By Steve Plunkett

The clock may be down to its final few ticks on $2.5 million in grants and county money to make over Lake Wyman.

Rob Robbins, director of the county’s Environmental Resources Management Department, told City Council members that the project must be completed by September 2013 to collect $2.1 million from the Florida Inland Navigation District.

But before the first shovel can turn any dirt, the county, city and FIND must work out agreements and the county needs to go out for bids and then review them.

“We have a goal-setting session a month or so from now. Can you wait that long, because there’d have to be a council meeting after that to say yea or nay?” City Manager Leif Ahnell asked at the April 9 workshop session.

“We can live with a month,” Robbins answered.

The county hopes to get $383,176 in local matching money for the navigation district’s grant from the city, the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District or both. Ahnell said the city should budget $50,000 a year on top of that for annual maintenance and to clean the canals again in 2033.

“I don’t know where this problem is of coming up with money. We can just do it,” Council Member Michael Mullaugh said, citing a pending $70,000 savings on an unrelated contract. 

Christine Cherepy, president of the Golden Harbour Homeowners Association, repeated her group’s demand for outside studies on whether the project would silt canals in her neighborhood or boost the mosquito population.

“We strongly oppose submerging almost 4 acres of land,” Cherepy said.

Robbins said his department does bathometric surveys before, during and after any restoration project to make sure fill is not migrating. And the Mosquito Control Division, which he supervises, has concluded “that increasing the flushing through the mangrove area will reduce the number of mosquitoes,” Robbins said.

Supporters of the project took advantage of the public comment portion of the April 24 council meeting.

“There’s no doubt that the Lake Wyman project is vital to this area in many ways,” Laura Castanza, chair of the city’s Green Living Advisory Board, said.

“It would make the city a lot more exciting, as far as like really nice canoe trails,” said Curtis Petruzzelli, a senior at Boca Raton High School.

“Our estuary has been degraded and ignored for far too long, and if left alone it will only get worse,” said Steve Alley, chair of the Environmental Advisory Board, which unanimously recommended approval. 

Joe Chaison, a member of the Marine Advisory Board who helped develop the proposal, urged council members not to pass up the grant money.

“If we decide not to take this opportunity to partner with the county and FIND, the existing problems and the existing maintenance obligations won’t go away,” he said.

The project would remove 11 acres of Australian pines and Brazilian pepper from FIND’s spoil island and two smaller islands created in the 1930s when the Intracoastal was dredged. FIND’s island would be scooped out to create a 3.3-acre basin for seagrass with a dock for day boaters. 

About one mile of canoe trails would be restored to increase mangrove flushing and make the trails passable at low tide. 

An observation platform and picnic and beach areas would be added, and the board-walk would be extended.                                 Ú

SCORE South Palm Beach has been named the National SCORE Chapter of the Year, doubling the number of businesses it has helped and for its programs with veterans, teen entrepreneurs and universities.

“Our country survives on the entrepreneurial spirit,” said Hal Finkelstein, chair of SCORE South Palm Beach since 2007. “Our small businesses are our leading employers. Our members feel it’s their responsibility to foster the growth of today’s and tomorrow’s business leaders.”

On April 17, Boca Raton Mayor Susan Whelchel presented the award to the all-volunteer nonprofit, which is part of a network of 364 SCORE chapters, at a ceremony at Gleneagles Country Club. 

SCORE South Palm Beach is a resource partner to the U.S. Small Business Administration dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and helping small businesses grow. Visit www.scoresouthflorida.net.  

— Staff report

By Steve Plunkett

The City Council may decide what restaurant goes on the former Wildflower site as soon as October.

The city plans to issue a request for proposals for the 2.25-acre Intracoastal Waterway parcel in mid-June, Deputy City Manager George Brown said.

“The vision is that the restaurant is an amenity in a public space, the public space isn’t an amenity to the restaurant,” Brown said.

He said the RFP would require that the restaurant be open to the general public, attractive to all facets of the public and have an affordable menu. 

Buildings will be positioned to emphasize views of the Intracoastal, and plans must provide for sufficient parking without disrupting Silver Palm Park to the south.

“Everybody would like to preserve as much of the property open to the public on the waterfront without using it for parking as possible,” City Manager Leif Ahnell said at the City Council’s April 9 workshop.

City officials envision a hub of activity at the east gateway to the downtown, as well as landscaping to emphasize the site as a gateway to the Intracoastal.

“It would be up to the developer to tell us how they’re going to achieve those requirements,” Brown said.

The proposals must include lease terms with income guarantees, a description of the project team, a market analysis, proposed schedule, site plan and traffic studies, Brown said. 

“We’re talking about a restaurant that’s an amenity to a public space as opposed to having a restaurant with a little bit of public space hanging around. That is a totally different way of looking at it, and it does open some, I’m hoping, imaginative possibilities and proposals coming forward,” council member Michael Mullaugh said.      Boca Raton bought the land in 2009 for $7.5 million. The City Council heard informal proposals in October from three stand-alone restaurants, two multi-story complexes, a recreation-oriented business and a recent architecture graduate who wanted a park there.            Ú

Tim Barnes, general manager of the Violin Shop and principal
violist with Palm Beach Opera Orchestra, tests the sound of a
violin at the Violin Shop. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Tim Norris

Ivory of wooly mammoth, hair of Mongolian horse, shell of oyster and abalone shine from sticks hung tip-down from pegs along the window of Alejandro Quintero Servin’s work space. A few more of these finely milled implements, clasped in C-clamps, surrounded by saws and sandpaper, punches and chisels and pots of glue and lacquer, await his help. 

In trained and talented hands, the wands in Servin’s care work a musical magic. They are bows, companions that conjure sound from stringed instruments. 

