William Reed Kaelin Jr.

By Liz Best

BOCA RATON — William Reed Kaelin Jr. of Boca Raton died Nov. 1. He would have turned 73 on Dec. 6. 

From 1957 to 1960, Mr. Kaelin served in the U.S. Marine Corps and was stationed for 22 months in Japan. Mr. Kaelin lived in Larchmont, N.Y., until 1973, when he moved his family to Boca Raton. He was a commercial loan officer with First Bank and Trust in Boca Raton, now known as Bank of America. 

He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Rosemary Kaelin of Boca Raton; sons and daughters-in-law, William and Katherine Kaelin of Memphis, Tenn., and Christian and Susan Kaelin of Boca Raton; a daughter and son-in-law, Valerie and Brian Cleary of Cincinnati, Ohio; and nine grandchildren, Katie, Will and Allison Kaelin of Memphis; Erica, Lily and Hallee Kaelin of Boca Raton, and Kevin, Michael and Kaelin Cleary of Cincinnati; along with many loving friends. 

Private services were held recently and interment took place at the South Florida National Cemetery in Lake Worth. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations in Mr. Kaelin’s memory be made to Hospice by the Sea, 1531 W. Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton, FL 33486.

By Emily J. Minor

Joseph John Asselta

HIGHLAND BEACH — Joseph John Asselta, who had notable careers in the military and aviation and space law before retiring to Florida and serving in local government, died Nov. 11. He was 78.

Born April 26, 1933, in Brooklyn, N.Y., Mr. Asselta attended St. John’s University, earning a bachelor’s in business administration in 1955. Ten years later, he graduated from the university’s law school.

Mr. Asselta rose steadily through the ranks at Mendes & Mount, a New York law firm specializing in aerospace litigation.

But it was, perhaps, his military career that provided him with his greatest pride. During his tenure with the U.S. Navy, Mr. Asselta completed officer training, flight training, nuclear weapons school and military justice school.

Beverly Brown, the town clerk in Highland Beach, where Mr. Asselta served for several years on the commission, said he was a taskmaster who wanted things done right. But he was also empathetic, kind — and proud of his military service, and his family.

“He was very intense, and whatever he did he went at it at 100 percent,” she said. “He was very proud of being in the Navy.” 

Although Mr. Asselta and his wife, Judith, had bought their Highland Beach home several decades ago, the couple had lived full-time in Highland Beach for about 10 years.

Brown said Mr. Asselta served as vice mayor from 2004 to 2006, at which point he resigned to make an unsuccessful bid for mayor. He was also very involved in St. Lucy Catholic Church.

A public servant until the end, Mr. Asselta had been scheduled to appear before Town Commission at the October meeting, as he was being considered for the Finance Board. 

Brown said Mr. Asselta apparently took sick while attending a wedding out of state, and never made the meeting. 

He did, however, return to Florida just before his death, she said.

In addition to his wife of 41 years, survivors include sons, Jason and Matthew Asselta, and two grandsons. 

Services were held Nov. 16 at St. Lucy, and the family asks that any memorials be sent to the Wounded Warrior Project, or St. Lucy’s maintenance fund.

ABOVE: What better way for Floridian Children to ring in the holiday
season than with a spirited snowball fight.  Aca McGowen takes aim
at some family members from a “artificial” snow pile at Mizner Park. 

BELOW:  Boca Raton Community High School percussionist
Zack Rosson ads a slap stick sound effect to the holiday song
“Sleigh Ride”.   Photos by Jerry Lower

Town Attorney Tom Sliney

 Former Town Manager Dale Sugerman sues town, click here.

By Steve Plunkett

Has the town been paying too much or too little for the services of longtime Town Attorney Tom Sliney?

It will find out this month when competing law firms answer a “request for qualifications” prompted by Town Commissioner Dennis Sheridan’s review of Sliney’s retainer agreement. 

Sliney resigned Oct. 17, two weeks after commissioners agreed to shop for prices.

“I have decided it is time for a transition for both myself and the town,” Sliney said in his resignation letter, which takes effect Dec. 31.

Sliney began representing Highland Beach 38 years ago. 

“I was a teenager when I started,” he joked when Sheridan brought up the retainer agreement in late September. Sheridan said the agreement had not been examined since 2009. 

“I have nothing against Tom whatsoever,’’ Sheridan said. “It’s just the case that this original contract was done in 1973 and I think that it’s time to look and see what’s out there, and by all means, let Tom’s law firm bid accordingly and we’ll go from there.” 

Vice Mayor Miriam Zwick objected to putting the agreement out to bid.

“It’s not a contract to put in new piping, it’s not a contract to do re-roofing,” Zwick said. “It’s a contract to protect the town with knowledge and accessibility, and not only that but a history with the town and I think this is personified by Mr. Sliney.”

Sliney said he and then-Mayor Jim Newill reviewed the economic and non-economic terms of his retainer agreement two years ago and said this time Sheridan could be designated to negotiate with him. 

But commissioners voted 5-0 to follow Sheridan’s recommendation.

Under the agreement, Sliney has received a monthly retainer of $9,000 plus costs for general legal services and $185 an hour for litigation services. The fees are billed through his law firm, Buckingham, Doolittle and Burroughs LLP.

By comparison, Gulf Stream pays its attorney, John ‘’Skip’’ Randolph, $235 an hour. Randolph, who has represented Gulf Stream since 1971, billed the town a total of $2,855 in September for phone consultations, legal correspondence and preparing for and attending two town meetings. His fee has not changed since 2008.

Randolph also represents the towns of Palm Beach and Jupiter Island.

Ocean Ridge pays Town Attorney Ken Spillias a $6,000-a-month retainer and $195 an hour for all “non-routine” matters. Spillias was chosen town attorney in 1999.

   In Briny Breezes, Town Attorney Jerome Skrandel also charges $185 an hour.    Attorney Trela White bills Manalapan $165 an hour for general representation and $185 for litigation. Her September bill totaled $5,568.75.    Her firm, Corbett and White PA, bills Lantana a slightly lower fees for the services of  Max Lohman — $150 for regular hours, $175 for litigation — because the town pays White’s health insurance premiums, she said. White is also the attorney for the Palm Beach County League of Cities.

South Palm Beach pays its attorney, Brad Biggs of Corbett and White, $170 an hour an hour for general representation, $195 for litigation.

“Every city is a little different,” White said.

Boca Raton and Delray Beach have full-time city attorneys. 

Back in Highland Beach, Sliney had a busy calendar in September, attending the Town Commission’s regular meeting and workshop session as well as two public hearings on the budget and meetings of the Planning Board and the Board of Adjustment and Appeals.

“He’s been a terrific help to me and a help to the town. He pulled us out of some pretty tight spots,” said Harold Hagelmann, the town’s mayor from 2005 to 2008 and a member of the Planning Board for eight years before that. “I just hate to see Tom go.”          

