Arvid Johanson, 73, and  Dr. David Danzer, 70, perform
their morning walk for several miles through Highland Beach
for exercise. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Paula Detwiller,

It’s a simple, healthy ritual. Six days a week at about 7:30 a.m., retired firefighter Arvid Johanson, 73, and semi-retired physician Dr. David Danzer, 70, meet at the guard shack of their Highland Beach condominium building and set out for a walk. “Dr. Dave” punches a special app on his iPhone that will track their activity.

“OK, it’s telling me this is our 75th walk,” he tells Arvid, “so we’ve walked about 150 miles in the last three months.” They both nod, pleased.

“The women got us going,” Arvid explains. “My wife told his wife that I walk every morning …”

“I was doing it on occasion,” Dave interjects. “ My wife is a registered nurse who saved my life about nine years ago after my quadruple bypass, and she said this is another way to save my life — to start walking and get healthy again.”

In a 12-year study of 707 retired men in Hawaii, the mortality rate among men who walked less than 1 mile per day was nearly twice that of men who walked more than 2 miles per day.  

Dave: “We do either two or three miles, up A1A and back. If we walk without each other, the people we meet on this trek say, ‘where’s your buddy today?’ ” 

Arvid: “It makes you get up in the morning, because I don’t want to disappoint Dave and not show up.”

Dave: “Absolutely. We both seem to be motivated by not wanting to let the other one down.”

Arvid: “I do this walk because of my blood pressure problem. When I come down here (from the North), my blood pressure is usually like 145 over 90. And now — I just checked it a couple weeks ago — I’m 125 over 75.”

Numerous studies have shown that regular walking can help lower blood pressure, prevent weight gain and reduce the risk of developing heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Dave: “I think it’s kept my sugar down a little bit. I’m pretty sure that it also keeps my blood pressure down ... But basically, psychologically, it makes you feel better to have walked each day.”

Arvid: “Not only that, you’re breathing fresh air — and the sun hits you, and it’s the best thing.”

Dave: “I’m not working at the moment, and sometimes one gets the strange feeling that one is withering away to nothing — everything is turning to jelly, including one’s mind. But at least I can say, I walked today. I did something.” 

Research has demonstrated that physical activity can be effective in improving the mental health of older adults, including mood, memory and cognitive functioning.

There are “regulars” along their route: the black-and-white-striped fish they look for each day in the Intracoastal. The Highland Beach patrol officer who sees them peering into the water and jokes with them through his bullhorn: “Don’t jump!” The petite French woman who rides her bike to the store every morning, greeting them with a friendly “bon jour” as she passes. 

Arvid: “What do we talk about? Everything. Boats, medical stuff, where we went to dinner …”

Dave: “Whether he should get an iPhone or not …”

Arvid: “Maybe by the time we get home I’ll have my wife convinced that I need one.”

Dave: “We’ve solved all the problems of the world many times. But the world’s still screwed up afterward.” He cracks a smile.

Back at their starting point, Dave checks his phone and announces they’ve walked 2.32 miles, in about 45 minutes. They have easily met the federal government’s latest recommendation that older adults get at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per day. 

They’ll do it again tomorrow. It’s a simple, healthy ritual.

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

The Rev. Douglas Hood was the top choice to take over
at First Presbyterian Church. Photo provided

By  Tim Pallesen

The Rev. Douglas Hood knew he wanted to be First Presbyterian’s new senior pastor when he read the help-wanted request.
The congregation near the ocean in Delray Beach said it was searching for someone who could lead them to be more like Christ in the community.
“My greatest passion is coming alongside people and nurturing their personal spiritual formation in the character of Christ,” Hood said.
First Presbyterian selected Hood on May 5 to replace the Rev. Theodore Bush, who retired last year after 27 years in the pulpit. Hood begins June 15.
“There was a match between what they wanted and what I wanted to pursue,” Hood said. “That’s why I got excited.”
Hood, 52, has served a Presbyterian church in New Britain, Pa., the past 12 years. He previously served congregations in Bartow, Fla., and Irving, Texas.
He graduated from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg in 1982, and received his divinity degree from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga., in 1987.
He focused his studies on spiritual formation and discipleship at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., where he earned his doctorate in ministry last year.
Then he turned down two job offers in California and Florida in hopes that he would be chosen from more than 150 applicants for the Delray Beach ministry.
Bush retired in January 2011. Hood’s application to replace him was one of the first that the Pastor Nominating Committee at First Presbyterian received when it began its search in June 2011.
“From that time until late December when we narrowed our selections to three, he always led the pack,” committee co-chair Rob Tanner told the congregation on May 5. “We listened to dozens of sermons of various candidates. Dr. Hood always stood out as the best of what we heard over months of evaluation.”
Tanner said the committee also was impressed with Hood’s administrative leadership skills and the fundraising campaign that he led to raise $1.2 million to renovate his church in Pennsylvania. His wife, Grace, whom he met in a seminary Hebrew class, is a missionary’s daughter who became a missionary herself in Brazil and the Congo.
But the new pastor’s ability to teach members of First Presbyterian how to become better Christian disciples proved to be most important in his selection.
“He understands the needs of vision and driving the church with purpose,” Tanner said.
Hood’s doctoral dissertation, titled Faith Journey: A Strategy for Nurturing Discipleship, is now the curriculum at three churches near Philadelphia.
In it, he outlines five practices to become a true follower of Christ: worship regularly, pray daily, apply God’s word to your life, be involved in an active ministry and give financially.
Bush and his wife took Hood and his wife for a tour of Delray Beach before the May 5 vote.
“The congregation was looking for something and I think they found what they were looking for,” Bush said. “We hope they will feel as blessed by the wonderful people at First Presbyterian as we were.”                                

Mike and Jodi Halker have opened Due South Brewing Co. in Boynton Beach.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jan Norris

If Dad’s still saying, “I love you, man,” maybe it’s time to upgrade his brew. Try a craft beer — one produced without a billion-dollar brewery behind it.

The craft beer movement, prolific in the Northwest U.S., has been slow to catch on in Florida, despite the state being one of the largest beer markets in the nation. But those who appreciate small-batch beers with flavor character have growing options, with a number of individuals brewing and selling their beers.

Pale ales, German porters, wits, wheat beers, stouts and bocks are some of the styles offered by passionate brewers who are stepping out of the mainstream box and hoping drinkers follow.

Just last month, Mike and Jodi Halker opened Due South Brewery in Boynton Beach. Mike Halker had been brewing his own beer for some time, with friends urging him to go into business. A recent move back to Florida from his native North Carolina was the push that took him from amateur to pro. 

“The movement was still in its infancy down here; now things are taking a turn,” he said. “There are several breweries in Florida.” 

He points to the Tequesta Brewing Co. that started up two years ago — the only other full brewery in Palm Beach County.

Halker’s now on the board of directors for the Florida Brewer’s Guild, and through a number of other brewers in the state, such as Bold City Brewing in Jacksonville and Cigar City in Tampa, he’s helping bring hand-crafted beers to aficionados.

