By Angie Francalancia

Average taxpayers in Boca Raton would pay about $52 more to the city in the budget year that begins Oct. 1 under a plan presented by City Manager Leif Ahnell that combines increased property taxes and higher fire-service fees.

In a budget workshop in late August, Ahnell outlined how a property tax rate of $3.51 per $1,000 of taxable value plus an additional $20 for fire service would fill the hole in Boca Raton’s $120 million operating budget. In addition to cutting expenses and raising taxes, Boca Raton would use $1 million from its reserves to fill a gap between dollars and expenses that started out as a $7 million shortfall. 

The budget includes $3.1 million in increased expenses, mostly for public safety salaries and pension benefits, but city officials also cut nearly $2.7 million for a net increase in spending of about $385,000.  

While Councilman Anthony Majhess objected to increasing the fire-service fee — a move he describes as circumventing increases to the property tax rate — other council members said they believe the fees are a fairer way of ensuring everyone pay equally for the service.

The owner of a home with a taxable value of $300,000 would pay to the city $1,053 in taxes — $32 more than last year if property values remained the same — and an $80 fire service fee, up $20 from last year’s $60 fee. 

Overall, property values dropped about 2.2 percent, meaning some people’s taxes might be lower. But owners of homesteaded properties capped by Florida’s Save Our Homes Act would continue to pay increases in taxes if the property’s capped value is lower than its appraised value.

City officials believe the higher tax rate, coupled with cuts in spending will bring the budget more closely in line for the future, Assistant City Manager Mike Woika said. 

“Next year we expect kind of another break-even year. If you look at property values now, we’re still seeing some drops. We’re looking at another flat, slightly down year before things start to go in the other direction. So these proposed adjustments get us through the flat years,” Woika said.

Boca Raton saw new construction offset some of the existing properties’ decrease in value, for a net decrease of only .65 percent, Ahnell said.

Most of the $3.1 million increase in spending is for fire and police salaries and pension obligation, Ahnell said. That portion amounts to $2.9 million. To find those dollars, Ahnell said, he cut $2.7 million from the budget, including reducing what was spent last year for property insurance, liability insurance, workers’ comp insurance and facilities maintenance costs.

The budget amounts to the fifth straight year of cuts, and a 22 percent reduction in expenses since 2008, Ahnell said.

“Cutting these amounts of money are having significant affects on services,” he said. “If we cut anymore, it will affect services.

“This should not be a surprise to anybody. There is no money for anything new,” he said.

Boca Raton will hold public hearings on the budget on Sept. 12 and 26.                                  Ú

By Steve Plunkett

Taxpayers will not pick up the $6,000 legal bill Town Clerk Beverly Brown incurred fighting a one-month suspension for sending offensive emails at work on her official computer.

“I decided it wouldn’t be appropriate,” Town Attorney Tom Sliney said following the Town Commission’s Aug. 30 workshop. The issue was not discussed at the meeting.

Sliney reasoned Highland Beach should not pay Brown’s legal fees, Brown said, because she admitted sending the emails, a violation of town policy.

Former Town Manager Dale Sugerman told Brown in January he planned to suspend her for a month without pay after she mistakenly emailed him jokes about Canadians not being politically correct. Sugerman investigated and found more jokes, some “sexually-oriented or defamatory,” that Brown had forwarded at work, including one alluding to President Obama and using the N-word.

But before he could suspend her, Sugerman was suspended — with pay — until his contract expired June 30. Town commissioners hired Kathleen Weiser, a former assistant Charlotte County manager, as his replacement.

Former Commissioner John Sorrelli, who while in office made the formal motions to suspend Sugerman and not extend his contract, led the charge in asking Highland Beach to pay Brown’s attorney fees, which nearly equal her $6,200-a-month salary.

“She should be reimbursed. It was not her fault; she had nothing to do with it. Let’s bring this town back to the peace we had in town before,’’ Sorrelli said at the commission’s Aug. 2 meeting.

His appeal was echoed in quick succession by former Mayor Harold Hagelmann, onetime commission candidate Joe Yucht and former Vice Mayor Joseph Asselta.

Commissioners balked at immediately approving the request. 

Acting Finance Director Cale Curtis assured them the current budget had enough money set aside, but they asked Sliney to investigate whether Highland Beach’s insurance policy would cover the bill.

An independent hearing officer reviewed the case in April and sided with Brown’s lawyer and Sliney, saying the proposed suspension without pay was “draconian.”

 “I am absolutely reversing the punishment,” said hearing officer Kenneth Stern, a recently retired Palm Beach County circuit judge, who decided a written reprimand was more than adequate.

 Brown’s attorney told Stern tensions between the clerk and Sugerman started months before the Canadian jokes were emailed.

Mayor Jim Newill broke a 2-2 vote in January to discuss Sugerman’s planned punishment of Brown, then lost a reelection bid in March in part because of his handling of the case. Newill’s wife, a breast cancer survivor, was helping Brown, who had been diagnosed with the same disease.

Besides paying Sugerman’s $12,000-a-month salary and letting him continue to use a leased Nissan SUV, the town paid Weiser $6,000 a month as interim town manager, Stern $375 an hour to arbitrate the case, and a West Palm Beach labor attorney $400 an hour to review its contract with Sugerman.                                Ú

The planning committee for the Addison’s 85th birthday 

poses in front of the historic structure at 2 East Camino Real,
Boca Raton. From left:  Patrick Duffy, Addison executive chef;
Chasity Navarro, Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce;
Susan Gillis, Boca Raton Historical Society; Helene Parsons,
the Addison; Mary Csar, Boca Raton Historical Society; Cindy
Knecht, the Addison; Cody Tomczyk. Photo provided

The Boca Raton Historical Society and the Addison will celebrate the 85th anniversary of the historic Mizner Development Corp. administration building, now home to the Addison restaurant. 

The event will feature complimentary cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, live entertainment and tours of the historic Mizner-designed building. 

Famed Palm Beach architect Addison Mizner brought the little farming town of Boca Raton to national attention in 1925 with his Boca Raton development project. 

All of the Florida-boom era projects boasted an administration building to house its  offices and task force. Mizner designed the headquarters for his Mizner Development Corp. based on El Greco’s house in Toledo, Spain, for a location at Camino Real and Dixie Highway. 

Completed in 1926, the “Ad Building” boasted an alfresco restaurant in the courtyard, where Mizner was known to “do lunch.” 

Today the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, one of the few Mizner-designed public buildings still standing and an icon of the city’s glamorous boom-time heritage.

The open house will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. on Sept. 21 at the Addison, 2 E. Camino Real. Cost is $10 per guest and proceeds will benefit the Boca Raton Historical Society and Museum. RSVP to the Addison at 372-0568.

— Staff report

Lori Wyllie (center), owner of Sew Much Fun & More,
a sewing store in Boca Raton, is pictured with some of her more
youthful sewing students (back row, from left): Kaitlyn Blade, 13,
Deerfield Beach; Minami Guido, 12, Boca Raton; Megan McGuire, 14,
Boca Raton; Brittany English, 20, FAU student (assistant); (front row, from left),
Kayla Belafonte-Young, 11, Boca Raton; Ricca Lopatukhin, 9, Boca Raton;
and Victoria Fusco, 12, Boca Raton. Photos by Tim Stepien

By Liz Best

 Even if you don’t consider yourself a seamstress, the first thing you feel when you walk into Lori Wyllie’s sewing shop is a sense of happiness.

The walls are lined with vibrant bolts of fabric, brightly colored buttons, spools of thread and other sewing notions. A bulletin board is plastered with pictures of smiling children wearing their latest creations from Wyllie’s summer sewing camp.

The second thing you notice is Wyllie herself, a 56-year-old mother of one who opened Sew Much Fun and More on Federal Highway in Boca Raton last November.

Wyllie has been sewing since she was a child and her joy in being the owner and teacher in her own boutique is written all over her smiling face.

But Wyllie didn’t parlay her love of sewing into a business opportunity until she retired from a nearly 20-year corporate career. And she seems to know how to get people into her shop — and how to keep them coming back.