Remembering the Wilflower: click here.

 The former Wildflower site, at Palmetto Park Road and the Intracoastal, as it now looks.
Photo by Jerry Lower

                                   Harley Gates stands in front of the original home on the property in the early 20th century. 

The view of the property from the eastern side of the water before the first bridge was built in 1917.  

Courtesy of the Boca Raton Historical Society

By Steve Plunkett

Elected officials find themselves in another tug-of-war between developers and residents over what to do with a vacant waterfront parcel, in this instance, the former Wildflower nightspot just northwest of the Palmetto Park bridge.

The City Council’s request for informal “letters of interest” and a special workshop drew proposals from three stand-alone restaurants, two multi-story complexes, a recreation-oriented business and one resident who just earned an architecture degree.

“I’m proposing a park, because it’s what I want. I want to go there, it’s something I can afford, and I think it’s the right thing to do,” fledgling architect Jose Barrera told council members at the Oct. 18 workshop. “You actually want a waterfront park also, you just don’t know it yet.”

Mayor Susan Whelchel cautioned presenters of proposals and the audience at the special session that council members would not make any decisions on the future use or possible development of the property.

“That’s not going to happen tonight,” Whelchel said. “This is not the forum at which we are going to give you specifically what is going to happen.”

Two of the competing restaurants — BrickTop’s and Guanabanas — first made presentations at an Oct. 4 meeting of the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowners Associations.

“I like to say it’s a Houston’s that’s kicked up a notch or two, but you can be the judge of that,” said BrickTop’s chairman, Joe Ledbetter, who co-founded Houston’s, sold out his share and has since opened BrickTop’s in Naples, Atlanta, Charlotte and Nashville. Ledbetter envisions a 7,500-square-foot restaurant overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway. 

Guanabanas, which features outdoor eating under oversize Seminole chickee huts and live music three nights a week, opened as a sandwich shop in Jupiter in 2004, then renovated to a full-service eatery in 2008. It would construct a 4,700-square-foot dining area in Boca Raton supported by a 5,600-square-foot kitchen building if its proposal wins.

“This whole thing is kind of an Old Florida experience,” said Chad Van Boven, Guanabanas president. “It’s outside, everything is handmade. … It’s basically a restaurant in a park.’

The Hillstone Restaurant Group, which operates the Houston’s on Executive Center Circle near Glades Road and Military Trail, threw its hat into the ring at the workshop. It, too, would build a 7,500-square-foot facility if selected.

Also making proposals were the Boca Outdoor Center, the Boca Dockside Marketplace and developer Jim Comparato. The Outdoor Center would be a second location for the kayak and paddleboard rental operation; it currently operates as the Jupiter Outdoor Center in conjunction with Guanabanas. It seeks 450 square feet of space.

The Dockside Marketplace would be a four-story building with a produce market and performance space on the first floor, restaurants on the second and fourth floors and boutiques on the third.

“My objective is to create something that’s not only world-class but on par with CityPlace or with Downtown Delray, Atlantic Avenue, and putting another restaurant downtown is not enough,” James Peters said in presenting the Dockside Marketplace plan. 

Proposed rents range from $24,000 a year promised by the Boca Outdoor Center to $500,000 a year for at least 20 years offered by the Hillstone Group.

The city bought the property for $7.5 million in 2009 after deciding the site has strategic importance to the downtown.

Council members want the property and the waterway area open to the public with amenities to attract the public to the site and a connection between the parcel and Silver Palm Park, on the south side of the Palmetto Park Bridge. They also asked that proposals include an attractive pedestrian orientation.

Comparato proposed a three- or four-story, mixed-use development with two or three restaurants and retail and office space. He would move Silver Palm’s boat launch north of the bridge and connect the parcels with a riverwalk if the council approved.

Barrera, a recent Florida Atlantic University graduate, said diners would go to a restaurant, eat and return home.

“You’re not going to go to the rest of the businesses in the area, you’re not going to walk around, you’re not going to spend any money,’’ he said. “By putting a park where people will come, get out of their house, have an experience, that’s where your revenue will come.’’

Details of each proposal are posted online at www.ci.boca-raton.fl.us/wildflower.

The debate is similar to the one over Ocean Strand, vacant oceanfront acreage the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District owns. A developer’s proposal to put a private cabana club there in late 2009 prompted an army of neighbors to protest anything but a park there. A consultant is devising an inventory of features at city and district parks to determine something different to go in Ocean Strand.

Whatever changes come to the Wildflower site, neighbors are on guard against increased traffic emptying into residential areas and a return of late-night music for which the club was noted.

James Hendrey, who lives opposite the site on the east side of the Intracoastal, recalled walking across the bridge in pajamas and robe to complain about the sound in the Wildflower’s heyday.

“I personally don’t want to see a restaurant on that piece of property. I wish to see it left as a park,” Hendrey
said.                                                            Ú

“Everybody can be great.  Because anybody can serve.  You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.
 You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” 

— Martin Luther King Jr. 

Mary Thurwachter

By Mary Thurwachter

Managing Editor

We love this quote. It makes us think of the outstanding volunteers we continue to write about in The Coastal Star. This month’s edition is no exception. Consider, for example, Lu-Lu Culpepper Thomas, recently honored by the Junior League of Boca Raton as its Woman Volunteer of the Year. 

Almost 86, Thomas has been serving this community since she and her late husband moved to Boca Raton in 1974. Volunteering, she says, is “just having a good time.” Stop by the Boca Raton Historical Society, where she serves as a greeter, and you’re likely to find her having a good time and making sure you have one, too.

Of course, the Historical Society isn’t the only organization to benefit from Thomas’ good works. From the Boca Pops to the Boca Raton Regional Hospital and many other organizations, Thomas has given generously of her time and talent for decades.

Elsewhere in this edition, you’ll find a story about Stephanie Robin, a Boca Raton woman battling cancer who co-founded a series of nonprofit concerts in Mizner Park called Think Pink Rocks. The concerts are designed to raise awareness about early cancer detection and genetic testing. 

Robin has found a way to serve even while she fights the life-threatening disease.

Not to be overlooked are the folks at Boca Helping Hands, C.R.O.S. Ministries in Delray Beach and the Community Caring Center in Boynton Beach. All of them help feed the hungry.

Talk about hearts full of grace and souls generated by love! 

MLK Jr. would be proud. So are we.

                                        In its 1980s heyday, the Wildflower was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with patrons.

 The pink night club under construction in the late 1970s.
Photos courtesy of the Boca Raton Historical Society

Plans for Wildflower land: click here.

By Mary Thurwachter

Ah, the ’80s in Boca Raton. It was the decade when IBM introduced the PC (designed at the Boca plant), the Old Town Hall and the F.E.C. Railway Station were restored, the Art Guild changed its name to the Boca Raton Museum of Art, and Sanborn Square was beautified as the first project of the city’s new Community Redevelopment Agency.  

