Frank McKinney wants to split an oceanfront property that once belonged to cartoonist Fontaine Fox.  Photo provided

By Rich Pollack

Developer Frank McKinney is hoping to get the green light to split his remaining historic Delray Beach oceanfront property into two lots while at the same time making changes that would minimally impact the 1935 home on the property, built by famed cartoonist Fontaine Fox. 

This summer, McKinney brought his plans to the city’s Historic Preservation Board for a concept review, aiming to divide the property at 610 N. Ocean Blvd. into two lots, each with 100 feet of frontage on State Road A1A.

As part of the project, McKinney plans to remove a 1960s addition to the original Fontaine Fox home that would be encroaching on the proposed new parcel and reconstruct it on the south side of the home. There it would serve as a connection between the main house and an existing guesthouse. 

The guesthouse would be used as the bedroom for McKinney’s 14-year-old daughter, who has outgrown a small, second-story bedroom originally used as her nursery. 

“Our goal is to make responsible physical and functional improvements for our family and any future owners without devaluing the intrinsic historic nature of the property,” McKinney said, adding that he and his wife thought it unsafe to let their teenage daughter have a room in a cottage totally separated from the existing house. “This protects the historic integrity of the home while solving many issues for us and any future owners.”

During his presentation to the preservation board, he outlined plans to create landscaped setbacks on both the north and south sides of the new property to minimize its impact. His plans also include the 70-foot setback requirement from Ocean Boulevard for a new home built on the property.

The newly created parcel would retain the historic designation of the original 2.5-acre property and will thus be subject to Historic Preservation Board regulations.

McKinney’s proposal was greeted favorably by members of the Historic Preservation Board, according to Amy Alvarez, historic planner for the city of Delray Beach.

“There was a positive discussion, and his concept was well-received,” she said.

Both McKinney and Alvarez say the new proposal could help preserve the original Fontaine Fox house, added to the local Register of Historic Places in 1989. 

A future owner of the undivided property, they explained, could theoretically claim that the property’s historic designation created an economic hardship and prevented it from being developed to its full economic potential. By dividing the property, McKinney said, the potential for a hardship request is less likely to be pursued.

McKinney’s proposal marks the latest request in about a year to split his property between Ocean Boulevard and Andrews Avenue. 

In 2011, a parcel on the west side of the property with 50-foot frontage on Andrews Avenue was sold to Kate Littlefield, daughter of Miracle-Gro founder Horace Hagedorn. Littlefield is using the property as a garden.

Earlier this year, a second parcel on the Fontaine Fox property — but one having its own property control number and legal description and 100 feet fronting on Andrews Avenue — was sold for development of a one-story, single-family home.

The property McKinney wants to divide is also the site of a controversial treehouse he built that finally received approval from the city in 2009 after a seven-year battle. 

The original home on the property was designed for Fox by his friend, well-known architect John Volk. Fox, creator of the nationally syndicated Toonerville Folks cartoon that appeared in as many as 300 newspapers, had Volk design the front of the home to include a resemblance to his famous Toonerville Trolley.

Fox, part of a winter cartoonist colony in Delray Beach that included H.T. Webster, the creator of Casper Milquetoast, sold the home in 1951 to members of the Mott family of applesauce fame, who called it the “Ocean Apple Estate,” a name that still sticks today.

McKinney says he hopes to submit formal plans for creation of the new parcel within the next few weeks.     Ú

By Margie Plunkett

Delray Beach Commissioners introduced five ordinances to amend the city’s charter, including one that wasn’t favored but passed to allow public comment.

The charter amendments are scheduled for a public hearing Oct. 16. If approved, they will go to a public vote on the March 12 ballot.

The proposed amendments introduced at the Oct. 2 commission meeting would:

* Clarify language in the charter and make it easier to read.

* Change the length of term for mayor and commissioners from two to three years, but leave the total term unchanged at six years.

* Allow a commissioner who assumes the post of mayor to serve six years in the latter capacity, even if they have already served six years as a commissioner.

* Allow the city manager’s salary to be reduced during his term of employment.

* The fifth proposal, which commissioners indicated they do not favor, would allow a city manager to be removed from office by a vote of 3 to 2, rather than the 4 to 1 vote currently required.

The last amendment would make it easier for the commission to vote a city manager out of office. “It effectively politicizes the position of city manager,” said Commissioner Al Jacquet.

 Other commissioners concurred, but voted in favor of the amendment in order to collect comment from the public at the hearing scheduled later in the month. 

Current City Manager David Harden also said it could hinder recruitment for the position, as new job candidates are less likely to want to relocate knowing they could lose their job on the vote of a simple majority.

The charter amendments were identified and recommended by the Charter Review Committee.      

Commissioner Tom Carney announced his candidacy in the Delray Beach mayoral race, challenging former Planning Board Chairman Cary Glickstein for the post.

The seat will be vacated by current Mayor Woodie McDuffie, who is not eligible to run after reaching his six-year term limit on the commission. 

“I understand the issues facing our city and have the proven leadership to get the job done,” Carney, who is vice mayor, said in a press release.

“Our city is facing some very serious issues in the near future. Now more than ever, we need a mayor with the experience and leadership to guide our city in the right direction. I have the vision to lead and the plan to address some of our city’s most pressing concerns,” he said.

Carney, a lawyer with Carney Stanton, joined the commission in March 2011.  He served on the city’s housing authority from 1996 to 2003 and the Community Redevelopment Agency from 2003 to 2011.

Delray Beach’s election is March 12. 

— Margie Plunkett

Henrietta de Hoernle listens during ceremonies
 at Boca West to mark her 100th birthday.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Thom Smith

While Palm Beach has been throwing over-the-top parties for a century, Boca has been a bit more reserved. But since centennials are rarer than blue moons, Sept. 24 gave the town reason to shine: The Countess was the one hitting a hundred. 

More than 500 friends and guests turned out for a black-tie bash at Boca West to honor Henrietta de Hoernle, Boca’s best-known philanthropist and centenarian. No speeches, but lots of pomp and ceremony with pipers, a chorus, a military color guard and the red-robed knights and dames of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller which sponsored the event. 

Cindy Krebsbach, The Rev. Andrew Sherman, Anita Sherman, Mayor Susan Whelchel, Michael Diamant and Sylvia Johe.

Mary Jo and Dick Pollock

And the most fitting tribute: The gala raised more than $250,000, which will be distributed to four local nonprofit organizations. 

De Hoernle, better known as “The Countess,” still makes the rounds  — with help from a little red electric scooter  — and her fortune isn’t what it once was, but only because she’s given away so much of it. “Give while you live so you know where it goes,” she urges. 

In the three decades since she and her late husband, Adolph, left New York, their generosity has spread an estimated $40 million across the county, Boca especially. 

They were picky, doling out the money where they felt it would do the most good. Hospitals, retirement homes, schools, religious organizations of all faiths, children’s aid groups, social clubs, sports programs, migrant worker assistance, drug rehab, choral societies — a colorful and diverse palette. The de Hoernle name hangs on the restored train station that welcomed Boca’s early tourists, the amphitheater at the north end of Mizner Park, the auditorium for the Caldwell Theatre Company and buildings at Lynn and Northwood universities. 

Some detractors claimed that she was on an expensive ego trip, but The Countess counters, and those at the party would agree, that by putting the de Hoernle name in lights, so to speak, she inspires others to follow her lead.  

Caterers took a lighthearted approach to appetizers during the countess’ fete.

Always hands-on, she challenged recipients to make the best use of her philanthropy. She gave  Northwood University $2 million to build a student life center, but only if the school could raise an equal amount, “to prove it was serious about getting it done,” a school official said. It did.

The Friday before the party, she visited the Boca YMCA and spent time with fourth-graders.

“She wants to be involved in every way. How many people her age would do that?” YMCA CEO Richard Pollock said.   

As for future milestones, The Countess conceded some limitations.