Not only does she sell fabric and notions, she also has an inventory of high-end Brother sewing machines for sale and offers group and private lessons for budding seamstresses of pretty much any age.

Her summer sewing camp, Project Runway, attracted girls ranging in age from 8 to 14. Her individual classes and adult group lessons are popular with people who are looking to revamp their wardrobes with something of their own creation that costs only a fraction of department store prices. 

“I mean, you can spend $35 on fabric and make your own or you can go to Macy’s and spend $100 on a dress,” said Wyllie, who lives in Boca Raton with her husband, Mark.

She saw a resurgence of interest in sewing over the past few years, which she says is based on a pretty simple string of events.

Many female Baby Boomers, after choosing the briefcase and office job over domestic activities, are now staring at an empty nest and have the time and money to pay for classes to learn the basics of sewing.

Wyllie also says the lousy economy has more people taking inventory of clothes they already have and looking for ways to revamp them.

Lori Wyllie (right), owner of Sew Much Fun & More,
works with student Kayla Belafonte-Young, 11, of Boca Raton.

Wyllie feels lucky to have learned the beauty of mastering her own wardrobe at an early age.

Her first sewing memory was when she was 2 years old. Her grandmother had a now-classic Singer sewing machine and Wyllie played on the machine’s treadle — while her grandmother was using it.

“She obviously found that annoying, so one day she pulled me up into her lap and started showing me how to use it,” said Wyllie.

Wyllie’s light-bulb moment came in second grade when her mother gave her an ultimatum: “She said, ‘You can either have your sister’s hand-me-downs or I’ll get you some fabric and teach you how to sew.’”

Wyllie chose the make-your-own-clothes route and by the time she was 12, had graduated from simple projects like skirts to a sophisticated pink suit.

When she launched her summer camp for kids, Wyllie offered theme classes such as Re-Do Re-Use Week (bring in dad’s old shirt and turn it into a cute dress), Look Ma No Pattern Week (work with ideas rather than patterns) and Pay It Ahead Week (make items to donate to charity).

And her group and individual lessons attract people of all ages — kids,  Baby Boomers and grandmothers.

Advertising executive Barbara Giannattasio of Boca Raton is one of the Baby Boomers who takes adult group lessons on Saturday mornings. 

So far, Giannattasio, who had never sewed a stitch before last January, has made two blouses, a skirt and is working on a dress made from an organic cotton blend fabric she found in Wyllie’s shop.

She says Wyllie is the perfect teacher, with the patience of Job and an encyclopedic knowledge of her craft.

“She knows everything.” Ú

In Coasting Along, our writers stop to reflect on life along the shore.

Workers from Brang Construction build new tanks at Gumbo
Limbo Nature Center. Photo by Mary Thurwachter

Work continues on the sea tank project at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, which will mean four new saltwater tanks — two shallow and two deep.

The tanks will have side-viewing windows and have a hard roof with fans and lights, says Stefanie Ouellette, nature center manager. The deep tanks will have a second-story viewing gallery.

Partly funded by a $1 million put aside by the Boca Raton Beach and Park District, the tank project is expected to be finished in February. Brang Construction of Boca Raton is doing the work.

Friends of Gumbo Limbo, the nature center’s fundraising arm, has committed to raising $300,000 to provide replica habitats, native residents and interactive displays for the new tanks. 

To date, $145,000 has been raised.

In the meantime, Gumbo Limbo continues with its regular business hours (9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday), programs and tours. 

The old turtle tanks have been moved off-site to house FAU research animals and Gumbo Limbo animals that can’t be released. Turtle walks and hatchling releases continue as scheduled. 

— Staff report

You Go Girl, by Missionary Mary Proctor, is one of the works that
will be in the Boca Raton Museum of Art’s Outsider Visions: Self-Taught
Southern Artists of the 20th Century.

By Greg Stepanich

To walk in on the office of the Arts Garage in downtown Delray Beach these days is to see the familiar signs of creative chaos that bespeak an energetic enterprise in progress: heaps of papers, clusters of wires, takeout coffee cups.

In its short lifespan, the arts organization outgrowth of the Creative City Collaborative has made vigorous use of its space in the city parking garage building at 180 N. First St., most notably with a twice-monthly jazz concert series that has drawn some of the best-known South Florida jazz performers to the Garage, and to what Executive Director Alyona Ushe calls a “phenomenal” response.

That series is pretty well sketched out through the end of the year — rising Boca Raton vocalist Chloe Dolandis will star in the Garage’s New Year’s Eve celebration — but late last month the group added Classical Explosion, a series of chamber music concerts done in tandem with the South Florida Symphony, formerly the Key West Symphony.

It’s all part of the growth of the Garage, Ushe (pronounced Ahsh) says.

“The idea for the Arts Garage has always been interdisciplinary. The classical component has always been a part of our programming,” said the Russian-born Ushe, who came to the Garage from the New Orleans Opera. “We started the jazz to experiment, and then we didn’t want to take too much on when we first opened our doors. We wanted to focus on getting the jazz off the ground. But while we were doing that, we were thinking about what else we could bring to the table.”

In addition to the South Florida Symphony, which is scheduled to perform three concerts at Old School Square’s Crest Theatre (Dec. 4, Jan. 29 and March 11), the Garage will be working with Jon Robertson, who leads the Lynn University Conservatory of Music, and the Palm Beach Opera, whose members will perform a season-preview concert in December.

This month, musicians from the South Florida Symphony will perform the String Quintet in C (D. 956) of Franz Schubert, as well as the C major Quintet of Luigi Boccherini, on a concert set for Sunday, Sept. 11. Jace Vek, an Emmy-winning composer now resident in Delray Beach, offers his Buddha Sky music exposition on Sept. 17, and on Sept. 18, singers Edwin Cahill and Julia Kogan present an evening of songs by Kurt Weill, spanning the German composer’s output from Weimar to Broadway and Hollywood.

That’s in addition to the ongoing Jazz Project, which brings vocalist Nicole Yarling to the Garage on Sept. 10 and singer Debbie Orta on Sept. 24. Ushe says the ultimate goal of the organization is nothing less than artistic freedom.

“The mission … is to create a venue where artists really want to experiment and blossom,” she said. “I don’t want to do strange things for the sake of doing strange things, but if there’s logic and meaning and passion involved, absolutely.”

For tickets, visit  artsgarage.eventbright.com; for more information about Arts Garage, visit www.delraybeacharts.org or call 245-0180.

The actress Karen Stephens, who last month played Lorraine Hansberry in a Women’s Theatre Project mounting of Ann Davidon’s Chitterling Heights, returns to her Carbonell-nominated performance in Sarah Jones’ Bridge and Tunnel at the Boca Raton Theater Guild this month.

Bridge and Tunnel, which was first produced by Meryl Streep and won a special Tony in 2006, is a tour de force of acting and accent chops in which Stephens plays 14 characters from New York City’s outer boroughs who have gathered in a Queens theater basement for a poetry jam. The characters include a Chinese woman whose lesbian daughter is having a relationship crisis, an aging Jewish grandmother, a Jordanian woman obsessed with The Beatles, and a wheelchair-bound Mexican man.

Jones’ play is about the immigrant experience, and about the least-heard voices in the national conversation. Stephens won warm reviews for her performance of the piece in December 2009 at the Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, and in October 2010 at the Women’s Theatre Project, which performs in Fort Lauderdale.

The Theatre Guild shows are set for Sept. 9-11 at the Willow Theatre in Boca Raton’s Sugar Sand Park. Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 11. Tickets are $15; call 347-3948. Visit  www.brtg.org. 