When it came to nightlife, the place to be was the Wildflower, a glitzy, happening waterfront restaurant and bar on the northwest side of the Palmetto Park Bridge and the Intracoastal Waterway. The music was loud, the circular dance floor crowded. When live bands weren’t performing, a deejay was playing tunes like Olivia Newton-John’s Physical, Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean, and Irene Cara’s What a Feeling. 

James J. Previti was 24 when he was hired as a barback in 1980.

“The Wildflower was the first real nightclub in Boca Raton in the ’80s,” said Previti, who now lives in  Medford, N.J. “There was a lot of buzz about the place even before it opened and on opening night we realized it was an immediate success.  The clientele was a typical South Florida crowd you could easily image from an episode of Miami Vice. There was an interesting mix of tourists and locals, pimps and drug dealers with bag phones, socialites and wannabes along with an occasional celebrity. One night Joe Cocker came in and the waitress was so excited that she would get to wait on him  — until he stiffed her at the end of the night.  There was no shortage of self-important jerks to deal with.” 

Drinks were the usual Florida fare of frozen margaritas and coladas. Specialty drinks were served in tiki glasses covered with images of nude women bulging from the glass. (They’re collectibles now, available on eBay.) 

“Once a year for a few weeks, it would be mango season and the owners would insist we make fresh mango daiquiris,” Previti said. “The bartenders hated this, as it was always a mess, but, of course, the patrons loved it.”

When the hit TV show M.A.S.H. was coming to an end the owners organized a M.A.S.H. party where the staff dressed as doctors and nurses, drinks were served in IV bags and there were Korean War-era vehicles parked out front.  

“Normally the male staff would wear colored velvet vest and the girls would wear these wrap around type of flower print sarongs,” Previti remembered. “Some thought it was a Shogun theme, as that was a popular TV series at that time, but I don’t think that was the case.”

There would be lines of people waiting to get in on Friday and Saturday nights during the season, Previti said. “We always had one of Boca Raton’s finest at the door to keep things under control.  Inside it would be packed shoulder to shoulder, which made it a challenge to get an arm full of plates across the room or up the stairs to the patrons.”

When things got a little too crazy, cops arrived, as was the case in January 1982, when 15 policemen were dispatched after four unruly men to refused to leave. The four were arrested and several of the policemen were treated at Boca Raton Community Hospital.

It may have been the hottest spot in the city for more than a decade, but by 1999, the once-popular restaurant and bar closed for good.

After racking up code violations, the abandoned Wildflower, covered with plywood, was demolished in 2009 and the city bought the property. 

Long before the Wildflower sprouted at the northwest side of the Palmetto Park Bridge — in fact even before the bridge was built in 1917 — the wilderness was inhabited by Boca pioneers.

In 1914, a decade before Boca Raton became a municipality during the height of the Florida’s land boom, Vermont Realtor Harley Gates moved his family to Boca Raton to open a real estate business and start the 30-acre Palmetto Park Plantation, which gave its name to Palmetto Park Road.  He built a one-story home there called Casa Rosa for $3,500.  

A 1917 freeze decimated the Boca Raton pioneer’s banana crop, although his real estate business continued to flourish.

His daughter, Diane Gates Benedetto (formerly Imogene Gates), recently wrote a book about the city’s history (Imogene Alice Gates: Frontier Child) and recalls living in wilderness: “I remember my swing between two palm trees. Bamboo was growing all over the place, 50 feet into the sky, almost. And all the birds would come there.”

Harley Gates sold Casa Rosa and five acres to Stanley Harris from Vancouver, who turned the bungalow into a showplace with oak floors, a living room and a tower with a winding outdoor staircase.

The pink house changed hands several times after Harris bought it. Other owners included Phillip Jennings, Lyla Willingham, and partners Leonard Marraffino and John Spero. 

In 1966, Casa Rosa was bulldozed to make way for a restaurant, but the Wildflower didn’t open until 1980.

“I saw some photos after the place had been abandoned for a few years,” Previti said.  “It was shocking and sad to see that place like that.  I was a beautiful and inviting place when it was in its prime. I remember leaving the place in the wee hours after a shift and picking up the heavy, sweet, intoxicating scent of night blooming jasmine wafting through the air.  It was awesome.  Almost magical.” 

Loibel Clark, Zumba instructor at Jewels Dance Studio
in Boca Raton, gets the crowd moving at Sanborn Square
during the kickoff to Meet Me on the Promenade Oct. 21. Photo by Tim Stepien.

By Thom Smith

The pop music scene in Palm Beach County isn’t what it used to be, not that it’s that great anywhere in South Florida these days. Most acts and promoters follow the money, and unless they’re strong enough to draw big crowds in Jacksonville, Tampa or Orlando and South Florida, they don’t want to spend the money to come this far south. 

That said, good sounds abound. Not necessarily chart busters, but top talent just the same. Just consider the scene in South County. 

On Nov. 4, TV doctors Rick Springfield and Jack Wagner, both of whom starred on General Hospital and had top 40 hits, were to play Mizner Park Amphitheater. Springfield, still a knockout at 62, won a Grammy for Jessie’s Girl in 1981. Wagner, now 52 and engaged to Heather Locklear, had a hit with All I Need, but his résumé includes touring stints in West Side Story and Grease. It’s an odd combination, but Boca’s older, soapier demographic makes for the novel pairing.

On Nov. 5, the fourth annual Think Pink Rocks rolls into Mizner Park, appealing to a far younger audience with a lineup that ranges from BET host Terrence J to Shontelle to Boca’s own American Idol finalist Brett Loewenstern. It raises money to fund breast cancer research and treatment.

On a more regular basis, “Jazz, Bossa Nova and Blues” has been extended at least through November at Carmen’s At The Top Of The Bridge Hotel. Tapas, a limited prix fixe menu and full bar are available, but if you just want to hear some top musicians, the entertainment charge is $10.

Lots of action around Royal Palm Place in Boca these days, thanks in large part to the arrival of Philippe by Philippe Chow, No. 6. Chow knows how to pack his upscale Chinese eatery at 200 E. Palmetto Park Road: Give ’em good food and a good show. The latter includes a healthy celebrity roster that has included in recent weeks ex-NBA star Alonzo Mourning (he’s an investor), boxing promoter Don King, tennis legend Jimmy Connors and post-break-up Jennifer Lopez.

J Lo, without Marc Anthony, spent time with action star Jason Statham. They were shooting Parker, a jewel-heist film set in Palm Beach, but since Palm Beach frowns on movie-making, they only shot driving scenes on the island. Some interiors were shot at the sound stage at G-Star School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, but most were done on the QT at 1000 Ocean Drive, a Boca beachfront condo. 

At the south end of Royal Palm Place, from Arturo Gismondo of Cannoli Kitchen fame, comes Biergarten, with two dozen craft beers on tap, special bottled brews, at least four genuine German Oktoberfest brews, plus pretzels, schnitzels, sausages, cheeses, and soups. Prost! 