Here in the Violin Shop in a shopping center along Boca Raton’s U.S. 1, Servin, known to many as Alex, is their caretaker. 

The bow in his hands just now needs a hair transplant. Opening it from the dark mahogany “frog,” where the hair is tightened or relaxed, he might find damage or quirks, hidden under a pearly slide.

Alejandro Quintero Servin

Servin himself might seem to hide, too, in a workshop tucked in back of the store. Tim Barnes, the Violin Shop’s general manager and his boss, describes him as shy. 

Servin’s work, though, speaks loudly (and across a generous range of volume, tone and timbre), in the voice of stringed instruments. 

Bows and their care, Servin and his art suggest, show the value of patience and diligence and the wonder of artisans and materials often overlooked. Hair left taut can ruin a bow’s backbone. Dry, cold air can tighten it near snapping. An outdoor concert on a hot, humid afternoon can stretch it beyond redemption.  

In truth, bows are just Servin’s sideline. 

He is a luthier, a maker and restorer of stringed instruments, applying skills learned and wisdom earned through five years’ post-high-school study and a decade of practice in his native Mexico and in Florida, including an apprenticeship with W.J. Fleischer, owner of this Violin Shop and two others in Florida and Puerto Rico. Here, Servin repairs and restores violins, violas, cellos and string basses. 

Bows bring all of them to life. In the physics of a stringed instrument’s sound, bow-hair provides a key element: friction. 

A bow, its round wooden stick on top and flat ribbon of horse-hair underneath, translates weight from a player’s right hand, along with the speed of movement, onto the strings and into the vibrations of sound. Those shimmer across the top of a violin, a kind of sound box, and shoot down sides and through an inner sound post across the bottom, which echoes and amplifies. At play with wood and varnish, the vibrations give the instrument its voice.

A particular kind of hair, from Mongolian horses and covered by microscopic burrs, brings friction its best outlet.

“It could be the hair grows best in cold because there are not so many flies to swat away,” Servin says, and smiles. 

The stick that holds it in place, usually of pernambuco wood, comes from tropical Brazil. The tension between them gives string music its energy. 

The detail of a frog, used to tighten the horsehair of a bow.

Alejandro Quintero ServinEach bow is made, like nearly all of its companion instruments, by hand, and each presents its own surprises. The one in front of Alex Servin just then, awaiting new hair, revealed a crack invisible to its owner. Servin found it and filled it. Any flaw can hurt the sound.

“Professional players are very fussy about a re-hairing,” says Tim Barnes, for 10 years principal violist with the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra. (Servin, too, has played violin with the Alhambra Orchestra in Coconut Grove).

“It’s incredibly difficult to get the hair totally even and the length you want, the number of turns you want on the screw, the optimum weight on the stick,” Barnes says. “There are a number of ways you can go wrong. It’s a difficult process that Alex does well.”  

The bow at hand, a just slightly sway-backed stick of pernambuco, displays the extinct elephant ivory just under its down-bent tip, where white Mongolian horse hair (tied at each end with nylon fishing line) erupts, extending the length and disappearing under the slide and into the frog.

This bow, stamped Hill and from England, carries a silver tip and a price tag of $5,500; the best might run more than $100,000. The better you are, he suggests, the better you want.

The full secret of a bow’s performance, though, hides in its inner workings. 

Drawing out the strands of old hair and feeding in the new, Servin pulls the slide off the bottom of the frog to reveal the workings: a knob at a bow’s back end turns a screw that threads through an eyelet and pushes against the back of the frog, pulling the hair tighter. Each end of the hair is anchored with a hand-chiseled wood plug, fitted precisely into a tiny well. 

Few listeners or amateur players understand the mechanics. Even fewer recognize the artisan. Rarely, very rarely, Servin says, does he hear praise for repair or re-hairing. “If they are not happy,” he says, “I might hear something.” That’s almost as rare.

What a properly made and well-repaired bow makes possible in performance, he says, are the sounds that matter most.

The bustle of a string player coming through the door and needing help, well, that’s music, too.                                           Ú

Adian and Sydney O'Connor look through the seaweed in
search of sea beans while on the beach in Ocean Ridge. Tim Stepien.The Coastal Star

By Antigone Barton

It can be a puzzling sight: mounds of newly arrived seaweed lying in the tracks of the truck that was just there, weaving across the beach, raking the sand.

But it’s been a common sight in recent weeks, as beach cleaners struggled to keep up with unusually dense seaweed, the result of strong easterly winds.

The seaweed comes from a line of vegetation that runs by the Gulf Stream — an underwater grazing site, so to speak, popular with fish, and deep sea anglers — said David Rowland of The Beach Keeper, one of several services whose trucks tidy area sands. 

His and other services aim to send seaweed back where it belongs, by raking it into the outgoing tide. 

Lately that has been a Sisyphean task, however.

“We can rake Lantana beach at 8 a.m., and at 9 a.m. it would look like we had never been there,” Rowland said. 

Not quite: On a recent morning a Beach Keeper driver got out of his truck to pick out the plastic bottles, cups, buckets, pieces of tackle boxes, tangled in the seaweed, until the garbage can tied to his truck was nearly full.

And, in any case while the seaweed may once again be more abundant than usual, it’s not any worse than last year, or the year before, when a hard east wind ushered in what we call spring here.

There was a time, Rowland recalls, a few years ago, when the strips of seaweed that narrow the beach now were more like mountains.

That seaweed surge, caused by an offshore hurricane, created an actual barrier between beach-goer and ocean, according to Tim Greener of Beach Raker, a Pompano Beach-based beach-cleaning company that serves beaches from Miami to Highland Beach. 

With stretches two feet high and several feet wide, it took two weeks to clear.