Art notes: The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach will be closed from Sept. 12 to Sept. 30 while workers reinstall galleries. Museum officials said the rehanging will give visitors “a more engaging experience” with its collections. The first new exhibit, debuting Nov. 3, will be American artist Dave Cole’s installation Flags of the World. … Three new exhibits open at the Boca Raton Museum of Art this month, including portraits from the museum’s collection (Sept. 6-May 13), and work by the Colombian conceptual artist Federico Uribe (Sept. 21-Dec. 4). Also opening Sept. 21 is Outsider Visions: Self-Taught Southern Artists of the 20th Century, a collection of 75 works by creators such as Mose Tolliver (aka Mose T) and the remarkable Howard Finster. The show closes, fittingly enough, on Jan. 8, the birthday of another self-taught Southerner, Elvis Presley. 

Greg Stepanich is the editor/founder of the Palm Beach ArtsPaper, available online at www.palmbeach artspaper.com.

Reinaldo Padrino (left), Christina Padrino, Gale Padrino, Marlene Roberts and Linda Albertson attended the opening of a show by author and photographer Alan Friedman at the Highland Beach Library.

Photo provided

Alyce Erickson, with her poodle Miss Puccini,
lives in a home at Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club,
from which she can organize fundraisers for such organizations
as Lynn University and the National Society of Arts,
among others.  Photo by Tim Stepien

You know how some people simply sparkle?  They light up a room just by walking in? 

Alyce Erickson is one of those. And, if you’re one of the fortunate folks to visit her home in Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, you can’t help but feel the love. A Puccini aria fills the house and the sweetest little tan poodle scampers to greet you. Her name? Miss Puccini. 

It’s no secret a music lover lives here.

Erickson says she doesn’t play an instrument herself.

“I play at the piano,” she says. “My gift is listening.”

She does much more than listen, though. She works arduously to open doors for young musicians by organizing concerts and competitions at the Lynn Conservatory of Music. “These kids are so talented,” she says. “Each one is a walking genius.”

The mother of two sons, a daughter-in-law she considers her daughter, and one “adorable” grandson, Erickson has immersed herself in Boca Raton since she arrived in 1984. Her finely honed organizational skills have served her well.

“I got involved with the Boca Raton Museum of Art right away,” she says. “I was bored stiff  boating, playing tennis and shopping. I needed a project.”

She walked in to the Museum of Art, then located on Palmetto Park Road, and offered to organize a fundraising ball at the Boca Raton Resort & Club. “They said ‘you’ll never get it there,’ but I knew I would, and I did.” In fact, she reserved the luxurious hotel for the next year’s ball at the same time.

Although she didn’t know anyone in town then, she persuaded the art museum to let her pick her own committee made up of presidents of every organization in town. 

It was called “The Presidents Ball” and it was a huge success.

“Of course, there was payback,” she says. Over the years, she’s volunteered to help all those organizations.

Her other involvements include Lynn University, National Society of Arts and Letters, Boca Raton Children’s Museum, American Red Cross, Florida Symphonic Pops and Florida Atlantic University. 

Two years ago, she was awarded the Junior League of Boca Raton Woman Volunteer of the Year Award, and this year she received a star on the Boca Raton Historical Society’s Walk of Recognition. 

The Walk of Recognition (at Royal Palm Place) honors people who have demonstrated a significant long-term commitment to serving in the interest of Boca Raton and have enriched the lives of citizens. 

That’s Alyce Erickson all right.

— Mary Thurwachter

Q. Where did you grow up and what’s your educational background? 

A. I was born in North Carolina, went to school in West Virginia, moved to Florida in 1982. I have a medical degree in nursing. My husband and I retired to Florida after we sold our cable TV business.

Q. What are your hobbies? 

A. Miss Puccini, Lynn University Conservatory of Music, National Society of Arts and Letters, volunteerism, music art, photography and bridge. 

Q. How did you choose to make your home in Boca Raton?

A. We had friends here and had been coming down on vacations.

Q. What is your favorite part about living in Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club/Boca Raton? A.  Friends and family and the young talent, the culture — opera in [West] Palm Beach, music at the Conservatory of Music, theater and ballet. 

Q. Why is volunteer work so important to you?

A. I believe we are here to serve. I think God puts us where we’re supposed to be to get things done. My gift is organization.

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

A. Meryl Streep. She played the violin in Music of the Heart. I don’t play violin, but I love music. 

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

A. The Four Seasons by Vivaldi, Pachelbel’s Canon in D, the Christmas classics like O Holy Night and Ave Maria; harp music, opera and so much more. 

Q. What ‘s your favorite childhood memory?

A. Getting together with the family around the table on Christmas morning. I love Christmas. It’s my favorite season.

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

A. Yes, two: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. (the Golden Rule); and “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul,” from Invictus, by William Ernest Henley.

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

A. Ruth McGoldrick, the lady who ran the Debbie-Rand Thrift Shop for all these years,  and her sister, Sally Crow, who was in every organization in this town.

John Fowler, Sally Mohler, Genie Serrano, Kendall Rumsey,
Cheryl Crowley, Deb Praeg, Jennifer Finnell and Christine DiRocco,
along with some of their ‘pooch advisers’ are working to unleash
the inaugural Pooch Prom on Sept. 24 at Downtown at the Gardens
in Palm Beach Gardens. Photo Tracey Benson

By Arden Moore

Raise your hands if you’ve ever experienced a dog of a date. Yes, we all wish to forget them. But it’s 2011 and now the hot trend is to stage a date night with your dog. Often, these events feature a “paws for a good cause” theme to raise money and awareness.

Earlier this summer, I boldly created a national pet holiday — see nationaldogpartyday.com  — and hosted simultaneous parties in New York City and San Diego. I instructed attendees in advance that this was “not your mother’s typical yappy hour,” but rather, a party with a purpose. And during the three hours, your date would be your dog. 

I’m happy to report that people reveled in the rare opportunity to live in the moment and well-mannered dogs got to partake in games and healthy treats. 

We raised money for two worthy pet charities and plan to expand to four locations in 2012, including one in South Florida. 

Cheryl Crowley, a lifelong pet lover, is taking this dog date concept a creative step further. On Sept. 24, she will host the inaugural Pooch Prom at Downtown at the Gardens in Palm Beach Gardens. A pack of clothing-clad canines will strut the runway in their finest attires with two being crowned Prom King and Prom Queen, based on a vote by a panel of celebrity judges. 

“Imagine a beagle in a tuxedo or a Yorkie in a frilly gown,” says Crowley, president of ImMEDIAcy Public Relations, based in North Palm Beach. “Well, that’s what you may actually see on Sept. 24.”

Don’t let distance stop any of you living in south Palm Beach County. It’s an easy ride up I-95 and you will have your cool dog as your co-pilot. 

In fact, the soiree is limited to 50 well-mannered, well-groomed, party-seeking dogs, and Crowley says the word is spreading fast that this is one of the social events of the season. 

Cost is $45 for one dog and human “chaperone,” or $85 for one dog and two human “chaperones,” with the ticket price including food and libations, a band, live auction and door prizes. And the opportunity to witness the historic crowning of Pooch Prom queen and king would be a memory maker that is simply, well, priceless. 

Learn more by visiting  www.poochprom.org or by contacting Crowley at 561-776-7659.

The benefactor of this tail-waggers-in-tuxedos event is the programs of the Drug Abuse Treatment Association, a nonprofit group that delivers effective programs for children, teens and their families coping with substance abuse and/or juvenile delinquency in five counties: Palm Beach, St. Lucie, Martin, Indian River and Okeechobee. Learn more by visiting  www.drugabusetreatment.org or by calling 561-743-1034. 

The always-clever Crowley also found a way to come up with a canine acronym for DATA that aptly fits this inaugural event:  “Dogs are totally awesome.”

A key member on the event committee is Christine DiRocco of Lake Worth, who works at the pet-welcoming Ritz-Carlton in Manalapan. Happy to report that the pre-planning activity inspired her to adopt a sweet-eyed Cavalier King Charles spaniel pup named Mia. 

“Yep, I confess. I’m one of those crazy pet owners now,” says DiRocco with a laugh. “Mia is only 3½ months old and she is sooooo cute. She is very friendly, easy going and loves to cuddle. She is a bit young and still getting her puppy [vaccinations], so she won’t be at this year’s prom, but I predict she will be a runaway winner next year.”