More good news for beer fans: A Yard House restaurant will open at the old Cartoon Museum in Mizner Park in May. About 130 local and regional beers will be on tap.

 Chris Evert always tries to have a rocking good time at her annual Evert/Raymond James Pro-Celebrity Tennis Classic, both on the court and at her Gala Dinner Dance and Auction the weekend of Nov. 11. This year is no exception. On the court, look for Oscar winner Elisabeth Shue, Today show host Hoda Kotb, comedian Jon Lovitz, newsman Stone Phillips, Breaking In’s Christian Slater, Burn Notice’s Jeffrey Donovan, Grey’s Anatomy’s Scott Foley, actress and former tennis pro Maeve Quinlan, “Real Housewife” Jill Zarin, Alan Thicke and a few tennis players including Monica Seles, Murphy Jensen and Vince Spadea. At the gala, The Spinners will perform.

“Chrissy always likes for the crowd to dance,” an associate said. “She wants people to have a good time.” (www.chrisevert.org)

And speaking of “Real Housewives,” Kelley Killoren Bensimon (of the Real HW of NY) was one of the honorary speakers at real estate agent to the wealthy Senada Adzem’s Celebration of Hope, a Pink Strides event in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month. The event was co-hosted by shoe mogul Bobby Campbell, CEO of BBC International, and held at his $10 million Intracoastal home in Boca. Bensimon paired up with Campbell to create a ballet shoe line which donates a percentage of its proceeds to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Remember the New Christy Minstrels? They cut more than 20 albums, had several hits including Green, Green, Saturday Night and This Land is Your Land and launched the careers of future solo stars Kenny Rogers, Gene Clark, Kim Carnes and Barry McGuire. Well, 50 years later, they’re still at it and on the road. On Dec. 8, they’ll play Century Village in Boca. 

Always a great party: The 12th annual Best of Boca & Beyond at the Shops at Boca Center Thursday marked the unofficial launch of Boca’s social season with lots of food and desserts from 30 restaurants, fine wines and specialty drinks, a wine and cigar lounge. 

The bash was sponsored by Boca Raton magazine, and proceeds go to Hospice of Palm Beach County. For an added twist this year, the magazine honored five individuals who have had made significant impact on the city: restaurateur Dennis Max, St. Andrew’s School Headmaster Ann Marie Krejcarek, Junior League President Nancy Dockerty, FAU President Mary Jane Saunders, and Boca Center Manager Candace Goldstein. 

For those who’ve been striking out lately, head to the Back Room, 2222 West Atlantic in Delray at 6 p.m. on Nov. 10, for the second annual Sexy Sensational Singles charity bachelor and bachelorette auction. It’s a benefit for Prep and Sports, which provides academic guidance and performance training to at-risk youth. A $20 ticket includes food and one drink. At least one celebrity will go on the block and the rumor mill keeps spitting out “Miami Heat.” 

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

Lu-Lu Thomas recently was named the Junior League

of Boca Raton’s Woman Volunteer of the Year. Photo by Tim Stepien

By Liz Best

When the Junior League of Boca Raton named Lu-Lu Culpepper Thomas its most recent Woman Volunteer of the Year, members could easily have upped the ante and dubbed her the Boca Raton Volunteer of the Century.

It’s hard to find an organization in the Boca Raton area that hasn’t benefited from the time and seemingly boundless energy of Thomas, who soon turns 86.

She modestly says it’s just the way she is.

“I get up in the morning and I put on my clothes and my hose and my high heels and I leave the house,” said Thomas, who now lives in Pompano Beach.

She and her late husband, Vernon “Pat” Thomas, moved to Boca Raton in 1974. Then they got busy immersing themselves in the South Florida community. Following his death in the late 1990s, Thomas just kept on doing the same things.

She has spent hours volunteering for groups ranging from Boca Raton Historical Society Museum, Boca Raton Regional Hospital, Boca Raton Pops, Boca Raton Museum of Art, FAU Friends of the Library and Music Guild of Boca Raton to Planned Parenthood, League of Women Voters, Florida Philharmonic, Caldwell Theatre and Boca Raton Police Department.

And that’s just to name a few.

“We were just having a good time,” said this mother and grandmother.

And even as a widow, Thomas continues to have a good time.

Born on a tobacco farm in Rocky Mount, N.C., Thomas was the second of 10 children. She remembers the Depression well, and remembers that her large family survived those lean years by living off the land and by receiving a healthy dose of love.

“We raised everything we ate,” she said. “And we went to my grandmother’s house every Sunday. It was simple and it was wonderful.”

Thomas married when she was 16. She and her husband lived all over the world during his career in the Army and then as an employee of Ford Motor Co. in Detroit. Although she doesn’t have a degree, Thomas took college courses everywhere she lived.

These days, Thomas limits her volunteer efforts to serving as a greeter at the historical society museum and at the Boca Police Department. To fill in the remainder of her time, she plays bridge — a lot of bridge, she says — and stays in physical shape by walking every day, taking aerobics classes and practicing yoga.

To stay in shape spiritually, she spends as much time as possible with her daughter and grandchildren in Fort Lauderdale. Thomas has always enjoyed being around younger people and believes it is the secret to her longevity.

“Your age is just two numbers put together. I think it’s the spirit. Keep your thoughts right … and it doesn’t matter how old you are. It’s your spirit that keeps you all right,” she said.

Thomas believes young people learn from the stamina they see in their elders. Rather than trying to teach younger people, she listens to them.

Today’s youth have a different take on the world than Thomas did as she was growing up during the Great Depression. She embraces these different attitudes and tries to learn as much as possible from them.

“It’s like a rainbow. A rainbow is all different colors and it’s beautiful.”                    Ú

The owner of the historic Luff House wants the building either
moved or demolished. Courtesy of the Boca Raton Historical Society

The search for a new site for the circa-1920s Luff House is growing more desperate.

Mary Csar, executive director of the Boca Raton Historical Society, made a plea to save the home at 390 E. Palmetto Park Road at a special workshop on the Wildflower property just down the street.

The Florida-style bungalow, which the current owner wants moved or demolished, “used to be fairly common in this area. There are none left. I think this is probably the only one,” Csar said.

She hoped the two-story house could be incorporated into whatever development happens at the Wildflower site. The society has spent the past year looking for someone to help in the rescue.

“It’s a sturdy little house,” Csar said. “It could be utilized in a profitable way, and it could also preserve part of Boca’s history.”

— Steve Plunkett

More than 20 residents turned out to the Oct. 12 city
council meeting in ‘No 7-11’ T shirts. Photo by Jerry Lower

By Margie Plunkett

Neighbors wearing “No 7-11” T-shirts took the podium at Boca Raton City Hall one after another to protest the possibility of a convenience store on the barrier island. 