And, says Rowland, at levels like that, the seaweed poses dangers to turtle hatchlings, trying to make their way back to the water.

“I’ve got pictures of turtles that died trying to get across it,” Rowland said.

That in itself does not call for removing the seaweed, said Larry Wood, a conservation biologist at the Palm Beach Zoo.

“That’s all part of nature,” Wood said. He compares those casualties to ones that might come from predators that hatchlings might face.

While heavy machinery was not part of nature’s plan, Wood said, rules and guidelines — keeping trucks from sand above the high tide line, and off the beach until volunteers have completed daily nest counts — help.

“As long as there are a couple of rules to be observed,” he said. “People want the beach to look a certain way, and if it doesn’t they want to change it.”     

Lorraine ‘Lorry’ Herdeen (left) stands with some of the 3-year-old students
from the Pluto Class at the Florence Fuller Child Development Center in
Boca Raton. Front row, from left: Dariya Hill, Gavin Shuler and Arrianna
DeAlva. Back row, from left: Rihanna Jean-Pierre, Jayden Wade, Kinsley
Dasne and Natalie Huang. Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

On Jan. 30, 1976, an elementary education teacher from Oakdale, N.Y, named Lorry Herdeen was hired to educate several dozen 4-year-olds at the Florence Fuller Child Development Center in Pearl City.

Thirty-six years and thousands of children later, she’s preparing to retire as the center’s executive director.

“It feels like I blinked and here I am,” she said recently, taking a break in the center’s administration building on Northeast 14th Street. “But I think it’s time.”

When Herdeen arrived in 1976, the center itself was in its infancy.

In 1968, a volunteer tutor named Dorothy Fleegler pondered the poor conditions of the area’s Mexican migrant families and determined to start a pre-school to counter the lack of early education.

Florence Fuller

Fleegler contacted her friend, James Fuller, who agreed to finance a center if it were named after his wife, and three years later the Florence Fuller Child Development Center was incorporated.

A single building on land donated by the city, it opened in 1971 with 22 pre-schoolers.

Four years later, infants were accepted into a day care program, then classes for 3- and 4-year olds. Later, after-school programs were added for children 5 to 13.

In 1977, it became the first human services agency in Florida to receive federal subsidized child care money.

And in 1990, a second center opened off State Road 441 to serve the western suburbs.

“I love knowing that when I get up in the morning, I’m making a difference in someone’s life,” Herdeen said. “And I’ve been here long enough that I can see the results.”

When she arrived, the center had about 20 employees. Today, about a hundred employees serve about 600 children each year in four classroom buildings. Most of those children are from eastern Boca Raton, and some from Boynton Beach and Delray Beach. There’s always a waiting list.

According to its 2010 annual report, the center has total revenue of $5,258,000, most of it from government grants.

As the center grew, Herdeen’s responsibilities grew with it.

In 1978, she was named education coordinator. In 1987, she became the assistant director and, since 1988, the executive director.

“I’ve learned that children have no guile,” she reflected. “They haven’t learned not to say what they think, so they’re honest. Sometimes brutally honest. And they have the joy of discovery. Everything is new to them every day, so I relive the joy of life just by being around them.”

The years have not been without their tragedies, though.

“About 20 years ago, we had a baby who was killed when the mother’s boyfriend threw her against the wall,” Herdeen recalled. “We hadn’t been aware of any abuse, but the ones we haven’t saved are the ones I never forget.”

Three years ago, the Harold & Mary Perper Center for Mildly Ill Children opened on campus, staffed five days a week by Maria Garcia, a licensed practical nurse who cares for children with a sore throat, flu or infections.

“I saw many parents with entry-level jobs and several children,” Herdeen explained. “One got a cold and it would run like wildfire through the family, and the parents missed work.”

Now, Garcia tends to those children, while also educating parents on health issues 

Keeping parents involved is important, Herdeen said, so the center has both a policy and parent committee, where parents review and approve procedures and discuss complaints, compliments and suggestions.

Herdeen’s final day will be Dec. 31. Asked what she wants people to know about the Florence Fuller Center, she paused.

“In Yosemite, there are trees 300 feet tall, but their root system is only 8 feet wide,” she said at last. “But they don’t fall over because the roots are entwined. That’s how the center runs. We all hold each other up to create something really
fine.”                              

Richard Pollock, who lives in Highland Beach with his wife, 
Mary Jo, has worked for the YMCA for 38 years. He is the CEO
of the YMCA of South Palm Beach County, which includes facilities
in Boca Raton and Boynton Beach. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

The YMCA is not all fun and games. Some people do have to work.

Take Richard Pollock, 60, for example. He has been involved for the YMCA in one form or another for 38 years— from his first job as a summer counselor at Camp Fitch in Springfield, Pa., and youth director in Youngstown, Ohio, to serving as the CEO of the Community YMCA in Red Bank, N.J.; COO and senior vice president of the Capital District YMCA in Albany, N.Y.; and director of the UMCA Conference Center Peniel-by-Galilee in Tiverias, Israel.

Today he is the president and CEO of the YMCA of South Palm Beach County with main family centers in Boca Raton and Boynton Beach and satellite centers at the National Council on Compensation Insurance headquarters in Boca Raton and at the Volen Center, serving 12,000 members and reaching 50,000 people annually through a variety of programs. There’s talk, too, about YMCA programs coming to Delray Beach.

“I grew up in the YMCA,” Pollack said. “I was one of those kids whose parents took to the Y. Then I worked at the Y all my summers through high school and college. I had a good feeling  for the movement and the culture, so when I graduated, the Y in my hometown (Canfield, Ohio)  recruited me to be a youth director and it was a good fit.”

