palm Springs volunteers) made me a goldfish hat,” Stewart said. He proudly modeled the hat, made of pink construction paper, at the Dec. 14 council meeting.
    The prize for Lantana was a large basket of children’s books, which will be given to either the town library or to Lantana Elementary School’s Reading Oasis, a partnership between a book publisher (Scholastic) and the local Kiwanis Club.

The Delray Beach portion of the East Coast Greenway (green line)

next goes to the Florida Department of Transportation for approval.

Map provided

By Jane Smith
    
    Delray Beach will join cities from Maine to Key West to create an “Urban Appalachian Trail.”
    At their Dec. 8 meeting, city commissioners unanimously approved the designation of the route along Federal Highway to George Bush Boulevard and along A1A to Highland Beach.
    “The designation will allow us to get grants,” said Randal Krejcarek, environmental services director. He also said the city has a local initiatives grant that can be used to add George Bush Boulevard to the trail.
    The East Coast Greenway currently connects cities in 15 Atlantic coastal states, with a goal of creating a 3,000-mile “spine route” from Maine to Florida. The Greenway would create an urban trail that can be used for recreation, exercise, transportation and tourism.
    The Florida Department of Transportation will be the next approval needed because it owns most of the right of way along those roads.
    Delray Beach has 3.1 miles of sidewalk that is 9.6 feet wide along the ocean and can be used as the trail for pedestrians and bicyclists, Krejcarek said. The sidewalks would have to be striped to create separate lanes for pedestrians and bicyclists.
    City staffers would work with the Greenway Alliance to post markers along the route to identify the trail as part of the national urban Greenway.
    In other action: The city’s employee parking pilot program was pulled from the agenda. City Manager Don Cooper later said the reason was over county concerns about its garage. The program calls for downtown employees to use the South County Courthouse garage in the off hours, a total of 350 spaces at a cost of $20 monthly per vehicle.
    Cooper said the program may come back in late January for commission approval or be incorporated into the city’s overall parking program.

By Jane Smith
    
    The city strengthened the future of its tree canopy in December by toughening an ordinance protecting shade trees.
    The first change was renaming the ordinance, last revised in 2008 and formerly called the Tree Ordinance. It is now known as Tree Preservation, Protection, Enforcement and Maintenance.
    The next change will bring the job of protecting specimen trees under the planning and zoning director, instead of the chief building official.
    Other changes for hardwood trees that need to be protected include: lowering the minimum diameter from 24 inches to 8 inches of the trunk measured at 41/2 feet above ground and not allowing palms to replace canopy trees. The revised ordinance also requires trees of 24 inches or less in diameter to be moved, if possible.
    The 2008 revision created a Tree Trust Fund in the city. In some cases, developers preferred to pay into the trust fund instead of preserving or moving the trees, wrote Tim Stillings, planning and zoning director, in an October memo to the City Commission.
    Fees and fines also will be increased, with a final determination of the amounts to come in June, Stillings said.
    Commissioners approved the changes by a 4-0 vote; Commissioner Al Jacquet had left the dais.
    In other business: On Dec. 8, city commissioners unanimously approved design and architectural changes to the city’s downtown and beach area. Highlights are: Seven architectural styles were identified as fitting the city’s image, along with a provision for mixing styles; and width is limited to 75 feet for storefronts on retail streets.
    The commissioners also took advantage of the coming change in ownership of its current trash hauler, Southern Waste Systems, to Waste Management to extract some deals for the city.
    Before the sale is closed, John Casagrande of Southern Waste gave the city the 13 big-belly solar trash compactors at the beach and also agreed to service the city’s parks on Sundays at the rate of $400, instead of $800. But he wanted to keep the cost increase that went into effect in October.