The appeal of an addition and modification of 831 E. Palmetto Park Road, which the protesters appeared at the Boca Raton Council meeting to support, wasn’t on the agenda, but they had their say. 

The appeal was postponed until Nov. 22, at the request of appellant Ralf Brookes, on behalf of residents, and site-plan applicant Doug Mummah, who represents owner James H. Batmasian. 

Both Brooks and Mummah said there are discussions being held that could end in a withdrawal of the appeal, according to a city memo.

The residents argued against a project that could include a convenience store, noting that it isn’t compatible with the area. “Why would we invite someone who drinks on the beach?” said one resident.

A convenience store wouldn’t serve the residents, but those from the outside, speakers said. The people who buy a six-pack would likely dump their empties rather than risk being caught by police with open containers, said Nancy Hendry.

The residents commented on the newly improved western portion of Palmetto Park Road, which was earlier identified as an area in the downtown that was to be revitalized, according to City Manager Leif Ahnell. “It was 60 percent paid for by the downtown business owners as a special assessment,” he said. 

Mayor Susan Whelchel chided the eastern residents for not getting involved starting in 2006 with the design of Palmetto Park Road despite repeated invitations and opportunities.

 Robert Ocksman, who filed the notice of appeal against the property at 831 East Palmetto Park Road, said that while the mayor may have reached out to the Riviera Civic Association to get involved in the design, “I never felt someone reach out from the city.”

“Moving forward, you have a community looking to make a positive impact on the area east of the bridge,” Ocksman said. “We’re relying on the government to protect the rights of the neighbors.”

The procedure for looking at improvements for the east side is that the Council gives the city manager some direction to look at the possiblity, meet with the public, and the opportunity to look at a plan - constituting the beginnings of the concept of building a program,” Whelchel said.                                       Ú

Cici Garcia of Boca Helping Hands leaves food
with a client of the agency. Photo by Jerry Lower

Stories by Mary Jane Fine

C.R.O.S. MINISTRIES

Doris Mingione is in departure mode. She’s a widow, moving to Colorado to be near her son, so today is her all-but-final day to deliver hot meals to some of West Delray’s homebound elderly and disabled. The typed route — names, addresses, number of portions for each of 17 homes — is taped to the dashboard of her tan Toyota Avalon. The list includes notes about each recipient (“Caution! Dog! Ring Bell!”; “Elderly — very frail. Slow to answer door”); as an 11-year volunteer for C.R.O.S. Ministries’ Caring Kitchen, Mingione knows these details, and more. The notes are really for her soon-to-be replacements: St. Vincent de Paul seminarians Martin Nguyen, 22, and Jonathan Richardson, 23.

On a recent October morning, she eases away from the building on NW 8th Avenue, having packed 27 takeout boxes — baked fish, lentils and rice, beets, applesauce, plus packaged rolls, peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, several pies and cookie-filled containers — in the backseat and trunk of her car. 

First stop: an elderly blind man. “He lives alone with the help of his neighbors,” Mingione says, pulling into the driveway of his modest home. Sitting on a lawn chair, just outside his door, the man shakes hands with the two young seminarians as Mingione explains, “We’re just gonna put the food in the refrigerator.” The man smiles and thanks her. “OK,” he says, a Caribbean lilt to his voice. “You got one more week, huh? I’m gonna miss you.”

When The Caring Kitchen began, in 1993, serving hot meals to the homeless, low-income and seniors, its homebound clients numbered five. That figure fluctuates now, between 50 and 60. Volunteers deliver meals on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The Kitchen serves sit-down breakfast and lunch five days a week, dinner four days — a total of 7,200 meals a month, says program director April Hazamy. 

The economy is a challenge. “People are still donating food, but the amount is definitely less,” she says. “Especially fresh produce and protein: meat and fish.” The food pantry, a part of C.R.O.S. Ministries but separate from The Caring Kitchen, has an even harder time. “We’re struggling but not like they are; they can only give (in bags of groceries) what they have in stock,” Hazamy says, and, with canned-goods donations down by about 25 percent, that stock is diminished. The demand keeps growing.

Doris Mingione’s second stop of the morning is for a single mother of three, a cancer patient undergoing chemo. Mingione plops a bag of ice into a cooler by the front door, then adds four meal boxes. She jots a note on a slip of paper and tapes it to the door, for the woman’s teenagers: “Don’t Forget to Bring Food In.”

It’s not yet noon, with 15 deliveries ahead. Her rounds can take an hour, or three hours, depending on who’s at home and who wants to chat. She will, she says, miss these people: the woman with severe arthritis whose husband has Alzheimer’s, the man who gets kidney dialysis three times a week, the 99-year-old legally blind woman who still beats her friends at poker. Mingione will miss them all, but Martin and Jonathan will take on the route. She, and they, will hope that food donations continue, to make their work possible.

Ministries

141 SW 12th Ave., 

Delray Beach

271-1566

www.crosministries.org

Needs: Check their Web site for specific needs. Tax-deductible donations (cash, check or credit card) may be given one time, periodically or annually

COMMUNITY CARING CENTER
OF BOYNTON BEACH

Fourteen years ago, when Sherry Johnson joined the CCC of Boynton Beach, part-time, she began questioning the way tummies were being filled. “When you’re serving a community where people have a lot of high blood pressure, and you’re handing out cans [of food] filled with nothing but sodium,” thought Johnson, now the center’s executive director, “what are you doing but perpetuating the situation?”

Out of that reasoning, in time, the food pantry became the Green Market and twice-weekly deliveries to 130 frail and elderly shut-ins became healthier. Now, every Friday, the center’s Veggie Mobile takes locally grown fruit and vegetables and homemade soup to homebound residents of what the center calls “the Heart of Boynton.” 

An interfaith organization, the center marked its 27th year in October, Johnson says. It does all that it does thanks to seven paid staffers, four non-paid staffers and 65 volunteers. The Veggie Mobile is handled by one staffer, a board vice-president and volunteers, all of whom visit with homebound recipients, check for signs of malnutrition and dehydration and offer healthy meal suggestions. 

But deliveries are only a part of the center’s work: It also produces much of what it provides. In 2009, in partnership with the University of Florida, through the Palm Beach County Extension Office, it initiated an urban farm that grows much of the produce for the Veggie Mobile, the food pantry and a nutrition-education program.

“We use food to teach pre-schoolers and give cooking classes to adults,” Johnson says. “Most of the children [from Girtmans Treasure Chest Early Learning Centre] have no sense of fruits and vegetables, except for corn and grapes and potatoes — finger foods.”

The Green Market farm’s nutrition lessons are colorful ones: Yellow is for grapefruit and squash; green is for broccoli and lettuce; orange is for, well, oranges.

“The children are making healthy snacks, tasting different things, learning colors and learning about calcium and iron, and we introduced the word ‘antioxidants,’” Johnson says. “By the time we got to yellow and spaghetti squash, they just love it, and they’re coming back for seconds.”