“I told her we were starting to plan for her 110th,” said Bonnie Kaye, who with husband Jon handled public relations for the gala, “and she said, ‘I don’t know; I’m pretty rusty and there aren’t many old parts around any more.’ ” 

                                  ***

Thanks to the lousy weather, the much anticipated opening of Mulligan’s at Lake Worth Beach has been pushed back two weeks. Owner George Hart now plans an Oct. 18 opening for his new restaurant in the revived Casino. The reason: Unseasonal rains have slowed the paving of the parking lot.

Hart started Mulligan’s in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea in 1998. That one is long gone, but Lake Worth’s will be the fifth, joining Stuart, Vero, Sebastian and Jensen Beach locations. Emphasis is on food, not booze, 365 days a year for breakfast, lunch and dinner and extensive community involvement. 

Mulligan’s location, of course, conjures memories of its predecessor, John G’s, which now holds forth 3 miles south in Manalapan’s Plaza del Mar. The beach view is gone, but at least guests no longer have to pay to park, and those breakfasts — yes, the French toast, the omelets … 

                                  ***

It’s official. In early September, the Boynton Beach City Commission approved an ordinance that allows dogs at local restaurants — but only in outdoor areas. Leashes are mandatory.

Some weekend diners may look a little dogged at The Little House — and the staff, too! — because on Saturday and Sunday the new eatery serves only a “pajama brunch.” Nothing like a 6-foot-plus host in a terrycloth robe. For owner Chrissy Benoit, the slippers were a nice touch.  

Benoit, who previously owned Havana Hideout in Lake Worth, is quickly building a loyal fan base for her teeny bistro and hopes to attract more on Nov. 4 with her first Home Brewers Brew Off. Only 15 brewers will be accepted and only 100 guests ($20 in advance, $25 at the gate). 

“We did it at Havana Hideout, and it really went over well,” Benoit said. “Mike Halker is gonna be a judge.”

Halker was so successful at Benoit’s earlier contests that he made the leap to commercial suds with Due South Brewery, also in Boynton, and is selling everything he can brew.

                                  ***

In Delray, Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine Lobster Café closed … for a few days … but only to remodel. Gone is the counter service, replaced by a wait staff, new décor and an expanded menu. 

                                  ***

The Falcon House, a.k.a. Triple Eight Lounge, had a neat, funky, aged feel, and lots of locals were bummed when owner Karl Alterman split for new opportunities in Orlando. But do not despair. Canadian businessman and part-time Tampa resident Philip Orsino likes to put his Ceviche Tapas Bars in aged, historic Delray Beach buildings. The Falcon House, one of the city’s early pharmacies, fit the bill. A November opening is anticipated.

If Orsino’s name rings a bell, it may be because he: 1) was named Canadian CEO of the Year in 2003 or 2) in 2004 sold his main business, Masonite International, for $3.1 billion or 3) in 2111 became president of JELD-WEN. (Just check out the door aisle at  Home Depot.)

***

With Max’s Grille refurbished and reopened in Mizner Park, Dennis Max can now direct his attention a few blocks south to Royal Palm Place, where he’ll open The Mexican in early November. The site, at 133 S.E. Mizner Blvd. in Boca, was most recently occupied by Shamata Lounge and Rivals Sports Bar. A tribute to his Southern California roots, the Mexican will offer border food — tacos, enchiladas and fajitas and more substantial entrees with an upscale twist while incorporating local and sustainable ingredients.    

                                  ***

Those extra tall beer glasses at the Yard House apparently caught the attention of Darden Restaurants Inc. The company that owns Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Capital Grille, Seasons 52 and Bahama Breeze will pay $585 million for the California-based chain of 39 restaurants in 13 states, including its newest in Mizner Park. 

                                  ***

Bad news for Caldwell Theatre. It’ll be auctioned on the Internet Oct. 16. Mortgage holder Legacy Bank was granted a $6.75 million foreclosure judgment and will try to recoup some of the money it put into the company that was founded way back in 1975. No word on prospective bidders.

***

Also in foreclosure trouble is former NFL Pro-Bowler Samari Rolle, who has a home in Stone Creek Ranch west of Delray. On Sept. 6, JPMorgan Chase filed a foreclosure suit against the 13,747-square-foot estate on 2.53 acres. Rolle paid $4.55 million for it in 2005 and refinanced it with a $4 million mortage in 2008. But in 2010, his NFL paycheck disappeared when neck injuries forced him to retire and his expected sure-fire off-the-field income was sacked.  

Rolle and other present and former NFL players, including Glades Central star Fred Taylor, reportedly invested more than $40 million in an Alabama casino. In January it filed for bankruptcy. Plus, the IRS wants more than $600,000 in back taxes. 

Incidentally, several of the other players have sued lawyers in the West Palm Beach offices of Greenberg Traurig for its role in setting up the casino investments.   

                                  ***

On a more upbeat note, new faces at the Chris Evert/Raymond James Pro-Celebrity Tennis Classic in Delray Beach Oct. 26-28 include Tom Arnold, TV husband to Roseanne Barr, and Dean McDermott, actor and real-time husband to Tori Spelling. Now in its 23rd year, the event has raised more than $20 million to combat drug abuse and child neglect in South Florida. 

Today show’s Hoda Kotb, whose main squeeze is Boca lawyer Jay Blumenkopf, will serve as emcee. Top players returning this year are Martina Navratilova and Murphy Jensen, and starwatchers should be kept busy by Scott Foley, Alan Thicke, Maeva Quinlan, David Cooke, Jill Zarin, Jon Lovitz and Kevin McKidd. 

Entertainment at the Anniversary Gala Oct. 27 at the Boca Raton Resort & Club will be provided by the Fab Four, the Beatles tribute group, complete with Ed Sullivan lookalike. Gala tickets are $750; tennis tix range from $20 general admission to $900 for a skybox package for four.  (www.chrisevert.org)

***

We first met Bill Rancic way back in 2004 as a contestant on the inaugural season of Donald Trump’s Apprentice, which he won. About the same time, Giuliana DePandi was breaking into TV as a co-host on E! News. Not long after, they met, and just before Christmas in 2006, they announced their engagement. Life since has had its ups and downs. Giuliana miscarried; breast cancer was diagnosed, and she elected to have a double mastectomy. Still wanting to have a baby but possibly facing more complications from the cancer, they opted for a surrogate. 

Edward Duke Rancic arrived Aug. 29. Chances are good that he’ll join Mom and Pop Oct. 26 when they’re guest speakers at the Boca Raton Regional Hospital’s annual Go Pink Luncheon at the Boca Resort & Club. Ah, the stories they will tell, especially bringing home the point that life continues despite cancer. For tickets, $150, call 955-4142.

                                  ***

A frequent subject of Giuliana’s commentary on E! is Modern Family star Sofia Vergara, who dazzled at the recent Emmy awards, despite a wardrobe malfunction — split seam in the derriere that was quickly repaired. Also repaired, according to the tabloids, is her relationship with former Delray businessman Nick Loeb, now her fiancé. Loeb, a Lehman Bros. offspring, popped the question and big ring on Vergara’s 40th birthday at Chichen Itza, the Mayan ruins in Mexico. 

Vergara, who has a 20-year-old son from her first marriage, told People magazine she wouldn’t mind trying to have another child. Hmmm. On the first show of Modern Family’s new season, her character announces she is pregnant. Could the writers be accommodating reality?

                                  ***

Spied recently in the Palm Beaches: Gwen Stefani, hubby Gavin Rossdale and the kids enjoying a little R&R before hitting the concert road. Based at the Ritz-Carlton in Manalapan, they shopped in Delray, hit the beach and checked out the South Florida Science Museum. Rossdale then began a Euro tour with his old band Bush while Stefani and No Doubt are hitting the road to promote their first album in 11 years.  