By Rich Pollack

    Health concerns have led to the temporary closing of two of Boynton Beach’s oldest fire stations, including the one responsible for responding to calls in most of Ocean Ridge under an agreement between the two municipalities.
    Boynton Beach Mayor Jerry Taylor said that following the October discovery of air-quality and other problems at Boynton Beach Fire Rescue’s Station 3 on Congress Avenue and Miner Road, the department began investigating the possibility of health issues at other stations. It found mold at Station 1 on Boynton Beach Boulevard, next to City Hall.
    Boynton Fire Rescue Chief Ray Carter said that Station 1, which was responsible for calls from portions of Ocean Ridge, has been closed since Dec. 9. He said he did not know when the stations would reopen.
    Carter said that since Station 1 shut down, all calls from Ocean Ridge have been handled by crews and apparatus from Station 4, on Federal Highway just south of Woolbright Road.
    “We have the residents of Ocean Ridge covered,” Mayor Taylor said. “They shouldn’t have any concerns. We’re fully up to speed.”
Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins said he too was not concerned about the temporary closing and has not noticed any significant negative impacts from closing the station.
     Hutchins said he spoke with Carter, who told him response times to the farthest part of Ocean Ridge should increase by only about 25 seconds.
    Hutchins said the fire and rescue equipment coming from Woolbright travels about a mile and a half farther than apparatus from Station 1 coming across the Ocean Avenue bridge. He said equipment that has been coming from Station 1 needed to cross railroad tracks to get to Ocean Ridge, whereas apparatus from Station 4 does not have to.  
    Hutchins said a recent study showed that Boynton Beach has responded to an average of about 250 Ocean Ridge calls a year over a four-year period.
    Hutchins also pointed out that police respond to fire and rescue calls and can relay information to responding fire- rescue personnel if necessary.

Briny’s Lew Williams and Jack Taylor assisted in the two-day delivery of about 2,300 cookies

to Briny Breezes residents.

Chuck Foland dressed as an elf was part of the entourage of seven golf carts.

An assembly line of elves bagged the cookies.

Bev Williams, decked out as Ms. Claus, makes the rounds, delivering holiday cookies

to Bill and Cora Lou Miller. Williams, 83, starts baking in September.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes
    
    Up, down and all around the park they rode. Seven golf carts adorned with tinsel garlands. Two dozen elves in Santa hats. Neighbors hungry for holiday calories. And 2,300 cookies.
    Shortly before 4 p.m. on the Saturday before Christmas, Briny Breezes’ annual Cookie Parade departed the auditorium. First in line was the music cart, loudspeakers pleading All I Want For Christmas Is You. Two carts back, Ms. Claus rode, resplendent in her billowing red dress, white stockings, white apron and dark sunglasses, celebrity-size.
    The sunglasses were neither pretentious nor inappropriate. Here in Briny Breezes, Ms. Claus is a beloved holiday tradition.
    For 363 days a year, she is Bev Williams, wife of Lewis, mother of Mike and Laurie, formerly of Mount Airy, Md., a Brinyite for 15 years.
    And then, for two days in December, she becomes Ms. Santa Claus, leading her parade of golf carts door to door, dispensing home-baked cookies, kisses, hugs and holiday cheer.
    The whole thing was a small good deed that got out of hand, as good deeds sometimes do.
    “I started out just baking cookies for neighbors who were sick or alone,” Williams says. “Maybe 15 people.”
    She began with one golf cart and one elf in Section 2. And now it’s come to this, a two-day procession through the park, with multiple elves to carry her cookies, holiday tunes ringing out and residents with smartphones rushing forth to claim festive cookie bags and get their pictures taken with Ms. Claus.
    “I used to deliver them on paper plates with tin foil,” she says. “This is the first year with bags.”
    And, she insists, the last.
    “My husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a year and a half ago, and he can’t be left alone,” she explains. “I was president of the swimming club, vice president of the hobby club and in charge of refreshments for the travel club, and I’ve had to give up everything to care for him.”
    On this day, though, there is no sadness. The parade was rained out Friday, which also was Williams’ 83rd birthday, so they’re a day behind, but not lacking in spreadable joy.
    Lewis Williams rides along in one of the carts, and his wife is all smiles, hugs and kisses as cries of “Merry Christmas!” fill the air.
    Jack and Anne Lee are waiting outside their trailer for cookies.
    “They’re very good indeed,” says Jack, the former mayor.
    “I hide them from him and dole them out,” says his wife.
    “We eat them all the very first night,” admits Shirley Hill, wife of Mike Hill, the current mayor.
    Eric Wolffbrandt has been looking forward to the cookies every year since he doesn’t know when. “Ever since she started, I guess,” he says. “I don’t know how she does it on such a large scale.”