The children’s parents learn how to prepare meals using fruits and vegetables, and they get portions of all the produce their children learn about. The Green Market’s new program this year will offer the entire community an affordable package of good-quality produce, meats and fish: 7½ pounds of meat; a 2-pound pork loin; two 6-ounce portions of mahi-mahi; two 6-ounce portions of salmon; 6 ounces of bacon; and a 3½-pound chicken, all for $28. An additional $6, buys a package of salad ingredients and seasonal vegetables.

Without help, Johnson says, “This community can’t afford fruit and vegetables because it’s cheaper to go to McDonald’s and get a $1 sandwich.”

COMMUNITY
CARING CENTER
OF BOYNTON BEACH

Fourteen years ago, when Sherry Johnson joined the CCC of Boynton Beach, part-time, she began questioning the way tummies were being filled. “When you’re serving a community where people have a lot of high blood pressure, and you’re handing out cans [of food] filled with nothing but sodium,” thought Johnson, now the center’s executive director, “what are you doing but perpetuating the situation?”

Out of that reasoning, in time, the food pantry became the Green Market and twice-weekly deliveries to 130 frail and elderly shut-ins became healthier. Now, every Friday, the center’s Veggie Mobile takes locally grown fruit and vegetables and homemade soup to homebound residents of what the center calls “the Heart of Boynton.” 

An interfaith organization, the center marked its 27th year in October, Johnson says. It does all that it does thanks to seven paid staffers, four non-paid staffers and 65 volunteers. The Veggie Mobile is handled by one staffer, a board vice-president and volunteers, all of whom visit with homebound recipients, check for signs of malnutrition and dehydration and offer healthy meal suggestions. 

But deliveries are only a part of the center’s work: It also produces much of what it provides. In 2009, in partnership with the University of Florida, through the Palm Beach County Extension Office, it initiated an urban farm that grows much of the produce for the Veggie Mobile, the food pantry and a nutrition-education program.

“We use food to teach pre-schoolers and give cooking classes to adults,” Johnson says. “Most of the children [from Girtmans Treasure Chest Early Learning Centre] have no sense of fruits and vegetables, except for corn and grapes and potatoes — finger foods.”

The Green Market farm’s nutrition lessons are colorful ones: Yellow is for grapefruit and squash; green is for broccoli and lettuce; orange is for, well, oranges.

“The children are making healthy snacks, tasting different things, learning colors and learning about calcium and iron, and we introduced the word ‘antioxidants,’” Johnson says. “By the time we got to yellow and spaghetti squash, they just love it, and they’re coming back for seconds.”

The children’s parents learn how to prepare meals using fruits and vegetables, and they get portions of all the produce their children learn about. The Green Market’s new program this year will offer the entire community an affordable package of good-quality produce, meats and fish: 7½ pounds of meat; a 2-pound pork loin; two 6-ounce portions of mahi-mahi; two 6-ounce portions of salmon; 6 ounces of bacon; and a 3½-pound chicken, all for $28. An additional $6, buys a package of salad ingredients and seasonal vegetables.

Without help, Johnson says, “This community can’t afford fruit and vegetables because it’s cheaper to go to McDonald’s and get a $1 sandwich.”

Community Caring Center of Boynton Beach

145 N.E. 4th Ave., Boynton Beach

364-9501

Needs: Monetary donations

BOCA HELPING HANDS

Only a year ago, the food pantry at Boca Helping Hands distributed 500 bags of groceries each month to those in need. This year, they hand out 2,000 bags a month. Only a year ago, the soup kitchen served 2,200 lunches of, say, pot roast or turkey or stew each month. This year, that number exceeds 3,900 meals a month. Twice a week, hard times or not, groceries are delivered to the homebound in 21 homes.

“Grocery bags on steroids,” is what executive director Jim Gavrilos calls them. “We’re trying to get permits to deliver, Monday through Friday, the hot meal we serve Monday through Saturday in the kitchen.” He hopes the permits are only about a month away now.

As for the increased pantry distributions, the additional soup-kitchen servings, he says, “Clearly, it’s because of the economic downturn. What we’re seeing is middle-class people, people who’ve been out of work for six months, nine months, a year. At a certain point, it becomes a matter of survival.”

Program director Sally Wells thinks of the woman with two teenage daughters who lost their home to foreclosure after her ex-husband lost his job and, with it, his ability to pay child-support and alimony. The woman had a job for a while but, when it ended, what money she’d saved soon ran out. 

“All their stuff was in storage, and they needed a week’s worth of shelter while she looked for work again,” says Wells, who is married to Gavrilos. “It’s hard for people to come in here and face the fact that they need help.” Boca Helping Hands gave them a temporary home at a motel on Federal Highway.

The hands that do the helping here belong to five staffers and 300 volunteers: They oversee the soup kitchen; the food pantry; the groceries delivered to the homebound; the “Blessings in a Backpack” program that sends home a weekend’s worth of meals and snacks for the 1,200 grade school children eligible for the federal free-lunch program; the classes on budgeting and job-seeking; the resource center that offers aid to people facing eviction or utility cancellation or in need of prescription medication.

The group’s mission — once aimed primarily at the government-subsidized housing areas of Pearl City and Dixie Manor in eastern Boca — has expanded, recently, into the city’s western reaches. “We just began distributing (grocery bags) at Boca Glades Baptist Church,” says Wells. “People have transportation problems or no money for gas. A hundred bags a week. And it’s growing.” 

School-based food drives, individuals, corporations, entities as diverse as Boca Raton Regional Hospital and Whole Foods, donate to Boca Helping Hands, which began in 1998. The group was the inspiration of a half-dozen or so people, both Christians and Jews, says Gavrilos, an ex-priest. 

“We do what we can,” says Wells. “As soon as food comes into our warehouse, it goes out. We definitely need donations.”

Boca Helping Hands

1500 NW First Court, Boca Raton

417-00913

www.bocahelpinghands.org

Needs: Check the website. ($25 pays for up to 10 hot meals served in the Food Center; $100 will supply seven families with a bag of groceries; $1,000 will help feed 20 homebound clients for one month or pay rent for one family).

Help us help others

The Coastal Star and Microgiving.com have joined forces to provide an online means for monetary donations to the featured non-profit organizations providing home delivery of food to the elderly and needy in our community.  Both of our locally owned and operated companies are committed to giving back to our communities. Our hope is you will join us, by making an online donation at:

Boca Helping Hands: www.microgiving.com/profile/jgavrilos Community  Caring Center: www.microgiving.com/profile/sherryccc

C.R.O.S. Ministries: www.microgiving.com/profile/caringkitchen1

The Boca Raton City Council voted in October to move the qualifying period for candidates for city office to the first seven business days in January, a month earlier than previously. 

City elections are held in March.

Lawmakers did not approve a second proposal that required candidates to collect 200 signatures to qualify to run.