Visitors to his brewery (2900 High Ridge Road) can buy beer and take home a growler — a specially sealed bottle of fresh beer — from his tanks. Caramel Cream Ale and Category 3 IPA are his initial offerings. 

“IPAs (India pale ales) are the fastest-growing segment in beers down here,” he said. They’re light enough to be refreshing as a drink in the hot sun and still offer flavor, he said. The Caramel Cream is a nod to his spouse, who doesn’t care for IPAs.

Those who would like to sample unique regional beers will find a hefty beer list at Sweetwater Bar and Grill in Boynton Beach, where unusual finds like the Unearthly Oaked double IPA from Southern Tier Brewery in New York is available with 9.9 percent alcohol by volume. Belgium tripels and quads like the Trappistes Rochefort from Brasserie de Rochefort, or Cisco Island Reserve from Cisco Brewery in Nantucket are on their comprehensive list.

The odd fruit-vegetable ales are represented on the list as well: Morimoto Soba from Rogue Brewery in Oregon and the Banana Bread beer from Wells & Young, a U.K. beer, are hard-to-find samples.

Cuthill’s Backyard Bar in Boynton Beach, where a festive Airstream trailer has been converted to a bar, has a selection highlighting Florida beers. 

Look for Cigar City brews from Tampa, Monk in the Trunk from Jupiter, Tequesta Brewing Company’s Gnarly Barley. From the northeast, check out regional Delaware’s Dogfish Brewery’s T’weason Ale, Angry Orchard from Boston, or Magic Hat from New York.

In Delray Beach, check out Tryst’s list. The casual restaurant on Atlantic Avenue  lists the ABV (alcohol by volume) on all the beers — and their list has explanatory notes about beer styles, too. We learn from them that only seven breweries in the world can use the verbiage “trappist” on their labels. They feature a number of trappist ales here.

Stout lovers will want to try some of these: Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, Dogfish Head World-Wide Stout, and Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout.  

Tryst also has number of beers on draught that change often; in the mix now are Brasserie d’Achouffe Golden Ale from Belgium and Lagunitus Pils from California.

At Boca’s Brewzzi (a brew pub), award-winning beers like Boca Blonde and Brewzzi Reserve are brewed on site and sold in the restaurant.

Boca’s Biergarten focuses on German and Belgian brews on draught and in bottles, and their list is extensive.  Check out all the hefe-weisse, dunkels and porters. There are many domestics as well — Sea Dog Blue Paw from Maine, Breckenridge Vanilla Porter from Colorado, Kona Koko Brown from Hawaii and Victory V-12 from Pennsylvania. 

The Yard House, newly open in Mizner Park, has a unique beer system. Its center island 

has close to 100 beers on tap, fed from a central keg room kept at between 34 and 36 degrees. Samplers are available so brew lovers can try out six beers at once.  

Along with the dozens of commercial craft beers from around the world, labeled by styles and flavor, their own branded craft “house” beers are sold. 

Belgian strong ales like Ommergang Three Philosophers or Chimay Triple or Trois Pistoles are on tap. 

A large selection of amber ales like Alaskan Amber, Lost Coast Alleycat Amber, or Napa Smith Lost Dog will please caramel lovers. Those who love the hops will like Green Flash Hop Head Red, or Heavy Seas Loose Cannon Hop3.

Friends of malts should check out Smuttynose Old Brown Dog or Big Sky Moose Drool.

All of the above serve food except for the Due South Brewery. Most, too, offer happy hours.

If it’s beer to bring home, Total Wine and More in Boca has a good selection, as does Crown Wine and Spirits in Boynton Beach. Lake Worth’s Bx Beer Depot has tastings each Friday night. 

Whole Foods in Boca Raton has organic beers as well as a number of craft beers; they occasionally hold tastings there as well.

At your favorite shop, ask if mixed six-packs are allowed; this gives Dad a chance to try several to find one he prefers for Father’s Day.

Where to go for microbrews

Biergarten — 309 Via De Palmas, No. 90, Boca Raton. Phone: 395-7462. Web: www.biergartenboca.com

Brewzzi — 2222 Glades Road  Boca Raton. Phone: 392-2739. Web: www.brewzzi.com

Cuthill’s Backyard Bar — 511 NE 4th St., Boynton Beach. Phone: 740-0399. Web: www.cuthillsbackyard.com

Due South Brewing Co. — 2900 High Ridge Road, No. 3, Boynton Beach. Tucked between Sherwin Williams and Boynton Granite & Marble. Park and enter in the back of the building. Phone: 463-BEER (2337). Web: www.duesouthales.com

Sweetwater Bar & Grill — 1507 S. Federal Hwy., Boynton Beach. Phone: 509-9277. Web: www.sweetwater33.com

Tryst — 4 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach. Phone: 561-921-0201. Web: www.trystdelray.com

Yard House — Mizner Park, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. Phone: 417-6885. Web: www.yardhouse.com

Outrageous Expectation (2011) an oil on canvas by Karen Kuykendall of Tampa.

By Greg Stepanich

Every year for the past six decades, the Boca Raton Museum of Art calls on the artists of the Sunshine State to send work its way for the All-Florida Juried Competition and Exhibition.

This year, they answered the call in plenteous fashion, with about 600 artists supplying more than 1,800 entries. The judge for all this work was Valerie Cassel Oliver, who is senior curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. It was her less-than-enviable task to try to winnow all that work down to a manageable show.

“With such a large volume of works, I really focused on what works felt complete (technically and conceptually solid),” Oliver wrote in an email. “I came to the process with no expectations other than the fact that good to great art works will always reveal themselves.”

Oliver herself is widely recognized for her curating, having worked at the National Endowment for the Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago. Her appointment as senior curator of the Houston museum, where she’s worked since 2000, was widely welcomed in the area press.

Oliver wrote that in today’s “global age,” it’s hard to support the idea of any specific “regional style.”

“That being said, there were thematic and material practices that seemed to organically emerge: A focus on nature regardless of media (painting, photogaphy, sculpture — all had a focus on nature) and the impulse to repurpose material through assemblage work and/or collage works,” she wrote.

Monike AKA Chicken Wang (2011), an oil on
canvas by Kandy Lopez of Miami. 

The show, which opened May 30 and runs through July 8, will contain 101 paintings, sculptures, installations, videos and photographs from 74 artists.

Casting a wide net for so much art has its benefits and drawbacks, Oliver wrote, but it does give the judge a sense of how much artistic activity is going on in a given area.

And was there anyone whose work she saw that she might consider for her own museum in Houston?

“Yes, there were a few artists who I took special notice of. But my lips are sealed!” she wrote.

The Boca Museum calls the juried show the oldest such competition in all of Florida, and this year’s is the 61^st edition. Running concurrently with the juried show is the biennial exhibition of the Boca Museum Artists’ Guild, which includes works by members of the Museum Auxiliary Guild.

Tickets are $8, $6 for seniors and $4 for students; members and children 12 and under get in free. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Call 392-2500.