OK, the canine challenge has been made. But barking out optimistic predictions is one of the many side benefits of being paired with a pet. Medical studies conclude that dogs, cats and other pets do a body good. 

“Since I got Mia, I am happier and I look forward to going home and scooping her up in my arms and loving her,” says DiRocco. “Mia has changed me for the better.”

Crowley agrees. “My mom bought a dog three months before I was born and I have never been without a dog or a cat or both during my entire life. To me, pets make you a happier, more passionate person.”

You won’t get any arguments from me. What are your thoughts on dressing up dogs? Or planning a “date night” once in a while with your canine chum? Email me at Arden@fourleggedlife.com. 

Arden Moore, founder of Four Legged Life.com, is an animal behavior consultant, editor, author, professional speaker and certified pet first aid instructor. She happily shares her home with two dogs, two cats and one overworked vacuum cleaner. Tune in to her Oh Behave! show on Pet Life Radio.com and learn more by visiting www.fourleggedlife.com.

Parishioners unite in prayer at St. Joseph Episcopal Church. Photo by Lauren Loricchio

By C.B. Hanif

The story of St. Joseph Episcopal Church’s pastor of nearly 11 years, the Rev. Martin Zlatic, and the Boynton Beach church’s innovative, youth-driven expansion is one that warms the cockles of the heart.

It all started coming together when “Pastor Marty,” as he affectionately is known, was literally out in the corporate world, traveling the planet for Motorola Inc. His experiences undoubtedly could fill a book. For our purposes, let it suffice that he says, “Where Renaissance Commons is now, there used to be 5,000 Motorola employees in Boynton. Now there’s zero.”

The former Catholic priest and his wife, Dee — now Children’s Minister at St. Joseph’s — found an Episcopal home in Jacksonville where they married. Answering his hankering to return to the priesthood, he was a worker-priest — one who, in addition to his priestly duties, works a secular job — between Motorola and St. Andrews Church in Lake Worth, before being tapped by St. Joseph’s in 2001.

He was blessed with a congregation whose charisms, or special virtues, include reaching out to youths and to young adults who want a worship experience but for whom the traditional form of worship might not be the thing.

“And we were able to hire Charles Miley, who was just coming out of Berkley School of Music, and who had a background doing contemporary music in a traditional Episcopal setting, which is a very unique combination,” Zlatic said. “And Charles came and we started what we call the ‘unplugged’ service.” After settling on the Sunday 11:45 a.m. time niche for the less formal, Episcopal twist on “Rock Church,” there’s been continuous growth. “Unplugged” is the second largest of the four Sunday services.

But having established the service, its time frame and its musician “who has since forged relationships with local musicians and put together this incredible group who come together to help to lead the music, we didn’t have a place to put him,” said Zlatic. For five years what literally was a storage closet has served as the rehearsal room. Underscoring the urgency of prioritizing a planned expansion was that the church’s traditional choir also is outgrowing its practice room.

Moreover, weekend attendance of around 350 makes St. Joseph’s a medium-to-large congregation, difficult for one person to manage alone. Recognizing “unplugged” as where the need is, that’s where the church is concentrating. The Diocese of Southeast Florida’s enlightened investment of a $150,000 total matching grant over three years has helped St. Joseph’s hire an additional priest for this focus.

Of 50 people who formally applied, the best fit was Wendy (Warnke) Tobias. “Her family has been in Boynton forever,” Zlatic said, “and she also happens to be someone who grew up in this church.” After working at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., the past three years, she’s due on board in October, “hopefully coinciding almost with the launch of the new building, so it’s all going to come together sort of at the same time. So that’s exciting,” he said.

Soon after, the South Palm Beach Deanery of the diocese, of which Zlatic is the dean, will host for the first time in St. Joseph’s history the annual convention of the 83-congregation, Key West-to-Jensen Beach, Glades-to-the-coast diocese.

“It will be here Nov. 11, 2011, a very easy date to remember,” Zlatic said. In honor of the nation’s veterans, “We are having the Episcopal bishop for the armed forces to be our guest preacher.”

St. Joseph’s is honoring the past and present, yet developing an innovative ministry for the future. It’s a success story of a family- and youth-oriented church, and of the adaptability required to truly serve that makes one want to pray for even more.

C.B. Hanif is a writer and inter-religious affairs consultant. Find him at www.interfaith21.com.

By Mary Thurwachter, Managing Editor

These are the dog days of summer, and they are sultry. 

But if you consider August a month marked by lethargy, inactivity or laziness, think again. Take a look at the Coastal Star community calendar (Pages 15-16) or the Boca Festival Days listings (Page 7), and you’ll find plenty of reasons to get out and about.

Boca Festival Days has come a long way since the 1980s, when the celebration — designed to build civic pride and fend off the dog days of summer — included a few events like fishing tournaments, psychic readings and a teddy bear parade. 

The 2012 version pairs businesses with nonprofits to raise awareness and money for charities. Events happen all month throughout the city and there is something for everyone.

Among this year’s events are Wine Country Safari at the Boca Raton Museum Art School, a casual wine tasting, with proceeds benefiting Twin Palms Center for the Disabled; Martinis & Manicures at Tipsy Spa Salon in Royal Palm Place, with proceeds going to the American Cancer Society; and the Boca Ballroom Battle at the Boca Raton Resort & Club, a local spin-off of TV’s Dancing with the Stars for the benefit of the George Snow Scholarship Fund.

Other events include a back-to-school breakfast, singing, skating and bowling competitions, table tennis, and even a Yappy Hour, a Fido-friendly cocktail hour in Mizner Park. 

Things are plenty hot at Mizner Park Amphitheatre this month, too, and several of the concerts are free. Among them are tribute shows honoring the Beatles, Elvis and U2. All you have to do is bring a chair or blanket, find a spot to sit, and take in the tunes. Dancing is optional.

So go ahead, make some plans. Have some fun. Sing a little song. Do a little dance. Just don’t say there’s nothing to do. 

Mary Thurwachter  Managing Editor

By Steve Plunkett

    The town will dip into reserve funds again to continue providing municipal services without raising property taxes.

Town commissioners tentatively adopted the rollback rate of $3.41 per $1,000 of taxable value at a special meeting July 26. State law will let them lower the rate as they fine-tune the budget, but not raise it. Voter-approved debt will add 93 cents per $1,000 to the tax bill.

The current year’s rate was $3.25 per $1,000 value plus 94 cents per $1,000 for debt.

“To balance our budget we’ll need to take $702,256 from our unreserved fund balance,” acting Finance Director Cale Curtis told them.

It’s a strategy the town has been using as its tax base declined more than 25 percent over the past five years, Curtis said, from a high of $2.3 billion to the current $1.7 billion. In just the past year it dropped 4.3 percent.

Curtis said the proposed budget funds all department services and calls for no layoffs, pay cuts, furloughs or reductions in town employee benefits. The town will reduced operating expenses about 6 percent, he said.

    The proposal’s biggest-ticket items include $75,000 for books and other media at the library, $21,000 for a new air conditioner at Town Hall and $15,000 to put header curbs on Bel Lido at A1A.

Commissioner John Pagliaro asked if the tax rate could be lowered, Commissioner Doris Trinley asked if it should be raised to avoid using the reserve fund.

“We’re facing very difficult times in the economy today. I think it’s very trying on all of our residents that we keep taxes the same as they are rather than increasing it this year,”  Mayor Bernard Featherman said.

Public hearings on the budget will be 5:01 p.m. Sept. 6 and Sept. 21 at Town Hall.    Ú           

Royal Palms are known for their massive trunks and large fronds. Photo by Jerry Lower

By Steve Plunkett

Except for the occasional lawnmower, work at the county’s future Cam D. Milani Park has ended until 2020.

“I’m not passing out a whole lot of checks, so mum’s the word,’’ County Commissioner Steven Abrams said as he gave the town an oversized check for $5,000 in early July to help pay for 10 royal palms in front of the vacant grassy parcel.