Here’s the recipe:
    Begin in September.
    Buy your supplies at Sam’s Club.
    Bake two batches of 30 cookies each in your electric oven every morning and two more every afternoon. Take weekends off.
    Pack in Rubbermaid containers and store in the auditorium’s freezer.
    Repeat until you have 3,000 cookies.
    Do not open until Christmas.
    “I’m tempted, and I eat some,” Williams admits, “but I’m not bad. I don’t smoke and I don’t drink, so I figure this is my therapy.”
    This year, Williams settled on chocolate chip, sugar and a terrifyingly fattening blend of oatmeal, raisins, peanut butter and M&Ms called Monster cookies.
    A week before the parade, she and seven kitchen elves gathered in the auditorium to package the thawed cookies.
    “Elves are special people,” she asserts. “You must be dependable and smart, good-looking, compassionate, caring and loving. There’s a few around here who wouldn’t make it.”
    Nancy Bayless made it four years ago.
    “When we deliver, I’m the Advance Elf,” she says with pride. “I knock on the doors and make sure people are home.”
    Bayless has heard that this will be Williams’ last year as Ms. Claus, but doesn’t seem terribly concerned.
    “She says that every year,” she says, “so we’re not really sure.”
    Diana Vaughn, 16 years in Briny, is also one of the chosen.
    “I became an elf by invitation,” she says. “Bev has little parties in her home on Fridays, and I’m her helper there as well.”
    Together they form a two-person assembly line. Bayless packs the cookies in plastic bags, 10 to a bag, and passes them to Vaughn, who twists the plastic ties and places them on trays, then back in the fridge until parade day.
    “I make cookies,” boasted Pat Barnes, 98 and a resident since 1958. “I don’t say they’re any better than hers, but they’re no worse.”
    Barnes has heard that this will be Ms. Claus’ last cookie parade, too. She’s heard it before.
    Kris Weir, her daughter Remi, 16, and son C.J., 14, came to Briny Breezes in July. This is their first parade.
    How will they divide 10 cookies among three people?
    “I get eight and they get one each,” the mother ruled.
    And so they pressed on, as Perry Como reminds everyone that There’s No Place Like Home For The Holidays and Bing Crosby dreams of a White Christmas.
    The west side of North Ocean Boulevard was done Saturday, then they came back Sunday and finished the east side around 6:30.
    In all, Williams distributed about 230 bags of cookies and countless hugs and kisses.
    In the week before Christmas, Ms. Claus would bring the remaining cookies to the Alzheimer’s care center at her Presbyterian church, her doctor’s, lawyer’s and dentist’s offices.
    “It was good,” she reported. “People were happy and we had a good time. Somebody said to me, ‘You’re not quitting, are you?’ and I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ ”
    Imagine. A Briny Breezes Christmas without Ms. Claus and her cookie parade.
    “But then last night in bed I said, ‘Could I do that one more year...?’”