                                   ***

Once upon a time, Olivia Newton-John was the good girl-bad girl crush of the geek set, wondrously pretty but still approachable, and with a voice that had a nice honey-pop sound that managed to elevate everything she sang, even when it was routine junk like “Please Mister, Please.”

In 1980, she starred in Xanadu, a movie that was greeted with well-deserved critical abuse (despite also featuring Gene Kelly), but the score, by fellow Aussie John Farrar and Jeff Lynne of the Electric Light Orchestra, did very well indeed, with songs such as the title track and “Magic” becoming staples of early 1980s radio.

The show returned in 2007 as a musical, garnering a respectable Broadway run of more than 500 performances. Since then, it has had several revivals and has become something of a favorite for community theaters.

This month, Slow Burn Theatre in Boca Raton presents the show for six performances from June 22 to July 1 at the West Boca High auditorium. Xanadu has an intentionally ridiculous plot about the youngest of the Muses, Clio, descending from Mount Olympus to bring some inspiration to a Venice Beach, California, sidewalk artist who thereupon decides to build a roller disco.

Yes, it’s still set in 1980, after all.

“We wanted to do something that was light and fun,” said Patrick Fitzwater, the troupe’s co-founding artistic director along with Matthew Korinko. “It’s also our first summer show, and it establishes us as a year-round theater company.”

Fitzwater said he saw the show on Broadway, and with memories of the movie still in his head, “I thought, ‘This is either going to be really good or really terrible,’ and it turned out to be a great night,” he said. “It was 90 minutes of sheer fun.”

Nine cast members are in the show, which Fitzwater says is getting its South Florida premiere with this production. Lindsey Forgey stars as Clio (Kira), and Rick Pena is Sonny, and there will be a four-piece rock band on stage accompanying the action. 

The show is something of a self-parody, but you won’t notice that once the show gets going, Fitzwater said. 

“In the first 15 minutes, you’ll fall into the ironic thing, but after that you’ll really get into the show. It’s just a really fun night,” he said.

And since Newton-John herself is a resident of Palm Beach County (in Jupiter Inlet Colony), perhaps she’ll come down to Boca to check it out. 

“We’re actually trying to see if she’ll come to opening night,” Fitzwater said, adding that the company has been in touch with her manager, who has promised to check her schedule. “We all love Olivia Newton-John.”

Tickets for the show are $35 for adults, $30 for seniors, and $20 for students. Call 866-811-4111 or visit www.slowburntheatre.org.

                                   ***

It’s worth noting that the Arts Garage in Delray Beach has added some significant jazz and blues acts to its summer roster, adding to the strength of the venue’s offerings as its second year of existence gets under way.

The Doug Carn Quartet appears June 9 in a relatively rare appearance by the St. Augustine-based pianist and reedman, and on June 16, it’s veteran Gainesville blues shouter Little Jake Mitchell (“Work With Me Annie”) and his Soul Searchers. 

On the 23^rd, a true Florida jazz legend pays a visit to the series when organist Dr. Lonnie Smith and his trio come to the Garage. 

The turban-wearing musician is a formidable player who has helped keep the jazz flame alive in a part of the state that really should have more jazz to offer.

And summer also brings one of the last of the great bluesmen, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, now in his early 80s but still making the tour circuit (July 21); pianist Lynne Arriale, who teaches at the University of North Florida (July 28); and, guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg and his quartet (Aug. 25). Tickets start at $20 for these shows; call 450-6357 or visit www.artsgarage.org.

Greg Stepanich is editor of The ArtsPaper. Email him at gstepanich@pbartspaper.com.

Trinity Lutheran Church historian Albert ‘Bob’ Miller,
standing inside the original church building, is the grandson
of the church founders. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star 

Delray Beach’s oldest church building was built in 1904, after Margaret Wuepper delivered an ultimatum to her husband, John.

The Wueppers were among a small group of German Lutherans who had come from Bay City, Mich., the year before to be some of Delray Beach’s earliest settlers.
“My grandmother told him, ‘I’m not going to stay in this godforsaken place unless you build a church,’ ” said Albert “Bob” Miller, the historian at Trinity Lutheran Church.

So John Wuepper chaired the building committee that constructed the wood-frame sanctuary that measures 22 feet wide, 50 feet long and 12 feet high. It was built on the southeast corner of Federal Highway and Northeast First Street. Developer Henry Flagler, who built the Florida East Coast Railroad, contributed $100 toward its $950 cost.

Lutherans played an important role in the early development of Delray Beach. Miller tells their history in his book, 100 Years of God’s Grace, which he wrote for Trinity Lutheran’s centennial in 2004.

Adolf Hofman, the first Lutheran in town, was a founder of the Bank of Delray, the first bank in town. Hofman had arrived in 1895 a few months after William Linton, the first settler. Hofman held Sunday devotional services in his home before the church was built.

The old church building was moved in 1965 to its current
location at 400 N. Swinton Ave. in Delray. Photo provided

Wuepper opened the town’s first general store. He brought an organ and a Christmas tree from Michigan for 38 Lutherans to celebrate Christmas in the Weupper home on Atlantic Avenue in 1903.

Delray had a population of 300 in 1911 when the Bank of Delray began promoting it in northern newspapers as the “City of Destiny.” The town grew to 1,400 two years later.

The Wueppers’ daughter Henrietta sang in Trinity Lutheran’s first choir and later married Al Miller, who organized a community band that played on Friday nights in the park.

The Hurricane of 1928 destroyed churches that the Baptists, Methodists and Episcopalians had built in 1903. The Lutheran church was blown off its foundation, but its members were able to replace it. “We were the only ones with a church that withstood the hurricane,” Miller said proudly.

The little church served as the growing congregation’s primary sanctuary for 65 years.

Trinity Lutheran attempted to raise $12,000 for a new Gothic-design church with a steeple in 1938, but was unsuccessful because of the Great Depression.

So buttresses were constructed to protect the original church from future hurricanes and beautiful stained glass windows were installed in 1940. Trinity Lutheran opened its day school in 1948.

The church building was moved in 1965 to Trinity Lutheran’s present location at 400 N. Swinton Ave., where a larger new sanctuary was built in front of it in 1965.

Miller, the grandson of John and Margaret Wuepper, was in charge of the move.

Affectionately known as “Mr. Trinity,” Miller served 50 years on the church council. Following the example of his grandparents, he often led the church and school building projects on Trinity Lutheran’s 8.7-acre campus.

“The congregation has a strong lay leadership, and a lot of that goes back to Bob,” former pastor Robert Klemm said. “Every time things would slow down, Bob would say we have to go forward. And we’d put up another building.”

Now, at age 90, Miller gives tours of the original church building that sits at center of the campus. It is still used for weddings, Bible classes and Sunday School.

As historian, he encourages today’s church members to work as hard for the Lord as Trinity’s pioneers did. “It’s been my life,” Miller said. “I do everything I can.”  

                                              ***

The number of men in training for the Catholic priesthood at St. Vincent de Paul Seminary has increased significantly.
“I really believe that people are finding their spiritual selves again,” said the Rev. Tom Lafreniere, vocations director for the Diocese of Palm Beach.