He likes that the Y has a program for everyone. “There’s a number of testimonials,” he said, “from people going through depression, coming to the Y and finding friends; the single mom who could go to work because of the Y’s after-school programs with good role models; people who were obese losing weight. I see personally where the Y makes a difference in people’s lives.”

But even for members, it’s not all about fun, he explained, because YMCA’s goals are threefold: youth development, healthy living and social responsibility.

That means there are plenty of opportunities for volunteers who can help with the Y’s activities and fundraising. For example, the Y offers financial assistance, so that no one is turned away because of inability to pay. And the Y, he said, is engaged in conversations with lawmakers to ensure that issues important to the community are given appropriate attention (such as Type 2 diabetes prevention).

But then, again, it’s not all work either, he assured. “As you can imagine, my activities now are a little different from what they were as a 22-year-old youth director, but I’m still in spinning classes, and I use personal trainers and our wellness center for exercise.”

His wife, Mary Jo, uses the Y’s wellness and fitness programs. And daughters Shenley and Shelby work out at their local Ys, too. And, Shenley, by the way, is a counselor in the Community YMCA Redbank, N.J., family services programs.

— Christine Davis

Q. Where did you grow up and go to school?

A. I was born in Cincinnati but grew up in the small town of Canfield in northeast Ohio, where I attended elementary and high school. I went to college at Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio.

Q. What are some highlights of your life?

A. Lifetime highlights include my marriage to my beautiful wife, Mary Jo, and our wonderful family. I’d have to add as an additional highlight: my 38-year career in the YMCA including two years in Israel and travel to YMCAs around the world. Finally, landing in South Florida and Highland Beach is definitely a highlight.

Q. How did you choose to make your home in Highland Beach?

A. When we knew we were moving from New Jersey to Florida, I asked my wife to rent a place that had beach or ocean in the address while we searched for a permanent residence. She overachieved when she found a rental in Highland Beach at the Boca Highland Beach Club and Marina on Ocean Boulevard. After living there for a year we loved it so much we bought the place.

Q. What is your favorite part about living in Highland Beach?

A. We love living in a small town with views and access to the ocean and Intracoastal and hiking and biking on A1A.

Q. What’s your biggest challenge as CEO of the YMCA in South Palm Beach?

A. There are numerous challenges in navigating a large community service organization through a dicey economy. Perhaps one of the greatest challenges is to get people to fully understand the significant benefits and impact the YMCA provides to thousands of individuals in the communities we serve and to consider the Y as a place to belong, volunteer and contribute.

Q. If someone made a movie of your life, who would you like to play you and why?

A. I loved Robert Redford in Jeremiah Johnson and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I think I can relate to the fun and adventure depicted in his early career and his evolution as a film producer and director as well as his work with the Sundance Festival.

Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax? 

A. I love to listen to Italian opera singers Pavarotti, and Bocelli, and I enjoy the uplifting songs of Josh Groban. For fun and relaxation, I listen to Latin and Caribbean artists such as Gloria Estefan, Marc Anthony, Bob Marley and Jimmy Buffett. 

Q. What do people not know about you that you wish they would?

A. I can speak poorly in Hebrew, Arabic and Spanish.

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

A. My father was an educator and school superintendent and my grandfathers were both clergymen and they were all terrific role models. My first boss in the YMCA was not only my supervisor but a great teacher and mentor. 

Q. Who or what makes you laugh?

A. I get a kick out of so many of the Saturday Night Live cast members who have gone on to film careers. Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy and others provide great entertainment. I’m also a fan of the Three Stooges, but I always preferred Curly to Shemp.       

Edgar Mitchell Lecture Series: Royal Poinciana Chapel, Palm Beach

Rebecca Williams and John Audette joined more than 125 people 
on April 24 to kick off the South Florida Science Museum’s Edgar
Mitchell Science Lecture Series. 

By Mary Thurwachter - Managing Editor

If you’ve driven down A1A lately (and who hasn’t?), you have to know what a hotspot the road is for bicyclists. Who can blame them, after all? It’s a lovely drive along our postcard-pretty shoreline. But it can be a perilous trek. A year ago, for example, a cyclist was killed when a truck struck him on A1A north of Linton Boulevard.

Motorists say bicyclists block the road. Many complain about packs of bicyclists riding up to four abreast, especially on weekends. 

Cyclists maintain that drivers need to recognize that they have as much right to the road as cars do.

Recognizing the commonality of the problem for all coastal communities, Highland Beach police Lt. Eric Lundberg came up with a plan that could help everyone traveling A1A. He’s starting a task force with members from Pompano Beach north to Ocean Ridge — towns that all have problems keeping cyclists, car drivers and pedestrians safe on the seaside highway.

Education will be key as the municipalities put up signs urging everyone to share the road. The signs also advise vehicles that drivers must give a 3-foot leeway to bikers and that cyclists may not ride more than two abreast.

Enforcement will be important, too, Lundberg says, but first motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians must be clear on what the laws are and what responsibilities each has.

As Lundberg says, “It’s going to be a repetitive thing,” with messages flashing alongside the road for as long as it takes.

It’s a commendable proactive step toward making the highway safer for all of us.

By Mary Thurwachter

With the Palm Beach International Film Festival fast approaching, Yvonne Boice looks forward to doing some serious movie-watching. She is particularly interested in seeing Violins in Wartime, with the performance of legendary violinist Ida Haendel.

The film — to be shown at Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center at 4 p.m. on April 15 — Boice said, “will be a wonderful opportunity to experience the partnership between film and music.” 

Boice, a Boca Raton philanthropist who owns Fugazy International Travel and the Shoppes at Village Pointe, has been with the PBIFF since its inception 17 years ago, and her position as chairwoman is a labor of love. It’s one of many volunteer positions she holds.