— Margie Plunkett

                                   The society also will sell tiles from the Giles House, known as La Vieille Maison. 

                                                                                                    Photos provided

                      The Boca Raton Historical Society will sell ornaments by Barbara Montgomery O’Connell this season.

Two new commemorative glass ornaments will debut at the Boca Raton Historical Society’s Gift Shop Holiday Open House on Dec. 2 and 3.

The ornaments, designed by Boca Raton artist Barbara Montgomery O’Connell, include the house of pioneer Thomas Rickards on the Intracoastal Waterway, and the original IBM building, in honor of IBM’s 100th anniversary this year.

“I really enjoy painting buildings,” says O’Connell. “That’s my specialty.” 

Boca Raton artist Barbara Montgomery O’Connell

A 20-year Boca resident, she has been designing the ornaments for the Historical Society as a volunteer since 1998. Other new items include tile coasters, trivets, and magnets depicting historic Boca scenes. 

And for the first time, recently recovered ceramic tiles from the Giles House
(La Vieille Maison) will be
for sale.                         

Admission to the Fire Bay Gift Shop open house is free. Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Historical Society is in Town Hall, 71 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. 

Stephanie Robin has survived Stage 4 breast cancer and
is currently undergoing treatment for cancer in her lungs. Photo provided.

By Liz Best

By sheer definition, Stephanie Robin is the living embodiment of a survivor, but she still hesitates to include that bold word in her day-to-day vocabulary.

She is understandably tentative, after spending the past seven years battling metastatic breast cancer. But this 43-year-old warrior is sure of one thing. 

“I am thriving,” said Robin, of Boca Raton.

At 36, Robin was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer, had a bilateral mastectomy, hysterectomy and underwent chemotherapy treatments. 

Now, her cancer has metastasized to her lungs and she is part of a cancer drug trial at Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital in New York City.

She says her cancer is 90 percent smaller now than when she started the trial and she hopes — tentatively, of course — that she is starting to see the light at the end of a very long tunnel.

“I am quite hopeful that this is my wonder drug,” she said.

Robin’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer twice, but genetic testing wasn’t as prevalent then as it is now. At the time, Robin had no idea that testing was available to determine if she carried the breast cancer gene — BRCA 1 and 2. 

Once she had the test, she learned that she does indeed have the gene, and Robin has turned that bit of information into a tool of protection and, she hopes, prevention, for other women.

She and a friend, Elizabeth Weprin of  Delray Beach, started with a simple idea of helping raise awareness about early detection and genetic testing. It has morphed into the series of nonprofit concerts called Think Pink Rocks, which is held every year at the Centre for the Arts at Mizner Park. 

This year’s concert begins at 7 p.m. on Nov. 5, and the lineup includes Flo Rida, Melanie Fiona, Ray J, Shontelle and American Idol star Brett Loewenstern.

A fitness enthusiast, certified CrossFit trainer and mother of two young children, Robin believes her active lifestyle also helps her cope with the debilitating side effects of cancer treatments, as well as the emotional fallout of dealing with a cancer diagnosis.

 “One of the major secrets to my success is being fit. I love, love, love, love it. It’s a large part of my survival,” she said.

Being in good physical condition also helps when it comes to being in good mental condition.

“I really do have the attitude that I can handle anything that comes my way,” she said. 

The other half of the battle is gathering as much information as possible and knowing your options.

“Knowledge is power.”     Ú

Think Pink Rocks concert begins at 7 p.m. on Nov. 5 at the Centre for the Arts at Mizner Park. The lineup includes Flo Rida, Melanie Fiona, Ray J, Shontelle and American Idol star Brett Loewenstern. For more information on the Think Pink Rocks concert, see www.thinkpinkrocksconcert.com. 

Pam Blom was trained as an architect but learned the art
of baking from her grandmother. Photos by Tim Stepien

Pam Blom sells her pies at Cakes by Lara (640 S. Dixie Hwy., Lantana; 632-5520);
the Lake Worth Farmers Market and Andy's Juice Bar.

By Jan Norris

Being an architect and baking pies are a lot alike, Pam Blom says. “You have to think about the same things: structure and ratios of ingredients to create a good filling. Then you create the crust to hold up to the filling, and crimp the crust just so. You’re building a pie.”

Blom is an architect specializing in historic preservation who was affected by the economic downturn. “When the economy went south, I was wondering what to do. I thought, the other thing I know how to do well is bake pies. So, here I am.”

She opened Pamela’s Pies in Lantana, where she shares space with baking entrepreneur Cakes by Lara. She sells pies at the bakery, the Lake Worth Farmers Market on Saturdays and at Andy’s Juice Bar in Lake Worth.

Baker Pam Blom

It’s a handed-down skill. “I learned to make pies from my grandmother, Hattie Mae. She would come to visit from Arkansas at the holidays and would always bake pies. She didn’t measure; I had to sit down with her and actually measure out what she put in to get the recipes,” Blom said.

Her favorites are fruit pies. “Back then, you used the fruit that was available — apples, cherries, plums, blueberry. But when I moved down here I thought there is no one doing pies — other than Key lime — that represent Florida’s fruits. I wasn’t seeing orange pies or grapefruit pie.”

She visited the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society, where she found hundreds of recipe collections and cookbooks. “That’s where I got the grapefruit pie and sour orange pie.”

But she puts modern twists on them. “I do a grapefruit-rose-petal cream pie. I make a tamarind-lime pie, using the base of a pecan pie.”

She makes the traditional — apple, cherry, pecan, pumpkin, chocolate — and will make pies by request. “I’ll even make your pie recipe for you if you like,” she said.

But for sales, she likes to mix it up. “I don’t want people coming to me and saying, ‘I can get that at Publix.’ ’’ Hence, the bombshell of a seller — an apple-lemon-poppyseed that was popular her first week at the Farmers Market.

“I do a Nutella chocolate pie, too. It’s really good.”

Ironically, she can’t eat her own pies — she’s allergic to wheat gluten. While she has some pies that are gluten-free, she’s not baking in a gluten-free environment. 

“All my pies can be made gluten-free, using a tapioca or cornstarch instead of flour for the filling.” The crusts are specially ordered; she can’t make ones as good as she can buy, she said. “I tried making my own, but it just wasn’t worth the effort when I can get a great commercially made one. I’m not into that much production yet, either.”

Right now, she’s still at the point where she’s doing it almost all by hand: peeling the apples, rolling the dough, and making only a few at a time. “I just learned to use the food processor to mix the pie crust. Sure, I hope to get to the point where I can hire a helper, but I’m just starting out. People are slowly finding out about me.”

She’d like to open her own bakery with a place to sit and enjoy a slice of pie. To her, pie is the ultimate feel-good food.

“Nothing says comfort like a slice of pie right out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.”                       

Roll chilled dough on a lightly floured surface, working from the center of the dough outward. Photos by Tim Stepien

Combine sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg, cinnamon and
salt in a small bowl, then peel, core and slice apples.