Sixteen men were ordained on April 21 at the seminary west of Boynton Beach as deacons, the last step before becoming priests. “No one remembers a class that large,” Lafreniere said, noting that fewer than 10 have been typical classes in past years.

The number of U.S. priests fell from 59,000 in 1975 to 39,000 in the last decade. But now the number of seminary students is up across the country.

“Our current trend is more upward in the number of men called into the priesthood. It shows itself dramatically here,” he said.
A total of 80 men are in training at St. Vincent de Paul, the regional seminary for all seven dioceses in Florida.

                                      ***

Joseph “Joe” Dye, one of the south county’s most colorful former pastors, has died at age 83.

Dye served the Boynton Beach Congregational Church from 1984 to 1989. “He enjoyed the theater and put a lot of drama in his service,” church member June Finke recalled.
Most memorable was his Kirking of the Tartan, where Scottish bagpipers wearing kilts carried the Bible into church in an annual procession. He also led a clown ministry for church youth across Florida.
Dye was a community theater actor who went into the ministry at age 50 after his voice teacher suggested he join a church choir, his former wife, Sally Dye, said: “Dramatizing in church to make things clearer was his natural next step.”

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

Gumbo Limbo Nature Center hopes to open the first two of its four new tanks the third week of May.

Work on the nearshore-reef habitat was finished at the end of April, said Michele Peel, president of the Friends of Gumbo Limbo. The mangrove habitat was scheduled to be completed the first week of May. Then comes one to two weeks of water testing before fish can be introduced. Both exhibits are the shallow tanks. Construction delays thwarted the Friends’ plan to have the nearshore display open in early March.

The two deep tanks showing a tropical coral reef and a shipwreck/artificial reef are on schedule to open in October, the Friends said on the nature center’s website.         

                                    — Steve Plunkett

By Mary Thurwachter

The season has come to an end and many of you are headed north for the summer. Seems like just yesterday we were putting together the holiday gift guide, for goodness sakes. Where has the time gone?

We will miss you, but we won’t stop reporting, writing and photographing the local news.

And here’s some good news: You won’t have to miss a thing while you’re summering elsewhere. 

There are two ways for you to follow our island dispatches. You can read us online at www.thecoastalstar.com, or, you can subscribe by completing a form found on Page 25 of this edition or online under “subscriptions.” Tell us where you would like us to mail your paper and send us  $20 to cover postage.

So many of you have told us that reading The Coastal Star is like receiving a letter from a good friend, and good friends should stay in touch, even — or especially — during hurricane season.

Of course, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that the big storms will pass us by this summer, but if they don’t, we’ll do our best to keep you on top of things. Watch us online for timely updates.

While you’re away, we will continue to keep a watchful eye on city hall, local events, and yes, even the sea turtles.

In this edition, you’ll notice the ArtsPaper is on hiatus, too, until the season preview comes out in October. Until then, ArtsPaper editor Greg Stepanich’s arts column can be found in The Coastal Star. 

Want to know more about the arts scene? Visit palmbeachartspaper.com.

Whether you leave or stay here, have a happy, healthy and fun summer.

— Mary Thurwachter, Managing Editor

Jack and Beverly Circle bake fruitcakes to raise money for the Boca Raton
Museum of Art and its school.Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Paula Detwiller

He had a men’s clothing business in St. Louis. She had an antiques shop. 

They raised two daughters and retired to Florida in 1985. But Jack and Beverly Circle of coastal Boca Raton never really retired. 

“People up North think that you come down to Florida and you sit at the pool all day and do nothing,” says Beverly. 

Not the Circles. They plunged into volunteer work and never looked back.

For the first few years, they took puppies and kittens from the Humane Society on visits to nursing homes.

Then Beverly read a story in a newspaper about people with AIDS being shunned by friends and family.

“So I said to Jack, ‘Honey, how would you like to cook and donate food to people with AIDS?’ He said, ‘I don’t know how to cook.’ I said, ‘I’ll teach you.’ ”

For the next 11 years, they cooked and packaged meals that were distributed to AIDS patients by a West Palm Beach food pantry. 

“We ended up making as many as 500 packaged meals at one time, with an army of friends, in our small kitchen,” says Jack, 90. “This was a big project. It took two days to shop, one day to cook, and one day to prepare it all for distribution.”

“Everybody in our building got to know us, because we asked to use their freezers,” Beverly says. “Eventually we bought a big freezer and put it in a closet.”

As they got older, Beverly, 82, taught Jack the fine art of baking. 

Together they bake crowd-pleasing fruitcake — yes, fruitcake — and sell it at various fundraising events for the Boca Raton Museum of Art and its affiliated art school.

“Jack and I said, ‘if you give us a table in a corner, we will bake and sell fruitcakes and give you all the money,’ ” Beverly said. “People came to our table and said, we don’t like fruitcake. So we gave them a sample. First time we did that, we made $950, in three hours.”

She won’t reveal the recipe, but says her fruitcakes contain 10 different fruits and no fat. 

The Circles also bake nine kinds of biscotti. When Beverly volunteers each Wednesday evening at the museum’s front desk, she brings along a bag of her homemade biscotti to give to someone deserving. 

Jack says Beverly’s biscotti are so good, they open doors. 

The Circles once got a room in a booked-up Montreal hotel by offering the manager a bag of their cookies. 

On another trip, they avoided paying duty on a trunkful of merchandise by giving Canadian customs agents a similar biscotti “bribe.” 

Through all of their adventures, Jack and Beverly have stuck together. They’ve been a team for 62 years now. And they greatly enjoy giving their time, talent, and treasure to the Boca Museum of Art.

“Whenever they need someone, all they have to do is call us, and we’re available,” Jack said.                                   Ú

Hamid Hashemi, iPic Theaters. Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

By Thom Smith

Long ago and far, far away, Hamid Hashemi couldn’t get enough of movies. His mother would take him and his brother and sister to the local cinema in Tehran, Iran, every Friday. The big screen became so alluring that he and his teenage pals once saw 19 movies in two weeks. 

“Movies were the gateway to the Western world,” Hashemi said. “They opened up my universe.”

Still a teenager, Hashemi and his family left Iran in 1978, a year before the revolution. Six years later, he was running his own movie house, three screens in a Coral Springs strip mall. He called his company Muvico. It became an industry innovator.

Fast forward to the 21st century. Just as movie-making has changed, so has the movie house. No more strip malls, no more floors gooey with popcorn ground into spilled soda, no more scratchy film. In 2005, Hashemi and Muvico parted. Two years later, in a Milwaukee suburb, he opened his first iPic theater. 

The plush leather seats of iPic Theater’s Premiere Plus seating
include a pillow, blanket and popcorn. Grand opening is May 4
at Mizner Park in Boca Raton. Photos by Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

On May 4, his newest and most advanced iPic opened in Boca’s Mizner Park.  

At first sight, it suggests luxury hotel, a hot bar, a top-end restaurant or perhaps a lounge designed by Tim Burton. That’s the point. 