Yvonne Boice, who owns a travel business and a shopping
center in Boca Raton, is chairwoman of the Palm Beach International
Film Festival. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

She is serving as a board member on the trust of the National Endowment of the Humanities, board of governors member at Northwood University and is a foundation board member at Palm Beach State College.  

Recently, she chaired the YMCA’s Prayer Breakfast, where more than 500 people attended the inspirational event designed to engage and excite the community while raising funds for the YMCA’s financial assistance programs.

Volunteering, she said, was something her family insisted on.

“We were all required to give back,” said Boice. She remembers raising money for the football team when she was a cheerleader in high school in New Jersey.

“I didn’t wait for people to come to me (with donations),” she said. “I went and asked them and I was determined to collect more than anyone else — and I did.”

Boice has an advanced certificate in interior design and a bachelor of science in marketing from New York University.

Traveling has always been her passion, she said, and geography her favorite subject. After college, she took her first solo trip to London, Paris, Rome and Spain. 

“It was in the ’60s and a woman traveling alone was a rarity,” she said. “I made live-long friends.” 

Having traveled to all seven continents and 150 countries, Boice will tell you her favorite destination is South Africa, where she has been eight times. Next on her itinerary are St. Kitts and Mozambique.

But she enjoys her time at home, too, with her second husband, World Trade Center Palm Beach founder Al Zucaro. She has one daughter, Lauren, an attorney who lives in Boston with her husband, Randall Smith, an astrophysicist.

“Boca is a big, small town where you still have the feeling of a close-knit community,” she said. 

While she’s enjoys her work, she has a two wishes few people know.

“I would love to be a stand-up comic and once aspired to be a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall,” Boice said.         Ú

City officials are testing red light cameras at several Boca Raton intersections.

During a 30-day period that ends April 14, a warning notice will be issued to the registered owner of vehicles running red lights.  There will be no fine for this warning.

Approval for red light cameras at certain intersections won approval from the City Council on Oct. 13, 2010.

Cameras operate 24 hours a day and capture still images and video of every vehicle running a red light at certain intersections. 

After April 14, violations will be reviewed and approved by the Boca Raton Police Services Department prior to a citation being issued. The registered owner may review the images online, and has the option to pay the fine or appeal the citation in court. These citations do not result in any points on the driver’s record.

The safety cameras are located at:

• East- and westbound Glades Road at Northwest 15th Street

• Eastbound Glades Road at St. Andrews Boulevard

• Northbound St. Andrews Boulevard at Glades Road

• North- and southbound Federal Highway at Northeast 20th Street

• North- and southbound Military Trail at Spanish River Boulevard

• North- and southbound Congress Avenue at Clint Moore Road

• East- and westbound Glades Road at Northwest Second Avenue

For more information about the program, including a downloadable informational brochure and answers to FAQs, see Red Light Safety Program page on the Boca Raton Police Services Dept. website:  www.BocaPolice.com.            Ú

Alex Laseter, 18, of Boca Raton enjoys a boat ride on the Intracoastal with his dad, Darrell, during the March 24 Boca Raton Boating & Beach Bash for People With Disabilities at Spanish River Park. The 4th Annual event drew a record-breaking 3,500 children and adults with disabilities, their families and caregivers. Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

This year, voters in the sixth biennial Read Together campaign sponsored by the Palm Beach County Literacy Coalition have chosen Last Train To Paradise, by Les Standiford, as the book they hope everyone will read. 

The book, available in local libraries and bookstores, chronicles the birth and death of Henry M. Flagler’s Key West Railroad and the changes it brought to the state.
    The Read Together campaign, which kicked off March 30, continues through May 1. For more information, visit www.literacypbc.org   

                 — Ron Hayes

By Steve Plunkett

Ailing sea turtles won’t have to worry whether they were found the right day of the week to be rehabilitated at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.

Beach and Park District taxpayers will pony up $120,000 to fund a full-time rehabilitation coordinator along with $250,000 to put educational exhibits at the turtle tanks being installed at the nature center. 

District commissioners told their staff to draw up the appropriate papers at their March 22 meeting.

“This is not so much to take care of the sick turtles, which it does do, but rather it promotes the educational objectives of Gumbo Limbo Nature Center,” District Chairman Earl Starkoff said. “It’s tangible evidence of the interaction of the environment with the life around it.”

Commissioner Dennis Frisch worried that if the beach-park district approved the expenses it would be seen as the “deep pockets” for other requests. 

He also was concerned that there is no long-range plan for Gumbo Limbo.

“Let’s make believe that we approved the tanks and now we approve a supervisor. And then Gumbo Limbo says we want to make this even bigger and they want to bring in another professor. And maybe they can’t afford that,” Frisch said.

“And then that professor needs a secretary. And then maybe they can’t afford that, so they come back [to us]. And now they have a secretary and a supervisor and a professor and they need another building, and they can’t afford that.”

Robyn Morigerato, vice president of the Friends of Gumbo Limbo, said her group raised $250,000 to stock Gumbo Limbo’s tanks with sea creatures. 

The second $250,000 infusion from the beach-park district “would transform our new tanks and habitats into a true learning center,” she said.

Money for the rehabilitation coordinator was also needed, she said. “We look to you for additional help,” Morigerato said.

Gumbo Limbo’s seven-bed sea turtle rehab facility opened in late 2010.

The Friends organization envisions both interactive and interpretive exhibits surrounding the nature center’s four new tanks. 

The first tank was supposed to open in time for this year’s Sea Turtle Day in early March but fell victim to construction delays. It now is supposed to open in early May. An exhibit showing a mangrove habitat should be in place about the same time followed by habitats showcasing a tropical coral    reef and an artificial reef/shipwreck in the fall.                                                       Ú

By Steve Plunkett

A new task force aims to smooth relations between pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists along coastal A1A.

