Mike Stein read a letter to the commission in praise of the leadership of library director Mari Suarez.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack
    
    Hoping to protect the town’s library from what they say is overzealous oversight, dozens of residents packed a Town Commission workshop meeting on Feb. 26 asking commissioners to rein in Town Manager Kathleen Weiser.
    “Our town manager’s management approach continues to have a negative impact on our treasured library,” resident Mike Stein wrote in a letter that he read during the meeting.
    Stein said the library staff is demoralized and also told commissioners that many residents suspect Weiser’s actions are designed to force out the library’s longtime director Mari Suarez, who has been in her position for 14 years.
    Weiser did not speak about the issue during the meeting but afterward disputed those contentions, saying that her goal is to ensure the library operates under the same rules and financial guidelines as other departments.
    “The library director has to follow the same rules, regulations and policies as all other department directors,” Weiser said.
    After listening to about a half-dozen residents, town commissioners agreed to put the issue on the agenda of its March 25 workshop meeting.
    Suarez was not at the meeting and could not be reached for comment before deadline.
    The recent uproar is the latest skirmish in what appears to be a continuing battle centered on Weiser’s oversight of the library. In August, Suarez expressed concerns about Weiser’s management style in a letter to the commission, after the town manager reprimanded Suarez for ordering a $500 “drop-in shower” for use by a library custodian without proper authorization. Suarez later ordered the shower be returned.
    In their comments to commissioners at the meeting, residents raised questions about the necessity of that reprimand and also about Weiser’s decision to rescind Suarez’s authorization for spending on items under $500. They also questioned Weiser’s decision to take back town credit cards available to library staff.
    In her comments after the meeting, Weiser, however, said that library staff can use the credit cards but must first obtain them from the finance department.
    “I am a fiscal conservative and I expect that from all of my department heads,” she said.
    Residents expressed concerns about Weiser’s performance review of Suarez last May in which the library director received good or satisfactory rating as opposed to the excellent ratings she had received under previous town managers.
    Weiser pointed out that prior to the most recent review the town had changed its performance evaluation process to a continuum system without grades.
    In the review, Weiser also wrote that Suarez was spending too much time with the Friends of the Library organization, which supports the library in several ways, including raising money for items not included in the library’s budget.
    “We find the town manager’s order to spend less time with Friends of the Library the most misguided and counterproductive of all,” Stein wrote in the letter he submitted to the commission. “Friends fundraise on behalf of the library and spend over $20,000 annually for library enhancements.”
    Weiser said that her comment was designed to encourage more autonomy for the Friends of the Library and was in no way a reflection on the group’s value.
    “They are a wonderful organization that has done so much for our library,” she said.
    Stein asked the commission to authorize removal of the letter of reprimand from Suarez’s personnel file, reinstate the $500 spending authority, and return town credit cards to library staff. He also requested that the commission require Weiser to write a letter of apology to the Friends of the Library.
    Another resident, Ethel Genes, requested that commissioners consider having Suarez report to a town official other than Weiser.
    Stern told commissioners that their actions could have a long-term impact on the library’s future.
    “The actions of our new town manager demean our library director and show total disrespect for a department head and a seasoned professional,” Stein said.  “They put the future of our library at risk and are a poor reflection on the commission and the residents of Highland Beach.”

The Rev. Craig Burlington and the Rev. Nancy McCarthy baptize
Deven Martin Nayak at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church.
It was the last baptism the retiring McCarthy performed there.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

The large sanctuary with stained glass windows was built in 1966.