“Movies are about escapism. When you went to Radio City Music Hall, it was to escape,”  said Jim Lee, iPic vice president of marketing. 

Walls are covered with original art, wood and metal accents. Panels of cross-cut walnut shells cover the main support columns. Eight-foot square Chinese marble tiles cover the floor. 

That lounge? Appropriately named The Cocoon, it’s encased  by a thicket of  leafless vines — actually centuries-old wood from Malaysia. 

Anyone, not just moviegoers, may dine at Tanzy, the 250-seat restaurant and bar (opening May 14). 

It offers indoor and outdoor dining, an “artisanal Italian menu” fresh made from local sources, plus a novel Italian take on a sushi bar.

Even the restrooms are stunning. Sinks made of hollowed and polished boulders sit atop countertops of translucent stone that are lit from below. The walls are covered by glass tiles and panels of interwoven coconut shells.

Luxury materials are used throughout the iPic Theater,
including this upstairs women’s restroom.

Tickets, please! 

Take the escalator to the theater level, where an attendant takes your ticket and an usher escorts you to one of the eight theaters. The smallest seats 44, the largest only 82. 

Gone is the old concession stand, replaced by Tanzy Express, a chef-driven, quick-service center offering an expansive made-to-order menu, beer and mixed drinks, with ID, of course.

Now on to your theater. Though each auditorium has less capacity than its predecessors, it’s wider and seats are arrayed stadium style to enhance the wide screens, digital sound and the booming 3-D experience. 

All seats are reserved, and guests are encouraged to select online in advance. Seats can be removed to accommodate patrons in wheelchairs. 

“Not a bad seat in the house,” Lee said. “It’s your night, your way.” 

All seats are thickly cushioned leather with wide arms and trays that can accommodate food and drink. 

For a surcharge, guests can choose Premiere Plus (popcorn included) — a fully reclining seat, with a pillow and blanket. Snuggling is tight but possible. Press a call button on the inside of the arm, and a “ninja server” appears to take your order.  

“This idea goes back to 2004, 2005,” Hashemi said, referring to Muvico’s Premiere concept. “This is really an evolution of that. Over time, we’ve done a number of ’em, and every time we’ve done it better.”

Each is styled for location

In the old days, a typical theater might employ a ticket seller, a ticket taker, a concessionaire, a couple of ushers and a projectionist. iPic’s theater and restaurants require a staff of 246. Ticket prices start at $14, but membership plans offer discounted pricing, advanced access to blockbuster films, free tickets on birthdays and other specials. 

iPic runs nine complexes in seven states, and the next will open this winter at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale. Each is styled for the community. Milwaukee includes a bowling alley and a Friday night fish fry.

Hashemi is still in love with movies. His favorite remains Raiders of the Lost Ark, and “any movie that makes money.” And iPac’s business, he said, has exceeded expectations. Still, in the end, he has only one question: Will they come back? 

“The service has to top what you’re looking at,” he said. “After a while, you’ve seen all this and it’s the service that will bring you back. We want this to be your home away from
home.”                                        

By Angie Francalancia

The buildings will be taller, the occupants younger and the amenities more cutting-edge than anything downtown Boca Raton has seen. And if the developers’ and city leaders’ predictions come true, the new apartments going up in Boca Raton’s downtown will fill it with people willing to walk to shopping, entertainment, dining and perhaps even employment.

This is not your grandparent’s vacation rental.

Indeed, the apartments — 1,197 of them downtown —will be small by the city’s suburban standards, and will be marketed to young professionals who don’t necessarily see buying a house in their immediate futures.

And because two of the four downtown complexes include some retail space, the projects also have the potential to enliven the lackluster performance of some of the existing retail around Palmetto Park Road.

Think of Boca Raton not as a small city, compared with more traditional urban areas, but as a piece of the overall South Florida metro area, said Jay Curran, vice president of development for Archstone’s Florida division. Archstone plans to build 378 apartments on Palmetto Park Road in nine stories atop about 15,000 square feet of retail at street level and a parking garage. That includes about 25 town homes with garages that will face Boca Raton Boulevard. The existing retail building will be demolished.

“You’ve got the view of the Boca Raton Resort, the Intracoastal and the ocean, and to be in such great proximity to downtown and the beach is a great opportunity,” Curran said. “Not only do you get all these great amenities but great access to jobs.”

That close proximity to downtown, U.S. 1 and I-95 is one reason these are expected to attract young professionals, and why they’re likely to improve Boca Raton’s business prospects, said people involved in downtown planning.

Businesses look for quality rental apartments in deciding where to locate, said land use attorney Charles Siemon, who has done extensive work with downtown Boca Raton, including Archstone and other apartment projects. 

“We have employees who work in downtown Boca Raton but who live in Fort Lauderdale,” he said. “We need to make our city more attractive to businesses and young professionals, and that’s not renting a golf villa.”

Kelly Smallridge, executive director of the Economic Development Board, said today’s typical young professional wants an urban lifestyle, and today’s businesses want a young, college-educated workforce. Companies like 3C Interactive, Campus Management and Office Depot ought to benefit by the apartment growth in downtown Boca, she said.

“The scenario that the economic consultants give us was that the 25-year-old today likes to get up, get on a bike, go to Starbucks for coffee, get back on the bike and go to the office; walk outside for lunch, get on a bike again and go to a park,” she said. “Young college graduates today are not necessarily excited about purchasing their first car because of the price of gas.” 

While city leaders are excited about the potential for a dense, pedestrian downtown, not all residents share their vision, and many have said there will be too many apartments and too much traffic.

“There will be far fewer residents than needed to fill the approved rental properties,” economics professor Ann Witte told the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowner Associations on May 1.

The city’s projected population growth “will provide only slightly more than 400 new renters,” said Witte, who lives in Townsend Place.

All five apartment developments are near U.S. 1, and four are within walking distance to Boca’s Mizner Park entertainment district. 

The majority of the units will be one-bedrooms, and some developments are offering studios as well.

Rents among the complexes will range from $1,050 for a studio apartment to $3,500 for a three-bedroom with garage.

“We’re assuming this is going to be mainly single and professional couples that either work in downtown or work in other areas of Palm Beach County and want to live closer to downtown, closer to where the action is,” said Hugo Pacanins, vice president of Ram Residential, which is building 208 units just east of U.S. 1 on Palmetto Park Road. Ram won’t be demolishing the Merrill Lynch office building on the site, and will position the apartments a little east of the corner, leaving the prime corner for a future phase, Pacanins said.

“We see a combination of younger populations, but also some of the older population moving away from the suburban locations who maybe don’t want to use cars for everything.” 

While granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and wood cabinets set the standard, the upscale appointments will come in smaller packages with some studio apartments coming in at about 530 square feet at both the Ram and Camden apartments.

“There’s a big supply of large condos and apartments. Our units are going to be a little bit smaller,” said Chad Weaver, Camden’s vice president of real estate investments for the southeast United States. “We’re actually going to have some studios. The apartments will range in size from about 530 square feet up to about 1,250,” he said. He believes demand will come from some people looking for a more comfortable living situation, such as moving out from a parent’s home or living alone after having a roommate.