“It makes a big difference. Milani Park looks beautiful now,” said Deanna Kelvin, who with her husband, George, accepted the check on behalf of town residents and gave Abrams a book, The History of Highland Beach, as a thank-you.

The trees cost $1,000 apiece, Town Manager Kathleen Weiser said. Permits ran the total to $15,000.

East of A1A the park site features a coastal rock outcropping where Japanese pineapple farmers fished a century ago. 

Early this year, the county installed a 6-foot concrete buffer on the south and west sides of the park’s west portion, restored wetlands, and put in sod and a split-rail fence. That work cost $157,669. 

The county and Highland Beach agreed last year that the park would not be built beyond this first phase for at least 10 years.

Helped by a $184,000 state grant, the town began planting royal palms along A1A in 2007, but skipped the disputed Milani site.     

Jay Whelchel and Mariya-Khristina Shurupova practice for last year’s
Boca’s Ballroom Battle at the Boca Raton Resort & Club. Photo by Jerry Lower

By Thom Smith

“I’ve got a book deal in the works. We’re talking about a made-for-TV movie,” Jay Whelchel says.

This time last year, the Boca Raton commercial real estate specialist was the toe-tapping, fast-moving, high-kicking king of the dance floor at the Third Annual Boca’s Ballroom Battle and he has the disco ball trophy to prove it. 

Volunteer and philanthropist Laura Stoltz took the women’s title.

The year has passed so quickly: The fourth annual dance-off, which raises money for the George Snow Scholarship Fund, is set for Aug. 19 at the Boca Raton Resort & Club; Whelchel admits his attention has not been on the dance floor:

“Actually, dancing the baby to sleep is about it,” he said, confirming that 6-month-old daughter Vivian has replaced professional partner Mariya-Khristina Shurupova. She and brother Jack, 2½, couldn’t care less how nimble the old man is. 

“Children just don’t respect the accomplishment at all,” Jay Whelchel lamented. “They don’t understand the significance of it.”

Kidding aside, Whelchel took last year’s event quite seriously, practicing for several months before the competition. Plus, he felt added pressure: His mother, Boca Mayor Susan Whelchel, had won the inaugural. So Jay prepared for his hustle routine as he had approached game days as a high school and college athlete.

“The week before I was about 50 percent ready, but it got closer, I started to visualize the routine, got my game face on,” he said. “You start to focus and it all comes together. I got up for it at the right time.”

This year’s contestants include businesswoman and philanthropist Yvonne Boice, plastic surgeon Dr. Rafael Cabrera, Boca West Country Club General Manager Jay DiPietro, Coldwell Banker Executive Vice President Ingrid Fulmer, Mercedes Benz of Delray Executive Manager Ralph Mesa, Bell Rock Capital Managing Director Jacqueline Reeves, philanthropist and volunteer extraordinaire Pat Thomas and Waste Management’s South Florida Director of Disposal Operations Bryan Tindell.

Welchel has some tips. “I wasn’t nervous,” he said, “No, I was excited. You’re up for it. Don’t know what’s gonna happen, so it all comes down to preparation. 

“It seems so abstract when you’re practicing, but it will click. For some it’ll click in a month or maybe a week. When I first heard the song, it seemed so fast that I couldn’t even feel the beat, but eventually you learn your routine so well that the speed slows down. That’s what happened to me.”

The Ballroom Battle is a highlight of Boca Festival Days, a monthlong celebration of the city, its institutions and its people. Sponsored by the Boca Chamber of Commerce, Boca Festival Days gives the city’s for-profit Chamber members an opportunity to raise support and money for its nonprofit members. 

Following a July 27 kickoff party at Carrabba’s on Southwest 18 Street, the first fundraiser was the inaugural White Coats 4 Care reception, sponsored by Kaye Communications Aug. 1 at Carmen’s Restaurant at the Top of the Bridge Hotel. Donations of $100 or more will buy lab coats and other important equipment for students at FAU’s brand-new Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, which opens for class the same day. 

With its Blue Hawaii theme, the Festival Days’ “Summer in the City” bash at Mizner Park Amphitheater should be heaven for Elvis lovers with a Vegas-style stage tribute to the king of rock ’n’ roll. Show begins at 7 and doesn’t cost a cent to get in. For details about all the events, which continue through Aug. 29, go to bocachamber.com.

Speaking of tribute shows, Neil Zirconia, who bills himself as “the ultimate faux Diamond,” brings his version of Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show to Boca’s Pavilion Grille Aug. 13. Despite its location in the ultramodern glass-enclosed atrium of Boca’s Stonegate Bank Building, the Pavilion is a throwback to a time when people went dancing. 

It features a 2,000-square-foot dance floor. Dance lessons are offered Tuesday and Wednesday nights and live music puts transforms that training into action just about every other night, usually for a $10 cover charge that includes one drink. Those who prefer dinner with their dancing can opt for hors d’oeuvres, soups and salads ($3-$17), sandwiches or burgers ($10-$16) or entrees ($17-$32). Occasionally, the dining room is taken over by private parties, so reservations (912-0000) are a must, unless you’re prepared to dance in the parking lot. 

Since 2004, the Boca Raton Singers have staged modest concerts and performed in local nursing and retirement homes, often for no charge. But then the economy played a sour note, as various public agencies, including city governments and the Palm Beach County Cultural Council, cut funding to several small cultural organizations. To many, $10,000 is a paltry sum; to the singers, it meant everything.

Enter Henrietta de Hoernle, better known as the countess. She likes their music. More important, she admires the fact that every member is a volunteer, even Music Director Gerald Luongo. So when board president Connie Paladino called to plead her case, the countess agreed to help out. 

The chorus will still have to raise money on its own, but with the countess’ help, it plans to expand in size and stage larger, more ambitious shows. And it’s changed its name … to the de Hoernle Singers. 

Open auditions will be held at 7 p.m. Aug. 29 and Sept. 12 at the group’s rehearsal site, Grace Community Church, 600 W. Camino Real. Notify Paladino in advance by email at cmpaladino@aol.com.

Now that the women’s World Cup is over, soccer fans are turning their attention to Boca Raton for a few games, at least. magicJack, Boca’s surprise, last-minute franchise in Women’s Professional Soccer, features seven members of the women’s national team play including player and newly named head coach Abby Wambach and goalkeeper Hope Solo (no relation to Han Solo).

magicJack’s new owner is as controversial as his players are talented. Palm Beacher Dan Borislow bought the Washington Freedom, moved to Boca and renamed it magicJack for the internet telephone device that made him millions. He’s often seen tooling around Palm Beach on his $30,000 Can-Am Spyder RT, a three-wheeled motorcycle. He’s also a fan, and even played the game.

Only three regular season home games remain, all of which will be played at FAU’s soccer stadium.

New Jersey’s Sky Blue Soccer comes to town Aug.  6, led by U.S. National Team player Heather O’Reilly and Swedish player of the year Therese Sjögran. Four days later, it’s the Western New York Flash with four-time world player of the year Marta and Satellite Beach’s own Ashlyn Harris. Expect the largest crowd ever to watch a soccer game in Palm Beach County. 

magicJack will close out the regular season Aug. 14 against league-leading Philadelphia Independence. For ticket info, go www.ticketmaster.com.

While the opening of a medical school is a big story, the big questions around FAU concern football.

No. 1: How will the Owls do this year? A: Could be dicey. Head coach and Ocean Ridge resident Howard Schnellenberger says the quarterback is key and hopes to pick one no later than 10 days before the opener at University of Florida. If he survives the Swamp, he gets Michigan State a week later and Auburn two weeks after that.

No. 1: Asked if he had the energy for his 11th season at age 77, Schnellenberger, FAU’s first and only head coach, said, “If I didn’t, I’d already be gone.” Athletic Director Craig Angelos says he won’t make a decision until the season is over. 

No. 1: How’s the stadium doing? Still ahead of schedule and under budget, school officials boast. 