By Tim Pallesen

    The idea for St. Gregory’s came one Sunday morning in 1953 when the mayor of Boca Raton and his wife were driving to their Episcopal church in Delray Beach.
    Harold and Rubie Turner wondered whether Boca Raton had enough Episcopalians to form their own church.
    “We had no money, no property and no building, but a lot of faith,” Mrs. Turner wrote.  
    Six decades later, St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church has 1,200 members. The spirited church near downtown Boca is known for its vibrant outreach missions and traditional worship services.
    Other religious faiths helped St. Gregory’s get started. That spirit of interfaith cooperation continues as the church celebrates its 60th anniversary.
    A Catholic carpenter donated a portable altar for the first worship services that were held at the Lion’s Club in 1953.
    But the Lion’s Club hosted Saturday night dances, leaving the Episcopalians with stale smoke and beer cans to clean up on Sunday mornings before church. A member of the Bible Conference Church then donated temporary space at an apartment building that he owned.
    “A Jewish man gave us property for our first church,” said the Rev. Andrew Sherman, the senior priest who delights in telling the interfaith story.
    A.S. Weisman promised Harold Turner that he would give the Episcopalians two prime downtown lots if they were able to build a church in two years. St. Gregory’s answered the challenge.
    “We haven’t forgotten that we exist through the gifts of other religious traditions,” Sherman said. “What motivated them to be so generous?
    “They recognized that having spiritual faith in a downtown location was good for the community,” he said.
    The original church building on Mizner Boulevard a block north of Palmetto Park Road was a single room with an altar on one end and a kitchen on the other. The larger sanctuary with glorious stained glass windows that replaced it was built in 1966.
    “A lot of people thought it cost too much money. We didn’t have a large congregation at the time,” recalled Peggy McCall, 89, the church member with the most time in the congregation. “But we really began to grow once they built the new building.”
    The congregation spent $500,000 for an Austin pipe organ in 1994. A parish hall and classrooms were added in 1998.
St. Gregory’s today is unique in several ways.
    While most Protestant churches offer the alternative of a contemporary worship service, services at St. Gregory’s are strictly traditional. Five retired priests join the congregation’s two full-time priests to lead the worship that’s rich in liturgy.
    “We’re really the only Protestant mainline church that’s committed to vibrant traditional services,” Sherman said. “It’s still part of our basic DNA as a congregation.”
    St. Gregory’s built a school for 275 children in Haiti. But its leadership role in helping the less fortunate in Boca Raton is equally ambitious.
    “I love all that we have so many outreach programs,” said the Rev. Nancy McCarthy, who joined the congregation in 1964 and later became a priest. “We are seen as a church that responds to community needs.”
    In addition to feeding the poor, St. Gregory’s houses homeless families with children in a house on its campus. Two other Protestant congregations and two Jewish congregations also take turns helping families there through the interfaith Family Promise ministry.
    Sherman and a Jewish rabbi formed the Boca Raton Interfaith Clergy Association.
    St. Gregory’s became the location for interfaith dialogue on such topics as Middle Eastern affairs and the environment. The lecture series rivals the church’s concert series for popularity in the community.
    “I’d like to think St. Gregory’s now sees itself as a leader in the community,” Sherman said.
    “We’re aware that we are positioned in the heart of downtown,” he said. “With that geographic position comes a calling and a responsibility.”

ABOVE: Holding the shovel during the 1956 groundbreaking for St. Gregory’s are (from left) Boca Raton Mayor Harold Turner, Bishop Louttit and the Rev. Earle Closson, church vicar.  To the far right in back is A.S. Weisman, who donated the land. Photo provided

Wendy Friswell is director of the Twin Palms Center for the Disabled
in Boca Raton. She also volunteers for the Boca Boating and Beach Bash.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Chris Felker

    Wendy Friswell, director of the Twin Palms Center for the Disabled in Boca Raton, is very clear about why she steps outside her occupational role every year to volunteer for the Boca Boating and Beach Bash. Her mission is to help inject some fun into the lives of her clients and differently-abled people like them.
    She does it because “the need is huge,” she said.
    The Boca Boating and Beach Bash, marking its fifth anniversary March 16 at Spanish River Park, gets a major boost every year from her energy, says its founder, Jay Van Vechten.
    Friswell’s daughter, a junior at Florida Atlantic University, recently turned 21 but, Van Vechten said, “you’d swear Wendy (who is 52) was in her 20s.”
    Participants last year might have seen her at the “Kids Fun Zone” wearing a blue shirt and a big grin.
    Friswell said she loves working with the children and also puts time into recruiting supporters, donors and volunteers for the Bash, which has doubled in size each year from about 350 participants in 2009 to almost 4,500 last year.
    She got involved by joining Boca Raton’s advisory board for people with disabilities, though the city has ceased sponsoring the event.
    “So we as private citizens are doing this, and I felt the need to help in every way I can.”
    Friswell, who lives with her husband, David, and children in Loggers Run, knows through more than just her job the challenges that those with disabled family members face. They’re personal for her, as well, because her 17-year-old-son Ryan and daughter Michelle have special needs.
    “A lot of people assume that because you have a child with a deficit, then you get involved as a result of that; but for me it was the other way around. You get involved with things because of your work and your belief and your willingness to give back. I think the universe lighted up — that they know you can handle it, and you’re strong enough, so therefore here it is. But I never allow my kids to live up to what a diagnosis said,” Friswell said.
    Her motivation runs deep.
    “The beautiful thing is, I love to talk up their abilities, because I feel I’m blessed with two amazing kids, no matter what their deficits are. Their abilities are almost like a template of what possibilities can be if you do it right. If you put everything in — the tutoring, the time, the parenting, the support system, the encouragement, the ‘Yes you can’ — I know 100 percent you can get the return. And I feel like I’m the poster parent for that.”
    Born in Trinidad, she immigrated to the United States at 15, graduated from a Philadelphia high school and attended Temple University as an undergrad, then did master’s studies at Florida International University, worked in Miami-Dade for 10 years and then moved to Boca Raton in 1995.
    “I’ve always been involved in the community wherever I’ve lived because I always felt I need to give back to my community,” she said.
    Friswell said Twin Palms is “a humble little center, very nurturing, loving and small, which allows students to make friends, be social, get recreation and education. And it’s from 8 to 4, so it gave the caregivers an opportunity to have a life, and work.”
    It was founded in 1968 by the Soroptomists Society International’s Boca Raton chapter and parents whose special-needs children had aged out of the school system.
    The Boating and Beach Bash benefits the Wounded Warriors In Action Foundation and welcomes all differently-abled people, those who live with any disabilities, Purple Heart recipients and the families and caregivers of all of them.
    As for the yacht owners, mainly from the Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, who take many Boca Boating and Beach Bash participants sailing out on the Intracoastal, Friswell said:  “It’s truly magical in my eyes to see why they get involved and the purpose behind it. It’s not necessarily that they have a relative; they get involved because they have a caring heart.”