                                  ***

Despite all the hoopla about the Olympics in London, one athlete with local ties barely attracted attention. Manuel Huerta, 28, ran cross country at FAU before leaving school to concentrate on the triathlon. After a sleepless night before his race that he believes was caused by food allergies, he finished 51st among 54 competitors. 

Born in Cuba and raised in Miami, he now trains on Irazu volcano in Costa Rica, aiming for a Rio 2016 redemption. “It was the best experience of my life,” said Huerta, who embodies the Olympic creed: “The important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part.”

Huerta wasn’t the only Olympian with Palm Beach County ties. After finishing fourth in the women’s triathlon at Beijing, North Palm Beach’s favorite daughter, Laura Reback Bennett, had hoped to medal this year but finished 17th. She and Aussie triathlete husband Greg, who live in Boulder, Colo., are  often tabbed the “world’s fittest couple.”

Hoping for a golden three-peat in show jumping, part-time Wellington residents McLain Ward and Beezie Madden settled for a tie for sixth.  

                                  ***

Ay, me mateys, ’tis a fascinating time we live in, and we should make the best of it, which Boynton Beach will do Oct. 27 and 28 with a “Haunted Pirate Fest.” 

Admission to the family outing along East Ocean Avenue is free, with food, crafts, acrobats, pirate shows and music from the such appropriately named groups as Celtic Mayhem, For Love or Money, Plunder Dogs and Silent Lion. 

Lake Worth Mayor Pam Triolo had fun in mind when she issued a proclamation to recognize Sept. 19 as International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Her lighthearted challenge to celebrate in “a hearty, fun-loving way” didn’t sit well with former City Commissioner Jo-Ann Golden who pointed out quite correctly that pirates rob and kidnap for ransom. Better to recognize Sept. 17 — Constitution Day, she wrote, when that great document was ratified.  

Valid point, but lest we forget, pirates also were crucial to the birth of this nation. The primary difference in a pirate and a privateer was who was doing the hiring. Considered alternately a pirate and a privateer, Jean Lafitte is nevertheless considered a hero of the War of 1812 who helped stanch the British attack on New Orleans. 

Capt. William Kidd initially was a privateer operating out of the American Colonies with orders to attack pirates and French shipping. His expeditions were financed by some of the wealthiest and most powerful lords in England. A breach of protocol — instead of the customary salute to a British yacht on the Thames, his crew “mooned” it — was followed by other acts and mishaps that cost him political and financial capital. His backers turned on him to save their hides, and Kidd was tried and hanged in 1701. 

Hardly the characters portrayed by Johnny Depp and Burt Lancaster, pirates were typical of the sordid societies that produced them. In many cases, they were ahead of the game politically.

Their ships were models of democracy and equality. Kidd’s quartermaster is believed to have been an African. Crews were international and included freed slaves, runaways, rich, poor. 

They had more to say about their work than an NFL player.  They elected their captains. They provided pensions for aged pirates.

Pirate life, reports Jason Acosta, a Gainesville teacher who wrote his University of Florida master’s thesis on pirates, was much better than working on a naval vessel or a merchantman. 

Pirates helped create new ports, open new shipping lanes, develop commerce with native peoples. In truth, they were much like the revolutionaries who founded the United States.

Thom Smith is a freelance writer. Contact him at thomsmith@ymail.com.

By Tim Pallesen

Ocean Ridge commissioners have cut back on their budget after residents objected to the tax rate increase.

Three of five commissioners were ready Sept. 10 to raise the current property tax rate of $5.25 per $1,000 of taxable property to $5.54 next year. 

But Vice Mayor Lynn Allison reported at the town’s final budget hearing on Sept. 24 that residents can’t bear a tax increase that large. “We’ve heard the concern of everybody. The increase seems excessively burdensome for our community.  

“We just can’t do everything we would like to do,” Allison said.

Commissioners then voted 4-1 for a budget that requires only a slight tax rate increase to $5.35 per $1,000 of taxable property.

The budget, which includes a one-time bonus to town employees equal to 3 percent of their annual salary, would add $50 to the tax bill for the owner of a home with $500,000 in taxable value.    

Commissioner Zoanne Hennigan, who voted against the budget and tax rate, had warned other commissioners on Sept. 10 that Ocean Ridge residents couldn’t afford increased taxes.

“We’ve got homes here foreclosed. People have lost their jobs,” Hennigen said. “We’re in a pain situation. We need to share the pain.”

Allison had joined Mayor Geoffrey Pugh and Commissioner Gail Aaskov at the earlier hearing to support a 5 percent bonus for employees. Hennigan and Commissioner Edward Brookes opposed it.

Pugh proposed the bonus as a thank-you particularly to police officers.

“I have to give them the incentive to stay,” Pugh said. “To keep the police department we want, it’s time to bite the bullet and pay the money.”

Hennigen proposed eliminating a police officer and two police cars from the budget. Commissioners cut $64,000 for the cars, but they voted 3-2 not to eliminate the police job.                                  Ú

By Tim Pallesen 

A proposed task force to study the mutual concerns of coastal communities is picking up steam. 

Ocean Ridge became the first town to select a representative to the A1A Future Plan task force by naming Commissioner Edward Brookes to serve.

“Let’s look at the issues that affect just the barrier islands,” Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor Lynn Allison said. “After many years living on small islands, I have realized that joining forces has more impact.”

The Florida Coalition for Preservation, which has volunteered to help facilitate the effort, also has received positive response for the idea from Manalapan, Gulf Stream and Briny Breezes.

Gulf Stream Commissioner Robert Ganger, who chairs the Coalition for Preservation, will be Gulf Stream’s representative on the task force.

Recent events probably will make police and fire-rescue issues the first for coastal communities to discuss, coalition Executive Director Kristine de Haseth said.

Ocean Ridge and Manalapan have both considered hiring the county sheriff’s office to provide police services.

Ocean Ridge also has been concerned that Boynton Beach might close the fire-rescue station that responds to Ocean Ridge emergency calls.

Other coastal communities might share if Ocean Ridge gets its own fire-rescue truck, de Haseth said.

“Towns would not lose their individual identities by doing this,” she said. “The goal would be a better level of service that’s cheaper.” 

Allison and fellow Ocean Ridge Commissioner Zoanne Hennigan both support the shared fire-rescue truck idea.

“We could even have one police and fire department that goes up and down the coast to save money,” Hennigen said. Ú 

By Tim O’Meilia

Four southern Palm Beach County coastal towns are part of the 23 percent. 

That is, beaches in South Palm Beach, Manalapan and Lantana won’t benefit in the near future from an inlet-to-inlet beach management plan now being assembled by state, county and local officials. But they’ll be asked to pay a 23 percent share of the cost of annual monitoring of the entire 15.7 miles of shoreline between the Lake Worth and Boynton inlets, based on the length of each town’s beachfront. The town of Palm Beach will pay the rest. 

“We don’t have a pending project, so how do you convince people we should be a part of it?” said South Palm Beach Councilwoman Bonnie Fischer. “It’s a hard sell.”

An environmental impact study now under way may yield a new approach to saving the eroding beaches south of the Lake Worth pier to Lantana’s public beach, but only projects already designed are being included in the regional plan now. A South Palm Beach-Lantana project could be added later. 

Fischer, representatives of the other two towns and Palm Beach County officials agreed to meet soon to discuss apportioning the costs. An estimate won’t be available until next month. They all attended the monthly meeting of the group putting together the regional plan Sept. 18 in Palm Beach.

“Funding is going to be the question,” said Lantana Town Manager Deborah Manzo.  Manalapan Building Official Bob Donovan agreed. Lake Worth has yet to send a representative to any meeting. 

“We want the entire (region) to have a monitoring commitment,” said Danielle Fondren, chief of the state’s Bureau of Beaches and Coastal Systems, which is guiding the writing of the plan. “It should not cost more than what people are currently paying.”