    Three candidates have qualified for the two Lantana Town Council seats up for grabs in the March 15 election.
    For the Group 1 seat, incumbent Lynn Moorhouse, a dentist who has served since 2004, is unopposed.
    For the Group 2 seat, newcomer Anthony Arsali, an attorney, is opposing incumbent Malcolm Balfour, a freelance writer and television producer who has been on the council since 2013.
— Mary Thurwachter

ABOVE: Officer Eric Aronowitz models a body camera. BELOW: Cameras in chargers.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    While law enforcement agencies throughout Palm Beach County — and the country — are exploring the feasibility of equipping officers with body-worn video cameras, the small oceanfront town of Highland Beach is jumping ahead of the curve.
    Beginning this month, Highland Beach police officers will be wearing body cameras that can be turned on during routine traffic stops and other encounters with the potential of confrontations or arrests.
    “We’re fortunate in Highland Beach to be able to work in an environment where we don’t have dangerous situations routinely, but they do happen,” said Chief Craig Hartmann said. “Having body-worn cameras will add another level of transparency and accountability.”
    Although the number of reported crimes in Highland Beach is minimal, Hartmann points out that its not unusual for officers to come across volatile situations when responding to a variety of calls. Those calls include domestic complaints, attempted suicides or cases where a resident or visitor dealing with mental illness fails to take his or her medication.
    The body cameras being used are small pager-like devices capable of shooting both video (including audio) and still shots. Officers turn them on when they encounter a situation with the potential for confrontation or when recording evidence. When they return to the station, they place the camera in a docking station, which downloads the information that is saved for 90 days or longer if needed.
    The cameras will be used to document accident or crime scenes and can present an accurate account of officers’ actions should they be called into question.
    “Cameras can reduce use of force and citizen complaints because officers and residents know they’re being videoed,” Hartmann said. “We expect that our officers are acting appropriately and that the cameras will confirm that when there are encounters.”
    The six cameras and the necessary software and equipment needed to operate them had a price tag of about $5,000. The money come from the Highland Beach Police Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that collects donations from the community to cover the cost of improvements and enhancements to the Police Department not requested during the town’s budgeting process.
    Although officers will begin using the cameras this month, the implementation is the result of several months of research used to develop a protocol that takes individuals’ right to privacy into account.
    Highland Beach’s accreditation and training manager, Eric Aronowitz, who has been leading the project, said the department has developed a detailed policy using ones created by other departments and the International Association of Police Chiefs as a guide.
    “There are certain situations where the cameras cannot be used,” Aronowitz said. “Our policy is very specific.”
    Highland Beach police officers will not turn the cameras on during casual contact with residents or during routine calls where there is no perceived potential for confrontation, he said.
    Officers are not required to announce when the cameras are being used, but Aronowitz said the department is recommending to all of its 15 full-time officers and three reserves that they let it be known when they turn the cameras on.
    Privacy issues are one reason other departments in the area are proceeding with caution before moving forward.
    In Ocean Ridge, Police Chief Hal Hutchins says his department is taking a wait-and-see approach, hoping to learn from the experiences of other departments.
    “This is fairly new,” he said. “We’re watching and considering all aspects of these programs to try and determine if this is something that would be beneficial to residents of Ocean Ridge.”
    Larger agencies in the area are taking a more aggressive approach, with departments in Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Boynton Beach all currently researching the feasibility of implementing body-camera programs.
    In Delray Beach, Chief Jeff Goldman plans to equip 20 officers with cameras in a pilot program after the department completes a policy development phase — currently underway — and a purchasing study.
    Boca Raton police spokeswoman Officer Sandra Boonenberg says her department plans to begin a pilot program during the first quarter of the year, while Boynton Beach police have a committee studying the issue with the goal of developing an efficient and effective program. West Palm Beach police do use body cameras for certain incidents.
    In Highland Beach, Hartmann says his department — thanks in large part to the support of the nonprofit foundation — is able to take a proactive approach when it comes to body-worn video cameras.
    “We want to have this in place to get ahead of the curve before something bad happens and people wonder why we didn’t have them,” he said. “You need these cameras when something does go wrong. You just hope it doesn’t happen.”