Highland Beach police Lt. Eric Lundberg got the idea after realizing that communities as far south as Pompano Beach and north to Ocean Ridge face similar problems keeping the peace along their main highway.

Besides crosswalks and bicycles, “Every community has their different variation of motorists as well,” Lundberg said. “You can have some elderly motorists; you have people from out of state, out of country.”

He has met with colleagues from neighboring Boca Raton and Delray Beach, and Gulf Stream and Ocean Ridge as well as Deerfield Beach, Hillsboro Beach and Pompano Beach from Broward County’s coast.

The group’s first goal is to plant flashing message boards on A1A in each municipality, so drivers, cyclists and walkers will see them “no matter where you transit,” Lundberg said. Delray Beach already has one, just north of Linton Boulevard, and lent another to Highland Beach in February.

“It’s going to be a repetitive thing,” Lundberg said.

“It’s basically so everybody’s on the same sheet of music,” Lt. Hal Hutchins of the Ocean Ridge Police Department said.

Highland Beach returned its loaner message board and on March 27 set up a smaller, company-demo version on A1A. “Share the road! Vehicles must give 3 feet distance to bikers. Bicycles may not ride more than two abreast,” it flashes.

Lundberg said education is the task force’s main purpose. “There will be elements of enforcement, of course, but what we’re targeting is to educate all the different variations of motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians in what the laws are and what each has as far as their responsibilities,” he said.

“We’re very lucky we don’t have collisions between the different groups,” Hutchins said.

The group hasn’t picked a formal name, but is leaning toward Broward-Palm Beach Coastal Community Traffic Coalition. They hope to meet at least quarterly and have invited the Florida Department of Transportation, which has jurisdiction over A1A, and the west Boca Raton-based Dori Slosberg Foundation, which promotes traffic safety, to their April meeting.                        Ú

Serena and Venus Williams contend with the breezes on the
patio of Apt. 401, the $6.5 million condo Venus decorated at
One Thousand Ocean in Boca Raton. Thom Smith/The Coastal Star

By Thom Smith

When her tennis game is on, few players want to be across the net from Venus Williams. Just ask last year’s Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova after her loss at Key Biscayne on March 23, or Aleksandra Wozniak, who had match point two days later and couldn’t convert, and then Ana Ivanovic, who took the first set and then could win only four more games. 

Not bad for someone who was diagnosed last year with Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disorder similar to lupus that causes fatigue and joint pain. Everyone knows Venus is a fighter. 

She took time off from tennis, adopted a vegan diet and began a drug regimen to determine which are effective. She has her sights set on qualifying for the Olympics in London. She’ll turn 32 in June and she knows her competitive days are numbered, so Venus is focusing more and more on her life away from tennis.

Just as she and sister Serena demolished barriers on the court, she aims to break artistic barriers with V Starr, her design firm in Jupiter. She’s done work for pro athletes who live in South Florida; model homes residences in Delray Beach and Palm Beach Gardens; a Miami hotel; the athletic center at Howard University in Washington and even the set for Tavis Smiley’s PBS show. Nevertheless, it was all been relatively low key, until last month’s grand slam introduction at One Thousand Ocean, luxury 52-unit condo on Boca Raton Resort & Club property on the north side of Boca Inlet.

To push the 12 unsold units, LXR President of Development Jamie Telchin threw a twilight party where residents and prospective tenants could mingle in an unfinished penthouse and also check out Unit 401, Venus’ contribution to the seascape: 4,971 interior square feet, another 1,289 on the terrace, four bedrooms, 4½ baths and $6.45 million with Venus’ furnishings, $5.95 million without.  

For Venus, who studied at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, design is organic and a matter of trust. “V Starr is me, and nothing happens that isn’t my style,” she said. “And my style is that you can’t do something just because you want to. You have to have reason; it has to be functional; it has to be beautiful.”

While she had to start at the bottom, just as she did in tennis, Williams concedes she had some advantages in the design game because of her name. But when it comes to signing contracts, customers want to see something concrete. 

“Because of my high profile, people say OK we’ll talk to her, but that doesn’t mean they’ll let me do the job,” Williams said. “But once they meet me and my team and really see the picture, they realize this is really serious design, that we can do the job.”  

                                            ***

      The Boca party never stops; it just moves. Head to Monument Piazza at Royal Palm Place from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on April 18 for the 3rd Annual Fine Wines and Canines. 

   Dogs are welcome to compete or to chill and for $25 their owners can sample wines and the fare from restaurants including Anatolia, Biergarten, Café Auribeau, Caruso’s, Chops, Estia Greek Taverna, The Funky Biscuit, Fusionarie, Jake’s Stone Crab, Kin Noodle Bar, Lemongrass, Raffaele, Spicy Ginger, Super Dave’s Diner, The Spaniard, Tucci’s and Yakitori. Proceeds go to PROPEL (People Reaching Out to Provide Education and Leadership), which provides educational and vocational assistance for underprivileged communities. 

The party will move back to Mizner Park in early June with the opening of a Yard House restaurant in the space vacated by the cartoon museum and the iPic Theatres just across the alley. A California concept that’s already found its way to Palm Beach Gardens, the Yard House takes its name from the British-born “yard of beer” glasses, and offers yards of draft taps, a lively American fusion menu and lots of rock ’n’ roll on the jukebox, lots of TV screens, crazy artwork and an extensive community support program.

                                         ***

Across the promenade, the space once occupied by Robb & Stucky will become Lord & Taylor, but not until sometime next year. Out west, just east of Town Center, it’s John Belleme’s turn to work a miracle. On the Glades Road site previously occupied by the Rascal House and more recently Copper Canyon, Belleme will work his kitchen magic with Stephane’s, a Euro-style brasserie offering, including eight mussel recipes. 