None of the three towns is paying for monitoring now, although South Palm Beach expects to continue paying 20 percent of the cost of the environmental impact study.

The rationale for developing a regional plan is to consider inlet-to-inlet as a whole and develop an overall approach, thus streamlining state permitting for individual projects within the region and making them more effective. 

That doesn’t guarantee quicker examination by federal agencies that also issue permits for beach restoration projects. 

It’s a pilot program for the state Department of Environmental Protection. If it succeeds, the area from the Boynton Inlet to the Boca Inlet could next see a regional approach. Ocean Ridge beaches are included in the region. 

Despite lacking a project in the regional plan, the towns will be asked by DEP to sign a “letter of participation,” indicating that they will continue to help write the plan. That does not commit them to signing the plan when it is completed, perhaps by the end of the year, Fondren said.

A 1.3-mile project from southern Palm Beach to Manalapan was killed by county commissioners earlier this year. But the commission revived the idea in June, so long as the new plan does not include a series of offshore concrete breakwaters and several groins from the original plan. 

Commissioners were concerned about the effect of such structures on sea turtle nesting and sea grasses.

County officials already have said they will not perform any more dune restoration in South Palm Beach because it is ineffective. In many areas, the condominiums sit atop the natural dune. The environmental impact study is being done together with a plan for south of the Lake Worth pier. But the state, which was paying 50 percent of the study’s cost, has no money in next year’s budget for its share. The county, Palm Beach, Lantana and South Palm Beach will have to decide how to pay for it. 

“Conceptually, we’re still on board,” South Palm Beach Town Manager Rex Taylor said.                                        

By Tim O’Meilia

For months, Manalapan town commissioners discussed ways to beef up police presence in Ocean Inlet Park and Bird Island to shoo away trespassers and turn down the beach volume.

Adding a marine patrol unit, expanding the beach patrol with another all-terrain vehicle, hiring more officers and even adding cameras on the beach were in the mix, as commissioners spent more than eight hours on four separate days in September hashing out police “enhancements.”

In the end, the bottom line ruled. The commission dialed back many of the security measures that would have puffed up next year’s tax rate by 15 percent and settled on a rate that will cost landowners          5 percent more in town taxes for the budget year beginning Oct. 1.

Commissioners also revived a discussion of contracting for police service from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office — although Police Chief Carmen Mattox recommended against it — and will investigate outsourcing police dispatch services.  

Commissioners approved a tax rate of $2.90 per $1,000 of taxable property value, up from this year’s $2.78 rate, an increase of 4.3 percent. But because property values in the coastal community increased by almost 1 percent this year, the nick to the wallet of Manalapan homeowners is slightly more than that.   

The commission briefly considered dipping into the town’s $1.7 million reserves to reduce the tax rate to this year’s level but decided against it. 

The votes on both the tax rate and budget were 5-1. Dissenting Commissioner Donald Brennan wanted the rate lower and complained that “60 percent of the taxes come from 50 people,” referring to oceanfront landowners. 

“This beast is getting very tough to feed, especially when they’re not getting all the services they need,” Brennan said during a Sept. 11 workshop meeting. “My instincts say this is all leading to a very unhappy outcome.”

The commission approved a $3.3 million general fund budget, about $58,000 more than this year, and a water utilities budget of $5.4 million. The utilities budget includes $3 million for improvements in the distribution system.

The general fund budget includes a 3.5 percent pay increase for town employees, although an agreement with the police bargaining unit, the Police Benevolent Association, has not been reached. 

The commission sliced $143,000 from the proposed budget, including a $23,000 phone system, $25,000 in landscaping at Town Hall and on Land’s End Road and $40,000 for improvements to the council room communications and dais.

Police coverage top issue

The focus of much of the budget discussion was police. Proposals to spend $60,000 to contract with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office for weekend marine patrol, $27,000 for a new police car, $11,000 for an ATV and $21,000 for a part-time police clerk were eliminated. 

Commissioners later put $41,000 in a contingency fund that could be spent on a marine patrol for the summer or toward either the ATV or the police car. They made no decision last month.

Commissioners wrestled with the marine patrol issue, questioning Mattox about the sheriff’s office’s response to calls at Ocean Inlet Park, where the sheriff has withdrawn park rangers over budget concerns.

Mattox said that deputies responded well during stepped-up patrols over the Fourth of July and Labor Day weekends. On other calls, Mattox said deputies respond on a case-by-case basis but that their response is not guaranteed. 

Mayor Basil Diamond said most of the offenses at the park are noise complaints, underage drinking and other misdemeanors. “We haven’t really had criminal activity,” he said during the Sept. 11 workshop. “We’d be better off not giving up what is already available to us.”

But at the Sept. 25 final hearing, he suggested that a contingency fund could be used for the marine patrol in the summer.

“I think we need to consider what some of the citizens want on the marine patrol.”

Mattox will get an additional part-time officer, will fill the vacant lieutenant’s position and assign one of the eight full-time officers to detective work.

PBSO deal criticized

The lengthy budget discussions also reignited talk of the sheriff’s offer to take over police operations in the town for $1.17 million annually, compared with the $1.46 million police approved this month, not including a new vehicle. 

Brennan pushed the idea, and Diamond said the sheriff was never asked to respond to the specific concerns that Mattox said town police raised, including code enforcement, checks of dark houses and manning the camera system the town uses at the entrance to Point Manalapan.

Brennan said that professional law-enforcement experts have told him that the town’s force cannot match what the sheriff can offer for $300,000 less. 

But Commissioner John Murphy said the sheriff’s higher pay scale means the sheriff cannot match the town’s cost after the initial two-year contract.   

“It’s phony. You know it, and I know it,” Murphy said of the sheriff’s offer. The commission took no action. 

But the commissioners did ask Town Manager Linda Stumpf to seek proposals to provide police dispatch service. The town spends more than $200,000 for three full-time and four part-time dispatchers, but records show the police deal with only about 50 emergency calls to 911 per month. 

Mattox noted that 911 calls from cellphones, which cannot pinpoint locations, aren’t included in the count because they are first routed to mainland police stations because that’s where the cell towers are.  

“Why not eliminate dispatch and let the sheriff or someone else do it?” asked Commissioner David   Cheifetz.                                    Ú

By Tim O’Meilia

Manalapan voters will have a chance to set term limits on its commissioners and allow the mayor’s presence to count toward getting a quorum for meetings when some commissioners are away.

Those two possible changes in the town charter will be on the March ballot, and they might not be alone. The commission will consider any other charter change possibilities during an Oct. 23 workshop. The commission gave unanimous approval to asking voters whether they want to limit the mayor and commissioners to two consecutive terms in the same office or three consecutive terms in any combination of the two offices. 

If approved by the voters, the mayor and commissioners’ present time in office would count toward their limit. Commissioners Louis DeStefano and Howard Roder are in their second two-year terms, and both would have a year remaining in office next March. All others, including Mayor Basil Diamond, are in their first terms. 

“I’m in favor of term limits, but what if we find we don’t have enough candidates?” Diamond said, and he suggested an exception in that event. Commissioners decided against changing the charter question.  

They also gave 5-1 preliminary approval to asking voters to decide whether the mayor should count in assembling a quorum for meetings and be able to vote in that event. Currently, four of the seven commissioners must be present for a quorum, not including the mayor. The mayor votes only in the case of a tie. 

The commission must approve the wording of the referendum question later. Commissioner John Murphy opposed the question. 

Diamond suggested the quorum question. “Sometimes in the summer, it’s hard to get a quorum,” he said, referring to recent difficulties in finding compatible dates for budget workshops in August and September. 

By charter, Manalapan commissioners and the mayor must be in residence seven months of the year.

The discussion prompted Commissioner Donald Brennan to suggest the workshop to consider any charter questions commissioners might propose. “Maybe it needs no changes, but I think it needs some discussion,” he said.                 Ú

By Tim O’Meilia

One of the nation’s richest communities — where almost every home has a waterfront view — hides a sclerotic and rotting network of water pipes beneath its finely landscaped lawns.