As for specs, it seats 30,000 in the grandstand, 24 suites, 26 loge boxes, more than 1,000 open-air premier club seats and more than 4,000 priority club seats. Suite, loge and premier club seat holders can relax in an air-conditioned, 8,000-square-foot premier club or a covered, 16,000-square-foot outdoor priority club. By the way, premium seats (not just for fat-cat boosters) are wider. 

The student-and-band-only section is in the south end zone. Student tickets are free.

Elsewhere, most season tickets are $135 and $150. That covers the entire east stands, north end zone and the west stands to the 5-yard-line at the north end. A seat on the 50 can be had for $385.A seat in Section 205 Row Z will set a die-hard Owl fan back $1,480 while one in Loge 306 C will go for $9,560. 

But then, this is Boca.

First home game is Oct. 15 against Western Kentucky. The stadium also will play a big role in FAU’s 50th anniversary celebration Oct. 29. Meanwhile, Fanfest on Aug. 20 should offer more answers.

Here and there: It’s called the English Tap & Beer Garden Restaurant, but the new spot in Boca Center is German-inspired — a Biergärten concept with open-air dining and lots of international beers and other libations and live entertainment.  It’s actually the offspring of Wild Olives, which was moved into the old Cucina D’Angelo space next door by owner John Watson. Wild Olives Exec Chef Ken Stevens stays on, so look for an eclectic pub menu with emphasis on locally grown and fresh.

The Morfogen the merrier. Since Nick Morfogen arrived 15 years ago, 32 East has ranked as one of the best restaurants in the Southeast. This month brother Stratis, a veteran of the New York and more recently Miami restaurant scene with partner Philippe Chow, will open Philippe in Boca Raton. The casual version of Chow’s Manhattan showcase will take over the former III Forks site on East Palmetto Park Road. 

The opening, planned for mid-August, should be star-studded, as Morfogen has some big investors — literally: Alonzo Mourning, ex-Miami Heat, Jerome Bettis, ex-Pittsburgh Steelers and still-active hoop stars Chauncey Billups, New York Knicks, and Al Harrington, Denver Nuggets. 

Chow is one of two dozen chefs from Boca to Palm Beach participating in the March of Dimes’ Sixth Annual Signature Chefs Auction, Sept. 9 at the Boca Raton Resort & Club. Exquisite wines and spirits, sumptuous samplings from the chefs  and an auction of dining packages. Call (561) 684-0102. 

Heading north. As we reported earlier, Angelo Elia, owner of Casas d’Angelo in Fort Lauderdale, Nassau and Boca, (but no link to Cucina d’Angelo) had been looking for months for the right spot to bring the Angelo name to Delray. He finally found it just south of Atlantic on Seventh Avenue — the old Carolina’s Coal Fired Pizza space. He hopes to have D’Angelo Trattoria open by summer’s end, with a gelato shop to follow soon after. Thom Smith is a freelance writer. Contact him at ThomSmith@ymail.com.

James E. Patrick is a founding shareholder and CEO
of National Healing Corp., founded in 1996.  Patrick
received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year
2011 Florida Award in the health care category. Photo by Tim Stepien

By Linda Haase

Although his law practice was thriving, James Patrick couldn’t pass up an opportunity to do something different.

And, he says, his decision to co-found National Healing Corp. in 1996 has been very gratifying. The Boca Raton-based company, which provides management services and the latest technology and expertise in wound healing to hospitals to establish quality wound healing programs, has grown tremendously. It now partners with more than 170 hospitals in 32 states, including Bethesda Memorial Hospital (its first managed wound center), says Patrick, the company’s CEO. 

The hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed. In June, Patrick, who lives in coastal Boca Raton, was given the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Florida in the health care category. The award is given for exceptional entrepreneurial achievements, honoring leaders who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses.

“It is an honor. It is a milestone for me. It’s a recognition that our company has pioneered new ways to approach the health care service market for wound care and has made a meaningful imprint nationally on how wound care services are delivered,” he said, (Patrick is now eligible for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2011 National Award).

“We are helping people live longer and better lives and that is personally a rewarding thing to be able to do,” said Patrick, 51. The company has a tremendous opportunity to grow — and combat a rising tide of chronic wounds caused by the increased incidence of diabetes, vascular disease, obesity and an aging population, he says. 

“My professional goal is to build this company to a leadership position in wound care and champion the best healing rates for our patients as possible,” he says.  

Although Patrick spends a lot of time traveling for business, home is Boca Raton, where he lives with his wife, Donna, and children, 17-year-old Kendra and 15-year-old Truman.

“We like to travel, go to museums and spend time together. Family is the bedrock of my life and existence. Continuing to share and grow as a family is very important to me,” says Patrick, who has a Juris Doctor degree from Albany Law School and a LL.M. degree in taxation from the University of San Diego. “My personal goal is to continue to build a strong and loving relationship with my family.” 

Patrick, who played football in high school and at Boston University (where he graduated with a bachelor of arts degree), also jogs, skis and is a voracious reader — everything from classic literature to economics to cultural and religious history. 

And, no doubt, he’ll be researching India, which he plans to visit in the fall.       Ú

Fresh produce is the focus of Ellenville Garden Center, in Boca Raton, that draw s 200 to 300 people to a farmer's market each Thursday evening. Photo by Jerry Lower.

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

Ellenville Garden Center is becoming a community center for eastern Boca Raton. 

Not only do owners Beth and Craig Peschl sell plants and landscaping services, they also host a weekly farmer’s market. On Thursday evenings, the market attracts 200 to 300 people. 

“This center and its market are a new concept that really isn’t out there yet,” says Jason McCobb who is working with the Peschls. 

It’s based on markets he enjoyed while visiting Napa and Sonoma, Calif. There, people would lay down blankets and watch the kids play while drinking a bottle of wine and listening to music. “The families would hang out all evening. I’d never experienced a market like that,” McCobb says.  

When he returned to South Florida in 2009, he wanted to do something similar. 

He met the Peschls when he was looking for land on which to grow baby greens. He set up his organic and sustainable farm on five of the 10 acres they own in Delray Beach. Then he teamed up with the couple to run the market.  

“This market is really cool the way the vendors are set up to zig and zag through the plants,” says Greg Schneider who, as owner of MisGreg’s Produce, sells the fruits and veggies he grows on his farm in Stuart. He also brings his pet black pig, Maxwell, who lies in the shade of a tree. “Kids love to pet him,” he says. 

Coconut Creek resident Emerson Ouellette,, 7, works the Hula Hoop
at the Ellenville Garden Center farmers market in Boca Raton. 

Photo by Tim Stepien

At the market, you can also enjoy live music, eat food prepared by a local restaurant, let your kids play with hula hoops on the lawn, fill up on barbecue prepared in a drum smoker in the parking lot or sample homemade empanadas. You can cool off with wine ice cream, chill with a snow-cone or savor cupcakes and cheesecake from local bakeries while your kids have their faces painted. You can even buy treats for your pet. 

“We were surprised to find this. We didn’t know it was here,” says Dan Cope of Boca Raton who is visiting the market for the first time. 

His wife, Mary, heard of it when she was looking for “fun things to do” with their daughter and three grandchildren visiting from Kentucky. Those grandchildren include David, 7, who has his face painted like Spiderman and his sister, Emily, 4, who is painted as a butterfly.

The Peschls opened their garden center just north of Mizner Park two years ago. It sits on what was one of the last pieces of undeveloped property in Boca Raton. 

“There wasn’t much here but dirt and weeds,” Beth says. 

They spent about $1 mil-lion over a year making improvements including a large inviting lodge-like structure complete with a stone fireplace. 

During market hours, it’s filled with vendors offering their wares in air-conditioned comfort. 

Boca Raton resident Rylee Azarowicz, 5, feeds
Maxwell the pig spinach at the Ellenville Garden
Center. Maxwell, 1, is owned by Greg Schneider,
market vendor and owner of MisGreg’s Produce.

Photo by Tim Stepien 

Outside, you’ll see a red Ford flatbed truck that the couple towed into place. Beth’s father used it on the family chicken farm in Ellenville, N.Y., and she remembers riding in it as a child. 