IF YOU GO

Fifth Annual Boca Boating and Beach Bash

Sponsored by corporate donations and community volunteers, this is a free ‘fun day’ for people with physical and/or intellectual challenges, their families and caregivers, and Purple Heart recipients.

When: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. March 16

Where: Spanish River Park, 3939 N. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton

Cost: Free admission, open to public

Information: Call 715-2622 or see www.boatingbeachbash.com

By Cheryl Blackerby

    In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration set a target of 2015 to start giving storm surge watches and warnings along with hurricane tracks.
    Forecasts by the National Weather Service now emphasize storm track, wind intensity, rainfall and, to a lesser extent, storm surge. But surges following hurricanes have caused loss of life and tremendous material damage. Surge warnings would help people make better decisions to safeguard themselves and their property.
    Multiple NOAA studies have shown significant confusion on the part of the public regarding their storm surge risk, and underlined the need for improved communication of the potential danger.
    Hurricane Sandy illustrated the need for surge warnings and prompted the National Hurricane Center to call on its parent agency, NOAA, “to implement explicit storm surge watches and warnings.”
    A downgraded Hurricane Sandy did largely what the Weather Service predicted, but sent a catastrophic storm surge into the New Jersey and New York coastlines. And it was the surge hazard that caused numerous fatalities and most of the damage with the storm, as well as the extensive evacuations necessary to prevent an even larger loss of life.
    The hurricane skirted the east coast of Florida, but caused millions of dollars in beach and property damage from waves and storm surge.
    Tropical cyclones have killed more than 25,000 people in the continental United States, with a majority of those deaths attributable to storm surge, according to NOAA statistics.  Except for the 1940s, storm surge claimed hundreds or even thousands of lives in at least one storm in each decade from the 1870s through the 1960s.
    More than a thousand lives were lost in the decade just concluded, with most of these attributable to Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge.
    The proposal to start new NWS watches and warnings for the storm surge hazard has been in the works for several years.
    With the implementation of a storm surge warning, the NWS will warn explicitly “for the phenomenon that presents the greatest weather-related threat for a massive loss of life in a single day,” according to a NOAA report.
    Another post-Sandy NOAA proposal would give the National Hurricane Center the option to continue issuing formal advisories on post-tropical cyclones as long as those systems pose a significant threat to life and property. It would give the NWS the option to keep hurricane and tropical storm watches and warnings in place for those systems.
    Under present protocol, the National Hurricane Center transfers forecast responsibility to local National Weather Service offices after a hurricane warning is cancelled. NHC advisories cease, perhaps giving a false sense of security. The NOAA report said this could cause “widespread confusion, potentially impeding preparations and evacuations.”                           Ú

By Cheryl Blackerby

    At the Feb. 4 Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District meeting, Michele Kurucz Peel, president of the Friends of Gumbo Limbo, asked the board to do something about the city of Boca Raton’s decision to reduce the weekly hours (from as much as 39 to about 25) of two part-time employees at the center.
    The two employees — Anthony Ceparano, the aquarist in charge of the center’s new tanks, and Melanie Stadler,  marine turtle specialist II — are especially skilled employees who are needed at the center, she said.
    Peel said the center risks losing these valuable employees who were now looking for work elsewhere. The reduction in hours was also taking a toll on full-time employees, she said, who have to pick up the slack.
    District commissioner, Earl Starkoff and the district’s attorney Arthur Koski in particular, were sympathetic to Peel and strongly suggested they would be able to solve her problems at the next meeting.         The problem with the two employees turned into a larger question of who has authority over Gumbo Limbo Nature Center  — the district, which pays the center’s bills, or the city? Arthur Koski researched the interlocal agreement between Gumbo Limbo and the city to see which side has ultimate authority.
    “We are the 100 percent funder of that facility,” Starkoff said.
    “I’m hopeful we will be the 100 percent decision-maker,” Koski then said.
    By the Feb. 25 district meeting, Koski had researched his answer and announced it to the commission: The district does have authority over the center. The commission unanimously decided to make the Ceparano and Stadler full-time with health benefits, which they didn’t have before the city’s reduction of their hours.
    Friends of Gumbo Limbo secretary Connie Thoms-Mazur and Friends vice president Robyn Morigerato spoke before the commission about the need for these two employees.
    The board also approved the city’s plan to spend $30,000 to hire an engineering consultant to come up with a proposal to redesign and upgrade the pump lines at the center.