Via Mizner, adjacent to the Boca Raton Resort, may see tenants who choose to rent rather than buy a seasonal place, said Pete Odorico, vice president of Development for Penn-Florida, which is developing the project at Camino Real and U.S. 1. 

“It’s the views next to the club and proximity to the club that makes a difference for us,” he said. He expects phase one of the project to complement the entire project, which still includes a future phase of condos about 44,000 square feet of retail and a 118 room hotel.

The fifth, North Boca Village, about five miles north, and includes 384 apartments in 19 buildings on 20 acres at the former Levitz Plaza.

“This is more of a garden style, not a high-rise,” said Michael Ging, managing director of Broadstone Developers, which already has the first five-story building out of the ground. “We’ll have three-story townhomes with two-car garages, which we expect to appeal to families, and five-story buildings that we believe will appeal to the more mature demographic, mostly because it will look and feel like a condo. And then we’ll have your traditional three-story garden-style buildings.”

“The thing that’s going to set us apart is our clubhouse. It’s the most luxurious clubhouse that I’ve seen,” Ging said.  It will be a two-story, 10,000-square-foot building with a cyber cafe, fitness center, yoga studio, demo kitchen, and wine and cigar rooms.     The four downtown complexes all sit on space a fraction the size of North Boca Village’s 20 acres. Located between Mizner and Delray Beach’s Atlantic Avenue, North Boca Village expects to attract young professionals who might work north or south.

Unlike many of the condos that make up downtown Boca’s multifamily housing, developers don’t see the apartments being abandoned in the summer. 

“We think it will be very good for the community and add to the year-round population,” Siemon said.      

The Christine E. Lynn Women’s Health and Wellness Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital is one of 10 leading clinical centers in the country to have participated in a new breast ultrasound study. 

The study was conducted among women with dense breast tissue over a three and one-half years. Nearly 10 per cent of the nation’s breast ultrasounds in the study were conducted at the institute. 

Based on the study, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s radiological devices panel of the medical devices advisory committee unanimously recommended approval of U-System’s somov® Automated Breast Ultrasound System for use in women with dense breast tissue who had a normal screening mammogram. 

The government panel recognized the limitations of mammography in women with dense breast tissue, and that by adding whole breast ultrasound, the cancer detection rate can be doubled in this population of women. 

 “Recently, several scientific studies have demonstrated that supplementing mammography with ultrasound for women with dense breasts finds a statistically significant number of additional cancers,” said Kathy Schilling, MD, medical director of the institute.        For women aged 40 and older, mammography has traditionally been the most important tool for the early detection of breast cancer. But for women who have dense breast tissue, the procedure has known limitation in detecting cancers. Dense breast tissue not only increases the risk of breast cancer up to four to six times, but also makes cancer more difficult to detect via mammography, according to multiple large studies. 

One study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed 35 percent of breast cancer goes undetected by mammography in women with dense breasts, as density masks appearance of tumors.        

                          — Staff report           

Eleven former or current Boca Raton Regional Hospital physicians have been nominated for the Palm Beach County Medical Society’s Heroes in Medicine Awards and will be honored at the Society’s ninth annual luncheon, at the Kravis Center on May 9. 

For the Lifetime Achievement Award, community outreach hero finalists include the following retired physician volunteers at Caridad: Richard F. Auclair, Arnold Berliner, Howard Doyle, Gordon Hahn, James Jannotta, Leo Quinn and Martin Rubenberg.

Physician International Hero finalists are Howard Goldman and Jeffrey Miller.

The local/national hero finalist is Joseph Forstot.

The awards distinguish individuals and organizations in the health care field that provide exceptional services to meet the needs of the community. Nominees were judged by a committee chosen by the Palm Beach County Medical Society Services.

Proceeds from the ceremony benefit Project Access, a group of physician volunteers that help provide health care to low-income and uninsured residents of Palm Beach County.                

 — Staff report

Barbara and Dick Schmidt and the Schmidt Family Foundation’s
gift to Boca Raton Regional Hospital follows a $25 million gift
by Billi and Bernie Marcus. Photo provided

The Marcus Neuroscience Institute, scheduled to open in 2014, got a hefty cash boost in mid-April, when Barbara and Dick Schmidt and the Schmidt Family Foundation gave the Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation a $5 million gift for the project.

The neuroscience institute will serve as a state-of-the-art center of care for neurologic and neurosurgical patients. 

The institute was established with a recently announced $25 million gift from Boca Raton residents Billi and Bernie Marcus and the Marcus Foundation.

The Schmidt gift will be used to build a 52,000-square-foot addition to the hospital, which will house the Marcus Neuroscience Institute, and be named the Schmidt Family Pavilion. It will contain a 22-bed Neuro Intensive Care and Step-Down unit, two dedicated operating rooms equipped with intraoperative MRI and the latest technology.

“We believe the Marcus Neuroscience Institute is the most important new development in health care in South Florida,” said Dick Schmidt, who has just completed his tenure as two-term chairman of the hospital board of trustees. “It will serve as a destination for expert neurological care from the finest physicians and clinicians coupled with the most advanced technology. The Marcus Neuroscience Institute will transform the lives of many patients suffering from memory and movement disorders, as well as other neurological conditions.”

The Schmidts announced the gift at the Foundation’s Philanthropy Guild Reception, which recognizes the hospital’s most generous donors. 

The Schmidt family has a multi-generational legacy of support for Boca Raton Regional Hospital. Dick Schmidt’s parents, Charles and Dorothy Schmidt, were early contributors to the effort to build the hospital in the 1960s. He and his wife, Barbara, and the Schmidt Family Foundation have also given several philanthropic gifts to the Lynn Cancer Institute. 

— Staff report

Boston Proper employees enjoy the fashion show during
the Proper Affair held at the Boca Raton Resort & Club on
April 18. Sitting in the front row, from left: Alain Boyer,
Ernie Sulpizio, Deanna Lederman and Giulio Ghiro. Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

Actress June Lockhart (left) poses for a photo with
Palm Beach International Film Festival Chairwoman
Yvonne Boice (center) and Executive Director Randi
Emerman during the Silver Screen Splash brunch at The Lake
Pavilion in West Palm Beach on April 15. Tim Stepien /The Coastal Star

President Obama mixes with the crowd, many armed 
with cell phone cameras, during his visit to Florida
Atlantic University in Boca Raton.  Thom Smith/The Coastal Star

By Thom Smith

The line of students hoping to get a seat in the gym at Florida Atlantic University stretched across the main road then snaked back and forth across the lawn next to the student center. Those who finally made it inside to see and hear President Barack Obama were mostly enthusiastic, unusually polite for college students and unbelievably patient. Applause greeted anyone with a suit who entered the arena from beneath the giant flag, even the White House staffer who attached the presidential seal to the front of the lectern.    