There are other memories here, too. On a high shelf under the roof, there’s the Radio Flyer wagon, the Flexible Flyer sled and Fire Chief engine she played with as a child.   

And a whole new generation of children is getting involved in agriculture at the center.

This summer, McCobb (aka Farmer Jay) is hosting his Farmer Jay’s Junior Sprout classes that teach youngsters in local summer programs how to plant and raise seeds organically and sustainably.

“I want to get the word out,” he says.                           

By Margie Plunkett

Boca Raton is looking for public suggestions as well as letters of interest from potential developers on uses for the Wildflower property, a vacant piece of waterfront land the city bought for $7.5 million in 2009.

“This is a premier space and we really have to consider seriously what we’d like to do,” said council member Michael Mullaugh at a workshop meeting last month.

The 2-acre property, on the Intracoastal Waterway on the north side of Palmetto Park Road, is the former site of the Wildflower restaurant, which the city purchased with the intent to improve so that it fits with the city’s “vision of a vibrant active waterfront destination.” The city is seeking a use, including a public-private partnership, that will attract residents to it and the adjacent downtown area.

The intent is to keep the waterfront open to the public, demonstrate a connection to Silver Palm Park, have a pedestrian orientation and stand financially on its own, according to Deputy City Manager George Brown.

“This is a once-in-a-city’s-lifetime opportunity to address what we want to do on our waterfront,” said council member Anthony Majhess, suggesting a charrette to collect thoughts on the future of the Wildflower site. “It’s a piece of land that can be used for other than bathing suit type recreation.” 

    He said he has concerns on improvements like a restaurant, which the city’s received an email about, and an expanded boat ramp.”

    “I would be supportive of something that is revenue producing, like a restaurant,” Councilmember Susan Haynie said.

Mayor Susan Whelchel talked about the possibility of waterfront restaurant activities as an opportunity to enjoy with family and friends. To succeed, she said, the Wildflower use has to be a very strong revenue opportunity — which could lead to the purchase of additional properties to achieve a promenade.

The city is accepting letters of interest from anyone proposing to develop the Wildflower site. Both can be submitted by Aug. 31 via a link on Boca Raton’s website — www.ci.boca-raton.fl.us/wildflower/. A public meeting will be set as early as September.                                Ú

Diane Benedetto (left) poses with her mother and
her brother Buddy in a photograph dating from the 1920s.
Photo by Lauren Loricchio. Historical photos courtesy of the Boca Raton Historical Society

By Mary Jane Fine

She looks so grandmotherly, rocking gently there in a corner of the Boca Raton Children’s Museum, where her book of childhood memories will reside once it finds a publisher. Sweet and genteel. Self-effacing and shy. But that would be just a first impression, and wrong-headed. Because, right now, her granddaughter Tracy Eldridge is calling up a memory that is NOT in the book and will NOT be told to children.

“Can I show this?” she asks, holding out her cell phone.

Diane Benedetto — née Imogene Alice Gates — glances at the phone’s little screen. 

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” she says, a bit indignant. “That’s my favorite picture.”

Diane Benedetto (left) poses with her mother and her
brother Buddy in a photograph dating from the 1920s.
Photos courtesy of the Boca Raton Historical Society

No wonder. The photo is of her, maybe 70 years ago: She is a beauty, kneeling, nude, in profile, one hand covering a breast, her long wavy blond hair cascading past her shoulders. 

“When guys ask me to send them a picture of me, that’s what I send,” her granddaughter says, and grins.

The memories attached to that photo, and the dancing career that fostered it, may fill another book one day. “I’ve got enough material to start a book company,” boasts Diane. 

At 95, she is a connoisseur of memory. At any given moment, a date or place or happenstance may prove slippery, but the essence is there, strong and vital enough to call up a bygone era and those who lived it.

The book is called Imogene Alice Gates: Frontier Child, and it tells the story of growing up in Boca Raton before Boca became Boca, before the Army Corps of Engineers turned a lagoon into the Intracoastal Waterway, before the jungle of palmetto palms and scrub brush was hacked away and groomed into the neat, orderly civilization that makes her long for yesteryear’s Florida.

Poppi Mercier, the museum’s executive director, calls it “a primary resource book,” a first-person account of history. 

She worked with Diane for a year or so, shaping the older woman’s voluminous written and recalled stories into book form. Photos from the Boca Raton Historical Society illustrate it, alongside Diane’s own black-and-white sketches.

A photograph of Diane Benedetto holding two baby raccoons

was used for the cover of her book about growing up in early Boca Raton, Frontier Child (below). 

Paper dolls, pet raccoon

Childhood, then, was a time when little girls played with paper dolls snipped from catalogues; when the remedy for a sore throat was tying a poultice of mashed onions and kerosene around one’s neck; when rum runners and bootleggers “ran rampant,” as she writes, and townspeople gathered to watch after they were caught, their bottles smashed. 

Diane writes about Pete, the half-tame raccoon that was her near-constant companion, and about riding on dirt roads in her father’s Model-T Ford, bought for the then-grand sum of $300.

She recalls the day Pete snatched a neighbor’s lunch pail (chicken, which they both enjoyed) and tells of the neighbor who sent for a mail-order bride (a 300-pound mother of five, he soon learned).

From the rocking chair in the Children’s Museum, she tells other stories, stories that didn’t make it into the book. About filching nickels and dimes from milk bottles on front porches, after she and her parents, Harley and Harriet Gates, moved to Miami following a freeze that killed the banana and lemon trees and ornamental plants on the family’s 38-acre Palmetto Park Plantation. 

“I would go to the store and buy candy,” she says, with a wicked little smile. And she tells about her dancing days.

Diane Benedetto holding two baby raccoons on the cover
of her book about growing up in early Boca Raton, Frontier Child. 

Showgirl days

“I did a little ballet, a little interpretive,” she says of the career that led her to choose the name Diane. “I did Hawaiian. You name it. And I never had a lesson. I just went out and was a dancer.” 

She ticks off the venues:  the Biltmore Hotel, Miami’s Esquire Club, Lou Walter’s Latin Quarter on Palm Island. 

Her eyes twinkle as she describes the nicely naughty showgirl costumes she fashioned, down to their elaborate headdresses. One of her favorites was The Devil and the Virgin: half red horns and cape, half white dress and long white glove.

“She used to hang it on the closet and scare me to death,” says Tracy, and they both laugh.

Remnants of the past linger. The family’s plantation gave its name to Palmetto Park Road. A family home is now a realty office; another became the former Wildflower Restaurant. The city of Boca Raton bought that now-vacant property, on the north side of Palmetto Park Road, in 2009, and seeks to develop it, according to a memo from the city manager’s office, as “a significant attraction with an important connection to the city’s downtown.” 

Memories of the past linger. “I was a child of the wilderness,” Diane Benedetto says. “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. It’s horrible now. It is. I don’t think it’s beautiful anymore. They’ve destroyed all the rocks on the beach and the cliffs where I used to do all my meditating as a teenager.”

When it is time to leave the museum on this day, Tracy retrieves her grandmother’s walker. Then she and Poppi Mercier, one on either side, assist the onetime dancer, the onetime wild child, in navigating the few front steps. And, just that quickly, the past recedes once more.              

By Steve Plunkett

Former Mayor Jim Newill is moving out of town five months after losing his re-election bid to a campaign engineered by his neighbors and former supporters at Villa Costa condominiums. He bought his new condo in Trieste at Boca Raton from the brother of Mayor Bernard Featherman, the man who beat him at the polls March 8.

The reason Featherman’s brother was selling: He and his wife were buying a unit in Villa Costa, where the new mayor and his wife also live.

Newill said his condo neighbors “forced me into a distress sale.

“It’s all pertaining to a lawsuit against Villa Costa,” Newill said, deferring further comment to his lawyers. “I don’t want to say anything that could jeopardize my suit.”

Daniel Featherman,  the mayor’s younger brother, said he did not know Newill was the buyer of his Trieste condo until late in the sale. 