By Cheryl Blackerby
    
    In March, Boca Raton will be trucking in sand to repair damaged dunes on the north beach. The 5,000 tons — 3,600 cubic yards — of sand from an inland mine will cost about $170,000.
    “It’s a small dune project. It’s 2,000 feet in length. It starts at the northern end of Red Reef Park and runs south,” said Jennifer Bistyga, coastal program manager for the city of Boca Raton.
    Sand is expected to be delivered in the first part of March. “It shouldn’t take long, at most 10 days,” she said.
    The city is trying to speed up beach repair for the north and central beaches. Getting permits for beach repair is not easy, she said.
    “We’re planning to fast-track permits — it’s going to take a lot of permits — from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers.That usually takes about two years, but we’re hoping for September and October this year,” she said.
    In the past, the cost for restoration of the north and central beaches has been paid by the Boca Raton Beach and Park District, and the cost for the south beach is paid by the city with state and county reimbursement, she said, and additional federal funding for the north beach project.
    Some sand will shift back to the beach, so the need for sand may not be as great as it appears now. On the other hand, if Boca Raton’s beaches get hit by another storm, the city will already have the permits in place, she said.
    The city has not applied for permits yet. “We’re developing documents to apply for permits,” she said.
    Boca’s beaches are broken into three areas and are on different renourishment schedules: The north beach is on a 10-year cycle, the central beach is on an eight- to 10-year cycle, and the south beach is between six and eight years.
    And, of course, storms may accelerate those schedules, like Hurricane Sandy did for the north and central beaches, which are still recovering from erosion from Sandy.
    “But we’re seeing sandbars offshore, and some of that sand will be coming back. And we look a lot better than beaches in other areas such as Fort Lauderdale,” she said.
    At least part of the reason Boca’s beaches fared so well was the dunes. “We have such a great dune system, and that took a beating but that’s the dunes’ purpose,” she said.
    Many residents are worried about how beach restoration will affect turtle nesting season, which starts March 1 and lasts though Nov. 1.
    “In Boca, they won’t be doing any work at night and so that will have no impact. If they have a dredge in Delray, they will be pumping 24 hours a day, and generally for a project that size they will allow nests to be relocated,” said Kirt Rusenko, marine conservationist at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.
    The first turtles to arrive on beaches are leatherbacks, but those are very few. Rusenko counted 33 leatherback nests last year from March to June, and 994 loggerhead nests from May 1 to Oct. 31. Rusenko said the permit from the Department of Environmental Protection allows him to move turtle nests if necessary.
    Sandy’s surge left escarpments as high as 4 and 5 feet on Boca and Delray beaches. If turtle nests are found at the foot of cliffs and are in danger of being washed out, those nests will be moved, Rusenko said. And turtles will likely move along the shore until they can get onto the beach and find a place to nest.
    Turtles will often avoid sand dredged offshore for the first year after it is placed on beaches.
    “It’s something about the sand taken off the floor of the ocean, perhaps the saltiness of the sand. We do know that turtles know where the high tide line is. And they nest in sand that has been washed out by rain,” said Rusenko.
    And turtles do come back the second year after offshore sand is placed on beaches.
    In Delray Beach, a convoy of trucks lined up on A1A Feb. 19 to deliver 2,500 cubic yards of emergency sand to the beach and dunes north of Delray Municipal Beach.
    The north beach, badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge, is outside the routine 10-year renourishment plan that will start in March. That project, costing $9.2 million, will include beaches that run from just north of Atlantic Avenue south to 700 feet south of Linton Boulevard. More than 1 million cubic yards of sand will come from offshore dredging.

Election Results: Carl Feldman - 422 | Ronald Clark - 314    

One commissioner will be elected for a three-year term March 12 to replace Commissioner Doris Trinley, who could not run because of term limits. The two candidates are:

Ronald Clark

Personal:  62, married, three children, bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Professional: Condo general manager, 30 years as human resources manager.

Political background: No elective office. Past Charter Review Board chairman and Planning Board member.

Position on issues: Town needs money in reserve for long-term capital improvements. Walking path must be maintained for safety and improved where feasible and cost effective. Special police watch when bicycle traffic is heavy. Encourage private maintenance of dunes to assure health of beaches. Seek grants to work with Boca Raton police to patrol Intracoastal Waterway.

Quote: “It is important to have a commission that will work for decision. Not division.”

Carl Feldman

Personal: 73, married, two children, bachelor’s degree

Professional: Manufacturing engineer, owned four companies with world distribution.

Political background: No elective office. Planning Board member. Villa Costa condo president.

Position on issues: Opposes raising the amount of money that commissioners are allowed to spend without a referendum from $350,000 to $1 million. Opposes commissioners cutting back on the funds to operate the library. Against commissioners not fixing the town walkway while residents trip and fall because of the poor condition of the walkway.