Stephane’s marks a homecoming of sorts for the peripatetic Belleme, who worked his magic at Maxaluna in the late ’80s, then moved to Wilt Chamberlain’s, Zemi, Henry’s and, most recently, Umi Fish Bar and Grill in Palm Beach Gardens.

Helping in the cellar will be Virginia Philip, of Virginia Philip Wine Shop & Academy in West Palm Beach, who has been master sommelier at The Breakers for a decade and was a semifinalist this year for the James Beard Award in the “outstanding wine and spirits professional” category.

Stephane is Stephane Lang-Willar, a Frenchman who ran Leon de Bruxelles, a chain of restaurants in France and Belgium. So with the mussels — shades of La Grand-Place — he’ll offer a large menu, with diverse prices and food choices, a raw bar and prix-fixe lunch. 

                                         ***

Meanwhile, at the north end of Boca, the party continues at Caldwell Theatre Company, even as Artistic Director Clive Cholerton and his brain trust work on a salvation. The Caldwell owes Legacy Bank nearly $6 million on two mortgages. The bank filed for foreclosure, and now the theater’s finances will be controlled by a court-appointed receiver, Scott Brenner of Fort Lauderdale-based Brenner Real Estate Group. Brenner specializes in turning around troubled businesses, and as long as he remains in charge, Legacy will not close it down. Both sides want it to work, so Caldwell can continue and the bank can recover its investment. 

                                         ***

Curiouser and curiouser.  Of course, Alice has nothing on David Manero, whose restaurant wonderland in Delray Beach has turned into a nightmare. Oh sure, the restaurants he ran — Vic & Angelo’s, The Office and Burger Fi — seem to be doing fine, but David is nowhere in sight. The Atlantic Avenue rumor mill has been working overtime with claims that his partners had him banned from the premises and that the FBI wanted him for illegalities — not so, said spokespeople in the West Palm and Miami offices.

Manero did acknowledge an “ugly” split in published reports that said his partner John Rosatti was running the restaurants. Nevertheless, he told Bill Citara of Boca Raton magazine that he’s working on several new concepts, including a Neapolitan pizzeria.

                                         ***

Boca’s in the middle of its food festivals — food for thought, body and soul.

First came the boffo Festival of the Arts with Gershwin by Patti Austin and Tony DeSare, Rachmaninoff by Valentina Lisitsa, insight on presidents past, present and future from Doris Kearns Goodwin. Then the Boca Bacchanal offered three days of wine and food with vintner dinners, the Bacchus Bash at the Boca Raton Resort & Club and finally the Grand Tasting at Mizner Park, all to benefit the Boca Raton Historical Society. 

It was a party that would have tickled Addison Mizner. Eight chefs and vintners teamed for the soirees — all sold out at $300 per — in private homes scattered throughout Boca. Typical of the evening, Debbie and Al Benjamin welcomed two dozen guests to their oceanside home in Highland Beach, where Kevin Garcia of Cesca in New York teamed with Masi from Veneto for some dolce vita. After cocktails beside the infinity pool, guests dined to music from a jazz band at rose-bedecked tables while Masi’s Tony Apolstolakis told charming stories about each new pour. 

Next night, the chefs and vintners assembled for the Bash ($250) at the Boca Resort to provide tastings, after which the estimated 250 guests dove into silent and live auctions for luxury cruises, trips to Italy, France and Argentina, wine lots including rare  “big bottles” and coveted collector items. Resort Chef Andrew Roenbeck and his staff then presented the feast de resistance, followed by dancing into the wee hours.

Those still standing on Sunday mingled under the tent at Mizner Park with hoi polloi, about 1,400 total ($85), for the Grand Tasting — 26 chefs, 140 different wines, a marketplace, a DJ and lots of smiles.

                                         ***

Even though Boca’s Yvonne Boice is chairman of the Palm Beach International Film Festival, don’t look for much action down here. The festival opens April 12 at Muvico Parisian in CityPlace with a screening of Robot & Frank, a Sundance entry starring Frank Langella. It wraps April 19 at Cobb Theatres in Downtown at the Gardens with a screening of Sassy Pants (Haley Joel Osment and Anna Gunn). 

A lifetime achievement award will be presented to actress June Lockhart at Silver Screen Bash at The Lake Pavilion on the Waterfront in West Palm Beach on April 15. Lockhart, who became a cult figure as Maureen Robinson in Lost in Space, is 86 and still acting. She co-stars in the comedy Zombie Hamlet, which will premiere at PBIFF.  

Short films will be screened at the Lake Worth Playhouse’s Stonzek Theatre on April 13, 14 and 15, and at Delray’s Debilzan Gallery on April 15. Several documentaries are set for Mizner Park’s Cultural Arts Center:  Money and Medicine and Genius on Hold (April 13); Lunch Hour, Free China: The Courage To Believe, True Gods Have Bones (Los Dioses De Verdad Tienen Huesos), Crocodile in the Yangtze and Happy You’re Alive (April 14); My Mother’s Idea, a student film showcase, John Portman: A Life of Building, Violins in Wartime, Follow Me and a local film showcase (April 15). Tickets are $10, $60 for the opening night party, $40 for the closer. 

                                         ***

At the corner of Linton Boulevard and Federal Highway in southern Delray something new — and fresh —  may be on the horizon. According to merchants in the mall now anchored by Carrabbas, Las Vegas Cuban Restaurant, Panera Bread and SeaView Optical, a complete revamp is planned with the addition of a 20,000-square-foot Fresh Market. Merchants say they’ve been notified of the plans, but mall management referred our call to the owners in Alabama, and neither would comment or confirm. 