Ten years after a previous Town Commission rejected the plan, Manalapan town commissioners in September approved a $210,000 contract to design a $3 million project to replace more than 3 miles of water distribution pipes along A1A, across the Intracoastal Waterway to Point Manalapan and along U.S. 1 in Hypoluxo, which buys town water. 

And they asked engineering consultant Mock Roos & Associates to develop a plan to examine several more thousand feet of pipe along A1A, where piping that dates from the ’40s and ’50s delivers town residents their drinking water. Depending on what is found, the result could substantially increase the cost of the project. 

At the town’s southern tip, engineers discovered a mix of asbestos-lined, cast iron and polyvinyl chloride in a hodgepodge of sizes. “We found pipe sizes that went from 2 feet to 4 feet to 6 feet, back to 4, then to 2,” said consultant Henry Glaus of Mock Roos.

“It’s uncomfortable using asbestos piping for potable water. That’s only used in Third World countries now,” said Commissioner Donald Brennan. “It’s a jerry-rigged, patched-together system. It’s not something you’d expect to find in our community.”

Glaus said the immediate cause for the $3 million rebuild is that the system doesn’t meet minimum water pressure standards for firefighting. That required an interconnection on the mainland with Boynton Beach to guarantee that those standards would be met. 

A 2008 report uncovered the same problems as years earlier, but no work was done.

“The costs have increased 20 percent since that report,” said Commissioner David Cheifetz, adding that costs will increase. “We’ve got to move forward.”

A contract on the project is not likely to be approved for six to eight months.

In other business, commissioners voted unanimously to inoculate 30 town-owned trees for Rugose spiraling whitefly. The town already has sprayed its trees against the pest. King Tree Service offered the trunk injections for $25 per tree, much less than the typical $40-$60 price, if the town would inform its residents that they could get the discounted rate as well. 

Commissioners agreed. They declined to enact an ordinance requiring residents to treat infestations.                              Ú

By Mary Thurwachter

The four remaining members of the Lantana Town Council will go it alone until the March 12 election, opting not to appoint anyone to the Group 2 seat vacated last month by Cindy Austino.
Austino, who is moving to Florida’s Panhandle with her family, resigned Sept. 10. During her tearful farewell, she encouraged the council to appoint Rosemary Mouring, a longtime community volunteer and new appointee to the town’s planning commission.
Mouring has expressed her interest, and so have others, according to Mayor Dave Stewart, who said about 14 residents had spoken to him regarding the position. 
One of them was Jerry Bayuk, chairman of the planning commission.
“I just don’t feel it’s right to have an empty chair,” Bayuk told the council.
Mouring echoed that sentiment. “You should appoint someone, because it’s a disservice to the town to have an empty chair,” she said.
But Joe Farrell, who unsuccessfully ran against Tom Deringer in the last election two years ago, said while he was interested in the seat, the town should wait for an election.
Council members were in agreement, though, that the voters, not the council, should decide who represents them.
“I’ve run two campaigns for this chair, and you have to get out and knock on doors,” council member Phil Aridas said. “It’s all part of getting elected.”
Eleven years ago, residents pressed for change in Lantana when the town hadn’t had a contested mayoral race for 15 years. Since then, the town’s charter was changed to prevent mayors from being routinely appointed, rather than elected.
In other action, the town delayed acting on a lease agreement that would continue to give the Lantana Chamber of Commerce use of the building at 212 Iris Ave. for its headquarters. The Chamber has occupied the town-owned building at no charge for 50 years, and the new lease agreement would charge a token $1 per year.
Stewart said the Chamber needed to be responsible for all maintenance.
“They just need to take care of the building, pure and simple,” Stewart said.
Chamber President Dave Arm said the organization already handles most maintenance, although the town had replaced the air conditioner. He said the town, as owner, should be responsible for roof repairs or replacement, if that were ever needed.
Arm said he would discuss the matter with his board before the issue returns at a future town meeting.

The Lantana Town Council unanimously voted down a height exception request for a planned Hypoluxo Island home.

Owner Edmund Gonzalez made the request for a house to be built at 907 N. Atlantic Drive so he could extend the chimney 18 inches and a mechanical room for elevator equipment 30 inches above the maximum allowable building height of 35 feet on a new residence.

A representative for the owner told the council during its Sept. 10 meeting that neither the chimney nor mechanical room would be visible from the street and that the design of the residence would reflect “an upscale living condition.”

Council member Tom Deringer said nobody else on the island had a height exception.

“Once we allow a height exception for this, the other people are going to come in and want to keep up with the Joneses,” Deringer said. “It could be built without a variance and still be a spectacular house.”

The three-story, 5,609-square-foot home design includes an elevator and a third-floor pool.

Mayor Dave Stewart said he could not support the request and that the house could be overpowering. “I don’t feel it is in keeping with other houses on the island,” he said. “There are people living on the island since 1977, and there’s never been a (height) exception.”  

— Mary Thurwachter

Some changes are in store for residents of the Carlisle, a six-story senior living community at 450 E. Ocean Ave., in Lantana.
Senior Lifestyle Corp., owner of the luxury retirement community since March 2011, plans to make adjustments to better meet the needs of aging residents, according to Jerrold H. Frumm, executive vice president. 
“The reality is most people who live at the Carlisle require some care, and a lot of third-party caregivers are used now,” Frumm said during the Sept. 10 meeting of the Lantana Town Council.
Senior Lifestyle won town approval on a plan to reduce the total number of units at the Carlisle and to add amenity space. The senior living home at Ocean Avenue and A1A, which consists of three residential buildings, was originally designed to house 250 independent-living apartments and 60 assisted-living units. With the approved changes, there will be 144 independent units and 54 assisted-living units.
The reduction in units in the western building (for assisted-living residents) would happen when existing first-floor apartments are replaced with common service areas including a dining room, activity and lounge space and administrative offices.
In another building, the reduction of units on the second and third floors will provide some flexibility to accommodate residents who have or develop dementia.
Also winning council approval was a request to put kitchens or microwave ovens in units that don’t have them now.
The Carlisle sits on property once owned by the town. In 1997, when the property was sold, the town drew up restrictions and covenants outlining what could be done there.
— Mary Thurwachter

June McSweeney (right) laughs while playing bridge with Elaine Brenner at the Harbour’s Edge retirement community in Delray Beach. Photos by Libby Volgyes/The Coastal Star

By Libby Volgyes

The pool is glittering in the morning light, and Boo Sutton, 82, is just a few minutes early. And as the sunlight bounces off the multimillion-dollar homes just across the Intracoastal Waterway, she hurries to join the water fitness class. It’s a picture-perfect morning in paradise, and it’s suddenly very easy to see why so many residents choose Harbour’s Edge for their retirement.

“It’s a resort. It’s really hotel living,” said Marion Diamond, who declined to give her age. She originally lived in New York state and moved into Harbour’s Edge after living in Boca Raton, along State Road A1A. 

Sutton agrees. 

“We felt it was home,” she said before descending into the water. “We are lucky that we have everything (here) that will make us happy. The swimming, the food is fabulous. We love the happy hour.” 

She and her boyfriend picked out a place together, moved in, and fell in love with each other as they fell in love with their new home.  

Located on the west side of the Linton Boulevard Bridge, Harbour’s Edge just celebrated its 25th anniversary. With 267 independent-living apartment homes and 54 beds in the stand-alone health center, the community rests on 20 acres along the Intracoastal.

It offers residents a variety of activities, from an annual gala to current-event discussions; digitally streamed operas and poker nights; trips to the Norton Museum of Art, Miami Marlins games and Café L’Europe; Wii bowling, line dancing, yoga and tai chi.

Bea Shaw works out with light dumbbells during Water Fitness class.