Quote: “I will be a voice for the people.

Election Results

Question: Yes - 392, No - 263    

Highland Beach voters will be asked whether to make seven minor revisions to the town charter when they go to the polls on March 12.
    The most significant change would make private beaches subject to the town law that prohibits littering. Public beaches and all other properties are subject to the law now.
    Another change would clarify that the Town Commission has authority to fire the police chief and town clerk. The charter already gives the commission authority to hire the employees, but doesn’t say who has authority to fire them.
    Voters will be asked to clarify but not change term limits. An elected official can currently serve a maximum of two, three-year terms as mayor, vice mayor and commissioner.
    Another clarification would remove charter language that gives commissioners the ability to work for the town. City Clerk Beverly Brown said that provision has been in the charter since before the town hired employees and commissioners were required to divide up the work to do themselves.    
In Boca Raton, no commssioners’ terms are up, so there will be no election.    
— Tim Pallesen

By Cheryl Blackerby

    Connecting with the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District figures to get a lot easier soon because of significant investments in new technology.
    At their Feb. 4 meeting, commissioners gave unanimous approval to a $40,000 plan to upgrade the audio-visual system at the board’s meeting rooms at Sugar Sand Park.
    The improvements include high-definition monitors, an upgraded sound system and a mobile audio-visual cart that will allow meetings to move into larger spaces when public interest requires it.
    Commissioners also approved buying seven iPad computer tablets, one for each of the five commissioners, the board’s attorney and the open executive director’s position.
    The seven iPads, which will cost about $6,000, are to be devoted exclusively to commission business — a restriction that is intended to reduce the likelihood of potential Sunshine Law violations.
    “These devices will be dedicated devices,” board attorney Art Koski, the interim executive director, told commissioners. “They are not there for your personal business.”
    In the past, commissioners have used personal computers for business emailing, a practice that could raise compliance issues with the state’s public record laws. Upgrading the boardroom’s audio-visual system also ensures compliance with those laws and responds to complaints about the poor quality of recordings of public meetings.
    “Following this recommendation gets us into the 21st century,” Commissioner Earl Starkoff said.
    The technical ability to move into a larger space, such as the Willow Theatre, ensures that the board can accommodate larger turnouts.
     “You’ve got to have mobile (technology) because you never know how many people will show up at a given time,” Starkoff said.
     Down the road, the commission wants to expand Wi-Fi service at district parks.
     Commissioners gave the go-ahead to Experis Technology Group consultants, who are overseeing the other improvements, to come up with a proposal for expanding wireless Internet service.
     The Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, the Swim & Racquet Center and the Sugar Sand Park field house already have the service. The proposed expansion would bring Wi-Fi to Patch Reef Park, Red Reef Park and all of Sugar Sand Park.
     Koski has argued that, besides being a popular amenity, Internet access also would enhance safety for families and children using the facilities.
     In other business, Koski reported that the board has five respondents to an advertised request for a financial services contractor. Bob Langford, who retired in August after two decades of service, had doubled as the board’s executive director and accountant.
    The plan now is to outsource the accounting and hire a new director who focuses exclusively on administration and day-to-day operations.

By Tim Pallesen

    The controversial nine-story Archstone apartment complex is expected to get final approval this month so construction in downtown Boca Raton can begin.
    A procedural move allows the developer to avoid a citizens protest that stalled the project after Archstone was first approved by the City Council last year.
    “All this effort by the citizens is for naught,” Golden Triangle Homeowners Association president Andrea O’Rourke said after the city’s Planning and Zoning Board unanimously recommended approval on Feb. 7.
    “The very developer-friendly leadership in this city is hell-bent to approve this,” said O’Rourke, who expects that the City Council sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency will grant final approval on March 11.
    The mixed-use project has 378 apartments and shops. “It will be great for Palmetto Park Road, which needs an infusion of life,” developer attorney Charles Siemon told the advisory board.
    But opponents say Archstone has too many small one-bedroom apartments and not enough retail. They also fear it will create traffic congestion on Palmetto Park Road.
    Fred Bogart, who lives east of the Intracoastal Waterway in Chalfonte, told the advisory board that traffic already backs up to Ocean Boulevard when the bridge goes up. “How are people ever going to get over that bridge?” he asked.
    Opponents were able to block the project last year by filing a lawsuit to overturn an ordinance that the City Council drafted specifically for Archstone. A circuit court judge granted their request in October for a voter referendum on whether Archstone should be built. The city and developer have appealed that ruling.
    The developer returned this year with a second application under the city’s regular regulations for development.
    The second proposed project is almost identical to the first. “The reality is that the project hasn’t really changed,” Siemon told the advisory board.
    Architects added a few balconies and terraces to the design. The square footage decreased slightly and some open space has been added. Siemon described the changes as modest.
    “I was shocked that the Planning and Zoning Board never addressed any of our concerns,” O’Rourke said after the hearing.
    The city, meanwhile, is working with state lawmakers to strike language in the city charter that allows voter referendums to overturn city development approvals.
    The Florida Legislature prohibited such referendums in 2011. But Palm Beach Circuit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown exempted Boca Raton last year because the city had allowed referendums before the state law was passed.
    “We’re trying to close that loophole,” said state Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, the bill’s sponsor.