On one wall hung a banner emblazoned with “An America Built To Last,” a presidential goal that could have been borrowed from a Ford commercial or possibly from a Grateful Dead album.  The crowd didn’t applaud it, but they did give FAU President Mary Jane Saunders a big hand as she noted that FAU, the most diverse of Florida’s universities “looks like America.”  They clapped for Student Government President Ayden Maher as he led the Pledge of Allegiance and for sophomore Rebecca Guillaume after her rousing Star Spangled Banner.

No special treatment, by the way, for FAU trustees such as Tom Workman, Anthony Barbar and Dave Feder, who were squeezed into a corner of the bleachers behind the stage. Recently retired football coach Howard Schnellenberger also had a bleacher seat, directly behind the president, where he snapped lots of photos on his cellphone. 

Obama urged congressional support for increased student assistance and for his proposed “Buffett rule” — no connection with Jimmy. He made one sweep around the gym, hand-to-hand with hundreds leaning over the barriers and then, barely an hour later he was gone.

The presidential visit was the first to FAU since Lyndon Johnson helped dedicate the school in 1964. Yet, surprisingly, no one knows why or how the White House picked FAU.

FAU’s University Relations office speculated that it was convenient, almost on a straight line from his earlier fund-raising stop in Palm Beach Gardens to another at the Diplomat Resort in Hollywood and finally at a private home in Golden Beach. But nothing definite.

When the White House was queried, staffer Joanne Rosholm sent this reply: “It’s not entirely uncommon that we would pick a place like FAU that can hold a large number of people who want to see their President speak. Beyond that, I don’t know that there’s much more to say!”

So there . . .                                                                       

After a year in the making, and many more developing the concept, Due South Brewing is ready to begin pouring in earnest. With another weekend of positive reviews at Delray’s Old School Beerfest on April 21, founder Mike Halker has begun production at south county’s first commercial craft brewery.

“We’ll have our grand opening on May 12,” Halker said of his facility on High Ridge Road in Boynton Beach. “We’ll be brewing five types to start.”

Due South’s monthly production of 3,500 gallons is barely a drop compared to voluminous Bud or Corona, but Halker is confident he can win over anyone who likes his beer with a little TLC. A caramel cream ale has been testing well, but Halker said Due South’s Category 3 IPA (India Pale Ale)  also is going down nicely and hoppier Cat 4 and 5 versions are on the way. 

A firm believer in the social benefits of beer and brewing, Halker also will pour samples from other craft brewers at the open house. To handle the demand, the 1,000-square-foot bar area is now stocked with samplers, 12-ounce short pour glasses, and a newly arrived shipments of 1,000 pints. For details on the open house, see duesouthales.com. 

As far east as you can get on dry land, a fire-and-water entrance feature welcomes the 21-and-over crowd to the Sandbar and Rhum Shack. The new sand bar on the south side of Boston’s on the Beach opened SRO on Friday the 13th.  Not a blade of grass in sight nor any weeds, for that matter — the entire area is covered with packed sand that unlike the beach variety across the street is not supposed to blow away, wash away or stick like glue. 

“It’s kind of an adult sandbox,” GM Tom Walsh said with a smile, noting that while a limited snack menu will be offered, the emphasis will be on building your own mojito or whetting your whistle with 12 draft beers or two dozen bottled varieties. “If people want a big meal, they can eat inside and then come out.”

A small stage will accommodate low-key entertainers, who, as with the food, will not compete with the action inside Boston’s. And when necessary, guests can avail themselves of new restrooms, labeled “Inboard” and “Outboard.”   

On the road again … Michelle Bernstein, just departed as executive chef at The Omphoy in Palm Beach, is headed back to the Palm Beaches from her Miami nest, but only for one night. Bernstein, who hosts Check, Please!, the restaurant review show on WPBT-Channel 2, has expanded her repertoire to include road trips. 

On May 15, 150 guests paying $125 each, will visit five restaurants in Boca. After appetizers  at Sushi Rock on Yamato Road, the group will board buses for stops at Josephine’s, Bogart’s, Casa D’Angelo and The Tin Muffin Café. Co-hosting with Bernstein will be popular radio host and vintner Paul Castronovo. Proceeds support production of the show. To sign up, go to wpbt2.org.

Bernstein will not be stopping at Mizner Park, which is too bad because Uncle Julio’s Mexican restaurant has given its menu a spark. New drinks include margaritas with fresh mango and passion fruit among other blends, with and without tequila (including Patron). Want to eat on the cheap? On Tuesdays, tacos are a buck each. 

What a party! Overflow crowd. Shari Gherman, president of the American Fine Wine Competition had to add two tables — for 20 last-minute oenophiles — in the Grand Ballroom at the Boca Raton Resort & Club’s Mizner Center. Alan Kalter, with a week off from announcing for David Letterman, kept the crowd informed. Saxman Dayve Stewart and The Vibe rocked the 400-plus guests at $310 each, plus whatever they spent at auction. 

Bam! Emeril Lagasse put on a show as he prepared roasted filet mignon, brown butter gulf blue crabmeat, local mushroom fondu, spring field peas and black truffle butter sauce. Bam!

At auction, Theodore Bryant bid $15,000 for a dream dinner to be prepared at his home by several top area chefs, which helped bring the tally to $60,000 for Diabetes Research Institute and the Golden Bell Education Foundation.

 Since it is the American Fine Wine Competition, there were winners: The 2009 Castello di Amorosa Il Passito Reserve Late Harvest Semillon, North Coast and 2009 La Follette Manchester Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir, Mendocino Ridge, were judged the best white and red, from more than 600 entries. 

Pity the judges. A lot of sipping, spitting and rinsing for the 25 experts who spent two days at a local hotel sampling the 600 candidates in 12 categories. 

“They lock you up in a room and you try wine for two days, flight after flight,” said judge Stephanie Miskew, whose Glamorous Gourmet blog is found at www.stephaniesavorsthemoment.blogspot.com. “The split us into groups of four judges. We tried all the wines in our group, made our notes and then got together and tried to come to an agreement.

“You definitely need to pace yourself.”

But late into the second day, as the judges drew closer to consensus, the tension began to dissolve. “There definitely was more sipping than spitting,” she said. 

    A day earlier, 350 guests had a Proper Affair at the Boca Resort. But instead of tête-à-tête, the night was devoted to prêt à porter, as they bought raffle tickets, vied for silent auction items and bid on high-end fashions from Boston Proper that were modeled by spirited volunteers. The local grass-roots project raised $160,000 for the Achievement Centers for Children and Families, a Delray Beach foundation that supports 700 low-income children.

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

By Steve Plunkett

Creating new signs at the town’s entryways and choosing  a slogan to put on them aren’t the top goals of Highland Beach’s new three-year strategic plan, but they may be the ones  finished first.

“We love our town. Let’s make it look nice coming in,” Vice Mayor Ron Brown said as commissioners wrangled over the final list at their April workshop and the regular meeting May 1.

Highland Beach will hold a contest to come up with the new slogan. Details of the competition will appear in the next town newsletter.

“I’ll throw out a few suggestions, like ‘Jewel of a Town’ … ‘First in Safety and Service,’ “ Commissioner Lou Stern said.