In the Harbour Light Theatre, there’s a furious game of contract bridge going on — Chicago bridge with a $1 buy-in. The rules are simple: Ask questions during the shuffle, not the play. 

“What’d ya play, sweetheart?” Elaine Brenner, 89, asks her partner before carefully considering and tossing her card out. “This is the best place in the entire world,” she said before returning her concentration to the game.  

Sitting next to her is Marilyn Goldman, 88, who moved in six years ago because she could bring her rescue dog — “a half Maltese and a half question mark.” During the day, when she sits in the rotunda, she fields many questions about Punkin’s health. She keeps a busy day with the myriad of activities. 

“I love yoga. There’s also music appreciation, but I don’t sing because I have a horrible voice,” she said.

She does Reiki, loves the rack of lamb offered in the Edgewater dining room and enjoys it when Lynn University Conservatory students come in and give concerts. She participates in current-events discussions and attends the opera broadcasts. 

“There’s six dimensions of wellness — physical, social, emotional, spiritual, intellectual and vocational,” said Activities Director Judy Stauffer, who started at Harbour’s Edge in October 1987, just two months after it opened. “So we try to make sure we have something of each dimension going on each day.”

That includes tai chi, Giselle in 3D, theme parties, an 18-hole putting green, shuffleboard, a Dakim machine (for brain fitness) and a 10-week course on Beethoven. They bring in speakers, take cruises or trips to the zoo and the aquarium, and have regular poker nights. They also have subscriptions to most of the area theaters throughout Palm Beach and Broward counties.

“It’s very important for them to stay busy; it takes their mind off medical issues or worrying about their kids. And I think the reason they’re here is so their kids don’t have to worry about them,” Stauffer said.

Harbour’s Edge has earned the “Gold Seal” for three years from the state of Florida Panel on Excellence in Long-Term Care — one of only 17 skilled nursing centers recognized statewide. A multimillion-dollar renovation and expansion will take place in the coming years, including renovation of the dining room (adding an outdoor dining area) and more access to the Intracoastal. 

“It’s only going to get better,” said Tom Smith, executive director. 

The first night that Shirley Bonier moved into Harbour’s Edge, about six months ago, she and her husband sat down in the dining room alone for dinner.  They weren’t that way for long, though, because shortly afterward, Elaine Brenner popped over and invited them to join her for dinner. 

“Sometimes when you go to a new place, it’s very cliquey, but it’s not like this here,” Bonier said. “Everyone seems very nice and ready to get to know you. My son calls it a senior country club.”             

Harbour’s Edge Retirement

Community 

401 E. Linton Blvd., Delray Beach

271-7979 or (800) 232-1358

www.harboursedge.com

Opened: August 1987

Price range: Monthly service fees range from $3,800 to $6,200 for ‘life care contracts.’ Residents pay a one-time entrance fee ranging from $210,000 to more than $1 million based on unit size and amenities.

Staff size: About 250 employees.

Special features: Harbour’s Edge has transportation, security, a professionally staffed health center, health club, spa, sauna, steam room, library, beauty salon, a waterfront pool, two dining rooms, theater and 18-hole putting green.

 The oldest original edition of the Delray News in the Delray Beach Historical Society’s archives dates from 1923.

Staff photo

The day the 'News Journal' died  | Obituary: Anne 'Nancy' Fontaine Maury Miller

 By Mary Thurwachter

It’s hardly breaking news that old newspapers don’t hold up very well over time. Just examine a copy of The Delray News from the 1920s, for example, and you will understand. While you’re at it, you’ll want to be wearing gloves and avoid flipping through the pages vigorously.

“The pages are hard to handle and very brittle,” said Dottie Patterson, archivist for the Delray Beach Historical Society, where old and yellowed newspapers are carefully stored in the Harriet W. and George D. Cornell Archives Room. Along with other local treasures, such as the architectural drawings of Sam Ogren Sr. (the father of Delray Beach architecture), the newspapers are kept in the dehumidified room, cooled to an invigorating 68 degrees. 

Bolstered by a $2,000 donation from the Boca Raton Pioneer Club this year, most of the newspapers, dating back to 1923, have been digitized, or made text-searchable. Pages have been photographed and made into PDFs, so they can be viewed on a computer. 

The Delray Beach Historical Society, which has a collection of microfiche, microfilm and many original copies of the papers, had already begun the process before the donation but hadn’t completed work on the earliest years of the Delray Beach News, 1923 to ’28. These papers document the rise and fall of the Florida land boom, when Addison Mizner put Boca on the map and Delray grew into a resort destination.

Since Boca Raton did not have its own newspaper until the 1940s, the Boca Raton Historical Society and Museum and the Boca Raton Pioneer Club joined forces with the Delray Beach Historical Society in the project to preserve and make accessible back issues of the Delray Beach News. 

In 2004, the Boca Historical Society and the Pioneer Club worked to digitize the Boca Raton News and the Pelican, Boca Raton’s hometown papers dating back to the late 1940s.  But much of Boca Raton’s historic people, places and events are written  in the pages of the Delray Beach News, which began publication in 1923 and ended in 1986 as The Delray Beach News Journal. 

“Having more of the collection searchable is a wonderful resource for all researchers of local history,” Patterson said. The money from the Pioneer Club went a long way in digitizing the Delray News and Delray News Journal collection, she said, but there are several other papers that sprang up in the 1920s (The Rays of Delray, for example) that she would like to have digitized, as well.

Rescued newspapers

Patterson rescued decades of newspapers from the Delray Beach Library when it moved into its new digs in 2005.

“They told me I could have them but I’d have to come get them by the end of the day,” Patterson said. “I piled them onto a desk chair and wheeled them out to my car.”

The Historical Society already had a collection of The Delray News from the ’20s to ’50s on microfilm. But the newspapers she got from the library that day greatly fattened the collection.

Still, several years of papers are missing. No one knows what happened to 1924, for example.  

The digital versions of the old papers are easier to read than the originals, Patterson said.  The yellow hue has been removed. What couldn’t be repaired were parts of pages long since torn away or tentatively held together by Scotch tape, darkened and more brittle with each passing year.

You can sit at a computer at the Historical Society and read all about life in Delray and Boca 89 years ago. The nameplate of The Delray Beach News back then was bookended by the slogans “Everybody Likes Delray” and “Where Ocean Breezes Blow.” 

A long column called “Personal and Otherwise” served as the social network of the day, with tidbits like: “Mrs. Leslie Walker is visiting relatives in Vermont, and Mrs. M.T. Knox will probably return this week from an extended stint in Baltimore and other points of interest.”

In the Nov. 13, 1925, paper, a rail down the side appealed to readers in the town to the south:

 “Boca Raton News Items — Some of the Happenings in Our Little Sister City Interestingly Told.”

The publication improved its looks mightily in 1929, with special pictorial sections showing homes and businesses, and even a spread dubbed “Delray from an Aeroplane.”

Once a daily paper

The Delray News was founded in 1923 by Lon Burton. When he retired in 1928, Lauren Hand, who started Hand’s Book Shop (now simply called Hand’s) became the managing editor. 

Over the years, the newspaper went through many changes in owners, editors and design. In 1962, when Gary Gooder was editor, the paper became a daily, then a semi-weekly in 1963. But for most of its life, the Delray News was a weekly newspaper. 

It became The Delray News Journal in 1959. Palm Beach Newspapers bought the paper in 1969 and owned it until it ceased publication in 1986.

For the last 20 years of the paper’s life, it circulated in Boynton Beach, too. The Delray Beach/Boynton Beach News Journal was 64 years old in 1986 when dwindling circulation and weak ad sales led to its death.

Reporters’ training ground

Many young journalists plied their trade at the paper.

Natalia (Jamie) Prillaman, who grew up in Delray, was a reporter at the paper from 1973 to ’75.