By Margie Plunkett

    The Festival of the Arts will get the use of the Mizner Park amphitheater for free this year — although it will still pay for utilities, the first time Boca Raton hasn’t charged a rental fee since it took over amphitheater operations.
     Mayor Susan Whelchel asked council members to consider a fee reduction in January, but council member Michael Mullaugh followed with a proposal to eliminate it. “We don’t want to be in charge of setting up something like this. Let us give them the amphitheater to use.”
    The same organization that started the festival raised the money to build the amphitheater, Whelchel said. “It was built by this organization and these people — we did not start it.” When “they fell on hard years,” the city took it over, she said.
    The seventh annual Festival of the Arts, run by the Schmidt Family Center for the Arts, will be held from March 7 to 16 this year, and includes lectures and performances by the New World Symphony, Peking Acrobats and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, to name a few. Tickets for the event range from $15 to $100.
    The organization pays more than $300,000 to bring in the performers, according to Whelchel.
    It’s a “really magnificent period of time in March where every single night and/or day there is something out of New York — out of the best production you could ever have,” Whelchel said, in asking for the fee reduction.
    City Manager Leif Ahnell said the fee had been reduced to $4,000 this year from a full price of $27,000, adding he believed the reduction had already been made this year. The city supplies the police and fire protection.
    “We’re contributing in many ways,” council member Susan Haynie said. “They also have the added expense of the roof structure.”
    The festival pays a third of the roof structure for the event.
    While this is the first time Boca Raton hasn’t charged the fee for rental of the amphitheater, it doesn’t charge itself when using the facility for city-produced of co-produced events, Assistant City Manager Mike Woika wrote in an emailed comment.
Woika didn’t fear the move would set precedent for other free amphitheater uses.
    “Other non-profits may ask City Council for a waiver in the future, but I think it would be a difficult sell,” he said. “The festival offers a unique opportunity for the city and CRA — multiple events over a 10-day or so period featuring the high caliber of cultural artists and authors.
     “City Council members recognize the benefit to the community that the festival brings,” Woika said, “and I think it would be hard to duplicate that benefit with a one- or two-day event by another non-profit.”

Virginia Tishman Meyerson and her late husband, George

By Jane Smith
    
BOCA RATON — Arts lover and avid reader of British literature, Virginia Tishman Meyerson died Jan. 26 at her home.
    She was 89 and died from complications of cancer, her passing eased by hospice care, her daughter, Deane Stepansky, said.
Mrs. Meyerson was a longtime resident of Boca Raton, moving here in 1977 with her late husband, George.
    She was always interested in the arts, Stepansky said. Mrs. Meyerson contacted the Boca Raton Museum of Art and became a docent. Her wanting to help others led her to the Boca Raton Community Hospital, where she volunteered and served as an officer in the Debbie-Rand Memorial Service League.
    She also was a president of the Florida chapter of the Crone’s and Colitis Foundation of America. Her late son, David Rand Jr., had contracted colitis at age 11 and ended up dying from its complications, Stepansky said.
    At the foundation, Mrs. Meyerson was remembered for her positive attitude, commitment to the organization and inclusiveness in her 20 years of volunteering, said Ellen Shapiro, also a past-president. The Meyersons were humanitarian honorees, a foundation designation for those who give of their time and finances to the group.
    Mrs. Meyerson, known as Grammy to Stepansky’s sons, had a “beatific smile” when she would come and spend time with them in the Northeast.
    She had the ability to make children feel special. Stepansky recalled when she was in the second grade in New York City and her mom was the class mother. “She organized monthly birthday parties for the kids with birthdays in that month,” Stepansky said.
    Mrs. Meyerson loved “reading about the kings and queens of England,” and that’s how she met her second husband. He ran a local bookstore in New York City, Stepansky said.
    Mrs. Meyerson was the granddaughter of Julius Tishman, founder of the Tishman Construction Company in 1898; daughter of David and Ann Tishman; and sister of Robert Tishman and Alan Tishman.
    Born in New York City, Ginny, as she was known, studied at Horace Mann School and received her bachelor of arts in architecture and urban planning from Bennington College in 1946.
    She was the beloved mother of her son, the late David Rand Jr., and daughters, Deane Stepansky (Paul) and Alison Rand, and cherished grandmother of Michael Stepansky (Jane Kohuth) and Jonathan Stepansky.
    Survivors also include stepsons Richard Meyerson (Linda) and Bruce Meyerson (Francine), stepdaughter Lynn Funk (Laird), and four step-grandchildren.
    Instead of flowers, the family requests memorial contributions to Susan G. Komen for the Cure (ww5.komen.org) or Hospice by the Sea, 1531 W. Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton, FL 33486.