Mayor Bernard Featherman began the push for a strategic plan soon after he was elected last year. Highland Beach’s advisory boards channeled possible goals to the Planning Board, which narrowed the list before forwarding it to the commission.

“You really have to look at four or five goals to adhere to and concentrate on those, because that makes them doable,” Featherman said.

Other top goals are:

• Continue to work with the state on a plan to improve safety for motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists on A1A;
• Address the use of reserves to balance the budget;
• Renovate Town Hall;
• Repair and repave the town’s walking path.

Less-important goals were to work on a joint effort to oversee Intracoastal Waterway safety concerns and sell surplus property in Boca Raton. Dropped from the plan were suggestions to provide water and covered rest stops on the walking path and procure a “sitting park” on A1A.

“A strategic plan should be ongoing,” Featherman said. “Even though it’s a three-year plan, you can revise it — every year if you want to.” 

While the sitting park did not make the plan, commissioners authorized Brown to investigate the town acquiring a vacant parcel at 3200 S. Ocean Blvd.

In other business, they  confirmed the mayor’s nomination of Eugene Engelhardt to the Charter Review Board.

Engelhardt told commissioners he was a chemical engineer for a DuPont spinoff and was steeped in DuPont’s corporate culture of planning and teamwork. He also has been active in the Toscana condominium association, he said.

The nomination was Featherman’s fourth for the charter review seat. His first choice, Marc Saltzberg, also a Toscana resident, resigned. Commissioners declined to confirm Carl Feldman or Deanna Kelvin as a replacement. Feldman managed the mayor’s campaign in 2011 and George Kelvin’s unsuccessful Town Commission campaign in March. Deanna Kelvin is George Kelvin’s wife.             Ú

By Steve Plunkett

The city hopes to win a $109,050 matching grant to help pay for replacement equipment to move sand from the Boca Raton Inlet south onto beaches.

The City Council authorized applying for the Florida Inland Navigation District grant at its April 24 meeting.

If the city stopped dredging, “the Boca Raton Inlet would likely become impassible for all but shallow draft vessels in less than one year,” city financial/coastal project administrator Jennifer Bistyga said in the grant application. 

Also, if sand were not moved south, the beaches at South Inlet Park would be in “a severely eroded state,” the application says.

Boca Raton has been dredging the inlet ever since Arvida Corp. deeded the waterway to the city in 1972 with the provision that the city keep it navigable. 

The dredge will be pulled out of the water and unavailable up to two months at the end of the year while its hull is replated and protective painting is applied. Dredge piping, the main pump and a swing winch would be replaced in summer 2013.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection requires the city to move 83,000 cubic yards of sand from the inlet to the beaches each year.

More than 80 boats pass through the inlet on an average weekday and more than 100 on weekends and holidays, the application says.

The navigation district awarded a $240,000 grant in 1998 to help buy dredge equipment. A $100,000 grant in 2000 partly paid for a tugboat to move the
dredge.

The city will make a $170,000 emergency repair to a bridge on Date Palm Road after a truck exceeding the posted weight limit crossed the span and a large piece of concrete fell off.

Boca Raton-based Florida Concrete Protection LLC won a $202,794 bid to make minor repairs to the bridge, over the Fishtail Canal, and two others on Date Palm Road last September. Its contract includes the replacement of lower pile caps, concrete crack repairs, overhead concrete replacement, resurfacing roadways and minor sidewalk repairs.

The too-heavy truck drove over the bridge on April 12. Date Palm Road is in the Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club. 

The city expects to recover the repair costs from the company that owns the truck, Assistant City Manager Mike Woika said.

— Steve Plunkett

The results are in and Boca Raton’s old town hall has been deemed the “top civic building” in Florida.

The designation came in April after an online poll of the state’s top 100 architectural buildings in the “Florida Architecture: 100 Years, 100 Places” competition sponsored by the American Institute of Architects of Florida.

“We are really pleased, “ said Mary Czar, executive director of the Boca Raton Historical Society, which is headquartered in the building.

“It was a fun thing for AIA to do and it’s bringing a lot of attention to a wonderful building. I just feel privileged to work here.”

Designated as the overall No. 1 building in the state was the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach. Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach was No. 5, and  The Breakers Resort was No. 7.

But after choosing the top 10 buildings, AIA also recognized buildings in various categories, ranging from performing arts to museums — and civic buildings, of course.

To see all of the results, go to www.aiafltop100.org/Current-Standings.cfm.

About Old Town Hall:

Palm Beach architect Addison Mizner designed the original version of a city hall for Boca Raton in 1926. His Mediterranean Revival design was scaled down to one story; yet it too proved too costly for the newly incorporated municipality. 

Delray architect William Alsmeyer replaced Mizner as architect in 1927. He created a Mission Style structure incorporating the foundations for Mizner’s design, and the Mizner Industries produced ironwork, tiles, pecky cypress ceilings and doors and other architectural features already ordered for the structure. 

Town Hall, first opened for business in the spring of 1927, features a gold dome, arched doorways and windows, and ironwork characteristic of the Mediterranean Revival style popular in Florida during the 1920s land boom. 

Town Hall served as a municipal structure until the 1980s and was restored through a communitywide effort led by the Boca Raton Historical Society in 1984. 

— Staff report

President and CEO of Hospice by the Sea Inc. Paula J. Alderson, left, congratulates skipper Bret Moss, second from left, after his team’s second-place win. Photo provided

Despite near gale force winds and torrential downpours, skipper Bret Moss, representing Hospice by the Sea, sailed to second place in the 2012 Hospice Regattas National Championship in St. Petersburg on April 22. 

Team Fort Lauderdale, made up of Moss and Dalton Tebo, Karl Langefeld and Jason D’Agostino, competed to raise awareness and money for hospice care.

Moss is the also winner of the Miami to Key Largo mile race and the 110 mile Key Largo Steeplechase. “Sailing is like life,” he says. “You have to adjust your sails because you can’t always change the conditions.” 

Forty years ago, Moss’ grandfather taught him how to sail. His participation in the regattas is Moss’ way of giving back for the compassionate hospice care his grandfather and his family experienced.  

For more than 30 years, Hospice by the Sea, Inc. in Boca Raton has provided hospice care to patients and families in Palm Beach and Broward counties. For more information about Hospice by the Sea’s programs and services, call 395-5031 or visit www.hbts.org.

— Staff report

Former Boca Raton Rotary Club President Rick Zimmer (above left) presents a $50,000 check during the April 24 groundbreaking ceremony for the new city library. Rotary Club President Douglas Mummaw (lectern) speaks as Mayor Susan Whelchel (back left), Director of Recreation Services Mickey Gomez and Friends of the Library President Susan Sosin  await their turns. The library will be about 40,000 square feet on the corner of Northwest Second Avenue and  Northwest Fourth Street, two blocks north of the existing library.

Boca Raton residents Natalie Navarrete, 11, (above left) Jacqueline Navarrete, 8, and Ellie Ana Sperantsas, 5,  observe the groundbreaking. 

Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star