“We focused on local news in Delray Beach and Boynton Beach — it was a real local newspaper.  We did occasional stories of a regional nature — one I remember was about the change in the way Florida’s judicial system worked. There were stories about the Loxahatchee Reserve and beach erosion, and we covered the renourishment project extensively.”

Another reporter, Sandy Wesley, also worked at the paper in the 1970s, mainly covering Boynton Beach.

She remembers writing about the agreement between Delray and Boynton to build a joint wastewater treatment plant on Congress Avenue at the Delray-Boynton border.

“I also wrote about the hiring of a professional city manager in Boynton Beach — Peter Cheney,” she said.       “Cheney and that city commission turned Boynton Beach around, encouraging Motorola to build its      plant.”                                                    

To contribute to the financing of the Delray Beach News preservation project, call Dottie Patterson at 274-9578, or Susan Gillis at the Boca Raton Historical Society and Museum, 395-6766, Ext. 104.

By Emily J. Minor

DELRAY BEACH —   Margaret H. Floyd, who began coming to South Florida in the 1960s and enjoyed coming back year after year to nurture her love for tennis and all her friendships, died Sept. 17. A memorial service was held a few days later at First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach, where she was a member.

Mrs. Floyd was born in London, the daughter of the late Andrew C. Hinrichs and Ethel M. Ferguson of Greenock, Scotland, and Bombay, India. She went to school at Greenock Academy and Queen Margaret College in Edinburgh, Scotland, often spending time in India, where her father worked, said her daughter, Patricia Phillips of Delray Beach.

During World War II, she served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service, later marrying American Navy Lt. Commander Charles Halcomb and moving to Princeton, N.J. to start a family. The couple later divorced.

In 1960, she married Walter I. Floyd. They lived in Charlotte, N.C., but began coming south to Delray Beach in 1962, said her daughter.

“Florida has always been a very special place to our family,” said Patricia Phillips. 

Mrs. Floyd was an avid tennis player who supported the growth of tennis opportunities in Florida. A ballerina in her younger years, she always loved to dance. She also served on the board of the Carolinas International Tennis Foundation in Charlotte, which worked to promote women in the sport. Mrs. Floyd’s Florida club memberships included The Ocean Club of Florida and The St. Andrews Club.

Besides her daughter, survivors include two sons, C. Andrew Halcomb of Charlotte; and David S. Halcomb of Kenosha, Wisc. Two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren also survive her.

Before her death, Mrs. Floyd asked that any memorials be made to the St. Andrews Tennis Fund, 4475 N. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach, FL 33483, or a charity of choice.

 Megan Mulry’s A Royal Pain will be in
bookstores Nov. 1.  Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star 

 By Ron Hayes  

“What can I do while the kids are in school?”
Some women learn to play tennis. Some take up yoga.
Megan Mulry tackled a royal romance.
Her family was settled in their coastal Delray Beach home. Her husband had a successful career as a private investor. Helen, 12, and Jeb, 5, were happily enrolled in the Gulf Stream School.
“So I decided to try writing a contemporary Regency romance,” Mulry recalls. “I started researching dukes.”
She began writing in September 2010, sent a synopsis to 14 agents three months later and had a publishing contract with Sourcebooks by June 2011.
“I burst into tears when I opened the box of advance copies,” she says.
The title changed along the way.
How To Deal With A Duke became Royal Strings Attached, and then Earl Meets Girl.

You can find A Royal Pain in bookstores beginning Nov. 1.
“I want people to have an hour or two on the beach and enjoy it,” Mulry says, “and I’m thrilled that people will pay me to do it.”
What you’ll find in that hour or two is a modern Cinderella story told with a lot less Disney and a little more sex.
Bronte Talbott, a young Chicagoan newly embarked on a successful career in advertising, is recovering from her breakup with a twangy Texas boyfriend when she meets a British doctoral student named Max Heyworth in the science fiction section of a used bookstore.
Who is Max Heyworth? Ah hah! None other than Maxwell Fitzwilliam-Heyworth, next in line to become the 19th Duke of Northrop.

Yes, there’s a happy ending, eventually. This is a romance novel, after all. What’s surprising is how well-written it is.
    Megan Mulry is not the sort of woman people who don’t read romance novels expect to be writing romance novels.
She has a degree in Victorian literature from Northwestern University and knows her Dickens, Trollope and Thackeray. She was Tina Brown’s assistant at The New Yorker, and the lifestyle editor at Boston magazine. She’s lived in London, working in finance.
“I’ve read serious literature,” she says, “but everybody dies in the end. With romance novels, I love the pace, the happy endings, the joyfulness. They’re life-affirming, and so entertaining. You’re reading like candy, but you’re getting a well-researched historical novel.”
The early critics seem to agree. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly calls A Royal Pain “a delightful love story ... worth reading again and again.”
Booklist finds that “the very human characters keep the plot fresh, funny, and engaging, with Mulry’s lavish descriptions of fashion an added bonus.”
Closer to home, her family is supportive, but cautious.
“I don’t think I’m your target audience,” Mulry’s husband, Jeff Huisinga, told her.
“Is it appropriate for me?” her daughter wondered.
“In a couple of years,” her mother decreed.
Romance isn’t what it used to be, after all, and neither are romance novels:
The first kiss he had been anticipating for the past four hours, the past six weeks. The kiss he could no longer delay. His tongue trailed tentatively across the seam of her inviting lips, then ventured into the warm welcome of her luscious mouth.
Bronte simply gave in. Her eyelids became unaccountably heavy and she emitted an unconscious mewl of pleasure ...
It goes uphill from there.

“Yes, there are some sexy parts,” Mulry promises. “The cutoff is four sex scenes. After that, it’s called erotic romance.”
Her novel has three. However, you may want to turn up the A/C before reading them.
In the meantime, the Dutch and Spanish rights have been sold, and Mulry has a three-book contract.
“I try to write Monday through Friday, 2,000 words a day,” she says. “In 50 days, you’ve got 100,000 words.”
She’s already finished six novels, one that follows the duke’s younger brother, a second his sister.
“This is not Fifty Shades of Gray,” she says with a laugh. “But I’d like 30 million readers.”                       

For more information, visit www.meganmulry.com.

Shoeman

By Tim O’Meilia

Briny Breezes last month hired its third deputy town clerk in 15 months following the forced resignation of Cindy Corum after nine months on the job. 

Town Clerk pro tem Nancy Boczon, also an alderman, promised Corum the $2,500 in severance pay called for in her contract if she resigned her part-time position immediately without forcing a vote of the Town Council.

“We had great disharmony in the building,” Boczon said after the Sept. 27 Town Council meeting, saying several talks with Corum did not improve the atmosphere. She declined to elaborate.

Town Attorney Jerome Skrandel said Corum’s discussion with at least one audit firm in the running for a three-year contract with the town has forced Briny Breezes to restart the entire process. 

“She overstepped her bounds,” Skrandel said. “We’re being very prudent to make sure we’re operating properly. This way we have no harm, no foul.”

In an email to Mayor Roger Bennett, Corum said she told the town’s current auditor, Alberni Caballero and Co. of Coral Gables, that the council was seeking a reduction in the $11,000 annual fee the town was paying. She said the conversation occurred before the town decided to seek proposals. She said she was trying to save the town money.

The town has received four proposals but has not opened the fee bids. Skrandel said they will be returned unopened to the firms. 

Skrandel proposed a new evaluation scorecard for the three-member audit committee to grade the proposals, adding a category for fees which was not in the previous evaluation sheet. 

In her email, Corum said Boczon micromanaged her work and she was discouraged from communicating with the newly contracted town bookkeeper. Previous deputy clerks handled the bookkeeping.

Lesa Shoeman, the daughter of bookkeeper Linda Harvel, was hired by Boczon to replace Corum on an interim basis. Her contract is expected to be approved by the council in October.

Boczon said Shoeman was one of two applicants who responded to a notice of the vacancy in a municipal clerks publication. 