March 3: Don black-tie attire and step into a tented ‘kaleidoscope of the arts,’ with gourmet food and wine, a silent auction and ballroom dancing, to benefit Boca Raton Philharmonic Symphonia. Time is 5:30-10 pm. Cost is $115. Call 866-687-4201 or visit www.bocasymphonia.org/musicanddance.

Photo (from left): Jeff Kaye, Sung Knowles, Steve Pomeranz, Luz Aristizabel and Edith and Martin Stein.

Photo provided

March 14: Join Julia and friends for a fundraiser featuring shopping, hors d’oeuvres,
wine, entertainment and door prizes. Time is 4:30-8:30 pm. Cost is $75.
Call 243-1922 or visit www.alz.org/seflorida.

Photo: (front, from left) Agnes Nicolosi, Julia Vassalluzzo, Kim Vassalluzzo, Yahaira Sanchez,
(back, from left) Judy Hartman, Laurie Bulman, Lori D’Angelo and Angela Panna.

Photo provided

By Cheryl Blackerby
Almost 40 years after its Camino Real groundbreaking on the waterfront, the Boca Raton Bridge Hotel has gotten the go-ahead for a major renovation that developers say will take full advantage of its prime location.
The Boca Raton City Council voted unanimous approval on Feb. 12 for owner AWH Partners’ plans to transform the 1970s design into a contemporary boutique hotel by the end of the year.
“It’s a beautiful property,” said Deputy Mayor Susan Haynie, “and this is really a beautiful improvement to it.”
The plans call for a redesigned entrance, a new valet parking system, updated guest room furnishings, an expanded fitness center and a new ground-level public restaurant on the Intracoastal waterfront. The 11th-floor restaurant and lounge will be casualties of the renovation, replaced by banquet and meeting rooms.
AWH Partners, a New York-based real estate group, bought the property for $20.2 million in September after it had languished in bankruptcy for about eight months. The company owns 15 hotels around the country, including the 490-room Sheraton Lake Buena Vista resort in Orlando.
The new owners of the Bridge Hotel have hired Lane Hospitality, a Northbrook, Ill., hotel management company, to run the 121-room property. The renovation is expected to be completed by the fall.
Mayor Susan Whelchel said the project will give the public access to waterfront space, something that is in short supply in the city.
Russ Flicker, a principal with AWH Partners, had worked with the city before, overseeing the condo project at the Boca Raton Resort & Club for The Blackstone Group.
“Our past experience in Boca Raton was extremely positive,” Flicker said. “We are passionate about the market and its assets.”
Instead of a parking tunnel lined with utility pipes to get to the hotel’s front doors, a driveway lined with palm trees will take guests to a redesigned, welcoming lobby.
The hotel has had parking issues virtually since its inception. Based on today’s codes, the property has only about half the 487 spaces it would need to qualify as compliant and has been classified as “legally nonconforming” for years. But the developers say the new valet system will help improve parking and get the most out of the limited space. The city’s Planning and Zoning Board agreed and passed the plans 6-0 in January.

From left: Mark and Pam Begelman, and Sally and Bob Painter
are chairing this year’s event.

Inset below: Board member Phil Renaud and his wife, Mary.

Photos provided

By Christine Davis

    Heroes, take your pick: a chance to drive a race car in Las Vegas, the opportunity to have a horse race named after you at Churchill Downs, or to serve as a fighter pilot for a day at Homestead Air Reserve Base.
    “We have some fabulous live auction items that we’ve never had before,” said Pam Begelman, co-chair of the Red Cross Palm Beaches-Treasure Coast Region’s third annual Honoring the Hero in All of Us event.
    Set for March 21 at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Boca Raton, the Red Cross fundraiser promises to be exciting, rewarding, inspiring and delicious.
    The event is named in honor of its corporate and individual donors, says co-chair Sally Painter. “We consider them to be heroes. They are helping others in their community who are in a desperate time.”
    In addition to giving recognition and raising funds, the event also aims to educate about the organization.
    “The Red Cross doesn’t get money from the government,  and all the money it raises is earmarked to stay here to run our programs,” Begelman says.
    “I had thought that the Red Cross helps with disasters like hurricanes and tsunamis, but it does so much more.
    “Whenever there’s a fire, volunteers from the Red Cross come to help to get the victims back on their feet.”
    Most people aren’t aware that volunteers who’ve opted to be Disaster Action Team members are on the scene of a fire right behind the fire truck, offering food, clothing and temporary housing, notes Delray resident Phil Renaud, board member and chairman of volunteer management.
    “We also arrange for counseling if that’s what’s needed.
    “As a member of that team, the very first disaster I was sent to was an aircraft collision in Boca Raton. Mostly, we kept the first responders hydrated. Some of the wreckage hit a bit of a condo, and we called in a psychology group for the people affected, including two children who were supposed to fly home the next day.”
    It’s also important to know that 91 cents of every dollar raised goes to those who need it, he added.
    Once a hero, always a hero and worthy of recognition. People attending the event, which costs $150 per person, gain the status and some give repeatedly.
    Co-chairs Pam and Mark Begelman with Sally and Bob Painter aim for the event to attract 200 people and raise $150,000. From 7 to 10 p.m., event goers will enjoy Ruth’s Chris cuisine, a cocktail reception, silent and live auctions and entertainment. Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse is at 225 NE Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton. Call Jennifer Durrant at 650-9150.