“You wouldn’t believe something like this would happen,” he said.

“It’s like out of a movie, I guess,” Bernard Featherman said.

The offer to buy was made by a real estate agent and a lawyer, the younger Featherman said; the first time he saw Newill’s name was when an insurance agent came to inspect the sale.

“He himself was not at the settlement,”  Daniel Featherman said.

The falling-out at Villa Costa began in 2009 when Newill sued the condo association, as well as each board member individually, over the state of his penthouse unit.

“He claimed all sorts of things — improper construction, he claimed things about mold. What else did he claim? Just about everything,” said Carl Feldman, president of the association.

Feldman was Newill’s campaign treasurer in 2005 when Newill first ran for Town Commission and again in 2008 when he first ran for mayor. Retired Judge Joseph Colby, the board’s vice president, was Newill’s manager in 2008.

Feldman said he and Colby asked Newill to drop their names from the suit and just sue the condo. When Newill refused, Feldman said they shifted their allegiance to Bernard Featherman, the board’s new secretary, who they thought was “more qualified” for the mayor’s job.

Colby said Newill’s handling of a flap over racist and off-color emails at Town Hall convinced him to look for another candidate.

“We realized whatever Newill was doing was not going to be good for the town,” Colby said.

Newill broke a 2-2 vote in January to discuss then-Town Manager Dale Sugerman’s planned punishment of the town clerk for sending the emails, then recommended ordering Sugerman to rescind a one-month unpaid suspension or be suspended himself for insubordination. Sugerman was suspended for five months with pay until his contract expired. In April, a hearing officer decided a written reprimand was enough punishment for the town clerk.

Being the incumbent this year, Newill apparently felt he was a shoo-in, Feldman said.

“He refused to debate [Featherman] and he didn’t put out much campaign literature. He didn’t go to many condos,” Feldman said.

Featherman took the opposite tack, even walking the beach in his blue blazer to meet voters, Feldman said.

Feldman said Newill’s lawsuit is still pending, but no other owner at Villa Costa has complained about the building.

“In fact, the new fellow who bought his unit didn’t find any mold,” Feldman said.

He said he does not know Newill’s reasons for leaving.

“No one in Town Hall seems to know why either,” said Feldman, the newest member of the town’s Planning Board.

Colby has been on the town’s Board of Adjustment and Appeals since 2008, when Newill vouched for his appointment to the panel. He’s now vice chairman. Bill Gross, another Villa Costa board member named in Newill’s suit, just took a seat on the town’s Financial Advisory Board.

Former Commissioner John Sorrelli said Newill was moving because of problems with his condo, plus losing the election was “a big disappointment.”

“It’s his own fault,” Sorrelli said. “He didn’t debate.”

A certified public accountant, Newill and his wife bought their Villa Costa condo in December 2001. He later became chairman of the town’s Financial Advisory Board and served on the condo board. Newill became a commissioner in 2005 and mayor in 2008. The Trieste is off Federal Highway north of Yamato Road. 

“I certainly wish Jim Newill good wishes wherever he moves,” Bernard Featherman said. He remembered being disappointed by Newill’s abrupt departure from the commission chambers when the new mayor was sworn in.

“He gave his time and worked for the town, and I wanted to give him credit,” Featherman said. “He just ran away from me.”               

Realtor Senada Adžem represented the buyers in the purchase of a $10.4 million condo.
                                                                                                        Photo by Tim Stepien

By Christine Davis

The One Thousand Ocean penthouse with 4,000 square feet of terraces and miles of ocean views that sold this June set three records: In addition to being the first penthouse to sell in the building, it also fetched the highest sale price for a condo in Palm Beach County for 2011 ($10.4 million), plus the highest price ever per square foot in Boca Raton ($1,500 per square foot, and its interiors are unfinished). Its new owners, a European couple with young children, just fell in love with it, said Corcoran Group Realtor Senada Adžem, who represented the buyers. “Two years ago they looked at properties from Boca Raton to Palm Beach and this April, they were ready.”

Because of a confidentiality agreement, Adžem couldn’t release the names of the buyers. 

“For five days, they looked at all the luxury condos in Boca and when we walked in here, she and her husband were enthralled,” Adžem said.

The penthouse has ocean vistas to the east and overlooks the Boca Inlet, and also it offers views to the south all the way to Lighthouse Point. Western views are also water views of the Inlet as well as views that go past Boca Raton.

Following her clients’ decision to buy came a week of negotiations. The unit was listed for $11.75 million, Adžem said. 

The owners have three other homes outside the United States, and this unit with 6,900 square feet of interior space will be their holiday getaway, she said.

“They are attracted to the Boca lifestyle, Adzem said. “It’s high end, but casual. Boca is more kid friendly; it’s safe and less formal. The penthouse is private and has a wide exposure to the ocean and the city. It just spoke to them.”  

The 52-unit condominium on the premises of the Boca Raton Resort and Club is on the beach and just north of the Inlet. It has lots going for it, Adžem said, noting the sales to prove it. The actual dates that the units sold are confidential, Adzem said, but she was a member of the building’s original sales team for pre-development units for Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group through August 2010, and estimates the following timetable: Pre-construction sales were launched in December 2006, with 40 percent sold in 2007. Sales slowed in 2008 and 2009, but picked up in 2010. 

“My team closed on 32 units through the end of August 2010,” she said. “The cheapest unit was $2.75 million. The most expensive was a sale that included three units totaling $12 million.” 

The location, amenities and design have been hugely attractive to all One Thousand Ocean residents, she said. “Also, people are tired of (competing condominiums’) heavy Mediterranean design because those units tend to be darker and have lower ceilings — the maximum is nine feet.”

In contrast, the penthouse unit has 14-foot ceilings; it is wide open, sunny and bright.

“No other building has terraces like these. Most other condominium units have terraces that are, at most, 100 square feet. At One Thousand Ocean, the average terrace is 1,000 square feet.”

Since the One Thousand Ocean penthouse unit is raw, the new owners are working with Boca Raton-based Peter Stromberg, the architect of One Thousand Ocean, to complete the interiors.

Although penthouses in general are attractive, the fact that they are often unfinished can overwhelm prospective owners, Adzem said. But that does not appear to be a problem at One Thousand Ocean. “I have two great prospects for the $15 million (neighboring) Sky penthouse. I’m working on it!”

Resold units on lower floors are holding their values, too, she said. “I did three resales in the building and they all came out higher than what their owners originally paid for them. Presently, there are no resales and I get many calls for them.”

(A down payment of $1.3 million on a $6.5 million unit was a forfeiture, a unit connected to a Bernard Madoff employee, Annette Bongiorno.)

Jamie Telchin, president of development for Luxury Resorts & Hotels, said that in 2004, the Boca resort implemented a major overhaul, with $100 million put into the main campus. The beach club was also a major project — a $115 million investment.

Although the real estate boom was coming to an end at that time, and his company put on hold a dozen or so other projects, it was decided to proceed with One Thousand Ocean. “It was the right decision. Since March, we’ve closed on seven units for more than $35 million, with approximately $3 million to close soon — they all closed very quickly and with the exception of one, they were all cash sales.”

Seventy-five percent of the 52 residences are sold and closed as of June, he adds.

“There’s a lot of pent-up demand. It’s a great building in a great location, just adjacent to the beautifully renovated beach club, with services that have allowed us to be the success that we are.”

The project was more than $200 million including the land. A $137 million construction loan on One Thousand Ocean with Wells Fargo was paid off last August. “It was a big loan with enough sales to pay it off,” Telchin said.

The seven-story One Thousand Ocean condominium includes the penthouses, a collection of residences, and one- and two-story beach villas. The residences and beach villas average 4,000 square feet under air; the penthouse collection provides an average of approximately 7,220 air-conditioned square feet. Prices range from about $3 million to $15 million. 

Another of his company’s projects, which will be across the street on Ocean, includes a 36-unit condominium with boat slips averaging $2 million. “People who didn’t buy at One Thousand Ocean will open up potential buyers already in our database,” Telchin said.