Shoeman, 39, said she is a bookkeeper and payroll manager for several small businesses and previously ran a bookkeeping business in Palm Beach Gardens. 

“This position is really ideal for me,” she said of the two-day per week job. “With my two kids, I don’t want to work 40 hours a week.”

Although she lacks experience as a town clerk, Shoeman said she would pursue certification as a municipal clerk. Corum was previously town clerk in Loxahatchee Groves and her predecessor left to take a full-time town clerk position in Lake Park. 

In other business, the council approved a tax rate of $10 per each $1,000 of taxable property value, the maximum allowed by state law, by a 5-1 vote. Alderman Sue Thaler dissented. The council unanimously approved a $599,445 budget that is $1,720 less than this year’s, despite a 4 percent hike in the cost of fire-rescue service and a 5 percent increase in water and utility service, both provided through contracts with the city of Boynton Beach.                   Ú

Director Amy London gives instruction to Hannah Joyce, 13,
of Ocean Ridge, at The Plaza Theatre in Manalapan. London is
leading the students in Frank Loesser’s 1961 musical How to
Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.  Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

    “I first knew I wanted to do this when I was 5,” Hannah Joyce remembers. “I did sports, I did gymnastics, but acting is how I let people see the real me.”
   The Ocean Ridge teen was 5 when she appeared in the chorus of Scrooge at the Delray Beach Playhouse. She’s 13 now, and people can see the real her in November, when the new Plaza Theatre’s Performing Arts Conservatory presents the musical comedy How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.

But first, a lot of hard work.

On Sept. 5, she auditioned, singing Tomorrow, from Annie, and performing a monologue from The Wizard of Oz.

On Sept. 12, she learned she’d been accepted to the program.

And one week later she’s back again, seated along with about 25 other young acting students in the theater’s Plaza Del Mar auditorium, listening as director Amy London prepares them for a read-through of the script.

“The dance numbers are going to be complicated,” London tells them. “We’re not doing a little kids show here. We’re doing a big kids show.”

Hannah has done little kids shows, and so have several of her fellow students. What she wants now is a big kids show, and that’s what the nonprofit Plaza Theatre promises the area’s young actors.

Jacobson

Its founders are Palm Beach Gardens residents Alan and Melissa Boher Jacobson. He ran the Florida Jewish Theatre in the 1990s, then produced a series of cabaret shows and revues. 

She’s a veteran acting and voice coach, and the theater’s director of education.

The theater opened in February in the space where the bankrupt Florida Stage spent 19 years.

But where the earlier theater prided itself on offering new and often experimental productions, the nonprofit Plaza Theatre is betting on light musical revues and buoyant comedies priced at $35-$45 a ticket.
First came My Musical Comedy Life, Broadway star Donna McKechnie’s one-woman show, followed by revues celebrating Neil Sedaka, Barry Manilow and Irving Berlin.
Upcoming productions for adults include Driving Miss Daisy and Chapter Two.
The children’s conservatory has already done Grease and All Shook Up, an Elvis Presley show. And now How To Succeed.
The conservatory’s tuition fee is $375 and auditions are required.
“But our policy is that anyone who auditions who really wants to participate will be given a part,” Boher Jacobson says. “Classes are limited to 12 students with no more than 35 in the productions, and every student gets a minimum of one hour of private instruction.”
Hannah’s  mother, Hayley Joyce, is enthusiastic.
“Once I’d talked to Melissa, my decision was made,” she says. “These kids are different, and to have this place where they feel normal because they’re with other kids who are creative is wonderful. They walk to a different drummer, and if nothing else, they leave with an ability to talk in public and a sense of self-confidence.”
For Max Maldonado, 16, How To Succeed In Business will mark his third appearance in a conservatory production. He played Vince Fontaine in Grease, and the cross-dressing role of Mayor Matilda in All Shook Up.
“I’ve always loved acting,” he says, “ever since I did a Christmas play in fifth grade. I always loved to impersonate the book or cartoon characters I read about.”

Now he has three parts to learn for the current production.
On this night, though, he and Hannah and their fellow thespians will read the play together, get measured for costumes and as their director sets the stage all the work ahead.
“I promise you a good time,” Amy London says. “I promise you hard work. I promise you a good show. Just let me see you’re trying.”
And Hannah Joyce, who has just been told she’ll play Lily in the production, a part with plenty of singing and dancing, is smiling.   
“When I came here,” she says, “I felt at home.”          

The Plaza Theatre Conservatory’s production of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 20 and 3 p.m. on Nov. 21. For more information, call (561) 588-1820 or visit www.theplazatheatre. net.                                 

Janet and Jack Zurell enjoy a spin in their golf
cart in Briny Breezes.  Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

    He made sure there were movies and she reported the news — along with a dollop of wit and inspiration.
Briny Breezes residents since 1990, Jack and Janet Zurell have been among the most dedicated volunteers at BBC-8, the park’s own closed circuit TV station.
    Every night at 8, with a matinee Sundays at 2 p.m., Jack chose and programmed the station’s movies. Janet was there either late at night or early each morning, updating community news on the BBC-8 scroll and adding a pithy one-liner or two.
Love your enemies. At least they never try to borrow money from you.
There’s a thin person inside every fat person. I ate mine.
Now, after 11 years on the job, they’ve retired.
“I’m having trouble getting around,” says Jack, “so it’s become more difficult for me to program the movies.”
“And I feel stale,” adds Janet, who also served on the mobile home park’s board for eight years. “ Just feel somebody younger would have new ideas.”
“I did it because I loved it,” she says, “and it was important for the people to get the news first thing each morning.”

— Ron Hayes

Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
Jack: I went to the same school in Mount Morris, Mich,, from kindergarten through high school. We had 70 in our graduating class, and my mother taught there, so I had to really behave and study hard

Janet: Flint High School. It was a big school and interracial, which gave me a broader scope on how to deal with people.

Q. What did you do professionally before retirement?  Any highlights you’d like to share?
Jack: After graduating from Michigan State, I became a certified public account and worked for O.L. Anderson in Detroit, which manufactured fuel tanks for the automotive industry. Later, I was parts manager.

Janet: I raised three children and also worked full-time as a bookkeeper, a Girl Friday to an interior decorator and a church secretary. When the children were older, I was a Cub Scouts and Brownies master and a youth counselor in our Methodist church.

Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?
Jack: Get a skill. You must have a technical education.

Janet: I would tell my granddaughter to get a good education or else find a really old rich guy and marry him. (She’s joking here, folks).

Q. What guided your selection of quotations and movies on the BBC-8?

Jack: I always tried for variety. A drama, then a comedy, a thriller, an adventure and a classic. Plus everyone’s recommendations.
Janet: I wanted one-liners that were uplifting and humorous. And nonpolitical. I wanted to give Briny Breezes brightness and happiness and cheer.

Q. How did you choose to have a home in Briny Breezes?
Jack: My brother had lived here since 1964. After I retired, we looked at Tucson and Phoenix and South Padre Island, but March of 1990 we were coming to see my brother and when we left Georgia into Florida we saw the lush flowers and thought, “That’s he kind of winter you like to see.”

Q. What is your favorite part about living in Briny?  

Jack: The weather.
Janet: And the people.

Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions? 

Jack: “Jack, will you get me this.” (Now he’s joking, folks).
Janet: “I can do all things through Christ that strengthen me.”

Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?

Janet: My mother, Esther Doe. She lived with us for 37 years and died at 98 and a half.
Jack: She was an old German woman who believed the man of the house was king, so in 37 years I never had an argument with her.

Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?

Jack: Mickey Rooney.

Janet: Sandra Bullock.

Q. What’s next now that you’ve retired from BBC-8?

Janet: I’d like to join the hobby club, and maybe start a beginners knitting class. Oh, and I’ve always wanted to peel potatoes for the community dinners.

Jack: My wife’s an a-peeling person.”