Pam O’Brien with some of her miniature creations.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith
    Most women would toss out the top of an empty lipstick tube.
    Not Pam O’Brien. She can imagine it as an umbrella stand or other item for her dollhouse miniatures.
    As president of Les Petits Collecteurs of South Florida, she talks passionately about building miniature scenes, even electrifying and landscaping them. Her work and that of other members will be on display March 9 at the Boca Raton Community Center. Admission is $5 for adults, $2 for children 12 and younger.
    The show will include a dealer room where miniature scenes, dollhouse kits and anything miniature will be sold. In addition, there will be make-and-take-it tables where show-goers will be able to learn a miniature technique for free and be able to take that item home with them.
Raffle tickets will be sold for a Petit Bistro or a Baby Girl’s Nursery scenes, with all proceeds going to Kids in Distress or The Haven charities.
    The Friday before the show opens will have two- and four-hour workshops, including how to make a cold cut platter, for $35, or build a wrought iron planter with geraniums, for $15.
    “Foods are very popular right now,” O’Brien says. She thinks the deli sandwich one will be well-attended. For cakes, she explains, “You can make them out of clay. But a new technique uses a (small) sponge that has the texture of cake.”
    Les Petits belongs to the National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts, which has a weeklong convention. This year’s location is Tucson, Ariz.
    Miniature enthusiasts use regular-size tools, including X-ACTO knives, tweezers and Q-tips. Magnifying glasses in various sizes can be helpful, O’Brien says.
    She always wanted a dollhouse as young girl, but the family budget didn’t have room for such purchases because she wasn’t the only daughter.
    Her mom fulfilled that desire on O’Brien’s 32nd birthday with a trip to the now-closed Dollhouse Corner in Delray Beach. She picked out a kit for a Queen Anne farmhouse, a nine-room, two-story farmhouse with a wraparound porch.
    That was 16 years ago, and she now has website (www.MyMiniatureCreations.com) that features her miniature collection. The Italian piazza scene, featuring running water made out of resin, is her favorite.
    She uses the popular 1-inch scale, which means 1 inch in the miniature world equals 1 foot in reality.
    But fellow member Anne Strank, who lives in a mobile home in Briny Breezes, uses a smaller scale: the quarter-inch. Plus, she says, she doesn’t use magnifying glasses because she found them too cumbersome.
    “It’s a hobby that turned into a disease,” Strank says. She got hooked at age 6 when she received dollhouse furniture as a gift. She used an egg crate as her display case. Now 75, still a crafter at heart, she loves the miniature world.

IF YOU GO

What: Dollhouse Miniature Show and Sale
When: 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. March 9.
Workshops scheduled on March 8.
Cost: $5 for adults, $2 for children under 12
Where: Boca Raton Community Center, 150 NW Crawford Blvd., Boca Raton
Info: Les Petits club website, sites.google.com/site/lespetitsclub/home/show-and-sale. Or email Mfreed@aol.com.
Benefit: Kids in Distress in Delray Beach or The Haven in Boca Raton

Major donors, administration and staff members, local dignitaries and emergency-services personnel
gathered for the debut of the new Wold Family Center for Emergency Medicine, which has
state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment, Bluetooth cellular-phone transmission of heart functions, all-private
patient treatment rooms and a large waiting area.
Photo: (from left) Jan Savarick, hospital foundation president; Jack and Marilyn Pechter; Jerry Fedele, hospital president; Clint Wold; Troy McLellan; Elaine Wold; Christine Lynn, hospital board of trustees chairwoman; Richard Schuller, hospital foundation board of trustees chairman; Harold and Mary Ann Perper; Myrna Skurnick; and Boca Raton Deputy Mayor Susan Haynie.

Photo provided

The Gold Coast PR Council celebrated the winners of this year’s Bernays Awards
honoring local excellence in public relations and marketing, with Lynn University
picking up three awards for the high-profile presidential debate,
and Kaye Communications taking home two of the 12 trophies.
Photo: Jay Van Vechten accepts an award for the Boating & Beach Bash
for People with Disabilities from Karen Clarke as Nick Van Vechten looks on.

Photo by Barbara McCormick

Fine art and high fashion mingled for a glamorous evening of dancing, dinner and celebration
benefiting the museum’s outreach programs, including field trips
for area schoolchildren and art classes for low-income families.
The event raised $375,000. Among the more than 400 guests who attended
were (in photo) Jordan and Denise Zimmerman.
Photo provided