Showcase of Homes: Royal Palm Yacht  & County Club, Boca Raton

Eileen Callan, Cliff Mays, Valerie Newman and Tom Callan
check out one of the dozens of homes presented by Royal Palm
Properties during the  Showcase of Homes event in Boca Raton in early March.

Kurtis Boggs/Coastal Star

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

Vital Flight pilot Juan Plaza (right) assists Scott Rubin, 20, of Boca Raton,
before his plane ride during the organization’s special event at the Boca
Raton Airport. Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

Pilot Juan Plaza checked the instruments on his single-engine Cirrus, gave a thumbs up to the ground crew and got ready for his first flight of the day.

Sitting behind him, Scott Rubin, 20, of Boca Raton adjusted the plane’s headphone that connected him to the pilot and looked out the window with a wide smile across his face. 

“He loves to ride in anything that goes fast,” Scott’s father, Bob Rubin, said as they got ready for a short flight from the Boca Raton Airport that gave new meaning to the term “joy ride.” 

Scott, who is autistic, was one of almost 100 children and young adults with special needs who had an opportunity to go airborne in a private, propeller-driven plane or jet, thanks to Vital Flight, a nonprofit, South Florida-based pilots organization, which coordinates free air transportation for individuals with medical or humanitarian needs.  

Since its founding just a few years ago, Vital Flight and its pilots have flown several hundred missions, shuttling passengers of all ages hundreds of miles without charging a dime.

“Our passion is flying and our mission is helping people,” says Jonathon Steiner, Vital Flight’s executive secretary and command pilot. 

During the organization’s Special Kids Day event held the last Saturday in March, the 15- to 20-minute flights were a lot shorter than most missions — and they came with a little less urgency.

But for the 20 pilots who took the young people with special needs and their families up in the air, these missions were no less important and certainly no less satisfying. 

“It’s a wonderful thing to see a smile on a child’s face and to know you helped put it there,” says Herb Dusowitz, a Vital Flight pilot who came up with the idea for Special Kids Day after learning about a similar event in California.  

Now in its second year, the day-long event included everything from a bounce house and face painting to visits with pirates and a chance to get to know miniature ponies. 

Of course, the highlight of the day for most of the youngsters was the chance to fly.

“Most of these kids have never been in or close to an airplane,” Steiner said. 

For many, finances can be the big stumbling block. 

“We’ve found that a lot of these families are struggling because of large medical bills,” said David Knies, chairman of the board for Vital Flight.

To ensure that the youngsters and their families could enjoy the flight without having to incur any expenses, Vital Flight sought out sponsors who helped cover some costs while the pilots paid for their own fuel for the day. 

Critical to the success of the event were the efforts of dozens of volunteers — including many pilots’ wives — who helped ensure things ran smoothly.

While one of Vital Flight’s goals was to increase awareness of its community involvement, some parents believe the flights also helped increase pilots’ and volunteers’  exposure to special needs children.

For pilots like Plaza — a Boca Raton resident whose wife works with special needs students — there is something unique about having the opportunity to share his passion for flying with someone who may have never had the experience. 

“It’s a lot of fun, especially when you’re flying with a kid who really enjoys it,” he said. Ú

Outgoing Commissioner John Pagliaro (left) is shown with newly elected Commissioner Louis Stern and Vice Mayor Ron Brown
who were sworn into office March 21 in Highland Beach. Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

Residents are mostly pleased with the way their town government works — at least that’s the word from 192 people who completed Highland Beach’s official survey this winter.

“I think overall, the results that you got from your residents is that the majority are very happy with the service that you’re providing,” Town Manager Kathleen Weiser told commissioners. “I think you can all pat yourself on the back.”

Some of the survey’s 14 questions drew lopsided results: 133 feel municipal staff is knowledgeable and responsive while 2 do not; 143 are satisfied with Highland Beach’s water while 30 are not; 49 would support a separate tax to clean the beaches while 124 would not. Respondents were split more evenly on whether they had contacted the town for help on an issue (107 yes, 71 no) and whether they had visited Highland Beach’s website (96 yes, 88 no).

The wish list for “What can the town do to improve your quality of life?” included adding lifeguards on the beach, building a children’s park, building a fishing pier and expanding the library. One person complained of a whistling noise coming from the town’s water tower on windy days.

“We can show that to people now,” Mayor Bernard Featherman said of the survey. Featherman first raised the idea of polling residents last summer.

Moments after accepting the numbers, commissioners differed over its usefulness. 

Talking about whether to put meetings of the Financial Advisory Board on cable TV and the website, Commissioner Doris Trinley noted that 33 survey respondents said they attend town meetings and 104 did not. Twenty-nine said they review meetings on Channel 95 or online, 72 said they sometimes do and 68 said they do not.

“I think this discussion about how important it is to televise this, I think we’re overdoing it,” Trinley said.

But after citing those results, Trinley pooh-poohed the survey. 

“We’re a town of almost 4,500 now year-round. These are little, little, little numbers,” she said.

Featherman agreed the results could not always be trusted, but for a different reason.

“There are a lot of people who didn’t respond to that because they didn’t want their name on it and it was required that it have a name on it,” Featherman said. “So we’re  also talking about people who didn’t respond that are very interested in our community endeavors.”                               Ú

The Palm Beach County League of Cities held its first  meeting in Highland Beach on March 28.

“Thank you to the Town of Highland Beach and St. Lucy Catholic Church. Our first visit to the town was memorable,” the league said on its website.

The league’s board of directors appointed South Palm Beach Councilman Robert Gottlieb to the county’s Impact Fee Review Committee.

Monthly league meetings are held in member municipalities. This month’s will be in Atlantis.  — Steve Plunkett