Place the apples in the bottom crust and dot with butter.
Leave no gaps in the filling. Gently lay top crust over pie.

After baking 15 minutes, cover the rim of the pie crust
with a strip of aluminum foil to prevent over-browning.

Pamela’s Pie Tips

• Chill pie dough ingredients, even the flour and sugar.

• Freeze the butter.

• Do not work the butter into the flour completely. Leave pea-sized pieces as these create the desirable flaky layers.

• Handle the pie dough gently and as little as possible; the heat from your hands melts the butter, making the dough tough.

• When filling with sliced fruit, such as apples or peaches, make thin, even slices so the fruit cooks evenly. Avoid gaps in the filling, which can create an air pocket.

• Bake the pie on a baking sheet and bake it until completely done. Err on the side of  over-baking with pies.

• Cool the pie on an elevated rack to allow air to cool the bottom evenly. This prevents soggy crusts.

Pamela Blom’s

Two-Crust Apple Pie

For the crust:

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, cut in ½-inch cubes

4 to 6 tablespoons ice water

For the filling:

¾ cup sugar

¼ cup cornstarch (or flour)

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

dash salt

4 to 6 firm baking apples (like Granny Smith or Golden Delicious), peeled, cored, sliced into ½ inch-thick slices

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Make dough: Measure flour, sugar and salt and place in a small metal or glass bowl. Put bowl in refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes. Put cubed butter into freezer for 15 minutes. 

Put dry ingredients into bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Attach and lock lid and process. Add butter cubes a few at a time. Once all butter is in, stop machine. Pulse the ingredients until the butter in the mixture is the size of green peas. Do not overmix. Put machine on steady power again, adding 1 tablespoon ice water at time until the dough pulls away from the side. Stop immediately when this happens. 

Remove dough to a work surface. Divide in two, and form each half into a firm, thick disk.

Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until needed.

Roll dough for bottom crust on a lightly floured surface, working from center of dough outward in a spoke fashion, to a 12-inch circle. Fold dough in half and drape over rolling pin to lift into 9-inch pie plate. Fit dough gently into plate, pressing into edges of pan and pressing out any air bubbles.

Make filling: Combine sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl. Peel, core and slice apples and layer into bottom crust, taking care to leave no gaps. Sprinkle with spice mixture and dot cubed butter over top.

Roll out dough for top crust as for bottom, but rolling to an 11-inch circle. Gently lay top crust over pie, and tuck top edges over bottom firmly then crimp; trim excess as needed. Cut several vents in top of pie.

Bake pie on a baking sheet at 425 degrees for 15 minutes; cover rim of pie crust with a strip of aluminum foil to prevent over-browning. Continue to bake for 30 to 35 minutes more or until crust is evenly browned. 

Carefully remove pie to cooling rack to cool. Serve hot with ice cream as desired.

Makes one 9-inch pie; 6 servings.

By Steve Plunkett

Coastal communities are banding with their mainland counterparts to brand as an illegal tax the county’s plan to bill municipalities for the new Inspector General’s Office.

“This suit would not challenge the vote in regard to having an inspector general. That’s water over the dam and we have an inspector general,” Town Attorney John “Skip” Randolph told Gulf Stream commissioners.

“We feel the funding is really unfair to cities because our citizens in effect are paying twice,” said Manalapan Town Attorney Trela White, who as lawyer for the Palm Beach County League of Cities circulated a series of talking points against the funding mechanism.

The county invoiced each municipality for a share of the $3.6 million needed to run the Inspector General’s Office from June 1 this year to Sept. 30, 2012. It billed itself almost $2 million. City bills for the 15-month period ranged from $95 for Cloud Lake to $381,237 for West Palm Beach.

“They could have an in-house inspector general for that cost,” White said.

Supporting the lawsuit will not cost the coastal towns any money.

“One municipality is going to be bearing the cost of this lawsuit, the fees and the cost,” Randolph said, not naming the city. ‘’They are just seeking support of other municipalities.”

Highland Beach Vice Mayor Miriam Zwick called the funding a “ridiculous waste of taxpayers’ money” as she voted along with her colleagues to join the suit.

White said the invoices cannot be considered a user fee.

“You have no idea whether the inspector general would provide any services during any given year as a matter of fact to any given municipality,” she said.

Likewise, it isn’t an impact fee or a special assessment, she said.

“So the analysis is it must be a tax,” White said. “If it’s a tax it must be authorized by state law or by the constitution, and there is nothing authorizing it.”

The complaint will be for declaratory relief.

“It’s asking the judge as a matter of law whether it’s a valid funding process. It’s not a jury trial or anything of that nature, so it should be relatively short,” Manalapan Mayor Basil Diamond said.  

Going home  

Sea turtle hatchlings displaced by Hurricane Irene in late August were transported out to sea by volunteers and staff of Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton on Oct. 20. Gumbo Limbo Volunteer Coordinator Debbie Wilson (above) says goodbye to the baby turtles as she gently drops them into the water. The green sea turtle and loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings were transferred to a cooler (below) for the boat ride, then deposited into patches of sargassum—floating seaweed ‘salad bars’ — about three miles offshore. In the days after Hurricane Irene, coastal residents rescued more than 300 disoriented and exhausted sea turtle hatchlings and took them to Gumbo Limbo. Despite the storm’s effects, an estimated record-high of 20,000 sea turtle nests were counted on Palm Beach County’s coastline during the 2011 nesting season, which ended Oct. 31.  Photos by Paula Detwiller

By Steve Plunkett

Town government wants reassurance that its doing the job town residents expect and also wants to know what it could do better.

A 14-question survey has been mailed to each address in Highland Beach and encourages residents to make copies for everyone in the household or pick up extras at Town Hall. It also can be filled out online; go to http://fl-highlandbeach.civicplus.com and click on “Resident Survey.”

“We want to look ahead for Highland Beach to make it better than it is now,” Mayor Bernard Featherman said when he first raised the idea last summer.

Residents and commissioners collaborated on the questions. Lou Stern, who sits on the Board of Adjustment and Appeals, suggested asking about the town’s water quality. Commissioner Doris Trinley wondered what people think of paying an additional tax to clean the beaches.

Other questions ask about the quality of living in Highland Beach, whether a resident wants to serve on an advisory board and if residents feel the municipal staff is knowledgeable and responsive. There are items on the library, the town’s website and newsletter, and cable TV’s local channel 95.

“Please take a few minutes to complete the following survey and return it as soon as possible,” the commission asks in a message atop the questionnaire.    

Workers from Balfour Beatty and James A. Cummings Construction Companies unfurl an immense American flag as part of the opening day dedication ceremony for the new 30,000-seat football stadium at Florida Atlantic University.  FAU’s Fighting Owls are led by Coach Howard Schnellenberger. Photo by Jerry Lower